by Sue Hardesty
A police car flying over the hump in the road almost hit her burning car. Brakes squealed and dust flew as the car fishtailed before it spun around in a full circle, barely missing Loni’s wreck. Loni got a clear view of Clive Monroe’s huge brown eyes and face, frozen in terror as the car finally slid to a stop.
Loni doubled over from laughing at Clive's expression until she heard a new whirring coming at her. Her whole body tensed until she saw the large letters spelling out POLICE across the side. Thank god! She was fed up with the hot rocks and cactus needles in her belly. She stopped waving at the helicopter when she figured out she didn't have to worry about signaling. Her car took care of that
Clive slowly climbed out of his car and nodded at her. They stood together, watching the copter put down below them next to the bus, and waited until the swirling dust settled. Three cops had already stepped out of the copter by the time they got to the copter. Two of them stood beside the bus talking to Manny, and the other was pulling the driver out of the door.
“You can't remove him,” Loni shouted as she ran up.
Tears were running down his face. “He's my brother,” he sobbed, sitting down to hold his brother in his arms.
“Should I have a lawyer here?” Loni heard Manny complain.
“Manny!” Loni exploded with disgust. “Just answer the questions.”
“Well, hell, Loni. He says I was part of it. Otherwise I'd be dead, too! Tell him I'm innocent!”
Loni shook her head. “Listen. If anything, I expect the Mexicans felt sorry for him because he's too damn dumb to live anyway.”
“Or maybe they wanted to leave a survivor behind to show us cops how dumb we are.” Clive voiced quietly. “Be a sad joke on us.” Clive stepped forward and stuck out his hand to the taller cop asking Manny the questions.”I'm Clive Monroe, highway patrolman.”
“Deak Drue,” the bulky man said as he took Clive’s hand. Turning to Loni he held out his big hand to her. “And you are?”
“Loni Wagner, Caliente detective.”
Deak nodded up the hill. “That your car burning up?”
Clive grinned. “Her fourth.”
Deak’s smile at Loni’s shrug showed a small part of white teeth below a long nose in a long face. He turned to the other cop and nodded. “This here's Jimmy Whit, our medic.” Gesturing toward the cop holding his dead brother, Deak’s face lost its smile. “And that's my pilot, Bud Hart.” He turned to Jimmy. “Take Manny up to the copter and handcuff him in there.”
“Wait a minute,” Loni said. “He's supposed to be in my custody now.”
Deak shook his head. “I understand what you're sayin'. But those two dead cops belong to us, and we need to take them home. We need to question Manny at the station, find out what happened and make sure he's not involved. You can understand that.”
“Yes,” Loni decided. “I can.” Looking over at Manny, she said, “Sorry. I'll come down as soon as they say and get you.”
Manny jerked away from Jimmy's grip on his arm. "Damn, Loni. You just going to let them take me? Lola's gonna kill you."
"Sorry, Manny." Loni turned to Deak. "I've got an ambulance and coroner coming. You do need to wait on that."
A look of relief washed over Deak's face, and he nodded in agreement. He ran his long fingers through his thinning graying hair. “We should be through with Manny in a day or two.” He handed Loni a card. “I'll call you to come get him.”
Loni took the card and stuffed it in her shirt pocket.
The group standing around the bus watched the ambulance, lights running and siren blaring, slam on the brakes and skid around Loni's burning car before it continued down the hill to stop in the wash. Local medical doctor and coroner Dr. Benjamin climbed out of the passenger side and hurried over to the bus. “Loni?” he blurted out as he stared at the gauze around Loni's head and blood on her shirt. “How bad is it?” His balding head above the gray fringe had blistered from the sun. Loni couldn’t see his eyes for the reflective sunglasses, but she could sense his concern. He might seem mild-mannered, but she knew he would bulldoze anyone down to get to a person in need.
“I'm okay, Doc. I was calling for Manny but their medic patched him up.”
“You sure? That's a lot a blood.”
“Just a nick in my ear.” Loni lifted her shirttail. “This is Manny's.”
“You sure you're not hurt?” Lu asked, hurrying around the ambulance with her emergency kit to join them. “That’s a lotta blood.” Long blond hair flying, she was built rangy with long legs and arms. She was so tall that Loni always had to tilt her head back to look at her.
