I got out of the car. “My stars, am I glad to see you. What are you doing here? I thought Jake’s cowboy buddies were coming for you.”
“They’re waiting in the lobby. We saw the man who was with Cody in front of the building, but there wasn’t any woman. Are you sure you saw a woman in the hall, Fiona?”
I was ecstatic they hadn’t abandoned me and hugged her to express my gratitude. “Yes, Alice was around here somewhere, but she took off according to Cody.”
Cody was gasping, flat out on the ground. Jake stood over him, sucking air himself. He limped over to me.
“Are you all right? He didn’t, did he?”
I shook my head. “No, he didn’t. He was merely trying to abduct me. You don’t look so good.”
“Son of a bitch,” Jake said and pressed the back of his hand to his mouth. “The bastard drew blood.”
“Let me see,” said Opal. She examined Jake’s lip and pulled hand sanitizer from her purse. “It’s the only thing I have but it’ll stop the bleeding.”
Jake nodded and dabbed his lip.
“You were going to leave without us,” he said to me.
“Cody thought the two of us needed to disappear together. It seems his customers don’t like that you and I know about the rifles. Apparently, Cody’s in some kind of trouble with them and thought to do a disappearing act of his own. I appreciate your success in finding me.”
Cody tried to sit up. Jake placed a big booted foot on his chest to hold him down.
“What the hell were you doing?” he said to Cody.
“We were exchanging pleasantries,” he said and touched his jaw. “Damn, you still got a mean punch, Jake.”
“You mean you two have been in fights before?” I said, looking from one to the other. “The Wild West arrives in Virginia.”
Jake nodded. “It’s usually not over a woman.”
“I see. You’re caught in another of Cody’s messes.”
“This is another in a long line of messes.”
I took the few steps necessary to stand before Jake. “What does that mean?”
Jake met my eyes. One cheek had a nasty red welt across it. His lip was puffy. His eyes were sad dog brown.
“Cody and some of his buddies were rustling cattle at the ranch. We caught them. Opal didn’t turn them in, just gave them a warning. It turned out Cody was the one who was opening the gates and helping them load the calves on trucks. She couldn’t turn them in without turning Cody in. Opal warned him. There’s a whole list of bad deeds that Opal warned Cody about. She tried to protect him, hoping he’d wise up.”
Opal stood with pressed lips, looking at Cody. “I’m afraid the past is catching up with you, Cody. Now it’s arms dealing. That’s as bad rustling cattle. They used to hang cattle rustlers. What do you have to say for yourself?”
Cody staggered to his feet and shrugged. “I didn’t mean no harm. What’s a few calves anyway. I had too much to drink, and, well, things happen.”
The old man spoke up. “You could always parboil him.”
We looked at the old man, forgotten in all the excitement.
“They do those things out west, don’t they?”
“Tar and feather,” said Jake.
“I like that idea,” I said and turned to Jake. “What about Albert and the rifles?”
“Opal wanted me to dog Cody. That’s when I found out about the rifles. The night Opal locked me in the wine cellar we’d had an argument over the rifles that I discovered.”
I turned to Opal. “You knew about the weapons business.”
She nodded. “I do now.”
“That’s all of us,” I said. I turned to Cody. “If you don’t go straight, we get to parboil you.”
That put a smile on the old man’s face. He saluted and left for parts unknown, probably exhausted from the Wild West show.
Cody sighed. “I’ll try but I have before and, I don’t know, something always happens. Right, Opal?”
She nodded. “But I never told you I’d parboil you. I think Fiona would.” She smiled over at me.
“I’d enjoy it,” I said.
“I’ll help,” said Jake. “I’m tired of ending up in fist fights with Cody.”
The four of us leaned on the trunk of my car looking at a panorama of parked cars and inhaling stale exhaust fumes. I was trying to sort things out.
“What I want to know,” I said, “is who set the fire?”
“Hudson,” said Cody.
“I don’t believe it.”
“He’s the one who stands to gain the most. I hope he did a good job of it and burned it to the ground.”
“I think your buddies set the fire.”
“Why would they do that?”
“To burn evidence, of course.”
Cody made out like he couldn’t be bothered. “Rifles don’t burn very good. Besides, the last of the rifles left yesterday.”
I smiled “It wasn’t the rifles. There were records and checkbooks and other incriminating stuff. I bet they find that the fire started in Albert’s private study. If they started a good fire, Hudson would get the money, and you’d get off. I think you planned the fire and had your buddies do the deed while you got drunk and ended up with us for your alibi. You coerced Hudson into looking the other way and told him you wanted part if not all of the insurance money.”
“Why would I do that? Why would Hudson do anything I’d tell him?”
“You held a gun to his head.”
“Maybe I was able to persuade him it was in everyone’s best interest.”
“You blackmailed him.”
“Fiona, you better leave well enough alone.”
“No, because you bribed Hudson with something that is so bad, Hudson went along with your nefarious scheme.”
Cody said nothing but looked at me.
I pressed my advantage. “Where is the rest of the family in this?”
“Albert and I operated alone. None of the others know.”
“That leaves the four of us. We are the only ones who know about the arms business.”
“Right. That means that our lives are in danger because my business associates know that you know. They have no qualms about silencing people.”
On that ominous note, the stair door from the lobby banged open, and two lanky cowboys sauntered over to join our sorry looking group.
“What’s going on?” said one of the cowboys to Jake. “You okay? We got worried when you didn’t come back. We been looking all over this gawd durn building for you.”
If that wasn’t enough, the elevator doors opened and a barrel-chested man in the brown fedora stepped out and looked around.
Jake leaped into action.
“Boys, take Opal and load her in the rig.” He nodded toward the stairs.
Cody was already hot footing it for the stairs.
Jake grabbed my bag and steered me by the back to the stairway door leading up to the lobby. “Keep moving,” he said, pushing me to the steps. “Keep moving and don’t look back.”
The door closed with a soft thunk behind us. He shoved me up the steps to the lobby. Outside stood a Texas size truck parked by the curb. We all squeezed in. Jake took the wheel and started the engine.
“You can drop me by the airport on the way to wherever you’re going,” I said in my most agreeable voice.
“We’re going to Albert’s place,” Jake said.
“Where’s Cody?” I asked. We all looked around.
Cody had disappeared. Unfortunately, he still had my keys.
Chapter 13
A plume of gray smoke was still visible above the trees. A smell like burning tires penetrated the cab of the truck. But we couldn’t get close enough to see the Lodge mansion. The street was blocked with rescue vehicles, a TV van, and cars of the curious. No one had offered to drop me at the airport even though I had asked politely several times. Jake said he’d drop me later. He parked the truck half off the road on someone’s manicured lawn.