Changing Woman (11 page)

“Fair
enough.”

They went up the little channel, an empty, erosioncarved ditch that ran closer to the side and rear of the hogan, with Ella leading the way. Then, about fifty yards from the hogan she saw another much deeper arroyo concealing a silver pickup. It was almost completely covered with gray and brown tumbleweeds, and blended in well with the vegetation. They might have missed it completely
if they hadn’t been able to get so close.

The tailgate was facing their direction, and Ella wrote down the license plate number in a small notebook she’d pulled from her pocket. The vehicle fit the description
of the truck that had been seen racing away after the sniper incident.

Ella motioned for Harry to return to the larger arroyo where they’d been earlier. Once they’d put more distance between
them and the hogan, she filled him in quickly. “Sorry, Harry. We’re not doing this solo. I’m calling for backup now. The sniper who shot at me was driving a silver pickup. He was a very good marksman, too, who only narrowly missed his target though he was nearly a thousand yards away, and in a crosswind. And from what I can see there’s only one quick way into that hogan—the doorway. The side
has been punched out, according to custom, but the hole isn’t big enough for either of us to crawl through quickly. If we go in after him, whoever takes point is dead, and at point-blank range, that fifty-caliber rifle could penetrate both our vests, front and back. We’re going to need special tactics on this one.”

Harry nodded. “Yeah, under the circumstances, I think you’re right. There are
probably enough unchinked gaps between the logs of that old hogan to allow anyone inside to see in every direction. All it would take is a little bad luck and he’d spot us sneaking up. So call it in. But make sure your people stay out of sight and sound until we’re ready to make a move. I’m still not sure how many people are in the hogan, or even if Manyfarms is there at all. Keep in mind that most
Navajos would assume that anyone entering a killed hogan is a skinwalker. Many people around here would happily provide us with a false tip in hopes we’d shoot first and ask questions later.”

“Good point,” Ella acknowledged, then relayed instructions to Justine via her handheld radio.

Next, Ella borrowed Harry’s binoculars and studied the blue tarp that had been draped over the front entrance.
“Whoever’s in there has got the entrance covered up well. Better than with a blanket, I’ll give him that.”

“I suppose we can just sit tight until he comes out,”
Harry said. “Beats getting anyone’s head blown off.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking, too,” Ella answered. “Or if he spots us and refuses to budge, we could toss a tear gas grenade through the smoke hole.”

“We’d have to get in pretty
close to do that, and avoid being spotted coming up.”

“Yeah, but with enough cover fire from our team, he’d have to stay low until we lobbed it off.”

“How much backup do you think we’ll have?”

“Justine is rounding up the forces. She’ll contact Blalock and Payestewa, the new Hopi agent. Ralph Tache is on call, and Sergeant Neskahi will be coming with him, probably.”

Less than thirty minutes
later Ella met the local officers in the arroyo beside the highway. Harry had stayed behind, maintaining his surveillance of the hogan.

Ella filled them in quickly. “The problem is that the suspect only has to cover one entrance. Face-to-face, we won’t be able to use our superior firepower and numbers.”

“Sooner or later he’ll have to come out,” Blalock said. “Then he’s ours.”

“So you vote to
wait, too?” Ella asked.

“Yeah. We can zip up our jackets and hunker down for as long as it takes.”

They positioned themselves in key points around the hogan, maintaining watch without breaking cover. Soon the trail of smoke from the hogan stopped completely.

Her radio crackled softly. “Ella, there’s something we really should have considered,” Harry said. “It’s possible that the fire was left
burning, and the guy I saw was just dropping off supplies for later. There might not be anyone in there at all now.”

“Or he may be waiting us out, hoping we’ll go in for a closer look,” Blalock interjected. “The best snipers have more patience than their targets.”

“Yeah, there’s that possibility as well,” Harry agreed.
Blalock came back on the air. “I vote we continue waiting.”

No one argued.

Hours passed slowly and the temperature dropped even more as the sun got low in the sky, disappearing behind the nearby mountains. But it didn’t get truly miserable until the wind picked up. Even when crouched below ground level in the arroyo, the cold was merciless because the earth had remained in the shade all day long, frozen, and provided neither warmth nor much shelter.

