Undercover Scout
The pause seemed especially long. He stared at her and she noted the golden flecks in his deep brown eyes.
“So what do you do down there on the flats?” he asked again.
“I used to work for the casino. Dealer. High rollers, mostly. But I’m taking a break.” Actually that was her sister’s bio but she wasn’t going to tell him she was ROTC, had done four years of active duty in Germany and had just finished her four additional years on reserve while completing police training, and recently earned her gold shield. Given how her sister had completely withdrawn from society after her husband’s death and buried herself in a bottle, she doubted that Sara would have the opportunity to blow her cover.
The small talk continued. He told her what she already knew, that their clinic had only seven employees. Two physicians. One administrator, Betty Mills, and five nurses, one of whom—Lori Mott Redhorse—was well on her way to becoming a midwife. Lori was also Kee’s sister-in-law and the one who’d first made the connection between the clinic and the six missing women from his tribe.
Ava had already spoken with Lori and believed she was one of the good guys. The woman seemed interested in finding the missing teenagers and willing to do all she could to help the investigation. Not the actions of someone guilty of a crime.
“I thought there were three physicians,” Ava said when she caught an inaccuracy in Redhorse’s story.
“Oh, yes. That’s right. Dr. Day is on loan from FEMA. That’s my roommate, temporarily, until we get the all-clear to move back home.” Since Ava had searched the trailer, she was aware of the roommate situation. But Dr. Day hadn’t been around long enough to be a suspect, so she’d focused entirely on Dr. Kee Redhorse.
“I didn’t know that FEMA provided doctors.”
“Oh, yeah. And they have emergency medical response teams. Our clinic is currently set up in two of their mobile medical units. Crowded, but we are getting the job done. It’s been good to have another set of hands during the crisis. We’ve been super busy but we’ll lose Day soon.”
She quirked a brow. “That so?”
He casually slipped a hand into his back pocket. She watched his hands, wondering if he had a weapon. Kee kept talking.
“Once we get back to the clinic in Piňon Flats and out of those trailers, I’m sure they’ll recall him. Too bad, he’s a nice guy.”
There was something implied in his tone. She took a guess. “But not a good doctor?”
The side of his mouth quirked. His tell, she decided, that little gesture that said she had made the right guess. “He’s adequate.”
“But not Native.”
Kee made a sound that might have been a laugh. “Oh, I don’t mind that. But he is from Minnesota. So he thinks it’s too hot up here.”
“He’d hate Saguaro Flats.”
Now Kee did laugh. The sound buzzed over her skin and the hairs on her neck lifted at the pure musical joy in that deep male rumble of delight. She was reconsidering her strategy. Ava had not anticipated liking her suspect.
“His specialty is emergency medicine. He’s less interested in ongoing treatment of chronic conditions and I think he’s had his fill of diabetes and high blood pressure.”
“I see.”
Woody discovered an abandoned soda bottle, which he trotted over to Ava with. Her attempts to retrieve it from his mouth resulted in another game of chase.
“He can have it,” said Ava, recognizing defeat first. She turned back to her questioning. “How do you like working at the clinic?”
He shifted his weight from one leg to the other. “Oh, I like it, but I really prefer emergency medicine, too. Plus I’m only here part-time. Just finishing up my residency. Dr. Hauser, he’s our head physician, he arranged for me to split my time between here and Darabee Hospital.”
Ava crinkled up her face. “Sounds busy.”
Kee shrugged, a good-natured expression on his face. “It is. Doesn’t leave much time for a social life—or even a chance to catch up with the people in my own family. And since the dam collapse the clinic hours have been crazy. But I love the work and with my loans...” He held a hand to his throat and pretended to be strangling. “Gotta get a position in a hospital. Plan is to leave for a few years to get the best salary possible. I hope to come back someday.”
That didn’t mesh with a man making oodles of money from the Russian mob unless he knew that his tribal police force had made connections between the missing girls and his clinic. Then crying poverty was smart. His little brother was on the force. Had Officer Jake Redhorse given Kee some insider info?
“Medical school is expensive,” she said, hoping she sounded sympathetic. Her computer-hacking had exposed he was in up to his eyeballs in debt and had a really good motive for wanting to make a boatload of fast cash.
