Red Mesa

by Aimée

  “I’m going to keep it,” Jayne said, slipping it into her pocket.

  “All right.” Ella knew that positively identifying it as Justine’s crystal was unlikely anyway.

  Jayne looked at her somberly. “You’ve probably heard this kind of talk before, but this time it’s for real. Starting today, I’m going to get my life turned around. And the first thing I’m going to do is help you find out what happened to my sister.”

  “No. This is as involved as you should get. Until I figure out exactly who and what I’m fighting, you’re one of the last people I want involved.” Ella saw the anger flash in Jane’s eyes. “It’s not a matter of trust, cousin. I just don’t think your mother would be able to handle losing two of her daughters.”

  Jayne exhaled softly, then nodded. “You’re probably right.”

  After checking the medicine cabinet for anything that might have been used to drug Justine, and finding nothing, they decided to leave, separately.

  Ella was first. She slipped out through a side window that was shaded by two piñon pines, then hurried back to the truck. A few minutes later Jayne joined her after locking up the trailer again.

  “Where shall I drop you?” Ella asked.

  “Back home.”

  “You’re not in the clear with Bobby Lujan. You realize that, don’t you?”

  “Somehow I’m going to get the money I owe him and Manny. Mom will help me, particularly if I assure her I’m going to quit gambling and get help from Gambler’s Anonymous. I’ll also have to tell her what they’ve been trying to force me to do. Then I’ll go meet Bobby at the Totah Cafe and square things. It’s real public there. If he doesn’t leave me alone after that, I’ll file a complaint against him. It’s time I took charge of my own life.”

  As Ella watched her cousin enter her home, she wondered if Jayne’s resolve would really hold. It wouldn’t be easy for her. No addiction was easy to shake.

  As she got under way, Ella dialed Blalock’s number and, after filling him in on what she’d learned about Bobby Lujan, asked him to check up on the man’s alibi. What she needed now was a third person who could verify that Paul and Jeremiah had really been together that night and at Manyfarms’ place.

  Ella dialed Wilson Joe. “I need a favor,” she said, suspecting that by the time this case was finished, she’d owe half the reservation something.

  “What can I do for you?”

  “I’m uncovering all kinds of interesting information about Paul Natoni and Jeremiah Manyfarms. Did you know those two are related?”

  “You’re kidding. Where did you hear that?”

  “Jayne Goodluck told me that Justine had mentioned it to her. Manyfarms is Natoni’s alibi, so I need to check that out and verify that they were where they said. Natoni told Blalock that he and Manyfarms watched the basketball game that night.”

  “I watched the same game. Let me ask Jeremiah about it, and Paul, too, if I can find him. Then I’ll let you know if they actually saw the game or not. I’m off at three today. Meet me at my home in another hour. How’s that?”

  “You got it.”

  Ella returned home, hoping to spend some time with Dawn, but her mother and Dawn were still away. The silence in the house seemed oppressive. Ella went to her computer, but there was no new mail and no messages from Coyote.

  Finally, too restless to stay at home, especially now that she had at least one reason to hope Justine could still be alive, Ella drove out to Wilson’s place. She took the long way, and arrived twenty-five minutes later. He used to live farther away, but now his home was a tribal-built house near the college. She waited in her truck for him to arrive, and it didn’t take long.

  Ella met him at the door ten minutes later. From his expression, she could tell that he’d found out something important.

  Wilson led the way to the kitchen, pulled two soft-drink cans from the refrigerator, and handed her one. “I spoke to Jeremiah in his office, and I worked the conversation into a discussion of the game. I described a play that never happened, and he went along with it. He never saw the game. All he talked about was the kind of season one of the key players was having, not the game itself.”

  “Interesting.”

  “It gets better. I was about to leave when Paul Natoni showed up at the door. Jeremiah never bothered introducing us. All he said is that he’d been waiting all day for this guy to show up and he had to excuse himself.

