by Ted Clifton
“We have movement,” an agent radioed to Crawford after darkness had fallen. “Looks like some men are headed down.”
“Okay. Tell everyone to be careful. No shooting unless I say.” He found Ray and Tyee. “Looks like something is happening. Our best view will be from up above.”
He led them on a climb of about fifty feet to a spot where they could see into a meadow illuminated by powerful lamps. It was the same one where Ray met Jackson. They could see Jackson’s men with their hands on their heads and unarmed.
Agents moved in to surround and secure them with handcuffs. They had them sit on the ground.
Ray walked up to one and bent down to ask, “Where’s Sheriff Jackson?”
“Far as I know, he’s still up there,” the man answered in a half-whisper. “He told us it was over, and we should come down and surrender. Told us we were outnumbered, and it would be suicide to fight. Then,” he looked up at Ray, “he said things that didn’t seem to make much sense, like stuff about his destiny and how he was going to return as a warrior and make everything right for his family. Kinda sounded nuts. Anyway, we all hesitated a bit. Then he pulled out his gun and said he would personally shoot anyone who tried to stay. We dropped our guns and headed down here. What will happen to us now?”
“Can’t say. But you made the right decision.”
Ray went to find Crawford. “Seems Jackson instructed everyone to surrender, even threatened to shoot them if they didn’t. He’s still on the mountain. But I can’t see where he’s any threat to anyone except maybe himself.”
“Probably true. But, hell. I can’t just leave him up there.”
“Look—maybe I can get him to talk again. If you go after him, someone’s—”
A shot rang out, high on the mountain. Then silence.
Ray and Tyee headed back to Albuquerque on the first helicopter available. Crawford’s men found the body of Sheriff Jake Jackson slumped against a tree. Busses had taken the militia members to Durango, where they would be arraigned and held. Colorado’s attorney general was also considering charges. His state police had officially taken possession of the camp site and all weapons, military gear, and supplies.
Ray knew Governor Johnson was probably blasting out someone about the theft of New Mexico assets by the asshole Governor of Colorado at that very moment.
Ray lay in his own bed. It felt great. He could hear Sue making happy sounds in the kitchen. Breakfast smelled like heaven. He thought nothing could be better than this. And he wasn’t going anywhere from now on. How that would work out with Pacheco and Chino he didn’t know. But for damn sure he was going to enjoy his life. He would not deal anymore with crazy people who seemed to be everywhere. He did enjoy the work, especially when it felt like the outcome was the right one. But he was too old to be gone from this wonderful life right here, always waiting on him. He would discuss his decision with Sue and see how he could make it work.
“Well, good morning, or maybe good afternoon. I take it someone is glad to be home.” Sue knew her husband was happy to be home, and she was beyond pleased he was there.
Happy came running up, jumping and barking in a complete display of true love. “Guess I’d better take him outside and let him burn off some energy before he wrecks the house.” Ray felt about as comfortable as he could. Home sweet home. “I can’t tell you how glad I am to be home and to be with you,” he told Sue. “Pretty sure I can’t be gone the way I’ve been anymore. Not sure what that means for the business. But I’m not going to spend my remaining years trying to solve other people’s problems. Can I just stay home?” He smiled at her.
“It’s okay with me. However,” she raised a finger, “before you retire, you need to talk to Big Jack. He seems about ready to explode. He’s thinking about moving to Albuquerque and opening a law office. But mostly, I think he wants not to be mayor anymore. The fine folks of T or C are driving him nuts.”
“That didn’t take long.”
“I know. You want to stay home, Big Jack wants to go back to being an attorney, Tyee wants never to fly again. Maybe it is time to talk about Pacheco and Chino and what makes sense going forward.”
“What do you want, Sue?”
“You know that’s a stupid question. I want you to be happy. But I don’t want people being shot, I don’t want you gone all the time, I don’t want to be alone, I don’t want to sleep by myself, I don’t—” She started to cry. “Shit, I don’t want to cry!”
