Bus Stop at the Last Chance (Loni Wagner Western Mystery Book 2)

by Sue Hardesty

  “Do water stills really work?”

  “Some.” Loni shrugged. “If you line them with cactus chunks to get more moisture. Trouble is if you're not careful, you can waste more body water chopping up the cactus than you can manufacture in a still.”

  Not full but not as hungry as they were, the four of them sat around the fire.

  “Loni? Do you think the drugs come in on bikes?” Liv’s voice came out of the dusk.

  Surprised, Loni stared across the fire at her. “You want the truth?”

  “Of course! Why else would I ask?”

  Loni threw a stick onto the fire and bluntly answered. “No.”

  Howard's droll voice came through the darkness. “Gee, Loni, tell me why I been wasting days of my time, hot, sunburned, beat all to hell from bouncing all over that damn desert, half deaf from a roar that keeps following me into hell, with sand up my ass ground in so hard I know it'll never come out.”

  Loni had to laugh. “First, there're no bike tracks anywhere around here, and I rode in a loop for several miles. All the traffic is on foot or four-wheel drive. Second, Red didn’t hear any bike sounds or any other motor in the two weeks he was here.”

  The camp was quiet for a long time. “Well, shit.” Howard groaned.

  “Yeah, but, look at it this way.” Bobby sighed in relief. “We can go home now.”

  The camp stayed silent the rest of the night.

  CHAPTER 15

  “WE NEED TO GET UP,” Liv said into the dark dawn sky. No one said anything. She said it louder the second time. “Oh, hell.” She climbed out of her sleeping bag, stood and stretched. “Damn! It's cold.” Just as she dumped a big log on the hot coals of the night fire, a shape appeared in its flicker. Liv screamed.

  Loni jerked up with a gun in her hand aimed at the small figure.

  “Shit!” Liv patted her chest gasping for breath. “You scared the bejesus out of me.”

  “Please help us.” The form became two, and Loni saw a child on the back of a teenage boy.

  Bobby and Howard jumped to their feet and quickly searched the children. “They’re clean except for this,” Bobby held up a hunting knife.

  Howard hovered over the two. “What do you want?” His deep voice sounded almost kind. Leading them closer to fire for a better look, Howard studied the young man. “You're just two kids. What the hell you doing way out here, for Christ's sake? You crazy?”

  “No.” The boy slid the child down his body until they both sat on the ground near the warmth of the fire. “Just trying to get home.”

  “What's your name?”

  “Gabriel Salazar.” The teenager nodded to the child. “This is Izzy.”

  “Is not!” the child was belligerent. “My name's Isabella.”

  “What did I tell you?” he scolded her. “You're supposed to be a boy!”

  “Oh, I forgot.” Embarrassed, she stared at the fire.

  Gabriel put his arm around her shoulders and hugged her. “Guess I'll just start calling you Dizzy.”

  “Take that back!” Izzy punched Gabriel until they were both laughing to keep from crying. Holding onto Izzy, Gabriel rocked her back and forth a few times, tears running down his face. “God,” he groaned, wiping his eyes. “That's the first time I've laughed in months.”

  “Where you from?”

  “Globe. My dad worked the mine until it killed him. That was when they found out our papers were fake and took us back to Mexico.” It was like all the other stories Loni had heard for years. Thousands of undocumented workers sold everything, running from the hounds of hell to escape Arizona prisons. Families who raised families and run businesses disappeared in an agonizing exodus, leaving whole neighborhoods and businesses to predators.

  Loni didn’t know which was worse, forcing Native Americans into reservations for a destitute life or running off undocumented workers like wild dogs. Like the Japanese in the internment camps, the families were robbed of everything. She wondered if Arizona politicians were paid off to cause such suffering.

  “What kind of help you want?”

  “Some clean socks. Maybe food.” Gabriel sounded hopeful. “Maybe even a ride?”

  Loni looked at their feet. Their tennis shoes were covered in small cactus needles. Grabbing her first aid kit from her bike, Loni squatted beside the child. “Hey, Isabella. Can I take your shoes off?”

