Dark Moon Crossing (21 page)

My spirits sagged. How long was this silly game of
phone tag going to continue?‌ Unable to suppress my irritation, I snapped, “Why
not?‌”

“Because,” she exhaled, “he’s out front arguing with a
couple of pointy-headed INS officials. Try him in half an hour or so.”

More than a little disappointed, I hung up thinking
that the odds that we’d all be experiencing the impact of illegal immigration
at the same time must be enormous. What the heck. Might as well use the time
to get the office calls out of the way.

“
Castle Valley Sun
,” chirped an unfamiliar
voice after two rings.

Slightly nonplussed, I asked, “Umm…is Morton Tuggs
in?‌”

“Hold on.” Click. A few seconds later, came a gruff,
“Tuggs here.”

“Hey, Tugg, Kendall. What’s going on?‌”

“Oh, just the usual chaos. Well, maybe a bit more
than normal, but we’re coping. But, what the hell’s up with you?‌ I thought
you and Tally were heading to California this week?‌ Instead, Walter tells me
you’re down in Arivaca because of Lupe?‌”

“We’re leaving in the morning.” Still bound by my
promise, I gave him a vague overview, citing major personal problems.

“Personal, huh?‌” he grunted. “And that’s all?‌”

“Mostly.”

The skepticism in his tone conveyed loud and clear
that I wasn’t fooling the old newshound. Oh, well. What could I do?‌ When I
returned, I’d have no choice but to level with him about Lupe’s illegal status
and he was going to shit a brick. Changing gears quickly, I asked, “Say, who
was that answering the phone?‌”

“Louise.”

“Your daughter Louise?‌ Why is she there?‌ Where’s
Ginger?‌”

He chuckled. “Manning the phones in classifieds and
she’s not too happy about it.”

“What?‌” My heart spiraled downward. “Lupe promised me
she’d be in today.”

“She was here alright, but sick as a dog, so I sent
her home.”

“Oh, frap. Just what I was afraid of.”

“She said you’d have a royal fit, but, hey, you’re not
doing me any favors by sending Typhoid Mary in here to infect the rest of us.”

I weighed my options for several seconds, before
saying, “Well, that settles it then. I’ll be back at my desk tomorrow
morning.”

“You’ll do no such thing.”

“Tugg, a deal’s a deal. In good conscience, I can’t
go skating off to California for a week and leave you there shorthanded.”

“Bullshit. You’ve earned every second of this
vacation. You both have.”

“But, Tugg….”

“No buts. Lupe will probably be back in a day or two
and Al will be back Thursday. In the meantime, we’ll make do. So forget
everything, relax and have a good time.”

I didn’t feel good about it, but he refused to take no
for an answer, saying that after thirty years in the business he felt confident
he could handle things. I just hoped the added stress wouldn’t jeopardize his
health, although he’d improved leaps and bounds since his ulcer surgery. He
excused himself to take another call and I asked him to connect me to Ginger
who immediately scolded me for not calling her sooner. “Sorry, there’s lousy
cell coverage down here.”

“Whew! And here I been worried to death that you was
still mad at me about the other night.”

“I’m not going to tell you that it hasn’t been
bugging me, but what I really need now is to ask you a huge favor.” I gave her
an abbreviated version of the cat escapade and she crowed, “Well, ain’t you a
sweetie pie rescuing a poor little stray. I’m sure we can handle it.”

“You don’t think Churchill will hurt her, do you?‌
She’s pretty small and with her leg injured, I don’t think she’ll be able to
outrun him.”

“Don’t you worry your little head. We’ll shut her in
Brian’s room, that way Churchill can’t pester her and neither can Suzie.”

“You’re a doll. I’ll bring her by this evening. Then
I’ve got to scoot and finish packing.”

“I’m sure Tally will be as happy as a rooster in a hen
house to have you back.”

“I hope so. We’ve haven’t spoken since Friday night.
For all I know he’s still pissed off at me about this trip.”

Her sly little giggle re-ignited my curiosity.
“Honey, I don’t think I’d worry too much if I was you.”

“Are you sure there isn’t something you’d like to tell
me?‌”

“You’ll find out soon enough,” she said in a sing-song
tone, “and be real careful driving home, we’re supposed to get another storm
tonight.”

