Howdy Folks,
On April 9, 2013
I posted the first installment of "Coming Home" and then followed
with Pt 2, on April 10, Pt 3 on April 11, Pt 4 on May 8, Pt 5 on May 21, Pt 6
June 18, and Pt 7, July 31. If you're just joining us you can find Pt 1 HERE,
and each segment has a link to the next (If you'd like to revisit Pt 7 Click Here) … In Pt 7 we left Billie and Hector in her new office as Hector explained
Sherriff Calhoun's dislike of woman and her father … Enjoy this next
installment.
 |
| Kessy, Saturday & me writing |
*********************
Billie opened the file again, "So
this Andrew Kent was arrested for drunken-disorderly, Sheriff Calhoun ships him
back here, somebody wants him sprung." She tapped her fingernails on the
file folder. "He'd served time for bad checks in '06 in Arizona, arrested
and acquitted for forgery in New Mexico in February '04, arrested and given two
years parole for beating a man nearly to death in Phoenix in November '04. Ah,
see here, he's still on parole for the bad checks. Who would want to spring a
likable fellow like this?" She held the black and white mug shot up for
Hector to see.
Hector followed Billie at a run to the front counter just in time to see the Hondo County Fire Department's entire fleet of engines and a lone tanker race past their window, sirens and lights blaring and flashing.
Deputy Hardin offered Billie the phone, timidly. "It's Sheriff Lovell on the line. Someone called him at home."
"Yes Sheriff. Highway twenty-nine ... I see ... I can leave right away ... Yes Deputy Montoya is still here, would you like to speak to him?... Alright then, we're on our way. Would you like me to call you from the scene?... I will. Goodbye."
Billie faced Deputies Hardin and
Montoya's inquisitive stares. "A truck driver found a burning car a few
yards off highway twenty-nine, five miles outside Cibolo, when he stopped to
investigate he found a body lying next to it. The Sheriff needs us to check on
it right away." She started for the door, turned back, "How would a
truck driver get Sheriff Lovell's home phone number?" She motioned to
Deputy Hardin, "You call the phone company, find out whatever you can
about that call. Call me on my cell as soon as you know something."
"Yes Ma'am."
"You drive," she pointed to
Hector, "I'll try to have you home before your daughter's birthday is
over. Rosita isn't it?"
Hector smiled. "Yes. For the rose.
She is our little rose. You remembered."
"How old is she today, let me guess
…eleven. That should be right. Yea I'll stick with eleven."
Hector smiled broader. "She is
eleven, yes."
"Let's hurry, so you can get home to
light eleven candles."
Cibolo is a cluster of about a dozen
rusty mobile homes that sprung up along a cattle trail ranchers and drovers had
used to push herds to the old rail yards way up in the panhandle. It wasn't
really a town, or even a community. It just was. Most of the folks who lived in
those old trailers did not have what some might call, real jobs. They made a
living working here and there, fixing old oil rigs, windmills, or hiring on a
few weeks at a time on the hand full of remaining cattle outfits in the county.
Billie knew Cibolo, or not too far from it, was where Juan del Paso's
grandmother had her old tiny trailer.
Outside by the cars Billie changed her
mind. "We'll drive separate. When we're through with this I'm going to
tell Juan's grandmother about her grandson. She still lives outside Cibolo I'd
guess."
"Are you sure? I think I should go
with you. She maybe won't remember you. She can be hard to talk to, if she
don't remember you." But he moved with a smile to his cruiser.
Billie opened her own car door, then
turned to face Hector, "You're right, she can be, shall I say, shy."
Her mind was more on Juan's grandmother
than her driving, or the dead man lying beside his burning car as she drove
along behind Hector. Billie truly liked the ancient woman, and in fact had
learned as much from her, as she herself had ever been able to teach Juan. For
that she'd often felt guilty. And she felt especially guilty this moment. Had
she missed some important lesson, or example she could have used to influence
young Juan when she'd been helping him study? Was there something she missed
that could have later kept him from making a wrong decision, a decision that
ultimately led to his death alongside a desolate stretch of paved road.
The Comanche people were not known for
their record keeping, but Sara Muguara, could recite her linage all the way
back to the Aztecs of Mexico. As she drove she remembered Sara's name meant
Spirit Talker. She wondered if Grandma Sara had already heard from her
grandson's spirit.
The smoke from the burning car drifted
straight up, high into the windless sky. Most of the fire apparatus was already
being wrapped up. Two engines, and six firefighters had made short work of the
flames, now there was only black smoke. She stopped behind Deputy Montoya's
cruiser and surveyed the scene. The body was on the opposite side of the road
from the smoking car. Good thing, she thought, at least it appeared to be far
enough away to be safe from overzealous hose operators. Her mind was slow to
react though, and she blamed that on the long, long day which was certainly
going to get even longer. She was still watching the smoke and thinking about
Sara Muguara sitting alone in her dark little trailer, wondering if the message
she'd received from the spirit world, about her grandson was true, when Hector
knocked on her window.
"Ah…ah…I ah…."
Billie stepped out. "What's
wrong?"
"I am not sure what to call
you." He held his hands in the air, palms up, "You know, now you are
a Detective. I used to, when we worked together before, call you Miss Weston.
Remember? But that is not good for a Detective, I think."
She was surprised and amused enough by
his discomfort that all she could respond with was a silly half-a-smile, and a
shrug.
"I suppose I should call you
Detective Weston, but, you know, somehow it feels funny." He made a very
apologetic face, took a big breath, "Not that I think you should not be a
Detective. You should. And most certainly you will make a very fine Detective,
but it sounds funny to my ears."
Still speechless she watched him struggle
and thought this is more words than she'd ever heard Hector Montoya say at one
time.
"I mean, I will learn to like,
Detective Weston…Soon."
She put her hand on his shoulder and gave
her most assuring smile, "Hector, why don't you call me, Billie? After all
we are equals, quite possibly going to be partners." She had a pang of
guilt for saying that last part. Poor Roy was supposed to be her partner and he
died before they ever worked together.
***********************
Gitty Up ~ Dutch Henry
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