No One Else to Kill (Jim West Series) Read Online Free Page A

brown
slacks and a tan pullover sweater. Yet in the middle of this blandness, she had
painted her lips a glaring red; almost a scary red against her pale skin.
    “Randi, how’s it going?”
    “Great.”
    “This is Jim West.   I only met him this evening, but I already like him.”
    He reached over and gave my shoulder a friendly slap. She
simply smiled at me.
    “Yeah, we even shared water,” I said to her lips. Somehow,
I knew my comments confused them, and I even wondered why I said it. I forced
myself to take my eyes off her mouth. “I meant some wine.   Cross gave me a great recommendation for the
wine.”
    He beamed.
    “How’s the food this year?” she asked.
    “Great,” he said.
    “It really is,” I seconded.
    “Well, I better get back.   I just wanted to say hi.   You both
enjoy your dinners.”
    “Nice meeting you, Randi,” I said.   She smiled and left.
    “A hard worker, that one is.”
    “What does she do?”
    “Marketing.   Smartest thing I ever did was to hire her away
from her brother.”
    We talked a little more after we finished eating. He had a
wealth of knowledge on the local area despite being from El Paso.
    “What do you think was the largest town in North America
some four hundred years ago?” he asked.
    Figuring it had to be a local city, I said, “Santa Fe.”
    “No but good guess.   It was the town of Pecos.”
    “Pecos?   You mean the small town up the road?”
    “Not quite.   The
original Pecos is just a bunch of ruins now, but also nearby.   Coronado, the early Spanish explorer used the
small Indian town as a stopping point and the Spanish stayed.   It became quite the mission and regional
hub.   It kind of died away over time and
by the mid 1800’s was totally abandoned.”
    “Disease?”
    “No more than elsewhere. It was pretty much destroyed
during an Indian uprising in the late 1600’s.   Disease, drought and more Indian raids had their toll after that.
Another big factor was that the Spanish government had moved their governing
apparatus to Santa Fe and then lost control of the area all together. The city
withered away. The ruins are still an interest to archaeologists and
historians.”
    “What Indian tribes were here then?”
    “Different ones.   The Spanish referred to them as Pueblo
Indians because they lived in small towns, or pueblos.   I think the Hopi and Zuni tribes were the
largest up here, but you know over the years the Indians seized each others’ lands.   Hell, the white man didn’t do anything different than the Indians had
done to each other over the centuries.   It’s just that we were able to hang on to it. By we, I don’t mean the
Spanish either. The strong have always taken from the weak. It’s nature’s way.”
    “I know,” I said.
    “What I find interesting, though, is that we accepted most
of the Spanish names for the area out here rather than create new ones, like
the Spanish did, or why we didn’t go back to the original Indian names. For
example, we still call the mountains out here the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.”
    I knew the Sangre de Cristo Mountains were part of the
Rocky Mountain chain but not much more.
    “And, did you know the only significant Civil War battle
in New Mexico happened near here?”
    “Yeah, now that you mentioned it, I do recall it took
place around or near the Glorietta Pass. I’m
impressed with your knowledge of the local area, Cross.”
    “It’s a hobby.”
    Cross did most the talking, but after a while, I noticed
that he had already glanced a couple of times at his group, and I figured he
was ready to join them. I made an excuse to leave and thanked him for the
conversation.   I hadn’t expected to, but
I had actually enjoyed his company.
    While I made my way out of the dining room, I looked over
at Cross’ group.   Randi smiled and gave
me a little wave. Her camouflage blended in so well with a large cabinet behind
her that when I saw her smile it reminded me of those Disney