Ruiz nodded and tried to pull me inside, so I stood and walked in with him. What I saw wasn’t exactly what I expected.
Maria was lying on the couch with a pill bottle on the floor under her limp hand. When I felt for a pulse, I found none, and her skin was cold. Her eyes were closed, and I was pissed beyond anything I could have imagined.
I picked up Ruiz and carried him outside. “Bailey, could you take Ruiz and occupy him with something. I’ve got a DOA in here.”
“Did you clear the rest of the house?” Bailey immediately started looking around the neighborhood.
“No, but I will after you get the boy out and call 9-1-1. I need an ambulance.”
“I got it. Go. Check the rest of the house.”
Bailey picked up the little guy and spoke Spanish to the child, hopefully reassuring him that he was going to be okay, while I went through the little house. Rita wasn’t there, and I had to wonder why Maria had Ruiz with her instead of with a sitter if she was going to court and Rita had to work.
After clearing the rest of the rooms in the house, I went back into the living room where Maria’s body was resting. I went outside without disturbing anything. The police needed to process the scene to determine whether there were any signs of foul play, though it seemed pretty cut-and-dried to me. Suicide.
Bailey had taken Ruiz to a swing set I hadn’t noticed in the side yard, and the little boy was laughing as Bailey made barking sounds while gently pushing the boy in a toddler swing. Ruiz had a ringing laugh.
I walked over to Bailey and stood next to him, smiling at the adorable little boy and wondering what would happen to him now that his mother was dead. How much heartache would he suffer because of Maria’s decisions?
We both heard the sirens, so Bailey stopped the swing and lifted Ruiz from the toddler seat to cover his ears. The kid didn’tlike it at all, and when the Clark County sheriff’s SUV pulled behind my truck, we walked toward the deputy.
An ambulance quickly pulled up, blocking the street, and a firetruck arrived behind it. Neighbors started coming out of their homes, and a short woman rushed out from next door, asking questions in rapid-fire Spanish.
I turned to Bailey. “Can you speak with her? Ask if she knows where Rita is?” Bailey nodded and walked away with the baby as the deputy got out of his cruiser.
“You call in an emergency?” The nametag on his uniform read Garrett.
“My partner did, Deputy Garrett. I’m Bail Recovery Agent Jagger Hansen. I work for Sparks Bail Bonds in Las Vegas. I was here searching for a fugitive, Maria Ramirez. That’s her son.” I pointed to Ruiz, who was now in the arms of the older woman.
Deputy Garrett nodded as I walked him to the door of the small house. “Maria Ramirez is in there on the couch. I went inside after the little boy opened the door and took my hand. I touched her wrist for a pulse. When I got none, I cleared the rest of the house, not finding anyone else inside.
“My partner removed the little boy and took him to the swing before calling law enforcement. Maria’s information can be found in the Criminal Justice Information Services. She had a trial scheduling hearing this morning that she didn’t attend, so I was instructed by my employer, Jesse Sparks, to find her.”
Deputy Garrett asked me a few more questions before I gave him my business card for follow-up. According to Bailey, the neighbor lady had taken the baby to her house to feed him, so Deputy Garrett called Child Protection Services and went inside Rita’s house while he waited for the scene to be processed.
I walked over to where Bailey was sitting in the truck with the window down. “We’ve done as much as we can. Let’s go back to the office. I need to alert Sparky to this mess.”
“What happens next?” Bailey was visibly upset by the turn of events, though I wasn’t sure if it was because of Maria’s death or Ruiz’s newly orphaned status.
“We’ll file the papers for a refund of the bail to release the property bond, and that’s the end of our part in it. I always feel like I should be doing more. It’s a hard habit to break.” Man, was it.
Bailey opened the door for me to get into the passenger seat. “Let me drive back.” Once I was inside the truck, he closed the door and gave my shoulder a gentle squeeze through the open window before he walked around and got inside.
It was hard to understand why a young woman would take her life—much less shoplift a luxury handbag from an overpriced resell store in the Miracle Mile Shops on The Strip—when she had a beautiful little boy depending on her. At the end of the day, no one knew what motivated people to do the things they chose to do.
As I stared at Bailey Gregory, I could see a man dead set on solving problems, be they for the suddenly orphaned little boy or a blackmail threat against his brother. Every part of me wanted to help him. I just had to figure out how to do it.
We arrived back at the office about forty-five minutes later. There were so many first-responder vehicles at the Ramirez home, and we’d been trapped. It took a good fifteen minutes for them to be cleared so we could leave the scene.
By the time we arrived at the office, Bailey and I hadn’t spoken to each other since we’d left Jean, and my mood had soured from the dark thoughts circling my mind.
When Bailey parked my truck behind the shopping plaza, I got out without another word and went inside. I went to my desk to put my mace and Taser in the top drawer and the gun in the bottom, locking it up before I went to Sparky’s office and knocked on the closed door.
It opened, Kade Leonard and Jordan Digby stepping out. “Hey, guys,” I greeted. Neither of them looked any happier than I felt.
“Come in, Jagger. What can I do for you?” Sparky was in his office behind his desk with a big grin.
“Uh, is everything okay?” I hitched my thumb over my shoulder in the direction of Leo and Diggs.
