Changing Woman (26 page)

“Can I help you?” she asked.

“I understand that you speak for many of the traditionalists who are opposed to gaming,
and I’d like a chance to talk to you about our position,” he said.

“If you know I’m a traditionalist, you should have also shown me the courtesy of waiting outside and not approaching my door without an invitation,” Rose said softly, but clearly.

“I would have, but my heater won’t work very well unless the car is moving, and I didn’t know if you’d even heard me drive up. Won’t you forgive the
lapse?” He flashed her a wide smile.

To Rose, a smile from a politician served the same function as the noisy tail of a rattlesnake. “Come in, then. We’ll talk.”

Jennifer peered out from Dawn’s room and, receiving a nod from Rose, returned to play with the little girl. Two was sitting in the doorway, watching the stranger.

Rose gestured to him to have a seat. “All right. You have my complete
attention, Councilman.”

Ronald Etcitty kept his voice low. “Your daughter is a well-respected policewoman for the tribe, but she’s in a precarious position right now. Did you know that?”

“What do you mean?” Rose asked. She didn’t like where he was heading. Tension gripped her, but she tried to remain outwardly calm.

“Our tribe’s finances are almost completely depleted. Officers, I’m sure you’ve
noticed, are being overworked to the point of exhaustion. Crime is on the rise and yet their ability to do their job well is being compromised. What’s worse, their lives are more at risk than ever before because of the impossible demands being made on them.” He paused, obviously for effect, then continued. “By working against gaming, you’re opposing the opportunity
to practically guarantee a safer
working environment for your daughter.”

Rose held herself perfectly still. She was furious, but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing he’d pushed the right buttons. “My daughter would be in even more danger if casinos opened on our land. A flood of professional gamblers, organized crime, and alcohol can’t result in anything good for our people.”

“Are you aware that as things stand
right now, if your daughter needed backup from other officers, she probably wouldn’t get it for a half hour or more? Without the funds to hire new officers, we’re going to be facing a real crisis very soon. Of course, one solution we’ve been considering is redistributing our current officers to cover more ground. Your daughter’s unit would undoubtedly be disbanded and she could be sent to Window
Rock, for example, or way over to Tuba City.” He looked through the doorway to where Dawn was playing. “The tribe has a day-care center in Tuba City, so your granddaughter would be looked after—though I suspect they’ve had some staff cuts too, so she wouldn’t get the attention you can give her here.”

“This almost sounds like a threat.” Rose commented pleasantly. He’d succeeded in scaring her,
but she was determined not to let him know it.

“Oh, no, not at all,” he said smoothly. “I simply came to provide you with more information. I thought that if you could understand the realities of our tribe’s situation, you’d be able to explain these things to others who have also opposed gaming.”

“In that case, I’m afraid you’ve wasted your trip.” Rose stood. “I agree with the council that we
need funds desperately. But gaming is not the answer.”

His eyes flashed with a trace of anger. “And what solutions do your antigaming group propose? Do they have any idea at all how we can ease the tribe’s financial crisis?”

“I’ll think more about it and discuss the matter with
other people. For now, the only thing I can say is that you don’t fix one problem by adding another one.”

As the man
left, Jennifer came out to join Rose. “I only heard a little of what you said, but I think you really handled that well.”

But it hadn’t been good enough. Rose knew she was making enemies and, sooner or later, they would rally against her. She could only hope that when the challenge came, she’d be able to meet it with courage and dignity.

Ella and Justine spent most of the afternoon at the local tribal offices questioning Betty Nez’s coworkers inside an empty conference room. Betty had been well liked, and from what Ella could see the entire secretarial pool was mourning the passing of a friend. As they questioned the group, one by one, a picture of the murdered woman began to emerge.

“Everyone knows each other here,”
Lea Benally, a young receptionist in her midtwenties, explained. “We don’t always get along, mind you, and there are times when we’d cheerfully choke each other, but the truth is we’re all in the same situation and we know it. We have jobs, and we want to keep them. Our friend always worked hard and helped whoever was running behind. She’ll be missed.”

