Coyote's Wife (33 page)

“If you can think of anyone who’s been asking questions about Abigail, let me know.”

Ella noted that Justine had already started to process the scene, and Tache, who’d arrived while they were inside, was now taking photos. She considered her next step. She needed to know more, starting with what this type of curse was
intended
to do. For that she could think of only one person
who might be able to help her—her brother Clifford. As a medicine man, he’d spent a lifetime countering the effects of evil. She’d go see him as soon as her work here was done.

Ella went back inside, sat down on the chair across the sofa, and looked at Abigail. “Who knows about your aversion to the type of thing that was left in your car?” Ella asked, avoiding the word skinwalker out of respect.

“This is repugnant to
any
Navajo,” she said flatly.

“But why would anyone target you for something like this? You’re not in control of StarTalk operations. Your son-in-law is,” Ella pressed.

“You’ve already seen that my son-in-law isn’t a strong person,” Abigail answered.

“So they attacked you to pressure Ervin?” Ella asked, reading between the lines.

“Not Ervin directly,” she said slowly.
“It’s probably just
a mother-in-law thing, but we can barely stand each other and everyone knows it. I think the ones who did this are trying to get to my daughter. They’re hoping that after she sees what they’ve done to me, she’ll put pressure on her husband to back off.”

“And do you think that’ll happen?” Ella asked.

“No way. Barbara is very, very tough. In a lot of ways she’s even tougher
than I am. People underestimate her but they shouldn’t. She’s a real fighter. She just has her own way of handling things. When Barbara sees what they’ve done to me, she’ll dig her heels in, and
nothing
will make her back off. They’ve taken the wrong tack with our family. I guess they’ll learn that soon enough.”

“You should have a doctor take a look at your eye. There could be damage. That was
quite a punch you took,” Ella said.

Abigail shook her head. “I’ve got some herbs in the kitchen. They’ll take away the swelling.”

It was the exact answer she would have received from her mother, and that surprised her.

Seeing her reaction, Abigail started to smile, but then quickly reached up and touched her split lip. “We have something in common. My mother, like yours, was a Plant Watcher.
I was, too, when I was much younger, and that’s knowledge you carry for the rest of your life.”

Ella found the possibility that her mother and this woman had things in common nothing short of disturbing. Even the off chance that a friendship might form between Rose and Abigail unsettled her. Although she had no
proof
that Abigail had done anything wrong, Ella couldn’t bring herself to trust her.
It was that simple…and that complicated.

Ella stood up. “With your permission, I’d like to bring my brother here and have him take a look at what was left in the car. His insights as a
hataalii
could help our investigation.”

“Do you think he’ll do it?”

“As a favor to me, yes, I think so.”

“You might also tell him that I’d like to hire him to do a Sing. The evil that’s been brought to my doorstep
can’t be allowed to remain. The car, of course, will be taken off the reservation and sold.”

Ella nodded. Sings could cost thousands and take more than a week, but she knew money wasn’t a factor for Abigail Yellowhair.

The drive to her brother’s home took her a half hour. When Ella arrived, she found Clifford splitting firewood. Although he had propane heat for his home, the medicine hogan used
a wood stove.

He set the heavy maul down on a stump and greeted her with a wave as she climbed out of her tribal vehicle. Seeing her expression more clearly as he drew near, his smile faded. “What’s happened?”

Ella told him about the attack on Abigail and the reason she had come. “If at all possible, I’d like you to take a look at what her attackers left behind. Maybe you can see a signature
or pattern in the way things were laid out. Your expertise exceeds mine when it comes to you-know-what.”

There was a long silence. “All right. Give me a few minutes alone to make preparations. I’ll make up some medicine pouches for you and your partners, too. You’ll need the proper protection.”

Ella went back to the car to wait. Things were making even less sense to her now. Why would skinwalkers
have a grievance against StarTalk or Ervin Benally, and had they been the perpetrators all along? No matter how she turned things around in her mind, no answers came.

Clifford came out about fifteen minutes later and handed her one of the medicine pouches he’d prepared. “Keep it with you. It’s got Talking Rock medicine,” he said.