“What's your hurry?” Clive grinned as he backed away from the dust stirred up by the sliding ambulance. “You just now learnin' how to drive that thing, Lu?”
“Heard you needed help.” Lu slugged Clive on the arm, knocking him into Loni. “Guess not.”
Clive sighed. “Lu, if you were just ten feet shorter...”
Lu laughed.
Interrupting, Loni shoved Clive back as she said, “Sorry, Lu. We got a crime scene but no bodies. The police helicopter from Tucson is taking Manny along with two of theirs.” Loni nodded over to the men around the bus door. "Doc? They're waiting on you."
“Looks to me like you're hurt, Loni.” Lu scrutinized her bandage.
“I'm good now. I just want to get this crime scene processed before it gets even more disturbed.
“You sure?” Dr. Benjamin quizzed Loni.
“Tell you what, Doc. I'll stop by the clinic as soon as we're done here.”
Dr. Benjamin nodded and turned, walking over to the bus.
Doc finally released the crime scene to the Tucson cops and Loni watched Lu and the doc walk back up the hill to the ambulance. "Okay, Deak." Loni stepped back. "They're yours now."
Stepping up into the bus to retrieve his dead friend, Deek heaved another sigh. “I hate this.” Head down, he carefully lifted the body and carried it out of the bus over to the helicopter. Coming back for the second body, he rubbed Bud's back as he took his brother from his arms. “Let's take him home, Bud.”
Pressing his lips together in a thin line, Bud followed them to the helicopter. Loni wondered if he could still fly that thing, but the spinning blades forced Loni and Clive to turn and duck from the spray of sand. The helicopter shrank into a small speck as they wiped and blew dust from their eyes and noses.
Using Manny's description, Loni and Clive carefully laid out the crime scene after Doc released the bodies to the Tucson police, trying to determine which man shot who. They found tape under a seat where they decided somebody had put a gun. When they were satisfied they had covered everything, the two walked back to Clive's car, swiping at each other in a hopeless attempt to brush the dust off.
Loni was used to being a mess, but Clive always looked as crisp and polished at the end of his patrol as he did at the beginning. For the first time his Western shirt and dark brown dress pants were dirty and wilted. Loni sighed as she settled into Clive’s car. It was time to go back and face Lola. Loni accepted this in defeat, grateful for Clive's open friendly presence. The reprieve didn't last. With a shit-eating grin, he turned around and drove slowly back by the disintegrating heap of smoldering metal, shaking his head at her. “That makes four cars now. You been back home what? Five months?”
“No, but you keep it up and your car could be number four. And it's been more than a year.”
Clive didn't stop laughing until he dropped her off at the clinic.
Loni walked into the large, square room and down a hallway between four small private exam rooms looking for Chelsa. Spotting her in one of the rooms with a crying teenage girl, Loni turned around to wait.
Chelsa walked out and saw the blood on Loni’s face and shirt. “What's wrong?”
“It's just a nick in my ear, but it must have hit a bleeder.”
“What hit a bleeder?”
“A bullet,” Loni said almost shyly.
“You got shot?”
“I just said. Only a nick.”
“Do you have a death wish, or what? How many times did I patch you up last summer?” Chelsa's burnt-red kinky hair bounced up and down as she jerked her head around, fussing and dragging Loni into one of the rooms. Peeling the rag off Loni's head, Chelsa grabbed a disinfecting swab and wiped at Loni's ear.
“Damn woman!” Loni complained. “Leave the rest of my ear.”
“Still a cry baby,” Chelsa tished at her. Redressing her ear with a large band aid across the top, Chelsa patted Loni on the shoulder and grinned. “There, there. It’s even skin color. Just like what we put on the other children.” Her voice turned quiet, and she said, “I heard you know something about sexual assault crimes. Is that true?”
“I've had training, yes. But if you have one to report, you need to tell Junior.”
“I talked to him. Twice. He told me girls are always screaming rape when they don't get what they want, but they don’t really mean it.” Chelsa stopped. Her face registered disgust and something else Loni couldn't read. “I'm convinced somebody is drugging Mexican girls and then raping them.”