Ella noticed that no one wanted to mention
Betty by name. Even among these modernists, not many were willing to tempt fate by inadvertently summoning the
chindi.

“Who was she going out with?” Justine asked pointedly.

Lea squirmed. “We all knew she was seeing
someone,
but she was careful never to say who he was.”

“But you still had a good idea, right?” Ella pressed.

“We made a guess, but we don’t really know for sure,” Lea said with
a shrug.

“Tell me who you think it was,” Ella prodded.

Lea hesitated. “He had nothing to do with what happened to her. I’m certain of it.”

“Then we’ll be able to prove that right away,” Justine answered.

There was a knock at the door and a Navajo woman in her early fifties wearing a gray wool suit peered inside. “I’m sorry to interrupt, Officers, but should I ask one of our tribal attorneys
to be present?”

Ella looked at Rita Zahnes, the office supervisor, and was surprised to see the trace of fear in her eyes.

“Why would you think that’s necessary?” Ella asked. “Our questioning is routine at this point. We’re just getting background information.”

“I spoke to some of my people, and I understand that you’ve been asking them to speculate on who our coworker was dating. Speculation
like that could get them into serious trouble.” She shifted her gaze to Lea. “I wouldn’t want anyone to face slander charges or a reprimand.”

Lea’s eyes grew wide, and she turned to Ella. “I honestly don’t know anything. She and I were friendly to each other here at work, but we were always focused on our jobs. There’s not much time to just chitchat.”

Ella looked at Rita. “We asked all of you
not to discuss the deceased until we’d spoken with everyone here, but it looks like you didn’t respect that request. So I’d like to talk to you next. If you feel you need an attorney, by all means call one right now.”

“I don’t
need
an attorney,” Rita said, instantly on the defensive.

“We’re glad to hear that you’ve got nothing to hide,” Justine said.

Excusing Lea, Ella gestured for Rita to
have a seat. “We already know that the deceased was seeing a married man, and we have an idea of who that person is,” Ella bluffed. “I don’t think you want to be charged with obstruction of justice, and I do believe you’d like to see whoever killed your friend put in jail. Why don’t you just tell us what you know and let us do our job?”

Rita looked down at her hands and bit her bottom lip.
“Look,
this is very awkward for all of us. Sure, there’s been gossip about who she was seeing, but the way it started . . . I just don’t know if any of it is true.”

“Tell me what you heard,” Ella said.

“The gossip all started when Lea saw the woman who worked here,” she said avoiding the name, “with a guy who looked like Andrew Talk.”

“The Tribal Council member.” Justine verified with a casual nod
as if she’d already known about this.

“Yeah, but Lea was in a bar in Farmington at the time and the room was dark. Lea said that she got up to go say hello to her, but, before she could get across the room, her coworker ducked out with the guy.”

“All right. Send Lea back in, and this time
don’t
discuss this with anyone.”

“You don’t even have to ask,” Rita said, moving quickly to the door as
if fleeing from a rabid dog.

Lea came in a moment later. “Look, I really don’t have anything to say—”

“Lea, relax,” Ella said. “Whatever you tell us will be kept confidential.”

Lea’s eyes narrowed and she looked at Ella thoughtfully. “You already know, don’t you? That’s why you’re pressing me. You need to hear it directly from me?”

Ella nodded. “That’s it in a nutshell.”

“The truth is I never
got close enough to our friend to say for sure who she was with. That place was really dark, but from the glimpse I got, I think it was my boss, Andrew Talk. I wanted to go say hi to them, but one of the guys there suddenly grabbed me and asked me to dance. By the time I got free, they were gone.”

“Lea, I want you to think really hard. You say that you never got close, and you couldn’t see the
guy really well. So what is it that made you think it was Andrew Talk?”

“To be honest, the only clear look I had of him was when he was hurrying away, but I saw the back of his belt and that’s when I knew who it was. I suppose it
might have been someone with the same name, but...” she said with a shrug.

“Now you’ve lost me. What do you mean ’the same name’?” Ella asked.

