Shooting Chant (36 page)

“There’s nothing illegal here, I assure you,” he said. His expression turned hard. “But, just so you know, from now on, whenever you want to talk to me, I want
my attorney present. I’ve done my best to help you but, instead of being grateful, all you’ve done is accuse me of a crime. I’ve had enough. I’m not going to be railroaded by anyone—you or any other crazy group on the Rez. Being a nice guy never pays off—least of all, for the nice guy.”

They left Branch’s house, heading down the highway back toward the Rez. Silence stretched out between them
until they reached the community of Shiprock. “Where to now?” Justine asked.

“I want to stop by the station, then I’ll need you to drive me home.”

“And pick you up tomorrow?”

“That, too. I don’t know how long it’ll be before Big Ed can find me a replacement vehicle.”

The station’s graveyard shift was now in place, but the office staff was long gone, and the hallways were all but deserted.
Their footsteps echoed as they walked toward their offices.

“I hate this place at night,” Justine muttered.

“It’s just as alive as it is during the day. The main difference is that it moves at an entirely different pace. I don’t think I’d mind working graveyard if I was out on patrol.”

“I would. That’s how I got started. You’re awake when the world’s asleep, and vice versa. I didn’t have any
kind of life outside my job.”

Ella chuckled. “And you have one now?”

Justine smiled. “Not much of one.”

“You still seeing Billy?”

“Sorta,” she said with a shrug.

“What’s that mean?”

“Our relationship isn’t working out,” she said, her tone betraying her disappointment. “I like him, Ella, a lot. But he’s got some ideas that just aren’t compatible with mine. It’s not traditionalist as opposed
to progressive, either. He wants to be the most important thing in my life, and I guess I’m just not ready for that. I’ve got a career and other demands that have to take equal billing.”

Ella smiled sadly. She recognized the arguments all too well. “There was a time in my life when every man I met had the same problem. They wanted me in a job where I could be with them anytime
they
were off work.
But our lives aren’t that way.”

“And being cops is part of everything we like about ourselves,” Justine finished. “Is that why you didn’t remarry after you got into law enforcement?”

“There’ve been men in my life, some who I thought I loved, or could love, but the fact is, that my job always stood between us.”

“Do you regret it?” Justine asked, her voice a bare whisper.

Ella shook her head.
“Not generally. I mean there are times when I look at certain couples, like Big Ed and his wife, who’ve been married forever, and I wish I could have found that kind of friend and partner. But I don’t regret the choices I’ve made. I really don’t see how I could have made different ones.”

Ella reached her desk, and started going through the pile of files and mail that had accumulated there. “This
is what I was looking for. The autopsy is in for Elisa Brownhat.” She scanned the pages quickly. “She was about eight weeks pregnant. From the report, it’s clear that she died of a broken neck, but the other bruises aren’t consistent with those of a fall from a horse. There are no bruises on her body except faint ones on her jaw and the back of her neck—as if somebody grabbed her hard and twisted
her head, snapping her neck.” Ella rubbed her eyes. “So it’s now official. What we probably have here is another murder. We still don’t have the toxicology results, which haven’t come back yet, but I doubt she was high on something that might have made her fall, especially considering the placement of the bruises. Carolyn hasn’t been wrong yet when it comes to determining cause of death.”

“I
spoke with many who knew her, and she wasn’t carrying on an affair, apparently. Nobody had any reason to kill her that I could find, and I remember Neskahi saying Billy had an alibi,” Justine said slowly. “But Elisa did show her horse at the Agricultural Society’s exhibition. Have you noticed that everything seems to be happening to the people who were near the fairgrounds that day? Even Kyle Hansen,
who was next door, fits into that category. But what’s the motive behind all this? It doesn’t make sense.”

Ella closed her eyes for a moment. “You know, I’m too beat to think. Lately I’ve been exhausted almost all the time. Take me home, and we’ll get started again tomorrow morning at eight. If we’re lucky, we might yet get six hours of sleep tonight.”

