by Aimée
“You’re right,” Carolyn said, biting her lower lip pensively. “If Two barks, or tries to go with you…”
The doors slid open and, before Carolyn could block the way, Dr. Natoni slipped inside.
Two barked and Ella coughed loudly.
“Nice try, but it won’t wash. I know what you’re pulling.” He smiled at Rose. “And it’s my guess that you put them up to this.”
“You always say that you want what’s best for the patient. Well, this is good for me,” Rose argued.
“I agree,” he said with a twinkle in his eyes. “And I’m not your problem. I’m off duty now, but I thought I’d come to warn you that the hospital director, Andrew Slowman, is out on an early morning inspection right now. He’s looking through records that are stored in the room next to the elevator down in the basement. I saw him going over the files when I went down to the pharmacy a few minutes ago. You better not get off on that floor.”
“I’ve got to. No way I can sneak this squirmy beast down the main hall on the first floor and right out the front door.”
Rose looked at Carolyn, then at her daughter. “Put him in that body bag.”
“Mom, he’ll squirm, and people will run away screaming.”
“No, he won’t. Two understands me.” She took the blanket off the dog and leaned over, whispering something Ella couldn’t hear. When Rose sat up finally, she was smiling. “Just put him in there.”
Carolyn glanced at Ella who shrugged. Working together, they lifted the dog into the bag.
“Lie down,” her mother said calmly.
To Ella’s surprise, Two did.
“Stay there now.” Rose took something from her pocket, and handed it to Two. “Zip the bag up, but leave it open enough so he can breathe. And work fast!” Rose got out of the elevator with Dr. Natoni’s help.
As the doors slid shut, Ella glanced at Carolyn, then back at the dog. “What did she give him?” The animal wasn’t moving—much. She could detect a slight back and forth motion and the sounds of chewing.
“I haven’t got a clue,” Carolyn said, “but this is as good as it’ll get. Do as she said and work fast.”
The doors slid open as they arrived at the basement. Ella and Carolyn had just started to wheel the gurney out when Andrew Slowman appeared. He stepped back, and then moved around them quickly, getting into the elevator as they emerged from it. As the doors started to slide shut, Two sneezed.
Slowman’s eyes grew wide as he stared at the bag. “What—”
The door slid shut before he could say anything else. Carolyn laughed. “Get out of here. He’ll come back, but I’ll dazzle him with ten thousand terms he won’t understand, mostly because I’ll be making them up, and then regale him with specifics about muscle contractions in corpses. By the end of the lecture, he won’t eat for a week.”
Ella laughed. Picking up Two and throwing the blanket over him, she hurried out the back entrance to the hospital.
Ella drove home with the window on Two’s side rolled halfway down so he could stick his head out. She was freezing but nothing could mar the warmth inside her that came from knowing she’d managed to keep her promise to her mother. The best part was that, for the first time since the accident, her mother was talking about taking back her life. Ella couldn’t have asked for anything better.
After dropping Two off at the house, she hurried on to work.
The moment she walked inside, Ella felt a tension in the station that made the air almost electric. As she walked down the hall, that feeling intensified. People were looking at her, and she could hear the whispers behind her as she walked past them. Now what? Didn’t she have enough on her hands?
As she stepped into her office, Justine bolted out of Ella’s chair. “Sorry, boss. I was just reading the paper. The headline caught my attention.”
“Let me guess. I’m featured.” Ella went around the desk and sat down in the chair Justine had quickly vacated. The headline read ‘Good Cop—Bad Cop?’ Directly beneath that was her photo and an article on police brutality. Several officers, citizens, and a local attorney had been interviewed on the topic. Although the author of the article clearly emphasized that the excessive force and defamation charges against Ella had not been proven, the attorney’s comments were particularly interesting.
“I see one of the Farmington attorneys couldn’t resist the opportunity to drum up a little business. He’s pledging to take on any case where excessive force is the issue, and using me as a prime example of why the public needs his protection. If I was as violent as he claims, I’d go punch his lights out right now, the cockroach.”
