Red Mesa (12 page)

Moving over to her computer, Ella spotted
immediately that her CPU was still warm to the touch, though it had been switched off. “Harry, I’m going to start searching for fingerprints.”

He called back from the hallway, where he was checking a closet and the heating unit. “Dust the refrigerator and the door, too. Do you have your kit in your Jeep?”

“Yes, and my old one is here on the top shelf in my bedroom closet. I’ll get both and you
can dust the kitchen for latents.”

A half hour later, they gave up. All the surfaces they checked had been wiped clean, probably with window cleaner and paper towels, which they found, damp, in the trash. Ella put on a pot of coffee and heated up some mutton stew while they tried to guess the purpose of the break-in.

“Let’s go over what we have,” she said. “We’ve found no evidence of tampering
or vandalism except for the door, nor was anything of any significance taken from the house.”

“Yet the perp was very careful not to leave any physical evidence that could help us identify him,” Harry pointed out. “And we’ve pretty much ruled out Samuel Begaye as a suspect. Who else might have it in for you at the moment, Ella?”

“Except for any of the relatives involved in Zah’s transfer, I really
can’t think of anyone. And I think those people would have trashed the place, not just kicked the door open and had a light snack.” Ella shook her head, stirring the kettle of stew. Seeing the flash of lights, she turned toward the kitchen window as a pickup came up the driveway. “Here’s my family. Let’s see what my mom can add to the mystery.”

*   *   *

Thirty minutes later, Ella had no more
answers than before. Rose had already given her the details of earlier events. She’d left with the sick dog and her granddaughter in a hurry, but hadn’t noticed anyone hanging around outside.

As Rose looked at the scraggly brown-and-black-haired mutt, who was now curled up on his folded quilt in the kitchen, she reminded Ella that he’d been barking earlier in the afternoon.

“When will the vet
be able to tell you if Two was poisoned?” Ella asked as she sat with Dawn at the table, helping her eat small chunks of stew with a spoon. Nowadays Dawn managed to keep a high percentage of food off her chin and the front of her shirt. She hated bibs.

“He sent samples of the dog’s stomach contents to a lab in Albuquerque. He’ll get a call back probably tomorrow or the next day.”

“I noticed the
dog dish was only half-empty when I went out looking for him earlier,” Harry mentioned. “You might want to save what’s left just in case the vet needs more to go on.”

Ella started to hand Dawn to her mother, but Harry stood and held up his hand. “I’ll bring it in. You make sure your daughter has a chance to finish her dinner.” He walked over to the kitchen counter and picked up the flashlight
he’d used earlier, then slipped outside.

“You told me that the criminal the deputy marshal is hunting could be hiding in this community somewhere,” Rose said. “But you still don’t think he was the one who poisoned the dog or kicked in my door, do you?”

“No, and until I can figure out what our intruder was doing here, identifying him will be almost impossible. I’ll mention what happened to my
brother and my daughter’s father and see if they have any ideas, or have seen any strangers around lately. In the meantime, I better fix that lock.”

“Wait until tomorrow, and maybe your daughter’s father can do the job. He’s coming over to visit her anyway. At least that’s what he said. Just let him know ahead of time so he can bring the right tools. He’s always looking for an excuse to stay
a little bit longer. You notice when he comes over it’s nearly always around a mealtime?” Rose gave her a wry smile.

Harry came in just then, holding the dish of kibble, which was still more than half-f. Ella took it from him, then put the food in a plastic bag. “This didn’t turn out to be the relaxing evening I’d planned for you.”

He grinned at her. “Then ask me again.”

Rose smiled at him.
“You have an open invitation.”

Ella looked at her mother in surprise. Her hopeful expression said it all. She’d found a new candidate for a son-in-law. Ella barely managed to suppress a groan.

“I better be heading back, but I’ll stay in touch,” Harry said, then wishing them good night, went to his car.

“He’s a very nice man, daughter, and he’s even better looking now that he’s finally putting
on some weight. Don’t you think?”

“Mom, don’t start.”

“You two seem to understand each other so well, too.”

“We’re cops.”

“Which gives you something in common.” Rose stood and picked up Dawn. “I’m very glad you brought him by.”

