by Doug Ball
“He was supposed to bring you the money he owed you, where was he gonna get it?” Lenny was having a bit of trouble keeping his mind on the reason he was in the house.
“He had this big job that was going to set him up for life. Supposedly all he had to do was drive a truck for an hour and then guard it for a couple of days. Sounds to me like the heist you mentioned. Well, I guess he was set for life; it was just a short life. Don’t ya think?” She wiggled on the couch, looking at the bourbon bottle.
Lenny said, “Did he talk about who he was working for or with, or give you any idea of who else was involved?” Lenny tried hard to maintain eye contact.
Eve stood up with a flash of skin and walked to the bar, poured the glass full, and returned to the couch. “He did mention something about a cutout man being in place. He had a phone number that kept changing. Rog thought he was using throwaways. He also mentioned a guy he had worked with before, the one that put him in prison the last time. Oh yeah, it was the last time. The last time I was goin’ to sit around here all lonely and such waiting for that bum. He was a bum, you know. Slapped me once just because I had been out with the girls and was a bit tipsy. Taxi brought me home. I was a mess. We had a lot of fun that night,” she winked, “if you know what I mean.”
“Tell me about the guy he worked with before?” Lenny thought it was getting hot in the room and loosened his tie a bit.
Eve smiled. “Some fat Mooselum guy he met at the 7-11 down on 56th. I don’t know and I don’t care. They’re all terrorists.”
“Do you remember his name? Anything about him? Every little bit helps us find the guy who shot your ex.” Lenny checked his notes to get his eyes off the thigh on the couch.
“Naw. He ain’t an interesting man like you. You sure you don’t wanna drink, Officer?”
“I’m sure.” He was struggling to add facts to his notes and keep his eyes off her. ‘What I want is to get out of here,’ he thought. “I think I have enough for now. I might return if I need more info.”
He handed her his card after standing and walking toward the couch, “Here’s my cell number, please give me a call if you should think of anything, anything at all that might help us find your ex’s killer.”
“I can call you for anything?” she asked with a come-hither look on her face and a slink in her voice.
She stood up allowing the robe to open a bit. “I have a thought now of something that will help me get over his death.”
Lenny backed off, heading for the door. “I’ll be in touch. Thank you for your cooperation, Ms. Matthews. I’ll show myself out.”
Reaching his car he realized he was dripping sweat. He smiled, “Been a long time since a good looking woman came on to me like that, I guess I’m outta practice.
“Time for the office.”
#
Tan got the word from Bruce concerning the need for a pardon or early release for Abdul Smith and immediately called the Governor.
“Yes, Officer Brown.”
“Governor, we need a pardon or early release for the dead driver’s running mate, Abdul Smith. He is in prison for the second or third time for minor drug stuff. He has promised to tell us a lot on this case, in particular who Wolinski’s boss was. He says he was told in a phone call through the Wolinski’s girlfriend. I think an early release under parole might just do the trick. Bruce says he appears sincere, but they all do don’t they, and wants to help find the man who killed his best friend.”
“Get me the particulars in writing on my desk soon and I will deal with it.” She looked around her office as if she were lost until her eyes settled on her tea mug. Taking it in hand she sipped and said, “I want a provision that if his info is no good, found to be a lie, or not the ID of the perp he promised, he goes back immediately. Let’s get a transfer on him to 4th Avenue jail now.”
Tan smiled and shook his head, “I like the way you think. I’m on it.” He hung up.
The Governor looked at her phone with a quizzical look and said, “Bye,” and laughed as she finished her tea. “That man gets excited, doesn’t he?” Rachel stuck her head in with a questioning look. “Just talking to myself. Get back to that info I need.” The Governor turned and walked behind her desk and sat down.
Rachel left the office worried. The Governor was under a lot of stress and had been for a long time. ‘Was she cracking up, losing it, or just plain punch drunk?’ she thought as she returned to her desk. Looking at the body guard sitting in the corner reading a book on his phone, “You noticed anything weird about the Lady in there.” She motioned toward the inner office.
“Not a thing. That ‘Lady’ is one of the toughest I have ever met. If she was my wife, I’d be the most obedient man around. With all that said, she is under stress, a lot of stress, and we need to help her keep going by being upbeat and positive.”
“Sounds like a plan to me.”
Her intercom beeped. “Yes, Governor.”
“Get me the pardon file, please.”
“I’ll bring it right in.”
Click. The Governor was off the intercom.
Rachel went digging in the files. This was one she had never had occasion to pull before and she was hoping it was filed properly.
The Aspens
“Beautiful sunset isn’t it?” the man asked the Navajo woman.
She was not enamored with sunsets, or sunrises for that matter. They were just natural occurrences of Mother Earth. Soon the stars that coyote scattered across the skies would be the only light there was except for man’s futile attempts at competing with the gods. “I see nothing except clouds outlined by the beams of light coming from a sun that has done its work for the day. Soon it will be gone only to reappear in the east tomorrow. Happens every day. Why are you so caught up in it?”