Hearing a throat being cleared, Ella glanced up and saw Big Ed standing in the doorway. Justine started for the door, but he stopped her. “Stay. This concerns you both.” He closed the door behind himself.
Justine stood beside the desk, and Ella leaned back in her chair, waiting.
Big Ed took a seat across from Ella and for an interminable time, said nothing, his eyes closed.
Ella knew better than to say anything. Yet, as each second ticked by, she started to wonder if her boss had fallen asleep. That didn’t seem like Big Ed, but his breathing was so steady that she wasn’t sure.
Finally, Big Ed opened his eyes and he focused on her. “I’m under fire from Bekis’s friends in the tribal government for keeping you on the job, but I can take the heat if it’s justified. What I need from you now is some cooperation.”
“Whatever I can do,” Ella said, opening her hands in a gesture of acquiescence.
“I want you to take Justine along with you whenever you’re out in the field. Also, get a tape recorder and use it during all your interactions with citizens. Make it a sound-activated unit, and wear it all the time, like our patrol officers. There are people who want to see you go down in flames, so you have to start covering your butt at every turn. Understood?”
“You want Justine with me everywhere? Chief, that’s impossible. She’s got work of her own to do in the lab, and our manpower situation isn’t such—”
He held up a hand. “It wasn’t a request.”
Ella clamped her mouth shut. “It’ll be done.”
“One more thing. Are you sure the Many Devils were the ones who took potshots at you last night?” Big Ed asked.
“It sure looks like it, based upon the evidence. But my brother reminded me about others who have tried to take me out in recent months.” She pointed out what Clifford had suggested concerning The Brotherhood.
“Just keep your eyes open, and don’t go walking into any traps. A bullet doesn’t care who fired it.” Big Ed stood, and looked toward Justine. “That goes for both of you, of course.”
As he left, Ella stood up and paced. “I can’t believe all this is happening to me. The legal troubles as coming to me almost as fast as the bullets.”
“You have real friends in this department, though, and our boss is probably the biggest one.”
Ella heard the undertone in her assistant’s words and knew the meaning behind what was left unspoken. “But some people in the department probably believe I did what that Bekis and his sister claim, yet they support me because they think it was justified,” she said finishing Justine’s thought.
Justine shook her head. “Yes, I guess not everyone believes you went by the book. They’ll back you, cops stick together, but there’s more than one officer who believes that you went overboard a bit physically when you arrested Gladys Bekis. When Michael and Jimmy Frank support your story, some take it at face value, others don’t.”
“Wonderful. So I have their loyalty, even though they think I go around roughing up prisoners.”
Justine nodded. “Well, it could be worse, you know.”
Ella sighed. “Anything new on Lisa’s murder?”
Before she could answer, Neskahi knocked on the open door and came inside. “Sorry, I’m a bit late.”
Ella waved him to a chair. “I was just asking Justine about our progress. Do you have anything to repo
rt on the murder case?”
“As you know, I’ve been pursuing the angle from the gang side. I decided to visit the parents of some of the kids, and what I’ve learned is interesting, to say the least. The families are being visited by members of the Fierce Ones.”
“Lena Clani warned me about that,” Ella said. “Are they intimidating people?”
Neskahi hesitated. “It’s a strange deal. The parents won’t identify who visited them. Heck, they won’t even admit to having been visited. But Franklin Ahe’s little sister talked to me. She’s afraid for her brother and for her parents. Apparently they had late night visitors. They insisted that Mr. and Mrs. Ahe control Franklin, and they’ve demanded that restitution be made the old way.”
“Old way?” For some reason the words made a chill run up her spine.
“If Franklin spray paints a wall, either Franklin or his parents must restore it. The Fierce Ones don’t care about police involvement. To them, we’re White Man’s Law. What they want is traditional justice. If the kids won’t comply, they made it clear the parents will be held accountable.”
“Oh, crap,” Ella muttered.
