NIGHT WALKER

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Chapter Five: Sweet Music

Jay was standing by his Toyota with a young police officer as Cass pulled up in front of the Tohono O'odham Police station. "Hi Jay, I forgot how far out Sells was from Tucson." She smiled at him and he was mesmerized. "So that is my excuse for being late."


"Some ex FBI agent." Sammy said jabbing him in the side.

"I better get inside and see the old man." Sammy was laughing as he walked away.


"Friend of yours?" Cass asked as she watched Sammy go through the door. "I didn't mean to interrupt."


"You didn't and yes he is a friend." He said trying to smile back. "Do you want to ride with me or follow?"


"I'll ride with you if you don't mind." She walked by him and hopped into the passenger seat of the Toyota. "I just love this four by four of yours."


Jay was in heaven. She loved my Toy. What a woman he thought. He rushed over and got in the driver seat and fastened the seat belt. "It's not that far from here, about eight miles."


"So, did your Sergeant have any news?" Cass asked as she held on to the roll bar over the bumpy dirt road.


"No." Jay looked over at Cass and watched her long silky black hair wave in the rushing air. "But we had a related incident last night."


"Really, how so?" He told her about what had happened last night and what he thought was going on. "So you think he was at your Uncle's place?"


"I really do." Cass had a strange look on her face that made Jay wonder what was on her mind. "What's the matter Cass?"


"We might have a lead on your mystery Jeep." Cass told Jay about the new doublewide and the black Jeep. "He did act shaken and anxious to get rid of us."


Jay traveled down the road until he reached a dirt side road and turn into it. He looked over at Cass and then back at the road. "We have a lot of dirt roads around here."


"I know, I was raised in the desert remember?" Cass knew he was just trying to make small talk. "I love the desert and missed it while I was back in the Midwest and east."


"Yea." Jay looked around at the landscape. "It does get hold of you. There is just something about it that I find peaceful, almost holy."


"I know what you mean." Cass said looking over at Jay thinking about what kind of man is he. She saw that he had feelings that he wasn't afraid to show, yet he is holding something back. A good-looking man with a good job a place of his own, so what was his problem. It's strange some woman on the hunt hasn't hooked this one. Maybe she thought he's gay. "I use to go way out in the desert at night away from the city lights and just stare at the stars and listen to the silence. Sometimes I felt something come inside me as if a spirit was touching me."


Jay understood what she was talking about. His uncle believed in the old way and would have said a spirit touched her. He would have named one and probably would have explained why that spirit touched her. Jay really didn't believe in that stuff, he was raised as a Catholic and even then when he was old enough to skip church he never went back. He always said that the next time he would be in a church was just to say I do. Still, he has felt something when he is out here by himself. On the other hand, the desert can be hard mistress when she wants to be. He has seen his share of dead bodies out here as illegal aliens try to cross this inferno to the bounty of America could offer. Woman and old men carry too little water to survive or murdered after the Coyotes took their money promising to get them there safely.


Sometimes it became so hard to recognize their suffering when your own heart becomes hard just to hide from the pain. He remembered one woman that was found dead and the only reason she was found is because of her child crying. The child died two days later in Tucson. Nobody ever came from either side of the border to claim them.


He quickly changed the scene playing in his mind to what Cass had said about seeing a black Jeep at that doublewide. Life for him wasn't this lucky that, that Jeep could be the same one. How many black Jeeps are there in Arizona and how many of them are in Pima County alone? It was all probably a coincidence.


Jay pulled up in front of a well-maintained trailer and stopped his Toyota. This is where he spent most of his time as a child and as a man. As a child he would enjoy every minute he spent with his uncle. His uncle was the male figure in his life, and you couldn't ask for a better one. After he grew up, he could always come over here, grab a cold Pepsi and blow off steam. His uncle was a good listener and a good friend. Again his mind went back to the jeep issue. He thought it just might be, so why not find out? He turned toward Cass and asked. "Do me a favor Cass, see if you can get the license plate number of that Jeep."