Alone in the kitchen, Ella looked at Two. “She’ll never stop now. First it was Wilson and now it’s going to be Harry. What have I started?”

Two looked up at her,
yawned widely and slowly, then put his head back down.

“Well said, dog,” Ella replied.

EIGHT

Ella stayed up late fixing the back-door trim with two steel mending plates and some screws she found in the kitchen drawer. She then attached an old barrel bolt on the inside to serve as a temporary lock until it could be repaired or replaced.

It wasn’t until that task was done that she felt safe enough to go to bed. Yet, even though she was exhausted, sleep eluded her. Ella continued
to think about the break-in as she lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. Harry’s search for Begaye and its ramifications, coupled with the conspiracy warning she’d received from Coyote, circled endlessly in her mind.

It seemed that she’d only just fallen asleep when Two woke her up, sticking his nose right up against her face. He was a big dog, and could easily rest his head on the mattress when
standing next to the bed. She tried to push him away, but he’d go to the window, growl menacingly, then return to her bed. Ella grudgingly opened her eyes and watched him. The dog still wasn’t feeling up to par, but he was clearly agitated about something.

Reaching for her pistol and the flashlight in her nightstand drawer, she crept out of her bedroom without turning on the light, clad in her
long nightshirt and wearing fuzzy slippers. First she checked on Dawn, but the baby was sound asleep, curled up in a fetal position under her blanket. A moment later she entered the kitchen and opened the back door, letting Two out.

The dog ran a few feet, then stood beside Rose’s herb garden, the hair on the back of his neck standing up straight. His deep growl was relentless, his eyes glued
on something farther away from the house.

Ella moved forward cautiously, the bright moonlight a help as she tried to figure out what was spooking the dog. She checked the ground for footprints and made a visual search of the area surrounding the entire house, but saw nothing new or unusual that could explain Two’s behavior.

Finally she went back to the kitchen door. Twice she tried to get Two
to come inside, but the dog insisted on remaining on the back step, determined to guard the house from something only he could see.

As Ella went inside, she saw Rose standing in the dimly lit hallway, wearing her flannel robe and old moccasins.

“Something’s not right, daughter. Two doesn’t get upset for no reason.”

“I know,” Ella answered. “I get the strong feeling I’m missing something. But
I looked carefully and nothing’s out there now.”

Almost in response, Two scratched on the screen. Ella let him in and the dog trotted to the end of the hallway and lay down.

“Danger seems to be pressing in on us,” Rose said quietly.

Ella felt it, too. Her instincts told her that the dog
had
been poisoned, and that the incident was only the beginning of the bad times that lay ahead. “I’m going
to call the station. If there’s something going on in this part of the Rez tonight, I need to know about it.”

Ella picked up the receiver and after several moments hung up. “Nothing unusual,” she told her mother. “Just the regular number of DWIs, driving while intoxicated, arrests. I’ve asked that the patrolman in this area make additional passes around here, just in case.”

“We might as well
go back to bed,” Rose said, unsatisfied. “If there’s trouble, it’ll find us soon enough. In the meantime, maybe we can get some rest.”

Ella didn’t get much sleep, but by seven she was ready to get up. Using the phone in her room, she dialed Justine’s home number. All night long she’d thought about how to mend the rift between them. Things were starting to get busy again at work, and they had
to find a way to pull together as a team.

“Good morning, Angela,” Ella said, recognizing Justine’s mother’s voice. “I’m sorry to call so early, but I need to talk to Justine.”

“She’s already gone. Lately she’s been having an early breakfast with a friend of hers.”

“Is she at the Totah Cafe?”

“No, I believe they meet at his place.”

The news surprised her. She hadn’t known that Justine was
seeing anyone that regularly. “Thanks, Angela. I guess I’ll talk to her later at work.”

Ella went into the kitchen and saw Rose was already fixing Dawn breakfast.

“Hi, Mom,” Ella said softly, then went to give her daughter a hug. Dawn was sitting in a small wooden rocking chair Kevin had made for her, wearing her blue toddler-sized sweatshirt and matching sweatpants. She loved to rock back and
forth, but the motion usually moved her around on the linoleum floor, so she could start by the sink and soon wind up halfway to the living room. When Dawn rocked, Rose would sometimes sing to her in Navajo, and Dawn was picking up some of the Navajo words already.

