Bad Medicine (37 page)

Carolyn nodded. “More or less.”

He marked one with a pen, set it down on the table, then walked away. “Keep in mind it wasn’t this quiet at the clinic.” He stopped and turned his head. “Oh, I forgot to tell you, little sister, our new neighbor came around and asked about you. He’s heard of the trouble the police are having because of the pressure our
senator is putting on your department. He said that he’s got some pull of his own, and would help you if you needed it.”

Clifford went back into the room and walked past the table on the way to the window. “I think that’s him coming now.”

Ella joined him. “Where?”

“Good trick,” Carolyn said, pointing to the unmarked plum, which had replaced the other one at the table. “I was watching, but I
never saw it happen.”

Ella forced herself not to cringe. Kevin was nowhere in sight. He’d deliberately diverted her, using Tolino. “Smooth, big brother. Real smooth.”

Clifford smiled, then glanced at Carolyn. “So you see, it scarcely takes any time at all.”

“Not for a magician,” Ella said, still annoyed that he’d tricked her.

“Or a skinwalker,” Clifford said.

“Or a
hataalii,
” Carolyn added
with a wry smile.

“True,” he conceded.

Ella glared at Carolyn. “A
hataalii?
That’s below the belt.”

“I wasn’t suggesting your brother did this. But, without evidence, anything could be argued. One could say a medicine man’s motive would be to give credence to the old values and push people into losing faith in the new. This may have nothing more to do with skinwalkers than it does with
hataaliis.
We don’t even know for sure that any medicines were tainted.”

“Point taken,” Ella answered.

“I have to go tend to my family,” Clifford said, heading out the door, Rose at his side.

Carolyn looked at Ella, her gaze unwavering. “Concentrate on the person who wants most to destroy me, not on phantoms. You’ll have better luck with it that way.”

“You think Yellowhair is behind what’s happening?”

“He’s the best candidate I can think of.”

Ella heard the phone ringing and went to pick it up. Justine’s voice was taut, so Ella steeled herself for bad news. “What is it?”

“One of the children who was inoculated died.”

TWENTY-ONE

Ella spoke to her assistant briefly, getting a full report, then went back into the kitchen to tell the others. It was odd how everyone always drifted into the kitchen here. It was definitely the heart of her mother’s house.

“I have bad news. One of the children who was inoculated passed away.”

“A reaction to the vaccine?” Carolyn’s eyebrows arched.

“No, it was a severe bacterial
infection. It looks like a strain of E. coli. The problem is the parents don’t recall him eating any meat, much less undercooked hamburger or chicken. So the question is, where did he pick it up?”

“That couldn’t have anything to do with the vaccine, or with the food served at the Chapter House. Hundreds of people ate that food.”

“I know. I’ll keep you posted.” Ella grabbed her windbreaker from
the hook at the back of the door. “I’ve got to get going. What are your plans for today?” she asked Carolyn.

“A car rental place in Farmington is going to give me a ride to get some wheels to use while my pickup is being repaired. They’re expensive but give full service. Then I’m going to see about a new trailer. I asked your mother to go with me, but she said no. She’s having her Plant Watchers
group here today. Although she didn’t say so, I think she’s glad I won’t be around.”

Ella gave Carolyn a sympathetic smile, but said nothing. Her friend didn’t need platitudes. She needed results. Ella decided right then to be at home when the Plant Watchers were there. Maybe she could learn something useful.

*   *   *

Ella was halfway to the police station when she received a call on her cellular.
She was surprised when Jaime Beyale, the editor of the
Dineh Times,
identified herself.

“I’m sorry you were unhappy with our conversation yesterday,” Jaime said.

“You were somewhat less than truthful,” Ella snapped.

“We’re all under pressure from someone. I didn’t know how much information I should give you ahead of time.”

“I suppose the rest of the story will be in tonight’s paper.”

“Yes,
but I’ve got another headline that will bump the story about the M.E. onto page two. That’s why I called you. I think you’ll want to see it before it hits the stands.”

“I’ve got a lot of things to handle this morning. Is it going to be worth my trip?”

