Caruso 01 - Boom Town (25 page)

The sheriff gave him the number.

“Call me,” the sheriff screamed. It wasn’t a request.

Tony left him standing there. It was wrong to underestimate a local sheriff like Green. Especially a former Marine.

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By the time Tony got back to the condo, Cliff Humphrey’s Mercedes was already parked in front of the garage door that still had a couple of bullet holes in it. The car also blocked Tony from parking inside. Humphrey was slumped in the driver’s seat, staring straight ahead, his hands grasping the steering wheel like he was on a roller coaster. The engine was running, plumes of smoke billowing from the exhaust pipe.

Tony got out. “Hang here, Panzer,” he said to his dog through the side window.

Then he rapped his knuckles on Humphrey’s car window. He slowly swiveled his head toward Tony and then powered the window down.

Smiling at him, Tony said, “You stay out here and they’ll find your frozen carcass in the morning.” When Humphrey didn’t respond, Tony continued. “What’s up?”

“Why don’t you get in,” he said. “Let’s go for a ride.”

Tony thought about it for a second, knowing he needed to get onto the computer to look a few things up before Dawn came for dinner. Despite that, he got into the passenger side and let the heated leather seat envelop him.

Cliff Humphrey pulled out and made his way slowly down the snowy road. He didn’t say anything for more than a mile.

“I thought it would make a difference,” Humphrey finally said.

“What?”

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“Finding out my son didn’t kill his wife and then himself.”

Now it made more sense. Guilt had been replaced by misunderstanding. “Why? Because now you realize someone must have really hated your son?”

He turned to glare at Tony way too long, considering the condition of the roads. When he turned back to his driving, he said,

“You do everything to raise them right, make them good citizens, and then this happens. How can you still believe in God after that?”

“Without evil, how would we know good?”

The car circled through a roundabout and Humphrey turned right onto Century Drive, which eventually lead all the way to Mount Bachelor some eighteen miles up the mountain. Tony checked his watch from instinct and wondered where he planned on taking him.

“Larry Gibson called me this afternoon,” Humphrey said.

“Wanted to know what my plans were with his company.” He placed extra emphasis on ‘his.’

“What’d you tell him?”

“He said you went to see him and stopped the meeting, temporarily.”

“Isn’t that what you wanted? What do you mean, temporarily?”

Humphrey slowed the car and turned onto a small road that for some reason had actually been plowed. After a few blocks, he pulled over and left the engine running. Clouds still lingered in the air, making darkness seem ever closer.

“You said temporarily,” Tony reminded him.

“Larry signed the deal this afternoon.”

“What? What about your son’s estate?”

“The partnership arrangement reverted all company assets to the remaining partner, upon the death of the other.”

Tony’s mind reeled now. He had made a major blunder by not getting his hands on that partnership agreement. How stupid.

Turning toward Cliff Humphrey, Tony saw it for the first time.

His jacket was open slightly and there under his left arm was the
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butt of a gun, probably a 9mm automatic, but he couldn’t tell for sure. Tony thought about why he might bring him way out into the sticks to talk about this, and his instincts told him things that reason could only speculate on.

As he reached with his right hand inside his coat, Tony flinched slightly and almost went for the man’s hand. He slid his hand out with an envelope, not a gun, and stared at it for a moment before extending it to Tony, who accepted it but didn’t look inside.

“There’s a thousand dollars and I paid your emergency room visit,” he said. “Plus I’ll have the garage door repaired or replaced for Joe. Also, I got you a week at that condo on the coast.”

Now Tony was confused. He looked into the envelope at the hundred dollar bills, thought about what was going on, and then shook his head. “What about the case? Finding your son’s killer?”

“The sheriff will find out who did it, now that the case is really open again.”

Something wasn’t right. Earlier that morning Cliff Humphrey was adamant about Tony staying on the case. What had changed his mind?

“Are you sure about this?” Tony looked at the money again, feeling more like he had just been paid to keep out of it, instead of for anything he had done.

Humphrey nodded his head and checked his watch. “I have to go.”

Turning the car around, he headed back toward Tony’s condo.

Neither of them said a word the whole way back. He simply dropped Tony off, said he could use him as a reference, and dismissed him.

Tony stood in the gathering gloom of sunset and watched Humphrey drive away, feeling something like a male whore who had just been fucked royally.

When Tony got back inside the condo, Panzer at his side, he sat
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for a minute running the entire case through his thick skull. Either he was the dumbest motherfucker in Central Oregon, or he had just been kissed off. Maybe both. Humphrey should have never done that. It was true that he had hired Tony to prove his son had not killed his wife and then himself, and he had done that. But why stop now? What had changed?

Tony thought about all those things while he mixed up a crock pot of pasta sauce. Dawn Sanders would be over in a couple of hours, and he had a few more things to check on the computer.

By the time Dawn Sanders got to the condo, the entire place smelled of garlic and onion and olive oil. And in the background Vivaldi seeped from two Bose speakers.

Tony took her coat and hung it in the closet while he watched her. She was wearing loose slacks and a tight sweater that made him realize he had completely underestimated a couple of her assets.

“It smells so good in here,” she said, taking a seat in the same leather chair that Frank Peroni had slumped in only hours ago.

Without asking, Tony poured each of them a glass of Chianti, which she accepted and instantly started to sip.

Taking a seat on the sofa across from her, Tony asked, “How are the roads?”

She smiled. “Starting to ice up. All that snow melting, the sun goes down, and then the remaining water freezes.” She got up and took a seat next to him. “You know you didn’t have to do all this for me.”

Tony took a sip of wine. “All what?”

“The cooking. The music. The wine. If I wasn’t the trusting type, I’d say you were trying to get me into bed.”

