Sarah's List

by Elizabeth Gunn

  What have I got to fight with?

  The branches she had wished were stronger while she clung to them seemed even punier now. She broke off a couple of dry sticks while the unloading commotion above covered the little cracking noises. At least I can poke them in the eye.

  The newcomers were inclined to make jokes about Bogey’s injuries. He was trying to be stoic but was obviously in pain and angry. But when somebody said something like, ‘… shoot her and get it over with,’ he said, ‘no. It has to look like an accident.’

  Yes, yes! Shuddering in her shelter of leaves and thorns, she told herself He means to kill me but he doesn’t want to shoot me. It was very cold comfort but she went back to telling herself she could outrun him. The realist in her whispered, what about his pals? And the hero she was building herself into said, pull them into this hole and scare them with the snakes.

  It wasn’t much of a plan but it was the best she had and she was still embroidering it when a small parade of unmarked city vehicles came down the road from the Crazy Mule turn-off, and a half-dozen Tucson detectives jumped out and surrounded her car. They made a lot of noise, flashing badges and demanding that the three men they found there tell them where they’d put Sarah Burke.

  Before the awkward fact emerged that they had no jurisdiction in the county, Sheriff Wheeler arrived with several of his deputies, including Ray’s cousin Oscar. The space on front of Amanda’s house was too small for their armored vehicle, so they parked it by the peeled log and walked down the graveled track, checking their weapons.

  When they reached Amanda’s house, they made three arrests, based on information provided by a Tucson detective whom they rescued from a hole in the desert.

  Or so the story went on the nightly news.

  At home, where she gratefully rested over the weekend after a day in the hospital and another in debriefing, Sarah had a somewhat longer story to tell. It came out slowly, interrupted by periods of rest and soaking in a hot tub.

  ‘All right, I admit to an error in judgment,’ she told her family. ‘I should not have gone out there without a backup.’

  Will said, ‘Why did you?’ He’d been horrified by how hurt she was when he first saw her in the hospital.

  ‘Well, I really did think I was just going to confirm her address,’ she said. ‘But OK, I was angry, too – because my system wasn’t working. Delaney handed me the Fairweather Farms case, and I did what I always do, made a list of questions and looked for the answers. Nothing seemed to fit with anything else, but I was sure I could break through all the clutter if I just kept checking, so that’s what I did.’

  ‘If it doesn’t work, do more of the same,’ Will said sadly. ‘How many times—’

  ‘Come on, don’t nag.’ She held up the tweezer. ‘Right leg. Back of the knee.’ She had been doing this all weekend, every time she found more cactus thorns that the hospital had overlooked. They had done a nice job on cuts and abrasions, but many cactus spines were tiny and hard to see. Sarah was going to be wearing her softest clothes to work for a while, and close to nothing at home.

  ‘I still don’t get it,’ Denny said. ‘The brave hero that arrested five guys at once, he turned out to be a bad guy? What about all that money you found together?’

  ‘He planted that. Bogey, yes. While I was right there, but my back was turned. The guy’s a master of deceit.’

  ‘Why would he plant money on DeShawn, his own guy?’

  ‘He saw a chance to get the little guys all arrested. He had to get them out of the way to clear the field for his deal with the Euros. He’s amazingly opportunistic.’

  ‘But the thumb drive, Sarah,’ Will said. ‘How could he know …?’

  ‘He planted that too, don’t you see? I should have known there was something hinky when he pretended all that interest in the ammo. There was nothing unusual about the two shots in the door. He pretended an interest so he could get into the van with Banjo and plant the dead drop that he supposedly found.’

  ‘But how come he was carrying the right amount of money?’ Denny said.

  ‘Who says it was the right amount? He made the whole thing up, don’t you see?’

  ‘Ooohhh,’ Denny said, taking two syllables to express her understanding, ‘that really is adorably clever, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yes, well, I’m glad you’re pleased,’ Sarah said. She was a little testy; her pride was hurt.

  ‘But what about that terrific arrest he made?’ Denny said, ‘The one you told me about before, with five men on the ground – he was an honest cop then, wasn’t he?’

  ‘No, that was the biggest con of all. He had his little drug ring going along nice, everybody happy with the extra money, when the big international thugs came to town and spied his action. They showed him some of their heat and said, “We’re taking this turf, Dingbat, how many of you do we gotta kill?”

  ‘So Bogey made a deal. Said he’d get his gang out of the way without a fight if they’d let him keep his policeman’s badge, then there wouldn’t be any big gun battle that gets the law involved, and he could protect us all.’

  ‘That was good thinking,’ Will said.

  ‘Brilliant. And when the Euro-trash said yes, he went to his own gang and told them that those animals had got them outgunned so to make up their minds … they could be safe, out of the way with a couple of years in Yuma or could end up dead. So they staged that wonderful arrest on Kentucky Derby day.’

  ‘I don’t know, Sarah,’ Will said, ‘this all sounds pretty pie in the sky to me. What about DeShawn? Why is he always getting whacked?’

