Devil’s Claw

CHAPTER 23

Several minutes later, when Lucy Ridder finally stopped sobbing and turned to face Joanna, the full force of the afternoon sun struck a shiny knot of silver dangling on a chain at the base of the girl’s throat.

“That’s a beautiful necklace you’re wearing,” Joanna said. “What is it?”

Unconsciously, one of Lucy’s hands strayed gracefully to her throat and clasped shut around the necklace. “Grandma Bagwell, my grandmother’s mother, gave it to me before she died,” Lucy said. “It’s a devil’s claw.”

“May I see it?” Joanna asked.

Shrugging, Lucy’s hands went to the clasp. Within seconds Joanna was cradling the gleaming silver-and-turquoise amulet in her own hand. The two tiny pronged horns of the devil’s claw seemed to grow out of an equally tiny turquoise bead. She hadn’t seen the necklace George Winfield had given to Catherine Yates along with Sandra Ridder’s other personal effects, but she was sure this one was similar, if not an exact copy. The two necklaces were so alike that even Catherine Yates had been fooled into believing the one Sandra had been wearing actually belonged to her daughter.

“It’s lovely,” Joanna said. “What does it mean?”

“Indians use devil’s claw to weave in the patterns when they make baskets.”

“I know,” Joanna said. “I’ve seen them before.”

“Grandma Bagwell, my great-grandmother, used to say that people can make baskets without using devil’s claw, but that’s what they need to make the basket interesting, to make it tell a story. When she gave me the necklace, she told me it was because she thought I was interesting, too.”

“Did you know your mother had a necklace just like this-one that’s almost identical?” Joanna asked after a pause. “She was wearing it when she died. When your grandmother saw it, she thought it was yours.”

Once again Lucy’s eyes clouded over with tears. “No,” she whispered. “I didn’t know that. Grandma Bagwell must have given her one at the same time. But why? I thought when Grandma Bagwell gave this one to me it meant I was special, but I guess I was wrong.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Joanna offered. “Maybe she thought you were both special. That in your own way you both had interesting stories to tell.”

“No,” Lucy Ridder said, shaking her head.

Still holding the silver necklace in her hand, Joanna studied Lucy Ridder as the blustery late-March wind sifted through her light brown hair. Of the Native Americans Joanna had met, most had black, straight hair very unlike Lucy Ridder’s, which was both light brown and wavy. Behind the girl’s glasses her eyes were a striking gold-flecked hazel rather than deep brown. If this anguished young woman really was the great-great granddaughter of a famed Apache chief, it certainly didn’t show in her features. But there could be little doubt that many of Lucy Ridder’s ancestral instincts were still alive and well. After all, she had somehow summoned both the patience and skill to befriend, tame, and train a wild red-tailed hawk.

“My job is studying patterns,” Joanna said quietly, as she handed the necklace back to Lucy, who gazed at it as though it were no longer the treasure she had always assumed it to be. “Not the devil’s-claw patterns woven into baskets,” Joanna continued. “As sheriff, it’s my job to study the patterns left behind when people die-when they’re murdered.”

“Like my father and my mother,” Lucy murmured.

Joanna nodded. “Let me ask you something, Lucy. When a basketmaker weaves patterns with devil’s claw, do they always mean the same thing?”

“Not always.”

“But they may be connected, right? One may be different from the next one-from the one before it-but they’re still related.”

“Yes.”

“I think something similar has happened here,” Joanna said. “I think what’s happened in the past few days with your mother may be related to what happened to your father years ago. And now someone else is dead as well.”

“My grandmother?” Lucy asked.

“No. The latest victim is Melanie Goodson.”

“My mother’s attorney?” Joanna nodded.

Lucy shuddered. “She’s dead because I called her,” Lucy wailed, shaking her head and rocking back and forth. “I didn’t mean to cause trouble for her, too. I didn’t mean for her to be killed. I just knew I needed help, and I didn’t know who to ask.”

“Please, Lucy,” Joanna said, trying to console the girl. “Don’t blame yourself. Melanie Goodson was your mother’s attorney when your father was killed. That makes her part of the pattern, too. Before I can make sense of what’s happening now, I need to learn everything I can about what happened back then. As far as I can see, you’re the only one left who can tell me what I need to know. If you will, that is,” she added.

For several long seconds Lucy Ridder made no reply. She sat gazing intently into the concealing branches where Big Red had disappeared. Finally she turned away from the tree and focused her penetrating hazel-eyed gaze back on Joanna.

“Why should I?” she asked hopelessly. “What good will it do? My father’s dead. Nothing I can tell you will bring him back.”

