The Mauling at Kinnickinick Pueblo

by Charles Williamson

  Two deputies, who had been waiting outside, entered, searched Andy, and put him in both handcuffs and leg chains. Neither Andy nor Ron said a single word as Mike walked out.

  Chapter 26

  Mike left his office in Flagstaff immediately after his formal arrest of Andy Biggs. On the way to his vehicle in the parking lot, he called Sean and Chad to have them serve the search warrants.

  As Mike drove to Sedona, Sean called. “Mike, we’re in the house now. Please send Jimmy down to make some impressions. There is a place in the backyard where a two-wheeled cart may have been parked during the last rainstorm. The cart is gone now, but the tire impressions are still very distinct.”

  “What was Mrs. Biggs’ reaction when you served the warrant?”

  “She is crying and currently so distraught that we haven’t tried to question her. She doesn’t know about her husband’s arrest. She tried to call him, but I assume he was not in a position to answer by that point. There is a large gun safe in the garage, and we discovered another safe behind a section of a bookcase in the office. So far she’s too distraught to provide a combination. The locksmith just arrived, but we decided to give her a chance to recover before he drills the safes and ruins the mechanisms.”

  “I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Margaret and I have known Frieda and Andy for years, and she might be willing to give me the combination so we don’t destroy their safes. I will also personally inform her of her husband’s arrest and suggest that she call Ron Gordon or some other local attorney.”

  “How did the arrest go?” Sean asked.

  “Andy read a statement claiming that a night shift employee, Carlos Garcia, who washes the ATVs in preparation for the next day’s rentals, must have been involved without his knowledge. We’ll need to check out his claim, but I took it to be a smokescreen to target us toward someone we will never find. The actual charges left both Andy and his attorney in stunned silence.”

  Mike called Jimmy on the speakerphone feature of his Explorer and asked him to drive down to Sedona and meet him at the Biggs’ house in the Jordan Park neighborhood. He finished the call just before he headed down the switchbacks on State Highway 89A. Traffic was light, and he reached the house about 2:25.

  Sean came out to meet him. “Mike, we’ve searched the premises except for the two safes. Although there are dozens of southwestern decorations in the house, none of them appear old. They are mostly inexpensive decorative pieces you can buy in Uptown Sedona for less than a hundred dollars each. We did find a pair of men’s Levis in the trash that might have both blood and three small holes that could be from triple ought shot. We got here only fifteen minutes before the Waste Management truck picked up the Biggs’ trash. It’s possible that Andy Biggs was too close to Paul McFarlane when either Aryan or Waldrop fired the shotgun. If that’s what actually happened, it might be a basis for negotiation for his testimony for the prosecution. It would prove that killing Paul McFarlane came as a complete surprise to Biggs. Otherwise he wouldn’t have been standing that close to the victim. On the other hand, Matt Waldrop couldn’t have been involved in Jarod Baldwin’s death since he was already in jail. He might be a better person to turn state’s witness if he receives a reduced charge.”

  Mike wasn’t ready for any of them to be offered a plea deal. He phoned the nurse at the Coconino County Jail and asked him to examine Andy Biggs’ left leg for three small penetration injuries that might have been caused by triple ought shot. If he discovered the injuries, he should photograph them in the presence to two witnesses who would sign off the time and accuracy of the photos. He sent two deputies from the Sedona substation to take the pants to drive down to the state crime lab in Phoenix. If they were lucky, pants might have some of traces of Paul McFarlane’s blood as well as Andy’s.

  He sent three local policemen to the nearby forest to search for the ground penetrating radar and the two-wheeled cart. The Biggs house was only thirty yards from edge of the National Forest, and Mike assumed that Andy would not want the difficult to obtain and expensive radar unit discarded. He probably didn’t want to merely leave it parked at his house, but he might have hidden it nearby.

  “Show me to Mrs. Biggs. I’ll try and get the safe combinations from her.”

