Lena Jones 02 - Desert Wives

man has sex with a thirteen-year-old girl it’s called statutory rape. We don’t believe that children are mature enough to give informed consent.”
    The red intensified. “Polygamists don’t marry girls under sixteen anymore. Not since the law was changed in 2001.”
    “That’s just Utah Tourist Commission bullshit and you know it. They’re still doing it.”
    A tic got busy at the edge of Benson’s right eye but the rest of him didn’t move. “That’s another conversation for another time. We’re trying to solve a murder here.”
    “I’d like to give the murderer a medal.”
    “Aren’t you interested in justice, Ms. Jones?”
    “I certainly am interested in justice, Sheriff. That’s why I’m not crying any crocodile tears over baby-rapers.”
    Benson’s right eye jerked so much it almost closed. “That’s a pretty harsh term.”
    “Old men forcing themselves on little girls, then covering up their crimes by calling it marriage, is pretty harsh, if you ask me.”
    The tic eased off and the smug look returned. “What makes you so certain the marriage, was being forced? Or do you have some information we don’t?”
    Benson was no fool. In my anger, I had come close to admitting that I’d been the one who rescued Rebecca from Prophet Solomon Royal. Before I could make another mistake I went back on the offensive.
    “Maybe I’d cooperate if you’d tell me, since you’re so interested in justice, why these polygamy compounds are allowed to continue? Or is the rape of young girls just Utah’s version of safe sex?”
    Benson’s face tightened. “Not that it’s any of your business, but there have been prosecutions. Tom Green is doing time for child rape and a member of the Kingston clan is doing six years for incest.”
    “You know as well as I do that the only reason Green and Kingston were prosecuted at all was because they were high profile cases that made it to the national media just before the Salt Lake Olympics. Now the Olympics are over, and you’ve still got polygamists spread out all over the map.”
    I could swear I heard his teeth grinding before he took a deep breath and finally answered. “My job is to investigate the murder of Solomon Royal, Ms. Jones. Nothing more, nothing less. Now, if you have information about the night he died, you need to share it with us. Otherwise…”
    “Otherwise what?”
    Benson said nothing, just stared at me through icy eyes.
    Captain Kryzinski, looking worried, broke into the silence. “Lena, please cooperate.”
    “Cooperate?” If I had been any more furious I would have imploded. I snuck a sideways glance at Jimmy, who along with the deputy had listened carefully to this exchange.
    I uncrossed my hands from the back of my head and made a big show of looking at my watch. “Gentlemen, you arrived without an appointment, and while our little talk has been educational, I need to get back to work.”
    “Lena…” Kryzinski leaned forward in his chair, his round face sagging in disappointed folds.
    Benson cut him off. “Ms. Jones is right, Captain. Our work here is done. We might as well return to the station and start the process.”
    Start the process?
I didn’t like the sound of that, but since I didn’t want the Utah boys to know they worried me, I kept fussing with my watch.
    Deputy Yantis threw a look of dread outside at the waves of heat rising from the pavement, but Kryzinski just sighed and struggled out of his chair. Benson strode to the door, giving me one more baleful look before he opened the door and let the asphalt-scented breeze in.
    “We’ll speak again, Ms. Jones.”
    “Only if you subpoena me, Sheriff.”
    He managed a smile. “Oh, don’t worry, Ms. Jones. We folks up in Utah are pretty good with paperwork.” Then he braced himself against the blast furnace that passes for September in Scottsdale and exited the office, his sweating deputy in tow.
    I watched until Captain Kryzinski’s blue-and-white disappeared down the street, then went back to my desk and called Esther Corbett. After filling her in on what had just happened, I told her that if she had any vacation time coming from her job behind the cosmetics counter at Neiman-Marcus, this might be the time to take it. With Rebecca.
    And preferably in some country that did not have an extradition agreement with the United States.
    For the rest of the morning Jimmy continued his personnel investigations at a nearby semiconductor plant, where someone had been