Cactus Heart - [32]
“He died in 1974.”
“A good man,” James Yarnell said. “So how can I help Doc Mapstone’s grandson?”
“I assume your brother told you about the DNA test.”
“Yes, and he also told me about you. You must have made quite an impression.”
“I’m afraid so.”
“Oh, Max is a prick, he always has been.” James Yarnell laughed from deep inside his fine suit.
“Mr. Yarnell, is there any reason the test would have turned out the way it did? Your mother was also the mother of the twins?”
“We all fell from the same tree,” he said evenly. “My uncle Win, now he was the bounder in the family. Hayden Winthrop Yarnell Jr. was his given name, but everyone called him Win. His brother, my dad Morgan, he was the straight arrow.”
“I wasn’t trying to imply…”
“Don’t worry, Mapstone,” he said. “We’re both old Arizonans here. We can speak frankly. Nobody wanted this crime solved more than me, believe me. Is there any chance they could have made a mistake?”
I told him it seemed unlikely, based on the DNA report that I spent the afternoon reading.
“What do you remember about the kidnapping?” I asked.
He looked out over the city lights. “I was sixteen years old, the older brother. The protector. I always looked after Andy and Woodrow. They were the sweetest, gentlest kids in the world, and I don’t just think that’s the treacle of sentimental memory fogging up my head.
“Anyway, we all went out to Grandpa’s for Thanksgiving. I remember how cold it was, and you know how none of us desert rats is prepared for cold weather. Grandpa had this huge fireplace at his hacienda. The hearth was made from stone quarried on his ranch in southern Arizona, Rancho del Cielo. It was framed in copper from the Yarnell Mine near Globe. And it was so wonderfully warm that night.
“I remember after dinner, all the men adjourned to Grandpa’s study to smoke cigars, drink brandy and talk politics. For the first time I was invited along, and I really felt like I was a man. Max was already asleep, he was only five. Grandpa took Andy and Woodrow to bed, and sat up with them for a while. Then he came down, and joined the talk. He was convinced Japan was going to jump on us.” He paused and swallowed. “I never saw Andy and Woodrow again.”
“Who else was there that night?”
“My mom. My dad, Morgan, and Uncle Win.”
“Any domestic help?”
James Yarnell bit his lower lip and dropped his age another five years. “Grandma died in 1936, so Grandpa had a cook. What was her name…Maria, I think? And he had a gardener named Luis. Luis Paz. He was a great guy, like a second father.”
“What about Jack Talbott?”
James Yarnell shook his head. “He was trouble. I didn’t know much at that age, but I knew he was trouble. He was Grandpa’s driver and handyman. I don’t know how he got the job. Maybe Uncle Win hired him. I don’t know.”
“Was he there that night?”
James Yarnell looked up into the torchlight and then shook his head. “I don’t believe he was.”
The sun slipped behind the mountains and the city became a vast sea of undulating blue and white and yellow diamonds.
“So what will you do?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “If the DNA test was correct, then I guess we have a totally different homicide case. But your brothers are still missing.”
Reflected in the primal orange light of the torch and the sunset, his fine features seemed to sag.
“I guess I was hoping for some answers,” he said. He groped for the word. “Some justice. But it’s not going to happen, I guess. This kidnapping began the most terrible years for my family. Dad and Uncle Win were both dead before the war was out. Bad hearts, the doctor said. Grandpa died in 1942, and his hacienda burned, this lovely stone house down by South Mountain. I was overseas in the Army by then. People started talking about a Yarnell curse.”
“You seem to have come out all right,” I said.
“Well, I’m not Max,” he said. “I’ve been lucky to be able to do what I want, which is collect and preserve Indian art. But I can’t say there are no regrets. I wasn’t there for Andy and Woodrow. And even though I was blessed with a wonderful daughter and three grandsons, I can never see little boys without thinking of Andy and Woodrow.”
He stopped and I could see the slightest mist across his eyes. Or maybe it was across mine.
I stood, thanked him and offered my hand. He shook it with both of his and thanked me for coming. Even in his sadness he had more warmth than I could ever imagine from his brother.
“One more thing,” I said, pulling a snapshot from my coat pocket. “Have you ever seen this before?”
He tilted the photograph into the light from one of the torches. “That’s my grandfather’s pocket watch.” He tried to hand back the photo.
“Are you sure? Check again.”
“It’s his. I’d know it anywhere. Where did you get this?”
When I told him, he walked a couple of steps away, staring out at the lingering Sonoran Desert twilight. I heard him say, “My God.” Then he walked back and recomposed his fine features.
“Come by the gallery sometime.”
“I’d like to,” I said. “I grew up two blocks from the Heard Museum, so I come by my love of Indian art honestly.”
