Earthcrack: A Lin Hanna Mystery (36 page)

“You take care also,” Lin urged her
friend, “After all, whoever it is was at Walnut Canyon this morning.
 
Sophie has been staying with you and you
have been doing your own fair share of snooping around.”

***

Lin watched as Sue drove out of the
library parking lot heading back to work at Walnut Canyon, the blue SUV was
still parked at the end of the line of cars.
 
Lin decided to remain at the library for
now so she chose a bench near the entrance as a spot to sit.
 
She needed to call Billy Taylor to see
if he could talk to her later and—she needed to talk to Neal Smith.

She had just taken her phone from her
pocket to make the call to the sheriff’s office when it rang—the caller
was David Cameron.

“Hello David,” Lin answered, “I hope you
are calling with good news.”

“I am,” the young attorney responded, “the
talk with Deputy Taylor went well this morning.
 
I think he believed the boys—though
he still has some hard questions. What helped most was a call from Tuba City
confirming that Raymond Tso and two of his sometime employees are currently
being held by the tribal police—for
 
 
the attack on Sophie and the
beating of her father.
 
Actually,
Tso himself was in custody already, along with the guy who attacked Sophie,
when the beating of Mr. Honeyestewa occurred. The guy who did that was picked
up later.”

And there may be other “guys” still out
there doing Tso’s bidding, Lin thought.
 
Perhaps the man in that blue SUV hasn’t heard his boss was arrested
yet.
 
She didn’t mention her
concerns to David though; maybe she would mention them to Billy if she could
reach him.

David continued, “ Michael and Teddy are
to be released to the custody of their parents.
 
They have to promise not to leave home
or the jurisdiction of the Coconino County Sheriff’s office for the time being,
however.
 
Charges related to their
work with Tso are still a possibility, but I don’t think they are being looked
at for the murder charges anymore.”

“Will Tso be charged in these murders?”
Lin asked.

“Not immediately,” David reported, “right
now he and his men are being held only in connection with the attacks on Sophie
and her father.
 
The investigation
is ongoing though, and Taylor seems to believe that Tso may be responsible for
the recent murders also. He told me he thinks maybe Darren, who was Tso’s
cousin, may have been trying to double cross him on some sort of art deal.
 
Tso would not take such behavior kindly—we
all know that.”

 
“Taylor is still trying to locate more evidence, especially the gun used
to shoot Darren Steele and whatever was used to stab the other victim, ” David
continued.
 
“He thinks they will turn
up, somewhere.
 
Tso runs a pawnshop and
that gives him easy ways to dispose of weapons and such. Deputy Taylor still
feels confident that he has his man and the pieces will fall into place soon.
These men can be held on the assault charges for a while and bond should be set
pretty high.”

“ I expect that Tso has the resources to
make bond—I hope Billy finds that weapon soon!”
 
Lin responded.
 
She definitely needed to share the
information she had with Deputy Taylor as soon as possible.
 
Perhaps it would help him to build his
case.
 

“Me too,” said David, “ I have to go now,
Teddy’s parents are coming to town to pick him up this afternoon, but I must
take Michael to the hospital.
 
Deputy Taylor agreed to let Sophie sign the release papers there since
she has no transportation.
 
I’ll
witness and return them to the sheriff’s office.”

“Please tell Sophie to call me or Sue if
she needs anything—Michael may need some clothes or even a place to stay,”
Lin added as she ended the call.

Lin continued to eye the SUV that was
still parked nearby as she placed her call to Billy Taylor.
 
As she expected, he wasn’t in; however,
the receptionist did say he was expected back at the station by three-thirty
and he had no appointments after that time.
 
“Please put me down then,” Lin asked, “and
tell him it’s important that I talk to him.”

Having secured her time at the sheriff’s
office, Lin turned next to the call she dreaded making—to Neal
Smith.
 
If she was going to talk to
Neal at all today it had to be soon.
 
It was already almost one.
 
She wasn’t sure talking to Neal today was truly a good idea.
 
He obviously needed time to reflect upon
what he should do and she was, emotionally at least, at a somewhat vulnerable
point where he was concerned.

Lin decided that she needed to go ahead
and talk to Neal, if she could reach him, but that she didn’t really want to be
alone with him just now.
 
She
decided that meeting him in some public spot would be the best solution, somewhere
they could talk without being overheard but where others were about.
 
She knew she would feel less vulnerable
emotionally in such a setting.
 
There was a beautiful wooded area, Wheeler Park, between the library and
the Flagstaff City Hall.
 
She would
go there and call Neal.
 
Hopefully,
he would agree to come meet her.

She rose from the bench and headed for
her car where she deposited her papers on the back seat.
 
Then she crossed the bridge that spanned
the Rio de Flag channel heading toward the park.
 
Lin still couldn’t adjust to the fact
that rivers in Arizona often held no water at all. She had been told of floods
in the past where the Rio de Flag escaped its banks and invaded streets and
neighborhoods, but today the channel was dry with only rocks and grass visible.

 
From the top of the arched bridge Lin paused to look around.
 
The blue SUV was still parked in the
same spot, but now the tall man in western clothing, whom she had noticed
earlier, was getting out of the car.
 
Lin tried to take note of the color of his clothing and his general
build.
 
She wanted to be sure she
knew where he was.

Proceeding into the park, Lin chose a
bench under a large oak tree.
 
