Bad Medicine (42 page)

“I better go talk to Big Ed. At least I’ll finally have some promising leads to give him.

“I’ll save you a trip to my office, Shorty,” Big Ed said, rounding the corner and blocking the hall with his barrel-chested body. “FB-Eyes just called me. He suggested we give you a commendation. I’ve read your assistant’s report, and I tend to
agree.”

Ella forced herself not to cringe. “Please, Chief, can I pass on this? I just reacted to the situation like I’d been trained to do.”

His gaze was sharp, searching for dangerous nuances in her behavior. “You okay with what went down? There are people you can talk to who can help you get through this.”

“Not necessary, Chief. I’m handling it.”

“All right,” Big Ed said after a long pause.
“According to Officer Goodluck, we may be able to link Truman to Bitah’s death with that unique gun stock of his. You’d think he’d have burned the wood up instead of carving it into a rifle stock,” Big Ed said.

“Maybe he wanted it as a reminder of his victory over an enemy. Kind of a gruesome trophy, but Truman seems the type,” Ella suggested. “Or maybe it was too expensive to throw away.”

“We’ll just have to see if FB-Eyes can link that wood to the fragments from the victim’s skull. So, what’s new on the senator’s daughter?”

Ella filled him in on their progress regarding Howard Lee. As she did, she saw a flicker of understanding and more, perhaps excitement in his eyes. “I’m going to go track down Ruby Atso. She may be more open to us now that we already know who Angelina’s boyfriend
was. Maybe we can finally learn why someone thought Angelina had to die.”

“Are we close to the important answers?” the chief prodded.

She knew he was asking her to use her almost legendary intuition. “Yes, I think so.”

“But you’re not sure.”

“I think we’re still missing something significant. I know it’s there, but I still can’t see it clearly,” Ella tried explaining, then shook her head.
“I follow my intuition, Chief, it’s not something I lead with. Do you understand?”

He shrugged. “Keep me current.”

As the chief left, her phone rang. Ella picked it up, and heard Blalock’s voice at the other end.

“I tracked the rifle our sniper was using,” he said. “The French walnut stock
was
custom-made and added by Truman, replacing the original. The hand-rubbed finish is still curing. He
bought the rough-cut stock blank three weeks ago from a mail order place in California. The serial number of the action, however, is the same as a rifle stolen from a Farmington resident who’s a member of my gun club, but not an employee of the mine. I’m checking him out anyway, just in case The Brotherhood has members not connected to the mine.”

“Thanks for letting me know. I’m going to check
on Ruby Atso,” Ella said, filling him in, as promised, on her end of their joint investigations.

“Let me know what you turn up.”

Ella hung up and took the note Justine handed her.

“It’s Ruby’s address. She’s a tough cookie. I don’t think she’ll give us any more information that she already has, despite the fact that we now know about Howard Lee.”

Ella considered it. “Then let’s rattle her
a bit. Pick her up and bring her in. Maybe we’ll get a better response from her once she’s one room away from a cell.”

*   *   *

Ruby sat in the barren room used for questioning, looking as if she wished she were anywhere but there.

Ella watched her through the two-way glass, waiting. Ruby was so nervous she couldn’t keep still for even a minute.

“How long are you going to let her stew in
there?”

Ella had deliberately kept the young girl waiting for over twenty minutes. “Let’s go in now. I want her scared, not angry.”

Ella walked in slowly, then sat across the table from Ruby. “We know you’ve been playing games with us.”

“That’s not true. I told you what I knew about Angelina.”

“How long had you all been experimenting with drugs?” Ella asked pointedly. “The mescaline, peyote,
maybe a little of something else?”

Ruby looked ashen. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Angelina took you to the emergency room here in Shiprock. She signed the admission papers herself. Start telling the truth, Ruby, we know enough to catch any lies.”

“Okay, okay. Yeah, we bought some mushrooms and peyote from someone, I don’t remember who. We thought it would be a kick. They’re not like cocaine
or anything. You don’t become an addict. The Native American Church, for example, uses peyote for enlightenment and stuff.”

“It’s a sacrament for them, not something to be done for a lark, and using peyote is only part of their beliefs.”

