Shooting Chant

by Aimée

  Brownhat considered it for a long time, then shook his head. “I don’t think so, but I don’t know. You see, my wife and I were satisfied with our marriage, but we seldom spoke about what we did when we weren’t together. She trained and broke horses during the day to make extra money, and I work at the new coal mine. By nightfall we were both too tired to do much of anything except have dinner, watch a little TV, then go to bed.”

  “I’ll let you know if we uncover anything important,” Ella told him, standing up. “And you know where to reach me if you think of something that may help us out.” She left her card on the coffee table and started toward the door.

  “My wife wasn’t the most popular woman around here,” John said as he joined her at the door, “but I loved her, and she didn’t deserve this. Not now, especially,” he added.

  “What do you mean, ‘not now’?” Ella asked, suspecting she already knew the answer.

  “We were finally going to have our first child. For years and years she tried to get pregnant, but luck wasn’t with us. Then after we’d given up all hope, it happened. We had so many plans, but now…”

  “I’m so sorry,” she said. His sorrow and regret cut right through her and she fought not to shed a tear.

  “Find whoever did this,” he said. “Give me that, at least.”

  Ella had to clear her throat first before speaking. “I will. You can count on it.”

  FOURTEEN

  As she stepped out of the house, she saw Harry Ute conferring with Justine and Tache. Ella wondered if she looked as exhausted as they all did.

  Forcing herself to focus solely on the case, she approached her team. “You’ll all be back at dawn? This man has animals to tend and graze, and he probably starts early, working at the mine and all. We know he’ll avoid the taped perimeter, but his animals may not.”

  Tache nodded. “I’ll be here at daybreak. I’ve done the best I can with the bad lighting conditions, but there’s no telling what kind of quality or detail the photos I took will have.”

  Harry Ute and Justine both agreed to be on hand at daybreak as well.

  “We’ll meet in my office at nine tomorrow, and review everything we have. Let’s see if we can come up with some leads to follow.” Ella looked at their weary expressions. “You’re all doing a terrific job. I’m very proud to be working with you.”

  Their faces perked up considerably as they all joined in to stow away their equipment, and Ella knew they’d needed to hear that. Sometimes she forgot to tell them how valuable they were to the tribe. Maybe it would have made a difference with Harry if she’d remembered to do that more often.

  After everything was put away, Justine walked with Ella to their units. “I knew Elisa,” Justine said. “She was magic with the horses, but she also had an uncanny ability for getting people really pissed off.”

  “So I’ve heard. There was a ruckus at the Chapter House meeting last week. Get me something on that. Apparently she had a run-in with Billy Pete.”

  Justine raised her eyebrows. “Billy’s many things, Cousin, but he’s no killer.”

  “Check it out anyway. There are some really weird things happening on the Rez right now and people are changing.”

  “Billy couldn’t hurt anyone, not like that.”

  Her words were so firm and resolute, Ella felt a prickle at the base of her spine. “Is there something I should know about?”

  Justine hesitated. “It’s personal.”

  “If your personal life touches any of our cases, I want to know. It ceases to be only your concern when it’s linked with your professional duties,” she said a little more harshly than she’d meant.

  Justine eyes grew wide and she looked instantly contrite. “Of course. Maybe I should have told you before, but it didn’t seem to matter then.”

  “Told me what?” she demanded, out of patience.

  “I’ve been dating Billy Pete.”

  Had Justine told her that she’d planned to run away on an alien spacecraft, it couldn’t have surprised her more.

  “When the heck did all this happen?”

  “We’ve been dating for a few weeks. Remember when things were really slow, and we were all trying to find ways to stay busy?”

  Ella nodded.

  “Billy came over to see my brother Leonard, but he was gone and we sat up almost all night talking. It turns out we have a lot in common. It was nice,” she said, averting her gaze, embarrassed. “And it got nicer.”

