Chapter 9: LOST, STOLEN OR STRAYED

Villa Cameron... Trey was suffering an arthritic flareup, according to an apologetic Luisa over lunch out on the patio. He'd have slept off a substantial dose of laudanum by dinnertime though, and possibly they could reconvene afterwards. She hoped Murdoch would understand and find some way to entertain himself until then, as she wished to remain close to her husband.

Murdoch followed her advice and took the grey stallion out again for the afternoon, exploring the high bluffs and canyons of the surrounding countryside. Met a few of the neighbors also out enjoying the mild weather on horseback. They led him along the tortuous hidden trail that wound down the bluff to a narrow ribbon of beach. They all had a fine time splashing through the wavelets. Murdoch hadn't ridden a horse along a saltwater beach since his boyhood in Scotland and constantly had to fight Emperador to keep him out of the deeper water. He was certainly wetter than he'd expected to be by the time they all returned to the stable.

By dinnertime Murdoch wasn't feeling all that well himself and worried that he might be coming down with a cold. His bad hip was aching and he had to resort to his cane, which hadn't seen much use in recent months. He was glad he'd thought to pack it along.

Trey seemed mostly recovered by the time they'd finished their meal and repaired to the great room where the legal folder still decorated the table. After Amanda had brought in the coffee service and poured, they returned to the earlier discussion.

"You said there was a problem... what did you mean by that?" Murdoch jumped in without preamble.

Trey fiddled with the folder, pushing it away then realigning it meticulously. "Jody disappeared the day of Pilar's funeral... we haven't been able to locate him since..."

"A boy running away isn't exactly news, Trey," Murdoch interrupted. "And why involve me now... after all this time... if you don't even know where he is? He could be dead in a ditch somewhere, so what's the point of bringing me all the way to Los Angeles to tell me about a child I never knew I had and now probably won't ever meet?"

"Whoa!" Trey held up a placatory hand. "Jody's very much alive... that is the point and the problem... there're other reasons—aside from Pilar's wishes—why we decided it was necessary to bring you into the picture now... before something else happens..."

"Before what else happens? Didn't you just tell me he disappeared?"

"I did, he did... maybe I should have phrased that differently—he took off on an expedition... an odyssey of sorts.. The Pinkertons have been tracking him for the past five months. We now know where he's been... and can make educated guesses about his general whereabouts. We just haven't pinpointed his exact location... yet."

"And why is that so important? Nineteen is old enough to be out on his own. I was. You were."

"Yeah... but we weren't in his kind of trouble."

"What kind of trouble is that?"

"You want the quick and dirty version or the whole sorry story, chapter and verse?"

"The quick one, if you please..."

"There's a fistful of paper out on him... assault and battery with intent to commit bodily harm, attempted murder, horse theft, perjury, forgery, fraud, flight to avoid prosecution..."

"Oh... is that all? Murdoch's tone dripped sarcasm. "Look, I don't need this... I've already got my hands full dealing with one son who's lived outside the law all his life—what have I done to deserve this?" he implored.

"You didn't, Murdoch. None of this is your fault... but the situation is what it is and will only get worse unless he's stopped. The boy's in too far to get out by himself..."

"Maybe you'd better tell me all of it... not just the highlights," the rancher groaned.

"I hardly know where to begin..."

Murdoch grinned. "Well, according to Aristotle, first you introduce the characters and the status quo—which I'm assuming you've now done—and then you introduce the catalyst—which I'm assuming you're about to do..."

Luisa quickly intervened. "Your humor is misplaced. This is a convoluted and potentially disastrous situation that could... I say could, not will... have a direct impact on you and your family... unless we find Jody first."

That stopped the big man cold, immediately contrite. "I apologize to you both... I'm just... the idea of a threat to my family is unsettling, to say the least..."