They hugged. Ray stroked her hair. “I think we want the same thing. And, yes—it’s time to talk about what we’re doing. Maybe Pacheco and Chino needs a break.”
“Maybe it’s Farmington,” Ray opened the subject. “Or maybe it was Ruidoso. We had some pretty rough things to deal with at both of those assignments. After Ruidoso, I said we needed a break. Now here we are in the middle of the Farmington mess, and I need another break. Plus, Big Jack—you’re thinking about moving to Albuquerque.” Ray looked around the room. “Maybe it’s just us. I thought it would be great fun to stay active, make a little money and catch some bad guys. It hasn’t been. So, I want to hear what you’re thinking. But I’m pretty sure I want to stop Pacheco and Chino for a while. What do you think?”
Tyee and Big Jack looked a little stunned. Sue just felt sad. She wanted Ray to stay home more, but now she worried that he was quitting in reaction to her needs and giving up on something he really wanted to do.
Tyee recovered to answer philosophically. “That’s not a complete surprise. But I guess it’s something of one. I don’t know what to say other than without you, there is no Pacheco and Chino. So, what I think is not really important.”
Ray shook his head. “Bullshit. Don’t do that. You know this isn’t easy for me. But you could continue doing most of the things we have going on with the FBI, and even the state. The computer stuff you do has nothing to do with me. I’m sure they’d want you to keep at it.”
Tyee nodded. “Okay, maybe that was a little whiney of me. But if you quit, you know this deal will be over in a matter of months. So, let’s be honest. Is it time for this to be over? Maybe so. I never wanted to be a cop. That’s all you wanted to be. This was for you. I just tagged along.”
Big Jack spoke up. “This, I’m sure, has something to do with my big mouth. I shouldn’t have come up here and complained to Sue because you weren’t here, and I was just in a bad mood. But, damn it, I am in a bad mood. I don’t want to be mayor. Okay? So, that makes me a bad person, all of those people who helped me I’m just tossing aside like it meant nothing. And that’s the problem. I can’t do that. But I still don’t want to be mayor, period. No ifs, ands, or buts—something has to change.”
Ray looked sad. “I don’t know the answer. But maybe that’s something we can agree on: something has to change.”
Sue had heard enough. “Listen to you. You’re all unhappy about something, and you just know there has to be a change, but what you don’t want is to lose your friendships. Just because we change the business doesn’t mean you have to stop being friends.” Sue was able to say things that three macho numbskulls could not.
A long pause followed while each pondered what this would mean. They wanted some things to change. They sure didn’t want everything to change.
Ray broke the silence. “First, we have to finish Farmington. I’d like to just walk away, but that wouldn’t be right. The governor is an asshole, but he’s our asshole, and we shouldn’t let him down. But, starting today, we won’t take on any new assignments. Tyee can continue with computer projects for the FBI. Big Jack, you need to make up your mind on what you think is right for you. You can’t stay here and be miserable just because you became mayor and now you don’t want the job. Appoint someone else as the mayor until an election can be held, and go back to sleeping on the dock or go to Albuquerque and open a law office. But stop bellyaching all the time.”
“You could’ve said that in a nicer way, but I agree.” Big Jack began to smile, especially once he gave
thought to who he could name as acting mayor.
“Hells bells, Ray, you can’t quit, I won’t let you.”
“Governor, you have a lot of power, but you can’t stop me from quitting.”
“Shit.”
“I just wanted to let you know that we’ll finish our latest project in Farmington and then we’re going to take a break. Not sure how long, but who knows, we may be back asking you for work before you have a chance to miss us.”
“What the fuck am I supposed to do in the meantime? All those idiot sheriffs are still out there screwing up as we speak.”
“One consolation; your term will be over in about a year. Then it’ll all be someone else’s problem.”
The governor laughed. “There is that. Maybe I’ll move down to T or C and live the life of leisure like Ray Pacheco. What do you think, Ray?”
“You’d be most welcome. Be happy to go fishing with you anytime.”