  “I tried to talk to Paul, but he cut me off and went inside Jeremiah’s office, closing the door behind him. I decided to stick around for a bit, and that’s when I heard them arguing.”

  “About what?”

  “Jeremiah said that he was being careless, but that’s all I heard before I had to leave. For all I know, it was in reference to furniture.”

  “Huh?”

  “I checked around. Natoni now has a job at a rental and used furniture store.”

  “I’d love to go and lean on both of them, but if I do, the department will have me up on interfering with an ongoing investigation. I’ve got to use the back door whenever possible on this case.” She met Wilson’s gaze. “I can’t tell you how much I hate that.”

  He smiled. “I can imagine. Remember what it was like when we were trying to clear your brother? You hated having to walk the fence. If anyone was born to be a cop, it’s you.”

  She nodded slowly. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. But who knows? Given enough time, I may decide I like the freedom of freelance better.”

  “Yeah, I can see that happening,” he said sarcastically.

  Ella was about to respond when her cell phone rang. She flipped it open with one hand and identified herself.

  “This is Tache,” a hurried voice said at the other end. “Paycheck received another of those ‘anonymous’ tips. He was told to go past the turnoff to Red Mesa and check behind the next billboard south of there. The person said that they’d find everything they needed to convict you.”

  “What? When did this happen?”

  “Less than five minutes ago. A search team is being organized and I’m calling from the van. I’m already on the way.”

  “Thanks for letting me know.” Ella disconnected the call.

  “What’s wrong, Ella?” Wilson put his hand on her shoulder gently. “You look almost sick.”

  “I just might be. I’ve known all along that someone’s out to frame me. But now it looks like they may have come up with a way to get me arrested.”

  TWENTY-FIVE

  Ella was crouched behind an outcropping of rock overlooking the area where the police search team was working. With the sun at her back, and at that distance, she was nearly invisible.

  From what she could see through her powerful binoculars, and guessing on the rest, the clothing in the plastic trash bag they’d unearthed belonged to Justine. She swallowed back the bitter taste that lined the back of her throat. Whoever had buried those things had selected the halfway point between where the burned body had been found and Rose’s house.

  Her cell phone rang and she jumped. It was Blalock. “I think it’s you over there,” he said, moving away from the others. “I thought you’d like to know that we’ve found an old butcher knife, Justine’s badge, her wallet, and all her clothing, including her underwear and boots. There are hair samples stuck to the clothing where it’s bloody. Most of it is Justine’s, I think. At least it’s the right color and length, but some of it…”

  “Some of it what?” she pressed impatiently.

  “Well, if I had to lay odds, I’d say they’ll turn out to be yours. They’re thick, black, and longer than Justine’s.”

  “In that case, I think they were probably taken from Justine’s car. I rode in there for hours the day before she disappeared.”

  “We’ve also found an axe here,” Blalock added.

  Ella felt the blood drain from her face. “We’re missing ours.”

  “Exactly what I was thinking. If your prints are on it…”

  “Of co
urse they’ll be on the handle. I chop wood for Mom all the time.”

  “It’s got blood on it. So does the knife, but your mother didn’t report one of those missing.”

  “No, she didn’t,” Ella agreed. “But my mom usually keeps the old knives as spares even after she’s bought new ones. If this one belonged to her, she wouldn’t have necessarily noticed it was missing. It was probably taken the afternoon someone broke into the house.”

  Blalock didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. They both knew that until this evidence could be refuted, it would point directly to Ella. The frame had been skillfully planned and executed from the very beginning. There was no doubt she was fighting for her life. The murder of a police officer would mean prison with no chance of parole.

  “Whoever processes the axe won’t find my bloody prints on it, or on the knife either. That’s going to be a fact in my favor. There’s no way whoever did this could have managed that. But I’ve still got to find them,” Ella said.

  “Some of the other evidence could go your way, too, if you have a good lawyer.”

