Redhawk's Heart, page 21
“I called my home office earlier,” Casey said. “By the time we reach the station, the file I requested on Fox should be there. You’ll be able to read everything I have on her.”
“About time.” He glanced in the rearview mirror, noting a white van a quarter of a mile behind them. The driver kept his distance, never coming too close or falling back too far. “I think we’re being followed.”
She glanced into the rearview mirror on her side. “The white van?” She saw him nod. “How long has it been there?”
“Since we passed the café.”
“It’s not the same van that did the drive-by and tried to run us down. Have you managed to get a look at the driver?”
“No. When I slow down, he does, too. I wouldn’t say he’s skilled at surveillance, but he’s no dummy, either.”
“Do you think it could be Nakai?”
“It isn’t him. I just spoke to him at the station, and he can’t be in two places at once.” Ashe narrowed his eyes, trying to get a clearer look at the driver.
“There are two other choice suspects. Let me check on Prescott. Gordon is out of my reach for now.” Casey pulled a small notebook from her purse. She looked through it, found the telephone number she needed, then dialed.
“This is Deputy Marshal Feist. Is Mr. Prescott in his office?” She paused, then added, “Good. I need to speak to him.” Casey placed her hand over the receiver. “His secretary says he’s there working. She’s putting my call through now.”
Their conversation was brief but, from the expression on Casey’s face, Ashe knew that something wasn’t right. “What happened?” he asked as she closed up the cell phone.
“Patrick Gordon, the teacher, apparently turned himself in to the medical center yesterday. He’s back in custody.”
“He’s been out on the streets for a while, but I don’t see him as part of a drive-by. Do you?”
“Not really, but I’ll need facts before I’m ready to concede he’s innocent.”
Ashe realized then that her doubtful nature was another major difference between them, and perhaps the most important one. When it came down to business, he banked on his gut instincts, but Casey relied only on facts. That was why she hadn’t been willing to trust him before. He’d met cops who went by the book; he just hadn’t realized that when it came to business, Casey always played by the rules.
Ashe purposely turned up a dirt track he knew the van wouldn’t negotiate easily. The van slowed, but remained behind them. “Okay, now I know it’s more than a coincidence. He’s following us. No way any driver would have taken this road if he hadn’t been tailing us. It leads to an empty field sometimes used for ceremonials, but there are none going on now.”
“I say we turn the tables on this guy and find out who he is,” Casey said. “We can’t arrest him—he’s doing nothing illegal—but we can roust him and see what kind of game he’s playing.”
“I was hoping you’d say that.” He slammed on the brakes, spinning the carryall around to the opposite direction in a moonshiner’s turn. “Now we’re in business.” He pressed down hard on the accelerator, racing through the cloud of dust they’d raised, heading straight toward the van.
Chapter Seventeen
Ashe hurtled up the gravel road at high speed. The carryall fishtailed on the unstable road surface and bounced Casey around despite her seat belt. Ashe was a skilled driver on this type of terrain, but every bump jarred her all the way to her bones.
The driver of the van tried to make a last-minute turnaround, but his skill was no match for Ashe’s. The man overcompensated, and skidded off the path into a shallow arroyo. The van’s rear tires quickly bogged down, and the vehicle came to rest on the sandy bottom.
Ashe brought the carryall to a skidding stop and ran to the driver’s side of the van, gun drawn. “Put your hands where I can see them,” he ordered. “Then get out.”
Casey stood to one side of Ashe, her weapon in hand.
“Hey, guys, what’s all the fuss?” Delbert Spencer reached through the rolled-down window and with both hands, opened the door from the outside. Then he got out of the van. “Getting a little jumpy, aren’t we?”
Ashe spun him around against the side of the, van, then frisked him. “Suppose you start by explaining why you’ve been tailing us.”
“Tailing you? You’re crazy. I’m delivering flowers. Take a look at the back of the van. It’s loaded with floral arrangements.”
