Mexican hat (33 page)

"I should be the one thanking you."

"We can sort that out later. I need your help."

"What can I do?"

"Work with me on this," she replied, pointing at the burning remnants of Eugene's house. "I need a smart cop at my side."

"What you need is a special investigator," Kerney replied, smiling down at her,

"I've got one. You."

"I resigned, remember?"

"I never officially accepted your resignation."

"That puts a different spin on it," Kerney admitted.

Karen took him by the arm. "You're on the payroll. Ready to go to work?"

"Why not?" Kerney answered.

3 0 6 ■ Michael M c G a r r i t y

IT TOOK FIVE DAYS, working eighteen-hour shifts, before Kemey, Karen, and Jim had everything sorted out. Phil Cox caved in after learning that his father was dead. He confessed to murder, attempted murder, and a host of additional felony charges. Karen offered to drop some of the lesser charges if he rolled over on the militia, and without the iron will of Eugene Cox to shore him up, Phil capitulated.

Following Phil's directions, Kemey searched his house and found records that identified the militia members who had built the bombs that had been scattered around the wilderness, as well as the device used to kill Doyle Fletcher. Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agents took the ball and ran with federal indictments against the bombers, while Kerney worked on state felony arrest warrants.

He also came away with the militia membership list and a scrawled note from Eugene to Phil with his recommendations for targets of assassination. Kemey was number one on the list, followed by Charlie Perry and Jim Stiles.

Doris Cox snapped as a result of the shoot-out at the Slash Z and had to be hospitalized with severe depression in Silver City. Kerney interviewed her just before she was discharged. Tonelessly, she told him of sexual assaults and physical beatings by Phil that made his stomach turn.

She took the children and left for an extended visit with her sister in Idaho. With Karen, Kemey saw her off. PJ looked desperately in need of a good therapist. Completely shut down, the boy refused to talk and had an angry belligerence stamped on his face.

All of Gatewood's deputies were militia members, along with six seasonal Forest Service employees from the Luna and Reserve offices. The deputies were suspended and Karen arranged for a contingent of state police to provide law enforcement protection during

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the investigation. Carol Cassidy placed the Forest Service workers on administrative leave and started an internal probe.

Amador Ortiz was found in San Diego, hiding out with a cousin, and brought back to face charges. He corroborated Gatewood's role in setting up the Padilla Canyon ambush.

Scooped up by the FBI for his complicity in the Leon Spence-Steve Lujan case, Ortiz was bound over in both federal court and state district court on accessory charges.

Kemey and Jim coordinated the interviews and interrogations, using state attorney general investigators and state police agents to do the leg work. They concentrated on the militia leadership, a group of twelve men that included a county commissioner, several lesser officials, prominent businessmen, and two of the biggest ranchers in the county. Because they had authorized the plan to kill Kemey, conspiracy-to-commit-murder complaints were in the works on all twelve.

Kemey handled the Eugene Cox and Omar Gatewood shooting-death investigations. He took the evidence to a hastily convened special grand jury. Jim Stiles was quickly exonerated, and the panel ruled that the killing of Eugene Cox by his brother was justifiable self-defense.

The night before the grand jury met, Kerney attended a Cox family discussion where Edgar, Margaret, and Karen debated publicly disclosing the sixty-year-old crimes of rustling, homicide, and Edgar's assault on his brother.

The family decided to empty the closet of the skeleton that had haunted them for years.

Under Karen's orders, and with Edgar and Margaret's consent, Kemey arrested Edgar for the 1930s crime of attempted murder of

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his brother as soon as the grand jury recessed and Edgar walked out the door.

Karen had turned the case over to her boss in Socorro. The DA had traveled to Reserve to depose Edgar personally and then conducted a press conference. He cited Edgar's military record as a career officer, his public service to the community, and his success as a rancher who had started from scratch and built his spread after retiring from the Army. He finished with a summary of Edgar's deposition of the murder of Don Luis Padilla and announced that no legal action would be taken.

