The Wailing Wind - Leaphorn & Chee 17 (25 page)

"I didn't mean that," Chee said.

They turned into the fort entrance, showed their police credentials at the security gate, were assured that Leaphorn and another man had driven through a bit earlier, and were given some general instructions about how to find the D block of bunkers and bunker D2187.

Bernie spotted Leaphorn's pickup far ahead as they turned onto the worn asphalt lane, and they parked behind it.

"The door's open," Bernie said.

Chee took out his flashlight and stepped out of the car. Bernie was already out.

"Bernie. Why don't you wait here until I—"

"Because I'm a cop, just as much as you are."

"But I'm the sergeant," Chee said. "Stay back."

He walked to the open door, looked in, flicked on his flashlight.

The beam illuminated the forms of two men, one seated on a barrel, the other standing. The man standing held a flashlight. The seated man held a pistol dangling from his right hand and what seemed to be a sheet of paper, illuminated by the flash, in the other. The seated man ignored the light from Chee's flash. The standing man looked into the flashlight. Joe Leaphorn.

"Wiley
Denton
," Chee shouted. "Drop the pistol."

Denton
seemed not to hear.

"Police," Chee shouted. "Drop that pistol."

Chee had his own pistol cocked. He was aware of Bernie standing beside him.

Denton
stood up, faced Chee, his pistol came up.

Chee leaped against Bernie, knocked her out of the doorway. His momentum slammed him into the door-jamb, the flashlight fell from his numbed arm. He found himself on his knees, still gripping his own pistol.

In the bunker he saw
Denton
standing, illuminated by Leaphorn's flashlight. No pistol visible now.

"He's all right," Leaphorn shouted. "Come on in."

Chee walked down the floor, pistol pointed. Bernie had recovered his flashlight and was walking with him, the light focused on
Denton
.

"Wiley," Leaphorn said. "Hand your pistol over to Sergeant Chee. You don't need it now."

Denton
pulled the pistol out of the waistband of his trousers. "Take it," he said, and handed it to Chee.

"And the letter," Leaphorn said. "Let me keep that for you. You'll always want it."

Denton
handed Leaphorn the letter, turned away from Chee, and put his arms behind his back.

"Mr. Denton," Chee said. "I arrest you for the murder of Thomas Doherty. You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to an attorney. Anything you say may be used against you."

"Oh!" Bernie exclaimed. "What did you do to your arm? It's bleeding."

"Banged it on the doorjamb," Chee said. "I'll take Mr. Denton out to the car and call this in." He was looking at Linda on her cardboard resting place. "Send an ambulance, I guess." He tugged at
Denton
's sleeve.

"Just a minute,"
Denton
said, and turned to Leaphorn. "Let me read that last part again."

Leaphorn looked at
Denton
's hands, cuffed behind his back, said: "I'll read it to you."

"No. You don't need to do that,"
Denton
said. "I can remember every word of it."

In the reflected light of the flash, Leaphorn's face looked old and exhausted. "Wiley," he said, "remember something else, too. Remember you didn't want this to happen. Remember this was because of a lot of misunderstanding."

"I'm remembering something else, too. That remark you made to me about Shakespeare. I asked the woman at the library about
Othello
, and she got me a copy. He was just about as stupid as me. But with me, I didn't have someone egging me on. I did it to myself. Looking for a treasure when I already had one."

"Come on," Chee said, and he and Wiley walked through the darkness toward the brilliant sunlight of the open door.

Bernie had been staring down at the body. She shook her head and turned away. "It's hard to believe this," she said. "She starved to death here in the dark. It's just too awful. What was McKay doing? Using her as a hostage, I guess. But why didn't Mr. Denton come and get her? What happened?"

"
Denton
shot McKay before he had time to tell him where he was holding Linda.
Denton
said he didn't believe any of it," Leaphorn said. "Don't you think we should get out of here?"

