“That would be, when?”

“Day before yesterday? Yeah, we were going to touch base. It all seems so unreal.” They stepped up onto the porch. Latticework corralled the porch and yellow jasmine gave off a heavenly scent.

“You go ahead and sit down and I’ll get us some iced tea.” She slipped through the screen door and was gone.

Tess watched the girls at the stable. One had her giant steed in a wash rack and was spraying him with a hose.

Jaimie Wolfe came back out with the iced tea, handed one to Tess, and sat down, tipping back and resting her booted feet up on the railing. “So what else do you want to know? I’ll do what I can to help.”

Tess said, “Did he talk about anything besides buffelgrass eradication?”

Jaimie cocked her head. “For instance?”

“For instance, if anything was bothering him?”

“Bothering him?” She seemed confused. “I don’t think so.”

“He didn’t have anything on his mind? Anything that might have been weighing on him?”

“No. But really, I didn’t spend that much time with him. Just the SABEL stuff.”

“By the way, do you have a list of SABEL members?”

Jaimie said, “Yes, but it’s on my computer. Give me your e-mail address and I’ll send it to you.”

“Did he get along well with everybody on the SABEL board?”

“From what I could tell, yes.”

Tess looked into Jaimie Wolfe’s eyes. “You know how he was killed?”

Jaimie looked away. “I saw it in the paper today—I can read between the lines. Awful.” She shuddered. “I can’t imagine who would do something like that. Nobody I’d know.” Abruptly, she stood up and yelled at one of the girls. “Don’t let him do that! If you’re not careful, he’s going to step right on your foot. Put your boots back on until you’re done with him. Flip-flops, for fuck sake!” Turned back to Tess. “You’re asking if he had any enemies? Let me think. He took the spread of buffelgrass very seriously.” She launched into a description of how the invasive, flammable African species came to the country, leaving the Sonoran Desert susceptible to wildfires. “Everything could go up, and fast,” she said, waving at the golden hills around them. “He was a true believer. He was also worried about his daughter and his son-in-law. He thinks—thought—they’re headed for divorce.”

Tess said, “Have you met them?”

“A couple times. That was enough for me.”

“What do you think of Bert Scofield?”

“What I know about Bert Scofield is that he came on to me. It was at one of our get-togethers we had here at the ranch about three months ago. I was in the kitchen and he kind of had me trapped between the door and the kitchen table.”

“What did you do?”

“I stomped on his instep. And I told him if he pulled that crap again, I would tell his wife.”

“What was his response?”

She shrugged. “He said he was gonna leave her anyway. He also said she didn’t care.”

“How would you characterize his relationship with his father-in-law?”

“I only met them socially, they weren’t the least bit interested in SABEL or anything that didn’t include eating—the two of them really put it away, a pair of greedy-guts—and I noticed she was sneaking leftovers from the spread into her purse. I didn’t say anything, because I loved George. I felt so sorry for him.”

“Why?”

“He pulled up stakes to come here to be near her. But she always seemed like a sour old ingrate, to me. Hate to say it, but sometimes I think the wrong daughter died.”

“You’re talking about her sister? Karen?” Tess asked. In Tess’s research, she’d learned that Pat wasn’t George Hanley’s only daughter. Years ago, his other daughter had been shot and killed during a holdup at a convenience store.

“Yeah, that was a long time ago, apparently.” Jaimie stood up and bracketed her mouth with her hands. “Alison,” she shouted. “Is your mom coming soon?”

One of the girls looked up from where she’d been sitting on a chair outside the barn and yelled, “After she gets off work!”

“I want to talk to her, so don’t sneak off, okay?” Jaimie said to Tess, “That woman owes me for two months board, plus lessons. I know it’s hard times for everybody, but she should pay at least something. I try hard to keep these kids going, but this is an expensive business.”

“Riding lessons?”

“Oh, it’s much more than that. Showing. Big money, you wouldn’t believe how much those warmbloods cost. Alison’s mom has a good job, but she doesn’t have anywhere near the money she needs for them to compete on the highest level. The sad thing is, Alison has the talent. She could go all the way.”

“I got the impression it was George’s daughter who wanted him to come out here.”

“You got that right. But then he did and she ignored him. She’s a cold one. Don’t get me wrong. She’s needy, and kind of weak, but it’s all about her. She wanted her dad to come down here but once he was here, it was like, she had that box checked. Pat’s such an insecure person. She knows down deep what a disgusting creep her husband is, but she wants to hold on to him. Why, I don’t know. She’s the type that only grabs on if she thinks she’s going to lose you. You could tell George thought he’d made a mistake coming down here, but that only made her tighten her grip. And when he did come over to her place, she just got in arguments with him.”

“You seem to know them pretty well.”

“Don’t forget—I saw them in action. George asked me to go with him on more than a few occasions, kind of as backup. I knew he was unhappy. Pulling up stakes like that and coming all the way here. I’m divorced myself, and I know what a drain the wrong kind of person can be. Now I’m free as a lark, and doing what I love to do.”

“But it’s an expensive hobby.”

“Oh, yeah. But I come from money, and even though I have a lot less than I used to, I’m doing all right.”

“Was anything bothering George Hanley, besides his family situation? Anything you saw?”

“I dunno. He was such a gracious man. Old-fashioned that way. I guess you could say he was a gentleman.”

“Did he ever mention planning a trip to LA?”

“I don’t think so.” Jaimie stood up, her eyes on the barn. “There’s Alison’s mom. I’ve got to talk to her. Anything else?”

“Did he talk much about the tours he led in Credo?”

“I have to talk to her,” Jaimie said, starting down the steps.

Tess moved fast to catch up with her. “Did he? Talk about the tours in Credo?”

“He mentioned how much he enjoyed them. He was worried about illegals, all the drug running, stuff like that, but who isn’t, around here? It was such a remote place.” Her pace quickened. “Janine!” she called to the mother, who was just getting out of her Cadillac. Jaimie Wolfe darted a glance back at Tess. “Look, I’ve got to get this straightened out. I’m paying fricking alimony to my ex, if you can believe it, the bastard thinks because I’m a DeKoven I’m rolling in it. Which is not the case at all. Plus, it’s the principle of the thing. I’m one of the best there is in this business.”

“Anything,” Tess said, “that could shine a light on who might have wanted to kill him?”

“I’d start with Bert,” she said. “He really didn’t like having George around. Selfish bastard.”

She walked away.

DeKoven. It didn’t occur to Tess what that meant until she’d driven off the property. She was new to Santa Cruz County. But Tess had been living in Arizona long enough to have heard the name.

Jaimie Wolfe was a DeKoven?

CHAPTER 8

Tess rented a house on Harshaw Road. Harshaw Road was a poorly maintained stretch of asphalt outside Patagonia proper—a mixed population of old houses jammed together on dead-end streets, and small ranchettes.

Tess’s place was just about where the houses thinned out to a few acres per landowner.

She turned left onto the one-acre lot, the Tahoe’s tires rumbling across the cattle guard, and parked on the narrow lane that ended next to the house. The place needed paint. It needed a lot of things. But there was a voluptuous pistachio tree in the front yard, one of two remaining from a long-ago orchard, complete with a tire swing.