  Sean led Mike to the house’s office. It was a room with a row of bookcases, an ornate wooden desk in a Spanish colonial style with a thirty-two inch computer monitor. On the opposite side of the room was a brown leather couch with two matching chairs across from it. A hand carved Spanish coffee table was between them. One section of the bookcase had been moved revealing a safe. Mrs. Biggs was collapsed on the couch. She was normally a bundle of energy, but now she looked like a balloon that had been popped. Her eyes were red and her makeup had run from her tears.

  When she saw Mike, she screeched, “Mike, make this nightmare end. Make these bastards quit looking through everything in my house. They even searched my underwear drawer. Can you believe that? Bastards.”

  “Frieda, I can’t make them leave until they’re finished. They served you with a legal warrant that includes both safes. We need the combinations or the locksmith will need to drill them. That will destroy their locking mechanisms. If you know them, please give us the combinations.”

  “The top drawer of the desk. Both combinations are taped to the underside. The numbers are written in reverse order. Mike, please tell me where Andy is. He won’t answer his phone.”

  “Frieda, I suggest you call Ron Gordon who was present at our meeting in Flagstaff and ask him to come to the house. Andy is in the Coconino County Jail and won’t get his cell phone back anytime soon. He’ll be able to call you collect from the jail after they finish processing him. You’ll be able to visit him sometime tomorrow afternoon. Frieda, this is very serious. I will not be asking you any other questions or allow any of the other officers to question you until you have an attorney present.”

  “What could Andy possibly have done that would require the ransacking of our house.”

  “I’m sorry for your situation. Andy was charged with premeditated homicide with special circumstances. It is the most serious crime in the Arizona statutes. Let’s wait until Ron or another attorney is here. Let me dial Ron’s number for you.”

  He dialed the number and when Ron answered, Mike said, “Ron, I have Mrs. Biggs here. We have served a search warrant, and she would like to speak with you. I will not be questioning her without an attorney present.”

  He handed the phone to Frieda Biggs. A few sobbing words later, he had his phone back, and Ron was on the way. Mike walked over to the desk and removed the drawer, dumping the contents on the desk. He tried the first number on the office safe. It didn’t work, but when he used the other number the safe opened. It was filled to the top with cash.

  Mike asked two of the Sedona police officers to come into the office to count the money in Mrs. Biggs’ presence. As they counted, they placed each bundle in a large transparent evidence bag. Mike intended to hold all the cash until the IRS cleared it, and the Department of the Interior decided if it would levy a fine for looting ancient burial sites. On the top of the stack, the two officers found records of an account in the Nogales branch of Mexico’s largest bank. It had balance of over one and a half million pesos, over seventy-five thousand dollars. Mike assumed Andy had placed the funds in a Mexican bank in case he needed to flee the US. The receipt showed the deposit had been made in person at the branch in Nogales only three days earlier. At the very back of the safe behind the stacks of twenties, they found an envelope of white crystals. Mike was certain it was meth, but he would send it to the lab for an official analysis.

  Ron Gordon came into the office before the officers finished counting the funds. He asked to speak with Frieda alone, and Mike allowed them to confer in a nearby bedroom. He halted the counting until she returned fifteen minutes later. They had already found more than a hundred and fifteen thousand, not counting the money in Mexico. After the office safe was empty, Mike asked
Ron and Frieda to join him in opening the gun safe in the garage.

  The gun safe held two hunting rifles and fifteen Native American artifacts that looked like they had been buried for centuries. One object fit the general description of the Kachina mold that Mike had made at Beaver Fort. Frieda began to sob again when she saw what was inside. Mike had arranged for an armed escort to follow Jimmy’s van as he took all of the artifacts and cash back to the department’s storage building where it would be well guarded until used as evidence. Of course, after the trials, the artifacts would be returned to the Hopi Tribe. The fate of the cash was yet to be determined.

  The second warrant had allowed the Coconino County Sheriff’s Department to seize all records and the computer from Sedona Premium ATV Rentals. Mike had asked Chad Archer and the Sedona Police Department to carry out that part of the warrant, and two officers arrived with the computer and three boxes of records soon after the gun safe was opened. It was all put in the van with the money and artifacts recovered from the house to be delivered to the Flagstaff evidence storage building.

