Minor in possession

CHAPTER 20

As suddenly as it had come, the triumphant grin on Rhonda's face vanished, displaced by an expression of stunned fear. She stopped, frozen in place like a headlight-blinded deer. I turned and looked in the same direction just in time to catch sight of the briefcase erupting straight up from the hatch-like opening in the side of the disabled Trooper.

The case landed flat in the dirt several feet away, kicking up a small flurry of dust. And behind the briefcase came Monty himself. His one arm hung broken and useless. Still, he dragged himself up and was getting ready to vault out of the vehicle.

"Stop right there," I shouted, raising the semiautomatic. "Freeze!"

He did.

"Hands over your head," I continued.

He turned and regarded me with calculated insolence as if gauging whether or not I'd be tough enough to pull to trigger a second time. I was, but he didn't know that. He had no way of knowing I was a police officer. I had underestimated him, made an almost fatal mistake. It chilled me to think how close he'd come to retrieving his own AK-47. He wouldn't get another opportunity like that, not if I could help it.

"I can't raise my arm," he called back. "I think my arm's broken."

"Get the other one up, then," I said. "Behind your head and keep it there."

While holding the semiautomatic on Monty, I directed Rhonda to bring back both the AK-47 and Guy Owens' Colt. Once she did so, I motioned Monty out of the Isuzu. One-handed and wounded, he still made it out in only one try. That son of a bitch was tougher than nails.

Hurrying over to where Michelle lay motionless on the ground, Rhonda shook the girl and spoke her name, but there was no response. Anxiously, Rhonda looked to me for advice.

"Is she still alive?" I asked.

Rhonda took Michelle's wrist and checked for a pulse. "Passed out, I think. Maybe drugged. What should I do?"

"Leave her for now," I replied.

"Hey, man," Monty interrupted. "How about helping me with my arm before I bleed to death? At least let me sit down."

He had dropped the insolent attitude in favor of an affronted whine. His injured arm was still spurting blood and he swayed like a falling tree, but the sudden change in attitude made me wary. Compared to me, Monty was a mountain, six-seven at least with a girth to match. I knew if it ever came down to hand-to-hand combat, I wouldn't stand a chance. Not only was he huge, he was also cagey and determined. Despite his injuries, he had still tried to make off with the briefcase full of money. That kind of single-minded tenacity doesn't evaporate within a minute's time.

"Strip off your clothes," I ordered. "All of them. Throw them on the ground."

"Hey, man, wait a minute," he objected. "You can't do this. I know my rights."

"The hell with your rights," I growled back. "The only right you've got at the moment is the right to a bullet between your eyes if you don't. Strip, and strip now! Do it!"

Slowly, one at a time, keeping a watchful eye on the gun, he began to peel the clothes off his massive frame. The arm continued to bleed, but he seemed oblivious to it. He was focused on me and the semi-automatic in my hand. I could sense him wondering how good a shot I was and whether or not he should make a break for it. Finally, when he stood there naked except for his shorts, I had him step away from the pile of discarded clothing. He shrugged as if I had gone crazy, but he complied.

"Check them, Rhonda," I ordered, "and stay out of my line of fire."

"Check them?" she asked with a frown. "What do you mean?"

"For weapons," I said. "He may have another gun or a knife."

Frowning doubtfully, she hurried over to the wadded pile and brought it back to me, pawing through it as she came. The switchblade had been hidden inside a sock. So I had called the shot. I nodded in satisfaction.

Wonderingly, Rhonda held up the knife. "How did you know it was there?" she asked.

"And educated guess."

She glanced at Monty, whose impassive face suppressed all indication of the fury he must have felt.

"Remember Ringo?" I asked.

Rhonda nodded.

"This character needs to be handled with about the same amount of care."

"What about my arm?" Monty asked again, still whining.

Rhonda had dropped the roll of duct tape at my feet, but I didn't take my eyes off Monty long enough to reach down and get it. I wasn't taking any chances.

"Toss him the tape," I said to Rhonda, and to him, "Put a tourniquet on it. Use that."

