Page 24 of Reckoning with the Cowboy
She could hear the sounds of radios and televisions turned up too loudly as she made her way down the hallway to the last apartment. She thought she heard voices and what sounded like a woman and a man talking as she knocked on the door. The voices inside the apartment silenced.
When no one answered the door, Josie knocked again. She heard the slow thud of footfalls inside a moment before a harried-looking gray-haired woman opened the door.
Josie couldn’t recall the last time she’d seen Esther. She remembered her as being a large, stocky woman with a stern, unyielding disposition and a permanent frown. Esther had aged, gotten a little heavier, and if anything, her frown had gotten deeper. She’d never looked like a happy woman, but now her expression was as sour as if she’d just bitten into a lemon on her way to the door.
For a moment, Josie thought Esther didn’t recognize her. But then the woman laughed and said, “What areyoudoing here? I was just talking to a friend about you.”
That didn’t sound good. “I can’t imagine why my name would come up.”
Esther only laughed again as she stepped back to let Josie into the entryway hall. From what Josie could see of the too-hot cramped apartment, it was cluttered with knickknacks, making Josie feel claustrophobic. She found herself looking around, expecting to see whomever Esther had been talking to before the woman had opened the door. But the small, cramped place was empty.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a dead plant in a pot on a small table just inside the door. There was a cell phone lying next to it. Esther must have had the phone on speaker, which would explain the male voice she’d heard.
“I was hoping you could help me,” she told the elderly woman, realizing this was as far into the apartment as Esther was going to allow her. “I recall you had such a good memory when it came to people.” Wanting to make this as quick as possible for so many reasons, she hurried on. “Esther, you have a keen ability to dig deeper, see more than other people tend to see.”
The older woman seemed touched by what she took as a compliment, as Josie had intended. “I like getting to the root of things,” the woman said primly.
“Yes, you do. That’s why I knew if anyone could help me, it would be you.”
Esther beamed as Josie ran out of flattery. “I bet you know the secret of Max and Cordell Lander.” She saw the change in Esther’s expression at once. Her face closed up, her eyes narrowing. She even took a step back. She almost looked frightened.
“You do know they’re in some kind of trouble, don’t you?” Josie said even as the woman shook her head. “Because of something in their past. Esther—”
“You need to leave.” The words came out on a ragged breath as the senior citizen motioned toward the door.
“What are they running from?” Josie persisted. “You can tell me.”
Esther’s gaze shot to her phone on the table by the dead plant. But as she reached for it, Josie snatched it up. “Hello? Hello?” A deep male chuckle sent fear shuddering through her. The sound manifested into the evil, darkness and horror headed for Dry Gulch. She felt it all in that simple sound.
“Josephine Brand, is it? You sound delightful. Cordell certainly must think so.”
Fingers shaking, Josie took the phone off speaker. She looked at Esther, who avoided her gaze. “I’m sorry, who are you and why areyouinterested in Max and Cordell?” she asked, surprised her voice didn’t give away the terror making her heart pound.
“Why wouldn’t I be interested in Max and Cordell? That’s why when the cops offered me one call, I told them I wanted my lawyer, Josephine Brand.”
“I didn’t get your call.”
He laughed. “I bet not since I called Esther, who it turns out knew your boyfriend and my stepson Cordell really well.”
“Stepson?”Her voice found only dead space and she knew he’d disconnected. Feeling suddenly dirty, she dropped the phone back on the table and turned to Esther. “What have you been telling him about Cordell and Max?”
“You need to get out of my apartment,” Esther said.
“You sold them out, didn’t you?”
Looking indignant, the woman glared at her. “What do you know about it? Nothing. You have no idea what Max and Cordell are really like, what they did before they came to Dry Gulch. Now get out.”
“Tell me who he is,” Josie said through clenched teeth, even though she knew he was the man in the mug shot Max had sent her.
Esther raised her chin, defiance in her glare. “His name is Roger Grimes. He has every right to see his stepsons, especially after what they did to him. Left him for dead, after they tried to kill him. Iris thought they were such nice boys. I tried to warn her. I never trusted them.”
Josie shook her head, trying to rein in her anger and disgust. “How did you get in contact with this man?”
“I didn’t,” she said smugly. “He contacted me. He’s one of my prison pen pals. Don’t look at me like that. I get lonely. Those poor men get lonely, too.”
She had to bite her tongue at how naive Esther was. “Roger Grimes will soon be going to prison again.”
“Will he?” Esther asked innocently.
