Chapter 2

                                                            

   It was too damn early for a call from anyone!

   Yaritza Esteban looked at the alarm clock. It was 4:30a.m. She had not been called this early since her ex-fiancee had proposed to her 2 years ago, and she had hung up on him then, too. She picked up the phone, growled, “No!” then hung up, getting back to sleep instantly.

   Thirty seconds later, the phone rang again. She let 3 rings go by before she picked it up. “You must have a morbid desire to be kicked in the nuts,” she groaned.

  “Detective Esteban?”

  “No, it’s the Maytag Lady!”

  “Detective, this is Deputy Vince Gerben from the Nye County Sheriff’s office.”

  “Wrong county, Vince. What the hell do you want?” Yaritza asked as she rubbed her eyes.

  “Your department said you’re good at the gruesome, and we need that.”

   She raised her eyebrows. Good at the gruesome? “Uh, could you be more vague?”

  “We have a body on the ET that’s, well, in bad shape.”

  “Is it a dead body?”

  “Of course.”

  “All dead bodies are in bad shape, that’s their nature. What’s the ET?”

  “What?”

  “The sky is blue.”

  “I don’t understand you, ma’am.”

   Yaritza finally sat up in exasperation. “I said, what the hell is this ET that the body was found on?”

  “Oh, state route 375, known as the Extraterrestrial Highway.”

  “I see. So what’s the bad shape of this body, besides its lack of ability to walk?”

  “Well, uh, it’s, um, missing something.”

  “You don’t sound too sure.”

  “I saw it, Detective, I’m sure.”

  “What’s it missing?”

  “His…genitals.”

  “The Bobbitts must be in town then.”

   The deputy paused. “Doesn’t it shock you?”

  “Not this early. Wait till I see it, if I see it.”

  “Can you come up as soon as possible? Our office is in Tonopah.”

  “You say my department okayed this?”

  “Yes, we don’t have the manpower right now to cover this. Big fire near Rhyolite has most of us on that, skeleton crew at the office for days now.”

   Yaritza looked around for her bra. “I’ll have to get confirmation first, from my boss.”

  “Captain Corday already told us you’re coming.”

  “I’ll ask him again, then. If he remembers, I’ll come up there.”

  “Fine, when’s the earliest you can be here?”

  “Is he still dead?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then I think he’ll be dead at lunch, which is when I’ll probably be there. Did you seal off the area?”

  “Hard to seal off a lake, which is where we fished him from. His car was impounded.”

   Yaritza groaned. “You moved the body to your office, didn’t you?”

  “We had to, no room to keep it at the lake, and I’m the only one who could be on this.”

  “Well, we’ll be lucky to solve this, whatever it is.”

  “Look, Detective, I know where everything was, I marked it.”

  “With bird seed?”

  “No!”

   Detective Esteban yawned. “If we keep talking, I’ll never get there.” She hung up, found her bra, then headed to the bathroom.

   Six hours later, Yaritza pulled into the parking lot of the Nye County Sheriff’s office in Tonopah. It had been a long drive, and she wasn’t happy to be there. After getting some clothes on, she had called up the station, and was immediately put on to her supervisor.

  “What’s this about Nye County?”

  “You’re going.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you handle the sick stuff well.”

  “Can I refuse?”

  “No.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I owe the sheriff one from another case.”

  “So long as we’re not pissing in their yard.”

  “In this case the gate was left open for us to piss. It’s probably nothing, but I want you to look at it. Get going!”

   Yaritza had learned years ago that when her boss had made a decision, she was stuck with it, and he never changed his mind, even when he was proven wrong. Luckily, when it came to a case, he could be swayed if the evidence was steel-hard, and he always backed up his officers when he trusted their instincts. That trust, unfortunately, was not a constant.

   She walked into headquarters, where a man of no more than 65 inches was packing a sports bag. He smiled when he saw her. “Detective Esteban?”

   Yaritza half-smiled. “You my sleep spoiler today?”

  “Sorry about that. I’m Deputy Vince Gerben, the main guy here today. Actually, for a couple of days now.”

   She nodded, ready to get to business without the chitchat. “So where should we start, the crime scene or the body or the car?”

   Vince scratched his head. “Uh, this isn’t really, uh, my area of, uh….”

   She held up a hand, already irritated but showing patience somehow. “How about if we check the body first, then go over the car, and then look at the area that you cordoned off with bird seed?”

   The deputy started to protest, but he caught the slight smile that indicated he could stay on her good side. “Sounds good.”