Concrete Desert (David Mapstone Mystery 1)

“Anyway, David, I’ve been talking to my good friend Charles Harrington, who, as you know, is the dean of the college of liberal arts at ASU. He tells me they’d love to talk to you about a tenured position in the History Department.”

“That’s interesting, Brent, considering that a month ago my alma mater wouldn’t give me the time of day.”

He waved it away with a wave of his elegant Yale-in-3 hand. “David, it’s all who you know. This is a relationship-based world. You have to get the door opened, so people can see how smart and talented you are. It’s in the bag, David. The job is yours. Just take it.” He smiled warmly.

I sipped the martini, a truly sublime creation. I thought about what McConnico was saying. It brought to mind the line in Dante’s Inferno: “For the straight path was lost.” Or as an old cop used to say to me, “Who knows what happens to people?”

“Brent,” I said. “Tell me about the Rico Verde Cattle Company.”

His mouth tightened imperceptibly.

“Come again?”

“The Rico Verde Cattle Company.”

“You’re babbling now, David. Didn’t you just hear what I’m offering you?”

“Rico Verde was a land swindle back in the mid-1980s, substantial even by Arizona standards. The profits were never found. A couple of people went to prison. But a newspaper reporter I know says the real kingpin of Rico Verde was a man named Sam Larkin.”

Brent McConnico stared at me. His hand trembled and upset the bourbon. A puddle of liquor rolled across the tablecloth. The waiter silently cleared away the spill and brought another drink along with our food.

“Sam Larkin was your political mentor, if my history’s correct. And the year Rico Verde went down, you were in need of money, so the scuttlebutt down at the newspaper goes. Something about a rape allegation involving a legislative page? It must have cost dearly to make her go away.”

“You’d better stop right there, Mapstone,” he said. His finely sculpted cheekbones were flushed.

“See, I couldn’t understand the link between Rebecca’s murder and you. I mean, you were just a kid when she was killed. But there had to be something. Something big enough to make you hire a goon named Dennis Copeland to warn me off, and, when I didn’t take the hint, to kill me.”

I leaned in toward him. “And I didn’t understand why the things I said to you Tuesday upset you so badly that you got careless and drove straight from the capitol to meet the man in the black Mustang.”

He stared at me, suddenly ashen. “You followed me?” he said.

“You drive fast.”

“You little bastard,” he said.

He was actually indignant, as if I’d shown up at his country club or tried to date his perfect WASP daughter.

“That man Copeland murdered a police officer after he left you. That makes you an accessory.”

He shook his head deliberately. “I had nothing to do with that.” He lowered his voice and spoke more calmly. “No one will believe you anyway. One phone call to Mike Peralta will end your little law-enforcement adventure, Mapstone. I tell nobodies like Mike Peralta what to do. I can step on you just like a bug.”

“I don’t doubt it,” I said. “Which made Copeland even more puzzling to me. Why would somebody like you need muscle when you have all this power?”

“Well, what on earth do you theorize, Professor?” he asked with extravagant sarcasm. “Pray tell me what you see.”

I looked at him hard and said, “I see a loser in debt to the mob.”

I expected him to shout or break down, but he just leaned back and regarded me with a disdainful patrician calm. “You are a fool, David. Two minutes ago, you could have had a cushy job-teach a couple of classes, fuck the beautiful young coeds, draw a check from the taxpayers. Now…”

He paused and sipped his drink. Then he cut his food and began to eat.

“Now,” he said pleasantly, “I am going fuck you like you have never been fucked. You won’t be able to find work as a school janitor when I get through. And then one night, when your guard is down, dear socially challenged Dennis will be back, and you will die. He has a real sadistic streak.”

I said, “The Rico Verde Cattle Company, Brent.…”

He shook his head and laughed softly. “You are very persistent, David.”