“Another storm?‌ You had rain?‌ I think we had about
twenty drops here yesterday, but that’s all.”

“We had us a real frog strangler and…oh Lordy, I got
to catch these other lines.”

I thanked her for bailing us out of a jam on such
short notice and then asked her to transfer me to Walter. “Kendall!” his voice
boomed in my ear. “I was wondering why you never called me back.”

“Lots of reasons,” I said, “but now that I’ve got you
on the line, I have a few more questions and a favor to ask.”

“Fire away.”

I recapped my visit to the Shirley residence, my
conversation with Jennifer and about Loydeen’s evasive behavior, her accusation
that my presence was somehow endangering them, how she flipped out when she
spotted the skinhead in the truck and her fear that people were watching her.
“Walter, do you have any idea what she was talking about?‌”

“No, I don’t. That sounds mighty odd but you gotta
take into consideration that she’s been under a lot of strain and if she’s
taking a bunch of prescription meds…well, maybe that’s why she’s been acting
paranoid.”

I hoped that’s all it was. “Walter, do you know anyone
else I could talk to pertaining to this case?‌”

“Jennifer pointed out one of the guys at Bob’s funeral
to me. Said he was her dad’s partner. Guy by the name of Alberto Morales or
something like that, but good luck finding him.”

“Why do you say that?‌”

“According to Loydeen, two weeks after the funeral, he
resigned and moved away.”

The dark sense of uneasiness nudged me again. “Hmmm.
Interesting coincidence.”

“I thought so too. So level with me, Kendall, what do
Bob’s case and your interest in my extraterrestrial piece have to do with
Lupe?‌”

Ginger hadn’t wasted any time telling everyone. “I
wish I could tell you, but I can’t, not yet.”

Big sigh. “Gotcha. Did you get a chance to talk with
Mazzie La Casse?‌”

“Yes, thanks for the tip. She’s a great resource.”

“I figured she would be. So, was I right about that
rally on Saturday?‌ Did you end up in the middle of it?‌”

Etched forever in my memory were Lupe’s screams of
terror as the skinheads closed in around my car. And I certainly would never
forget the hateful aura that saturated Jason’s room, nor the pitiless smolder
in the wolf-like eyes of the skinhead outside the Shirley house. “In more ways
than one. Speaking of that, what else do you know about this Knights of Right
group other than what you mentioned on the phone the other day about the head
guy being sentenced to prison?‌ Who’s running the show now?‌”

“I’ll be damned if I know. And it’s not so easy to
find out anymore.”

“Why not?‌”

“The leaders aren’t as visible. Ever since the
Oklahoma City bombing, most of these White supremacist groups and even some of
the law abiding militia groups have decided it’s better to keep a low profile rather
than make themselves an easy target for government officials. In fact, most of
them have gone underground. I’m not even sure that the majority of people
involved in these groups even know who the actual head honcho is because most
of the communication is carried out over the Internet now.”

His insightful remark made the mysterious e-mail on
Jason’s computer even more intriguing and helped to cement my growing
suspicions about him. “Hey, listen, Walter, I know you’re snowed under, but I
need a huge favor. I’d do it myself, but I’m going to be on the move for the
rest of the day.”

“Name it.”

“Can you call Julie over at the sheriff’s office and
see if she can get me some information on a woman by the name of Shalberta
Hoggwhistle?‌ She did time in Tennessee, supposedly for cashing bad checks.”

“Hoggwhistle?‌ Are you pulling my leg?‌”

“Nope. And here’s another name. I doubt it’s
genuine, but see if you can find anything on a Froggy McQueen.”

“There’ll be a million McQueen’s. Am I checking in Tennessee
too?‌”

“For starters.”

“Anything else?‌”

“That should do it for now. I’ll be in California the
rest of the week, so you can reach me on my cell phone if you find out
anything. Hopefully, there’ll be better cell coverage on the coast than down
here.”

“Yeah, it’s spotty at best. Anything else?‌”

“One more thing. I’m planning to make a side trip to
Morita before heading out. Last Friday night you mentioned the caretaker and
said it concerned another piece you’d worked on. What’s that about?‌”

“It
concerned a hiker who was killed there about a year ago.”

