Paige MacKenzie Mysteries Box Set

by Deborah Garner

  “You had a room at Agua Encantada last night?”

  “Yes,” Jake said. “Until I called for directions from the Albuquerque airport and found out from the office that the two of you were here.”

  Too exhausted to ask more questions, Paige moved her overnight bag to Jake’s rental car, climbed in and buckled her seatbelt. Miguel pulled out onto the highway and headed for the eastbound Interstate 40 onramp. As Jake followed the truck, Paige took headphones out of her bag, plugged them into her cell phone’s music stash, put them on and stared out her window until the movement of the car lulled her to sleep.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  The dull tap of Paige’s head against the passenger window roused her from sleep. She blinked her eyes, lifted her head and looked out the windshield. A roadway sign noted Albuquerque one hundred miles ahead, so she hadn’t slept long. She glanced to her left at Jake, but he was focused on driving and hadn’t noticed she was awake. She considered saying something to break the earlier tension, but held her tongue, unsure of what would come out of her mouth. Instead, she turned away and looked back out the window.

  Alert now, Paige ran images of the interior of Whitehorse’s storage shed through her mind, trying to remember the details. Though small, there had been plenty of empty space. Whatever jewelry enterprise Whitehorse and Hector had going on wasn’t filling up even half the shed, in spite of the stacked boxes across the back of the space. The worktable was large. Paige estimated it to be at least eight feet by twelve, allowing plenty of room for sorting and packaging the fake jewelry. There had been a couple of stools alongside the table and the cot that Abuela was sitting on, but otherwise no furniture. With only one light hanging above the table and no windows, the only other light had come from the open front door. There were no other doors. Or were there…?

  Paige shot an arm out toward Jake, touching his shoulder.

  “Jake, we have to go back.” She shifted in her seat to face him, looking over her left shoulder, as if the storage shed was right behind them.

  “Please tell me you’re kidding,” Jake said, keeping his eyes on the road ahead.

  “Of course I’m not kidding. There’s something we’re missing.”

  “We?” Jake’s tone was half irritated and half amused.

  “Fine,” Paige said, rephrasing her words. “There’s something I’m missing. And the Gallup police, too.” She pointed toward an approaching exit. “There, pull off at that exit up ahead and go back. How long was I asleep? How far are we from Gallup?”

  “I’d say you were asleep half an hour,” Jake said. “We’re probably more than thirty miles from Gallup already.”

  “I don’t care,” Paige insisted. “I need to get back to that storage unit.”

  “On your own? I don’t think so, Paige.” Jake’s voice was firm. “You’ve managed to get in with gamblers and jewelry smugglers and who knows what else on this trip. You’ve already found the storyteller you were looking for, so you know she’s safe. How about just leaving it alone now?”

  “Take the exit.” Paige pointed again, ignoring everything Jake had just said. She waved her arm at the off-ramp, fighting the urge to grab the wheel herself.

  Jake sighed. “This is against my better judgment. I want that on the record.” He signaled and exited the interstate.

  “Fine, duly noted” Paige said as the car slowed down and came to a stop. “Now turn left and get back on, going west. We can be back at Whitehorse’s place in twenty minutes.”

  “Thirty minutes,” Jake corrected.

  “The speed limit here is eighty,” Paige said.

  “Seventy-five,” Jake said, correcting her again.

  “Close enough.” Paige tapped her fingers on the dashboard.

  It took just under thirty minutes to arrive in Gallup and another ten to find Whitehorse’s property. Jake pulled the rental car up beside the trailer. Paige jumped out and knocked on the door, expecting the home to be empty. The muffled “come in” surprised her

  “Why aren’t you at the hospital?” Paige looked at Whitehorse, shocked to see him on his mattress, a bag of ice against his bruised face.

  “No broken bones, no insurance,” he muttered. “They patched me up and sent me home. I just got back here a few minutes ago.” He winced, moving the bag of ice to a different spot on his face.

  “Did you talk to the police?” Paige said. “What did they say?”

  “Stay away from the casino and get a good lawyer.”