Just then, Guy Owens' crew-cut head slowly emerged from the top of the Trooper. He seemed dazed, and there was a long jagged cut along one side of his jaw. His face screwed up with pain as he made the effort to hold himself erect.

"Are you all right?" I asked.

"My leg," he said. "I think it's broken. What about Michelle?"

"She's all right, I think." I turned to Rhonda. "Can you keep our friend here covered while I go help Guy?"

"With pleasure."

Guy moaned low in his throat as I lifted him out of the Isuzu and eased him onto the ground near his unconscious daughter, then I went back to the Trooper, crawled up on top, and checked on the other occupants. In the back seat, the duct tape and seat belts had held. Paco, leaning against the far window, was out cold. Tony, his lips bleeding profusely where he had torn away the super glue, dangled crazily to one side.

When my face appeared above him, he yelled at me in incomprehensible Spanish then switched to enraged English. "That sumbitch left without me!" he screamed. "He took the money and went without me!"

"He didn't get far," I told him, leaving him there, still dangling in midair, still ranting and raving at the injustice of it all, learning once and for all that there is no honor among thieves.

As I turned back to the disaster on the road, I realized I was dealing with a case study in triage-who was hurt worst and needed the most attention? The problem was, I didn't dare do anything about injuries while mountainous Monty was still on the loose. Rhonda was holding the gun on him, but even with him covered, I didn't dare get too close. I longed for a pair of handcuffs, but the only thing available was still that old reliable handyman's helper-duct tape.

It seemed to be working fine as a tourniquet- the bleeding on Monty's arm slowed to a trickle. The prisoner stood staring at us defiantly, one arm raised over his head and the other hanging uselessly at his side. The swaying, an unsuccessful ruse, had stopped.

"Sit down," I told him, still aiming the semiautomatic squarely at his chest. "Wrap the tape around both ankles. Tight."

The wonderful thing about duct tape is that it is designed to bond best to itself, although it did all right on Monty's hairy ankles. Once his ankles were wrapped, I handed Rhonda the gun.

"If he makes any sudden moves, if he does anything at all that you don't like-shoot him."

She nodded grimly. "You bet," she said. "With pleasure." She sounded as though she meant every word.

While Rhonda kept Monty covered, I directed him to lie down flat on the ground where I bound his wrists to his thighs and his elbows to his ribs, mummy-style. As I stepped back to survey my work, he gave a tentative, testing pull against his restraints, followed by a howl of pain at the self-inflicted punishment to his wounded arm.

The result was precisely what I wanted-a clear case of cause and effect, a variation on a theme of that old parental prerogative. Any attempt to escape would hurt him far more than it would hurt me.

Reasonably assured that Monty would now stay where we left him, I returned to where Guy Owens sat on the ground, close to the Trooper. He was holding Monty's fully loaded AK-47 and keeping a watchful eye on the two remaining occupants of the disabled Isuzu.

"They still haven't gotten loose," he said.

"You're right. We'll leave them there for now. That duct tape works like a charm. What are we going to do about you leg?"

"Is there any tape left?"

"Some. Why?"

"Get the other assault rifle from the Isuzu. Maybe we can use the tape to turn the rifle into a splint."

Which is exactly what we did. The splint was only a make-do measure, but at least it stabilized the bone so Guy could be moved without damaging the leg any worse than it already was. That done, I carried Michelle over close enough to him so he could hold her head in his lap. We all tried to waken her, but she was either seriously injured or in a drug-induced stupor. We had no way of knowing which it was or whether or not she'd ever come out of it.

"What now?" Rhonda asked, standing up with her hands on her hips and surveying the damage around us. By now we'd been in that same spot for nearly forty-five minutes without another vehicle passing.

Of the three of us, Guy Owens lived nearest to this deserted stretch of potholes that doubled as a pretend road.

"How far to civilization?" I asked him.

Owens shook his head. "I don't know. There's probably a ranch or two on up the road, but I have no idea how far."