"I have already thought of that Jay." That didn't surprise him considering her past experience. Ex-FBI and police officer, he was sure her mind quicker than his. "I'll call you with it and have a few old friends check it out."


They walked in to his Uncle's trailer. Cass looked around at the way it was kept. Here was a man that had a very orderly lifestyle. Each item was placed perfectly. It just all seemed to fit in such a way that if you moved one piece you would know it. She was amazed at how much stuff was in this little trailer. Every corner, nook and cranny held something that involved Native Americans. Yet even though there was so much stuff, it was all well placed. "Your Uncle kept a neat place Jay."


"Yeah, he was a neat freak." Jay scanned the trailer to make sure no one had been here before them as far as he could tell nothing was disturbed. He expected to find this place trashed from someone trying to find something. He walked down the short hall to the bedroom and the bathroom. He glanced in to the half bath and found nothing out of place. He continued to the side room that was another bedroom but was actually used as an office. He checked the desk and the filing cabinet but nothing seemed to have been tampered with. His last stop was his uncle's bedroom. The bed was made and all was as he remembered it. He went into the master bedrooms bathroom. He saw his uncle's straight razor, shaving mug and cologne siting on the sink, he remembered watching his uncle shave with that weapon asking him why he didn't buy an electric one. His answer was that this one drew blood once and awhile to remind him he was alive, it never made sense to Jay. Now Jay wondered why the man in the Jeep hadn't been here.


As Jay walked back in to the living room he saw Cass looking at some of his Uncle's baskets and hearing her say how orderly it all was. "Don't expect to see fanatical cleanliness at my place."


Cass and Jay started their search making sure to put everything back exactly where it was when they found it. After about a half-hour they both sat at the kitchen table lost in thought. "I just don't get it. There has to be something here." Cass said.


"Maybe I should get hold of a couple of old friends up on the Navajo Reservation in Four Corners." Jay took a long hard look at his Uncle's place. It was full of old artifacts handed down in the family, baskets, pots and other items that his Uncle had cherished and collected through the years. "One is a retired Lieutenant and the other is a Sergeant. They both have a damn good record on solving things."


"I don't know Jay, how could they help?" She watched his eyes as he was looking around the trailer.


"It's the Kokopelli thing that has me bugged, so go to the people that know about him." Jay got up and walked over to the bookshelf full of his Uncle's treasures. "It's the only thing I can come up with."


Cass walked over and studied the bookshelf again. As she looked from shelf to shelf, it hit her like a sledgehammer. At the same time, a pounding came from the door. Jay walked over and answered it.


There stood a tall man with black hair and sunglasses wearing a dark suit. U.S. Government was written all over him. For some reason Jay thought of the movie Men in Black. "I am Ron Carris, U. S. Marshal." He just flashed his badge and walked past Jay.


"What do you want, Mr. Carris?" Jay asked shrugging his shoulders at Cass. "This is my Uncle's home and I don't appreciate you just barging in!"


"I am here at your Uncle's request." He was looking around the trailer like a hawk high in the sky ready to dive on its prey hundreds of feet below him. "Is he here?"


Jay explained what had happened to his Uncle. "So, I don't guess you will be much help to him now."


"I'm sorry to hear about your loss." He walked over to the bookshelf. "Have you found anything to suggest a suspect?"


Cass, who was behind the man, looked at Jay and shook her head no. "Not yet, Mr. Carris." Jay said.


"We better go Jay, I need to get back to Hattie's." Cass started toward the door. Jay looked over at the Marshal.


"Yes, I must leave also." He turned and walked out the door not even saying thank you or good bye.


Cass and Jay left the trailer and watched the dark colored sedan create a dust trail down the road. "It has government plates, Jay." Cass said.


She grabbed Jay's arm and pulled him to the Toyota and she hopped into the passenger seat. He started the engine and headed back toward the police station to pick up her car.


"Why did you want to leave?" Jay asked as they drove away. He knew she didn't have to get back to Hattie's. "I thought we would look around outside for more info."


