Spider Woman's Daughter (27 page)

Authors: Anne Hillerman

BOOK: Spider Woman's Daughter

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“I think it was the bracelet,” Chee said. “The matching heart bracelets that Davis and Ellie had. I think he’d noticed it on Davis when he visited the AIRC and then again when she shot him.”

“Maybe,” Bernie said. “Or maybe that’s his way of saying he loves us.”

“Not a chance,” Chee said. “Well, maybe a tiny one.”

C
hee and Bernie arrived at the Navajo Inn in their best uniforms. The FBI had established a special award to honor Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn as he slowly recovered from his injuries, and decided to make the announcement in Leaphorn’s home district with the Navajo Police in attendance.

Agent Cordova was there, along with other top-ranked FBI officials, all wearing dark suits. The Navajo Police, Arizona and New Mexico State Police, and assorted sheriff’s departments, U.S. marshals, livestock inspectors, and other law enforcement personnel who had worked with Leaphorn over his many years as a policeman sat in the audience, along with civilian support staff. Even Joe Wakara showed up from Chaco Canyon.

“I hate stuff like this,” Chee said. “Too much talking.”

“Cheer up,” Bernie said. “It’s not every day we both get invited to a free breakfast.”

It was her first visit to the restaurant since Leaphorn’s shooting. Chee parked in the side lot near the adjoining motel, whether intentionally or by happenstance, and they walked in through the portal. When the meeting was over, she told herself, she’d go out the front door, look at the place where Leaphorn had fallen, release any hold that memory still had on her.

“It’s nice for the feds to do this,” Bernie said. “I guess whoever is in charge now doesn’t know how much trouble the agency caused Leaphorn on so many cases.”

“Forgive and forget,” Chee said.

They assembled in the hotel’s meeting room. A podium had been set up at one end, along with a buffet of scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes, sweet rolls, and canned fruit mixed with cantaloupe and honeydew.

The waitress, Nellie Roanhorse, made sure they had hot coffee. “How’s he doing, the one who got shot?”

“He’s hanging in there,” Bernie said. “A long road ahead of him.”

Officers Bigman and Wheeler joined them at the table.

“What’s your mother up to?” Bigman asked Bernie.

“She’s well,” Bernie said. “In fact, she’s going to Santa Fe with us tomorrow to see an old rug she’s been wanting to look at.”

“That’s great,” he said. “The rug she made for my wife and me is on our bedroom floor.”

Chee said, “Bernie got offered a research job at that place in Santa Fe where they have all the Indian stuff. The man there is willing to work around her police schedule. Wants her to help him find oral histories on some of the old weaving.”

Wheeler said, “I heard there was some more trouble at that gas station down from there, the one on the corner of 491 where you turn off for Toadlena.”

“I heard that, too,” Bernie said. She wondered if Darleen had been involved. She knew she ought to invite Darleen to go with them to Santa Fe, but she dreaded the idea of a full day with her sister.

Chee said, “They had rain on Narbona Pass yesterday. The view must have been spectacular after that.”

“I love it up there,” Bigman said. “You can see the whole world. Or at least most of the whole Navajo world, when the dust settles.”

Cordova had switched on the mic, thumping it with his thumb.

“We hear you,” Wheeler yelled.

There was some noise in the back of the room, and Bernie saw Mrs. Benally and Jackson, all dressed up. They waved at her. Mrs. Benally made a sign to Wheeler that she wanted to talk to him afterward. Fudgsicles, Bernie thought.

Cordova welcomed everyone and introduced dignitaries, including a Navajo Council member, some FBI bigwigs, an Apache County commissioner, and a retired U.S. marshal.

Then he said a few words about Leaphorn and the award, which would be given annually to an outstanding officer working in the Southwest.

“And today, as a surprise, I’d like to announce that the first recipient of the Leaphorn Award of Valor is here with us. Officer Bernadette Manuelito, would you please step forward?”

Bernie sat back in her chair. Swallowed hard.

“Officer Manuelito is receiving the award for efforts that involve both mental strength and physical ability, for a cool head in the face of challenging circumstances, and for persistence despite many obstacles.”

Bernie stopped listening. It wasn’t right to be honored just for doing your job. It certainly wasn’t the Navajo way. She stared at the table. Her skin felt hot and red.

Chee poked her and whispered. “Go up there and get the plaque and say thank you,” he said. “You can argue with me later about why you don’t deserve it.”

And so she did.

Acknowledgments

W
ith appreciation . . .

