Changing Woman (43 page)

“If he’s in
trouble and looking for a place to hide, he’ll head for the Rez. It’s time for me to get back home. I’m going to see if I can track him down.”

While driving back to the Rez from Farmington, with the sun just coming up in the east behind her, Ella checked the local radio stations for news on the power plant disturbance. The crisis at the power plant was apparently ending, and those involved had
begun to surrender to an estimated two hundred armed law enforcement personnel. The tribal president had publicly announced that the Tribal Council would decide the gaming issue no later than Monday.

Despite the good news coming in, every nerve in her body was screaming with tension. Ella leaned back into the seat cushion of her vehicle, reduced the speed she was traveling to the official limit,
and tried to clear her thoughts. She needed to calm her fears and focus on one thing alone—finding her daughter.

Pulling herself together, she thought of at least one person who might be able to help her find Kevin. This woman, more than most, had connections when it came to tribal politicians.

Ella drove directly to Abigail Yellowhair’s home, which was west of Shiprock and about forty minutes
from Farmington. When she arrived, Abigail herself, fully dressed already, answered the door of the luxurious clay-tile-roofed home, then stared at her with concern.

“You look positively exhausted. What’s wrong?” she asked, ushering Ella inside quickly out of the frigid winter air and bringing her a warm mug of coffee.

As Ella stared at the cozy room, so warm and hospitable with a piñon fire
going in the massive corner fire-place, she wondered if Dawn was inside a building and comfortable, or still sitting on a car seat on some back road, shivering from the cold? Had Kevin made sure she’d eaten? She had so many questions and so few answers. Swallowing hard, Ella brushed a strand of hair away from her weary face and forced herself to look directly at Abigail Yellowhair.

“I have a
problem.” Ella told her quickly about the attack on Kevin, and then how he’d fled with their daughter, searching for refuge. “You know Kevin’s current circle of political and business friends better than I do. I was hoping you could help me track him down.”

“Give me time to make some calls. I’ll find out everything I can for you. This attack on another one of our council members worries me very
much. I’ve heard rumors of an Indian group trying to force the passage of gaming on the Rez.”

“Do you know anything about them that I could use?”

“No, that’s all I know.”

“More importantly right now, will you help me find my daughter and her father?”

“I’ll need an hour or so to track down some contacts. Would you like something to eat, or maybe just rest for a while?”

“Thank you, but I need
to be out looking, even if it’s just driving around. I’ll have my phone with me.”

“I understand what you’re going through, worrying about a child.” Abigail Yellowhair had lost her own daughter just a few years ago, and her face turned dark at the memory. “I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”

Ella left Abigail her cell phone number on a business card and walked back to her unit, realizing
that there was nothing more she could do until she got more information
except drive around and hope for a lucky break. But one responsibility remained. She had to tell Rose about Dawn. If she held back now and Rose managed to learn what had happened from anyone else, like Jennifer or the Colorado officers, she’d never trust her again.

Resigning herself to the task, Ella took the ten-minute drive
back to the hospital in Shiprock where Rose was a patient. She would have given anything to avoid delivering this news to her mother, but there was no way around it.

Ella entered the hospital through the main entrance, then went upstairs to her mother’s room.

Rose’s expression brightened the moment Ella walked in. “Good news, daughter. The surgery went so well, I may be allowed to go home this
afternoon! I think it’s because your brother did a chant for me,” Rose said, then stopped as she regarded her daughter thoughtfully. “I’d heard that the trouble at the mine had ended peacefully. Is something else wrong?” she asked, the heightened perceptivity mothers possessed out in full force.

Through sheer willpower Ella held herself together, forcing her voice not to crack as she told her
mother everything she knew. After she finished, Ella swallowed back the bitter taste of fear that lingered in her mouth. “I swear I’ll find her, Mom.”

By then Rose was shaking. “Why didn’t you call me? How long have you known about this?”

“An hour or two, not much more. I’ve been running around trying to get a lead since I heard, and the officers in Colorado are checking for any leads on their
side of the state line. Now I have to wait for news or hope I can uncover a clue on my own.”

“Use your instincts,” Rose said firmly, sitting up in bed. “Your intuition is your gift—one you know how to draw upon.”

