Wind Spirit [Ella Clah 10] (26 page)

“To do what?” Ella asked. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”

“No. You now know what I do.”

“Okay. Thanks for the tip. I appreciate it,” Ella said, hung up, then called in her team. Within twenty minutes they were all gathered in a conference room and she detailed her plan.

Tache looked at her in surprise. “They’ve got a job now, but what’s my part in this?”

“I have another task for you. I want you to go over to the county sheriff’s office and ask Sheriff Taylor if you can examine all the evidence they gathered during the fire at Branch’s home. Check to see if anything’s missing, or if there’s something that needs to be followed up on. We’re looking for anything to back up what we have on Cardell Benally or Lewis Hunt.”

“The county has a pretty competent team, Ella,” Tache said.

“Yes, I agree, but sometimes things get missed—particularly details that might have meaning to a Navajo but not to someone who’s not from our tribe. Just be careful not to step on any toes by letting them think we’re second-guessing them.”

“Got it.”

“I also want you to go back to Branch’s home yourself and take a look around. See if there’s anything there along the same vein that might have been overlooked. Get Branch’s permission if you run into him, but don’t be too specific about what you’re searching for, okay?”

“That’ll be easy, considering I don’t know exactly what it is I’m hoping to find,” Tache muttered.

Glancing back at Neskahi and Justine, Ella worked out their schedules. “You take the first shift following the councilman, Justine. Stay in touch with me at all times, and if you think something’s going down, call me immediately,” she said, then laid out the rest of the watch.

After Justine and the others left, Ella returned to her small office and mulled over what her brother had told her about Branch. She needed to keep closer tabs on the radio commentator now that he was taking matters into his own hands.

This latest move of his shouldn’t have surprised her. Like most bullies, Branch was used to dishing it out, but taking it
was another matter. Of course they’d hit him where he was most vulnerable. She had no doubt that he’d stewed about it and become increasingly worried when it became clear that neither the tribal nor the county police would be able to find Benally easily. Fear always brought out the worst in a person.

As Ella considered her options, she remembered Hoskie Ben. He probably knew more about Branch than anyone else. She’d start with him.

Ella called the station and after identifying herself only as a friend was put through to Hoskie Ben.

“It’s Ella Clah,” she explained. “Sorry for the subterfuge, but I need to talk to you off the record.”

“Then it’s a good thing you didn’t say who you were. With Lewis Hunt trying to stir up some of his own vigilante type justice, George is nothing short of paranoid. People like him recognize their own. If the receptionist mentioned that you’d called me, he’d make my life miserable.”

“Can we meet somewhere after you get off work?”

“Sure. What did you have in mind?”

“I need to ask you a few questions. Off the record is better, but I can make this official.”

“Can you be more specific?” he asked, his voice guarded. “I have a responsibility to this station. Proprietary business stays confidential.”

“Let’s meet. If you don’t like a particular question, don’t answer it, and I’ll go to the next one,” she said, keeping her tone as casual as possible. She wanted him relaxed, not on his guard.

“Fair enough. I live just southwest of where the La Plata River joins the San Juan. It’s as close as you can get to Farmington and still be on the Rez. I rent land from an allottee, and since my wife works and my kids are at school, we’ll have the place to ourselves. I can get off for lunch at eleven. How about if we meet a half hour after that?”

Ella checked her watch. It was nine-thirty now. “That sounds fine. I’ll see you then.”

As soon as Ella hung up, the telephone rang. It was Jim Begay, the trading post owner at Beclabito and one of the few traditionalist-leaning Navajos who wasn’t afraid to contact her. “Are you still looking for John Tso?”

“Yes, is he around?”