First of all, I have to thank my dad, Tony Hillerman, for, well, for everything. For writing the first book in the series,
The Blessing Way
, published in 1970. That book introduced Joe Leaphorn, Dad’s original Navajo detective. Dad believed that interesting stories and good writing mattered and his passion for books inspired me from girlhood. I will be forever grateful to him for encouraging me to read and write, write, and write some more. Although we never talked directly about my taking on the series after his death, working with him on my previous book
Tony Hillerman’s Landscape: On the Road with Chee and Leaphorn
, laid the groundwork for
Spider Woman’s Daughter
. His example as a writer and his support as a father gave me the gumption to adopt Leaphorn, Chee, and especially Bernadette Manuelito, and make them my own. While I enjoyed all his books, his novel
A Thief of Time
with its wonderful plot and settings created the platform for
Spider Woman’s Daughter
. If you haven’t read it, or haven’t read it lately, I encourage you to take a look.

Dad’s longtime editor Carolyn Marino reacted with enthusiasm rather than skepticism when I mentioned my plan. Marino worked with Tony beginning in 1990 as coeditor with Larry Ashmead and then as Dad’s main editor through the end of his series. She was also the editor of his memoir
Seldom Disappointed
. She gently prodded me out of my comfort zone as I moved from years of writing nonfiction to the challenge of writing fiction. I am thankful for my good luck in being the beneficiary of her long and skilled work as the editor of the Tony Hillerman mysteries. My gratitude extends to her associate, Amanda Bergeron, for her insights on
Spider Woman’s Daughter
, and to my agent, Elizabeth Trupin-Pulli, for her business acumen.

I am more grateful than I can express to my colleagues, writers Margaret Coel and Sandi Ault, both of whom strongly and continually urged me to keep the stories of Leaphorn, Chee, and Manuelito alive. A tip of the hat to my Santa Fe writing partners Cindy Bellinger and Rebecca Carrier for their wise insights, skillful nagging, and refusal to let me take the easy way out. Special thanks to Jean Schaumberg, my business partner for Wordharvest Writers Workshops and the Tony Hillerman Conference, for doing more than her share while I worked on this book. And to Miranda Ottewell-Swartz for her assistance with Navajo star lore.

Rick Iannucci, a retired U.S. Marshal and former Green Beret, shared his knowledge of law enforcement procedures and the psychology of bad guys. Iannucci is executive director and an instructor with Horses For Heroes—New Mexico, Inc. You can learn more about the work his group does with returning veterans at http://horsesforheroes.org. David J. Greenberg, recently retired from the FBI, taught me about crime at Chaco Canyon National Historic Site and interagency cooperation in Indian Country. Both these gentlemen helped me learn what everyday law enforcement in the Southwest involves. Thanks to Santa Fe Police Officer Louis Montoya and his associates from the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department and the New Mexico State Police for all the information they conveyed to me during the multiweek Citizens’ Academy, a program that shows to the public the complications, dangers, and rewards involved in police work.

I drew on the research of fellow author Laurance D. Linford reflected in his book,
Tony Hillerman’s Navajoland
, for insights into the real places that populate Dad’s novels. I am grateful to Dr. Joe Shirley and all the generous and supportive Diné I met during my three years of research. I have nothing but respect and admiration for the hardworking men and women of the Navajo police force who risk their lives to keep the Navajo Nation safe.

My mother, Marie Hillerman, continually encouraged me to write about the characters Dad created, assuring me that Tony would be happy to see them live on. She read drafts, shared her astute insights, and worked with me on two bouts of end-of-project proofreading. Brandon Hillerman Strel did a fabulous job catching inconsistencies and raising questions that helped make the book better. My husband, Don, deserves a truckload of chocolate for all his assistance and for putting up with me on those days when writing the book became an obsession.

And, from head to toe, I appreciate the scores of my Dad’s fans who asked if he had another manuscript stashed away somewhere (no, he didn’t). Like me, they wanted more stories of Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, and Bernadette Manuelito. They urged me to jump into the job by sharing their own stories of affection for Dad, the characters he created, and the landscape in which they lived.

About the Author

ANNE HILLERMAN is an award-winning reporter, the author of several nonfiction books, and the daughter of
New York Times
bestselling mystery author Tony Hillerman. She lives in Santa Fe. This is her first novel.

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www.AuthorTracker.com
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Also by Anne Hillerman

Tony Hillerman’s Landscape: On the Road with Chee and Leaphorn

Gardens of Santa Fe

Santa Fe Flavors: Best Restaurants and Recipes

Ride the Wind: USA to Africa

Credits

Cover design by Jarrod Taylor

Cover photograph by Alamy

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

SPIDER WOMAN’S DAUGHTER
. Copyright © 2013 by Anne Hillerman. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

ISBN 9780062270481

EPub Edition © OCTOBER 2013 ISBN: 9780062270504

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