“I’m not familiar with that,” she answered.

“The contents are
taken from caves where an echo is present. A rite is performed and scrapings are taken from the rock wall. Mixed with certain plants, it’s very powerful medicine.”

“Thanks,” Ella said, fastening it to her belt. “Ready to go?”

On the drive to Abigail’s, Ella got a call from Justine. “We just discovered that they left some skinwalker stuff inside Mrs. Yellowhair’s master bedroom, too. She hadn’t
been moving around more than necessary, so she didn’t notice it till just a few minutes ago,” Justine said in a low voice. “She’s pretty upset. Are you bringing Clifford?”

“He’s in the car with me now.”

“Good. Things are very tense here,” Justine said, then hung up.

Ella felt a trickle of unease run up her spine. She wasn’t a believer in witchcraft of any sort, but she’d seen enough of skinwalkers
to respect the danger they posed.

Ella told her brother what Justine had said and saw his expression darken.

“This is more serious. The car could have been driven away. The bedroom isn’t safe anymore, but I can’t tell you how to fix it until I see for myself,” he said.

When they arrived Ella saw Abigail standing at the living room window, watching for them. By the time she’d parked, Abigail
was there to meet Clifford as he stepped out of the tribal unit.

“Thank you very much for coming,
hataalii,”
Abigail said. “This has been very upsetting, but I know you can restore things.”

He nodded once, keeping his face expressionless. “This is bad business.”

“You’ll need to give us a moment,” Ella told Abigail, leading her brother over to the garage driveway where Abigail’s car was parked.

“You should have said something to me about how badly she’d been beaten,” Clifford whispered as they walked away from Abigail. “She’s a proud woman, and the last thing she needed was to see either shock or pity on my face.”

“She didn’t. No one outside of Mom and me can read you that well,” Ella said.

While Ella handed out the medicine pouches to the other members of her S.I. team, Clifford studied
the interior of the yellow sedan.

When she returned to where he stood, Clifford was ready for her. “I know what this is.”

He moved back as Justine joined them, then continued. “The witch bag on the seat is made from the skins of horned toads. Inside you’ll find a powder that’ll look somewhat like pollen, but don’t be fooled. It’s ground-up corpse poison.”

“Human flesh and bone mixed together?”
Ella asked.

“Yes. As you’ve seen it was scattered to ensure that their target would be even more likely to come in contact with it.”

“And if she had, then what?” Ella asked.

“It’s said that her tongue would swell and become black. Her jaw would eventually lock, and she’d waste away, slowly but surely.”

“So, basically, this is a death threat.”

“Not the type Anglo law will recognize, but it
is a
very
effective death threat against people of our tribe,” he answered quietly.

“There’s more of that in the bedroom,” Justine said.

“Have you processed the scene?” Ella asked.

“Photos are still being taken. I wanted to finish with the car before moving inside.”

“We’ll get out of your way then,” Ella answered.

Ella walked around the outside of the house with her brother, and Roxanne met
them at the back door. “My employer is lying down on the couch in the study for now,”
Roxanne said, avoiding mentioning names out of respect to Clifford.

“Did you touch anything in the car or in the bedroom?” he asked her immediately.

“Of course not. The scene needs to be processed,” Roxanne answered.

“So you don’t believe in the evil this kind of magic brings?” Clifford asked.

“On a supernatural
level? No,” Roxanne answered. “But poison’s poison, and some attack you through the skin. Even if the scene had been processed I wouldn’t have touched anything in there. Mrs. Y should hire a team of Anglo maids to come in with rubber gloves and vacuums and disinfect the place. After that, I figure it’ll be safe enough.”

Before Roxanne had finished speaking, Abigail came up behind her. It surprised
Ella how quietly the woman moved.

“I’ll show you my bedroom,” Abigail said, then moved slowly down the hallway.

Ella studied the floor for footprints or any other evidence as she walked, but the thick sand-colored carpet made it difficult to find anything useful.

“It’s to your right,” Abigail said, stopping short of going in.

