“You’re the ME. I wouldn’t dream of it,” Ella said sincerely.
Ella followed Carolyn to where the body lay. Although she was a seasoned cop, she had to swallow to keep down the contents of her stomach. The left side of Andrew Talk’s head had been caved in as if he’d been struck repeatedly by a baseball bat, or worse. Part of his bloody shirt had been imbedded between his ribs, and one of the bones in his right arm protruded from his skin where it had been smashed with a heavy object. Several of his fingers on both hands were split open and askew, probably defensive wounds as he tried to block the blows from whatever blunt objects were used to pummel his body. He was barefoot, and his feet were swollen and battered, as if his killers had begun there, and worked up his body, taking it slow. Small pieces of gravel from the side of the road were also visible atop the body.
Ella took a deep breath, then moved away. Bile burned the back of her throat, but she managed to avoid throwing up. Many of the murders of Navajos that she had investigated over the years had been the result of beatings, and she never could get used to the brutality.
Justine had been hardened even less, apparently. As Ella looked around, she saw her partner coming back toward the yellow tape from a spot farther off the highway. Her face was pale, and she was wiping her mouth with a handkerchief.
While Ella began searching the area for evidence in an expanding spiral from the body, Tache concentrated on photographing the area around the body where several vague footprints remained. There was no splattered or pooled blood anywhere and that told her that Talk had been dead already when he’d been dropped here. From the wounds themselves, it was obvious this was no hit-and-run accident.
Ella went to where Carolyn was working. “See if you can find any evidence that’ll tell us where he was killed. From what I can see, he was dumped here after the fact.”
“I’ll do what I can,” Carolyn said, reaching for the tape recorders in her bag. “One interesting thing. The smell of alcohol is still all over him. The beating may have been part of a particularly nasty drunken attack. I’ll check his blood alcohol later and let you know more.”
“This man was involved in some shady business that would suggest this is premeditated murder, not manslaughter. If you find evidence that that’s not the case, then let me know as soon as possible.”
“Understood.”
Searching for vehicle tracks, Ella found impressions in the hard shoulder that showed where Talk’s killers had stopped to dump the body. The fine gravel made it impossible to discern any tread pattern, however, and she found no footprints. Whoever it was had moved fast to avoid being seen, and scattered gravel and rubber marks on the edge of the asphalt indicated they had pulled away in a hurry. It also explained why gravel had been scattered over the body.
As Tache photographed the evidence, Ella joined her partner. “Justine, I want you to interview all eighty-eight, now eighty-seven members of the Tribal Council—not just the leaders of the gaming issue. I want the names of everyone who has received threats of any kind—even if you get them through hearsay. You might also talk to Jefferson Blueeyes. I have a feeling that man knows far more than he has ever let on. And check with those two Anglos we nailed on the vandalism to see if they’ve ever met Blueeyes. We never did learn how they were selected, and Blueeyes worked in Farmington at one time. You’ll need help to do all this, so recruit whoever you think might be interested in working with our unit shortterm. But be careful and pick officers you’re certain we can trust.”
“Consider it done.”
“One more thing. The Benjamins refused to volunteer the rifle for ballistics testing. I can’t say it was a big surprise, actually. But if any of the others bring their weapons in, test them very thoroughly. At least we might be able to cross a few names off our list.”
“Okay. Anything else?”
“That’s it for now. Since we’re not far away from the hospital, I’m going to stop by and make sure Mom’s settled in. On the way, I’ll get in touch with Jimmy Frank and see if he’s got anything on Blueeyes. If he does, I’ll be in touch.”
After Justine went back to the job at hand, Ella got under way. In a few minutes, just north of Shiprock, she picked up her cell phone to call Jimmy, then remembered the battery was dead. Worried about any conversations on the police frequencies being monitored, she stopped at a pay phone beside a convenience store and dialed his cell number.
“I was just going to call you,” he answered immediately. “I’ve been monitoring a meeting between George Branch, Blueeyes, and two other Indian men I’ve never met—not Navajos. I borrowed one of Tache’s cameras when I started working for you, and I took some photos with his telephoto lens. But I’m no photographer, so I can’t be sure of the quality.”
“Go back to the station and get the film developed. I’ll see you there in about forty minutes. And good job.”
Ella’s spirits were noticeably higher by the time she arrived at the hospital. A photo of any outsiders dealing with Blueeyes and Branch would probably lead to some answers. It was about time they’d had a break.
Ella stopped by the main desk, got her mother’s room number, then hurried upstairs. Having her mother consent to surgery only proved how badly Rose wanted things at home to return to normal. To Rose, her home was her domain, and she’d never liked strangers there for any length of time.
As Ella entered the room she noticed that her mother was talking to several nurses and an orderly. For a moment she wasn’t sure what to make of it, but as she heard their conversation, she realized that Rose was taking the opportunity to work against gaming, even here.
“Mom,” Ella said, greeting her.
The nurses smiled as Rose introduced Ella as her daughter, then they left to continue their duties.
Ella sat down on one of the two chairs and wondered how to begin. She had to tell her mother about Kevin and Dawn, but she just wasn’t sure how to bring it up.
