One Day in a Small-Town Desert, chapter 16, page 7

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Séara Nulıpésha slapped her alarm clock several times before she realized that the repetitive shrill sound was actually her telephone ringing and not the clock. Her face still firmly implanted in her pillow, she reached for the telephone. Her hand found the receiver and she brought it to her, rolling her head slightly so she could mumble distinctly.

“Hello?”

“Nulıpésha, this is Senior Lawman Vomıvé.”

Séara’s heart started pounding heavy. Had he read her report? Was he about to discharge her? She rolled onto her back, fully awake. “Yes, sir.”

“Tamé Vékídıpaíro hasn’t towed the autos from the Kılímo house yet. Those vehicles are evidence. He’s not answering his telephone, either. Go get him.”

What was this about Tamé? Séara shook her head in confusion.

“Have you read my report from last night?”

Vomıvé snorted. “I don’t have time to be reading reports. Look. I don’t care if you have to drag that Nazhoro out of bed by force, but just get him.”

Vomıvé slammed down his receiver, leaving a ringing in Séara’s ear. She reached over to the nightstand and set her receiver in its cradle. Yawning profusely, she kicked away her sheet and blanket and stood.

She wasn’t fired. She had to work today.

Through the ten-centimeter gap in the curtains, she could see sunlight dusting the tops of the cottonwoods across the street, golden leaves rustling in the breeze.

After turning off her alarm clock, Séara trudged down the hall to the bathroom. If the vehicles had spent the night alongside the highway without trouble, they could wait a few minutes more.

Vomıvé knew that Séara’d had as little sleep as all the other lawpersons in Tuhanı, but he had called her, woken her up before her alarm rang. That’s just the way he thought. Give the menial tasks to Nulıpésha. It’s all that she can handle.

Well, if she wasn’t fired yet, she’d show him what she could handle. She’d be the best darned lawperson around. She’d help catch the guy who murdered the Enforcer. She’d do whatever it took to get that promotion to the equestrian squad.

She quickly washed her hands and ran back to her bedroom. Hurriedly, she pulled off her oversized t-shirt and changed into her black uniform. She strapped on her belt as she headed for the front door.

Vomıvé was insane to expect promptness from Tamé, but if Séara had to beat down the repairperson’s door and get him out of bed at gunpoint, she’d do it. For as long as she had a duty to the people of Tuhanı and Pívo County, she would fulfill that obligation to the best of her ability.

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