Coyote's Wife (41 page)

Ella took his rifle by the sling and set it aside, then crouched beside him as she called an ambulance. “What happened here?” she asked, pulling out her handkerchief and pressing it against the wound just above his navel, hoping to slow down the flow of blood.

“She betrayed us,” he gasped,
anger fueling his words and giving him more energy than he should have had under the circumstances.

“Who?” Ella whispered harshly.

“Woman—never met her—hired us to scare Benally. Then to give cops a hard time,” he said, taking a shaky breath.

“How did she hire you if you never met?” Ella asked him.

“She left notes in my truck and half the cash,” he said slowly, pain making his speech difficult.
“My truck’s always parked across street from Pale Horse—garage in Farmington. I work there.”

“How did you get the second half of the money?”

“Her notes told me which pay phones to go to. I’d wait, she’d call. She’d always hide it in a spot nearby. Woman hated Benally—called him a ‘show horse.’ Pretty but slow. Her words.”

Ella recognized the expression. The only woman she’d ever heard using
it was Barbara Benally. But then again Abigail Yellowhair could have deliberately used the term to mislead the skinwalkers. “From the voice, do you think the woman was younger or older than me?”

“Younger. Voice…high pitched, like junior high,” he said, then taking a long, shuddering breath, fell silent. For a moment she thought he’d died, but then he took another breath.

“She wanted to drug
Benally. We left her some
azuncena de Mejico
… to add to his whiskey. Stuff makes you crazy—if it doesn’t kill you. If he died, we’d get his body. But she set us up. Got ambushed.”

“Did you tamper with Ervin’s truck?” Ella prodded.

“Yeah. Sucked out the brake fluid. Didn’t know other guy was going to drive. Not my fault. I’m dying. Get her,” he said, his breathing becoming even more ragged.

“Hold on. Don’t give up on me,” Ella said.

He coughed, then, with effort, continued. “Took pictures. Guessed which pay phone she’d pick next. Not that many in town anymore. Saw her hide the money and used cell phone camera.” His breathing suddenly became shallow and his eyes closed.

“Where’s the cell phone now?” Ella prodded, but he’d lost consciousness.

As the ambulance and the emergency medical
team arrived, Ella moved away, giving them room to work. Meanwhile, she searched the skinwalker’s black pickup. In the glove compartment she found a cell phone with five clear, sequential photos of Barbara Benally placing a paper bag into a wastebasket just outside the Quick Stop. The paper bag in the glove compartment below the camera looked identical in size to the one in the photos. If they
got lucky, Barbara’s fingerprints would be on it.

One problem remained. She still was short on evidence a jury would accept—just the uncorroborated word of a skinwalker and maybe traces of that herb or poison in Ervin’s whiskey. Hopefully Barbara hadn’t disposed of the tainted bottles yet. If the skinwalker died, she could probably use his dying declaration in court and it wouldn’t be considered
hearsay, but if he lived, she’d then have photos
and
his testimony.

By the time Ella returned to where she’d left the suspects handcuffed, backup had arrived, including Tache and Justine. As they began flagging evidence and working the scene, Ella questioned the suspects, who were being guarded by Sergeant Neskahi.

Ella read them their rights, then added, “Boys, you’re in a lot of trouble. Your
best chance is to cooperate. Being a member of the Fierce Ones isn’t going to help you now.”

“We were just keeping the skinwalkers from doing something
profane with that Navajo’s body,” Arthur Brownhat said.

Ella looked at the man who’d been responsible for beating Marilyn Charley and her boyfriend nearly to death. She had no intention of letting him walk.

“The skinwalkers have been running
everyone around in circles. They even made calls to our people, giving orders, and pretending to be us,” Brownhat added quickly.

“Who are the men back there? Did you recognize them?” Ella asked him.

“All we know is that they’re skinwalkers,” he answered flatly.

Ella looked at the other suspect, Delbert John. “How did you know they’d be here?”