  “I may not be able to get the best anymore. They don’t come cheap. But do one thing for me. Check the source of the anonymous tip that led you to this stash. My guess is that the caller was either the killer or someone he hired. One more thing. I’m beginning to suspect that Justine was being drugged with a personality-altering herb or drug that induced paranoia in her. I think that was why she was overreacting to things with her family and at work. Find out who had access to Justine’s food when she was away from home. And look at the connection between Manyfarms and Natoni,” Ella said, letting him know what she’d learned.

  “They have a shaky alibi,” she added, “and that puts their association in a very bad light.”

  “I’ll get every angle I can on those two characters. I also checked out this Bobby Lujan character. He was where you said. He didn’t exactly win big, though. He was actually caught cheating, so everyone remembers him that night quite well. He was thrown out after spending a long time in their security office.”

  “I know there’s a lot against me right now, but at least I’ve got some good informants. Sooner or later, I’ll come up with something that can clear me.”

  Ella thought about mentioning the slim possibility that Justine was still alive and captive somewhere, and decided she had nothing to lose, and Justine had everything to gain, if she could be found—alive. She explained about Natoni’s trailer, leaving out Jayne’s involvement. It was a risk, knowing that her own entry into the trailer would taint any evidence.

  Blalock didn’t say anything for a moment, then finally responded. “That would explain the fingertip, I suppose, and suggests that it was left there for us to find, and wasn’t just an oversight in the dark. I’ll keep an open mind to the possibility, but in the meantime, I’ve got a job to do, in spite of the obvious frame job being done on you.” He paused, then added, “Expect me to show up at your home within two hours or so.”

  Ella suddenly understood she was being told that her arrest was imminent. As soon as the hair was processed, a photo of the axe and the kitchen knife would be brought for Rose to identify, probably along with a warrant for Ella’s arrest. But whether he actually believed Justine could still be alive, Blalock knew she was innocent, and had just given her a break. He was giving her the chance to go into hiding, and continue to investigate to clear herself, which, of course, was exactly what she’d be doing.

  Ella found herself shaking as she tried to put the cell phone back into her pocket. She was afraid for her daughter as much as for herself. If she went down, her daughter would grow up being shunned by others and seen as the daughter of evil. Rose wouldn’t be able to take care of Dawn forever, and after that, Dawn would have no one who would love her and give her a good home. Clifford wouldn’t be able to take her into his family—not as long as he was married to Loretta.

  She had to fight—and win—not only for her own sake, but for her daughter’s. She hadn’t brought Dawn into this world to live out her life in shame, or like a castoff with Kevin’s family in Arizona.

  Ella ran to her truck and drove home quickly, knowing that the lead time Blalock had given her was only approximate. She couldn’t let herself be arrested. If she did, neither she nor Dawn would have a chance except through sheer luck. No one would fight harder for her or her daughter than she would.

  Ella rushed in the front door, kissed her daughter, who was playing with both her wooden and plastic blocks together, then motioned for her mother to meet her in the bedroom.

  Ella filled Rose in quickly as she packed a tape recorder, flashlight with extra batteries, and a change of clothes. Finally she slipped into loose-fitting jeans and a Red Chief’s baseball cap. Tucking her hair inside it, she fitted the cap low over her face. “I’ve got to leave now. They’re coming after me,” she said, explaining the rest while she checked her computer one last time. “I’ll call you when I can, and tell you I’m Francis. That’ll mean that I want you to check my computer. I’ve left it on, so all you have to do is touch this key here on top that looks like a small rocket. It’ll get you on-line.” She scribbled the log-off directions onto a notepad.

  “I don’t know…”

  “Just touch the right keys. It’ll do the rest. And don’t tell a soul. Not even your most trusted friend.”

  Rose nodded, and as Ella studied her mother’s expression, she was surprised to see how calm Rose looked.

  “Mom, will you be all right?”

  Rose nodded. “I felt that this day would come. I’ve been planning ahead, more so, it seems, than you have.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You can’t drive my truck, or your own. You’ll be spotted in no time.”

  “I can’t rent one either, Mom. I’ve got no choice.”

