“How long are they going to be here?” Frank asked.
“Most likely until hell freezes over. Why?”
“Because what happened last night at Silver Creek has happened three other times in the past year and a half,” Montoya returned. “Each incident has resulted in up to a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of unreimbursed medical costs to nearby hospitals, putting a further burden on overtaxed trauma care all over the state.”
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“So you’re telling me there’s a lot of statewide interest in this case.”
Frank nodded grimly. “I’ve scheduled a press briefing for later this morning. In a little over an hour the place will be crawling with reporters and photographers.”
“Great,” Joanna said. “The press will get their money’s worth this morning-a twofer-a press briefing and an animal rights protest.” She turned from Frank Montoya to the receptionist’s desk. “Lupe,” she said, “do you still have that Out of Order sign we had to put up on the rest room door two weeks ago?”
Lupe frowned. “Yes, ma’am,” she said. “But as far as I know, Sheriff Brady, the rest room’s fine now-“
“No,” Joanna said, “I don’t believe it is. I believe someone mentioned to me that they heard a strange gurgling sound in one of the drains, so until we can get a plumber in here to check it out on Monday, I’m declaring the public rest room off limits.
If the reporters or anyone else with legitimate business here needs to use the facilities, direct them to employee rest rooms. Everyone else, especially the demonstrators outside, are out of luck.”
A smile of comprehension passed over Lupe’s face as she went searching for the sign.
Meanwhile Joanna walked over to the Coke machine in the rest room alcove and calmly pulled the plug on the soda machine. “Oops,” she said. “I think this is on the blink, too.”
Following her, Frank shook his head. ‘Are you sure antagonizing them is a good idea?”
“Probably not, but ask me if I’m enjoying it.”
“But, Joanna …” Frank began.
“Look,” she said, “those people have their noses out of joint because of the -way Animal Control handled the Mossman case,
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but as far as I’m concerned, Officers Ruiz and Phillips went by the book on that one. True, they’re shorthanded at the moment. We all are, and budget constraints keep me from adding any more officers-not to Animal Control and not to Patrol, either.
Should I beef up Animal Control by sidelining regular deputies into Animal Control?
Not on your life, not when we’re inundated with everything else. And if those people in the parking lot think coming out here and waving signs and yelling at me is going to change my mind on that, they’re nuts.”
Joanna and Frank had walked into Joanna’s office. Closing the door behind them, Frank tried to reason with her. “But is locking them out of the rest rooms a good idea?”
It wasn’t lost on Joanna that the public-contact section of her police academy training was where she had earned some of her lowest marks. Years into the job, she realized that anger management was still one of her biggest challenges.
“If their only choice is to go pee behind a bush, maybe they’ll pack it in and go home,” she said. “If they were out there protesting the death of that two-year-old, I might feel differently about it. In fact, I’d probably be out in the parking lot waving my own sign. But those yahoos don’t have the foggiest idea about what we do here, and the sooner they leave, the better.”
“This is an election year,” Frank reminded her.
“I’m well aware of that,” Joanna returned. “But I’m not going to change my mind.”
“So be it,” Frank said, giving up. “I guess I’ll go get ready for that briefing.”
Frank left then, and Joanna turned to her desk. With everything on her plate, it would have been easy for her to feel totally overwhelmed that morning, but she didn’t.
Somehow the
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confrontation with the protesters had cleared Joanna’s head and renewed her sense of purpose. She had a job to do, and she set about doing it.
As reports and information came across her desk, she sorted them into three separate piles. One stack was for the Richard Osmond case. Another was for Carol Mossman and the two murdered women in New Mexico. The third stack was for the vehicular homicide incident at Silver Creek.
Osmond and Mossman, Joanna thought. Sitting side by side, the two names were spookily similar, and yet there was real irony in how the two people had died. Osmond, a jail inmate who could easily have been the victim of jailhouse violence, had actually died peacefully and of natural causes in his sleep, while Carol Mossman had been gunned down in the privacy-and presumed safety-of her own home.
How come nobody’s protesting that? Joanna wondered.
Jaime Carbajal came in a few minutes after Frank’s departure and handed Joanna a computer-generated printout. “What’s this?” she asked.
“It’s a tentative list of last night’s victims,” he said. “The ones with hospital notations are still hospitalized, or were the last time we heard. Several of the less seriously wounded have already been released.”
“To whom?” Joanna asked.
“What do you mean?”
“If they were released, who took charge of them? Does Border Patrol have them in custody?”
“I doubt it,” Jaime returned. “INS doesn’t want to get dinged for anybody’s hospital bill. If they’re taken into custody, that’s what’ll happen.”
Joanna recalled the officers she had heard arguing the IT
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previous evening. Joanna had thought the medical-bill buck-passing had been limited to that one Department of Public Safety captain. Clearly the problem was far more widespread than that.
“So Border Patrol just let them go?”
“That’s right. That way the hospitals don’t get paid, and the illegals are granted free entry to disappear into the wilds of the good of’ U.S. of A.”
“What about the driver? You’d better not be telling me that somebody turned him loose.”
“Don’t worry, boss. We’ve got him and his bill both. He’s in the Copper Queen Hospital.
I’ve been assured that they’ll only release him into our custody.”
“Fair enough,” Joanna said. “If I have to, I’ll pay his bill out of my own pocket.
That guy’s going to jail.”
She studied the list Jaime had given her until she located the name of a woman. Maria Elena Maldonado had also been admitted to the Copper Queen Hospital. Then she cross-referenced that name with the list of fatalities. Finally she found a name that matched-Eduardo Xavier Maldonado.
“Eduardo?” Joanna asked. “That’s the name of the little boy who died?”
Jaime nodded.
“What about the mother? Is she going to be all right?”
“I talked to Dr. Lee about her,” Jaime answered. “Her internal injuries are more extensive than they thought. She’ll be transferred to TMC for more surgery later on this afternoon.”
“Is she going to make it?”
Jaime shrugged. “With the injuries she has, the doc tells me her chances are about fifty-fifty,” he said.
“What about the other victims?” Joanna asked. “How serious are their injuries?”
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“Five of them are still in ICUs.”
Joanna went back to studying the list. “What are your plans for the day, Jaime, and what’s Ernie up to?”
“Ernie’s back out at Silver Creek working with the DPS accident site investigation team. They’ll be interviewing locals who were on the scene. As for me, the woman you interviewed, Suzanne Blake, is due to show up any minute. After I talk to her, I’m not sure what I’ll do next.”
Joanna put down the two separate lists. “Here’s the deal, Jaime,” she said. “It sounds as though, as soon as these patients are well enough, INS will let them walk out of hospitals free as birds, just like they did the others. When you’re finished with the Blake interview and after Frank finishes with his press conference, I want the two of you to hit the trail. I want you to find and interview as many of those hospitalized UDAs as possible. Explain to them that we need their help so we can find the coyotes who did this. I want to put those guys out of business before any more people die.