“We got a call from our informant,” he said. “She
told us that the skinwalkers would be here setting a trap for…the man who died first,” he said, refusing to name the dead. “She’s always come through for us, and I knew we could trust her information.”

There was something about his tone of voice that tipped her off. “You know who she is, don’t you?”

He looked away and said nothing.

“Give yourself a break. I already have an idea of who we’re
dealing with. She’s a big businesswoman now, on her way to becoming a millionaire. Do you honestly think she’d protect
you
if the chips were down?”

Delbert exhaled softly and finally answered. “I can’t prove it, but I’m pretty sure it was Barbara Benally. She’s always known I was in the Fierce Ones. She tried to disguise her voice, but she and I have been friends since high school.”

“You told
her?” Ella asked.

“She visits me sometimes, and I think she probably overheard me on the phone once or twice.”

“Any chance she might have learned the codes you use to notify your people?” Ella pressed.

He hesitated, then nodded. “It’s possible.”

Satisfied, Ella turned the suspects over to the patrolman. Barbara was going down. “Book them.”

Twenty minutes later, they were on route to make the arrest. Ella had called a judge, and search warrants were being prepared.

“Barbara left work and drove home to wait for word on her husband, according to Agent Payestewa,” Justine said. “Abigail is there as well.”

“Hopefully, they won’t be aware of what went down yet. That’s the only way this’ll
work. We need to catch Barbara cold, before she has a chance to destroy any evidence,” Ella said.

“Once she finds out Ervin’s dead, she’ll get rid of everything that’ll link her to the crimes,” Justine agreed. “So how do you want to handle this?”

“We’ll be over at her house soon, but until we actually have the warrant in hand all we’ll do is deliver the news that Ervin was killed in a vehicle
accident. Nothing more—nothing less. She doesn’t need to know that until the body’s extracted from the wreck and the M.E. has a look, we won’t know if he took bullet hits from the rounds that penetrated his vehicle, died in the crash, or was poisoned. Once Officer
Talk arrives to serve the warrants, we’ll arrest Barbara and search everywhere for that receiver. Just make sure she doesn’t have a
chance to use her PDA.”

“Do you think it’ll have some of the numbers needed to contact the Fierce Ones?”

Ella nodded, then waved to Lucas Payestewa, who was parked, watching the Benally home from down the street. Barbara’s vehicle and Abigail’s sedan were side by side in the driveway, and, as they came to a stop, Barbara came out the front door, accompanied by Abigail.

Ella walked over, meeting
the anxious-looking Barbara halfway up the sidewalk.

“Ervin, is he okay?” Barbara asked quickly. “My new housekeeper called and said he’d gone after some men who were messing with his truck. I came home as soon as I heard.”

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Benally. His pickup crashed into an arroyo,” Ella said.

Barbara’s expression of shock looked almost genuine. Her mouth fell open, and her body sagged. “Then
he’s dead? No, it can’t be. Not Ervin.”

Abigail rushed up and put her hand around Barbara’s waist, holding her tightly. “It’s all right, daughter. I’m here. Come back into your home and sit down.”

Justine slipped around them, reaching the front door first to keep watch as they went inside. Ella followed close behind Barbara and her mother as they made their way slowly into the living room. Abigail’s
expression was grim, but she’d shed no tears. Barbara sat still on the couch, cupping her hands over her nose and mouth, a gesture that reminded Ella of a shy young Navajo child attempting to hide her emotions. Overall, it was a good performance, but not good enough.

Abigail sat down beside Barbara and glanced across to
the doorway to the kitchen. The young housekeeper was standing there, her
eyes wide with horror.

“Mrs. Benally just lost her husband, woman. Bring her something to drink. Anything will do,” Abigail snapped.

Then Abigail faced Ella, who, along with Justine, had remained standing. “If you’d have caught the people harassing him, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Ella noticed a squad car pulling up outside. It was Marianna with the search warrants.
“You might want to hold off on the blame game a few more minutes, Mrs. Yellowhair. We’re here to make an arrest.” She nodded to Justine who was already bringing out her handcuffs.

