CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
BLADE DROVE HIS rented truck as fast as he could from Indigo Lake, but he was the last to join the party. The sleepy little town’s sheriff’s office was busier than a New York precinct.
He moved through the crowd of Department of Public Safety agents in suits and Texas Highway Patrol officers in uniform. Mixed in were a few Texas Rangers in their white shirts and tan hats.
Pearly, who obviously hadn’t bothered to comb her hair before she rushed to work, was standing on her chair yelling orders. No one listened to the lady who looked like she was dressed as an extra from the Star Wars cantina scene.
Dice tapped his way down the stairs in his cowboy boots. His wide smile sent wrinkles all the way to his ears as he twirled the cell keys on one long, thin finger.
Blade decided to talk to him first. “What are you doing here, Dice? Up a little early, aren’t you?”
“I didn’t want to miss this day. It’s been heading toward us on a slow train for months. I was with Pearly when she got the sheriff’s call and I knew he’d need extra deputies, so I deputized myself and came on in.”
Blade nodded and asked, very officially, “What’s your assignment?”
“Don’t know. Had to make one up for myself. I just finished locking Reid Collins up for being stinking drunk. Put Tim in the cell with him for no reason at all. Thought Tim might talk him to death. Save the state a trial if Collins turns out to be mixed up in this mess.”
Blade wasn’t sure, but he thought Dice had just committed at least a half-dozen illegal acts. “You riding with the posse to round up the bad guys?”
Dice shook his head. “Someone’s got to stay here and hold down the fort, protect the womenfolk, answer the phones, eat the doughnuts.”
“I’ll keep you informed,” Blade said. “I think I’d like to be part of this roundup. Have any idea what we’re facing?”
Dice never let the fact he didn’t know anything keep him from talking. “I heard one of the highway patrolmen say they stopped a Bar W cattle truck just over the line into New Mexico a few hours ago. Truck had a false floor. When they pried up a few boards they discovered the whole bottom of the trailer layered in five inches of drugs. Everything from crack cocaine to heroin, packed in neat and tight.” The old cowboy smiled. “Heard they got a tip. Anonymous person, of course.”
Brigman’s voice suddenly carried over the crowd. “Hamilton. I need you in my office.”
Blade wove through the uniforms and stepped into an office almost as crowded as the lobby. He nodded once to the sheriff.
Dan introduced him to Sheriff Fifth Weathers from one county over and a rancher named Staten Kirkland. Both men were well over six feet. They shook hands with Blade as Dan rolled out a map. “We’re each taking a side of the ranch. Kirkland, you take the side that borders your land and part of Hamilton Acres. Fifth, you take the side closest to town. I’m going in on the west side with plenty of men to handle any trouble, so, Blade, you’ll guard the east road.”
All three men nodded, but Blade was the only one who looked at the map.
Dan continued, “We’ve got some miles to cover but you’ll each have three highway partrol cars. One rule: anyone leaving the Bar W is to be stopped and detained. I don’t care if he’s driving a truck or riding a horse or walking out. No one leaves.”
Blade had driven the east border of the ranch with Dan yesterday. He remembered seeing three gates and a few other places where a man could drive out across pasture. The east side would not be hard to watch.
Jerry Cline sliced his way in between Blade and the sheriff. “I’ve rounded up several men who used to work at the Bar W. We’re hauling horses that are already saddled. We’ll go in with you and be ready to ride whenever you say the word, Sheriff.”
Dan nodded. “When this is over, I want to talk to you, Jerry. You’re a good man and I figure it’s about time you started wearing a badge.”
Jerry smiled. “I’ll think about it.”
Jerry disappeared back into the crowd, and Blade decided the sheriff was right—Cline could handle the job.
As the others started rounding up their men, Blade asked, “What about Lucas? He knows that ranch better than anyone here, except maybe Dice.”
“He and Charley Collins are riding with me. The paperwork came in a few hours ago. Lucas’s office is sending it over. D.R. Collins filed all the legal papers we need to have his full cooperation. But he didn’t give Lucas the power of attorney he asked for. He gave it to his oldest son, Charley.” Dan nodded to a young rancher standing next to Lucas. “Charley didn’t want it, but he agreed to stay with us until we get this mess cleaned up. He’ll give us permission to search wherever we need to and with the help of the cowboys I don’t plan to miss a spot on the ranch.”
Suddenly, like a stirred up ant bed, everyone was moving at once. Picking up orders, climbing into cars, heading out as the rest of the town still slept.
To Blade’s surprise, one more person climbed into the sheriff’s car. Dan Brigman’s daughter.
The press. She had a camera around her neck and looked very official.
