Free Bloodville by Don Bullis Page B

day before yesterday—November eighteenth. Isn't that a fact?‖
―Yes sir, I was. We went back to Albuquerque about noon.‖
―Why?‖
―Well, we was about ready to go on to California. Darlene told her aunts good-bye. She wanted to tell Austin and Charlotte good-bye, too. Darlene's got another sister at the Albuquerque Indian School she wanted to see. So we went to the car wash, but Austin wasn't there, and he wasn't at his house either. We drove around for a while then went back to the house. He was back from getting Charlotte out of the hospital. We stayed there last night. I watched the football game this morning and Darlene and Charlotte washed some clothes. About eight o'clock, or so we left for California. Then those cops grabbed us out by Grants.‖
―What football game?‖
―There were a couple on. Dallas was in one of them and San Diego was in one. Houston too, I think.‖
―Who won?‖
―I didn't pay that much attention. I think Dallas won and San Diego lost, but I wouldn't swear to it.‖
―Dallas lost to Washington. Upset. Twenty-seven to twenty.
I watched the game. San Diego beat Kansas City seventeen sixteen. The Houston game wasn‘t televised in Albuquerque. Help yourself out here, Larry. Name any one of the quarterbacks in the two games.‖
―I don‘t know. Like I said, I didn‘t pay too much attention.
I think it was John Meredith for the Cowboys.‖
―Don Meredith started but Craig Morton played most of the game. I don‘t think you saw any football games.‖
―But I did, I just like baseball better‘n football. That all.‖
―Sure. When‘d you get to New Mexico?‖
―Last Tuesday. In the afternoon.‖ The sailor's mouth and throat were dry. ―Can I have a drink of water?‖
―When we're finished. Where‘d you go?‖
―When?‖
―When you first got to New Mexico.‖
―Oh.‖ Bunting wiped sweat off his forehead with his index finger. ―To McCarty's Village. To Darlene's aunt's house.‖
―So you're telling me that you've been in and around McCarty's Village, and Budville, for the better part of a week, but at the precise time that Bud Rice and Blanche Brown were slaughtered like Christian martyrs, you were fifty, sixty miles away, with a bunch of people willing to provide you with an alibi.‖
―That's the way it was, sir.‖
Wilcoxson stood and leaned across the desk. He spat his words at Bunting's face. ―Flossie Rice said she saw you kill her husband and her best friend. You! She saw you shoot them down! Now who in the hell do you think I'm going to believe? Her, or you and a bunch of goddamn drunk Indians? You can figure that out, can't you?‖ ―But I didn't....‖
The ADA stood and turned his back on the suspect. ―Go ahead and book him, Morris. Be sure and get a good set of prints so we can match them up with the ones we got in the store and take a half dozen Polaroids of him. I expect your criminal agents‘ll want mug shots to shore up the ID on this bastard. Charge him with two open counts of murder. Make that first degree. With aggravation. I'm going home to bed. I'll have to be back out here in the morning for arraignment.‖
―You gonna need me for that, Don?‖ Candelaria asked.
―No. Jack and I can handle it. Thanks for your help, Mo. Be seeing you.‖

CHAPTER VII
    Doc Spurlock arrived in Villa de Cubero on Monday at 4:00 a.m. on the dot. He thought Mat Torrez showed signs of a shortage of sleep. Dark bags under the captain‘s eyes made him look older than his years. Doc poured them each a cup of coffee. Mat would like to have laced it with vodka, but he wouldn‘t do it in front of Doc.
    ―I got more coffee in the car, Cap. Stole my kid's Flash Gordon thermos bottle.‖
― Muchisimas gracias , Doc. Gunn‘s Cafe doesn't open until six. I would have died and gone to hell by then without some coffee.‖
    ―So, Cap, they got the guy, right?‖
―They got a guy. Flossie seems to think he is the one.‖ ―If that's the case, and I don't mean no disrespect,