Reunion in Death

*** CHAPTER 12 ***

If the appeal of the suburbs baffled steadfast urbanite Eve Dallas, the appeal of the great flat stretches of Texas was foreign as a moonscape. Texas had cities, great, sprawling, crowded cities.

So why did anyone actually choose to live on the pancake grass of the prairie where you could see for miles, where you were surrounded by an endless spread of space?

Even so, there were towns, of course, with buildings that blocked that uneasy view, and straight-arrow roads that spilled into pretzel-curved freeways leading to and from civilization.

She could certainly understand people driving toward those towns and cities and buildings. But she'd never comprehend what pushed them to drive out into the nothingness.

«What do they get from this?» she asked Roarke as they zoomed down one of those roads. «There's nothing here but grass and fences and four-legged animals. Really big four-legged animals,» she added as they traveled past a herd of horses with cautious suspicion.

«Yippee-ky-yay.»

She shifted that suspicious stare to Roarke only briefly. She preferred to keep close watch on the animals. Just in case.

«This guy's loaded,» she went on, slightly mollified by the roaring clack of a helicopter that buzzed the near field. «He's got a thriving, successful business in Dallas. But he chooses to live out here. Voluntarily. There's something really sick about that.»

With a laugh, Roarke picked up her hand, the one that kept inching up toward her weapon, and kissed it. «There are all kinds of people in the world.»

«Yeah, and most of them are crazy. Jesus, are those cows! Cows shouldn't be that big, should they? It's unnatural.»

«Just think steaks, darling.»

«Uh-uh, that's just creepy. Are you sure this is the right way? This can't be right. There's nothing out here.»

«May I point out the several houses we're passing along this route?»

«Yeah, but I think the cows must live in them.» She had a flash of bovine activities inside the low-slung houses. Watching some screen, having cow parties, making cow love in four-poster beds. And shuddered. «God, that's creepy, too. I hate the country.»

Roarke glanced down at the in-dash navigation screen. He'd worn jeans and a white T-shirt, and a pair of sleek, black sunshades. It was a casual look for him, even simple. But he still looked like city. Rich city, Eve mused.

«We should be there in a few minutes,» he told her. «There's a bit of civilization up ahead.»

«Where?» She risked taking her attention away from the cows, looked through the windshield and saw the spread of a town. Buildings, fuel stations, shops, restaurants, more houses. Her gut loosened a little. «Okay, that's good.»

«But we're not going through there. We veer off here.» So saying, he turned off the wide ribbon of road onto a narrow offshoot. One that, in Eve's opinion, brought them entirely too close for comfort to those strange, flat grassy fields.

«Those fences don't look all that strong.»

«If there's a stampede, we'll outrun them.»

She moistened her lips, swallowed. «I bet you think that's funny.»

But she was somewhat mollified as there were other vehicles on the road. Other cars, trucks, long sleek trailers, and a few topless power Jeeps.

Buildings began to spring up. Not houses, Eve thought. Farm buildings or ranch buildings. Whatever. Barns and sheds and animal shelters. Stables, she supposed. Granaries or whatever they were. Silos, and what kind of word was that? It looked like a painting with all that grass, the crops, the bored-faced cattle, and the strong reds and whites of the outbuildings.

«What's that guy doing?» she demanded, inching up in the seat to stare beyond Roarke's profile.

«He appears to be riding a horse.»

«Yeah, yeah, I can see that. But why?»

«I have no idea. Perhaps he wants to.»

«See?» To punctuate it, she slapped Roarke's shoulder. «Sick. People are just sick.» She let out a little breath of relief when she spotted the ranch house.

It was enormous, sprawling all over hell and back on one story. Portions of it were painted that same bright white and others looked to be fashioned from stones cobbled all together on a whim. There were sections built of glass, and she nearly shuddered at the idea of standing there looking out at field after field. And having what was in those fields looking in at her.

There were smaller fenced areas, and while there were horses in them, there was also considerable human activity. That relieved her, even if those humans were all wearing cowboy hats.

