Coyote's Wife Read Online Free Page B

between them. Then, after a long pause, he raised his head again and looked at Marilyn. “Then you’re finally free to do whatever you want,” he said in a strangled voice.
    He nodded to Ella andJustine, then turned his back on them and returned to the house.
    Ella and Justine exchanged surprised glances, but neither commented.
    Marilyn stood by the pickup, tears streaming down her face. “My duty here is done.”
    “Come on, we’ll take you home,” Ella said softly. “Then once we take a look at your husband’s truck, we’ll see if someone at StarTalk can return it to you. Do you have a set ofkeys we could borrow?” Ella added as an afterthought, recalling they’d only found keys to the Dodge.
    “The keys will still be in the truck—in the ashtray. My husband never locked the doors. If you
could
have someone drive it over to me, I’d sure appreciate it.”
    As they rode back in silence, Ella mentally replayed the scene she’d just witnessed. There was more going on here than met the eye.
    When they arrived at Marilyn’s house, Ella noticed an old, faded navy blue pickup that hadn’t been there before parked by the side of the house. No driver was visible.
    “Looks like you’ve got company,” Ella said. Perhaps Marilyn’s claims of being completely friendless hadn’t been exactly accurate—unless George’s pickup had been returned, somehow.
    “It’s my neighbor,” she said. “Thanks for the ride.”

    As Marilyn hurried inside, Ella glanced over at Justine. “Whoever that is apparently feels it’s okay to go inside the house even if no one’s home. Can you get a clear look at that tag?”
    Justine pulled forward a bit, and read off the vehicle’s license plate information to Ella, who wrote it down. As they headed back to the road, Ella called it in.
    “The pickup belongs to Wallace Curtis. From theaddress on the driver’s license, he lives just a few miles from the victim’s home,” Dispatch answered.
    Ella lapsed into a long silence and Justine didn’t interrupt her thoughts. “We’re missing something, partner,” Ella said slowly.
    “Yeah. I get that feeling, too. Maybe we should go back and talk to Hoskie Charley.”
    “I want to find out more about Wallace Curtis first. And let’s try to keep thislow-key for now,” Ella said.
    “Are you thinking we’re dealing with a love triangle? If so, maybe George Charley’s wound was a defensive one after all. And there were those other shoe tracks where the accident or murder went down. Do you suppose Wallace wears Nikes?”
    “The ground
was
packed hard in places, and the perp might have smoothed his own tracks closer to the body. But there are other waysto commit a murder, too. Maybe Marilyn slipped George something in his food, or he might have been darted with a drug from a distance. Animal control certainly uses them a lot around here to deal with vicious dogs and the occasional bear in the backyard, so it’s not totally impossible. I’ll call Carolyn and see if she can expedite the toxicology report. I’ll also have her check the body for anyother marks.”
    “That dart theory—not bad—but if that’s the case we should have found the dart,” Justine said.
    Ella thought about it a moment. “Not if it was knocked out of him later when he went crashing through the woods. If that’s the case, it could be almost anywhere. Mind you, it’s pretty unlikely, but if that’s what happened, it would have left a puncture mark on the body and chemical tracesin his blood. Carolyn will be able to prove or disprove this theory for us,” Ella said. “But we need to keep in mind that our victim wasn’t supposed to be alone today. Ervin Benally may know something we can use.”
    “Want me to give him a call when we get back to the station? Find out who knew where they were going, and like that?” Justine asked.
    “Yeah. We need to cover every base.”
    They returnedto the station, and by the time Ella filed her report, it was