“Or your mother, either,” Joanna added. “Lucy, listen to me. My father died when I was just a year younger than you are now. My daughter, Jenny, was seven when her father was killed-the same age you were when you lost your father. Not knowing the answers about why those things happened to my father and to my husband could have haunted Jenny and me for the rest of our lives. Finding out and knowing the truth about what happened to my dad and my husband didn’t bring either one of them back, but it did make it possible to go on.

“You’re right. What we learn now won’t bring either one of your parents back. They’re gone. But they say the truth will set you free, and I believe that’s the case. Finding out what really happened to Sandra and Tom Ridder is the only way you-Lucy-will be able to put these awful things behind you. It’s the only thing that will allow you to move forward. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck, and you’re too young and have far too much potential to let that happen.”

“What potential?” Lucy asked despairingly. “I’m nobody. I’m nothing.”

“Evelyn Quick didn’t think so,” Joanna said. “That’s not what she told her son. And Sister Celeste doesn’t think so, either. That’s why they’re both worried about you. That’s why Jay Quick called and told us about your phone call. It’s why Sister Celeste came looking for you and brought you here to a place where she believes you’ll be safe.” She paused then, giving her words time to soak in. “Tell me what happened that night, Lucy. Please.”

“First the one car drove up. My mother got out, went over to the sign, and started moving the rocks. The person who was driving didn’t help her. Whoever it was stayed in the car and I never saw who it was. Then another car drove up. It belonged to a man from the campground-a nice man who stopped and asked my mother if she needed any help. She said no, she was fine. As soon as he left, she went back to moving rocks. That’s when the other man showed up.”

“Did you know who he was?” Joanna asked. “Had you ever seen him before?”

Lucy shook her head. “And I didn’t hear him drive up, either. He must have parked far enough down the road that I never heard or saw his car. Mother didn’t hear him either, until it was too late.”

Lucy’s lip trembled. “I could have warned her,” Lucy said. “I could have told her, but I didn’t. I kept quiet the whole time he was yelling at her and hurting her. He said she had something that belonged to him, something he wanted. But I knew that wasn’t true. He was looking for the disk, and I had that right there in my backpack. If I had come out from where I was hiding and given it to him, maybe he wouldn’t have shot her. Maybe she wouldn’t be dead.”

“You don’t know that,” Joanna said. “Maybe you’d both be dead. You mustn’t blame yourself.”

“But I do. Anyway, the next thing I knew, there was the gun. They struggled over it; wrestled over it. Then the gun went off while they were rolling on the ground. Pretty soon the man stood up, but my mother didn’t move after that. The man picked her up-she was limp, like a rag doll. He dragged her over to the car and shoved her into the backseat.”

“Did you see where the gun came from?” Joanna asked. “Was the man who attacked your mother carrying it?”

“No,” Lucy said. “I’m sure it was my mother’s gun-the same one she used to kill my father. She hid it there beneath the sign the night she shot him. I saw her do it. It was tiny, and she hid it in a plastic bowl along with that stupid computer disk. When I took the disk, I left the gun where it was. It killed my father, and I didn’t want to touch it.

“Anyway, after the man threw Mother into the car, he got in, too-in the front seat on the rider’s side. I heard a woman’s voice then-the driver, I guess-say, ”Now you’ve done it, you stupid bastard!“ And he said, ”Just shut up and drive. Get us the hell out of here.“ And they left.”

“Lucy,” Joanna said. “This all happened in the middle of the night. It was freezing cold that night. I was out in it, too. What were you doing out there?”

“Hiding. Big Red and I wrapped up in a bedroll. He helped me keep warm.”

“But why did you go there in the first place?”

“I had to know. Mother said she was coming home. At least, that’s what she told Grandma Yates and that’s what she told me, but I knew all along it was a lie. I don’t think she cared if she ever saw either one of us again. The only reason she came back at all was to get the diskette, just like I knew she would.”

“And how long were you there waiting?” Joanna asked.

“I had to wait until Grandma fell asleep before I could sneak out of the house. And it took time to walk and ride there in the dark, but I got there in plenty of time. I was already hidden in the bedroll when they drove up.”

“The man with your mother,” Joanna said.

“He wasn’t with my mother. He came later. She was already there, moving the rocks.”

“Tell me about this man,” Joanna urged. “Had you ever seen him before that night?”

“No,” Lucy said. “Not that I remember. But I’ve seen him since then.”

“You have?” Joanna demanded. “When?”