Predictably, the headline in the Silver City newspaper read:

RANCHER SHOOTS TWIN TWICE IN SIXTY YEARS

The story, along with sidebar editorial pieces on the shoot-out at the Slash Z, remained at the top of the nightly news for several days. Kerney made copies of Edgar's deposition, the newspaper articles, and Molly's historical research on the Padilla land swindle and mailed them off overnight express to Dr. Padilla's daughter in Mexico City. Leon Spence had fingered Steve Lujan as Hector's murderer, and Kerney included that information in a hand-written note to Sefiora Marquez. She called the next morning to say she was thinking of retaining an attorney and suing the United States government and Eugene Cox's estate for damages.

THE ONLY DECENT FURNITURE in Jim's living room was an eight-foot sofa, an overstuffed easy chair, a floor lamp, and a framed T. C. Cannon poster of a somber Indian in full regalia sitting in a wicker

chair. The rest of the room was taken over by an exceedingly large work table fashioned out of plywood and two-by-fours that Jim had slapped together. What Jim used it for Kerney couldn't say. It held mostly old newspapers, junk mail, empty drink containers, and an assortment of stuff that needed to be put away.

Kerney had been bunking with Jim since the day after the Slash Z incident, and he was home before sunset for the first time in what seemed like weeks.

Stiles found him stretched out on the couch, dead to the world, and shook him awake. When Kerney opened his eyes, Jim flopped down in the easy chair with a shit-eating grin on his face and a paper sack in his hand.

Kerney groaned in disgust and sat up. Sleep-deprived, he had hoped for a solid eight or ten hours of rack time. "What is it?" he snapped.

"I've been promoted," Stiles announced in a rush. "You're looking at the new area supervisor for the Game and Fish Department."

"That's great. You deserve it. Where is home base going to be?"

"I'm setting up a new office in Silver City. I'm going to move down there."

"Molly will like that."

Jim's grin widened. "We're getting married."

Kerney got up, pulled Jim out of the chair, and pounded him on the back. "Now, that is very good news," he said, grinning back at Stiles. "When?"

"Next month. We'd do it sooner, but Molly wants me to heal up a bit more. She said she doesn't want wedding pictures that make the groom look like he'd been beaten into submission."

Kerney laughed.

"Do me a favor?"

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"Name it."

"Be my best man."

"It will be my great pleasure,"

"You'll do it?"

"Absolutely."

"Great."

"Now can I go back to sleep?" Kerney asked.

Stiles pulled a bottle of whiskey from a paper sack. "Not until we celebrate."

"Thank God I don't have to work tomorrow," Kerney said as Jim cracked the seal and handed him the bottle.

"MOM, CODY IS BEING A JERK again," Elizabeth Called out from the kitchen. "He's teasing Bubba."

"I'm just playing with him," Cody yelled.

Bubba yelped.

"Leave the puppy alone and stop acting like a jerk," Karen said as she entered the kitchen.

"I'm not a jerk," Cody retorted, his eyes hurt, his voice quivering.

Karen knelt down and hugged her son. "No, you're not. I'm sorry I said that."

Cody sniffled and nodded his acceptance of the apology.

"Did you finish the geography lesson I left for you this morn-ing?"

"Yes."

"Let me see it."

He got his spiral notebook from the kitchen table and plopped down on the floor, eagerly leafing through the pages to find his work.

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Karen sat with him. Bubba ran over and crawled into Cody's lap, his tail slapping happily against Cody's leg. Elizabeth, standing on a low stool at the kitchen sink, returned her attention to the dinner dishes.

She went over the lesson with her son, praising his good work and pointing out his misspellings. She decided the next set of lessons would have to be on penmanship and spelling, two areas where Cody was having difficulty. Elizabeth could help. She was excellent at both.

Karen let the children stay up a little later than usual, mostly for her own sake. She had seen them only in snatches during the last five days, as she ground through the investigations with Kerney and prepared the cases. But the crunch had finally eased. Her boss had assigned another ADA from Socorro to help, and had reassigned all of her pressing trial appearances to other staff.

