NIGHT WALKER

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Chapter Four: Lady of the Night

Driving back to Sells Jay thought of Hattie and how down she was when they walked into her house. All he wanted was to find out if she knew his uncle and might know what it meant when he wrote Kokopelli in the dirt. He knew she didn't know his Uncle because Detective Russell already pointed that out, but she may have had something on her property that had a connection with that humpback flute player.


It was still a dead end as far as why someone would so violently kill his uncle. The only good thing so far was the chance to meet Cass McBryde. She seemed to be very nice lady and she also was way above him, so why torture himself at the thought of even trying get to know her better. Of course there is tomorrow, after all she volunteered to come along to his uncles place.


Jay Odam parked his car in the police lot and walked up to the front door. Standing there was Sergeant Johnny Garcia. He was big guy, over six feet tall and at times he seemed just as wide. Jay wouldn't mess with him that was for sure. "Did you have a nice time in Tucson, Jay?"


It really wasn't a question but more of a sarcastic remark. Jay ignored it. "So, anything exciting besides the normal drug runners, gang violence and illegal aliens?"


" I did stop a guy in a black Jeep earlier, he was kind of speeding." Johnny walked back into the station. "He said he was lost and I pointed him back to Tucson."


"Sounds like a wild night." Jay checked said. "Guess I'll go on home if you haven't anything new about my Uncle."


"That's about it Jay, sorry." Sarge reached up and put his massive hand on Jay's shoulder. "I'm sure the police in Marana will find out who did it."


Jay nodded his head and walked back over to his restored Toyota Land Cruiser. This car was one of the loves of his life. He and his Uncle tricked it out doing a Chevy conversion on it and it could go anywhere he wanted on the Reservation. It had everything he wanted on it. A rack of halogen lights on the top a heavy-duty wench and his favorite color, bright yellow.


Jay had a little singlewide trailer on an acre of land about eight miles from Sells, Arizona. Sells, is the capital city of the reservation of the Tohono O'odham. It wasn't much but his people fought hard to establish themselves as a recognized nation and they have come a long way since then. Sure there was still the normal poverty you would find on a reservation and the troubles that go with it but he was still proud of his heritage. They were called Papago at one time but prefer the name Tohono O'odham, people of the desert. Of course Uncle Ramone still considered himself a Papago saying he was too old to change any habits now.


As he drove toward home to finally rest after a long day. He kept thinking of Cassidy with her long black hair, her dark skin and that voice. He shook his head at the thought, he just figured she was out of his league.


Ahead of him, just barely in his headlights, was someone walking down the dirt road. He hit his spotlights, which turned this area of the desert into daylight. The woman was still walking as if she hadn't noticed the change from night to day. She walked with a stagger and at first Jay thought she might be drunk. She was far from any homes in the area and he wondered why she was out here at night by herself, it wasn't safe with all the illegal aliens that traveled from Mexico up through this desert seeking their fortune in America. The night was the best time to travel to escape the deadly heat and lack of water that hovered over this land.


Jay got out of his car and approached the woman. He matched her pace walking next to her. She was about his age and dressed like any other woman of this area. Her hair was messed up matted with some kind of dried fluid He saw that there was dried blood covering her face making her look like she was wearing some kind of hideous mask. Jay grabbed her arm and she just fell to the ground.


Jay picked her up and drove her to the local clinic. There he called Sergeant Johnny Garcia and Johnny told him he was headed straight over. Jay waited for the doctor wondering what had happened.


"Officer Odam!" The doctor voice shook him out of his daydream. "I have the results, if you want to know?"


"Sure, give it to me." He brought out a pad and began writing. The pad was for him to take down key words, this helped him to figure things out in case it was an illegal alien that did this out of fear and desperation to the woman. The actual report was in the Doctor's hand and would go to the Tohono O'odham Police Department.


"Her name is Mary Nunez," she started.


"Mary, that was Mary?" Jay was surprised because he knew Mary and he thought he should have recognized her. He grew up with Mary, they would go to his Uncle's to hear story's and to look at all of his little treasures. "I'm sorry, please go on."


"She is one lucky woman. She has several ribs fractured and her jaw is also fractured. She was hit with a blunt object several times in the head actually crushing the back area of the skull and she is blind in the left eye." She looked at Jay who had stopped writing. "What I can't figure is how she was able to walk at all as you described finding her Officer Odam?"


