Buffalo Bill's Defunct (9781564747112) (35 page)

Tichnor said, “Vance’s first wife, Isabel, shared his enthusiasms and humanized them. I liked her, but it was probably a mistake for them not to have children. For their marriage, I mean, not for the children.”

Rob was glad he’d said that.

“Even though the divorce was Vance’s idea, it turned out to be a trauma for him. It made Isabel bitter, and I don’t blame her. She got their collection of Southwest Indian pottery in the settlement.”

Indian pottery. “I presume they acquired the pots through dealers?”

“The pots weren’t antique,” Tichnor said, “and I’m sure they paid a fair price. Isabel liked several artists—Zuni, I think—and she and Vance even commissioned vases. She taught him about the culture and the techniques. They used to enjoy making buying trips to New Mexico in the winter.” He fell silent.

Rob waited. The road kinked and straightened.

“I’ve been brooding about it. I suspect Vance began to think about the Lauder Point artifacts in the aftermath of the divorce, when he was picking up the pieces.”

“How so?” Rob wheeled the car through a long S-bend.

“He would have realized that without Isabel he couldn’t trust his own artistic judgment. A lot of their friends sided with Isabel. Most of their social life had centered on those people. Their real social life, I mean, as opposed to the people Vance cultivated as part of his business.”

Rob wondered whether Vance classified Phyllis Holton as a real friend or a business friend. “He lost his friends and had trouble replacing them. I think I see what’s coming. He needed to impress people, and the means to do it were gone.”

“He must have decided to acquire someone else’s collection,” Tichnor said simply. “It’s a logical alternative.”

Jack made a rude noise.

Tichnor twisted against the seat belt. “I’m sorry, Jack. I’m just trying to understand my brother’s mentality. I don’t think that way.”

“Yeah,” Jack said. Rob thought he sounded skeptical, but Jack was a peaceful man and didn’t push it.

“How does Carol come into the story?” Rob overtook a kid driving a purple low-rider.

“I don’t know.” The doctor sighed. “She was such a pretty girl, a natural blonde with a fashionable figure. Fashionable in that era didn’t mean straight up and down. She was perky, too. My friends were crazy for Carol. Being her big brother gave me a lot of prestige.”

“In high school?”

“Yes. We attended different colleges.”

“Vance, too?”

“He liked California, so he enrolled at UC Santa Barbara.”

“Surf and turf,” said Rob, who had accumulated enough courses for a degree at Cal Poly without planning to.

“Carol started at Mills, then transferred to Santa Barbara when Vance entered as a freshman. I never understood that. They were close but not joined at the hip, as my granddaughter would say. After Stanford, I went on to med school at the U Dub. Carol married an insurance executive who collected blondes.”

“Collected,” Rob mused. Funny how the word came up. Carol went out of her way to be collectible, in his opinion. “What was her major?”

“Art history.”

Rob frowned. “And she runs an antiques shop that specializes in needlework?”

“That was a late-blooming interest. Post-divorce. In college, she was mainly interested in having a good time. Vance joined in. They thumb-tripped together through Europe one summer.” He made a gulping sound as Rob passed two sight-seers in slow-moving cars.

Rob tried to imagine Carol hitchhiking.

“I sound censorious. Carol once accused me of being jealous, but I had a pretty good time myself. I didn’t begrudge them their pot parties and rock concerts. Mother was scandalized, though, and she didn’t hesitate to enforce her feelings.”

“What do you mean enforce?”

“She had the power of the purse.”

“Money.”

“Yes, partly. Money and disapproval. She set Vance up in business, and she helped Carol sort through the wreckage when the executive dumped her. She now makes Carol a very generous allowance.” He tugged at the seat belt. “Mother expects them to be suitably grateful.”

“You said Vance never grew up. Sounds as if Carol has problems along those lines, too.”

“I suppose she does. But Vance has an edge of aggression. He schemes. Nowadays, he uses Carol to keep in good with Mother. And for other things.”

“What things?”

“They
cover
for each other. Always have.”

That was vague and Rob meant to pursue it, but the radio crackled. He answered. The dispatcher patched Earl through.

