“And how is it tied to the man with the cocaine and the dead person?” Her laugh made him miss her all the more. “You know what the Lieutenant would tell you?” She continued before he could think of a good answer. “He always said to trust our instincts. What does your gut say?”
“The necklace belonged to a person, a woman, who slept in the room and is connected to the bloody towels. Something bad happened to her, or she did something that she’s ashamed of there. She never would have abandoned that necklace if she could have claimed it. And whatever happened wasn’t a crime of passion.”
“Why not?”
“Beside the laundry, the person left the maid a tip.” It felt good to brainstorm with Bernie.
“I was going to e-mail the Lieutenant the photograph of the necklace you sent me. I forgot.” She gave Leaphorn’s address to Chee. “You can ask him to help. I think he’d like to be involved with police work again.”
“Speaking of passionately missing something, I can’t wait to see you again.”
“I thought you were enjoying your work up there.”
“I am. Bahe’s great, and it’s nice to spend some time with Paul in the evenings, help him get his business going. This movie stuff is interesting, too. It’s giving me—”
“I’ve got to go.” Chee heard a siren in the background and the squawk of Bernie’s radio. She hung up without saying “I love you,” or giving him time to say it either.
Before he switched off, Chee found his photo of the necklace. He sent it to Leaphorn with a cc to Bernie and a note: “Can you help ID this? Might be linked to a crime.”
As he logged off, he heard someone approaching behind him, the sound of footsteps on the hard floor. Instead of heading to the break room, Officer Tsinnie was walking to his desk.
“Yá’át’ééh,” said Chee. “Are you enjoying your day?”
“It’s OK. I heard Paul had a bad time this morning. His funny Jeep broke down out there. My uncle’s company had to come and get his customers.”
Poor Paul, Chee thought. He should have done a better job on the repair. “My cousin was lucky your uncle could help. Do things like that happen very much out here?”
“Not with the good operators.” She waited a beat and then said, “There’s a young woman out there who asked to see you. Her eyes are red from crying.”
“Me?”
“She says she met you at the movie site.”
“That slender blond woman, Melissa?”
“No—a teenager with one of those little metal rings here.” Tsinnie pinched her right eyebrow.
“Is there another girl with her?”
“One groupie isn’t enough for you?”
“It’s not that—” But Tsinnie had already left.
Chee found Courtney pacing in the lobby.
“What’s up?”
“Can I talk to you? It’s complicated.”
“Take your time.” He motioned her to some folding chairs by the wall and sat next to her. Her bravado from last night had faded, leaving a scared young woman in its place.
“It’s about my dad and Alisha. She ran away or something, and now he’s gone too. I’m worried.” She got up, shoved her hands deep into her pants pockets. Sat back down again.
“Go on. What happened?”
“You remember how Alisha was acting the other night? All quiet and weirded out?”
“Yeah.”
“This morning, Dad noticed some big bruises on her arm. Dad asked her if you had hurt her. She shook her head, and then she said it had nothing to do with you, that you were nice to us. And then she started to sob, and Daddy hugged her. When she stopped crying, she said she didn’t want to talk about it.”
Chee remembered Alisha rubbing her arm. He listened intently now.
“Dad kept saying that nobody had the right to hurt his daughter, saying she needed to tell him whatever happened so he could take care of it. Finally, she told about the pictures. Then Dad got really mad, and she ran outside and she didn’t come back.”
“Are you talking about something that happened at the movie site?”
“You remember that guard guy?”
“Samuel?”
“He caught Alisha because she had the flashlight and didn’t turn it off. I was running ahead of her, and I hid behind the trailer. I couldn’t see them, but I heard him yelling at her and her crying and him yelling more, and then it got quiet. I didn’t know that guy was a creep. I should have helped her instead of hiding, but—” Courtney pressed her lips together and then relaxed them.
“You’re helping her now by talking to me. Go on. What pictures?” He remembered Samuel claiming the girls wanted a picture of Rhonda and her trailer.
Courtney compressed her lips more tightly. Took a breath. “Alisha said Samuel made her lift up her shirt like they do in those Wild Girl movies. He said he would put the pictures on the Internet if she told anybody. She’s my little sister, and I shouldn’t have let him do that.”
“He might have hurt you, too, and you couldn’t have stopped him. Don’t blame yourself. You said that Alisha ran away. Is she still missing?”
Courtney nodded. “After she told Dad, Alisha started crying again and went outside into the parking lot. I started to go after her there, but Dad said to let her be because she needed to calm down and have some alone time. When she didn’t come back, we walked around the hotel looking for her. Then he got in the car and told me to stay there to let him know if she returned. That was a long time ago.”
“What time did all this happen?”
Alisha had gone missing a few hours before Chee found Samuel’s body, according to Courtney.
“You did a smart thing by coming here now. Maybe he found her and they are both back and worried about you. Come on. I’ll drive you to Goulding’s.”
But Alisha wasn’t in the hotel room, and neither was her father.
Courtney asked, “Will you look for her?”
“Sure. But you need to stay here as our information center so you can let me know when you hear from your dad or your sister. Give me your phone number, and I’ll call or text as soon as I hear anything.”
“But maybe I should—”
He interrupted her with a shake of his head. “You don’t want Alisha to come back and find this place empty. She may need to talk to you about what happened. Are you clear on that?”
“Yep. OK.”
“Why don’t you call your dad now?”
Courtney dialed the number, and it went to voice mail.
He read her disappointment. “He’s probably somewhere phones don’t work. And don’t worry about Samuel. He won’t hurt you or your sister anymore.”
“How do you know?”
“Trust me. I know that for sure.”
Back at the station, he told Bahe about the missing girl and Samuel’s connection with the situation.
“You met this guy Isenberg,” Bahe said. “Do you think he could have shot Samuel?”
“Well, his daughter said he was furious. He had a gun in his car. He knew Samuel worked for the movie crew. He could have called out there, asking for the man’s boss, and been referred to Delahart.”
“I’ll mention this to Burke,” Bahe said, “and he’ll want us to look for Isenberg in the park, at the movie set. You know how these guys are.”