by Sue Hardesty
Carl Harper stopped next to Loni and reached out and rubbed her head. "Is that hideous smell what I think it is?"
"Shuddup." Loni stood and hugged him, glad to see a friendly face. "Getting a little gray there, sport? Gained some weight, too?" She patted his stomach. "Hear you're livin' the good life now, playing copper. How come you're not ranching anymore?"
The lines around his eyes deepened as his brown, leathered face beamed at her. "Heard you were playing copper instead of ranching," Carl mimicked her. "How come? Too lazy?"
"She's not ranching because she gave it all back to the Indians," James said from across the room.
Ignoring him, Carl gave Loni another hug. "Good to see you home." He sniffed the air a couple of times. "That's your grandma's famous perfume I smell!"
Loni owned up. "Spent the weekend on Roanie. I'd forgotten how much it hurt."
"Old Roanie's still alive?"
"Yes. And obviously in better shape than I am."
Carl laughed. "So, why did you become a cop?"
"Didn't own two fine Brahmas like you did," Loni teased him.
"I thought you loved those bulls."
"Are Big Hump and Harvey still alive?
"Big Hump died. Sold Harvey to Essey Rigall. I'm sure he would love for you to come see him."
"Yeah, well, now that I carry a gun and all, tell that bull if he gets near me again I'll shoot him."
Carl laughed. "Strange that you were the only one Harvey ever chased."
"You taught him that just to laugh at me."
Clive jumped in. "You two ranch together?"
Carl said, "Nah. We were neighbors. Years ago the ranchers agreed to each buy two bulls from different breeds. Every two years we traded them to keep new blood in the stock." Carl nodded toward Loni. "We had the Brahmas. Every time her granddad got them, she spent the next two years running and hiding."
"Third time we got them, I was fifteen," Loni told Clive. "When I went outside, I had to go backwards with my eyes on them every second or they would flat-foot jump the fence and be on top of me faster than I could blink. For two long years I spent my time climbing trees, hay stacks..."
"Pickups, horse trailers, outhouses..." Carl chuckled at the memories.
"I even tried to climb a mesquite tree once. Damn, that hurt!" Loni winced at the memory.
"It was even funnier when we branded calves. Harvey was right there, his eyes never leaving her. She had to do all the heeling." Carl giggled. "She didn't dare get off that horse." Carl turned back to Loni. "I swear he was in love with you."
"Do you have any idea how creepy that is?"
"I believe it," James's snide voice blurted again.
Carl ignored him again. "At least they were more interesting than those two huge white face you owned. Except when they met at the water trough in the evening. Now that was funny."
"What'd they do?" Clive asked.
"They'd spot each other a half mile away and start bellowing. Take a few steps, stop, paw dirt, throwing it everywhere, bellow a few times. Take a few steps, paw dirt until their backs and heads were thick with it. They had these huge hoofs as big as dinner plates and could throw a lot of dirt. They must have weighed a ton and were as slow as molasses. It took them an hour to finally meet. Then they laid their heads together, hooked horns, bellowed, rocked a bit, bellowed, backed up and, hand in hand, shook off the dirt as they walked over to the water trough together like best of friends."
"Well, at least we could find them when we wanted them," Loni retorted.
"That's true. Those two Santa Cruz of Essey's were amazing. They just simply disappeared. We never saw them the whole two years."
"Except for Willie. He could always find them." Loni smiled at the memory.
"So Bahb put your sorry ass to work this weekend checking his mother cows?"
"You didn't hear. We got rustled last weekend."
"Oh, god." Carl's eyes popped wide in surprise. "All of them?"
"All but one. They chased old Flossie into a cholla patch and left her."
"What'd you do? Shoot her?"
"No. She's tied up in the barn with Shiichoo's medicine."
"So the smell tells me you haven't been on a horse in a while." Carl started laughing.
"You could say that. I'm so sore, I can barely walk."
Carl shook his head, laughing at her. "Good thing I got used to the smell of your grandma's salve."
"You really quit the ranch?"
His face sobered. "Just wasn't worth it anymore. When the folks died, I sold what cows were left and leased the place out." He pulled on his ear. Loni remembered he did that when something bothered him. "Some farmer's leasing it now, growing exotic plants in greenhouses. Can you believe that?"
"I wanted to ask you about that." Leaning closer to Carl, Loni lowered her voice so no one else could hear her. "The dead man I found this morning. You hear about it?"
"Sure," Carl answered. "Who hasn't?"
"Well, he came from the road out of your ranch."
"Really?" Carl stared at her. "That doesn't sound good. You tell anybody?"
"It's in my report. But since nobody reads them anyway, no, I haven't told anyone."
"Thanks for the heads up." Carl seemed relieved. "I'll find out what's going on this afternoon."
"Would you let me know?"
Carl stared at her a few seconds, but before he could answer her, Chief stepped out of his office. "Carl. Tully. In here."