"I think I have it Jay!" Cass said suddenly as they rushed through the dust left by the sedan. "We were looking for something about Kokopelli, but we just didn't understand that the word 'about' was the key."


"What do you mean Cass?" Jay pulled the Toyota over to the shoulder of the road and turned off the engine. "About what?"


"Kokopelli has one thing that I always remembered about him." Cass reached into her blouse and pulled out a beautiful bamboo flute. "This is what he was trying to point us to."


"My Uncle's flute?" Jay remembered the flute well. His Uncle got it in Japan when he was stationed over there after the war. He taught Jay how to play it and the sweet music it made was something Jay enjoyed listening to. He would talk about this was the only non-Indian artifact that he had in his collection, yet in its own way, it was part of the collection. "It has no words or decorations on it Cass, so how does that help?"


"Can you play it, Jay?" She asked as she handed it to him.


"Sure, my Uncle taught me." He put it to his lip and blew gently just as he was taught. But no sound came out. "What the hell?"


Cass grabbed the flute smiling and using her little finger reaching into the opening pulling out a sheet of paper. "Damn!" Jay said. "Now it all comes back to me. When I was little and played that flute, my Uncle would say that I played it so well that maybe I was Anasazi and not Tohono O'odham. He would call me little Kokopelli."


"Now you remember." Cass said kidding. "It happens, lost memories of a persons childhood."


"So now what?" Jay asked hating himself for not remembering something so important.


"Now let's go back to the trailer and put the flute back, without the treasure map." She unrolled the sheet of paper as Jay did a U-turn and headed back to the Ramone's house. She glanced at it but didn't understand a thing on it. She thought that it was written in some native language that they used on the reservation so she just rolled it back up.


"What does it say Cass?" He glanced over at Cass. "Don't keep me guessing, Cass."


"I don't know." She shoved it down her blouse and Jay knew that was where it was going to stay, in no man's land. "Let's wait until we get back to Tucson." They went back to Jay's uncle's place and placed the flute exactly as Cass had found it. She took one last look around and they both headed back outside.


"Why did we have to leave the first time Cass? You could have told me there." Jay said as they went down the steps.


"I wanted to make sure that if anyone was watching, they saw us leave, like our Marshal friend." Cass hopped into the seat and buckled up. "I'm starting to not trust anyone, especially a Marshal all of a sudden showing up and saying your uncle requested him. It just doesn't work that way."


Jay was heading back toward Sells and suddenly turned left on to another dirt road. Cass knew this wasn't the way to Sells.


"Were are we heading now?" Cass asked.


"We're going to my place." He decided to stay with his cousin, Chad, in Tucson he explained to Cass so he wanted to pick up a few items. Cass looked at the singlewide in front of her she thought Jay and his uncle must have went to the same sales lot to buy their homes. They were identical except Jays yard area was never landscaped or cared for while his Uncle's place had a rock and cactus garden. As they got out of the Toyota, Jay turned to Cass. "I'm warning you that I am nothing like my uncle. As a matter of fact we were opposites."


"How so Jay?" She asked seeing the look on his face and knowing he was trying to make excuses for his bad house keeping.


"He kept his home in perfect order while driving an old truck that was ready to fall apart." They walked up to the front door and Jay stopped. "Well, my home looks like it was hit by a bachelor bomb, but my Toyota is perfect."


As Cass stepped inside she saw why Jay looked embarrassed. The place had dirty dishes in the sink, clothes thrown around. "Looks like you need a housekeeper."


"More like a disaster team is what you're thinking." Jay quickly went into the bedroom and grabbed some clothes and threw them in a canvas suitcase. "I would ask you to sit but let's just get my stuff and go to Hattie's and see what we got." Jay shouted from the other room.


"No problem, Jay." Cass said but she thought, hell yes there's a problem, I can't find the furniture.


The old man watched the young couple leave the police station. He walked up to the young lady's pick up. He circled it and walked back to his car. He stood there for awhile and decided to head back into Tucson when he heard someone shout at him. He looked up and saw the police sergeant heading toward him.


