The Dinosaur Hunter(73)

“Stay here,” I told Tanya who nodded and curled up on Bob’s seat, closing her eyes with a sigh. She was pretty as a picture, that girl. It was hard to imagine her with a hammer and a knife but at this stage, anything was possible.

Cade’s Mercedes was parked in his paved driveway. I walked by it and knocked on his door. After I knocked a couple more times, the door opened and there stood Cade, dressed neatly in jeans, a checked shirt, and running shoes. There was some cool jazz playing in the background. He smiled and asked, “To what do I owe the pleasure, Mike?”

I came inside. Cade, or whoever had decorated his place, had good taste. Leather chairs and sofa in a great room, modern paintings on the wall, expensive Persian rug on a hardwood floor, and so forth. It was cool, the hiss of the central air conditioner as subtext to the jazz. “I came to ask you about Toby.” Since Cade was not a true rancher, I saw no need to go through the usual discussion of the weather, price of beef, and whatnot before getting down to cases.

He waved me to one of the leather chairs. “Can I get you a drink?”

“No, but thank you.”

Cade sat on the sofa across from me. “I’m sorry Toby acts the way he does. He’s an odd duck.”

“No, Cade, he’s a dead duck. He was fished out of the lake this morning.”

I saw the blood drain from Cade’s face. It’s hard to make that happen so I assumed my news was news to him. That was kind of disappointing. It would have been far better for all of us if Cade was the murderer. We could chalk it up to California craziness and go about our business.

“What happened?” Cade croaked.

I gave him the run-down, then said, “When did you see Toby last?”

Cade thought it over, then said, “He was interested in the Russian girl. You know, one of the dinosaur diggers. He said he wanted to talk to her. I told him to leave her alone but he had his mind made up so I said to hell with him and drove home. He had his own car. You should talk to the Russian girl if you want to find out what happened to him.”

“I will. What was he doing here?”

“He was an investor in my movies. This was years ago. What? You don’t believe me? You worked in Hollywood, Mike. You know how porn flicks get made. Somebody has to put up the money and men like Toby have plenty of it. Over the years, we became friends. He liked to come out here to get away from the stresses of his life.” Cade provided me with a wan smile. “As you can imagine, he had a great deal of it.”

“Why were you and Toby so interested in our dinosaur dig?”

Cade’s smile grew into a grin. “You pretend to be a cowboy but, boy, the cop in you just can’t stay hidden, can it? I already told you. I was interested in having somebody look for a dinosaur on my ranch, too. Toby was used to intimidating people to get what he wanted so that’s why you saw the side of him you did. Actually, he could be a sweetheart, at least for a Russian who’d spent time in prison.” He chuckled. “I told him how everything was low key here but he just never understood.”

I absorbed Cade’s story. It was slightly plausible but I wasn’t convinced. “Pretty soon, Toby’s buddies are going to wonder where he is. I suspect they’ll be calling.”

Cade shrugged. “Well, I don’t know any of them. I only worked with Toby. If they have a beef, I guess it will be with whoever killed him. That Russian girl, like I said.”

“Tanya hit him in the back of the head with a hammer, then cut his throat, then dragged him to the lake and threw him in. That’s what you think happened? She weighs maybe one-hundred-and-ten pounds. What was Toby? Two-eighty?”

“You sure you don’t want that drink?”

“No, Cade, but you look like you could use one. Say hello to the Volk for me when they arrive.”

“The Volk?”

“The Wolves. They’re Toby’s subset of the Russian mob.”

“Never heard of them.”

“Good-bye and good luck, Cade,” I said and stood up to leave.

Cade stood up, too. “I’ve always liked you, Mike,” he said. “That job I offered, it’s still open.”

“Sorry. I prefer a boss who doesn’t have a target on his back.”

I went outside and got in Bob. Tanya was napping and I woke her up when I closed the door. She blinked sleepily at me and smiled. I did not smile back. There was nothing to smile about. I drove us through the arch back onto Ranchers Road and asked her, “You’re sure you didn’t kill Toby?”

“Where would I get a hammer?” she replied.

“I don’t know, Tanya. There’s a tool chest in the back of every pickup truck in Fillmore County. There’s even one in Bob. Should I stop to see if there’s blood, hair, and brains on it?”