  “Keep the ice on,” Paige said. “I just want permission to go back inside the storage shed.”

  “Go ahead. Nothing in there but a bunch of jewelry. Hector put the shed up and he handled the business. That was a mistake. I never should have let Hector use this property, but….” Again he winced.

  “Don’t try to talk anymore,” Paige insisted. “I’ll check in on you before we leave.”

  “Miguel’s here?”

  “No, Jake. Miguel took your sister home.”

  “Who’s Jake?

  “I’ll explain later. Just rest.”

  Paige ran back to the car, finding Jake standing outside, leaning against the driver’s side. She motioned to him to get in as she opened the passenger door.

  “We could walk,” he said. “It’s not far.”

  “Rattlesnakes,” Paige said, climbing into the vehicle.

  “Rattlesnakes?” Jake asked, getting in and starting up the engine.

  “You don’t have them in Jackson Hole?”

  “Altitude is too high. Wyoming has rattlers, but at lower elevations.”

  Jake pulled the car up in front of the storage unit, barely rolling to a stop before Paige jumped out. The police had tied the metal door closed with rope, presumably when they picked up Lena. But the latch that Miguel had pried open that morning still hung loose, one strand of rope looped through a hole in the metal. Paige tugged on the rope, attempting to untie it, but the knot held firm.

  "Do you have that pocket knife of yours…” Paige shouted the question to Jake without turning to see that he'd walked up behind her. She looked over her shoulder and lowered her voice. "...with you?” With this unexpected closeness, his face so near, she could feel her anger crumbling.

  Jake thrust his hand in his pocket, pulling out a penknife. "I'm not sure this is a good idea, Paige. If the police tied this shut, it should probably stay that way."

  "Do you see a police sign anywhere? Whitehorse said we could check out the storage unit and this is his property. Seems to me we aren't breaking any laws.” She took the knife from Jake and pried it open, working swiftly to slice through the rope. As the door fell open, she handed the knife back to Jake. Stepping inside, she headed straight for a closet door in a far corner and tried to open it. Locked. Of course.

  Jake followed Paige into the shed, looked at the stacks of boxes and then turned his attention to the worktable. “What is all this?”

  Paige moved to the table, picked up a clipboard, looked it over and set it back down. “Look.” She held up a large plastic bag and dumped the contents out. Dozens of silver pins spread across the table, each one wrapped individually in more clear plastic.

  “I don’t understand.” Jake said. “These can’t be that valuable.”

  “That’s not exactly true,” Paige said. “The Native American jewelry trade is bigger than you’d think. It’s a billion dollar business.”

  “OK, so you’re saying a lot of money is tied up in here. But all this for that little shack of a trading post in front?” Jake pointed at the stacks of boxes. “That’s a lot of inventory.”

  Paige shook her head and pointed to the clipboard. “It’s not all for here. They’ve been shipping it out to trading posts all over the state. And look at the boxes.” Paige pulled an empty carton from under the table. “This jewelry is being manufactured overseas, but is being passed off as authentic.”

  “So you think this is tied to the artist at Agua Encantada?”

  “I know it is,”
Paige said, holding up one of the pieces. “Look at this design with three doves. It’s Ana’s. This is the pin that Sylvia was wearing, the woman from the tour group I told you about. She said she purchased it somewhere on I-40. And her receipt says ‘Gallup.’ I’m sure she bought it here. I’d bet every one of those boxes has Ana’s designs, all being sold as handmade Native American art, but all fakes.”

  “OK, I get it, Paige,” Jake said, running his hand through his hair. “But let the police take it from here. You always get attached to local people on your trips and end up getting in over your head. Now you’re in the middle of some sort of dangerous family feud. And you’re mixed up in illegal imported goods, which are somehow tied to Whitehorse’s bookie and the casino here, which is a bad sign to begin with. You saw what these people did to Whitehorse. It’s time to walk away. I don’t think you understand the mess you’ve gotten into this time.”

  Paige placed both hands on the table and leaned forward. “No, Jake. You don’t understand. These are good people and I’m not walking away. Besides, this isn’t why I made you turn back.”