Ray hung up. He could not help liking the governor. For all his bombastic ways, he got things done and never shirked his responsibilities to the people. Ray thought he might have a hard time adjusting to civilian life, though. He’d definitely give him a call after his term and invite him to go fishing. First, Ray needed to finish his responsibilities.
Crawford was his first call. “Ray, good to hear from you. I hear the governor of Colorado is going to keep all your guy’s army vehicles, apparently out of some old grudges.”
“Yeah. I think their feud goes way back to their days in D.C. I’ve told the governor several times that junk wasn’t worth anything, and he should be glad Graham’s taking it off his hands. He seems to disagree. Still, he isn’t willing to start the first war between two states over something like that. So I guess that part of that misadventure is over. I called you to let you know Pacheco and Chino is going to take a little time off. Tyee will still be available to do computer work, but we’re not going to take any more field assignments that require travel after we’re done in Farmington.”
Ray felt a pause on the line. Agent Crawford had been a significant ally. Maybe he was taking this pull-back personally. “That’s not good news. I don’t have anything on the horizon. But you and your group have become a dependable resource for us. We’ll have trouble filling that hole. Would more money help?”
“Ben, it’s nothing to do with money. It’s mostly to do with me. At this stage of life, my priorities are drifting all over the place. One week it was the business, the next week it was my wife, then it’s fishing or something. I just decided I needed time to think about what I wanted to do with my remaining years.”
“I get it. Plus, I bet your new wife is not too pleased to have you involved in these life-and-death situations.”
“I’m not too excited about that, either. While I was sheriff, I could count on one hand the number of times I’d been shot at. As a PI, everybody’s trying to kill me. Never would have thought that.”
“That’s mostly just bad luck. But still, it’s dangerous work.”
“Maybe too dangerous for an old man. Especially one with a younger wife. Take care of yourself. I wish you the best, Ben.”
“You too, Ray.”
The phone rang, always an irritating sound to Ray, and—as he glanced at the clock—especially at four o’clock in the morning.
“Hello.” Ray glanced at Sue, who was still asleep. He admired her ability to ignore interruptions from the outside world.
“Ray, it’s me,” the governor barked. “Going to see Grimes. Need to talk to the sonofabitch and see what the hell is going on. Driving down to Albuquerque and flying to Farmington from there. Can you meet me in Albuquerque this morning and go with me?”
No! No! he wanted to scream. “When and where?”
“We’ll be at the Double Eagle II Airport FBO by ten. We’ll wait for you. By the way, bring Tyee with you.” The governor hung up before Ray could respond.
“Shit.”
“What’s wrong?” Sue raised up.
“The damn governor of New Mexico is what’s wrong. Got to get off of this treadmill before he drives me nuts.”
Sue took his hand. “Just do the right thing and get it over with. You know you can’t just walk away until some things are resolved. But do it quickly.”
“Yeah, I know. Gotta call Tyee and make his life miserable.” Ray smiled but did not feel happy.
Ray and Tyee were quiet, neither of them pleased with the idea of riding on a plane with the governor. While the trip from T or C to Albuquerque was only a few hours, it already felt like they’d been driving all day. And it wasn’t even dawn yet.
“Why do you think the governor wants to see Grimes? Sure seems like it has some risks associated with it, doesn’t it?” Tyee would go along with the plan, but he thought it was stupid.
“There are. Plus, it’s just plain stupid,” Ray grumbled. “The governor has people who should talk to Grimes—and he definitely should not. But there’s something he’s not telling us, and that has me worried. He and Grimes go back a long way. There may be some things Grimes knows that the governor doesn’t want anyone else to know. At this point, I’m not sure I care. We need to find out about Trujillo—is he a killer or what? If he is, we replace him as sheriff. If he isn’t, we turn this stuff over to him and head home. Jackson seemed to say he was guilty of something. But the way he said it may mean he just wasn’t loyal enough.”