There was a brief pause. “He was. He came in to buy supplies and mentioned that he was going into the Chuska Mountains to find one of his family’s lost shrines. I told him you were looking for him, and he said that he’d look you up when he came back to Shiprock. I suggested that you needed his services right away, but he just shrugged and said you’d have to wait. He had to do this other thing first while he was still strong enough to do it. It’s part of the legacy he wanted to leave behind for his family. After he left, I thought about it and wondered if he’d really understood how much you needed him. He’s been out of touch with all the news around here.”

“Any idea when he’ll be coming out of the mountains?”

“He bought enough supplies for two or three days at least, but may have had more food in his truck. I really can’t say, Ella. Sorry,” Jim answered.

“Well, thanks for letting me know.” Ella hung up and called Rose. “Do you know anyone out there who might be willing to try to find the
hataalii
and convince him to do a Sing for me right away? I can’t take off and go searching for him now. It might take days.”

“Let me see if I can get some of the Plant Watchers who live in the area to go check for him.”

Ella hung up, satisfied. If it could be done, her mother’s friends would find John Tso.

After another quick meeting with the chief to tell him the news about the Singer, Ella got on the road. She had over an
hour before she had to meet with Hoskie, so she decided to stop by and see Carolyn Roanhorse Lavery. Ella still needed a physical done and she’d been carrying the insurance papers they’d mailed her in her glove compartment for some time now.

Ella was halfway to the hospital when her cell phone rang. “Hunt made me, Ella. I’m sure of it,” Justine said.

“Where are you now?” Ella asked.

“Just off the road west of Hogback. He stopped by the grocery store in Shiprock and came out with a cart full of groceries. Then he got on Highway Sixty-four heading east. He turned off on a gravel road before Hogback, so I went farther south and drove on a parallel course along the ditch levee. The only problem is that the trail here is dry and dusty and the cloud of dust that my unit left behind was impossible for even a blind man to miss. He’s slowed down considerably now so I’m sure he made me.”

“You say he’s still heading east?”

“Yeah, and, Ella, his home isn’t out this way and neither is the place he’s been staying at. I checked. He’s been living with a friend of his just outside Shiprock where most of the power company’s tribal employees live.”

“Hang back and watch him through binoculars. I’ll take over as soon as I can. I’m on my way now.”

It took Ella another ten minutes to reach the area Justine had mentioned. “I’m coming alone above you on the main highway. Where’s he?” Ella asked.

“About a mile up, close to Waterflow now.”

“Okay, I’ll take over from here. I’ll stay on the highway north of him. Go back to the station for now.”

“I’m sorry, partner.”

“Get Neskahi and tell him I’ll need him earlier than we thought. I can only stay with the councilman for another half an hour or so.”

“I’ll take care of it.”

“He might be watching the road behind him, so double back rather than go all the way to the Morgan Lake turnoff. If you can let him see you pulling back on the highway,” Ella said, “that would be even better.”

Ella kept her eyes on the large, white pickup slowly heading east. It was one of those trucks that had every amenity in the world and was the size of a white elephant. It must have cost him more than what three average Navajo families grossed in a year.

Ella watched Hunt as her partner got back on the road. Without a pair of binoculars the truck would have been nothing more than a white dot, but with them she could easily see that the bed of the truck was loaded with grocery sacks. She had a feeling he was delivering supplies to someone. His caution and the direction he was heading in, which would eventually take him into a very isolated area, made her suspect that he’d been on his way to see Benally.

Ella had to drive slowly in order not to get ahead of him. Soon, he came to a stop. She parked by the side of the highway and waited. She had a feeling that he was searching for another telltale trail of dust. Then, without warning, he turned the truck around and headed right back to Shiprock, crossing the river at the only bridge between Waterflow and Shiprock.

Ella couldn’t figure out if he’d seen her or just suspected he was being followed. But a short time later he entered a housing area at Shiprock’s northeast end, pulled into one of the driveways, and began carrying his groceries inside.

Disgusted that this operation had been a bust, Ella contacted Neskahi and turned things over to him. “Hunt’s got a sixth sense when it comes to spotting a tail, so hang back and good luck.”

