Dog Gone Lies (Pacheco & Chino Mysteries Book 1) (20 page)

There was a pause. Monica wasn’t sure if something was wrong with the phone or not.

“Yes, I know who that is. Is there any chance that you are Ms. Jackson?”

Now it was Monica’s turn to pause. She hadn’t thought anyone would even remember her, but in a small town somebody disappearing would still be news. Monica had made a mistake. She hung up.

“What is it?”

“The girl asked me if I was Ms. Jackson.”

“What are we going to do now?”

“I don’t know.”

Monday

Ray and Happy were on their way to Big Jack’s to meet with Tyee and discuss strategy for the next weekend’s fishing tournament. Ray was anxious to get the competition behind him—he still wasn’t sure he wanted to have people monitoring his fishing skills.

They had planned to meet in the computer room, but Tyee wasn’t there. The message light was blinking on the new answering machine. Ray hadn’t retrieved messages from the machine before, but he thought he might as well give it a try.

“Ray, this is Clayton. Had a strange message from Cindy, that someone called and described me. Said they wanted to talk to me. The caller had recently talked to me when she had problems with her car. For some reason Cindy thought that it might be Ms. Jackson. She asked her if that was her name and the person hung up. Cindy got the number—it’s for the Lodge up in Cloudcroft. Ray, I wanted to talk to you before I did anything about this—give me a call.”

Ray called immediately. Cindy told Ray that Deputy Clayton was in the building and she would get him on the line, pronto.

“Guess you got my message.”

“Yeah. What do you think—could that have been Ms. Jackson?”

“I think so. We don’t have too many stranded women in town, and then there’s the way she acted with Cindy. It was like she had lost my card and needed to talk to me, but then she hung up. I think I should call the Lodge and ask for Monica Jackson and see what happens. What do you think?”

“Well, sure. Maybe just use her first name. Say you’re returning a call from a guest and all you have is a first name. When people hide and use assumed names, often they’ll keep their first name so they don’t get caught not responding when someone addresses them by name. Anyway, I think you should call and see.”

“I’ll do that and call you back.”

Ray went out to the dock area and found Tyee. Happy had beaten Ray out and was already giving Tyee some high energy attention. Ray told Tyee about Clayton’s message.

“You figured out how to use the message machine?”

“You don’t have to act so surprised. I can type too.”

“Do you really think it could be her?”

“Well sure. It could be. There’s even some logic to it. The best place to hide is often right in your own area. Cloudcroft is a long way from Albuquerque, but she would blend into the background in a place like that. I’d thought, if the two women were together, they might take off for Mexico, since they were in El Paso. But that could be hard because they probably know nothing about Mexico and they’d stick out like a sore thumb. So it makes sense. Why she called I can only guess—but I’m sure Clayton made a good impression and now she’s looking for help.”

They started to discuss fishing and Tyee demonstrated how to use a depth finder. He also had the latest lake map and marked areas he thought would be the best for Ray to try on the first day. Tyee told Ray his goal should be to catch the biggest fish. There were two categories you could win, one was most fish, but the other one, for the largest fish, was the top prize. He explained that you could almost never do both—catch the biggest fish and the most fish—so what Ray should do was catch a fish and release it unless it might be the biggest one. Tyee had a theory about this. If you were in an area and you started pulling out as many fish as you could, the fish sense this and move on—especially the big ones. If you released the fish you caught then the others didn’t feel threatened and would stay around. Then you could catch the big one.

“You gotta be shittin’ me—you really believe that?”

“Yes. I can’t explain it, but yes, I really believe it.”

There were days when Ray thought Tyee might be a genius and then there were days when he thought he was an idiot. While Ray thought most of what Tyee was saying sounded stupid, he was going to follow his friend’s advice to the letter. Tyee might be stupid, but Ray wasn’t and he was going to do exactly what Tyee said. Indian knows fishing.

They continued to discuss strategy, including the fact that it was important for Ray to avoid attracting the other fishermen to his area. Tyee had several methods for concealing the fact that you were getting good results from the other competitors. Several times Ray wondered how grown men could get so involved in the silliest things.

Ray noticed someone coming toward them. Shielding his eyes from the sun, he saw that it was Deputy Clayton.

“Hey, Deputy. I was expecting you to call back not drive out.”

“Well, I wanted to talk to you about this in person.”

“Sure, pull up a bucket and have a seat.”

Clayton found one of the old fishing buckets, turned it over, and sat down.

“Well, it’s her. Ms. Jackson is alive and in Cloudcroft—has been for over a week. Betty Adams is with her. She’s very nervous that someone’s trying to kill her because they think she has her son’s money. Mostly Ray, she wants someone to tell her what to do next. I think this gets out of my league pretty quick. Plus, if Martinez finds out I have no idea what he might do. So I told her about you. Told her you had talked to her husband and knew a lot more about the whole thing than I did. I hope you’re okay with this, but I told her you could be there tomorrow and talk to her. Can you do that?”

“I can. That’s great news she’s alive. There have been several times that I thought the only likely outcome was that she was dead. Tomorrow will work—I’ve got some things to take care of today and I’ll head out first thing in the morning.”

“Also Ray, I want to thank you, Tyee, and Big Jack. I actually think I have a chance of winning and it’s all because of you guys.”