“Yes. Trust me. You’ll want to see this, particularly in view of the statement Dr. Roanhorse just made in response to the piece.”

Ella cringed.
She knew without being told, that Carolyn had once again opened her mouth and made things far worse. “I’ll be there in thirty minutes.”

It was nearly noon by the time she arrived at the paper. When Ella went into Jaime’s office, the editor was eating a sandwich. “I got one for you, too,” she said, gesturing to the paper plate at the end of her desk. “It’s fried bologna. You used to like those
back in school.”

“Still do,” Ella admitted, sitting down and picking up the sandwich. “What’s up?” she asked, taking a bite. It wouldn’t help if she stayed angry at Jaime, though now some of the trust she’d once had in the woman was gone.

Jaime slid an envelope over to her. “Don’t worry about prints. Everyone has handled these, from the mail carriers to the people here in my office. The envelope
arrived before I got here, and my staff was a bit overzealous.”

Ella opened it and saw two grainy black-and-white photos of Senator Yellowhair. In one, he was being handed an envelope by a man in a wheelchair, whose face was nearly hidden in shadows. In the second, he was opening the envelope stuffed with bills. The background was so dark the surroundings couldn’t be identified. “Do you know
who the man with the senator is?” Ella asked.

“No, I don’t. My staff called Senator Yellowhair and he insisted that we fax him the photo. We did, but he said he didn’t recognize the man, and he just couldn’t remember the incident. He urged us to investigate it, though. He says he doesn’t want any allegations hanging over him when he’s innocent of any wrongdoing.”

“You said something about Carolyn
making a statement?”

“We had called the M.E. to ask who she believed torched her home. She told us that the only real enemy she has is Senator Yellowhair. When we told her about the photos we’d received, she told us that she wouldn’t be surprised to hear he was taking bribes, that crooked politicians usually do.”

“You’re not printing that, are you? It’s nothing more than an opinion.”

“We won’t
print it for now, but we are running these photos of the senator in the next issue. We also asked Senator Yellowhair to comment on the M.E.’s belief that he was behind the fire that claimed her home. He was outraged.”

Ella stood up. “I need to take these photos in, you know that, right?”

“Yes, I’ve already had duplicates made.” She slid a second envelope over to her. “And here’s an extra set
for you. Never let it be said we don’t cooperate with the police.”

Ella took the photos. “I’ll get back to you if I find out who this Anglo is. Will you do the same for me?”

“No problem.”

Ella walked out of the newspaper office with the envelope. She could imagine how Jaime’s staff had reacted when they’d seen the photos and smelled a juicy story. The photos would be covered with prints, mostly
from the newspaper staff, but she would still have Justine process them. Maybe a miracle would happen, and they’d find a clue that would lead them to whoever had sent them.

What bothered her most was the senator’s reaction to the photos. It was simply too magnanimous of him to invite the staff at the paper to investigate. It made her believe that he knew precisely who the Anglo was, and was certain
it would make him look really good when it all came out.

Ella met Justine at the lab a short while later. She handed her assistant the photos and explained. “I’ll keep the duplicates for the time being. I want to show them to Blalock.”

“We keep getting leads, but there’s never enough time to process the new information before something else gets tossed at us.”

“I know.” Ella said, knowing how
overworked they’d all been. “Anything else come up since we last spoke?”

“A few things. Another one of the kids who went to the inoculation clinic Dr. Roanhorse attended became sick. His parents finally took him to the Medical Center. The parents said that he hadn’t been inoculated. They’d only been at the Chapter House for a few minutes. They’d stopped to pick up a sack of flour from another
family there.”

“Did he have any medication at all?”

“No, but his illness was caused by a similar strain of bacteria to the one that killed the other boy, only the infection wasn’t as severe. He’s going to be okay.”

“Good. Keep on it. What else have you got?”

“The new truck driver who was recently hired at the mine, Joe Bragg, shot off his mouth again and Raymond Nez decided to shut it for
him. Mine security guards were able to take care of things this time. They’ve been supplied with a particularly nasty spray similar to pepper gas and trained in how to use it effectively. The mine didn’t press charges. I think they’re hoping to minimize the incident by ignoring it.”