"Can I ask what you were doing by the pick up over there?" Johnny asked. He looked at he old man. He wasn't very tall but he was stocky and looked like he was in pretty good shape. He was also very well dressed.


"I just wanted to see it up close. It had Pennsylvania plates, I have relatives there." The man said. "Pretty nice pick up though, wouldn't you say?"


"Do you have any I.D. sir?"


The man pulled out his wallet and handed Johnny his driver license. "Did I do something wrong?"


"No it's just that we have had a few problems with stolen vehicles so when I see someone walking around one it makes me suspicious." Johnny said as he noted the name and address on the man's license. "Thank you, sir."


The man started to laugh. "It would either take a brave man or an idiot to try and steal a car from a police department's parking lot."


"You'd be surprised." Johnny handed back the license and went back to his office. He made a mental not to tell Jay that some old guy was snooping around his lady friend's truck. He thought of Jay and that young lady. She was really nice looking and knowing Jay, he was getting interested. Problem was, Jay was shy when it came to women. Most complained he was just plain boring and would leave him after a few weeks. Jay said he was use to it but one day, Miss Right will walk up and he won't have to worry about it any longer.


Johnny grabbed a cup of coffee and sat at his desk. A lot has happened in the past few days, more action then he has seen all year. Now he had the Feds on his back and he really knew they were watching his station. Hell, he saw a Government sedan go by earlier, you would think they would be more cautious or maybe they wanted him to notice so that he knew they meant business.


He decided that the best thing to do was go about the day as usual. At five go home and see what new dish he would have to try and like that the little woman made for dinner. He enjoyed getting the satellite dish and watching all his sports but he regretted the day his wife found the food channel. He was a meat and potato man and now God only knows what he will be faced with on a daily basis. He just wanted to take his shoes off and relax without worrying about anything going on in the reservation.


Johnny let Jay park the Toyota behind the police station's chain linked yard. They both decided to use Cass's car in Tucson. If he needed to get around when she wasn't there he always could use Chad's street legal dirt bike.


"So you don't want to pull over and see what the paper has to say?" Jay asked. "We could drive up to Kitt Peak, to the observatory on the way back and look at the view and the paper."


"You know, I have never been to Kitt Peak, but no, let's just get back to Tucson. She put her hand on her chest as if saying stay away. "Maybe when this is all over you could show me that view?"


Jay was taken back by that last comment. Did he actually have a chance with her? Or was she just being nice to him because of all the things that have happened.


"You know my favorite place is in Sabino Canyon up by the dam." She said. "You walk among all those desert plants, like saguaros and creosote bushes and prickly pears and then, as if transported by some kind of Star Trek transporter, you are by a creek with beautiful trees."


"Yes it is nice up there." Jay said. "I use to go up to the aspens in the Catalina Mountains and backpack in over night."


"Done that too." Cass looked over at him. "Do you have a girlfriend or fiancée?"


"No." Jay thought this was a good sign. She wants to know his status so she must be opening a door for him.


She thought about that answer and maybe she thought she phrased it wrong. She decided that the best way to approach anything was a straight line. "You're not Gay, are you?"


"What?" Jay almost lost control of her truck. "Why would you think that for God's sake?"


"It's just that you don't have a girlfriend, you're young, got a good job, yet that trailer says to me, I haven't had any ladies in here in a long time." She cocked her head and just stared at him. "Well?"


"Some FBI agent you are." Jay said. "Would any Gay guy you know live like that?"


She laughed and poked his shoulder. "Guess not. Hell I know straight guys that wouldn't live like that."


Jay didn't know how to take that last statement. "I really do clean it up on the week-ends but lately with overtime on the patrol and my Uncle being murdered, it is a lot worse then it usually is."


"I understand, Jay." She knew how guys were. When she went up to see her brother last summer, she washed dishes for two days just so they could sit at the table and eat a meal together. "What's that over there?"


Jay looked down the road and saw a gray Lincoln pulled off the side. Jay saw an old man fumbling with a spare tire trying to get it out of the trunk. "I think he needs help."


