Tracking Bear

by Thurlo, David

  It was a quarter to six by the time she arrived at the trading post on the western side of the Chuska Mountains and still in the shadow of the tall ridges. These days, Martha Lujan, an old classmate of Ella’s, was said to be running the place. Her dad and mother had retired since John Lujan’s stroke last year.

  As Ella parked, she saw a cadaverously thin Navajo woman with short-cropped hair leading an elderly traditionally dressed lady inside.

  Ella waited on the long, narrow wooden porch until someone came to greet her. Several minutes later, the younger woman approached.

  Ella took out her ID. “I need to talk to the trader.”

  “Ella, don’t you recognize me? It’s me, Martha.”

  Ella took another look at the woman’s face. Martha had never been a large woman, but she’d dropped at least forty pounds since high school. She wondered if her former schoolmate was ill from something like cancer.

  “I didn’t recognize you,” Ella smiled. “Most of your former classmates have gained weight, you know,” she added with a chuckle.

  “You still look about the same.”

  “I’m only a few pounds heavier, but I really work to stay in shape. In my job, it really helps.”

  “I’ve lost a lot of weight since I came back to the Rez. I guess I miss my old life and don’t eat as much as I used to. I left the Rez shortly after you did, but I had to come back not long ago when Dad got sick. Mom couldn’t handle things alone.”

  Ella nodded. Family ties were still strong on most areas of the Rez. Sometimes all a person had was their relatives. “I’m sorry to hear about your father.”

  “Actually, I think they’ve both gotten better since I took over for them here. They’d always hoped I’d return and run the business someday.” She paused. “But that’s obviously not why you’re here so early. It’s police business, isn’t it?”

  “I need to ask you a few questions,” Ella said. “There’s an old sheepherding camp up the mountain from here. I was wondering if you knew if anyone’s using it right now. Have you noticed any smoke coming from there?”

  Martha thought about it. “I haven’t seen sheep in this area for a long time. The land’s no good around here, so no one comes around with their animals anymore. Several old uranium mine shafts are still uncovered, too, so it’s pretty dangerous to wander about.”

  “So no one’s up there at all?” Ella pressed.

  “I didn’t say that,” Martha corrected. “I said I don’t see sheep or sheepherders anymore. But I have seen smoke coming from that area after dark.”

  “Did you ever go take a look?”

  “I did about a month ago, but I should have known to avoid a place where you only see smoke at night. I was warned off, and never went back.”

  “Warned off by whom?” Ella asked.

  “I drove about halfway up the old track and a coyote came out of nowhere and just stood in front of the pickup, watching me. I went right back down the hill. I don’t need that kind of trouble. Do you know what I mean?”

  Ella nodded. As with Clifford, neither of them had mentioned skinwalkers by name.

  Ella said good-bye to Martha and, after returning to her unit, contacted Justine on the radio. Fortunately, the reception was good despite the terrain. Maybe there was a relay system up by the radar atop Narbona Pass.

  “I’m going up there to take a look,” Ella told her partner.

  “Let me get down there before you do anything, Ella. I’m only forty-five minutes or so from Crystal.”

  “I’m afraid to wait any longer. Shives and Bruno have had too much of a lead on us, and there’s no telling what they’ve got planned. They may have an idea where to look, and they are certainly prepared for rough country like this.”

  Despite her brave words, Ella had no desire to go up there alone. Years ago, she would have said that skinwalkers were just crazy people—delusional and sometimes violent. But these days, she wasn’t so willing to dismiss things she didn’t understand. The Rez claimed its share of the unexplained and supernatural. The Anglos called it superstition, yet all religions had supernatural events connected to them. Raising the dead from the grave, then joining in prayer to celebrate the event, was about as crazy as it got from the viewpoint of a Navajo.

  Ella took out her binoculars and looked off in the distance. Everything looked quiet and, with the sun up, visibility was good except for inside the deeper canyons, where shadows would remain for another few hours.

