Red Mesa (41 page)

From what she could see through her powerful binoculars, and guessing on the rest, the clothing in the plastic trash bag they’d unearthed belonged to Justine. She swallowed back the bitter taste that
lined the back of her throat. Whoever had buried those things had selected the halfway point between where the burned body had been found and Rose’s house.

Her cell phone rang and she jumped. It was Blalock. “I think it’s you over there,” he said, moving away from the others. “I thought you’d like to know that we’ve found an old butcher knife, Justine’s badge, her wallet, and all her clothing,
including her underwear and boots. There are hair samples stuck to the clothing where it’s bloody. Most of it is Justine’s, I think. At least it’s the right color and length, but some of it…”

“Some of it what?” she pressed impatiently.

“Well, if I had to lay odds, I’d say they’ll turn out to be yours. They’re thick, black, and longer than Justine’s.”

“In that case, I think they were probably
taken from Justine’s car. I rode in there for hours the day before she disappeared.”

“We’ve also found an axe here,” Blalock added.

Ella felt the blood drain from her face. “We’re missing ours.”

“Exactly what I was thinking. If your prints are on it…”

“Of course they’ll be on the handle. I chop wood for Mom all the time.”

“It’s got blood on it. So does the knife, but your mother didn’t report
one of those missing.”

“No, she didn’t,” Ella agreed. “But my mom usually keeps the old knives as spares even after she’s bought new ones. If this one belonged to her, she wouldn’t have necessarily noticed it was missing. It was probably taken the afternoon someone broke into the house.”

Blalock didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. They both knew that until this evidence could be refuted, it would
point directly to Ella. The frame had been skillfully planned and executed from the very beginning. There was no doubt she was fighting for her life. The murder of a police officer would mean prison with no chance of parole.

“Whoever processes the axe won’t find my
bloody
prints on it, or on the knife either. That’s going to be a fact in my favor. There’s no way whoever did this could have managed
that. But I’ve still got to find them,” Ella said.

“Some of the other evidence could go your way, too, if you have a good lawyer.”

“I may not be able to get the best anymore. They don’t come cheap. But do one thing for me. Check the source of the anonymous tip that led you to this stash. My guess is that the caller was either the killer or someone he hired. One more thing. I’m beginning to suspect
that Justine was being drugged with a personality-altering herb or drug that induced paranoia in her. I think that was why she was overreacting to things with her family and at work. Find out who had access to Justine’s food when she was away from home. And look at the connection between Manyfarms and Natoni,” Ella said, letting him know what she’d learned.

“They have a shaky alibi,” she added,
“and that puts their association in a very bad light.”

“I’ll get every angle I can on those two characters. I also checked out this Bobby Lujan character. He was where you said. He didn’t exactly win big, though. He was actually caught cheating, so everyone remembers him that night quite well. He was thrown out after spending a long time in their security office.”

“I know there’s a lot against
me right now, but at least I’ve got some good informants. Sooner or later, I’ll come up with something that can clear me.”

Ella thought about mentioning the slim possibility that Justine was still alive and captive somewhere, and decided she had nothing to lose, and Justine had everything to gain, if she could be found—alive. She explained about Natoni’s trailer, leaving out Jayne’s involvement.
It was a risk, knowing that her own entry into the trailer would taint any evidence.

Blalock didn’t say anything for a moment, then finally responded. “That would explain the fingertip, I suppose, and suggests that it was left there for us to find, and wasn’t just an oversight in the dark. I’ll keep an open mind to the possibility, but in the meantime, I’ve got a job to do, in spite of the obvious
frame job being done on you.” He paused, then added, “Expect me to show up at your home within two hours or so.”

Ella suddenly understood she was being told that her arrest was imminent. As soon as the hair was processed, a photo of the axe and the kitchen knife would be brought for Rose to identify, probably along with a warrant for Ella’s arrest. But whether he actually believed Justine could
still be alive, Blalock knew she was innocent, and had just given her a break. He was giving her the chance to go into hiding, and continue to investigate to clear herself, which, of course, was exactly what she’d be doing.

