“Gotcha.”
The door to Benally’s room opened and his mother emerged. She strode directly over to Books.
“He’ll talk to you now, Ranger Books, and I’m confident he’ll tell you everything he knows.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Grant. I’m sorry to have dropped all this on your doorstep.”
“You don’t owe me an apology. You didn’t bring this to my door step, my son did. And thanks for what you did for me out there today. If it hadn’t been for you, I don’t think I’d have gotten out of there alive.”
Chapter Thirty-three
Books walked into Benally’s room, nodding at the boy as he entered. “Afternoon, Joey.”
Benally didn’t respond, but followed Books with his eyes. He looked frightened and confused. No surprise there. Books plugged a tape recorder into a wall socket near the bed and placed the recorder on a small table between himself and Benally.
Beth Tanner, Virgil Bell, and Becky Eddins followed, taking seats off to one side, the lawyers with pens and legal pads at the ready.
Books began with the usual lengthy preamble that included the date, time, and location of the interview as well as those in attendance. When he got to the Miranda Warnings, Eddins interrupted.
“Ranger Books, my client will waive a reading of his Miranda rights. I’ve gone over them with him, he understands them, and is willing to give up his right to remain silent and answer all your questions truthfully, and to the best of his ability.”
“Thank you, counsel. Joey, I’d like you to go back and start by explaining your relationship with Rolly and Abby Rogers. How do you know them?”
“Well, I knowed Mr. Rogers from high school—I took a couple of history classes from him.”
“And Mrs. Rogers?”
“She helped me get a job where she works at the Jubilee Family Market.”
“And what did you do at the market?”
“Bagged groceries and stocked shelves mostly.”
“How long did you work there?”
He considered that. “Ah, a few months, I think.”
“And why did you leave?”
“Mr. Ryback fired me.”
“Mr. Ryback owns the store. Is that correct?”
“Yeah.”
“And why did he fire you?”
“Missin’ work and coming in late.”
“Had you been in the Rogers’ home prior to the burglary?”
“Yeah, a few times. When I was in Mr. Rogers’ classes, he brought me home sometimes and gave me chores to do around the house for money, like a part time job.”
“And is that how you met Mrs. Rogers?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, let’s go back a week to last Saturday, said Books. “Who did you spend the day with?”
“With my girlfriend, Ruthie Todd, and Jason Buck.”
“Ruthie is your girlfriend. Who is Jason Buck?”
“A friend.”
“How and where did you meet him?”
“I don’t remember where I met him, but we was introduced by Jason’s older brother, Jimmy.”
“Have you ever met Jason’s dad?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s his name?”
“Earl.”
“Do you like Earl?”
“No, not really.”
“Why not?”
Benally arched his eyebrows and shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s kinda creepy.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Ah, I mean like he talks kinda crazy sometimes. And he can blow his stack over nothin, and then you better just stay out of his way, else he’ll hurt ya.”
“All right,” said Books. “I want to come back to your relationship with the Buck family in a minute, but first I want to ask you about something else. You said you spent last Saturday with Jason and your girlfriend. What did you guys do during the day?”
“Um, we just hung out at Ruthie’s grandma’s house for a while listening to music and stuff. Then we went into town.”
“By town, do you mean Kanab?”
“Uh huh.”
“Where did you go in town and what did you do?”
“Hung out, mostly. We was at McDonald’s for a while and then went over to city park.”
“Did you go out with Jason on Saturday night?”
“Yeah.”
“Was Ruthie with you?”
“Naw, we ditched her.”
“How come?”
“Cuz we had business to do?”
“What business was that?”
He paused and looked down. “Robbin’ and stealin’.”
“Robbing and stealing what, exactly?”
“We busted into the Rogers house.”
“By we, do you mean yourself and Jason Buck?”
“Yeah.”
“What time was that?”
“About midnight, I think.”
“How did you get in?”
“Jimmied a lock on a slider behind the house.”
“Was that difficult?”
He smiled. “Not really.”
“What did you do when you got inside?”
“Stole some shit.”
“What did you steal?”
“Jewelry and stuff.”
“Did the ‘stuff’ you’re talking about include the Rogers’ Anasazi artifacts collection?”
“Yeah.”
“Did one of you also kill the family cat?”
“Yeah.”
“Who?”
“Me.”
“Why’d you do that?”
“Just look at my face, man. I didn’t get these scratches from playin with Ruthie.”
Books continued. “How did you know the Rogers weren’t at home? What if they’d been in the house sleeping when you and Jason broke in? What then?”
Benally looked away nervously, his eyes darting from Bell to his lawyer. “They weren’t home. We knew that.”
“How did you know that?”
“Cuz we took ’em the night before.”
“What do you mean, you took them?”
“We like, kidnapped them.”
“Where were they when you kidnapped them?”
