I met Aiden at the hotel and we went to the private dining room which he'd reserved for our lunch. He was smiling and seemed glad to see me, which was a nice change from the feeling I'd gotten at Bates office. We shook hands and sat down, and Aiden recommended what they called a 'club sandwich.' I drank sweet tea instead of coffee; for once I wanted something that didn't burn its way down my throat. We made small talk until lunch arrived, and then Aiden gave instructions for us to be left undisturbed for a while.
"Bart, I wanted to talk to you about . . . Billy and Evy. And that night."
I stared down at my plate for a minute. "Billy told me what happened. What actually happened."
Aiden ran his hand through his hair. "About that . . . "
I sat and waited. Finally I asked, "Yes?"
"What Billy told you is wrong."
"But he remembers . . . "
He put up his hand to stop me. "He gave you what he thinks is the truth, Bart. He told you the story about seeing Brice McNair's horse out front of the house and bringing Evy back to my place, right?"
"Yeah," I nodded. "That's the one."
"Wrong. All wrong. McNair's horse was around back. I know because that's where I found it when I went to kill him."
"When you . . . Billy said he went to the house to kill Barbara Jean."
Aiden let loose a big sigh and a frustrated look. "I'm sure he did, but that's not what happened. You need to know the truth, in case Evelyn remembers that night."
"Evy was there? Then Billy didn't . . . "
"Get her back to my place? No, he didn't. She was there at the house the whole time." Aiden stopped and pushed his plate out of the way, then clasped his hands in front of him and rested them on the table. At long last he began the tale of what really happened the night Barbara Jean Sunday was killed.
"Billy confided in me some time after he'd caught Barbara and Brice together. For some reason I suspected right away that she'd lied to him and hadn't quit seeing McNair, who'd gone to work for Dave Hollingsworth over in Mesilla. So I kept my eyes and ears open, and about six months later I spotted them together when I went to Mesilla on business. After that I started watching her. What I intended to do, I don't know.
"Billy seemed to be trying his best to make everything work in the marriage, but two or three times Evy made totally innocent remarks that led me to believe my instincts were right. I even went over to see Barbara Jean when Billy was out of town, trying to convince her to be the kind of wife a man like Billy deserved. She laughed at me, told me she was a grown woman and it was none of my business. Since I couldn't get through to her, I rode over to Hollingsworth's to talk to Brice. He was ugly and defiant. Had no respect for Billy or the marriage, basically laughed in my face and told me to go away. Never pretended to love her; he was just using her to get what he wanted.
"So the Saturday that Billy and Evy were up at the cabin, I decided there was only one way out of it, and that was to get rid of McNair. I'd given it a lot of thought and come to the conclusion that as long as he was around nothing was gonna change. I came in the back way; that's how I knew where his horse was. I caught 'em together, Bart – and it made me sick. I made them get dressed and ordered him outside – and that's when Billy and Evy arrived. I turned my attention to Billy for just a minute – to tell him to get Evy out of there – and Brice pulled his gun and shot, but not at me – he shot at Billy and Evy. That's when I killed him.
"Barbara Jean scrambled for his gun and took aim at her husband. I didn't have any choice – I shot her. Evy ran out of the room right before that happened; she didn't see me kill her mother. That's when Billy's mind – well, it just seemed to go off somewhere by itself. He started babbling about him shooting her, and I had other things to deal with. I got rid of McNair's body and his horse, then came back to address the mess I'd left there. Billy was right about some of it – when I came back he was holding Barbara's body and rocking her. I cleaned him up and cleaned the room, then sent Clint for the sheriff.
"I think Micah knew that something happened other than what I told him, but he never questioned my story; and Billy, thank God, was too incoherent to pay any attention to. Micah Sparks was the sheriff. I don't know what Evy saw or heard – he never questioned her. Billy'd gotten it in his head that he ran Brice off and killed Barbara Jean, and nothing I said could convince him otherwise. I finally persuaded him to keep his mouth shut for Evy's sake, and that's the way it's been ever since."
Aiden looked like a man who's been drug through hell and back when he finally quit talking. He was pale and sweating – almost as if he'd just lived through the nightmare he'd explained to me, instead of it being more than ten years ago. I had to ask him, "Why did you trust me enough to tell me all this? You barely know me, Aiden."
"Doesn't matter," he replied quickly. "Billy trusts you. That's good enough."
"What am I supposed to do, now that I know the honest-to-God truth?"
Billy's best friend shook his head. "Nothing. But somebody needed to know. Somebody besides Billy and me. Just in case . . . "
"In case what, Aiden? In case Evy asks about it? Why couldn't you tell her?" Carmichael didn't answer me; he didn't have to. I could see it in his eyes. Billy Sunday wasn't the only one that was dying. "How long?"
He shook his head. "Don't know for sure. Probably not long." He changed his line of sight, looking straight at me. "That has to stay between us, alright?"
I nodded. Too much dying goin' on. I didn't know Aiden very well, but I liked him. First Billy, now him. Like I said, too much dying. "It will. Unless Evy asks me."
He smiled then, an ironic little smile, and seemed to be at peace with it all. "Billy picked right. Fell in love with her already, haven't you?"
I returned a sheepish little grin. "Guess so."
"Have you told her?"
I shook my head 'no.' "What if she doesn't feel the same way?"
He almost snorted, trying to suppress the laugh. "I've seen her watching you. You've got nothing to worry about."
I wondered if he was right. Maybe it was time I found out.
XXXXXXXX
Noble must have questioned just who it was riding him back down Valpariso Road, because my mind was on anything besides him. And if I didn't already have sufficient information to think about, Aiden had given me a whole new picture of the actual events of the night Barbara Jean Sunday and Brice McNair were killed. As if that wasn't enough, Carmichael insisted to me that Evy felt about me the same way I felt about her. What if he was correct? Worse yet, what if he was wrong?
Once I got back to the ranch I had to put all of the worries and concerns aside; Evy and I were supposed to sit down with Billy and go over the bookkeeping for the operations. I wasn't worried about staying awake; I was worried about all the responsibilities I seemed to have suddenly assumed. I'd turned into a teacher, a guide, a keeper of secrets, and a man thinking about the unthinkable – marriage and death.
Fortunately the system that was set up wasn't too complicated; as a matter of fact, it reminded me a whole lot of the way Sally Bodeen had set up Sassy Sally's paperwork in Dodge City. I was a lot less concerned about that once I'd gotten a good look at things. We spent most of the afternoon learning the ins and outs of Billy's system, and around six o'clock Tenora knocked on the study door to let us know that supper was ready. "Billy, can we talk for a minute after dinner?"
"Sure, Bart. Here or on the ride to town?"
"Here, if that's alright."
"Fine. Soon as we're done."
I nodded and followed Billy and Evy in to supper. I had some things to discuss with Mr. Sunday, and I wanted to get them off my chest before we went to La Cruces. Not the least of which was the ranch ownership problem I'd run into with Sam Bates. I was hoping I'd feel better about it after I'd made my sentiments known.