  “You’re not pregnant, are you?” Ella could have kicked herself for asking that particular question. It was really none of her business, and she’d only thought of it because the subject was on her own mind constantly now.

  Justine gave her a startled look. “Good grief, no!” she blurted, then laughed. “I’m not ready for kids, not by a long shot.”

  At least that was one thing she didn’t have to worry about. Ella breathed a sigh of relief, promising to herself to avoid that topic around those who didn’t know about her yet.

  “But I do know Billy and, believe me, he’s no killer.”

  “Have you ever discussed any of our cases with him?” Ella asked pointedly.

  “I never name names or get specific, but, yeah, sometimes we talk about things—in general terms,” Justine said.

  “Stop doing that from this point on,” Ella said, hoping that the feeling she was getting was way off the mark.

  “He won’t discuss our private conversations with anyone else,” Justine assured her.

  “Our business is confidential, and since Billy’s name has come up on several occasions during the investigation, you have to treat him accordingly. He’s a suspect, Justine, or at least a potentially important witness. Don’t kid yourself.”

  Hurt and anger flashed in Justine’s eyes. “I’ll do my duty, Special Investigator Clah, but you’re sorely mistaken if you think he’s capable of doing something like this. Billy Pete is a man of principle.”

  “I don’t doubt that you believe that, but you now have a professional responsibility to follow my orders on this matter.”

  As Justine strode back to her own vehicle, Ella felt a cold chill envelop her. Although her cousin and assistant was a good cop, she was still young and in a lot of ways, naive. If Billy Pete was involved with the Fierce Ones as they all suspected, it wasn’t exactly a leap to think he was using Justine to find out what the police were doing and how their investigations were progressing.

  It was too late tonight to go track him down, but she intended to talk to Billy the second she had a chance. She wanted to make a few things crystal clear to him about her cousin.

  Angry that she had missed something as important as this, though she spent more time with Justine than she did with her own mother, Ella drove across town to the hospital. She needed to talk to Carolyn, both as the tribe’s ME and as a friend. Carolyn was the only person Ella knew who would never, under any circumstances, become associated with any of the factions at war in the tribe. Carolyn was a law onto herself.

  * * *

  Ella stepped out of the elevator at the hospital. Everything had been renovated here lately. The faint smell of paint still lingered in the cold corridors that led to the morgue, and she felt a slight wave of nausea. She wondered if it was the beginning of morning sickness, or just a manifestation of the heightened senses she’d been experiencing lately.

  And, as she drew near to Carolyn’s office another, unmistakable scent filled the air. It always reminded her of the inside of a refrigerator when something stored there had gone bad. It wasn’t overwhelming, just inescapable. And, curiously enough, it didn’t really stay on her clothing after she left the place, though she would continue to smell it for a while, like a bad memory that lingered.

  For any Navajo working here day after day, the job could be punishing, but for Carolyn it was simply a debt she paid daily to the tribe that had financed her medical education.

  As Ella walked inside the cluttered office next to the morgue, she f
ound Carolyn at her desk.

  “I haven’t even begun the autopsy, and I’m having dinner now, so don’t start with me. It’s past dinner time, I’m hungry and crabby, and in no mood.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” She eyed Carolyn’s egg salad sandwich with envy. “That looks good.”

  Carolyn gave her a surprised look. “You haven’t been able to even chew gum in here in the past. You must be starving if this sandwich is tempting you.”

  “I am,” Ella said with a sigh. “Can we go upstairs to the cafeteria? I really need to put something in my stomach. I’ve been feeling queasy lately.”

  “Sure,” Carolyn said, putting her sandwich in her in-and-out file, and walking out into the hall with Ella. “But don’t tell me you came over here at this hour just so you can share hospital food,” she added as they entered the elevator.

  “I wanted to talk to you.”

  “Business or personal?”

  “Both.”

  Carolyn nodded. “Yeah, it’s hard to separate things like that, isn’t it?”