Ella found herself shaking as she tried to put the cell phone back into her pocket. She was afraid for her daughter as much as for herself. If she went down, her daughter
would grow up being shunned by others and seen as the daughter of evil. Rose wouldn’t be able to take care of Dawn forever, and after that, Dawn would have no one who would love her and give her a good home. Clifford wouldn’t be able to take her into his family—not as long as he was married to Loretta.

She had to fight—and win—not only for her own sake, but for her daughter’s. She hadn’t brought
Dawn into this world to live out her life in shame, or like a castoff with Kevin’s family in Arizona.

Ella ran to her truck and drove home quickly, knowing that the lead time Blalock had given her was only approximate. She couldn’t let herself be arrested. If she did, neither she nor Dawn would have a chance except through sheer luck. No one would fight harder for her or her daughter than she
would.

Ella rushed in the front door, kissed her daughter, who was playing with both her wooden and plastic blocks together, then motioned for her mother to meet her in the bedroom.

Ella filled Rose in quickly as she packed a tape recorder, flashlight with extra batteries, and a change of clothes. Finally she slipped into loose-fitting jeans and a Red Chief’s baseball cap. Tucking her hair inside
it, she fitted the cap low over her face. “I’ve got to leave now. They’re coming after me,” she said, explaining the rest while she checked her computer one last time. “I’ll call you when I can, and tell you I’m Francis. That’ll mean that I want you to check my computer. I’ve left it on, so all you have to do is touch this key here on top that looks like a small rocket. It’ll get you on-line.”
She scribbled the log-off directions onto a notepad.

“I don’t know…”

“Just touch the right keys. It’ll do the rest. And don’t tell a soul. Not even your most trusted friend.”

Rose nodded, and as Ella studied her mother’s expression, she was surprised to see how calm Rose looked.

“Mom, will you be all right?”

Rose nodded. “I felt that this day would come. I’ve been planning ahead, more so,
it seems, than you have.”

“What do you mean?”

“You can’t drive my truck, or your own. You’ll be spotted in no time.”

“I can’t rent one either, Mom. I’ve got no choice.”

“Go by the home of our night guardian,” she said, referring to Herman Cloud. “Leave your truck with him. He’ll hide it, and in the meantime, you can use his old one. It was recently rebuilt, and though it uses a lot of gas,
it’s got one of those fast engines.”

“He didn’t do that just for me?”

Rose smiled. “No. He fixed up the truck for himself, saying he was going to be a teenager one more time before he died. He wants you to take it now. No one will track you with it, and he assures me that no one will catch you either unless they have a helicopter or set up a roadblock ahead of you.”

Ella gave Rose a hug. “Take
care of Dawn for me, Mom, and tell her I love her every night when you read her a story. Her favorite one is about the lambs, remember. I’ll try to end this soon.”

Rose held her daughter. “You’re frightened, and you have reason to be, but don’t stop fighting. The truth will eventually come out. A lie can only exist if no one is around to expose it for what it is.”

“I’ll do my best and I won’t
give up, Mom, but I won’t be able to come back home until it’s over, and I don’t know how long that’ll be. They’ll be watching you and this place constantly.”

“I’ll take care of things here. Don’t worry about us. We have friends watching the house at night, remember? Just worry about yourself and what you have to do. And be safe.”

Holding Dawn tightly for one last good-bye was gut-wrenching
for Ella. She knew that the chances of her getting killed, maybe even by a fellow police officer, were higher than they’d ever been. As she hugged her daughter, knowing it could be for the very last time, Ella’s heart nearly broke, but somehow she managed not to cry in front of her. Still, Dawn was unusually quiet, and looked at her very seriously as Ella sat her down.

“’Bye, Momma,” Dawn said
just once, and grabbed hold of Rose’s skirt, hiding her face except for one eye. The last thing Ella saw as she left the room was her daughter’s tiny hand out, waving good-bye slowly as she clung to Rose’s skirt.

A short time later, armed with her derringer and her father’s old hunting rifle and some ammo, she was back on the road. Now that she was alone, tears streamed down her face. Ella wiped
them off with her hand and forced herself to focus on what she had to do next.