“Uh, we have a situation here.”

“Tell me.”

“There’s a bunch of Indians from Two Falls hanging around the entrance, ten maybe. One of them has a drum, and a couple of them are carrying signs. We’re keeping them off the property, and they’re not doing anything much yet, but I don’t like it.”

Rob swore under his breath. “Are they blocking the highway?”

“No, and we won’t let them block the access road either.”

“What about Tichnor?”

“No movement. His van’s still in front of the house.”

“Press?”

“Not yet.”

“Okay. Keep things quiet.” He considered telling Earl to warn the Klalo assembly that Vance was dangerous, but that might just step up the danger if
they
were armed.

“Right.”

“I’ll be with you—” he checked the time “—in twenty-two minutes.”

“Ten-four.”

Rob signed off. “I’m going to shoot you, Jack.”

Jack chuckled. “I never said Maddie was alone.”

Rob switched on the lights and hit the accelerator. A pickup pulled off the road to let him by. At the turnoff to the lake, he had to use the siren on a daydreamer. Fortunately, the road surface was dry, though the sky had begun to cloud over. Snow was forecast at the lake elevation. He covered the distance in seventeen minutes.

When he stopped, lights still flashing, Dr. Tichnor said, “Thank you, Lieutenant. I’ve always wanted to do that.” His eyes shone.

V
ANCE Tichnor was in a trap. When the fact sank in, he was going to fight like a wolverine.

Earl had not yet closed the highway. It was too soon. While Jack talked to the Klalos, Rob reconsidered his strategy. Maybe removing the construction crew had been a mistake. Maddie was off on her hillside. Todd was God-knew-where. Vance was in the house. Alone.

The house sat a good half mile back from the highway, almost on the banks of Beaver Creek. Earl had sent Linda into the woods to observe. She’d reported that Vance had gone out on his deck a couple of times, once with a cell phone at his ear, but he hadn’t come out to his van. It was just possible he didn’t yet know he was in a trap.

Abruptly, Rob made up his mind. He left Jack talking to a young woman who carried a sign that said
desecrator
and walked over to where Earl was standing.

“Pull the cars back about a hundred yards.”

“You crazy?”

“No. You can always shoot out his tires, Earl. I just don’t want him to panic when he sees you at the gate. I don’t want him to see you at all.”

A sedan passed. The driver gawked.

“Close the highway in both directions, but set up your flares out of sight of the gate.”

Earl’s face brightened.

Something to do at last, Rob thought sardonically. Earl did not like to wait. “I’m going to walk in the back way with Dr. Tichnor, just like I told you. We’ll talk to Maddie, then we’ll try to talk to Vance. Any word on Todd?”

“No, but that sure was a strange business with Carol.”

“What? Something happened?”

“You must’ve just missed seeing the ambulance on the highway. Jake called from the hospital. It’s weird. Carol was attacked by a rabid dog.”

Rob gaped.

Earl’s eyes betrayed earnest bewilderment.

“I think I want Jake’s version.” Rob called the dispatcher, and she connected him to Jake.

The deputy was still at the hospital. Rob heard him through twice before grasping the salient facts. One, that Meg was all right. Two, that Carol, who would live but might lose her right leg, had confessed to killing Eddy Redfern. Three, that Towser had attacked her after she made the mistake of shooting him. Ridge-backs are normally good-natured, Towser more than most, but they defend themselves with the utmost vigor.

How Towser and Meg came to be frolicking on the shore of Tyee Lake, Rob did not know. He almost called Meg for an explanation, but decided he didn’t need to be distracted from the matter at hand, which had just got more complex. He found the thought of Meg in danger very distracting.

If Carol had killed Eddy Redfern, then the deaths of Brandstetter and Meek looked different. That was the crux of the matter.

Rob signed off, ordering Earl to pull the patrol cars back and block the highway. Then he strode to the car where Ethan Tichnor waited. Jack was talking with Maddie’s warriors.

Rob sat in the driver’s seat. When he understood what had happened to Carol, the doctor wanted to head straight to the hospital. Not a good idea. They argued. Finally, Rob put Tichnor through to the hospital and let him talk to the surgeons.

