Desert Wives (9781615952267) by Betty Webb Read Free Book Online

night at the motel and Esther’s oddly prescient question, “Solomon was shot?” True, this was the twenty-first century and many unanticipated deaths arrived by gunshot, but still, there had been absolutely no surprise in Esther’s eyes at the news of Prophet Solomon’s death. Even Rebecca, in all her panic, noticed it. How could a woman so transparent ever hope to outwit the Utah court system?
    â€œMs. Jones? Ms. Jones?” The attorney’s words startled me out of my reverie.
    â€œLena.” I picked up a pencil and began drawing a hangman’s noose on a scratch pad.
    â€œWhat’s that?”
    â€œCall me Lena, Ray. I’m not into formality.”
    â€œI asked how much you know about Ms. Corbett’s movements that night. You’re certain to be subpoenaed when this case goes to trial, and it’s better to tell me now so there won’t be any ugly surprises later.”
    I gave him my rehearsed answer. “As far as I’m concerned, there won’t be any ugly surprises. Esther was waiting for us when we got back to the motel.”
    â€œThis is just a supposition, but is there any way she could have been at Purity that night and made it back to the motel before you did?”
    I didn’t answer right away. Instead, I drew a man’s head in the noose.
    â€œLet me rephrase that, Ms. Jo…uh, Lena. How well do you know the area up there?”
    â€œThis is privileged information, right? Nothing I tell you can be used in court?”
    â€œRight.”
    In order to forestall one of those ugly surprises he had cautioned against, I told him what I knew. “There are several paths leading out of Purity and into the desert, but there’s really only one way to hook up with the road. To smuggle Rebecca out without anybody seeing us, I chose the path into Paiute Canyon. It’s not only the shortest, but it provides the best cover, too. Juniper, mesquite, and brush all over the place. Hell, you could hide a giraffe in there. Anyway, we headed south down the canyon until it hooked northwest, and that’s where we just about fell over the body.”
    He phrased his next question carefully. “When you all drove up there, Ms. Corbett took her own car, right?”
    â€œA bright green Geo with Arizona plates.” I began shading the male figure’s head, trying hard for a resemblance to Prophet Solomon.
    â€œAre there any other roads leading to the compound, especially any paved roads?” he asked.
    â€œNaw. Just the dirt road.” Satisfied with my drawing’s resemblance to the prophet, I added a bullet hole between his eyes, then sketched in a shadow box frame.
    â€œSo if Ms. Corbett drove along that road she would pass you at some point, right?”
    As much as I wanted to answer in the affirmative, I couldn’t. “Not necessarily. You forget that all those nights Jimmy was waiting for me, he’d pulled the truck several yards off the side of the road and hid it in a stand of piñon pine. He told me he heard several cars and trucks going to and coming from Purity that night, but he was more concerned with staying hidden than he was with car-spotting. Technically speaking, if Esther left the motel just after Jimmy, she could have driven all the way to the compound without him seeing her, done the deed, and beat us back. The timing would be tight, but with a little luck she could have managed it.”
    â€œIt was night. And way out in the badlands.” Winfield’s voice sounded distant, like he was deep in thought. “To avoid being seen, all she had to do was turn off her lights.”
    I wiggled the pencil between my fingers and explained. “Cars driving along dirt make a lot of noise, which is why Jimmy was able to hear all the traffic. But here’s my thinking. If Esther had driven within a quarter mile of Purity that night and yet not gone in, someone would certainly have heard her and