"How are you holding up. Sergeant?"
"I've seen a lot of dead people over the years, but this is the first time I ever had to put somebody down."
"It's not the same, is it?"
"Not even close."
"Are you all right with it?"
"I will be. I know it was a clean shooting."
"How far did you get before the shooting team pulled you in for a statement?"
"Not very. Angle Romero, Espinoza's girlfriend, swears the only vehicle Rudy normally drove was the Toyota pickup parked in her driveway."
"Is she playing it straight?"
Gabe shrugged his shoulders.
"Who knows? She drinks her breakfast straight out of a whiskey bottle.
She's half-blasted most of the time. Ben Morfin searched the crude and found nothing. I'm pretty sure Espinoza's brother-in-law, Joaquin Santistevan, tipped him that he was about to get busted. Otherwise, Espinoza had no reason to run. But the phone company has no record of a call made from me wood yard to Espinoza, or from Angle's house to Santistevan.
Frank Houge is chedcing with cellular providers now."
"We need to find that Chevy truck," Kerney said.
"And the murder weapon. Maybe Houge and Duran will score while I'm cooling my heels for the next three days."
"That's not going to happen. They're both reassigned to another case effective tomorrow."
"That sucks. Chief."
"I know it does. Can I make a suggestion?"
"Sure."
"You need a couple of days out in the fresh air. Meet some new people, take scenic drives, poke around and explore, visit new places. It's a pretty time of year."
"Am I hearing you right. Chief?"
"It depends on what you want to hear. Sergeant."
Gabe rubbed his chin and gave Kerney a long look.
"It's your call. Sergeant. I can't order you to violate department policy."
"Who would I report to?"
"Me alone. No one else."
Gabe grinned.
"I like the idea."
"I was hoping you would," Kerney said, handing Gonzales his business card.
"On the back you'll find my private office and home telephone numbers.
Use those numbers to reach me or leave messages."
Gabe took the card.
"You were pretty sure I'd go along with this, weren't you?"
"I pulled your personnel jacket. Sergeant. There was enough in it to convince me that you don't always go by the book."
"I've heard that said about you."
"I guess that make us members of the same dub.
Nail Espinoza to the Boaz murder."
Ruth Pino contemplated the man who limped into the interview cubicle and sat at the small table across from her. Since he looked intelligent, Ruth dedded he might be capable of understanding the important points that needed to be made.
Kerney listened as Ruth Pino explained the rarity of the Knowlton's cactus, its value to collectors, and the importance of the discovery of a new habitat on the alluvial apron at the bottom of the mesa. She spoke with intensity, in clipped sentences, and Kerney could imagine her in the classroom putting fear into the hearts of easily intimidated undergraduates.
"Whoever destroyed the trees along the watershed should be shot," Pino said, spreading out her field sketch on the small table in the interview cubical. She turned it so that Kerney could read the neat lettering and symbols.
Kerney held back from telling Pino her hopes had been realized.
"The tire tracks from the vehicle alone destroyed over a hundred plants." Pino's finger traced the line of destruction.
"I can't even begin to estimate how many more were eradicated during the woodcutting."
"But some remain," Kerney said.
"Yes, but heavily threatened. The habitat has been altered, and unless the erosion along the alluvial apron is stopped, the entire distribution could be wiped out by the end of the rainy season."
Pino's finger poked the sketch in two places.
"The cactus still thrives here and here, at the downstream points away from the dear-cutting. I estimate the total surviving population will exceed two thousand plants, with a very high ratio of mature specimens.
Had the site been left undisturbed, the total would have probably exceeded eight to ten thousand. What happened is a travesty."
"Can the cactus be protected?"