Tony hesitated for a moment. Maybe too long. “I—”

“I’m just messing with you.” She moved closer to him and set her glass of wine on the coffee table. “Although I am usually up for some antipasto.”

She slipped her hand around the back of his neck and kissed him passionately on the lips, her tongue slipping in and out. Tony
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kissed her back, the whole time wondering what more she could do to him than Melanie Chadwick had. After all, Dawn had called her sedate.

Dinner would have to wait.

Tony was under some sort of spell, it seemed. She stood up in front of him, and in perfect sync with Vivaldi, she slipped her clothes off. Her hands caressed her naked form like two snakes wrapping themselves around her, the fingers of one hand finding a nipple while the other went inside her. Tony found it hard to concentrate on anything but her. He had to face it, it was just damn hard. He stood and released himself from his clothes, meeting her in the center of the room.

“I was wrong,” she moaned.

“About what?”

She reached down and grasped his erection. “I didn’t think it could get any bigger than before. I was wrong.”

Tony caressed her breasts as the two of them drifted toward the floor. In a moment they meshed together as one, their energy moving in rhythm, her hips pushing up to take in everything. All thoughts slipped from Tony’s mind, as they both lost themselves in the moment.

Later they soaked in the hot tub, relaxing after dinner, sipping an India Pale Ale. It was appropriate, since they had experiment-ed with more than one chapter of the Kamasutra. Tony was so relaxed he almost forgot about Cliff Humphrey or Dan and Barb.

Dawn brought him back to reality. “My brother Don called me just before I came over here.”

“Yeah? Has the mother ship arrived?”

“Very funny. Actually, he said he’s giving up.”

“What?”

She took a sip of beer and then said, “He’s being practical.

Earlier today the county approved the land use for Humphrey’s resort. Donny has nothing left, Tony. He has a meeting to sign the papers tonight.”

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“It’s funny Cliff Humphrey didn’t mention any of this,” Tony said.

“No, it’s not Humphrey,” she said. “His meeting is with Mrs.

Ellison. At her place.”

Now that was interesting. “Really? What time?”

“What time is it now?”

“Eight thirty.”

“It’s in a half hour out at Cascade Peaks. What’s the matter, Tony?”

Tony started to get up out of the water, but she grabbed his hand. “What?”

She smiled up at him. “Where are you going?”

“Cascade Peaks?”

“Why?”

How could he explain it? She had certain feelings, now he had a feeling deep in the pit of his gut that something wasn’t right.

First, Larry Gibson sells his company, and now there was a final push for Don Sander’s land. But why sign the papers at nine p.m.

at Cascade Peaks? That’s what wasn’t adding up.

Sitting back into the tub, Tony explained to her how Humphrey had dismissed him, after telling him about his son’s company being sold to the San Francisco firm. He told her about what he knew for sure and what he had a hunch about.

In the end, she shrugged her shoulders. “Let me come with you.”

“No way.” Tony pulled himself up out of the hot tub and toweled off. Then he hurried to get dressed, as she watched him curiously from the warm water.

“I don’t understand,” she said.

Tony wasn’t sure how much she needed to know. “How much did they offer your brother for his land?”

She looked kind of embarrassed. “More than a million.”

“More than a million?” he yelled.

“But that’s prime land, Tony.”

Now he was even more sure of himself, especially after what
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he had learned on his computer before Dawn had arrived. He hurried and finished with his pants, shoved his shirt in, and then grabbed his jacket heading to the door. He stopped and looked at her.

“He’s also working a deal to blow up some lava rock,” she continued. “He can’t work in this town without them. He said he got that idea from you.”

She was beautiful in that hot tub. He had every right to say the hell with it, strip back down, and finish off the evening with a flourish. After all, the Kamasutra was an extensive manual.

“Will you wait here for me?” Tony asked.

She looked confused now as she sipped on the beer and then set the bottle on the edge of the hot tub. “You think Donny’s in danger?”

“I don’t know.” It was as honest as he could get. He wasn’t sure of much.

“That means you might be in danger. Don’t go. I’ll give Donny a call and tell him to hold off until the morning.”

“Good idea.” Tony pulled out his cell phone and handed it to her in the tub.

She punched in the number and waited. “No answer.” She hit end and handed the phone back to him.

He went toward the door and stopped when she said, “Wait for me.”

“No!” He ran his fingers through his wet hair. “Listen. I’ve had people trying to beat on me. I’ve been shot and shot at. You need to let me take care of this. Besides, I could use one of those patented massages when this is all over. Please stay here tonight.”

She had risen from the tub and her nipples were as hard as obsidian. Now she lowered herself back into the warmth of the water.

“Save me a beer,” Tony said. Panzer instinctively at his heels, Tony made sure the door was locked securely behind him and headed for his truck.

As he got outside, he realized a couple of things. The tempera-204

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ture had dropped considerably, making the sidewalk an ice rink, and thick, dark clouds had moved in, making it impossible to see more than a few feet in front of him. Through all that, his thoughts were somewhat blurred.

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Having hoped to get to Cascade Peaks before Don Sanders, Tony was disappointed by how slow he could actually drive on the ice without sliding down the embankment. He had seen a few cars in the ditch along the way, but none of the accidents looked serious so he wasn’t compelled to stop.

He still had the pass card that Cliff Humphrey had given him, so he used that. There was a young man in the gatehouse that he had not seen before. He simply waved while he talked with someone on the phone.

He wound down through the narrow lanes, trying his best to keep the truck from fish-tailing. When he got to the burnt out Humphrey place on the fifth green, he pulled into the empty driveway and shut down the engine.

First he gazed at the basketball player’s house. Jamal Banks was definitely home. Nearly every light in the house was on, and the structure seemed to be bursting with rap music. In contrast, Mrs. Ellison’s house had perhaps one light on that he could tell from that angle.