“How’s your mother?”
“Ask her yourself.”
“I’m trying to have a conversation with you, and Lona is one of the things I know we have in common. I’d appreciate it if you’d give me a chance. I know I made some mistakes. Maybe you did, too.”
“Mom and her boyfriend just split. Whenever they would fight, she’d compare him to you, and he got tired of it. I guess I liked him better than she did. He’s the one who paid for my eye surgery.”
Aza continued eating.
Bernie said, “Robert, what do you know about plans to disrupt the meeting?”
Robert swallowed, stared down at his hands. “Let’s get this over with. I heard that some of those white-guy protest groups plan to raise hell. The outdoor recreation people, the tour directors, I can’t even keep track of them all. They’re just interested in their own causes, not the canyon itself. They want to delay the meeting as long as possible. Some of those groups have a lot of money at stake in keeping things the same. They look like the good guys, speaking up for nature and all, but they aren’t as bighearted as they want people to believe.”
Robert looked up at Palmer from his uneaten burger. “I’m telling you this because you’re the main honcho. You run the show. You ought to know what’s going on behind the scenes. It’s not all peace and joy out here, and some of these guys are bad actors. That’s it.”
“If I’d known why you wanted to talk to me, I would have been more sympathetic.” Aza put his silverware down on his nearly empty plate. “I couldn’t deal with any family drama this week because I had to stay focused on the task at hand.”
“You’re supposed to be the big problem solver, but the way I see it, you just make problems.” Robert stood. “That’s what I needed to say.”
Bernie put her hand on his arm. “Sit down. Tell me more about the plans to disrupt the sessions. Do you have any specifics?”
“I know a guy who got offered a big job working for Canyonmark, you know, the development group? He said Canyonmark will be hiring a bunch of people if the development gets going. So I mentioned this to someone I met because he looked kinda scruffy, you know, like he could use some work.”
Robert took a gulp of his tea. “This guy got all steamed up and started telling me how bad Canyonmark is and that a group he worked for would pay me to act as a sort of spy to help find out what Canyonmark planned before the mediation started so they could raise some hell. It sounded like a cool job—”
Aza put his water glass. “What happened to your judgment to get involved in something like this? What kind of a moron . . .”
Bernie glared at Aza and he stopped talking.
Robert’s voice tightened with anger. “You didn’t let me finish, Daddy. It sounded like a cool job, but the more I thought about it, the creepier it seemed. I said no.”
She could see some resemblance to Aza in the young man, especially in the shape of his nose and the swoop of his eyebrows. “Robert, who was the guy and who did he work for?”
“He just told me to call him Mr. X and he didn’t tell me what group it was.”
Bernie waited a moment and Robert said, “He had a black beard. Kinda stocky with a suntan.”
“Did you hear him or anyone talk about putting a bomb in your dad’s car?”
“No.”
“I was there right after the bomb went off.” She could still smell the burning vehicle, the seared flesh. “It wasn’t a joke. People who went to see a basketball game ended up scared. Kids were there and they might have nightmares about this. Besides the man who died, a lot of people had their cars, trucks damaged. People like you.”
Aza said, “I just found out a few minutes ago that Rick Horseman died from that explosion. That’s why I asked Bernie to take me for a drive.”
“Rick? No way! I didn’t . . . It’s on me.” He leaned toward Aza. “But he’s dead because of you. This is all screwed up.”
Bernie said, “If you know anything that can help, you need to tell me so I can tell the investigators.”
“I don’t have anything to tell you. I don’t know anything about what happened in Shiprock. I’ve got to go.”
“Not yet.” Bernie placed her pen and notebook on the table in front of him and opened the book to a blank page. “Give me your phone number and where you’re staying.”
“That doesn’t matter now.” But he scrawled something and handed it back to her.
She motioned toward the waitress.
“Would you bring us a box for his food?” She gestured at the untouched meal. Robert said, “I’m not hungry anymore.”
After Robert left, Aza Palmer pushed his plate away. “Now you know my family secret. Successful lawyer becomes failed husband, miserable father, and creates hostile son.”
Bernie put the burger, the fries, and the little packets of mustard and ketchup in the to-go container. “Before you came in here, did you contact Chee?”
“I told him where we were and that you’d gone inside with my son, who had been following us. He wants you to call him.”
“You were gone a long time.” She knew Chee wasn’t much of a talker.
“Was I?”
She heard him hesitate and wondered if he’d tell the truth.
“Well, I had to check my blood sugar and give myself an injection.”
Bernie paid the bill, declining Palmer’s offer to chip in for his sandwich. She noticed the five-dollar bill he left on the table in addition to her tip.
The western sky had a soft apricot glow, the beginnings of sunset, when they stepped outside and got in the car. She drove past the tour buses and over the bridge that spanned the Little Colorado. “It would be dark before we got to the canyon, so I’m heading back to the hotel.”
“I figured.” Palmer stretched his legs. “I remembered where else I’ve seen Robert’s car. He was the one who was waiting for Katie and me after the explosion. I didn’t recognize him in the dark.” Palmer told Bernie the story.
They continued in silence, Bernie appreciating the light traffic. Then she said. “Can you explain what the mediation is really about? Maybe it will help me understand why someone seems to want you dead.”
“Do you mind if I condense it and give you the CliffsNotes version. Do they still have CliffsNotes?”
“Mediation for Dummies will work. But before that, tell me the real reason you didn’t come right in from the parking lot.”
Palmer shifted in his seat. “I recognized Robert as soon as I saw him and I didn’t want another argument. I didn’t want to talk to him, period. I’d had enough conflict for the day. Satisfied?”
“Yes. Thanks.”