Changing Woman

by Thurlo, David

  “Did any of them ever turn up?” Blalock asked.

  “None. I lost the fifty-caliber, two long-barreled goose guns, and three nine-millimeter pistols. They took several boxes of shells, as well.”

  “Any idea who might have taken them?”

  “No. The sheriff’s deputies asked me the same questions, but a lot of people know about my gun collection. When the power went out, someone must have seen it as their golden opportunity.” He looked at Ella and then at Blalock. “Why all this interest now?”

  “A fifty-caliber rifle was used in a crime recently and, as you can imagine, there aren’t that many of them in these parts.”

  “A weapon that big used in a crime? Hell, it almost takes two people to carry one. It’s expensive, too,” Branch conceded. “Okay, now that I’ve cooperated with you, will you give me a statement about what’s going on over at the power plant?”

  “I’ll have to refer you to the news reports. There’s nothing more being released to the press or public for the time being,” Blalock answered. “And we’d appreciate it if you didn’t give the Hasih any extra intelligence information about the facility. A little discretion could be a community service right now.”

  “Hey, they’re in there now, aren’t they? It’s not like I’m telling them something they don’t know already.”

  “They may not be as well-informed as you regarding the use of explosives,” Blalock said.

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” Branch said. “How come the police don’t just raid the place and take their buildings and coal supply back?”

  Blalock shrugged. “We always prefer to handle hostage situations without bloodshed, if possible.”

  Branch’s eyes narrowed. “But you’ve got a plan to take the place back forcibly.”

  Ella decided to focus Branch’s thoughts on the stolen weapon instead of continuing to play mind games with him. “Crimes like residential thefts are sometimes traced to someone who’s already visited the home. Can you associate anyone who’s been here to the stolen weapons?”

  “All kinds of people come to my home. It’s the nature of the business I’m in. I can’t vouch for everyone I’ve met, and I’m sure you can’t either. Besides, how am I supposed to remember a year later who might have been in my house? Do you remember all your house guests from a year ago, Investigator Clah?”

  Ella hadn’t expected an answer anyway, but this was the closest to an honest response she could hope for from the man. At least he had a point.

  She continued. “We’ve had some outsiders on the Rez recently causing trouble. Have you had any problems with vandalism lately?”

  “I live off the Rez, Clah. What do you mean, ’an outsider’? Navajos are the outsiders in the county.”

  Branch was too quick and glib with his answers. That was a trait she’d found most often in people who made a habit of telling lies and half-truths.

  Blalock looked at Branch, thanked him, then walked outside with Ella. As soon as they were away from the house, Blalock spoke. “I don’t think he’s lying about the gun being stolen. That’s too easy to check up on.”

  “But it’s also possible that the rifle and the other weapons were never stolen, that he gave or sold them to someone and he knows exactly what’s going on.”

  “But we can’t prove any of that,” Blalock said, then checked his watch. “You better get some rest before you make your move.”

  “Yeah, you’re right.”

  Ella said good-bye to Blalock, then drove straight home. She was almost dreading the empty house. The thought of not finding Rose or Dawn waiting depressed her.

  When she unlocked the door a short time later, Two came running up to her. She felt sorry for him, and bent down to pet the old but hardy mutt.

  “You don’t like being home alone either, do you, pal?” Ella scratched him behind the ears.

  Two followed her into the kitchen and Ella fed him, then heated herself a can of soup. She wasn’t hungry, but she needed to eat. Carrying the bowl into the living room, she turned on the television set. The dog relaxed at the sound of voices and Ella made a mental note to leave the TV on for him until someone came back home.

  After finishing her supper, Ella downloaded the photos Blalock had sent her. She had an inexpensive ink-jet printer that provided color capability, so she set the software on high quality and printed the best of the photos.

  Returning to the living room, Ella set the photos down on the coffee table, and studied each. From what she could see, getting the hood just right was paramount.