“After this is over,
I’m going to stay beneath my electric blanket for the rest of the winter,” Justine whispered into her radio.

’Toughen up, lady,” Blalock growled back.

“Great, now it looks like we’re going to get snow,” Payestewa said as clouds began rolling in from the west, further darkening the sky.

“No, that would mean we’d finally be getting some moisture, and that ain’t gonna happen, boys and girls,”
Blalock muttered.

Minutes ticked by slowly as the temperature continued to drop and silence stretched out between them.

“I think it’s time I went in for a look,” Harry said at last. His position in the ditch made him the closest one to the hogan. “I can move silently.”

“You peek through that doorway or the hole in the side, and you’re hable to lose a lot of body heat through the hole in your
chest,” Blalock said.

“Yeah. I know,” Harry replied. “That’s why I was thinking of doing what he doesn’t expect. Now that the wind is coming up, it’s probably whistling though the hogan, making some noise. He won’t be able to hear what’s going on around him very well so I figure I’ll take the homemade ladder that’s resting on the ground beside the west side of the hogan and climb up onto the
top. Even if he hears me, which is unlikely, the roof is thick and he’d have to fire blind. But if all goes as I plan, that situation will never come up. I’ll get a quick
look inside and be out of there before he ever figures out he had company.”

“If the guy is quick with his trigger, you could catch a bullet in the forehead. That’s just too risky,” Ella said.

“Actually, we’re running low on
options,” Harry responded. “We have less than an hour of daylight left, and no night scopes. If he has a night-vision device, he could crawl out of that hogan in the dark and pick us off one by one.”

“It’s your operation, Deputy,” Blalock said, “but I’d recommend we wait until twilight to make our move. We’ll still be able to see each other, and he won’t have any advantage with a night device.”

“Sounds reasonable,” Ella agreed.

“All right,” Harry added.

Another half hour passed. None of them had had anything to eat or drink for a while and the cold was beginning to numb their skin. Blalock had sent Payestewa for hot coffee earlier, and everyone was grateful for the gesture, though the liquid, stored only in foam cups, was lukewarm by the time they got to drink it.

“Quick, somebody
remind me why I became a cop,” Justine said over the radio.

“You wanted excitement in your life,” Neskahi answered. “And you liked working outdoors.”

“Hang on, people. Stay sharp,” Blalock grumbled.

Ella didn’t argue. She knew that the chatter helped morale and kept them focused, but Blalock was still a by-the-book sort when the chips were down, and his motives were good.

Restless and cold,
Ella tried to shove her gloved hands deeper into her pockets, but nothing was working now. The cold was biting into her fingertips, and her toes felt frozen. She’d always had cold feet and even the thick wool socks she wore in the winter weren’t doing much good out here. She promised to stuff herself with warm food when she got home, put on two layers of socks, and wear fuzzy slippers until morning.

As Ella thought of home, she began to wonder how things were going back there. She hoped Rose was getting along with Gloria. Her mom could be impossible when she chose to be. Sometimes Ella just wasn’t sure what would drive her crazy first—Rose, Dawn, or her job.

Her teeth began to chatter uncontrollably. “People, if we don’t do something soon, I’m going to be shaking too hard to shoot straight,”
Ella said. “We’re just not equipped to pull an all-nighter.”

“What she said,” Neskahi added.

“I never knew you were a wuss, Ella,” Payestewa teased.

“Meet me at the gym sometime. We’ll compare wuss factors,” she shot back.

“Okay, boys and girls. It’s time to make our move,” Blalock said, his voice shaky from the cold. “But I’d reconsider that ladder if I were you, Ute. I’ve checked it out
with my binoculars, and it looks like it’s been outside in the elements for a long, long time. I’m not sure it’ll hold that extra weight you’ve put on lately.”

“I’ll go up instead,” Ella said. “Harry outweighs me by fifty pounds or more, and I’m lighter on my feet.” Which had probably frozen and fallen off during their extended surveillance, Ella realized. She just hadn’t gotten around to noticing
yet.

“You might have a point,” Harry said, conceding. “Okay, we’ll both go, Ella, and I’ll cover your back.”

