Mexican hat (14 page)

Cornelia Marquez opened the motel-room door immediately after Kemey knocked. A matron in her fifties, of average height with a thickening body, she wore a plain tan dress and a pair of sensible flats. Her eyes were puffy and red and her mouth was drawn in a tight, sad line.

Kemey identified himself and showed the lady his badge.

"Nurse Perez said that you found my father," Cornelia said, snif-

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fling. She stepped aside to let Kerney enter. "I am most grateful."

"It was nothing," Kerney replied. Something about her made him take a formal tone. "Would you rather I came to see you some other time?"

"No." Cornelia's smile was thin-lipped. "I would welcome some distraction. My husband cannot join me until this evening. He was in Argentina on business and is flying in from Buenos Aires."

She sat at the small table in front of the window and asked Kerney to join her. The room was a standard motel box with a queen-size bed, television, and dresser. A mirror and several silk-screen prints of desert flowers were securely fastened to the walls.

"Have you found who killed my son?" she asked.

"Not yet. If I knew why your son and father came here it might be helpful."

"How would that would be helpful? The state police investigator who spoke to me at the hospital said that Hector was shot by a stranger. A poacher."

"That is probably true," Kerney allowed. "But other possibilities cannot be ignored. Yesterday, I spoke to an older gentleman who said that he might have known your father many years ago. His name is Edgar Cox."

"The name is not familiar to me."

"Is there some reason for him to believe he knows your father?"

"It's possible. My father was born here. In the Mangas Valley. His ancestors settled the area. But he has lived in Mexico most of his life. Ever since he was a young man in medical school."

"Dr. Padilla seemed to have had a specific destination in mind. Do you have any idea why he went to Elderman Meadows?"

"I never heard of Elderman Meadows until today."

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"How about a place called Mexican Hat?"

Cornelia frowned. "I have heard him speak of such a place."

"In what context?" Kemey asked.

She toyed with the band of her diamond wedding ring and wet her lips before answering. "My father has an obsession. He believes his father was murdered at Mexican Hat."

"What gave him that idea?" Kemey inquired.

"When my aunt died last year, he was the executor of her estate. She had many of the old family papers. Among them he found official letters from the American government to his father questioning the legal title to the land."

"What suspicions did those letters raise?"

"I'm not sure. He was very secretive about it."

"Why?"

"Because it opened an old wound between my parents. Long before I was bom, my grandfather died and my parents traveled to New Mexico to attend the funeral. An argument developed between them. My father wished to drop out of medical school and remain in Mangas. Mother threatened to leave him if he did. They were newly married. She was also a medical student, and they had planned to go into practice together. But she hated New Mexico. It was not her world. It was too isolated and unsophisticated. She was a city girl. She made my father promise never to take her there again."

"And he kept his word?"

"Yes. Until the day my mother died, three months ago. There was really nothing for him to go back to. His brothers and sisters had scattered. The ranch was lost. The village abandoned."

"Did she share his theory that Don Luis was murdered?"

"I don't think she cared, one way or the other."

"So he returned with your son to uncover a murderer," Kerney proposed.

"Real or imagined," Cornelia agreed testily, her voice rising. "My father is gravely ill. Possibly he will never get better. And do you know how I feel, Senor Kerney? Right now, I am angry with him. To the depths of my soul, I am angry. My son is dead because of an old man's obsession with the past. It is senseless."

"I am truly sorry for your loss, sefiora," Kerney said.

Cornelia Marquez did not hear him. She buried her head in her hands and sobbed.

Kerney stayed with her until she stopped crying. When he left he took with him Sefiora Marquez's written permission to visit Jose Padilla in the hospital.

THE HOUSE Jim Stiles lived in, a hundred-year-old adobe with a high-pitched tin roof and buttresses at the corners to hold the adobe walls in place, sat in the valley exactly halfway between Reserve and the old Spanish settlement known as Lower San Francisco Plaza.

