“I guess Nate crossed the line when he started selling. Where do you figure he got the money to buy BC Bud?”
“He’s been known to do some low rent burglaries,” Willie answered. “There were a few houses broken in around Wamblee last month, but nothing close. And they didn’t get much. Certainly not enough to head to the West Coast and hide out.”
“Something we’ll ask Nate once we find him. Have you had any luck finding him?”
“No, but I got feelers out.”
“Well, put some feelers out for Tony Charging Bear, too,” Manny said. “He left the Death & Destruction while I was in there. I didn’t recognize him ’cause Bobo’s surveillance tape was installed about a century ago, with quality to match.”
“Okay,” Willie said. “Shit. Here comes the lieutenant on my butt about the drug interviews. Talk later.”
Manny pocketed his cell phone just as Reuben came out of the barber. As they walked back to the car, Manny was studying Reuben’s haircut. His long braids had been neatly trimmed, and the hair on the back of his neck had been shaved close. Exact. “Was that old guy in there?”
Reuben nodded to the barber pole. “Born right after the earth’s crust cooled, I’d wager. But he did a nice job, don’t ya’ think?”
“He did. So why’d he do the whack job on me?”
Reuben smiled and scrunched into the government Malibu. “Guess he’s got to like you to put an effort into a good haircut. And I tipped him twice as much as ‘that cheapskate FBI agent yesterday.’” Reuben held up his hands. “His words, not mine. He said you were just a little less cheap than ‘that damned Charging Bear.’ Who apparently never tips.”
They started south out of Rapid City. Rapid had little traffic compared to D.C. where Manny had lived for so long. But he had rarely driven back there, instead opting for the Metrorails to get to his job at the academy. This was a good time to be driving in Rapid, right after tourist season ended and right before the Christmas shopping rush.
“Have you ever done any kind of dope?”
Reuben tried turning in his seat. “What kind of question is that?”
Manny shrugged. “I just figured—”
“That if I spent time in prison, I had to have done dope? Not even a ditch-weed joint has passed these luscious lips, not even in ’Nam. But yes, I did time with some that did. Why?”
“Nate sold Pookie some BC Bud,” Manny said. “The last I knew it was going for a ton of change.”
“Fifteen hundred bucks a pound. If you can get it.”
“Well, Nate got it somewhere. Willie called Rapid City PD. They towed Nate’s car that night after it broke down in front of some homeowner’s driveway.” Manny reached into the glove box and grabbed a fresh pack of Juicy Fruit. “Nate and Shawna walked to the D&D, broke, and Shawna stripped for gas money. Sounds like she didn’t make much and they left.”
“In Bobo’s car?”
“With their prints all over the inside? You bet.” Manny turned the CD player on and polka music sounded a second before Reuben turned it down.
“If you want to bounce ideas off me, turn Frankie Yankovic off so I can concentrate.” He waited until Manny turned it off. “I’m betting Nate knew just enough about cars that he wired Bobo’s beater.”
“Bobo said it wouldn’t take much to start it,” Manny said. He offered Reuben a piece of gum, but he declined. “Bad for the teeth.” Manny shrugged and popped a stick. “But there’s another problem: Security tape shows Tony leaving the D&D moments before Nate and Shawna.”
“And you don’t know if Nate and Shawna jacked the car and gave Tony a ride back to Pine Ridge, or if Tony took the car and gave Nate and Shawna a ride? That’s a hell of a predicament, Little Brother.”
Manny pulled into a 7-Eleven to gas up. He fished the government card out of his wallet and stuck the nozzle in the filler tube. “Where did they meet up with Johnny Apple? That’s what’s been bugging me.”
Reuben had gotten out to stretch his legs and leaned back against the trunk. “You said you had evidence Johnny had been on his side for a while after he was dead.”
“Post mortem stain showed he did.” Manny climbed back in and stuffed the receipt into his expense pouch. “Pookie Martinez said Nate was real scared. Needed to leave quick. Could be that he was worried about getting caught with dope—”
“Or it could mean he had stuffed old Johnny into the trunk after robbing him outside the D&D,” Reuben said.
