[To Die For 01] - A View to Die For (2012) (30 page)

Meg was right. There was no dial tone at all. It was a cordless phone, so I checked the adapter and then the phone jack. Everything seemed to be okay, so I went outside to check the wiring.

The phone wire ran from the eave of my roof to the utility pole at the end of my drive. We didn’t have the luxury of underground utilities in my neighborhood. That was a convenience for the rich folk along Upper Bear Creek. The not-so-rich, who lived off the dirt roads, had to contend with frequent phone and power outages. This time, it wasn’t the squirrels, not unless they started carrying wire cutters. The line, where it entered the junction box on my house, was cut cleanly off. I could have fixed the cut line in less than ten minutes, but if Nixon was out there with a rifle, I would be dead meat. He must have sneaked back when Fred and I were on the deck. Then again, he might have cut the phone line when he ransacked the motor home. Either way, that line could wait until morning.

“Don’t even think about going to sleep tonight,” I told Fred once we went back in the cabin and bolted the door. Then I checked my shotgun, made sure I had a shell in the chamber, and turned off all the lights. We sat there listening for over half an hour before I fell to sleep.

The sun was already up when I woke. It must have been around seven in the morning. My trusted sentinel was sound asleep at my feet. I must have been dreaming, for I thought I had heard something out there. It had to be a dream; Fred, even with a hangover, would have heard it much sooner than I could. Then Fred woke up and started to growl. Soon his growl turned to barking, and he was doing his porcupine imitation again. Someone was on our front deck.

I went to the side window while Fred went to the front door. His barking should distract whoever was out there long enough for me to get a peek out the blinds.

“Jake,” the intruder called out. “Jake, it’s me, Hal. Are you in there?”

“Am I ever glad to see you. I thought for sure it was Ron Nixon, coming to slit my throat,” I said as I opened the door. “What are you doing in my neck of the woods?”

“Filling in for a friend who’s sick. My company flew me up from San Diego last night to meet his clients tomorrow. I had some time to kill, so I thought I’d look you up. And here I am. Is that thing loaded?” he asked, pointing at my shotgun.

“Sorry. We had a scare yesterday,” I answered, putting the gun next to the closet after setting the safety. “Nixon broke into my motor home yesterday, and I think he may come back.”

“No kidding? Well, I can see why you would be on edge. He must still be looking for those stupid coins.”

“Evidently. He broke into Megan’s two days ago, looking for them. Why he thinks I would have them is anybody’s guess,” I answered. “I was just about to make a pot of coffee. Would you like a cup?”

Hal surveyed my one room cabin, then sat down on the couch. “Taylor told me about the incident at your sister’s. I’m glad she’s okay.” Then, as he got up and went to the sliding door leading to the deck, he changed the subject.

“Fantastic view you have. I can’t believe there’s snow on that mountain already,” he said.

“That’s Mount Evans. One of our fourteener’s. They usually have snow all year round.” Then I almost dropped the coffee pot. I happened to glance out the kitchen window at Hal’s car.

“I thought you said you flew in last night, Hal? What’s up with the Missouri plates?” It was a big SUV. The plate started with the letters AEM.

“Really? I never noticed. Someone from Missouri must have dropped it off at the rental company.” Hal had maneuvered himself between me and where I had put the shotgun. I was sure he knew I had figured out it was he, and not Nixon, who had paid me a visit.

“Guess that happens all the time,” I said, as I opened the drawer where I kept the kitchen knives and forks.

“Close the drawer, Jake.” He had my shotgun and was pointing it at me.

“You’re too damn smart for your own good, Jake. Why didn’t you leave last night when you had a chance? Now I’m going to have to kill you, too.”

I wasn’t surprised. “By too, I assume you mean Nixon?”

“Damn, Jake, you are good. How did you figure that out?”

