Tribal Law (14 page)

Chapter Twenty-Four

Gabe sent his brother and Frasco Dosela by chopper to the hospital in Phoenix escorted by Detective Randall Juris. Then he called Clyne, telling him that Kino had been shot and instructing him to find Kino's wife and drive her and their grandmother to the hospital.

“Is he going to be all right?” asked Clyne.

“I don't know.”

Clyne told him he'd call later and then he was gone.

Gabe's men had arrived, followed by men from DOJ. Together they began the descent to the tractor trailer. The EMTs pulled in and checked Selena. She was bruised in the shoulders and ribs but was otherwise miraculously uninjured. Still, he felt the need to keep her close. The final gunman, Ronnie Hare, was still unaccounted for.

“Do you want to go home?” he asked Selena.

She nodded but clung to his arm. He wished he could gather her up, but the EMTs were checking the gunmen, his men were diverting traffic and there was so much that needed to be done. He didn't want to do any of it. He just wanted to take Selena away.

“Won't you want to question me?”

“Eventually.” He would have to because it was his job, but right now he saw the pure exhaustion on her face.

“You ditched that truck on purpose,” he said, not sure if he should be angry or grateful. Mostly he was amazed.

“What if I did?”

Why was he talking to her when he wanted to be kissing her and holding her and telling her how stupid he had been to ever take back that ring? He glanced at his uncle and his uncle's supervisor and recalled that he had not yet told Clyne who she was.

It didn't matter. Not now. He turned back to Selena.

“You could have been killed.” He managed to sound stern.

“I think you have that backwards.”

She was right. At the time when she had turned that trailer, the Mexicans were taking his patrol car apart with their semiautomatic weapons.

“You saved my life,” he said.

She smiled. “You're welcome.”

“I don't want you to do that again.” That came out wrong.

She wrinkled her brow.

“Take a risk like that, I mean.”

“Because you're indebted to me? You don't have to worry, Chief. It can be our little secret.”

That was what he'd made her feel, he realized, as if she were nothing, when the truth was she was everything. Better than he was in every way. She had understood the power of love all along. She hadn't tried to control it or ignore it. Instead, she had accepted it and him with open arms. And when trouble had found her family and his feet went as cold as the snow beneath them, she had still given him what she thought he wanted—his freedom. And, fool that he was, he'd taken it and lost the best thing that ever happened to him.

“I'm an idiot,” he said.

Cassidy Walker joined them at the spot where the guardrail was broken and now stood twisted back upon itself like ribbon candy.

“Well, we found the snowmobile hidden in the empty cave back at the lake. The shooters all dead.” She glanced at Selena as if looking at a bug. “Is she hurt?”

“Bruised,” said Gabe.

“We'll want a statement from her and from you.” She glanced at Selena clinging to his arm. Gabe knew that in the past he would have stepped away. This time, he pressed Selena's hand closer to his side. She released him and started to withdraw, but he captured her arm and pulled her back.

“Not right now,” he said to Walker.

“Sooner is better,” she said, pressing.

Did Cassidy Walker know of his relationship to Selena? He thought that very likely. This time, instead of embarrassment, he felt a strong surging of protective instinct toward Selena. She'd defended him with her life and he'd be damned if he'd turn her over to the Feds.

“She'll be giving her statement to me.”

“You don't see a conflict of interest there?” Walker asked.

Gabe didn't answer. Of course he was conflicted. And why in the wild world had he ever thought he wouldn't be conflicted around Selena? He'd been delusional for years. Even back then he had known that, if forced to choose between his duty and Selena, he'd pick Selena. But now that seemed exactly as it should be.

Walker moved on, peering over the embankment. The tops of several trees had been shorn off by the trailer's descent.

She stood on the road beside his uncle. He figured he and his uncle would be having a heart-to-heart soon. Right now he wanted to know if the final gunman had survived the fall.

“Who was in the cab with you?” Cassidy asked Selena.

It seemed she was planning on doing the questioning without his permission. She had guts, this woman. Normally he'd admire that.

“My father's parole officer,” said Selena.

Cassidy Walker snorted in disbelief. “What?”

“Ronnie Hare,” said his uncle Luke. “He's Salt River Apache.”

“Really?” Cassidy thought a moment, looking down over the cliff. “An Apache parole officer. Perfect cover for moving messages between the cartel and gangs. He was your father's contact?”

Selena glanced from Gabe back to this aggressive woman.

“Contact? All I know is that this guy shows up at my door with a gun and threatens to shoot my mother. So I drove.” Selena pointed down the mountain. “That.”

Gabe looked at the truck. He knew it had been Selena's pride and joy, and even though both the truck and trailer had been purchased used, it was the most amount of money she'd ever spent and likely still owed on the loans.

