by Aimée
Yet now both bands were here, intertwined, as if the chindi of Eugene was calling out to her. It was meant to unnerve her, or if you believed the traditionalist’s views, to bring on her death.
“You’ve seen those rings before,” Neskahi observed.
“They belonged to my late husband and me—a lifetime ago.”
“Do you think our enemies meant for you to find this?”
Ella considered it. “I think they were hoping I would. It’s their way of reminding me that my enemies are everywhere, and will never give up.” She went to pick the wedding bands out of the ashes, determined not to allow them to remain here, but a sixth sense stopped her from reaching for them. “Hand me that stick,” she said.
As she slipped the slender reed inside one of the rings, she heard the distinctive dry shake of a rattlesnake’s tail warning her to back off.
Ella dropped the stick quickly, and the bands fell to the ground. As she stepped back she saw the head of a torpid snake peering out from beneath a ledge in the rock face. She stood still and the reptile slithered farther back into the shadows.
“You cheat death often,” Neskahi said quietly.
“It’s the gift I’m most fond of,” Ella said. She snatched up the rings and put them in her pocket. They represented memories best laid to rest, so she would bury them later once she was alone again.
“Look, I know it’s miserable out there with the blowing sand, but I’m willing to risk it, if you are,” Ella said. “What do you say we continue toward the main highway? We’ll have officers out looking for us soon enough, and we might reach someone on our hand-helds once we get close.”
“Okay by me.”
As she moved back to the mouth of the cave, she noticed the barely perceptible imprint of a cane in the sandy cave floor. Ella smiled slowly. “You lost that round, too, Miss Jane,” she said. Her whisper-soft voice was drowned by the angry howl of the wind.
* * *
Ella wasn’t sure how long they’d been hiking, but she knew that after a night without sleep Neskahi was ready to drop. “We can stop and rest here,” she said.
Neskahi shook his head. “I’ll be okay. The wind has died down quite a bit, so it’s just a matter of getting there.”
“And avoiding any traps between us and our people,” Ella reminded him.
As they sat down upon a big chunk of sandstone, she tried her radio again. Interference was still too pronounced to allow a transmission to come through.
“I can’t afford to rest for too long,” Neskahi warned. “I’m so tired at this point I could doze off. If you want me to stay alert, we have to keep moving.”
“Let’s go then.”
It took another two hours before Ella and Neskahi saw Highway 666 off near the horizon. She was about to try the radio once more, when she saw a dust trail rising in the air. A moment later a patrol vehicle approaching from the west came into view.
“Justine, I bet,” Ella said, relieved beyond words.
As the vehicle drew near, Ella saw her assistant behind the wheel.
Justine smiled as she pulled to a stop beside them. “Boy, I’m glad to see you two! I thought you’d probably be okay, but you sure had everyone worried.”
Ella and Neskahi quickly got into her vehicle, enjoying the warmth of the heater. Ella filled her cousin in while Neskahi dozed in the rear seat. “I’ll need an ID on the body, and anything else you can tell me about her. And I’ll want that as soon as possible.”
“Naturally.” Justine smiled. “And your Jeep is back at the station. Two of our officers coming on duty dropped by and picked it up, along with the shooter’s pickup. But there’s another bit of news you need to know right away. Leo Bekis was killed in a car accident last night, and his sister Gladys is in the hospital.”
Hearing about the death filled Ella with a black sense of satisfaction. Justice, in its own way, had been done. “Is Gladys going to be okay?”
“According to what I heard, she’s in satisfactory condition. She was wearing a seat belt, and Leo wasn’t. They say he was thrown out of the vehicle when it rolled.”
“What happened?” Ella sat up straighter in the seat as a thought occurred to her. If it turned out to be a homicide, she could well become one of the suspects—that is, if certain Farmington lawyers had their way.
“Gladys says someone pulled out right in front of them, and Leo had to swerve to avoid a collision. He lost control, and they went over an embankment. She doesn’t know how many times they rolled. When she regained consciousness, it was dawn, and Leo had been dead for hours.”