“The next day. He came to the rest area late Saturday afternoon. Big Red and I had been hiding in among the boulders just above the road. I was coming down to use the pay phone and get a candy bar. That’s when I saw him. He was parked by the phone and stayed there for a long time. As soon as I saw him, I knew he was looking for me-and for the diskette. And I knew he’d kill me if he found me, so I stayed out of sight.”

“Did you notice what kind of car he was driving?”

Lucy shook her head. “I don’t know much about cars. It was gray-silver, I mean. And foreign, but that’s all I saw.”

“Did you tell Sister Celeste about him?”

“I was afraid to. I was afraid if she knew someone like that was looking for me, she might not help me anymore.”

Joanna paused to get her bearings. “Tell me about this computer diskette. You said it was hidden in the plastic bowl along with your mother’s weapon.”

“Right,” Lucy said. “She hid them both that night-the night she shot my father.”

“I know how hard it is to talk about, Lucy,” Joanna prodded gently. “But I need you to tell me about that night-as much as you can remember.”

Lucy took a deep breath. “Mother came to the YMCA looking for me. We were in the middle of class, but that didn’t matter. She just barged right in. She told me to get dressed, that we had to leave. Her face was all bloody. Her lip was cut. She looked awful. Mrs. Quick tried to tell her that she shouldn’t be driving, that she needed to see a doctor. But she kept yelling at me to come on. And so I did.”

“What happened then?”

“She turned around in the car and said to me, ”All right, where is it? It isn’t at the house, and it isn’t in his truck. Give me your backpack.“ So I gave her my backpack, and she dug through it until she found the diskette right where Dad put it.”

“Your father gave you the diskette?”

Lucy nodded. “At lunch. He came to school that day and told Sister Celeste he had to talk to me. He took me across the street to the bakery. I can’t remember the name exactly. Something about a cave, I think. He bought us both doughnuts, but he was too upset to eat his. When he tried to tell me what was going on, he started crying. He told me my mother had done something bad at work, and that he had just found out about it. He said he was afraid she was going to get into serious trouble, that she might even have to go to jail if anyone ever found out.”

“Did he say what kind of trouble?”

“He said Mom had a boyfriend at work and that the two of them were doing stuff together-secret stuff. Like spies or something. And then he told me he was going to talk to Mother about it and get her to quit. That’s when he gave me the diskette to keep for him. He said if Mother knew about it that she’d really be mad at him. He said once he talked to her, he’d take it back and get rid of it so nobody else would find it.

“As soon as she took it away from me that night while we were parked outside the Y, I should have known right then Dad was dead, that she’d already killed him. And that’s why she did it, too. She killed him because she thought he was going to tell on her, but he never would have. Mother was beautiful, and my dad loved her no matter what she did. I think he loved her even more than he loved me. It’s the same thing with Grandma Yates-she loved Mom better, too. The only people who ever really loved me were Sister Celeste; my ballet teacher, Mrs. Quick; and Grandma Bagwell, my great-grandmother, although now that I know she gave Mother a devil’s claw…” Without warning, Lucy’s voice faded away into nothing.

Joanna tried to draw her away from that particular hurt. “Let’s go back to the diskette,” she urged. “You said your father gave it to you for safekeeping while he confronted your mother about whatever it was she was doing. Then your mother came to get you and took it away. What happened next?”

“We drove out to Cochise Stronghold. It was night when we got there, and cold, too. My mother cried the whole way there, and she kept saying stuff I couldn’t understand. It sounded like she was mad at everybody. She told me to lie down and go to sleep. I kept peeking out, though. The whole time we were driving there, I thought we were going to Grandma Yates’ place. Instead, we went straight to the entrance of Cochise Stronghold.

“When Mother opened the door to get out of the car, she told me to go to sleep. But I didn’t. I saw everything she did. First she pulled loose a bunch of rocks. She had a little plastic bowl along with her, the kind she used to take along to work when she packed a lunch. First she put something shiny into the bowl. That must have been the gun-a tiny gun. Then she added the diskette and closed the bowl’s lid. She put the bowl in among the rocks, then she covered it. When she came back to the car, I pretended to be asleep. Since we were so close to Grandma’s house, I thought we’d go there and say hello and maybe have something to eat, but we didn’t.

“Mother drove us straight back to Tucson. On the way, I fell asleep for real. I don’t remember going home, and when we got there, she must have carried me into the house. When I woke up the next morning, the house was full of police, and Dad was sitting in the chair in the living room. He was dead.”

Lucy sighed and shuddered, as though the effort of relating the story had been too much for her.

“What happened next?”

