Vengeance is Blind: Three Scott Drayco Short Mysteries Read Online Free PDF Page B

Kinlichee was ready
to move on.
    It was half-past three when the first sounds
of a low rumble reached their ears. Kinlichee’s knowing eyes had
grown wide, and he’d yelled, “Flash flood!”
    Leading the way, Kinlichee darted toward one
of the permanent metal ladders the Navajo installed after a
drowning tragedy in that very canyon years ago. It was about a
hundred feet away, and Kinlichee could have easily made it to
safety.
    If Pichford hadn’t stuck out his foot and
tripped him.
    Despite their imminent danger, this was the
moment Drayco remembered the new hand-made leather pouch on the bed
in Kinlichee’s cabin. The one with a purple cactus flower design,
the symbol for courtship among some native tribes. He really should
have paid more attention to the neighbor’s tales of Natalie’s
unhappiness.
    As Drayco bent down to help Kinlichee, he
cast a glance back into the canyon where they’d been only moments
before and saw a roiling stream of brown foamy liquid tumbling
their way. By the time the wall of water was up to Drayco’s waist,
all thoughts of reaching that metal ladder were swept away as
cleanly as the bodies of the three men would be very soon.
    Pulled under by the onslaught, Drayco
somehow managed to push against the canyon floor, giving a little
prayer of thanks for his six-four frame, and hauled himself up on a
ledge. Kinlichee soon surfaced near the ledge, and also managed to
get hold of a piece of it. Then the two men grabbed Pichford as he
bobbed by, helping him up to their precarious refuge.
    Kinlichee glared at Pichford and managed to
gasp out between deep breaths, “What the hell did you do that for,
kicking me like that?”
    Pichford couldn’t answer, busy coughing from
the mouthful of brackish water he’d swallowed, so Drayco spoke up.
“As bizarre as it may seem right now, I think he was aiming to get
back at you for the affair with his wife.”
    Kinlichee’s eyes were dark with anger, but
there was also something else. Guilt, perhaps? He shook his head.
“We broke it off.”
    Pichford finally managed to quiet his
coughs, his newly-raw throat giving his voice a harsh, rasping
quality. “That’s a pretty story, if I ever heard one.” With a look
over at Drayco, he added, “He’s not the first, you know. And I’ve
also seen the way she looks at you. Did my oh-so-friendly wife take
you out back of the calving barn for one of her private tours?”
    It couldn’t get more surreal. Three men
having a conservation about who did what with whom as roiling flood
waters threatened imminent doom mere inches below.
    Drayco looked at the water, then back at the
other men. Before being swept away into oblivion, he had to get the
answer to one burning question. “So the cattle laming was a
smokescreen? I’m guessing you used one of your wife’s
leather-working tools to do the deed.”
    Pichford coughed a few more times. “I was
too proud to admit my wife was cheating on me. During the course of
your investigation, I’d counted on you finding out about the
affair. And who the bastard was so I could get evidence for a
divorce. As it turns out, I discovered it on my own. When I saw you
were the latest among her conquests, I realized I was going to have
to take care of the problem myself.”
    Drayco’s hands were beginning to shake from
clutching the rock face while simultaneously grasping Pichford’s
arm to steady the man. He didn’t have much energy left to argue his
innocence with Pichford, and it hardly seemed to matter right
now.
    When Pichford’s coughing suddenly grew
quiet, Drayco turned to check on him. He was just in time to watch
as Pichford kicked Kinlichee off the ledge.
    “Good God, man, you’re insane!” Drayco
watched helplessly as Kinlichee disappeared downstream. “Couldn’t
you have just settled this in a bar brawl?”
    Pichford was surprisingly subdued, despite
having just committed murder if Kinlichee didn’t survive. “I really
loved Natalie, you know,” he said,