“Do you not think it is beautiful, even if you consider it a natural phenomenon?” he pushed her for a decision she was not going to admit to. It really didn’t matter to him whether she thought it beautiful or not, she would be dead before it was over. She had let him down tremendously during the uprising. She did not even kill the cop she was to destroy after facing him on at least two occasions. She even had the perfect chance at Two Guns after the bomb scare. Now she would die.
“Are you a virgin?”
“What? How dare you. What kind of a question is that to ask a woman you have only known professionally and has no interest in sex with you. I am Navajo. You are some kind of Arab. I would not lay with you even if you paid me much more than I have seen so far.” Her dark face was screwed up in anger at his question.
“I was only wishing that when I die the martyr, you would be one of the 70 virgins awaiting me.” He drew his silenced .40 caliber auto and shot her between the eyes twice. She dropped, squirmed, and bled out on the ground before him. He hunted down the cartridge cases, put them in his pocket, walked down to the road from the patch of Aspens he had led them to, got into his car, and drove down the winding road at a moderate speed. He passed no one on the way to the highway where he turned left.
After three miles there was a pull off for winter skiers with a trash can at the near end of the lot. He wrapped the gun in aluminum foil he found in the trash and deposited the weapon in the can, minus the silencer, and drove back to his room where he dressed for dinner at Black Bart’s across the road. As usual the music was very good, the steak was tender, and the beans were great, even if they were cooked with pork in the pot. He limited himself to two drinks with dinner. Surely Allah would not be angry at two little drinks.
#
Tan looked at his group of professionals, “Okay, let’s wrap this up. We are looking for a Muslim with a hate for Phoenix, a big Muslim that may or may not be important, and a motivation or two. Anything else that’s hot?”
“Roger Wolinski’s wife. She needs a bath in ice.”
The conversation went south quickly until Rachel knocked on the door and entered. “The Gov wants to know whatcha got so far.”
“I
can go brief her if you want.” Tan replied.
“Let’s go. She’s waiting.
#
Lenny arrived home and parked the car in the garage. After pushing the CLOSE button for the garage door, he entered the house to find his wife working in the kitchen. “How’d it go today, lover?”
Lenny thought about the question for about a second. “Fine. I got hit on by a good looking woman I was questioning. In her living room, on her couch, even. That hasn’t happened in a long time.” He watched her reaction to the confession.
She smiled, wiped her hands on her apron which she untied and threw on the table, gave him a look he had seen many time, and said, “You got your woman right here, big boy, and don’t you forget it.”
“You left out a word or two.”
“Which word or two?”
“Good looking.”
“Let’s eat supper, it’s ready and I wouldn’t want it to get cold. After supper we can work on your problem before you get cold.”
“It might not take long for me to get cold.”
“Lenny, you have always been hot.”
#
Joan walked into the living room of her new house to see Tan in his chair staring at the ceiling. The football game on the television was a raucous noise.
“Honey?”
He ignored her. A long bomb was intercepted in the game, the crowd went wild, the noise level climbed to painful, and still Tan stared into space. Joan had not seen that look since a year after He came back from Iraq.
“Les,” she shouted.
He jumped, “What?”
“You okay, honey?”
“Yeah. I was just lost in space somewhere.”
“What’s wrong?”
He looked around thinking the noise was coming from people in the room until he focused on the game. “How long was I gone?”
“A few minutes. You missed a wild play. Long bomb was intercepted. Second turnover so far.”
“I think I was with Robert again when we were followed up near Prescott. I miss that man a whole lot.” He got wet eyed and turned away.
“Don’t turn away from me with wet eyes. You’re more of the man I love when I know you can still cry when the situation calls for a tear. He was your friend. You were very close due to the job you both had and the seriousness of the case you were on. You left him alone, and during that time he was killed and you survived. I’m sorry he died. I’m glad you’re alive. The situation this morning was enough to bring back all kinds of horror stories. I remember when you came back from Iraq. You had the same stare. I was with you then and I’ll be with you now.”
He smiled at her, got out of his chair and gave her a hug. There was nothing sexual about that hug, he was just saying ‘I love you’ without words. The tears flowed freely down his cheeks and onto her shoulder. “I think this is why I love you so much.”
“Think, only think.”
“Yeah, think. I think of you all the time and know that you are and will be here for me when I need you. I want you to know again that I will be here for you no matter what.” He had to spoil the mood a bit with, “Except of course, when my job or the Reserves get in the way.”
“You just have to ruin all the chick flick scenes in our life with a wise crack, don’t you Les Brown.”
“But, I’ll always be young for you. Let’s grow young together.” He took her hand and started skipping toward the front door.
She baulked, “You are going to take me skipping down the sidewalk in our new neighborhood. I am more mature than that.”
He let her go and went skipping all by himself.
She watched, ran, and joined him. “This is crazy, Tan, real crazy.”
“Fun though, huh?” He smiled. “Hurts my wounded leg, but I’m tough. Marines don’t hurt.”
They laughed together.
#
The phone rang. “What?” Tan looked at the clock. 2:00 showed on the readout.
“Get awake, DPS Director Armistad here. An old friend of yours has been found dead up by the Snow Bowl.”
“Who?”
“I’ll give you a hint. Navajo, truck wreck, and Two Guns.”