  Izzy turned her big frightened eyes toward her brother who had not really stopped talking. He was rocking back and forth, repeating “I can't do it,” and “it's too hard,” and “please help us,” over and over. Izzy finally turned back to Loni and dipped her head once.

  Loni handed her flashlight to Liv and carefully peeled the shoes and socks from Izzy’s feet. Without looking up, she asked, “Bobby, could you get two meals from my bags and feed these kids?” Holding Izzy’s foot by the calf of her leg, Loni pulled needles out of the child's foot with tweezers while she quietly asked her questions.

  Making herself ignore Gabriel's frazzled voice in the background, Loni pulled out as many needles as she could. Tearing off a short piece of duct tape, she pulled and pressed it down across Izzy’s foot and jerked it up before Izzy could react. “Look! I got all the needles out with this,” Loni reassured the little girl before she checked the foot with her.

  “Hey!” Liv tried to get Gabriel's attention. “You need to stop talking and answer some questions.” When Gabriel didn’t pay attention to her, Liv shook him. “Hey, you're safe now.”

  Liv continued asking questions while Loni finished pulling needles from Izzy's other foot. Izzy climbed into Loni’s lap and clung to her, sobbing into her neck. Rocking the girl, Loni finally asked. “Anybody got any extra socks?”

  “I do.” Liv answered. “Where's she going to get shoes?”

  “First things first. Her feet are cold.”

  Bobby handed around pear pads and jerky while Loni held Izzy and watched Liv clean Gabriel's feet. Suddenly he sobbed, heartbroken, wrenching sobs. “We couldn't make it down there.” The boy bitterly cried out. “It was too hard! I looked for work. Nothing!” He scrubbed his tear-filled eyes with his fists. “No one would talk to me. Gringo's puta, they kept calling me. Nobody would help! I'm so scared!” Gabriel was babbling again. He kept begging, “Please, take us with you.”

  Loni turned away from the frightened boy and pulled the socks onto Izzy’s feet. She played a game with the little girl until she finally got a smile.

  “How'd you avoid the Border Patrol?” Howard asked as he sat beside Gabriel and put his arm around him as Liv used the tape to clean the needles from his feet.

  “They make so much noise it's easy to hide from them.” The boy’s sobs started to lessen. “Then we heard the rattles from snakes. So many of them. I was so scared. I smelled your smoke so I came here.”

  Except for an occasional outburst from Gabriel, the camp was quiet as they packed and cleaned the camp. Loni stopped and squatted in front of Gabriel. “You know we should turn you over to the Border Patrol. We could get fired if we help you.” Loni quietly told him.

  “Maybe the Border Patrol will help them?” Liv asked Loni.

  Loni shook her head. “Even if they wanted to, and some do, they can't break the law either.”

  “Jesus,” Bobby spat. “Who made these crazy laws?”

  “Right-wingers. Who else walks this heartless among us?”

  “That means it's illegal for any of us to transport them.” Howard reminded Loni.

  “Yeah, but I’m doing it anyway.” Her decision made, Loni sat on her bike. “Come on kids, climb on. You’re going home."

  * * *

  Loni left the kids at Maria's Hacienda and then swung by her grandparents to pick up Coco. The hangar was dark and quiet when she got home. Loni leaned against the huge hangar door, waiting for Coco to read her doggy newspaper and pee. Exhausted, Loni ordered the dog upstairs ahead of her. Watching Coco hop onto Loni’s bed, her head on the pillow with her feet stuck in the air, made Loni la
ugh. Before Loni got Shiichoo's leftovers into the microwave, she heard the sound of snoring.

  She pushed Coco out of the bed and fell into a restless sleep while Coco curled up on the rag rug beside her.

  CHAPTER 16

  “LONI!” CARL YELLED OUT of his office. “Get your ass in here!”

  Loni shooed Coco under her desk before she rushed by Lola's counter, sliding on the wooden floor into Carl's office. “God, Carl! You sounded exactly like Chief just then. You might welcome me home.” The look on Carl’s face made her wonder if there was something wrong with her. She looked down at herself. Clothes clean, checkered Western shirt snapped, Levis zipped, boots on. Nope. That wasn't it. She waited impatiently.

  “Heard you aborted the investigation.” Carl's voice was tight. “That true?”