Walker took out a pad and started scribbling notes.

“What time was that?” she asked.

Gabe held up his hand. “That's enough now. Selena's going to the local hospital. This can wait until tomorrow.”

Walker extended a card to Selena. “Call me if you feel up to talking.”

Gabe picked up his radio and asked for one of the EMTs to take Selena to Black Mountain Hospital. Below them the barrels lay scattered over the snow. Some had rolled all the way to the bottom of the slope. Others had cracked open and the contents had bled into the snow.

Gabe's men had reached the cab of the truck.

“Ask them what they see,” said Walker.

Gabe didn't. Instead he faced off, squaring his shoulders.

“Do you know who I am?” he asked.

She made a face. “Chief of Tribal Police.”

“No. I mean, do you know who I am to your daughter?”

Gabe saw his uncle looking uncharacteristically nervous.

Walker went stiff and her blue eyes turned frosty.

“I'm here to do my job, Chief. Not to discuss my personal life.”

“I see. And your job involves telling me how to do mine and sending a DOJ agent onto my reservation to spy on us while keeping your partner in the dark. I have to say, Mizz Walker, you are not making us Indians feel any more comfortable about trusting the federal government.”

“This has been going on under your nose. Those men,” she indicated the bodies strewn across the road. “They are using this reservation like a child uses home base in a game of tag. You can't stop them.”

“Perhaps not. But I can stop you.”

“This is a federal case,” she said.

“On Indian lands.”

“You're going to need our help.”

“If I do, I'll ask.”

“We are not leaving until that precursor is all accounted for.”

Gabe waited a moment. “I'll ask my tribal council what they think about that.”

His radio came on and Officer Cienega's voice emerged loud and clear.

“Cab is empty. There's a blood trail.”

“Where's Hare?” asked Walker.

Gabe smiled. “Looks like that rabbit has gone for a run.”

With a forty-minute head start, Gabe figured, on foot in deep snow.

“Cut for sign,” he said, ordering his men to find Ronnie Hare's trail.

“A helicopter might come in handy in a search like that,” said Walker.

Selena started shivering. He didn't know if it was from the cold or from the stress. But it didn't matter. He needed to get her out of here.

“I have to call my mother,” she said as he walked her back down the road. She rubbed at her face and then spoke through the fingers that covered her mouth. “I still owe nine thousand dollars on that tractor trailer and rig.”

He took hold of Selena as they walked past the dead men. She shuddered and buried her face in his coat.

“You're going to the hospital,” he said to her.

This time she didn't argue.

“Who is that woman?”

He told her. She straightened up, moving away to look up at him.

“She's Jovanna's mom?”

Gabe felt his stomach hitch. “My mother was her mom. That's the woman who illegally adopted her.”

“But it wasn't illegal. They thought Jovanna's only relative was killed.”

“Well, they didn't do a very good job looking for her kin, now did they?” What was he doing, arguing with her? He looked at her sad expression and pale complexion and felt terrible. “I'm sorry. I just think none of this should ever have happened.”

“Still...” She stopped walking and glanced at the imposing little blonde woman at the cliff's edge.

“What?”

“That woman took your sister out of foster care, gave her a home. It might not be the home you would have liked, but she adopted her and she might be the only mother that your sister remembers. She's raised her for nine years.”

Gabe hadn't thought of that. He'd been so busy trying to find his sister, it never occurred to him that his sister might not want to be found. She might be happy and might even love that bristly porcupine of a woman. The notion made him cross.

“What kind of a mother works as a field agent? Do you know how dangerous that job is? A mother has responsibilities. Plus her husband is dead, so it's just her. If anything happens to her, Jovanna will be right back in foster care. She ought to consider that before she goes charging around with a gun on her hip.”

Selena studied Walker. “That's sad. What happened to her husband?”

Gabe was about to say he didn't know and didn't care. But instead he said, “I only know he was in the armed forces.”

“Oh. Just like your uncle and your older brother.”

“Just like that.” Only they had both come home alive.

Andre Chee found them. The brother of his fallen officer was there with several other volunteer fire and rescue workers and said he'd be driving Selena to the hospital.

“Can't I just go home?” she asked.

“Hospital first. I wish I could come.”

Selena gave him a sweet smile. “Duty first,” she said.

He wanted to deny it. And for the first time in his life he was tempted to leave an active crime scene. Selena made him want to do that, but instead of feeling frightened by his love for her he felt both lucky and stupid. He should have trusted her to help him do the right thing.

But he was still the chief of police. Now, suddenly, that felt less like an honor and more like a burden. But if he wasn't a police officer, what was he? He'd done this job since he was twenty-two years old. The only other thing he was good at was rodeo and he was too darned old for that.

