Changing Woman

Praise for
Changing Woman

“The authors present a good look at the complexities of the gaming issue while maintaining the character-driven essence of the series. Ella, balanced between mother and daughter, modernist and traditionalist, job and family, remains the captivating focal point of this excellent series.”

—
Publishers Weekly

“The book is packed with action. I liked the careful attention
to police procedure and the detailed description that let me ‘see’ the crisis at the power station. I highly recommend
Changing Woman.”

—
Mystery News

Praise for
Red Mesa

“Fans of Tony Hillerman’s Jim Leaphorn and Jim Chee, and of Jean Hager’s investigator, Molly Bearpaw, should appreciate the way the Thurlos mix Native American lore with modern situations and forensics technique. Even readers
unfamiliar with the Native American subgenre will be intrigued by the richly complex Ella and her fight to bring integrity to her work and personal life.”

—
Booklist
(starred review)

“A great tale. The Thurlos’ talent resides in deep and thorough characterizations that lift their Native American police procedurals to a plane shared by the likes of Hillerman.”

—
Midwest Book Review

Praise for
Shooting Chant

“Enough background is given to know that this is not the first book featuring Ella Clah, but not so much as to make the reader feel as if they’ve missed too much to make sense of the characters or plot.
Shooting Chant
is well written, descriptive, entertaining. It will provide readers looking for a suspenseful read with a lead character who is intelligent,
dedicated, likeable, and quite appealing.”

—
Albuquerque Journal

“If it’s just too long between Tony Hillerman novels, the mysteries of Aimée and David Thurlo will help you bridge the canyons. If you prefer your mysteries with a little green chile and New Mexico grit, you’ll want to add the Thurlos to your reading list.”

—
Rocky Mountain News

CHANGING
WOMAN

Also by Aimée & David Thurlo

E
LLA
C
LAH
N
OVELS

Blackening Song

Death Walker

Bad Medicine

Enemy Way

Shooting Chant
Red Mesa
Changing Woman

Tracking Bear

L
EE
N
EZ
N
OVELS

Second Sunrise

Blood Retribution (coming)

S
ISTER
A
GATHA
N
OVELS

Bad Faith

Thief in Retreat (coming)

Second Sunrise

AIMÉE & DAVID THURLO

To those Navajo Tribal Police officers who put
their lives on the line every day to serve
and protect the Navajo Nation

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

CHANGING WOMAN

Copyright © 2002 by Aimée & David Thurlo

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book,
or portions thereof, in any form.

A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010

www.tor.com

Forge
^®
is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

ISBN: 0-812-56870-2
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2001054772

First edition: March 2002
First mass market edition: April 2003

Printed in the United States of America

0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Thanks to Carl and others with knowledge of the Four Corners Power Plant and the San Juan Generating Station for answering our questions and providing us with the information needed to create the fictional facility depicted in our Ella Clah mysteries.

Special Investigator Ella Clah of the Navajo Tribal Police turned right at the intersection near the center of Shiprock. The reservation town overflowed the San Juan River valley on both sides and spread onto the higher land to the southwest and northwest.

Ahead of Ella’s route were a few more businesses, then the narrow, one-way steel-truss 1930s-era bridge that crossed the San Juan
River to Shiprock’s southwest side. Alongside the classic old structure, just to the south, was a flat eastbound concrete monster.

It was only four-thirty in the afternoon, but the distant sun was already low on the horizon. It was January, when the snow usually kicked in for New Mexico, but although the twenty-eight-degree temperature outside was cooperating, the sky was dry, and so was Mother
Earth.

Ella was looking forward to getting home tonight. The same warm, sturdy house her father had built a lifetime ago was one Ella now shared with her two-year-old daughter and her mother. There was a sense of permanence and continuity about living there that made the place all the more dear to her.

Ella glanced around, automatically studying the surrounding area. As she drove by the Totah
Café, she noticed a man in white clothing running toward the back of the building, holding a fire extinguisher.

Ready to help, Ella checked for oncoming vehicles, then slowed and swung her police unit, an unmarked blue Jeep, into the restaurant’s parking lot. She accelerated
slightly until she caught up with Charlie Jim, one of the Totah’s cooks.

“Where’s the fire, Charlie?” Ella pulled up alongside
him and kept pace, noting that he could barely take a breath. The short run was obviously very taxing to Charlie, a thin, unhealthy-looking man in his late fifties who she knew chain-smoked. Charlie was sweating despite the outside temperature.

He slowed down to a fast walk gratefully, realizing who was speaking to him. “I’d just stepped outside for a cigarette when someone in an old tan pickup
came by and tossed something that was still smoking into the Dumpster,” he said in a wheezy voice. “I ran back inside and grabbed the fire extinguisher. I think it’s those vandals again.”

She stopped the Jeep and glanced ahead, but couldn’t see any smoke coming from the heavy metal Dumpster, which was screened on the cafe’s side by a high wall of painted cinder blocks. As Charlie approached the
Dumpster Ella jumped out of her vehicle and followed him.

Her thoughts automatically shifted to the petty vandalism that had been plaguing this part of the Rez the past few months. Last weekend several vehicles at a local church had their tires flattened by the removal of the valve stems while their owners were attending an evening service. A few days later, a plate glass window at a private
home had been broken by a thrown brick, and just last night several mailboxes in a housing area east of Shiprock had been knocked off their posts. The incidents had been increasing in number and severity lately, and she hoped setting fires wasn’t the latest escalation the frustrated department was facing.

Charlie set the extinguisher down on the asphalt, then before Ella could stop him, threw
open the hinged lid, ducking back in case the sudden intake of oxygen resulted in flames.

“I guess the garbage must have already smothered
whatever they threw in.” Charlie peered over the edge into the Dumpster, standing on tiptoe as Ella looked around for something to stand on so they could get a better view. “I don’t see—” Looking toward the back of the Dumpster, he cursed loudly. “Oh, crap.
Run!”

Ella wanted to take a quick look for herself, but Charlie’s expression warned her that there was no time to waste.