Skeleton Canyon

“Jim Hobbs?”

“Right. He’s agreed to make the buy. Somebody was sup-posed to meet him in Benson just a little while ago to give him a briefcase full of marked bills.”

“Wait a minute,” Joa

“Unfortunately, yes. Joa

“What case?” Joa

Adam York stopped in mid-sentence. “What did you say?”

“With Air Conditioning Enterprises,” Joa

“How the hell did you do that?” Adam York demanded. “This was supposed to be totally hush-hush. Nobody is supposed…”

The undisguised shock in Adam’s voice told Joa

“But what…?”

“Hush-hush or not, maybe it’s time we traded info,” Joa

“Why?” Adam York asked. “What makes a weekend homicide in Cochise County headline news all over Arizona?”

“Because the girl’s name is O’Brien.”

“So?”

“And her parents, David and Katherine O’Brien, are good friends of the Hickmans-as in Wally and Abby.”

“I don’t think I want to hear this.” Adam groaned. “You mean as in Governor Wallace Hickman?”

“One and the same.”

“Damn!”

“And I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised,” Joa

Adam York sighed. “We already know he is. A major contributor besides. That’s why we’re trying to keep this thing quiet. What’s his co

“Marcovich’s cousin is a man named Alf Hastings, who hap pens to work for David O’Brien. You remember Alf Listings, don’t you?”

“Remind me.”

“He used to be a deputy sheriff over in Yuma County. He got drummed out of the corps on a charge of police brutality. Now this same Alf Hastings is David O’Brien’s chief of opera Lions. Translation: junkyard dog/bodyguard. According to Hastings’s wife, Maggie, Alf’s cousin-Stevie, as she called him-arranged for the job when Alf couldn’t get work any where else. The dead girl’s Hispanic boyfriend went out to the O’Brien place hoping to catch sight of his missing girlfriend. Instead, Alf Hastings beat him up. We’re investigating it as an assault case, but he could develop into a suspect in our homicide and into a possibility for your smuggling case as well.”

“Have you talked to this All guy?”

“Not yet. He’s not at work today,” Joa

There was a long silence on the other end of the line. “In other words, what you’re telling me is that no law enforcement folks have been allowed inside.”

“That’s right.”

“Which would make for an ideal smuggling operation.”

“Right again.” Joa

Ever since she had read the words on Stephan Marcovich’s business card, the same ugly theory had been germinating inside Joa

“Let me run this past you, Adam. If either David O’Brien and/or his wife is involved in this smuggling deal, what do you think the chances are that one of them had something to do with their daughter’s death?”

“What makes you think that?” Adam responded at once.

Relieved that he didn’t laugh outright at her theory, Joa

“When Ernie and I were out at the house earlier today, I saw the father writing what looked like a suicide note. The mother is pissed as hell-at the father. Not only that, she said something that I’ve been thinking about ever since. She said her husband has never lived with the consequences of his actions. The way she said it set off all my alarms.”

Again the telephone line went quiet. Joa

“The liar comment is the very last entry in the journal?” Adam asked at last. “The final one the girl made before she died?”

“No. It was the last entry in the next-to-last volume. It was written months ago. The problem is, the volume Bria

“As in maybe somebody got rid of it,” Adam York muttered.

“The same thought that occurred to me,” Joa

“Unfortunately,” Adam continued, “this Freon thing is a multimillion-dollar business. If our suspicions are correct, Stevie Marcovich, otherwise known as Marco, runs an operation that will be right up there with the six-million-dollar bust we made in Florida a year ago. If the O’Briens are involved and their own daughter was expendable, I’d say Sam Nettleton up in Benson i5 in way over his head. So is Jim Hobbs, for that matter.”

“What do we do about it?” Joa

“For one thing,” Adam said, “I’m canceling the sting operation as of right now. How soon can your detectives be in Benson?”

Joa

“I think somebody should go see Sam Nettleton and lay the cards on the table. We’ll let him know his ass is on the line. Maybe we can scare him into springing with what he knows.”

“And if he doesn’t?”

“Then we’re no worse off than we were before.”

“Except you may have blown your chance to nail Marcovich,” Joa

“Right,” Adam returned. “But considering there are i