With his feet propped on a chair, Jim lounged at the kitchen table with the back door open, reading the documents found in Padilla's travel trailer. Omar Gatewood had given him permission to sign out the evidence and take it home.

The day had turned hot, but the thick walls kept the house cool. A slight breeze pulsed through the doorway, bringing with it the sound of the river gurgling over the rocky streambed two hundred yards away.

Stiles finished a document and turned it upside down on the

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stack he'd already read. The papers and letters were all written in Spanish, and while Stiles spoke the language pretty well, he was much less proficient at translating the written word. What he could make out was damn interesting stuff, although it didn't seem to have a bit of relevance to the murder of Hector Padilla.

Among the papers were the last will and testament of Don Luis Padilla and a plat of the village of Mangas that had been filed with the territorial government over a hundred years ago. There were a lot of personal letters to Don Luis from important New Mexicans of the day. Solomon Luna and Thomas B. Catron, two political heavyweights during the first years of statehood, had written to Don Luis about investing in something called the American Valley Company, whatever the hell that was.

Until Stiles could find someone to do an adequate translation of the material, all he'd be able to tell Kemey was that Jose and Hector Padilla were descendants of the same clan that had settled the Mangas Valley, and that the government had challenged Padilla's title to his landholdings back in the early thirties.

The phone rang just as Stiles started in on another letter. He grabbed the receiver from the wall-mounted telephone, hoping it was Kemey.

"Hombre," Amador Ortiz said. "I hear you've changed jobs."

"What are you talking about, Amador?"

"The Silver City newspaper, Jimmy. It says you and Kerney are working for the sheriff and the district attorney."

"Shit! That story was supposed to be killed."

Amador chuckled. "You know you can't keep a secret around here. So is it true?"

"It's a temporary thing. I'm still with Game and Fish. What's up?"

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"I've been thinking about Kerney wanting to know if I saw anything suspicious around Mangas Mountain."

"What have you got?" Stiles tried to hold back the excitement from his voice.

''Maybe nothing. You know that old mine at the upper end of Padilla Canyon, north of the lookout tower? Last week I was with my crew barricading the road to the mine to keep hikers out of the canyon. I saw some tire tracks."

"What kind of tire tracks?"

"Looked like an ATV to me. This morning I got to thinking you can get to the meadows from the upper canyon, pretty easy. At least you could before we blocked the road. A game trail runs from the mine to the meadows. Elk use it a lot. I thought maybe you'd want to pass that on to Kerney."

"Hell yes. Thanks, mano," Stiles said.

"De nada, primo. You owe me a beer at Cattleman's if you find something."

"You got it," Stiles responded.

He hung up the phone, went quickly into a small second bedroom that served as his study, and pawed through the quadrangle maps on the desk. If he remembered correctly, it was maybe a two-hour hike from the mouth of Padilla Canyon to the mine.

Stiles found the map and studied the contours. It was a no-sweat walk in the woods. With the map in his back pocket, he returned to the kitchen, gathered up Padilla's papers, and stuffed them into a manila envelope. He whistled to himself as he left the house and fired up the truck. He switched the radio frequency to the sheriff's department, and called in to report he was operational.

When the dispatcher responded, he gave his destination and ETA, and left a message for Kerney to meet him at Padilla Canyon.

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He thought about waiting for Kerney or asking for backup, and dismissed the idea. It would only slow him down. Besides, if Amador was right, he might have the first break in the case. That would make Kerney sit up and take notice.

Damn! Nobody had thought to look north of the meadows in Padilla Canyon. The search had been concentrated south into the foothills and valley. He'd buy Amador a case of beer if the tip panned out.

Stiles reached down and hit the switch to the emergency lights. He'd run with lights flashing all the way to the mouth of Padilla Canyon. It would save him a good thirty minutes.

