Coyote's Wife (28 page)

“A drunk
and
a nutcase. Wonderful,” Blalock muttered.

“Ervin was slurring his words, so I picked up on the drinking part when he was on the phone. But Barbara says he’s been seeing things, too. That could be
the booze, I suppose, but still… ”

“I hate dealing with drunks as much as you do, Clah. If this guy is having some kind of nervous breakdown on top of that, we could all end up shot.”

“Then you better make sure that vest of yours is covering whatever you
really
want to protect,” Ella said, noting Blalock was adjusting the ballistic vest he wore beneath his shirt nowadays.

Ella opted for a silent
approach as they drew near, hoping to catch whoever Ervin had seen—providing, of course, he hadn’t been hallucinating. As she cut the engine and coasted to a stop a hundred feet up the road from the large, adobe-style home, Ella glanced over at Blalock.

“The outside lights are bright. That’s good,” Ella said.

“Yeah, but we better watch each other’s backs.”

Ella nodded. “Let me tell Ervin we’re
here. No sense in getting shot for our trouble.”

She dialed, and Ervin picked up the phone immediately. “That you, Clah?” His voice was at a whisper.

“Yes, and Agent Blalock. We have other officers on the way, so sit tight and stay away from the doors.”

“I think they’re still outside. Call me when it’s okay.” He hung up before she could reply.

“He thinks somebody is still on the grounds, Dwayne.”

“Right.”

They got out together, using their respective doors to provide cover as they drew their weapons and surveyed the scene. No people or vehicles were visible from their location, but the gravel driveway led around to a garage in the back.

“Earlier Ervin said the intruder was at the rear of the property. I’m going to take a look.”

“Right behind you,” Blalock answered, his voice whisper
thin. “Watch out for a hidden vehicle.”

As they reached the back corner of the house, Ella saw that the side door leading into the detached garage farther ahead had been forced open. Inside, she could just about make out the shape of a car fender.

Ella nodded to Blalock, who came up behind her, crouching low. “Cover me while I advance to the garage,” Ella whispered.

“Go for it,” Blalock replied
quietly.

Ella sprinted across the driveway, her gun at the ready, then took a position beside the building, right by a small red wheelbarrow. After checking out as much of the house as she could see and spotting no open windows or doors, she returned her attention to the open garage door. The room beyond was lit and she inched forward, waited for a few seconds, back pressed against the wall,
then peered inside the garage. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. A sedan, the hood popped open, occupied the half of the garage closest to her.

Ella moved in and bumped the open door slightly. Hearing a sloshing sound directly above her, she instinctively jumped back. Suddenly a glass jar came crashing down, shattering on the concrete floor and splashing liquid everywhere, including her boots
and pant legs.

Ella immediately recognized the sharp, sulphuric scent of battery acid. An instant later the skin on her legs began to feel uncomfortably warm. Running out to the side of the garage, she grabbed a coiled-up garden hose. Ella turned the faucet to full blast, soaking her pant legs and boots with water. The caustic liquid had already begun to eat through the fabric of her slacks,
and was leaving splotches on her leather boots.

“Battery acid?” Blalock commented, sniffing the air. “Make sure you wash off your hands and face, too, just in case.”

“Hold the hose for me, Dwayne,” Ella said, handing it to him. She rinsed her hands thoroughly, then cupped water in her palms and washed her face and neck.

“Oh, that’s cold,” she moaned.

“Better than acid burns,” Blalock said,
aiming the hose away for a moment. “More?”

“Naw, that’s enough. Let me check out the damage.” While he turned off the water, she raised up one pant leg, pockmarked with jagged holes the size of dimes and quarters where the acid had eaten through the fabric. Angry red splotches covered her shin around the boot line.

“Those idiots! They could have scarred someone for life, burned out an eye, or
worse,” she said in a tight voice. “This goes way beyond the prank stage.”

Blalock knelt by the puddle on the floor. “We’ll need a sample of this. Maybe a glass jar and a syringe?”

Hearing a vehicle pulling up, Ella looked toward the
street. From the emergency lights, she knew it was a police cruiser. Marianna Talk, one of their youngest police officers, stepped out of the squad car and hurried
over. Her gaze went to Ella’s soaked pant leg, the bleached-out splotches on her boots, then back up at her.