He stood with her for a moment, feeling lost as his job began dragging him away from the woman he loved—again.

“Will you be all right?” he asked.

“Yes. If they let me, I might drive my mom down to Phoenix to see Dad.”

“Let Mia, Carla or Paula do the driving.”

She nodded.

He had so much he needed to tell her. So many mistakes he needed to make right. But all he could think to say was, “I'll call you.”

And then she was gone.

Chapter Twenty-Five

They had all parties accounted for except Ronnie Hare.

Cassidy Walker offered the Bureau's tracking dogs, but Gabe declined. There wasn't a dog on the planet that could track better than his men. They had found where Ronnie Hare had been thrown or had jumped clear of the rolling truck. He had not been more than twenty feet down on the embankment. He had been bleeding but managed to get to the road and wave down a man in a pickup. He'd stolen the truck at gunpoint. The stranded driver, unaware that nearly the entire police force was around the bend, had been found walking back down the mountain with his dog.

The Feds had taken action then, sending out alerts and positioning road blocks at all roads leaving the reservation and Salt River.

But Gabe knew Hare and he knew Apache. Ronnie was not leaving the reservation and the protection it afforded to its members. He'd be making tracks to Salt River but likely not on any of the roads. If he reached his home reservation, he would find someone to help keep him hidden deep in some burrow. Instead of road blocks, Gabe made a call to Jack Red Hawk, the chief down in Salt River, told him what was happening and included the information on the stolen truck.

“Think he's still in that truck?” asked Red Hawk.

“Would you be?” asked Gabe.

“I'd lose that vehicle at the first opportunity.”

“You know him?”

“Not yet,” said Red Hawk, “but I'm looking forward to getting acquainted with him and all his kin. Small place, Salt River. Someone will know someone.
Ashoog
, Gabe,” he said, using the Apache word for thanks.

“Don't mention it. You take care now.”

As the bodies were photographed and bagged, Gabe said an Apache prayer over Matthew Dryer. Then his body was zipped away and carted off to the fire rescue truck with the others. The man was a hero and Gabe hoped his spirit would know peace.

At dusk Gabe sent Juris and Franklin Salva to the Piñon Lake caves to see if the barrels had been stored there.

Gabe called Clyne at seven but he had no information except that Kino was in surgery and the family was on their way to Phoenix.

“You got time to give me an update?” asked Clyne.

“A quick one.” Gabe briefly told him what had transpired. “The gunmen were Mexican cartel. They were moving their product to Salt River. Selena was driving. She'd been taken captive by her father's parole officer. Looks like he's been delivering messages from the Mexicans to both Salt River and the Wolf Posse.”

Clyne cursed.

“You got Hare?”

“Not yet.”

“What about the second lab?”

“Still on Leekela's place.” Gabe figured he'd give it to him all at once. “Clyne? FBI and DOJ are on-site.Luke and his partner are headed over to pick up that second lab with a team right now.”

Clyne muttered something in Apache.

“And I'm bringing in CID,” he said, referring to the state's criminal investigations division.

“Keep me informed,” said Clyne. “Doctor's here. Gotta go.”

“When you see Kino, tell him...” Gabe's throat was burning and the words just stuck.

“Yeah. I'll tell him. Stay safe.”

Gabe looked at his mobile and the next thing he knew he was calling Selena. Her phone rang in his front pocket. He'd never given it back to her. He disconnected, wondering if they had made it to the hospital all right.

Clyne called in at ten in the evening with a report. Kino was out of the OR. A thoracic surgeon had repaired the damaged artery in his neck. Kino had lost a lot of blood but was stable and alert. His wife, Lea, and his grandmother were both fussing over him.

“Where's Clay?” asked Gabe.

“Here with his wife. First ones here.”

Because they were already in Phoenix, Gabe realized.

Clyne said that Frasco had a through-and-through in his upper thigh and was under armed guard until they could sort out what had happened. Clyne had stopped in to say hello and spoken to his family, all four of his girls and his wife.

“Where's Tomas?”

“I didn't ask.”

Salva called in from Piñon Lake, verifying that the barrels had been stored there. Juris had seen some evidence of old tracks and they were expanding their search.

Through the night, Gabe received updates. His uncle called to say they had seized the meth lab and made arrests with no shots fired. Sergeant Salva and Juris returned from the cave site to lend a hand at the scene. The new snow and the darkness were making tracking difficult and so they had decided to wait for morning. It was a long, cold, tedious night collecting evidence at the Piñon Lake road site. At sunup, his uncle returned without Agent Walker. She was pursuing leads to locate Hare and now working with Tribal Chief Red Hawk.
Better him than me
, thought Gabe.

