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trooper.”
    None of the deputies in the room liked that one bit. Brower took a step in the trooper’s direction, eyes glittering. Rawlings stopped him. He took a moment, popped a fresh stick of gum into his mouth.
    “I don’t like threats, Navajo Joe. You think you’re immune, untouchable? Think you can walk in here and say whatever the hell you want to my people and there will no consequences? Times change, Joe, Arizona’s changing, even for your people on the reservation, you should think about the future.”
    “The red man has no future, Ted. I’ve been told that ever since I was a tiny papoose. Funny thing is, once a fella accepts that about himself, it makes everything else in life so much simpler.”
    Nothing was said. Moore finally piped up.
    “Dubya Dee is here.”
    Rawlings glared at Moore for again slipping up verbally, and he dropped his eyes. Rawlings cursed silently and ground his teeth.
    “There’s paperwork. Fill that out, leave a cash bond and we’ll release him, but only after the ADA signs off on it.”
    Navajo Joe glanced outside at the woman headed up the sidewalk and grinned. “I have a feeling she’ll see things our way.”

5
    S lick was huddled with his lawyer, exchanging whispers, when she walked into the interrogation room. Slick didn’t really hear much of what Melvin said after that. He was charmed, almost immediately, and by the very woman whose sole purpose was to send his ass to jail.
    She had that type of energy that he always responded to. She charged up a room like a tuning fork hit hard and the air vibrated with her presence. She looked good, and she was one of those women who knew she looked good, was comfortable with that fact and didn’t make a big deal out of it. Dark, gleaming hair, black eyes that snapped, he could tell, olive skin and enough curves on her body to make for careful navigation but not so many that one would get lost in them.
    She sat opposite them, file folder in hand, and looked Slick in the eye.
    “Mr. Elder, I’m Assistant District Attorney Camilla Leon, I’ll be handling your case. Counselor, I don’t believe we’ve met before. Camilla Leon.”
    “Melvin Hayes, how do you do. I’m out of Scottsdale.”
    “You’re a ways from home, Mr. Hayes.”
    “Evidently even farther than I thought, seeing as my client was denied his phone call, denied his right to counsel, was abused during questioning and told that if he didn’t sign a confession to crimes that he didn’t commit, he’d be beaten to death. I seem to have wandered into a third world country where the Bill of Rights is an afterthought.”
    Camilla considered that for a moment and Slick saw a flicker, somewhere deep inside, she hid it very well but it was in there. She was angry and not at them. Slick liked her more and more. She kept her professional face on, allowing herself just a glance at those behind the observation glass, and leaned forward.
    “If your client was denied his phone call and right to counsel, how do you explain your presence here? Did he not call you?”
    “His friend Tommy Olson called and retained my services. Mr. Elder was booked for a flight in Tucson yesterday morning. He missed the flight and didn’t call Mr. Olson when he was scheduled to do so. Mr. Elder is a professional poker player and often carries large amounts of cash on his person, so when Mr. Olson didn’t hear from him when he was supposed to, Mr. Olson, a former police officer, grew understandably concerned and used his contacts to track him down. He discovered that his friend had been arrested in Bendijo and that’s how we ended up here.”
    Camilla thought about that, looked at Slick for a moment then back to Melvin.
    “What’s a professional gambler doing in Bendijo?”
    “Sight-seeing,” Slick said. “Great town you got here.”
    “It has its charms. Well, in this situation I can probably knock off a few of the charges, go down to simple battery, and—”
    “For who, for me or for