Never-ending-snake (6 page)

“Following your premise, then why was he carrying it back to the Rez? That cash should have stayed in D.C.,” Justine said.

Ella stared at the stacks of money. “Maybe this came from Casino Enterprises’ home office. It could be part of a deal to pay back the money they took from the tribe and squash the lawsuit Kevin’s throwing
at them.”

“This could also be the war hero’s savings—cashed out,” Neskahi suggested. “He might have been planning to make a down payment on, say, a condo in D.C., then changed his mind.”

“A sergeant in the armed services with that much cash lying around?” Blalock shook his head. “Not likely—unless he had another business on the side. Of course soldiers sometimes bring back stuff from overseas
and resell it here—legal or not. He could have been dealing anything from collector’s items to drugs.”

“The very existence of this much untraceable money sends out warning signals,” Benny said. “Most legal businesses handle transactions through electronic transfers or checks, not with cash.”

“Whatever the case, someone sure went to a lot of trouble buying the game, opening it, switching out
the play money, then carefully resealing the whole thing,” Ella said. “Adam told me he’d bought the game for his nephew.”

“Either Lonewolf didn’t know about the stash and was being played by someone who was using him as a courier, or he lied to you. Maybe
this
is what the shooters were after,” Blalock said.

“No, I don’t agree with that. It would have been a lot simpler for the perps with the
assault rifles to demand the money up front instead of opening fire,” Ella said. “Their only interest was in their targets. As soon as Kevin and Adam went down hard, their job was done and they took off. That’s my definition of a hit.”

“Any idea when can we talk to Tolino?” Blalock asked.

“I don’t know. The hospital will call me when he’s conscious,” Ella said. “What we could do right now is
talk to Kevin’s boss, Robert Buck. He might be able to help us rule out or establish the casino payoff possibility.”

“Buck, he’s what . . . the equivalent of the attorney general for the tribe?” Blalock asked.

Ella nodded.

“It’s Sunday so he’s not going to be at the office,” Justine said, then going to her computer, found Robert Buck’s address in the tribal government database and wrote it
down. “Here you go,” she said, handing the paper to Ella. “He lives just north of Twin Lakes, not far from the turnoff to Coyote Canyon. About an eighty-minute drive one way.”

“Good thing my house is on the way,” Ella said. “I’ll stop there long enough to shower and change. I’ve still got blood on me, and my shirt’s full of holes.” She glanced at Justine and added, “I’ll bag it all for you and
bring it in.”

Ella looked around at the other members of her team. “Justine will take care of the lab work. Benny and Joe, start interviewing everyone in the community who might have seen that van, working from the airstrip out. The shooters were probably waiting in the area, maybe at a fast food place or beside the highway, then moved in when they spotted the aircraft circling. Their timing
was precise. They also had to know we were coming in on that flight so, Benny, find out who knew Tolino and Lonewolf were scheduled to land this morning. Joe, I want you to talk to those who knew Lonewolf and see what other things he had going on in his life.”

“In D.C., too?” Neskahi asked.

“Yeah. You can do that part of it by phone,” Ella said. “Also interview people who knew or worked with
Kevin here and over there. Benny, one last thing. Check on Alan Grady’s alibi. We’ll need to know where he was during the time of the incident.”

Benny nodded. “I’ll try to get the names of Grady’s closest associates, too. If he was one of the gunmen, he wasn’t alone. But this’ll take a while to put together.”

“We need more manpower,” Neskahi said, turning as Big Ed appeared at the lab’s door.
The chief nodded for the sergeant to continue.

“Those immediate interviews and alibi checks are going to take time, and we may have to track down locals who saw something—like business employees whose shifts have ended,” Neskahi added.

“Feel free to pull in Officer Marianna Talk for legwork,” Big Ed said. “If you still need more hands, Shorty, come talk to me. I just took another call from headquarters
at Window Rock. You’re to have all the help you need.”

“I’ll get Marianna then,” Ella said.

“I’ll arrange for Bureau agents in D.C. to look into any possible connection between the crime and the work that Tolino and Lonewolf were doing in and around the capital,” Blalock said.

“There’s something else I’m going to need.” Ella showed Big Ed the money Adam had been carrying, and described how
they’d found it. When she repeated what Adam had told her about the game being for his nephew, Big Ed’s eyebrows went up.

“Do whatever you need to keep this from hitting the fan,” he said.

“I need to get all the details behind Kevin’s lawsuit against casino management,” Ella said. “I’m planning to talk to Robert Buck about it, but I don’t think he’s going to give me a straight answer.”

“You’re
right about that,” Big Ed said. “In my experience, attorneys play things like this very close to their chests, and Robert Buck is an old defense lawyer. But give me a little time and I’ll see what I can do.”

“I appreciate the help, Chief,” Ella said.

As Ella left the building with Blalock some time later, she lapsed into an uneasy silence.