UNEXPECTEDLY SUMMONED to a meeting, Carol Cassidy sat in the small conference room at the Glenwood District Office with the forest supervisor from Silver City, the regional forester from Albuquerque, and Charlie Perry. Samuel Ellsworth Aldrich, the acting regional forester, a heavy-boned man with a double chin and thick lips, presided over the meeting. He had his suit jacket off, shirt sleeves rolled up, and tie loosened. He was smiling pleasantly at Carol.

Charlie and the regional forester were across the table. Perry whispered something to Aldrich, who nodded automatically back at Charlie. Jack Wyman, the forest supervisor and Carol's boss, a contemporary she had worked with for a number of years, avoided looking at her. It was not going to be a cordial meeting.

Aldrich concluded his opening remarks, which consisted of bitching about being unable to get out into the field as often as he would like. He spread his hands palms down on the table and gave Carol a patronizing smile.

"Thanks for coming down on such short notice, Carol," he said.

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nodding in Wyman's direction. "Jack and I have some concerns we'd like to discuss with you."

"I'd like to hear them, Sam," Carol replied, wondering what in the hell was brewing. Her annual operational review by the regional office was months away. There had to be a special reason Aldrich wanted to see her.

"I got a telephone call this morning from an Associated Press reporter," Aldrich went on. "She wanted to know if the Catron County sheriff and the ADA had usurped the state police investigation in the Elderman Meadows murder case. I told her I didn't have a clue what she was talking about. So she faxed me a copy of an article from the Silver City newspaper. She told me Gatewood gave the story to the newspaper. Have you seen it?"

"Yes."

"Is it accurate?"

"It is. Sheriff Gatewood called me after the fact to tell me about the appointments. I had no prior knowledge."

"I'll accept that." Aldrich stopped to clear his throat.

You damn well better, Carol thought to herself.

"To make a long story short, I called Jack for a briefing on the situation and he didn't know anything about it either. Charlie Perry filled me in. He was meeting with Jack when I called."

"You could have called me, Sam," Carol said, "instead of relying on secondhand information." She shot a hard look in Charlie's direction. "From a reporter," she added.

Aldrich smiled charmingly. "That's why you're here. And that's why I flew in from Albuquerque to meet with you. What, exactly, is going on?"

"To set the record straight, the investigation hasn't been usurped. I've assigned an experienced investigator who is working

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in tandem with a state Game and Fish officer on the poaching case only. Since the poaching and the murder may be tied together, it seemed the sensible thing to do."

Aldrich shook his head in disagreement. "That's not how the state police feel about it. I got a call from the chief. He isn't happy with Sheriff Gatewood, the ADA, or you. Thinks the story is bad press for his department and nothing more than small-town political posturing. I tend to agree. As hard as I tried to stop it, a follow-up article on our unusual involvement in the case is going to hit the Albuquerque paper this afternoon. And I've had calls from two television reporters while we were waiting for you to arrive. They're asking pointed questions. Has the Forest Service lost confidence in the state police? Why have a ranger and a Game and Fish officer been given authority by an assistant district attorney and the local sheriff to investigate a murder case? We've got a damage-control problem here, Carol. There is already too much resentment about the Forest Service in the community. It has to be solved quickly."

Carol saw the writing on the wall. "How do you want it solved?"

"The man you assigned to the investigation . . ." Aldrich thumbed through some papers. "Kevin Kemey. He's a temporary employee, correct?"

"That's right. Hired out of your office."

"Terminate him. I want you and the district out of this before it becomes an imbroglio. My staff has prepared a press release which should put the matter to rest. It will clearly state that we see a conflict of interest in having one of our employees reporting to another law enforcement agency, and that Mr. Kerney has been released from his job so that he can pursue the investigation for the district attorney."

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"That's not fair to a man who has done excellent work for me," Carol said evenly.

"He may well be outstanding, but now he's a liability. If he's so damn good, the district attorney's office can put him on their payroll. I've got ranchers and environmentalists barking at my heels. I don't need to have the state police and others in the law enforcement community joining in the chorus. Terminate him."