Red Mesa

by Aimée

  “Paul will back me up on this. We were together all that night.”

  “Wrong answer. And you can forget about Paul saving your behind. Right now he’s probably running for his life. Every cop in the four-state area is already on the lookout for him. Think about it. The drugs, the saw and surgical tools, Justine’s paranoid behavior. That was all part of their plan. Don’t you realize what kind of revenge they were really after, and how they went about trying to frame me for their crime? They were using you, too, just to get the tools they needed. Put the facts together and you’ll know who really killed my cousin.”

  Lupe stood there a moment, tears forming in her eyes as she finally realized what Ella was saying. “They’ll never catch Paul for any of this. He’s too smart.”

  “Lupe, if you really care about him, you’ll tell me where to look. Once I tell the police what you’ve said, he and Jeremiah will go to the top of their list. The first time he shows his face anywhere, he’s liable to get shot.”

  “You’re in the same boat. You’re still a murder suspect until you or the police can prove it was him or Jeremiah. And I’m not saying anything to anyone.”

  “Too late. I’ve already gotten the testimony the police will need.” She pulled a tape recorder out of her pocket. “This is going straight to the FBI,” Ella said, switching it off. The small tape was nearly all used. “You’re guilty of conspiracy in at least one murder, maybe more, if we can’t find Aunt Lena.”

  Lupe’s jaw dropped, and she turned pale. “Oh no, you can’t do that to me. I’m not really part of any of this. I was just playacting to trick Justine, nothing more.”

  “I doubt a judge will buy that. The best advice I can give you is to turn yourself in. Get an attorney and cut a deal. You’ve helped us with information, and that’s worth something. Sign a statement and testify in court, and you’ll get a break. Now tell me where Paul is hiding, before he or Jeremiah have the chance to hurt someone else. I’ll try to take him alive, but I can’t promise how other officers will approach a cop killer.”

  “Promise me that you won’t let anyone hurt him, or hurt him yourself. I’ve read about you in the past, with those terrorists and before that. I don’t trust you. You’ve got the killer instinct.”

  The words stung. Ella knew better than anyone else how many criminals she’d been forced to kill in the line of duty. Those memories would always haunt her dreams, and she didn’t want to add to her nightmares any more than Lupe did. “I’ll do everything in my power to see to it that he’s not harmed.”

  Ella memorized the directions Lupe gave her to a hogan in the mountains west of Shiprock. It was on land assigned to Jeremiah’s mother by the tribe. The hogan, Lupe explained, had been modernized. It even had electricity and had been equipped with remote video cameras and a monitor that maintained surveillance on the main path. Jeremiah was one of the New Traditionalists, Lupe reminded her, and he used technology to protect himself and his family.

  Ella knew that any place that well guarded meant trouble, and before she went out there she’d have to make sure Lupe couldn’t get to a phone and warn Paul and Jeremiah. Ella grabbed Lupe’s arm and, before she could react, handcuffed her to the door handle of her car.

  Then Ella locked Lupe’s car with the keys inside, and searched Lupe’s pockets to rule out her having a cell phone.

  Apologizing but ignoring Lupe’s protests, Ella drove out of the parking lot, using her cell phone to place a call to the station. She left a short message for Big Ed on voice mail, telling him where a material witness was handcuffed to a car, and needed to be watched in case she changed her mind and tried to warn Justine’s killer that Ella was coming after him. She gave the woman’s name and the exact location, then hung up.

  Big Ed would want to know where she was going, but she needed to make sure she got there first. The easiest way to accomplish both was to see to it that the tape with Lupe’s statement found its way to Blalock or Big Ed, but mailing it would take too long.

  By the time she’d finished the thought, Ella realized that she was also headed in the direction of Wilson Joe’s home. Deciding to take a chance, she drove over there. The backyard of his home was open to the desert, and offered plenty of cover. With luck, he’d still be at home. If she could get him to drop the tape off, then she’d handle the rest.

  Ella took the back roads south again, and parked near a dry arroyo. After looking around the entire area for any officers on stakeout, she quickly ran the quarter-mile distance to Wilson’s home. Moments later, she knocked on his back door.

