Page 31 of Dead Mountain

“Can you hear me now?”

Corrie held the phone away from her ear. “You don’t have to shout. I may be hard of hearing, but I ain’t deaf.”

“How can I help you?”

“There’s a rattlesnake under my trailer, and I’m afraid to go out.”

A pause. “Ma’am, did you say a rattlesnake?”

“Are you hard of hearing too? Yes—and I want you to come get him.”

“Come get him?”

“Sonny, do you always repeat everything another body says to you?”

“Ma’am, how . . . how do you know it’s a rattlesnake?”

“’Cause I done shot his head off before I ran into the trailer.”

“So . . . he’s dead?”

“I reckon he must be, with his head blown clean away. Unless he’s some kind of zombie.”

Another pause—longer this time. “Ma’am, I don’t understand. If the snake is dead, why are you afraid to come out of your trailer?”

“’Cause I can’t stand the sight of blood.”

“But . . . wait . . .”

Corrie had hoped to string the sheriff along another minute or two, but the croaking was starting to hurt her throat and, instead of speaking, she burst out in laughter.

“All right, who is this?” Watts’s voice turned indignant. “It’s you, isn’t it, Gus? When I catch your ass, I’m going to—”

“Why, Sheriff,” Corrie said, stifling her mirth. “That’s no way to speak to a lady.”

Another perplexed silence, this one briefer. “Corrie?”

Sitting in her car in the field office lot, she again dissolved into laughter.

“Corrie Swanson, a la maquina! You’re a little devil!”

“A big-time sheriff like you has to keep on his toes.”

“Well, you got me, all right. I can’t deny that.” And they both laughed for a moment.

To be honest, Corrie hadn’t quite known how best to say hello to Homer Watts. They’d worked together twice before on law enforcement cases, and . . . well, she wasn’t really sure if they were now associates, friends, or perhaps on the way to being something more. All she knew was that she felt awkward calling him up out of the blue, and messing with him was the first thing that came to mind.

“Any idea why I’m calling?” she asked.

“You miss me desperately and want to ask me out?”

“No.” She said this too quickly and immediately regretted it.

“Oh.” A beat. “Then I’ll bet it has something to do with those two bodies they found up in the Manzanos. I saw you on TV.”

“That’s right. I’ve been assigned to the case.”

A whistle.

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