“Since we started, there have been three people killed. Barbara Jackson, killed by her violent and crazy husband; the councilman Martin; and of course, Jackson killing himself. We know who killed Barbara, because Jackson confessed. So the only question is, who killed Martin? Or was that also a suicide? Let’s say, based on what the dead sheriff told you, our best suspect is Trujillo. Why would he kill the councilman?” Tyee was using logic to get them pointed in the right direction.
Ray jumped in. “Most murders are based on greed or lust. I think we can rule out lust regarding Martin. So it has to be greed. Money. And so, if Trujillo did it, it’s because he’s going to get lots of money or wants to keep it hidden. The only place where lots of money might be floating around would be with Grimes.”
Tyee smiled. “Everything comes back to the old bastard Grimes. And now we’re going with the crazy governor to visit the crazy millionaire with the crazy wife. Do you see a theme here?”
“Yep, I do. Try not to call the governor crazy while we’re on the plane, okay?”
“White Man has good words of wisdom.”
As they approached the small airport, Ray spotted the governor’s plane. He pulled into the parking lot next to the terminal. As they walked toward the plane, it’s side door opened, and someone lowered the stairs. The governor leaned out to wave Ray and Tyee aboard. Almost before they could get strapped in, the plane taxied, made its rapid trip down the small runway, and they were airborne.
“Glad you could make it, Ray. You, too, Tyee. I know you guys must think I’m nuts to go visit with Grimes, and maybe I am. I’ve got big problems with him, and I need this to end without it becoming a major news story. That’s not because of my reputation. It’s because he’s dangerous to the state’s economy. He’s the biggest employer in New Mexico. His string of convenience stores are all over the state, and he’s got his dirty fingers in more corrupt business deals than you could imagine. How all this happened without some kind of investigation is beyond me. I met yesterday with the AG, and he has sufficient evidence to charge him with enough to rock this state to the core. I asked for one day to talk to him. Maybe, if he’ll plead guilty, we can keep some of this quiet and not ruin so many lives. If he decides to fight, he’s going to bring down a lot of politicians and turn the state into a laughingstock. I know you’re a moralist, Ray, and you think, ‘What the hell? Let him rot.’ But it’ll cause a lot of harm to innocent people. I’d like to avoid that if we can.”
“I guess you know, governor, he could be a suspect in the murder of Councilman Martin.” Ray watched for a reaction.
&nbs
p; The governor only looked sad. “I won’t shield anyone from any crime they’ve done, especially murder. But if there’s some way I can work a deal to keep all the businesses open while this is worked out, it will save a lot of jobs.”
The flight was supposed to be short, but already it felt long. Ray looked at the governor and remembered why he’d thought, even with his faults, he was good guy. The man cared. “We’ll help you any way we can.”
The governor nodded. Still appearing emotional, turned away.
The pilot announced they would be landing shortly and requested that everyone buckle up.
Ray and Tyee stood back while the governor was surrounded by officials and law enforcement, hurried into a limousine, and whisked away from the airport.
“Think he forgot we were with him?” Tyee inquired, watching the governor’s fleet leave.
“Probably. He’d make a lousy pal.” In truth, Ray was glad the governor’s circus had left.
“Do we call Trujillo to see if we can get a ride? And by the way, how do we get back to Albuquerque when we’re done?” Tyee always wanted to identify an exit.
“Maybe before the governor leaves, he’ll remember he brought us here. If not, we can get a flight or rent a car.”
Tyee perked up. “I vote for a car.”
“Excuse me, would you be Sheriff Pacheco?” The person asking was a Navajo policeman close to Tyee’s size.
“Yes,” Ray responded. “I’m Ray Pacheco, and this is Tyee Chino.” Ray extended his hand.
The man smiled, quite warmly. “Nice to meet you both. I’m Captain Joshua Watchman, Navajo Nation Police. Do you have time to visit with me a bit?”
Rescued, Ray thought. Watchman had a car and offered to give them a ride to the Holiday Inn. They checked in and met him in its coffee shop.
“You guys need a car while you’re here? If so, I can probably arrange something.” Watchman’s size and faintly scowling expression seemed to contrast with his gracious manner.