Ella drove down the highway, lost in thought, when the back of her neck suddenly began to prickle. She glanced in her rearview mirror and saw nothing, yet her uneasiness continued.
The badger fetish at her neck felt uncomfortably warm, almost hot. Acting on instinct alone, she slowed abruptly, pulling off to the shoulder of the highway beside a low mesa. Just then something shattered the windshield and she felt a slight tug on her left cheek, followed by a burning sensation that made her eyes tear automatically. As blood began dripping down her cheek, then flowing onto her neck, she realized that a bullet had creased her face.

Hitting the brakes, she grabbed the mike, keeping the vehicle under control with her other hand. “Officer needs assistance. Shots fired,” she yelled. By the time the vehicle stopped she was below the dashboard, out of view.

Her cheek burned like fire, and with her head down, blood dripped freely onto the floor of the SUV. Ella waited a full five minutes, but when no other shots followed, she finally raised her head to look around. It was quiet, there weren’t even any cars coming.

Ella studied the hole and the spiderweb pattern around the cracked safety glass of the windshield, then turned around and looked for an exit hole or impact site. She found another small hole in the plastic covering the rear window pillar on the driver’s side. Judging from the direction she’d been traveling, and the place where the round had impacted, the sniper had been above and just ahead of her. Had she not turned, he might have scored a direct hit.

That’s when Ella started to shake. If she had nine lives, as many in the department claimed, she’d used up at least half of them in the past week.

Hearing the wail of the police sirens, and aware that others were on the way, bolstered her courage. Her team would arrive shortly and they’d scour the entire area together until they found something, even if they had to stay out here all day.

Ella’s cheek continued to bleed, and despite the annoyance of having to leave the crime scene she decided it was best to go have it checked at the hospital. After reaching into her SUV’s glove compartment and grabbing the life insurance forms she’d wanted Carolyn to fill out, she met with Justine. Her partner had insisted on driving her.

“I’ll drop you off, then come right back here to look around the mesa,” Justine said. “I’ll find the spot where the sniper was hiding. Count on it. At least we can rule out Lewis Hunt on this one.”

When Ella arrived at the emergency room, a young Hispanic doctor began to work on her. “I’m hoping that you won’t need stitches, but let’s see how it goes.”

“You’re calling it, Doc,” Ella said. Experience told her that Dr. Martinez was one of the many young physicians who served at the tribal hospital as a way to pay back their student loans, then would disappear as soon as their time was up.

“You got off lucky. Another few millimeters and you’d be in surgery now, a centimeter and you could have been in the morgue,” Dr. Martinez said.

“You’re nice and upbeat today, aren’t you, Doc?” Ella smiled ruefully.

She gave Ella a sheepish grin. “A good bedside manner is hard to come by when you get four hours or less of sleep at night. But I’ll work on it.”

Ella was about to answer when Carolyn Roanhorse, the tribe’s ME, knocked and poked her head inside. “Justine called and said you were on your way in, Investigator Clah. This is getting to be a bad habit.”

“Doctor, can I help you?” Dr. Martinez asked.

“We’re old friends, Doc,” Ella explained.

“In that case, come in,” Dr. Martinez said. Carolyn checked the doctor’s work as she treated the wound, then bandaged it. “Very nicely done,” she said at last.

“Make sure it stays clean and airtight, and keep a little petroleum jelly on the bandage,” Dr. Martinez told Ella. “That’ll minimize scarring.”

As the doctor left to take care of another patient, Carolyn looked at Ella. “She really did do a great job. She’s not so good with her communication skills, but she’s a very competent physician. You shouldn’t have much of a scar there after it’s all said and done.”

“I’m glad to hear that.” Ella looked at her watch and groaned. “I need to meet an informant, but I’m already late. Justine insisted on driving me here after my unit became Exhibit A, so I’m without wheels. And I absolutely refuse to call one of them away from the scene just so I can have quick transportation.”