Hal must not have known about the safety on my gun: I could see it was still on. I had to keep his attention off the gun until I could jump him. “I just remembered where I saw your plates before. And I don’t mean when you followed me from Kansas City to Emporia. Your partner in crime must have been Nixon. That was his SUV Linda was driving on the day Mike was murdered, so if you are driving it now, after admitting to a murder, it can only mean one thing. You must have killed your partner.”

“Way to go, Sherlock. Want to tell me why I killed Nixon while you’re at it?”

“That one is simple. I’m surprised Bennet didn’t catch on by now. You’ve been replacing prescription drugs with Mexican counterfeits. Mike and Bill must have bank rolled your operation with the business loan, and when the truck got seized, Mike panicked. You paid him off with your collection of double eagles, and when he found they weren’t worth anywhere near his fifty grand, he came looking for blood. You beat him to the punch with your hired gun, Nixon.”

I continued talking as I inched closer to the gun. “I assume you paid Nixon off with the promise he could have the coins.”

“Not bad, Jake. No wonder Amy likes you so much. Except you’re wrong about the coins. It’s not quite that simple.”

“Oh, what did I miss?”

“They weren’t my coins. At least, not until I paid Bill and Nixon to get them for me.” He must have seen the confused look on my face. “Guess you’re not so smart after all, or you would have guessed where they came from.”

Then I remembered the news article. “You paid them to steal the coins from the Fergusons? Is that what started all this?”

His eyes wandered to the shotgun and then quickly back to me. I saw him feel for the safety and turn it off. “Looks like you missed your chance, Bud. You could have jumped me there.”

“At least have the decency to tell me before you kill me. Did they kill the old couple and make it look like a murder-suicide?”

“Hell, why not. You can tell the story to everyone in Hell, so I’ll be a legend when I join you. Ron killed them. The old man caught them in his bedroom and shot Atkins. Ron got the gun from him, and then he shot the old man and his wife. When he called me to tell me what happened, I had Ron dump Bill’s body by Mike’s dock. Mike had figured out, or maybe Bill had told him, that Bill had bankrolled my drug deal. Mike was threatening to tell Bennet if I didn’t give him back his money, so I thought I’d frame him for killing Bill. At least you got some of it right.” Hal moved away from the door and closer to the kitchen, all the time, making sure the gun was aimed at my head. “Sit down, Jake. This may take a while. Got anything to drink in here?” he asked and opened my refrigerator.

“Help yourself. I’ll take a beer too, if you don’t mind.”

“Sure. Even you deserve a last meal,” he said and laughed. He put the beer on the kitchen table and took a seat on the other side, then motioned with his free hand for me to sit at the table.

“Ron was scared shitless and ready to run,” Hal continued as I popped the top of the can. “I had to go back there myself and set the scene to make it look like a mercy killing. Did a pretty good job, don’t you think?”

“You would have made Agatha Christie proud.” I saw Fred out of the corner of my eye.
Not now, Freddie
, I thought,
not until I hear all the story
. He looked like he was ready to jump Hal, so I moved over to hold his collar.

Hal raised the gun, but he didn’t stop me. “I paid off Nixon with most of the coins and kept the good ones for myself. The idiot thought he got the best of the deal, not knowing what a Carson City was worth.”

“At least a hundred thousand,” I answered. “Then you had him kill Mike to shut him up?”

“No. I had nothing to do with that. I kept Mike at Bay with a promise to pay him off with another deal I had going. Anyway, the fool, Nixon that is, went and hid his coins at the museum where he worked as a night guard. Can you believe he cut into a support beam when he hid them in the walls.”

“Nixon is responsible for the building collapse?”

Hal smiled. Not a friendly smile, but one you’d expect to see from Jack the Ripper. “Looks that way.”

“So that’s how Mike got the coins. He found them when he was hired to help tear the place down. I always knew the story about Jesse James was BS.” I moved a little closer, pretending to hold Fred back. I was almost close enough to grab for the shotgun. “Is that why you had Mike killed? You wanted all the coins.”