S
EPTEMBER
16
TH

Ella woke up shortly after
daybreak. Two was standing by the window, growling. Automatically reaching for her weapon, which she kept on the nightstand, she got out of bed and peered outside. The same figure she’d seen before was standing on the dirt road about fifty yards away from the back door. It was the old woman with the goats. Kevin Tolino’s grandmother was at it again. She didn’t seem to be a threat, but it was still
annoying.

“She’s still coming around,” Rose said, coming up behind Ella.

Ella jumped.

“You won’t need that gun,” Rose said. “That old woman’s not here to harm us, just to watch.”

“This is really annoying. I’m going to get Kevin to put a stop to it. And if he can’t, then I’ll do it for him.”

Rose walked out and Ella showered quickly. As she came out of the bathroom, she saw that Two was still
by the window. He was no longer growling, and when she checked, the figure was gone.

“You keep watching, Two. And if you ever feel compelled to bite them, even the old lady, I’ll back you up.”

TWENTY-ONE

Justine arrived at Ella’s home early. As they got ready to leave, the phone rang. Ella felt her muscles tighten. Lately, whenever the phone rang early, it was Big Ed with bad news. Picking up the receiver and hearing the chief’s voice, she braced herself.

“I thought you’d like to know that your brother’s out of jail,” he said. “All charges were dropped and, in turn, he’s dropped his
charges against the sergeant.”

Ella breathed a sigh of relief. “All Clifford wanted to do was show Manuelito what could happen if he didn’t stop his harassment. I can’t say I blame him.”

“I’ll speak to the sergeant today. Do you still want him on your team?”

“I’d like him to stay available, but I intend to use him only as a last resort.”

“Noted.”

Ella and Justine stopped for gas, then headed
directly to the station. An hour later, after signing for another vehicle, a white squad car Big Ed had made available to her, Ella received a call from Wilson. He was being very circumspect on the phone, which wasn’t normal for him.

“Can you come over? I want to talk to you in person,” he said.

“Are you in your office at the college?”

“Where else? I’ll be here until late, too. It’s my day
to meet with my Science Fair kids.”

Ella left the office in her newly assigned vehicle and headed toward the college. Using her cell phone, which had fortunately escaped incineration during last night’s fiery debacle, she telephoned Kevin. It took a while to track him down, but she finally found him at home. He’d taken a day off since he didn’t have any client meetings and wasn’t scheduled for
court.

“I need to see you, Kevin. Can we meet today?”

“I can guess what you want to talk about. Grandmother Rena has been here at my house a lot lately, and I understand you’ve seen her walking down your way a few times.”

“We need to talk about that,” Ella said.

“I know. Do you want to come here, or shall I meet you somewhere?”

“Will you be alone today?”

“Grandmother has taken her goats
and gone back to her hogan. I don’t expect her or my family to be visiting for a long time.”

She knew from Kevin’s tone of voice that he’d finally found out the whole story and hadn’t liked what had happened any more than she had. She hoped that would make it easier to talk to him.

“I’ll meet you at your house in about two hours. Okay with you?” she asked.

“I’ll see you then, Ella.”

As she
disconnected and closed up the phone, she felt slightly better. Kevin liked running his own life, and he’d find even the thought that someone was interfering with his personal business profoundly irritating.

Ella looked out the window at the river valley to her right, and the arid hills and mesas rising before her on the left. The land looked peaceful, with most of the harvest in and cold weather
still weeks away, but there was a restlessness among The People. An intangible force was attacking the fabric of life here, pulling it in so many directions it couldn’t survive intact.

She tried to push back the feelings of dread that chilled her spirit. Unless she found answers soon, there would be no harmony and no walking in beauty—not for her or anyone else on the Rez.

By the time she arrived
at Wilson’s office, her science teacher friend was visibly nervous. He was pacing by the window, and so lost in thought that he never heard her come in.

“Hey, Professor,” she greeted, taking a chair.

He spun around quickly. “I didn’t know you were there.” He went to his desk and sat down, clearing his throat before speaking again. “Do you remember Alice Washburn?”

“Sure. Gloria’s daughter.”

“Yeah. The little girl with the rabbit that had babies. Well, I saw the one surviving offspring of the rabbit and he’s quite remarkable.”

