He shook Rex's hand, looked at Arthur, and said, "You the one my boy spent the night in a diner for?" " I suppose I am," Arthur said carefully. " Huh," Dutch said. He sat down, poured himself coffee, and looked at Rex. " What do you need?"
Rex laid it out. He needed records, specifically any financial transactions touching Arthur's accounts in the last 8 months. He needed information on Bernard Leeke's medical license and any prior disciplinary actions. He needed to know who the tenant was in Arthur's house and what kind of lease had been filed. And he needed it without touching anything that would tip off Daniel before they had enough to matter.
Dutch listened without writing anything down. " The supplements," Dutch said when Rex finished, "you think it was something specific?" " Something that mimics dementia symptoms short-term," Rex said. " There are things that'll do that. Not hard to get if you know where to look and you've got a doctor willing to sign off on the prescription."
Dutch looked at Arthur. " You still have any of them, the pills?" " Daniel took the bottle." Arthur said. " The bottle?"
Dutch said. " But did you have any loose in a pocket, a drawer, a coat?" Arthur thought about it. His expression changed. " My other coat, the one in the trailer." "
I put two of them in the pocket last week because I thought I might forget to take them. I never went back for the coat." Dutch looked at Rex. Rex said, "Where's the trailer?" The trailer was unlocked.
That was the first thing not surprising, not for a man who had nothing left worth taking, but still something that hit Rex low when Arthur pushed the door open and the cold air inside hit them both and it became immediately evident that it was barely warmer inside than out. Arthur walked through his own space with the careful diminished movements of a man who has been made to feel that he's occupying something that doesn't belong to him anymore. He touched things lightly, moved around the small table past the narrow cot with a single thin blanket to a coat hung on a hook near the door. He reached into the right pocket, pulled out two small capsules in a plastic sandwich bag. Dutch took it from him with a gloved hand, sealed it in an evidence bag he'd pulled from his jacket and labeled it with a marker. "
That's enough." Dutch said. " If this is what I think it is, that's enough." Rex watched Arthur standing in the middle of the trailer holding his coat looking around at the space that had been the whole of his life for 4 months. A cot, a hot plate, a small stack of books on the floor, a framed photograph on the narrow shelf above the cot, a woman in a garden, dark-haired, laughing at something off camera, caught in the particular way that photographs catch people at the exact moment they forgot they were being watched.
Margaret. Arthur picked up the photograph, held it. " I can't stay here," Arthur said. " You're not staying here," Rex said. Arthur looked at him. "
Let's go," Rex said. They did. They were back in the truck when Rex's phone rang. He didn't recognize the number. He answered it anyway. "
Mr. Maddox?" A man's voice, professional, measured. The leather folder man from the diner. " My name is Grant Ellison. I represent Daniel Brennan.
I want to be very direct with you about something." " Go ahead," Rex said. " You're currently involving yourself in a private guardianship matter involving a man with documented cognitive decline and his legal family representative." " I'd encourage you to understand that what you're doing could expose you to significant legal liability interference with a guardianship arrangement potentially contributing to the flight of a ward." " Tell me something," Rex said. "
Did Daniel have you on call last night waiting to see what happened with the old man on the bridge? Because that's a fast turnaround on paperwork." Silence. Brief, carefully controlled silence. " I'd encourage you to think very carefully about your next steps," Ellison said. "
I'd encourage you to look up the name Carla Webb," Rex said. " Montana Elder Justice Project. She's already been briefed and she's already made three calls this morning." Another silence ship horn. Longer. "
You should also know," Rex said, "that we have a physical sample from the supplements Arthur Brennan was given and a lab that can process it by end of business today." He paused. " So, when you talk to Daniel, you tell him that the window for this to be a private matter closed about 12 hours ago." He ended the call. Dutch was watching him from the driver seat. ""
Do we actually have a lab that can process it by end of business?"" Dutch asked. " We will in about 20 minutes when you call your guy in Great Falls," Rex said. Dutch nodded. " Right."
He started the truck. " Where are we going?" Rex looked in the side mirror. Down the road behind them, a black car had pulled to the shoulder and stopped, watching. " Somewhere Daniel doesn't know about," Rex said, "and somewhere Arthur can eat a real meal and sleep in a real bed."
From the back seat, Arthur said quietly, "I haven't done that in a long time." Neither of them answered that. They didn't need to because some things don't need answering. They just need witnessing. And Rex Maddox, who had spent most of his adult life being something people crossed the street to avoid, found himself gripping the door handle of a truck in the Montana morning and understanding with a clarity that surprised him that he was exactly where he was supposed to be.
Behind them, the black car pulled back onto the road, following. Rex watched it in the mirror and felt something that wasn't quite fear and wasn't quite anger. It was the feeling of knowing a fight was coming, and for the first time in a long time, the fight was worth having. The black car followed them for 11 miles before Dutch lost it on a county road that didn't show up correctly on most navigation systems. Dutch knew the road because he'd grown up in this part of Montana and had spent a considerable portion of his 20s learning which roads went where and which ones disappeared into themselves and which ones came out somewhere unexpected.
It was the kind of knowledge that had no legitimate professional application and a great many illegitimate ones, and right now Rex was grateful for every mile of it. They ended up at a property outside of town called Garrison, a small house that belonged to a woman named Bev, who was Dutch's cousin twice removed and who asked zero questions when Dutch called ahead and said he needed somewhere quiet for a couple of days. Bev showed them in, pointed at the kitchen, told Arthur the bed in the back room had fresh sheets, and left for her sister's house in Deer Lodge without looking back. Arthur stood in the kitchen and looked around and said, "She didn't even ask who I was." " Bev doesn't need reasons."
Dutch said. " She needs about 48 hours of advance notice and somebody to water her plants and Dutch delivers on both. He pulled open the refrigerator. " You want eggs?" Arthur sat down at the kitchen table.
Rex watched him sit the particular way he lowered himself into the chairs careful and deliberate like a man who'd learned that comfort was something that could be taken away and so approached it cautiously. " Arthur," Rex said, "I need to ask you something and I need you to think about it carefully." Arthur looked at him. " Were there ever other people at the house when Daniel visited or when the doctor came? Other older people, neighbors, he brought up in conversation, people he mentioned having helped?"
Arthur was quiet for a moment, then his expression shifted, something surfacing through the fog of the last several months, something specific. " There was a woman," Arthur said slowly, "Helen, Helen Marsh. She lives about 6 miles east of town on the old Marsh property. Widowed. Her husband, Roy, passed 2 years ago."
He paused. " Daniel mentioned her once, said he'd been helping her with her estate since she had no family close by. He said it like it was like he was being charitable." Rex and Dutch looked at each other. " How old is Helen?"
Rex asked. " 80, maybe? 81?" " Does she have the same doctor, Leek?" Arthur thought about it and then quietly with the particular horror of a man watching two separate things connect into something larger than either of them. "
He mentioned her name at one of the appointments. I didn't think anything of it at the time. He just said Bernard had been out to check on her as well. I thought it was because" He stopped. " I thought it was because Daniel was being a good neighbor."