“Why not that particular school?”
“Judge Gallagher knows a great deal about it,” Ford said. “He sent his own sons there, it’s a good liberal prep school. So whatever reason Robert had for avoiding the Estivars, it wasn’t prejudice he’d learned at school. Naturally Gallagher is curious about what the real reason was. So am I. The question arises whether Estivar believed the story he told on the witness stand or whether he was using it as a cover-up. You might want to ask him.”
“Why might I?”
“Well, you’re going to be asking him about the pickup truck anyway.”
“If he didn’t tell the truth in court, under oath, what makes you think he’ll tell it to me?”
“He probably won’t. But his reaction to the question should be interesting... I’m flying up to L.A. for a conference this afternoon and won’t be back in my office until tomorrow morning. Call me then, if you have anything interesting to report.”
Chapter Seventeen
She didn’t see Estivar until late in the afternoon.
She was in the kitchen helping Dulzura prepare dinner when she looked out the window and saw a man walking across a tomato field. Birds rose into the air like blown leaves at his approach, and fluttered down again as he passed. Although the man was too far away to be identified by sight, Devon knew it must be Estivar because he was the only one on the ranch who walked. The others rode, they rode anything on wheels, even if they had only a hundred yards to go and nothing to carry.
As soon as Devon stepped out the back door she was trapped between the heat of the sun and the heat rising from the earth. It was like being struck by simultaneous gusts of fire from above and from below, and she stood motionless for a fraction of a minute, her breath caught in her throat. Then she started toward the field, shading her eyes with one hand. The vines had been picked, but here and there sun-baked tomatoes still hung like red balloons filled with water.
Estivar saw her coming and he took off his hat and waited. The birds swooped past him, unafraid, as if they knew he was only a scarecrow.
She said, “Have you finished work for the day?”
“Yes, Mrs. Osborne.”
“You might like to come in the house for a glass of beer or iced tea.”
“Has something happened?”
“No. I just want to ask you a question.”
“What about?”
“One of the trucks.”
“All right.”
They began walking, single file, between the rows of dying plants that still smelled fresh and fruitful. When they entered the ranch house Estivar stood just inside the door, twisting his dusty straw hat in his hands and shifting his weight from one foot to another. He’d been in that house hundreds of times, yet he looked like a stranger who’d gotten into it by accident and wanted to escape.
“Come and sit down,” she said. “I’ll get you a drink.”
“No, ma’am, I’m not thirsty. Which one of the trucks?”
“The old red pickup Jaime referred to on the stand yesterday. He said it’s not in the garage anymore.”
“No.”
“What happened to it?”
“It — I think it got wrecked.”
“Who wrecked it?”
“I don’t know. Probably one of my sons,” he added. “They were always in a hurry.”
“The vehicles on the ranch are covered by insurance, I understand.”
“Yes.”
“Then a claim is filed when one of them is damaged?”
“Yes.”
“And there should be a record of such a claim.”
“There should, yes. Why are you asking these questions?”
“Judge Gallagher called Mr. Ford to check certain points that were brought up during the hearing. He wanted to know what happened to the pickup truck.”
“I see.” Whatever it was he saw hurt his eyes. He rubbed them with the back of his hand. “The truck — it had nothing to do with Mr. Osborne’s disappearance. It was gone before he was.”
“You sounded quite vague about it a minute ago. How can you be so sure now?”
“I’m sure.”
“What happened to it?”
“Felipe took it when he left the ranch. He had to move fast, people were after him.”
“Who was?”
“The girl, Carla Lopez. She was pregnant and she blamed Felipe for it. She kept threatening to send her brothers to beat him up if he didn’t marry her. She’s a loose-living girl. I couldn’t let my son be forced into marrying her when there was a good chance he had nothing to do with her pregnancy. He was only eighteen, too young to be stuck with a family and no future. I told him to take the truck and get out of here fast. It was an old truck, worth very little. I didn’t think it would be missed.”
A long slanting ray of sun was coming in the window at the top of the door. Inside it, particles of dust moved back and forth like a miniature mob scene caught in a spotlight. Estivar shifted position slightly, so the shaft of sun touched the side of his face and the little dustmen milled around his left eye and ear and leaped across the furrows in his cheeks.
“If you want to call it stealing—”
“No, of course not.”
“—call it mine, not Felipe’s. I would have stolen more than a truck to get him away from that girl.”
“I think Carla’s on her way to Seattle now to look for him.”
“She won’t find him.”
“She seems very determined.”
“It doesn’t matter. He’s not there, he never was. I made up letters once in a while for the sake of his mother and Jaime... No, she won’t find him,” he repeated, but there were echoes of sadness in his voice as if he almost wished that Felipe had stayed and married the girl and lived happily now and then.
It was about eight o’clock when she saw Estivar’s station wagon leaving the garage, its headlights prying into the darkness.
The café was on the main street of Boca de Rio and it was identified by a small pink neon sign as Disco’s. The proprietor was a Scot named MacDougall but the Mexicans started calling him Disco when he had a juke box installed years ago, and he’d kept the name because he liked the friendly people who gave it to him.
When Estivar arrived the café was empty except for Disco himself, three men drinking beer in a booth and a pair of teen-agers sharing a bowl of chili at one end of the counter. Estivar sat down at the other end, moving slowly and cautiously as though he suspected the place was booby-trapped.
“What’ll it be?” Disco said.
“Coffee and a doughnut.”
“Plain or sugar?”
“Sugar.”
The doughnut, served on a paper napkin, was stale and the coffee bitter with chicory. After a mouthful of each, Estivar said, “I’m looking for Ernest Valenzuela. Someone told me he hangs out here.”
“He does.”
“I want to ask him about an insurance policy.”
“You’re too late. He left town this morning, and the way I heard it, maybe he’s not coming back. He kept talking about going some place and starting over but he couldn’t make a move until the Osborne case was settled. He was the chief witness. He used to be a cop, did you know that?”