No one had gotten out of the Ford or even rolled down a window. Just as Thomas decided to walk down there, Paul T’Sosi began beating on a washtub, meaning dinner was ready to be served. People began queuing up for utensils, and as usual, the meat would be first on their plates. Children were cautioned to pipe down, stop running around kicking up dust, and to stay away from the boiling fry-bread pot. Charlie grabbed a pair of tongs and started dishing out lamb. Thomas and John Nez followed suit.
There was much laughter and quiet banter among the guests, and plates were piled high with succulent barbeque. Steam from the pans caused the servers to sweat. John Nez and Thomas thought to wear bandanas on their foreheads, but Charlie, unaccustomed to wearing a headband, had not remembered to bring one and constantly wiped his brow. There was a good reason Indians used to wear headbands, he realized. Occasionally, he glanced out the front of the shelter to the road and parked vehicles beyond. The black Ford was still there. Charlie noticed John Nez checking it out too.
They were nearly done serving the first round and beginning to see the second-helping people in line. Charlie looked up to see a tall man, with his hair up in a bun, standing in front of him with his plate held out. He was well dressed, wearing a black Stetson hat and turquoise bracelet with a matching belt buckle. He smiled thinly but did not speak. John Nez, on the other side of Thomas and partially hidden, suddenly put his hand out.
“You are far from home today, councilman.” He said this in a pleasant but questioning manner. The councilman was taken aback to see someone who knew who he was. He had not figured on this, and his surprise was apparent.
“Well, hello John. I might say the same of you.” He moved down the line in front of John without thanking Charlie for his helping of lamb. “I’ll try a little of that goat if that is what you’ve got there.”
“Yes, and you’ll never taste better, councilman.” The two men eyed one another. They had known each other many years, and each was well aware of the other’s reputation. John gave him a healthy portion of kid and said, “Find a seat, Robert. I’ll catch up with you when this line slows down.”
Robert Ashki nodded but did not answer. He seemed more than a little put out by the chance meeting. He moved off across the crowded eating area and did not look back.
Without appearing rude, Charlie had paid as close attention to the talk between the two men as possible. He was close to the end of the serving table and not far from Sue, who was manning the bean pots.
“Sue,” he hissed. And again, “Sue!” Finally, she turned from the steaming kettles red-faced but smiling.
“What?” she asked, arching an eyebrow. She was having a good time. It had been a while since she had done anything like this, and she was happy to be there among friends and neighbors.
Charlie whispered, “Do you remember a Councilman Robert Ashki on any of the paperwork you processed in the files of the Greyhorse case?
Sue turned back to the pots and ladled another dipper of beans into a teenagers bowl. “Uh, I don’t think so. Why do you ask?”
Charlie held up a finger. “We’ll talk in a minute.” He stabbed another forkful of lamb for an old woman who once worked for the tribal business office. She helped him with grant applications when he was at the university. She remembered him, laughed, and mentioned some small joke he had once played on her. Charlie did not remember doing that but, nonetheless, loaded her plate down with the better cuts of lamb. He knew she would take home what she didn’t finish and her forty-five-year-old son, who still lived with her, would have it for his supper. He was a heavy drinker and would surely have starved without her.
After nearly everyone had gone through the line a second time, getting plates of food to take home, Charlie was finally completely out of lamb. John and Thomas ran out of goat soon after. Everyone agreed it was as good a barbeque as they ever put in their mouth.
Fortunately, Lucy made sure large containers of everything had been put aside for the servers; no one would go hungry tonight.
Marissa was worn out from hours making fry-bread. The family was proud of the way she hung in there without once asking for help. She spoke good enough Navajo that even the old people could mostly understand her. Those old ones thought it quite something for a white woman to speak Navajo so well. There were still a few missionaries that could understand, and of course, what few old traders were left were fairly fluent, but none of those people were as good as they thought they were.
White people have always had a hard time with the language, often because the Navajo would play jokes on them, and tell them a certain thing was one thing, when really it was another—often something bawdy. The Navajo love a good joke and would later laugh among themselves when the white person repeated the phrase to someone who spoke the language. Usually that person would instantly catch on to the joke and run with it. In the old days many a winter’s evening had been pleasantly whiled away at the local trading post “teaching” a new trader the language. It might be years before someone felt sorry enough for him to set things straight.
When John Nez was finally able to leave his post at the serving table, he went in search of Councilman Ashki. It was late afternoon now, and many guests were calling their children and packing up their vehicles. As John Nez moved through the crowd, he was recognized from the serving line and received many compliments on the food. He gave all the credit to Lucy and her old father, which was the right thing to do. Later, when his words got back to Paul T’Sosi, the old man smiled and thought even more of John Nez.
Councilman Ashki was nowhere to be found. Charlie and Thomas joined in, moving through the people and asking if anyone had seen the tall man with the good turquoise and black Stetson. Many noticed him but none saw him go. When the three got to the edge of the parking area, they could see the black truck was gone. After the crowd thinned, the three men walked down the road to where it had been parked. Two old men had their pickups parked nose to nose with the hoods up. The eldest was running jumper cables to the other’s battery. Thomas recognized the man with the cables as a distant relative of Lucy’s.
