Enchanted to Death by Meg Perry

Author:Meg Perry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: murder mystery, police procedural, amateur sleuth, gay mystery, new mexico, search and rescue, lgbt mystery
Publisher: Meg Perry

Chapter 13

Friday, March 24

The next morning, I met the rest of the SAR team in the city library’s parking lot. The other two team members who weren’t law enforcement weren’t there. Apparently, they’d opted out.

Just as well. If they weren’t comfortable taking part in this assignment, they shouldn’t participate.

We crowded into two SUVs and drove north. The search was starting at the Mescalero Apache School, at the intersection of two of the Indian Service Routes just north of U.S. 70. The incident commander for the search was Don Ornelas, the head of the Office of Justice Services for the Bureau of Indian Affairs Mescalero office, and Jesse Martinez’s boss. A bunch of people were milling around the staging area, checking equipment and maps. I saw Jesse with a group of horses and riders off to one side.

We signed in at a table that had been set up for the purpose, providing our names, phone numbers, and IDs. The woman at the table handed me a map. “Take a look at that while we’re waiting for Don to get started.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

The map was topographical, as I’d expected. Several trails were highlighted in yellow, all heading higher into the mountains. Today would be strenuous.

A whistle blew, and Don called us all over to a spot near the sign-in table. “Good morning. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining the search. We are going to find and arrest these bastards today.”

A cheer went up from the group. Don continued, “We know that they are still contained to the reservation, and that they are north and west of U.S. 70. We believe that they are somewhere between here and Sierra Blanca.” Sierra Blanca was the highest mountain in southern New Mexico and was sacred to the Mescalero.

Don said, “On your maps, you’ll see several trails highlighted. We are going to send a search team up each trail. This is a mountainous area, as you well know, and these trails are either along a ridge or the side of a mountain. Stick to the center of the trail to minimize your risk of falling.”

People responded with murmurs and nodding. Don said, “We’ll send out teams of two on parallel route searches. Each team will have at least one law enforcement agent, a satellite communications device, and a flare gun. Three shots from the flare gun will constitute a ‘help’ signal. Our hope is that we’ll drive these guys ahead of us out of the mountains, where we’ll have the State Police waiting for them.”

The woman who’d been behind the check-in table stood. “I have your team assignments.” She started calling out names; as she did, the teams of two went to Don to receive their trail assignments.

“Mikayla Little and Jamie Brodie.”

I thought, Good. I’d met Mikayla the day that Ammo had found the body of the first bad guy and liked her immediately. She and I converged on Don, who took our maps and drew a red line along the highlighted trail that was ours.

She elbowed me.

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