“Mom, I’m using everything I have as a cop and as a mother, but I don’t have any idea where to look next!”
Ella felt tears spilling down her cheeks. Impatiently, she wiped them away.
If she let herself fall apart now she’d lose the focus she needed to help Dawn.

“Listen to me, daughter,” Rose said sternly. “You can’t use your instincts properly until you cast your fear aside.”

“When I think of what may have already happened . . .” Her voice broke and she swallowed.

“Stop it,” Rose said flatly. “You’re a police officer. That’s the side of you that has to come through and
take over now. Go and do whatever it takes to find her and bring her back.”

Rose gestured to the badger fetish Ella wore around her neck. “Use the animal medicine you were given when you accepted that gift. Badger medicine teaches you to defend what’s yours and keep your eyes on the goal. Most important of all, it teaches you to
persist.
Call upon that medicine now, daughter. It’ll work for you
and against your enemies.”

Ella nodded, then leaned down and kissed her mother good-bye. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Ella wrapped her hand around the badger fetish. It felt warm, and for a moment she could feel the sheer power of beliefs that Navajos had cherished for generations coming to her aid.

Leaving the hospital with fresh energy in her stride, she hurried to her unit. She was just
unlocking the door when her cell phone rang.

“It’s Abigail,” the voice on the other end said.

Ella’s pulse began to race. “Do you have something for me?”

“It’s a lead—nothing more. I spoke to a friend of mine, and while we were talking I remembered something you may find helpful. There’s a cabin on the western, upper slopes of the Chuska Mountains east of Round Rock and on the Arizona side.
Our council sometimes uses it as a retreat during the summer. Right now it’s probably empty, but Councilman Tolino knows
about it, and he could have reached the cabin in a four-wheel-drive vehicle.”

“If he didn’t take a direct route, he probably went southwest from Colorado to Mexican Water and down to Rock Point. I’ll need directions from Round Rock to the cabin.” Ella knew this was a real possibility.
She wrote the directions down, then contacted Big Ed to ask for backup.

Ella filled him in on her conversation with Abigail, then told him where the cabin was located. Instead of replying, there was a sudden silence at the other end of the line. “Chief?”

“If that’s where Tolino took your daughter, we may have a problem,” he said slowly. “We got a report from an officer just coming on duty at
Window Rock. He saw Manuelito in the Lukachukai area an hour ago before he knew his lieutenant was on the wrong side. Lukachukai isn’t very far south of the cabin site. It’s possible Manuelito has also guessed where Kevin might have gone and the syndicate sent him over there to check it out.”

“At least Kevin already knows that he can’t trust Manuelito,” Ella said, then paused, gathering her thoughts.
“But Kevin and my daughter are still in trouble. I have to get over there as soon as I can. I’m going to need a helicopter, Chief, and I want their pilot briefed that we may be flying right into the middle of an armed situation.”

“It would take an extra half hour for the county to get a helicopter here, and the state police or military jobs are even farther away. You want to use
Angel Hawk?
The
hospital has worked with us twice before in an emergency.”

“Yes, especially if Jeremiah Crow is the pilot. He’s ex-military and cool in a crisis.”

“I’ll see to it that it happens. I’ll have things set up for you by the time you get to the hospital.”

“I’m in their visitor parking lot now, Big Ed.”

“Good. Just get whatever gear you have on hand, especially
your vest, and go up to the chopper
pad. Backup will be dispatched to the cabin, but keep in mind that their ETA will be longer than yours because they’re on the ground, and the roads are going to be bad this time of year up in the mountains. I’ll try to get some personnel there via county chopper, but don’t count on it.”

“Ten-four.”

Ella drove around to the rear parking lot and climbed out of her Jeep. She grabbed her flashlight,
extra pistol clips, then retrieved her rifle and a bandoleer of ammunition. Remembering the binoculars she’d kept in a box on the floor, she added them to her gear. Fully equipped, including her FBI loaner vest, she ran up the outside staircase to the roof of the building where the helicopter was stationed.

Jeremiah Crow was already in the chopper, the engine starting up, as she came into view.

