Changing Woman (29 page)

Lorraine sat on the couch, tucking her legs under her. “I
didn’t lie to you.”

“You said you didn’t know if there was another woman.”

“She’s not a woman—she’s a filthy slut.”

Ella held her gaze. “Whatever you think about her, you’re still a liar. Giving a false statement to a police officer during a capital investigation is a crime. We can take you to court, or jail.”

“Even if I was just trying not to incriminate my children’s father?”

Silence stretched
out between them, but Ella waited. Justine sat back on the easy chair, stretching out as if she were just about to watch a movie on TV.

Lorraine stood, glanced down the hall toward the girls’ room, then came back. “Look, I’ll level with you,” she whispered, returning to the couch. “Andrew had affairs from time to time. I’ve suspected it for years, but it didn’t really matter to me because I knew
he’d never leave me and his daughters. But this mess with the blackmailer . . . That’s something else. I didn’t want my daughters and me dragged through the mud.”

“Do you think Andrew killed her?”

Her eyes widened. “You’re not serious!”

Ella said nothing. She simply stared at the woman until she answered.

“That’s absurd. It’s one thing to have an affair—his male colleagues would consider that
a plus or at least not a minus—but killing someone? No way. He loves status, and he loves his position on the Tribal Council. He wouldn’t risk it over a woman—any woman.”

“Exactly,” Ella answered. “But what if Betty threatened to embarrass him publicly?”

“By showing the photos around?” She shrugged. “It would have hurt her more than him. His friends would have injured themselves trying to pat
him on the back. Admittedly, it would have cost him some votes eventually—but he would have been working on what spin
to put on it to make himself seem to be the unfortunate victim, instead of wasting his time with that woman.”

“What about the embarrassment it might cause
you?
How do you feel about that?”

“I think Andrew should have kept his pants zipped,” Lorraine snapped, “and it
is
an embarrassment
to me, but I’ll get my revenge when we go through divorce proceedings. Count on it.”

“What were you doing this morning at around tenthirty?”

“Now you think
I
did it?” She stared at Ella in disgust. “From ten to eleven I was meeting with the principal at my girls’ elementary school, straightening out their health records, which the school nurse screwed up completely.” Lorraine shook her head.
“You’re looking in the wrong direction. Any woman who has wild monkey sex with a married man and has someone else taking blackmail pictures of it is mixed up with some pretty sick people. If I were you, I’d find out who that woman was associating with.”

“You don’t think she was an innocent victim?” Justine observed.

“Innocent? Give me a break. An innocent woman doesn’t have an affair with a
man who’s married and has two little girls. She was in on it from the beginning.”

“You’re that sure?”

Lorraine rolled her eyes. “If someone was outside your window taking photos, wouldn’t you know it? I would, that’s for sure.”

“Maybe not if you were . . . distracted,” Ella said diplomatically.

“Andrew’s not that distracting. Believe me.”

Ella saw Justine was biting her lip trying not to
laugh, but mercifully Lorraine couldn’t see her face. Ella stared at the carpet, forcing herself not to even crack a smile. “You’re not planning to leave town anytime soon, are you?” she asked at last.

“What if I am?”

“If you do, then please check in at the station before you leave and let us know where you can be reached.”

“Am I a suspect?” Lorraine challenged.

Ella met her gaze. “Yes.”

By the time Ella got home she was exhausted, but as she walked through the door her daughter let out a shriek.

“Mommy!”

That one word energized her instantly. Although up to now Dawn had only used the Navajo word for
mother,
hours watching a children’s educational show each morning had obviously taught her more Anglo words.

Rose gave Dawn a mild disapproving look, but Ella scooped
up her child in her arms, and sat down on the couch, holding Dawn in her lap as Jennifer said goodbye, put on her coat, and left.

“So tell me what you did today!” Ella said, giving Dawn her full attention.

Her little girl was a bundle of squirming energy tonight. She gestured with her arms and spoke about Jennifer and playing ball, and all the little things that attested to an active day.

As Ella held her daughter, the job and all her worries about the investigation faded away. Being with her daughter soothed her soul. It was the best part of any day.