Casey walked to the vehicle, carefully opened the rear doors in such a way as to avoid being ambushed, then gave Ashe a nod. Unwilling to leave it at that, she used her cell phone and called the florist shop listed on the card attached to one of the arrangements. A moment later, after verifying Spencer’s story, she closed the phone and approached Ashe. He had a strange expression on his face, as if the very act of her calling the florist had confirmed something in his mind.
“The florist said Spencer works for them, but he’s also not where he’s supposed to be. He does have a delivery to make on the Rez, though nowhere near here.”
“Hey, what is with you? You guys bored and looking for excitement? Why are you making trouble for me with my new boss?”
“Tell us why you were following us,” Casey pressed.
“I wasn’t following you. I just happened to be on the same road you were.”
“And then you just decided to take the scenic route down this dirt track that leads to no house or business right after we turned off?” Ashe said.
“Oh, that, I admit, was a mistake. I got lost and just happened to turn here because I was looking for a place to park and check my map.”
Casey knew the man was lying, but there was no way for them to prove it. She studied the prints left by Spencer’s shoes. They were ordinary, inexpensive canvas sneakers—not a match in size or type to the boots found at the crime scenes.
“Now, are you going to help me get this van back onto the road? It’s your fault I’m stuck here, you know. If you hadn’t headed straight for me, I wouldn’t have had to scramble to get out of the way.”
Ashe studied the van’s position, then shook his head. “You can get out of this yourself. You’ll have to do a little digging, and maybe put some brush in front of your tires to get some traction, but you’re in good physical shape. You can handle it. Besides, you can always use the dispatch radio in there to call your boss for help.”
Ashe strode away, with Casey behind him. As they drove back toward the highway, Casey glanced behind. “He’s okay. He’s almost halfway up the road again.”
“Too bad. I was hoping he’d have to work at it longer,” Ashe muttered.
“I know he followed us for a reason, but I think it was just to harass us. He must have known we’d spot him,” Casey said.
“Now that our suspect list is getting shorter, maybe the crooks have decided some form of payback is called for.”
When they finally arrived at the station and Casey saw Nakai at his desk, questions came unbidden to her mind. Although she knew Ashe was completely closed to the possibility that Nakai might be guilty, she wasn’t quite so willing to dismiss him as a suspect. Like Prescott, he’d had the opportunity to see the file on Katrina. He’d also had an association with two other suspects who had featured in the case—Walker and Spencer. If Ashe had grown up with Walker, it was likely that Nakai had known him, as well.
Ashe sat down at Casey’s desk as she opened the confidential envelope her supervisor in the Marshals Service office had sent her. She glanced at the contents, then handed the envelope to Ashe. “This is Fox’s history. Everything we know about her is in here. There’s a lot about her parents that isn’t there, but even I don’t have access to that.”
He studied the file before speaking. “You’re right. There are some big gaps in the information you have on Fox’s parents, though the murder is documented extensively.”
“I know, but this file is about Fox and the murders she witnessed. She was only six when her father and mother went into WITSEC. She had nothing to do with her father’s case.”
“But her enemies may come from her father’s affiliations,” Ashe answered.
“I know, and I’ve tried to get that other file, but I’ve been told that the key players in her father’s case are either dead or in prison. We need to deal with the threat that’s here now. I say we zero in on Spencer. We can start by paying his parole officer an impromptu visit.”
After getting the address, they drove to Ruth Austin’s office. They were ushered in immediately.
Ruth stood as they came in. “I’ve already heard about the incident with the van, and I’ve got to tell you it took some fancy talking to keep the flower-shop owner from firing Delbert. I’m beginning to suspect that Spencer’s right, and you’re out to nail him.”
“He tailed us for quite a while. Did he tell you that part?” Casey asked, realizing that Ruth didn’t exactly seem to be a fan of Ashe’s. There was no telling what Spencer had told her.