  ‘Because he wouldn’t go along. DeShawn was tired of running. He liked his job and he liked the nice little romance he was having with Amanda. He said he thought he could make a deal with the new guys, so he went to them and made his pitch, told them what a savvy guy he was, how he could please everybody and get them more customers. They evidently decided to take him quietly into the team and kill him later, and they’ve been trying to do that ever since. DeShawn seems to be a fraudster with a lot of luck.’

  ‘Where does he stand right now?’

  ‘In County waiting for the lawyers to decide what to charge him with. He’s lost some confidence.’

  ‘He’ll get it back,’ Will said. ‘Con men always do.’

  ‘I guess. One of the things I figured out while I was waiting in that ravine – the reason DeShawn quit talking to me in the hospital that day. Bogey had come to tell me about his phony search for the pickup, and he must have been standing in the doorway, looking for me. DeShawn thought Bogey was looking for him and right then he decided, both sides want me dead. That was when he got more symptoms and slid down in the covers.’

  ‘How does he do that? Get those symptoms when he wants them?’

  ‘I wish I knew. DeShawn is a real piece of work. I can kind of see why Amanda couldn’t resist him.’

  ‘What about Amanda?’ Denny said. ‘She really didn’t do anything illegal, did she? Does she have to take the fall for having that pickup in her barn?’

  ‘What pickup? I think that’s going to be her answer. I don’t believe anybody can prove she knew it was there. I’m sure what happened is the Euros put the squeeze on DeShawn – “find us a place to store this truck” – even though they’d used it to try to kill him, but I guess they weren’t ’fessing up to that yet. And DeShawn turned to Amanda and said, as he always will, to whatever woman is dancing to his tune at the moment, “Baby, I need your help.” Amanda has unerring taste for men who will ruin her life.’

  ‘One thing I’ve been wondering,’ Will said. ‘What was Bogey doing there?’

  ‘Getting ready to drive the pickup out. He had a flatbed waiting on a curve at the top of Ocotillo, ready to haul the truck to a chop shop far away. The sheriff’s crew picked them up. The sheriff already had the truck driver in chains when they came to rescue me.’

  ‘Well, I sure hope you work it out so Amanda doesn’t have to go to jail,’ Denny said. ‘Th
at would be a shame, wouldn’t it? After all she’s just a’ – she put her head back and warbled the last three words – ‘prisoner of love.’

  ‘Oh, pshaw,’ Will said, getting up. ‘I need some fresh air after that.’ He went out and got his tools out of the shed, ready to start work on the patch in front of the carport.

  The phone rang, and Jason Peete said, ‘Is this the detective who likes to spend her paid vacations exploring the desert?’

  ‘Anytime you hanker after exotic scenery,’ Sarah said, ‘call me. I know some very scenic places.’

  ‘Are you hurt bad?’

  ‘Nah. Still finding cactus thorns, but otherwise mostly healed – much better off than my opponent, I’m pleased to say.’

  ‘Good for you. You want to hear the fun stuff I found by the dark of the moon?’

  ‘You bet. You chatted with some staff?’

  ‘Tammy might seem scattered to you, Sarah, but she showed me some devilish charm. She and a couple of her buds there, they know how to have fun in their time off.’

  ‘You see, you just have a knack. Did you hear about anything stronger than weed?’

  ‘Hard stuff’s too expensive for the staff. Tammy’s hoping you bring the hammer down hard on Mr Ames, though. It seems he has a serious Oxy habit, along with being a major pain in the butt.’

  ‘I’ll personally see to it that Mr Ames’s habit gets the attention it deserves. Last time we spoke he called me girlie.’

  ‘He what?’ Jason erupted into laughter. ‘Oh, Sarah, how did you keep from breaking his face?’

  ‘Oh, you know the answer to that. I was interrogating him. I didn’t even blink. How many times have you had to do the same thing?’

  ‘Plenty. It isn’t even hard anymore. I just stand there being glad I’m on the right side.’

  ‘Except when it’s Delaney.’

  ‘It’s different with him. I know you think it’s racist but it isn’t.’

  ‘I know. You both want to be boss and only one of you is.’

  ‘Very good; go to the head of the psych class. Listen, now that you’ve got all these big-time crimes to punish, you can forget about the pot, right?’

  ‘Of course. Thanks for doing it, though. It helped me through the hiatus.’

  After she poked off she stood listening to the drone of Dietz’s motor for a minute, and then walked out to watch him work. When he stopped to rest she came and stood close to him.

  ‘This is going to look very nice,’ she said.

  ‘Yeah, well, it’s great that Aggie’s cheered up and is getting along so well with that neighbor,’ he said. ‘She seems to be enjoying that plot by the kitchen. But here in front, I thought I’d like to do this one myself.’

  She kissed his neck and began to whisper in his ear about the things around here that she thought needed no improvement. As her list of plenty good things grew longer and more explicit, Will Dietz began to blush with pleasure and, before long, he was putting his tools away.