Ella got on the floor to play with Dawn’s blocks and, distracted, forgot to tell Rose that Kevin was planning to drop by later on. At a quarter to nine they heard a car drive up and Ella quickly told Rose.

A moment later, he was
at the door holding a huge present for Dawn. Seeing him, Dawn ran up to Kevin, arms open.

Kevin scooped her up with one hand and held her,
shutting the door behind him. “Hey, little pumpkin!”

“For me?” Dawn said, reaching for the box.

“It’s a present. Do you want to see what’s inside?” Kevin teased, holding it out of her grasp.

“Yes!”

Kevin set her down and gave her the box. Inside was a
large set of interlocking Lego blocks with a barnyard theme. Ella studied the label, which said the pieces were for children from toddler to preschool age. She was glad to see that they were large and nothing her daughter could put in her mouth easily. “You really shouldn’t bring her expensive presents so often. She has to accept you as her father, not as a Navajo Santa Claus.”

“It makes me happy
to buy her things.” Kevin shrugged.

Ella sat down on the floor with Dawn, showing her how to fit the pieces together to make a corral for the pigs and cows, and a cart pulled by a pony.

Kevin sat on the couch, watching and offering encouragement and advice from a distance, like the county extension agent. Ella knew that children made him nervous, and when Dawn was active and happy as she was
now, he didn’t seem to know what to do with her. She wondered if maybe he considered child’s play beneath his dignity.

Rose ambled off to the kitchen, annoyed that Kevin had showed up so close to Dawn’s bedtime and mumbling about having all those pieces underfoot to trip on.

After she left, Kevin looked at Ella and exhaled softly. “Your mother doesn’t think much of me, does she?”

“Do you want
the truth?” Ella asked with a half grin.

“Never mind.”

Dawn spent some time taking some of the smaller animals in and out of a red wagon pulled by a tractor, then started putting the pieces back into the storage box, one at a time, with a thunk. It was evident that Dawn was sleepy, and she knew she was supposed to pick up her toys before bed.

“I’m going to put her to bed,” Ella said softly,
lifting Dawn into her arms. The little girl fussed a little as Ella carried her to the room, but settled down when Ella brought over the stuffed dinosaur Dawn liked to sleep with.

Kevin had followed Ella to Dawn’s room and seeing the mattress on the floor, scowled with disapproval. “I can’t believe you haven’t bought her a small bed of her own.”

“Mother is a traditionalist. She didn’t believe
in cribs, either, and in this case she and I are in agreement. And Dawn is so active, I worry about her trying to climb out of bed in the morning when she wakes up before I do. Here she’s safe. We have a childproof gate for her so she’ll stay put at night. The rest of the room is safe as well,” she said softly.

“She’s going to live in a modern world, for heaven’s sake, Ella, not sleep on the
dirt floor of a hogan.”

Ella shot him a cold look. “I know what’s best for my daughter.”

Kevin shook his head and watched as she tucked Dawn in and gave her a good-night kiss.

Ella glanced back, thinking Kevin would want to give his daughter a good-night kiss, too, but he remained at the doorway. Although she said nothing to him, it bothered her to think that he wasn’t comfortable around his
own child. Yet, what surprised her most was Dawn’s quiet acceptance of her father’s attitude. She hadn’t expected nor asked for a kiss from him.

Ella led Kevin back down the hall. “She’s a pretty cool kid, Kevin. You’d feel less awkward if you gave yourself and her a chance and lightened up a little.”

“I’ve never been around kids much, even those of my relatives. I was the youngest in my family
and even my cousins were older than me. But I’m getting better. Dawn and I get along fine.”

Kevin followed her back into the living room, then
sat on the sofa. “I need to talk to you about something else for a few minutes.”

“I’m listening,” she said, sitting across from him in a comfortable stuffed chair. All the furniture was comfortable in her family’s house, it occurred to her.

“I heard
about the murder Councilman Talk’s been implicated in,” he said. “Word was going around after you visited his wife.”

“And?”

“He’s a key player in the gaming issue, Ella. So far he’s straddled the fence, but the way things are shaping up it’s possible he could end up with the swing vote. It’s going to be close, and nobody knows if he’s going to vote for or against tribal gaming.”

