Death Walker

by Aimée

  Silence fell over them for a moment as they each became temporarily lost in their own memories.

  “We’ve all come a long way,” Justine said slowly. “For you two, even further,” she grinned.

  “Yeah,” Ella said with a shrug. “Now we talk shop, or get stuck for a topic.”

  Wilson laughed. “Are you saying we’ve become dull?”

  Justine looked seriously at her older companions. “No, not dull. It’s just that our interests have become totally focused on what we do.”

  Wilson smiled at Justine. “Well, it may be too late for Ella and me to change, but there’s still hope for you.”

  Justine shook her head. “I see nothing in either of you two or myself that I’d want to change.”

  Rose came out of the kitchen. “Well, I do,” she said. “I was eavesdropping. Why don’t you play some music and dance like you used to when you were kids?”

  “Mom, it’s too hot. The evaporative cooler is working, so it’s okay in here, but none of us have the energy to dance,” Ella protested weakly. She knew her mother was trying to play matchmaker again, and wished she wasn’t quite so dogged about it. Then again, determination was one trait she’d inherited, and it made her a good cop.

  Rose sighed and shook her head. “If you youngsters can take the heat for a minute, will you go outside and pick some mint from the garden? I need some for the tea.”

  “Sure.” Ella went outside, and the furnace blast that struck her as she opened the door almost took her breath away. “Wow, I think today’s temperature must have beat the record.”

  “It did,” Wilson answered, following her and Justine.

  Justine tied her hair back with a piece of yarn she’d grabbed from Rose’s knitting basket. “I tried to start a garden over at my place, but all I grew were weeds.”

  “I have a black thumb,” Ella admitted. “Clifford and Loretta have a wonderful garden. He grows melons, corn, green chiles, and squash. I can’t even keep a houseplant alive.” So much for heredity.

  A moment later they stood at the edge of Rose’s wagon-wheel-shaped herb garden. Plants were placed in wedge-shaped sections, separated by cedar edging. Although it had been watered that morning, the ground was almost parched again.

  Ella noticed out of the corner of her eye that her mother was watching them. “Hey,” she whispered to Justine and Wilson. “Mom’s watching us. Let’s give her a hard time and not find the mint.”

  “Which one’s the mint?” Justine said in a normal tone, scratching her head.

  Ella hesitated. “That one.” She pointed to a leafy shrub. “No, wait. It might be that one,” she said quickly, pointing to a plant that seemed to be made mostly of naked stems. “Oh boy, you know what? I have no idea. She uses both of those in her teas, and chamomile, but which is which?”

  Wilson crouched by the leafless plant. “It isn’t this one, for sure. I recognize this plant. Locals call it Mormon tea. Doesn’t mint have leaves?”

  “Maybe it’s this one,” Justine said enthusiastically, and crouched by a coltsfoot plant with leaves several inches long.

  Rose knocked on the window, then pointed. “The one at the end!” she yelled, her tone clearly showing her exasperation. “Use your nose and smell for it.”

  They returned a moment later, Ella holding a cutting of the fragrant plant.

  Rose gave her a hard glare. “I can’t believe that you remember every detail of your cases, but you can’t figure out what’s in the herb garden!”

  Ella smiled sheepishly. “I flunked botany, what can I say?”

  Justine nodded in agreement, trying to avoid a smile. “We flunked too, right, Wilson?”

  He nodded solemnly. “And me a science teacher. How sad.”

  Rose rolled her eyes, then walked to the pitcher and dropped a few leaves on the surface. “You idiots go clean up. We’ll be having dinner in another ten minutes.”

  Ella washed her hands in the kitchen sink while Justine and Wilson used the bathrooms. “Carolyn’s going to be dropping by later.”

  “Good. It’s nice to have people around you when you’re not working.”

  “The same could be said for you, and for Loretta. That’s why I hope you’ll ask her and Clifford to move in with us as soon as possible.”

  “Do you believe I’m in danger?” Rose asked pointedly.

  “You may be,” Ella admitted. “I’m going to have an officer checking often, but we don’t have the manpower to assign anyone here full-time.”

  “And your sister-in-law?”

