Saturday 9th October

The Desert Inn Motel

When they left the VW in the yard at the Police Station they had achieved the ambition of getting it started and the new water pump installed. To the delight of Lewis who had used a colourful range of vocabulary at times and gained a lot of grease and dirt over every part of himself not covered by his overalls. He would have brought his German "baby" back with them until Goren made it clear neither he, nor the rest of them needed him tinkering outside their windows half the night and as soon as dawn broke, thank you.

It was highly unlikely to be something Mrs Harkness would appreciate in her parking lot either and Eames was sure her potential wrath bothered Lewis more than Bobby's or her own. So he was in his room scrubbing off the result of his efforts and Ron making a start on his packing to leave next day. The door of his room, number four, was open and Eames and Goren stood or sat in easy idleness on the nearby breezeway step drinking soda and enjoying the start of sunset.

There was no sign of mother or son you had to assume were in their quarters since her car and the old Chevy pick up he drove were in the central parking area. In the circumstances they were not discussing the murder, though Eames sensed Goren was in a suddenly quiet or reflective mood. Didn't seem very enthusiastic about going to "The Saguaro" later. That was the roadhouse not far away where Johnnie had promised them decent food and chance to sample a fun "western style" evening.

To her surprise, Ron was very keen to risk a little Square and Line Dancing, Lewis was looking forward to a few beers and looking at him, Eames wondered if Goren was just beat. Couldn't have slept well in that jail and it was all, to use one of her Mom's phrases "suddenly catching up to him" in terms of mental exhaustion. Nor did she totally dismiss the idea his notion of fun tonight might only require two people, where actions like "swing your partner to your left" and "hold those hips and turn around" would have a very different meaning.

Lewis could be heard doing a bad Bon Jovi impression must drive Goren crazy if he did that too often in the cramped camper and Eames had gone to fetch a law book of Carver's was in her room, when Caro returned in the SUV. Goren had set aside his soda to help her with a couple of bags and that was when Sheriff Drummond's Land Cruiser pulled into the lot.

He had Jay Weaver and Jack Madison with him and he left the latter by the vehicle as they walked to the door to the private quarters. Nothing was said to them and the four of them exchanged looks. Eames would admit in her case, she was torn between wanting to remain where she was on the breezeway to see what happened and feeling she ought to go inside and mind her own business. Carver at his door probably felt the same and for a second, Goren and Caro were slightly frozen between the SUV and their room further along.

They were all agreed later that Ma Harkness let the two men inside willingly. Although with her voice had a foghorn quality, they could not avoid hearing from the tone and a few words they did pick up, she was not best pleased. As the door shut behind Weaver, it was hard to say whether she was railing more on them for disturbing and bothering her or on Sonny for any "trouble you brung back here again you moron".

But whatever was said, chaos seemed to break out in no time with shouting inside and then a loud bang did almost sound like a gun. Eames instinctively shoved Ron right into his room and she saw as she followed him in, Goren almost drag Caro to theirs. Lewis stepped out on the breezeway in a towel to ask what was happening and both of them yelled to him to get back inside.

More or less the same time as Art Drummond came out the front of the residence, dragging his gun from his side and bawling to Madison "to get down to the pool" as the fool was running for it. "Pool" was something of a misnomer for a small, broken tiled, empty structure at the far end of the run of rooms, which seemed to be used more as a place to burn trash.

Madison drew his gun and made across the lot while Art ducked round the other way in case Sonny emerged on the far side of the building. To varying degrees they all heard what went on at the back of the motel outside the bathroom windows. Running footsteps of two men. Sonny Harkness close to screaming, "I didn't kill" her and Jay Weaver yelling to him to stop, calm down and words to that effect.

Goren and Caro heard a sort of cry and someone fall behind their room and he if not she, knew for sure that was Weaver tripping over something because it was the second pair of feet that briefly stopped. But with the empty lot next door fenced off Sonny would have faced a choice when he got to the end of building at Room 12. Either try to scale that or run towards the road, which was what he did.

From the window in Ron's room where they could not help themselves but go to watch, Eames saw him head to almost the centre of the lot and stop. Then Bobby's voice suddenly yelled "gun" which none of them had heard until that moment from the local cops to tell each other their quarry was armed. Madison who had not quite reached his goal, apparently and sensibly took cover behind one of the breezeway posts. When he saw Sonny Harkness raise the gun in the direction of Art Drummond, who had come back around and was behind the front of the Toyota.