“He wasn’t supposed to be driving at all. They pulled his license.” Anger filled Ella, though she wasn’t surprised to hear the news. Bekis had been an arrogant man.
“He wasn’t supposed to be drinking either,” Justine added. “Gladys admitted that was why she had her seat belt on.”
“And the other driver never stopped?” Ella knew how common hit-and-run accidents were in New Mexico, with so many drivers uninsured.
“No. But you can bet his family isn’t going to pursue that suit against you anymore, considering the way he died. Maybe there’s some justice in this world after all,” Ella’s assistant added.
“I suppose, but I wish my mother hadn’t been his second to the last mistake.”
After they were back at the station, Ella arranged for Neskahi to get a ride home for some much-needed rest, and then made out a full report for Big Ed. Leaving the file on his desk, she proceeded to Justine’s lab.
Justine took a deep breath. “I’ve got bad news. There are two patrol units out at the accident scene along with the ME, but they haven’t found Mrs. Willink’s body.”
“What? I told you exactly where they should look!”
“It’s not there,” Justine said. “Tache and Ute went straight to the pickup. Except for the burned-out wreck, and a few traces of blood, there was no evidence that anyone had ever been there.”
“Someone must have hauled the body away then,” Ella said. “I know the woman was dead.”
“If they did, the duststorm covered their tracks, so there’s no hope of following their trail.”
“What about the cave? They found that, right?”
“Yes. Tache’s in there now, but he hasn’t discovered anything except the rattler you told them about.”
Ella dropped down in a chair, reaching down into her pocket to assure herself that the rings were still there. “What about the neighborhood where the woman was hiding? Have you heard anything, besides gossip, I mean? And what about her truck?”
“I haven’t had a chance to look into it yet,” Justine answered. “Every time I start, something more critical comes up, like today. We did find a pistol in the car—a thirty-eight revolver. It had been wiped clean—even the empty shell casings. The truck was stolen a week ago from Farmington.”
“I’m glad you were there today to give us a ride back,” Ella said with an apologetic smile. “You have enough to do. I’ll take care of checking that neighborhood myself.”
Ella went back to her office, her thoughts racing. Sitting at her computer terminal, she pulled up all the tribal records she could find on the housing area where the chase had started. The people living in the one home that had originally been there had remained, undisturbed by whatever was happening around them. The Benallys, the owners of that home, had moved from near White Rock, not too far, by reservation standards, from Jane Clah’s hogan.
The connection made her skin prickle. Skinwalkers. That explained why the houses continued to be abandoned almost as quickly as the tenants moved in and why the tribe had never received any plausible explanations. The People hated talking about skinwalkers, and why make an enemy of them when it was simply easier to leave?
Ella leaned back in her chair. It was time to take the offensive. If the skinwalkers were trying to get the doll back, then that was her trump card. All she needed now was a plan.
As she mulled things over, Justine cam
e into her office. “I’ve got bad news,” she said, her face was pale.
“Go ahead,” Ella said, waving her to a chair.
“It’s my cousin, Thomas. He was being taken to a safe house at Teece Nos Pos. On the way, the two officers escorting him had to stop at Beclabito because they were having car trouble. They found out they were low on oil, for some reason. One, Officer Dodge, went inside while the other stayed in the car with the boy. When Dodge returned, he found his partner out cold, and Thomas was gone.”
Ella sat up. “Did anyone see anything?”
“No, just a fresh set of tire tracks. This happened almost an hour ago, but I just got the report. All the radio traffic went through Window Rock, for some reason, and they just forwarded the message here. Apparently, Officer Poyer was taken to the Teece Nos Pos clinic. When he came around, claiming to have been drugged by some kind of red dust, both officers hurried back to Beclabito. They tried to pick up the kidnapper’s trail, but were unsuccessful. They put out an APB, but because the request went through Window Rock, it was slow getting here. So far, nobody has found any trace of the kid. According to them, it was as if he’d vanished off the face of the earth.”