  “The same, but Loretta’s needs exceed what I can provide her with. How is her health?”

  Rose took a deep breath and let it out again. “Her greatest problem is her own fear. She’s really very frightened, particularly since your brother was recently asked to give lectures at the college. She knows the other Singer who took the job is now dead.”

  “Does she believe there’s a connection?” Ella asked, wondering how Loretta could have arrived at that conclusion.

  Rose shrugged. “She doesn’t want her husband following in the steps of one who was murdered. Who can blame her?”

  “Well, there’s something to that,” Ella admitted.

  As the others joined them, Ella helped her mother serve the stuffed sopaipillas. The fry bread had been filled with ground beef, beans, and cheese almost to bursting. A red chile sauce with melted cheese covered it liberally.

  Ella took a hearty bite of her favorite dish. “This is wonderful!”

  Rose smiled. “That’s what I like to hear. There are also chocolate chip cookies and ice cream for dessert,” she added.

  Ella groaned, thinking of her waistline. “I’m going to have to take up jogging again,” she said, glancing at Wilson and Justine.

  Wilson grinned. “Well, I’m not going to feel guilty. I can’t remember the last time someone cooked me a meal like this, and I’m going to enjoy it.”

  Justine finished her serving and asked for more iced tea. “I’ll go jogging with you,” she said, glancing at Ella, “but I’m going to have both the cookies and the ice cream.”

  Ella laughed. “Mother, you’re a bad influence.”

  As Justine and Rose cleared the table, Ella heard a car pull up. “That sounds like Carolyn. I’ll go greet her.”

  Ella walked out quickly, hoping to warn Carolyn not to mention anything about the dead animals within range of her mother’s acute hearing. She hadn’t had a chance to tell Rose yet, and dinner certainly seemed an inappropriate time.

  Ella greeted Carolyn as she parked her vehicle beside Wilson’s. “You’re just in time for dessert, and Mother saved the fixings for a big stuffed sopaipilla for you too.”

  Carolyn smiled. “I’ll never turn that down,” she said cheerfully. “Can’t be rude.”

  “How did things go with the sheep?” Ella asked, keeping her voice low.

  “Their throats were slit with big knives, just as if they were being slaughtered,” Carolyn answered, matching Ella’s soft tone. “Whoever opened up the animals worked like a pro. Probably a Navajo. But the mutilations required an ax.”

  Ella nodded. She now suspected more than ever that Peterson had engineered the incident. She remembered how he and his skinwalker friends had enjoyed using symbols like these to spread fear. Navajos believed that even looking at a dead animal not intended for food was dangerous.

  “My mother doesn’t know about this yet, so please be careful what you say around her. I intend to tell her later, but I haven’t had a chance, and I didn’t want to upset her now. She has enough on her mind worrying about my sister-in-law, who’s having a hard time with her pregnancy.”

  “Yeah, I’ve heard about that through the gossip mill. Don’t worry. I’ll keep quiet. I’d offer to keep my mouth shut, but I’m starving.”

  Ella looked at Carolyn and started laughing. “You know, we’ve all put on weight.”

  “I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of dieting. I’ve come to the conclusi
on that some of us are meant to be rounded, and some of us are meant to be angular. I’m in the rounded category. Besides, at the risk of sounding sorry for myself, it’s not as if I have an active social life. The people I see most are way past looking at anything. So I might as well indulge myself.”

  As they walked into the kitchen, Rose turned her head from what she was frying and smiled at Carolyn. “I’m glad you came to see us. I’m fixing you a stuffed sopaipilla.”

  “They’re wonderful,” Justine said. “Then we’re going to have ice cream and cookies.”

  To Ella, Justine suddenly sounded as young as she looked. She glanced at Carolyn, who grinned from ear to ear. “There’s no generation gap between this child and me. She has her priorities straight.”

  Even Rose laughed as she placed a large platter of food before Carolyn. “Enjoy,” she said. “Now I’ll leave you to entertain yourselves. The cookies and ice cream are in the fridge.”

  As Rose walked down the hall, Ella turned on the Navajo radio station. They finished dinner in easy camaraderie. Country-western music with Navajo-language lyrics might have sounded strange back in L.A., but here it was the rule rather than the exception. Ella loved it.

