Double Homicide Part 23

The bathroom door swung open, and Bart Skaggs came out drying his hands. Bandy-legged and broad with a potbelly that hung over his rodeo buckle. He wasn't much taller than his wife, with the same broiled, burnished look to his skin that comes from decades of UV abuse.

No doubt he'd heard the detectives' voices, because he registered no surprise.

"Coffee?" said Emma.

"Yeah, sure." Bart Skaggs came over, offered a sandpaper left hand, remained on his feet. A bandage was wrapped across his right hand. Swollen fingers extended from the gauze.

"I was telling them," said Emma, "that they wouldn't learn anything from us."

Bart nodded.

Two Moons said, "Your wife says life was going along okay until Olafson came along."

"Him and the others." Bart Skaggs's tongue rolled around in his cheek, as if dislodging a tobacco plug.

"The others meaning ForestHaven."

"Foresth.e.l.l is more like it," said Emma. "Buncha do-gooders wouldn't last two hours in the forest if you dropped them there without their cell phones. And he was the worst."

"Olafson."

"Until he came along, they were mostly talk. Then all of a sudden we're getting court papers." Her skin took on a rosy hue and gray eyes turned stormy. "It was so wrong that the poor kid who served us apologized."

Bart Skaggs nodded again. Emma handed him a cup. He bent a knee, flexed a leg, drank. Over the rim, his eyes appraised the detectives.

Emma said, "If you came here expecting us to lie about being all choked up, you wasted your time."

"We do a lot of that," said Katz.

"Bet you do," said Emma. "But we we didn't used to. Back when we were allowed to work an honest day. We stayed busy every minute, and it wasn't 'cause of no plans to get rich-you don't get rich running beef. Any idea what they're paying on the hoof nowadays? All those vegetarians lying about good, healthy meat." didn't used to. Back when we were allowed to work an honest day. We stayed busy every minute, and it wasn't 'cause of no plans to get rich-you don't get rich running beef. Any idea what they're paying on the hoof nowadays? All those vegetarians lying about good, healthy meat."

Yet another nod from her husband. Strong, silent type?

"But still," she went on, "we liked it. It was what our families did for generations. Who were we hurting, grazing down weeds and plants that needed to be trimmed anyway for fire risk? Like the elk don't do the exact same thing? Like the elk don't deposit their manure right in the streams? That's something we never did, no matter what anyone says."

"What's that?" said Darrel.

"Pollute the water. We made sure the herd always did its business away from the water. We respected the land, a lot more than any do-gooder. You want your healthy environment? I'll give you your healthy environment: ranching. Animals doing what they're supposed to be doing, where where they're supposed to be doing it. Everything in its place: That's the way G.o.d intended it." they're supposed to be doing it. Everything in its place: That's the way G.o.d intended it."

Katz said, "Larry Olafson ended all that."

"We tried to talk to him-to be logical. Didn't we, Barton?"

"Yup."

"I telephoned him personally," she went on. "After we got the court papers. He wouldn't even take my call. Had some snotty young snip answering the phone who went on like a broken record. 'Mr. Olafson is occupied.' That was the whole point. We We wanted to be occupied with our G.o.d-given jobs. wanted to be occupied with our G.o.d-given jobs. He He had other plans." had other plans."

"You ever reach him?" said Two Moons.

"I had to drive over to Santa Fe, find that art gallery of his."

"When was this?"

"Couple of months ago, who remembers?" She snorted. "If you call that art. Occupied? He was hanging around, drinking foamy coffee. I introduced myself and told him he was making a big mistake, we weren't the land's enemy or his or anyone's, all we wanted to do was bring our beef to market, all we needed was a few more years and then we'd probably retire, so could he please lay off."

Katz said, "Were you really planning on retiring?"

She sagged. "No choice. We're the last generation interested in ranching."

Katz nodded sympathetically. "Kids have their own ideas."

"Ours sure does. Kid, singular. Bart Junior. He's an accountant over in Chicago, went to school at Northwestern and stayed there."

"He does good," said Bart. "He don't like getting dirty."

"Never did," said Emma. "Which is fine." Her expression said it wasn't.

"So," said Two Moons, "you told Olafson you needed a few more years before retirement. What did he say?"

"He gave me this look. Like I was a slow child. Said, 'None of that is my my concern, concern, dear. dear. I'm speaking for the I'm speaking for the land. land.'" Emma's voice had dropped to a baritone parody-the snooty voice of a sitcom butler. Her hands were balled into fists.

"He didn't want to listen," said Katz.

"Like he was G.o.d," said Emma. "Like someone died and made made him G.o.d." him G.o.d."

"Now he's the one who died," said Bart. p.r.o.nouncing the words quietly but distinctly. It was the closest he'd come to an independent statement since the detectives had arrived. They turned to him.

"Any ideas about that, sir?" Two Moons asked.

"About what?"

"Mr. Olafson's death."

"A good thing," said Bart. "Not a bad thing at all." He sipped coffee.

Darrel said, "What happened to your hand, Mr. Skaggs?"

"He got ripped by barbed wire," said Emma. "We had some old rolls of it left over and he was trucking them off to the surplus dealer and he slipped and the edge caught his hand. Big rolls. I told him it was a two-person job, not a one-person job, but as usual he didn't listen. He's a stubborn one."

"Like you isn't?" Bart snapped back.

Two Moons said, "When did this happen?"

"Four days ago," Bart answered. "Never ended up taking the wire to surplus."

"Sounds painful."

Bart shrugged.

The detectives let the room go silent.

"You're making a mistake if you're thinking he had anything to do with it." Emma shook her head. "Bart never done a cruel thing in his life. Even when he slaughters an animal, he does it with kindness."