  Ella sighed. “What’s worse is that I just got all over my assistant’s case for that same reason.”

  “Your cousin Justine?”

  “Seems she’s been dating a person who’s become a suspect. And, I’ve got to tell you Carolyn, it makes my skin crawl. I have a strong feeling she’s being used. The worst part is that she thinks she’s in love.”

  Carolyn grimaced. “And you’re feeling protective of her, I gather. It’s hard to mind your own business, or keep it strictly business, when you suspect someone you care about is being used.”

  “I like her, and not just because we’re related. If I’m right about what’s going on, I’m going to wring the guy’s scrawny neck. I don’t care how noble his intent is—the end does not justify the means, not in my book anyway.”

  Carolyn nodded slowly. “Do you realize that just a few weeks ago, we were all trying to fill our time because things were so slow. Now we’re all working to capacity and then some?”

  Ella nodded as they walked down the hall. “Yeah, but you know, I prefer it this way. I feel … useful. You know what I mean?”

  “Sure. We’re not in our respective lines of work because we like free time. If we’d been looking for that, we’d have chosen different careers. But there’s something ugly going on right now. Even I can feel it and let’s face it, I usually stick solely to facts I can measure and weigh.”

  “I know exactly what you’re talking about, Carolyn. Too many weird things are happening—people who are normally peaceful acting out of character, problems with the livestock, and murders with evidence that only adds to the confusion instead of solving the crime. I haven’t been able to get any of it out of my mind. But I have to admit that it hit me hard when I learned that Elisa Brownhat thought she was pregnant. Her file was taken in the clinic break-in, and apparently the record of that test was stolen. As a matter of fact, all the pregnancy test results were stolen. It was only by accident that we were able to retrieve the files and discover that little detail.”

  Carolyn gave her a surprised look. “Just the pregnancy tests? That’s odd. I’ll verify if she was pregnant, and let you know. But does that tie into her murder, or provide some kind of motive?”

  “I don’t know. But that infant never had a chance and that makes me sick.”

  Carolyn said nothing, but her eagle-sharp eyes remained on Ella.

  As they joined the cafeteria line, Ella took the beef enchilada plate, the salad, and milk. She still couldn’t quite get over the fact that she was actually drinking cow’s milk. It certainly wasn’t a drink most Navajos normally sought out, and it had never been something she particularly liked. It was supposed to be too early in her pregnancy to have cravings, so she wrote it off as an instinctive urge to eat a better balanced diet for the baby.

  By the time she reached the cashier at the end of the line, her tray included sliced peaches and a banana.

  “Boy, you really are hungry,” Carolyn said.

  “Yeah. I’ve been running around like crazy, and I never get a chance to eat a decent meal, particularly a balanced one. Today was even worse than usual.”

  “Have you heard about the other livestock problems? I mean besides what people have been doing to each other’s animals.”

  “No, what’s going on?”

  “Apparently a rash of deformities has shown up in newborn chickens, ducks, and rabbits. The county extension agent paid us a visit. He’s looking into it because the incidence rate is way up, and he wanted to know if we’d also seen an unusual upswing of birth defects here at the hospital.”

  “Have you?”

  “Nope. Our numbers on that are no higher than usual. Of course, the gestation periods of the farm animals we’re talking about is roughly a month, give or take a few days.”

  “What do you think is causing this problem?” Ella asked. Unlike the traditionalists who undoubtedly had their own theories by now, Carolyn would never blame anything on the esoteric, and right now she was interested in cold, hard facts.

  “It could be anything from a statistical fluke, to bad breeding habits or poor stock selection among locals.”

  Ella said nothing. A sense of disquiet ate at her, but she pushed it aside, attributing it to a flux in her hormones.

  “I’ve known you for a very long time, and I can tell when you’re holding back on me. What is it that you’re not saying?”

  “You’re right. There’s something I haven’t told you, but I’d like you to keep this under wraps for now.”

