Desert City Diva

by Corey Lynn Fayman

  ‘Yeah. She was different than you.’

  ‘What was the other lady like?’ said Rolly.

  ‘She had some interesting postulations about stuff.’

  ‘What kind of stuff?’

  ‘Therapeutical frequencies and gold. She talked about aliens. Like they were real.’

  SEVENTEEN

  The House

  Rolly sat in the passenger seat of Tribal Police Chief Kinnie Harper’s Ford Bronco, staring into the sideview mirror as the truck churned up a trail of dust in their wake. Kinnie was driving down the hardscrabble dirt road to Daddy Joe’s house. Rolly’s mother was tucked away in the reservation’s general store, a slatted wooden structure that looked like a set piece from an old Western. There were plenty of trinkets there to keep his mother occupied, and a coffee stand where she could get a cup of tea. She might drive the elderly proprietor crazy with chitchat, but at least she’d be out of Rolly’s hair for a while.

  Just after driving into the reservation they’d spotted a tribal police truck parked at the casino. It turned out to be Kinnie Harper’s. After administering a short but intense interrogation Kinnie agreed to drive Rolly out to her father’s house. Daddy Joe was still missing.

  ‘Officer Harper?’ said Rolly.

  ‘I guess you can call me Kinnie,’ she said. ‘Since you’re friends with Bonnie.’

  ‘How’d you meet Bonnie?’ he asked.

  ‘I know Bonnie from WILES.’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘Women in Law Enforcement and Security. It’s a professional support group. Bonnie was president there for a while.’

  Rolly smiled and nodded. Even Bonnie needed encouragement sometimes.

  ‘Kinnie, do you remember anything about Aunt Betty?’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Aunt Betty. Macy told me she lived with you. That’s why she hired me. She wants me to find Aunt Betty.’

  ‘I don’t know any Aunt Betty.’

  ‘Macy showed me a photo. It’s a young black woman standing with a baseball player.’

  ‘There was a black lady who worked for us a little while. I don’t remember her name. She wasn’t here long – just while my mother was in the hospital during her last days. The lady was helping us out.’

  ‘Daddy Joe hired her?’

  ‘I guess. I don’t remember.’

  Rolly felt mystified. The photo of Aunt Betty had become real to him, the story Macy had told him, her memories of Aunt Betty. Kinnie’s disavowal of Betty threw him off. It was unexpected.

  ‘Do you know anything about Macy’s parents?’ he said.

  ‘Her parents? No. Daddy Joe’s the only one who would know something about that. We never talked about it in our house. We didn’t talk about a lot of things.’

  ‘Macy just appeared one day?’

  ‘Yeah. That’s about it. I was ten, I think. You don’t really ask questions about stuff like that when you’re ten. Daddy says you got a baby sister now and you just accept it.’

  ‘How about later?’

  ‘Macy and I used to talk sometimes. I told her she was an alien. Daddy Joe never said anything. Who’s the baseball player?’

  ‘Hmm?’

  ‘The guy in the photo. The baseball player. Is he somebody famous?’

  ‘He’s a minor leaguer. The Hawaii Coconuts. They’re not even around anymore.’

  ‘Is it that guy on TV? Eric Ozzie?’

  Rolly rubbed his chin. He felt like an imbecile. ‘Why’d you say that?’

  ‘This guy called Daddy Joe a couple days ago. Left a message. Said he was The Sneaker. He had your name too, said you were snooping around, asking questions. That’s why I called Bonnie, asking about you.’

  ‘Well, that explains a lot. I showed him the photo a couple of days ago. He said he didn’t recognize the woman in the photo. Said he didn’t know anything about her.’

  ‘He must’ve called Daddy Joe straight afterwards,’ said Kinnie.

  ‘They don’t call him The Sneaker for nothing, I guess.’

  ‘You think maybe he’s Macy’s father?’

  ‘I’m not checking him off my list yet, that’s for sure.’

  Rolly fell silent, ruminating on Macy’s motivations. Had she known the man in the photo was Ozzie? Had she hired Rolly to help shake him loose? Did she know Ozzie would call Daddy Joe?

  ‘Kinnie, have you ever heard of a guy named Randy Parker?’

  ‘Yeah. I know him. He used to visit Daddy Joe sometimes.’

  ‘Any time recently?’

  ‘Not that I know,’ Kinnie shrugged.