“I don’t understand
what you’re worried about. Are you afraid he’ll get arrested and lose his place on the council before the vote comes up?” she asked.

“No, that’s not it.” He paused for a very long time. “The truth is that I don’t think he had anything to do with what happened to Betty Nez,” he said softly. “I think that they tried to blackmail him, and then killed his girlfriend when he wouldn’t knuckle under.
And what’s even worse is that I have this feeling that the murder may have been committed by the same people who’ve been trying to intimidate me. I’ve been getting some veiled threats over E-mail and the phone.”

“Who’s threatening you, and why?” Ella asked, surprised that Kevin was opening up to her now.

He took a deep breath and then let it out slowly. “I’ve made some enemies, Ella, powerful
ones. The progaming people are really angry with me because I’m suggesting one more referendum to let the entire tribe decide the fate of gaming on the Rez.”

“You accepted financial support from the progaming people to help get elected. They expected your loyalty and your vote. Politics works that way, I’m told.”

“They didn’t buy me, Ella. They made a contribution because I was listening to
their concerns and proposals.
But I have the right—the responsibility—to change my mind if I see fit.”

He paused. “But in trying to evaluate all sides of this question fairly, I’ve created some major trouble for myself. The pressure is really coming down on me. Even my aide, Jefferson Blueeyes, is trying to get me to return to my original position on the issue.”

“If you want a tribal referendum,
and think it’s best for the tribe, then stick to your guns,” Ella concluded.

“The problem is that I’m still unsure of what the right thing is for the tribe. That’s why I want to keep my options open. But the way things are now, if I ultimately decide that gaming
is
the way the tribe should go, the people who’ve been trying to intimidate me will conclude that their pressure tactics worked. That’ll
mean that every time they want something from me, they’ll turn up the heat and make my life a living hell.”

“I hate to state the obvious, but it’s your own ambition that got you into this mess, Kevin. Organized crime and gambling are old friends. You should have expected a problem like this to crop up.” She studied his expression carefully to see if he knew or had heard anything about the Indian
mafia. When he didn’t react, she added, “I’ll try to help you out. As a cop, it’s my duty.”

“Thanks.” He met her gaze. “You just can’t understand what getting elected meant to me. I had to compromise and become a player to get where I wanted to be. It was the only way, Ella.” He shook his head, looking away. “Your life is much simpler because the most you’ve ever aspired to is being a cop.”

“And my being a cop is exactly what’s put me in a position to help you. Ironic, isn’t it, how we little people can also make a difference sometimes.” She didn’t wait for his answer. “Tell me something. Just how much do you know about Blueeyes? Could he be behind the threats?”

“I don’t think so. He does his job, and tries to help me do mine. That’s it.”

“But you said he’s progaming?”

“Yeah, he
honestly believes our tribe is too poor not to take advantage of this opportunity. On a personal level, I agree with him.”

“I don’t get it. Then why did you change your position?”

“Because I represent the People, not myself. Anything that’s going to impact on the reservation as much as a casino will should have the support of the majority of the tribe. A lot of my colleagues believe that once
people see the money rolling in, everything will fall into place.” He paused. “But I’m not sure.”

“Are you just worried that you’ll be voted out of office if gaming turns out to be plagued with skimming and corruption?” Ella pressed.

’This isn’t about me, Ella. I honestly want to work for the good of the
entire
tribe, not just the businessmen or the unemployed. I know you think I’m in politics
to make a name for myself and because I enjoy the power and prestige, and that’s partly true. But there’s more to it than that.”

Ella wished she could ask him more directly about Blueeyes and his affiliations, but Kevin was smart and she couldn’t take the chance. Until she was certain that he could be trusted, she just couldn’t risk giving Kevin information that might be leaked to the wrong people.

“I’ll do what I can for you, Kevin. The first thing I’m going to need is evidence of these threats so I’ll have something to work with.”

“None exists. I didn’t record any of the phone calls, and I deleted the E-mails. The thing is, Ella, I don’t want any of this to became public. It’ll raise questions about certain contributions that’ll just put some very powerful people in a bad light. I confided
in you because I felt you should know in case things get,.. more serious.” He met her gaze and held it.