Page 113 of The Texas Sterling Collection
Wyl went over, found the number for Snowdon Construction, and dialed the phone.
“Snowdon Construction,” the receptionist answered. “How may I direct your call?”
“Wyl Sterling here. Is Lefty around?”
“I’ll see if he is available, Mr. Sterling. Do you mind holding?”
“Yes… I’ll hold.”
Lefty Snowdon picked up the phone. “Wyl, it’s great to hear from you.”
“Hi, Lefty. How the hell are you?” Wyl felt terrible about not keeping up with Stewy’s folks, but he was gone himself for twenty years.
“Doing fine,” Lefty said. “What’s going on with you?”
“Oh, not much. Say, I need your help with something. Vandals spray-painted graffiti on a new stone entry gate I had built here at the ranch. I need a crew to come and sandblast the stone to remove the paint.”
“I have a full schedule tomorrow, Wyl, but I can get a crew out there on Wednesday.”
“Wednesday is fine, Lefty. Jack needs time to investigate anyway, so the extra day works well.”
“Okay. I’ll put you on the schedule for Wednesday morning. My crew foreman will call you before they come out.”
“I look forward to his call, Lefty. Oh…and I wanted to ask if you’ve heard from Stewy?”
Rod came up and massaged the tension out of Wyl’s shoulders.
“We’ve never heard a word from Stewy, Wyl. I wish he would call or send an email or something. You and he were good friends. I don’t suppose you’ve heard anything.”
“No, Stewy and I last talked before I went into the Marines. I’m really curious about what happened.”
“Us too, Wyl. All we get are expensive gifts on holidays. He’s out there somewhere.”
“He’ll probably show up one day and act like nothing happened.” Wyl squeezed Rod’s hand on his shoulder.
“Well, it’s good talking to you, Wyl. I heard you recently got hitched…and to a guy. Surprised the fuck out of me, but whatever swings your lasso, I always say. I hope you’ll bring him by the house. We’d like to meet him.”
“We’ll do that, Lefty. It’s great talking to you, too. Bye.”
Wyl hung up, turned to Rod, embraced him, and softly kissed his lips as a thank you for the shoulder rub. “Lefty said he hasn’t heard from Stewy. Damn curious.”
Rod raised an eyebrow. “Maybe Stewy hides a deep, dark secret he’s afraid to share.”
Wyl huffed out a chuckle. “Perhaps we’ll find out one day.”
* * *
Two days later, the phone rang while Rod and Wyl were enjoying breakfast. Wyl answered.
“Hey, Wyl, it’s Jack. I have good news.”
Wyl glanced at Rod. “Lay it on me, buddy.”
“Shifty Anderson got stopped by local police for drunk driving. His blood alcohol was point-one-eight, which is over the legal limit. It’s his third DUI, so he faced prison for up to ten years.”
“Jack, what do you mean byfaced. Did he lawyer up and worm his way out of it?”
Jack laughed. “Wyl, you know Shifty doesn’t have two pennies to rub together. After he slept it off, he said he lived in a rented house trailer in one of the less desirable parts of town. We went to let the landlord know, and he wanted Shifty’s belongings removed from the trailer. When we went in, we found two empty red spray paint cans. We also found a torn envelope and a wadded paper on his counter. Printed on the wadded paper was the amount of$500, as we had agreed. Thanks. I leaned on Shifty about the empty paint cans and the note on the wadded paper. He admitted not only to the gate graffiti but also to the stable fire. Let’s say Shifty didn’t exactly have words of praise for the two of you. I grilled him about the note and a partner in crime. He said it was just him, but his facial expressions and body language suggested he was not being truthful. I asked about the $500. He said he did some work for a guy. I asked who. He said he didn’t know. I asked where. He said he couldn’t remember. Mighty fishy, especially when we compared the writing on the wadded-up paper with the writing on the note wrapped around the rock tossed through your window. It appeared to be the same. I can believe Shifty painted misspelled words on the new gate, but starting fires and tossing note-wrapped rocks through windows is not something he would do by himself. Someone else is definitely involved, but we don’t have much to go on without more evidence. At least Shifty is off the streets. He’ll spend a few years enjoying the comfortable accommodations and fine cuisine as a Texas Department of Criminal Justice guest.”