“The guy I saw was wearing
a hand-tooled leather belt. As he walked away, the spotlight on the dance floor caught it and I saw the name Andrew tooled in outline on the back. You’ve seen those belts, haven’t you? The high school kids make them all the time.”

“And that convinced you that it was Andrew Talk?” Justine asked.

“Well, that, and the fact that Andrew has a belt like that. I’ve also seen the way he would look at
her when he thought no one else in the office was watching. He really liked her.”

When Lea left the room Justine glanced at Ella. “I probably see two or more of those belts every day. Even some of our cops wear them off duty.”

“I say we pay Mr. Talk a visit,” Ella said.

“Okay. His office is at the other end of the hall,” Justine said. “I remember seeing his name on the door when we walked down
here.”

“Let’s go.”

The office was empty, and one of the men working across the hall came out. “If you’re looking for Mr. Talk, he’s been out since yesterday.”

“Do you have his address?” Ella asked, flashing her badge.

Before long, they were under way, but Justine was uncharacteristically quiet.

“What’s on your mind?” Ella asked.

Justine exhaled softly. “I don’t know the Talks personally,
but I’ve seen his wife a few times. She’s a goodlooking woman, and they have two beautiful daughters—twins. It’s a shame that he’s playing around and screwing up his family. I’ve seen how hard that kind of thing
is on the children. It takes a toll on everyone.”

Ella lapsed into a thoughtful silence. Situations like the Talks’ only helped remind her how good her own life was. Being a single mom
was tough and, at times, lonely, but it was better to be alone than living with a mate who didn’t understand or respect the meaning of family.

When they arrived at the councilman’s home, Lorraine Talk, Andrew’s wife, greeted them at the door. Two raven-haired seven-year-olds were playing behind her in the living room.

Ella flashed her badge. “We need to talk to Andrew.” Lorraine turned her head.
“Go to your room, girls.” As the girls raced off down the hall, Lorraine invited Ella and Justine inside.

Ella looked around the large living room. Everything was tasteful but not ostentatious. The tiled terra cotta floors were beautiful and elegant. The furnishings, mostly plush leather and wood, gave the room a homey feel.

Ella studied the Navajo rugs hung by wooden rods upon the pale yellow
walls. She could tell by looking that those were antiques, woven on large wooden looms according to the time-honored ways. The Two Gray Hills pattern on one, made with handspun wool in shades of black, brown, and white, was exquisite and she knew it would have fetched a handsome price off the reservation.

“Sit down.” Lorraine gestured to the rich chocolate brown leather couch.

Ella took a seat
and studied the athletic, attractive woman in her early thirties. Justine remained standing near the hall, watching intently in case Talk was somewhere in the back of the house. Her only hope, Ella realized, was to catch a glimpse of Talk if he was there, because there was no chance she’d be able to hear anything over the shrieks and laughter coming from the twins.

“The girls are really excited
today. You’ll have to forgive them. They just came back from an overnight field trip. They traveled to see the Albuquerque Biological Park. Now tell me, what can I help you with?”

“I need to talk to your husband,” Ella repeated.

“Oh, I thought you wanted to talk to me
about
my husband.” She gave Ella an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, but Andrew moved out.”

“I just came from his office, and this
is the address we were given,” Ella said.

“Andrew hasn’t discussed any of this with the people at the office. I don’t think he wants them to know that we’ve been having marital problems,” she answered, her voice low.

“What happened between you two, may I ask?” Lorraine stood and walked around the room nervously. “The problems between my husband and me are personal, and strictly between the two
of us.”

“I hate to press you on the issue, but it’s crucial to a case I’m working on. Was Andrew seeing someone else?”

Lorraine stopped in midstride, put her hands on her hips, and looked directly at Ella. “I have no idea and, to be honest, I really don’t care. I kicked him out because I couldn’t stand his drinking. And, more importantly, I didn’t want to expose the girls to that kind of behavior.”

“Was he ever violent?” Justine asked matter-of-factly. “Andrew had fits of temper, but he never touched me. He knew better. I’m in better shape than he is. If he ever raised his hand to me, I’d break it off at the wrist and hand it back to him. I’m a brown belt in karate, and I’m working on my next level.”