Enemy Way (36 page)

Ella went back to her office, her thoughts racing. Sitting at her computer terminal, she pulled up all the tribal records she could find on the housing area where the chase had started. The people living in the one home that had originally been there had remained, undisturbed by whatever was happening around them. The Benallys, the owners of that home, had
moved from near White Rock, not too far, by reservation standards, from Jane Clah’s hogan.

The connection made her skin prickle. Skinwalkers. That explained why the houses continued to be abandoned almost as quickly as the tenants moved in and why the tribe had never received any plausible explanations. The People hated talking about skinwalkers, and why make an enemy of them when it was simply
easier to leave?

Ella leaned back in her chair. It was time to take the offensive. If the skinwalkers were trying to get the doll back, then that was her trump card. All she needed now was a plan.

As she mulled things over, Justine came into her office. “I’ve got bad news,” she said, her face was pale.

“Go ahead,” Ella said, waving her to a chair.

“It’s my cousin, Thomas. He was being taken
to a safe house at Teece Nos Pos. On the way, the two officers escorting him had to stop at Beclabito because they were having car trouble. They found out they were low on oil, for some reason. One, Officer Dodge, went inside while the other stayed in the car with the boy. When Dodge returned, he found his partner out cold, and Thomas was gone.”

Ella sat up. “Did anyone see anything?”

“No, just
a fresh set of tire tracks. This happened almost an hour ago, but I just got the report. All the radio traffic went through Window Rock, for some reason, and they just forwarded the message here. Apparently, Officer Poyer was taken to the Teece Nos Pos clinic. When he came around, claiming to have been drugged by some kind of red dust, both officers hurried back to Beclabito. They tried to pick
up the kidnapper’s trail, but were unsuccessful. They put out an APB, but because the request went through Window Rock, it was slow getting here. So far, nobody has found any trace of the kid. According to them, it was as if he’d vanished off the face of the earth.”

“I’m going to call my brother and see if he’ll meet me at the place where your cousin was abducted. He’ll know what to look for
more than we would, under these circumstances.”

“I don’t know what to tell my aunt. Do you think he’s still alive?”

Ella pressed her lips together. “I honestly don’t know, because I think the evil ones were responsible, not the North Siders. What bothers me, is that they took him right out of our hands in broad daylight. That’s a big victory for them, and it’s going to boost their confidence
and morale.”

“Would you like to talk to Poyer and Dodge?”

“Yeah. Tell them to meet me where it happened, then get your things and come out to the Jeep. I’d like you along.”

“I consider Thomas my responsibility now. I’ll do whatever you think will help get him back alive.”

Ella dialed Clifford’s number and arranged to meet with him at the gas station where the incident had occurred. She could
feel his tension as she explained what she needed from him.

“If that boy is found dead, you’re going to have a morale crisis at the station, and not just because he’s a relative of one of your officers. No matter how modern the Navajo, ancient fears persist just beneath the surface. This victory by the evil ones is going to cost you a great deal.”

“I’m aware of that. I’ll meet you there at Beclabito,
and hopefully you can tell me something I don’t know,” she snapped. As soon as she hung up, she regretted losing her temper. Taking it out on him had been pointless, particularly when she needed his help. Fatigue and stress were taking their toll on her. It was only a little after noon, and already the day seemed endless.

She didn’t have time to waste, however. She gathered her equipment and
headed for her Jeep, where Justine was already waiting.

Ella beat Clifford to the gas station and, as Justine had arranged, the two officers were waiting to report. “We were alert,” Poyer said almost instantly as he met her gaze, “but we were ambushed. Our unit was parked out in the open, and I was keeping watch. Whoever it was must have come from the front. The hood was up, and my view was obstructed.
All of a sudden there was this awful-smelling reddish smoke that seemed to engulf the car. I tried to yell, but I couldn’t even draw a breath. The kid managed a cough, that’s all. I remember trying to reach for my weapon, but my hand felt as if it had been turned to concrete. I couldn’t move. I guess I passed out, because all I remember was Dodge shaking me hard and asking me what happened.”
His face was flushed with embarrassment.