“What’s eating at you, Clah?” Blalock asked at
last.

“Every police officer is warned repeatedly that complacency always carries a high price. When the plane landed I was really looking forward to spending some quiet time with my family, and business was the last thing on my mind. I let down my guard, Dwayne, and that was precisely when everything went crazy.”

“It happens that way sometimes. Don’t start blaming yourself. You couldn’t have
anticipated what happened.”

Ella thought of Kevin and ex-army sergeant Lonewolf, an authentic war hero who’d been awarded his country’s second highest medal for his heroism in Afghanistan. Now he was fighting for his life after being ambushed, unarmed, at a small Navajo airstrip over three hundred and fifty miles inside the borders of his native land. He’d survived the war abroad, with its IEDs,
mortars, snipers, and machine-gun fire, only to have to face his own mortality here at home.

It was now up to her to restore the
hózh
, the harmony. That’s what she did. In the
bilagáana
world, a police officer upheld the law. Here on the reservation, her job went beyond that. She needed to restore the balance, honoring both the laws of nature
and of men, so all could walk in beauty.

As they drove south out of Shiprock, passing the airstrip on her left, she saw the airplane still sitting there. Heat waves rose from the asphalt where she’d nearly died a few hours ago. Ella forced herself to look away and focus on the job ahead. Her work had only just begun.

“Hey, Ella, you okay in there?” Blalock called out.

“Yeah, sorry it’s taken me so long, Dwayne,” she yelled from the back bedroom. “Normally I can shower and change in five minutes, but I’m sore all over. All that hitting the pavement and rolling takes its toll.” She crossed the narrow hall, and entered the living room, where he was waiting.

“I’d suggest that
you’re getting too old for this field work crap, but I have a dozen years on you and I haven’t got the sense to start looking for a desk job either,” Blalock said, getting up from the sofa.

“Have a seat again while I grab a glass of my mom’s herbal tea, will you? I’ve been looking forward to that for the past four days,” Ella said, heading toward the kitchen. “Want one?”

“No thanks.” He eased
back down onto the soft cushion. “Have you decided if you’ll be taking the job at PPS? After what happened to you today, I was wondering if working for three times the pay in an air-conditioned D.C. office has suddenly become irresistible.”

Ella poured herself a glass of the cool brew from a gallon
jar her mom kept in the fridge. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. The money and benefits are
hard to beat, that’s true, but I’d be giving up a lot.”

She stopped in the doorway, looking at FB-Eyes as she sipped the cold tea. “I spoke to three of the women who work at PPS. Two of them are former police officers, and the one thing that struck me is that they’re lonely after hours. They were always looking for ways to connect with other people, through clubs, churches and things like that.
On the Rez that’s all built in. We’re all connected—part of the tribe. We have our neighbors, our clans, and our families.”

“You could still stay in touch with everyone here. E-mail, phone calls, text messaging, video conferencing in front of your computer, even. It’s pretty much instant gratification.”

“I’m not sure that would be enough for me. But like I said, I’m still thinking things over.”
She walked back to the sink and rinsed out her glass. “Right now you and I better get going,” she said, grabbing the paper bag that held her soiled clothing.

Blalock reached for his keys. “I’ve done some homework while you were cleaning up. Robert Buck, Kevin’s boss, graduated from Harvard and has worked for the tribe ever since. He flies back and forth from his office in Window Rock to D.C.
about once a month. He also keeps his nose clean. He doesn’t even have a parking ticket, and his credit rating is excellent. No big bills, and no money problems, apparently.”

Moments later, Blalock drove down the gravel road leading from Ella’s home to the main highway to the east. “You’ve checked Buck’s background via our normal channels. Now let me go through the back door,” Ella said. Then,
using her cell phone, she dialed her mother, who was still at the hospital.

Rose was well connected, and, more often than not, managed to get the kind of information that went well beyond legal channels.

Rose answered on the first ring. These days her mom
not only carried a cell phone, she actually kept it on. For many months, though she’d take the phone with her wherever she went, she’d refuse
to turn it on. She didn’t want to be bothered. Ella smiled. Dawn had finally convinced her to leave it on so she could reach her grandmother anytime in case of an emergency.

Ella wasn’t sure what career her daughter would end up choosing someday, but her powers of persuasion were second to none.

Ella told her mom what she needed, asking her to keep the request totally private. “Anything you
can tell me about him might help, Mom.”

“I know the attorney general’s grandmother. She’s very proud of her son, the lawyer from Harvard. She thinks that he places too much importance on what the
bilagáanas
think, but he told her that he has to play by their rules so he can get some cooperation on matters that affect the tribe.”

“Thanks, Mom,” Ella said, then hung up.

“What did she say?” Blalock
asked.

Ella shared what she’d learned. “Kevin’s like that, too—he plays to win. The difference between men like Adam and Kevin is the site of their battles.”

Blalock glanced over at her, then back at the road.