Changing Woman (24 page)

“Do you have any suspects at all?” Ella asked, wondering if
he
was Coyote, then nixing the idea. Payestewa
was no undercover operative walking the line. He was already becoming well known in the area, and couldn’t be in two places at the same time.

“All I know is that there are two key individuals in the area—each working independently of the other—which implies two independent cells controlled from the
outside. There’s also reason to believe that neither knows the identity of the other, which is
consistent with the strategy of cells. If you don’t know who the other players are, you can’t rat them out.”

Ella looked over at Blalock. He was a man who didn’t like to ask anyone for anything. Having the Bureau send in a second team must have stung. “How long have you known about Paycheck’s real assignment here?”

“He couldn’t tell me right away. I only found out about it a few days after Justine
was rescued. I was mad as hell when I heard about it, too. I don’t like the Bureau playing games behind my back on my turf.”

“And until now you were under orders not to tell me?” Ella asked Blalock.

“I couldn’t even say anything to Big Ed. I was ordered to keep my mouth shut until the Bureau was sure which local Navajo cops could be trusted.”

“We’re sure that Big Ed, you, and your team can
be trusted, Ella,” Payestewa said, “but outside that, we can’t tell the good guys from the bad. There are people we suspect, of course, but we’ve got nothing on them.”

“Like who?” Ella asked.

“George Branch, the radio talk show rabble-rouser, for one. He’s very much progaming but, like it is with Mrs. Yellowhair, it’s hard to say if he’s acting out of conviction or something more sinister.”

“Remember that about a year ago we saw some Native Americans meeting with Branch in a sweat lodge in the middle of nowhere,” Blalock said. “We’ve yet to identify those guys, though one of the men warned your officer Tache off with gunfire.”

“Branch is a hard case. You can forget getting anything out of him. And Mrs. Yellowhair, like most of the progaming big names here, has a lot of clout in the
community. Investigating them without a lot of grief is going to be impossible.”

“There’s another Navajo who bears looking into, and
you’re the person in the best position to do it,” Blalock said.

“You mean Kevin,” Ella said, guessing where he was going.

Blalock nodded. “Some people believe that the progaming forces practically paid for his election.”

“That’s probably true,” Ella conceded,
“but now that he’s in office, Kevin has apparently backpedaled on them. He’s leaning toward another public referendum. That’s something that progaming factions are fighting because the Navajo Nation has voted it down every time it’s come up. If anything, Kevin’s their enemy now.”

“He may be on his way to becoming that, but the progaming people aren’t giving up on him yet. A good source tells
me Jefferson Blueeyes has been putting a lot of pressure on Kevin to return to his original position and not alienate his supporters,” Payestewa pointed out.

Ella gave Payestewa a respectful look. “Your sources are good.”

“Even though I’m a Hopi, right?” He finished her thought with a chuckle.

Ella laughed. “Yeah, but I didn’t say it, you did.” She glanced at Blalock, who shrugged. “I know
about Blueeyes, but I also know that when it comes down to it, Kevin makes up his own mind.”

“Blueeyes is Navajo, but he was raised off the Rez,” Payestewa said. “I also know for a fact that he has close ties to the activists on the Arizona side of the Navajo Nation. He bears watching.”

Ella looked at Payestewa closely. She’d always suspected there was more to him than met the eye, but it irritated
her to know that the Hopi agent was more informed than she was on this. She’d do better from now on. “Okay, I’ll take it from here. If there’s a problem we should all be aware of, I’ll let you know.”

As soon as Payestewa and Blalock left her office, Ella called Justine. “Get me absolutely everything you can on Jefferson Blueeyes—Kevin Tolino’s aide.”

“How soon do you need it?”

“Yesterday.”

Ella pulled up the files the tribe had on both Kevin and Blueeyes and studied them carefully. She was familiar with most of what it contained about Kevin, but Jefferson Blueeyes was another matter.
She knew practically nothing about him.

His file, however, was of little help. It listed his education, his date of birth, and other factual and career data she could have found almost anywhere. The information looked like resume filler, which was probably where it came from.

Justine came in a moment later. “I figured you’d pull up that file yourself, so I didn’t bother,” she said, looking at
Ella’s screen. “What I do have is a bit more anecdotal, but my informant is good as gold.”