Katz said, "How do you do that, Mr. Skaggs?"

"Do what?"

"Slaughter with kindness."

"Shoot 'em," said Skaggs. "Right here." Reaching behind his neck, he fingered the soft spot where stalk met skull. "Shoot 'em at an upward angle. You wanna get 'em in the medulla oblongata."

"Not a shotgun, right?" said Katz. "Too messy from up close."

Bart looked at him as if he were a s.p.a.ce alien. "You use a long gun or a large-caliber handgun with a Magnum load."

Emma stepped in front of her husband. "Let's be clear: We never did any big-time slaughtering. That woulda been against regulations. We s.h.i.+p the cattle to a processing plant in Iowa, and they do everything from there. I was talking when we needed meat for our own table. I'd tell him, and he'd run an old steer into the pen and put it out of its misery. We never took the good beef for ourselves. But even with tired old beef, you dry-age it a couple of days in the refrigerator, then you marinate it, in beer or something, and you got yourself a tasty steak."

Bart Skaggs stretched his free arm. The gauze bandage had yellowed around the edges and was dotted with blood. "Jewish rabbis use the knife across the throat. I seen 'em do that over in Iowa. If you're good with the knife and the knife's real sharp, it's fast. Those rabbis cut good. They don't even stun 'em. If you're not good, it's messy."

"You stun 'em," said Katz.

"Just in case."

"Before you shoot 'em."

"Yup. To quiet 'em down."

"How do you go about it?"

"You distract 'em by talking to 'em, nice and low and comforting. Then you hit 'em upside the head."

"The medulla?"

Bart shook his head. "In front, over the eyes. To confuse 'em."

"Hit 'em with what?" said Katz.

"A bar," said Bart. "A sledgehammer. I had a piece of axle from an old truck. That worked good."

"I'm trying to picture it," said Katz. "First you hit 'em from the front, then you run around and shoot 'em from the back?"

The room fell silent.

"Am I missing something?" said Katz.

Emma turned stony. "I see where all this is leading, and you're really wasting your time."

Suddenly, her husband took hold of her arm and drew her back so that she was no longer blocking him. She started to speak but thought better of it.

Bart fixed his eyes on Katz's. "If you're doing the shooting, you're not doing the stunning. Someone else stuns 'em, and when their legs buckle, you shoot 'em. Otherwise, the animal goes skittish and it can jump and you miss. That happens, you have to shoot 'em a bunch of times and it's real messy."

For him a long speech. Warming to the topic.

"Sounds like a two-person job," Two Moons stated evenly.

More silence.

"Yup," Bart finally said.

"We used to do it together," said Emma. "I used the hammer and Bart used the gun. Same way we did everything back when we were ranching. Teamwork. That's what it takes. That's why we got a good marriage."

"Cows are big animals," said Darrel. "To get leverage you'd need to stand on top of something, right?"

"Why's all this important?" said Emma.

"Call us curious, ma'am."

She glared.

Katz said, "Do you stand on a ladder, Mr. Skaggs?"

"The animal's in a pen," said Bart. "Tight so it can't move around too much. The way we had it at the ranch, the pen was dug out lower than the rest of the yard. You'd walk 'em down a ramp to get in there. And then we used benches on top of that so we were tall enough."

A small man feeling big as he slaughtered, thought Katz.

"It ain't rocket science." Emma glared at them. "You oughta be ashamed of yourselves . . . making two old-timers like us feel like criminals."

Two Moons shrugged. "All I'm saying is I'd be pretty sore at Olafson. The man took bread out of your mouths."

"He did worse than that. He took bread out and burned burned it. Knowing we were barely treading water and making sure we drowned." She waved an arm around the cramped, close room. "Think this is the way we want to live? The man's dead and gone. True, I'm not shedding any tears. But we sure as heck didn't harm a hair on his head. With him dead or alive we're no better off. The court says we can't run the herd, end of story." it. Knowing we were barely treading water and making sure we drowned." She waved an arm around the cramped, close room. "Think this is the way we want to live? The man's dead and gone. True, I'm not shedding any tears. But we sure as heck didn't harm a hair on his head. With him dead or alive we're no better off. The court says we can't run the herd, end of story."

"Like you said," Two Moons countered, "before Olafson joined the group, they were all talk. With him gone, couldn't you go back to court?"

"With whose money?" She peered at Darrel. "You're an Indian, right? I got Choctaw in me, from way back. Maybe that's why I loved working the land. You should understand what I'm talking about. That man accused us of raping the land, but he he raped raped us. us."

"Revenge can be sweet," said Katz.

"Don't be an idiot!" Emma snapped. "Why would I ruin my life for him him? I got my health and so does Barton." Her smile was sudden. Vaguely poisonous. "Besides, I got a check from the U.S. government, rolls in every month whether I lie around in bed or get up. That's heaven, right? That's your promised land."

The couple took the detectives outside, over to a storage shed behind the garage that looked ready to collapse. Freezing inside, the chill from the ground going right through your shoes. Bart showed the detectives the offending barbed-wire roll, along with other junk, including a towing winch. Big, heavy thing, rusted at some of the points. If there was blood there, the detectives couldn't see it.

Without warning, Bart unwound the gauze on his hand and showed them the jagged gash, two or so inches long, that ran from the webbing between his thumb and his forefinger down to his k.n.o.bby wrist.

It had been st.i.tched together with the thickest surgical thread Katz had ever seen. The edges of the cut had begun to scab, there was some leakage around the sutures, and the skin had gone puffy and inflamed. It looked to be a few days old.

Katz asked the name of the doctor who'd done the sewing.

Emma Skaggs laughed.