“Aren’t you listening, Jake. I told you, I had nothing to do with that. And the coins I gave Nixon weren’t worth that much. He’d be lucky to get enough to cover the gold in them. It was that idiot Ron. He got Mike to meet him at my place, pretending to be me when I was out of town. He tricked Mike into thinking I wanted to buy them. But it’s getting late, Jake, so tell me where you hid my DVDs. Too bad you won’t live to tell your story, but if you behave and tell me where they are, I promise I won’t go after the rest of your family. Otherwise, they’re next.” He raised the shotgun and aimed it at my face.

“Bennet has them. Surely you know that by now,” I said while trying to get closer to the gun. I wasn’t going to go down without some kind of fight.

“Don’t take me as some kind of fool, Jake. You only gave him the last one. I want the other four you kept. And don’t come any closer unless you want to feel what it’s like to be a chicken without a head.”

I had nearly forgotten about them. Now I realized Meg and I should have watched them, too. “Did we miss something, Hal?” I asked as I stopped inching toward the gun. “They’re still in my computer case. It’s in my bedroom over there.”

Hal turned toward my bedroom. I had a split second to grab for the gun before he pulled the trigger, but Fred beat me to it. Not that my best buddy came to my rescue because he was a trained attack dog; Fred’s keen ears heard the siren before we did, and he knocked Hal over in his haste to reach the coffee table. The gun went off, putting a huge hole in my ceiling.

The distraction of the sheriff was all Hal needed to bolt out the door. Unfortunately for him, the deputy had heard the shot and returned fire when he saw Hal with the gun in his hands.

It was only later that I found out how the deputy showed up when he did. Megan had tried to tell me, before my cell went dead, that Bennet had found Nixon at the bottom of Truman Lake, not far from where Mike was found, and that Bennet had already figured out it was Hal. It seems Bennet had been working with the DEA for several weeks. They had been on Hal’s trail for months.

When Bennet heard about my break-in, he called the Colorado sheriff. After the phone company verified the line had been cut, the local sheriff decided I was in imminent danger and dispatched an officer to my house. Luckily for Hal, the officer was a lousy shot and missed all the vital organs.

“Thanks a lot, Fred. I should have killed you when I had the chance.” Hal said as the paramedics put him on a stretcher.

Fred wagged his tail as if to say, “You’re welcome.”

Hal won’t be bothering anyone for some time. He got three life sentences, plus fifty years, for his part in the ‘Black Widow Murders.’ He saved himself from lethal injection by telling the DA everything he had told me.

The coins did eventually show up. Meg never cared much for her pontoon and sold it to Linda’s father. He found the coins in the live well under the seat. He gave them to their rightful owners: the children of the murdered coin dealers. The reward was enough to put a down payment on the Pig’s Roast, and he gave the place to Linda. Sam went back to selling mortgages in Kansas City.

My angel, Amy, married a doctor after taking a job at a prestigious hospital in Saint Louis. Rosenblum managed to get her an annulment from Hal on the basis that they never consummated the marriage. Taylor went with her, and the last I heard, he had gone back to school to become a medical technician.

Megan had a small wedding at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, saving me another trip to Truman. Ira asked me to be the Best Man, and I obliged. I thought about asking if Fred could carry the ring, then remembered Ira didn’t care much for dogs. Mother sold her house in town and moved in with Megan, so she could raise Kevin properly. It remains to be seen how Ira will like living with his new mother-in-law. The newlyweds are still on a world cruise.

My plan to turn my adventure into a novel kept getting distracted by almost anything that came along. The latest distraction had been the movie I rented, called
Harry and Tonto
. Harry was an old man whose only friend in the world was his cat, Tonto. I wiped my eyes when Tonto died, and I turned off the television to let Fred out in the snow.

Snow comes early in the Rockies, and this year is no exception. There was already several feet on the ground and more was expected overnight. Fred loved it. I stood at the bay window of our little cabin, watching him burrow in the drifts and pop out the other side as though he were chasing a rabbit. He was no longer a puppy, yet he could still act like one. With some luck and a prayer, he would be there for me in my old age.