“Some man-a detective, maybe-came to the house and asked me a whole bunch of questions. He kept asking me if my father ever hit my mother. And I said, ”I never saw him hit her.“ Then he asked if Dad ever hit me, and I told him no. I kept waiting for him to ask me if my mother hit people or if she was a spy and did bad stuff, but nobody ever did. Then it was like they forgot all about me and nobody bothered to ask me any more questions. I figured out later that was because Mother confessed. She told them she did it. After that, a woman came to talk to me and told me they were going to send me to live with my grandmother and my great-grandmother.

“After I got there, I tried to tell a few people about what Dad said my mother had been doing, but no one would listen. Not even Grandma Bagwell. She and Grandma Yates both said my father was dead because he was a bad man and because he had beaten up my mother. I told them they were wrong about that-that it was my mother who was bad. I tried telling them the same thing Dad had told me about Mother getting into trouble at work. I thought if there was a trial, lawyers would ask me questions and I would have to tell them the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

“But there wasn’t any trial. My mother said she shot Dad because she was tired of him beating her up. Afterward she said she was scared. She picked me up from ballet and then drove all over half the night trying to decide what to do. She said she didn’t know what happened to the gun-that she had thrown it away somewhere. But that wasn’t true, either, because I found the gun in the bowl along with the diskette.”

“And when was that?”

“I don’t know,” Lucy answered with a shrug. “A long time later. I was only a little kid then. I turned eight the next summer. Grandma Yates didn’t like me wandering around in the hills by myself, but Grandma Bagwell did. She said it was neat. The fact that I liked to be out scouting by myself proved I was a ”real‘ Apache, just like her grandfather Eskiminzin.

“Anyway, one day I went to the rock pile all by myself. I dug up the bowl, found the diskette, and took it home. I wanted it because Dad had given it to me to take care of. I wanted to know what was on it. I kept it hidden in another plastic bowl-one of Grandma Yates’ this time. I hid the bowl out in the shed because I didn’t want Grandma Yates to find it when she was cleaning my room. I knew it was from a computer, and I kept waiting for a chance to look at it. Finally, when I got to high school, there was a computer in the library. I tried looking at it there, but it must have been the wrong program or something. Or maybe the disk got wrecked when it was in plastic all those years. There wasn’t anything there.”

“That’s not true,” Joanna said quietly. “There is something there.”

Lucy swung around to face Joanna. “Really?” she demanded. “What?”

“I don’t know. It’s encrypted.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means most people can’t read it because it’s written in a top-secret code-a government code. As far as we can tell, it seems to contain command and control codes for the military.”

Lucy’s mouth dropped open and her eyes widened. “Does that mean my father was right the whole time? My mother really was a spy?”

Joanna nodded. “Possibly,” she replied, “although at this point we can’t say for sure.”

“See there?” Lucy was almost shouting now. “I told you so. I was glad when they sent Mother to prison, and I’m glad, too, that she’s dead now. Unlike my dad, she deserved what she got. I loved my father, Sheriff Brady. I hated it when people thought he had been mean to her, when they thought he was the kind of man who would beat us-beat both of us-when he didn’t-not once, not ever.”

“Let’s go back to the other night for a moment,” Joanna said.

“Why?” Lucy asked.

“I need you to finish telling me what happened. It’s the only way we’re going to find out who killed your mother.”

“I don’t care who killed my mother. I already told you,” Lucy said fiercely. “I’m glad she’s dead. What does it matter who killed her?”

“Lucy,” Joanna said, “you told me that the whole time your father’s death was being investigated, no one ever asked you about your mother’s alleged spying or about her having a boyfriend. Right?”

Lucy nodded. “So?”

“That means no one ever knew about it-no one in authority, that is. Whoever investigated that case always assumed that the motive behind your father’s murder was related to what was going on between your parents. Domestic violence is a handy catch-all, especially when your father was already on record for being violent.”

“You mean that thing that happened back while he was in the army?” Lucy asked.

Joanna nodded.

“That was my mother’s fault, too,” Lucy declared. “She and my dad were in a bar together. Like I said, that was before my father quit drinking. He told me he got mad because Mother was flirting with some other guy. Dad hit him and knocked him out. He didn’t find out until later that the guy was a superior officer. They made Dad leave the army over that, but he said he didn’t mind. He said by then the army was driving him crazy anyway.”

“Is that when he stopped drinking?”

“Yes,” Lucy said. “I liked him a lot better after he did. From then on Dad was different somehow. Nicer. Happier-until that morning at the bakery, the morning when he came to tell me about Mother. He cried the whole time he was telling me. Not really crying like a baby does, but there were tears in his eyes. He had to keep brushing them away. I pretended like I didn’t see them, but I did.”