“Bobo said he couldn’t ID Johnny’s photo,” Manny said. “But you know how Bobo lies. Johnny could have been in there ogling the ladies that night.”
“Or,” Manny buckled up, “it could mean Johnny was already in the trunk when they stole the car. And had been in there for some time, in order to get the stain Doc Gruesome pointed out. Either way, I won’t be able to get a good night’s sleep until I figure out where Johnny died, or what Tony’s connection is to his death.”
“Maybe a visit to the sweat lodge would clear your head.”
“Might.”
“Then you better call Clara and tell her you’re getting right with the Creator today,” Reuben said, “and you won’t be home until tomorrow.”
Chapter 21
Manny squinted against the bright red and blue flashing emergency lights at the long end of the driveway. He herded his car between two tribal police cars parked in front of Tony Charging Bear’s house. Manny climbed out and ran the gauntlet of officers as he made his way to the front door.
Lumpy opened the door and let him inside. Even though it was dark and long after office hours, Lumpy wore a starched uniform shirt topped by a red Oglala Sioux Tribe Police tie. “Sorry to break up your little family reunion with your ex-con of a brother, but I thought you’d want to see this.”
Manny had just bedded down in Reuben’s spare room for the night when Willie had called. Luckily, Tony’s ranch house was only three miles from Reuben’s. As Manny stepped inside Tony’s house, Willie pointed to a side room. “Looks like he left in a mighty big hurry.”
A chest of drawers stood open, one drawer hosting underwear, the next one down tee shirts, all in disarray. A pair of socks had dropped onto the floor, and a nightstand beside the chest lay on its side, spare change littering the bare, wooden floor. “I’d say Tony left abruptly,” Manny said. “How’d you get in?”
Willie looked away, and Lumpy kicked the pair of socks beside the bed.
“You guys did have a search warrant, didn’t you?”
“We got an anonymous call that Tony was at his house packing his shit,” Willie said.
“Anonymous call?” Manny said. “Where did your Enhanced 9-1-1 system say it came from?”
Lumpy shook his head. “No clue. TracFone most likely. It was untraceable.”
“Okay. I can live with that. How long did it take you to get your search warrant?”
“We were let in,” Willie blurted out.
“Okay, you were let in. By whom?” Manny pressed, becoming frustrated.
Willie looked to Lumpy, who looked absently out the window. “Me and Officer Hollow Thunder came to the house,” Willie sputtered. “I knocked hard on the door, and someone yelled for me to come in. So I walked in.”
“You didn’t?”
“Didn’t what?”
“Tell me Hollow Thunder didn’t run around to the back door just before you knocked?” Manny asked.
Willie nodded.
“And someone—who sounded suspiciously like Officer Hollow Thunder—yelled for you to come in?”
Willie nodded again.
“‘Reservation Search Warrants’ went out about the time we were rookies on the street.” He slapped Lumpy on the shoulder. “Is that what you’re teaching your officers nowadays? Don’t you guys beat all.”
“No,” Lumpy said. “But we’re in now, aren’t
we?”
Manny shook his head in disbelief and walked into the kitchen. An untouched plate of mac and cheese adorned the tiny kitchen table. He turned to the stove and ran his hand around the cheese-crusted pot. “Tony didn’t make this gourmet dish recently.” Manny nodded to the phone. “What kind of messages are on the answering machine?”
“That was our next step.” Lumpy reached over and hit the “play” button. The archaic answering machine spewed its message. “This is Uncle Johnny,” it began, staticky, voice faltering. “Come to Fort Washakie as soon as you can. Stop at the house so we can go over some things pertaining to your Aunt Della. And to let you know I changed my will.”
Manny picked up the machine, made about the time Manny was in high school. It still used micro cassettes, with no way of telling when the call was received.
“We’ll check phone records,” Lumpy said. “In case you’re going to try to lecture us further on how to do our job. We’ll find out when those calls were made.”