I retrieved my most recent freebie Alamo map from the dead Beretta and read the bar news for myself. Nogales, a town which looked as though it might be big enough to have its own hospital, was a good twenty miles away, but the faint gray lines leading to it were the same ones we were already on. In my estimation that indicated dirt tracks, not roads. Sierra Vista appeared to be much closer, but only as the crow flies, and to get there we would have to cross back over Montezuma Pass.

In the case, the vehicle situation was downright hopeless. Only one of the three wrecked cars-the Trooper-seemed potentially driveable, and that was only if we could somehow manage to tip it over and get it back on its feet.

Even then, I couldn't see how we'd make do since our current tour group included seven passengers, four of whom were wounded and three of whom were prisoners. Nice bunch.

After a brief consultation with Guy, we decided to try to right the Trooper. That wasn't such a crazy idea once we discovered that the Blazer came complete with a winch. With Rhonda and me doing the moving and with Guy Owens sitting guard with the remaining assault rifle, we removed Paco and Tony from the Trooper and fastened them to the Beretta. Paco was still dead to the world, and Tony didn't offer any resistance. He was still so pissed at Monty leaving him that he seemed to have abandoned all thought of getting away in favor of getting even.

Rhonda managed to start the Blazer and maneuver the limping hulk into position. We were just beginning to hook up the winch cable when Guy Owens alerted us to look up the road, where a swirl of dust announced the swift approach of an oncoming vehicle.

I looked at the carnage around us, broken cars and bound and battered people, and wondered if anyone would believe our story. If some local rancher happened on the scene, would he take time to listen, or would he shoot first and ask question later?

The vehicle turned out to be an ugly yellow Forest Service Suburban driven by an earnest young man in a brown uniform. I've never been so happy to see an untried, beardless youth in my life.

He stopped the van next to the wrecked Beretta and got out, moving forward uncertainly. As soon as he saw the weapon in Guy Owens' hands, he stopped short and began to scuttle back toward his truck.

"Wait," I called. "Please. We need your help. "People are injured."

He checked his headlong flight, but only barely. He ducked his head and cleared his throat before he spoke as if he was having trouble swallowing.

"Looks like you're having a little difficulty here," he croaked.

"As a matter of fact, we are," I said. "I'm a police officer. You wouldn't happen to have a radio in that thing, would you?"

"Yes. What's the problem? Are these guys wetbacks or what? Do you need me to call the border patrol?" Now that he had found his voice he spat out the questions one after another without waiting to hear any answers.

"Actually, there's a whole catalog of calls to be made," I said. "Start with the nearest hospital, the local sheriff's department, and the F.B.I. And when you finish with them, you should probably call a tow truck."

"The hospital in Sierra Vista?" our rescuer faltered.

"No, not that one," Lieutenant Colonel Guy Owens interrupted from his seat on the ground several feet away. "Call Colonel Miler at the base hospital on post. Tell Joe, if one's available, to send a chopper for a dust-off."

"A what?" the beardless youth stammered.

All I can say is he must have been a babe in arms during the Vietnam War. The term mystified him.

"A Med-evac helicopter," Guy grumbled in explanation. "My name's Lieutenant Colonel Guy Owens. Give him our location. Tell him it's for me and Michelle. Joe'll handle the rest."

What followed could easily have passed for a mini-convention of local law enforcement personnel. Guy and Michelle Owens were already loaded into the helicopter and on their way to Raymond W. Bliss Army community Hospital at Fort Huachuca before the first patrol car arrived, bringing a Santa Cruz County deputy who had come across the valley from some place called Patagonia.

Next a Border Patrol van showed up, not because they were summoned, but because they had been on their way. One of their informants had notified them that something unusual might be going on up in the pass. They had been coming to check that rumor out when they heard the series of emergency radio communications from the Forest Service Suburban.

Two ambulances, an enthusiastic D.E.A. officer, and a tow truck arrived from Nogales almost simultaneously, followed closely by two F.B. I agents summoned from Tucson who disembarked from another helicopter and immediately took charge.

Time and again Rhonda and I explained what had happened as far as we knew. All three of the prisoners seemed to be a more-or-less known quantity to the D.E.A. guy, who was beside himself with joy at the idea of having al three of them in custody.