Ella walked past her and took in the scene. The bed was still made,
but the top had been sprinkled with corpse powder. On the pillows were pieces of yucca and what appeared to be porcupine quills. On the pillow closest to the night-stand was a small ceremonial bow.

“Those bows are usually made of human bone and the quills are ground up and shot into a victim’s body,” Clifford said. “I don’t understand why everything was laid out like this. Maybe they just staged
the scene to remind her what they could have done had they chosen to do so.”

“To create even more fear…,” Ella said, thinking out loud.

He nodded slowly. “That’s my guess, too.”

“
Hataalii,
will you do the appropriate Sing for me?” Abigail asked Clifford from the doorway.

“More than one will be needed,” he said, turning to speak to her. “First an Evil Way will have to be done, but preparations
for that will take time. For now, I’ll make a special medicine pouch for you with gall medicine.” He looked around the room, then added, “To cleanse all this, I’ll also have to do a special Sing from the Male Shooting Chant.”

Ella heard the reluctance in Clifford’s voice, and waited until Abigail and Roxanne had walked back down the hall to ask him about it. “What’s bothering you?” she asked
in a quiet voice.

“The prayers I’ll have to do are dangerous. I’ll need to confront the evil, take it into myself, and then defeat it. Any mistakes can have serious consequences for me and the intended victim.”

She’d never heard her brother express hesitancy before. Although she didn’t share his beliefs, she knew Clifford, and if he said there was reason to be afraid, she believed him. “Is there
anything else you could do that would work?”

“Not in this case.” A tense silence stretched out between them.

With effort, Ella brought her thoughts back to the investigation. “Where are the evil ones likely to meet these days? Have you heard any rumors about that?” she said.

“There’s an area on the southeast side of the Hogback, close to where those big power lines pass by. About six months
ago, a patient of mine was going home late one night after a long Chapter House meeting. He heard some strange chanting coming from one of the caves up against the side of the ridge and went up to take a look. Several naked men and women were sitting inside and some sticks were dancing in the middle of their circle.”

Ella thought about it. In the dark, with only the moon and the firelight, the
eyes could be fooled into seeing almost anything. Ella thanked her brother, then, while Clifford spoke to Abigail, helped the others process the scene.

Ella joined Justine. “I know this stuff is supposed to be corpse powder, but I want it analyzed.”

“I’ll take care of that and get back to you as soon as I know anything.” After a pause, Justine continued. “Does this make any sense to you?” she
asked, waving a hand around the room. “I mean, why would a you-know-what be opposed to better phone service?”

“It doesn’t make any sense. I’ll give you that. But whoever did this knew exactly what he was doing.” Ella lowered her voice, then continued. “In a few minutes, providing I can talk him into it, I’ll be going with my brother to check out a place where the evil ones have supposedly been
gathering. He’ll be able to spot details I might miss. In the meantime, I want you to take charge here and finish processing the scene.”

“Will do,” Justine said, then resumed work.

Seeing that Clifford was still speaking to Abigail, Ella went back outside to work the crime scene there. She’d just finished searching one quadrant when her brother came out of the house.

Ella joined him. “I know
you need a ride back, but before I take you home, how about going on a small side trip with me?”

He exhaled loudly. “You want me to go with you to the place where my patient saw them.”

It hadn’t been a question and Ella smiled. He’d known all along she’d ask. “You’d be able to spot ritual things I’d dismiss or overlook.”

Clifford considered it for a moment, then finally nodded. “All right.”

Soon thereafter, Ella and Clifford were underway. The
drive took them south down the same highway Ella drove every day. Then they turned east across barren desert country crisscrossed with small arroyos and dirt tracks. The Hogback, an uplifted ridge that extended north and south for miles like the spine of some buried monster, was over six thousand feet above sea level toward the southern end.

They circled around the southern tip of the Hogback, approaching the massive electrical transmission towers that extended from the power plant farther north all the way into Arizona. Once they’d gone as far as they could by vehicle, Ella parked where Clifford instructed. They were at the low end of a narrow canyon which had its origin at the base of the massive formation.