A Man of His Word by Lovelace Merline

Author:Lovelace, Merline [Lovelace, Merline]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 9780373810680
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2009-07-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

“I don’t know,” Joe Martinez muttered when he finally arrived at the site of Sydney’s near slide into oblivion. Squatting on his heels, he fingered the marks in the limestone. “Could be cuts. Could be gouges made by falling rocks.”

“Can you test the surface of the stone for metal traces?”

Martinez pushed his hat forward to scratch the back of his head. “I’ll have to check with our crime-scene technical unit, but I doubt they’ve got that kind of sophisticated equipment. We might be able to send samples to the State Forensics Lab. Depending on their workload, it could take weeks to get an answer.”

Reece had expected that answer. “Maybe I can speed things up a little. I worked a mine-flooding problem with a metallurgist on the governor’s Science and Advisory Board a few years ago. She has access to a scanning and transmission electron microscope that would pick up even microstructural traces of metal. Maybe I can talk her into taking a look at this rock.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“The piece that broke off…or was pried off…is still lying in the middle of the road. If you can get one of your men to haul it down to the Arizona Geological Survey Center in Tucson, I’ll call ahead to let Dr. Kingsley know it’s on the way.”

“Consider it done.”

Martinez rose, dusting his hands on his pants. His boots clattered on stone as he inched his way back down to the road. Once on level land, his black eyes rested thoughtfully on Reece.

“Are you thinking the same person who slashed Ms. Scott’s tapes last night might have tried to keep her from making them in the first place?”

“The possibility occurred to me. Did you talk to Sebastian Chavez this morning?”

“I talked to both him and his son. Mr. Chavez had dinner at home with his son and daughter-in-law last night, then put in some late hours in his office.”

“Anyone see him during those hours?”

“Jamie didn’t. He was out in one of the barns with a sick horse most of the night. Mrs. Chavez… Arlene…said she saw the lights on in Sebastian’s office when she went up to bed.”

“So none of them really has an alibi.”

“As yet,” Martinez pointed out, “none of them needs one. We matched the prints I lifted from the bathroom window to Martha Jenkins, and those on the videocassettes to Ms. Scott and her camera operator. We have no witnesses and no evidence that one of the Chavez family perpetrated the vandalism.”

“Just Sydney’s gut feel,” Reece muttered, un-amused by the irony.

Martinez hitched up his holster and slid into the driver’s seat of his dust-streaked vehicle. “I’ll see that rock gets to Tucson this afternoon. In the meantime, you might advise Ms. Scott to keep her eyes open.”

“I already have.”

Reece would do more than just offer advice. Between them, he and Henry Three Pines would do their damnedest to make sure she didn’t meet with any more unexpected accidents. He’d talked to the Hopi headman at some length last night, learned more about what happened ten years ago.

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