“Shahastoi,” he called to the elderly man whose name he could not remember. “Did you see the man in that fancy truck that was parked here?”
The old man reached in and clipped the battery cables on before answering. “I saw him…there was a woman in the truck too, but I couldn’t see her very well. I don’t know who they were. They were not from around here, I think.” He looked down the road. “They had bad manners!”
“Why do you say that, Uncle?”
The old man pointed to a full plate of food that had been thrown across the ground where the black truck had been parked.
“That is a bad way to treat good food,” and he turned back to the dead battery. “Those people must never been hungry.”
He waved a hand in the air. “Try to start it now, Atsilli.” he called to his brother.
“There was a woman?” Charlie looked at John Nez. “Does he have a wife?”
“He is a big man in our part of the country. Yes, he has a wife, but there are any number of women it might have been.”
Robert Ashki had, several times when John was away, come by the place to speak to Marissa. He told her he was available for interviews regarding tribal culture and government, should she have need of such information. Marissa had not responded favorably, and he finally stopped coming around.
When the guests had finally all gone, the party givers, worn now to the bone, settled themselves in the brush arbor, quietly enjoying the food Lucy had put back for them. Again Lucy and her father were commended for the success of the gathering. Paul T’Sosi and John Nez many times that day basked in the praise of the hungry people. The children became friends with many of their future classmates and should not feel out of place come the first day of school. Caleb and Ida Marie were now, once again, down at the corrals, trying to figure out which kids and lambs were left after the barbeque.
Marissa made one last bat
ch of hot fry-bread just for them, and Lucy thought it nearly as good as her own. The oil had been much used by then. She allowed that may have taken a little away from it.
John Nez spoke across the table to Marissa. “Well then, did you see Councilman Ashki come through the line?”
“Councilman Ashki?” She registered surprise. “What would he be doing down here?” She paused then said, “I must have been pretty awful at work not to notice that fancy young man.” She said this last in Navajo, and it had not come out exactly right, causing Lucy and her father to hide a smile.
“No one knows what he was doing down here. If it were up in our district, I would say he was out stumping for votes. He never misses a free feed up there. He has no supporters down here, though. Strange!”
Charlie spoke up. “I saw him looking over at Thomas before he even got in line. He must have asked around to find out who he was.”
Thomas frowned. “I never saw him before in my life. I wouldn’t have given him a second look if Uncle John hadn’t spoken to him.”
~~~~~~
As Councilman Robert Ashki pulled his big truck back up on the highway, he turned to Aida Winters. “Are you sure you can go through with this?” he asked.
“Thomas Begay has it coming!” was all she said, reaching up and taking the binoculars off the dashboard and putting them away in the glove box.
“You’re probably right….and too, this will allow us to leave the children out of it. With Thomas gone you may well get those kids—with my help.”
His fellow council member Donald Benally may have thought that pompous ass Pete Fish could handle Charlie Yazzie, but he himself had his doubts. Pete Fish was too soft in his opinion. A big talker and that was all. They needed someone with grit for this job. He’d also had doubts when Aida first contacted him, but now, after this meeting, he was of a totally different mind. She might be exactly who they needed.
Aida looked over at him and said as though reading his thoughts, “When Sally told me you were the one who approached her, I first thought it might be a mistake getting in touch with you. But the more I thought about it, the more I figured there was a reckoning coming one way or the other. I knew Hiram Buck couldn’t handle your problem.”
Aida looked out the window at the great Shiprock in the distance. Tse Bit’a’I, “the Rock with Wings” the Navajo call it.
Robert Ashki followed Aida’s gaze. “My people believe they were brought to this country on the back of that great winged rock.”
“Well,” Aida said, looking around, “it brought them to a hell of place.”
The councilman just smiled. He wasn’t much on mythology himself. He checked his rearview mirror as though thinking they might be followed.
“Now that I know John Nez is Thomas’s uncle, I have my doubts Thomas could ever have been bought off in the first place. John Nez is an idealistic fool. He and I have bumped heads many times over the years.” He scowled. “Now, he listens too much to that white woman he has taken up with. I expect she’ll have him running for my seat on the council next.”
Aida eyed him with a calculating glance. He was not one to judge a white woman, she thought to herself and smiled.
10
The Surprise
Pete Fish arrived at the office early and was waiting when Charlie came in.
“I hear you people had a little party out at Thomas Begay’s place,” he said cheerfully. “I wish I could have made it, but I was out of town.”
“Sorry you missed it,” Charlie said, though it was all he could do to sound civil. “You haven’t been around much the last week or so.” He lifted his eyebrows. “Special project?”
“You might say that, I guess. Hush-hush council business, you know.” He replied with a secretive smile.”
“Um, well, Sue seems to be handling the office all right while you are gone.”
“Yes, that girl is something special. It will be a lucky man that winds up with her!”
“Oh, I know. I was just telling her that the other night. We went to look at a little place together.”
A cloud passed over Pete’s face, and he had to look away for a moment.
“Well, I wouldn’t be rushing into anything just yet.”