She saw a helipad and a number of vehicles, many of which she couldn't begin to identify. She had to assume they were used for some sort of rural labor.

They drove through enormous stone pillars topped by rearing horses.

«Okay, he knows we're coming, and he's not happy about it,» she began. «He's bound to be hostile, defensive, and uncooperative. But he's also smart enough to know I can complicate his life, dredge up the past, and press the local cops to add some pressure. He doesn't want all this crap uncovered in his backyard. Doing this on his turf lets him feel more in control.»

«And how long are you going to let him feel that way?»

«We'll see how it goes.» She stepped out of the car and nearly lost her breath in the heat.

A baking heat, she realized, very unlike the steambath of a New York City summer. She smelled grass and what had to be manure. «What's that clacking sound?» she asked Roarke.

«I'm not altogether sure. I think it might be chickens.»

«Christ almighty. Chickens. If you tell me to think omelettes, I'll have to hit you.»

«Understood.» He walked up the pathway beside her. He knew her well enough to be certain her preoccupation with the local scene helped to keep her mind off her fears and worries. She'd yet to say anything about heading into Dallas itself, or what she could or would do there.

The doors were ten feet wide and crowned by the bleached-out horns of some sort of animal. Roarke pondered it, and the type of personality that enjoyed decorating with dead animals, while Eve rang the bell.

Moments later, the image of the old American West yanked open the door.

He was weathered as leather, tall as a mountain, wide as a river. He wore boots with toes sharp as stilettos and crusted with dirt. His jeans were dark indigo and looked stiff enough to stand tall without him while his shirt was a faded red-and-white check. His hair was a dull silver, slicked back from a hard and ruddy face, mapped with lines, toughened in a scowl.

When he spoke, his voice rattled like loose gravel in a very deep bucket. «You the city cops?»

«Lieutenant Dallas.» Eve offered her badge. «This is my field assistant-«

«I know you.» He pointed a finger, thick as a soy dog on his ham of a hand, at Roarke. «Roarke. You're Roarke, and you're no cop.»

«Praise be,» Roarke acknowledged. «I happen to be married to one.»

«Yeah.» He nodded as he considered Eve. «Recognize you now, too. Big city New York cop.» He looked like he might spit, but restrained himself. «Jake T. Parker, and I don't have to talk to you. Fact is, my lawyers advise against it.»

«You're not now under any legal obligation to speak with me, Mr. Parker. But you can be put under that legal obligation, and I'm sure your lawyers advised you of that as well.»

He hooked his wide thumbs in the belt loops of his jeans. His scarred belt creaked at the movement. «Take you some little while to pull that off, wouldn't it?»

«Yes, sir, it would. I wonder how many more people Julianna can kill before the lawyers wrangle that out? You care to speculate?»

«I've got nothing to do with her, haven't in more than a dozen years. I made my peace there, and I don't need some city-girl cop from New York coming here and throwing that dirt in my face.»

«I'm not here to throw dirt, Mr. Parker. I'm not here to judge you. I'm here to learn anything that might help me stop Julianna from taking more lives. One of them might be yours.»

«Shit. Pardon my French,» he added. «That girl's nothing but a ghost to me, and I'm less than that to her.»

Eve pulled stills out of her field bag. «This is Walter Pettibone. He was nothing to her, either. And Henry Mouton. They had families, Mr. Parker. They had lives. She destroyed all that.»

He looked at the stills, looked away. «Never should've let her out of prison.»

«You won't get an argument there from me. I helped put her in a cage once before. I'm asking you to help me do it again.»

«I got a life of my own. It took me a long time to get it back so I could wake up in the morning and look at myself in the mirror.»

He took a dirt-brown Stetson hat from a stand with pegs just inside the door, fit it on his head. Then he stepped out, shut the door at his back. «I don't want this in my house. I'm sorry not to be hospitable, but I don't want her in my house. We'll talk outside. I want to take a look at the stock anyhow.»

