Changing Woman (44 page)

Letting the binoculars dangle from the strap around her neck, Ella flipped her rifle off safe and found the man in her telescopic sights. She aimed low to avoid any portion of her bullet entering the
cabin, and squeezed the trigger gently, catching the man in the side just above his belt. He sagged to the ground, dropping his pistol.

The shot announced her presence, and created a flurry of confusion below. The men in the trees across the clearing from the cabin began firing blindly up the hill while scrambling for better cover toward the west end. Ella used the opportunity to change her own
position, moving farther downhill and more to her left to outflank them and maintain cover for herself.

The pair that had fled from the trees made it downhill to their blocked vehicles, putting Kevin’s SUV between them and her. Through the rifle scope Ella caught glimpses of Jefferson Blueeyes. She didn’t recognize the Indian beside him, but she got the impression he wasn’t Navajo. If she’d had
to take a guess, she would have said that it was one of the two who’d been with Henry Estrada that day at the coffee shop.

She suddenly saw two more men to her right and below her, moving through the forest behind the cabin, bringing the number to at least four still actively involved. Both stopped behind rock outcroppings and started firing in her general direction with handguns. Obviously they
still couldn’t see her among the shadows, but hoped to pin her down and throw off her aim. To her, that clearly meant the attackers were about to make a move somewhere else.

The man with Blueeyes suddenly broke out from behind the cover of the closest vehicle and made a dash for the window at the southwest corner, the one where two of their comrades had fallen already.

Ella raised her weapon
but, before she could shoot,
Kevin fired. The running man grabbed his thigh, fell to the ground, and crawled back around the west end, out of sight.

“Way to go, Kevin,” she whispered. He was obviously running from window to window, trying to keep an eye on three directions and, so far, had done very well for himself. Now, with her there, he’d only have to guard one position.

Ella moved a little
more to the south and downhill, trying to find a clear line of fire so she could take out Blueeyes, who was still behind the vehicles. But, almost as if sensing the danger he moved around so that he had cover on three sides.

Ella knew time was running out. She had to take out two or more of the gunmen before Kevin ran out of ammunition for his rifle and pistol or was struck by a lucky shot. Hopefully
he’d placed Dawn in the tub in the bathroom where she’d be safest.

Suddenly she heard the sound of roaring vehicle engines from somewhere west, down the mountain. Relief flooded through her. Reinforcements. They weren’t going to be alone anymore. The odds had now shifted in their favor, and the ones trying to take Dawn would have to fight it out, surrender, or take to the woods on foot.

Her
cell phone rang. “Ella, this is Blalock with the cavalry. We’re staying off the radio just in case, but I’ve got walkie-talkies for the others that they’ll have a hell of a time monitoring. I’m about an eighth of a mile below and west of the cabin, coming up the road. What’s your situation?”

Ella directed Blalock and the team toward the cabin, moving in from her left, right, and up the road,
forcing the attackers into the center, where they’d eventually be caught by gunfire coming from all four directions. Five minutes later, Ella saw Blalock beyond the vehicles, moving east up the road but staying within the tree line.

“I’m directly opposite you right now, in the trees above the clearing. They still can’t see me here in the
shade against the bright sky,” Ella whispered into her
cell phone. She hadn’t seen any of the gunmen below move in the last five minutes, but she broadcast their approximate location. “I’ll keep the phone open and in my jacket. If you say something, I’ll hear you.”

“Good enough.”

“How much help did you bring?” Ella asked.

“We didn’t have regular manpower to draw from,” Blalock replied. “Most of the officers and Big Ed had to run to check all the
bridges between Shiprock and Farmington. One of the
Hasih
in custody decided to announce that explosives had been planted on three area bridges, and that those had remote timers. Payestewa and every other cop available is on that assignment now, as well as the ATF. With so many local officers just coming off that long standoff at the mine, and all our extra help headed back across the state, we’ve
almost out of manpower.”

Ella listened, but her mind was only on the events unfolding before her now. “So who came with you?”

“Officer Goodluck, and two deputized volunteers we’ve worked with before, your brother, Clifford, and Wilson Joe.” Blalock responded.

“I believe there are three able-bodied men left down there. The other three are wounded or dead.”

“Only three? Are you sure of that?”