  ‘You ever been to his shop?’

  ‘Nah. I hate that stuff. Aliens. Stupid.’

  ‘What did Randy talk to Daddy Joe about? Was it about the UVTs?’

  Kinnie gave Rolly a prickly look. He was trying to pick fruit from a cactus.

  ‘Did Macy tell you about the UVTs?’ she said.

  ‘She told me a few things,’ he said. ‘That they killed themselves. That Daddy Joe was obsessed with the case. I guess he arrested someone.’

  ‘Did she tell you about the gold mine?’

  ‘She told me the UVTs liked to drink gold,’ said Rolly.

  ‘The story goes they were hoarding it,’ said Kinnie. ‘Gold. For this big event when the aliens were going to arrive.’

  ‘The Conjoinment,’ said Rolly.

  ‘Some of the people, they sold their houses and stuff. They handed the money over to the people in charge. Their leaders, that’s who converted the money to gold – this one guy, anyway. The one Daddy Joe arrested. Caught him on his way to Mexico with a bag full of gold chips.’

  ‘You remember his name?’ Rolly said. ‘The guy they arrested?’

  ‘Parnell Gibbons. They couldn’t prove it was murder, not first degree anyway, so they got him on manslaughter and put him away for a while. There’s stuff on the Internet about what happened. Randy Parker’s got a website, one of those blog things.’

  ‘I’ll look it up,’ Rolly said.

  ‘Anyway, it became kind of a legend,’ Kinnie continued. ‘The gold that went missing, I mean. Daddy Joe had to shoo people away. He got bat gates installed to keep people out of the mine. They’d come around looking, thinking the gold had been buried somewhere around here. The story kind of built up over the years. That Randy Parker guy had kin there that died. His parents, I think. Their names are on the marker.’

  ‘Where’s that?’

  ‘Out on the mesa, near that home for girls.’

  ‘That’s where the UVTs lived, isn’t it?’

  Kinnie sighed. A dark sigh. Deep. ‘It’s old history, you know,’ she said. ‘Bad history.’ She turned her head and looked out the side window. They crested the hill that led down to Daddy Joe’s house.

  Kinnie said, ‘Is that your RV in front of the house?’

  ‘Looks like it,’ said Rolly.

  ‘You sleep with her yet?’ said Kinnie. The truck bounced through a deep pothole. Rolly winced and rubbed his hand along his lower back to make sure his spine hadn’t cracked. He didn’t reply. Kinnie laughed.

  ‘Bonnie warned me, you know. She said you got some hound dog in you. All droopy-eyed and rumpled, look like you always need a nuzzling. I bet Macy had you on a leash in five minutes.’

  Rolly smiled. Kinnie might be right but he wasn’t going to admit it.

  ‘Is it true she doesn’t get any proceeds from the casino?’ he said.

  Kinnie looked over at Rolly with what he hoped was grudging respect for the way he’d slipped in the question. The grudge part was definitely there. He wasn’t sure about the respect.

  ‘She had her chance,’ said Kinnie. ‘Daddy Joe was going to make her official.’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘He never officially adopted her. He was thinking about it, doing it before she came of age, so she’d be part of the tribe. This was before the whole casino thing. But she ran away. She can’t be part of the tribe now. Not retroactively. She had her chance.�
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  Kinnie parked her truck in front of the Tioga, blocking its escape.

  ‘I’m starting to regret this,’ she said. ‘I talk too much.’

  ‘I appreciate it. You haven’t done anything wrong.’

  ‘That’s not what I’m talking about. Me and Macy, we got some history. I don’t like to feel like this. Not on the job. Not around some smart-ass private investigator from the big city who I know is going to turn out to be some big-shot lawyer’s ass wipe.’

  ‘Look, Kinnie,’ said Rolly, making his plea, ‘I’m not anybody’s asswipe – not any lawyers, anyway. I like Macy. I don’t really know why, except that she’s younger than me and keeps pushing my buttons, some buttons I didn’t even know I had anymore. I doubt she’ll be able to pay me for all the time I put into this case, but I don’t like to lose people like her, even if they tell me to get lost. I want to give her a chance.’

  Kinnie laughed. ‘Man, you’re a mess.’

  ‘Yeah, I know. I do this a lot.’

  ‘Well,’ Kinnie said, ‘I like her too. I want to apologize.’

  ‘For what?’