“What’s on your mind, daughter? I can see you’re concerned about something.”
Afraid she’d lose her courage, Ella blurted out the entire story quickly, then waited. Although she could face an armed opponent with a steady hand, her mother could sometimes rattle her to the core. Rose was not an easy woman.
It seemed like an eternity before Rose spoke. “I don’t like it, but my granddaughter adores him. You’re right about that. More importantly, I won’t be home, and you’ll be working long hours this weekend. With all the unrest around the reservation, maybe having her go with him on this little trip will be a good thing. I don’t like my granddaughter’s father, that’s no secret, but I trust my friend’s granddaughter to take care of everything.”
“Then it’s settled,” Ella said, glad to have that issue out of the way. “Have you heard any new rumors about what’s happening on the Rez?”
“Only that those who favor gaming are getting impatient. They’re calling for a vote. They want the Tribal Council to make up their minds.”
“Are they planning to do something to speed things up?”
“I don’t know,” Rose said, then in a thoughtful voice added, “The reservation has become a dangerous place right now, particularly for our family.”
“The department will have things under control again soon, Mom. Try not to worry.” Ella stood. “I’ve got to get back to work, but I’ll do my best to stop by tonight. If it’s late before I can get away, I’ll come by in the morning and we can talk then. When will you have surgery?”
“They’ve moved it up to four this afternoon.”
“I’ll try to come back before they take you to the operating room. And, Mom, take it easy, okay? You’re here for surgery, not to conduct an antigambling campaign.”
“I can do both,” Rose said firmly. “At my age, you learn not to take time for granted. There’s more life behind me than there is ahead of me, but our tribe still needs me. When my time finally comes I want the People to remember that I was here once, and that I lived a life that made a
difference.”
“Mom, you’ve got many, many years ahead of you and you’ve already done plenty for the tribe. The Plant Watchers keep the old ways alive.” It bothered Ella to hear her mother speak this way.
“You’ll understand how I feel someday, daughter. But, until then, I’ll do what I have to, and you’ll have to learn to live with it.”
With a sigh, Ella kissed her mother good-bye. As she stepped out into the hall, she saw Herman Cloud coming out of the elevator with a dozen red roses in his hand.
Ella caught Herman’s eye just as he spotted her. Surprisingly, it was Herman who blushed, though Ella had expected she’d have been the one to feel awkward.
“How is your mother?” Herman managed, smiling awkwardly, holding the roses down by his side, as if in doing so they became less conspicuous somehow.
“She can use some cheering up. And I think you and those beautiful flowers will help.” Ella smiled back, grateful that she wasn’t the only one having to cope with the changes taking place in Rose’s life.
Outside, sitting behind the wheel of her unit, Ella relaxed, knowing Herman’s visit would probably improve her mother’s spirits. Cheering people up had never been Ella’s strong suit anyway. At least she understood the world of a cop.
Ella drove to the station and, as she walked down the hall, she heard Blalock’s voice. He and Payestewa were coming out of the squad room.
“About time you got back,” Blalock said sourly, following her to her office. “I didn’t want to use the radio and your cell phone is out.”
“I know. The battery is dead, so I shut it off. What’s up?”
“I had a tip from the U.S. Marshal’s Service. Manyfarms has been seen in the vicinity of the power plant. Harry Ute couldn’t get you on the cell either, so he asked me to get a message to you ASAP, but to stay off the police frequencies. Something’s going down over there. Two other non-Navajo but definitely Indian men were meeting with Manyfarms less than a mile north of the plant. Before Harry could move in, the men spotted him.”
“Is he all right?”
“Yeah, but he’s mad as hell. He lost Manyfarms again. The two others pinned Harry down with handgun fire while he escaped. The last he saw of the armed pair, they were still heading in the direction of the power plant, so he called plant security. But he figures you should warn Big Ed and get your team down there to check things out.”
“No need to warn me,” Big Ed said, stepping into Ella’s office. “It’s already too late. Apparently there’s a group calling themselves Hasih, which means ’there is hope.’ They’ve taken over a smaller structure south of the main plant where the coal cars from the mine dump their loads. Some of the heavy-equipment operators are now hostages. Apparently they’re threatening to set fire to all that coal unless the Tribal Council proves to them that steps are being taken to ratify gaming and ease the financial crisis on the reservation.”
“Setting fire to that coal would create an enormous, polluting fire.”
“It’ll also take away electrical power for a million people or more,” Big Ed added, “and be hell to put out.”
“Are these people crazy? Who do they think they’re helping?” Ella asked.
“My guess is that the possibility they might fail to get results from the council never occurred to them,” Big Ed said.
“Or they’re willing to consider the coal an acceptable loss,” Ella said.
“Get over there, Shorty. Assess the situation and report directly to me. I have better communications here at the moment, so I’m staying put, but I’ll probably end up moving to a command post near the scene if this drags on.” He looked at Blalock, who nodded.
“Are there any negotiators en route?” Ella asked. Big Ed shrugged. “There’s an exec from the power plant trying to talk to them now. Apparently, he received hostage-negotiation training when he worked for a company in Latin America.”
