The big gamble kk-6 Page 6

  Larry Otero, his second in command, popped in briefly to get approval to hire a new civilian crime scene tech. Kerney signed off on the paperwork. With slightly more than two months in his present position, Otero had been cautiously feeling his way in his new job.

  Kerney's decision to appoint Larry had been challenged by the city manager, who for political reasons had tried to torpedo Otero's career shortly before Kerney became chief. He'd placated the city manager by putting Otero in the job on a sixty-day trial period. He'd said nothing to Larry about it, and now the probationary time was up.

  "Did we screen, test, interview, and conduct a background investigation on this candidate?" Kerney asked, handing Otero the signed personnel action form.

  Larry looked nonplused. "Of course. We do it with every new hire. It's procedure."

  "My point exactly," Kerney said. "I'd like to review applications and meet prospective employees once they've been selected. But unless either of us sees a problem, in the future just sign these things yourself."

  He leaned back and gave Otero a smile. "From now on, think of your job this way: When I'm not here, you're the chief. When I'm sick or on vacation, you're the chief. When I don't want to be found, bothered, or I'm out of town on business, you're the chief. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

  Otero smiled back. "I do. What happens when I get my ass in a sling?"

  "Then I'm the chief," Kerney said with a laugh, "and I get the privilege of taking full responsibility for all the screwups, including yours and mine."

  "So, it's full speed ahead," Otero said.

  "Yeah, your honeymoon is over," Kerney replied.

  "I can handle that," Larry said. "How's the Montoya case going?"

  "I could probably put thirty people on it with the same results," Kerney replied.

  "Nothing?"

  "Zilch, but there's still a lot of ground to cover," Kerney said.

  He waved Otero out the door, made a few more phone calls, and left to visit with Anna Marie's brother and sister, who'd agreed to meet him at their parents' house.

  Cars parked along the narrow lane forced Kerney to leave his unit at the corner. A somber group of visitors filled the small porch and spilled onto the lawn in front of the Montoya residence. Kerney approached slowly, wondering what he'd gotten himself into. His uniform drew some questioning looks as he walked up the pathway, and a few people deliberately turned away. Anna Marie's brother waited for him at the door.

  "I've come at a bad time," Kerney said, looking into the crowded front room.

  "We can talk in my mother's craft studio," Walter Montoya said shortly, "although I don't see what good it will do. My sister's waiting for us there."

  Platters of food filled the coffee table, and empty plastic cups littered the lamp tables bracketing the couch. A framed photograph of Anna Marie, surrounded by lit candles, was centered on top of the television. Mr. and Mrs. Montoya sat on the couch in the company of a priest. Kerney paused and paid his respects as friends and family watched.

  "I won't take much of your time," Kerney said, after stepping away from Anna Marie's parents.

  "Does that mean you have no leads?" Walter Montoya replied, loud enough to hush a couple standing nearby.

  "Let's talk privately," Kerney said, touching the man's arm to quiet him down.

  Walter pulled his arm back and led Kerney to a small bedroom that had been converted into Mrs. Montoya's studio, where Carmela, Anna Marie's sister, waited. A long worktable with folding legs held neat stacks of fabric, swaths of canvas, and a sewing machine. Within easy reach of a second-hand secretarial chair was a clear plastic four-drawer cart on rollers, filled with yarns, spools of thread, scissors, and embroidery needles.

  Both siblings were in their late thirties. Walter, the older by a year, now sported a receding hairline and a mustache that showed a touch of gray. Carmela, who had been married when Anna Marie disappeared, no longer wore a wedding ring. Slim and tense, she shook Kerney's hand reluctantly.

  "To have so many show so much sympathy and support must be very heartwarming to you and your parents," Kerney said.

  His attempt to be conciliatory fell flat. Carmela nodded tensely as though an invisible wire inside her neck had been pulled, and said nothing.

  "When will you find the person who killed her?" Walter asked, dismissing Kerney's words.

  "I don't know."

  "That's not good enough, Chief Kerney," he snapped.

