by Aimée Thurlo
Emily burst out laughing. “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard any mom say that!”
“Hey, I know what I can expect from a motorcycle,” Ella countered. “You want to stop, you put on the brakes. With a horse, you never know.”
Once they were back inside, Justine showed Emily around the house. “There’s plenty of room and the rent is super low.” She quoted Emily the price. “My roommate would pay half of that and half of the utilities. We’d also take turns feeding and grooming the horse.”
“That’s a great deal.”
“Yeah, it is, but you should know that this place is hard to maintain. With no landscaping it can be a lot of work keeping the weeds at bay. Tumbleweeds, in particular, can grow to the size of VWs if you let them.”
“I like gardening, so I wouldn’t mind taking over that chore permanently. Maybe we can plant some sunflower plants just for color around the house. That’s a hardy southwest plant,” Emily said, then after a pause, continued. “I have a greenhouse that I maintain, but the temperature control and humidifier run efficiently because it’s a small space. I could get it set up on the north or south side of the house where it would be out of the way.”
Ella listened to the two of them talk as they all sat in the living room. Their lives, though different, were similar in the ways that counted the most and they soon grew comfortable with each other. Before long, as it always was when cops got together, shop talk took over.
“I really wish we could have caught that vandal for you guys today. We tried, but we just don’t have enough people out on patrol.”
“That’s okay. I have a pretty good idea that it’s one of the professors at the college here,” Ella said. “He considers me a threat because of my experience at the mine. Anything connected with death gets tricky here on our land.”
“I’ve been giving that a lot of thought, partner, and I think there’s another angle we need to consider,” Justine said. “We’ve assumed that he considers you a threat because of what happened at the mine. But there’s another possibility. Your sister-in-law works with him, and Loretta’s never liked you much, as you know. If they’re as involved as rumor has it, Professor Garnenez may think he’s doing her a favor by trying to scare you away from the Rez.”
Ella wasn’t surprised that Justine knew about the rumors, but before she could answer, Emily spoke.
“Garnenez? Wait—doesn’t he teach organic chemistry?”
“Yeah, that’s him,” Ella answered. “How do you know him?”
“He was part of a forensics workshop the college in Farmington sponsored for our department. After the workshop was over we saw each other a few times socially.”
“Are you seeing him now?” Ella asked. “Dating?”
“No, I never really felt comfortable with him. He was always watching me out of the corner of his eye, assessing me in some way. And I got the feeling he was putting on an act, pretending to be exactly what I expected of him. I gave up trying to figure out what he was really like.”
Ella nodded. “What’s your take on him otherwise?”
“Outwardly, at least, he’s idealistic and very proud of being a Navajo.”
Justine brought her up to speed on the little they knew about the sniper and why they’d linked the incidents to Garnenez. “But it’s all circumstantial. We don’t even know if he owns a twenty-two rifle.”
“I may be able to help you there,” Emily said.
“I’m all ears,” Ella answered. With luck, Emily would become an ally as well as a friend.
TWENTY
It was early Monday morning when Justine and Ella drove up a low hill near Garnenez’s home near Huerfano.
“Do you think she’ll be able to pull this off?” Justine asked.
“Yeah. Emily’s very pretty and that’ll give her the edge. When she shows up at his home way out here, he’ll think that she’s missed him and is trying to get something going between them. His own ego will work against him. I think she’s right about that.”
“Good thing Garnenez only has a late-afternoon class today,” Justine said. “There’s Emily pulling up to his house now,” she added, passing the binoculars to Ella.
“Now we wait.”
“That was a really good idea you two concocted,” Justine said. “At first I wasn’t sure she’d agree. She’d only volunteered to visit him at his home and look around.”
“Everything changed when she happened to mention that he’d asked her to go target shooting several times and duck hunting once,” Ella said.
“I think that men who consider themselves marksmen, or at least good shots, love to go target shooting with a cop just to rate their own skills,” Justine said. “Or show us up.”
“That’s why I figured it wouldn’t be too big a stretch for her to steer things back in that direction and see if he’d go target shooting with her. The trick will be making him think it was his idea.”
“When she didn’t agree to your plan right away, I was sure she’d say no.”
“She was only mulling it over, like I would have. That’s why I pointed out that even if she saw a rifle with a Post-it note attached to it saying ‘used to scare Ella Clah off the Rez,’ we wouldn’t be able to do anything. Legally, she couldn’t take it without his permission, and without running a ballistic test, we’d still have no evidence,” Ella said.
“This plan of yours is brilliant—providing it works the way we hope. They’ll go target shooting in one of the dry arroyos and we’ll dig up the bullets after they leave. If the ones fired from his weapon match the ones we retrieved, we’ve got him.”
“Of course that’s assuming he uses the twenty-two in question,” Ella said.
“It’s a good bet. He’ll want to be accurate, particularly if Emily’s a good shot. If he uses a lower-caliber weapon, he’ll have less recoil and that’ll make it easier for him to maintain accuracy.”
Forty minutes passed slowly as they waited for Emily to emerge from the house. Ella glanced at her watch for the umpteenth time.