  “I was afraid of that.”

  “There’s still something else going on here.”

  “Another thing I was afraid of.”

  Paige ducked below the table, searching the lower surface with her hands.

  “What are you looking for?”

  “A key to that door in the corner. I think the shipping supplies are kept in there.” Paige stood up, put her hands on her hips and looked around. “It has to be here somewhere.” She ran her hands under both stools, moving on to inspect the cot. Not finding anything, she began circling the room, inspecting the walls.

  “Who handled the shipping?” Jake followed Paige as she searched the walls. “That Hector guy? Or someone who works for him, maybe the same person who beat up Whitehorse?”

  “Maybe,” Paige said. “But why didn’t he just have Lena do the shipping, too? Though I guess that wouldn’t make sense. She was in Tres Palomas. In fact, I don’t even understand why she was here at all. Obviously she was the connection for getting Ana’s designs to Hector. Why wouldn’t she just stay there to pass on new ones?”

  “Whitehorse could be confused, Paige,” Jake pointed out. “He took a bad beating. Or he could be lying.”

  “Why would he lie?” Paige moved on to a pile of boxes, checking the floor around them and feeling the cracks between each stacked box. She finished one row and moved on to the next. “I don’t think Whitehorse had any idea what he was getting into this time. Plus, Hector obviously was using his relationship as added leverage somehow.”

  Paige moved to the next stack of boxes. “He believed giving Hector the jewelry was going to get him out of trouble. He gave him the designs and the use of his property. Hector promised him that would clear his debt. I don’t think he would have gotten into it, otherwise….” She stopped speaking abruptly, occupied with maneuvering one box off of the one below it. As Jake moved around beside her, she slid her fingers under the edge of the upper box, pulling out a metal key that had been wedged between the cardboard layers.

  “This is it,” she said, holding the key up briefly before heading across to the door. She inserted the key and attempted to twist it in the lock, but it didn’t budge. She pulled the key out and tried again, with no luck.

  “That’s odd,” she said, staring at the key as if doing so would make it work. “Why would this key be here if not to open that closet? The only other door here is in front, which is locked with a padlock. It uses a different sort of key.”

  “Maybe it’s a spare key to Whitehorse’s trailer?”

  “I don’t think so,” Paige said. She swiveled on her heel and walked to the storage unit’s exit with Jake following.

  “Now what, Paige? Just leave the key. It doesn’t fit the closet lock. Let me take you back to Tres Palomas now.”

  “Not yet.” Paige climbed into the car. “I want to ask Whitehorse about the key. He might recognize it, even if it isn’t his. Hurry.” Jake sighed as he climbed into the driver’s seat and started the car. In minutes they were back at the trailer.

  Paige tapped on the trailer door before letting herself in. She found Whitehorse exactly where she’d left him, his half-thawed ice pack now pressed over his forehead and eyes.

  “Do you have any more ice, Whitehorse?” Paige said.

  “In the freezer…”

  Paige gently peeled the ice pack from Whitehorse’s forehead, drained the water in his sink and filled it with ice from the battered metal trays in the freezer.

  “There you go,” she said as she handed him the new pack.

  “Thank you kindly.”

  “Can I ask you about something?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Whitehorse sighed as he pressed the freshened pack against his jaw.

  “Take a look at this key. Do you recognize it?”

  He frowned and shook his head, wincing at the movement.

  “I thought it would open the closet in the back corner of the storage unit,” Paige said, “but the key just stuck in the lock. The doorknob wouldn’t turn.”

  Whitehorse looked at the key again. “Did you try the outside door?”

  “The front door?” Paige asked. “There’s a padlock on that. It takes a smaller key.”

  “No, I mean in the back.” Whitehorse shifted his position, wincing again. “There’s a door at the back of the storage unit.”

  Paige looked out the trailer’s window at the storage unit. She paused, looked at the key, and then back up.

  “Thank you, Whitehorse. I hope you feel better soon and that this mess gets cleared up.”

