Red Mesa (11 page)

Justine grew incredibly still. “You would do that, wouldn’t you?” She shook her head. “I thought we were partners.”

“Find out what it really means to be a cop’s partner, then compare it to the way you’ve been acting. I think you’ve forgotten what it means to behave responsibly,” Ella said, then turned her back on Justine to
look in the file cabinet. The gesture had been one of dismissal, and when she turned around, Justine was gone.

Ella finished up preliminary reports on Lena Clani and Thomas Zah, then headed home. By then it was dark outside. Seeing a car tailing her, she felt herself tense up. But then the other driver flashed his lights.

Ella pulled over and waited inside the Jeep. As the sedan parked just
in front of her, she recognized Harry’s face and turned off her headlights. Knowing he was undercover, she left her vehicle and walked over to meet him.

Harry smiled and opened the door on the passenger side for her. “Transferring Zah sure got complicated for you today.”

“Were you there?”

He nodded. “I figured Begaye might show up in Window Rock and try to connect with his family, taking advantage
of the confusion. I told Blalock I’m around, and he’s helped me keep an eye on Samuel Begaye’s older brother, Jimmy, but Samuel hasn’t made a move to contact him yet. I think he knows his family is being watched.”

“I’m surprised Samuel didn’t show up when we were transferring Zah. It was total chaos and a perfect opportunity for him.”

“I didn’t see him there, and believe me, I was looking hard.
So far Begaye’s managed to stay out of my grasp, but I’ll get him,” he said, his expression determined.

“What can I do for you now, Harry?”

“Blalock’s man lost Jimmy Begaye as of an hour ago. If you see hide or hair of him, call me. I’m staying at Rob Brown’s house in Farmington.”

“The state cop?”

Harry nodded. “He and I have been friends for a long time.”

“I’ll keep an eye out,” Ella said.
She started to get out of the car, then stopped. “Hey, since you’re already here, why don’t you come to the house? Mom would love to have you over for dinner, and you know she won’t breathe a word to anyone.”

“I hear she’s getting around pretty well now.”

“Some days are better than others. Dawn’s a handful for her, so I wanted to hire someone to help her with the cooking and the chores, but
Mom wasn’t having any of that.”

He laughed. “Did you really expect anything different?”

“No,” she conceded, “I know she loves taking care of people. It makes her feel useful. But I had to try.”

“Purpose gives us direction,” Harry answered. “I don’t blame Rose for the way she feels.”

“So, what do you say? Join us for dinner?”

“I’ll be right behind you.”

Several times on the drive to her house,
Ella lost sight of the deputy marshal. He hung well back, making sure he didn’t call attention to himself by appearing to be following her. Most local residents recognized her car even though it was unmarked.

When Ella arrived in front of her home, she was surprised to see that all the lights were out and her mother’s pickup was not in the driveway. Rose and Dawn should have been home, unless
her mom had needed to run a last-minute errand. But she didn’t see Two either, and that was very unusual. He always came running up whenever any vehicle approached the house.

Whistling, she waited to see if he was off in some arroyo trying to dig out a rabbit. Ella stood beside her vehicle as Harry Ute pulled up. “I guess Mom must be running late. You didn’t see her dog beside the road as you
came up, did you?”

“The long-haired mutt named Two?” Seeing her nod, he added, “No, I sure didn’t. Maybe your mother took him along for the ride,” Harry said, looking around casually as he walked with Ella toward the back door.

“Not Mom. She leaves him here to watch the house.” As Ella got closer to the house, a chill passed up her spine, and she stopped in her tracks. “Something doesn’t look
right, Harry. I think the back door is open. Let’s handle this like a break-in.”

Ella reached down and slipped her pistol out of its holster. As Harry did the same, she noted that his pistol had been hidden in the small of his back, covered by his denim jacket. Harry moved away from her so he could approach out of view of the door.

Ella reached the screen door and, despite the dim light, could
see that the solid door behind it was open about a foot. She reached for the stone badger fetish her brother had given her years ago and it felt cool to the touch, a sign that there was no immediate danger. Yet instinct still told her something wasn’t right. Signaling for Harry to cover her, Ella swung open the screen door and slipped inside the kitchen, crouching down after she flipped on the
light switch.

The room became bright and clear with the quick flicker of the fluorescent light fixture, but everything inside looked normal. All the drawers were closed, and no cabinets appeared to have been rifled.

“Ella. Did you see this?” Harry was inside now, his pistol down by his side. He pointed to the doorjamb, which was splintered around the lock. They both turned for a closer look
and saw the dirty smudge of a boot print scratched into the white paint next to the knob. A large crack in the wood showed where the dead bolt had been forced to give way.

“Kicked in for sure. But where are my baby and my mom? Did this happen after they left or before?” She moved quickly into the living room, pistol ready, and switched on a lamp.