“Do you think she’s in trouble?” Justine asked.
“No,” Ella said, hoping with every breath that she was right. “I think she probably wants to move slow and set things up so it all appears to happen naturally.”
They waited another ten minutes, which seemed like several eternities to Ella. Finally, Emily emerged, Preston Garnenez at her side.
“Here we go,” Justine said. “They’ve got targets, two long gun cases, and a box which is probably filled with ammo and shooting equipment.”
“If they go to that dry arroyo over there,” Ella said, pointing north, “it’ll be a piece of cake to dig out the rounds from the earthen sides. And it’s off his property, so we won’t need any warrants either. See the fence line?”
“She still hasn’t given us the sign,” Justine said, using a smaller pair of binoculars. “She told us that she’d put a piece of licorice in her mouth if he had a twenty-two with him.”
Ella held her breath and watched through the binoculars. Emily placed the box in the back of the truck, then reached into her jacket pocket. Ella saw her pull out a long piece of licorice and stick it into her mouth.
“Bingo. She’s got it.”
“It’s the blond hair. Men love it,” Justine said.
Ella laughed softly. “Jealous?”
“Not at all,” Justine said. “I have access to the same bottles at the drugstore.”
“Meow!” Ella answered, laughing as they walked back to the SUV. “Follow them, but at a distance.”
At the site, less than a quarter mile from the house, Ella waited while Emily and Garnenez fired round after round. At first Garnenez brought out skeet-shooting gear and they took turns launching clay targets for each other. Garnenez was particularly skilled with a shotgun, hitting at least seventy-five percent of his targets. Emily barely managed fifty percent.
Then they switched to the twenty-two, firing into the arroyo at small paper bull’s-eye targets that Garnenez had s
tapled to an old real estate sign with a cardboard backing.
“We have what we need now,” Ella said after they’d both fired at least twenty rounds. “Go ahead and call her on the cell phone as we agreed. She’s done enough work for one day.”
Justine called her. “Sergeant Marquez, we need you back at the station,” she said seriously just in case Garnenez could overhear.
“Right now?” Emily asked plaintively, then added, “Never mind. I’m south of Bloomfield, so give me an hour.”
They saw Emily and Garnenez pack up their shooting supplies, and within five minutes, they were on their way back to his home. Leaving Justine behind to dig out the rounds they’d need for comparison, Ella headed to their rendezvous point farther north near the Angel Peak recreation site.
“Everything go okay?” Ella asked, walking up to Emily’s driver’s side window as soon as the woman arrived.
“He had no idea.” Emily paused thoughtfully, then continued. “I’ve got to tell you, Ella, I just don’t think you’re right about Preston. He’s a game player, but is just too insecure to take direct action unless driven over the edge. In my opinion, if he were really going to try and kill you himself, he would make sure you didn’t survive. He’d be more . . . efficient. He has a .30-06 Winchester in his house that would have been perfect for the job. Just one round through the windshield would have done it. My gut feeling is that you’re barking up the wrong tree. Of course, I could be wrong. He’s playing a role, even now.”
After saying good-bye to Emily, Ella went to pick up Justine, then they drove back toward Shiprock and the station.
“Have you decided if Emily’s the type of roommate you want?” Ella asked.
“I like her and I think we could get along. I’m going to call her in a bit and invite her to move in with me. But I sure hope she likes staying up late. That way I won’t have to tiptoe around the house at night,” she added with a rueful smile.
“Before Dawn was born I used to be a night owl, too. These days, I go to bed at ten-thirty, if I can manage it. Motherhood changes everything—but it’s a good change,” she added.
“I’m not going to be ready for motherhood for a long, long time,” Justine said. “For now, I don’t want to be accountable to anyone except myself.”
“I was that way, once,” Ella answered. “But needs change. There was a time in my life when I would have never considered getting married again, too. Now, I’m not as willing to shut the door on that possibility.”
“Navajo Ways say that neither sex is complete without the other.”
“Everything exists in two parts and both are needed to balance one another,” Ella said softly, remembering her mother’s teachings. “When I was younger I’d tell my mother that a woman needed a man like a frog needed roller skates. She’d always counter by reminding me of the story of First Man and First Woman.”
“Which one’s that?” Justine asked. “I was brought up Christian, so I’m a little fuzzy in that department.”
“First Woman told First Man that women could get along without men. The men ended up moving across the river and then destroying the rafts that had transported them. After that, both sides ended up with calamities and great suffering. It was only when they finally came together again that harmony was restored. They needed each other.”
Justine smiled. “It makes sense.”
“Yeah, it does, doesn’t it?” she observed, then lapsed into a long silence.
Later, after Justine went into her lab, Ella met with Big Ed and filled him in. Big Ed, as she’d expected, was far from happy about the way she’d worked things out.
“Shorty, what you did is recruit an officer from a different police department without authorization. There are channels we have to follow for that sort of thing and you know it. If Sheriff Taylor gets wind of what happened, there’ll be hell to pay. He likes things done by the book.”
“Normally, so do I, but this opportunity just presented itself and I took it. Had I waited and gotten other people involved, word might have leaked out. This way was fast and neat.”