“Their son wouldn’t help, but the Ahes cleaned up two walls that belonged to the neighbors.”
Ella raised her eyebrows. “Well, that’s going to be one major victory for the traditionalists. The community will see the Fierce Ones as heroes and support them. Our job is suddenly becoming easier, and a lot more complicated at the same time. Be extremely careful out there, sergeant. If the wrong family is held ‘accountable,’ we could have people at each other’s throats.”
Ella turned to Justine. “Have you been able to tie in any of the gang members we have in custody to the murder?”
“The kids we arrested all have an alibi for the time of death. They claim they were at the Halftime, that new cafe near the high school. The waitress who verified their story, though, is the sister of one of the boys we collared.”
“Can anyone else corroborate that they were there?”
“A few other kids who were there at the time support the alibi, but I’ve got to tell you, I think they’d say whatever they’d been told to say. They don’t want to go up against the gang.”
Ella shook her head. “How did those young hoods get such a hold on our people?” Ella mused. “This problem has certainly flared up in just a short time. When I was in high school, fists were all that were needed in a fight. Now they think nothing of pulling a gun.”
“Outside influences like TV, movies, gangster rap, and reservation kids coming back after living in big cities, have all contributed to this problem,” Neskahi said.
Ella studied a report on her desk. “The kids we arrested weren’t wearing the same type of athletic shoes that we identified at the crime scene,” Ella noted. “But that doesn’t really exclude them from the list of suspects.” Ella glanced up. “Keep me posted on your progress, Sergeant, and stay on the gang aspect of this case.”
As Neskahi left, Ella looked at Justine. “Make sure you check whatever Thomas and the other two use on their hair, then compare it with that substance we found at the murder scene. I notice they all have their hair slicked back. Hopefully we’ll get a match with one of them, but not all three.”
“I’ll be back in my office,” Ella said. “Let me know what, if anything, you find.”
Ella returned to her office and dialed the hospital, checking with the nurse’s station in the section where her mother was being tended. Her mother had made it back to the room just fine, and her spirits were up. As Ella said good-bye, she shifted her attention to Justine, who’d just appeared at the door again.
“Can I come in, boss?” Justine looked as tired as Ella felt. “I know you want a lead, something to take to Big Ed, but I haven’t been able to get anything for you yet, not on the murder,” Justine said, downcast. “I feel as if I’m failing you. I couldn’t come up with anything that will narrow down any suspects.”
“This isn’t your fault. Investigations go at their own rate. You know that.”
“I just didn’t want you to think that I was so preoccupied with my family problems, especially Thomas and my aunt, that I was being sloppy with my work.”
“I don’t,” Ella said. “Has Thomas said anything to you that can help us out? I know you’ve been to visit him in his cell.”
“Didn’t you know? Robert Kauley got him released into the custody of my aunt. He didn’t even have to make bail because he has no previous record, and isn’t considered a flight risk. Because of his age, they don’t want to keep him with adult prisoners, apparently. Of course he’ll have to show up in court on the charges, and has been warned to stay out of trouble and away from the gangs.”
“Do you think he’ll do that? He may not be too far gone to save if he can avoid that kind of peer pressure. I hate to see someone that age wrecking their lives like that.”
Justine shrugged. “If he and his mother will face the facts and stop blaming others, maybe they can get hold of him again. He used to be a good kid before my uncle moved out. Maybe there is some of that still in him.”
“We can keep our fingers crossed,” Ella agreed. “By the way, did you do the follow-up yet on Jane Clah?” Ella asked.
Justine nodded. “I’ve asked around, but nobody’s seen her in ages. The people I spoke to weren’t even sure she was still alive. There are no records of her death, if she died.”
“Did you drive out to her hogan?”
“No, I haven’t had a chance. I could do that today, if you’d like.”
“Let’s do it now. I have a gut feeling that it’s something we should be pursuing. Those cane prints make me think of her, for some reason.”