Pee Pee Pourier’s evidence van pulled up beside the front door, and he stepped out. He whistled as he walked inside with his evidence kit. Manny passed Pee Pee on his way going out, and he walked over to Willie waiting at his Tahoe.
“I know you’re going to chew my butt for pulling that stunt. But we needed to get in there. I knew—just knew—Tony was about to rabbit. Maybe we’ll luck out and Pee Pee will find some evidence that Johnny was in Tony’s house.”
Manny nodded. “That was my first thought, too. After Tony drove to Fort Washakie, maybe they drove back here together.”
“Or Johnny might have already been in the trunk when he came back to Pine Ridge,” Willie said. “Except Tony doesn’t have a car.”
“Bobo said Tony could use his car whenever he needed it.”
Lumpy called, and Willie headed toward the house when Manny stopped him. “Just don’t let your lieutenant’s desire for a permanent chief position make you pull some boner like that again.”
Willie dropped his head. He kicked at a rock with the toe of his boot before looking up. “I forgot to tell you. An hour before we got the anonymous tip, Brandi Apple called. A Riverton attorney, Devlon Thomas, had called her earlier in the day. She said he wanted to meet with her and go over Johnny’s new will.”
“What did he need a new will for? You saw that place he lived in?” Manny said. “Besides, Neville did all Johnny’s legal work.”
“Apparently, Johnny decided to part with some lucky bucks and hire another lawyer.”
“Apparently,” Manny said. “And what did Thomas tell her about the will?”
“Brandi got off of work at five, and Thomas had gone home for the day by the time she got to his office in Riverton.”
“It still doesn’t make sense,” Manny said. “If you’re Johnny, why would you have a new will drawn up to give away everything you don’t have?”
“Do you think she’s lying?”
“I don’t know what to think,” Manny answered. “Why hire another attorney when Neville did all your legal work for nothing? I could see it if Johnny had been well-off.”
“Maybe her dad was like those eccentrics you read about, who stuff money in their mattress all their life,” Willie shrugged. “Maybe he was really worth millions.”
*****
Manny had pulled out of Tony’s driveway and nearly made it to the gravel road when distant flashing lights in his rearview mirrors made him turn around. By the time Manny drove back to Tony’s house, Pee Pee had strung yellow evidence tape around the perimeter of the house and two small sheds in the back. As Manny climbed out of his Malibu, Willie was there to meet him. He handed Manny a pair of examination gloves. “What are these for?”
“A body. You might need them,” Willie answered. “And this,” he passed a jar of Vaseline to Manny. Finally learned to pack for Hallmark moments such as this.
Willie led Manny around the house to a small shed in back. Pee Pee had erected a portable flood light and it was pointed at the shed. Deer antlers hung crooked over the double doors, and the rusty hinges groaned a protest when Willie opened them.
Manny smelled old chicken feces caked on the floor of the coop, even before he smelled the crumpled body. It lay against one wall, partially covered with a moldy tarp. “Recognize him?”
Willie nodded. “I arrested him for possession of controlled substance last year. Joey One Feather. I guess he never made it to Tuba City.”
“If he even tried.”
Manny squatted beside the corpse and carefully pulled the tarp away. Joey’s face had taken a beating, and his teeth were clenched in a tight grimace. That hiakigle told Manny that Joey had suffered before someone snapped his neck. Manny stood and stretched his back as he walked around Joey to look at him from different angles. “Send a teletype to the Rapid City PD. Tell them to pick up and hold Bobo Groves.”
“Now what good would that do, Hot Shot?” Lumpy stood in the doorway, blocking out much of the light as he reached for Willie’s jar of Vaseline. “Last I knew, this was Tony Charging Bear’s house.”
“Remember how Joey here described his attacker? And Kyle Wells gave the same description.”
“Right,” Lumpy said. “Big bald-headed guy, tats up the ass.”
Manny motioned for Willie again. “Call Crow Creek BIA. We need Kyle to ID a picture of Bobo ASAP.”
