All by its lonesome.

The money bag was gone.

Chapter 33

Ledge backed his pickup off Hawkins’s property and out onto the road.

Dwayne hadn’t moved. He still lay spread-eagled in the dirt under the glare of the floodlights.

As Arden got her last look at him, she said, “You won’t really shoot him, will you?”

“I won’t have to.” He turned to her to make his point. “It’s enough that he believes I will.”

They’d gone only a short distance before Ledge placed a call to Don, who answered immediately. “Tell me you’re okay.”

“I’m okay.”

“Hawkins?”

“Sniffling, but unhurt and grateful to be alive. But listen, the lowlife has dozens of dogs penned up out here. The conditions are criminal. I expect him to clear out tonight and, more than likely, abandon them. It would be dangerous to release them. Do you know anybody who’s actively involved with the Humane Society or ASPCA?”

“Several people.”

“Report it. Hawkins will probably be long gone by the time officials get out here, but those animals need rescuing.”

“On it.”

“Thanks, Don. Later.”

“Hold it. Where are you? What are you doing?”

“Going home.”

“Watch your back. Hawkins has brothers, don’t forget.”

“He won’t breathe a word of this.”

“You’re sure?”

“Oh, yeah. I put a good scare into him.”

He clicked off.

The drizzle that had begun to speckle the windshield as they left Hawkins’s place had become a moderate rain. Lost in thought, Ledge hadn’t even noticed until Arden suggested he turn on the wipers.

“What are you thinking about, Ledge?”

“Rusty and what I’m going to do about him.”

“I’ve been wondering the same. His surveillance of me is creepy, but it’s not illegal. If he was made to answer for it, he would harken back to my father, and I don’t want that can of worms reopened.”

“Unavoidable, Arden.”

“I’m afraid you’re right.” She sighed. “Any questions raised about Brian Foster’s death will lead straight to Joe Maxwell.”

“You can count on Rusty to exploit that.”

“So we do nothing?”

“I’m thinking of taking it directly to the attorney general’s office.” He sensed the look of surprise she gave him, but he kept his eyes forward. “Rusty has got to be put out of commission, and it won’t happen on a local level.”

“That’s a big step, though. What about starting with another agency, outside the county?”

“Troopers, Texas Rangers? I’ve thought of that, of course. But they have their own cold cases. Foster’s death wasn’t officially deemed a murder. It wouldn’t have priority. By the time somebody got around to looking into it, Rusty would have covered his tracks. I can’t sit around and give him a chance to do that.”

He looked over at her, adding, “He must be feeling pressure, because he amped things up tonight. That wasn’t mischief, it was attempted murder. The time for fiddling around is passed.”

“My moving back really stirred things up, didn’t it?”

“I think you were the match that lit his fuse.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Hell, don’t be. I’m not. For years, my fight with him has needed to come to a head. I’m glad it has.”

He came to a crossroads, braked, and looked over at her. “I’m not taking you to your house. You shouldn’t be out there alone. So back to Crystal’s for the night?”

“Do you still have that bottle of whiskey?”

He was at a crossroads in the figurative sense, too. Being alone with her in a place with multiple horizontal surfaces, he didn’t think he could resist the temptation to have her.

But his conscience wouldn’t allow him to touch her again until he told her that he was a thief as well as a liar.

“One drink.” He made a left turn onto the road that would lead to his house. A whiskey might make his confession go down a little smoother, but he seriously doubted it.

Dwayne lay there in the dirt, unmoving, until he could no longer hear Burnet’s truck, then he got up and ran into his house. Dyle could give you pause, but he was a lot of swagger and not much substance, and everybody knew it. He got other people to do his dirty work.

Burnet, though. That guy you did not want to cross swords with. If Dwayne ever had thought otherwise, Burnet had shown him the light. He was a convert. To stay alive, he had to get gone. Like right now.

He scrounged around in the junk inside the house until he found the duffel bag he’d carried out of Huntsville packed with his meager belongings.

