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Susana dropped onto the couch and leaned against Ray. “Sorry, I’m just so used to worrying about him—”
“Don’t ever apologize for that.” Ray leaned in and kissed his wife. Their embrace lasted so long it soon became apparent they’d forgotten anyone was in the room.
Cooper cleared his throat and the two jumped apart. “Let’s get this over with so you can get out of here. What’d you find?”
It wasn’t much. The title transfer was from a Duane Van Pulte estate. Five years earlier, Ray had purchased the house, barn and related buildings, along with twenty acres of land and all the machinery and equipment from the Van Pulte estate. Ray had written the name Chavez and a telephone number in the margin of one of the many pieces of paper in the file.
“The guy’s name is Tómas Chavez. Maddy remembers him,” Ray said. “They were neighbors before I entered the picture. In fact, she’s hired him to do some odd jobs since then. I only met him once—the day I walked the property with him before I decided to buy it. He received official notification by mail that he would have to vacate. He had thirty days, I believe.”
This was a start. Daniel leaned forward, glad to have something to occupy his mind besides the thought of where Benny might be right now, what he might already have suffered in the hours since his kidnapping. “Did he have family? Did you meet a wife, kids?”
“I never met the rest of the family. Maddy remembers the kids, though. She says there were four of them.”
Cooper snagged a small notebook from his pants pocket along with a pen and started taking notes. “ On your way out, would you ask Mrs. Stover to come see me?”
Ray let go of Susana, stood, and grabbed their bags. With a wave and diffident smile, Susana followed him from the room.
Cooper seemed lost in thought for a moment. Daniel struggled against nausea. He couldn’t believe stress was making him feel this bad. He worked for the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He had stress for breakfast every morning.
Cooper stirred finally, his gaze sharp. “Did you find out anything from Benny’s CPS caseworker?”
“Here’s the file. I was just going through it.” Daniel held out the papers. “Doesn’t tell us much.”
“Tomorrow—”
Maddy Stover sauntered into the room. “You wanted to see me, Detective?” Even without makeup or jewelry, Ray’s neighbor was a nice looking woman. Daniel glanced at the detective. He seemed to think so, too. He immediately rose from his seat, his ruddy complexion deepening.
“Nash. Call me Nash, please.” Cooper nodded toward the couch. “Please, have a seat.”
Maddy chose a rocking chair next to the fireplace instead. “What would you like to know?”
Cooper dropped back into his chair. “How long have you lived here?”
“At Ray’s? About five months. When Ray was laid up after that car wreck, I moved in to take care of him. I had planned to sell my ranch, but I stayed when he needed me.”
Daniel’s mind replayed the horrible accident, the months of surgeries and rehab. Maddy had been a godsend to Ray and Susana—to the whole Martinez family—but Cooper knew that. He’d been around to take Ray fishing and watch ballgames on TV with him. “Actually, I meant how long have you had your ranch?”
“Oh, goodness, about twenty-five years, I guess.”
“So you knew Tómas Chavez?”
“Yes.” Her face reflected indecision, something Daniel doubted she felt very often.
“Didn’t you like him?”
“He’s a pleasant enough man, despite the way he looks, but he knew nothing about ranching. He bought horses he didn’t take care of. He didn’t feed them properly. Moldy bales of Sudan hay. Let his dogs run wild, spook our cattle. He had big parties with that accordion music—you know,conjunto. Always a line of cars down the road. I could never understand why he lived on a ranch. I tried to believe he was here getting a start on a new life, but that was probably wishful thinking on my part.”
Daniel contemplated her description of Chavez’s lifestyle. “Yet you hired him to do some work for you.”
“It seemed the Christian thing to do.” Maddy tucked a wisp of hair back into her braid, then folded her hands in her lap. “I ran into him in Helotes several months ago. I was coming out of the post office, and there he was. He looked a little . . . down and out, kind of grungy. He said if I ever needed a laborer, he was in need of work. With Ray laid up after the accident, I really did need someone. Tómas did everything I ask him to do without complaining. He worked. He got paid.”
“Did he say anything about his kids?” Cooper asked.
“No. He didn’t talk about anything. He did his work and he went home.”
“But you remember him having kids when he lived out here?”
“Yes. They were little things. All four of them. A set of twin girls and two boys, cute as all get out, but very quiet. They seemed to melt into the woodwork whenever I came round.”