As a concession against the white glare of the sun, Eve dug out shaded glasses. «Has she been in contact with you at all?»

«I haven't heard a peep from that girl since she walked out the day she turned eighteen. The day she told her mama what had been going on. The day she laughed in my face.»

«Do you know if she's been in contact with her mother?»

«Couldn't say. Lost track of Kara when she left me. Heard she'd taken a job off planet. Farming satellite. Far away from me, I'd say, as she could manage.»

Eve nodded. She knew Kara Dunne Parker Rowan's location. She'd remarried four years earlier, and refused to speak to Eve regarding her daughter. Her daughter, she'd informed Eve during their brief transmission, was dead. Eve imagined Julianna had the same attitude toward the woman who'd birthed her.

«Did you rape Julianna, Mr. Parker?»

His face tightened, like old leather stretching over a frame. «If you mean did I force myself on her, I did not. I've done a lot of atoning for what I did, Lieutenant.»

He paused at a paddock fence, propped one booted foot on a bottom rung, and stared out at his men and horses. «There was a time I put all the blame on her. Took me a long while before I could spread that out to myself and deal with it. She was fifteen, chronologically speaking anyways. Fifteen, and a man more than fifty has no right touching those kinda goods. A man married to a good woman, hell to any woman's got no right touching her daughter. No excuses.»

«But you did touch her.»

«I did.» He straightened his massive shoulders as if taking on weight. «I'm gonna tell this my way, just saying up front I know what I did was as wrong as it gets, and I take the blame and responsibility for that.»

«All right, Mr. Parker. Tell me your way.»

«She'd slither around the house wearing next to nothing. Crawl in my lap and call me Daddy, but there wasn't anything daughterly in how she said it.»

He set his teeth, looked away from Eve, and out over his land. «Her own daddy was a man hard on women, but he next to worshipped that girl, so her mama told me. Julianna could do no wrong and when she did, he blamed her mama. I loved that woman. I loved my wife,» he said, stepping back, flicking his gaze to Eve's face before he began to walk again. «She was a good woman, churchgoing, quiet-natured, sturdy. If she had a blind spot, it was that girl. She has a way of blinding people.»

«She behaved provocatively with you.»

«Shit. Pardon my French. Fifteen years old, and she knew just how to wrap a man around her finger, get whatever she wanted. She stirred up something in me that shouldn't've been stirred up. I shouldn't have let it happen. I started thinking about her, looking at her in a way that damned me straight to hell. But I couldn't stop. Maybe didn't want to, not then. I know right from wrong, Lieutenant. I know damn well where the line is.»

«And you crossed it.»

«I did. One night when her mama's out at one of her women's meetings, she came into the study, slid on my lap. I ain't going into the details of it, except to say I didn't force her into a damn thing. She was as willing as they come. But I crossed that line, one a man can't ever step back over.»

«You were intimate with her.»

«I was. That night, and whenever I could manage it for nearly three years after. She made it easy to manage. She talked her mother into going off with friends on a weekend shopping spree. And I lay with my stepdaughter in my marriage bed. I loved her, God is my witness, I loved her in a kind of insane way. I believed she felt the same.»

He shook his head at his own foolishness. «Man old enough to know better. I gave her money. God only knows how much over those three years. Bought her cars, fancy clothes, whatever she asked for. I told myself we'd go away together. Soon as she was old enough, I'd leave her mama and we'd go off anywhere she wanted. I was a fool. I've learned to live with that. Harder was to learn to live with the sins I'd committed.»

She imagined him sitting in the witness chair at Julianna's trial, speaking in just that no bullshit way. Things, Eve decided, would have gone differently if he had.

«After her arrest, during her trial, she claimed you had raped and abused her, and used that to bargain for a lesser sentence. You made no attempt to set the record straight, to defend yourself.»

«No, I did not.» He looked down at Eve from under the wide brim of his hat. «Have you ever done anything, Lieutenant, something that shames you so deep it puts fear in your throat and ice in your belly?»