  Tomorrow, Mike would ask Dr. Whittier to do a DNA analysis to see if any of the seized artifacts were connected to the Kinnickinick burial. If any item came up positive, he would have it retested at the state crime lab for DNA confirmation. He was almost certain that the two turquoises bracelets they found in the safe were from the shaman’s burial site. If so, he had tied Andy Biggs directly to the crime scene.

  After the safe was cleared, Mike received a call from the jail. The nurse reported that he had found clear evidence of three shotgun pellets that had been removed from Andy’s leg. The shot removal was professionally done, probably by an experienced physician using a local anesthetic.

  Mike didn’t say anything about the shot injuries to Frieda, but he was certain she must have noticed the wounds. He also doubted that she was completely ignorant of the hidden cash since Andy would have been adding to it several times a week when people paid for ATV rentals in cash. The account in Mexico was in their joint names, so she would have signed a signature card at the Nogales branch when it was opened. If Andy had been aware of a pending arrest, they both would have been long gone with a suitcase of cash and a Mexican bank account.

  When they were nearly finished with their search of the Biggs’ premises, Mike received a call from Sheriff Taylor. Sheriff Smith, who was executing the warrant at Matt Waldrop’s small rented house in Cottonwood, had informed Sheriff Taylor that six items that appeared to be ancient Sinagua artifacts had been discovered in a locked chest. The items were being sent to Flagstaff for examination together with Matt’s computer and papers and bank records from his desk. Mike hoped that at least one of the artifacts would connect Waldrop to the Kinnickinick Pueblo ruin.

  When they had finished at the Biggs’ house, Mike received a call that the police had discovered a two-wheeled cart in the forest covered with brush and out of sight of any of the trails. It was a quarter of a mile from the Biggs house. A ground penetrating radar unit was still in the cart. Mike had it added to the evidence in Jimmy’s van.

  Mike called Margaret at work to let her know he was through for the day and heading home. He wanted to watch the national news broadcasts to see if Donald Aryan’s face appeared on the broadcasts. Margaret said that she’d be home by 6:30 and pick up something for dinner on her way home.

  Mike watched the news and was pleased to see both the beardless drawing and bearded photo of Donald Aryan on all the major networks. Soon after the national news, Margaret came in with dinner. She had takeout from a local Italian place. They watched the Arizona news on a couch in the living room while eating the excellent food that Margaret spread out on their coffee table.

  It was very unusual for them to eat in the living room or to have a TV turned on during dinner because they normally considered it a time to talk with each other after their busy days. That night, they were both anxious to see Mike on the Phoenix evening news. They enjoyed Tuscan salads and a Marguerita pizza. Mike opened a bottle of Chianti Classico to enjoy with the pizza.

  While they watched the news and enjoyed dinner, Mike and Margaret had very different impressions of the newscasts. Mike thought he looked old and haggard during his presentation, but he was thrilled with the amount of time devoted to the manhunt and the drawing of Donald Aryan. Margaret thought Mike looked both distinguished and intelligent. She could see that he was the sort of man who would inspire confidence in the expertise of the Coconino County Sheriff’s Department. While Margaret realized that Mike was a star of Arizona law enforcement, Mike merely thought he look pallid, exhausted, and a little wrinkled. He also thought his hair looked like it had much more gray on TV than in person. They were both correct.

  After the news, Mike brought Margaret up-to-date on what they had found at the Biggs’ house.

  Margaret reacted to the information by saying, “I can’t believe that Frieda would be an accessory to a murder, but it’s also difficult to believe she knew nothing of the cash in the safe or the bank account in Mexico. I’ve heard her mention that she keeps the books for the family business. I’ve also heard her complain about doing their business and personal tax returns because the tax code is so complicated. Did you know she has an accounting degree from Arizona State?”

