Shooting Chant (27 page)

Ella held up her hand, and nodded. “I’ll check out the fairgrounds
and look things over. But I think you’re refusing to see what’s right in front of you. Since the beginning of time, opposing viewpoints have made people do a lot of crazy things.” She paused, looking at the hostile faces of those around her. “Will there be a Blessingway done at the fairgrounds?”

Clifford shook his head. “Not yet. We need to know more about what we’re facing.”

Ella didn’t comment.
They were all chasing shadows, but that’s the way it often was with mysticism of any kind.

“I promise I’ll check out the area and see what I can find. Just remember that I’m dealing with people who are
killing
livestock.”

“What about the dead insects and birds?” Clifford insisted. “How do you explain that?”

“A soil contaminant?” she suggested. “I don’t have an answer for you yet, but when I
do, I’ll let you know.”

She didn’t believe in esoteric evil, but whenever wildlife started dying for no discernible reason it merited a closer look. Maybe there was a link between that and the deformities affecting newborn livestock.

None of this exonerated the Fierce Ones, however. They were still suspects. It was entirely possible that they’d contaminated the soil themselves so they could
blame LabKote. If that were the case, she knew they would have selected a contaminant of short duration, then used the ensuing crisis to blame LabKote. Citizens would have rallied behind the Fierce Ones and, as an extra bonus, they would have been asked to deal with whatever “evil” had been unleashed there. By the time they had the right ceremonies performed, the contaminant would have broken down
and they’d come out as the good guys. They would have accomplished their goal of shutting down the plant by turning people against it, and then used The People’s own fears to force them to embrace the old ways more closely.

If that was their plan, though, what part did they want her to play in it? Were they going to try and use her to implicate LabKote and add legitimacy to their plot?

“Look
into this, then let me know what you learn,” Clifford said, interrupting her thoughts.

“All right,” she said, giving her brother a long, thoughtful look. Did Clifford realize how bad things were beginning to appear for his group? Somehow she doubted it. He had a tendency to see only what he wanted to see. She doubted he was aware of even half the possibilities running through her mind. “I’ll
have the county lab techs do a workup. Maybe somebody at the fairgrounds just misused some bug spray.”

“See it through yourself,” Clifford warned. “The Anglos who work for the county don’t care—they
can’t
care—not like we do. This is
our
land, the
Diné Tah,
and it’s up to us to find the answers.”

Ella said nothing, but noticed the nods and general agreement on the faces of the others. To try
and explain to them that the county people knew their jobs was useless right now. All she’d do was stir up more ill will for the PD. “I’ll look into this myself, but they’ll have to run the tests. That’s out of my field.”

“Understood.”

There was another possibility she had to consider, too. It was possible that LabKote
had
leaked something into the soil. But if that turned out to be the case,
it would be a separate problem altogether. A spill on the fairgrounds still wouldn’t exonerate Norma, Nancy, or the others who had gone after each other’s livestock or property. It would be just one more problem to face, on top of the kidnapping, the murders, and the rest of the strife between the traditionalists and the modernists.

Leaving the gathering, Ella drove back home. It was past eleven
when she entered her house and all was quiet. Trying not to wake her mother, she walked down the hall silently, then almost tripped over Two, who was lying there in the dark.

As she opened the bedroom door, he trotted in and jumped on the bed. Ella undressed and, wearing an old FBI Academy sweatshirt, started to crawl into bed. Realizing, however, that she wasn’t at all sleepy, she changed her
mind, stood up, and went to her computer.

After answering E-mail from friends, she switched to a computer puzzle game Wilson had given her a few months ago. The software took a photograph scanned into the computer, reduced it to components of varying sizes and shapes, then disassembled them. It then became a computer jigsaw puzzle that Ella had to reconstruct. After several weeks of work, her
favorite landscape photo of Shiprock was emerging slowly on her computer screen.

As she worked, Ella wondered how long it would take before she’d be able to piece together all the things happening on the Rez and get a clear picture that would reveal the truth.