According to him, Paco and Tony each had long rap sheets. Monty, presumably a much bigger fish, had never before been nailed, although both his existence and his name had long been rumored in drug-dealing circles.

What seemed to puzzle everyone concerned was why guys who were basically successful drug runners would suddenly involve themselves in the much less lucrative and potentially far riskier crime of kidnapping. It wasn't logical. I certainly couldn't shed any light on that topic, and the prisoners didn't either.

With everyone else deciding who should go where and how it should all be accomplished, there was little or nothing for Rhonda and me to do but sit in the background, huddle under ambulance blankets, try to keep warm, and watch the three-ring circus unfold around us.

"You know that. 38 I gave you earlier?" I asked her in careful undertone when we were alone.

"Yes. What about It?"

"So far it hasn't been fired, right?"

"Right."

"So how about if I make you a gift of it? I don't want any of these hotshots getting me on a concealed weapons charge."

"What about me?" Rhonda asked.

"You're an artist, not a cop. People expect artists to do crazy things."

She nodded and laughed. "Thanks for the present," she added. "Remind me to return the favor."

The sun had gone down and it was becoming increasingly chilly when one of the tow-truck drivers-there were now three separate tow trucks on the scene-came looking for us.

"You J. P. Beaumont?" he asked.

I nodded.

"I called Alamo," he said, almost apologetically, "you know, to see where they wanted me to tow the Beretta. Someone from there is on the radio. They want to talk to you."

I'll just bet they do, I thought, as he led me to his truck and handed me the microphone. I pushed down the switch. "This is J.P. Beaumont. Over," I said.

"Mr. Beaumont?"

"Yes. Over."

It was woman's voice, controlled but furious. "My name is Lucille Radonovich, District manager for Alamo Rent A Car."

"What can I do for you, Ms. Radonovich? Over." I tried to sound reassuring, engaging, casual. It didn't work.

"You are a dangerous man, Mr. Beaumont," she declared.

"Look," I said, reasonably, "I took the extra collision insurance you sold me. Ten dollars a day. Everything's fine, right? Over."

Lucille Radonovich was not to be dissuaded. "Mr. Beaumont, everything is not fine. You may have taken the additional insurance, but it may or may not be valid depending on the exact geographical location of accident."

"It wasn't an accident," I interrupted helpfully. "That guy shot it with a Colt. 45. On purpose. Over."

She continued, as though I hadn't spoken. "Mr. Beaumont, I have been directed to tell you to turn your keys over to our representative, the tow-truck driver. Immediately. Is that clear?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Later on, someone from this office will be in touch with either you or your attorney to settle your account."

"Does this mean I don't get another car? Over."

I already knew the answer to my question, but I had to ask, had to hear it from her own lips.

And Ms. Lucille Radonovich's reaction was exactly what I expected-no more, no less. A pause. A long pregnant pause, and then a slowly released breath like a dangerously stressed valve letting off excess pressure.

"Some things go without saying, Mr. Beaumont. Over and out!"

Without a word, I handed the keys to the Beretta over to the tow-truck driver. He looked at them for a moment, then walked away, shaking his head.

I watched him go and realized that it would be a hell of a long walk back to Ralph Ames' home in Paradise Valley some two hundred miles away.

I went back to where Rhonda sat waiting. She was chilled. Her teeth were chattering. I put my arm around her shoulder and she snuggled close to me.

"Are these the people who killed Joey?" she asked. "Or was it somebody else?"

I squeezed her shoulder and held her tight. "No way to tell," I answered, "at least not right now."

We sat there for another half hour and watched while the tow trucks began to haul away wrecked cars.

"How are we going to get home?" she asked, lifting her head off my shoulder to look at me as though the thought hadn't occurred to her before.

"I don't know. It could be a very long walk."

Rhonda Attwood must have been starting to feel better.

"You mean that nice Ralph Ames won't come get us the way he did for you up in Prescott?" she asked.

"We'll see," I said. "He may have run out of patience with me the same way Alamo has."