“Yes,” Ignacio murmured. “I’m sure that’s when it fell out of my shirt pocket. It’s bound to be there, right across the road from the gate. I’m sure I can find it again, but if I go back on my own to look for it, he’ll send somebody after me again. That’s why I carne here this morning, Sheriff Brady. To ask for help. If I go there with a deputy, no one will bother me.”

“Do you want to file charges against him?” Joanna asked.

“Against the man who beat me up?”

“Yes.”

Ignacio seemed to consider the possibility. “I hadn’t thought that far ahead,” he admitted. “I just wanted the pearl back, that’s all.^”

“If you have broken ribs, we’re talking about a serious assault here,” she told him. “Whoever did this to you shouldn’t hr allowed to get away with it.”

“But I barely saw him,” Ignacio objected. “It was dark. I may not be able to identify him.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Joanna said grimly. “I have a pretty good idea of who he is.”

Before Joanna had a chance to turn back to Ignacio, there was an impatient knock at the door. “Come in,” she called.

The door burst open and Detective Carpenter strode into the room. “What exactly is going on here?” he demanded, glowering first at Joanna and then at Ignacio. “I thought I was the Detective on-”

“Good morning, Ernie,” Joanna interrupted. “I’m so glad you could join us. I need you and/or Detective Carbajal to take Mr. Ybarra’s statement. I believe Nacio has been the victim of serious assault at the hands of one of David O’Brien’s employees. Afterward, you’ll need to search the area opposite the outside gate to Green Brush Ranch to see if you can find Brianna O’Brien’s missing pearl earring, which was lost in the course of that attack. I’m sure Mr. Ybarra will be able to show you where it happened. I’m waiting for some information from Yuma County. If what I suspect pans out, sometime early this afternoon you and I should pay a visit to Green Brush Ranch.”

Ernie started to object, but something in the authoritative way Joanna had spoken stopped him cold.

“Jaime Carbajal is up at the courthouse trying to obtain a search warrant,” Joanna continued. “Call him off that and have him go with you. Now, get going.”

Without another word, Ernie turned on his heel and started for the door. Once there, he turned and looked back into the room. “Coming, Mr. Ybarra?” he asked.

Slowly, Ignacio Ybarra rose to his feet. He stepped toward Joanna’s desk, holding out his hand. “Thanks,” he said quietly, as they shook hands. “Thank you for believing me. I think what Mr. Kimball said about you was right.”

“Why?” Joanna asked. “What did he say?”

“He said that he’d met a lot of sheriffs in his time but that you were the only one who knew how to listen with your heart as well as your ears.”

“Thank you,” Joanna said.

May it always be so.

CHAPTER TWENTY

An hour later, while Joanna was busy reading Frank Montoya’s computerized printout on the police brutality case in Yuma, Kristin called in on the intercom to announce that Dr. Winfield was on the phone.

The prospect of talking to the coroner threw Joanna off center. Officially, Doc Winfield was the coroner, but he was also Joanna^’s new stepfather. Picking up the handset, she wasn’t mire how to speak to him on the phone. Winfield settled the whole issue by handling the entire transaction on a strictly professional basis.

“I still have some toxicology tests to do, and those take time-weeks even,” he told her. “But the preliminary results are these. The victim was struck on the head, repeatedly. The weapon was a heavy blunt object of some kind, but what actually killed her was drowning.”

“Drowning?^” Joanna asked.

“In her own blood. Her rib cage was completely crushed. Both lungs filled with blood. That’s what killed her.”

Joanna shivered. Drowning in your own blood seemed like an appalling way to die. She forced herself to sound dispassionate. “Any signs of defensive wounds?” she asked.

“None,” George Winfield returned. “It looks to me as though she was naked when the attack came and as though her assailant came at her from behind. There are contusions and abrasions that look as though they happened prior to death.”

“Like she was running, maybe?” Joanna asked. “As though she was trying to get away?”

“Maybe.”

Joanna didn’t want to ask the next question, but she had to. “Was she sexually assaulted?”

“No,” George Winfield answered. “Given the circumstances of a naked victim, that’s something I would have suspected. But there’s no sign of sexual violation at all.”

“What about pregnancy?” Joanna asked.

“Negative on that, too. Her birth control pills must have been working.”

“Good,” Joanna said. Those things seemed like insignificant details, but Joanna was glad that they were blows David and Katherine O’Brien would be spared.

“Anything else?” Joanna asked.

“That’s all so far. This should be typed up by noon in case you want someone to come get it.”

“Thanks, George,” Joanna said. “I appreciate the advance notice.”

She had no more than put down the phone when it rang again. “We’ve got it,” Ernie said.

“Got what?” Joanna asked.

“The pearl.”

“Yon found it, then?^”

“Looks like. With the rainstorm and all I didn’t think we’d ever find it, but we got lucky. It was right where Ignacio said II would be. Maybe he was telling the truth after all.”

Having already talked to Dr. Lee, Joanna didn’t need any more convincing, but she was happy to have Ernie Carpenter’s concurrence.

“What do we do now?” he asked.

“While I was sitting here waiting, I’ve been reading up on Alf Hastings’s background,” Joanna said quietly. “He sounds like a hell of a nice guy. You’ll never guess what he liked to do to undocumented aliens besides kicking the crap out of them.”

“What?”

“He liked to burn them,” Joanna answered. “With the lit end of a cigar. Either between the shoulder blades or else on the genitals. On one of those four kids, he did both.”

The phone line went so silent that for a moment Joanna thought Ernie Carpenter had hung up on her. “Ernie?” she asked. “Are you there?^”

“Yeah,” he said. “I’m here.”

“What’s going on?”

“I’m thinking about Ignacio Ybarra,” Ernie Carpenter said. “I guess he’s one lucky guy.”

“Lucky? How do you figure? He just lost a girl he cared about very much. He-^”

“Right, but he only got the shoulder blade treatment,” Ernie interjected. “From my point of view, that’s luck.”

As soon as Sheriff Brady stopped long enough to think about it, she had to agree.

“I guess I’d better go on over to the ranch and have a chat with Mr. Hastings,” Ernie said a moment later.

“Alone? Where’s Detective Carbajal?”

“He left a few minutes ago. I had him take Nacio back over to the hospital. He was here with us when we found the pearl. I had planned to take him out to the Peloncillos this afternoon and have him show us where he and Brianna usually camped. Considering yesterday’s storm, there’s probably not much to find, but I wanted to give it a try. The problem is, as soon as he saw the pearl, the guy fell to pieces. He even blacked out for a while. It may have just been the heat, but with his ribs the way they are, I didn’t want to take any chances. I told Jaime to take him over to the hospital and to stay with him there. If he comes around later on, Jaime will take his statement.”

“If Detective Carbajal’s not there with you,” Joanna said, “who’s going to be your backup when you go see A l l Hastings?”

“I’ll call in and have Dispatch send me out a deputy,” Ernie replied.

“No,” Joanna said, standing up and reaching for her purse. “Don’t do that. I can be there in ten minutes flat. Alf Hastings is a worm. There’s nothing that’ll give me greater pleasure than seeing his face when he realizes we’ve dug him out of the dirt.”