“I’ve had some assistance from the tribe. Dr. Hauser helped me qualify for a grant that covered some of it.”
She made a mental note to check on that.
“Sounds like a great guy.” Or a dangerous criminal, she thought.
“Yeah. He is. Hector is the one who encouraged me to practice medicine. I had a leg-length discrepancy as a kid.” He shrugged. “He took an interest.”
She thought of the photo she’d seen in his room in the FEMA trailer. He’d been younger, with a single crutch under one thin arm.
“I had lots of surgeries down in Phoenix.” He held his arms wide. “Now I’m the shortest male in my family.”
He wasn’t short, by any means. She marked him at nearly six feet.
“Why is that?” she asked.
“Well, they can’t add to the shorter leg. You know, make you taller. So they make corrections by reducing the size of the longer limb.”
She flinched as she imagined someone sawing through her lower leg bone.
“Yeah, exactly. Lost three inches. But they even up within an eighth of an inch.” He bent slightly at the waist and presented his straight legs for her examination. They were fine muscular legs. She could see that even through the denim of his jeans. “Hector arranged for all that and the therapy. Pulled strings and it was all taken care of.”
So Hector was a string puller and Kee was forever in his debt. How far would Kee go to pay him back?
“It was a hard time. My dad was...gone.”
In prison, she thought.
“We didn’t have much money.”
“Your head physician sounds like a wonderful man.” Her smile felt tight and unnatural. Kee didn’t seem to notice.
“He used to operate out of a room at tribal headquarters when I was a kid. Gave me all my shots there. But you should see the facility now. We have an urgent care center, triage, three exam rooms, reception, radiology and a woman’s health center with three birthing rooms, plus additional ob-gyn exam rooms.”
“That’s impressive. Paid through gaming?” she asked. It wasn’t, she knew, because she’d seen their budget, via her sister’s login on the tribe’s website. Some areas of the tribe’s website were public while others were password-protected to ensure only tribal members could access them. The page holding the minutes from tribal government meetings was one of these pages.
Kee shrugged. “Our administrator handles all that.”
Betty Mills, Ava knew. Recently divorced. Mother of three grown boys and driving an Audi leased by the clinic.
Woody tore the bottle in two and Ava threw the ball so she could retrieve the jagged pieces.
“I better check on my sister and the girls.” Sara was probably still in bed and likely hungover. The girls were being raised by a game console, as far as Ava could tell. She could at least get them all out of bed and feed them a healthy breakfast.
Anything to keep them all afloat until Louisa and the other missing children could be found.
“Oh,” he looked disappointed. “Of course. Umm, Ava? Will you be here a few days?”
“I plan to be. Yes.”
“Would you like to have a drink sometime this week?” His face was red when he finished, which she was chagrined to find she found absolutely adorable. Her heart was not behaving, hammered as if this was something other than a stakeout. Her department had another word for it...entrapment.
She didn’t care. All rules were off when you messed with hers.
So, here it was, the opportunity she had been hoping for. But that was before she realized she would be attracted to the good doctor. She hesitated, biting her bottom lip as she tapped the two sides of the ruined plastic bottle together before her in a nervous tattoo.
Dating Kee would give her access to him, to Hauser and to the clinic and she needed to know what was going on in there.
“Ava?” His dark brow lifted. “Are you seeing someone?”
She shook her head. “Oh, no. Not currently.” It was unfortunate that not one of the men in her past made her silly heart pitter-patter like this one, here. “I just need to work around the kids’ schedules and my sister. And I don’t really drink.”
Because it meant a possible loss of control and Ava did not go there.
“Oh. Coincidence,” he said. “Neither do I. And I understand about your family. You’re here for them. Family first, my dad always said.”
How reassuring. An adage from a con.
As far as she could tell Kee and Jake were the only ones that visited dear old dad and not often. But at least they had a dad.
“My sister gets home from work at five fifteen. I’ve been getting the kids dinner and I’m free after that.”
“Oh, great.”
“When?” she asked.
“How about Tuesday? Dinner at the casino?”