His automatic was out and pointing at Sonny who was armed with what looked like a large revolver. He was yelling at the hysterical Ma Harkness to get inside, same time as telling Sonny to "calm down son". To put the gun down on the ground. To go about it easy and then they could talk it through nice and calm over a cup of coffee.

To Eames and Goren the Sheriff was doing just the right thing and so were his two deputies. Madison was staying quiet and though she could not see him, Goren could see Weaver who had his gun levelled under the cover of the corner of the building. For what seemed forever, but were probably only thirty seconds tops, Drummond tried to talk him down.

Not helped by Ma Harkness who was bawling fairly foul-mouthed insults at her son and using words like "freak" and "pervert". The Sheriff was in a no win scenario. Trying to talk down and calm down a babbling Sonny while his own mother was just winding him up further. He was repeating over and over "Billy done her. I never touched her. Billy done it. I never killed her" and didn't appear to be hearing or mentally registering what Drummond was saying.

Then he took a couple of steps forward and almost the inevitable by then happened. He fired the gun. Not at Drummond, assuming he was actually aiming, but in the direction of his mother who finally shut up and backed up towards the door. He got off two before three shots rang out from Art's Glock. Shot as the training taught you and it wasn't like Drummond wasn't a good marksmen. The stuffed whitetail heads in his office told you that.

Eames heard Carver begin to mutter a prayer at her side as she watched a large red stain appear centre of Sonny's chest. He looked at it, the revolver fired again in reflex with the slug ricocheting off the tarmac and burying itself in his mothers Sable. Then he fell to the ground and the next Eames saw was her perhaps foolish partner. Running across the parking lot closely followed by Madison. Goren was acting on instinct, but it might have been a dangerous thing to do had Art Drummond been hyped up or careless.

Bobby kicked the revolver away and almost fell on Sonny Harkness. Not to pin down a man as good as dead but try to save his life. Eames as she made for the door, saw him breathe twice in his mouth and she knew where Sonny was shot CPR would be pointless. His heart would have at least one hole in it and compressions merely squeeze blood into the chest cavity faster than it's last few reactive beats were doing. When she got halfway across the parking lot she saw Madison's fingers come from the carotid pulse, him shake his head to Goren and her partner sit back on his heels.

The next sounds were of Lewis who had come to the door throwing up on the boards and a whimpering tone from Ma Harkness must have fallen or been hit in the doorway. Eames turned and went that way because Drummond, still with his pistol in both hands, was forehead down on the hood of the Toyota slightly banging it on the dirty white metal.

Eames went to her to be sure she wasn't hit but could see the ragged wood where large slugs had bitten through the frame and the door itself. She wasn't shot as suddenly Eames found Caro beside her. Helping her deal with the woman was a mix of beached whale unable to get up herself and shocked at last into silence.

It was Jay Weaver limping slightly who took initial control. Carver brought out the bed cover from his room for Drummond who had gone so pale and shaky they wondered if he was about to have a heart attack as he left his gun on the hood.

Eames and Goren, by then leaving Madison beside the body of Sonny Harkness, both knew. He might have shot a lot of things with four legs and fur or wings and feathers but the Sheriff had never shot a man before, never mind killed one. They knew from personal experience that was a whole other thing and whether it was his rational aim behind the kind of fugue Sonny was in, what they saw was as much "suicide by cop" as it was him trying to kill his mother.

In her later statement to that effect, Eames said she might have fired even before Art Drummond did. He gave the deceased every chance and more to give up peacefully. And even Goren, who had an anger brewing below the surface Eames had seen before, had said there was no fault to the way the three Bethlehem cops acted. In what for them had always been a hypothetical situation until those fateful minutes at The Desert Inn. Statements given to Arizona State Police who responded from Flagstaff to Weaver's urgent radio call.

Statements made five miles away when they were all re-located away from the scene at one of the "Travellers Rest" chain more or less on the side of the I-40. Each one varying no doubt a little because of what stuck in the mind and the slightly different physical views they had from each location. And it was only Goren and Madison heard Sonny Harnesses last words. "Billy done her. Bright white killed her".

A phrase he'd said just before he fired the first shot and which, with time, would begin to make some sense. Though they were five very stunned people as they were quickly packing up as instructed by a Lieutenant Guthrie who was in overall charge. Escorted in a short convoy from the scene by Walt Winterbottom in one of the cruisers, she and Carver in the rented Taurus, while a still shaky Lewis travelled in the SUV with Bobby and Caro.

To be continued…