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She paused. “David, this is getting way too interesting. Maybe I’d better get on the next plane back.”
“What if I told you I’d seen a photo of Marybeth and Jonathan Ledger, and they weren’t posing at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.”
“I’d say that’s news,” she said.
I asked, “What were the River Hogs?”
“This is memory lane. The Hogs were cops, deputies. They were bad news.”
“Bad news, how?”
“I’ll tell you what I heard, and then I’ll tell you what I saw. Remember, I was a twenty-two-year-old kid reporter. If the cops were friendly, they usually just wanted to try to get me into bed. Usually, they were outright hostile. Not only was I the press, but I was a woman.”
She went on. “What I heard was that this group of deputies was a kind of force above the law. They looked the other way on things like drugs and prostitution in exchange for protection money. They had the reputation of tough guys, and there was talk they were somehow tied into the Vegas mob. Real muscle. You didn’t want to mess with them. You never kne
w exactly who they were. That added to the mystique.”
“They were the River Hogs?”
“Yes and no. The River Hogs were a joke at first. A bunch of guys would get off duty, buy a few cases of beer and go drink themselves silly down in the riverbed. Big time in the city, huh? When the department brass got wind of it, they tried to shut it down, but the drinking parties always just moved somewhere else. I heard they got really out of hand sometimes, drunken target shooting, bringing along prostitutes and cop groupies, that kind of thing. But there was also this kind of understanding that the way into this shadow group of dirty cops was through these parties. So were they one and the same? I never found out.”
“Why didn’t I ever know any of this?”
“Oh, David,” she said. “You were always in your own world. It was endearing.”
“Thanks,” I said, feeling not so endearing. “You said you also saw something.”
“Yes,” she said. “There was this nasty strip of bars down between Tempe and Scottsdale. You remember? Bobby Hamid got his start there. Lots of other sterling citizens. There was one place called Lacey’s Lounge. It was totally scummy, but no more so than any other place there. Then one night, just after closing, the deputies raided the place. They shot and killed the owner, a guy named, uh, Jimmy Nance. They said he pulled a gun on them after they identified themselves. And they found a bunch of pot and cocaine.”
“So?”
“So, I had done a story on those topless bars a few months before, and I spent some time with this Nance. He was totally neurotic, about guns. Said he’d never own one because he was afraid it would be used on him. David, they planted that gun on him to make the shooting look righteous. He must have backed out on paying his protection money. It’s not like the other places got raided. And they got away with it! My editors had zip interest in my pursuing the story.”
“So who were the bad cops?” I felt my gut tighten involuntarily.
“I never knew, David.”
“Come on, Lorie,” I pressed. “There must have been talk. Somebody I know? Somebody I worked with?”
“I swear to God, I don’t know.”
“What about the two deputies in Guadalupe?”
“Heroes killed in the line of duty,” she said. “They were close to retirement. Left behind families. It was the hook for the story for weeks.”
“Was it true?”
“David.” Her voice tightened with irritation. “I generally try to write the truth.”
I said, “Did you know one of them had a failing business on the side? He was really strapped for money when the shooting happened.”
She didn’t say anything, so I went on. “And did you know those same photos from Camelback Falls show another East County deputy involved in an orgy? That’s the same deputy who was murdered last week.”
“No, I didn’t know any of that,” she said. “You’re making me feel like an idiot here.”
“Welcome to the club,” I said.
I finished up on the phone, then showered and locked up the hotel room. Lindsey had already gone to the public library in search of a T-1 line. We had slept nearly nine hours, snuggled like spoons against the cold world just out the window, interrupted around 3 A.M. for a fierce and satisfying lovemaking. When we woke up, there were six inches of dry powder snow on the ground.