“No, I still have a blind spot, the west end of the cabin. I just shoot at anyone I see that isn’t Kevin. I figured we’d take them out one by one until no one but us good guys were left standing.”

“Henry was right about you being part pitbull. Nothing ever makes you back off.”

“You’ve spoken with him?”

“Briefly. He’s really messed up, but the doctors say he’s going to make it.”

“That’s a relief.”
Ella, who hadn’t taken her eyes off the perps below, spoke quickly, bringing their focus back to the present. “We’ve got trouble,” she said.
“Somebody managed to start the stolen SUV. The tires are spinning right now, and he’s not making much headway, but it looks like he’s planning to ram the front of the cabin. He’s got one of the others with him.”

“Everyone with a sight line try to take out
the engine or driver,” Blalock announced, obviously using his radio and the cell phone at the same time. “Don’t hit a tire, that’ll just give him more traction.”

Ella quickly sighted in on the engine and fired, scoring a direct hit right above the radiator. Almost simultaneously, two other shots rang out. The windows of the SUV shattered, and the engine whined, and started smoking. The vehicle,
spinning badly already, slid around nearly ninety degrees, striking the porch with its right rear tire.

Black smoke, then orange flames, began shooting from around the engine compartment, then the hood blew open with a fiery roar. The men jumped out in a panic and slipped and stumbled back to the other vehicles, diving underneath them for cover.

“Ella, your brother says that he’s south, in the
trees across from the front of the cabin. He’ll keep them pinned underneath the cars,” Blalock said through the open line of the cell phone.

“Good deal!” Ella said, moving straight down the hill toward the cabin, being careful not to trip on a fallen branch or tree stump.

“Wilson’s close enough to see two men crouched down low at the northwest end of the cabin, toward the back,” Blalock said.
“They don’t know which way to run, and can’t move toward the vehicles without coming into my field of fire.”

Ella continued downhill. Nothing was going to stop her from getting to her daughter now. Hearing someone to her right and above her, she dove behind cover, wheeling around with rifle up.

“It’s me,” Justine whispered, then stepped out from behind a tree, and, at a low crouch, ran over
beside her.
“I came to give you this.” She handed Ella one of the two walkie-talkies she had clipped to her belt. “I was with Wilson, but ran ahead and came around on the uphill side. I’ll cover you. Don’t worry,” she added grimly. “I finally got my score back up at the police range.”

Ella raced down the slope and quickly reached the shuttered window at the east end of the cabin. She stood to
the side, and directed her voice toward the window. “Kevin, it’s me, Ella. Open the window.”

To her left, behind the cabin, was Wilson somewhere in the brush. Her back to the wall, she saw Justine nod from farther up the hill.

She heard the window being opened, then the shutters were unbolted and swung open with a creak. “Okay. Climb on in,” Kevin mumbled, his voice weak and weary.

Ella put
her rifle on safe and placed it inside, standing in the corner of the window, muzzle up and away from her. Then she pulled herself up and over, landing on the wooden plank floor in a crouch. Looking around as she grabbed her rifle, she saw that Kevin had moved down to the far window, looking back and forth between the outside and an opened half door in the floor that apparently led down to a cellar.
Fumes from the burning vehicle had drifted in through the broken windows, but the circulation caused by the air from the additional window she’d just entered through was helping disperse the smoke.

“Where’s—”

“Down in the cellar, covered by a dozen or more blankets. She’s got a flashlight ’cause she hates the dark, but she’s okay,” Kevin said.

Ella set down her rifle and hurried across the
room. She quickly climbed down the crude wooden steps into the cool darkness. The place smelled earthy, as with all old cellars. A flashlight beam shined in her eyes.

“Shimá!”
Dawn dropped the flashlight and scrambled
out of the covers of an old bed just as Ella reached her, jumping into her mother’s arms.

Ella held her close, comforting Dawn even as it comforted her to hold her daughter. But
there was no time for more than that now. “Stay here, under the covers, just a few more moments, pumpkin.” Ella set her back down on the bed, covered her with blankets, then handed Dawn the flashlight. Quickly she ran back up the stairs.

