Page 37 of The Killing Plains

“Willis stayed here alone?”

“I felt bad about that. He’d had a rough day. I came down before dinner to check on him.”

Willis had been afraid, asking if the Rangers would arrest him. Russ had tried unsuccessfully to calm his brother. “He was frantic. I hated to leave him. I tried calling Felix, but he was off somewhere, not answering his phone. So I called Momma, and she sent the housekeeper down with a Xanax pill. I gave him half.”

The medicine had helped. By seven o’clock, Willis was calm. “He wanted to spend some time with Delilah and then go to sleep.” Russ shook his head, mystified. “I swear, everything seemed fine. I called Felix again and left a message to check on Willis when he got home. Then I left. Wish to God I hadn’t.”

He stared bleakly into the tank. Colly was searching for something comforting to say when, from the adjacent room, they heard the front door swing open and the hollow tread of boots on the cabin floor.

Russ looked up. “Felix, is that you?”

A moment later, a man wearing faded jeans and a blue denim work shirt appeared in the doorway. He was in his mid-seventies,short and bandy-legged, with leathery skin and salt-and-pepper hair. Under one arm, he carried an enormous gray rabbit, which was working its nose furiously.

The man appeared slightly confused to find anyone in the cabin. “I was gonna feed her. I’ll come back later,” he said in a heavy Mexican accent.

“No, stay, Felix. It’s good you’re here. You remember Colly, Randy’s wife? She’s looking into the Denny Knox case for us. I was just walking her through the night Willis died. She’d love to hear your perspective.” Russ turned to Colly. “Felix was the one who found him.”

The man nodded, staring inscrutably at Colly. His gaze was unsettling, somehow.

“How did it happen?” she asked.

Beneath Felix’s arm, the rabbit began to struggle, unhappy at being confined. Felix opened the hatch in the glass wall and, to Colly’s horror, dropped the animal inside.

He closed the hatch and wiped his hands on his shirt. “I was at the movies with my nephew, Pete. When we come out, I seen a message on my phone from Mr. Russ saying Mr. Willis is upset. So when I get back to the ranch, I come here to check on him.”

Colly tried to listen, but her focus was riveted on the gray rabbit. It was sitting on its haunches in the herpetarium, its nose and ears twitching as it assessed its surroundings. Ten feet away, Delilah watched, motionless. After a moment, she flicked out her tongue.

“And you—you saw him where, exactly?” Colly stammered. “He was in there?”

“Si.” Felix pointed to a spot just inside. “Slumped on the ground, half-sitting. His head hanging down.” He demonstrated, letting his own fall limply to one side, like a ragdoll’s.

In the cage, the rabbit took a slow hop forward, sniffing the leaf litter. The python remained still.

Colly wrenched her eyes away. “Did you go in and check for a pulse?”

Felix shook his head. “No need.” He glanced at Russ, who nodded.

“Tell her. It’s okay.”

“He was purple, swollen,” the older man said slowly. “His eyes bulged out. There were tooth marks...”He gestured to his neck and head.

Colly’s lips felt numb and her palms were clammy. She turned to Russ. “It tried to eat him?”

“Snakes are primitive. When prey’s nearby, they get aggressive by instinct, like a shark in a feeding frenzy. That’s what the hatch is for.” She heard him swallow. “You should never feed one by hand. They’re nothing but muscle—even a small constrictor can kill a person. There’ve been several cases. Google it sometime, just not late at night.” He stared into the snake pen.

Growing more comfortable in its new surroundings, the rabbit had begun to explore. It took several tentative hops in the direction of the python, which still did not move a muscle other than its tongue and eyes.

Colly’s mouth felt dry. She looked at Russ. “You said the Rangers think it was suicide.”

“I do, too. Willis walked in there holding a live rabbit. We found it hiding under a bush in the back, terrified out of its wits.” He tapped his finger on the glass. “Willis knew better.”

“Could he have gotten confused? Maybe the Xanax—?”

“I didn’t give him much. He wasn’t loopy when I left, just calmer.”

Colly turned to the ranch foreman. “You knew Willis as well as anyone. Could it have been an accident? A mistake?”

Felix’s eyes were on the rabbit as it inched closer to the python. He shook his head. “Delilah only eats twice a month. Mr. Willis knew it wasn’t time.”

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