FIFTEEN

S
EPTEMBER
13
TH

Ella was up and on the road again the next morning after an early breakfast with Rose. The sun was just coming up as she drove north toward Ship Rock and the turn-off to the Brownhat residence. It was crisp outside, but still too early in the year for the first frost of fall.

As she topped a low hill, Ella noticed an old green pickup by the road, the hood up. She slowed,
looking for the driver, and noticed an elderly man farther ahead, walking toward town.

Giving someone a ride if they needed it was still common on the Rez, despite the warnings against picking up hitchhikers. As an officer, she usually tried to help out unless she was on a call. Ella drove up beside the old man and saw that it was Atsidi Benally, one of the men Abigail Yellowhair had mentioned
as an enemy of her kidnapped husband.

Justine had already spoken to the man and he had an alibi, but Ella decided that this would be a good time to talk to him herself. It was hard to imagine Atsidi kidnapping anyone, or being involved in something like that. He looked thin and frail, though he was probably a lot stronger than many men over the age of sixty-five.

“Need a ride into town, Uncle?”
she asked, using the term to denote respect, not kinship. “I see your pickup decided not to go all the way this morning.”

“I thought I recognized your Jeep,” Atsidi stopped, catching his breath. “How’s your mother?”

“Getting stronger every day, Uncle. She’s going to be using that cane for firewood this time next year.” Ella knew that Atsidi respected Rose for her work with the Plant People,
and for maintaining her traditional beliefs as much as she had, though Ella’s father had been a Christian preacher.

“If I catch a ride to the first gas station, do I have to wear handcuffs?” Atsidi joked, coming around to the passenger side and getting in. “Your policemen have asked many questions about that weasel senator who got himself kidnapped. If you didn’t drive this way everyday yourself,
I might have thought your stopping to help was no coincidence.”

“I know you and the senator have had your troubles. I don’t care too much for the man myself, if the truth be known.” Ella nodded, checking for oncoming traffic, then pulling back out onto the highway. She noted the smell of piñon and smoke on the old man’s flannel shirt, and thought instantly of the many traditionalists who, like
him, still used wood and coal stoves for heating and cooking. It was a pleasant smell, which spoke of history.

“I heard that your brother, the
hataalii,
has gotten himself mixed up with those gangsters who act like cops without badges. No offense, of course.” Atsidi observed, shaking his head slowly.

“None taken. We’ve talked about it, as you may have also heard. The Fierce Ones are no longer
keeping their identities a secret. Do you think that will make them more sympathetic to The People?” Ella knew Atsidi was against any secret organizations, but had supported many traditional movements. He was a natural leader, and people listened to what he had to say, especially at Chapter House meetings.

“The People can’t be forced to follow the old ways. It has to be a matter of choice. The
Fierce Ones work like many Anglo groups who try to use fear to make others follow them, but there are better ways to accomplish the good they’re trying to do.”

“Like kidnapping?”

“Force is not the answer,” Benally repeated more firmly this time.

Ella believed him. His words held the ring of truth.

“You can stop here,” Atsidi motioned with his head toward the grocery store and gas station at
the intersection just ahead, outside Shiprock. “Maybe I can return the favor if you ever have a problem with your fancy police car.”

Ella pulled over, and Atsidi climbed out with a grunt, shutting the door a little too hard, something probably learned from habit in his own weather-beaten truck.

Ella waited until he crossed the road in front of her, then turned around and drove off in the direction
she’d come. She’d passed where the Brownhat’s lived, but this short visit with Atsidi Benally had at least eliminated him in her mind as an accomplice in the Yellowhair kidnapping. It just wasn’t his style. He was too direct. Of course, there was always the possibility that the old man was as good at fooling her as he was at leading the traditionalists.

*   *   *

Later, after another hour at
the Brownhat scene, her crime scene team met for their morning meeting. Ella looked at the somber faces around her. Although no hard evidence pointing conclusively to murder had been found at the site, they all agreed that John Brownhat had been right about the nature of his wife’s death.