“Give the rest of us a chance to move in close enough to cover you first,” Blalock said. “If he starts blasting, we want to be able to take him down immediately.”

“I’m for that,” Ella said, adjusting the bulletproof vest she now wore whenever she was out. The additional warmth it provided
had been very welcome today.

“All right. We’re going in, low and slow, everyone at once. I’ll let you know as soon as we’re in position.” Blalock said.

Ella flexed her hands, trying to get the blood rushing
through them again, then took off her gloves and placed them in her pockets. She’d want the extra dexterity, just in case shooting began.

“Okay, Ella, Harry, go!” Blalock muttered into the
radio once the rest of them had crawled closer to the hogan.

Ella slipped her radio onto her belt as she crouched, then moved quickly and silently across the frozen earth, reaching the west side of the hogan a few steps ahead of Harry. Grabbing the wooden ladder, she yanked it off the ground and swung it upright. With only a quick glance toward the entrance of the hogan, she propped the ladder
up against the side of the hogan at a safe angle.

Harry was there now, pistol out. He held the ladder for her with his other hand, and nodded.

Ella stepped onto the ladder and climbed up, trying to ignore the creak of the wood. Clambering onto the claycovered roof, she inched up on hands and knees toward the charcoal-rimmed smoke hole in the center, listening for any sounds within.

The wind
was whistling around her now and she was being pelted by blowing sand. She held her breath as she approached the opening. Her heart hammered against her sides as she considered the possibility that he was waiting for her, and she’d get a bullet right between the eyes.

But if she looked quickly and ducked back, by the time his brain registered her presence and sent the message to his trigger finger,
she’d be out of sight again. At least that was the theory. But what if he were already squeezing the trigger?

Images of Dawn came unbidden into her thoughts. Swallowing back her fear, Ella peeked inside, then ducked away.

It had been pretty dim inside the hogan, but the dwelling had appeared empty except for a slight warmth and the glow of coals directly below. But she’d caught a glimpse of
an object close to the entrance.

She moved back for a closer look, and still no gunfire came. As her eyes adjusted to the light, she was able to confirm her suspicions about the doorway.

“No one’s in the hogan,” she said in a normal voice, turning to look at Harry, who was at the top of the ladder. “But had we tried to rush the door, we would have been history. There’s a trip wire, and enough
explosives in a box by the entrance to blow us all to kingdom come.”

She heard Harry advise Blalock on the radio, but something else held her attention now. She leaned over the opening and stuck her head farther in, using the flashlight she’d taken from her pocket. “At least there’s some good news. There’s no fuse this time. The bomb is set on a timer.”

“How much time’s left?”

“I don’t know.
It’s too small to see clearly. But there are at least four digits.”

Her radio crackled at the same time Harry’s did. “Get off of there, you two,” Blalock advised. “And don’t touch a thing. I’m calling your bomb-disposal unit. If they can’t handle it, then the ATF or county people will.”

“Dwayne, don’t you remember? Our bomb-disposal unit is made up of one guy, Sam Pete,” Ella said. “And I can
tell you he hasn’t done anything this complicated in a long time—if ever. Wires and detonators and other devices are tied together down there. It looks like a high school science project. If I were you, I’d get on the phone to the ATF.”

Rose Destea stood at the window, watching the moon rise in the east, bathing the hills that had stood as their guardians since their clan first moved to this
land generations ago. There was an odd stirring in her soul tonight. Even the mountains and the gray clouds billowing from their heights looked troubled. Something was
wrong, and she could feel it. A mother knew things about her children without ever having to be told. It was an instinct nearly as old as the four sacred hills that surrounded them.

Ella was in danger somewhere out there on this
cold night. Rose could feel it with every breath she took. She glanced over at Dawn, who was playing quietly on the living room floor. She was usually an active child but, tonight, she was as moody as her grandmother. Though she didn’t dare ask, Rose could have sworn that the child sensed the same thing she did.

Gloria Washburn placed a gentle hand on Rose’s shoulder. “Are you all right?”

Rose
gritted her teeth. It bothered her having a stranger touch her, and, as a Navajo, the young woman should have known better. But the newer generations seldom spared a thought to the old traditions of their culture. “I’m fine, thank you,” Rose said, moving away and going toward the hall.