“Did they go to the clinic for testing?” Loni's sex-crime training kicked in.
“The first one did. It was too late when this one talked to me.”
“When did you see the first one?”
“Weren’t you involved in that case about the girl who got raped last summer at that party at the assistant coach's house? The couple that died from ricin poisoning?”
“I was.” Loni glowered. “She thought Billy Joe Kildare was involved. Do you know anything about Billy Joe and his friends?”
“Sorry.” Chelsa shook her head, her dark eyes staring at Loni.
“If you see another girl who's been raped you could ask her if Billy Joe's group hassled her or if she remembers any of them around before she was raped.”
Chelsa was already shaking her head. “I did and she says she doesn't remember anything.”
“Sounds like the same date rape drug as last summer's rape case.”
“Yep.”
Loni thought for a minute, and Chelsea continued. “The rape victims are all young Latinas.”
“Why?”
“Good question. A better one, who could do this to another person?” A tear rolled down Chelsa's cheek before she quickly wiped it away.
“Chelsa. You're assuming these guys actually think it's wrong. They don't.”
“How can you say that, Loni? Look at what it does to them!” Chelsa wiped away more tears. “That's just plain evil. How can such evil be allowed to exist?”
Loni gave Chelsa a quick hug. “You're assuming there's something out there gives a shit what happens to any of us.”
“Then who does care?”
Loni stood quietly a minute and rubbed her eyes. “My first year in the police academy, I had a real chip on my shoulder. My self-defense instructor finally got tired of me and said, ‘You know what, kid? Don't expect your troubles to end when the sun comes up tomorrow. And don't ever, ever expect a fair world. We all come into this world in pain and go out the same way. All that matters in the end is helping each other avoid as much pain as possible in between.’”
Hugging Chelsa one last time, Loni walked back to the station. She didn't even make it all the way in the door before Lola was in her face. “You got blood all over you. Is that Manny's blood? How bad is Manny hurt? Where is he?”
“He's fine. I already told you it was only a small scalp wound. This is my blood.” Loni pointed at her band aid with one hand and brushed at the blood streaks down her shirt with the other. She held up her shirttail. “This is Manny's. Tucson cops took him back to Tucson.”
“What? Wait! Go get him back.” Lola practically screamed at her.
Loni shrank under Lola’s assault and cautiously scooted past her waving arms, only to be blocked by a big body reeking of cigar smoke and testosterone. Her nose jammed against a Texas Ranger star, she stepped back and stared up into Junior Gatlin's angry eyes. He was tall and skinny, dressed like a drugstore cowboy. A blazingly white Western shirt with an elaborate turquoise bolo tie topped skintight Levis held up with a wide leather belt. The outfit was completed with high-heeled boots showing that he probably had never been on a horse. His arms were crossed, and his Texas drawl came loud and clear through thin flat lips. “That was just stupid, Loni. Manny's your prisoner.”
Still fanning herself, Loni tried to push around him, but he kept stepping in front of her. “Let me by,” she insisted as she struggled to hold onto her anger.
“Not till you answer Lola.”
Loni had no idea why Carl hired Junior last month to replace Chui. Even if Chui had been arrested for helping in the drug traffic, he wasn’t as bad as his replacement. “Hell, Junior. You haven't been here long enough to boss me. You got no idea what's going on, so butt out!”
“Doesn't matter, Loni. You don't give away nothing.”
Loni struggled to get around him. “Nothing to give away, you stupe. They needed to know who was involved in the breakout. All they want to do find out what he knew.”
“Don't change nothing!” Junior continued to block her as he barked. “In Texas we made them come to us so we could stay in control. Giving up control like that just makes you dumb.”
“You know what, Junior? I'm so sick and tired of all your talk about how Texas does it better and how dumb we are. Why'd you move here, anyway?”
Junior looked down on Loni with a serious expression and bellowed, “Somebody has to do the missionary work.”
Loni laughed until she realized Junior was serious. “Good one, Junior. You must be one fine Christian boy.”
“Just because your kind don't believe in the Bible…” Junior left the statement hanging.
