Dead Weight

Chapter Twenty

Like most of us, I suppose, Leona Spears had a variety of guises-but I wasn’t prepared for the one that walked into the Public Safety Building at 10:33 that Wednesday night.

I had just gotten a cup of fresh coffee and was headed back to my office when she appeared through the front door, sweeping down the short hallway toward Dispatch. Had the puddles still been standing on the tile, the hem of her garden dress would have soaked them up.

Pausing with cup in hand, I smiled at her as if she really were welcome. “Coffee?” I said.

“No thank you. Not at this hour,” she replied as she rolled her eyes and frowned, making it clear that she thought I shouldn’t be drinking the brew late at night, either. She was probably right, but what the hell.

“Nice outfit,” I said. The dress was bright yellow with large orange sunflowers, low at the neck, and long enough to hide whatever it was that she had on her feet. She darted a squint my way, as if unsure of my remark’s intent.

“You don’t like it?”

“I like it just fine,” I said, gesturing toward the door of my office. “Around here, we get so used to the dull utilitarian look that a burst of color is a nice change. Come on in.”

Leona was a heavy woman about my height. She was no stranger to dull utilitarian, either. I’d seen her often enough on various highway department job sites, clipboard in hand, hard hat firmly in place. I guess I had expected the same khaki or blue jeans that she had worn on the job.

Her long blond hair, streaked by too much time out in the sun, was braided Heidi-fashion into a generous single braid on each side of her head. The two braids were drawn back and then arranged in a bun at the back. As she flowed past me into my office with a cloud of fragrance from her bubble bath following, I wondered how long the hairdo took her to construct.

“So,” I said, walking around behind my desk. “How’s politics?” I indicated one of the chairs. “Make yourself comfortable.” She was carrying a slim leather attache case, and she swung it into her lap as she settled.

“Politics is as usual, Sheriff,” she said. “As usual.” She lifted the leather case and set it on edge, as if she were about to open it. She paused. “So bring me up to speed on this Sisson mess,” she said.

I took my time sitting down, moving as if something might break if I landed too hard. “Bring you up to speed?”

“Yes. What’s with the investigation?”

I grinned, probably the wrong thing to do with Leona, since she would think I was grinning at her-which was correct in this case. “Leona, we generally don’t make the details of an ongoing homicide investigation public.”

“I’m not the public. I’m a candidate for sheriff. As such, I should be brought up to speed on current issues or concerns affecting the department.” She fired that out without a pause. Maybe she’d memorized it for just this occasion. I had a mental image of her lying in the tub, a great mound under the soap foam, practicing that very line until she had it just right. I was pleased I’d given her the opportunity.

“Well, I tell you what, Leona. As we get closer to the election, if I think there’s a need I’ll have both you and Mike Rhodes in for a familiarization session. Right now, the Sisson case is not open for discussion.”

Leona’s eyes narrowed again, this time at the sound of her Republican opponent’s name. She regarded me for a few seconds, no doubt assessing where my weaknesses lay. I’m sure that I had a sufficient number of those that the search wouldn’t take long.

“Robert Torrez is conducting the investigation?”

I nodded but said nothing.

“So one candidate has full information and the other two are left out in the cold.”

“Leona, don’t be ridiculous.” It was the wrong thing to say, of course, but I just added it to my string. Leona bristled. For the first time, it began to dawn on me just how stupid this woman really was. I leaned forward and put on my most serious gunnery sergeant’s face. “Bob Torrez is undersheriff of Posadas County, Leona. That happens to be his job at the moment-what the taxpayers pay him for. He isn’t actively campaigning, and it wouldn’t make any difference if he were. The investigation is a team effort, and he’s one of the leaders of that team. In fact, he is the leader.”

I sat back. “If and when you win the election on November seventh, Leona, I’ll be happy to open our files to you on November eighth. One hundred percent. If you so choose, you’ll walk into this office in January knowing every dark nook and corner, all the dark and dirty little secrets. But until then, the way we run an investigation isn’t for public consumption.”

She pressed on doggedly. “So how close are you?”

“To what?”

With a grimace of impatience, she snapped, “To finding out who killed Jim Sisson.”

“I think the appropriate phrase that we give to the newspapers is that ‘investigation is continuing.’” I smiled helpfully.

“Isn’t it true that you’re basing your guess that Jim Sisson’s death was a homicide on some photographs taken by Linda Real?”

“No, that’s not true, Leona. Where did you hear that zinger?”

“I have my sources, too.” Smug wasn’t one of her more attractive expressions, since it scrunched up her plump cheeks and made her otherwise attractive blue eyes small and piggy.

“Well, trade ’em in for new ones.”

“You’re saying Linda Real didn’t take pictures?”

I sighed, trying to hold my temper. “I don’t think you heard me say that,” I said. “You asked me if we had based our decisions on Deputy Real’s photographs. I said we hadn’t. Deputy Real recorded evidence photographically. Any decisions we make are based, hopefully, on evidence.”

“Well, it’s the same thing,” Leona replied.

“No, it’s not,” I said gently, but it wasn’t a discussion I wished to pursue. “So…what did you bring to show me? A nice letter from a citizen concerned with the welfare of visiting travelers from south of the border?” I nodded at her attache case.