“It’s me, I’m coming in!” Justine yelled, then opened the front door. The lock had been shot away already. “We have all but one of them in custody now. Whoever
it was slipped past Wilson and Blalock somehow. Wilson caught a glimpse of him as he ran into the woods, and thinks it’s Blueeyes. He’s headed down the road toward our vehicles. Blalock’s following him.”

“Guard my kid, Justine. I’ll be back,” Ella said, anger in her voice as she checked her pistol.

“You going to join Blalock?”

“You bet. Jefferson Blueeyes made my life and my daughter’s a living
hell. He’s not getting away, and freezing up on this mountain would be too good for him.”

“Better let FB-Eyes know you’re coming,” Justine yelled out as Ella headed out the door.

Ella nodded to Clifford and Wilson, who had the prisoners sitting on the ground with their backs to the wall, but continued past the vehicles and downhill.

She contacted Blalock on the handheld as she hurried along
the trees at the left side of the road, following the tracks in the road itself but staying out of sight from anyone covering the open area.

“I’m ahead of you, on the right side,” Blalock whispered, “but I’m going to try to intersect the road just past where we parked, and cut him off from below. With luck, we’ll trap him between us.”

“I don’t want this sleazeball to get away. Good hunting.

Ella pushed forward for a hundred yards, and spotting
something in the road, stepped out briefly from behind a tree to take a closer look.

“Ella, get back!” Blalock yelled over the radio.

She heard the gunshot almost at the same time she felt the bullet strike her chest. The force knocked her back into the snow-covered brush alongside the road. Pain made it impossible for her to take a breath,
and her eyes teared as she tried. Afraid that she might lose consciousness any second, Ella tried to raise her weapon to defend herself. But her hand was empty. The pistol was somewhere in the snow.

Blalock came up to the road on the other side, then sprinted and slid across the narrow lane, firing toward the tree line where the shooter had taken cover. Grabbing Ella by the collar, he dragged her farther back among the trees, where he sat her up.

“I feel as if I’ve been kicked by a bionic mule,” Ella gasped, looking down at her jacket to take a look. Although the round hadn’t
penetrated the special vest, she’d been struck right above the breastbone and her entire chest ached. “I’m going to have trouble moving for a month.”

“You’re alive and you haven’t sprung a leak. Take it as a win,” Blalock said, his eyes now glued on the trees again. Spotting something in the snow in a footprint he’d left, FB-Eyes crawled over and retrieved her handgun. “You might need this, Clah.”

She nodded, checking the weapon for any blockage of the barrel or action automatically. “Blueeyes was in the road. The round couldn’t have come from him. It was someone on the other side.”

“It was Manuelito. I saw the SOB. He was using Blueeyes as bait to lure us out into the open. I was trying to get a clear line of fire so I could take him out, but I lost him for a second, and that’s when he
fired.”

Ella struggled to her knees with a groan. “We have to split up. Go after Blueeyes. As much as I want that weasel, I should take Manuelito instead. He’s a Navajo cop and deserves to be taken down by one of his own.”

“Before you go, Ella, keep in mind that Manuelito was probably the one who fingered Kevin and your daughter.
After he was spotted near Lukachukai, Big Ed found out Manuelito
had provided security a few times for tribal meetings up here. He knew Kevin had been to the cabin, and must have guessed he would head here.”

Cold anger strengthened Ella’s resolve. “Let’s go.” They took positions on both sides of the road, and advanced downhill, covering each other as they moved from tree to tree.

When they reached a switchback in the road, Ella spotted someone trying to start
one of the vehicles that had brought her reinforcements. She moved forward, but the man saw her, jumped out of the SUV firing, and ran behind cover, ducking behind a large rock. Catching a glimpse of his face, Ella saw that it was Blueeyes, but someone else was across the road dead ahead, hiding in the brush. She could see the shoulder of his jacket from where she was crouched. That had to be
Manuelito.

Ella came up with a plan and called Blalock. “I’m going to sprint across the road,” she whispered into the radio. “That should draw fire from Blueeyes. When he peeks out, nail him. I’ll keep on moving to your right and come out behind Manuelito. Right now he’s across the road from Blueeyes, but around the bend in the road so you can’t see him from your position. As soon as you neutralize
Blueeyes, move up so you can keep watch over the vehicles. Manuelito will have no place to go without breaking cover.”