Red Mesa (26 page)

Ella stood by her unit, trying to decide if she should just sit there until someone had to come out, or drive off and stake out the trailer from a distance. Knowing Natoni was watching her, Ella got into her unit, then drove out of the area. Once she was a hundred yards past the last trailer, she went off the road and parked behind some junipers. In the
darkness no one would be able to see the unit among the low trees. But this wasn’t all she planned to do.

She considered her next step very carefully. On nothing more than the scent of a particular perfume and the sound of movement, she was going to risk her career by going back to peek in Natoni’s windows. If he or a neighbor caught her, or the woman with him complained, she’d be explaining
herself to the police—and eventually to Big Ed, who would not be very understanding at all.

Yet her visit to Natoni’s trailer had uncovered a new, exciting possibility. What if Natoni was keeping Justine prisoner, perhaps drugged, while the police were being led around in circles? The body they’d found could have been somebody else’s, and the fingerprint comparison faked somehow by switching
records at the station.

Although deep down she suspected it was only wishful thinking, she knew she had to go check things out more closely or she’d never have another moment’s rest.

Ella jogged back to Natoni’s trailer, staying in the shadows. The willingness to take a risk was what had always made her a good cop, and this was no time to shy away from that.

The trek back took Ella nearly a
half hour, because she proceeded slowly and carefully, not wanting to set off an alarm by frightening a chicken or other animal. Fortunately, she hadn’t seen or heard any dogs. By the time she reached Natoni’s trailer, the lights inside were off. Ella could see a figure walking around inside, but just the one. It looked like Natoni and he seemed to be alone. As she brought her ear close to the window,
she overheard him on the phone.

“I’m telling you she’s trouble.” Natoni paused. “No, there’s nothing for her to find here—not anymore. I’ve taken care of everything.”

Ella knew that her instincts had been right. Someone else had been in the trailer earlier. But that person was no longer there, perhaps having left out the back door. Either that or she was still inside, asleep or drugged.

But
it was all conjecture. Ella still had nothing to offer Blalock. Fear gnawed at her. She’d have to do better. If she didn’t, she’d soon learn all about the dismal fate of a cop in prison.

SEVENTEEN

Ella arrived at her office an hour early, resigned to the grisly task of tracking down Justine’s killer. Her excitement over the possibility of her cousin still being alive had disappeared with the morning and a reexamination of the physical evidence.

She had to face the truth head-on, and expend her energy on finding Justine’s killer. It had been absurd to muster any hope at all based
upon the lingering scent of a perfume, which proved nothing.

Today she wanted to access several databases, but without any interruptions. With a chocolate-covered doughnut and some black coffee beside her, she studied the police records of everyone Justine and she had investigated this past year. From what she could see, Justine had made enemies, but no more or less than any other cop.

The phone
interrupted her analysis, and grumbling, Ella picked it up on the third ring.

It was Carolyn Roanhorse. “I’m calling to let you know I’m going on vacation as of today, Ella. The medical examiner’s officer in Albuquerque will take care of any autopsies that are needed as the result of a crime. They handle the rest of the state anyway. I’ve also managed to get a forensic pathologist to take my
place if needed in a crisis. He works for the Public Health Services and is based in Colorado, but he’ll fly down if it becomes necessary.”

“Go and have a great time. Forget all about work for a while. Believe me, if I could, I would.”

“You can’t. You’re not wired that way. And neither am I. I’ll be away from my office, but my mind will be here.”

Ella thought for a moment about what had been
bothering her, then decided to go ahead and bring it out one last time. “Carolyn, I need to ask you something. Are you still very certain that the body we found was Justine’s?” Immediately she realized that she’d slipped up and said the name out loud for the first time since she’d heard it was Justine who’d died, but Carolyn was beyond allowing that to upset her.

There was a long silence. “Why
does this sound like a trick question?”

“Just answer me.”

“Based on the evidence, yes, I believe that was Justine. The print taken from the fingertip we recovered matched those we have on file for her. Fingerprints are, essentially, one hundred percent reliable. The bones dug up were no help, and the tooth fragments were just too incomplete to do any comparisons with dental records. The same
with the portion of the skull we recovered.”