“How remarkable can a rabbit be?” she asked, wondering all of a sudden if the trip had been a waste of time.

“Let me describe what I saw and you can judge for yourself. She’s taught it tricks, like one would a dog. He can kick a ringing phone off the hook to
‘answer’ it and, even though it’s completely blind, it follows Alice with remarkable accuracy. It can problem solve, too. It’s learned to get out of his cage by undoing the locking mechanism.” He paused. “I’ve been around animals all my life, but I’ve never seen any rabbit do those things.”

“So, maybe she’s got a budding Einstein.”

He smiled. “Funny you should say that. Alice named the rabbit
Bunstein.”

Ella laughed. “Okay, so there’s a very smart little rabbit running around. What is it that’s got you so worried?”

“Let me give you the rest of the story which I got from Gloria. Out of one litter, one rabbit was born blind, and the rest of the offspring were so badly deformed they died. In view of all the anecdotal evidence we’ve been amassing about the fairgrounds, I began to wonder
if this might somehow track back there, too, so I asked Alice where she got Bunstein’s mom. At first, she kept ducking my questions.”

Ella sat up, suddenly a lot more interested.

“Turns out that Alice found Winnie, the pregnant female, hiding in a fairgrounds culvert—near LabKote.”

“It can’t be LabKote’s. They don’t use laboratory animals. They sterilize test tubes and beakers and that sort
of thing.”

“As far as you know.”

“Maybe the rabbit was part of the Agricultural Society’s exhibition,” Ella suggested.

“No, I checked. Some rabbits were there, but no animals, not one, turned up missing. The interesting thing is that there has been a very high incidence of abnormalities among the offspring of small animals who were at or around the fairgrounds the day of the exhibition. If
the bunny was wild, then maybe it was at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Not every animal that was there has been affected. You know that.”

“But their owners have been, or so it seems. Face it. No one who was there exhibiting animals has acted right since.”

“But it doesn’t add up. We haven’t found any contaminants. And even if the Fierce Ones had managed to find a substance that hadn’t
shown up in the tests in order to blame LabKote, they wouldn’t have used other traditionalists like Mary Lou and Nancy Bitsillie to spread fear. Those livestock killings do
not
put the traditionalists in a good light, and what the Fierce Ones need most is public support from other traditionalists.”

“Are you really sure that the animals were killed by traditionalists? Mary Lou and Nancy have protested,
claiming innocence, and maybe they’re telling the truth. Did you check the killing methods down to the last detail and verify that they were done according to our rituals?” he said. “I’d expect your brother to know things like that, but you? Heck, Ella, neither one of us knows stuff like that, not without looking it up or asking someone else.”

“Good point. I’ll go over everything again.”

“Keep
me posted, okay? And if you need help, I’m here,” he added.

“Thanks, Wilson. I don’t think I say that enough to you. You’ve been a good friend.”

He nodded, but there was a flash of something in his eyes that told her it had been the last thing he’d wanted to hear. She mulled it over as she returned to her vehicle. Was Wilson hoping once again that they’d be more than friends? She hoped not.
That was a complication she didn’t need right now.

Ella drove directly to Kevin’s. Although she felt guilty about letting her personal life interfere with business, she knew she’d never be able to concentrate on anything until she got the issue of his “watcher” relatives cleared up.

When she arrived at Kevin’s home, she saw him sitting outside on the porch of the small wood-framed house, a can
of cola in his hand.

“Taking a break?” she asked, approaching.

“You bet. I’ve been painting all morning. You know I built this place myself. Well, until right now, I hadn’t quite gotten around to worrying about paint in the interior. But the walls were looking pretty stark.”

“What colors did you decide upon?”

“Color. Light yellow. They had several gallons premixed on sale at the hardware store.”

“Glad to know you took so much time selecting just the right look,” Ella teased.

Kevin laughed. “Hey, at least the walls aren’t all drywall white now.”

She sat down on the pine porch swing and tried it out. “Hey nice touch. I like this.”

“Good. Come over more often, and you can use it whenever you like. I find it relaxes me.”

Ella said nothing for a while, wondering how to start. “I learned
a few things from my mother, Kevin. Disturbing things, you know?”