“That’s too bad,” Joanna observed. “Lewis Flores has always struck me as a real nice guy.”
“You know what happens to nice guys,” Voland said. “Unfortunately, when the board finishes chewing him up and spitting him out, guess who’s next in line? Us. The sheriff’s department. With Childers pissing and moaning about the county having an obligation to protect his people and equipment, the board had to agree with him. Surprise, surprise! Which is why, when Deputy Gregovich called for help yesterday afternoon, I made sure he had it in a hurry.”
Dick Voland stopped talking long enough to hand each attendee a sheaf of papers-incident reports from all of the deputies who had been summoned to Oak Vista. For the next few minutes, the group read through the reports in silence. Joanna was relieved to see that no one had been hurt in the melee. Twelve individuals had been arrested and hauled off to jail, but not before they had done considerable damage to Mark Childers’ equipment.
Joanna’s heart sank as she read through the list: four punctured oversized tires; the track pried off one of the bulldozers; sugar in the fuel tanks of three dump trucks. She looked at Dick Voland. “This is going to be expensive,” she said.
He nodded. “And you’ll never guess who called me just a couple of minutes ago-Mark Childers’ attorney. He’s putting us on notice that we’re being held responsible; claiming that we acted negligently in not providing adequate protection. According to him, we needed to have more and better-trained officers on the job.”
Joanna had watched Terry Gregovich’s shoulders slump lower and lower under the weight of Dick Voland’s litany. Now, in the silence while everyone read through the various reports, he sat staring at his sleeping dog. Joanna supposed he was wishing he could be somewhere else-anywhere else!
Reading through the reports, Joanna couldn’t see what could have been done differently. Her department didn’t have nearly enough manpower to mount an armed guard around an entire subdivision. Not only that, the protesters had arrived at quitting time, having let most of the day pass without incident and lulling authorities into thinking there would be no further trouble.
When people finally looked up from their papers, Joanna turned to Deputy Gregovich. “Do you have anything to add, Terry?” she asked.
Gregovich leaped to his feet, and Spike did the same. Then, when no direct order was forthcoming from his master, the dog circled three times, heaved a huge sigh, lay back down, and closed his eyes. A part of Joanna envied the dog. She could have used a little more shut-eye herself.
“There were too many of them,” Gregovich was saying. “There must have been ten carloads at least. When they showed up last Friday, it was just one of those nonviolent protests, with people lying down in front of the trucks and that sort of thing. I thought this time it would be the same thing, but it wasn’t. Not at all. These guys came packing crow-bars and sledgehammers and all like that. As soon as I saw they meant business, I called for backup, but there was only so much Spike and I could do. We weren’t able to be every-where at once. We did our best, but I’m afraid…”
“It’s all right, Deputy Gregovich,” Joanna assured him. “I’m sure you did everything possible. It sounds as though you and Spike were outgunned and outmanned at every turn, so don’t be too hard on yourself. Considering what was going on, we’re lucky no one was hurt-you and Spike included.”
“What about the dirty dozen who were arrested?” Frank asked.
“They’re being arraigned right now, but I’m betting they’ll all be bailed out this morning and back on the streets by early afternoon.”
“Just in time for round three,” Joanna said, shaking her head. “Who are they? Anybody we recognize?”
“Not really,” Voland said. “From the booking sheets, it looks like they’re mostly from Tucson. Professional demonstrator types. At least several of them have been arrested for this kind of thing before.”
“If they’re paid professionals,” Joanna said, “who’s writing the checks?”
“Good question,” Dick said. “That’s what we’re trying to find out now. I’ve got three deputies working on it. If we can find out who’s really behind the demonstrations, maybe we can talk them into calling them off.”
“What do we do in the meantime?” Joanna asked.
“Spike and I are heading right back out there, ma’am,” Deputy Gregovich said.
Voland nodded. “They’ll be on-site this morning. By noon-about the time the last of our jailbirds gets bailed out-I expect to have several deputies patrolling on and around Oak Vista Estates.”
“Are you worried about being sent there by yourself this morning, Deputy Gregovich?” Joanna asked.
Terry Gregovich was an awkward-looking young man with a shy, self-effacing way about him. He was immensely likable. The fact that Spike obviously adored him didn’t hurt, either.
“Not at all, ma’am. Spike and me’ll do just fine.”
Joanna smiled. “I’m sure you will, but remember: If it turns out you need to call for reinforcements, I’d rather you did it sooner than later. Understand?”
“Will do, Sheriff Brady. Is that all?”
Joanna nodded.
“Come, Spike,” Terry ordered.
Obediently, the dog rolled to his feet, and the two of them marched out the door. “All right now,” Joanna announced to those remaining. “On to Alice Rogers.”
Ernie Carpenter took the first turn in the barrel, reporting that Clete Rogers and Susan Jenkins had shown up at the Pima County morgue late the previous evening and had, together, positively identified their mother’s body. The two of them were also due at their mother’s house later that morning. There they would meet with Detective Carbajal and try to determine what items had been removed from Alice Rogers’ home. Joanna couldn’t help smiling at that bit of news. It pleased her to know that Susan had taken that much of Joanna’s advice to heart.
“Do we know when Doc Daly has scheduled the autopsy?” Joanna asked.
“First thing this morning,” Ernie replied. “What she told us at the scene was that she didn’t think the body had beer moved. If Alice died where we found her, that means the case belongs to Pima County, and we’re out of it. Which is why Detective Lazier as good as told me that I’d be persona nor grata at the autopsy.”
“Went all territorial on you, did he?” Joanna observed.
Ernie nodded. “You could say that. Lazier is focused or getting the case pulled together enough to extradite those other three kids from Old Mexico but that’s not going to be easy since so far the Mexican authorities aren’t very keen on cooperating. They haven’t even ID’d the suspects they have it custody.”
Joanna nodded. “It’s tough to extradite someone when you don’t have a name to go by. Do the Pima County detective: know anything about Alice Rogers’ house in Tombstone being ransacked?”
Carpenter shook his head. “Not that I know of. They didn’t ask and I didn’t tell. Actually, at the time I left to come home, I didn’t know about it, either.”
“Let’s think about this for a minute,” Joanna suggested. “Did Dr. Daly say anything about when Alice died?”
“Not exactly. Her preliminary estimate is sometime Saturday night or Sunday morning.”
“All right, so the kids took the car-with keys?”
This time Frank was the one who answered. “Without. It was hot-wired.”