Trey resumed. "As I was about to say... we'd received word that Pilar was failing fast, that Luisa needed to come right away. She was pregnant, remember, but the doctor in attendance told Luisa the fetus wasn't viable and had probably been dead for some time... that if Pilar'd been healthier she would've aborted spontaneously and might have survived. Anyway, Luisa was with her when she died a few hours after we arrived. This was on a Friday.

Jody'd been in with his mother behind closed doors that morning. We're assuming she made a deathbed confession of some sort that triggered an ugly scene between Ed and Jody shortly before we got there.

The boy approached us privately later that evening, after he'd calmed down, wanting confirmation of what he'd been told. We told him about you and the ranch and his brothers—everything we knew of their backgrounds. He understood that they didn't grow up on the ranch and had been with you less than a year. He didn't say anything about meeting you right then but I'm positive he's expecting that to happen in the future.

We didn't see him at all on Saturday. I was busy with Ed, making legal arrangements and such, while Luisa and the older women of the estancia were preparing the bodies. Jody showed up for the requiem mass on Sunday. His sister Martha—the eldest girl—told us later that she'd never seen him in such a state... that he vowed to avenge his mother. What he meant by that wasn't entirely clear... or whether that was directed at his stepfather or his biological father. Who knows what Pilar might have told him?"

What Murdoch was thinking was how Maria had lied to their son, leading Johnny to believe they'd been thrown out, cast aside... so that even twenty years later Johnny Madrid harbored such hate that he wanted his father dead. Might not Pilar have lied just like Maria? Was it possible that history was repeating itself? He became aware that Luisa was speaking sharply to her husband.

"Oh... so now you're insinuating that Pilar might've told the boy some fantastic story about having been taken advantage of and then discarded like last week's newspaper?"

"Simmer down, Lulu! I didn't mean it that way..."

"Well, it certainly sounds like it!"

Trey rolled his eyes and continued. "Later that afternoon, after the graveside service, Jody and Ed had another altercation out by the stables. I was there, with at least four other witnesses. We didn't see who started the fight but we all heard Jody swear he'd kill him. He went after Ed with a knife and Ed used a leaded quirt to defend himself. Ed was cut up some but the kid got the worst of it. Sometime that evening Jody went missing and wasn't present for the reading of the will the next day. With that business concluded, Luisa and I returned home."

Murdoch barely stifled a chuckle. "Ah well... it's certainly not unusual for a boy to run off like that... especially under those conditions. Johnny still does that when we have a major disagreement!"

"I hear what you're saying, Murdo... even James ran away from home a few times... it's pretty much standard behavior for a teenage boy... but this is far more serious. Ed swore out a complaint, so an arrest warrant went out. Jody wasn't anywhere to be found. A few weeks later—when Ed determined the sheriff wasn't pursuing the matter aggressively enough, he traveled to Los Angeles to engage the Pinkertons—they don't have an office in San Diego or Chula Vista.

According to my sources, Ed was a nervous wreck... he'd been looking over his shoulder ever since that day, expecting his stepson to pop out of the woodwork and gun him down or something..."

"Is the boy proficient with firearms?" Murdoch asked lightly, trying to ignore the cold knot of dread in his belly.

"He's a fair shot but he's better with a knife, so we're told."

"Have the Pinkertons been able to get a lead on him?"

"Yes... and no. He left a paper trail a blind man could follow. Within that first week he came here—to Los Angeles. He forged my signature on a petition for emancipation of a minor, which some idiot judge granted without my presence in the courtroom. This gave him all the rights of an adult and access to the trust fund his mother had set up for him..."

"Wait a minute..." Murdoch interrupted. "Where would she have got money enough for a trust fund that's worth anything? Didn't you just tell me Ed controlled her life?"

"When she left Cuba she absconded with a young fortune in jewelry she'd got from her then husband. Luisa talked her into liquidating most of it and banking the proceeds... and convinced her it'd be a bad idea to let Ed know about it. Later, when things got bad with Ed, Pilar couldn't get at it without Ed finding out it was there. We think maybe she was beginning to understand what the future held and what she needed to do for Jody's sake."