"What did Linda say?" Bernie asked, pointing to the paper in Leaphorn's hand. "Could I read it?"

Leaphorn didn't answer that.

"I guess not," she said. "But could you tell me whether she was angry?"

"I guess you would say it was a love letter," Leaphorn said. "She apologized for introducing McKay to
Denton
, said she didn't know McKay was an evil man. She said that since
Denton
hadn't come for her, she was afraid McKay had killed him, and he would never then be able to read her letter. But she would slip off into dreams now and then, and she would dream of
Denton
being in a hospital, recovering. If he did, she knew he would come and she would try to stay alive until then. And if she failed him again, she wanted him to know that she always loved him and that she was sorry."

Leaphorn turned off the flashlight. He didn't want to see Bernie's face.

"She was sorry," Bernie said in a choked voice. "She said
she
was sorry?"

The reflected light from the doorway showed Leaphorn that Bernie's eyes were wet. Time to change the subject.

"What happened to Jim's arm?"

"Oh," she said. "When he saw
Denton
holding that pistol, he jumped into me. He knocked me out of the doorway."

"Hurt you?"

"No, it didn't hurt me," Bernie said, her tone indignant. "He was trying to protect me."

"I think we need to get out into the sunshine," Leaphorn said.

"I should stay," Bernie said. "I'm on duty. Stay with the body until the crime scene crew gets here."

"I'll stay with you then," Leaphorn said. "Aren't you concerned about the
chindi
? Linda's ghost would have been locked in here with no way out."

"Lieutenant Leaphorn," Bernie said. "Haven't you forgotten? When one dies, their good goes with them. Only the bad is left behind to form the ghost. I doubt if Linda Denton left much of a
chindi
."

They stood beside the body for a while, with nothing to say. Bernie focused her flash on a little black plastic case partly obscured by Linda Denton's skirt and glanced at Leaphorn—a questioning look.

"That's some sort of miniature disk player," Leaphorn said. "She loved music, and
Denton
had just given it to her. Birthday present, I think he said."

"I guess that was the source of the music those kids heard. If it hadn't been for the wind wailing that night—" With that Bernie found a tissue in her pocket and wiped her eyes. "Hadn't been for the wind they would have known they were hearing Linda and not a ghost."

Leaphorn nodded. "We have that story of our own, you know, about the Hard Flint boys twisting the good air into evil."

"Right now I'm thinking my mother was right," she said. "There's just too much evil in this business for me. Too much sorrow."

"You wouldn't have any trouble getting another job," Leaphorn said. "Something where you help people instead of arresting them."

"I know," Bernie said. "I'm thinking about it. I'm going to quit this. I'd like to make people happy."

Leaphorn pointed toward the bunker door. Through it, they could see Sergeant Jim Chee putting Wiley Denton in his patrol car. "You know, Bernie, you could start that 'making people happy' career right now. Tell that young man out there what you've just told me."

Bernie looked out into the sunlight, at Chee talking to
Denton
through the car window. She looked back at Leaphorn, shrugged, spread her hands in that gesture of defeated frustration.

Leaphorn nodded. "I know," he said. "When I was a lot younger, an old Zuñi told me their legend about that. Two of their young hunters rescued a dragonfly stuck in the mud. It gave them the usual wishes you get in these stories. One wished to be the smartest man in the world. The dragonfly said, 'So you shall be.' But the second hunter wanted to be smarter than the smartest man in the world."

On this Leaphorn paused, partly for effect, partly to see if Bernie had already heard a version of this, and partly to see if she had cheered up enough to be listening. She was listening.

"So the dragonfly converted the second hunter into a woman," Bernie said, laughing and nodding at Leaphorn.

"I'm retired from the Navajo Tribal Police, but I'm still commissioned as a
McKinley
County
deputy sheriff," he said. "I can stay here with the body."

Then he watched her walk toward the open door. Toward the dazzling sunlight. Toward Jim Chee.