Here
she had a good view of the side of the park nearest the library.
 
There were people about and a couple of
food vendors nearby.
 
She felt
reasonably safe here and she could keep an eye out for the man driving the
SUV.
 
She dialed Neal’s direct
number but was disappointed to reach the departmental secretary.
  

“Dr. Smith had a luncheon meeting today
and hasn’t yet returned to his office,” Lin recognized the voice as that of the
person Neal introduced to her last evening. “I can take your number and ask him
to call—he should be in within the next half hour.”

“This is Lin Hanna, I met you last
evening when I came to Dr. Smith’s office,” Lin said, “ Please do ask him to
call me as soon as possible.
 
Tell
him I have something very important to share with him,” Lin tried to sound
urgent.

“I’ll give him that message, please let
me have the number where you can be reached,” the woman said cordially.

Lin gave her the number and ended the
call.
 
She could only hope that Neal
would want to talk to her and would call as soon as he got to his office.
 
For now all she could do was wait until
her appointment time at the Sheriff’s office.
 
She decided to abandon the bench for a
stroll around the park.
 
It was a
warm, sunny spring afternoon and she was far too stressed out to just sit still.

As she walked, Lin tried to observe the
library parking lot.
 
The blue SUV
was no longer there.
 
Glancing
around, she didn’t see the man anywhere in the area.
 
Where had he gone?
 
She must have missed his leaving when
she was on the phone—perhaps he had turned in the other direction when he
left.
 
She felt a bit of relief; maybe
she was just being paranoid about being followed anyway.
 
After all, the man had not tried to
approach her at any point.
 
It was
still strange that he had remained in the places she had visited but then, why abandon
his surveillance now?

Deciding that she couldn’t do anything
about this anyway—after all, the man had done nothing threatening or
illegal—she decided to buy a tall cup of lemonade from one of the vendors
and take a longer walk through town.
 
She could be back at the park in minutes if Neal called.
 
First though, she needed to move her
car.
 
The permit card provided by
the library for stays longer than an hour had already expired and she didn’t
want a ticket.
 
She had intended to
move it after she made her calls anyway.
 
Soon she had settled the car in another spot in the municipal lot across
the street that was good for another hour.
 
If she hadn’t heard from Neal by then, she would simply leave and go
elsewhere.

Lin strolled several blocks along Aspen
Street toward downtown window- shopping as she went.
 
Avoiding San Francisco Street where John
Sessions’ gallery was located, she explored the Old Town Shoppes some more and
the area around Heritage Square.
 
She also went into Babbit Brothers outfitter’s store.
 
Maybe, before the summer was over, she
might have time for a camping trip; she thought, as she examined the array of
equipment and gadgets available for outdoor recreation.
 
Returning to the street, she decided to
head back to the park.
 
It was
almost two—surely Neal would return and call her soon.
 

Her phone rang just as she arrived back
at Wheeler Park; it was Neal.
 
Lin
answered quickly.

“Thanks for calling me back, Neal, I was
hoping you could come out for a few minutes and meet me in Wheeler Park, I have
an appointment later but I really need to talk to you—if you can spare a
few minutes,” Lin hoped she sounded casual, not revealing the stress she
actually felt.

“Anything, for you—beautiful lady,”
there was warmth in Neal’s voice, “but can’t you come here to my office? We
could talk more privately here.”
 
There was a suggestion in Neal’s voice that talking was not the only
thing on his mind.

“ Really, I can’t,” Lin insisted. “ I do
have another appointment later, nearby,” she was stretching the truth a bit
here but… “We can easily talk here and it’s such a lovely afternoon…”

“OK, you win.”
 
Neal laughed.
 
“I’ll be down in fifteen minutes.”

Lin breathed a sigh of relief as she
ended the call.
 
She wasn’t sure how
Neal would react to what she had to say.
 
She wished that she didn’t feel the need to press him about his decision,
but she also knew that his information might be very important to this case and
that what he decided to do would be very important to their future relationship—if
they were to have a future relationship.

She returned to the bench she had
occupied earlier.
 
There was still
no sign of the blue SUV or its driver so she put them out of her mind.
 
Soon she saw Neal striding across the
street from the same municipal lot she had parked in.
 
He was really a handsome man, she
thought.
 
The sunlight highlighted
the silver in his hair; he walked with a youthful, athletic gait.
 
His face lit up with a broad smile as
soon as he spotted her.
 
She
returned his smile but avoided his offered embrace as he joined her on the
bench.

“ Can we save that?” she locked eyes with
him, “ there are other folks about and, besides, we do need to talk….” She took
his hand, not wanting to appear distant, “there will be time later,” she spoke
hopefully.

Neal slipped his hand from hers but
managed to brush her thigh as he withdrew it. “Yes, Ms. Hanna, I’ll try to behave
myself.” there was merriment in his gaze.

Lin reached into her bag and withdrew the
list that she and Sue had compiled.
 
She handed it to Neal who perused it carefully before returning it to
Lin.
 
He appeared thoughtful,
staring at some distant point.
 
Lin
didn’t say anything, she wanted to give him time to reflect and have the facts
sink in.
 
Finally Neal spoke, “That’s
quite a bit of work you’ve done—you and Sue—you have a lot of
information here.” He remained quiet for a few moments more and then spoke
again, “ and it appears that quite a few pieces of this information are linked
to what I told you last night.”