By the time the town came awake, Blade had a feeling news reports would be coming in and the raid would be over.
Two Texas Rangers signaled that they’d be following Blade. Another climbed in the passenger seat as though Blade had invited him. Like race cars lining up, four convoys headed out. When they reached the county road, Blade veered off to the east with several cars following him.
He saw the lights of one of the other lines of cars, moving silently to the north. Climbing up to the breaks where the land was rough. Kirkland’s caravan. They’d be close to Hamilton Acres.
His land, Blade thought.
If he’d expected it to be exciting, Blade would have been disappointed. Not one shot was fired. All they did was stand around watching, talking low, waiting.
One of the officers in Dan’s party was texting facts, keeping everyone informed. The Texas Ranger read each report aloud with a raspy voice that sounded like he should have been announcing rodeo events.
Sheriff Dan Brigman and his team met the men left at the Bar W at the headquarters’ door. Most weren’t even dressed for work, and only one had taken the time to strap on a weapon. When he saw twenty lawmen looking at him, he quickly raised his hands.
While the sheriff and his crew arrested them and read them their rights, Lucas was in one of the cars, heading to the far pasture along with several cowboys on horseback.
Surprisingly, the men on guard at the box canyon hadn’t tried to block the entrance. It stood wide-open and the two men assigned to guard the trucks inside were asleep.
When they were tapped awake with the barrel of a rifle, they complained that they’d worked all night trying to fix the trucks so they could all roll out at dawn.
Lucas called his information in and all the lawmen listened as he rattled off the facts. Two more trucks with fake floors were loaded and ready to leave the ranch.
Dan and Lucas also texted back and forth as Blade waited on the east side with nothing to report. The highway patrolmen and Texas Rangers had spread out along the east side. Too far apart to see each other in the dark, but each knew a blink of headlights would signal if they needed help.
The Texas Ranger who’d ridden shotgun in Blade’s truck finally stepped out to watch the sunrise. He was a man in his late fifties who looked solid as a rock. He’d be called an old-timer in the ATF, but not here.
“You know what we’re doing, Hamilton?”
“Guarding the road?” Blade guessed.
“We’re standing the gap. You probably wish you were with Brigman, riding in like the posse, but in the overall picture what we’re doing is just as important.”
“I’m happy here. I got enough holes in me, sir.”
The Ranger laughed. “You must be the deputy who was shot a few nights ago. You in any pain?”
“No,” Blade answered honestly. “But it bothers me that I have no idea who shot me.”
“I have a feeling we’ll know that by noon. As soon as we round up all the drug dealers, and drivers, and lowlifes who cook the meth up, they’ll start talking, telling on each other like first-grade boys on the playground.”
Blade smiled. “You think so?”
“I do. I’ve seen it before. They all watch too many cop shows and think if they talk they’ll get a deal, but we’re not in the habit of playing that game.”
An hour passed before the sheriff’s last text came in.
All men accounted for. All teams report to the headquarters for further assignments.
Blade was fascinated at how smoothly it had worked as he pulled up to the headquarters. A dozen men were in handcuffs. One by one the highway patrol picked them up to be transported to Lubbock. Since the truck the ATF found last night had crossed the state line, the feds were moving in to handle the questioning.
Blade felt like an outsider among all the officers and agents. These weren’t the lawmen he usually worked with. He finally wandered into the huge house and found Lucas and Charley at a long table going over stacks of paperwork.
“This place is really something,” Blade whispered. “Swimming pool and tennis courts. A regular country club.”
Charley looked up. “I always hated living here. Still hate even walking in the door. If D.R. gets back, this will be his problem. I’m going home to Lone Heart Pass.”
Blade smiled. “You know, I understand completely. It’s something, all right, but it doesn’t feel like home. Why do you think your dad named you to take over?”
Charley shrugged. “I guess he ran out of sons he could disown. But I’m not interested in running a spread like this. If he doesn’t come back, I’m hiring Lucas’s father back to run the place. He has been for years.”
The cleanup lasted all day. Blade had no idea it would take so long. Without Lucas’s midnight ride, they might not have found the operation’s headquarters, or it would have seemed like a small operation. But thanks to the tents in the box canyon, and records found at the house, the men in this operation were going away for a long time. The friends Reid had met that night in Las Vegas turned out to have several drug operations across half a dozen states. The feds said this break was helping with several other investigations.
It was almost sunset when Blade drove Lucas back to the office. For a while both were silent, trying to take it all in.
Lucas finally said, “I should say I’m sorry about you being shot. It was my fault.”
“How do you figure that?”