I might as well have struck her between the eyes with a hammer. She paused with her thumb on the closure of the leather case, not wanting to take her eyes off me.

“Well?” I asked.

“Yes, as a matter of fact. That’s exactly what I brought. You’ve already heard about it?”

“Let’s see what you’ve got,” I said, and she reluctantly opened the case and withdrew the now-familiar piece of folded white typing paper. Without a word, she handed it across to me. With the exception of the Dear Miss Spears at the top, it was identical to those received by Sam Carter and Dr. Arnold Gray.

I let the letter fall on the desk blotter, and I sat with one forearm resting on each side of it, regarding the damn thing.

“Blah, blah, blah,” I said as I finished reading it. “Yes, I’ve seen this before.” I looked up at Leona Spears. “How was it delivered?”

“Stuck in the screen door of my house.”

“Huh. When you got home from work? What, about five, five-thirty?”

“About then.”

“May I have this?”

“No,” she said instantly. “It was written to me.”

Trying my best to keep the exasperation out of my voice, I said, “I’m sure you can appreciate that this could be evidentiary material.” I don’t know why I didn’t simply take the note as evidence, regardless of what this woman thought or wanted, but I suppose I was still trying, however ineffectually, to remain civil.

“Yes, I know that. That’s why I don’t want it to go missing.”

“Missing? Now that’s interesting. Why would it go missing?”

“Really, Sheriff,” she said, favoring me with one of those skeptical sideways looks that’s supposed to say it all.

“Really what? I’m going to steal this? And do what with it?” I took a deep breath. “Do you mind if I make a copy of it?”

She nodded. “You can go ahead and do that.”

“Excuse me for a minute, then,” I said.

Ernie Wheeler cheerfully took the letter and went to sweet-talk the aging copier.

I returned to my office and Leona Spears. “It’ll be just a minute. Deputy Wheeler has to wait for the stupid copier to warm up. About three minutes.” I sat down again. “So…”

“So? What is the department doing about this? I assume that this Pasquale person-I don’t think I’ve ever met him-I assume he’s been placed on administrative leave?”

“No.”

“Why ever not?”

Choosing my words carefully, I said, “There is no reason to place Deputy Pasquale on administrative leave, Ms. Spears. The only intimations of any wrongdoing come in these anonymous letters.” I hesitated, glaring at Leona Spears without blinking. “That’s not reason enough to ruin a young man’s reputation, or his career.”

“But you’re going to look into it?”

“Of course.”

“Why would anyone do this sort of thing if it weren’t true?”

“Oh, please, ma’am. I don’t mean to be evasive, Ms. Spears, but why would someone write those letters if the allegations were true? You express considerable interest in law enforcement procedures. If you had concrete evidence of wrongdoing on the part of an officer, would it make sense to write these cute little letters to various politicians?” I could see Leona rolling that one around in her thick skull, and I felt a surge of optimism. “Remember that it’s an election year,” I added.

Ernie Wheeler rapped on the door, then stepped in and handed me the papers. I started to hand the original back to Leona, but she waved it off.

“Oh, keep it,” she said.

“Thanks. I look at it this way: Somebody knows you pretty well. You receive this letter, and you then write a scathing letter to the editor, making it public. The publicity doesn’t do us any good, that’s for sure. Undersheriff Torrez will pay the price, that’s for double sure. Unless, of course, it becomes clear that the letters are a sham and that you were taken for a ride. Then it’s you who will be made to look foolish.” I shrugged and held up my hands helplessly. “Either way, someone gains.”

“Mike Rhodes.”

“Maybe.”

“It has to be him.”

“No, Leona, it doesn’t. Sam Carter, Mike’s brother-in-law and a longtime Republican, also got the letter.” I shrugged again. “I don’t know. I’d appreciate it if you’d just let it ride for the time being and let us sort it out. I’ll give you a receipt for this, and Deputy Wheeler witnessed the fact that you turned it over to our department. It’s not going to go missing or be ignored, I assure you.”

“All right,” Leona said, and patted her attache case as if it still contained more good stuff. She stood up and looked at her watch. “God,” she muttered. “And I have to get up in the morning and go to El Paso.”

“Drive carefully,” I said. “And thanks for stopping by.”

As the two of us left my office, Ernie Wheeler rose, waited for Leona Spears to walk out of earshot, and then said, “Sir, Grace Sisson just pulled into her driveway.”

“Good. Who’s on tonight?”

“Pasquale and Abeyta. Bob’s on, too, but he asked not to be called unless there was an emergency. He was going to track something down…he didn’t say what.”

“Ah,” I said. Bob Torrez would pad around his curiosities like a big, methodical cat until the variables were sorted out to his satisfaction. “Did he already arrange to have someone stay in the Sissons’ neighborhood for a while to make sure we know about it if either Grace goes somewhere or someone drops by to see her?”

“Yes, sir. He’s got Tony Abeyta parked over there.”

“That’s good,” I said. “Maybe they’ll get some rest for a bit.”

It would be better, in the last few hours of her privacy, for Grace Sisson to think that the world was going to leave her alone.

I walked back into my office and closed the door. Leona Spears’ fragrance lingered in the room, and I walked to the desk, flipping through the Rolodex pages until I found the entry for Officer Michael Rhodes.