  “I had no idea she was the company’s accountant and did their taxes. Margaret, you just put a whole new perspective on my case. If she was keeping the books, she must have known about the looting. She would have received the checks from Robert Dohi and distributed the funds to Aryan and Waldrop. Damn, I certainly misjudged her. She seems so devout and earnest, even somewhat naïve. I’ll need to subpoena copies of the checks to see if she signed them. If so, she’s likely to be charged as an accessory to the looting, perhaps even to the murders.”

  “I can see the Easter Pageant getting cancelled. Maybe we could attend the Catholic Church down in Cottonwood this Easter. Father Howard may be furious when you arrest her.”

  Chapter 27

  When Mike reached his office, he had several voice mail messages. “Captain, this is June. We will begin work on the computer and paper financial records from Sedona Premium ATV Rentals this morning.”

  Mike wanted to interview and perhaps arrest Robert Dohi in Scottsdale, but he wanted a more complete study of the ATV company’s records first. He also suspected they would further implicate Frieda Biggs. He called June and asked her to get copies of the actual checks received from Dohi and those issued to Waldrop and Aryan. She should get other samples of their signatures and have an expert confirm that they actually were the signers.

  The second recording said, “Mike, this is Sean. Jimmy checked all the artifacts for prints last night. Since he was up all night, he won’t be in until noon to make a report. Jake, Bowie, and I will take all the artifacts from Matt Waldrop’s house and the Biggs’ house, out to the Museum of Northern Arizona. Amber is willing to begin the DNA testing today. She was so anxious to see the recovered artifacts that she called me at home at six this morning. I’m taking the other two deputies to protect the chain of custody. I think Amber is working on a research paper about the Kinnickinick Pueblo shaman discovery that she thinks will get wide circulation among specialists in the history of the southwestern United States. We’ll stay with the artifacts while she photographs them and takes tiny samples for the DNA tests. The three of us will bring them back to the evidence room later this afternoon. I should be back in the office by 4:00. I thought I’d need two other official witnesses because Amber is sort of a relative.”

  Sheriff Taylor’s recording said, “Damn good job at the press conference. I was proud to have you in our department. Also, good work in bringing in evidence on both Waldrop and Biggs. Let me know when you get any results of the DNA tests.”

  The phone indicated that there had been two calls from a number that did not show a caller ID. It was a Washington area code, and Mike called the number.

  “Federal Bureau of Investigation, Cynthia Montgo
mery speaking. How may I direct your call?”

  “Senior Special Agent Linda Surrett, please.”

  “May I tell her who is calling?”

  “Captain Mike Damson of the Coconino County Sheriff’s Department.”

  “Oh yes sir. You’re that distinguished looking man I saw on the news last night about those terrible murders. Rural Arizona seems like quite a dangerous place. Let me see if Senior Special Agent Surrett is available.”

  “Hi Mike, I’m glad you called. My immediate superior has decided that the FBI needs to be cooperative on this case. He will add Donald Aryan to all federal wanted lists. The information from our lab is now released as well and more information about the Verde Valley Pure Bloods. You’ll be receiving both by overnight mail. My only limitation is that I can only deal with you. No one at the FBI can have direct contact with Sheriff Taylor since he is the subject of an ongoing investigation. Of course, we’ll want an agent present on the stage at any future press conferences you hold about these homicides. My sources in Flagstaff say you arrested a second man on homicide charges yesterday afternoon.”

  “Yes we arrested a businessman who owns an ATV rental company. We think Andy Biggs, Deputy Matt Waldrop, and Donald Aryan were the three men at the scene of the first homicide. Aryan was been identified as one of the two men at the second homicide. Linda, you know that is complete bullshit about Sheriff Taylor. He is as honest as any man I’ve ever known. Just because he called your Deputy Director out for this public political comments, there is no reason for a witch hunt.”

  “If there is nothing there, nothing will be found. In relation to the Verde Valley Pure Bloods, our investigation is still closed. If there is any action, it will need to come from local elected officials. Because sheriffs are locally elected, they have more credibility with these militia groups.”