Earthcrack: A Lin Hanna Mystery (33 page)

“I’ll call you soon,” Neal said as he
returned to his car, “I have a lot of thinking to do.”

***

Before leaving the parking lot, Lin
phoned Sue to let her know she was on her way. “I have some news to share with
Sophie—I still don’t know how Cullen died but I do know why he was in the
park,” Lin offered.

“Sounds like your evening was successful!”
there was a hint of questioning in Sue’s voice.

“In more ways than one—I’ll tell
you more later,” Lin laughed as she ended the call.

As she drove the relatively short
distance to Walnut Canyon, Lin tried to think clearly about what she had
learned this day.
 
It was hard for
her to put her personal feelings for Neal Smith aside but she tried to do so.
 
She had to remain grounded in what she
was trying to do.
 
True, she now
knew what Cullen was doing in the park but she still didn’t know how he
died.
 
At least, she had some
information to share with Sophie and her family.
 
That would help them a lot, but she was
still certain that there were some connections to these most recent
murders.
 
Perhaps Raymond Tso was
somehow involved with Cullen also, after all the man who worked for John
Sessions was Tso’s cousin and he disappeared about the time Cullen died, only
to reappear a year later and become a victim himself!
 
Lin felt some sense of satisfaction that
information was coming together, but she knew things were not yet completely
clear.
 

It was still relatively early; Lin
noticed the clock in her car.
 
Sue
had a lot of new information and she did too.
 
They needed to get to work.
 
She hadn’t really started organizing her
notes this afternoon while waiting for David, but she and Sue could still work
on such tonight, for a while anyway.
 
The thought made her eager to get back.

 
Thinking of David also reminded Lin of
Neal’s tenuous position.
 
Perhaps he
should talk to a good attorney—maybe get some advice and help with how to
proceed.
  
Lin knew that David
Cameron couldn’t help him; he was a public defender after all—but maybe
he knew someone he could recommend—someone, like himself, who would care
about Neal and give him good advice. She determined that she would mention this
idea to Neal when they talked next time.
 
She smiled to herself—she was glad that there would be a next time
now!

***

The drive into the Walnut Canyon
residential area from the main park entrance was a dark one.
 
Lin was glad to see the welcoming lights
that glowed from the windows of Sue’s apartment as well as from the other
residences.
 
She pulled into the
parking space and glanced over her shoulder at the scattered files and papers
on her back seat.
 
She really needed
to bring some order to all of this information.
 
Lin was so grateful that she had a few
days off here to try to bring some order and some resolution to this
situation.
 
She hastily gathered up
her files, locked the car, and headed for Sue’s front door.

When she entered, she found a disturbing
sight.
 
Sue had not mentioned that
anything was wrong when Lin called, but now she sat on the sofa, her arms
around a sobbing Sophie!

“What’s wrong?” Lin asked as she
hurriedly placed all of her disorganized papers on the small dining table.

“Sophie just got a disturbing call from
the tribal police on the reservation,” Sue rose and grabbed a tissue for
Sophie, “her father is in the hospital in Tuba City—she thinks they will
be bringing him to Flagstaff later tonight, or maybe tomorrow.”

“What happened?”
 
Lin was alarmed.

Sophie tried to speak through her
uncontrolled sobs but could not.

Sue spoke for her, “It appears that he
was badly beaten.
 
Someone was
hiding at his home and attacked him as he exited his truck.
 
They are not sure of the extent of his
injuries but…it looks serious.”

Sophie had finally found her voice, “It
had to be Tso—one of his men—maybe the same one who attacked me—but
my father,” she could not go on for a moment, “my father is an old man.
 
He is not strong, I need to be with him,
and with my mother,” Sophie broke down again.

Sue spoke up, “ and you will be with them—as
soon as we know where they will be.
 
There is no point in driving up to Tuba City tonight if they are going
to bring him here soon.
 
We need to
wait until we know more.”

Sophie was crying quietly now.
 
In a few moments she seemed to regain
her composure a bit, “I know, it is hard to wait but that is all I can do right
now.
 
I did get to speak to my
Mother,” she added. “She said he was awake, in a lot of pain, but he was able
to talk to the police and describe the person who attacked him.”

Lin jumped on this bit of positive news, “That’s
good.
 
It’s good that he was
conscious—that’s a positive sign, at this point,” she couldn’t help
thinking that this would not have happened if the tribal police had picked up
Raymond Tso immediately when they got the report of the attack on Sophie but…

Sophie must have been thinking along the
same lines for she said, “ The police had picked up Mr. Tso for questioning but
he had denied knowing anything about the person who attacked me.
 
Apparently they didn’t have enough
evidence to hold him but maybe now…”

“Well,” Lin interjected,
 
“I have some more information to give you
that may help somewhat.
 
I talked to
Michael’s lawyer this afternoon and, later, I talked to a friend of mine and he
gave me some additional information—information about Cullen.”
 
Lin thought she saw a bit of improvement
in Sophie’s demeanor with this news.

Sue broke in, “I’m going to put on some
coffee, and then we can talk.
 
We
have to wait for more news about Mr. Honeyestewa’s condition anyway—so we
may as well catch up on what we have learned.”

Sophie’s spirits seemed to lift a
bit.
 
At least they could be doing
something constructive.

Soon the warming aroma of freshly brewed
coffee emanated from the kitchen.
 

“How about some dessert,” Sue offered, “I
have some cookies left from a baking session last week.”