  She sat back, mulling things over in her mind. As she did, her gaze drifted over Dawn’s scattered toys. Unable to resist the impulse, she reached for the phone and started to dial Kevin’s cell phone number, needing the reassurance that Dawn was okay. Then she realized what time it was, and hung up.

  There was no sense in waking Dawn up too. Kevin would find out that their daughter lived up to her name quite naturally. She chuckled softly, thinking that Kevin was in for a surprise when Dawn woke with Sun. If he’d had plans to sleep late this weekend their daughter would change that in a hurry.

  Realizing that she’d have to get some sleep soon, she took a last look at the photos, then went to her room. She’d just stripped off her clothes and crawled into bed when Two jumped up, settling beside her.

  Ella glared at him for a moment but, seeing the hopeful look he gave her, she caved in. “Okay, Two, but just for this weekend.”

  After setting the alarm on the bedstand to go off in exactly three hours, she turned off the lamp.

  When the alarm went off it felt as if she’d only been asleep a few minutes. Ella groaned, then opened her eyes, trying to get her bearings in the dark. As her thoughts became focused she switched on the lamp and got out of bed. Two looked at her, but made no move to get off the covers.

  “All right, furball. You get it all to yourself now.” Ella considered a shower, then realized the people holding the hostages wouldn’t have bathed for many hours. She dressed quickly, using the photos of one of the members of Hasih as a guide, trying to match the parson’s appearance.

  Turning on the TV for Two, Ella stepped outside into the bitter cold wearing her vest over the coat. She’d wear it as long as she could.

  As she switched on the ignition, her thoughts shifted to the task ahead. Clifford would be waiting, and it was time to go to work.

  TWENTY-THREE

  Driving to her brother’s house, Ella thought about Clifford. She doubted he ever got much sleep when his family was away, and, for the first time, she truly empathized with that.

  A short time later, she pulled up near the medicine hogan and Clifford came out and waved at her, inviting her to come inside. The weather was beyond cold as she left the tribal unit and walked across the frozen earth. The gusts sweeping from the mountains to the west chilled her to the bone.

  “This has got to be one of the worst winters we’ve had in a decade or more,” Ella said, teeth chattering. The fire in the hogan was low, but it felt wonderful after being outside.

  “I think it is.” Clifford opened the trunk she’d seen before and pulled out a newer-looking burlap hood. “This is a duplicate of the ones the Hasih use. My patient’s nephew is involved in the group and this was the hood he wore until it got torn up in the back. I’ve repaired it for you.”

  “Who’s your patient?” Ella asked, pulling out the color print of the photo Blalock had sent her, and comparing the hood Clifford had with the one in the photo.

  “Hastiin Sání.”

  The nickname simply meant “mister old man” but she knew who he meant. It was Pablo Tso, and his nephew, Clyde, had been in school with her. Pablo was over one hundred years old if he was a day.

  “Are you telling me that his nephew, my old schoolmate, is one of the men inside the mine’s operation building?”

  “Yes, and in exchange for the information, I’ve promised Hastiin Sání that you’ll do your best to protect his nephew. But be carefu
l. I’m pretty sure he’ll recognize your voice if he hears it.”

  Ella thought about the boy she’d known. “I can’t believe he’s involved in this. He was the most nonaggressive person I’ve ever met. I remember he got called out a few times but he refused to fight until the other guy threw the first punch.”

  “Yeah, but once he was forced to fight, he always kicked their butts. This type of action isn’t really out of character for him if you think about it. The situation the tribe is facing is making many of our people feel cornered.”

  “Yeah, but if he’s anything like the kid we both knew, I can’t see him destroying that coal or blowing up the power plant.”

  “The boy we knew and the man he is could be two very different people,” Clifford warned, reaching for a bracelet made of colored strands of leather. “This is one of their trademarks. Wear it on your left wrist. It’ll barely show, but they’ll see enough of it to know you’re one of them.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Be wary of their leader. My patient assured me that he’s a dangerous man. I tried to get him to tell me more, but he refused.”