She got the kids tucked into bed, went into the living-room, and curled up on the love seat. With the day off tomorrow she could turn her full attention to the children and her parents. All of them, including Karen, needed to get over the Slash Z fiasco and put things back together again.

While Mom had sailed through surgery, she needed help at home during the recovery and adjustment. Dad, still in shock over killing Eugene, hadn't purged all the guilt he felt, although going public on Luis Padilla's murder had certainly helped.

Karen sighed. And then there was Cody, who had become more emotional and wired since the Slash Z debacle. He would need a lot of attention.

Only Elizabeth—dear, sweet, beautiful Elizabeth—seemed able to take everything in stride. Karen had watched her daughter closely since arriving home from work, and could find no trauma or suspended reaction to the events they all had witnessed. She hoped

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it was true. She needed someone in the family besides herself to be on an even keel.

The thought of stability turned Karen's attention to Kerney. If anyone was solid as a rock, he was. She had liked Kerney when she first met him, and over the past week she had added feelings of respect and an appreciation of his abilities. Mingled in with it was a pleasant feeling of arousal that passed between them every now and then during their long days together. Nothing had been said, but Karen knew it was mutual.

She smiled as the thought of some well-deserved, healthy love-making crossed her mind. She had arranged for Kerney to draw a salary through the DA's office until everything was wrapped up. Maybe she could organize a way to keep Kerney around for a while longer, just to see what developed.

INSTEAD OF a traditional bachelor party hosted by the best man, Jim asked Kerney to organize a picnic. The guest list would be limited to Molly and Karen. The destination was Elderman Meadows, and it would happen on everybody's next day off.

Kerney agreed. The day before the event he made a special run to Silver City, where he bought every picnic delicacy he could think of, and an expensive hamper complete with utensils, plates, and all necessities—which he planned to leave behind for Jim and Molly when he moved on.

They rode in on the horse trail and reached the meadows just in time to see an elk herd moving into the trees. Nobody spoke until the last animal disappeared from sight.

"It's too early to eat," Jim announced.

"What do you propose as an alternative?" Molly asked.

exican flat ■ 313

"Let's find Mexican Hat," Jim answered.

"Let's!" Molly exclaimed.

"Find what?" Karen inquired.

"That's where Jose and Hector Padilla were going when they came to the meadows," Kerney explained. "I know where it is."

"How do you know that?" Jim demanded.

"Instinct." It was a better answer than bringing up the events at the Slash Z again.

"This I've got to see. Lead on," Jim ordered.

He took them up the middle finger of the meadow and into the forest. Jim sniped that he was lost, until they broke cover at the edge of a crater that slanted into the mountainside.

Sunlight poured into the hollow. The sheer drop-off was shallow, rocky, and barren, but the cavity glistened with the color of mahogany-red and yellow coneflowers.

"This is it?" Jim asked, shaking his head in disbelief. "It doesn't look like a hat to me. Not even an upside-down hat."

Molly and Karen started laughing.

"What's so funny?"

"Tell him, Kerney," Molly said, still giggling. "If you know, that

IS.

"See how the flowers are shaped?" Kerney replied. "Like a sombrero. Mexican Hat."

"I knew that," Jim said sheepishly.

They tethered the horses and climbed down into the hollow with the picnic hamper, the cooler, and a blanket. Kerney acted as host and served up lunch, which was greeted with delight.

When the meal was finished and the conversation lapsed, Jim and Molly disappeared for a walk in the woods. Karen stretched out on the blanket, her head propped up in her hand. In jeans, a pullover

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top, and boots, with her hair loose around her face, she watched Ker-ney as he repacked the hamper.

He closed the lid and looked over at her. On the blanket next to her was a small gift-wrapped box.

"Open it," she said.

"What are we celebrating?" he asked.

"New friendships."

Carefully, he unwrapped the present. Inside was an exact duplicate of his rodeo buckle, accurate right down to the inscription and the date.

"It's wonderful. How did you manage to do this?" he asked, grinning like a kid.

"I tracked down the manufacturer. They keep all their molds of official award buckles. After I explained the situation, they were very happy to oblige." She handed him a business envelope.