Conjuring up the ghoulish details of Russell Greene’s
past made my stomach dip in anticipation. “Killed?‌ How?‌”

“Apparently, he was exploring the area looking for
caves and fell into one of the abandoned mine shafts. Right afterwards, the
owners put up a fence, plastered the area with no trespassing signs, and hired
some guy to keep people out because of the liability factor, I imagine. Too
bad. It’s real pretty back there, natural springs, a waterfall and it used to
be neat to poke around some of the old buildings.”

“Who owns the property?‌”

“You know, I’m not sure. Up until a few years ago,
one of the big ranchers in that area owned it, but I think I remember reading
that they’d sold the property to an out-of-state mining venture interested in
reopening the old Yellow Jacket Mine, but you’ll have to verify that.”

“I plan to. Turns out you left a lot of pretty intriguing
stuff on the table that I’d really like to follow up on.”

He chuckled. “Well, you’d better get cracking if you
plan to get all the answers by this afternoon.”

I smiled. “That’s good, Walter. Actually, I’m
probably going to have to make another trip down here next week.” I heard his
other line ringing. “Hey, I know you guys are swamped so we’ll talk more
later. Call me when you get that info.” I punched the off button and redialed
Tally’s number. Ronda answered again and told me to hang on a minute. I
roamed around the room while waiting and decided that the privacy of my room
would really be preferable while talking with him but, when I got to the
hallway, the phone hummed and hissed so loudly I had to retrace my steps.

At long last, I heard footsteps on the other end of
the line and the scrape of the receiver being lifted. “You are one tough lady
to get hold of,” Tally said with no preliminaries.

“Me?‌ I’ve been trying to reach you since Saturday
morning.”

“Really?‌”

“Really. I left three messages.” I bit my tongue,
deciding I would not mention his mother’s underhanded tactics right now.

“Did you forget to take your handy-dandy little cell
phone with you?‌”

“No, I have it.”

“Well, it’s not working. I’ve tried calling you at
least fifty times.”

Hearing that made my heart soar with delight. “Sorry
about that. I haven’t been able to get a signal most of the time. It’s a
pretty isolated area, but, of course, you know that.” What an inane
conversation. I didn’t want to talk about cell phones anymore, I wanted
terribly to find out if things were okay between us, to ask if he was still
angry with me, tell him that I missed him, I loved him and that I could hardly
wait to see him.

“I see,” he said lightly. “Has your trip been
everything you hoped it would be?‌”

Interesting wording. Translation:
I hope you’ve
gotten all this nonsense out of your system now, and are ready to come back
home.
The standoffish quality in his voice clearly conveyed that he was
still annoyed.

“By the way,” he added, “what the hell are you doing
at the Sundog?‌ I thought the whole purpose of your spur-of-the-moment trip
hinged on Lupe’s problems?‌”

“It…it’s a long story, most of which I’ll be glad to
share with you when I get back.”

“What do you think of it?‌”

“What do I think of what?‌”

“The ranch.”

“It’s fantastic.”

“The Beaumonts are a really special family, don’t you
agree?‌”

I hesitated before saying through gritted teeth, “Salt
of the earth.”

“I think so too,” he said warmly. “So…what time are
you getting in?‌”

I studied my watch. “I’m thinking no later than seven
and Tally….”

“Uh-huh?‌”

It was on the tip of my tongue to babble how sorry I
was that I’d come on this infuriating trip, but stubbornly all I said was, “I
miss you.”

His silence reined in my wildly beating heart.
Apparently, I had a lot of fences to mend as a result of my rash decision.
Sounding petulant he said, “Does that mean I have a shot at being number one on
your list of important things for a change?‌”

“Tally, you’ve always occupied that slot and you know
it.” I half expected him to sarcastically contradict me, but instead, he
drawled, “Well, then, I’m giving you a whole week to prove it.”

I dropped my voice to a low, sexy tone. “You’re on,
cowboy. I plan to stick to you like a piece of teddy bear cholla.”

“Hmmm. Now
that
presents a host of interesting
possibilities. Do I have your solemn promise?‌” I could tell by the husky
quality in his voice that he was finally thawing.

“I told you, I never break a promise.”

“Ah…Kendall…?‌” The note of hesitancy told me something
else was on his mind.

“Yes?‌”

“Having you along on this trip is…well, real important
to me. I guess I’ve been a little worried that you might cancel at the last
minute.”