Robinson looked at him, and Chee moved his mouth close to the man’s ear. “Hang on. I’m here to help you, and more help is on the way.”
He held the pressure, feeling the warm blood on his hands. Glancing around the room, he didn’t see any disturbance or signs of conflict. The door had been locked from the inside, but whoever did this could have locked it on the way out.
The towel was red and saturated now, and the bleeding seemed to have slowed. Robinson’s lips had a bluish tinge. Chee kept talking, encouraging him, but his eyelids fluttered and then closed.
The trailer swayed, and Chee heard footsteps on the entrance stairs. He listened to the door opening behind him, and felt someone approach. He kept his gaze on Robinson’s face, willing him to keep breathing.
A man with a first-aid box knelt beside them. He spoke loudly. “Mr. Robinson, it’s Kevin Green, the EMT.”
Robinson opened his eyes again.
Green had already slipped on gloves. “Gunshot?”
“Looks like it,” Chee said.
“Anyone else hurt?”
Chee realized he hadn’t looked. “I don’t think so. As soon as you take over, I’ll check. I haven’t heard any noise.”
“An ambulance is on the way from Kayenta. Can you find another towel?” The tone of Green’s voice said he had taken charge of the medical emergency.
Another EMT had entered with a blanket to wrap around Robinson’s lower body. Maybe they could keep him from going into shock, keep him alive.
Chee stood and found three towels on the counter, clean and folded. When he bent down to hand them to Green, he spotted the piece of paper he’d knocked to the floor earlier. He picked it up and, after he checked the empty bedroom and the bathroom, read what was on the page. Then he folded it and put it in his own pocket before making his way past the medics to the trailer’s door.
Rhonda was waiting at the bottom of the stairs. A few others had gathered there, too. She put her hand on his arm when he reached her. “What happened?”
“A chest wound. The medics are working with him.”
He saw the color drain from her face. She took an awkward step backward. Chee grabbed for her arm, catching her just before she collapsed and supporting her. “Sit down a minute. Put your head between your knees.”
“I’m OK. What happened to him?”
“I’m not sure. I need to call the police station.”
Bahe was out, so Chee spoke to Tsinnie, explaining the situation and saying that he would stay on the scene until the ambulance arrived.
“Hey, I have news for you.” Tsinnie seemed almost friendly.
“Go ahead.” He hoped it wasn’t more bad news about Paul.
“That guy with the nosebleed? The FBI wanted him on money-laundering, racketeering, and other heavy stuff.”
“No kidding. Did they say if Delahart admitted to putting the bones out there?”
“Nope. Not to me and Bahe, anyway. Bahe said he knew that man must be guilty of something, just from the way he acted. I don’t think they’ve charged him with murder yet, but I bet he did it.”
Chee wasn’t a gambling man, but he would have bet against Tsinnie.
Outside Robinson’s trailer a group of about a dozen people had gathered, standing in clusters and talking among themselves. They watched Chee approach.
“The EMTs are helping Mr. Robinson, and an ambulance is on the way,” he said. “I don’t know what happened yet, except that he has a chest wound. There’s nothing to see here.”
Rhonda stood, less shaky now. “We’ve got work to do, so let’s get to it. That’s what Robinson would want. Mike Turner will be the guy in charge.”
Melissa stayed behind. “Did someone attack him?” she asked Chee.
“I don’t know what happened for sure.”
“Who would want to hurt him? He’s the nicest—” She noticed Rhonda and turned toward her, raising her voice. “You. You witch. Your publicity caused all the problems with Delahart. You never get enough attention, do you? I couldn’t blame you for shooting Samuel, but why—”
Chee grabbed Melissa’s arm as she swung toward Rhonda. She was stronger than he expected. Rhonda stepped away and looked at Melissa, the sort of stare Chee remembered teachers giving him before he got the final warning. But her voice was surprisingly gentle.
“Calm down, Missy. I was mad enough to kill Samuel, but I only do that in the movies. I’m crazy about Greg, and I respect the job you’ve done, too. We’ve got enough drama here. We have to focus on wrapping this up, finishing the movie as soon as we can. We owe Robinson that, no matter what.”
They heard the wail of an approaching siren.
Things moved quickly after the ambulance came. The EMTs brought out the stretcher, ordering bystanders to clear the way. Robinson’s eyes seemed to be looking for something. They found Rhonda, and he gave her the ghost of a smile, then focused on Chee.
Chee walked up to the stretcher, had a word with one of the EMTs, put his head close to Robinson’s to hear what the man strained to say, and nodded once, twice. He slipped the piece of paper he’d picked up in the trailer into Robinson’s shirt pocket.
After the ambulance drove off and the crowd had dispersed, Chee spotted Melissa standing in the shade on the side of the trailer.
“Do me a favor and make sure nobody goes in there, OK? Wait for me. Robinson gave me a message for you.”
She nodded.
Chee got what he needed from his police car, then climbed Robinson’s steps. He took a few crime scene pictures, although he doubted that anyone would need them, found the gun that had done the damage, and sealed it in an evidence bag. Picking something up from Robinson’s desk, he locked the door behind him with Rhonda’s key.
Melissa stood where he’d left her.
“I need to give you a message from your boss, but before I do, are you ready to tell me the truth now?”
She sighed. “I don’t know where to start.”
“Start with the stuff you left out about the money.”
“I never thought it would come to this.”
Chee waited.
She sighed. “Remember I told you that I was trying to fix the shortfall we had because of the sponsorships I’d anticipated that were late?”
“I got that.”
“Well, other money was missing, too. It took me a while to click to it, but when I looked at the bank statements, I realized someone was using a debit card and withdrawing a bunch of cash. Robinson has a card on the account. Not much use for it out here, but it’s different in Vegas, of course, and he flew there every week.
“I could see that he was taken with Rhonda. I figured he was buying her gifts, maybe getting them a fancy room at a hotel there, using cash to avoid a stink. It wasn’t really wrong, since stars get pretty much whatever they want. But I need to be able to categorize where the money went. ATM withdrawals look suspicious, and I need to keep things on the up-and-up for the sponsors.
“But when I mentioned the ATM withdrawals to Robinson, he acted like he didn’t know what I was talking about. That hurt, and it made me mad.”