“Where do you need me?” she asked at once.

Simple and to the point, that was Marianna Talk all the way. The young Navajo woman had been on the force two years and still looked as if she’d just turned sixteen. The fact that she was barely five foot two, and that her height was enhanced
by the boots she was wearing, helped create the illusion of youth. But Marianna was learning how to be tough, and her professionalism continued to grow by leaps and bounds.

“Stand guard outside this door and make sure no one wanders in,” Ella said, then she stepped away and dialed Ervin’s home number.

“You still okay in there?” she asked when he picked up the phone.

“What’s going on?” Ervin
replied.

Ella turned and looked at the house. She could see Ervin peeking out from behind a curtain, telephone receiver to his ear. “I’ll be inside in a few minutes and tell you all about it. Just stay away from the windows a while longer, okay?”

He nodded, then disappeared from view.

Blalock walked up to Ella. “They won’t get any prints off those pieces of glass, you know. I think the acid
would have washed away any skin oils. Whoever handled that jar must have had on gloves, too—that is, unless we’re dealing with complete idiots.”

“They had to drain the acid from a battery with some kind of suction device, like a hydrometer. Maybe we’ll find prints on the battery of that sedan, or on the hood. It’s up.”

“Yeah, I noticed. And I saw a big hydrometer on the workbench, still wet.
But if all they touched was the rubber bulb, it’ll be hard getting any latents.”

“I still want my team to process the scene,” she said, and called it in. “If there’s something here, they’ll find it.”

Once the scene was secure, Ella and Blalock went up to the main house’s back door and knocked. There was no answer. Ella tried again. This time she was loud enough to have been heard all the way
down the dirt road.

Blalock’s eyes widened slightly. “Unless he’s totally deaf, he heard you. Think someone inside has a gun on him or something?”

Ella was about to reply when she heard footsteps coming toward them from the other side of the closed door.

A second later, the door was open. Ervin stood on the other side of the doorway, then cocked his head, gesturing for them to enter. “Sorry
I took so long. I was on the other side of the house, checking the locks. Hurry on in. I’m not making a target out of myself by standing in the doorway.”

Ella stared at him in surprise. She’d last seen Ervin up close at the Chapter House meeting. He’d seemed a little harried back then, but he’d obviously fallen to pieces since that day. His face now looked haggard and dark circles rimmed his
eyes. The smell of alcohol was thick in the air, too. Ervin looked drunk and on the verge of exhaustion.

Once they were inside, Ella watched as he locked and fastened the door with one hand, his other still holding a rifle. His movements were clumsy and he had to try three times to get the safety latch in place. Once the door was secure, Ervin invited them to take a seat in the living room, and
followed them stiffly. He brought the rifle with him, and set it on top of the coffee table so hard she thought the plate glass beneath would crack.

“What happened? Did you catch him?” he asked, leaning
forward and sending a wave of eighty-proof breath in their direction.

“No. That’s why I’m going to need you to describe the person you saw,” Ella said, looking around but not seeing a bottle.
As she did, Ella caught a glimpse of Blalock’s disgusted expression. FB-Eyes was very aware that Ervin’s judgment was impaired.

Ervin must have noticed the way they were watching him, because he abruptly sat up straight, cleared his throat, and did his best to assume normal speech. “I never got a clear look. He stayed away from the lights for the most part. All I really saw was his shadow, but
he
wanted
me to see that much of him.”

“What makes you think that?” Blalock asked.

“I heard what sounded like someone repeatedly kicking the side of the wheelbarrow next to the garage. That’s when I peered out. The minute I did, the sound stopped but I kept looking. I caught a few glimpses of him after that, but it was never more than just a flicker of shadow and movement here and there. I kept
my rifle with me and had he broken into this house, I would have shot him dead.”

The conviction in his voice left no room for doubt in Ella’s mind. Near as she could tell, Ervin wasn’t completely wasted, but from his lack of balance and coordination, he was either flying high on something, or far from sober.

He looked at her pant leg. “How did you get wet?”

Ella told him, and he cringed visibly
at the mention of the battery acid.

“That cinches it. I’m getting round-the-clock bodyguards for my wife,” Ervin said.