  Paige returned to the car and directed Jake back down the driveway. Knowing better than to argue with her, he parked behind the storage unit.

  “There,” Paige said. Once out of the car, she had the key in the lock in seconds. As Jake caught up with her, she pulled the door open and stopped.

  “There’s nothing in here but a rake and a few other garden tools,” Jake said.

  “That doesn’t make sense. Why hide the key, then?” Paige stepped inside the shallow area. “Unless….” She placed her hands on the back wall.

  “Unless what?”

  “Unless it’s not just tool storage,” she said. “That back closet extended out how far inside? About eight feet, I think. And this is only three feet deep or so.” Pushing against the wall, she could feel it move. “Jake, this is a false back! I’m sure of it.”

  Jake stepped forward and reached along one side, stopping part way down and pulling his knife out again. Slipping it inside, he applied pressure until a large panel fell forward, revealing an extended area of several feet. Shelves lined each side, boxes on some and metal bins on others.

  “There’s no light,” Paige said, feeling along the walls. “And there’s no door on the back, but we saw one from the inside.”

  “Which means….” Jake began.

  “Which means there’s a false wall on each side. What does that tell you, Jake?”

  Jake cleared his throat. “It tells me we shouldn’t be in here.”

  Paige pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and, using it as a flashlight, scanned the shelves.

  “Jake, look at the names on these bins – Deming, Santa Teresa. They match the packing list destinations on that clipboard inside.”

  “Deming? Santa Teresa?” Jake repeated. “I thought the shipments were going to trading posts along the interstate.”

  “They are,” Paige said. “But some are going south, too. Why does that matter?”

  “Because those are…” Jake’s voice grew muffled as he reached up to the top shelves, his height an advantage. “Those are border routes,” he said, grabbing the cell phone from her and using the light to inspect the contents of a metal bin.

  As Jake turned back to face her, Paige gasped. The plastic bag of powder he held needed no explanation, but he gave one, anyway.

  “And this, Paige, is not jewelry.”
r />   CHAPTER THIRTY

  The heavy-set man in his mid-forties who stood behind the front desk of the Gallup Police Department looked up from a file when Paige and Jake burst through the door.

  “What can I do for you folks? I’m Officer Hernandez.”

  Paige rushed into an explanation: “We found Whitehorse’s trailer and the storage unit and discovered Abuela and Lena were tied up, so we helped Abuela then we went to the casino because Abuela told us Hector took Whitehorse, and the tribal police found Whitehorse, all beaten up, but he’ll be OK, so we left to take Abuela home to Tres Palomas but I realized I’d missed something at the storage unit so we turned around and came back to Gallup, and we found….”

  “Whoa! Slow down and back up a minute,” the officer said. “You’re the ones who found Lena at Whitehorse’s place?”

  “No, Miguel and I found her, along with Whitehorse’s sister, the storyteller from Tres Palomas. But we missed something in our rush to get to the casino to find Whitehorse....”

  The officer turned his attention to Jake, stopping Paige again. “So if you’re not Miguel, and you didn’t find Lena, who are you?”

  “Jake Norris, a…” he paused slightly. “A friend of Paige’s from Wyoming.”

  Paige shot him a frown. A friend?

  “And who is Miguel?” The officer directed this question to Paige.

  “He works at Agua Encantada resort. I’m staying there.”

  “The term ‘staying there’ being relative, clearly,” Jake added, earning another frown from Paige. Was she imagining a smile on the officer’s face?

  “Do you have Lena here, in custody?” Paige asked. “We didn’t free her because Abuela told us she was involved in Hector’s illegal scheme, but we called the police before going to the casino.”

  “Lena is here,” Officer Hernandez said, “though not in custody.”

  “Well, she should be,” Paige insisted. “She was helping commit a crime.” What was wrong with this police bureau?

  “How about I let you talk to her?” The officer stepped aside as Lena walked up to replace him. Paige’s eyes grew wide. Instead of the woman from the storage shed in rumpled clothing or the prisoner in jailbird garb Paige expected, Lena stood before her in a police officer’s uniform.