“I’m going to call my brother and see if he’ll meet me at the place where your cousin was abducted. He’ll know what to look for more than we would, under these circumstances.”
“I don’t know what to tell my aunt. Do you think he’s still alive?”
Ella pressed her lips together. “I honestly don’t know, because I think the evil ones were responsible, not the North Siders. What bothers me, is that they took him right out of our hands in broad daylight. That’s a big victory for them, and it’s going to boost their confidence and morale.”
“Would you like to talk to Poyer and Dodge?”
“Yeah. Tell them to meet me where it happened, then get your things and come out to the Jeep. I’d like you along.”
“I consider Thomas my responsibility now. I’ll do whatever you think will help get him back alive.”
Ella dialed Clifford’s number and arranged to meet with him at the gas station where the incident had occurred. She could feel his tension as she explained what she needed from him.
“If that boy is found dead, you’re going to have a morale crisis at the station, and not just because he’s a relative of one of your officers. No matter how modern the Navajo, ancient fears persist just beneath the surface. This victory by the evil ones is going to cost you a great deal.”
“I’m aware of that. I’ll meet you there at Beclabito, and hopefully you can tell me something I don’t know,” she snapped. As soon as she hung up, she regretted losing her temper. Taking it out on him had been pointless, particularly when she needed his help. Fatigue and stress were taking their toll on her. It was only a little after noon, and already the day seemed endless.
She didn’t have time to waste, however. She gathered her equipment and headed for her Jeep, where Justine was already waiting.
Ella beat Clifford to the gas station and, as Justine had arranged, the two officers were waiting to report. “We were alert,” Poyer said almost instantly as he met her gaze, “but we were ambushed. Our unit was parked out in the open, and I was keeping watch. Whoever it was must have come from the front. The hood was up, and my view was obstructed. All of a sudden there was this awful-smelling reddish smoke that seemed to engulf the car. I tried to yell, but I couldn’t even draw a breath. The kid managed a cough, that’s all. I remember trying to reach for my weapon, but my hand felt as if it had been turned to concrete. I couldn’t move. I guess I passed out, because all I remember was Dodge shaking me hard and asking me what happened.” His face was flushed with embarrassment.
Dodge shrugged. “I parked the vehicle right beyond the gas pumps. I was inside for only a few minutes getting three quarts of oil, but when I heard a car drive off it was already over. Whoever sneaked up on foot was picked up by the vehicle, along with our prisoner. All I saw was a blue sedan going over the hill. There was no license plate. We’re sorry, Investigator Clah. We screwed up. I should have guessed somebody had tampered with the oil, knowing we’d have to stop.”
“Okay, I need answers fast. Talk to everyone in the area who might have been around or seen any strangers. Do whatever you have to, but I want to know where that kid is. Clear?”
“Understood,” Poyer said, then turned and strode back to his patrol unit with Dodge at his heels.
Ella watched them drive off, knowing that they were embarrassed by what had happened, and would be doubling their efforts to make up for it. Just a moment’s complacency was all it took for a cop to lose his or her life. She doubted they’d be fooled like that again.
After the officers left, Ella turned to Justine, aware of her assistant’s mood. “I understand how this has upset you, Justine. We’re going to do all we can to get your cousin back alive.”
Justine exhaled softly. “I know; it’s just that Thomas had started to trust us a bit, once he realized what he’d gotten into. I thought there was a chance for him to turn things around. Now he may be dead. I see this as a double failure on our part, and it goes against everything I intended to accomplish when I became a cop. If we can’t help these kids—if we can’t do more than just arrest them—then we’ve failed ourselves and the tribe. I’m not ready to quit being a cop, don’t get me wrong, but I’m just not sure how I can get back the feeling that I’m doing something positive for the tribe when I can’t even protect my own family.”
“If you come up with any answers, make sure you tell me,” Ella said. “I felt the same way when Mom was hit by that drunk driver.”