  “What’s the person’s name?”

  “I don’t know. What worries me is that I’ve never known my patient to be afraid of anything or anyone before.”

  “Do you think someone has threatened him?”

  “Not him, but maybe his wife,” Clifford answered. “I did notice that when his wife went outside the hogan to get some firewood, he went to the doorway carrying his thirty-thirty Winchester and kept an eye on her until she got back.”

  “I’d give anything to know if the leader is Navajo or a member of one of the other tribes in the area.”

  “You’ll know once you hear him talking. When the Dineh speak English, they have characteristic pauses that all of us recognize easily.” Clifford handed her a jish, a medicine bundle in a leather pouch sealed with a drawstring. “This will protect you tonight.”

  “Do they wear these?”

  “Some do, I’m sure. They’re traditionalists.”

  Ella fastened it to her belt, then looked up and held her brother’s gaze. “I’m going to be careful, but if anything happens to me . . .”

  “You know that Mom and I will look after your daughter,” Clifford answered.

  “These days I’m never as afraid for myself as I am for her,” Ella admitted slowly. “My daughter’s father would want to take custody of her, but the way his family feels about ours makes that a bad idea. I also don’t think he’s prepared to deal with her on a daily basis.”

  “That’s not something that should ever worry you. You’ll be fine tonight. Your training and instincts won’t let you down.”

  Ella said good-bye to her brother, then drove through Shiprock to the mine, which lay several miles farther east on the edge of the Rez.

  After passing through checkpoints and a roadblock, she pulled up and parked by the line of police units on the east side of the facility. The power plant itself was lit up like a carnival, but the facilities at the south end were in the dark.

  Blalock came up to meet her as she walked toward the fence line separating the coal piles and conveyer system from the rest of the plant. “It’s been quiet so far. We’ve cut off the power leading to the conveyor tower and maintenance building, so by now it’s probably pretty cold in there. We have a few night-vision scopes and, from what we’ve seen, the Hasih sentries guarding the coal piles and storage bins are taking one-hour shifts so they won’t freeze standing outside. We’re doing the same with our officers. At least the ones guarding the coal have enough sense not to try and build any fires. Coal dust is supposed to be highly explosive.”

  “Let’s hope they stay smart.”

  “Payestewa offered to turn some of the power back on if they’ll release all the hostages, but they’re not ready to do that yet. Their answer was that if we don’t mind the hostages being cold too, it’s fine with them.”

  “Have there been any reports of trouble anywhere else on the Rez?”

  “You’re still thinking that this might be a diversion?”

  “Yeah. It’s just a nagging feeling I have,” Ella answered, reaching for the cloth hood on the passenger’s seat.

  “We have a plan we think will allow you to get in,” Blalock continued. “Payestewa will get them on the phone and again offer a hostages-for-heat swap. At the same time, we’ll have two cops scuffle with a TV cameraman who’s gotten too close. The cameraman, of course, will be one of ours. While the Hasih’s attention is focused on the scuffle and the phone call, you’ll have the chance to slide beneath the fence and get under the conveyor belt platform—that tower. The maintenance building has a door on that side.”

  “Let’s hope they haven’t booby-trapped that door,” Ella said.

  “We’ve watched with the night scopes. They’ve used the door a few times, but they keep it locked. We got you a key,” Blalock said. “One last thing. I’d like you to be wired when you go in. That way if you’re in trouble, we’ll know right away and can try to protect you.”

  “With all the heavy winter clothing I’m wearing, hiding the wire won’t be a problem, but transmission might be.”

  “The Bureau has some new equipment that’ll do the job. We’ll hear you. If you need us to move in but can’t say it clearly, tap your chest twice. The mike will transmit that sound.”

  “Got it.”