Ava was known here as Sara’s sister and a member of the Saguaro Flats tribe. But like many detectives, she kept her profession secret mainly so as not to make people uncomfortable but also to allow her to more easily do her job. Anyone who would have asked was told that she worked in her tribe’s adult education program, her usual cover.
“That sounds fun.” Ava held her smile.
“I’ll pick you up around six?”
“Seven.”
“Sure,” Kee agreed.
She drew a pen from her back pocket. “Give me your hand.”
He did. His palm slid across hers, warm and dry. The tingle of awareness began at her fingers and rippled up her arm. Whatever attraction was between them was as strong as it was unwanted. She stared up at him, meeting his welcoming brown eyes. Then she used her teeth to remove the cap to the pen and she wrote her cell phone number on the back of his hand. Her task done, she was both anxious and reluctant to let him go. She did and stepped back, sitting on the step of her sister’s trailer.
“Now, don’t scrub up before you copy that,” she teased lightly.
He studied the back of his hand and grinned. “I won’t.”
His smile made her insides tumble as if she were spinning. She had no trouble returning his grin and that worried her.
“See you Tuesday, Dr. Redhorse.”
“Kee, please.”
“I’ll try to remember that.”
Ava smiled against the chill that swept through her. If he was behind this, she’d see he never got within sight of another girl for as long as he lived.
Chapter Two
Monday afternoon the tribe’s urgent care center had gone from crazy to ridiculous. Since the dam collapse in September there was no more normal. Kee had hoped that with the arrival of FEMA things would get better. But the EMTs had just brought him another patient. He knew this one. Not unusual on such a small reservation. But this one was the son of his high school friend Robert Corrales.
Robert had the boy when they were in tenth grade and Robbie Junior was now twelve years old. But he wouldn’t make thirteen if Kee didn’t stop the bleeding.
Lori Mott assisted and he was happy for the extra hands. Redhorse, his mind corrected. She was no longer a Mott, since she had married his younger brother Jake, less than a month ago. Kee kept forgetting to call her Lori Redhorse. His brother had married the nurse so fast, he still hadn’t gotten accustomed to the change.
Kee assessed the damage. The EMTs had done a fair job stopping the bleeding on his arm. But his head wound wasn’t the same story. The plate-glass window had opened a gash on Robbie’s forehead that was giving Kee trouble. Lori kept pressure on that wound, allowing him the time he needed to clamp the artery Robbie had sliced open in his right forearm. Either one was hemorrhaging fast enough to kill him. The boy was pale from shock and blood loss, his lips had gone blue and his skin had taken on the ghastly pallor of a corpse.
“Got it,” he said. “I’ll finish that after I stitch his head.”
“The EMT said he didn’t think he could make it to Darabee,” said Lori.
“He was right.” Kee quickly stitched the gash that ran in a jagged line from the boy’s hairline to above the outer edge of his eyebrow.
Lori shook her head as she assessed the lacerations. “I’ll get another Ringer’s lactate. You want plasma?”
“No. This should do.”
Lori left him to use the computer terminal at the intake station in the FEMA trailer that now served as their urgent care facility. When she came back with the fluids he had the gash closed.
“As soon as he’s stable, arrange transport to Darabee,” said Kee.
Darabee was only twenty miles away but with the river road under construction and the switchbacks leading down the mountain the ride was thirty to forty minutes from Piňon Forks, and from Turquoise Ridge, where the clinic had been temporarily placed, it was more like an hour.
Lori finished inserting the IV and nodded. “You got it. His dad is waiting.”
“He needs a vascular surgeon if he’s going to keep that hand.”
“Betty is calling over. They’ll have one.” She smiled at him. His sister-in-law, he realized. Jake was a lucky man. He was so happy the two had finally worked out their differences.
“Good work, Kee.”
Kee stripped off his gloves as Dr. Hector Hauser stepped into the curtained examining area.
“Need a hand?” he asked.
“We got it,” said Kee.
Lori pulled the blood pressure cuff off the wall and slipped it around Robbie’s thin arm.
Hauser looked around at the amount of blood and bloody gauze and gave a low whistle. He checked the boy’s pupils and his pulse.
“Weak,” he said and then checked the IV bag suspended on the stainless-steel rack.
Day poked his head into the room. “Need a hand?”