  Wilson opened the door, cup of coffee in hand, and stared at her in surprise. “Get in.” He grabbed her arm and pulled her into the kitchen, closing the door behind her. “What on earth are you doing here? That idiot cop Manuelito has been watching me since late last night. I can’t even look out the window without seeing him in the distance with his binoculars on the house.”

  “Is he still out there?” Ella thought she’d checked the area thoroughly.

  “No. Well, at least I didn’t see him.” He led her into the hall, away from the windows. “I’ve been really worried about you.”

  “I couldn’t get in touch, it was just too risky. But now things are finally coming together.” She handed him the tape. “It’s imperative that Big Ed or Blalock get this. This has evidence that will be substantiated once the PD picks up Lupe Dearman at the hospital and she makes a statement.”

  “I’ll hand deliver it to them.”

  “Be careful that you don’t get into trouble. Say that you found it in your mailbox this morning.”

  “Where are you going?”

  Ella hesitated. If she didn’t make it out in one piece, she wanted someone else to know what she’d done and why. She told him the story as quickly as she could.

  “You can’t be seriously considering going out there alone.”

  “I don’t have a choice. I’m still a fugitive.”

  “But the tape—”

  “Is inadmissible. All it can do is give Big Ed and Blalock an edge they can use to pressure Lupe if she changes her mind about making a statement. Once Lupe signs her statement, it’ll be a different story. But I’ve got to move out now. If Paul gets wind of this, he may decide to make a run for it. Of course, bringing Paul in will be easy in comparison to what I can expect from Jeremiah. He’s the mastermind, and a lot more dangerous.”

  “Nothing can bring his boy back. Why is he doing this? It makes no sense.”

  “Jeremiah wants revenge against the Navajo police. He blames us for stirring up the gangs and getting his son killed. It’s that simple. Everything comes in second to that one goal. Even Paul’s expendable. I think Jeremiah’s going to go down fighting hard—if I find him at all.”

  “Let the cops find Paul and Jeremiah then. You’re walking into a situation that could get you killed.”

  “If I wait, and Lupe manages to warn Paul or Jeremiah, they’ll take off. Then, in essence, they will have gotten away with what they’ve done, and continue to be a threat to me and my family. I can’t live with that. Take the tape in and talk to Big Ed. I left word for him already to pick up Lupe.”

  “Let me tell him where you’re going. At least you’ll be able to get eventual help that way.”

  “They’ll know when they hear the tape. But it’s imperative that I get there fast and have time to work. If Lupe has lied, or I don’t have Paul in custody as well as enough evidence to convict him by the time they get there, they could end up trying to arrest me instead. In the confusion, Paul will get away. I need your word that you won’t say anything, Wilson. I’m counting on you.”

  “All right.”

  Ella headed back to the door. “Once this is over. I owe you the best dinner around.”

  “Back to the fried-chicken place?”

  She laughed. “Well, that is the best food around.” Ella stood at the window, checking out the area for several moments. “I better go,” she said at last. Moving quickly, she opened
the door and raced back to her pickup.

  Ella got under way, trying to swallow back the bitter taste of fear at the back of her throat. She wasn’t kidding herself. There was a lot of risk in what she was doing. If Jeremiah happened to be with Paul when she arrived, there’d be shooting for sure. And Jeremiah, she suspected, would be armed to the hilt.

  Ella worried about an officer pulling her over as she drove through the community of Shiprock again this time of the morning. She knew from the police scanner that Manuelito hadn’t be able to read the plate before, but he still had a general description of the truck.

  She decided to “low-ride” and drive slowly, throwing off suspicion by doing the opposite of a fugitive in a hurry. Using the directions given to her by Lupe, Ella headed west on Highway 64, hoping she wouldn’t encounter a patrol car at all before she left the main highway near Rattlesnake. A mile out of Shiprock she saw a tribal unit parked beside the road ahead, so she assumed the scrunched-down driving position of a “low rider,” and slowed to under the speed limit. Rolling down the windows, she turned up the radio so the music blared.