“I spoke to him. He said he got lost and had the misfortune of going down the same road you’d taken. That makes sense to me. Why the heck would he follow you?”
“To give us something to worry about,” Casey answered.
“Did he threaten you in any way?”
“We’re not inclined to assume that a parolee tailing us has only our best interests at heart,” Casey said.
“Trying to get him fired won’t help—you or him.”
“That’s tough,” Casey replied. “Spencer was looking to stir up trouble and he succeeded. The problem we now have is trying to determine just how hungry he is for revenge on Detective Redhawk and how far he’d be willing to go to get it.”
Ruth Austin leaned back in her chair. “Okay. Let’s lay this out on the table. What do you need from me?”
“Information,” Casey said. “How many jobs has Spencer had since he was paroled?”
“Four, including the one he has now. His first job was working at a feed store. Spencer was supposed to help them rearrange their inventory, but he was too slow and breaking open feed bags by handling them too roughly. They let him go. His next employer was a grocery delivery service here in town. Nothing was delivered on time, so they fired him. Then he worked for a janitorial company on the Rez. They clean office buildings, mostly for the tribal government. He stuck to that one for a while, but when he failed to show up a few days in a row, they fired him. The fourth is the one he has now.”
“Wait. You said he worked cleaning tribal offices?” Ashe interrupted. “Does that include the police substations?”
She nodded. “Yeah. He seemed to be doing really well, but then he started drinking and disappeared for two days. A police-officer friend of mine found him in a Farmington alley and called me to come get him.”
“Who’s the cop?” Ashe asked. “It’s possible Spencer said more that day than he’d intended, and we might find some of that information useful.”
“It was Officer Jerry Walker, a motorcycle cop on the Farmington PD. He’s a good man, and he’s been kind enough to help me out now and then.”
Casey looked at the other woman thoughtfully. She had a very hard time seeing Jerry Walker as a Good Samaritan. It didn’t fit the man she’d met. There was a key piece missing from the puzzle.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Ruth added slowly. “You’re wondering what my connection to Jerry is.”
Casey nodded. “Yes, I am.”
Ruth looked at Ashe, who stood quietly, then back at Casey. “Jerry and I are good friends. He knows a lot of people in this area and he’s helped me find jobs for some of my parolees. He really cares about people, not just about making arrests.”
It was her tone of voice that alerted Casey. Ruth was in love with Walker. It shouldn’t have surprised her. Walker was a good-looking man, even if he was a creep.
“Okay, Ruth, I have no more questions for you right now. Thanks for your help,” Casey said, standing.
“Any time.” She looked over at Ashe. “And if you have a problem with any of my people out on the Rez, Detective Redhawk, just let me know. I’ll handle it.”
“I’ll do that,” Ashe said.
As they went back to the vehicle, Ashe glanced at Casey. “I think you already know Walker is not the man she thinks he is.”
“That’s a given. At least not for you or me. What’s your take on this?”
“Worst-case scenario?” Ashe saw her nod, and he continued. “Walker’s using the ex-cons in some kind of operation, helping them out so they’ll help him out. On the other hand, there’s a slim chance he’s not the dirtbag I think he is and he is actually doing something for someone else out of the goodness of his heart. Or maybe he’s just setting some of the parolees up to become his snitches.”
The sun was high in the sky and the desert comfortably warm as they drove back to the station.
“You know, there’s another possibility. I believe that Ruth is seriously attracted to Jerry Walker. It was the way she spoke about him, and her tone of voice. If he has any feelings for her, then it would be natural for them to want to become a part of each other’s lives.”
“There was a time when I thought that you and I had that. As cops we understood each other like no one else could. As man and woman, we knew love.”
A yearning more powerful than any she’d ever known filled her. “It could be that way now if you’d accept that there are things I don’t know how to give.” She looked at him and saw the flash of pain that crossed his eyes. She had no desire to keep hurting him, or herself. “You want me to love you completely, to not hold back anything from you. But even if I did, what hope of a future can we ever really have? This land defines you, but it will always see me as an outsider. You belong here, but I do not.”
