Enemy Way (35 page)

Ella stood up slowly. Neskahi was waiting by his vehicle. His gaze remained on the wrecked car, not on the body.

Ella looked down at the corpse. She understood hatred, but not something this powerful. This woman, whom she scarcely knew, had been willing to die in the hope of taking Ella with her.

“Do you know who she is?” Neskahi asked Ella.

“Yes. She worked at the trading post over
on Highway Six-six-six. She’s also our former police chief’s daughter.”

Ella walked away from the body. There would be time for the dead later. Now their own survival seemed far more important. “You heard what she told me?”

He nodded once. “I honestly don’t understand it. We should have no problem getting back to Shiprock. The truck’s undamaged, and even if we had to hike out to the highway,
I can’t imagine either of us dying out here.” He paused, then added, “Unless there’s something else that we don’t know about waiting for us,” Neskahi said.

Ella nodded. “My thoughts exactly.”

As a coyote howled in the distance they exchanged quick glances. “Nothing to do with us,” she said.

“Yeah.”

They got back into the truck. As Neskahi started up the engine, Ella saw the gas gauge was nearly
empty.

“That can’t be right. I should have at least a quarter tank,” Neskahi said, turning off the engine. They both got out to check for holes in the fuel line or tank.

Squatting down, Neskahi looked under the truck and saw a steady drip of fuel coming from the tank. He got underneath, and held his finger over the hole until Ella could find a stick. Neskahi took the piece of wood and wedged
it into the hole, almost stemming the flow. Then he crawled back out and stood, dusting off his clothes quickly. That should hold it for awhile,” he said, looking weary.

“Let’s hope a while is long enough,” Ella replied.

Before long they were on their way, driving west toward the highway. “I spent most of the night staking out her neighborhood, but I guess she was watching me just as carefully,”
Neskahi said. “I must have been groggier than I thought if she was able to get past me and poke a hole in my truck’s gas tank. It looks like we’ve been pumping gas onto the ground ever since the chase started. She lured us farther away from the roads, knowing we would run out eventually and that, out here, radio transmission is poor because of the terrain.”

“But she didn’t know about my cell
phone,” Neskahi smiled. “Maybe we can still get through.” He reached for the phone, then groaned at the low battery light.

“Try it anyway. I left mine in my Jeep,” Ella said with a shrug.

Neskahi punched out the station number, but the phone failed to respond. “Sorry. It’s been almost twenty-four hours since I charged this thing.”

“It’s okay. Justine knows where we turned off, and so do the
others. They’ll come after us soon.”

Ella took a deep breath. “It’s okay. You had to keep your eyes on the road. Justine knows where we turned off, and so do the others. They’ll come after us soon.”

Neskahi felt a blast of air and sand hit the truck, slowing it down. “Luck’s not with us. We’re in for a dust storm, and driving against the wind will cost us even more fuel.”

Ella didn’t believe
in luck, good or bad, but she wasn’t sure what else to call the storm that was building. “We’ll drive until the gas gives out, then walk the rest of the way to the main highway. The sand’s unpleasant, but it has a plus. It’ll hide us from our enemies.”

“And them from us,” Neskahi said.

*   *   *

The gas gave out after only a few miles. After considering waiting out the sandstorm inside the
truck, they decided to head for the highway instead. Neither wanted to waste time waiting to be found when there was work to be done. Once they reached the highway, help would be quick to reach them.

Ella left a note inside the truck explaining what had happened in case a patrol car found the vehicle. They hadn’t been able to reach anyone on the radio, but they took their hand-helds anyway, hoping
that as they narrowed the distance to the highway that would change. Seeing Neskahi reach for his shotgun before getting out, Ella nodded in approval.

The moment they stepped out of the vehicle, they got pelted by a blast of stinging sand. Ella zipped up her coat and stuck her hands in her pockets. The wind was icy, and she found herself wishing she’d eaten something more substantial for breakfast.
At least then she would have had more calories to burn to warm herself up.