  "Let me tell you what we're doing," Kerney said. He took them through the investigative drill, noting how a lack of evidence and the absence of a targeted suspect made for slow going.

  "We've heard those same rationalizations from your department for eleven years," Walter said when Kerney finished. He pointed a stern finger at the window, where in the backyard a bare-branched apple tree had yet to announce the arrival of spring. "My sister's killer is out there a free man, and you've done nothing to catch him."

  "Don't lose hope," Kerney said, skirting the criticism. He took out a pocket notebook. "I have a list of people we originally interviewed who have left Santa Fe. It would be a big help to me if you or your sister might know where some of them are currently residing."

  "What good will that do?" Walter demanded.

  Kerney ignored the remark and read off the list. Carmela gave him the locations of two out-of-state people in a flat voice that didn't quite mask her anger.

  "Anyone else?" Kerney asked, glancing at Walter.

  He shook his head. "But some man called me at home one night about two months ago, asking if I was Anna Marie's brother. He said he'd just moved back to the area and wanted to get in touch with her."

  "Did he give his name?"

  "I don't remember it, but it was an Anglo name and he called himself doctor."

  "Did he say what kind of doctor he was?"

  "No."

  "Did you ask him how he knew Anna Marie?"

  "I didn't ask, but he said he'd once been her coworker."

  "How did he take the news of Anna Marie's disappearance?"

  "He sounded shocked and caught off guard."

  From the notebook Kerney rattled off the complete witness list.

  Walter shook his head. "None of those names ring a bell."

  "With a little legwork I should be able to locate him," Kerney said.

  "I'd like to say something to you before you go, Chief Kerney," Carmela said, her tone brimming with hostility.

  "Yes?"

  "Our parents are polite, old-fashioned people who believe in being gracious to everybody. However, my brother and I see the world a bit differently. We're perfectly willing to talk to members of the city council if you fail to make significant progress."

  She nodded her head at the closed door. "And many of the people who have gathered here today are more than willing to join with us."

  "I understand your frustration," Kerney said, stepping to the door.

  "No, you don't," she said. "You haven't a clue."

  Clayton got home just in time to tuck Wendell and Hannah into bed and give them good-night kisses. He sat with Grace at the kitchen table, ate the meal she'd kept warm for him in the oven, and told her about the Humphrey murder investigation and how it had stalled.

  "I was hoping Ulibarri might have done some talking with one of the dealers or the poker players about his plans. We learned nothing."

  "You sound frustrated."

  "I am, but not about that. It was a long shot to begin with."

  "What's bothering you?"

  "Today, the sheriff gave me a big pat on the back and told me I was making good progress."

  "Well, you are," Grace said. "From what you said you have a strong suspect."

  Clayton took a bite of green beans and shook his head. "Any reasonably competent officer would have zeroed in on Ulibarri. The way I see it, Hewitt was just flattering me. Sort of a be-nice-to-the-Indian kind of thing. I hate that kind of stuff."

  Grace cocked her head. "Really?"
>
  "What does that mean?" Clayton asked, pushing the empty plate to one side.

  She was silent for a long moment. "I sometimes wonder if one of the reasons you married me was because I'm full-blooded Apache."

  Clayton gave her a startled look. "That's crazy."

  "In high school you never dated a mixed-blood, and when we were in college together you never went out with an Anglo or Hispanic girl."

  "I was seeing you in college," Clayton answered.

  "Not all the time," Grace said.

  "We broke up a couple of times and I just didn't date, that's all."

  "Once, we stopped dating for almost a year," Grace said, "and you never had anything good to say about Anglo boys who were my friends."

  "That was just jealousy."

  "Was it?"

  "What are you saying?"

  "Secretly, I think you resent the fact that you have an Anglo father, so you try to be two-hundred-percent Apache."

  "I'm not like that," Clayton said.

  "And now that you've met your father face-to-face, you've gotten worse. You think that anything an Anglo says that strikes you the wrong way has got to be prejudicial or racist."

  "That's not true."

  "Really? Sheriff Hewitt pays you a compliment and you can't even accept it graciously. What is that all about?"

