Skeleton Canyon

“Did Bria

“Probably not,” Nacio said.

“Why’s that?”

Ignacio’s eyes met and held Ernie’s. “Because we didn’t tell them. They wouldn’t have approved,” Nacio said.

“Because Mr. O’Brien doesn’t like Mexicans?”

“I guess,” Nacio said quietly. “But I’m an American. I was born in Douglas.”

“All right,” Ernie said. “Now, why don’t you tell us what happened last Friday?”

“Bree and I were supposed to go away together,” Nacio said. “To the Peloncillos, but when she came by to meet me, I told her my aunt got sick and ended up in the hospital in Tucson. I was going to have to work Friday night and Saturday morning both. I thought Bree would just go back home. Instead, she decided to go on up to the mountains by herself to wait for me. That way, she said, she could reserve our camping place, and I could come up on Saturday whenever I got off. That’s the last I saw her.”

“And you let her go? Just like that?”

“Bree did what she wanted,” Nacio said. “I didn’t have any choice.”

“So tell us about Saturday,” Ernie continued. “Did you go to the mountains to meet her?”

“Yes,” Nacio said. “I went where Bree was supposed to be, but she wasn’t there. She had been, but she must have left.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I found part of her earring. It was lying in the dirt.”

Joa

“A pearl,” Nacio said as tears suddenly welled in both eyes. “The earrings were a graduation present to her from me.”

Remembering Katherine O’Brien’s surprising response upon hearing about the existence of that one earring, Joa

“Where is it now?” Joa

“I lost it again.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know,” Nacio murmured.

There wasn’t a person in the room who didn’t believe Ignacio Ybarra’s barely audible answer was a lie. Ernie Carpenter bounced on it at once. “You expect us to swallow that?” he demanded. “You know exactly where you found it but you can’t tell us where you lost it again?”

Nacio shook his head. Ernie’s glower proclaimed he was unconvinced, but Nacio said nothing more.

“So,” Ernie continued a moment later, “you went up to the mountains. When Bria

Nacio shrugged. “I thought maybe she was mad at me.”

“Why?”

“Because I was so late. I thought maybe she got tired of waiting and just went home.”

“What did you do then?”

“I went back home, too. I went to work, actually. I kept thinking she’d come by and see me there, but she didn’t.”

“Let’s go back to the camping bit. Where was that, the spot where you usually stayed?”

“Up in the Peloncillos,” Nacio said. “Along the creek.”

“In Skeleton Canyon?”

“I’m not sure which canyon is which out there. They all sort of run together, but where we camped is in a little clearing. It’s just off the road, but hidden from the road. Easy to get to but hard to see.”

“You didn’t have to go four-wheeling it to get there?”

“No,” Nacio said. “Not at all.”

Standing outside the fray as the questions droned on and on, Joa

“When you went sneaking around on these camping trips,” Jaime was saying when Joa

“Usually in the back of Bree’s pickup on an air mattress.”

“With a bedroll?”

“Two,” Nacio said. “One on top and one on the bottom. We zipped them together.”

“But we found only one bedroll at the scene today,” Jaime said casually. “Where do you suppose the other one went?”

“I have no idea. Someone must have taken it.”

“They took it, all right,” Jaime said. “They took it because it was soaked in blood. We’re convinced Bria

Jaime reached into his pocket and pilled out one of the evidence bags. “See this?” he said, handing it over to Nacio. “We found that stuck on a clump of brush near where Bria

Nacio looked at it. Then, as his face took on a deathly pallor, he let the bag drop to the floor. Groaning, he buried his hands in his face and began to sob, his shoulders heaving. By then, Burton Kimball was on his feet.

“All right, you guys. That’s enough of this. No more questions. Either book my client or let him go, but there’ll be no more questions tonight.” Bristling with anger, he bent down and retrieved the bag. “What the hell is this?” he demanded, handing it back to Jaime.

“It’s a piece of material,” Jaime returned. “We found it snagged on a clump of cat claw at just about the same spot where Bria

Burton Kimball’s jaw clenched with anger. “You had no business showing him that,” he snarled at Jaime. Then Burton wheeled on Ernie as well. “Let’s cut to the chase, Detective Carpenter. Are you arresting my client or not?”

“Not at this time,” Ernie returned mildly. “But he’s not to leave the area. We’re going to be questioning all his associates. If Mr. Ybarra knows what’s good for him, he’ll have a sudden flash in the memory banks about what exactly happened to his face and ribs. If he wants us to believe that he didn’t get those injuries as a result of a physical confrontation with Bria

“Come on, Ignacio,” Burton Kimball said. “Let’s get out of here.”

“I’m free to go then?” Nacio asked. He sounded dazed, as though he couldn’t quite believe what was happening.

“Evidently,” Burton said. “For the time being at least.”

Taking his young client by the arm, Kimball exited the room. The reception area was quiet for some time after they left.

“I figured showing him the cloth would provoke some kind of reaction,” Jaime said. “Did I go too far?”

Rubbing his forehead, Ernie shook his head. “You were pushing it, maybe, but you did get a reaction. What do you think?”

Jaime shrugged. “Maybe she was trying to break up with him. Maybe they got in a fight over that.”

“Maybe. How about you, Sheriff Brady?” Ernie said, turning to Joa

“I wish we had that missing journal,” she said. “If we could read that, we’d have a better idea of what was really going on.

“We’ll find it all right,” Ernie said grimly. “I’ll bet we find that missing bedroll, too.”

“You want me to go to work on getting a search warrant?” Jaime asked.

“Not tonight,” Ernie replied. “Tomorrow’s another day.” “Right,” Jaime said. “I’ll get after it first thing in the morning.”

Ernie turned again to Joa