While the tide of medical jargon washed through the car, Rob got out and told Jack what he knew. It was a risk, but Rob didn’t like the mood of the demonstrators. They were having a powwow good time.

“She killed my nephew?”

“Yes. She’s not in any condition to escape, either. You have a legitimate interest in what we do with the artifacts, Jack, but it seems they’re contaminated with DDT, so you won’t want to handle them without some kind of protection. We’re going to tell Maddie, then I’ll send the two of you out—”

“DDT?”

Rob explained. “They’ll be evidence in a big court case anyway. We’ll have to keep them awhile.” Quite a while. Years maybe. “There’s nothing you can do here.”

“I want to talk to Madeline.”

“Me, too. Let’s go. Tell your crew to take a coffee break or something.”

Jack met Rob’s eyes with no trace of humor in his own. “What you call artifacts are holy things. These kids are not gonna leave until we know The Dancers is safe.”

Rob said quietly, “Isn’t that up to Chief Thomas?”

Jack’s mouth tightened.

Rob waited.

Jack sighed and his eyes lowered. “Okay, let’s go.”

After some talk, the demonstrators retreated to their pickups, which Earl had made them leave a good distance from Vance’s gate.

Rob retrieved the Kevlar vests from the backseat of the patrol car. “Wrap it up, sir. We need to get going.”

Tichnor flapped a hand and went on talking.

Rob tested the bullhorn and hooked it to his belt. He patted his gun, which he would just as soon have left behind, and double-checked that Jack had put his vest on right. Dr. Tichnor got out of the car, looking somber but somewhat reassured. He donned his vest without protest.

Rob ordered Linda Ramos out of the woods and Thayer in. Thayer took his rifle and strict instructions to stay out of sight of the house. Then Rob was ready to go.

He backed the car around, drove to the doctor’s access road, a track really, and jolted down it half a mile. At that point it was better to walk, the brush was so thick. Tichnor was full of questions and so was Jack. Rob ignored them, his mind on the man waiting in the huge, empty house. And on Madeline Thomas.

The snow came thicker and had begun to stick, though it wasn’t terribly cold out. It would start to get dark soon.

Tichnor wasn’t used to hiking. He puffed along behind Jack and Rob, but he didn’t complain. Salal, scrub pine, and blackberry briars tangled the track as it sloped gently to the bed of Beaver Creek. Sword ferns thrust up. Their dark fronds were just beginning to curl with frost.

They crossed the stream on a fallen log on hands and knees, Rob somewhat impeded by the bullhorn. Then their way led uphill, and there was no discernible path through the silent woods. Rob let Jack take the lead.

After twenty minutes of heavy going, they emerged in a small clearing from which they could see the back of Vance’s lodge, the yard, and the footbridge that crossed Beaver Creek. A yard light lit the van, and another light burned in one of the interior rooms, dimly illuminating the larger room that faced the rear deck. Rob saw no sign of life.

There was no sign of Madeline Thomas either.

Rob and Dr. Tichnor sat on a log while Jack reconnoitered. Tichnor was shivering. Rob gave him his wool hat and that seemed to help.

While they waited, Rob checked in. Thayer was in place. Vance had turned on the yard light as Thayer approached through the woods, scaring him out of three years’ growth, but Vance hadn’t come out to investigate. At that point, Earl interrupted Thayer’s slow commentary.

“Guess who just showed up?”

“Who?” Not Meg, please God.

“Todd Welch.”

Rob suppressed a whoop of relief. “No shit? Where has he been?”

“Said he left with the construction crew.”

“Let me talk to him.”

A crackling sound. Rob was going to skin Todd alive when he saw him, but first things first.

“Yeah, Rob?”

“I’m looking down on Vance’s house. Where’s the strong room, if I enter from the back?”

“I didn’t get into it. Tichnor was giving me a dirty look, so I went on out. That lounge in back gives onto the deck. The secure room is tucked in behind the media center on the left. Door looks like it leads to a closet, but I saw Tichnor come out. The room’s bigger than it seems from the outside.”