“How long before we have the autopsy report?” Ralph Tache asked.

“Dr. Roanhorse will call as soon as she
has something. She knows that time is crucial to us,” Ella said.

“Where should we focus the next phase of our investigation?” Harry asked.

“I want you to talk to her friends. Question anyone she was close to, and get everything that led up to the confrontation she had with Billy Pete at the Chapter House meeting.” She looked at Tache. “I want you to concentrate on finding a link between the
break-in at the clinic and Elisa. I have reason to believe that Elisa was pregnant, though that hasn’t been confirmed. Her file was one of those taken during the break-in, and all the pregnancy results from those records are still missing. See what other connections you can dig up. For example, was she seeing a traditionalist who might have resented her going to the clinic?”

“You mean was she
having an affair with one?” Justine asked.

“Find out. I want a connection, folks. Dig one out, if it exists. And remember not to let the kidnapping get far from your thoughts. We’ll have to give that our time, as well.”

Tache and Ute walked out, but Ella called Justine back.

“Wait. Before you get started checking on Elisa, I want you to come and help me with something else.” Ella filled her
in on what she’d learned at the meeting the night before.

“I don’t get it. What exactly do you want to do at the fairgrounds?”

“I’m going to call Wilson, and have him meet us there. I want to look over the area with a fine-tooth comb and take soil and water samples.”

“Big Ed would have your butt in a sling if he found out. That’s not our jurisdiction. You should have the county environmental
or health people do that.”

“I know it seems like someone else’s job, but it’s also part of the unrest on the reservation right now, and something we have to take into account when we’re looking for motives for the crimes we’re trying to solve, including the kidnapping.” She paused then added, “I also want to stay high profile when we go out there so the people at LabKote will see us. Let’s see
what kind of trouble we can stir up. If they’ve done something wrong, I want to make them squirm.”

“I just hope we can find some answers that’ll help us figure out what’s been going on,” Justine said.

“I hate to even contemplate the thought that the Fierce Ones may have put something in the soil to blame LabKote, but if we find a contaminant, at least people will stop going at each other for
a while—and that’ll give us some time to prove where it came from,” Ella said.

“I can’t see how the Fierce Ones would benefit from doing something like that. If people believed that LabKote leaked something from the plant onto the ground, then things would blow up and get even nastier. The traditionalists would blame the progressives and it would become an open war.”

“If there’s a contaminant
there, I really doubt that LabKote’s to blame. They’d know something like this would be tracked back to them, and no one there is stupid. They would have cleaned it up pronto. Plus, from my knowledge of what they do, I don’t think they use toxic chemicals. It’s mostly a sterilizing plant, and they don’t even use chemical disinfectants to achieve that goal, they use radiation.”

Justine’s eyes
narrowed and she started to speak, then stopped.

“Go on,” Ella prodded.

“I don’t think this is the case, mind you, but adding to your train of thought, what if the Fierce Ones have someone on the inside? It’s possible they could frame LabKote without the supervisors even knowing about it.”

“You mean if they’ve managed to get one of their own hired by the plant?” Ella expelled her breath in
a hiss. “I think I saw Jimmie Herder at the meeting, come to think about it. The amount of harm one of those men could do, if they got in the right position, is considerable. I wonder what Jimmie has access to?”

Justine shuddered. “Jimmie may not end up being the only insider at LabKote. You know the Fierce Ones are pushing to replace Hansen with a Navajo. Do you think they’ve got someone in
mind?”

“I don’t know, but start looking into it.”

Justine and Ella met forty minutes later at the gravel parking lot west of the fairgrounds exhibit hall. Not too many months earlier, the area had been the site of youth gang violence, and Ella remembered one particular incident just like it was yesterday. Shots had been fired between two rival gangs in cars, the Fierce Ones had tried to put
a stop to it by ramming the cars with a dump truck, and one vehicle had overturned, injuring several young men. She’s had the place staked out, and had been able to react fast enough to prevent further violence.