She thought of Dallas, and what lurked there. «I know what it's like to be afraid, Mr. Parker.»

«I was afraid of her. I was afraid of what I became with her. If I'd testified about how it was, I'd still have been a grown man who'd committed adultery with the minor child of his own wife. That's about the time I went into counseling, starting working at accepting my responsibility. Nothing I could do for the men she'd killed. And the fact was, it would've been her word against mine. If I hadn't been there at the time, I'd've believed hers.»

«Did she demonstrate violent behavior during the time she lived with you?»

«Hell.» He snorted out a laugh. «Had a temper like a whiplash, struck out fast and sharp, cut straight through. Then it was done. Easier to see now what I couldn't then. She's cold, right down through the bone. She hated me from the moment I starting seeing her mother. I see that now, too. Hated me in that icy way of hers because I was a man, because I was a man who could step in and have some say over her. So she twisted that around until she had all the say. Then she humiliated me because I was weak, humiliated her mother because she'd loved me. She strutted out that door and left us broken. Just the way she wanted us.»

«You didn't stay broken,» Eve pointed out. «You rebuilt your life. She'd know that. She's cleaning up old business, Mr. Parker. Odds are strong that you're part of that.»

«You think she'll come after me?»

«Yes, I do. Sooner or later. You're going to want to alert your security. Thoroughly screen any new employees at your place of business, at your home. It would be wise for you to speak with the local authorities, as I will, so they'll know who and what to look for.»

«That girl couldn't wait to kick the Texas dust off her heels.» He looked down at the toes of his boots, shook his head. «Can't see her coming back here to try killing a man who meant less than that dust to her.» He blew out a breath. «But I'm sixty-six years old, and that's old enough to know you don't sit scratching your butt waiting for a snake to crawl up your pant's leg. Been meaning to take me a little busman's holiday, go over to Europe and look at some studs. Might do it sooner than later now.»

«I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know where you go and when.»

He studied Eve again. «You're going to get her, aren't you, city girl?»

«Yes, sir. I am.»

«I believe it. But I don't know if anything I've said here's a help to that, and I can't see her wasting time on me. I wasn't the first for her.»

«How do you know?» Eve asked.

«She wasn't a virgin when she slid on my lap that night. At least that's one sin off my plate.»

«Do you know who she'd been with before you?»

Parker shifted his feet. «Telling tales on myself, and telling them on somebody else-«

«This isn't gossip. This is a murder investigation.»

«No point getting riled,» he said mildly, and puffed out his cheeks. «I suspect she'd been tumbling with Chuck Springer. I know her mama had some worries about that. But then as I recollect, he started seeing one of the Larson girls. Maybe it was the Rolley girl. They were kids,» he added. «I didn't pay much mind to it. Then when I started up with Julianna, I didn't pay mind to much of anything but her.»

«Do you know where I can find this Chuck Springer?»

«He's one of my wranglers. Look no, he's a married man, got a little boy and another on the way.»

«Wrangler? Would that be a cowboy?»

Parker snorted out another laugh, adjusted the brim of his hat. «New York City,» he said with a shake of his head. «What the hell else is a wrangler but a cowboy?»

«I'd like to speak with him.»

Parker sighed. «Then let's go hunt him down.» He circled the paddock, jerked a head in the direction of the horses prancing inside. «Got some fine stock there. You ride?»

«Not on anything with more legs than I have,» Eve answered and made him hoot with laughter.

«You?» he asked Roarke.

«I have done.»

That stopped Eve dead. «On a horse? You've ridden a horse? »

«And survived. Actually, it's exhilarating. You'd probably like it.»

«I don't think so.»

«Just gotta let 'em know who's boss,» Parker told her.

«They're bigger, they're stronger. I'd say that makes them boss.»

He chuckled, then let out a shout to one of the hands. «Where's Springer?»

«Out the east pasture.»

«Nice ride out there,» Parker said conversationally, and tucked his tongue into his cheek. «Could set you up on a nice, gentle hack.»