“Why not for yourself? You seem to be the primary target,” Ella said.

“I handle my own problems. When it comes to my wife, it’s different. She’ll get the best of the best.”

“Any idea who you’re going to hire?”

“I’ve contacted Mr. Little’s company, 360 Plus.”

“Bruce Little
is a good man and his company is very reliable,” Ella agreed with a nod.

“Consider a bodyguard for yourself as well,” Blalock added. “You can’t be on your guard twenty-four-seven.”

Exhausted, Ervin dropped down into the leather easy chair and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m just tired of all this nonsense. I believe in StarTalk and the good it’ll do, but I wouldn’t have pushed for it as hard
as I did if I’d known then what I know now.”

“Your wife had mentioned something about having security cameras around the property, but I didn’t see any outside,” Ella said.

“I haven’t got them installed yet,” he admitted after a long pause. “Nearly all of our funds are tied up in StarTalk and I’ve lost two vehicles in the past week. Until the venture gets into the black we’re living on loans.”

“Your wife told me that Louis Etcitty has been giving you trouble,” Ella said.

“That old man is making me crazy.” His eyes suddenly sparked with anger. “He goes around telling people that he can look into a rock crystal and find objects that have been lost. What a scam! I’d be willing to bet he steals them first and that’s how he
finds
them.” He stood up on wobbly legs and began pacing again.

Ella knew better. Her brother wouldn’t have used Louis’ services if there wasn’t more to him than that.

“Etcitty is convinced that StarTalk—actually the satellites we’ll be linking up with—will interfere with his crystal gazing,” Ervin continued. “He tells everyone that we’ll be angering the gods and that misfortune will follow. I’ve also heard that he’s pointing to what’s been happening to me—how
I’m being harassed—as just the start of trouble.”

“So you’re thinking he might be responsible for what’s going on?” Blalock concluded.

He paused before replying. “I’d like to say yes, believe me, but I honestly don’t think Etcitty could be doing
all
this,” he said at last. “Tearing down posters, sure, but what happened to you outside …that’s not his style. I also don’t think he’s physically
up to darting around out there like the man I saw. Louis isn’t that spry anymore. Not unless he’s some kind of …” He shook his head. “Never mind.”

“Now’s not the time to hold back,” Blalock said. “If these troubles are allowed to continue, they could end up costing you a lot more than your company.”

Ervin closed his eyes for a moment and took a long, deep breath. “Okay, I don’t know if you can
understand this, Agent Blalock, but Investigator Clah will. I found something outside yesterday that really bothered me. I’m not a traditionalist, obviously, but, I’ve got to tell you, this really creeped me out.”

His voice dropped to a whisper as he continued. “I went to the garage—where our washing machine and dryer are—to see if Barbara had laundered my favorite shirt. I hadn’t seen it since
I’d worn it to the barber’s. I’d put it in the laundry because it had hair on it and wearing it made me itch. Knowing Barbara sometimes leaves clean stuff out there for days, hung up on a little rack, I decided to go take a look.”

He lapsed into a tense silence. Ella didn’t interrupt him, noticing the way he’d clenched his hand into a tight fist, and how his breathing had become more rapid.

“It hadn’t been washed, but I only found
half
of my shirt in the basket,” he said at last in a horrified whisper.

“Excuse me?” Blalock said, shooting Ella a puzzled look.

“It had some of my hair still on it, from the barber shop, remember?” he added, a touch of panic in his voice. “I mean
I don’t believe in that stuff, but we all heard stories growing up.”

Blalock stared at him, but getting
no further explanation, looked over at Ella.

“Witchcraft, Dwayne. A skinwalker can use personal objects to make a victim so sick nothing will ever cure him,” Ella said, then looked back at Ervin. “The fact that they left half of the shirt means somebody is trying to psych you out,” Ella added. “You
know
that. Don’t let them play you like this.”

“Yeah, I know all that, but still… ”

Ella gazed
at Ervin. He was barely holding on, and shaking slightly, which may have been because of the booze. The bags under his eyes told her it had been a long time since he’d had a decent night’s rest, too. All things considered, a skinwalker’s curse hadn’t been necessary. It was more like icing on the cake for a man who was being terrorized.