Ella looked at Justine and smiled. She should have known that there’d be no substitute for her cousin’s contacts in the community. Justine came from a big family. “Okay, give.”

“Blueeyes is a bit of a enigma around tribal government offices. He makes friends easily, but apparently he’s not close to anyone,
at least openly. He’s single, reasonably good-looking, and makes a good income, so a lot of the women have set their sights on him. But nobody local has made any headway, not even a date
beyond coffee. Some thought he might be gay, but that talk died down when one of the secretaries at his office saw him with a dark-haired woman in a bar in Farmington. The way they were acting left no doubt that
he’s partial to the female sex.”

“Was she Indian?”

“Yes, but not Navajo. I heard that she looked like she was from one of the pueblos. The woman who saw them didn’t recognize her.”

“Anything else?”

“Blueeyes sometimes annoys the hell out of Kevin. They’ve been overheard having some shouting matches.”

“Over what?”

“Blueeyes apparently oversteps his own authority and makes decisions for Kevin,
sometimes even reversing what Kevin has told him to do. That invariably makes Kevin spitting mad, but Blueeyes keeps on doing it.”

“I’d like Blueeyes watched every waking hour for a few days. But we’ve got to make sure he never finds out what we’re doing. That would not only tip him off if he’s tainted, it could also bring Kevin and the Tribal Council down on the department. We don’t need that
right now.”

“Then we can’t use anyone in the SI team. He’s seen all of us at one time or the other since he works with Kevin.”

“Who can we pull in from the department? We need someone we can trust completely, someone with topnotch skills. Any suggestions?”

Justine thought about it and then nodded. “How about Jimmy Frank? He’s been a patrolman for twelve years, and has mentioned to me several
times that if there’s an opening in our unit, he’d like a shot at it. Why don’t we give him a chance?”

Ella knew Jimmy. He was a good cop. “Is he on duty now?”

“Yeah, in fact, he’s here at the station now. He had
to bring in a couple of kids who’d cut school and were driving down the highway half-drunk,” Justine said.

“Ask him discreetly to come to my office,” Ella said as her phone began to
ring.

As Justine left, Ella picked up the receiver and was surprised to hear Jaime Beyale at the other end of the line.

“I need to know if Rose’s theory about an Indian mafia is one shared by the police department. Is there an ongoing investigation and, if so, is there anything you can tell me about it?”

Ella gripped the phone so tightly that her knuckles turned white. “My mother’s opinions
are her own. Ask her. She’ll tell you the same thing,” Ella said coldly.

“Is Rose working with the police—however remotely?”

“We don’t recruit people in their sixties.”

Jaime laughed. “That’s a great quote. Hope it looks as good to you tomorrow when you read it in my column.”

Ella slammed the phone down. Dealing with the press wasn’t her strong suit. She’d always thought that the founding
fathers had been playing a joke on the public when they came up with the notion of freedom of the press.

Jimmy Frank knocked at her door and Ella, glad to take her mind off Jaime, waved him to a chair. He’d acquired a slight potbelly since the last time she’d seen him and what hair he had left was longer than regulation length and combed over. In white clothes and an apron, Jimmy would have looked
more like a short-order cook than a cop.

“Jimmy, I have a surveillance assignment for you, but it’s a touchy one and it’s up to you whether to accept or decline. No one can know about it, and it’s imperative that the subject doesn’t see you tailing him. Do you think you’re up to something like this?”

Jimmy grinned from ear to ear. “You bet I am. I’ve
stalked deer and elk with my brothers since
I was six—not for hunting, just for fun. We used to make a game out of seeing how close we could get before they spooked.”

“You’re going to be stalking something far more dangerous, and you can’t ever let him suspect the police are watching,” Ella warned. “The person I’ve got in mind is cunning and may be dangerous.”

Jimmy grew serious. “I’ve been hoping to get into your unit for a long time,
so I’ve been taking the specialized law enforcement courses the feds offer each year. I’ve learned how to keep someone under surveillance in an urban environment. Here I’ve found it’s even easier for me. I look just like every other citizen, and people usually don’t notice me unless I want them to. Tell me, who’s the target?”