“I ain’t sure of the exact spot, but they was camping along the Strip southwest of town.”
“What were they doing out there?”
“They’re diggers, so they was fixin to go grave robbin’.”
“And you and some of your friends interrupted them?”
“Yeah, you could say that.”
“What would you call it?”
He thought about it for a moment. “I guess you could say we stopped ’em and took over their site.”
“So you followed them until they set up camp, and after they discovered the site, you confronted them. Is that right?”
“Yeah.”
“How did you know to follow them in the first place?”
“Cuz Mrs. Rogers told me what they were doing and when they was going.”
“She told you they were going pot-hunting. Why would she do that?”
“Not in so many words. She told me they was going campin’ and gave me a sly wink.”
“When and where did she tell you this?”
“Couple days before they left, Tuesday, I think. I talked to her for a few minutes in the Jubilee parking lot after she got off work.”
“You keep mentioning ‘we.’ How many of you were present when you kidnapped them at the dig site?”
“Five of us.”
“Who were they?”
“Me, Jason Buck, his brother Jimmy, and their old man.”
<
br /> “By ‘old man,’ do you mean Earl Buck?”
“Yeah, we call him Sarge. That’s what he likes to be called.”
“You mean like sergeant as in the military?”
“I guess. That’s what everybody called him.”
“Okay, that makes four. You said there were five of you. Who was the fifth?”
Again, the nervous eyes went flitting around the room before finally settling on his lawyer. Eddins nodded as if encouraging him to answer.
“Bobby, Bobby Case,” said Benally. “He was the other one.”
Books was stunned. He had been confident that the name he was going to hear was Brett Gentry, not his brother-in-law. He felt instantly sick to his stomach. If this was true, it was going to destroy his family.
Eddins and Virgil Bell appeared equally shocked. The look of confusion and distress on Books’ face was almost unbearable to watch.
“Joey,” interrupted Eddins. “Are you absolutely sure that the fifth man was Bobby Case and not somebody else.”
“No, ma’am, it was him. It was Bobby.”
Bell stood and spoke for the first time. “I think we need to take a short break. Would somebody shut off that damned tape recorder?”
From the hallway outside Benally’s room, Becky Eddins and Virgil Bell conversed in hushed tones.
“Geez, I thought the guy was going to faint right where he stood,” said Bell. “Did you know about this, I mean, the Bobby Case thing?”
“Not at all,” replied Eddins. “I had a general idea what he was going to say, but I didn’t know the identity of all the players involved. Had I known, I wouldn’t have let it come out this way. What are the implications of all this for your office?”
“What do you mean?” said Bell, a look of mild indignation on his face. “Never mind, I know what you meant. I’m going to do my job, that’s all I can do.”
A few minutes later, a badly shaken Books returned to Benally’s room, his features a mask of sad resignation and dogged resolve to see the interrogation through regardless.
Bell pulled him off to the side. “You gonna be able to make it through this?
“Absolutely, we can’t stop now. We’re almost there.”
The questioning resumed. “Joey, once the Rogerses were taken hostage, what happened next?”
“Sarge and Jimmy tied them up and left Jason to watch over them. Me and Bobby was sent over to their camp looking for shit to steal.”
“And what did you find?”
“Food to eat, mostly. Oh, and Mr. Rogers’ Glock.
“What happened to the gun?”
“Bobby took it, told me not to say nothin’ to Sarge—said he’d sell it and split the money with me.”
“And is that what you did?”
“Yeah.”
“Whose idea was it to break into the Rogers home?”
“Jimmy and Sarge. I’d told ’em about the collection, and they wanted it.”
“So they sent you and Jason to get it.”
“Yeah.”
“At the time we arrested Bobby, he had some of the stolen property in his truck. How did that come about?”
“Him and me decided to skim a little off the top. Bobby said he knew where he could sell the stuff, and, like the gun, we agreed to split the money.”
“So you and Bobby essentially decided to steal from Sarge and Jimmy Buck—is that right?”
“I guess so.”
“Sounds a little risky. You might have gotten caught.”
Benally shrugged, “They never paid us as much as they promised, so we figured, what the hell.”
“What were you paid?”
“Whatever they felt like givin’ us, mostly. Bobby always wanted cash. I took some of mine in weed and some in cash.”
Books was anxious to find out who ran the operation. He already had a pretty good idea, but needed help from Benally to confirm it. It had to be someone with the money and connections to move stolen relics into the marketplace, where they could be sanitized and then sold to museums, art galleries, and individual collectors from around the world.
“Joey, we need to know who’s running this operation. What happens to all the stolen artifacts?”
“I don’t know. Jimmy and Sarge pay us off, take the stuff, and we never see it again.”
“Who’s the ‘we’ in this operation? How many people actually participate on a regular basis?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t, and I’m pretty sure Bobby don’t either. I think it’s mostly Jimmy and Sarge—not really sure about Jason.”
