Changing Woman (19 page)

Ella made a quick report as she ran to her unit. She hadn’t seen the perp’s license plate, but she knew it was a dark-colored old four-door sedan. She asked Dispatch to have the patrols be on the lookout, and
to approach the two inside with caution. They hadn’t fired at her, but there was no way to know for sure if they were armed.

Spewing gravel and sand behind her tires, Ella sped after them and, within a few minutes, spotted the fleeing vehicle less than a mile ahead. They’d turned on their lights, and were going as fast as the gravel road would allow, throwing up enormous clouds of dust.

Ella
had always been proud of being a good cop, one who never acted out of anger, but when they attacked her family’s home, the rules changed. She was going to catch up to those suckers this time.

Knowing that a patrol unit would be dispatched to her house and that Rose and Dawn would be protected gave her the confidence to continue her pursuit. She floored the accelerator and felt the souped-up engine
respond. As she reached the top of the next rise, she saw the sedan swerve out onto the highway, turning north toward Shiprock.

Her cell phone rang, and she picked it up without taking her eyes off the road. “Hey, Ella, this is Justine. I’m at the intersection of Five-oh-four, heading south down Six-sixty-six.”

“Excellent. I’m in pursuit of a dark sedan coming your direction,” she explained,
giving her partner the highlights.

“I’ll block the road a quarter mile below the top of the last hill coming into the west side of town. They won’t see me until the last minute,” Justine advised.

“Stay sharp, and avoid a collision. They’re flying right now.”

Ella thought about calling for more backup, but knew that it was up to her and Justine. If the perps were monitoring police radio frequencies,
she didn’t want to let these guys know what she was planning to do next.

A moment later, coming out of a low spot in the road, she caught sight of the pair in the dark-colored sedan a quarter mile away. They were just about to crest the long hill leading down into Shiprock’s southwest quadrant.

Slowing down, then topping the hill ten seconds behind them, Ella had her foot off the gas and was
prepared to brake quickly if necessary. Several hundred yards below she saw Justine’s unit blocking the center of the highway, emergency lights flashing. The driver in the dark sedan slammed on the brakes, spinning around and coming up on two wheels as the driver barely prevented the car from rolling. He did nearly a 180-degree turn, tires squealing.

The sedan came to rest in a cloud of dust
and burning rubber less than ten feet from Justine’s unit.

Ella had slowed already, and came up close before slamming on the brakes, blocking the suspects with her Jeep. Jumping out and steadying her aim by resting her arms upon the top of the hood, she trained her weapon on the driver.

“Get out with your hands up!”

Justine directed the spotlight of her vehicle on the car’s interior.

A few seconds later, the pair came out slowly. Neither were wearing the ski masks now, but she could see one dangling out of the driver’s jacket pocket.

“Lie down on the pavement, facedown,” Ella ordered, moving around behind the suspects’ vehicle to take a quick glance inside. She wanted to make sure there wasn’t another
perp hiding in there.

While Ella kept watch, Justine handcuffed the two Anglo men, then frisked them thoroughly, removing their wallets for identification purposes. Ella kept her weapon trained on them throughout, then helped her partner lead the prisoners to the backseat of Justine’s unit, locking them inside.

Ella watched the two Anglos through the glass. They were out of their element here,
and from the frightened look on their faces, they knew they’d been lucky avoiding an accident during the pursuit.

“Get their vehicle off the road, then search it,” Ella told Justine as Officer Philip Cloud pulled up in his squad car from the direction of Shiprock.

Philip came out to join her, then glanced at the two suspects. “You caught them. Good job. I’ll take care of traffic.” Removing flares
and orange traffic cones from his vehicle’s trunk, Officer Cloud put out the warning signals in both directions for oncoming traffic. It was so late, few vehicles would be on the highway, but it was procedure. Borrowing Ella’s keys, he moved her Jeep off the highway, clearing one lane.

“They’ve got one unopened bottle left from a six-pack of beer and close to two gallons of kerosene in the back,”
Justine called out after a few minutes. “There are several old dish cloths torn in half as well. Looks to me like they intended on making more Molotov cocktails tonight. The beer is the same brand as the bottles found at the Chapter House.”