  ‘For something that happened a long time ago. Between her and me.’

  ‘What was it?’

  Kinnie looked at the house. ‘Let’s take a look, find out what she’s up to.’ Kinnie opened the door of her truck and climbed out. ‘You coming?’ she said.

  Rolly nodded, climbed down from the truck and grabbed his crutches. They walked to the front of the house. Kinnie turned the handle and opened the door. They walked in. The dim light that filtered through the drawn curtains revealed a layer of dust on the thrift store furniture. A thump, like a shutting drawer, came from the back room. Kinnie and Rolly exchanged glances. Kinnie unholstered her pistol. Macy walked into the room.

  ‘Waters?’ said Macy when she saw them. ‘How’s your leg?’

  ‘Macy?’ said Kinnie.

  ‘Kinnie?’ said Macy. ‘What’s with the gun?’

  Kinnie Harper slipped her gun back into the holster. ‘What the hell did you do to your arms?’ she said.

  ‘They’re called tattoos,’ said Macy. ‘When’d you get so fat?’

  ‘I’m sorry, Macy,’ said Kinnie. ‘I’m sorry what I did to you.’

  ‘It’s OK, Kinnie. Water under the bridge. I’m sorry, too.’

  ‘Not as sorry as me. You’re under arrest.’

  ‘What?’ Rolly said.

  Kinnie waved her hand at Rolly and put her other hand on the butt of her gun. ‘Sit down, Mr Waters. I’m taking you in as well.’

  ‘What for?’

  ‘Trespassing. Breaking and Entering.’

  Rolly protested. ‘But you brought me here.’

  ‘You were both here the other day. I saw an RV, just like that one outside. You were driving back from here.’

  ‘We didn’t take anything,’ said Rolly.

  ‘Where’d you get that?’ Kinnie asked, pointing at the gold charm on Macy’s neck.

  ‘It’s mine,’ Macy said. ‘Daddy Joe gave it to me.’

  ‘That’s not true.’

  ‘He gave it to me five years ago, before I left.’

  ‘You stole it.’

  ‘Cut it out, Kinnie. Stop being so mad at me.’

  ‘Why’d you come here?’ said Kinnie. ‘Why’d you come back?’

  ‘I’d like to know that, too,’ said Rolly. ‘Why are you here?’

  Macy looked from Rolly to Kinnie and back to Rolly again. ‘I think someone killed Daddy Joe,’ she said. ‘And now they want to kill me.’

  EIGHTEEN

  The Jail

  On the whole, Rolly found the accommodation at the tribal jail an improvement on his recent overnight arrangements. It was quieter than the emergency room at Brawley General and less cramped than the Tioga. He would have preferred sleeping in his own bed, but the cell cot wasn’t uncomfortable. The throbbing in his leg had settled down, thanks to a couple of Tylenol Kinnie Harper had been kind enough to provide him with. He’d told his mother to go home and call Max when she got there. Max would get him out of jail. Max had done it before. Rolly lay back on the cot and closed his eyes. Fatigue settled in.

  ‘Hey, Waters,’ said Macy, who occupied the cell next to him. ‘What’re you thinking about?’

  ‘I was trying to sleep.’

  ‘You ever been arrested before?’

  ‘I’m not talking to you.’

  ‘I didn’t do nothing.’

  ‘You stole my Tioga.’

  ‘It’s not yours. It’s your dad’s.’

  ‘You still stole it.’

  ‘I only borrowed it.’

  ‘Like you borrowed that necklace?’

  ‘That necklace belongs to me. Besides, I didn’t know you were gonna get out of the hospital so soon.’

  Rolly heard Macy padding around in her cell. They were small cells – one cot and a toilet. There were three cells in the jail – metal cages set side by side – with open bars between them. Macy and Rolly could hold hands if they wanted to. There was another man, asleep, in the third cell. He snored like a boozehound.

  ‘Kinnie’s upset about Daddy Joe,’ said Macy. ‘I guess she thinks I killed him or something. That’d be a twist, wouldn’t it, Waters? Me killing Daddy Joe?’

  ‘Did you?’

  ‘C’mon, Waters, what do you think?’

  ‘I don’t know. Did you kill No Pants?’

  ‘You heard about that?’

  ‘Cool Bob told me what happened. He said you were there.’

  ‘Did you tell Kinnie?’

  ‘Sure, I told her.’