  Wilson watched Carolyn thoughtfully. He started to speak but then reached for his iced tea instead.

  Carolyn glanced up as she took her last mouthful of sopaipilla. “What’s on your mind, Wilson?”

  Wilson glanced away, embarrassed. “I’m trying to figure out how to ask you something. I hope it’s not out of line.”

  “Go ahead. Speak your mind.”

  Ella stared at Wilson, unable to believe that he would ever purposely hurt Carolyn’s feelings. Yet he was obviously leading up to something sensitive.

  “You were a family doctor for years, and had a good practice,” he said. “You had the respect of everyone. Why did you go into forensics? You must have known how most Navajos would react to that.”

  Carolyn took a deep breath and leaned back. “Years ago, I made a deal with myself. The tribe paid for my schooling so, in return, I decided that I’d always make myself as useful as possible. I would place the People’s needs at the top of my list. When the position of forensic pathologist became open, no Anglo would take it. The pay was less than they wanted to make, and they didn’t like living here. Our own medical staff wouldn’t touch it. The need was there and I was qualified, so I stepped in.”

  Wilson nodded slowly. “You have more courage than I do.”

  “You don’t believe in ghost sickness, do you?” Carolyn asked, surprised.

  “Not really, I guess. But I don’t think I’d be able to stand the way a lot of people avoid someone in your field.”

  “I haven’t lost all my friends,” Carolyn said.

  “Like Sadie Morgan?” Wilson smiled.

  “Yes, like her.”

  “That name sounds familiar,” Ella said, bringing out the platter of cookies.

  “She’s on staff at the college. She teaches advanced Navajo to students. Sadie’s also working on a special project. She’s taping the Navajo language into an audio dictionary, so its sounds will never be lost,” Wilson replied.

  “She’s a tough old gal too,” Carolyn said with a half smile. “We suit each other well.”

  Ella recalled that Sadie Morgan was one of the local experts who had been warned about the Packrat.

  Carolyn filled their dishes with big scoops of vanilla ice cream, then began to pass them around. “You know, it’s nice to share a meal with friends.”

  Ella felt the tug at her heart. For a moment she saw herself, years from now, in Carolyn’s shoes: a professional woman, busy, but too alone.

  “Earth calling,” Justine teased, holding out a bowl of ice cream to Ella.

  “Thanks,” Ella said, her attention back to dessert again.

  “Don’t tell me. You’re thinking about work, right?” Carolyn said with a smile.

  Ella was about to side-step an answer when her pager and Justine’s went off almost simultaneously. Ella glanced at her assistant and saw all the playfulness leave Justine’s expression. In an instant, she’d switched back to the professional police officer.

  Ella stood, and led Justine to the phone in the bedroom. She dialed in first. Sally Nez had called. According to their prearranged plan, she’d agreed to meet Steven behind the Totah Café. “We’re on,” Ella said, filling Justine in.

  Justine dialed in next and found that Sally had left a message for her too. Using the pad beside the phone, she took down the message, then showed it to Ella. “Cindi Dodge’s favorite outfit was jeans and a red Shiprock High School T-shirt. I’ve got jeans, but where am I going to get a T-shirt on short notice?”

  “I haven’t got one,” Ella said, “but I think someone at the station might.” She checked her watch. “We’ve got ninety minutes. Get going, and track down what you need. I’ll meet you later. I’ll be parked near the Totah Café, using infrared binoculars to keep an eye on you. Once Nez approaches you, detain him for questioning. If he makes a move to get away, arrest him. I’ll be there to back you up.”

  “Got it.” Justine followed Ella back into the living room.

  Wilson and Carolyn were talking, but quieted immediately when they looked up. Wilson’s eyes went to Ella. “You have to leave, right?” he asked morosely.

  “Yes,” Ella said softly. “I’m sorry to cut the evening short.”

  Wilson nodded. “I understand.” He glanced at Justine. “Take care of Ella. She’s not as tough as she’d like to be.”

  Justine shrugged. “Who is?”

  “Am I going to be needed?” Carolyn said, her voice taut.