«I'm going to pretend you didn't just threaten a police officer.»

«I like you, city girl.» He jerked a thumb. «We'll take a Jeep.»

It was probably an exhilarating ride. It certainly seemed to Eve that Roarke enjoyed it. But as far as she was concerned, they were bumping through dangerous terrain full of large bovines, cow shit, and whatever might lurk in the tall grass.

She saw another Jeep. On the flat plain it might have been half a mile away, and closer in, riding along a fence line, a trio of men on horseback. Parker veered toward them, giving his horn a little toot-toot. Cattle lumbered out of the way with a few annoyed moos.

«Need a word with you here, Chuck.»

A lean, rawboned man in the ranch uniform of boots, jeans, checked shirt, and hat, gave some signal to his mount. They trotted up, and had Eve easing cautiously toward the far door of the Jeep.

«Boss.» He nodded at Roarke, tapped the brim of his hat at Eve. «Ma'am.»

«This lady here's Lieutenant Dallas, city cop from New York. She needs to talk to you.»

«Me?» He had a long face, tanned nearly as deep and gold as a deer hide. It registered puzzled shock. «I ain't never been to New York City.»

«You're not in any trouble, Mr. Springer, but you might be able to help me in an investigation.» And how the hell was she supposed to interview him when he was all the way up there on that horse? «If I could have a few minutes of your time.»

«Well.» He shifted in the saddle. It creaked. «If the boss says.»

He dismounted, with more creaking, yet with a fluidity that made Eve think of water sliding down a sleek rock. He kept the reins in one hand as his mount lowered its head and began to crop grass.

«It's regarding Julianna Dunne,» Eve began.

«I heard she got out of prison. They say she killed a man.»

«Her counts up to three on this leg,» Eve corrected. «You knew her when she lived in this area.»

«Yep.»

«Have you had any contact with her since she left?»

«Nope.»

«You were friends with her when she lived here.»

«Not 'xactly.»

Eve waited a beat. Texas interview rhythm, she decided, was a whole lot different from New York's. «What exactly were you then, Mr. Springer?»

«I knew her. She was my daddy's boss's stepdaughter. My boss, too. Haven't seen hide nor hair of her since she lit out. No reason I should. Boss, I got fence to ride.»

«Chuck, Lieutenant Dallas is trying to do her job. Now if you're thinking I'm going to be peeved over something that went on between you and Julianna when you were a knot-headed teenager, put that aside. You know me well enough, know what happened with me well enough.» He paused there as Chuck frowned down at his boots. «I figure you don't hold that against me. The same's gonna go. The lieutenant wants to know if you tumbled Julianna.»

The man blushed. Eve watched, fascinated, as dull red crept under the deep gold tan. «Aw, Jake T., I can't talk about that sort of thing with a woman.»

Eve pulled out her shield. «Talk to the badge.»

«Mr. Parker,» Roarke began. «I wonder if we might walk the field a bit. I've a cattle ranch in Montana and some interest in the process.»

«Watch your step,» Parker advised, and climbed out. «Chuck, you do what's right here.»

Because she felt stupid sitting in the Jeep alone, Eve risked getting out. The horse immediately raised its head, butted her shoulder. She didn't punch it with the fist balled at her side, but it was very close.

«He's just seeing if you got anything more interesting to eat than grass on you.» Chuck ran a hand down the horse's nose. «This one's always looking for a handout.»

«Tell him I'm empty.» Eve scooted to the side, put Chuck firmly between herself and the horse. When it whinnied, it sounded like laughter. «Tell me about Julianna, Chuck.»

«Jeez. I was sixteen.» He pushed his hat back on his head, took out a bandanna to mop sweat from his brow. «Boy's sixteen, he doesn't think with his brain. If you know what I mean.»

«You had sex with her.»