Ella grabbed a tortilla, smeared it with butter, then gave Dawn a bite from the tortilla, and a big hug and kiss, and headed to the
door. “I’m going to get an early start today. There’s a lot of pressing business I need to look into.”

“If you find out what’s going on, let me know,” Rose said.

“I will, but I don’t expect any simple answers.” She shook her head. “I don’t know why I’m saying that. I have nothing to go on.”

“Of course you do. Your intuition is a gift, daughter.”

Ella shrugged, then, with a wave, stepped outside.
The fact was that this was more than just intuition, but she didn’t want to alarm her mother. A cop learned to put little, seemingly unrelated incidents together and weave them into a whole until things became clear. She’d been doing that slowly, and the picture that was emerging made her skin crawl. Something big was happening, but she had no idea what it was or how to stop it.

Though it was
out of her way, Ella stopped by the vet’s in Shiprock first. She would start by checking on what had happened to Two. The doctor, a young, enthusiastic-looking Anglo working off a student loan by working on the Rez, confirmed Ella’s worst suspicions.

“The dog food was laced with rat poison,” he said. “It’s a good thing he hadn’t eaten much and I was able to pump out his stomach in time. Has anyone
in your household been trying to get rid of rodents lately?”

“No. My mother would never kill anything. She uses live traps and relocates any rodent that comes into the house. But in all fairness, we don’t get very many. I think Two keeps them at bay.”

“Then you think the poisoning was deliberate, maybe by a neighbor?”

“Something like that,” Ella said. It wouldn’t have been a neighbor. There
wasn’t anyone who lived that close except for Clifford, and her brother loved that dog.

“I’ll let you know if I hear of any other poisoning incidents,” the vet said. “I don’t have a lot of experience with circumstances like these on the Rez, but usually they turn out to be more than an isolated incident. Somebody gets tired of barking dogs or there’s a biting incident and they decide to shoot
or poison the animals in the neighborhood. It goes on for a while until the individual is caught or the anger subsides. Or the other alternative is that it’s a reaction to a problem dog who’s coming into the neighbor’s land and harassing their livestock.”

“I doubt that either’s the case here,” Ella answered, not elaborating. The vet didn’t need to know that it was probably linked to the break-in.

As she left the vet’s office, Ella decided to make a stop by the hospital and pay Doctor Carolyn Roanhorse a visit. As the tribe’s only forensic pathologist, Carolyn lived a lonely life, ostracized by most in the tribe. The People believed that someone who had physical contact with the dead couldn’t help but be contaminated by the
chindi,
the evil in a man that remained earthbound after death.

Except for routine hospital work, Ella knew that this wasn’t a particularly busy time for her friend. The tribe had enjoyed a time of peace since the incident last year with the terrorists.

Ella parked near the rear doors, then went directly to Carolyn’s office down in the basement beside the morgue. Her large and outwardly intimidating friend was reading a trade journal and drinking some coffee.

“Hey, it looks like I caught you at a good time,” Ella said.

“It’s slow.” Carolyn smiled. “During times like this I really wish I could help the doctors upstairs, but a lot of the patients don’t feel comfortable with me around.”

“What are you doing to keep busy?”

“Running lab tests for the staff, consulting with the doctors, and that sort of thing. I’m also catching up on my technical reading.”
She studied Ella for a long moment. “But this isn’t a casual, friendly visit, is it?”

Ella shrugged. “Yes and no. I haven’t been able to visit with you lately, and I wanted to drop by. But that’s not the only reason.”

“Trouble?” Carolyn sat up and leaned forward, resting her elbows on her desk. Ella noticed Carolyn’s long hair was arranged into a bun as usual, but she had a silver barrette holding
it together and was wearing lipstick and a subtle, flowery perfume. Usually Carolyn was indifferent to makeup.

“Someone poisoned Two, and picked a time when Clifford was unable to help out. My mom had to take the dog to a vet in order to save him. That same day we had a break-in, but nothing we know of was stolen except a diet cola and an apple or two. When things that don’t add up start happening,
I get worried.”