Left alone in her corner, Loni picked up a folder off the desk and fanned herself, looking up at the ceiling to see if the cooler was working, but the ribbon wasn't moving. She thought again that all the government did was make up huge batches of godawful puke green paint to put on every goddamn government building she ever saw.
Loni tried to finish her report on the Mercedes, but the ink refused to flow onto the damp paper. Clive moved over to the chair Carl had vacated and laughed at her. "How many times are you going to try to fill out forms in here before you learn?"
Loni scratched at her heat rash. The tan synthetic uniform wrapped her body in a sauna bath, burning her skin. She kept pulling at her shirt. "Oh hell, I don't know. Obviously I haven't learned yet."
"Hey," a voice behind Loni said, "I've been looking for you for two days. Don't you answer your goddamn phone anymore?"
Loni glanced around to see Chui.
"Don't you answer yours?" James said. "I left you a message that I had to go out of town. I just got back."
So that's why James didn't show up at the Mercedes, Loni thought. She turned back to find Clive watching a sandy haired man walk up to Lola and ask for Chief.
"Must be why we're all here." Clive nodded. "I know him. He's State. Head of Narc, I think. Name's Jim Filbright."
Loni watched Clive eying Lola as she talked on the phone. She had a shoe off and was rubbing her foot. Placing a hand over the phone, she pointed the man toward Chief's office. She hung the phone up and put her shoe back on as everybody, including Loni, stared.
"Those shoes gotta hurt!" The red-headed patrol officer said to Lola as he passed by to hand James a phone message. "Why do you wear them?"
Lola smiled, pinching his cheek. "Power, honey," she answered. "Power."
Followed by Carl, Tully, and Jim, Chief walked into the bullpen. He walked around introducing Jim while he handed each person a folder.
"This here's Loni Wagner. Newbie from LA." Chief pulled on Jim's elbow to move him on.
Jim reached out to shake her hand. "I know who you are," he said cordially. "I have a friend in LA on the Major Crime Squad, and he asked about you. Garrad Peppard."
"Sure. Great detective. Good man."
"He says the same for you. Well. Not the man part."
"Don't be so sure," Chui sniped.
Jim ignored him. "I'm looking forward to your help and your expertise."
"Anytime," Loni assured him, feeling good about the recognition in spite of Chui's comment.
"Listen u
p." Chief moved on with Jim. "Jim's from the State office. He'll tell you why he's here."
Jim waited until everyone got quiet. "We got three dead in south Phoenix from poisoned meth. The dealer we picked up says his source was Caliente." Jim's eyes swept the room. Small and faded blue, his eyes were surrounded by so much white that his irises nearly disappeared.
Bet he never worked undercover, Loni thought as she pulled out her notebook. His eyes were too distinctive. The lack of inflection in his voice made it hard to listen to him.
"We need to find the source of this one fast because the meth was cut with ricin. We don't think it's intentional because ricin's a deadly poison and dealers really don't want to kill off their customers. For those of you who haven't heard about ricin before, it's leftover from squeezing the oil out of castor beans. All we can figure is some castor oil processor was very careless about where he put his waste. Or maybe someone's growing castor oil plants and got too close to the meth lab. We need to find out."
In the silence, Jim stared around the room again. "This batch of poison will be disastrous, especially if it gets into the schools. We don't know how much got out there before it killed the people in Phoenix. We don't know how much more is coming. Or even where it's coming from."
He stopped and walked across the room with nervous energy. "So here's what you look for. Swallowing ricin causes nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain within twenty-four hours. Inhaling it causes shortness of breath, chest tightness, and coughing within six hours."
Chief studied Jim like he was a scorpion. "You sayin' we follow people around all day to see if they puke?"
A surprised expression crossed Jim's face. "Start with the schools. Tell the administration and nursing staff to be on the lookout. Get to doctors, clinics, EMTs, anyone in health services. Make sure they understand what's happening. Talk to parents. This is serious, people." He punched a fist into the palm of his other hand. "Next thing, find every source you can, call in any favors, get the sonsabitches mixing this stuff." He paused, a frown on his face. "There's not much we can do about the 'shake and bake' meth, but we can still take down the labs."
Jim raised his voice. "I want to know everything you find out. I can't assign highway patrol to help, but I think it's important for you to be on the lookout and share where you can. Agree?" Loni and the four other patrollers nodded. "Questions anybody?" He rubbed the side of his thin nose, waiting.
"Yes." Loni ignored Chief's scowl and the glares from James and Chui. "Have you got a DNA on the blood I sent with the plane crash evidence? Identified the fingerprint on the valve? Checked the drug residue? Figured out what the names and numbers in the notebook mean? Or who the numbers in the cell phone belong to?"
"I haven't heard anything about that, Loni. I'm not sure it's related to this case. What do you think?"
"I don't see any connection yet, but I got a bad feeling about it."