“I knew too much. I guess they’d assumed my dad was passing information. I wanted him safe and then I thought if I stayed in jail, they’d think I knew more than I did and they’d make a move. They’d come after me, but I’d be just out of reach. I had to give my parents time to disappear. I never thought they’d try to kill me. I thought I might be offered a bribe, or at worst, threatened.”
Blade grinned. “No one ever kills the lawyer, right?”
“Right, but I was talking up how I was going to get in touch with D.R. and get him to come home to find out what was going on at the family ranch. I guess they must have panicked and just decided to get rid of me.”
“You think Reid was mixed up in this?”
“Yeah, but he was also being blackmailed and used. I’ll do my best to get him off.”
“You’re going to represent him?”
Lucas nodded. “I know it doesn’t make sense, but he needs a good lawyer, and I did grow up with him.”
“I saw his face when the sheriff found the first body,” Blade said. “He was shocked, sick at the sight. I’d bet a month’s pay he didn’t know about it.”
Lucas nodded. “I heard he almost passed out when he heard about Coffer Coldman. All I can figure out is that Coffer must have left the ranch by a back gate and just happened to run into one of the trucks. Some of those thugs know who killed him. They’ll rat on each other fast enough.”
They pulled up to the county office and found Dice sitting on the steps, his head low, his cowboy hat on the ground. All else was quiet. All the excitement was over and in a few hours it would be nothing but yesterday’s news.
Both men jumped out of the truck and hurried to the old man.
“You all right, Dice?” Blade asked.
The old guy shook his head. “I’m pretty low, fellows. I got some bad news. That body in the barn fire wasn’t my friend LeRoy. The report came in while all of ya’ll were out rounding up bad guys.”
Dice scrubbed his chin. “It was just a drifter who must have snuck in looking for a place out of the rain and got caught between the fire and a locked door. One of the cowboys told the sheriff that Collins told him to put a lock on the barn by the road to keep the drifters out.”
Lucas patted Dice’s bony shoulder. “That’s good news. LeRoy may still be alive somewhere.”
“Oh, he is. He’s in the lobby cuddled up by Pearly’s desk. He’d caught a ride to Abilene to visit his sister. Said he was so down, it was either that or spend all his money drinking. When he heard on the news that all the trouble at the ranch was over, he hitchhiked back to pick up his truck and trailer before the ranch gates were locked. Didn’t even occur to the old fool that I might be looking for him.”
“That is good news he’s alive though, right?” Blade said.
“I guess, but it turns out he was dating Pearly now and then before he left. They were having a fling and neither one of them mentioned it to me. She thought he was gone and took up with me, but now he’s back, she can’t make up her mind which one of us she wants to fling with.”
Blade thought, of all the problems of the day, this was a minor one, but it seemed the end of the world to Dice. He tried getting the old guy’s mind off Pearly. “Is Reid still in jail?”
Dice didn’t raise his head, but he answered, “Nope, the feds came and got him a few hours ago. I tried to get them to take O’Grady too, but they didn’t want him.”
Pearly and an old cowboy who had to be LeRoy walked out onto the porch. LeRoy had the same hangdog look as Dice.
Blade decided to step back and watch. Lucas did the same. Standing five feet away they tried to act like they weren’t listening.
“I’ve been thinking,” Pearly said. “Since both of you men have slowed down some over the years there is only one thing I can do.”
They both waited for the bad news.
She straightened. “I don’t want to come between your friendship. That’s something worth keeping. So, I’ve decided to keep seeing you both if you two agree to one rule.”
“What might that be?” Dice didn’t look like he was buying into this group-dating thing.
“You two don’t talk to each other about me. LeRoy, you get the odd day of the weekend and Dice, you get the even. And I expect a real date. Going out to dinner or something, not just dropping over. I don’t want you both showing up at the same time, either. My house isn’t big enough to handle a waiting line. During the week I work and I got my shows to watch every night, so don’t bother calling me. I don’t want to talk.”
Blade had to step inside because he was losing his ability to keep from laughing. Lucas was right behind him.
“You think they’ll work it out?” Blade asked.
“I think Pearly already has.”
Lucas offered his hand. “It was nice spending time in jail with you.”
“Same here. I’ll miss our chess games.”
Lucas looked him straight in the eye as he always had. “You wouldn’t happen to have been on that high ridge at the back of your land last night. Someone covered us as we rode out from the box canyon.”
Blade smiled. “I didn’t fire a shot.”
Lucas looked like he didn’t believe him, but he didn’t argue. “Well, tell whoever it was that I’m grateful.”
Blade shook his hand. “I’ll do that. See you around, Lucas.”
“See you around,” Lucas echoed as if the two men lived in town.
Blade walked past the three senior citizens arguing on the porch and headed for his pickup. The day was over. It was time to go home.