Carolyn thought a moment, then continued. “Anyone arrested for killing Justine wouldn’t get any forensic help from me, that’s for sure. The physical evidence, probably all that a prosecutor really needs, is there.” There was another pause. “But let me guess. You’ve found something that appears to contradict that?”

“Maybe.” She told Carolyn what had
happened at Paul Natoni’s trailer the night before.

“That perfume isn’t common, but it isn’t unique either,” Carolyn said slowly. “It could have been stolen from her and is now being used by another woman. But if Justine is somehow really alive, what you’re talking about is an elaborate conspiracy that would need a lot of convincing evidence to mislead the police.”

“I know. It would involve
chopping off Justine’s finger and using somebody else’s body. It’s a stretch, and maybe I’m just wishful-thinking here, but if it happened to be true, that would mean Justine could be somebody’s prisoner right now.”

“If someone is keeping Justine alive somewhere, there has to be a reason. And maybe it’s not just to frame you, Ella. Anyone disturbed enough to do something like this could be out
to hurt a lot of people.”

“That’s a given. But what could they hope to achieve?”

“I don’t know.” She paused, then added, “Want me to cancel my vacation?”

“Don’t you dare. You’re only going to be gone for two weeks.”

“One week,” she corrected. “That’s the most I can manage with a minimum of guilt.”

“You’re hopeless.”

“Look who’s talking,” Carolyn replied.

As Ella hung up, she felt the ripple
of fear that had become her constant companion. She didn’t like fighting battles like these. Since the day she’d given birth to Dawn, her whole outlook had changed. The exhilaration and the thrill of the chase were always tempered by what she stood to lose if she got careless, and by her responsibility to her daughter. Being maternal had disadvantages to a cop, including the uncomfortable bullet-resistant
vest she now wore beneath her blouse.

Ella continued looking through the arrest records and old files, searching for an enemy cunning and motivated enough to generate a scheme like this. Fortunately, the most dangerous people she could think of were already dead or locked away. But that left her without viable suspects. After another hour, she still had nothing, not even a possible owner of the
dark-colored pickup that had passed by that evening. All the neighbors had been ruled out. She was forced to return to the facts. Justine was dead, and a killer was out there to be found.

Hearing someone at the door, Ella looked up. It was Big Ed. He glanced at the half-eaten doughnut on her desk with envy.

“Have you got anything more for me on Jimmy Begaye’s attack on the station?”

“I’m going
to try and track down exactly where Begaye got the rifle he was carrying. All he owned was a hunting bow, supposedly. What we have against him so far is the break-in at the house of Zah’s relative, which I was a witness to, and his stealthy approach to the station. It’s pretty open and shut.”

“Good. Then explain that to his wife. She’s here and wants to talk to you.”

Ella took a deep breath.
“Okay. I’ll bring her back here.”

“Afterwards, come to my office. There’s another rumor I want to talk to you about.”

“Rumor?”

“Later,” Big Ed said. “You have to talk to Allison Begaye now.”

Ella walked down the hall to the lobby area. She’d expected Allison to be Navajo, but the woman who met her in traditional skirt and turquoise jewelry was a petite blonde with ice blue eyes and a somber
expression.

“I need to talk to you, but in private,” she said.

“My office is a good place, then,” Ella said, leading her down the hall.

Once in Ella’s office, Allison sat down. “Could we close the door?”

Ella studied her expression. She felt no immediate threat from the woman, so she complied. “What can I do for you?”

“First, I want you to know that I’m very disappointed in this police department.
I told you what my husband was going to do so you could stop him. I was hoping you would talk to him before it escalated instead of waiting until he got ready to attack this station before doing something about it.”

“Actually, the way things played out, I didn’t have any other choice. No one could even locate him until I found him leaving the Zah home, armed with a rifle, and heading for the
station. His course was set. He might have been killed by an officer if he’d tried to come inside the station with that rifle.”