“I’ve also got another piece of evidence back at the house—a water bottle partially filled with kerosene. The passenger was getting ready to set fire to my
mother’s woodpile when I interrupted him,” Ella said. Then, opening the driver’s door to Justine’s unit, she looked inside at the suspects, reading them their rights.

“You guys are going down, you know that, right?” she added, getting into the driver’s seat and watching the men through the wire grid separating the prisoners from the front as she drove Justine’s unit off the highway, parking behind
her own Jeep.

The driver of the sedan laughed nervously. “Don’t make such a big deal out of this. We were just playing a prank. We didn’t hurt anyone.”

“Your idea of fun is trashing other people’s property, right?” Ella pressed. “Smashing mailboxes, breaking windshields, and blowing up things?”

“Hey, the insurance pays for it anyway, right?” the second man said with a shrug, his voice slurred
from the alcohol. “What’s the problem?”

“Shut up, man,” the one who’d been driving ordered, poking his partner with an elbow. He glanced at Ella, his eyes as cold as the night air. “I didn’t do a thing, and this idiot has had way too many beers tonight.” He gestured toward the passenger, who smelled of beer even from the front seat. “He doesn’t even know where he is anymore.”

Justine came up
behind Ella and examined the wallets she’d confiscated. “The driver of the vehicle is Eric Smith, and his buddy is James Little,” she told Ella.

“Why are you two smashing windows and blowing up
private property here on the Rez?” Ella prodded.

“We needed the money.” James, the man Two had chased and nearly caught, shrugged, then burped loudly. “It wasn’t our idea, and we don’t have anything personal
against Navajos. Actually, the guy who hired us is one of your own.”

“Our own?” Ella repeated, hoping she could keep the guy talking. Any new information, even from a drunk, could help open up this investigation to a new level.

“I told you to shut up,” Eric said, jabbing James with his elbow again. “I was just out for a drive, that’s all.”

James gagged, and for a moment she thought the man
was going to throw up in Justine’s unit.

Ella gestured for Justine to take Eric to Officer Cloud’s vehicle. They needed to separate the pair if they were going to get anywhere with them.

Ignoring his protests, Justine took the driver over to Philip, who was watching for traffic. Once Eric was secure in Philip’s patrol car, Ella focused on James. His eyes seemed to be glazed over, and she had
a feeling Eric had been right about James having consumed most of those beers.

“Look, if you help me now, I’ll be able to tell the judge you cooperated,” Ella urged. “Later, if Eric tries to make a deal by testifying against you, he’ll be too late.”

“You don’t understand what’s going on,” James said, speaking slowly now, trying not to slur his words. “We both got laid off last summer, and money’s
been really tight. Even construction jobs have been just a few days here, a few days there. Then this Indian in a suit and expensive snakeskin boots came up to us outside the union hall one night, asking what we’d be willing to do for a handful of easy money. We told him we didn’t go in for stealing stuff or shaking people down, but that wasn’t what he was looking to hire us for anyway. All
he wanted was for us to stir up a little trouble and run the stupid tribal cops ragged.” James grinned, then his
jaw fell. “That was him talking, not me. No offense, ma’am.”

Ella tried not to smile. “None taken, James. You were saying . . .”

“Well, this Indian guy was going to provide us with whatever we needed and he’d pay us a couple hundred after each raid. It was too sweet a deal to pass
up, and we never hurt nobody that I know of.”

Ella decided not to point out Charlie’s nearly fatal heart attack at the Totah Café bombing, or John Yabeni’s accident with the chain saw. “Who was this well-dressed Indian? Can you tell me his name?”

“He never said, and we never asked.” James shrugged. “He just told us to meet him later that night at the Palomino Bar. That’s when Eric gave him our
phone number, and, after that, he called whenever he needed us.”

“How did you get paid?”

“The first time it was half the cash up front and half when the job was done. After that, it was always after the job was done.”

Justine came up and handed Ella a computer printout. “This was under James’s seat, along with a radio scanner and all the hookups needed.” Ella glanced at the paper and realized
that it was a list of addresses. Most of the places already hit had been crossed off, but it was clear from the latter portion of the page that they’d caught the men before they’d finished tonight’s work.