Ella switched off her cell phone. It could be used only for extreme emergencies now. Although neither the reservation police nor the local FBI had the tracking equipment capable of pinpointing a cell phone caller’s location, it could be brought in, depending on outside pressure, and she wouldn’t take any chances.

Ella drove directly to Herman Cloud. By the time she arrived at his home, he was outside, waiting, having heard her drive up.

Ella started to tell him why she’d come, but he shook his head. She realized that the less he knew, the less he’d have to answer for later if the police found out she’d been there. Herman led the way to a corrugated metal loafing shed out in the back beside the corrals.
Underneath was an old seventies-model Chevy pickup, the finish faded to a pale green by the sun. “I got some training in the army, and used to be a mechanic before they started adding all those electronic gizmos to everything with wheels. For years I worked at that old filling station that used to be by the port of entry. We’d fix up anything then, just to see how much speed we could get out of an
engine. This may look like Grampa’s old truck, but she’s got a rebuilt four-hundred-fifty-four-cubic-inch engine, four-barrel carburetor, and a few other extras that can make her haul like no one’s business. And it’s got a police scanner.” He smiled. “I didn’t want a ticket when I took her out to see what she could do.”

Ella laughed, realizing that there was still a lot she had to learn about
the people she’d grown up around. There was so much a child never paid attention to in her environment. Would it be the same for Dawn?

The thought brought her predicament back to focus, and she grew serious again. “Are you sure you want to do this? You could be arrested for helping me. It’s serious stuff.”

“A man has to decide whether his loyalty lies in the rules other men have drawn up, or
in his own sense of right. I’ve made my decision.”

“I haven’t been arrested for anything, so technically you didn’t help a fugitive. But if I get caught, I’ll say I took your truck without permission. All you have to do is agree, and explain that it’s your second vehicle and that you weren’t aware that it was gone because you haven’t been working on it lately.”

“You won’t get caught. And don’t
worry about anything here. Your truck will be safely hidden where no one will ever find it until you return. I can put a few bales of hay around it, throw a tarp over the whole thing, and it’s an instant stack of alfalfa.”

“You’re a good friend,” she said, impulsively giving him a hug. “Thank you.”

“Hurry and get done with this unpleasantness. We need to bring some harmony back to this part
of the Rez.”

As Ella drove off, she tried to get her thoughts in order. She had no idea where she was going, or even which direction to turn when she got to the highway.

Ella considered her options. The only suspects who seemed to have the planning skills and connections to pull off the crime were Manyfarms and Natoni, but Blalock would be taking care of them using routine methods of investigation.
What she wanted—what she needed—was something more definite. She had to find a clear motive and establish opportunity. That was the only way to verify or disprove Manyfarms’ and Natoni’s link to Justine’s murder—or her captivity, if such a thing could be true. Whatever the case, Ella had to move quickly.

She glanced at her watch. Thursday was Wilson’s busiest teaching day, but the university
computer would give her access to police data banks via the Internet, providing no one had changed her user codes.

Ella considered it. Even if they traced her access location, they’d only find the terminal she used at the university. It was worth the risk, as long as she didn’t remain on-line very long.

Turning on the police scanner, she listened to routine calls as she headed for the university.
Once the arrest warrant was issued and Blalock didn’t find her or her truck at home, she would officially be labeled a fugitive and there would be no safe place for her anywhere.

Careful not to risk a traffic stop, Ella kept her speed within the limit, but the drive only served to make her even more tense. Finally, as she approached the college, she heard dispatch announce that there had been
an arrest warrant issued for her, adding the usual caution about confronting a well-trained and probably armed suspect. She’d expected the news, but somehow, hearing it on the scanner made it sound even worse. Her stomach tightened into a knot. It wouldn’t be long before the news was on the local radio stations as well.

One thing was certain. She had to stay away from Wilson. Someone would be
watching him as well as Rose. But in Rose’s case, that would only serve to protect her and Dawn, and that was a blessing in disguise.