“Your mother admitted that some of her injuries that day were self-inflicted,” Joanna said quietly. “What if she isn’t the one who shot him? What if someone else did? And what if someone else beat her up?”

Lucy seemed stunned by the very suggestion. “Is that possible?” she asked. “If Mother didn’t do it, why did she say she did? Why would she go to prison for something she didn’t do?”

“I don’t know,” Joanna replied. “Maybe she was scared. Maybe going to prison wasn’t as scary as what might have happened to her if she hadn’t. And it looks like it worked. As long as everyone had your mother pegged for being a killer, no one but you and your father ever suspected her of being a spy. Which is why we have to find out who killed your mother. Remember those devil’s-claw patterns woven into baskets? What if the person who killed your mother is the same person who killed your father and he’s gotten away with it all these years?”

“What more can I tell you?”

“After they drove away that night, what did you do?”

“I was scared,” Lucy said. “I knew I had what he wanted. I was afraid he might shoot me, too, or maybe even Grandma Yates, so I didn’t want to go home. That’s when I decided to run away for good. When I left Cochise Stronghold, I was going to ride my bike to Tucson. I forgot about the freeway and that I couldn’t ride my bike on it. On the way, I kept trying to figure out who I could ask for help. I finally made up a list-my ballet teacher, Mrs. Quick; my mother’s lawyer, Ms. Goodson; and Sister Celeste, my teacher from Santa Theresa’s. By the time Big Red and I made it as far as the rest area in Texas Canyon, I was too tired to ride any farther. And it seemed safe. There was a vending machine there with candy bars and drinks and a phone. That’s where I made phone calls to the people on my list.”

“You had money?”

“Enough. Mrs. Quick’s son told me she was dead, so that didn’t work. I called Ms. Goodson, but when her answering machine came on I didn’t know what to say so I left my name but I didn’t leave a message. There was no way for her to call me back. Finally, I reached Sister Celeste. We talked, but someone came up to use the phone. I told her I’d call her back later, but I never had a chance to call again until Sunday morning.

“I was asleep in my bedroll when Big Red woke me up and told me someone was coming. I don’t know for sure it was him, but I ran away and left everything behind. I didn’t dare go back for it.”

“I don’t know if it was your mother’s killer,” Joanna said, “but whoever it was who found your camp, he broke up your bike and tore up everything else you left there.”

Lucy’s eyes were wide. “That means Big Red saved my life,” she said.

“I believe so,” Joanna returned. “So what happened then?”

“I hid for a while. Then, later, I started walking. I walked until I came to a ranch. I told the lady I had gotten lost while I was out hiking with my family. She let me use the phone. I called Sister Celeste, and she came to get me. She brought a hood for Big Red, otherwise he never would have gotten in her car. And we’ve been here ever since while she and Father Mulligan tried to decide what to do.”

“What about your gun?” Joanna asked, remembering for the first time the.22 Catherine Yates claimed Lucy had taken along with the bedroll and extra clothing.

Lucy shrugged. “Sister Celeste told me to give it to Father Mulligan, and I did,” she said. “But it was no big deal. It wasn’t loaded, and I forgot to bring along any ammunition.”

A relieved Joanna was gearing up for her next question when her cell phone rang. She was tempted to ignore it. “Aren’t you going to answer that?” Lucy asked, shaming Joanna into it.

“Hello.”

“Joanna!” Butch Dixon breathed. “Thank God I caught you. Where are you?”

Quickly, Joanna looked at her watch. It was only five. Certainly she wasn’t already late for dinner. Besides, the breathless urgency in Butch’s voice boded something far more serious than that.

“I’m in Saint David,” she answered. “I really shouldn’t be interrupted right now. I’m in the middle of an interview.”

“You’ve got to come home right now!”

The ferocity in Butch’s order took Joanna’s breath away. “What is it?” she demanded. “What’s happened?”

“I’m leaving the vet’s right now. Dr. Ross says whatever the poison is, both dogs got into it. She’s administering an emetic, and she’s hoping we got them here in time.”

“Poison?” Joanna repeated. “Did you say poison?”

“Yes. Both dogs, Tigger and Sadie. Jenny is in the treatment room with them. She’s been a brick, but I’ve called Eva Lou. She and Jim Bob are coming here to take Jenny home with them, then I’ll go back out to the house. Deputy Howell is there keeping an eye on things.”

“Butch, what the hell has happened?”

“Just come home, Joanna,” he begged. “Please. You’re not going to believe me if I try to tell you. You’ll have to see it with your own eyes.”