Before he could answer, Hauser waved him off. “We got it.”
Kee gave Day an apologetic shrug. Day’s mouth was a grim line as he sighed and returned the way he had come.
“I’ll speak to the dad,” said Hauser.
“You know his expertise is emergency medicine. Right?” Kee lifted his chin toward the exam area Day occupied. “He’s taken the FEMA emergency medical specialist training. And he’s board certified.”
“Well, if the trailer collapses, I’ll be sure to call him.”
Hauser returned a few minutes later with Robbie’s younger brother, Teddy, who had a gash on his lower leg.
“Parents didn’t even see this one,” said Hector. “Cut himself getting to his brother.” He switched to Tonto. “You are a hero, son. Got his big brother help in time.”
Teddy gave him a confused stare. Hector’s smile dropped. “Did you understand that?”
Teddy shook his head.
Hector sighed. It was a crusade of his, that children learn their language. He held Teddy’s hand and steered the boy out of the curtained area and right into the boys’ parents.
Robert Corrales turned to Kee but peered past him to his older boy. “Is Robbie going to be okay?”
“He’ll need some surgery at Darabee. But, yes, he’s going to make it.”
Robert threw himself at Kee, forcing Kee to take a step back as Robert hugged him. His wife joined in and Kee was pressed like chicken salad between two slices of bread. Weeping and thank-yous blurred together. Lori took Teddy into the exam area beside Robbie’s to wait for Dr. Hauser, and the parents crossed through the curtain to their oldest child.
It was another twenty minutes more before Kee was satisfied that Robbie was ready for transport. Robert accompanied his son and his wife remained with Teddy.
Once his patient was off, Kee waited for Hector to finish stitching up Teddy’s lower leg. Kee was aiming for the momentary pause between one patient and the next to speak to Hector about his decision to resign from the clinic. Kee had agonized about leaving at such a time, but his mother had decided to foster the three teenage Doka girls. A wonderful act on her part, but unfortunately, a decision that would leave Kee without a place to live once they returned to Piňon Flats. The young fosterlings would need the space. Kee had moved in with his mother to help decrease his monthly expenses, and it was unrealistic of him to expect to afford a place of his own on his current salary. Not with the massive medical school debt hanging over his head.
Dr. Hauser had been only slightly older than he was now when Kee had first met him in the tribe’s health clinic. He had not known at the time that meeting Hector would change his life. Kee wanted nothing more than to stay on his reservation and tend the sick and injured on Turquoise Canyon. But you did not always get what you wanted. And he had financial obligations that could no longer be put off.
Hector glanced up at Kee over the thick black rims of his transition lenses. His hairline had receded to the point where he had more forehead than hair. What was left was trimmed short so you could see the single gold medicine shield earring he wore in his right earlobe. Kee frowned as he noticed the diagonal earlobe crease, knowing that it was a possible indicator of coronary artery disease.
Hauser lifted his brow, making his forehead a field of furrows. “What’s up?” he asked.
“I need a minute.”
“Sure. Hand me that gauze.” He pointed with a thick finger, his light russet skin a sharp contrast against the white of his lab coat. The dam collapse, which had necessitated them moving into the temporary FEMA trailers, had tripled their workload. Kee had never expected any sort of terrorism to touch his little corner of Arizona. But he thought that the extra load might be too much for Hector, judging from the puffy circles beneath his eyes.
Kee handed over the gauze and Dr. Hauser stripped off the outer covering, then expertly wrapped the boy’s leg in a herringbone pattern that would prevent slipping.
“There, now,” he said to the boy. “All done.”
The boy still had tear tracks on his cheeks but he was quiet now that the Novocain was working and the blood had been mopped up. Hauser turned to the boy’s mother. “Give him some Tylenol when you get him home. Two 80 mg tablets, three times a day, for today only, and keep this dry. Bring him back in ten days and I’ll take out the stitches.”
The boy swung his legs off the table and glanced at Hauser.
“Go on. You can walk on it. But no running or swimming or scratching!” He held out his hand to shake. Teddy hesitated but took Hector’s hand. “Good work today, Teddy. You should be proud. You take care of your brother and look after your mom.”