«She'd come out to the stables. Mucking out was part of my chores. She'd smell like glory and be wearing some tight shirt and tiny little shorts. God almighty, she was a looker. We started fooling around the way kids do. Then we started fooling around some more.» He stared down at his boots again. «We'd sneak out of the house a lot that summer, make love in one of the stalls. I'd always put fresh hay in. Then she started coming up to the house, climbing in through my window. It was exciting at first, but, Jesus, my ma found out, she'd of skinned me alive. And, well damn it, I was sixteen, and there were all these other girls. Guy starts looking around. Julianna, she'd barely give me room to breathe, and it started making me itchy.»

«You broke it off with her.»

«Tried to once, and she tore into me like a hellcat.» He looked up again. «Biting, scratching. Nobody pushed her aside, she said. Scared me, cause she looked half-crazy. Then she started crying and begging, and well, one thing led to another and we were at it again. And the next day, Julianna marches right into my house, into the kitchen, and tells my mother I've been poking at her. And if she doesn't send me away somewhere, she's going to her step-daddy and have my daddy fired.»

He paused, then to Eve's surprise, smiled. «My ma, she never did take shit off anybody. Boss's daughter or not. Tells Julianna she's not to come into her home without an invitation ever again. And she won't tolerate some little tramp called her that standing in her kitchen threatening her family. Told her to scat, and if there'd been poking going on, that poking would damn well stop. Said she'd be speaking to Julianna's ma about it.»

«Did she?»

«My ma says she's going to do something, she does it, so I gotta figure. Never told me what was said between them, but Julianna didn't come 'round the stables again that summer. Didn't see her around at all. But I got house arrest for a damn month myself and a lecture that burned my ears off.»

«And after that summer?»

«I never really talked with her again. She came up to me once when I was out with a girl, said insulting things about a sensitive part of my anatomy. Said it in a quiet voice, real cold, with a smirk on her face. And once I found a dead skunk in my bed had to figure it was her. And…»

«And?»

«Never told anybody.» He shifted, set his jaw. «Night before my wedding, that would be six years ago last month, she called me. Said she wanted to give me her best wishes. But it was the way she said it, like she was, beg pardon, telling me to screw myself. And how she knew I'd be thinking of her on my wedding night, because she'd be thinking of me. How maybe she'd come see me sometime, and we'd talk about old times. I knew she was in prison. It shook me up a little, but I didn't see the point in telling anybody. I was getting married the next day.»

«Has she contacted you since?»

«No, but this past Valentine's Day I got a package. There was a dead rat inside. Looked like it'd been poisoned. I didn't tell anybody about that either. Just got rid of it. Ma'am, I was sixteen. We just rolled in the hay for a couple months one summer. I got a wife, a son, a baby on the way. What the hell does she want to mess with me for after all this time?»

«He rejected her,» Eve told Roarke when they were back in the car. «She went after a boy her own age, and he stopped wanting her before she stopped wanting him. Then his mother stood up to her. Two slaps. Intolerable.»

«If she'd been a normal girl, that would have crushed her temporarily. Then she'd have moved on. Instead, she decided to seduce her stepfather. Older men, like her father, were more easily controlled, more inclined to see her as flawless.»

«It was more than seducing him. It was using the sex to crush him, and her mother. To punish and to profit. She hadn't worked up to killing yet, but it was only a matter of time. Why damage when you can utterly destroy? She got what she wanted from that, but still couldn't forget that rejection.»

She couldn't remember what it felt like to be a fifteen-year-old girl. Small wonder, Eve thought. She'd never been a normal teenager. And neither, it seemed, had Julianna Dunne.

«Calls him on his wedding night,» Eve went on. «She's careful what she says in case he reports it, but she says enough to know he'll be upset, shaken up, and that he won't be able to stop himself from thinking about her on his wedding night. Plant the seed.»

«What are you going to do about him?»

«He's worried enough about his family to work with the locals. He's going to talk to Parker as well, and my impression is Parker will go the extra mile with ranch security. I'll talk to the cops down here, make sure they're doing their job. Then I'll do mine and find her.»

«Then we're off for New York now?»

She stared out the window. «No.» Then shut her eyes. «No, we'll go into Dallas.»