“People would drive anyway.”
“Even if they knew that if they were caught without a license they would have to perform five years of full-time public-service work?”
“And let their families starve?”
“So whose fault is that? Did they have to drink and drive? I don’t mean to be argumentative, Sheriff. I’m just making the point that we aren’t willing to pay the price. Yet. It just isn’t important enough to enough people. We all think we can dodge fate. I stand down from my soapbox now.” He grinned. “You asked for it.” He gestured at the airplane. “There’s nothing like having a captive audience.”
“If you ever figure out the answers,” I said, “be sure to let me in on the secret.”
“Be assured,” Sprague replied, nodding vigorously. Then he added, “But don’t hold your breath. Humans are strange creatures. It takes a catastrophe of royal proportions to drill through the average person’s complacency. I lost a daughter and a wife, and saw little stirring in the community. A car crash kills five teenagers.” He shrugged offhandedly. “Still, not much. A few feeble efforts to form a parents’ awareness group. A prominent merchant is killed after he mortally wounds an undercover police officer.” He looked at me and raised an eyebrow in question. “What’s it take, Sheriff?”
“I don’t know.”
Sprague looked off ahead, then pointed. “That hump on the horizon there is the mesa north of Posadas. We’ll be home in about fifteen minutes.”
Home. I thought about Posadas, and felt uneasy. For a hundred years or more, a sleepy, tiny border hamlet. For thirty years after that, a booming mining town, jerked so fast into the twentieth century that it lost almost all of its former color, culture, and dignity. A two-bit, booming mining town. Now the mine was gone, the mill closed. And what was left was struggling under something ugly and threatening. I looked up at the bright blue of the sky. Harlan Sprague was absorbed in his own thoughts, and we flew the final miles in silence.
Chapter 14
“What do we know about David and Theresa Barrie?” I asked Estelle Reyes when I walked into the office early that afternoon.
Even if the detective noticed my lack of greeting, she didn’t miss a beat. “I talked to them.”
“I know you did. What did you find out that’s new?”
Reyes shrugged and rummaged for her notebook. She flipped pages and said, “Personally, I think David Barrie is a first-class creep. His wife is a mouse. She lets him walk all over her.” Her venom surprised me, but I wasn’t in the mood to discuss other people’s marital problems.
“Dr. Sprague blames Jenny Barrie for his daughter’s death last year.”
“That’s the impression I got, too.”
“I spent three hours with him in his airplane. It wasn’t just an impression. He blames himself for letting it happen. What did David Barrie have to say?”
“Indignation is his game, sir. No matter what question I asked, he bristled. I think he figured he could scare me off. He also likes to threaten law suits. If we try to pin anything on the memory of his daughter, he promises to sue. I had a hard time keeping my mouth shut. I get the impression he would have liked the chance to sue Benny Fernandez, too. He said he still might sue the estate.”
“Because the son was driving the car?”
“Right. He’s a great guy.”
“That’s all he said?”
“Just about. Except that he told me we should check the trucks that bring in food-service supplies for Fernandez’s restaurant.”
I sat down heavily. “Hell, why not? It’s a waste of time, but why not.”
“You don’t think Fernandez was involved?”
“No, you’re right. I don’t. I don’t know why he came unglued in the park, but I sure as hell intend to find out. But no, I don’t think he was running drugs.”
Estelle watched me light a cigarette and then pushed an ashtray toward the extended match. “It was pretty rough up in Albuquerque?”
“Yes,” I said. “It was pretty rough.”
Estelle nodded, then changed the subject. “It was convenient that Dr. Sprague was around to provide air taxi.”
“Yes. He had a conference to attend. He got bored early.”
“Is that what he told you?”
I looked sharply at the girl. “You should have been a goddamned oriental. What’s on your mind?”
“He didn’t have a conference.”
“You checked?”
“Yes. I called a friend on the Albuquerque Police Department who called a friend whose best friend is an internist, too.”
“Tight line of evidence, there.”
A trace of a grin crossed Estelle Reyes’s pretty face. I realized I hadn’t really seen her smile in a hell of a long time. “And I also called Francis,” she said, referring to her fiancE. “Anyway, there was no medical conference in Albuquerque this week. Not even a meeting of the tooth fairies. There was no conference for medical writers. Or medical salesmen. There was only one conference in the entire city scheduled for yesterday and today.”
She paused and I prompted, “And?”
“The city school bus drivers are having a two-day workshop.”
I frowned and stubbed out my cigarette. “So why would Sprague make up a story?”
Estelle shrugged and tapped the edge of her small notebook on the desktop. “Maybe he didn’t want to have to explain to you why he was there?”
“Well, obviously. But why was he there?” I asked, and then answered my own question. “He made a point of seeing me at the hospital. And then a point of offering me a ride home.”
Estelle nodded. “Now, I may be a little cynical, but it’s a bit much to expect him to be that concerned about Hewitt’s welfare. He didn’t know the kid from Adam. When I talked to him that night in the park, Sprague did mention that you needed to see a doctor.” She smiled slightly at the surprise on my face.
“Horse shit.”
“But I don’t think he would fly all the way to Albuquerque and back because of that. Unless he was your personal physician.”
“Which he isn’t.”
“So that leaves us with three choices. One, he is a concerned citizen with plenty of money who flies great distances on the outside chance that he can be helpful.”
“That’s entirely possible.”
“Two, he wanted to find out what you knew. Or what Art Hewitt knew. If that’s the case, then he stands to gain or lose something by that information.”
“And three?”
“We don’t know why he did it.”
“I had a feeling you were going to say that. Number two is the most interesting. If he is trying to track down, after more than a year, the source of the drugs that killed his daughter, he would be interested. Vitally interested.” Estelle nodded. “That’s what you were thinking?”
“Si,” she said, making her slight accent a heavy imitation of JosE Jimenez.
I lighted another cigarette. “Why didn’t he just say that, then? He had ample chance during the flight back down here. And what put the bee in your bonnet to check on Sprague?”
“Just a hunch. When I spoke with him first, he said, ‘Don’t hesitate to call me later if there’s anything else you need.’ Less than twelve hours later, I find out from your call that he’s in Albuquerque. I just found it odd that he didn’t mention his conference commitment when I talked with him. I mean, the odds were good that I would want to talk with him again.”
“So? Everyone says, ‘Don’t hesitate to call.’ That doesn’t mean they really mean it. Especially doctors.” I remembered her fiancE. “No offense.”
“What can I say? It was a hunch.”
“Follow up on it. Very quietly. If Sprague is off on a personal vendetta, I want to know about it. I don’t want another Benny Fernandez. And if he’s just a good samaritan, I don’t want him harassed.”
“What are you going to do?”
I stood up. “I’m going home to clean up and get out of this monkey suit. And then I’m going out to the football camp for the afternoon.”