"Even then... in the beginning, she had reservations about Montero?" Murdoch asked.

Luisa sniffed. "Any woman who trusts any man one hundred percent is a fool!"

Trey looked wounded. "Even me, my beloved... after all this time?"

"Even you, my darling!"

"That's why I love this woman, Murdoch... she would never lie to me! So... back to Jody. From here he went to San Francisco where he opened two accounts with the Bank of California and obtained a letter of credit for each—one under the name of Jordan Lancer and the other as Jordáno Montero. This gave him the wherewithal to travel and he could withdraw funds whenever he needed to, using those letters of credit.

At the Pinkerton's suggestion, I—well, my law firm—tried to get holds put on those accounts but the best we could do were court injunctions instructing the banks to notify us whenever and wherever a withdrawal's made. That's provided us with an accounting as good as a road map of his travels... all the way from San Francisco to Boston and from there down to Cuba and on to Texas. From Matamoros to Los Angeles, up to San Francisco again. The information's right here... except for a two-week period between Matamoros and Los Angeles during which he returned to Crown Montero."

Trey reached over to tap the ominous blue folder. "Copies of tickets and passenger manifests. Signed statements by people who remember seeing or speaking with him. It appears he's not overly concerned about covering his tracks, but in any event he's moving too fast for anyone to catch up. Has been, anyway. That has now changed."

Both men paused to silently consider the wonders of modern transportation, of being able to travel great distances in mere days or weeks which only twenty years ago might have taken a year or better to achieve. And the significance of these particular ports of call on Jody's odyssey was all too obvious...

"He's looking to find out who we are, isn't he?" Murdoch commented quietly.

"It would seem that way. No doubt he's intensely curious about you and your family."

"Scott's family in Boston... the Garretts..."

"And isn't Matamoros where you met Johnny's mother? What on earth were you doing down there, anyway?"

"Friend of mine down there wrote, said he was having some luck breeding palomino Quarterhorses... had some stud colts he wanted me to look at..."

"Anything worth while?"

"Bought three yearlings off him and..."

"Gentlemen!" Luisa Regina cut in reprovingly. "Let's get back to Matamoros, shall we?"

"Oh... yes... right. Well... Dick King and I went out drinking a couple of nights, ended up across the river... but how would Jody have known where to look?"

"Indirectly my fault, I'm afraid," Trey sighed. "When I moved to my current firm, I brought all my old case files with me... including those dating back to our attempt to get custody of Scott. In addition—although you didn't hear this from me because it's borderline unethical—I have copies of all the Pinkerton files relating to the search for John. As Montero's current attorney of record, James is copied on everything the Pinkertons have unearthed on Jody. Jody forged a pass from me to be allowed into the archives at the firm on a day James wasn't there. Those files include my private notations up through your reunion with your sons. He has all the names, addresses and relationships. And he's nothing if not resourceful. I'm sure there were plenty of folks down in Matamoros eager to talk to him about Johnny Madrid. The Pinkertons on the new case have confirmed that he met and stayed with his Cuban relations but didn't contact anyone in Boston or Texas. You do see what's missing here, don't you?"

"Yeah... he hasn't got around to Lancer yet."

"Yet being the operative word. We... that is, Luisa, myself and James—and the Pinks... we think he might be stalking you..."

"Say again?"

"Perhaps 'stalking' isn't the best description. Ray Lemieux—he's Los Angeles director of operations—is reasonably certain Jody's working his way up to approaching you and your sons... your other sons... probably in some oblique manner rather than directly. He believes Jody will turn up on your ranch unexpectedly, though you may not know it right away or even for some time. He may already be there under an assumed name. That's his way of dealing with anything that interests him... he studies it from afar for a while before deciding what to do next. Ray would like to station an undercover agent at Lancer, with your permission of course."