* * *
The drive was as long as it was uneventful. Jane Clah’s home was in the middle of one of the most desolate sections of the area, about thirty miles southeast of Shiprock. The paved road gave out six miles east of Highway 666, and from that point on, it became a washboard surface that sorely tested Ella’s Jeep’s reputation as a quiet ride.
Just when they’d come to the conclusion that their insides would never stop vibrating, they arrived at a six-sided piñon log and mud hogan built in a depression surrounded by low, eroded mesas. The blanket which covered the entrance to the hogan was ragged and threadbare, barely hanging on. The corrals were empty, and the gate swayed in the breeze. The place looked abandoned and as desolate as the surrounding desert.
Ella stepped out with Justine, cautioning her assistant to stay alert. As they stood by their vehicle, waiting for an invitation to approach, Ella felt the spidery touch of fear trickling over her, warning her of danger, though nothing seemed out of place.
“The silence out here is giving me the creeps,” Justine said. “It’s obvious nobody lives here anymore. Let’s go and take a look.”
“Not yet. Give it a while longer,” Ella said, her eagle-sharp gaze studying the surrounding high ground and stunted brush.
As a coyote howled in the distance, Ella suppressed a shudder. The place was making her skin crawl, but she wasn’t sure why. Uninhabited, windswept places miles from civilization were common on the Rez and that, in and of itself, had never bothered her.
“I don’t even see any tracks around,” Justine said, her voice taut.
“There aren’t that I can see, either,” Ella said quietly. “But the last time I was here, she kept me waiting for quite a long time. I want to make sure she isn’t ill, and that we won’t be intruding on her by just walking in.”
Ella moved away from the vehicle and studied the hogan from a different angle. “It does look abandoned, doesn’t it? I suspect they left that old blanket over the entrance because it wasn’t worth taking down. And if someone lived here, there would be a stack of firewood around, too. The nights are still cold.”
“Maybe—”
“She’s dead?” Ella said, finishing the thought. “Could be, but somehow, I don’t think so.”
Ella understood Justine’s rel
uctance to approach the hogan. It wasn’t just an aversion to the dead. It was something about this place. The silence seemed so total that it was as if this stark area sustained itself by feeding on all the sounds.
When the time came, Ella took the lead and forced herself to go into the hogan. Brushing the dust-filled blanket aside, she sneezed hard. The dirt floor was barren of any supplies, unless tumbleweeds were included. It was as if no one had ever lived here. Yet her skin continued to prickle and all her instincts urged her to get away from the hogan.
Ella held her ground. Her brother had often said that the profane tainted the air in a way that nothing ever truly erased. That was what she felt now. There was something evil here that lingered like the stench of death.
“Are you okay?” Justine asked, stepping in beside her. “You have a strange expression on your face.”
“You feel it, too, don’t you?” Ella asked. “It’s like there’s more here than we can see with our eyes.” Suddenly Ella shook her head. “Don’t listen to me. I’m just reacting to memories, that’s all. My husband was a kind, gentle man, but his family was something else. Not many things frighten me anymore, but they did … and still do.” Ella regretted the words as soon as she spoke them. Admitting such a fear might give it power over her.
“Well, I can understand memories confusing your perceptions, but I’ve got to tell you, this place is really spooky and it’s not just because there’s no sign of life around. It’s this entire area. It’s in a depression, I’m sure you noticed. But it’s more than its physical location. There aren’t enough sounds. It’s like this place exists in the middle of a void. How anyone could stand living out here for more than a few hours is beyond me.” Justine shook her head.
“The old woman may have wanted to get away from the scandals, to retreat from the world. Or she may have simply wanted the freedom to do as she pleased and, out here, there would be no conventions to follow,” Ella said slowly.
Without thinking, Ella kicked at the pile of ashes in the center of the hogan beneath the smoke hole, then stopped. She couldn’t remember if that was a taboo of some kind. Slowly a new thought formed in her mind. Maybe the real reason Jane Clah had chosen to live here was far more complicated than they’d realized.