“He’s not dealing with Latin Americans,” Ella said. “I’ve got some hostage training,” Payestewa said. “Let me take that on when we get there. I can try to keep things from escalating. Is the power plant still operating?”
Big Ed nodded. “Security at the plant has already moved in to protect the main facility. But they only have coal in their silos for a few days before they’ll have to start shutting down their generators for lack of fuel. The situation has to be stopped. The Hasih can’t be allowed to control something that’s so critical to the tribe.”
“Understood,” Ella said.
Ella led the way to the supply room to gather the equipment they needed for the hostage situation, including weapons, vests, and extra communications gear. Ella’s SI team joined them, and everyone was soon en route to the power plant, which was southeast of Shiprock.
They arrived in the area from the northeast, coming down the main access road on the east side of the lake that provided the cooling water for the plant. The enormous power plant lay at the southwest end of the lake, and the mines, essentially a seam of coal running in a northeast-southwest direction, were now in operation several miles away, apparently untouched by the Hasih. An electric train system brought coal to the power plant from the mines, but it had been shut down for the moment.
Parking on the service road just to the east of the coal storage piles, the group of officers climbed out of their vehicles and joined two police cars and three power plant security vehicles already at the scene. Several hundred yards in front of them, across a large cooling pond, stood a fifty-foot-high ridge of coal extending for a quarter mile or more. Ella could see heavy bulldozers, idle now, clustered around a large hole in the ground beside the mountain of coal. Conveyer belts supported by a towerlike structure extended from below ground level to tall metal storage bins across a tall fence at the south end of the power plant.
Taking out her binoculars, Ella could see people wearing hoods reminiscent of those worn by the Fierce Ones moving along the base of the black mountain in pairs. Assault rifles were visible as well as large athletic bags in the hands of one of the pair in each group.
Ella spotted a tall Anglo in a plant jacket with a cell phone, figured he was the negotiator, and headed toward him. Seeing her, the man closed up the unit and looked at her expectantly. “Thank God you’re here. I’m Ron Cleary. I’m the plant manager. Besides all those people with rifles out there beside the coal, there are more in and around the conveyor tower.”
He pointed to a low metal building surrounded by a high fence at the southwest end of the plant and crisscrossed by steep conveyor belts, the same structures she’d noticed coming in. “They’ve taken some of our people hostage and control the conveyor belts that deliver the coal from the grizzly—that big hole the coal is fed into—to the storage bins, what we call silos. This prevents us from keeping the silos full. Once they run out, we’ll have to shut down the boilers, turbines, and generators. That’ll put us out of the electricity business. I’ve tried to get them to compromise and give us back the fuel supply. But they’re not willing to negotiate until the Tribal Council takes action on the gaming issue. The thing is, I’m not even sure which members of the council I should call.”
Ella gestured toward Payestewa, who had followed her. Blalock was with him. “They’ll do the negotiating from now on. But, before you fill them in, I need some more information from you. Exactly what happened here, how many are inside, and what kind of threats can they carry out?”
“I noticed something was up about an hour ago. I’d seen several vans crossing over the causeway between the cooling ponds, heading for the coal piles and grizzly area, so I called security and went to check it out myself. By the time I got there, two of the vans were parked outside the conveyor tower. I heard shouting, and when I went inside, I found myself face-to-face with five armed men and one woman, judging from her voice. I can’t tell you who they were because they were wearing cloth hoods over their faces. They kicked most of us out, but they kept three members of our office staff, one of the heavy-equipment opera
tors, and two of the crew who operate our conveyor system that delivers coal from the grizzly to the silos.”
“Are you sure about the number of armed people?”
“I just saw those in the building. There were more outside, at least three or four, I think. Each person had at least a pistol and a rifle, with several clips stuck in their belts or pockets. The rifles are all assault weapons, like M-16s, and the pistols are semiautos, every one of them. It looked like they’d been supplied by the same manufacturer.”
Ella nodded, having noted already that those out by the coal piles had seemed to be armed with the same type of rifle. This hadn’t been instigated by Navajos. Since most of the Dineh wouldn’t have had the money these days for that kind of weaponry, which weren’t hunting weapons, she felt sure this hadn’t been funded by one of their own. The Hasih were being used and manipulated by someone else, maybe the Indian syndicate. But to what end? Was it to create trouble for the police, or were officers being drawn here as a diversion so something else could go down? An uneasy feeling began to creep up her spine, and she felt the badger fetish around her neck growing warm against her skin.
Ella got out her handheld radio and gave instructions to the others to set up a secure perimeter and make sure the power plant and coal silos remained safe. Company guards were already at the mines.
Blalock came up just then and said something about a command post. As she turned around to ask him to repeat himself, the radio in her hand seemed to explode, spraying her with pieces of plastic and metal.
Ella began to drop to the ground at the same time that the explosive crack of a fifty-caliber rifle shattered through the air, reverberating across the lake behind her. It was the sound of death, and it told her that the sniper was back.
TWENTY-ONE
Looking around from her prone position, Ella rubbed at the side of her face, brushing away small pieces of shredded radio. There were tiny cuts on her cheeks that stung, but nothing had struck her eyes.
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