"Well," Murdoch said. "I don't know what to say other than yes, he'll have my permission. I'll have to let Scott and Johnny know what's going on, though. We rarely have other white men working on the ranch, so he'd stand out. The agent, I mean..."

"I'll arrange a meeting for you with Ray. He'll probably be able to scrape up a Mexican agent. I imagine he'll also advise holding off on informing Scott and Johnny—they might inadvertently give the game away and scare Jody off."

Murdoch pointed out a problem with that. Even though they'd successfully fought off land pirates the previous year, they'd continued to have clashes with thieves, rustlers and other lowlifes intent on disruption. "My sons are vigilant about strange activities on our property. They're apt to shoot first and ask questions later if they run up against anyone acting suspiciously."

"I can't think of any reason Jody might harbor ill intent toward you and yours... I believe he's just on a reconnaisance mission to get the lay of the land, so to speak, before revealing himself. But... we can't discount the possibility he might have something else in mind because..."

Murdoch gave his head a ponderous shake. "No... we can't. You wouldn't know this, Trey, but when the boys first came to me last year, both arrived with hostile attitudes. Scott was raised to believe I'd abandoned him and Johnny was under the impression I'd thrown both him and his mother off the ranch, even though Teresa tried to tell him the truth..."

"But didn't you explain the real situation... what happened in both instances?"

"Of course I did, but it was my word against what they'd heard all their lives. Johnny admitted he'd always hated me and had been plotting for years towards the day he could put a bullet in my brain... and I'm the one who handed him that opportunity when I sent for him."

Trey was aghast. "Surely they understand now...?"

"To be perfectly honest, I still can't be one hundred percent sure they do," Murdoch said sadly. "Scott's the more logical of the two and appears to have accepted my version. Johnny, now... he had such a bad time of it growing up he may never come to acceptance... and I know there has to be a well of resentment toward his brother. In many ways Johnny is more sensitive and thin-skinned than Scott. He's acutely aware of his social shortcomings in comparison—his self-esteem is fragile to begin with and he has a very tenuous hold on it as it is. I'm afraid that having another brother brought in... also raised with all the advantages of wealth and privilege... is going to make him feel even more inadequate."

"But his reputation... even I've heard of it..."

"Veneer... a shell... the only armor he's got to protect his place in the world..."

"Are you saying it isn't justified?" Trey was confused.

Murdoch shook his head slowly. "As a father, I wish I could claim that... but it's all too real. He doesn't talk about it much... not consciously, anyway..."

"Nightmares?"

"Yes... that and in the delirium of fever... he's far from comfortable in his new skin—John Lancer, rancher. He wants to banish Johnny Madrid but at the same time he's afraid to let go completely... in case things don't work out with Lancer... with me. He thinks I don't know these things, sense his depression... but I felt it the first time he walked into the room. I'm afraid I handled it very badly and we got off on the wrong foot..."

"I'm sure time will resolve these issues, Murdo."

"You're probably right," Murdoch agreed, snapping back to the subject. "Has the boy... has Jody withdrawn a lot of money? If he's flashing around big rolls he's likely in danger..."

"Oh no... he's too smart for that... he withdraws only fifty to a hundred dollars at a time, not often and never twice at the same bank—except when he needs a large amount for a long trip."

"Where was the last bank he visited?"

"Merced... a week ago, Stockton two weeks before that. He's moving in your direction."

Murdoch swore... then sneezed mightily. "Pardon me. What happens when and if we find the boy? Simply hand him over to the authorities, he goes to prison and that's that? I want no part of it, you hear me?"

"Now Murdoch... calm down. It won't go that far... James and I are sure of that..."

"With all those charges hanging over his head? I don't see how..."

"Murdoch!" Luisa vehemence startled both of them. "What you've just heard is only the beginning of the story. What you need to hear... what you are going to hear, is the why all this came about in the first place..."