Kissing Arizona (21 page)

‘Granted.' Delaney's pale blue eyes were reading her face like a crime stat report.

‘But if we assist the DEA twice on a case that might net out in the millions, it's not unreasonable to request that some consideration be given to the incomplete state of our recording equipment for the interview rooms, right? By the Special Agent I'm meeting in a few minutes to talk about Calvin Inman's shady secrets?'

‘Not unreasonable at all. Better still, since you have so many other pressing responsibilities, you could tell him to stop by my office after his coffee and cut the deal with me. Since I can be trusted never to stoop.' He held up his right hand like a traffic cop and switched from strategy to tactics. ‘You pretty certain you can deliver this Calvin's shady secrets?'

‘Oh, sure. He's dying to talk about what he knows. But then he gets with Phil Cruz and some testosterone thing happens, he has to prove he can outwit the fuzz – and the starchier the fuzz, the more he needs to prove it.'

‘How come you're exempt?'

‘I'm a girl. Guys like Calvin never see me as a threat to their manhood even when I'm locking them up.'

‘I guess. You're past getting mad about it though, aren't you?'

‘I finally grew up and realized it works for me as often as it works against me. Like today.'

‘OK, go meet your guy, get him up here so I can make the deal. We do need to upgrade the sound equipment, and the general fund is circling the bowl.'

The box o' bones caper did not seem so amusing two days later, when Calvin Inman finally called. The last day of the week was always Crazy Friday, when a dozen loose ends had to be tied up. Today felt a little crazier than usual because Dietz had found a house he wanted her to look at after work, ‘So try to get away a few minutes early if you can.'

‘Will, Mom's realtor says she's got quite a backlog of houses right now. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.'

‘I won't. But we need to get a feel for the market, see what's available.'

‘I'll do my best,' she said. But then Leo and Jason began walking through the section saying they needed to get the whole crew together to talk about some new evidence in the Cooper case. And naturally the first available time turned out to be four o'clock.

And now ahead of that she needed to fit in some time at Pima County with Calvin Inman. She called Phil Cruz and told him the play was starting, Calvin had called. Phil repeated his solemn promise that after the cocaine case was made they'd bring the Soltero gang back to Tucson for trial. ‘Help me get me that cocaine bust, Sarah,' he kept saying, ‘and I'll get your murderers back here.'

She asked Ed Cokely for an interview room at two o'clock. When he called to tell her he had it, she asked him, ‘Do you have time to sit in with me?'

‘Are you sure?' Ed asked her. ‘Cruz keeps saying I mustn't talk to him.'

‘That was before' she said, ‘just to soften him up. Now we want him to be a regular chatterbox.'

‘Well, that's one of his talents,' Ed said. ‘Two o'clock, then.'

She wanted Cokely with her in the box, not Cruz. Something about the Inman-Cruz combination had turned toxic and brought out Inman's worst instincts. But she liked to have an observer on the enforcement side. Recordings were all very well but there was nothing better than a second eye on the suspect. And Ed was good in the interview room, he didn't yield to the temptation to show off a little for the camera as she had seen some officers do.

Inman looked sleep-deprived, needed a shave and a haircut and his mustache wax. ‘Orange was never my color, actually,' he said with a lopsided smile when he saw her reaction to his appearance.

‘Calvin, Calvin, what were you thinking?' Sarah said. ‘I had you all set up to prosper with the DEA, and now you've got yourself on Cruz's shit list and he says he never wants to see you again.'

‘He's an awful snob, Sarah,' Calvin said. ‘Is he a failed priest or something? Nobody's pure enough to satisfy him.'

‘He's responsible for that money he's been giving you. You can never seem to understand how enraged people get when you tap into their pocketbooks.'

‘Oh, please. You know perfectly well that was Fed money and if they want more they just print it.' He really didn't seem to take seriously how angry he made people. Calvin, Sarah began to realize, saw life as a game. If he won a round, why couldn't people be good sports about it?

‘I bet Cruz could get over himself pretty fast, though –' Calvin propped his elbows on the table, getting ready to play his next card – ‘if you told him I know how he can find out where the head is.'

