Page 43 of Backtrack

“I believe I could. He looked like …” Bierschenk tapped the rolled magazine against the side of his head in thought. “It’s on the tip of my brain. You know, the actor who played Samson Posey inThe Dirty Dozen.”

“Clint Walker,” Sue Bryant said. “That man can rob my house any day of the week.”

“Cheyenne Bodie,” Cutter said under his breath.

“That’s it,” the judge said.

Johnson cleared his throat, holding up his metal trucker’s clipboard.

Cutter gave him a nod.

“Did he look anything like this?” Johnson displayed the pencil sketch that Horton Granger had drawn at the Show Pony.

“Uncanny,” Mr. Bierschenk said. “That’s the guy.”

Ray Gene leaned in for a closer look.

“I’ve never seen him before,” he said. “Who is it?”

Cutter closed his Barlow by snapping the back of the blade against his slacks and then used the folded knife to tip back his straw hat. “No idea,” he said. “But he’s one of the suspects in the armored car robbery. Folks at the Show Pony call him the Man Cub.”

“No shit?” Bryant said.

“The Show Pony …” Deputy Grimes gave a Cheshire cat grin like he had fond memories of the place.

“How about you and Villareal go poke around the back roads to the south?” Cutter said. “See if you can scare up a black dually.”

“Do you need any more from me?” Bierschenk asked.

Bryant looked at Cutter, who shook his head. “Thanks for stopping by. Just call if you think of anything else.”

“Of course. Oh, I almost forgot.” He handed Bryant the magazine. “YourTV Guidegot put in my mailbox by mistake.”

“Why would this Man Cub come here, to our house?” Ray Gene asked after the judge had driven away.

“I find myself wondering the same thing,” Cutter said. “You were first on the scene of the armored truck, right?”

“Correct,” Bryant said. “I was on my way to work when I heard you put out the robbery call on the radio.”

“Was Mr. Foster conscious when you got to the scene?”

“He was,” Bryant said. “I found him in that dry creek bed, hiding in the grass.”

“Did he say anything to you? Maybe pass along some information?”

“Not really,” Bryant said. “Everything he told me is in my report. I gave it to Deputy Garza the day of.”

“Right,” Cutter said. “There are a lot of moving parts here. I want to be sure I’ve got it all straight in my head. You have to admit it’s odd that our mystery Man Cub came looking for something at your house.”

Ray Gene gave a tight chuckle. “Should I get a lawyer or something?”

“That’s entirely up to you,” Cutter said.

Sergeant McAllen moved closer to Ray Gene, staring daggers at Cutter. They called her Ma for a reason. Bryant was her officer.

Sue Bryant, who’d been leaning against the fender of herhusband’s truck, stood up and glared at Cutter like she wanted to carve out his liver. Even the dog looked at him with a jaundiced eye.

“My husband stopped to help,” Sue said. “He probably saved that wounded guard’s life. Are you suggesting he was involved in the robbery? You think he had something to do with gunning down those poor men? That is some unadulterated horseshit and you know it! You feckless son of a bitch! Get your ass off my—”