Sophie indicated that she would like some
but Lin declined—she was still full from her excellent dinner.
 
The thought of her evening with Neal
still warmed her in spite of her concerns about his situation.
 
She could hardly wait to tell Sue about
her evening but—first things first.

Lin had spread her notes in front of her
and now she began to stack them into some semblance of order.
 
She noticed that Sue also had a stack of
information that seemed to include handwritten notes as well as copies of news
articles.

“Let me go first,” Lin said, turning to
Sophie, “I have some positive news about Michael—he has talked to his
attorney and now things are much clearer.”

Sophie seemed to brighten at this
news.
 
Lin quickly launched into a
report of her conversation with David Cameron.
 
Sophie’s face clouded when Lin reported
that Michael and Teddy had been involved in the illegal art trade—at least
peripherally, as employees of Tso.
 
Lin
was quick to point out that, apparently, neither boy did this entirely
voluntarily.
 
Tso was coercing them
because of their debts.

Lin continued with her story—leaving
nothing out—and
 
 
further related what Michael had said
about going to the park on Monday and what they had seen.
 
Lin concluded this part of her story by
pointing out that the boys and their attorney were scheduled to share all of
this information with Deputy Taylor in the morning.
 
Perhaps that would provide more evidence
against Tso.
 
Maybe they might be
released—the murder charges against them dropped—especially since
Tso seemed to be attacking the family now.

“Anyway,” Lin added. “We can hope that
this information will help the boys in their situation.”
 
She noted that Sue had been leafing
through her stack of news articles as she related what Michael had told the
lawyer about Tso’s interest in the art trade—about the now discarded map
and Tso’s offer of continued work if the boys could find this supposed cache of
valuable pots.

“From what David said,” Lin added, “Michael
wants no part of that at all and, if Tso is arrested, he may be out of business
for good.”

“ I hope so,” Sophie said, “I hope the
sheriff’s man believes Michael when he tells all this to him.
 
If he does not…” she could not finish
her thought.

Lin sought to be reassuring, “I think he
has to believe him.
 
At least, given
the attacks on you and your father, Tso has to be investigated further.
 
It’s a start, anyway.”

Sue broke into the conversation, “I think
I have some information here which could help to back up at least part of
Michael’s story—the part where he told about a Chinese man coming to talk
to Tso…” the ringing of Sophie’s cell phone cut Sue short.

Lin went to the kitchen for more coffee
while Sophie spoke on the phone.
 
When she returned to the table, Sophie had finished talking.

“My father has a broken hip and several
broken ribs,” she reported, “he is badly bruised but they did not find signs of
further internal injuries—at least not at this point.
 
He is in a lot of pain but he is still
alert,” she added, “they are transferring him to Flagstaff tonight and will do
surgery for the hip tomorrow morning.
 
They said he was stable, otherwise.”
 
She seemed at least a bit relieved. “I
can be with my mother at the hospital tomorrow—she is coming with him.”

“We’ll have to find her a place to stay,”
Sue offered, “Maybe…”

“That is taken care of,” Sophie said, “She
will stay at the Taylor house near the hospital.”
 
Sophie went on to explain that this was
an inn operated by the hospital auxiliary as a service to families of out of
town patients, “I can stay there with her, as well,” she added, “it’s only a
block from the hospital.
 
It will
mean you two can have more room here.”

“That is not a problem at all,” Sue
reassured her guest,
 
“but I know it
would be convenient for you to be there for your mother and father.
 
We can take you over tomorrow before the
surgery.
 
Now, where were we with
all our information—I have something here that might be helpful.”

Sue pulled several copies from her file. “
I didn’t find much in the Arizona Daily Sun that could help us.
 
There were several general articles
about the art black market but nothing that implicated anyone specifically
locally; however, the Santa Fe newspaper did a series sometime back and they
focused on an art dealer there named Lee Chou.
 
He is Chinese and apparently does a
large export business to buyers in Asia.
 
The article mentioned some suspicious dealings he had had but Chou has
never been arrested or charged with any crimes.
 
He maintains that he has always done
honest business and claims that the suspicions are unfounded—he just has
a lot of contacts in Asia.
 
It
appears that the authorities in New Mexico have investigated his operations but
they have never found enough evidence to bring any specific charges.”

Lin thought about what Sue had found out.
“Could the Chinese man whom Michael saw visiting Raymond Tso be this Lee Chou?
If we could connect him there it would back up what Michael is telling us about
Tso seeking to find and sell artifacts on the black market.”

“Yes, it would,” Sue replied, “but I
still found nothing to connect John Sessions to this trade, at least not in any
media sources I could find.
 
He has
apparently avoided any open suspicions.”

“But he can’t avoid the fact that Darren
Steele once worked for him and I learned something from my friend tonight which
links Steele with Cullen—at least indirectly.” Lin was careful not to
mention Neal’s name and she hoped Sue would pick up on that—she wanted to
protect his privacy as much as possible at this point.

Lin continued, “My friend told me that
Cullen had found some very valuable pottery somewhere near Wupatki—near
the tribal collection site.
 
He
wanted to sell these pots and use the money to repay Michael’s debts and help
him get back to school.”

Sophie seemed shocked, “ I can’t believe
that Cullen would have done something like that!
 
He was always talking about our heritage
and why it should not be exploited.
 
He would have told someone if he found something like that—the
tribe, the park… I can’t believe he would steal!”