  Carl was rubbing his ear really hard. What the hell? Loni kept it simple. “Yes.”

  “Sit!” Carl barked. “Tell me what happened.”

  Loni sat and wiggled in the misshapen chair. Her thoughts fell all over each other as she tried to explain. “Nothing, Carl. That was the goddamned problem and I told you so. After a month running races all along the border, they came up with nothing. Well, not nothing nothing. There were plenty of drugs out there, but they just weren’t our cocaine or anything else headed toward Caliente. My gut tells me it's not bikers bringing our cocaine across the border.”

  “So you're saying the whole trip was a bust.”

  “Well yeah, Carl, there you have it.”

  “Out!” He pointed at the door.

  “Wait a minute. What'd James find out?”

  “Nothing. Out!”

  “You mean his trip was a bust too?” Loni backed up a step.

  “Out!”

  “Want me to shut your door behind me?”

  “Out!”

  Loni carefully closed Carl's door and silently moved over to her desk. Coco moved restlessly on Loni's feet, and Loni reached down to rub the brown curls. The cell phone rang, and she answered, “Detective Loni Wagner speaking.”

  “Loni?”

  Loni sighed. Her granddad always seemed questioned who she was. “Yes, Bahb, it’s me.”

  “You go Minnie’s Well now. Dead child needs to come home.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Matt Barlow brought couple here for you to come and get. Coyotes deserted them at Minnie's Well. When baby died, they started north. They got to Matt's place.”

  “Undocumented?”

  “Yi.”

  “They're at the ranch now?”

  “Yi.”

  Loni listened to the dead tone of the phone for a few seconds before she speed-dialed Dr. Benjamin. She gave the coroner directions to Minnie’s Well and said, “I’ll catch a ride with the ambulance."

  Listening to the dead sound of the phone, she thought, Doesn’t anybody say goodbye anymore?

  Loni beat the ambulance to the well. She stood over the baby and watched Lu and Dr. Benjamin climb out of the ambulance and walk over to her.

  “How you doing, Loni?” Doc looked around at the frozen windmill and dry tank.

  “Been better, Doc.” Nodding hi to Lu, Loni said. “Hate to see this.”

  “I know.” Doc squatted and uncovered the tiny body before he slowly stood and quietly watched Lu pick up the baby. Holding the baby close to her, she slowly walked to the back of the ambulance.

  Doc placed his hand on Loni's shoulder. “Heard about your friend Jenny O'Neal. Real shame she and her dad are gonna spend the rest of their lives in prison for nothing.”

  Loni gave Doc a startled look. “She was more like an acquaintance.”

  “Anyway, it's a real shame they didn't wait.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She means Jenny and her father didn’t need to bother to kill Chief,” Lu quietly told Loni.

  Surprised, Loni looked at Lu. “Huh?”

  “I think it's a damn shame.” Lu ducked her head.

  “Why?” Loni was totally confused.

  “Didn’t you read my autopsy report?” Doc asked her.

  “No. Why should I? He couldn’t get any deader.”

  “True, but he would have been dead in weeks anyway. He had advanced small-celled lung cancer.”

  “You're shittin me!” Loni squeaked.

  “Nope.”

  “It was all for nothing?”

  “Yep.”

  Loni sat in her truck and cried as she watched Lu and Doc leave a trail of dust on their way back to the highway. The parents hadn’t been prepared for the desert even if the weather was a few degrees cooler than last summer. In a nearby dugout under a thin-leaved mesquite tree, pieces of a barrel cactus showed that they had tried to suck on cactus parts because they had too little water and food. There wasn’t enough for them. The terrible, unusually hot, summer temperatures had left the desert plants shriveled and dry.

  Starting her truck, Loni followed the ambulance to the highway. As she slowed down to turn onto the highway, Loni heard a loud explosion. The truck jumped, and she slammed on her brakes and fought the wheel. The unwieldy vehicle swayed and bucked before it lurched and shuddered to a stop. Ready to attack, Coco put her ears back as she slammed against Loni.

  “Stay, Coco.” Loni left the poodle in the cab while she walked around the truck. The front right tire was shredded in a thousand pieces. Even the rim was bent from the force of the explosion. Jesus! Loni shivered from fear. What was that? What if I’d been going faster?