"Is she coherent, able to talk?" Jay asked. He felt pissed at what had happen to this woman he knew, but he was angry with himself for not recognizing Mary. "Did she say anything?"


"We had to have her transported to Tucson, but she kept saying, stay away and night walker." She flipped the sheets back over on the report and started to turn away but stopped. "It will be a long time before she will be able to give anyone any answers."


Sergeant Garcia walked in and listened to the same report from the Doctor. Jay turned to Johnny and with a question on his face "Did you get the license plate number on that Jeep?"
"Why?" Johnny asked picking up the medical report and starting to read it. "My goodness, you thinking what I'm thinking?"


"Sure am, let's run it and find this guy before he ruins any evidence." Jay turned and Johnny followed.


After an hour of computer data searches, DMV searches and a talk with the local FBI, Jay and Johnny sat staring at each other. "It was a plate and legit registration with all the VIN numbers and such, I swear it on my dead cat."


"I know Sarge, but they all say no such plate, person or car exist." Jay just shook his head trying to figure out where to go from here.


"Okay, what about what she said, you know night walker, does that ring a bell?" Johnny asked Jay.


"It sounds familiar but I just can't quite put my finger on it." Jay said yawning at the same time.


"Look Jay go home and go to bed, you've been at it off and on since six this morning." Johnny got up and walked back to his desk. "I'll need you to show me where you found her in the morning. We won't be able to see anything until then anyway with the cloud cover out there."


Jay tried to sleep but so many things kept going through his mind. He put in for a few days off after his Uncle's murder just to get his head straight. He just lost his favorite Uncle because a vision sent him to the wrong place at the wrong time. He remembered sitting at his Uncle's feet as a little boy listening to the old Papago legends. He learned to hunt, ride horses and create art all from his Uncle.


Sure, he was a little strange at times. Most of us in the family practice a Catholic faith with a twist but not Uncle John, he still held to the old beliefs.


He just couldn't figure out what his death had to do with a figure not really associated with his people. Where did Kokopelli come from in his Uncle's mind? What was out there on Hattie Malone's property that kept him going there? And most of all what are Hattie Malone and Cassidy McBryde up to?


Morning came to fast for Jay, but he was out at the area where he picked up the woman last night. Sergeant Garcia was looking around and started following the woman's tracks. "Let's see if we get lucky and find out if these tracks go all the way to the crime."


"Where did you stop the jeep, Sarge?" Jay asked as they followed their trail.


"About two miles past where you found the lady it was heading back this way." The Sergeant stopped and looked around. "Isn't your Uncle's house down this road Jay?"


"Yes it is, about four miles then turn right on a dirt road for another two miles." They continued on the walk. "As a matter fact Mary, the woman from last night, knew my Uncle, we were friends."


They stopped when the irregular footprints on the soft dirt shoulder ended. They looked around and found the area that the woman was beaten at. Blood was everywhere and one large stone was covered with it. "She put up quite a struggle. Let's get some people out here to sweep and secure this site."


Johnny ran back to his car and Jay started to see a few of the pieces falling in place. He figured that the owner of the Jeep was heading back from his Uncle's place and that maybe Mary was a witness. After all this guy has no problem blowing an old man away, why would he care about beating up a woman and leave her for dead in the Sonora desert? The problem is, even with his mistake of thinking she was dead, he was good at what he does but he made a mistake this time. Why didn't he just shot her?


Jay looked at the area with all the blood and then up at the desert. It was empty, just full of desert plants and miles of blue sky. To his right he could make out a mobile home about two miles away and to his left a falcon circling over something. Otherwise it was pretty much isolated. He could have just shot her and no one would have thought anything about it. Maybe this person just liked the feel of slamming a rock against a helpless person's head. That's sick.


"Jay, I'm glad you took a few days off from the Patrol." Sarge startled Jay back to the here and now. "I have a funny feeling you will do what I think you will do."


"What's that Sarge?" Jay knew the answer but wanted to hear it.


"If I know you, and I do, you'll do a private investigation on what's going on." Sarge smiled and got in his car. "In some areas our hands are tied here on the reservation."


Jay nodded and got in his car and headed back down the road to his home.