Tan thought for just a moment, the gal from the truck on I-17 and Two Guns was in Department of Correction at Perryville women’s unit. “How’d she die?” Tan pictured the Navajo woman in his mind. She had a new name every time he met her. She had been a Tsasie the last time he had busted her after the bomb threat on the I-40 bridges at Canyon Diablo. Last he had heard was her plea to five years in the Arizona Department of Corrections. Even with time served and 85% time to serve, she would be inside DOC for over four years.
“Bullet wounds to the head. Two of them. Her body is now in the morgue in Flagstaff Medical Center. Our top team is doing scene investigation and the ME will be doing an autopsy at 0900 this AM. You will need two hours to get there at least, so you better get started.”
“Who found her?”
“Couple of teenagers. They were carrying a blanket out of the woods when they very literally stumbled over her. Needless to say, the scene has been disturbed. The kids will help is if we don’t tell their parents. I made the deal.”
“I’ll be rolling within twenty minutes. The scene can wait, I’ll check with the ME’s office and then get the first-on-scene report from Coconino Sheriff’s Office.” He crawled out of bed as he spoke, throwing covers off of Joan in the process.
“Go play Cop and let me sleep. I got kids to deal with,” she wasn’t sounding as friendly as she did just before they went to sleep.
He threw the covers over her head and left for the shower. She waited and followed him with a cup of cold water which she threw over the curtain.
“Yeoweeeeeee. Pay back’s a bear, Joanie baby. I know where the pitchers are kept.” He finished scrubbing, dressing, and grabbing his gear in less than ten minutes. An eye dropper of ice water was emptied in Joan’s left ear just after he kissed her goodbye.
She chased him out to his state car where she realized she had only a thin nightie on and turned to run for the house. “Catch ya later, Tan, and I do mean catch,” she yelled and slammed the door behind her.
Tan began the journey to Flagstaff and another dead person. “Seem’s there’s been a bunch of dead in my life lately. Does it come with the territory or am I a type of Jonah that kills everything it likes or confronts through third parties. Is my family in danger? Why am I not in danger? I just seem to slide through these episodes without a problem. A little wound and that’s it.” He looked around to make sure he was not being followed, checked his gauges, and continued, “Perhaps I need a shrink. Why am I talking to myself? It’s a lousy converstation.” He leaned and turned on the radio.
Passing Sunset Point Tan grabbed his cell and called Chuck.
“Do you know what time it is?” came the sleepy voice.
“No, tell me.”
Groaning and grunting came through the phone. “It’s 3:30 in the morning, Arizona time. Not daylight savings time, but Arizona time. What do you want, Boss? It better be good.”
Tan ran through the story and concluded with, “Get to the office. At 6 AM call everyone in and feed them a donut or two. I’ll call around 7. Call Rachel around 7 and have her let you know when the Governor is in her office. Call me with that info. Call Coconino Sheriff’s Office and get the current name of the vic and run it for all it’s worth. I really do think this lady is the closest we’ve been to some answers. If our Muslim male suspect was involved with the uprising of the tribes and we know our Navajo lady was, this may be a break, the break we have been looking for. Questions?”
“No.”
“Oh, yeah, find out how she got out of custody.” Tan broke the circuit.
Chuck rolled out of bed and started the calling.
#
The man walked out of Little America at 4 AM with his luggage in hand. Loaded the back seat of the rental with the luggage and headed south for Tucson. He had spent the last two hours
wiping down his room, the bathroom getting extra attention to remove all possible DNA sources. He knew he could not get it all, but he had to try it was in his nature.
Once on the road he pulled another throw away phone from the glove compartment and called a number. It rang until the voice mail came on. He hung up and tried again. On the fourth try an angry voice responded. “Who is this? And, it better be important.”
“Is a million dollars not important?”
“Yes, Sir, it is.”
“Have the drone in Reserve, New Mexico, day after tomorrow, 9 AM will do. I will meet you at the airstrip that morning. You will teach me how to fly it and I will pay you off in cash, used bills as you requested. Be prepared for a large suitcase. You will then be able to pursue your desire to develop whatever it was you wanted the money for.”
“Day after tomorrow at the Reserve strip. 9 AM. Not a problem. Have you any experience flying a small airplane or RC model plane?”
“Yes, I have an instrument rating with the FAA.” It was such a small lie, but he could fly a plane. The US Government was so kind to train him at no cost to him.
“Good, that will make the teaching easy and you will have your drone within hours.”
“Very good. Until day after tomorrow, my friend. Good bye.”
“Good bye.” He felt like the ‘my friend’ was an attack on his person, but he shrugged it off as an overreacting mind. This man was getting a better plane than he had bargained for. The new titanium nose cone had increased the range to over 125 miles with a full payload of 1000 pounds and there was no increase in fuel needed. The test flight he had just completed that afternoon using a higher octane fuel had stretched the range considerably more, probably over 150 miles.
What he didn’t know was the working part of the payload would only be 300 pounds, but the steel wrap on the shaped charge would bring the payload over 500 pounds. A steel core would destroy Phoenix so it would never again rise from the ashes.