Sometimes
, Sarah thought, watching the pulse beat over Calvin's eye, I feel like he's making it up as he goes along. ‘You talking about Chuy Maldonado's head?'

‘Would I call you about the Easter Bunny's head? Of course Chuy's.'

‘Why would Special Agent Cruz care about the head? He's DEA, he's not tasked with proving homicide cases.'

‘Ah, but if he's got the Solteros for murder one,' Calvin said, ‘they'll gladly cop to the coke shipments instead.'

‘Maybe.'
So damn clever.
She was afraid her amusement might be showing. ‘How would having the head make it any easier to hang the murder on the Solteros?'

‘The way I heard it,' Calvin said, ‘they did the nutcase savage thing with the end of his nose.'

‘Mmm. Here in the Old Pueblo we all think we know a Soltero signature when we see one, but you know that's not evidence. Lawyers will just say anybody could imitate that.'

‘But I bet when Phil Cruz finds the box,' Calvin Inman said, ‘he'll find some other helpful stuff like fingerprints and that. There might even be a bullet in that head, what do you think?'

‘Ah, Calvin,' Sarah said, ‘you do know how to tell a story, don't you?'

He knew how to enjoy being the center of attention, too. She felt an odd mixture of excitement and despair, thinking about how much of her future was probably going to be spent responding to Calvin Inman's big stories.

The one he was telling right now concerned José Ojeda, the regular courier he had replaced on that unsanctioned trip to North Carolina.

José had made all the Outer Banks trips the Solteros knew about, Calvin said, ever since they made the deal. And because Calvin knew José was making good money for that, and thought he might have the occasional odd job he could well afford to pay cash for, he found out which bars José favored, and hung out in them till they got acquainted. Bought José some drinks one night when he was already more than half full of tequila. Let him ramble on about all the land the Ojedas used to own in Mexico before the crooked politicians cheated them out of it. Finally got him to talk about the time he helped Huicho Valdez and Rafi Soltero cut up Chuy Maldonado and pack the pieces in two containers.

‘Ol' José knows exactly where they buried the head, down by the Santa Cruz below the reclamation plant, where the ground is nice and soft. And when the Special Agents grab that load of coke in North Carolina, if Phil Cruz has me on his side telling him just what to ask, he'll find it's easy to make a deal with José. He's not in the gang, he's just working for pay, like the pilot.'

‘I've been wondering about that pilot. Why didn't they kill him too, when they learned about the extra flight?'

‘He owns the plane. A crooked pilot with his own twin-engine aircraft doesn't come along every day.'

‘I suppose. Omigod, look at the time.' Sarah began punching numbers into her cell. ‘Ed, can you keep this bad boy put away by himself somewhere till Cruz gets here? He must not talk to anybody before he talks to DEA!'

‘OK, Agent Smart,' Ed said to a tired-looking Calvin Inman, ‘back you go into the cone of silence.'

As soon as she got Cruz's assurance he was coming to check his once-more valuable prisoner out of County lock-up and into another safe house, Sarah hurried back to South Stone, where Delaney's homicide crew was gathering around a table.

Leo Tobin was in a rotten humor. ‘Last week I thought we were just about ready to close this perfectly simple murder-suicide,' he said. ‘Now, every day we get a whole new mess to clean up.' He glared at Jason Peete, who was patting his shaved head nervously. ‘Tell them.'

Jason inclined his head ten degrees right, shrugged his skinny right shoulder upwards as if to comfort his ear, and said, ‘Ballistics says the bullet I took out of the wall behind Frank Cooper wasn't fired by his gun.'

TWELVE

‘
S
oon as I saw it,' Dietz said, ‘I felt like this house was made to order for us.'

‘It is, isn't it? Wow, if only.' They were on Bentley Street in the Blenman-Elm district, an area of older houses, big yards and mature trees.

‘Just a couple of blocks from the school,' Dietz said. ‘Denny could walk.'