“Yeah, well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Angelina had found some tunnels that she swore had been used by skinwalkers once, so we went there. We
knew we’d be okay, because we were with a guy who knew first aid.”

Ella looked directly at the girl. “We know about Howard Lee, Angelina’s boyfriend. That’s old news now. What happened next?”

Ruby’s eyes widened, then she sighed. Relief, or defeat, finally showed on her face. “Sooner or later, I knew you’d figure out who he was. Well, he handed out small amounts of the ground-up mushrooms and,
though we all took that, none of us had any peyote. The only reason I got sick is because I insisted on taking an extra portion of the ground-up mushroom.”

“Why?”

She shrugged. “I figured if Howard could do it, so could I.”

“Why did Howard take extra; was it his greater body size?” Ella held her breath, grateful that Ruby had confirmed their ID work.

“No, he said that as a medical professional,
he knew exactly what the danger signs were, and he could handle the effects better. I thought that was bull and said so. But he didn’t end up in the hospital, and I did. So maybe he was right.”

“How long had Angelina been dating Howard?” Justine asked.

“Several months, but, with his wife and all, they were very careful. Angelina was protective of him, too. She was afraid that Howard would get
in trouble and that his medical career would be ruined, so she made us all promise that we never would tell about the drugs, or about them being together. Now that she’s dead and I’m in trouble about it, that promise doesn’t matter as much to me.”

“How often did you guys meet to experiment with the drugs?”

Ruby looked around nervously before answering. “Just a few times at the tunnels. Then
we started meeting in different places, wherever it suited us. Sometimes, if he had some, we would take peyote along with the mushrooms. But when things started getting crazy, we stopped.”

“Crazy how?”

“Howard started talking about skinwalkers, and about how wonderful your dead father-in-law was.”

“What?” Ella was unable to avoid her surprise.

“Oh, yeah. He was totally obsessed with him. He
thought old Police Chief Clah was guiding him, and that maybe they were linked.” Ruby tapped her head with one finger. “I’m telling you, he sounded nuts. It even scared Angelina.”

“What did she do?” Ella prodded.

Ruby regarded her with a worried frown. “Look, I’m telling you a lot here. I want to make sure you won’t throw me in jail until my hair turns gray, okay?”

“I’m investigating a murder.
The only way I’ll throw the book at you is if you withhold any more of the information I need. Understood?”

Ruby nodded.

“Okay, now tell me about Angelina.”

“When she heard Howard say that Randall Clah was guiding him, she got really upset. She told him that they shouldn’t take any more peyote buttons, that the stuff was dangerous. Howard calmed her down, and promised that he would stop ‘kidding’
her about skinwalkers. He was really good getting her to do or believe whatever he wanted, you know.”

“Was he angry at her for spoiling his fun, angry enough to kill her?”

Ruby shook her head. “No way. He knew Angelina was crazy about him, and he loved knowing he could control her. I always thought that the real reason he didn’t leave his wife was that he used his marriage as a tool to make
Angelina want him more.”

“Did Angelina ever ask him to leave his wife?” Justine asked.

“Oh, yes! And he’d said that he would, but I knew it would never happen. He had Angelina under his thumb. He even convinced her to start taking peyote with him again, just the two of them, after he got off work on the weekends.”

“Did anyone else know about this?”

“Sure. All of us did. The other girls may
not tell you though, not matter how much you pressure them. We loved Angelina. She was wild, but she was also a lot of fun and she was a good friend.”

“One more question, Ruby. Where did Howard get the peyote? Think hard. I know he’s too busy with work at the hospital and the mine to go out into the desert to collect his own.” Ella waited. This was a critical detail. If she could track down Howard’s
dealer, she might learn who had contaminated the peyote buttons with jimsonweed.

“Angelina told us Howard was bringing it back from his new church, the Navajo Justice one. He’d do a little magic trick he learned. He’d pretend to put the buttons in his mouth, but palm them instead, then pretend to chew. He’d get two or three each service that way and bring them back to Angelina, and for a while,
us, too; if he could get enough. Angelina wanted to go to the church herself, but she was afraid her father would find out.”