  Clayton lowered his eyes.

  "I'm not saying all this to hurt your feelings," Grace said, reaching across the table for Clayton's hand.

  "I know," Clayton said with a sigh. "I was short with Kerney on the phone yesterday. He accused me of trying to push his buttons. Said he expected me to treat him with civility in professional matters."

  "Well?"

  "He's right, I guess."

  "What are you going to do about it?"

  Clayton smiled. "Think about stuff."

  "That's a start."

  "But you did say one thing that's wrong," he said, squeezing her hand.

  "What's that?"

  "I married you because you're smart, beautiful, and I fell in love with you."

  Grace took his hand, kissed it, and placed it against her cheek. "I know that."

  Clayton's pager beeped. He read the message, reached for the phone, dialed, and identified himself. As he listened, his eyes shifted away from Grace and his expression turned sour.

  "I'll be there in a few," he said shortly, punching the off button and dropping the phone on the table.

  "Is something wrong?" Grace asked.

  "That was Moses," Clayton said. "One of his security officers just reported finding Humphrey's car in the parking lot behind the towers at the resort with an expired guest permit. I have to go."

  "That should be good news, shouldn't it?" Grace said, responding to Clayton's tone.

  "It would be, if I hadn't been so stupid," Clayton replied. "I didn't even think to look for the vehicle when I was at the resort. I just assumed Ulibarri drove away in it when he checked out."

  He snatched his car keys, gave Grace a quick kiss, and hurried out the door.

  Chapter 4

  While Grace and the children slept Clayton rose early, ate a quick breakfast, and went to meet the state police crime scene tech assigned to conduct an evidence search of Humphrey's car. Clayton had made the request the night before, after having the Cougar towed from the resort to the state police impound lot in Alamogordo.

  On the drive from his house he reminded himself to try to be friendlier to people.

  The technician, Artie Gundersen, a retired San Diego police officer, was working on the Cougar when Clayton arrived. In his late forties, Gundersen was an outdoor enthusiast who had moved to New Mexico so he could hunt, fish, and camp without sharing the forests, streams, and wilderness with thirty million other Californians.

  Sandy-haired, blue-eyed, lean, tanned, and fit, Gundersen looked like an aging surfer. Clayton forced a smile as he walked up to him. It felt phony.

  "I just finished a visual inspection," Gundersen said. "The owner was a pig. There's gotta be ten years' worth of fast-food garbage and trash on the floor-boards."

  Clayton glanced at the open trunk. "What's back there?"

  "It's stuffed with paper sacks filled with dirty clothes, cardboard boxes of what looks like pure junk and who knows what else."

  "What kind of junk?"

  "A broken Walkman, some trashed cassette tapes, some tools-stuff like that. We'll take a closer look in a little while." Gundersen pulled a pair of plastic gloves from his back pocket and gave them to Clayton. "Let's start with the passenger compartment. I'll take the driver's side. Stop whenever you find something that piques your interest and tell me what you've got. Then bag it and tag it. And don't smudge any surfaces with your gloves that might yield prints."

  Although it rankled to be cautioned like some rookie cop, Clayton took Gundersen's direction without comment. He forced another smile and nodded.

  "What do you hope to find?" Gundersen asked.

  "Anything that puts my suspect in the vehicle would help, but finding the murder weapon would be nice. The victim was killed with a knife."

  Gundersen shrugged. "You never know. Maybe we'll get lucky."

  Two hours later, the two men sat in Gundersen's office and agreed they'd gotten fairly lucky after all. The pocket of a wadded-up threadbare windbreaker had yielded an old pay stub made out to Felix Ulibarri, and a plastic bag from a Ruidoso western-wear store, stuffed into the map holder on the driver's door, held a cash receipt for men's clothing and a pair of new cowboy boots dated the day after Humphrey's murder. Ulibarri had dropped seventeen hundred dollars of the stolen money on new duds.

  The best evidence was the dried bloodstain on the rear seat cushion along with some good fingerprints that Gundersen was comparing to Ulibarri's print record, which he'd called up on the computer.