“What do you mean my kind? Heathen, Indian, queer, what?”
“What you do against what the Bible says. It's just wrong.”
“I've got my own Bible saying different.”
Junior shook his head so hard even his words wobbled. “King James Bible is the only true one. Everything it says is what's true. And just exactly how it says it.”
“Those old men who wrote your bible believed the earth was flat. Was that right?”
“You one of those Darwinites?”
“Junior!” Lola shook her head in dismay. “Stop it!”
“Well, hell, Lola. Bible's very clear on who can sleep with who.”
Loni was pissed. “You must be related to Ma Ferguson?”
“Huh? Who's that?”
“You don’t even know who Ma Ferguson is? Your own Texas history? She was one of your governors who wouldn’t let any schools teach Spanish. She said that if the English language was good enough for Jesus it was good enough for her.”
“And she was right!” Junior shot back at Loni.
Throwing her hands up in disgust, Loni finally shoved around Junior. “You know what, Lola? Much as I hate to admit it, I'm sorry Chui messed up.”
“Who's Chui?” Junior followed Loni back to the dispatch counter.
“Even his sorry ass was better than this idiot!” Loni was shouting now.
“Who's Chui?” Junior asked again.
“You took his job,” Lola answered Junior as she motioned to Coco. They circled around to the back of the long counter where Coco sat down next to Lola.
“What happened to him?”
“He got arrested for trafficking undocumented workers to Carl's ranch,” Lola explained.
“Our Carl? Our chief of police Carl?” Junior’s big grin of oversized teeth was so satisfied that Loni wanted to slap it off.
“Yes, our Carl. He leased his ranch out and didn't pay any attention to what went on, much to his regret. People died.” Loni was sorry that she had brought up anything about Carl.
Junior continued to grin in amusement. “Letting someone take your place over like that? Never happen in Texas.”
Mocking Junior's Texas drawl, Loni scoffed. “Ju
nior, may a camel piss on your ugly boots.”
“You're kidding me? These are Lucchese boots, you idjit. They look a whole lot better that those shit-kickers you wear!”
Lola slammed her hand on her counter, setting off the ringing in her stack of colorful metal bracelets on her arm as she stared Loni down. “Damnit, can't you try to get along here? We're family.”
“I'm not family to no Injin.” Junior insisted.
“Or Mexican either.” Loni turned to Lola. “Did he tell you what he wanted to do to those three undocumenteds we brought in last week? It was not family love.”
Shaking a finger in Loni's face, Lola ordered. “Don't say it, Loni. Not another word.” Junior snorted and Lola turned on him. “That goes for you, too, Junior. No more.”
Before Loni could continue her argument with Lola, she heard Carl's voice yelling at her. “Loni! Get in here!”
“Just a minute, Boss.” Loni grinned in relief. “Saved by the bell, Junior. Maybe I won't shoot you today.” Grinning at his expression, she hurried to Carl's office.
CHAPTER 2
Carl Harper, Caliente's police chief, stared at Loni’s shirt as she walked in his office door. She became uncomfortably aware of the blood smeared down it. “You okay?” he asked.
“Just a nick on my ear is all.” Loni frowned. “Still hurts like a bitch but I'll live.” Waving Carl's concern away, Loni blurted, “Listen Carl. You got to do something about the rapes going on.” She started to ask him about interviewing Billy Joe and his friends, but he waved her off.
“Leave the rapes to Junior. He said he was on top of it.” Carl shrugged. “Right now we got cocaine to worry about. Looks like its base is the same as last summer's source.”
“Damnit, Carl! He's not doing anything about it!”
“Loni!”
Fighting her temper, Loni stared around before she exclaimed, “Wow! When did you do all this?” She had hated this office when Carl’s predecessor was in here, but Carl had gotten rid of everything. The old Chief's ornate oak desk, and the huge red plush desk chair were both gone. They were replaced by a simple missionary-style desk and a soft-seat chair with arms. Also gone was the poster behind the old desk that read, “Every day of my life forces me to add one more person who can kiss my ass.” Even the monkey-vomit green paint had been changed to a charged yellow, and colorful prints of cactus flowers hung on the walls.