Keeping some distance from each other, in case of an ambush, yet remaining within sight of each other, they kept quiet, listening, trying to make out sounds over the howl of the wind. Ella felt the danger all around them, she knew her enemies were near, but she couldn’t see anyone. She wasn’t at all sure if they’d have
to go up against her father-in-law’s family, skinwalkers, or both. Her father-in-law had been the former police chief and the leader of a group of Navajo witches out to seize power on the reservation. Her own father had been their first victim.

After a short time, they found themselves in a low area that seemed to go on forever. “We’re getting near Jane’s hogan. I remember it was in a large basin.
Her home gave me the creeps before, but I’d be willing to go along if you want to take shelter in her hogan until this storm passes,” Ella shouted. “It’s worse than we thought it would be.”

“I’d rather not, if we’re voting on this.” Neskahi yelled back.

“Why?”

“I don’t like the idea. We don’t know what happened to her,” Neskahi said.

“Are you worried about the
chindi?
”

He shrugged. “I don’t
know about that, but I don’t like the idea of being on their ground. If it gave you the creeps, that’s enough for my thumbs down.” Neskahi quickened his pace until she had to hurry up to keep him in sight through the dust.

She knew he wasn’t really so far away, that it was just the blowing sand that made it seem so. Finally, she spotted something to her left that gave her an idea. She checked
it out, then caught up to Neskahi, who was waiting after he had lost sight of her.

“There’s a shallow cave back there, and it looks like there’s nothing inside except spiderwebs. Let’s hole up there until this wind dies down a bit. Is that okay with you?”

It seemed like a good solution, and Neskahi quickly agreed. As she slipped through the tall, narrow opening cut into the hillside itself,
she felt a sense of destiny. Something inside her assured her that she’d been meant to find this place.

Neskahi brought out a pocket flashlight, illuminating the interior. “Someone’s used this place before.”

Ella fought the urge to turn and run as she saw the two wedding bands resting in a bed of ashes beside the rock wall ahead. One had been cut through to allow the second band to become entwined
within it.

Ella recognized the bands. They’d been custom-made out of turquoise and silver. Eugene, her husband, had worn one, and she had worn the other. He’d been buried with his. Hers had been put away, along with the memories that it had carried, in what she’d thought to be a safe place. It had been placed under a rock on a hillside where they’d first made love.

Yet now both bands were here,
intertwined, as if the
chindi
of Eugene was calling out to her. It was meant to unnerve her, or if you believed the traditionalist’s views, to bring on her death.

“You’ve seen those rings before,” Neskahi observed.

“They belonged to my late husband and me—a lifetime ago.”

“Do you think our enemies meant for you to find this?”

Ella considered it. “I think they were hoping I would. It’s their
way of reminding me that my enemies are everywhere, and will never give up.” She went to pick the wedding bands out of the ashes, determined not to allow them to remain here, but a sixth sense stopped her from reaching for them. “Hand me that stick,” she said.

As she slipped the slender reed inside one of the rings, she heard the distinctive dry shake of a rattlesnake’s tail warning her to back
off.

Ella dropped the stick quickly, and the bands fell to the ground. As she stepped back she saw the head of a torpid snake peering out from beneath a ledge in the rock face. She stood still and the reptile slithered farther back into the shadows.

“You cheat death often,” Neskahi said quietly.

“It’s the gift I’m most fond of,” Ella said. She snatched up the rings and put them in her pocket.
They represented memories best laid to rest, so she would bury them later once she was alone again.

“Look, I know it’s miserable out there with the blowing sand, but I’m willing to risk it, if you are,” Ella said. “What do you say we continue toward the main highway? We’ll have officers out looking for us soon enough, and we might reach someone on our hand-helds once we get close.”

“Okay by
me.”

As she moved back to the mouth of the cave, she noticed the barely perceptible imprint of a cane in the sandy cave floor. Ella smiled slowly. “You lost that round, too, Miss Jane,” she said. Her whisper-soft voice was drowned by the angry howl of the wind.

*   *   *

Ella wasn’t sure how long they’d been hiking, but she knew that after a night without sleep Neskahi was ready to drop. “We
can stop and rest here,” she said.

Neskahi shook his head. “I’ll be okay. The wind has died down quite a bit, so it’s just a matter of getting there.”

“And avoiding any traps between us and our people,” Ella reminded him.