Ella climbed up into the helicopter, then fastened her seat belt. The Navajo EMT, Glen McDonald, was in the copilot’s seat studying the chart in his hands, and never looked up.

“Have you been given directions?” she yelled to Jeremiah, a hardy-looking Navajo man in a leather jacket and baseball cap.

He turned and gave her a half smile. “Roger that, Investigator Clah. Flight plan’s already been
logged, too. The trip will take thirty-five minutes, give or take, depending on wind conditions over the ridges.”

“Remember, I don’t want
Angel Hawk
to draw fire in case shooting starts. You’re my kid’s ticket out. Just get me down close to that cabin.”

The trip seemed to take an eternity. Yet the noisy, stomach-churning roller-coaster ride merited nothing more than a passing thought to Ella.
The need for action was drumming through her, and underneath that was an almost overpowering fear her rescue attempt would come too late.

The EMT offered her a chocolate bar, and she accepted
it gratefully. Up in the mountains she’d need some energy reserves to support her once the adrenaline rush gave out.

As they approached their destination, having circled in from the north past Beautiful
Mountain, Jeremiah pointed to a snow-covered clearing below, east and upslope of the cabin, which was barely visible. It seemed odd seeing moisture in any form on the Rez these days, but at the moment, it was just another problem she’d have to deal with.

“There’s no place to set down any closer,” Jeremiah said. “There are too many trees and ravines, and the parking area in front of the cabin
is just too small. We can use the clearing, or go down the mountain until we find a wide spot in the road. It’s up to you.”

“The clearing,” Ella answered. “Then stay with the chopper. I’ll take care of the rest.” She pointed to her handheld radio, and he nodded, acknowledging how they would communicate.

Jeremiah dropped the helicopter down quickly, and Ella felt a sinking feeling at the pit
of her stomach, much like the sensation she always got in elevators right before they came to a stop.

The moment they touched down, she jumped out into six-inch-deep snow, still a bit dizzy from the landing, then jogged away from the chopper. As she headed to the cabin, the pilot cut the engine and the noise level dropped off quickly in the sound-absorbing forest.

She was about two hundred yards
away from the cabin when the sound of gunfire erupted from below. Adrenaline shot through her, and she increased her pace, running high-stepped across the crusty surface.

Ella hurried downhill in a diagonal direction, making sure she remained among the long-needled ponderosa pines for cover, and advanced to a point where she could see the cabin clearly. The SUV Kevin had stolen was in the road,
blocking two other vehicles where the forest path was at its narrowest point, downhill to the west.
Two or three men were behind the SUV Kevin had stolen, close to the southwestern corner of the cabin.

Using her binoculars, Ella gave the front, back, and closest or eastern end of the rectangular log structure a quick once-over. That’s when she discovered the tip of a rifle barrel poking out from
inside the front cabin window closest to her, at the southeastern quadrant of the cabin. From what she could see Kevin was managing to keep them at bay. With no back door or windows on the north side, they’d been unable to get around behind him, and the side window she could see was heavily shuttered. If the west end was the same, their only access was from the front.

She moved ten feet to her
left to get a better angle on the front of the building, which faced south. There were two front windows, one on each side of the door. A man was lying beside the front window farthest from her and closest to the vehicles, squirming around with his arms, trying to remove something from his leg. A closer look with her binoculars revealed he’d been caught in a coyote trap. The snow around his leg
was stained crimson. At least two more men were in the trees on the south side directly across from the cabin, firing what sounded like pistols at the window where Kevin was positioned.

As she evaluated the situation, a fourth man with a shotgun emerged from around the far end of the house and rushed the door, dodging past the man in the trap. Fifteen feet from the door the man tripped, caught
in an outstretched rope buried a few inches beneath the snow.

His shotgun flew out and struck the ground ahead of him, discharging into the air. It came to rest beside the small porch. When the man tried to crawl forward to grab it, Kevin fired a shot with his pistol this time, and the bullet ricocheted off the stone porch. The man yelled, and grabbed his face, apparently struck by fragments
of stone. Moving quickly, he rolled up against the south wall, out of Kevin’s view. Blood still streaming down
his face, he pulled out a handgun and reached up for the windowsill above his head.