Enemy Way (40 page)

With a scream, Jane jumped back
quickly, brushing the pollen off herself frantically, as if on fire. Her cane rattled to the floor.

“You’re still the man I know,” Ella said, reaching toward Wilson with her pollen-dusted palm up and open. “You don’t have it in you to kill a friend. The drug is powerful, but so is your spirit.”

Wilson breathed in the pollen heavily, then slowly turned, looking at the frantic Jane Clah as if
seeing her for the first time. “Who are you?”

Jane recovered and stumbled toward the burning utility room, ignoring Ella’s order to stop.

“You won this battle,” the old woman shrieked, silhouetted by the flames. “But, for you, the fight is not over. My death will insure that you will never know who your true enemies are.”

Seeing Jane place something into her mouth, Ella dove toward her. Jane
reacted by throwing some shiny powder into the air, and it exploded into a cloud of flame, knocking them all to the floor with a powerful blast of hot air.

By the time Ella scrambled to her feet, the woman was lying beside the scorched utility-room door, seemingly dead. Ella pulled her up, though she could feel Jane’s strength ebbing away with each passing second.

“Wilson, I need your help!”
Ella’s voice cracked through her friend’s drug-induced stupor, and he picked himself off the floor, stumbling forward. “Help me drag her outside,” Ella ordered.

Choking smoke from the burning utility room engulfed the garage. Ella took her gas mask and placed it over the elderly woman’s face. She intended to do everything in her power to make sure Jane lived to rue the day she’d declared war
on those Ella loved.

Ella grabbed one of Jane’s arms and placed it over her shoulders and, with Wilson’s help, carried the elderly woman away from the fire. The utility room behind them was in flames, and smoke billowed everywhere. There was only one way out. Ella shot away the lock, then forced the spring balanced garage door up with a desperate shove.

Smoke choking them, Wilson and Ella made
their way onto the driveway, then out onto the front yard, dragging the old woman with them. The entire neighborhood was now illuminated by the flames from the burning house.

Ella felt her chest tighten as she saw that two members of her team were down on the ground. She recognized Blalock and Phillip Cloud as the officers tending them. She breathed a little easier as she spotted Clifford there,
too, helping to give first aid. Turning around, she saw the other officers walking around the house, keeping the perimeter safe.

As the emergency vehicles from the phoney accident scene approached, and Angel Hawk hovered overhead, waiting to carry away the wounded, Ella swallowed back bitter tears.

Pushing away her grief so she could function, Ella laid the woman she held responsible for this
tragedy down on the ground beside the street, a safe distance from the heat of the fire. When Ella and Wilson released their hold on her, Jane jumped up with an agility that surprised both of them and, tearing off the gas mask, stumbled back toward the house. Ella was after her in an instant, determined not to let the evil woman escape or take her own life.

Pressing her sleeve to her mouth, and
struggling for every breath, Ella stepped back into the smoke-filled living room and saw Jane reaching for a pouch underneath the sofa. As Jane’s fingers closed around it, the ceiling above her abruptly collapsed, and flaming timbers came crashing down on the old witch.

Coughing and gasping for air, Ella picked her way through the rubble to where the woman was pinned, but it was already too late.
Jane Clah was dead, her skull crushed by a massive beam.

Ella stuck the pouch Jane had tried to retrieve into her own belt. There was no time to check the contents now, but it felt as if the doll her brother had made was within.

Ella was making her way to the door when two firemen wearing masks arrived, and helped her back outside.

As they stepped out into the lightening horizon of a new day,
a paramedic ran toward her. Ella accepted the oxygen mask he offered gratefully and, a short time later, was finally able to stop coughing. As Clifford and Justine approached her, Ella removed the mask.

“Are you okay?” Clifford asked, crouching in front of Ella.

She nodded. “I think I’ve got your doll,” she said, reaching for the pouch she’d stuck in her belt. “She went back for it—” Ella felt
a sudden burst of fear as she realized that the pouch was no longer there. Only a small piece of cloth remained where the pouch had been, as if someone had yanked it off her. But no one had. Surely she would have felt that. “Help me look. It has got to be around here someplace.”