  “Go by the home of our night guardian,” she said, referring to Herman Cloud. “Leave your truck with him. He’ll hide it, and in the meantime, you can use his old one. It was recently rebuilt, and though it uses a lot of gas, it’s got one of those fast engines.”

  “He didn’t do that just for me?”

  Rose smiled. “No. He fixed up the truck for himself, saying he was going to be a teenager one more time before he died. He wants you to take it now. No one will track you with it, and he assures me that no one will catch you either unless they have a helicopter or set up a roadblock ahead of you.”

  Ella gave Rose a hug. “Take care of Dawn for me, Mom, and tell her I love her every night when you read her a story. Her favorite one is about the lambs, remember. I’ll try to end this soon.”

  Rose held her daughter. “You’re frightened, and you have reason to be, but don’t stop fighting. The truth will eventually come out. A lie can only exist if no one is around to expose it for what it is.”

  “I’ll do my best and I won’t give up, Mom, but I won’t be able to come back home until it’s over, and I don’t know how long that’ll be. They’ll be watching you and this place constantly.”

  “I’ll take care of things here. Don’t worry about us. We have friends watching the house at night, remember? Just worry about yourself and what you have to do. And be safe.”

  Holding Dawn tightly for one last good-bye was gut-wrenching for Ella. She knew that the chances of her getting killed, maybe even by a fellow police officer, were higher than they’d ever been. As she hugged her daughter, knowing it could be for the very last time, Ella’s heart nearly broke, but somehow she managed not to cry in front of her. Still, Dawn was unusually quiet, and looked at her very seriously as Ella sat her down.

  “’Bye, Momma,” Dawn said just once, and grabbed hold of Rose’s skirt, hiding her face except for one eye. The last thing Ella saw as she left the room was her daughter’s tiny hand out, waving good-bye slowly as she clung to Rose’s skirt.

  A short time later, armed with her derringer and her father’s old hunting rifle and some ammo, she was back on the road. Now that she was alone, tears stre
amed down her face. Ella wiped them off with her hand and forced herself to focus on what she had to do next.

  Ella switched off her cell phone. It could be used only for extreme emergencies now. Although neither the reservation police nor the local FBI had the tracking equipment capable of pinpointing a cell phone caller’s location, it could be brought in, depending on outside pressure, and she wouldn’t take any chances.

  Ella drove directly to Herman Cloud. By the time she arrived at his home, he was outside, waiting, having heard her drive up.

  Ella started to tell him why she’d come, but he shook his head. She realized that the less he knew, the less he’d have to answer for later if the police found out she’d been there. Herman led the way to a corrugated metal loafing shed out in the back beside the corrals. Underneath was an old seventies-model Chevy pickup, the finish faded to a pale green by the sun. “I got some training in the army, and used to be a mechanic before they started adding all those electronic gizmos to everything with wheels. For years I worked at that old filling station that used to be by the port of entry. We’d fix up anything then, just to see how much speed we could get out of an engine. This may look like Grampa’s old truck, but she’s got a rebuilt four-hundred-fifty-four-cubic-inch engine, four-barrel carburetor, and a few other extras that can make her haul like no one’s business. And it’s got a police scanner.” He smiled. “I didn’t want a ticket when I took her out to see what she could do.”

  Ella laughed, realizing that there was still a lot she had to learn about the people she’d grown up around. There was so much a child never paid attention to in her environment. Would it be the same for Dawn?

  The thought brought her predicament back to focus, and she grew serious again. “Are you sure you want to do this? You could be arrested for helping me. It’s serious stuff.”

  “A man has to decide whether his loyalty lies in the rules other men have drawn up, or in his own sense of right. I’ve made my decision.”

  “I haven’t been arrested for anything, so technically you didn’t help a fugitive. But if I get caught, I’ll say I took your truck without permission. All you have to do is agree, and explain that it’s your second vehicle and that you weren’t aware that it was gone because you haven’t been working on it lately.”