Ruby fidgeted in her chair. “Look, I really have told you all I know. Can I go home now?”

“Sure,” Ella answered, “once you sign a statement for our records.”

As Justine escorted Ruby out to make her statement, Ella rested her back against the cold wall. She had a good
suspicion where the notes she’d received from Randall Clah had come from now. Howard Lee was good at deception, almost as good as Randall himself had been.

*   *   *

An hour later, Justine joined Ella in her office. “Ruby Atso’s statement is logged and I’ve finished the checks on Nelson Yellowhair and Judy Lujan. Both are well liked, and seemingly law-abiding. Neither has a record.”

Ella sat
still, thinking. “Nelson Yellowhair had access to the same source of bacterial cultures as Howard Lee. He could be responsible for the illnesses and deaths at the inoculation sites, or be an accomplice. I don’t think Judy Lujan is a player, though.”

“Should I keep digging into Nelson’s past? I really don’t think we’ll find anything there, except for his link with a certain senator.”

“You may
be right, but let’s not remove him from the list of suspects. We may be jumping to conclusions if we assume Howard Lee has been solely responsible for everything that has happened.”

“Why do you think Lee is so enthralled with our old police chief?”

“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out. Until we have an answer, though, put a close tail on Howard Lee, but not close enough for him to suspect
he’s being followed.”

“You think it would do us any good to haul Howard in about the notes?”

“No, he’s been pretty good at lying to protect himself. But let’s check the handwriting on the notes against Howard’s. Also see if anyone knows of a connection between Nelson Yellowhair and Howard, besides work. Then I want you to ask Judy Lujan if Bitah ever suspected that Lee was skimming peyote buttons
for his own use. Bitah doesn’t sound like someone who would let something like that go unpunished.”

“Got it.”

“And leave me Howard Lee’s photo, the big one. I’m going to try tracking things from another angle.”

After Justine left, Ella stood up slowly. Her mother would be an excellent source of information. She knew practically everyone on the Rez. Ella left her office and drove to her home.
She found Rose in the open-air porch, knitting.

Rose glanced up, surprised. “What are you doing home this time of day?”

“I’m trying to track down some information, and I’m hoping you can help,” she said, explaining.

Rose took a deep breath and let it out again. “I can’t help you with that, but there is one person who might know. The problem is, she scarcely speaks to anyone since your father-in-law
died.”

“Who is it?”

“Your father-in-law’s aunt.”

Ella stared at the floor, lost in thought. She remembered hearing about Jane Clah but, to the best of her recollection, she’d never actually met the woman. “I don’t remember ever seeing her.”

“She came to your wedding, but didn’t stay long. She was always nervous around your father-in-law. At the time, I thought it was because he was a policeman.”

“Will you come with me to see her? She may speak more freely to you.”

Rose shook her head. “No, she and I were never friends. I always had the impression she hated our entire family.”

“Where does she live? Do you know?”

“After the news of your father-in-law’s death, and his secret life, she moved out somewhere west of Bisti, just south of one of those big microwave towers. She doesn’t come
to town anymore, so nobody has seen her for a long time. I’m not even sure if she’s still alive.”

“Is there someone else I can speak to?”

“Someone who would know who your father-in-law associated with? No. The others I can think of are all either dead or hiding somewhere from the law.” Rose grew somber. “If your father-in-law’s aunt chooses to talk to you, she could probably tell you a lot.
She lived next door to him most of his adult life.”

Ella checked a map for more detailed directions on how to find the woman she needed, then began the long drive. The paved road gave out about six miles west of highway 666, and the dirt track after that had obviously suffered badly over the last winter. As the miles stretched out, Ella wondered if the trip would be fruitful, or turn out to be
just another waste of time.

Almost sixty minutes of washer-board road later, Ella arrived at a log and mud hogan in the middle of an open stretch of beautiful, barren desert right out of a John Wayne western. The rundown corrals were empty, an open gate swaying in the breeze. Wondering if the woman she sought had indeed passed on, Ella waited in the Jeep, glancing around for signs of life. Minutes
stretched out into eternities as the sun pounded on the Jeep. When the heat became intolerable, Ella stepped out of the Jeep and leaned against the side door, waiting.