Skeleton Canyon

Joa

“The lawyer? No,” Kristin answered. “He’s here alone.”

“Ybarra,” Dick Voland said, glancing down and sca

“He asked to speak to me, Dick,” Joa

“Without Ernie?”

“You heard Kristin. Mr. Ybarra asked for me. He didn’t ask for you or Detective Carpenter or even for Detective Carbajal.”

“But-” Voland began.

Joa

The two chief deputies left immediately after that, although Dick Voland was still grumbling about it under his breath as he walked out the door. Joa

Ignacio Ybarra entered the room looking awful. His eyes were red-rimmed and puffy. His coloring was gray. Dark circles under his eyes said he hadn’t slept. Once through the doorway, he paused and glanced warily around the room as if expecting to see other people.

“Have a seat, Mr. Ybarra,” Joa

Ignacio shook his head and eased himself onto a chair, grimacing with pain as he did so. “No,” he said. “This is all right.”

‘‘What can I do for you, then?” Joa

Nacio took a deep breath. “I come to talk to you about Bree’s earring.”

“The one you found and then lost again?”

The young man nodded. “I only found part of it,” he said. “The pearl.”

“What about it?” Joa

“You know something about that earring, don’t you, Sheriff Brady?”

Once again, Joa

Joa

Sitting there, Joa

“I know her parents didn’t approve of them,” she said quietly.

Ignacio’s troubled brown eyes met hers. The pained hurt in that look-the all-consuming grief-was almost more than Joa

“They told you that?” he asked at last.

“Mrs. O’Brien did,” Joa

“Bid she tell you how much they didn’t like them?”

“What do you mean?”

“Mr. O’Brien hit Bree,” Ignacio said quickly. “Did her mother tell you about that, too?”

Joa

“Well, he did,” Ignacio declared, rushing on. “He caught her wearing the earrings in the house and told her to take them off. She told him they were her ears, that she should he able to decide what she would and wouldn’t wear on them. That’s when he slapped her-hard, right across the face. It happened the week before graduation. She had to wear makeup all week to keep the bruise from showing.”

Joa

“Did her parents know about you?” Joa

Ignacio shook his head. “I don’t think so,” he said. “She was afraid to tell them.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “Bree was afraid of what her father might do if he discovered his daughter was involved with an Hispanic.”

“Afraid he’d do something to her or to you?” Joa

“Maybe both,” Ignacio replied after a pause.

“She was afraid he’d hurt you?”

“He did,” Ignacio said simply.

Joa

“Mr. O’Brien hurt me. At least, one of his men did.”

Joa

“Saturday night,” Ignacio said haltingly. “It happened right outside the gate to Green Brush Ranch. I went there hoping to catch sight of Bree. I thought if she had gone home, maybe I could spot her truck and know she was all right. I wanted to talk to her-to apologize for being late. I didn’t see her truck, though. All I saw were police cars. I was afraid something had happened to her.”

Fully alert, Joa

“When was this again?” Joa

“Saturday. I went there in the late afternoon, after I left the station. I was hiding outside the gate in a clump of mesquite when some guy saw me-one of Mr. O’Brien’s security guards, I guess. He’s the one who beat me up.”

“You’re saying the man who beat you up came from Green Brush Ranch?” Joa

“I le must have,” Ignacio replied. “I didn’t see exactly where he came from. All I know is, he snuck up on me from behind. I didn’t see him until he was on top of me. But that’s where he went afterward-back through the gate to Green Brush Ranch. Another guy on an ATV drove up to the gate. He waited just inside the fence. After the one guy finished with me, he walked across the road and went inside the gate. The two of them rode away together, back up the drive toward where the house roust he.”

“Where the house must be,” Joa

Ignacio shook his head. “Bree made me promise that I wouldn’t go. I think she was worried something like this might happen.”

“Like what?” Joa

“This guy came up behind me-an older guy.”

“What did he look like?”

“I couldn’t see him too well in the dark, but he was tall and ski

Unbidden, the image of Alf Hastings flashed across Joa