‘It's the guest house in back that really makes it. Look, it even has its own little galley.' Her mother could be so comfortable in that tidy two-room space. Homier than just a bedroom but a lot less trouble than a whole house, and only a few steps across the patio from the back door of the main house. ‘Mom could have privacy and still be close enough to get help if she needs it.'

Back in the bigger house, she walked along the hall. ‘Three bedrooms and two baths. La de dah, we could have a den.'

‘It's even got a little workshop off the carport, see? I could set up my table saw.'

‘Yeah, how's that for having everything you need? Oh, Will – I know we can't afford this one, but you're right, a house as much as possible like this would be perfect.'

‘Well . . .' He looked over his shoulder. The realtor was waiting discreetly outside as she had promised. ‘It's been on the market for a while. She says she's pretty sure they'd lease for a year with an option to buy.'

‘Oh, you mean so Mom could take her time . . .'

‘Wait for her price, yeah.'

‘Well, but price . . . even with the money from Mom's house, we could never pay for all this.'

‘I think we could get it for less than they're asking, Sarah, if we nailed the price down now while real estate's still slow. This house has some problems, let me show you.' There was a bad floor in the second bathroom, woodwork in the hall that would have to be replaced. ‘But I can do that myself.'

‘With your trusty table saw, hmmm? But that's not the biggest problem, is it? This kitchen –' she made a face – ‘looks like it's been here since the house was built. Linoleum floor. And that dinky little stove. Back to the Fifties, shee.'

‘Think of it as making the place affordable,' Will said.

‘Is it? Three bedrooms and two baths, plus a guest house?'

‘But sixty years old. Let's go talk to the lady.'

On the way back to Marana, they went over it again. ‘OK,' Will said, ‘even if she doesn't take our first offer and the money from your two places doesn't quite cover it all, we can make payments on the rest, can't we? It'll be less than we're paying now.'

‘Oh, yes, it's a good deal for both of
us.
Good for Denny, too, even if she does have to change schools. It sure is a step down for Mom, though, from her nice new house in the ‘burbs. I guess we better show her and let her decide.'

Luckily the guest house was in the best shape of anything on the lot – it had hardly been used. Aggie walked through it the next day, nodding. In the main house, she waved away Sarah's concern about the kitchen. ‘Kitchens are easy to replace, you just go to Sears.' She loved the big trees in the yard. ‘Denny could have a tree house.' She smiled at the two of them, standing close together watching her anxiously. ‘Can we really swing this?'

‘Yes,' Sarah said, ‘if you're still willing to sell your house.'

‘In a heartbeat. Speaking of which –' she put a hand on her chest – ‘I need to sit down.' They both jumped to help her. ‘Hey, no big emergency! I just can't stand up very long. Yet.' She held onto Sarah's hand. ‘Soon, though, I'll be worth my salt again.' Impulsively, she put her cheek against the back of Sarah's hand. ‘
Some
salt, anyway. Thanks to you, my darling daughter, and this good man you were smart enough to hold onto.'

When she looked up, her eyes were bright. ‘Why don't you go get Denny out of that library where you stashed her? I want to see her face when she sees her new home.'

Ever since the terrible moment when Aggie fainted and got hauled off to the hospital, Denny had been trying to fight off panic attacks – the seashore feeling. She had seen only one beach in her life, in San Diego when she was five. What she remembered about it was the way the tide came in and washed the sand out from under her feet, and how her tiny self stood whimpering in fear, as the solid earth slid away and became ocean. Her mother, seeing her alarm, took her hand laughing and said, ‘Back up a step if it scares you.'

She remembered squealing in glee, back up on drier sand, delighted to find such an easy solution. They had stood together and watched a couple of breakers roll in and recede, till finally Denny was brave enough to step forward and feel that sand slide again.

That day at the shore was a vague, happy memory, of walking the tideline for an hour, picking up shells, watching the shorebirds scamper and feed. Her life had been mostly good like that, until her Mom started serious doping and drinking and the family began to come around, giving each other sidelong glances. There was a lot of very quiet talk, somehow always in a room she wasn't in.