  “It should be safe there now. It’s morning. I’m going in. If the professor is there, he’s running out of time.”

  “My ETA is forty minutes. I’ll do it in thirty-five if I’m lucky.”

  Aware that she could end up finding no one except her darkest enemies, Ella called the telephone company office in Farmington and asked for a phone record of all calls made from the pay phone outside the trading post. Many people around this area of the Rez didn’t have phone service, so most of them, sooner or later, came to the trading post to make calls. Cell phones still weren’t very reliable out here, so if Franklin was in the area, it was possible he’d have used that phone. If he had, she wanted to know who he’d called.

  “It may take me some time,” Jane Bekis, the manager, said, having dealt with Ella before. “I’ll have to go through our Gallup office.”

  “I don’t have time. But I can simplify it for you. Look for calls made to these numbers in particular.” Ella thumbed through her notepad and gave her Delbert Shives’s office and home numbers.

  While Jane checked, Ella used the directions she’d gotten from Martha at the trading post and found the dirt track that led to the camp. Before going uphill, she decided to take a look around for signs of another vehicle.

  Ella quickly noticed recent vehicle tracks, a set of three, all of the same tire tread. A study of the pattern told her that someone had gone up the road, back down, then up again. If it was Kee Franklin, he was still there unless he’d left his vehicle behind and walked down.

  Walking back to her unit, she noticed a trail of dust farther down the mountain, and heard the engine noise of a vehicle. Reaching into her Jeep, Ella retrieved her binoculars and walked over to a spot where she could see more clearly. About a mile down the mountain was a SUV that matched the description of the one Bruno had rented.

  She started to radio Justine when Jane Bekis called her back. Despite the fact that she was on higher ground, the static was suddenly so pronounced she could barely understand her.

  “I have the information you requested. Someone called the second number you asked me to check,” Jane said reading it off. “The call was made yesterday morning.”

  It was Delbert Shives’s home number. Thanking her, Ella ran back to her vehicle, picked up the mike, and called Justine on her radio. “I think Kee Franklin called Shives yesterday and arranged to meet him out here. With all that’s happened, especially the break-ins connected to him, I’m sure he put things together. Franklin must either want to deal with Shives or, more likely, based on his character, confront the man he figures was responsible for his son’s death.”

  “The bullets recovered at the crime scenes could have come from a backup pistol Bruno carries, a habit she may have kept though she’s no longer a cop. If she’s our killer, Franklin doesn’t have a chance. Between her history of aggression and violence, and her training, Franklin will most likely end up dead.”

  “I know.” Ella felt her mouth go dry. “I have to get there first. If Franklin refuses to let Shives have the rights to his research, he won’t have a chance once Bruno cuts loose on him.”

  “The professor is smart, Ella. He’ll play it better than that. I’m sure he has another plan in mind.”

  Ella exhaled softly. “He may hope to push them into a violent confrontation so he’ll have an excuse to kill them. But that’s going to be a huge mistake. If Bruno is the killer we’re after, she won’t hold back.”

  “I don’t think Professor Franklin knows there’s a second playe
r in this. And that’s exactly what’s going to get him killed.”

  Ella got back into her unit. “I have a visual on Shives and Bruno, but they haven’t found the turnoff leading to the camp yet. Or else they’re going to check out the area first.”

  “I’ll be there as soon as possible, Ella. I’ll turn off the sirens long before I get there, but I’m pushing this loaner unit for all it’s got.”

  “Ten-four.”

  Ella looked back at the vehicle coming up the mountain. No matter what happened, she had to reach Franklin first. She increased her speed, but the path was rugged, and the ground was soft where Franklin had driven recently, making the going more difficult.

  Five minutes later she pulled up behind a dilapidated hogan near the remnants of a split-log corral. She could see smoke coming out the hole in the center of the clay-covered, domed roof, and, oddly, a small dish antenna on the southern edge. That detail convinced her Franklin had to be the one inside. Following the vehicle tracks ahead of her, she saw where he’d parked his SUV in the shade of a small clearing.