  With the bill of her cap shading her face, and careful not to make eye contact, Ella cruised past the parked unit. Two minutes later, well down the road, she sat up again, turned off the radio, and listened on the police scanner. The cop hadn’t given her a second glance, apparently.

  More than an hour later, after she’d driven along a well-traveled path into the piñon/juniper hills near Beclabito, the road abruptly disappeared into a thick stand of trees near a sandstone cliff.

  She quickly parked off the track behind a cluster of junipers and slipped out of the pickup, carrying her rifle and extra cartridges in her pocket. Somewhere in the distance she could hear the faint chug of a small gasoline engine, but that was the only sign that the area had residents nearby. Moving forward very slowly, keeping low, she studied the area ahead with binoculars. Eventually, through a small gap in the trees, she saw a hogan with a sturdy-looking wooden door a short distance from the cliff. A cord of wood was stacked a few feet from the entrance.

  When Lupe had warned her about video surveillance cameras, she’d expected one or two. Although the cameras were not in plain sight, she could make out at least three mounted on trees, with branches cleared away to give clear fields of view. Wires led down the trees, then disappeared at ground level, obviously buried and leading to a power source and monitor, the latter of which was probably inside the hogan.

  Ella saw Paul Natoni come outside the hogan, take a look around using a pair of binoculars, then go back in. Though she waited patiently for at least an hour, she saw no sign of Jeremiah Manyfarms. The cameras didn’t move, so they were either fixed to a single viewing area, or whoever was inside didn’t care to put them into motion.

  Ella circled around at a distance, coming to the edge of the cliff behind the log dwelling. There weren’t any more cameras visible, though she searched for several minutes for mountings or wires before moving any closer.

  As she drew near, she thought she heard Natoni speaking to someone inside, but she couldn’t make out his words clearly. The sturdy structure made that impossible. To make matters even worse, whoever he was talking to hadn’t answered at all. For some reason she couldn’t explain, that made a chill creep up Ella’s spine.

  She searched the entire perimeter for another vehicle, trying to find out who was with him, but only Natoni’s pickup was there, parked around back on the cliff side.

  Ella crept even closer, trying to find the electrical generator from the sound it made. She finally spotted it right outside the entrance, screened from the front by the stack of firewood. Disabling it would be impossible without risking getting caught before she was ready. She searched again, but still couldn’t find any additional cameras aimed toward the back. They must have had to exclude one area from scrutiny, and selected the cliff side with its natural barrier. If she approached carefully, she could stay out of the side cameras’ viewing field.

  Closer now, Ella realized Natoni was taunting someone. His voice had an annoying singsong quality. Ella clasped the badger fetish in her hand for courage. It was hot to the touch. Danger was close, something she already knew.

  Heeding the warning, Ella decided to back off and take another look around the area, hoping to spot Manyfarms. She didn’t want him to take her unawares, or come up the road and cut her off. As she climbed a bluff adjacent to the hogan and looked around from high ground, she saw a vehicle traveling toward them.

  It took a few endless minutes before she recognized the SUV through her binoculars. It was Wilson Joe. Fear gripped her. The last thing she wanted was to be responsible for another person now.

  Wishing he’d stayed in Shiprock and done as she’d asked, Ella circled around quickly and flagged him down before he came upon where she’d parked her pickup. Wilson parked his SUV, then climbed out of his own vehicle, carrying his hunting rifle.

  “I turned over the tape to Big Ed, but then I realized that I couldn’t let you face this alone,” Wilson said softly. “What did you find?”

  “There’s a hogan ahead, protected by video cameras. I have a feeling that Manyfarms is nearby, but I don’t think he’s inside the hogan, and I couldn’t find his vehicle. Paul Natoni is there, however. I heard him speaking to someone, but the person never answered.” Ella exhaled softly. “You shouldn’t be here, you know. You could get yourself killed.”

  Wilson ignored her. “Any chance that Natoni’s talking to himself?”

  “Maybe he has a radio or cell phone in there. It sounded to me like he was giving someone a hard time, though. Perhaps it’s Justine’s aunt Lena.”

