Devil’s Claw

“Why’s that?”

“Remember the necklace Sandra Ridder was wearing when she was found?”

Joa

“Right. Well, guess what. According to Catherine Yates, that necklace actually belongs to her granddaughter. Lucinda Ridder was wearing it the last time Catherine saw her.”

Joa

“Seems far-fetched,” Frank said, “but I suppose it could have happened that way.”

“And,” Joa

“What would a UDA want with Lucinda Ridder and her red-tailed hawk?”

“Nothing good,” Joa

“No,” Frank agreed, “especially when you take into consideration the fact that Sandra Ridder was shot in cold blood.”

“Getting back to the necklace,” Joa

Frank nodded. “Doc Winfield showed it to Ernie and me before he returned Sandra’s personal effects to her mother. That’s when Catherine told us the necklace really belonged to Lucy-that Catherine’s mother, Lucy’s great-grandmother-had commissioned it made for Lucy’s tenth birthday. It’s a pretty little thing-two silver prongs that seem to be growing out of a tiny turquoise bead. Beautiful workmanship, and signed, too.”

“Signed?”

“Catherine said it was made by a friend of her mother’s-someone who lives over in Gallup, New Mexico. The signature was too small for me to read with the naked eye, but the doc had checked it out under the microscope. Vega is the name of the guy who made it. L. Vega.”

“Valuable, do you think?” Joa

“Maybe,” Frank responded. “Depends on the reputation of whoever made it.”

“Try to find out,” Joa

Frank wrote himself a reminder. “You mean why didn’t whoever killed Sandra Ridder take the necklace at the same time they took the car?”

Joa

“What if they only wanted the car?”

Joa

Detectives Jaime Carbajal and Ernie Carpenter, the Double Cs, as they were sometimes called, constituted the Cochise County Sheriff’s Department entire Detective Division.

“Jaime was supposed to sit in on Sandra Ridder’s autopsy this morning, but Doc Winfield had a conflict. So now they’re both heading out to the valley. They’ll most likely stop by and see Catherine Yates again, then they plan on going to Elfrida to interview Lucinda Ridder’s friends and classmates. Jaime thinks that if Lucy had plans, she might have confided them to someone out there at the high school. After that, Jaime will go on up to Tucson. He has an early-afternoon appointment to see Melanie Goodson. He also plans on going out to Old Spanish Trail. He wants to nose around Mrs. Goodson’s neighborhood to see if anyone there saw something out of line. Ernie will be coming back to Bisbee to sit in on the autopsy.”

Joa

“Routine stuff, as far as I can see,” Frank told her. “Nothing major, as far as the department is concerned.”

Months earlier, one of the sheriff department’s previous investigations had uncovered a trail of graft and corruption, which had resulted in the abrupt resignation of a member of the board. Since then, Joa

“Nothing you can’t handle?”

“Right.” Frank pursed his lips. “What about the press, Joa

“Refer all Clayton Rhodes inquiries to George Winfield’s office. For the time being, his natural-causes ruling dictates our official handling of the case. Sandra Ridder’s next of kin have been notified, so there’s no need to hold back on her identification. For right now, we’ll say that the victim’s u

“What about Reba Singleton’s accusations as well as Dick Voland’s so-called investigation? How do you want those handled-containment?”

“Trying to squelch them isn’t going to work, Frank,” Joa

“Great,” Frank said. “That should give her ample opportunity for a little gratuitous editorializing.”

Just then Kristin Marsten’s voice came over the intercom. “Sheriff Brady?”

“What is it?”

“I know you don’t like to be interrupted during the briefing, but Casey Ledford is on line one. I told her you were busy, but she said this is important. She says she needs to talk to you right away.”

“Thanks, Kristin. I’ll take the call.”

A year and a half earlier, a windfall of unexpected money had become available for Joa

With a tiny baby to support, no college degree, and no law-enforcement training, Casey’s application might well have gone nowhere. The good news was that her unfinished degree was in the Bachelor of Fine Arts program at the University of Arizona. She was a capable artist who was also savvy with computers. Joa

Joa

“Dick Voland is here and he-”

“He’s asking for a copy of my fingerprints,” Joa

“That’s right, and I told him-”

“I want you to give them to him,” Joa