Ella studied the page. The Chapter House was listed and next to it was the license number and make of Big Ed’s pickup. Her mother’s home wasn’t listed by address, but there was a brief but accurate
set of travel directions, along with the exact location of where she normally parked her unit at home—behind the trees by the side of the house.

“You were supposed to go to all these places tonight?” Ella asked.

“Nah. We could split it up any way we wanted. But we wouldn’t get paid until the job was finished,” he said.
“Look, I’ve got a two-year-old kid and a wife. I’ve helped you, so how about
cutting me some slack with the charges?”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Ella replied, happy that for once, a drunk had proved to be an asset to her job. “The DA will know you cooperated.” Ella walked away, then stopped and turned back. “Oh, one more thing, James. You used the scanner so you’d know when the police were out looking for you, right?”

“Right. But we never heard about the roadblock tonight.
Don’t know why.”

Ella gave him a confused look, wanting to keep him wondering. Sooner or later, when he was sober again, the use of cell phones would occur to James. Or maybe not. The man didn’t seem too bright.

Leaving the prisoner, James, secure in the backseat, Ella walked over to Justine, who was loading the bagged and tagged evidence into her unit. “Thanks for the backup, partner. I would
have probably lost them if you hadn’t come along. And that was a smart move using the cell phone.”

“Thanks. I was glad to help. I was having coffee with Wilson when I got the call. They couldn’t reach me on the radio because I’d just gone off duty and had left my handheld in my unit. Remembering what you’d said about someone monitoring our radio calls, I decided to stick with the cell phone.
Now I’m glad I did.”

Philip came over then, forcing Ella’s thoughts back on business. “I called in a tow truck for the perp’s car.”

“Good,” Ella said.

“Do you want to keep the pair apart all the way to the station?” he added.

“I think that’s our best move right now,” Ella answered.

“Agreed,” Justine said. “I’ll take the one I have, you can keep Eric, Philip,” Justine added, then glanced over
at Ella. “I can finish this up, if you want to go home.
Don’t look now, but you’re not wearing much, and your lips are turning blue.”

“I grabbed a coat, but I’m only wearing the T-shirt I wear to bed underneath,” Ella said, suddenly very much aware of the numbing cold that had spread all over her body. At least she’d been able to question the perp from Justine’s car where she’d been next to the
heater. “I think I will go home. Let me know if there are any problems, and make sure you have that scanner checked out to verify it can pick up our radio calls. I’m especially interested in seeing if it’s been modified to monitor our tactical frequencies.”

Ella headed back home with the heat inside her department vehicle turned up to blast furnace. She felt warmer now, but all she wanted to
do was crawl under the covers. When she got home, Rose was waiting and met her in the living room with a cup of hot chocolate.

“I figured you’d need this when you got home.”

Ella sipped the steaming liquid slowly, grateful for the warmth that seeped through her. “Thanks, Mom.”

“Did you catch him?”

She nodded. “I’ll tell you more about it as soon as I can.”

“Most of that cord of firewood out
back is ruined,” Rose said. “With that much kerosene soaked into it, it’s a hazard.”

“I figured that,” Ella answered. “Did all the commotion wake my daughter up?”

Rose shook her head. “Children sleep soundly. She feels secure and loved and the confusion that often touches our family doesn’t reach her. It’s her innocence that protects her.”

“I’m grateful for that.”

“But it won’t always be that
way. Children grow up quickly. Soon enough she’ll learn what it’s like to be afraid. It’s inevitable when her mother’s a cop.”

“I’ll deal with that when it comes.” Ella was too tired to tread over that old ground again.

As Ella drank her hot chocolate she brought out the list that Justine had given her. It had been bagged in clear plastic and tagged, but she’d forgotten to give it back to her.
She’d have to sign the bag and record the date and time now to keep the chain of evidence intact.

As she read the addresses again it became clear to her that someone had been watching and gathering information about people in their community. The chief’s truck had been described in detail down to the license plate. But most significant of all was that the address listed beside it was that of
the Chapter House. They’d known where the chief would be.