  “We’ve been listening with our parabolic mikes, and they haven’t been talking very much to each other except a few Navajo words. According to Neskahi, who’s been doing the listening, they haven’t used any names either. It’s either that traditionalist taboo against names, or they’re afraid we’re listening.”

  “Thanks. I don’t plan to do much talking inside anyway.”

  Staying out of sight inside a van, Justine helped Ella put on the wire and then adjust it.

  “I wish you weren’t doing this,” Justine said. “The information we have about what’s really going on inside the building is too sketchy. There’s just no telling what you’ll be facing in there. I’ll be watching you through a night-vision scope on a rifle when you’re in the open, but if you’re in the building or out of sight, we can’t give you any covering fire.”

  “I wish there was another way, but we just can’t take the chance that they’ll decide to set fire to the coal piles and blow up the conveyor belts just for the hell of it. With luck, I’ll be able to get close enough to check out the explosives and see how they’ve been wired to detonate. If they have a remote and we can’t neutralize it, we’re going to be screwed if we have to assault the place.”

  “All ready here?” Blalock asked, knocking on the rear van doors. As Ella stepped outside, he handed her the key to the side door.

  Ella slipped it inside her jacket pocket as Justine moved into position, rifle in hand. “Let’s get this show on the road,” Ella said, and slipped the hood on. “Just make sure our own guys don’t shoot me.”

  “Our snipers will be watching for you and they’ll keep you covered as much as possible,” Blalock said. “But they’re the only ones who know you’ll be in there.”

  “Okay, we’re all set. I’ll see you in a little while.”

  Ella slipped into the dark shadows cast by the huge power plant, several stories high and fifty yards away, north of the fence. At the moment, the building and its immediate surroundings were lit up like a Christmas tree. There were over a dozen armed security guards and officers making sure it remained out of the hands of the Hasih.

  She crept closer to the chain-link fence until she spotted the gap at the bottom that Blalock had told her about earlier. Justine was somewhere behind her in the bed of a pickup using the night scope, watching Ella’s green image against the hazy background. She knew that the lack of heat from the metal buildings ahead would make it easier to track her.

  Hearing the shouting officers and assured that the diversion was under way, she ran to the fence and scrambled underneath,
crawling on her stomach to make sure she didn’t get hung up.

  Ella rolled into the shadows and adjusted her hood again. It had twisted and she needed to position the eyeholes so she could see. Reaching for the key in her pocket, she made a dash to the side door.

  The first thing she’d have to do was neutralize and conceal one member of the group that had taken over the power plant. If their numbers were few it would be too easy to spot an extra person. Yet, despite Blalock’s warning, she wasn’t overly concerned about making sure that the one she put out of commission turned out to be a woman. Wearing the hood and a bulky jacket in the dark, no one would be able to tell which sex she was anyway.

  Ella slipped inside and closed the door behind her, leaving it unlocked. There was a faint glow from a battery-powered emergency light, obviously triggered by the loss of electricity. Time and the effect of the.cold on its batteries had dimmed its power, fortunately. Two people with assault rifles were huddled against a door on an adjacent wall labeled Storage. A big piece of wood had been wedged against the bottom of the door, and she deduced that was where at least some of the hostages were being held.

  Behaving as if she had come inside to get warm, she glanced around casually. Nobody seemed much interested in her arrival.

  The two hostage guards weren’t wearing hoods, so she slipped hers off, making sure to keep her distance. It was still so dark that facial features couldn’t be distinguished except up close.

  A tall, broad-shouldered man stood next to the window facing east, speaking on the phone. His hood was on, and he had two pistols jammed into his belt and an assault rifle with a sling over his shoulder.

  “We’re not going to shoot anyone unless that cameraman moves in closer.” The man paused, then holding the receiver close to his chest, repeated what he’d heard from Paycheck to another guy who stood in the shadows beneath the dim emergency lamp. Ella hadn’t even seen him until now.