  “You’ve got it.”

  “I’m pregnant.”

  Carolyn’s eyes grew wide, and she opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it again. “I’m speechless.”

  “That’s a first.”

  “How did this happen?”

  “The usual way, Doctor,” Ella teased.

  Carolyn laughed. “Wow. I can’t believe this. It would explain your queasiness lately, though. Are you happy about it, or pulling your hair out by the roots?”

  “Both,” she said. “I admit I was careless, and it certainly wasn’t planned. But, you know, I’m really glad things turned out this way.”

  “Is Kevin the dad? He’s the only guy you’ve ever been even remotely serious about since you came back to the Rez.”

  “Yes, it’s Kevin. The poor man is still trying to figure out how to take the news. He wanted to get married when I told him, but there’s no way that’s going to happen. When we first started to date, all I could see were the things we had in common, but, as time went by, what we didn’t have in common overshadowed everything else. He can play as big a part in the baby’s life as he wants, but marriage between us wouldn’t work in the long run.”

  Carolyn nodded, and then leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table. “I want the baby to know me as Aunt Carolyn. I assume you won’t have any objections to that.”

  Realizing it hadn’t been a question, Ella laughed. “Why do I get the feeling that if I said no, you’d start reciting a list of the favors I owe you?” She raised a hand, stemming Carolyn’s reply. “Of course you’ll be Aunt Carolyn. You’re a dear friend of mine. What’s part of my life is also part of yours.” Ella paused. “Of course when I ask you to baby-sit for the umpteenth time, you may change your mind.”

  “Never.”

  Ella sighed, finishing the last bit of her meal. “But now you know why all these deaths are weighing me down. I want my child born during a time of harmony, not during a time of trouble. I hope I can close those cases out before then.”

  “Not to mention that it would be really handy if you could take off work the last trimester and make things easier on yourself.”

  Ella smiled. Carolyn always had a gift for getting to the heart of the matter. “Taking time off until the last possible moment is out of the question. I’m always juggling too many cases, and there’s no one who can take over. On top of everything else, Harry Ute is thinking of quitting and going to
work for the feds.”

  “That man has been on the Rez all his life,” she said. “That’s probably why he wants to do something different for a change.”

  “I guess, but it’s going to make things really tough for me.”

  “Does he know you’re pregnant and will need maternity leave?”

  “Not many people know I’m pregnant. Just Kevin, Mom, and you. And Wilson, who found out by accident.”

  “Big Ed’s going to be delighted, no doubt,” she said wryly.

  “Yeah. I have a feeling I’m going to need a spatula to scrape him off the ceiling,” Ella said.

  Carolyn checked her watch, then stood up. “I better get back to work. If you want autopsy reports anytime soon, I’m going to have to start tonight. With luck I may have something for you by tomorrow.”

  “I need some leads—badly,” Ella said.

  “I’ll see what I can do for you.”

  Ella watched her friend go, then stood and walked out to her tribal unit. Looking at her watch in the glow of the parking lot light, she realized it was a bit past nine. She considered going to Jesse Woody’s before calling it quits tonight since this was such a good time to catch him at home. As one of the few Navajo supervisors at the mines, and also the current leader of the Fierce Ones, he was usually busy during the day and evenings. Tired but not in the least bit sleepy, Ella decided to head out to his house, and see if she could catch up to him there.

  Ella verified his address with the PD then sped down the darkened highway. Pushing her worries back into the far corners of her mind, she concentrated on the empty road, which was illuminated only by the vehicle’s headlights and the full moon.

  * * *

  Ella arrived at Jesse Woody’s home an hour later and was surprised to see so many vehicles parked there. She glanced at the cars and pickups, checking to see if any looked familiar. In the dark, it was hard to see them all. The lights were on inside the low wood-framed house and she could hear loud voices. Wondering if she had inadvertently come at a time when the Fierce Ones were meeting, she left her unit to see for herself.