Ella continued. “But he’s alive, and was charged with resisting arrest and assault with a deadly weapon. An additional charge of breaking and entering the Zah house near the station will probably be added to that as well, but a murder charge would have been far worse.
Do you know if he had a specific target in mind?”

“I don’t think he ever thought it through. He knew Thomas Zah’s relatives were here, hanging about, but I don’t believe he would have really shot anyone. Jimmy isn’t like the others in his family.”

Ella nodded, but didn’t say anything. “Did you know he stole a rifle?”

She nodded. “I believe that it belongs to Thomas Zah. I heard that Samuel
contacted Jimmy and told him where to find it. Samuel was a friend of Zah’s uncle, and that’s the house Jimmy went to. Jimmy and Samuel figured that it would add something to the revenge if Jimmy used Thomas’ own gun against one of his clan.” She paused. “But at most, Jimmy would have wounded someone, not killed them.”

Now Ella knew that Samuel Begaye was taking an active part in the events happening
around him. Despite Blalock’s and Harry Ute’s efforts, the Begaye brothers had been in contact. If revenge was so important to Samuel that he’d risk meeting his brother, it was entirely possible that he was behind what had happened to Justine, too.

“Samuel Begaye has sworn revenge on me and my cousin.”

Allison’s eyes grew large. “If you think either of them is behind what happened to that woman
police officer, you’re way off base. I know my husband and his brother. They can be cruel, but that type of gruesome murder is way beyond them.”

Ella had heard the denial in the testimony of the loved ones of criminals too many times to take their character references seriously. Games were being played on all sides now.

“I just want you to know one thing,” Allison said. “By having put Samuel
and Jimmy in jail, you’ve made a very big mistake. You could have turned my husband’s clan into your friends by helping Jimmy. And they never forget a friend. But that isn’t what happened, is it?”

“And they never forget an enemy? Is that what you’re really trying to tell me here?”

Allison shrugged. “Let’s just say that they’ve got long memories.”

“I’m supposed to consider this a threat?”

Allison shook her head. “No, I just came to tell you that what you did was wrong—in every imaginable way. You know how the Navajo people believe that everything in life is connected?” Seeing Ella nod, she continued. “Well, what you did—or didn’t do—will catch up to you. You’ll pay your own price before the balance is restored and all of us find harmony.”

Ella regarded her thoughtfully, recalling
that Allison had avoided using Justine’s name. “You’ve learned much about the ways of the
Dineh.
”

“I live here in the
Dinetah.
When I followed my husband to his home, I promised myself that I’d be more than just another outsider. I will never really belong here or be fully accepted, I know that now, but I can at least be aware of the customs and the way of thinking of those around me.”

She stood
up with dignity and, not giving Ella a chance to say anything else, walked out.

Ella stared pensively across the room for a moment. Like Allison, she knew what it was like not to belong. Outside the four sacred mountains, she’d been a stranger who’d had to prove herself every step of the way. Then, when she’d returned to the Rez, she’d had to earn her place among the tribe again.

It was worse,
however, for those who were not part of the
Dineh
at all, yet still tried to live among the tribe. Her heart went out to Allison. She hadn’t chosen an easy life.

Ella verified the information about the stolen rifle, though it wasn’t an easy task. Until recently, except for handguns, firearms weren’t officially regulated in New Mexico. Thousands of firearms owned by families had been passed down
from generation to generation, or bought, sold, and traded among the citizens with no paperwork or records at all. The best she was able to do was confirm the theft through hearsay. Zah’s wife, who was still staying at the hospital with her child, verified it for her.

Ella switched off the computer, then walked to Big Ed’s office. She felt restless and frustrated working on cases that weren’t
nearly as important to her as what had happened to Justine. And if there was even the slightest chance that Justine was still alive, she had to give the case top priority if she was to have a chance at finding her cousin again.

Knocking on Big Ed’s open door, she walked inside and accepted his invitation to sit down.

“Shorty, I heard a very disturbing story early this morning. My aunt Dezbah
was visiting at the trailer court north of here last evening. She said she saw you paying a visit to Paul Natoni.”