Ashe parked by the side of the road and shifted to face her. “Look around you, sawe. This is no longer an alien place to you. It’s the Dinétah, the land of a people you’ve come to know and whose ways you’ve grown to value. Don’t you know that it has already started to become a part of you?”
He’d only used the Navajo word for sweetheart once before, when they’d made love. Feelings tangled with desire and flowed through her body. His words and the gentleness in his eyes sang seductively to her woman’s soul, urging her to surrender to love.
“Once we close this case, we’ll both be free to take what life has offered us, or walk away,” Ashe continued. “But regardless of what we choose, neither one of us will ever be the same again.”
Casey knew now that love didn’t need anyone’s consent to exist. She’d thought she could run from love, but it had become a part of her. No matter how far or how fast she ran, it would always be there, locked within her.
Suddenly a vivid image of her childhood days came unbidden into her mind. She remembered her mother crying in her room alone at night. Love had tempted her mother to believe and trust, then almost destroyed her.
“I used to think that love disrupted harmony, that it would only bring confusion into my life,” Ashe said slowly. “And in some ways it has done just that. But the Navajo Way also teaches that only by pairing can a man and a woman be complete.”
Pairing. The word made a delicious shiver course up her spine.
Ashe cupped Casey’s face in his strong hands. “I see longing in your eyes, but fear is there, too. Maybe someday I’ll only see love. Then I’ll know that the time for us has come.”
Having said that, he moved away from her, started the vehicle, and pulled back onto the highway. Casey understood. His message was clear—the next move would be up to her.
Chapter Eighteen
They sat behind closed doors at the station. Ashe knew the plan Casey had come up with was risky, but he couldn’t think of any other that was better or safer. They were almost out of time.
“Fox will be fine where she is,” she said. “Hayes and your brother will stay with her at the cabin until this is over.
“Meanwhile we’ll leak information that will assure Prescott, Walker, Spencer, Nakai, Captain Todacheene and even Gordon, that Fox is being kept at her own home. ‘Hiding in plain sight,’ we’ll call it. I’ll wait inside the house, wearing Katrina’s clothes and a blond wig. If any of the suspects come to check things out, they’ll be able to catch glimpses of a woman fitting Fox’s description.”
“We can’t use you as bait for this trap without backup.”
“I could get more deputies here but they’d stick out like sore thumbs on the Reservation. Can you find six officers or trustworthy individuals to work this detail with us without alerting the captain?”
“Yes, but there’s going to be hell to pay afterward. The captain is innocent, and when he learns about the way we handled this, heads are going to roll.”
“I’m sure he’ll see that we had no other choice,” Casey said.
“Maybe, but I’m not counting on it, nor can I make that promise to any of the officers who choose to help us out.”
“Fair enough. I’ll take care of leaking the news to Prescott and Captain Todacheene. Gordon is in the psychiatric facility, but I’m going to make sure one of the nurses slips him the information. I want him included in this roster. Spencer and Walker are going to be trickier to contact without tipping our hand, though,” Casey admitted.
“I can make sure Walker knows by having another parole officer drop the information to Ruth Austin. I’m sure she confides in him, if you’re right about their relationship,” Ashe suggested.
“That leaves Spencer, but we can rule out Ruth Austin for that. I don’t think she’d want him knowing something that could lead to more trouble for him,” Casey said pensively.
“He lives just off the Reservation and rents a place from a Navajo family I know. I can make sure the news reaches him.”
“Once the word is out, our backup team will have to keep all the suspects under surveillance so we can monitor whatever action they take.”
“Then we’d better get busy. Tonight’s the night.”
ASHE HANDPICKED THE TEAM—his two cousins and four former classmates and students of the Johnsons he’d known for years. Only two were not cops, but both had military experience. After giving his team their instructions, Ashe drove out to see Katrina and his brother one last time.