“Jefferson Blueeyes. I need to know who he sees, what he does after
hours, what his routines are—anything and everything you can get me. But keep your distance. If he sees what you’re doing, it’ll warn him off and we’ll get nothing from then on that will be of any use.”

“Why is he a suspect?”

“I can’t tell you that yet, but I have reason to believe he’s playing a dangerous game, so be extremely careful.”

“Why aren’t you using someone from your own team?”

“Blueeyes knows all of them because of his association with Kevin Tolino. I need to use someone he won’t be watching for.”

“You’re safe on that score. He and I have never met. Do you want a twenty-four/seven on him?”

“No, you’d need backup to do that right and I have no one I can spare. So you’re clear once you’re convinced he’s gone to bed for the night. But I want you back on duty as soon as
he gets up in the morning.” Ella pulled a file photo and handed it to Jimmy. “Do this for three days, then report back to me. If he does anything
you think is unusual or obviously illegal, get back to me ASAP. And don’t use your police radio. We have reason to believe someone’s listening in on our frequencies.”

“No problem. I carry a cell phone because my wife has a health problem and can’t drive.”

“Great. About the cell phone, that is. Here’s my cell number.” Ella jotted it down on the back of one of her business cards, then handed it to Jimmy.

“I’m just about set, then. But what about my patrols?” “I’ll arrange to have someone cover for you. It’s only three days, so I’m sure I can get someone to put in some overtime, or maybe extend the patrol area of someone working your shift.”

As
Jimmy left, Ella went to talk to Big Ed. She knew he would go along with this, despite the officer shortage. They needed a break on this case, and the sooner they found something the better it would be for everyone.

Big Ed listened as she filled him in. “It’s risky. Tolino is a powerful man and if Frank gets caught...”

“I trust Jimmy to do the job,” Ella said. “And you’ve seen him, Chief. He
does
blend in. Jimmy’s an excellent cop, but he’s not exactly a walking recruitment poster for the department. Out of uniform, he certainly doesn’t fit the image. That will work to our advantage.”

He mulled it over, rocking back and forth in his chair, then finally sat forward and nodded. “All right.” He leaned back in his chair again. “Just do one thing, Shorty.”

“Name it.”

“Start thinking
of a cover story in case this one blows up in our faces.”

“I don’t think it will, but if we get caught, I’ll say that it was a training exercise for Jimmy, who wants to join our unit.”

“Blueeyes and Tolino will never believe it, but I’ll back you up. As a matter of fact, I’m going to write it out just as you described and make it an order. I’ll put
a copy in all our files. That way, we’ll have
a paper trail that precedes this if we need it.”

“Good idea.”

“One more thing. Abigail Yellowhair came through for us. She got several local businesses to pony up the money, and a Farmington electronics outlet is setting up the account and programming the equipment for free. Everyone on your team is now being issued a cell phone and a list of everyone else’s numbers, and there were two left
over. I’m taking one. You can give Jimmy the other.”

“Great. He has one of his own already, but this will save him some money.”

Ella left the chief’s office, called Jimmy, and left the phone for him with the desk sergeant. She was now feeling more positive about things than she had in days. Action. There was no better prescription for what ailed her.

Ella was at the soda machine in the lobby
when Justine ran up to her.

“We’ve got to get rolling. Betty Nez was just found dead in her home. She’s an office temp for the tribe. Her daughter Millie called it in, and she’s hysterical. Dispatch couldn’t get anything except the victim and location. Tache is loading up the crime-scene van now, and Neskahi will meet us there.”

“Let’s go. If it’s a homicide, we’ll have our work cut out for
us.”

While Justine tried to question Millie in the living room, Ella surveyed the kitchen where the body was located, keeping out of the viewing field while Tache took the necessary photos.

She’d never seen so much Elvis memorabilia in her entire life. The living room had been a virtual shrine, and the kitchen was nearly the same. There were Elvis dish towels, and even an Elvis sponge that featured
a
grainy image of the King holding a guitar. It looked like something out of a horror flick. The salt and pepper shakers on the table were miniature images of the rock and roll legend in blue or white sequined jumpsuits, and two of the walls held posters of the King—one of them of the young Elvis, and the other of the singer at his best looking—in tight, black leather.