the confusion.'
He came back in the company of a strikingly attractive blonde. 'Deborah, this is Deputy Sheriff Istee. He wants to ask you a few questions. Deborah is my girlfriend.'
Deborah smiled at Clayton with pretty blue eyes, shook his hand, and answered all his questions. Yes, she'd flown to Ruidoso with Rojas. No, she wasn't at the poker game. She'd spent that night at Rojas's vacation home, and stayed over an additional day after Luis had returned to El Paso.
'Did you go anywhere, see anybody, do anything?' Clayton asked.
'I took several hikes by myself,' Deborah replied. 'But I didn't see anybody. Other than that, I didn't go out at all.'
'How did you get back to El Paso?'
'I drove Luis's SUV. That's why I went with him. He's trading it in for a new one, and he asked me if I'd like a few days in the mountains in exchange for doing him a favor. I jumped at the chance to get out of the city and be by myself for a while.'
'What kind of vehicle did you get?' Clayton asked Rojas.
'I'm still shopping around,' Rojas replied, 'although I'm considering a Mercedes. It's a civilian version of a military vehicle used by the German army. Are you familiar with it?'
Clayton had read somewhere that the movie stars who made action flicks and owned ranches in Montana all had them. He'd seen photographs. They were macho adult toys that went for about a hundred thousand dollars. Almost four times his annual salary.
'Yeah, I've seen pictures,' Clayton said, concentrating his attention on Deborah. 'Are you sure no neighbors saw you at the vacation house?'
'I have no neighbors,' Rojas said. 'It's very secluded.'
'Where is it?'
'I've had a map drawn up for friends,' Rojas said, 'so they won't get lost when they visit. I'll give you a copy.'
He opened an end-table drawer and handed Clayton the map. The retreat was on private land surrounded by national forest, northeast of the village of Alto.
'That's deep in the mountains,' Clayton said.
'Which is why I need good transportation to get to it,' Rojas said. 'Especially in bad weather.'
'I bet you do,' Clayton said as he folded the map into his shirt pocket and looked at Deborah. 'I'll need to see your driver's license, miss.'
'What on earth for?' Deborah asked.
'My report.'
Deborah smiled. 'Of course. I'll get my purse.'
She fetched her purse and handed Clayton her license.
'You have your own place?' Clayton asked, noting the address on the license.
'Yes, but I'm here a lot,' Deborah said, sliding her arm around Rojas's waist.
He made sure all the license information was current, got a work and home phone number, and closed his notebook. 'I doubt that I'll have to bother you again.'
'It's been no bother,' Deborah said.
'None at all,' Rojas said, giving Clayton a hearty handshake. 'Good luck with your investigation.'
Outside, Clayton walked to his unit thinking how convenient it was that the girlfriend had been on hand to confirm Rojas's story.
Chapter 8
Sally Greer rented a first-floor apartment in a building at the rear of the complex. There was no sign of activity inside, and her assigned parking space with the apartment number stenciled on the curb was empty. Ramona Pino found an inconspicuous spot away from the security night-lights and waited in her vehicle for Greer to make an appearance.
Ramona wasn't sure how she would play it, if and when Greer showed up. Approaching her directly would raise too many questions. She would hang out for a while to see what developed. Besides, the only thing waiting for her back in Santa Fe was the tiny guest house she rented from a retired cop, whose last tenant had been Chief Kerney.
It was nice enough, but lonely. Moving out on her ex-boyfriend had been the smart thing to do. He'd turned into a channel-surfing couch potato, who spent his evenings at home watching cable sport shows, bitched at her for working late on the job, and never seemed to want to do anything fun.
During their last six months together, he'd treated her like a wife, and that wasn't going to happen to her again. She needed a close relationship with someone who cared for her as a friend and lover, who accepted her as an equal, who respected her independence, who appreciated the demands of her job.
She wondered about Sgt. Jeff Vialpando. He was good-looking, seemed bright, had a sense of humor, and didn't put out a macho attitude-all good signs. She put the skids on her thoughts and decided not to dwell on him any further. Lunch tomorrow would give her a better idea if he really had potential as a boyfriend, although dating a cop who lived sixty miles away might be something of a problem.
An hour into Pino's wait, Greer appeared. Within a short time she was back in her car, after changing from tight-fitting jeans and a turtleneck pullover into a short dress with spiked heels.
Pino followed her downtown to a hotel near the convention center. Inside the crowded hotel bar, Greer joined two middle-aged men and a young woman at a table. Pino recognized the other woman from the photographs she'd seen at Thomas Deacon's studio. Neither of the men looked to be particularly likely dates for such attractive young women.
She retreated to the lobby and sat behind a placard on an easel that welcomed a trade association to the hotel. When the foursome appeared Greer was paired off with one of the men, walking arm in arm to the main exit, smiling and chatting. She'd covered her facial bruises with makeup. Pino pegged the man with her to be in his fifties. Balding and portly, he had an eager expression on his face as he laughed at something Greer said.
Pino waited until they were outside before taking a side exit. By the time she turned the corner the foursome was gone, the taillights of a car fast disappearing down the street. As she walked to her vehicle Pino called her older sister, Rebecca, who lived in the city.
'Becky, I need a bed for the night, if it's not an imposition.'
'Come on over,' Becky said.
'Can I use your computer and borrow some clothes?'
'Sure, I'd even throw in Tim, if you wanted him, but he's out of town on business.'
Ramona laughed. Tim was Becky's husband, and the two were about the most perfectly married couple imaginable. 'Too bad. One night with me, and you'd be history.'
'I'll tell him that when he calls.'
'Don't you dare,' Ramona said as she pulled away from the curb. 'See you in a few.'
A year apart in age, the two sisters were often taken for twins. Rebecca, a middle-school social-science teacher, was taller by a quarter of an inch, had thicker eyebrows, a slightly wider mouth, and a more oval face. On the phone to each other at least once a week, there wasn't much catching up to do, so after a cup of tea Ramona explained why she needed to use the computer, and Becky asked if she could watch.
In the home office Ramona worked Jeff Vialpando's favorite list of local Web sites with Becky sitting at her side, looking for a personal ad for Sally Greer. First she cruised the adult personals sites.
'Unbelievable,' Becky said abruptly, reading the sexually explicit narratives, many of which were posted with revealing or completely nude photographs that showed everything. 'I wonder if our school computers block this kind of smut. This is just porn, for people who don't want to visit the adult sites, isn't it?'
'Ask your students,' Ramona replied as she exited a site and called up another. 'They would probably know.'
She went to the preference screen and entered information closely matching Greer's age and physical