The gas station was nestled in the low piñon and juniper pine hills just east of the Arizona state line. As Ella scanned the area, she saw Clifford had arrived while she was questioning the officers and talking to Justine. He stood by his truck, parked on the southern shoulder of the road across the highway from the gas station.
Ella went to join her brother, while Justine went to question the station employees. “Sorry. I was tied up when you arrived. Did you find anything that could help us out?”
“Not really, but from the description you gave me, I thought it would be sheer luck if I did,” Clifford said.
“You found nothing at all?” Ella insisted. Something told her that he was holding back.
Clifford took a deep breath, then let it out again. “Well, let’s just say I found nothing that you can use for evidence.”
Ella looked at him curiously, then asked the obvious question. “What aren’t you saying?”
He said nothing for several moments, staring at Justine, who had come back out of the gas station and was walking around, looking for clues on the ground. “I saw vehicle tracks, like you probably did, but I also noticed something I haven’t seen during daylight hours in many years. There was an owl perched on the roof of that gasoline station, not a burrowing owl either. It was a Great Horned Owl, one of the largest I’ve ever seen.”
“Something terrible is on the way, is that what you’re telling me?” Ella pressed.
“I’m just saying that evil attracts evil. Whatever happened here is the start of something, not the end,” he said. “I’ve already sung an Enemy Way, like I said I would, but I’m not sure…” He shook his head gravely, took a pinch of pollen out of his medicine bag, murmured a brief prayer in Navajo, and released it on the wind. Then he walked to his truck and drove away.
Ella met Justine, who had finished questioning the station staff. They had seen nothing except the two cops. Ella and Justine walked the area silently together for another ten minutes, finding no evidence except a set of car tracks to support Poyer’s story. Finally, they headed back toward Shiprock.
“Where are we going?” Justine asked, as they failed to make the turn for the police station.
“I want to make a stop by Agent Blalock’s office in Farmington. I need to talk to him,” she said.
They were still lost in thought as they passed t
hrough Kirtland. Abruptly a large bird swooped down in front of the Jeep. Trying to avoid colliding with it, Ella slammed on the brakes and swerved, but the bird still hit the window hard. Ella veered off the road onto the shoulder. When they finally came to a stop, she drew in a long, ragged breath.
“It was an owl,” Justine said in a shaky voice. “A really big owl. You saw it?”
“Yeah. It’s back there on the road, dead, right?”
They both looked back. The road was empty. Ella left the vehicle and looked around, walking back to where she gauged the impact had taken place. There had to be at least some feathers around! The sharp, cracking sound of the bird striking the windshield still echoed in her mind. She was surprised the glass hadn’t shattered.
Justine searched the shoulder on both sides of the highway. “I know you hit it, I was sitting right there. But it’s nowhere around, and there are no traces of blood or feathers either on the windshield or on the road.”
“We were startled by the impact, and we must have magnified it in our minds,” Ella said, trying to explain it to herself as much as to Justine. “It wasn’t nearly as bad as we thought. The bird managed to fly away.”
Justine held firm. “It was bad.”
They got back into the Jeep, shaken and quiet. As they continued on to Blalock’s Farmington office, Ella told Justine what Clifford had said.
Justine shifted to face Ella. “Something is really wrong here. It goes beyond the problem with gangs. The skinwalkers want you. I bet that’s what your brother was trying to warn you about.”
“That’s no news. They’ve wanted me and my family for a long time,” Ella shrugged. “I think what’s happening is that they want the item I’ve recovered.” Ella explained about the doll. “They may be hoping that, through it, they can destroy me. But I’ve got to tell you, it’s going to take a lot more than a stuffed rag doll to finish me off. They’re ticking me off, not scaring me.”
Ella stopped by Blalock’s office in Farmington, and asked if the package she’d mailed him had arrived. It hadn’t, the mail came later in the day, so Ella showed Blalock a photo of the doll and explained that she needed him to keep the artifact for her until she asked for it.