Outlaw Mountain

“But, Sheriff,” Mr. Soda Can objected. “Youse weren’t here when it happened, so youse didn’t see it, but yeste’day when them people came after us, we wus nothin’ but a bunch of sittin’ ducks. They could’a creamed us.”

“Could have, but they didn’t,” Joa

No one spoke aloud. For an answer, Joa

“All right, then,” she said. “Which way to find my deputy?”

“Bitch,” Bob Evans muttered under his breath. “I hope you go to hell.”

She looked back at him and smiled. “Not today,” she said. “For right now, I only have to go as far as the barbed-wire fence. See you in my office, Mr. Evans. Either late this afternoon or first thing tomorrow morning. You might want to call, though, first. Just to be sure the little lady is in.”

Back in her vehicle, Joa

“What’s up?” he asked.

“We’ve got a big problem out at Oak Vista,” she told him. Over the next several minutes, she brought him up-to-date. “We’ve got to have people out here,” she urged as she finished. “If the demonstrators show up again today, they’ll be walking into an armed camp. They’re likely to be met with a hail of bullets. As I said, I don’t know how many more guns are involved over and above the one I took off Rob Evans, but I’m willing to bet money that he isn’t the only one who came to work today packing a weapon.”

“Do you think Mark Childers encouraged it?”

“He sure as hell didn’t discourage it,” Joa

“Have you talked to him about it?”

“Not yet. According to his work crew, he’s in town having a long lunch. I wasn’t going to bother hanging around here and waiting for him, but now I think I’d better. In the meantime, I want you to assemble that squad of deputies. Take them from whatever sectors you have to. Since demonstrators showed up around quitting time yesterday, we should have our people here no later than two. That way, if there is going to be trouble, they’ll already be on site.”

“Great,” Voland said. “By the way, have you talked to Deputy Gregovich yet?”

“Not so far. I was just on my way to look for him. According to Childers’ work crew, Terry’s out here somewhere, but I haven’t managed to spot him yet. What about Ernie and Jaime? I don’t suppose they’ve found any trace of Farley Adams.”

“Nope,” Voland told her. “The last I heard, Carpenter and Carbajal were both still over in Tombstone. But I do have a little bit of good luck to report. Jaime’s in charge of the crew working Farley Adams’ mobile home at Outlaw Mountain. About an hour ago, one of his investigators opened the dishwasher. Guess what?”

“They found a dead body inside?” Joa

“Ha, ha!” Voland said without humor. “The dishwasher was full of dirty dishes. The guy forgot to run it.”

A jolt of excitement coursed through Joa

“You’ve got it,” Voland told her. “Once the techs finish dusting the dirty dishes, we should have a good set of prints-a complete set-to input into AFIS.”

“Great. While we’re on the subject of Alice Rogers, you might let Ernie know that I’ve spoken to Dr. Daly up in Tucson. She’s got some preliminary autopsy information for him that she’ll be faxing down to us. He’ll want to stay on top of it.”

“Daly says it’s murder then?” Voland asked.

“Looks like. The Pima County detectives continue to hang tight to their neat little theory that Alice Rogers got herself falling-down drunk and then went staggering off into that grove of cactus to die, helped along by a convenient bunch of teenaged car thieves. From what I’ve seen of Hank Lazier, he may not let the facts get in the way of his pet theory. That’s why I want Ernie and Jaime to keep after it.”

“They already are,” Dick said. “I think you’d be hard-pressed to convince them otherwise.”

Just then Joa

Half a mile north, she topped a slight rise and had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting a white Subaru Legacy parked directly in her path. Had the circumstances been different, she might have simply assumed that the car belonged to a hiker off on a day-long jaunt in the Huachucas. Considering the ongoing problems at Oak Vista, however, Joa

Using her radio, Joa

“The car belongs to Elvira and Luther Hollenbeck,” the records clerk told her. “The address listed is 6855 Paseo San Andreas in Tucson.”

“The Hollenbecks didn’t happen to get picked up along with the rest of our crew of born-again monkey wrenchers yesterday, did they?” Joa

“No,” the clerk said. “I don’t see anything at all at that address in Tucson. No police or criminal activity, anyway. There’ve been several nine-one-one calls, but those all turned out to be medical emergencies of one kind or another. The last one was three months ago.”

While Joa

After Joa

Keeping one hand on her Colt and holding her breath, Joa

She returned to the Blazer and to her radio. “Dispatch,” she said. “Try to raise Deputy Gregovich for me.”

Moments later, Terry’s voice came hiccuping through the radio. There was so much static in the transmission that he might have been in Timbuktu rather than a mile or so away. “What can I do for you, Sheriff?” he asked.

“Have you been on the firebreak this morning?”

“I’ve been up and down it two or three times. Spike and I have been going around the perimeter to make sure no one tries to come in via the back door.”

“I think someone has come in that way now anyway,” Joa