  Ella drove on, finding a place to park her own unit where it wouldn’t be seen by someone approaching, then ran to the hogan. “Kee, it’s me, Ella Clah,” she said, as she approached the entrance.

  Franklin came out immediately, dressed in a warm nylon parka and wool cap. He looked especially old today, and his voice was shaky. “You can’t stay, you’ll ruin everything. You have to leave right now.”

  “That’s not going to happen. You have no idea what you’ve started here.” Ella slipped into the hogan, pulling him in with her by the sleeve. “They’re coming up the mountain right now, so we only have a few minutes. It’s not just Shives you’re dealing with. His foster sister is an ex-cop with a reputation for violent behavior. Her name is Margaret Bruno, and we think she may have killed at least three people, including your son.”

  “That’s the first I’ve heard about her, but I do know a lot more than you think I do. Shives has been after me for months, offering me large amounts of money, partnerships, whatever he can think of to get me to give him the details of my laser enrichment process. He needs one crucial piece of information, one more step to make it work, and he knows that without my cooperation it may take him the rest of his life to find the answer. But I’ve never trusted him. Not twenty years ago at the labs, and certainly not now. He even approached Jason during one of those tours he conducted for law enforcement personnel, asking if he would discuss it with me. Then he found out that Jason was opposed to any nuclear power plant project. Jason later told me what happened, and I wasn’t the least bit surprised.”

  Kee had a haunted look in his eyes, not fear, but something else equally frightening. He continued, his words toneless. “After my son was killed, I had a hunch Shives was somehow involved, so I started my own investigation. I easily hacked into Delbert’s computer system, and discovered he had the addresses of the properties my ex-wife, my son, and whatever I owned or rented. Shives knew about the garage, and I had a feeling that Jason’s death had been the result of a botched attempt to get my research. But I needed proof, so I came up with a plan.”

  Kee took a look outside. “Are you sure that they’re on the way now? They weren’t supposed to be here until this afternoon.”

  “I’m certain, and it won’t be long now before they’re here. We have to go,” Ella said.

  “I’m staying, but you have to get out of here. If they see you, you’ll ruin what I set out to do.” He walked over to a small folding table he had set up opposite the fire pit. Atop was an expensive-looking laptop computer. A wire lead from the computer and through a gap in the log wall apparently to the small antenna she had seen on the roof.

  In a matter of seconds Franklin downloaded information into a CD, then he handed it to her. “You’ve now got a copy of all the details essential to my uranium enrichment process. It belongs to me, not my former employers, because I didn’t perfect the process until well after I resigned. If anyone tries to access my computer and doesn’t use the right password, all the files will be erased, and they’ll have nothing. Take this and go. I’ll see that justice prevails. They won’t get a thing from me.”

  Ella looked at him, placing the disk in her shirt pocket, and understood what he was planning. “You came here to kill them, or to die trying.”

  “Just go, please?”

  Hearing a vehicle coming up the hill, she looked at Kee. “We’re out of time, but I can still help you achieve what you have to do. Will you trust me?”

  Kee took a deep breath then nodded. “All right. What do you want to do?”

  Twenty-Six

  “We’re here, Dr. Franklin,” Bruno yelled, stepping out of the driver’s side of the SUV.

  Kee Franklin stepped through the doorway of the hogan, rifle in hand, and walked toward the vehicle as Delbert Shives emerged from the passenger side.

  “It’s been a long time since we’ve actually met face-to-face, Doctor,” Shives said, smiling affably. “But you can put your rifle down. As you can see, ours are still inside the car.” Shives turned and pointed to a rifle and what looked like a shotgun resting between the driver’s and passenger’s seats, barrels pointing up.

  Ella stood silently in the shadows underneath a large pine tree, her body hidden by the large trunk. Justine was less than ten minutes away now. Just in case, her assistant had already requested more backup to be dispatched to their location, but it would take others a minimum of thirty minutes to arrive on the scene.

