Camelback Falls (David Mapstone Mystery 2)

Beth pounded on the driver’s window. “Don’t leave me!”

I started rolling forward slowly.

“Bastard!” She hit the window hard. “They told me to tell that story!”

I stepped on the brake and lowered the window two inches.

“They told me, if anybody ever asked, to say a deputy named Peralta stole that cocaine,” she said, breathless. “They told me again last week to say the same thing. They said he was the sheriff now. They said they’d kill me if I didn’t.”

I lowered the window halfway, my finger on the remote-control button like it was a torture device.

“Who is they?”

“The detective! I don’t know.” Her fingers were red and raw from the cold, clutching the top of the window.

“Who is they, damn it!” I let the truck start to roll.

She screamed a name. I felt a new chill.

“I want to know what those goons were after,” I pushed.

“You were there,” she said. “You heard. They wanted to know where Leo was.”

“That’s right,” I said into the wind. “I was there. I heard them say ‘Give it up.’ Not ‘Give him up,’ but ‘Give it up.’ What is it, Beth?”

“How would I know? This is insane!”

I let up the brake and the truck rolled. The highway was empty to the horizon in both directions. “No!” she yelled and sobbed. “Don’t leave me!”

“The truth, Beth.”

“They wanted the letter.”

I put the truck into park.

“Dean Nixon wrote me a letter six weeks ago. How he found me after all these years, I don’t know. He and Leo had been in contact, and he said he wanted to make things right for Leo. I guess he wanted to do one good thing before his life was over. He said he was going to tell what really happened in Gaudalupe, what really happened with the cocaine. He was going to go to the new sheriff, Peralta. But he was afraid. And he was afraid for what might happen to Leo. The River Hogs had gang contacts inside the prison, and they could kill him if he seemed like he was going to talk.”

“Where’s the letter, Beth?”

She looked at me, red-eyed, and more tears came down her cheeks. She reached into her pants and pulled out a folded piece of paper. She handed it to me carefully, and I handed it to Lindsey. I stepped out to open the back door for her. She fell back against the side of the truck and said, “I’m so tired of this.”

“Get in, Beth.”

“You may as well know, things that night didn’t go down the way I said.”

I faced her. She looked wrung out, her skin bloodless.

“We were going to rob those old cops. Me and Billy and Troyce. We were going to double-cross Dean. We had Jonathan’s money, and the cops had the stolen drugs, and we were going to take both. Jonathan wouldn’t miss it, and Billy and Troyce wanted to go to Mexico. Poor Leo was just along because he loved me.”

&

nbsp; “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying, when those deputies, Matson and Bullock, pulled in behind us that night, they thought they were just going to get cash for the drugs they took from the evidence room. I got out of the car…”

Her words sunk in. I suddenly said, “Beth, anything you say-” She held out a hand in a violent “stop” gesture. “Don’t read me my fucking rights. I got out of the car and walked back and smiled, and they were just stupid fucking men.”

“Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”