A handsome young New York professor comes to Phoenix to research his new book. But when he's brutally murdered, police connect him to one of the world's most deadly drug cartels. This shouldn't be a case for historian-turned-deputy David Mapstone – except the victim has been dating David's sister-in-law Robin and now she's a target, too. David's wife Lindsey is in Washington with an elite anti-cyber terror unit and she makes one demand of him: protect Robin.This won't be an easy job with the city police suspicious of Robin and trying to pressure her.
A cache of diamonds is stolen in Phoenix. The prime suspect is former Maricopa County Sheriff Mike Peralta, now a private investigator. Disappearing into Arizona's mountainous High Country, Peralta leaves his business partner and longtime friend David Mapstone with a stark choice. He can cooperate with the FBI, or strike out on his own to find Peralta and what really happened. Mapstone knows he can count on his wife Lindsey, one of the top "good hackers" in law enforcement. But what if they've both been betrayed? Mapstone is tested further when the new sheriff wants him back as a deputy, putting to use his historian's expertise to solve a very special cold case.
Cincinnati homicide Detective Will Borders now walks with a cane and lives alone with constant discomfort. He's lucky to be alive. He's lucky to have a job, as public information officer for the department. But when a star cop is brutally murdered, he's assigned to find her killer. The crime bears a chilling similarity to killings on the peaceful college campus nearby, where his friend Cheryl Beth Wilson is teaching nursing. The two young victims were her students. Most homicides are routine, the suspects readily apparent.
Cheryl Beth Wilson is an elite nurse at Cincinnati Memorial Hospital who finds a doctor brutally murdered in a secluded office. Wilson had been having an affair with the doctoras husband, a surgeon, and this makes her a aperson of interesta to the police, if not at outright suspect. But someone other than the cops is watching Cheryl Beth.The killing comes as former homicide detective Will Borders is just hours out of surgery. But as his stretcher is wheeled past the crime scene, he knows this is no random act of violence.
The private-detective business starts out badly for former Phoenix Deputy David Mapstone, who has teamed up with his old friend and boss, Sheriff Mike Peralta. Their first client is gunned down just after hiring them. The case: A suspicious death investigation involving a young Arizona woman who fell from a condo tower in San Diego. The police call Grace Hunter's death a suicide, but the client doesn't buy it. He's her brother. Or is he? After his murder, police find multiple driver's licenses and his real identity is a mystery.
Книга написана по сценарию известного российского драматурга А.В. Тимма.Франц Хартман и Ангелина Виннер, подстроившие автокатастрофу, в которой погиб хозяин «Империи» Владимир Кирсанов, намерены идти до конца. Теперь они замышляют убийство его жены Ольги и несовершеннолетнего сына Вани, наследника «трона». Волею случая Лавру суждено сыграть роль доброго ангела в судьбе женщины и ребенка.
Книга написана по сценарию известного российского драматурга А. В. Тимма.Конкуренты хозяина «Империи» Владимира Кирсанова подстроили автокатастрофу. Он гибнет, а его жена Ольга чудом остается жива. Пока она лежит в коме, адвокат Ангелина Виннер и бывший компаньон погибшего Андрей Семирядин пытаются завладеть наследством Кирсанова. Но его сын Ваня прерывает учебу в Лондоне и с помощью «сладкой парочки», музыкального Санчо и неувядающей Клавдии, возвращается на Родину, чтобы продолжить дело отца.
Обстоятельный и дотошный инспектор амстердамской полиции Ван дер Вальк расследует странное убийство домохозяйки («Ать-два!»). Героям известного автора детективов предстоят жестокие испытания, прежде чем справедливость восторжествует.
Книга написана по сценарию известного российского драматурга А.В. Тимма. На страницах романа вы встретитесь со старыми знакомыми, полюбившимися вам по сериалу «NEXT», — благородным и великодушным Лавром, его сыном Федором, добродушным весельчаком Санчо и решительной Клавдией. Увлекательное повествование вводит в мир героев, полный настоящих рыцарских подвигов и романтических приключений.
Предать жену и детей ради любовницы, конечно, несложно. Проблема заключается в том, как жить дальше? Да и можно ли дальнейшее существование назвать полноценной, нормальной жизнью?…
Будущее Джимми Кьюсака, талантливого молодого финансиста и основателя преуспевающего хедж-фонда «Кьюсак Кэпитал», рисовалось безоблачным. Однако грянул финансовый кризис 2008 года, и его дело потерпело крах. Дошло до того, что Джимми нечем стало выплачивать ипотеку за свою нью-йоркскую квартиру. Чтобы вылезти из долговой ямы и обеспечить более-менее приличную жизнь своей семье, Кьюсак пошел на работу в хедж-фонд «ЛиУэлл Кэпитал». Поговаривали, что благодаря финансовому гению его управляющего клиенты фонда «никогда не теряют свои деньги».