“And you have no idea who might be running this thing from behind the scenes?”
“Nope.”
“If that’s true, why did I find a phone number in your bedroom for Brett Gentry and Red Rock Touring? What business do you have with him?”
The question caught Benally off-guard and he asked to speak with Eddins. Books and Virgil Bell stepped into the hallway, but Eddins called them back seconds later.
“I’ve instructed Joey to answer your question as best he can,” Eddins said. “However, it’s an area that he has no direct knowledge about.”
She returned to her chair next to Bell. “Go ahead, Joey. Tell Ranger Books what you just told me.”
“Okay, well, I met Bobby at a Burger King in St. George to give him some of the stuff you found in his truck. When he went to take a leak, I snooped through this book he left on the table. It was like an appointment book of some kind. Anyway, inside I found a scrap of paper with that number written on it, so I took it.”
Books looked puzzled. “But why?”
“Cuz I thought, based on some things he said, that Bobby knew who really ran things and just didn’t want to tell me. It was like he was keeping a big secret.”
“So what did you do with the phone number?”
“I dialed it one day and hung up when some woman answered. From there, I kinda put two-and-two together and figured it had to be Brett Gentry.”
“Did you ever confront Bobby or Brett with your suspicions?”
“Naw, I was afraid to—afraid somebody might decide to come after me. I just kept my mouth shut.”
“Do you believe the Rogers kidnapping was an isolated incident, or do you think Sarge and Jimmy Buck have been accosting other diggers?”
“I think it’s what they do. I think they like it.”
“Do you know how to contact these people—cell phone numbers, perhaps?”
“I got Jason’s cell and Bobby’s, but that’s it. Jimmy and Sarge keep changing numbers regular like.”
Books had Benally recite the cell numbers for Timmy and Bobby Case. He had them memorized.
Books continued. “Have you ever overheard them talking about other kidnappings involving pot hunters?”
“No…. well, maybe once. One time I heard Sarge and Jimmy laughing about taking some guy down over in Chaco Canyon.”
Chaco Canyon, Books knew, was an archeologist’s wet dream. Located in the Four Corners region of northwest New Mexico, it was filled with ancient Anasazi cliff dwellings and burial sites and contained a treasure trove of antiquities.
“How many of these of these little adventures have you personally participated in?”
Eddins interrupted before Benally could answer. “I’m sorry, Ranger Books, but our agreement with prosecutors was confined only to the disappearance of the Rogers and the burglary of their home. I’ve instructed my client not to answer that particular question.”
“Fair enough,” replied Books. “I’ll move on. Do you know how often Bobby Case has taken part in these activities with the Bucks?”
Benally hesitated, glancing over at Becky Eddins. “Answer the question,” she said.
“I’m not sure.
It’s not like I keep count or nothin. I ain’t ever heard him talk about going out with ’em before.”
“All right, Joey, here’s the big question. We’ve been looking for Rolly and Abby Rogers for almost a week now. Where are they?”
“I don’t know, and that’s the truth. Sarge and Jimmy took them away someplace, but I don’t know where. I overheard them talkin about driving to Page and forcing the Rogers to get cash from their bank account. That’s all I know.”
“Did you ever see the Rogers again after the kidnapping on Friday night?”
“No.”
“You’re sure about that.”
“Yeah, I am.”
“Do you think it’s possible the Rogers have been killed?”
“I don’t know. I hope not. They been kind to me.”
Books wished Joe Benally had thought of that a little sooner and maybe none of this would have happened.
“Do you think Bobby might know what’s happened to the Rogers?” Books asked.
“He might, but I’m not sure. He left by his self, and Jason and me left right after him.”
Books ended the interview by asking Tanner if she had questions. She didn’t. He told Benally to think about what they had discussed and if he remembered anything else, he should contact Becky Eddins.
Chapter Thirty-four
When Books emerged from Benally’s room and walked into the hospital lobby, he was met by two suits. Their youth, clean-cut appearance, and dress reeked of FBI.
The taller of the two, a guy with a short crew-cut, stepped forward. “Ranger Books, I’m Special Agent Ed Freeman of the FBI, and this is Special Agent Alberto Sanchez.” Books nodded and shook hands with both men and then introduced Beth Tanner.
“We’d like to talk to you.”
Books had always wanted to ask an FBI agent just how “special” they were; however, good manners and interagency cooperation had always prevented him from doing so.
“Sure, but not here,” said Books. “Why don’t we meet at the sheriff’s office? I’m sure we can borrow the conference room.”
“That works,” said Freeman. “How soon can you be there?”
“Give me ten minutes.”
Books turned to Virgil Bell, who was walking behind him beside Becky Eddins. He introduced Eddins and Bell to the FBI Agents and then invited Bell to join him at the meeting. Bell agreed to attend.
Skeleton Picnic Page 18
