“You can’t hit your wife, Jack.”
He found his Zippo in his front pocket. “I can do whatever I want. This is my town.” He removed the cigar from his mouth and gave me a hard stare. “Now I’m done playing with you. Get out of my house or I’ll get the Chief down here.”
He put the cigar between his teeth and struck the lighter.
“Don’t light that cigar,” I told him, my voice low.
His eyebrows shot up. “You’re giving me orders now, Carl? In my own house?” He shook his head. “I don’t think so. That’s not how it works. Like I told you, this is my to-”
I took two quick steps and whipped my open hand through the air. The blow caught both of his hands at the fingers. The cigar and the lighter flew from his grasp, clattering against the bookcase.
Talbott’s face reddened. Rage settled in his eyes. “You son of a bi-”
I latched onto his wrist with one hand and his elbow with the other. With one swift lever motion, I dumped him out of the chair and face-first onto the hardwood floor. He grunted while I ratcheted the handcuffs onto his wrists.
“What the hell do you think-”
“You’re under arrest for assaulting your spouse,” I told him. “You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to an attorney.”
He let loose a string of curses, but it was nothing I hadn’t heard before.
“Let’s go,” I said. I pulled him to his feet.
“You can’t do this to me!” he barked at me. He pulled his lips back, baring his teeth. “You are finished!”
“Finished here,” I grunted in agreement and shoved him toward the door.
“I want to see the Chief!”
“You can call him from lockup.”
His eyes flared open at the word, then narrowed again. “Finished!”
I took him by the elbow and walked him out of the study and into the great room. Doris stood by a chair, her eye wide with wonder. “Jack?” she asked, her voice breaking.
“This is your goddamn fault!” he screamed at her.
“Shut up,” I told him and forced him down the hallway.
“Jack?” she called after him.
“You did this, Doris!”
I pushed him face first into the flat adobe styled wall. I flattened my hand against the back of his head, pressing my thumb into his jaw. I found the mastoid and drove the thumb into it. Jack screamed.
“I said to shut up,” I growled into his ear. “Do you understand me?”
He nodded frantically, but as soon as I eased off on the pressure, his eyes filled with venom again. “You’re going to pay for this. You are going to pay like a mother-”
I drove my thumb into his jaw again and he yelped. “Maybe so,” I whispered, “but between now and then, you are going to feel a lot of pain if you don’t stop yelling at her. You got that?”
He nodded again. I released the pressure. His eyes burned with red-hot hate, but he said nothing.
“Jack?” Doris’ wavering voice floated down the hallway. “What do I do?”
“Wait here,” I told her. I swung Jack away from the wall. We marched out the front door. At the Explorer, I searched his pockets and found nothing. I opened the back door and guided him into the seat.
“You’re finished,” Jack told me, his voice low and deadly.
“Yeah, you said that.” I shut the door. The brief blip of a siren caught my attention and a second Explorer pulled to a stop behind mine. Wes Perez hopped out of the driver’s side. His face was etched with concern.
“?Que pasa, Carl?” he asked, his tone worried.
Much more slowly, John Calhoun stepped out of the passenger side and made his way toward us. His perfectly combed iron gray hair, creased jeans and impeccably white shirt were familiar and gave me an odd comfort.
“I just arrested Jack,” I told them both.
Wes’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. Old John’s face remained impassive, but even in the dim light of the driveway, I saw the sheen of sweat on his cheeks and chin.
“What for?” Wes asked.
“He hit Doris.”
Wes muttered a curse and glanced at Jack in the back seat of my rig.
“That what Doris said?” John stared at me from under the brim of his Stetson.
I held his gaze. “That’s what the bruise on her face said.”
John didn’t answer. He pressed his lips together and swallowed.
“You sure this is such a great idea, Carl?” Wes said. “I mean, this is Jack Talbott we’re talking about here.”
“I know. And Jack Talbott hit his wife.”
“Which I gather she’s not saying,” John added.
“He hit her. And he’s going to jail.” I looked from one to the other, shaking my head in amazement. “Why are you two so afraid of him? Why is this whole town so afraid of him? Because he has money? So what.”
Both men were quiet for a second. The ticking sound of their patrol Explorer’s engine cooling mixed with the sound of the cicadas while we all stood in the driveway and waited.
“He’s got more than money,” Wes finally whispered.
“Like what?” I asked.
Wes glanced up at me, his normally warm Mexican features spiked with worry. Before he could answer, yelling and thumping erupted from the rear of my patrol vehicle. Jack’s muffled demands to be un-cuffed and released wafted out to us. The eyes of both men pleaded with me.
“Might be best,” John said. “You could write a report. Let the judge figure on what to do.”
The tickle of anger that had exploded on Jack inside the house had been worming its way back into my chest since the two of them showed up with their worried faces, walking on eggshells. I reined it in before I blasted both of them.
“I’m taking him in,” I said through gritted teeth. “Now do me a favor and stay here with my rig while I finish up this call.”
Without waiting for an answer, I strode to the rear of the Explorer. As soon as I swung open the rear door, Jack’s voice boomed out from the back seat.
“-Wes, you goddamn wetback turncoat! Get me out of these cuffs or your cousins are going back across the Rio Grande! Do you hear me, Wes? You fucking bean-eater! I’ll make sure your primos — ”
I removed a camera I kept back there for photographing evidence and slammed the door again. Jack’s voice dropped to a muffled roar. A quick check showed three shots left on the roll of film.
John cleared his throat. “If you’re gonna be a while, Carl, maybe we ought to un-cuff him. Just while we’re waiting on you to-”
“He stays cuffed.” I looked up at John, then over at Wes. “And I swear to God, boys, if I come out and he’s not still cuffed and stuffed, I will gut-shoot all three of you.”
Both men blanched. They knew I didn’t mean it, but they knew I meant business, too. I didn’t wait for their reply. I headed back into the house.
I entered without knocking. I found Doris in the great room, curled up on a small couch and rocking slightly. Tears streaked her face.
“Doris? I’d like to take your picture, if that’s okay.”
She looked up at me. Her eyes no longer held the arrogant denial I’d seen earlier. Instead, she bore the same haunted, fearful look she’d had when she answered the door. She shrugged. “It won’t matter now.”
I snapped an overall shot of her, then zoomed in for two close-ups of her face. Each time, she flinched when the flash flared as brightly as a muzzle blast.
I lowered the camera and thanked her. She stared back at me with a shaken mien.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked in a voice thick from crying.
“Just because he’s rich doesn’t mean the law doesn’t apply to him.”
She sniffed and a sad smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. With a shake of her head, she said, “Oh, Carl. You’re such a romantic. One of these days, reality is going to hit you like a runaway semi.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I touched the brim of my hat and left.
Once outside, I saw that Wes and John had moved out of hearing range from my vehicle. They looked like two dogs that were waiting to be whipped for tearing up their master’s drapes.