  “Mr. Shives, the uranium enrichment process I created is something that you have no right to claim,” Franklin said slowly, keeping his rifle pointed at Bruno’s midsection.

  Shives smiled. “Doctor, please, fair is fair. I worked with you all those years, then you left me high and dry when you started whining about the plight of the Navajo miners. We could have made a fortune if you’d given me a chance to take it to private industry. Now, as fate would have it, we’re being presented with another golden opportunity. Permian Energy Network wants the process and is willing to pay us handsomely for it.”

  “I know that you or that woman killed my son when he caught you searching for my papers,” Kee said. “What guarantee do I have that you won’t kill me the second you get the process?”

  “Our word?” Shives asked good-naturedly.

  “That’s not good enough, I’m afraid,” Dr. Franklin said. “The rules have changed, Mr. Shives, Ms. Bruno. To put a stop to all the violence I’m willing to give you the rest of the process—but only under certain conditions.”

  “What exactly do you want?” Bruno asked, her eyes narrowed. She had her hand in her jacket pocket, and Ella knew Bruno was thinking about bringing out her pistol, calculating if she could draw and shoot before Franklin fired the rifle.

  “First, foolproof insurance that will keep me alive after you get what you want.” Franklin, holding his rifle precariously but still managing to keep it pointed at Bruno, reached into his jacket pocket and brought out a small handheld computer not much larger than a paperback novel. “Our conversation is being relayed via a microphone in this unit to another computer inside the hogan. See the antenna on the roof? A power supply inside provides all the energy needed to send it instantly via satellite to an Internet site only I can access. Later on, if I don’t enter a command halting the process, a digital recording of our conversation will automatically be relayed to the police and a dozen media outlets.”

  In a lightning move, Bruno brought out her weapon and fired at the antennae on the roof. Her third round hit the base squarely, and it shattered. “No more games. That little toy of yours is out of commission now. Give me the process right now, or I’ll keep shooting.”

  Dr. Franklin coolly placed the computer back into his pocket and regained complete control of his rifle. “Putting the antenna out of commission didn’t stop the message. Our words are still being relayed, even now. Go ahead and shoot, if you feel it’s something you just have to do. But yo
u’ll never, ever get what you want if you pull that trigger.” Franklin aimed his rifle toward Bruno’s head. “Like you, I never intended to make any deal. What I wanted all along were my son’s killers.” Kee walked toward Bruno, maintaining his aim.

  “He’s not bluffing, Margaret. He’ll shoot you, then me. Kee Franklin doesn’t play games. He probably doesn’t know how,” Shives said calmly, slowly moving to the side, putting some distance between himself and Margaret. Franklin ignored the man and kept his rifle aimed at Margaret. “You are the one who murdered my son, aren’t you? Delbert has been using you like an attack dog.”

  “Oh, I’m a bitch all right, old man. But you’ll have a better chance of staying alive if you lower the rifle. We have a standoff, and I might just shoot first,” Bruno replied. She was starting to get nervous now, her gun hand shaking slightly and her voice raising a pitch. Margaret took a step back and glanced over at Shives.

  Taking advantage of the diversion Franklin was creating, Ella moved in silently behind Bruno. She was only ten feet away when Shives saw her out of the corner of his eye. “Meg!” he yelled, looking right at Ella. “Look out!”

  Bruno instantly whirled, cursing and firing frantically, her inexperience in a firefight now evident as she pumped out round after round into the ground around her target. But Ella, who’d come in at a crouch, was battle-hardened and ready, and offered a smaller target as she flattened, then squeezed off two shots.

  The woman clutched her chest, staggered back, and dropped her pistol before dropping to the earth.

  Ella stood to full height, swinging the smoking barrel of her pistol around to Shives, who was reaching for the pistol Bruno had dropped. “Don’t try it. You won’t win,” she said.

  Shives looked up. “Okay,” he said, raising his hands. “Just calm down,” he added, leaving the pistol exactly where it had fallen.