Dog Gone Lies (Pacheco & Chino Mysteries Book 1) (24 page)

“Fair enough Sam. You should hold them both until you hear officially from the FBI, but it needs to be the FBI out of Washington D.C., a man named Crawford. You do what you think is right. And if you need to arrest me, call me and I’ll turn myself in, or you can find me in T or C.”

Ray turned around and left. Tyee followed.

“Ray that seemed kind of crazy to me. The whole thing with Martinez, was that planned or did you just go nuts?”

“I think you have wonderful insight into human beings Tyee, and I will always trust your judgment. What I did was nuts—but it was nuts because otherwise some people were going to get hurt. I didn’t know if that was going to be Monica, or me, or you, or Clayton—or maybe even Big Jack—but someone was going to get hurt. The problem we had was that we didn’t know why. What was the crime at the source—the thing that these people were committing new crimes to cover up? It all looked like a mixed up mess with no meaning. Well, I scared the crap out of the weakest link and now I know.”

“You know what all of this is about?”

“Think so.”

Friday

It seemed like it had been a long time since Ray had slept in his cabin. He really enjoyed where he lived. It made him wonder why he was out looking for trouble—and finding it—when he could just stay here in complete calm and occasionally go fishing. But he knew the answer: he would be bored silly. Plus, he enjoyed the sense of accomplishment of a job well done.

As of this morning, though, he wasn’t feeling any sense of accomplishment. It felt a lot more like he’d stirred up one big pile of shit. He knew Martinez was worthless, but what Ray was doing better work out or he’d probably be looking for a new home, somewhere far away.

Ray was fixing coffee when there was a knock on the door. Normally Ray would have just opened it, but today he was on edge. He found his service revolver and eased up to the door.

“Who is it?”

“Man, that’s not very friendly. How many people even come up to this place?”

Ray pulled the door open and gave Sue a big hug.

She noticed the gun. “What’s going on Ray? There’s some kind of crazy story going on that you arrested Martinez because he arrested Clayton. Can you still arrest people?”

Ray laughed. He quickly realized how much he had missed her in the last few days.

“Well, actually, I think that’s being debated as we speak. I’m very happy to see you. Don’t you work the morning shift—didn’t get fired did you?”

“No, they let me take some time off if I’d come back and tell them what’s going on.”

“Ah, I see—you’re spying.”

The phone rang and they both jumped.

“Hey, you have a phone—when did that happen?”

“This morning. I didn’t think anyone had the number yet.”

Ray went over and answered. He listened.

“Okay, thanks, I’ll call her.”

“You’re calling girlfriends now?”

“Not exactly. That was Tyee, he’s down at Big Jack’s. There was a message from Monica Jackson. She seemed pretty upset about a package she received. I’m sorry, Sue—do you mind if I return her call?”

“No that’s fine, I understand. But I think I’m going to miss the time when this place didn’t have a phone.” She got up and stepped out onto the porch with Happy.

“Monica, this is Ray—what’s going on?”

“Ray, this is unbelievable. I was just looking through my mail. It’d been stacking it up for some time and I hadn’t really been paying attention. In the pile there was an envelope addressed to me and it was Ed’s handwriting. It gave me a chill. When I opened it there were several pages of information about the gang, or whatever you want to call them—the people Ed was dealing with. Plus there are some names of people who Ed knew were behind the whole thing. He signed a confession detailing the whole operation as far as he knew it, naming names. There are also photos of various people. I recognized one of the creeps who took me, and who shot Mrs. Richards. What should I do, Ray?”

Maybe this was what they’d been looking for all along. They knew Ed had put together a “get out of jail free” package, but they killed him anyway. Or maybe they only found out after he was killed and didn’t know where it was. It started to make sense to Ray on why the goons seemed so eager to use the amount of force they had with Monica.

“Monica, can you leave right now—would the dogs be okay?”

“I guess so. The deputies are still here. Do you think I’m at risk?”

“I need you and the information to be safe. What I’d like is for you to get in your car and drive to my cabin. I can make sure you’re safe. We can review the information and decide what to do. I think it’s very important for everybody that we’re together for the next couple of days.”

Ray debated with himself about what to do. He could go there or Tyee could go. Or he could have Monica go to the Bernalillo sheriff and give him the information, but he was hesitant to have anyone else see the information until he knew exactly what it was and what it meant. He knew he was becoming paranoid. Of all of the options, the one he liked the most was for Monica to leave immediately and drive to his place. He knew he only had one more day before the deputies stopped watching her, at which point something would have to be done. He was probably burning his bridges to both the Bernalillo sheriff and his friend the Attorney General, though, because of what he did yesterday with Martinez. He decided time was short and it was necessary for Monica to drive to him—for her safety and his.

“Ray, if that’s what you want me to do, that’s what I’ll do. I think it’ll take me a couple of hours to get ready and to make arrangements for the dogs. I’ll do that and then drive to your cabin. I’m not sure I remember where your cabin is, though.”

“Go to T or C and go to the Lone Post Café. I’ll wait there for you. If you leave in two hours you’ll be here in four. You need to stay on that schedule, otherwise I won’t know what’s going on. Are you okay with this?”

“I think so. You’re scaring me a little bit, but I’ll be there on time.” They hung up.

Ray went out onto the porch and told Sue what was going on. He didn’t give her all of the details, but enough for her to realize there were people in danger. He went back inside and called Tyee. Ray told him what was happening and asked Tyee if he could stay at the cabin for a few days until the situation was resolved. They agreed on a good spot to hide the key in case Ray left.

Ray went back out and sat next to Sue on the porch. Happy was lying next to her so she could rub him occasionally.