They searched the ground outside the front and back of the house, but the pouch was nowhere to be seen.

“It probably
came loose when the firemen pulled you out,” Clifford said, pointing to the house, now completely engulfed in flames despite the efforts of the firemen. “Don’t worry about it now. It’s gone forever in the flames. I would know otherwise.”

Ella was still bitter. “But she still won, in a way. She died, and with her passing goes our only link to the remaining members of my father-in-law’s secret
family—our sworn enemies.”

“This may not be much of a consolation,” Clifford said slowly, “but you won’t have to search for them.”

Ella nodded. “Yes, I know. Sooner or later, they’ll come after me.”

“Why don’t you go home, boss? You look like hell. I can handle the wrapup.” Justine said.

“I can’t go, not yet. There’s still work for me to do here.” Ella stared at the black smoke, and the flames
that flared up almost every time the firemen appeared to be making progress. Their fight paralleled her own. There was a war raging between her family and those enemies of the tribe who were willing to use the old ways against the
Dineh.
She was needed here, and, for now, this was where she belonged.

TWENTY

The bodies of five dead skin-walkers were recovered and taken away, and the one survivor who’d been knocked out by the door was taken to jail. Although Officers Hobson and Michael Cloud had sustained injuries, they were not life threatening, thanks to the body armor and helmets they had worn.

Ella helped load both into Angel Hawk—thanking them for their dedication. Her team had reason
to be proud of the job they’d done today. They’d fought bravely, and stood together against a fearsome enemy.

While Justine took care of the after-action logistics, Ella turned her attention to Wilson Joe. He stood immobile, staring at the burning building as it slowly collapsed. Though still a bit groggy, the spark of life was back in his eyes, a trait she’d missed the past few weeks.

“Come
home with my brother and me. You need us now, and we need you,” she said softly.

Wilson nodded. “Yes, you’re right. I wanted to forget the dangers in our world, but I almost paid the ultimate price for that foolishness.”

Clifford stood by them. “We scored a victory for our side today, but there’ll be a price to pay later for it. That’s inescapable.” Clifford reached for his keys, and handed
his borrowed revolver back to Ella. “I’ll meet you at Mom’s in a little while.”

Wilson was quiet for a long while as Ella drove. When he finally spoke, he said, “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something. In fact, I was getting into my truck to come see you when those … people took me.”

“What’s on your mind?” Ella asked.

“I heard about Leo Bekis, and that his sister said someone pulled
out in front of them. They went off the road, and the resulting crash killed him.” Wilson’s voice had dropped to a whisper. There was a deathly pallor on his face.

Ella looked at him, and the intuition that Wilson had been the other driver who’d caused the accident hit her like a bolt of lightning. She remembered the night Wilson had been drunk, when she’d taken him to the Totah Cafe. She also
recalled hearing about Gladys’ statement, that the pickup she’d seen had been mud-splattered—it was the same recollection Ella had of Wilson’s truck that same night.

“Did you know he was at the wheel again, and drunk?” Ella said, interrupting Wilson. “We’ll never know whether he died because of his drinking or not. He lost control of a vehicle he wasn’t supposed to be driving in the first place.
I don’t think it matters if we ever find out who the other driver was. Leo was living on borrowed time, and fortunately Gladys will be all right. That’s all that’s important now, right?” Ella looked her friend in the eye, hoping to convey the message that his confession would serve no purpose at this time.

“Don’t you think that the truth is more important…?”

“What I think, is that sometimes
justice is more important that the truth, especially when the truth will only damage the living. We should get on with things, and live our lives the best way we know how.” Ella said, hoping Wilson would drop the subject, once and for all.

“I have a lot of soul-searching before me, I can see that. What lies ahead for you now that this is all ended?” Wilson asked, acknowledging what she’d done
without the need for words.