“You did get the job done,” he admitted. “But you always do. Next time at least clear it with me first. And let me know what you learn after Justine does a ballistic comparison.”
Ella started to head to her office, then changed her mind and went to Justine’s lab instead. Justine was busy at the microscope so she sat at Justine’s desk and waited.
Although Justine knew Ella was there, she made it a point not to look at her. That was her way of letting Ella know she didn’t want to be interrupted.
About ten minutes later Justine finished her tests and paperwork and looked over at Ella with a smile. “It’s a match. We can move on this guy.”
“I’m ready.”
They were at Garnenez’s house less than an hour later, but Garnenez wasn’t at home and neither was his truck.
Justine took a look around, then peered inside through the curtainless back window. “He’s not here and there’s a half-eaten sandwich on the table. Do you think he’s rabbiting on us?”
“I don’t know if he’s on the run, but I have a bad feeling about this. Let’s head over to the college. He was supposed to have a class there later today anyway. Maybe he just drove over early.”
Once they arrived on campus, they went to Garnenez’s office first but the door was locked. Ella then led the way to the faculty lounge, but he wasn’t there either. “Let’s go find Wilson. He may be able to help us find the professor.” Ella saw Justine’s expression tighten but she nodded.
When Ella and Justine reached Wilson’s office they found him just saying good-bye to a student. “What brings you both here?” he asked, curious.
“It’s good to see you, too,” Ella said with a tiny smile.
“Hey, when both of you show up, I know it’s pressing business.”
“He’s got you there,” Justine said quietly.
“We’re looking for Professor Garnenez,” Ella said. “We understood he had an afternoon class to teach.”
“It’s strange that you should ask. He called Charlie Nez, our department head, not long ago and told him that he has to take off for the rest of the week on personal business. He’s entitled to the leave, but Charlie’s going to have a heck of a time finding a replacement on virtually no notice.”
“What kind of personal business?” Ella asked.
“I have no idea. All he told Charlie was that there was a pressing matter he needed to attend to and he’d be out of touch for a while.”
“If you hear anything else, call me,” Ella said, then motioning for Justine to follow, left.
“Where to now?” Justine said, keeping up as Ella hurried toward their vehicle.
“I have an idea. Let’s go talk to Loretta.”
As soon as they were on their way, Ella picked up her cell phone and called her sister-in-law’s home.
Loretta answered in a very shaky voice after the fifth ring. Noting it, Ella felt her gut tighten. “Sister-in-law, is everything all right?”
There was a pause, but then as if the flood tides had opened, Loretta began speaking very quickly. “No, I’m not all right. Everything’s gone crazy all of a sudden. I thought the professor and I were just friends. I knew he found me attractive, but I never thought it was anything to worry about. I thought you were overreacting.”
“And now?” Ella pressed.
“My husband has gone to see a patient and the professor is coming here now. He wouldn’t take no for an answer. He said that I’m only staying with my husband out of loyalty and that I belong with him.”
“When he gets there, don’t open the door.”
“Can you come over? Please? Maybe that’ll be enough to get rid of him.”
“I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Ella updated Justine as they hurried toward her brother’s home. “I had a feeling all along that this wasn’t just going to go away. My guess is that once Emily left, the professor began hav
ing second thoughts about the reason behind her surprise visit. He must have put two and two together and decided it was time to get out of Dodge. But he didn’t want to leave without Loretta. Remember that he believes she’s in danger because I’m part of her family and visit a lot. More importantly, in my opinion, he’s in love with her.”
“So he wants to take care of Loretta by taking her with him,” Justine said with a nod. “It makes sense and also substantiates what I thought—that he took those shots at you as a way of protecting her.”
“And now Loretta and her family could be the ones in danger. Step on it.”
It took twenty minutes to get to her brother’s home. When they entered the driveway, Ella saw a vehicle she recognized.
“That’s Garnenez’s pickup,” Justine said.
Seeing that the front door of the house was open, Ella climbed out as soon as Justine stopped the vehicle. “I told her—”
Loretta suddenly pushed Garnenez out onto the front porch. The professor stumbled, then recapturing his balance quickly, reached for her hand. In a flash, Julian stepped in front of his mother and kicked the professor resoundingly on the shins.
Garnenez cursed, but before he could reach for Loretta again, Ella was there, her hand on her weapon. “Step off the porch, slowly, then kneel on the ground, hands behind your head.” Ella kept her weapon in her holster. Garnenez didn’t appear to be armed, unless he had a knife in his medicine pouch, and she knew she could use physical force effectively if necessary.
“You’re the problem here, so do your own family a favor and leave,” Garnenez said, refusing Ella’s order.
“If you don’t get down on the ground right now, I’ll do whatever’s necessary to get you there—including kicking your butt or shooting you.”
Garnenez reluctantly complied. His eyes still on Loretta, he added, “I only wanted to take you and your son away from here, someplace where he could have a proper Sing done and you two would remain safe from contamination.”
“My dad can take care of us!” Julian said angrily. “Go away!”
Justine handcuffed Garnenez and read him his rights as Ella went up on the porch to make sure her sister-in-law was all right.