"You think it's safe, Jay?" Cass asked as Jay pulled in behind the old man. Guess he thinks it is she thought, as Jay came to a stop and hopped out.


"You need some help sir?" Jay said as he walked up to the old man. He had long white and gray hair. He wore expensive clothes and the Lincoln was only a year old. "I can get that for you."


"I would appreciate it young man." He said with a smile full of white teeth. "I'm getting up there in years and what I could do as a youth I find almost impossible to do as an old coot."
Cass got out of the car and watched as Jay changed the old man's tire. "You from here?" Cass asked.


"No, just came in from Flagstaff to see a few friends and relatives on the reservation." He said. "People call me Trader young lady, and your name is?"


"Cassidy McBryde." Cass replied. "I get to Flagstaff now and then."


"Really, you need to come by and see my shop. I sell Native American crafts." He turned to see what Jay was cussing about. "Being quote, an Indian, unquote, I make sure they get a fair value for their work."


"You know you got a bad lug on this tire?" Jay said.


"Looks like a bolder hit it. Bent it and your rim. To get your spare on I'm going to have to break it with the lug wrench."


"Do what you have to son, I'll just make sure I drive slow until I find a place to fix it." Trader said. Cass was staring at his turquoise necklace and the large ring. "I got these from a Navajo gentleman. The Navajo's are very traditional. He does excellent work wouldn't you say?"


"It's very pretty." Cass said. And she knew it was quite expensive.


"I came down to see my little sister on the reservation. Especially after hearing about that man that was murdered in Marana." Trader looked straight at Cass when he said that. "She wouldn't answer her phone so I was getting worried but when I got here I found out she was okay."


"Yes, I heard about the murder, gee, what was his name?" Cass said pretending not to know waiting to see what he would say.


"Don't remember." Trader said right back. "I just know he lived on the reservation outside of Sells, at least that's what my sister said."


Cass wasn't sure about anyone anymore. It came with the life she had before leaving the bureau. This guy seemed to be okay and very friendly, but so do some serial killers.


"You know, with things going on, some people should really be careful." Trader said. "I mean, maybe that man that got killed was involved in something way over his head and didn't know it."


Cass stared at this man as Jay walked up wiping his hands on a rag. "It's all done, sir." Jay said. He looked at the old man who was staring at Cass and then at Cass who was staring at the old man. "Is everything okay over here?"


"Sure, just having a lovely chat with your girlfriend." The old man said turning to Jay. "Let me pay you for the help."


"No, I believe I'll get paid back later for my good deed." Jay said waving the man off.


The old man shoved some money in Jay's pocket and said. "Then take the young lady out to dinner as a thanks." He turned and walked to his car. He turned back to them as he stopped at the driver door. "It was a real pleasure meeting you two."


Jay and Cass sat in Cass's truck watching the Lincoln go down the road. "What are you thinking Cass?"


"It was like he knew and came to warn us to either be careful or maybe a threat to back off. I'm not sure." Cass thought all about what they said. "I think it was more like be careful."


"So you saying he's involved somehow?" Jay asked as he pulled out the money in his pocket.


"I'm not sure, Jay." Cass was really unsure how to take the old man. "So shall we get a burger or something with the money?"


Jay brought the bill up to her face. "I think for a hundred dollars we could get a whole bunch of burgers."


"Maybe you should go into the tire changing business Jay." Cass said taking the hundred.


"It pays better than the Patrol in that amount of time." Jay smiled and started the Cass's truck. "Problem is I would get busted for putting nails on the road to drum up business."


"Have you ever seen that man before, I mean on the reservation?" Cass asked. "He said he owns a shop in Flagstaff and that he sells Native-American art from the reservation."


"I think I would have remembered him and that Lincoln if he was driving around Sells." Jay did notice things like that, it was part of his job to observe and note anything unusual or out of order. But this was the first time he ever saw that guy. "Let's get to Hattie's and we'll figure all this out."

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