Teddy nodded his acceptance of this duty and slid to the floor. It was what Kee’s dad had said to him before the sentencing. Ironic, since his father had never done so. He was a living example of what happened when you made your own rules.
The pair headed out of the curtained exam room. Hauser followed to the hall.
“Give me a minute, Lori,” he called.
Lori Redhorse waved in acknowledgment, taking charge of the boy and his mother, ushering them out.
Dr. Day popped his head out of the exam area beside Hauser’s.
“Mrs. Cruz says she wants to see you,” he said to Hauser.
“Well, of course she does. She’s been seeing me since she was born.” He muttered something, and Kee caught the word worthless. “In a minute.” Hauser glanced at Kee, motioning with his head. Kee followed. They paused halfway between Day’s examining area and the reception table, where Lori sat at the computer.
Hauser’s mouth turned down, making him look like one of the largemouth bass Kee loved to catch. Hauser shook his head. “That ambulance arrived. He—” Hauser jerked his head toward Dr. Day’s examining area “—didn’t even step out to check on it. He must have heard it. You sure did.”
Kee shrugged, having no explanation.
“I swear he needs more looking after than the babies in our NICU. What kind of doctors do they have at FEMA anyway?” He tugged at the black stethoscope looped around his thick neck.
“Give him a chance.”
“Nobody wants to see him. Besides, this is my clinic. Up until now that is. The tribal council has no right to meddle here.”
The dam collapse gave them every right, Kee thought, but said nothing.
Requests like Mrs. Cruz’s had been happening a lot lately but Kee could not figure why so many patients were being so difficult. The clinic was short-staffed and the tribe had managed to get FEMA to provide them with an extra hand. Richard Day seemed nice enough, but he sure was not a hit with patients.
“So...” said Hauser, changing the subject. “How was the interview?”
Kee was a finalist for a position at St. Martin’s Medical Center in Phoenix. It was internal medicine and he preferred emergency medicine and he also preferred to live here with his tribe instead of out there. But beggars could not be choosers. He’d been shocked at how fast the loans came due once he finished the last of his educational requirements. Now he stared up from a seemingly bottomless pit of debt. It would take years and years to get clear of them and return to the tribe. Reaching his dreams had come at a high cost. The ironic part was that his ambition was to help his tribe members the way Hauser had once helped him. Now, instead, he’d be miles away treating strangers.
“They’ve offered me a position,” said Kee.
“Not surprised. But I hope you’ll consider ours, as well.”
Kee’s brows lifted. He hadn’t known that was a possibility and had assumed there would be no place for him. With his residency completed, he needed a job.
“What about Dr. Day?”
“He’s temporary. Once we get back to the clinic at Piňon Flats, we’ll be able to handle the load with two doctors. Maybe add a physician’s assistant.”
They’d had this discussion before. When he got his residency in Darabee, just off the rez, Hauser had managed to keep Kee here part-time and count the hours toward his residency requirements.
“My mother is fostering the Doka girls,” said Kee.
“I heard that. She brought them in for a checkup. Malnourished and need some dental work, but nothing your mom can’t handle.”
“The point is, eventually I’ll need a place to live.” Sharing a FEMA trailer with Dr. Day worked for now, giving him easy access to the temporary clinic. But they expected to be back in their permanent facility this week.
“I see. The Doka girls have taken your bedroom, I imagine.”
Kee nodded. “Dr. Hauser, I need to start repayment on my loans. I can’t afford to work here part-time.” And I don’t know how much longer I can survive with only work, work and more work, with only a few hours of sleep in between.
He’d been living with his mom, but he’d had so little time to spend with her, he barely knew how the transition with the Doka girls was going. And he hadn’t seen his brothers Colt or Ty since a week ago Saturday when they’d driven off on Ty’s motorcycle after he and Jake had tried and failed to get Colt to seek help for his PTSD. Jake had told him that Colt had been seen and released. Kee worried about Colt living up in the woods at the family’s mining claim since he’d come home from Afghanistan. Jake said Colt took off every time he went up there. Only Ty had succeeded in reaching him.
“Listen, is this about your living situation or your loans?”
“Both.”
“Easy. My grant to hire you was approved.”
Kee fiddled with the head of his stethoscope. “I need a permanent posting.”