She aimed her flashlight at the post, the beam picking out the letters. Then she scurried back to the truck and hopped in, panting just a little. “That’s the lobby and customer service area. As I recall from the map, we can keep following this outer edge to the buffet. Do you see the temporary fence along here?”
“Yeah, I’ll try not to veer into it and take it out.”
As the truck trundled along what would be the west side of the casino complex, Jolene sat forward in her seat, taking note of each signpost. Their cessation would signal the end of the planned structure.
Sam whistled. “This is going to be a big place.”
“Is that a post up ahead?” She squinted into the area flooded by the truck’s brights. “It looks shorter and thicker. Don’t hit it.”
“I’m not going to hit it.” He crept up to the post and threw the truck into Park. “Check it out.”
Once more, she slid from the truck, the wind whipping her hair as she approached and lit up the four squat posts. Her fingers traced over the letters, her heart thumping.
When she got back in the truck, she turned to face Sam. “This is it. Those posts indicate the end of the dining area and the end of the building.”
Sam tipped his head. “Then it’s no-man’s-land ahead.”
“Yep.”
“We’re close to the border. I guess that makes it easier for the Yaqui in Mexico to come across and work in the casino.”
“That’s the idea.” Jolene squashed down the niggling guilt she felt about the excitement the Yaqui on the other side of the border had about the coming project and their part in it.
“Yaqui land stretches right to the border and beyond, doesn’t it?”
“That’s why we need to be careful in your Border Patrol truck, Sam. Border Patrol has no jurisdiction at this border.”
“Don’t I know it. The map detailing the tunnels the cartel Las Moscas constructed along the border stopped short of Yaqui land.”
She rapped on the window. “This is definitely the shaded area on the map—the no-go zone for construction.”
“I wonder why.” Sam drummed his thumbs on the steering wheel. “I think this is where we need to investigate.”
As she grabbed the door handle of the truck, Sam put his hand on her arm. “Is this the area where your father’s body was discovered?”
She nodded and pushed open the door.
The wind gusted, and she shielded her eyes against the grains of sand zinging through the air. Sam had left his headlights on, creating a lighted area.
With her head down, Jolene plowed through the sand toward the spot flooded with light. She studied the ground for anything unusual, any disruption to the plants or the rocks scattered about.
Sam had joined her, flicking his flashlight along the edge of the lighted region. “They haven’t done anything to this section yet.”
Scuffing along the ground, Jolene said, “You’d think they’d want to utilize the entire property, but I think they do plan on making a resort out of the place and this land figured into that.”
Sam jerked his head up. “Did you hear that noise?”
Jolene held her breath, cocking her head to one side. When the wind blasted, she could hear a whooshing sound and the sand pinging Sam’s truck, and when the wind died back down, the plaintive hoot of an owl echoed across the landscape.
“Nothing. What did you hear?”
“Thought I heard a buzzing sound.” He kicked at a rock. “At least there’s not much trash out here from the highway. Maybe the builders pick it up after a stiff breeze like tonight—just to keep on everyone’s good side.”
“They’re not on my good side.” Hands on her hips, Jolene scanned the ground, bit by bit, to the edge of the lighted area.
“I don’t see anything, do you?” Sam had already turned back toward the truck.
“Nothing that would scream graveyard, anyway.” She followed in his very large footsteps. “Keep going?”
“I want to continue to the border. See if it’s more of the same.”
When they both got into the truck, Sam put it into gear and eased it forward. “We don’t need to get stuck out here. That would be a lot for me to explain.”
The truck rumbled ahead, and Sam made a beeline for the border only he saw in his head. “It should be along here in less than a mile. They’re gonna have to make some accommodations for the people coming over from Mexico to work in the casino.”
They bounced along for a few more minutes before Sam slowed down and stopped. “Let’s take a look.”
As they stood outside the truck, Jolene asked, “Do you know where the border is?”
“It’s beyond that ridge. When the land officials drew these borders, they didn’t necessarily follow any geographic patterns—unless they could.”
Sam raised a pair of binoculars to his eyes, more interested in the land beyond than the land below their feet.
Jolene aimed her flashlight at the ground, skimming it along the foliage. Every time the wind kicked up, flurries of sand danced in circles and bits of debris rolled along the desert floor.
Her light caught a piece of plastic or something that a Saguaro cactus had caught, and she crept toward it to peel it from the plant’s spines.
As she reached for it, a loud report buffeted her ears, followed by something whizzing past her head.
Sam shouted, “Get down. Someone’s shooting at us.”
Chapter Thirteen
Sam hit the ground and twisted around to locate Jolene, hunched down by a large cactus. He yelled at her as another gunshot blasted from the ridge, along with a flash of light. “Down! Flat on the ground. Get behind that cactus, if you can.”
He army-crawled toward her, shifting the binoculars onto his back and reaching for the weapon on his hip. Sand needled his eyes and slipped into his mouth as he made his way to Jolene.
Glass exploded as a bullet hit one of the truck’s headlights. Sam dug in faster to reach Jolene, half of her body behind the saguaro and her legs jutting