Willie left to call, and Manny faced Lumpy. “Tony and Bobo are chummy. I found that out talking with him at his bar. Tony can use Bobo’s car when he needs it. Perhaps Bobo has access to Tony’s house whenever he needs it. I can imagine Bobo bringing Joey here to kill him.” Manny wiped the Vaseline from under his nose with a bandana and backed out of the chicken coop. They walked upwind from the shed. “Joey’s body’s been here for several days by the looks of him. If Tony was here when it happened, he might have helped Bobo kill him.”
“How would that tie in with Johnny Apple?”
Manny motioned to the shed where Pee Pee had started processing the crime scene. “Maybe Tony brought old Uncle Johnny to Pine Ridge. Maybe even under good intentions.”
“So, maybe,” Lumpy added, “Johnny just unfortunately happened to be here with Tony when Bobo brought Joey to the farm house to kill him.”
Chapter 22
Lumpy picked Manny and Willie up behind the justice building and ran code the entire eight miles to Sadie Moon’s place. The lights and siren were giving Manny a headache, and he leaned over the seat and yelled in Lumpy’s ear, “Can you slow this damned thing down? Even to Mach 1?”
Lumpy’s Suburban slid around a gravel curve. It fishtailed, but he expertly corrected. “If your brother’s screwed up a tribal investigation, I’ll have his ass in a sling.” Lumpy moved the seat belt around so it wouldn’t bind into his new uniform shirt. He glanced at Manny in the rear view mirror. “We got a hard enough time keeping on track with our cases without him nosing around.”
“Don’t judge him too soon,” Manny said, his fingers digging into the door rest. “Did any of your guys reach Shawna? Reuben’s the one that managed to find her.”
“He’s still got her, right?” Willie turned in the seat to face Manny just as they breezed past Sadie Moon’s mailbox.
“When Reuben called me, he said Shawna would still be there when we arrived.” Manny unbuckled his seat belt as they pulled into Sadie’s driveway.
Lumpy slid to a stop beside a blue Buick and ran to Sadie’s door. The old woman stood waiting for them with the door opened, and motioned them in. Manny followed Lumpy and Willie inside, and Sadie grabbed his arm before he walked out of the kitchen. “Are you going to be good to my granddaughter?”
“Good to her?”
Sadie frowned and stepped closer to Manny. “I know how the feds treat my people.”
Manny laid his arm on Sadie’s arm. “Your people are my people, Unci. Grandmother, we’ll
treat her fairly.”
Reuben sat next to Shawna on the sofa. The box of tissue was all but swallowed by his enormous hand, and he passed more to Shawna. His other hand held a bag of frozen corn to the side of his head.
Shawna jumped when they entered the living room. Reuben draped his arm around her shaking shoulders, and sat her back on the couch. “It’s all right now. They’re the good guys.” A large welt had formed on Reuben’s temple and his eye was swelling shut.
“What happened to you?” Willie asked.
“Bobo.” Reuben stood and motioned to the couch. Lumpy sat beside Shawna, and waited until her crying stopped before he started talking to her.
Manny motioned for Reuben to step outside. “Now, what happened?”
“Chief Horn called your house, and Clara gave him your personal cell number,” Reuben said.
“Never heard it ring.” Manny patted his pocket, and came away with his FBI issued Android. “Guess I lost my own phone—”
Reuben had it.
“Crap! You lifted that off me?”
“You forgot it at my place earlier today,” Reuben explained. “I was gonna call you, but I didn’t know how to use the thing. Lucky I figured out how to answer it when Chief Horn called.”
“Bet that was a shock when you answered.”
“He got over it quick. He said to tell you that Shawna just walked in Sadie’s door.” Reuben gave Manny the phone back.
“How did the chief know she was here?”
“Sadie. She called him at the Cohen Home when Shawna walked through the door. I figured I’d better get here quick.”
“How’d you get here so fast?”
Reuben shot a telltale glance at the Buick.
“Is that Crazy George’s car?”
“It might be.”
“Well if it’s stolen—again—he’ll raise hell with the police,” Manny whispered. “Did you drive that here?”
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