Dodge shrugged. “I parked the vehicle right beyond the gas pumps. I was inside for only a few minutes getting three quarts of oil, but when I heard a car drive off it was already over. Whoever sneaked up on foot was picked up by the vehicle, along with our prisoner. All I saw was a blue sedan going over the hill. There was no license plate. We’re sorry,
Investigator Clah. We screwed up. I should have guessed somebody had tampered with the oil, knowing we’d have to stop.”

“Okay, I need answers fast. Talk to everyone in the area who might have been around or seen any strangers. Do whatever you have to, but I want to know where that kid is. Clear?”

“Understood,” Poyer said, then turned and strode back to his patrol unit with Dodge at his heels.

Ella watched them drive off, knowing that they were embarrassed by what had happened, and would be doubling their efforts to make up for it. Just a moment’s complacency was all it took for a cop to lose his or her life. She doubted they’d be fooled like that again.

After the officers left, Ella turned to Justine, aware of her assistant’s mood. “I understand how this has upset you, Justine. We’re
going to do all we can to get your cousin back alive.”

Justine exhaled softly. “I know; it’s just that Thomas had started to trust us a bit, once he realized what he’d gotten into. I thought there was a chance for him to turn things around. Now he may be dead. I see this as a double failure on our part, and it goes against everything I intended to accomplish when I became a cop. If we can’t help
these kids—if we can’t do more than just arrest them—then we’ve failed ourselves and the tribe. I’m not ready to quit being a cop, don’t get me wrong, but I’m just not sure how I can get back the feeling that I’m doing something positive for the tribe when I can’t even protect my own family.”

“If you come up with any answers, make sure you tell me,” Ella said. “I felt the same way when Mom was
hit by that drunk driver.”

The gas station was nestled in the low piñon and juniper pine hills just east of the Arizona state line. As Ella scanned the area, she saw Clifford had arrived while she was questioning the officers and talking to Justine. He stood by his truck, parked on the southern shoulder of the road across the highway from the gas station.

Ella went to join her brother, while
Justine went to question the station employees. “Sorry. I was tied up when you arrived. Did you find anything that could help us out?”

“Not really, but from the description you gave me, I thought it would be sheer luck if I did,” Clifford said.

“You found nothing at
all?
” Ella insisted. Something told her that he was holding back.

Clifford took a deep breath, then let it out again. “Well, let’s
just say I found nothing that you can use for evidence.”

Ella looked at him curiously, then asked the obvious question. “What aren’t you saying?”

He said nothing for several moments, staring at Justine, who had come back out of the gas station and was walking around, looking for clues on the ground. “I saw vehicle tracks, like you probably did, but I also noticed something I haven’t seen during
daylight hours in many years. There was an owl perched on the roof of that gasoline station, not a burrowing owl either. It was a Great Horned Owl, one of the largest I’ve ever seen.”

“Something terrible is on the way, is that what you’re telling me?” Ella pressed.

“I’m just saying that evil attracts evil. Whatever happened here is the start of something, not the end,” he said. “I’ve already
sung an Enemy Way, like I said I would, but I’m not sure…” He shook his head gravely, took a pinch of pollen out of his medicine bag, murmured a brief prayer in Navajo, and released it on the wind. Then he walked to his truck and drove away.

Ella met Justine, who had finished questioning the station staff. They had seen nothing except the two cops. Ella and Justine walked the area silently together
for another ten minutes, finding no evidence except a set of car tracks to support Poyer’s story. Finally, they headed back toward Shiprock.

“Where are we going?” Justine asked, as they failed to make the turn for the police station.

“I want to make a stop by Agent Blalock’s office in Farmington. I need to talk to him,” she said.

They were still lost in thought as they passed through Kirtland.
Abruptly a large bird swooped down in front of the Jeep. Trying to avoid colliding with it, Ella slammed on the brakes and swerved, but the bird still hit the window hard. Ella veered off the road onto the shoulder. When they finally came to a stop, she drew in a long, ragged breath.

“It was an owl,” Justine said in a shaky voice. “A really big owl. You saw it?”

“Yeah. It’s back there on the
road, dead, right?”