It was a few hours before he was to meet Cass at the Sells police station. He sat in his little mobile home and thought of his uncle and Mary Nunez. He would really miss his uncle, he was the one person in his family that understood him. He was his mothers brother, there were two other brothers but one was killed in a head on collision on Speedway in Tucson and the younger brother disappeared about forty years ago.


Jay's dad also disappeared but that was because he ran off with young woman from Oklahoma. His mother raised him with the help of Uncle John and his grandmother Nanna. He was a handful in his younger days and he had to give them credit for putting up with him.
It was Uncle John that made him the man he is today. Forcing him to always do better and to go to the University. Now he was a respected part of his little community and had a secure job with the Border Patrol.


He thought of Mary and what she meant by Night Walker. Jay bet it had something to do with the old ways. Mary was as avid about the heritage of the Tohono O'odham as his Uncle was. He just couldn't figure out why she was out so late and how she put herself into a situation that almost killed her. Mary was a very intelligent woman and also very caring. It just wasn't like her to put herself at risk. He would have to ask her Mother after the grieving period. Someone that convinced Mary that they were maybe an official investigating my Uncle Remone's death must have taken her from her home.


Sergeant Johnny Garcia listened to the man on the other end of the phone. There wasn't much he could say since it was made clear at the start that he was just a police officer on some reservation out in the middle of no where. He hated talking to the Feds. He didn't like the conversation one bit and was ready to throw the phone across the room. Johnny finally heard a break and dove in. "Look, she is one of our people, not yours and this happen just a few miles from where I'm sitting." Again the voice on the other end droned on. But this time it had a tone that actually sent chills up his back.


Johnny slammed the phone down and just sat there. There were two other officers in the room and they knew better then to approach him at this time. He didn't know what to do. He had this all built up inside and he needed someone to talk to but couldn't.


He hated to lose control of something that he started. But now he was between a rock and a hard place. It wasn't easy being a police officer no matter where you are, New York, Los Angeles, Omaha or on the Tohono O'odham reservation. He sure the hell didn't like that jerk on the phone making him feel like he was some kind of rent-a-cop guarding candy at a local convenience store. He has solved many crimes on this reservation and as a cop in Dallas and Pheonix. So what nerve did that asshole pinch that's making him feel so many emotions. At first he was angry then frighten and insignificant and now angry again. He looked out the window and saw Jay pulling up in his yellow Toyota.


As Jay walked in Johnny said. "What brings you back here, I thought you were going to rest?"


"I'm meeting someone here in a few minutes." Jay noticed that Johnny didn't look right. "You okay Sarge?"


"I'm fine Jay." He started to shuffle papers around on his desk. "Just got a lot of stuff to catch up on."


"Have you heard anything about Mary?" Jay asked.


"Have I!" Johnny said pulling back the anger in that statement and taking a deep breath to calm down. He knew he couldn't say what he wanted to. "She is coming along, they have a watch on her and will know more after a few days."


"I hope she pulls through." Jay said feeling that it would be best to wait outside and leave Johnny alone. Jay knew Sarge well, and he knew that look on Sarge's face was anger even though his voice was as usual. He also knew Sarge would talk when Sarge wanted to. "Look, you have things to do, I'm going out by my car and wait."


"Okay Jay." Johnny said but really wanted to just let loose and tell Jay what had him so upset. He didn't because he didn't want Jay to get involved in this. He knew Jay needed to concentrate on his Uncle and find answers there. Johnny's phone rang; he just looked at it and watched as someone else took it at their desk.


Jay leaned against his Toyota and looked down the road waiting to see Cass's truck. Sarge was hiding something and this bothered Jay. His answers were to quick and sharp and definitely not Sergeant Johnny Garcia.



Jay remembered the first time he had met the Sarge. It was a hot and windy day out in the reservation. The wind was causing quite a dust storm and rain could be seen in the distance. The Border Patrol had found what they thought was a dead illegal alien. But Jay searching the body found he was a local from the reservation. He remembered Sarge pulling up and staring at the body. Sarge looked over at Jay and asked him what he thought happened. Jay remembered he was sort of caught off guard by the question and just answered him by saying that he thought the victim was bludgeon to death and that all his money was gone so it was probably robbery. Sarge said that the dead man was Mike Salazar and that he had no money. If anything he was dragged out here by a group that thought they would have some sport with him. He pointed to the several tire tracks surrounding the area and the many different prints surrounding the body. Some are your guy's tracks but the rest was the group that was here last night. It went to far and they panicked and left him here to die. I'm sure they didn't intend to kill him but it's my job to find them before the Feds do because my people expect that of me. He finished talking and watched as the body was being photographed and evidence was being cataloged. He got back in his car and wound down the window and asked Jay what his name was. Then he said being an O'odham and an officer; you should want to help me. He then drove back to Sells and a friendship started.