As he tramped through the rooms, he gathered up pieces of clothing that were strewn everywhere, and, regardless of which body part the article covered or its state of cleanliness, he crammed it into the duffel. He shoved his bare feet into a pair of boots, castoffs that the twins had given him when he made parole.

The waistband of his jeans was too loose to hold his pistol, so he poked it into one of the front pockets. He pried up a plank in the closet floor that gave him access to the crawl space where he kept mason jars full of cash. They were the last items to go into the duffel before he zipped it.

He was almost to the front door when his cell phone began playing the riff to “Bat Out of Hell.”

He dropped the duffel at his feet and pulled the phone from his other jeans pocket. There was no caller ID, but he had a fair idea of who it was, and it weakened his knees. “Jesus.”

If he didn’t answer, Dyle would know something was up. So he swiped his sweating forehead with his forearm, then clicked on. Acting like he was put out over being disturbed, he said, “Who’s this?”

“How’d it go, Dwayne?”

He forced his voice to sound laid-back. “Oh, hey. It went good.”

“You found them all right?”

“Right where you said.”

“Were they hurt?”

“Don’t know. The dogs attacked, but during the fray, the girl managed to get back into his pickup. She leaned on the horn. Sounded like a damn freight train was coming. So I called the dogs off and got away from there before anybody could see me.

“Cain’t say if either of them was hurt or not, but they got the bejesus scared out of them. Scaring them shitless would be good enough. That’s what you said.”

“Thanks for the reminder, Dwayne, but I remember what I said. You got away clean?”

“Yes, sir. No problemo.”

“You haven’t talked to anybody about this?”

“No, no. Not a word.”

“Because this can’t come back on me.”

“I didn’t tell nobody. Not even my brothers.”

“Okay then, we’re square, Dwayne. Nice work. Have a good night.”

The DA hung up before Dwayne could wish him the same. He took a deep breath of relief and swiped his forehead again. His worry had been for nothing.

Phone in hand, he was tempted to call the twins and alert them to his abrupt departure, but he figured he ought to land somewhere first, where neither Dyle nor Burnet could find him, then notify his family of his sudden relocation and the reason for it. They would understand.

He picked up the duffel, killed the floodlights as he went through the front door, but didn’t even bother to shut it. He would never be back. Whatever was left inside or out of the house, the next inhabitant was welcome to.

It had started to rain. He trotted across the yard but didn’t forget to retrieve his shotgun. Burnet hadn’t taken all his ammo. There was a box of shells in his pickup.

When he reached it, he looked wistfully toward the dog pens, where the animals were still acting agitated and bloodthirsty. Big money earners, those dogs. Trained to be killers. He hated like hell having to leave all that talent behind.

“Fuckin’ Burnet,” he muttered.

He opened the driver’s door and tossed the duffel into the passenger seat, then climbed in. He was reaching for the ignition when a silky voice spoke from the back seat.

“If there’s anything I can’t stand, it’s a cowardly liar.”

They had to run through the rain to reach the porch. Ledge unlocked the front door and ushered Arden in, reaching around her to turn off the alarm.

“I’ve been promoted,” she said. “Last time, I came through the back door.”

“Last time, you weren’t invited. You came in on your own.”

“You didn’t want me to follow you inside?”

“No, I didn’t. But not because I didn’t want you to be here.”

She looked at him with frustration. “Another riddle. What does that even mean, Ledge?”

“Hard to explain.”

“Try.”

“A drink first.” He turned toward the kitchen, but she stopped him by grabbing his sleeve.

“Let’s wait on the drink and have this out right now. Is Crystal the hang-up, or not?”

“Not.”

“You love her.”

“Yes. But sex isn’t part of it. Never has been.”

“So is this some kind of unrequited love thing with you, like Lancelot and Guenevere? Crystal is off limits, so you make do?”

“As I recall, a kingdom fell because Lancelot and Guenevere screwed each other blind.”

“You know what I mean. Are you pining after the unattainable love of your life?”