  Leaning down, she studied the wheel. She picked up a piece of tire and sniffed it. The hot rubber smell was mixed with the odor from an explosive she had studied in one of her workshops in LA. She dropped bits of the tire into an evidence bag.

  With a deep sigh, Loni looked at the spare. She took out her cell phone, hoping a tower signal reached this far south. She got lucky. “Shiichoo, I can’t make it to the ranch today. I got a flat.”

  “Where are you?”

  “On my way home from the Well That Minnie Dug.”

  “What are you doing way out there, child?”

  “There’s this nice woman?”

  “She going to change your tire?”

  “No,” Loni smiled. Hearing her grandma always made her feel better. “You think I don’t know how to change a tire?”

  “Well, yes,” Shiichoo teased. Suddenly Loni heard a loud voice, “Damn it, cat!” For a minute all was quiet until Shiichoo got back on the phone. “I knew it was going to be a bad day. I just kicked the cat.”

  “Kicked the cat?”

  “Well, it was an accident. She won't stay out from under my feet.”

  It was several seconds before Loni could stop laughing long enough to answer her grandma. “Never heard you swear before.”

  “You think that’s funny? It’s your fault the cat’s under my feet all the time.”

  “Why me?” Loni asked in surprise.

  “You’re the one that drug it in the house, don’t you forget.”

  “I had to. Lola about ran over him and I was worried.”

  “Piffle. You wanted to annoy me.”

  “Worked, huh?” Loni giggled.

  Shiichoo hung up. She called Lola and got the same response that Shiichoo gave her. “You even know how to change a tire?”

  “I’m not even going to grace that with an answer.” This time she hung up on Lola's laughter. No way could she admit that she had never changed a tire on this monster. Sighing again, she dug out the jack wondering what an oversized tire was going to cost. And rim. Don’t forget the goddamn rim.

  CHAPTER 17

  LONI DIDN'T GET BACK to the station until mid-afternoon. She found Lola leaning on the counter waiting for her. “How bad?”

  “One toddler. A boy.”

  Lola sat back down, tears in her eyes. “Oh, god. Will it never end?”

  “At least the parents are still alive.” Loni fished a form out of Lola's basket to fill in her report and sat at her desk, disheartened about what had
happened. “They stumbled into Matt Barlow's place in really bad shape. After what Junior said to Matt the last time, he took them to our ranch for me to help.”

  “Damn!” Lola rubbed her arms defensively. “What'd Junior say?”

  “Said the next wetbacks he picked up he was going to take them back to the desert and shoot them.”

  “He surely didn't mean it!” Lola scoffed.

  Loni shrugged. “Matt wasn't so sure. Neither was I. After all, he called them wetbacks.”

  “Can’t we get somebody to fix that windmill at Minnie's well?”

  “Maybe I could get Uncle Herm to do it. I don’t think the state will pay for it, though.”

  “I know. The local politicians have pretty much written off undocumented people as good road kill.”

  “Do you know who owns that ranch?” Loni asked.

  “Doesn’t your granddad know?”

  “No. Heard him say one time it was owned by a big business back East. Western something? Typical behavior for big business. Nobody fixes anything. Nobody's responsible for anything.” Loni sat forward in defeat rubbing her nose. “Too big to fail, my ass. Too big to care.”

  “Want me to find out who's in charge?”

  “One time I tried. But if you can find anybody, maybe they would at least let someone else fix it. Too many travelers see the windmill at a distance and end up dead trying to reach water.”

  Lola's voice was determined. “There has to be a CEO at that company that'll help us.”

  Loni shook her head in defeat. “Other day I was reading this study on psychopaths.”

  “And?”

  “Not counting those in prison, most of the rest are either extreme right-wing politicians or CEOs. I'm adding coyotes to that list.”

  Lola snorted. “Why don't you tell me how you really feel!”

  “I'll tell you how I really feel. I'm going to ask Carl to let me do some night surveillance at Minnie's until I catch those sons-a-bitches. They are the worst I've ever run across.” Standing up, Loni thumped her desk with determination and hurried into Carl's office. “Got a minute?”