Scavengers by Steven F Havill

Author:Steven F Havill [Havill, Steven F]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, General, Police Procedural, Women Sleuths, FICTION / Mystery & Detective / General
ISBN: 9781615950843
Google: pPE7zc6WDO0C
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Published: 2009-01-01T11:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

When Estelle walked out of the ICU, Paulita Saenz pulled the cigarette back out of her purse as if she intended to use it as a weapon. She held it by the filter and jabbed it in Estelle’s direction. “When was the last time I saw you?” A large-boned, angular woman, she stood a head taller than the undersheriff. She would make a formidable bartender.

Estelle remembered Paulita’s husband, Monroy, as a short, stumpy man who had driven a dump truck for the county. A combination of alcohol and diabetes had killed him, leaving Paulita with a young son to raise. The lean, darkly handsome Eurelio apparently enjoyed the best genes from each parent.

Estelle extended her hand and waited while Paulita regarded it. Finally the woman shifted her grip on the cigarette to accept the greeting. “I think I was in the Taberna Azul with my Uncle Reuben ten or fifteen years ago, Mrs. Saenz,” Estelle said. Paulita’s eyes narrowed as she ran through her own mental calculations.

“And not since then,” Paulita said with just a hint of recrimination.

“No. Not since then.”

“Reuben’s been gone for five years now.”

Surprised that the woman should have Reuben Fuentes’ memory on such fresh recall, Estelle wondered what the relationship between the old man and the Saenz family might have been. She remembered the tavern as a dark, musty, cool place, and could visualize little more. Over the years, sheriff’s deputies had responded to the inevitable bar fights at the taberna, but Estelle had never had occasion to go. In fact, it had been fully twenty-one years before when, as an eighteen-year-old, Estelle Reyes had stepped into the tavern and searched the dark corners until she had found Reuben. She had no recollection of the purpose of the errand, or what had happened after that.

Whatever Reuben’s relationship to the Saenz family had been, beyond that of a casual customer at the bar, no doubt it was as evanescent as Estelle’s own relationship with the ancient Reuben Fuentes, a man who was actually her mother’s uncle…and thus her own adoptive great-uncle.

“Yes, ma’am. Reuben passed away in 1996,” Estelle said.

“And your mother, she’s living with you now, isn’t she?” Paulita asked with just a light shade of triumph. The tendrils of information from her bartender’s grapevine were impressive.

“Yes, she is.”

“He’s a good-looking man.” The non sequitur caught Estelle by surprise until she turned and saw that Paulita was looking through the glass partitions of the ICU. Dr. Francis was shaking his head while Sadie McC appeared to be questioning something from the clipboard chart. Paulita didn’t wait for confirmation. Instead she turned abruptly and walked to the waiting room, saying over her shoulder, “I heard that you’re the sheriff now. That’s what they were telling me.”

Estelle followed her into the room and chose one of the corner chairs. “Bob Torrez is sheriff, Mrs. Saenz.” She saw the furrow on the woman’s forehead deepen, perhaps perplexed to learn that her source of information was faulty. To the general public, the distinction between sheriff and deputy was often fuzzy at best.

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