Sarge was right about that murder, a bunch of guys got drunk and knowing that Mike Salazar was a little slow and a pest, lured him to the desert and started to knock him around. They didn't realize how hard they were hitting him until he went into a seizure and died and they ran. Sarge found them and made sure they paid for their crime.


Now Jay was trying to find out the reason for his uncle's death. He never hurt anyone nor had an enemy that Jay could think of yet some bastard used him as target practice. Jay wanted to find that person and take care of his uncle's spirit by bringing them to justice. Jay was just unsure what forms of justice, the one that the law books require or the one racing in Jay's mind and heart.


What really bothered him was his uncle's last message, Kokopelli. Jay loved his Uncle but that has to be the most stupid thing to write as you find yourself dying. Jay really couldn't make heads or tails about what it suppose to mean. Never did his uncle talk about that character even when he would talk about the difference between their people and other tribes. Now out of the blue he writes Kokopelli as if it was a code word for someone, but who is it for? Maybe one of his relatives could shed a light on it. He will check that out later, maybe after Cass leaves.


He waited for Cass so that he could go through his uncle's trailer and see if the answer could be found. He pretty much knew what was in that trailer, he had grown up in it. His uncle was like a father and he would go there as often as he could.


Jay looked up as a car passed but it wasn't Cass. Even though he just met her she was stuck in his mind. There was a certain something that he found very attractive. Sure she was beautiful but that really wasn't it and he had racked his brain to figure out why she seemed so important to him at this time.


Jay watched as Sammy pulled up in the Tohono O'odham police car. Jay liked Sammy, he was about Jay's age and they had a lot in common. Sammy walked up to Jay and smacked him on the back.


"Sorry to hear about your Uncle Jay." Sammy said, "Have the cops in Marana figured anything out yet?"


"No, at least they haven't told me they have."


"So what are you doing hanging around here? I understand you have taken a week off, you couldn't find anything better to do?" Sammy had that way about him that perked you up. It was as if he was happy all the time. Jay could hardly remember when Sammy didn't have a smile on his face. His answer to that was that his wife Pam made him happy and Jay really didn't want to know the details on how she did it.


"Just waiting for someone from Tucson." Jay looked at Sam and his constant smile got larger. "An ex FBI agent that wanted to tag along as I went through my Uncle's home."


"Oh," Sammy said a little disappointed. "I thought you may have had a hot date."


"No, just an agent that is a curious as I am on what happened." Jay hoped that Sammy would leave soon before Cass pulled up. "The agents friend was wounded about the same time my Uncle was killed."


"So how does that tie in?"


"The land that my uncle was on belonged to the lady that was wounded." Jay said seeing a white pickup trying to turn left from the main street.


"I see, you think it involves your Uncle, this shooting of the lady?"


"Not sure, but I'll look at everything if it means I get my Uncles killers." Jay saw the white pickup make it's turn and head toward them. "Don't you have to check in or something Sammy? I don't want to get you in trouble with the Sarge."


"The old man said to come in but he thought I was pretty far out, so I have a few minutes." Sammy looked down the street at what Jay was looking at. "Is that your agent coming up the street?"


"Yes." Jay said feeling that Sammy was never going to leave so he just resigned himself to that fact.


"How long has he been an Ex-FBI agent? From here he looks like his hair is down to his ass." Sammy said squinting and covering his brow to block the sun out.


"Not sure how long." Damn, thought Jay, there was no getting around it, Sammy would not leave and Cass was heading toward them.


"Think I'll stick around and met your Ex-FBI guy." Sammy said leaning on Jay's Toyota.

"Never met an FBI agent before, maybe he can teach me something."


"Yea, like quit leaning against my car before you scratch it up with all that equipment on your belt." Jay said looking at where Sammy's butt was to make sure his car was all right. "Look, I don't think we are going to stick around for idle chitchat."


"I won't stay that long buddy." Sammy was staring hard at the truck as it pulled in. "Just long enough to embarrass you."

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