“Can you ride a horse? If you can’t, you can either walk in, which will be tough on you because of the altitude—it’s nearly ten thousand feet at the top of the cliffs—or you can give me a message to take up to John.” “I imagine I can stay on a tame horse for a while.” Her quick smile flickered across her face. “All right. Where are you staying?” “I don’t know. I just got here.” “It seems like there are a thousand motels in Durango. Find one and call me and tell me where you are, and I’ll meet you there in the morning. Say, nine o’clock?” “Nine o’clock is fine.” I pulled my eyes away from her and looked at her mother. “You and John close?” Wilma looked at me thoughtfully, then nodded. “Yes. We’re kinfolk. We’re friends, too.” I thought of how policemen always start looking at the kinfolk when they encounter a crime of violence and don’t know who did it. “All right,” I said. “There’s a man from back east who wants to meet John, but it’s not in John’s best interests to meet him now.