  Ella heard another vehicle coming up the same road. In an area without traffic of any kind, sound traveled a long way. Probably the only reason her and Wilson’s vehicles hadn’t been detected inside the hogan was that the chugging of the generator drowned out the engine noise.

  Ella climbed up on top of her pickup’s cab and focused the binoculars toward the sound.

  “You were followed! The first vehicle is Blalock’s, I’m sure of it. No one else dares to drives a sedan out here in the sticks. The second is a tribal unit. My guess is that Sergeant Manuelito volunteered to back him up.”

  “Ella, I’m sorry. I don’t know how I didn’t spot them. I kept looking in the rearview mirror.”

  “Maybe Manuelito put a tracking device in your car.” Ella jumped down and quickly searched the rear bumper and fenders of Wilson’s SUV. She found the magnetically attached device immediately. “I need you to do something as quickly as you can.”

  “Name it.”

  “Drive to another spot beside the cliff and pitch this over the edge. Just don’t let anyone see your vehicle from the hogan, and try not to let Blalock see you. If FB-Eyes and whoever else it is thinks they’re going to have to drive back down to the bottom, it might buy me some time.”

  “What are you planning to do about Natoni?” Wilson asked. “You’d have to wait until he comes out or risk getting shot in a face-to-face confrontation. Maybe you should just let those guys find the hogan.”

  “I can’t let that happen,” Ella said, grasping her rifle firmly in her right hand. “When those cars come up to the hogan, Natoni will bolt, or start shooting. If he’s got someone in there, maybe as a hostage, then that person will be dead. I still don’t know what happened to Justine’s aunt Lena.”

  Wilson got behind the wheel. “All right. I’ll go. Watch yourself.”

  “Don’t worry about me. Just get Blalock and Manuelito away from here a little longer.”

  As he drove off, Ella knew her luck was about to run out. With every passing second she was risking having Natoni hear the extra vehicles. She had to act now.

  Ella returned to her vantage point behind the hogan and, after a quick look to make sure everything was as she’d left it, made her move.

  She crept forward like a shadow, her footsteps light and silent, until she reached the hogan’s log
wall. Hearing the hogan’s door open, she froze. Natoni stepped out casually, then waved at Jeremiah Manyfarms, who was just approaching the hogan with a pair of binoculars in hand. Natoni walked toward the other man.

  She suddenly realized they’d come in the same vehicle, and Jeremiah must have been in the hogan earlier, or keeping watch outside where she hadn’t been able to see him. Yet Natoni wouldn’t have taunted Manyfarms. There was still a hostage to contend with.

  She’d have to move fast. Manyfarms probably knew about Blalock and the tribal vehicle coming up the track. Noting that the lower half of the open door would be hidden from the two men by the stack of firewood, she crouched down low and slipped inside the hogan.

  Ella’s breath caught in her throat when she saw Paul and Jeremiah’s prisoner. Justine was sitting on the floor, tied to the woodstove and blindfolded, but definitely not dead.

  Ella recovered quickly and went to her side, removing the dark scarf that covered her eyes. “It’s me,” she whispered.

  Justine, pale, bruised, and with her mouth swollen where someone had hit her, managed a lopsided smile. “Took you long enough.”

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  For a moment, Ella couldn’t speak. Her cousin had been badly beaten, and one of her hands was wrapped heavily with bandages. The clothes she was wearing smelled like a PE locker and were much too large on her to be her own. But she was alive! “I’m so glad to see you!” Ella managed, her voice trembling with emotion.

  “I don’t think I’m going to be able to stand, Ella. They’ve been giving me painkillers. Strong ones. I almost fall over every time I have to pee. They make me use some kind of chamber pot.”

  Ella pulled out her pocketknife and cut through the ropes holding Justine’s feet and arms. “Then let me help you. And stay as quiet as you can, partner,” Ella warned softly.

  “There are at least two men around somewhere, Ella. One of them is Paul Natoni. I’ve never seen their faces, but I recognized Paul even though he tried at first to disguise his voice. He likes to try and intimidate me by sneaking up close. It gives me the creeps. But it’s the other one, the one who is always silent, who scares me the most.”