“Barbara Benally, you’re under arrest for conspiracy in the murder-for-hire death of your husband,” Justine said, stepping forward.

“What?” Barbara and Abigail yelled almost simultaneously. Barbara jumped up from the
couch, and Justine grabbed her by the arm just in case she was planning on making a run for the open door.

“Turn around, and place your hands behind your back, please,” Justine said, her tone making it clear it wasn’t a suggestion.

“Read Mrs. Benally her rights, Officer Goodluck. And, Mrs. Yellowhair, please remain seated until we have the opportunity to ask you a few questions.”

Marianna Talk
came in holding a folder in her hand. “Here they are, Investigator Clah.”

“Good. We now have search warrants. And you know exactly what we’re looking for, don’t you Barbara?” Ella added, “We’re particularly interested in
azuncena de Mejico
.”

“That’s a variety of belladonna found along the Mexican border. Why would you think there’s any here?” Abigail
asked, looking at Ella for an explanation.
“What
is
going on?”

“I want my lawyer,” Barbara said in a cold, emotionless voice. “I know my rights.”

As she was led out, Barbara’s gaze met Ella’s and for one brief moment, Ella saw unbridled hatred reflected there.

When Ella glanced back at Abigail, the older woman’s face held no emotion. A sudden chill touched Ella’s spine, but she pushed the feeling aside. She had work to do.

The next
afternoon Ella poked her head into Big Ed’s office. He looked up, then waved her toward a chair. “So what’s the update?” he asked as soon as she was seated.

“The surviving skinwalker’s name is Sonnie Yazzie, and he’s in the hospital,” Ella said. “Looks like he’s going to make it. His testimony and the photos he took of Barbara making a payoff should seal the case against her, even if the tests
for belladonna don’t come back positive. Of course, finding the receiver for the listening device under the seat of her car with her fingerprints all over it didn’t hurt. Neither did all those incriminating numbers and Navajo code words on her PDA. Brownhat and Delbert John, too, have also offered to implicate Barbara in exchange for reduced charges. Barbara has just spent the first of many nights
in jail.”

“You know that Abigail’s going to fight us tooth and nail on this,” Big Ed said. “The lawyer she’s hired will do everything in her power to discredit the witnesses and the physical evidence. So watch yourself, Shorty. Abigail’s got powerful friends.”

“And total control of StarTalk now, too.”

“Have you found anything linking Abigail to what was going on?” Big Ed asked.

“No, and Barbara’s
keeping quiet. If her mom was a partner in all this, she’s not saying.”

“All right. You’ve worked hard, so take the rest of the day off. You’ve earned it.”

Ella arrived at her home a short time later and saw Abigail’s rental sedan parked out front. Her stomach in knots, Ella hurried inside. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but seeing Abigail chatting amicably with Rose in the kitchen had
been the furthest from her mind.

Seeing Ella, Abigail stood and looked back at Rose, a satisfied expression on her face. “The grant allowing you to continue your plant work was extended. I made sure of that. Don’t give it another thought. Our children will thank us someday for the preservation work.”

Abigail then turned to look back at Ella. “Our own future is never as important to us as that
of our children. Don’t you agree?”

There was no hiding the malice in Abigail’s confrontational stare, even when her bruised lips widened into a shaky grin. Abigail then turned her head and smiled innocently at Rose. “I guess you and I will be seeing a lot more of each other.”

Abigail waved good-bye and walked toward the door past Ella, nodding slightly as she went by. Though she’d only given
Ella a passing glance, Ella had felt her rage as clearly as if it had been a living, palpable presence.

Standing at the window, Ella watched Abigail climb into her car and drive away. Once she was gone, Ella stepped over to the table and studied the little plant in front of Rose. “Gift?”

“Yes, and I have to admit I’m very relieved to know she didn’t blame you for having to arrest her daughter.
I think she may have suspected what was going on for some time.” Rose looked at Ella and shook her head sadly. “Arranging for the death of your mate is such a …black widow thing to do.”