Devil’s Claw

“You mean like Hitler Youth?” Joa

“No, something called the Native American Tribal Council-NAT-C for short.”

“That’s an unfortunate acronym,” Joa

Jaime laughed. “Isn’t it, though! NAT-C is made up of Indian radicals and wa

“Is that where she met her husband?”

“No. They met later. By then, Sandra had given up demonstrating and had gone to work at Fort Huachuca. That’s where she and Tom Ridder met-working on post. She was civil service, and he was career army-a staff sergeant.”

“Was Tom Ridder a Native American?”

“Evidently not. When Tom got pushed out of the service, Sandra stayed on working at the fort. They rented a house in Tucson. She carpooled back and forth to Fort Huachuca, and Tom started a Tucson-based landscaping business.”

“That’s what he was doing at the time he was killed, ru

“That’s right.”

“But didn’t you say just a few minutes ago that he was a staff sergeant in the army?”

“Right again,” Jaime said.

“Going from staff sergeant to ru

“That’s what I thought, too. According to what Catherine Yates told us, one way or another, Tom Ridder got himself crosswise of his commanding officer. He left the army with a general discharge. I would expect that having one of those on your record puts a damper on potential career opportunities.”

“Did Catherine give you any details on that, on what caused Tom Ridder to be booted out of the service?”

“No. We asked. If she knew, she wasn’t talking.”

“We should probably find out.”

“Right. Ernie Carpenter has some fairly good co

“Good work, Jaime,” Joa

Once across the divide and out in the wide valley between the Mule Mountains and Tombstone, Joa

“Hello,” she said. “What’s up?”

“I traced that phone number for you,” he said. “The U.S. West phone logs say it’s a pay phone, all right, but not at a truck stop. The calls were made from that I-Ten rest area in Texas Canyon east of Benson.”

“As the crow flies, that’s only about fifteen miles or so from Catherine Yates’ place,” Joa

“That’s right,” Frank said. “There are three different calls on that phone, all made within a few minutes of three a.m. Saturday morning. All of them went to different numbers in the Tucson area. The first one, at three straight up and down, is the one placed to your friend Mrs. Quick. That one lasted about six minutes. You’ll never guess where the next one went.”

“Where?”

“At three ten the log shows a call to one M. Goodson out on Old Spanish Trail.”

“That has to be Melanie Goodson,” Joa

“Could be. Or maybe she had reason to believe that she would soon be in need of a capable defense attorney, although Melanie Goodson hasn’t worked as a public defender in years. Whatever the reason for the call, my guess is Lucy didn’t co

“Long enough to be picked up by an answering machine?” Joa

“Sounds like. The last call was placed at three-fifteen. That one went to a Catholic convent at Santa Theresa School in the twenty-four hundred block of South Sixth Avenue in South Tucson. Somebody took that one because the call lasted a full fifteen minutes.”

“So there, at least, Lucy must have made contact with whoever it was she was looking for. What’s that address again?”

Frank gave it to her, and Joa

“It just so happens that I’m on my way to Tucson right now to see Jay Quick,” Joa

“Anything else you want me to do on this end?” Frank asked.

“Jaime and Ernie think they’ve located Melanie Goodson’s missing Lexus. It was found abandoned out east of Douglas. They’re on their way to the scene right now. Ernie was going to look into this tomorrow, but as long as you’re in a bureaucracy-busting mood, how about if you call out to perso

“When you finish up with that, call Terry Gregovich and tell him comp time’s over for the day. I want our canine unit to get their butts up to that rest-area telephone in Texas Canyon and see if they can pick up Lucy Ridder’s trail from there. Between Saturday night and now, lots of different people may have used that particular pay phone, but it won’t be nearly as many as those hundred-plus Volksmarchers who went meandering through the crime scene out at Cochise Stronghold. We also need to schedule deputies to stop through the rest area overnight for the next several days to see if there are any regular three a.m. users of the rest area who might have seen Lucy Ridder and her sidekick red-tailed hawk.”

“Anything else?” Frank asked.

“One. Have you seen Kristin?”

“She wasn’t at her desk when I got back to the department.”

“I wonder where she went. She didn’t say she was going to lunch. Well, anyway, when you see her, let her know I’m on my way to Tucson. I probably won’t be back until fairly late, but if you have any more good ideas, give me a call back.”

As Joa

The fact that Evelyn Quick had died years earlier without Lucy’s knowing about it made Joa

Joa