“Really! Have you heard something I haven’t?” Charlie grinned. “The old man’s not going to fire me, is he?” he said, knowing full well he was the fair-haired boy of the moment in the front office.
“Uh, well no, I haven’t heard anything.” Pete said frowning. “I just meant…well, you know how it is—fate can just step in sometimes and usually when you least expect it.” He shook his head. “No one is safe from the law of chance; just when you think things are going well, Boom! Everything changes.” Pete Fish seemed a bit more cheerful after saying this. “The reason I came in early this morning was to catch you before you were out and about. I need some help on a little project I’m working on and thought you could lend a hand. It will require a little trip together. I’ve already asked the old man, and he’s okay with it.” He watched Charlie closely. “I was thinking we could take off first thing tomorrow morning.”
Charlie could see this was more of an edict than a request. He nodded and walked over to greet Sue Hanagarni, who had just walked in.
Pete Fish followed him with an icy stare and then, not being able to watch the two of them together any longer, turned and left the office.
Charlie approached Sue, who even now had a questioning look on her face.
“What was that all about? You two looked pretty chummy.”
“Yep, he and I are like this,” he said, crossing one finger over the other and grinning. “In fact he’s invited me on a little outing tomorrow morning.”
“Oh? Where to?”
“He didn’t say. His work is all very hush-hush, you know.”
“Well, that doesn’t sound good to me. I think there could be more to it.”
Charlie grimaced. “You know, I think you might be right.”
He and Sue went over the to-do list for the day. He hoped he could clean up some neglected paperwork before leaving with Pete Fish the next morning.
Charlie didn’t think Pete Fish capable of violent behavior. They were, after all, fellow alumni, though Pete had graduated long before Charlie, and with both an accounting and law degree. He was still called the “bean counter” by some who thought him a little too meticulous in perusing their monthly expense accounts.
~~~~~~
The following morning as Charlie drove to meet Pete Fish at the office, the added weight of the stainless .38 seemed to tug at the shoulder harness under his jacket.
He was not even sure why, at the last minute, he had slipped it on. Certainly, he was not afraid of a faceoff with Pete Fish. He was ten years younger and in much better physical condition than Pete. There really was no reason he should need this gun. Pete Fish certainly never carried a gun, as far as he knew.
Then he thought of Thomas and smiled. He at least would be pleased. Thomas thought the revolver had a power of its own, one that had nothing to do with bullets, and he was not the only one. Just the other day at the barbeque, his old Aunt Annie Eagletree, who had chipped in to buy him the gun, asked about it in no uncertain terms. She could not imagine he would be out in public without that gun.
“In the old days a man always had a weapon about him.” She moved her head slowly from side to side. “You never know when you will need to defend yourself or your family. My father kept a knife under his pillow every night of his life. Once I asked him, ‘Azhe’e, what makes you keep that knife there for? It might pop open and cut your ear off sometime.”
“What did he say about that.” Charlie was grinning.
“He said, ‘My father slept with a knife and his father did too! They never cut their ears off and both of them lived past eighty.’ I couldn’t argue with that.”
Annie Eagletree was not to be dissuaded. “Are you wearing that gun we bought you?” She said this, though she could see he was in
a T-shirt and would have been hard pressed to conceal a gun. She looked him up and down. “I see on TV where some cops wear their guns on the back of their belt inside their pants; some even keep one strapped to their lower leg under their trousers.” She looked over the serving counter and down at his ankles to see if this might be the case. Billy Redhouse, who was in line behind her and was listening, looked over the counter as well.
Charlie had long ago given up trying to convince his aunt he wasn’t really a cop.
“Yep, that’s where I keep it all right. I can’t show you right now. I don’t want people to know where it’s at, just in case.” She gave him a conspiratorial wink and moved on, satisfied.
Billy Redhouse nodded as he received his helping of lamb, smiled, and gave him a thumbs up.
It was all Charlie could do to keep a straight face. Aunt Annie was his favorite of his mother’s sisters. He knew the gun set the family back a good amount, should you factor in the turquoise work. He tried to wear it when he went to visit one or the other of them. The men would nod sagely and lift an eyebrow at one another, indicating with their lips the location of the hidden gun. The stories of his expertise with the weapon had grown by leaps and bounds after the Patsy Greyhorse case, at least among the family. They were all very proud of him.
~~~~~~
Pete Fish was sitting in his new SUV when Charlie pulled in, and he motioned him over.
Charlie grabbed a jacket and a cap that said Navajo Pride on the front and hurried across the lot. Pete Fish must be in a big hurry this morning, Charlie mused as he thought they were ahead of schedule. He hoped to see Sue and check his phone messages.
Sue Hanagarni watched nervously from the office window as the two men drove off. She thought Charlie would at least stop by before he left. She knew Pete Fish had a two-way radio in his vehicle, but her repeated attempts to contact him went unanswered. He must have the radio turned off, she thought. Charlie would have picked up the mike when he heard her voice even if Pete had been too busy. She would try them again later in the morning and hoped to catch them before they dropped out of range. Certain areas on the reservation were “black holes” when it came to communications.
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