They both looked back. The road was empty. Ella left the vehicle and looked around, walking back to where she gauged the impact had taken place. There had to be at least some feathers around! The sharp, cracking sound of the bird striking the windshield still echoed in her mind. She was surprised the glass hadn’t shattered.

Justine searched the shoulder on both sides of the
highway. “I know you hit it, I was sitting right there. But it’s nowhere around, and there are no traces of blood or feathers either on the windshield or on the road.”

“We were startled by the impact, and we must have magnified it in our minds,” Ella said, trying to explain it to herself as much as to Justine. “It wasn’t nearly as bad as we thought. The bird managed to fly away.”

Justine held
firm. “It was bad.”

They got back into the Jeep, shaken and quiet. As they continued on to Blalock’s Farmington office, Ella told Justine what Clifford had said.

Justine shifted to face Ella. “Something is really wrong here. It goes beyond the problem with gangs. The skinwalkers want
you.
I bet that’s what your brother was trying to warn you about.”

“That’s no news. They’ve wanted me and my
family for a long time,” Ella shrugged. “I think what’s happening is that they want the item I’ve recovered.” Ella explained about the doll. “They may be hoping that, through it, they can destroy me. But I’ve got to tell you, it’s going to take a lot more than a stuffed rag doll to finish me off. They’re ticking me off, not scaring me.”

Ella stopped by Blalock’s office in Farmington, and asked
if the package she’d mailed him had arrived. It hadn’t, the mail came later in the day, so Ella showed Blalock a photo of the doll and explained that she needed him to keep the artifact for her until she asked for it.

Blalock looked disgruntled, but agreed.

He gestured to the photo Ella had given him. “It’s an ugly-looking thing, isn’t it,” he observed with distaste. “I’ll go ahead and keep
it in my safe, but outside the Rez who would want to steal it?”

“If the skinwalkers track it to your office, they’ll come for it.”

“Skinwalkers? Here? I doubt that. They’d be off their home ground, and I know bullets will stop them. I shoot as well as you do, almost.”

“They may consider raiding your office an acceptable risk in exchange for the chance to retrieve this object of power.”

Blalock
shook his head. “Are you ready to take these people down? Do you need backup?”

“No, on both counts, at least not yet. Thanks for the offer. I’ll let you know when I’m ready to make my move.”

As they left, Justine looked through the remaining photos of the doll. “This thing is really sickening,” she commented. “Are you going to fill me in on your plan now? Do I have a part in it?”

“You’re in,”
Ella assured. “I want you to cover me. We’re going back to the neighborhood Neskahi was in last night, where I joined him this morning, and that’s not a place I intend to venture in alone.”

Justine shuddered. “Shall we wake the sergeant and have him come along?”

“No. There’ll be plenty of time for him to get involved later, but give Big Ed a call and let him know where we’ll be, in case we need
backup.”

Ella stopped across the street from the Benally house, shuddering at the empty echoing feel of the abandoned neighborhood. “I want you to keep your distance and stay out of sight as much as possible, but try to keep me in view. I’m counting on you to watch my back.”

“You’ve got it.”

“And watch your own, while you’re at it,” Ella warned.

“Always.”

Ella left the Jeep and walked slowly
toward the door of the innocuous-looking wood-frame house, giving Justine a chance to slip out of the Jeep and get into place. Everything was quiet. She didn’t even hear birds chirping. She stopped in mid-stride and looked around. There was no other living thing in sight.

She knew too much about her instincts to blame an overactive imagination for her uneasiness now, but there was no obvious
logical reason for the way she felt. The house was ordinary, a simple one-story stucco, that looked like many other thirty-year-old homes on the Rez.

Ella knocked on the door. Since this neighborhood wasn’t a stronghold of traditionalists, she had opted to approach directly rather than wait for an invitation. An elderly Navajo man came to the door. His weathered face looked as unyielding as a
cliff face. His eyes gleamed out at her like dark coals.

Ella pulled out her badge. “I’m looking for a relative of mine, Jane Clah. Do you know her?”

The man’s face registered nothing. “I don’t know any woman by that name,” he said and started to close the door.