  ‘I guess she’ll call the sheriff then, won’t she? Out in Imperial, tell ’em she’s got their suspect in custody?’

  ‘I imagine she will. What happened to No Pants?’

  ‘I don’t know. That’s why I’m freaked out. He said he’d met somebody who knew my parents.’

  ‘Wait, what?’

  ‘OK. I lied to you a little bit. About that argument you saw, with me and No Pants. He said he’d met this guy. He said it was important, that this guy knew stuff about my parents. I told him about you, how you were working for me and that you had to be there too. He got kind of quiet then, said he was going to meet with the guy anyway, that I had to come by myself if I wanted to do it. He said he’d be at the hot springs in the morning, at sunrise, to meet the guy. I wasn’t going to do it, but after you ended up in the hospital I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I asked Bob to go with me, just to be safe. We stayed for a while but no one showed up. Bob said he had to get back. I sat there a little longer, thinking Randy might still show up. He did, just not like I expected.’ Macy shivered. ‘Ugh,’ she said. ‘Ugh, ugh.’

  ‘You should have waited to talk to the police.’

  ‘Yeah. I know.’

  They were silent for a few minutes. Rolly closed his eyes.

  ‘Hey, Waters,’ whispered Macy. He didn’t answer.

  ‘Are you asleep?’ she said.

  ‘I’d like to be,’ he replied.

  ‘Don’t be mad at me.’

  ‘You got us thrown in jail, Macy.’

  ‘Let’s have some fun.’

  ‘What kind of fun?’

  ‘I could give you a blow job.’

  ‘Stop it, Macy,’ he said. As attractive as the offer might be, he felt resolute.

  ‘C’mon, Waters,’ said Macy. ‘I know what you got. I bet we could do it.’

  ‘Just stop it.’

  ‘OK, OK. It’s just that I got this heavy submissive tingle going on right now. It must be the bars and the handcuffs and everything. Makes me want to get down on my knees. I feel kind of bad too, about taking the Tioga. I want to make up.’

  Rolly turned on his side and faced the other cell. What did he know about women? About anyone? Ten years ago he’d walked into his apartment at three in the morning to find Matt and Leslie together because they both knew he’d be out all night with a Gauloise-smoking groupie wearing tiger-striped stretch
pants – a girl he’d picked up at the bar. The only thing he really knew about women was when they were available and willing. That was all he’d learned in his forty-odd years on the planet. It didn’t feel like much of an achievement.

  ‘Kinnie’s probably got cameras in here anyway,’ Macy continued. ‘Spying on us. I’m not into sharing that kind of way, especially with Kinnie.’

  ‘What’s the story with you and her anyway?’ said Rolly.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘That apology thing. When she saw you, and even before we went in, she said she wanted to apologize to you.’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Yes, you do.’

  ‘Sure was a surprise seeing Kinnie again. She’s put on some weight since the last time I saw her.’

  ‘She’s put on a gun, too.’

  Macy laughed. ‘Yeah. That was a surprise as well. She looked like she knew what she was doing with that pistol, don’t you think?’

  Rolly sighed. ‘Are you gonna tell me the truth?’ he said.

  ‘What about?’

  ‘I don’t know. Anything. How about your Aunt Betty, for one?’

  ‘What about her?’

  ‘Kinnie says she doesn’t remember anyone named Aunt Betty.’

  ‘Really? Kinnie’s such a bitch. Why would she say that?’

  ‘That’s what I’m asking you.’

  ‘Kinnie had to take care of me. That’s why she hates me.’

  ‘Can we get back to Aunt Betty?’

  ‘It wasn’t my fault. I was just a little kid. I couldn’t help that Daddy Joe liked me better. It wasn’t my fault her mom died.’

  ‘Why doesn’t Kinnie remember Aunt Betty?’

  Macy walked around her cell – a pacing shadow. The snoring man rolled over on his cot. Macy grabbed the cell bars, facing Rolly. ‘Sure you don’t want a hummer?’ she said.

  ‘Macy …’

  ‘OK, OK. It’s just that I can’t really remember Aunt Betty either, when I try to picture her for real. It’s mostly from Daddy Joe showing me that photo over the years, telling me about her. That’s what I remember. She’s like a shadow or something. Maybe she’s not real. Maybe Daddy Joe just made her seem real, with those stories.’

  ‘It would explain why Kinnie doesn’t remember her.’