  "It's a match," Gundersen said, pointing to a scar on a thumbprint. "If the DNA bloodstain test confirms it's your victim's, I'd say you've got strong evidence that links Ulibarri to the crime."

  "The autopsy report said that Humphrey was killed with a single stab wound to the heart by a blade sharpened on one edge," Clayton replied. "There was very heavy internal bleeding in the thoracic cavity. I'm thinking Ulibarri knifed Humphrey while he was asleep or passed out on the rear seat."

  "That's possible, given how small the bloodstain on the seat cushion is," Gundersen replied. "If I were you, I'd go for an arrest affidavit that puts your suspect at the scene of the crime."

  "I can quote you?" Clayton asked.

  "Sure thing, chief."

  He doesn't mean anything by chief, Clayton thought as he started to tense up. It's just an expression. He waited a beat before responding. "Thanks for all your help."

  Gundersen smiled. "Hey, you made it easy for me."

  Clayton left Gundersen and on his way to the office stopped at the western-wear store in Ruidoso. It was an upscale establishment that featured custom-made cowboy shirts, expensive boots, fringed leather jackets, high-end designer jeans, and handmade silver rodeo-style, Texas-size belt buckles.

  He showed Ulibarri's picture and the cash receipt to the clerk, a middle-aged woman with curly blond-highlighted hair that brushed her shoulders.

  "Of course, I remember him," the woman said.

  "When he first came in, I thought he'd wandered into the wrong store."

  "Why was that?" Clayton asked, pushing down the thought that the clerk had profiled Ulibarri as a shoplifter because of his ethnicity.

  "He was really scruffy," the woman replied. "But he had a wad of cash he said he'd won at the casino."

  "He flashed money?"

  "When he paid, he peeled off hundred-dollar bills. He left wearing his new boots."

  "Did he take his old ones with him?"

  "They were cheap work boots," the woman said with a shake of her head. "You'll probably find them outside in the trash bin behind the store. It gets emptied tomorrow."

  Clayton went dumpster diving and found the
boots. The right one had a dark stain on a toe that looked like dried blood.

  In his unit he made radio contact with Sonia Raney, the state police patrol officer on duty, and asked if she was heading to the district headquarters anytime soon. He got an affirmative reply, and asked if she'd carry some evidence to Gundersen.

  "Roger that," Raney said. "Give me a twenty and I'll meet up with you."

  Clayton told her where he was, and within five minutes Ulibarri's boots were in the trunk of Raney's unit on the way to Alamogordo. He arrived at the office to find Sheriff Hewitt waiting.

  "Dispatch tells me you located Humphrey's car last night," Hewitt said.

  As far as Clayton could tell, there was no censure in the sheriff's voice. "One of Moses Kaywaykla's security people spotted it in the resort parking lot," he said. "I didn't even think to look for it there."

  "The best mistakes we make are the ones we learn from," Hewitt said with a small chuckle. "How did the vehicle search go?"

  "I've got more than enough to ask for a murder-one arrest warrant," Clayton said. He quickly filled Hewitt in.

  "Very good. Do the affidavit, update your advisory bulletin, and get me a progress report when you can. I'll call the DA and tell him you're going to need his sign-off and a judge's approval right away. Now that we know Ulibarri isn't driving Humphrey's car, how do you think he's traveling?"

  "Don't know." Clayton replied. "But I'm going to call around to every car dealer and rental company in Ruidoso as soon as I get the warrant signed."

  "Good idea," Hewitt said. "What if Ulibarri isn't traveling?"

  "I've thought about that, and I've asked Sergeant Quinones and Von Dillingham to start phoning area motel and hotels, ASAP."

  "Work it hard," Hewitt said, waving Clayton out of his office.

  Kerney started a new day still looking for the "doctor" who had called Walter Montoya asking for Anna Marie. Yesterday, he'd checked with the licensing boards for physicians, psychologists, counselors, chiropractors, optometrists, and practitioners of Chinese medicine. The few names he got wound up as dead ends.