"I'll check into it and get back to you. Any other questions? No? Then I'll turn it over to Chief."
Chief stood. "People, what we're going to do is put together a task force. Everybody available meet in my conference room at nine every morning." He put a hand on Carl's shoulder. "This here is Carl Harper. He's heading it up, so call him if you find anything. I mean anything. Nothing is too small. Let's pay attention out there, people. Let's find these sick bastards."
As Chief stepped back, Carl stood. "Here's where we start." He jingled the coins in his pocket. "James, get Loni's report on Rene's plane and check everything. See if you can find a connection to the meth. Follow up on Loni's questions. Also, check his flight plans over the past year. Can you do that?"
"Sure," James agreed, smirking at Loni.
"Chui, talk to your buddies on the border about any new source for meth. And talk to Rosie. She should know something."
Chui started to say something, but Carl's glare shut him up.
"Tully, talk to Rene's wife. Maybe she can tell you about his trips."
Tully just sat and stared at Carl.
"Tully?"
Finally Tully nodded.
"Good. Anything else?"
Loni sighed and spoke up again. "I think Larry Kildare is involved with Rene somehow."
"Where'd you get that idea?" Chief barked at her.
"I'd rather not say." Loni knew it was the wrong thing to say to Chief, but she wasn't ready to reveal Dorothea's suspicions about her husband. She hung her head, avoiding the eyes staring at her.
Carl looked around the table again. "See you back here in the morning. The rest of you, we want anything you find. And thanks."
Like puppet soldiers, everyone marched out behind Chief. Jim nodded to Loni as he pushed out the double doors. Saying goodbye to Lola, Loni was more than ready to get home when she heard Chief's voice.
"Girly!" Chief had his head stuck out his door. "Get in here!"
Walking into Chief's office, she waited, knowing she wasn't allowed to sit down. Carl and Tully stared up at her with expressionless faces. "Chief?"
"I'm assignin' you to track down drugs."
"But, Chief..."
"Did you hear me say I was through?" Chief barked. Tully guffawed. Loni was grateful that Carl hadn't joined in the fun. "I'm assignin' you to Carl. He'll give you orders at the task force meetings."
She knew the extra hours were punishment for bypassing Chief with the plane's evidence. Or maybe it was just for being a female. Loni glanced at Carl. He raised one eyebrow a millimeter. She stood silently, trying not to squirm from the acrid body smell in the stifling office.
"You can go now. Carl. Get her the hell out of here."
Following Carl into the bullpen, Loni watched Carl open a notebook on his desk. "Sorry, Loni. Maybe I can give you some short jobs. Chief said you got a sniffer?"
"My dog, Coco."
"How about you take her to the school and let her do her thing? Maybe she can find something we can follow up."
"Sure, Carl. I can do that first thing in the morning."
"You better do it now."
"Can't. I need a sample of the ricin for her to smell. I'll get Lola to overnight it from Phoenix."
Carl nodded. "I'll do that for you. Why don't you go on home and get some rest? Tomorrow might be a long day."
Loni headed to the police garage. The coroner had come and gone, taking the body with him. Jim Filbright was watching a crime investigator pull Sudafed packets from the innards of the spare tire. Gary Beasley had taken off the door panel searching for more contraband. Car seats with the upholstery ripped into shreds were scattered across the garage cement floor, and the Mercedes was in pieces. Lord, Loni thought. This would break Bobby's heart.
"Whatcha got?" Loni asked Gary Beasley from behind the yellow tape.
"Looks like Sudafed."
"How much?"
"So far, enough to cook a pound or better."
"This your collar, Loni?" Jim asked.
"I followed him to town," Loni explained. "He was dead with a knife in his stomach by the time I got to him."
Loni called Carl from her truck. "You should know the dead guy had a shit load of Sudafed. You need to be careful out there. Want me to go with you?"
"Well, damn," Carl said. "Thanks but no. I've got it covered."
* * *
Worried, Loni drove home and parked in the hangar. She got out and dragged herself over to the plane where Daniel was working. Leaning against the fuselage, she watched him. Black grease streaked his face and light blue work shirt as he dropped a filter into its canister on top of a Cessna Skylane’s engine. "Hey cuz, how's it going?"
"Hunky dory!" Daniel looked up. "And you?"
Loni knew he was making fun of her. "So whatcha doin'?"
"What's it look like?"
"I don't know."
Loni shrugged.
"You don't know when somebody's changing an air filter?"
"So, I'm a retard."
"At least you're smart enough to admit it." Daniel sighed. "Hand me that
wrench."
"Good one, cuz." Loni punched his shoulder as she walked away. "Gotta let Coco out now." She started up the stairs.
"I already let her out. You just don't have a comeback."
Loni shook her head and didn't answer.
"See," he hollered at her again. "You got so smart from college that when I say something like a simple hello to you, you're stuck for an answer."