As they sat down upon a big chunk of sandstone, she tried her radio again. Interference was still too pronounced to allow a transmission to come through.

“I can’t afford
to rest for too long,” Neskahi warned. “I’m so tired at this point I could doze off. If you want me to stay alert, we have to keep moving.”

“Let’s go then.”

It took another two hours before Ella and Neskahi saw Highway 666 off near the horizon. She was about to try the radio once more, when she saw a dust trail rising in the air. A moment later a patrol vehicle approaching from the west came
into view.

“Justine, I bet,” Ella said, relieved beyond words.

As the vehicle drew near, Ella saw her assistant behind the wheel.

Justine smiled as she pulled to a stop beside them. “Boy, I’m glad to see you two! I thought you’d probably be okay, but you sure had everyone worried.”

Ella and Neskahi quickly got into her vehicle, enjoying the warmth of the heater. Ella filled her cousin in while
Neskahi dozed in the rear seat. “I’ll need an ID on the body, and anything else you can tell me about her. And I’ll want that as soon as possible.”

“Naturally.” Justine smiled. “And your Jeep is back at the station. Two of our officers coming on duty dropped by and picked it up, along with the shooter’s pickup. But there’s another bit of news you need to know right away. Leo Bekis was killed
in a car accident last night, and his sister Gladys is in the hospital.”

Hearing about the death filled Ella with a black sense of satisfaction. Justice, in its own way, had been done. “Is Gladys going to be okay?”

“According to what I heard, she’s in satisfactory condition. She was wearing a seat belt, and Leo wasn’t. They say he was thrown out of the vehicle when it rolled.”

“What happened?”
Ella sat up straighter in the seat as a thought occurred to her. If it turned out to be a homicide, she could well become one of the suspects—that is, if certain Farmington lawyers had their way.

“Gladys says someone pulled out right in front of them, and Leo had to swerve to avoid a collision. He lost control, and they went over an embankment. She doesn’t know how many times they rolled. When
she regained consciousness, it was dawn, and Leo had been dead for hours.”

“He wasn’t supposed to be driving at all. They pulled his license.” Anger filled Ella, though she wasn’t surprised to hear the news. Bekis had been an arrogant man.

“He wasn’t supposed to be drinking either,” Justine added. “Gladys admitted that was why she had her seat belt on.”

“And the other driver never stopped?”
Ella knew how common hit-and-run accidents were in New Mexico, with so many drivers uninsured.

“No. But you can bet his family isn’t going to pursue that suit against you anymore, considering the way he died. Maybe there’s some justice in this world after all,” Ella’s assistant added.

“I suppose, but I wish my mother hadn’t been his second to the last mistake.”

After they were back at the station,
Ella arranged for Neskahi to get a ride home for some much-needed rest, and then made out a full report for Big Ed. Leaving the file on his desk, she proceeded to Justine’s lab.

Justine took a deep breath. “I’ve got bad news. There are two patrol units out at the accident scene along with the ME, but they haven’t found Mrs. Willink’s body.”

“What? I told you exactly where they should look!”

“It’s not there,” Justine said. “Tache and Ute went straight to the pickup. Except for the burned-out wreck, and a few traces of blood, there was no evidence that anyone had ever been there.”

“Someone must have hauled the body away then,” Ella said. “I know the woman was dead.”

“If they did, the duststorm covered their tracks, so there’s no hope of following their trail.”

“What about the cave?
They found that, right?”

“Yes. Tache’s in there now, but he hasn’t discovered anything except the rattler you told them about.”

Ella dropped down in a chair, reaching down into her pocket to assure herself that the rings were still there. “What about the neighborhood where the woman was hiding? Have you heard anything, besides gossip, I mean? And what about her truck?”

“I haven’t had a chance
to look into it yet,” Justine answered. “Every time I start, something more critical comes up, like today. We did find a pistol in the car—a thirty-eight revolver. It had been wiped clean—even the empty shell casings. The truck was stolen a week ago from Farmington.”

“I’m glad you were there today to give us a ride back,” Ella said with an apologetic smile. “You have enough to do. I’ll take care
of checking that neighborhood myself.”