“Well, Deputy Dan Clayton, you have more to do with this than we do. We’re just helping. The people are responding to you and to what they sense about how you’ll run the department. You should never forget that this is a tough job. Right after you’re elected one of the people who voted for you will ask for a favor and you’ll say no. That guy will think you are an ungrateful jerk, but how you run this department after you are elected will determine if you are elected again—it’s all on you.”

“Man, you’re a hard guy to thank.”

Ray smiled and shook the deputy’s hand. “I know. We’re glad that you appreciate the things we’ve done—but we’re doing this because we live here and you’ll make it a better place to live.”

Ray said he had some calls to make and disappeared back into the store. Tyee looked at Clayton and grinned. “You better win Dan, or Ray will be real pissed.” Clayton nodded his head—he knew.

Ray called Agent Crawford in Washington D.C. The number Crawford had given him went right through to his direct line. He left a message saying that he needed to talk about some issues related to Crawford’s offer. He left his new phone number.

While Ray was sitting there thinking about what to do next, the phone rang.

“Hello, this is Ray Pacheco.”

“Ray, this is Agent Ben Crawford, what can I do for you?”

Ray told Crawford the entire story, leaving nothing out. He’d told Big Jack that maybe he could find something out without giving the FBI his actual name and information, but he’d rethought that approach, deciding that if they were going to work together they needed to be honest. And if they weren’t going to work together, Ray still wanted the contact with the FBI. So he revealed everything he knew about Big Jack, aka Philip Duncan, and about Tyee Chino.

“I don’t want you to take this the wrong way Agent Crawford, but I’ve decided I can’t enter into an agreement with the FBI without these people on my team. For one thing, we work well together and have diverse skills, and beyond that I need their energy and support to be able to do what I think you’ll want from us. So even though I’ve only known them both a short time, they’ve become important to me and necessary for this venture to have a chance at success.”

“Ray, I understand. You have to have people around you that you can trust. Sounds like there’ll be no issues with Tyee. Not sure about Big Jack. Let me do some preliminary checking and I’ll see what we can do. No matter what happens with the contractor deal, I’ll try and help Big Jack with regard to the problems in L.A. Give me a couple of days and I’ll give you a call.”

“Thanks, Agent Crawford. That sounds more than fair.”

“Ray, unless we’re in a meeting with other FBI types, why don’t you call me Ben.”

“I’ll do that, Ben. And I’ll wait for your call.”

Ray thought that if there was any way to make this work, Ben Crawford was the guy to make it happen. If it didn’t work out with the FBI, they could pursue other work. Ray was convinced that he could spend a few weeks on the phone and place the name
Pacheco and Chino, Private Investigators
in front of a lot of law enforcement people. They’d start getting referrals pretty quickly—he wasn’t worried.

Ray went back out on the dock. Tyee was still going over some lake data he’d found by accessing a government database. Clayton had left.

“Interested in riding along over to Cloudcroft tomorrow morning?”

“Sure. Don’t think I might spook the ladies?”

“Well, I guess it would depend on how you act. Are you going to be in your Indian getup with war paint?”

“You know, I could be offended by such backward comments.”

“Yes, you could. You can bunk over in the guest room if you want.”

“Okay, apology accepted.”

Tuesday, Cloudcroft

A straight shot from T or C to Alamogordo would be about eighty miles, but that wasn’t possible. There were no direct roads because of the White Sands Missile Range. Even if you had a plane you couldn’t fly directly, because it was restricted airspace. The fastest option was to go to Las Cruces and then cross White Sands. This involved going south to Cruces and then northeast to Alamogordo, a trip of about 150 miles. From Alamogordo to Cloudcroft wasn’t far—it was just all uphill, going up the mountain. And just to complicate things further, when the military was firing missiles the road across the white sands area was closed, creating hour-long delays. Ray, Tyee, and Happy got an early start, but even so it would be late morning before they arrived.

Ray and Tyee chatted about fishing and the upcoming tournament. They both felt that Ray was ready, although Ray was less sure than Tyee was. They also talked about the business and what might happen in the future, and on that front Ray was more confident about the future success of the business than Tyee.

Soon they found themselves in Alamogordo. They located the turnoff to Cloudcroft. There was a noticeable change in the trees as they climbed the mountain, and the temperature cooled. They rolled down the windows and took advantage of the refreshing air. Happy was most pleased and hung his head out the window to maximize his pleasure.

When they approached the Lodge, they were both impressed by the beautiful building and the lush landscaping. Ray had been to the Lodge on several occasions to attend law enforcement gatherings and had always found it beautiful.

They parked, then let Happy run about for a while before they entered the hotel. They went to the desk and asked if the staff would let Monica Smith know that Ray Pacheco was there to see her. Monica had shared her alias with Clayton. The woman at the desk dialed the room and told the person who answered that Ray Pacheco was downstairs. Ray and Tyee walked into the lobby area and took a seat. Very shortly they were joined by two women in their sixties.

“Mr. Pacheco, I’m Monica Jackson. Oh my goodness, it’s Bruce.”

Happy, also known as Bruce, hurried excitedly over to greet Monica. She hugged the dog and began to cry. After a while she laughed.

“I thought I’d never see him again. How was he found? This is so wonderful!”

“Actually, Ms. Jackson, he’s the reason I got involved. You see, I live in the area where Mrs. Richards’ body was found, and that evening your dog turned up on my porch. He’s been with me ever since. I call him Happy.”