Presumption Of Death

“You could talk to them.”

“Not one-on-one,” Debbie said.

“I agree,” Nina said. “It would be better for them to come forth as a group. Why can’t you talk to them as a group?”

This got responses from everyone. “They’ll just say to butt out,” Jolene said.

“They’ll be so humiliated that we know, they might do anything,” Megan said.

“They’ll refuse to go to the police and get us to agree not to go either. Then we’ll all be conspirators,” Debbie said.

Tory asked, “Would you do that for them, Nina? Talk them into surrendering and helping to catch Coyote?”

“Do you think they would hire me to handle their surrender? I’m not at all sure I could represent all of them together in any other way, but I could represent them for that purpose,” Nina said. “I could smooth the way for them. I would consider it part of my representation of Wish Whitefeather, because it would be a way of resolving his case.”

“Can you keep them out of jail?”

“I don’t know. It would help if they started cooperating fully right now.”

“What about just paying the money ourselves?” Megan said. “We did talk about that.”

“The men are going to be arrested soon anyway,” Nina said. “Detective Crockett will figure out the money trail. And there has been a change in the case you don’t know about yet. The police have been hunting the wrong man.”

“What do you mean?” Jolene felt in her pocket and said, “Excuse me. It’s George.” She pulled out her cell phone and went into the corner.

“Let’s not worry about that right now,” Nina said. “It’s still not certain. Anyway, here is what I can do. I can meet with the men. If they choose, I can arrange the circumstances of their surrender and represent them in the questioning process. I have to say that their interests as individuals are not precisely the same and I doubt I can represent them as a group any further than that.”

“Can’t we hire you to represent them without them knowing?” Debbie said.

“No.”

“I’m so afraid.”

Megan said, “We’ll handle it, honey. Now then. We’ll have the men on the deck at six tonight. Can you make it, Nina?”

“Court usually adjourns by five at the latest,” Nina said. “I think I can.”

Jolene came back to the table and leaned on it, her face drained of color. “Callie didn’t get off the bus.”

“Oh, no! No!” they all cried.

“April told a crazy story. She said-she said Da

“He’s not dead,” Nina said bluntly. “He killed Coyote and assumed Coyote’s identity. He stole a Jeep from the artist in Cachagua.”

“Oh, my baby,” Jolene moaned, and Debbie rushed around the table to hold her.

“It’s Da

“It’s Da

“But the kids all know him. They like him. They wouldn’t go with a stranger, but-”

Megan said, “What shall we do, Nina?” She looked Nina right in the eye and Nina thought, It’s all on me, is it? She didn’t want to take on this crushing responsibility.

Then she thought, Well, if not me, who?

“Megan, help Debbie and Tory get home right away. Collect all the children and keep them at your house, Debbie. Don’t let them leave the deck. Tell them Da

They all got up. Debbie was crying. Before she left with Debbie and Tory, Megan took Nina’s hand and said, “Thank you. At least it’s clear. We couldn’t see straight. I don’t know why. But you made it clear.”

“It’s your families. It’s hard to see straight.”

“You won’t let us down?”

“Have the men at Debbie’s house at six. Come on, Jolene.”

35

“W HAT ARE YOU DOING?” NINA FOUND Sandy at Wish’s desk in Paul’s office, only a pool of light from his desk lamp lighting the room. “It’s late. Go home.”

“You’re here,” she said.

Nina dumped the contents of her briefcase on the small table in her corner. No longer skimpy with a pad and paper, it now stored a library of paper. “I have to think.”

“Maybe you should be sleeping. You’ve been a busy bee. I get your calls all afternoon. You call from court, but the judge still won’t dismiss the case-”

“Jaime got a three-day continuance. I couldn’t get Wish out quite yet. Jaime told me afterward that if the judge had dismissed he would have kept Wish in custody as a material witness until he gets this straightened out anyway. I’m sorry.”

“-you call from Crockett’s office-”

“Another child was kidnapped this afternoon. Mikey Eubanks.”

“-and then you went out to the Valley?”

“I had a meeting I couldn’t miss. And then, yes, back to Crockett for the past few hours. That was the hardest job I ever had, Sandy, persuading Crockett and Jaime Sandoval to let my new clients be released on their own recognizance.”

“How about we start over?”

Nina went over to Paul’s chair and stretched out in it while she explained it all to Sandy.

Mikey Eubanks had left his aunt’s house at twelve forty-five, while Nina was still talking to the women at the courthouse. He had run down the hill to his house to pick up a video game.

That was the last anyone had seen of him. No ransom note.

The meeting with the men of Siesta Court took place at four instead of six. It was chaos at first. Darryl Eubanks was practically beating his head against the wall. George Hill, Callie’s grandfather, wept throughout.

They agreed to turn themselves in. Nina put them all in her Bronco and drove them to the police station, where they made limited statements, were booked, and then declined to talk further upon advice of counsel. After her lengthy palaver with Jaime, they all went into Judge Salas’s court at nine o’clock. He came in specially and heard them out.

“He would definitely have jailed them, but Jaime said he thought they’d be more use outside,” Nina said. “I owe Jaime.”

“Where’s Paul?” Sandy had taken all this in with unblinking aplomb.

“In Carmel Valley. Talking with Ben Cervantes. Trying to find Da

“He was the one who was trying to kill Wish, wasn’t he?”

“I suppose,” Nina said. She went to the bar refrigerator and pulled out some cold bottled water, which she used to chase the three ibuprofen she swallowed.

“You should go home, Sandy.”

“I have some calls to make,” Sandy said pointedly.

“Then don’t mind me,” Nina said, putting her hands behind her head and her feet on Paul’s desk. If Sandy needed privacy, she could go home and make her calls. She picked up a folder, leaned back in her chair, and read, quickly becoming absorbed in the paperwork. She reviewed the autopsy of the body found on Robles Ridge, examined the discovery materials Jaime’s office had provided, looked over her notes on Elizabeth’s tapes, tasks she had done before, and would do again until something startling leapt off these dry pages.

Sandy made a number of phone calls, punching with vigor, but talking in such a low voice, she made a soothing background hum. In the night, the busy street outside quieted, the crickets that hid in the picturesque Carmel alleyways awakened and sang. Nina yawned and flipped through her papers. She yawned again.