“I’ve thought a lot about my responsibilities to my family and to my job, and the guilt of knowing that I’ve been putting the job first for a long time,” she said. “Mom said that I was doing what was right for The People, and that I shouldn’t feel guilty about making the right choice. There’s not a selfish bone in her body. Sometimes I think she knows each of us better
than we do ourselves.”

Wilson glanced over at her. “You’ve helped me, and stood by me. Let me offer you some advice now that I hope will help. What you really need to learn is how to balance things. You neglect yourself constantly because your duties demand so much of you. To take care of the needs of others, you first have to look after yourself. Guilt shouldn’t even be a consideration.”

She
nodded. “I know. I have to try harder for that balance, or someday I’ll look back on my life with regret for all the things I haven’t done. I don’t think I could stand that. If there’s one thing I’ve learned lately, it’s that life is way too short.”

Ella pulled up by her home and walked inside with Wilson. Crutches or not, as Rose came to the door to greet them, it felt like old times. Happier
memories gave Ella comfort now.

“You’re just in time. I’ve made breakfast,” Rose said.

Ella looked at her mother in surprise. “How on earth did you know when we were coming?”

“I knew,” Rose answered with a shrug.

Clifford drove up a short time later, and the three of them sat together in the kitchen. Rose, refusing their help, kept busy, as usual, setting plates filled with fry bread and eggs
in front of them. The aroma of fresh green chile and the warmth of the kitchen filled Ella with a wonderful sense of peace.

Content, Ella looked aimlessly out the kitchen window watching the early morning sun dappling the Sacred Mountains in a beautiful reddish glow. To the naked eye the desert could seem stark and lifeless, but within that was a gift of unsurpassed splendor waiting for those
who cared enough to see. This was a difficult time for the
Dineh,
but Ella knew that, somehow, the tribe would survive and continue, just as they’d always done.

“What are your plans now, old friend?” Clifford asked Wilson.

“I’m not going back to teaching at the college,” he said.

Ella looked at her friend in surprise. “You’re a born teacher. What are you going to do?”

“The Rez is changing.
My teaching skills are needed, but they have to be focused differently in order to be useful to The People. All of us here have seen the effects of the gang problem, and the drinking as well. There’s just not enough for the kids to do, no constructive way for them to channel their energies. I’m going to do my best to change that. I intend to pull every string I can to raise funds for a youth center.
I’m going to make alternatives for the kids while they’re still young, so they won’t be quite so tempted to join the gangs.”

“Let me see if I can get the department involved,” Ella suggested. “That should help things along for you.”

“That would be great,” Wilson said.

“I’ll take part, too. Instead of fees, I’ll have some of my patients donate time and skills to either building the center for
you, or renovating an existing building to house it,” Clifford offered.

Rose smiled, pride etched on her features. “Despite all they’ve done, our enemies have not been able to destroy the ties that bind us together. Friendship is our greatest strength.”

Ella looked at Wilson and her brother, silently acknowledging the truth her mother had just spoken. Life was short. It was what one did with
the time one was given that mattered most. “Let’s rough out some plans for that youth center,” she said. “The sooner we start on it the better.”

Also by Aimée and David Thurlo

E
LLA
C
LAH
N
OVELS

Blackening Song

Death Walker

Bad Medicine

Enemy Way

Shooting Chant

Red Mesa

Changing Woman

Tracking Bear

L
EE
N
EZ
N
OVELS

Second Sunrise

Blood Retribution
(coming)

S
ISTER
A
GATHA
N
OVELS

Bad Faith

Thief in Retreat
(coming)

Plant Them Deep

Set on the Navajo reservation and packed with Native American wisdom, Aimée and David Thurlos’ Ella Clah novels are written with a sharp eye for the conflict between the traditionalist and modernist ways of life.

“The Thurlos provide Tony Hillerman with good company on the sunburnt sands and hills of the Southwest.”

—
Cape Coral Daily Breeze

Enemy Way

“The conflicts between the old ways
and Ella’s job as an investigator on the Navajo police force are at the core of this readable novel.”