A little later, his men were joined by CID. Arizona's criminal investigations division had a specialized unit just for narcotics investigations. His department would be using their labs for all evidence processing.

Another agent from DOJ showed up, making it a three-ring circus with Gabe as the ringmaster.

The rising sun was turning the snow pink when Salva phoned from the cave site. Using a metal detector, his team had found bullet castings just outside the entrance, a tree with several bullet holes and depressions in the snowpack where someone might have fallen.

Had they found Officer Dante Chee's secret hunting spot?

“What do you need?” he asked.

Salva requested an additional team from CID to help collect evidence.

They were wrapping up at the scene and there were still a hundred things that needed doing. But Gabe didn't want to do any of them. Instead he felt an unexpected detachment from the investigation. It didn't seem as important as visiting his brother, seeing his grandmother and telling Selena that he was the biggest fool in Black Mountain. He called Detective Juris over.

“You okay?” asked Juris.

“Yeah. You're lead. I've got to go see a man about a horse.”

“Chief?”

“I'm going to Phoenix.”

Detective Juris nodded. “Tell Kino we're thinking about him.”

“Will do.”

* * *

I
T
HAD
BEEN
almost twenty-four hours since Selena had nearly slid off that embankment. She sat in her father's hospital room in Phoenix with her sisters and mother, waiting for someone from the Department of Justice to verify that her father was not in violation of his parole. She rolled her sore shoulder and shifted, trying and failing to find a comfortable position. The clinic said her ribs and shoulder were bruised from the accident. She considered herself lucky to have walked away with only bruises.

Her father was in high spirits. His leg was bandaged and they learned that the bullet had just punched through muscle, narrowly missing the main blood vessel. He had an IV drip of antibiotics and a Phoenix police officer stationed outside his room.

“And you're a hero,” said their mother to her father.

Her father smiled. “I don't think Gabe Cosen will forgive me. Sneaking around behind his back.”

“He might.” They all turned to see Gabe standing in the door.

Selena was so surprised she was speechless. He was in the middle of the biggest, most important case of his life. What was he doing here?

Gabe stepped forward and shook Frasco's hand. “I'm glad you're all right, sir. Thank you for your help last night.”

“How's Kino?” asked her father.

“I just came from his room in ICU. He's going to make a full recovery.”

Selena breathed out a sigh of relief.

Gabe turned to her family. “I need a moment alone with Mr. Dosela.”

Selena felt a stab of sorrow. He was here on business, of course. Why had she thought he had come all this way to see her? Mia, Paula and Carla headed out the door. Selena lingered a moment and then followed. He heard Gabe tell her mother that he would like her to stay.

Mia was hungry, so they headed to the vending machines in the waiting room down the hall.

“Will the insurance pay for our truck?” asked Paula.

“She was transporting drugs,” said Carla, her tone exasperated.

“At gunpoint,” said Mia, her words muffled by the large bite of chocolate bar she had stuffed in her cheek.

“I don't know what will happen,” said Selena. “I'll call them in the morning and put in a claim.”

“The Department of Justice should buy us a new one. It's their fault. You could have been killed,” said Paula.

For some reason, though she had known that all along, the entire thing hit her right then. Her knees went rubbery and Carla just managed to grab her elbow and guide her into a well-worn sofa.

Selena cradled her head in her hands as the crash replayed in her mind. She trembled and Mia sat down next to her, then gathered her up.

“We got you, Leenie. We've all got you.”

Selena sagged against Mia and let the tears flow. Paula patted her knee and Carla furnished a wad of paper towels so she could mop her face and blow her nose. The tears didn't last long. And when they were past she looked up at her wonderful sisters. She felt so lucky to have them.

“It's just a stupid truck,” said Paula. “We'll get another.”

“The important thing is that you're all right and Dad's all right,” said Mia.

“And he's not a criminal,” said Carla.

“He's a real live hero,” added Paula.

“Not everyone thinks working with the Feds makes you a hero,” said Selena.

“Well, I do. He stopped that poison from reaching its destination,” said Paula.

“Selena did that,” said Mia.

Paula continued as if Mia hadn't spoken. “I can't believe that his parole officer was working with the cartels. I hope they catch him and revoke his membership in the tribe,” said Mia.

“And lock him up,” added Paula.

“And throw away the key,” said Mia.

Their mother joined them, her face seeming younger now, as if all the stress of the last few weeks had finally passed. She looked happy.

“Girls, could you come with me?”

They stood to follow, but their mother turned to her oldest daughter. “Not you, Selena. Wait here a minute. All right?”

What was going on?

Selena's sisters filed out after their mother. Mia looked back, her brow wrinkled and lines of concern flanking her mouth. It was only then that Selena had a terrible thought.

Was Gabe here to arrest her?