“Seems like your world is changing. You came up here to retire and now you’re fighting the bad guys just like before, only without all of the support troops. Is this really what you want to do?”

Ray noticed the implied criticism. It didn’t bother or surprise him. He’d been in law enforcement for most of his life, and every person he ever got close to eventually thought the risk was too high for the reward. It was hard to explain why you did it, but there was nothing else that could give you the same feeling. No doubt it was the power and the adrenaline when things happened, but there was also a sense of accomplishment—you mattered.

“I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense, Sue. I just know that this is what I want to do. It makes me feel useful, and maybe even important. It’s probably wrong, and I’m too old to be running around punching young sheriffs, but I sure feel alive.”

“You punched the sheriff?”

“That’s a slight exaggeration. I shoved him into the wall.”

Sue leaned over and gave him a kiss. He mentioned that he had a few hours open before he had to meet his next woman. Sue gave him a pretty good slug to the shoulder, then took him inside. They felt completely comfortable with each other.

Sue told Ray that she thought she should stay at the cabin while he went to town to meet Monica. It was clear that Sue was going to stay put as long as Monica was around. Ray knew this, didn’t completely understand it—but at the same time, found it pleasing. Happy decided to stay with Sue as Ray headed to the Jeep.

He drove into town alternately thinking about Sue and wondering what was in the package Monica was bringing. He entered the Lone Post Café and immediately realized he should have told Monica to meet him at the Firestone store or Smith’s grocery or something. This place was packed with living, breathing gossip machines.

Ray sat at the small lunch counter and ordered coffee.

“Hey, Ray. Sue’s not here today. Actually, we thought she was with you.”

Ray hated this small town nonsense.

“She’s at my cabin—I’m meeting my cousin, who’s visiting. She doesn’t know the way to the cabin. So, going to meet her here and Sue is waiting for us at the cabin.”

Ray sipped his coffee. Thirty minutes after the agreed time, Ray started to worry. If something happened to Monica because he’d asked her to drive here, Ray would never forgive himself. He should have just called the Bernalillo sheriff and had them escort Monica to their office with the documents. Ray should have driven up there. That seemed to make more sense to him now than what he’d asked her to do—he was really worried. He got up and was going to the payphone, when Monica walked in.

“Monica, I was so worried that something had happened.” His concern was all over his face.

“It’s okay, Ray. I’m sorry I worried you. It took me a little longer than I thought to put together all of the arrangements. My neighbor is just too old to handle the dogs. I asked the man down the street if he could if I paid him. So then we had to work out a price and I took him around and introduced him to the dogs—well, it just took longer. But here I am.”

Ray realized his behavior didn’t fit with his story of greeting a cousin, but couldn’t do anything about it. He hurried Monica out the door and back to her car. He told her in a general way where they were going and said that she should just follow him. Once they got outside of town, Monica followed very close—as if Ray might try to get away. He drove slower than usual, so it took a little longer than normal to get to the cabin. Pulling up to the cabin, he could see Tyee and Sue sitting in the chairs on the porch. Monica pulled in behind him.

Ray introduced Monica to Sue, but they said they already knew one another. Monica remembered how nice Sue had been to her when her tires had been slashed. They greeted each other like sisters. It was amazing to Ray how easy women were with each other and how hard it was to even get a man to smile.

They all went into the cabin. Monica immediately gave Ray the package. Ray sat down and started going through the material. It was explosive stuff—no wonder people had been killed. After Ray had finished, he addressed the group.

“There’s no question in my mind that this implicates some important people in some serious crimes and has put us all at risk. You need to know that being here puts you in danger. Sue in particular, you need to be aware that your safest recourse right now is to leave.”

“Not sure what’s going on, but I’m not leaving. If this is going to be some kind of Wild West shootout, all I ask is that you give me a gun.”

“White man’s woman got guts.”

Sue and Monica looked at Tyee like he had just said the strangest thing possible. Only Ray knew this was his way of easing tension.

“Tyee in his vast Indian wisdom hit the nail on the head. Sue and, also you, Monica are very brave. I don’t believe there will be a shootout. But we’ll need to be extra careful. I’m going to make some calls and see if we can get some assistance.”

Ray went to make the calls. Sue looked at Tyee like she wasn’t sure who he was—and he winked at her. She began to laugh and soon all of them, even Monica, were laughing.

Ray had called Sheriff Diaz in Las Cruces and told him that he had corroborating evidence of some serious crimes involving Martinez. The sheriff reported that Martinez was still in jail, but that he’d released Clayton. Jeff Young had gotten an El Paso federal judge to sign for the release. Ray thanked the sheriff and told him he was contacting the FBI and hoped that Sam would have all of the information shortly.

Ray then called the T or C sheriff’s office.

“Hello, sheriff’s office.”

“Cindy, is Deputy Clayton there?”

“Yes, he is. He’s been trying to find you—he was just headed out to Big Jack’s. Just a minute, I’ll get him.”

“Ray, where are you?”

“Dan, it’s good to hear your voice. I’m at my cabin. The new phone line was just put in. I need some protection, deputy. I have a long story to tell you. The bottom line is that there are some very dangerous people looking for the information I have in my hands. Could you send someone out to my cabin to help secure this area?”

“I’ll be there is just a few minutes.”

Ray then called Crawford in Washington, but got his voice mail. He left a message saying that he needed to talk and gave his new phone number. Ray then called Agent Sanchez in El Paso. He was told that Sanchez was out and was put through to his voice mail. Ray left the same message and again gave the new number.

Shortly, Deputy Clayton showed up with another patrol car.

“Ray, I’ve got no idea what happened between you and Martinez, but I’m sorry you’ve been dragged into this ugly mess.”