  “I certainly hope not.” Ella smiled grimly.

  “In that case, it’s time I went home too.”

  Ella said good-bye to Wilson and Carolyn, then went to tell her mother she was leaving. Disapproval came quickly to Rose’s eyes, then she relented. “Well, your friends and you have much in common. They probably understand better than I do. Be careful, all right?”

  “You too.” Ella went through the house, picked up her weapon and jacket, then walked out the front door.

  Wilson met her by the Jeep as Justine drove away. “If you don’t mind,” he said to Ella, “I’m going to install those lights you mentioned tonight. The discount store will still be open, and I think that the sooner it’s done, the better.”

  “I’d really appreciate that.” Ella slipped inside her Jeep and turned on the ignition. As she placed the vehicle in gear, she glanced up. “I’m glad we had dinner together.”

  Wilson smiled, his gaze gentling. “So am I.”

  As Ella followed Justine’s vehicle down the dirt road, she glanced back in the mirror. Her mother had come around to stand beside Wilson. She was glad he was there, but she was also afraid for him as well as her family. None of them would be safe until the killer was caught and Peterson was back in custody.

  NINETEEN

  Ella waited in the dark, behind the cover of an old Dumpster beside the Totah Café. She could see Justine beside the old Ford truck she’d borrowed, parked beneath the light that illuminated the Totah Café’s parking area. The hood was up, and she was pretending to work on something in the engine compartment. The Shiprock T-shirt she’d borrowed was a bit too large, making her look even younger than she was.

  Ella knew that Steven would show up soon. As she’d suspected, Steven had not said exactly when he would arrive to meet Sally. He probably wanted to check out the parking lot to make sure it was safe to show himself.

  They waited another twenty minutes. Ella noted an old sedan cruising past them on the highway. It had already been by three times. This wasn’t the vehicle they’d expected. Nez was supposed to have an old beat-up blue truck. But when it went by the fourth time, she knew it was probably him.

  Finally she saw the sedan slow down. Justine only allowed him a fleeting glimpse of her face while he was still on the highway. As the man fitting Nez’s description stepped out, E
lla began moving forward discreetly.

  Justine waited until the man was close before turning, identifying herself, and ordering him to remain where he was. Nez immediately spun around and raced for his car.

  “Police officers, Nez! Don’t do it!” Ella yelled, running forward.

  Nez almost made it to the door of his car before Justine tackled him. As he tumbled to the ground, she jumped on his back and grabbed his right arm, twisting it painfully. “Struggling will only prolong the pain, Nez,” she snapped, scrambling to her feet. “Get up and lean against the car, hands up and apart, feet back.”

  Justine handcuffed and frisked Nez quickly while he cursed an endless stream of obscenities, some in Navajo, some in English.

  “I’ve heard them all, and in much more creative phrases, Nez, so do us all a favor and shut up,” Ella said pleasantly, and proceeded to read him his rights.

  “You’ve got nothing on me.”

  “Is that why you ran?” Ella countered.

  “I thought I was going to be mugged.”

  “By a woman half your weight? Where’s your pride? You can come up with a better excuse than that.”

  “I thought my wife was trying to get me arrested for taking the pickup. It’s in her name. I want a lawyer.”

  “You can have one,” Ella said.

  “You really are making things look bad for yourself,” Justine said. “Why have you been hiding out? That just makes you look guilty of murder.”

  “I’m not! I swear!” he protested as Ella led him to her vehicle. “But I knew I was one of the last to see Dodge alive. I’m on everybody’s shit list at the moment. It didn’t look good for me, and I knew it. Besides, who says I’ve been hiding? My wife kicked me out. I’ve been looking for a place to stay, that’s all. I’m not that Packrat guy. Search me.”

  “You knew we wanted to question you. You just admitted it. If you have nothing to hide, why didn’t you come in voluntarily?” Ella demanded.

  “I want a lawyer,” he said once again.

  “Okay. The tribe will provide one for you. But if you’re involved with skinwalkers, you’re going to need more than a lawyer to keep you in one piece. Our people don’t have much sympathy for Navajo witches.” Ella wanted to undermine his confidence, and this was one way to do it.