“Get the driver’s personnel files. I want to know more about him.”

“I’ll try. If I can’t, I’ll start a background
check.”

Ella led the way to her office, filling Justine in on what Rose had said about Angelina’s boyfriend being married. “Has anything else on her boyfriend turned up yet?”

Justine shook her head. “The only lead we have is what you just told me.”

“If the guy is married, that gives us a possible motive for murder, and also a possible lead to a suspect. If Angelina was pressing him to divorce
his wife, for instance, he may have decided she was too much trouble to keep around. Or, the man’s wife may have taken matters into her own hands. Some people say poison is a woman’s weapon.”

“Granted, but how are we going to follow up on this?”

“I want you to find out who, besides Bitah, was attending that Navajo Justice Church. Maybe one of the Navajo men attending was Angelina’s boyfriend.
The peyote had to come from somewhere. Get a court order to check all financial records with her name on them, too. I want everything that ties Angelina to her parents, the power plant, her boyfriend, and her friends.”

“The senator is going to fight you tooth and nail on this.”

“I know, so try to get the court order fast, before he knows what’s happening.”

“We haven’t got a prayer of keeping
it quiet for long. You realize that, right?”

“Yeah, that’s why we’ve got to move quickly. While you’re taking care of that, I’m going to try another avenue of information that may lead us to Angelina’s boyfriend.”

“What have you got in mind?”

“My mother reminded me that we’ve overlooked an important source—the women’s groups. When they get together, they talk, and I’m ready to bet it’s that
talk that will lead us to the guy we need to find.”

*   *   *

By the time Ella arrived home there were pickups parked all around the house, and two horses were grazing on the meager spring grasses.

Ella walked around the outside of the house and saw her mother pointing out the different herbs in her garden to her guests, as another woman planted some seedlings. Ella waited, not wanting to interrupt.

The women were discussing the merits of salt brush to relieve fever and stomach pains when they became aware of Ella’s presence. Mrs. Pioche, her mother’s oldest friend, greeted her warmly.

“You should learn about these things, young lady.” Mrs. Pioche gestured toward the plants with her cane. “The Plant People were put here for us to use as food and as medicine. Although Father Sky does the
planting and brings us the clouds and the rains, there are fewer plants nowadays, so we have to cultivate them. Come, join us.”

Ella went inside with the women and sat among them as they drank her mother’s special herbal tea. As they spoke, she remembered the herbal remedies that had seen her through many childhood illnesses.

“The young don’t see the importance of our ways anymore,” Mrs. Pioche
said sadly. “But maybe the terrible things that are happening now will help them find their way back.”

“They don’t respect our ways, so they bring on these terrible consequences,” Lena Clani, an elderly woman said. “A long time ago we were told that the Holy People would become angry if we bothered the Sun or the Moon. They were lifted high by Wind and placed in the sky away from man, for a reason.
Then men walked on the moon, and the Wind People got angry. We have more windstorms now, and more hurricanes and tornadoes. Still people don’t listen.”

“Our group is here to pass on knowledge, yet few want what we have to give,” Mrs. Pioche complained. “We are the Plant Watchers and we have something important to share, but our young ones don’t value it.”

Ella listened for a long time before
finally speaking. “I believe that a new time is coming when the knowledge you’ve protected will find its way to the right ears. But right now, we’re facing danger from many sides. You hold the key to protecting us, though you don’t know it.”

“With our plants?” asked Mrs. Pioche.

“No, with another kind of knowledge, but it’s just as crucial to the tribe. Will you help me stop the violence from
escalating?”

“How can we help you?” Lena Clani asked.

“Women are the backbone of our tribe. That’s the way it has always been. We talk, share our knowledge, and make things better for others. To break the cycle of violence I have to trace back certain events. What I need most right now, is the name of the senator’s daughter’s boyfriend.”

“He was married,” Mrs. Pioche said flatly. “That’s why
she kept him such a secret, even from her own family.”

“I heard one of the women at the high school’s parents group talking about that,” Lena Clani said. “She won’t talk to the police, I’m sure of that, but maybe I can talk to her for you. Nobody is threatened by a grandmother like me.” She smiled.