“Ella! Careful and by the book! Remember?” Harry
followed, covering her. “We need to make sure the bad guys are really gone.”

He touched her shoulder, which was shaking slightly along with the rest of her. She looked at him, hoping he hadn’t noticed, but there was an uncharacteristic softening in his eyes that told her he had. She tried to calm down and take a breath. “Harry, she’s my daughter. I’ve got to know what happened here, and fast.”

“Then cover me, and we’ll clear the house.” He crouched down and inched around into the hall. Ella followed close behind, ready to take on the intruder with deadly force, if necessary.

Two minutes later, they returned to the kitchen. “Nobody is in the house now, that’s for sure,” Ella said. “And there’s no sign of anything missing or a struggle. If we’d had an intruder while Mom and Two were
here, one or both would have taken him on,” Ella added.

“Rose would have used her cane, I’ll bet.” Harry nodded. “Maybe your mom took Dawn and drove away in her truck, and the thief broke in after he saw them leave. Burglars do that a lot. Your family is probably safe, doing some shopping.”

“That still doesn’t explain Two’s absence. Let me look around for Mom’s purse or Dawn’s diaper bag. If
that’s gone, it’s a good sign that Mom and Dawn left under normal circumstances. Would you take the flashlight from the drawer beside the refrigerator and check outside for Two? I just hope nothing happened to that mutt. He’d die protecting my family.”

“If he’s outside, I’ll find him. You check around one more time. Maybe your mom took a sweater for Dawn, or like you said, her diaper bag.”

Harry left for the kitchen, and Ella went into the nursery. The diaper bag was on a chair, but the zipper to the diaper storage was open, and two disposable training pants were in there instead of the usual three. That could have meant that Rose grabbed a pair as she left, not expecting to be gone long, but making sure in case Dawn had an accident. Checking in her room, Ella noted that Dawn’s toy dinosaur
was gone. Moving quickly through the house, she couldn’t find it on the floor or in any other room.

As Ella reached the kitchen, she saw the beam of a flashlight outside. “Here dog, here boy!” Harry called from near the shed.

Ella checked in the refrigerator and saw an empty space where they normally kept one of Dawn’s child-sized water bottles for when they went out. Rose must have grabbed
it, too, when she left.

Looking around to see if there were any other clues, Ella glanced over at the hook by the door where the dog leash was kept. The phone rang just as she realized the leather lead was gone.

“Hello, Mom?” Ella grabbed the receiver before the second ring, knowing somehow who it was.

“Hi, daughter. I’m okay, and so is my granddaughter. We’re at the vet’s in Shiprock. It’s
Two. He became really sick all of a sudden, and I thought that mutt was going to die unless I did something right away. I tried to get hold of your brother, but he was away visiting a patient.”

Ella couldn’t speak for a moment, her heart was still pounding so hard. Harry walked in just then, and she smiled at him. “They’re okay!”

“Is he okay? Yes, the vet says Two’s going to be fine,” Rose said,
unaware that Ella had been speaking to Harry. “They pumped out his stomach, and they’re going to run tests on the contents to see what made him so sick.”

“That’s great, Mom.” Ella mulled things over in her mind. The problem with Two and the break-in could have been linked to whoever had been hanging around outside the night before. “Make sure the vet checks for poison. I have a feeling somebody
put something in his food, or left some bait outside for him.”

“But why would anyone do that? We don’t have any close neighbors, and Two wouldn’t harm anybody’s lambs or chickens.”

“Did you notice anyone hanging around the place today, Mom?”

“Two barked a few times, but that’s all. Is something wrong at the house? You’ve got that tone in your voice,” Rose said.

“Somebody kicked in the back
door after you left, but I still haven’t found out why. You just take care of Two, and Dawn, and I’ll see you when you return. When do you think that’ll be?”

“I’m about to leave now. Two is coming with us. The vet doesn’t need him to stay overnight, though he’s still pretty weak. What else happened to the house? Is anything missing?”

“Except for a little splintered wood, nothing else seems wrong.
Don’t worry about a thing. By the time you get here, we’ll have gone over everything one more time.” Ella looked over to Harry, who nodded.

“You have company?” She paused, then continued quickly. “I hope you’re not going to tell me it’s my granddaughter’s father.” Rose still wasn’t much impressed by Kevin. “My day’s been bad enough.”

“No, but it’s someone you know.” She looked at Harry and he
nodded, understanding what Rose had asked. Ella knew that her mom liked Harry and knew his family from way back, but she wasn’t about to announce his name over the phone and explain why Rose couldn’t talk about it. “You’ll see, Mom.”

“So everything’s okay with Rose and Dawn?” Harry asked as soon as Ella hung up. He put the flashlight back into the drawer. “I assume the dog is with your mother.”

“She took him to the vet’s. Mom thinks he may have been poisoned, but she couldn’t get my brother’s help because he’d gone to tend a patient.”

“Is Two going to make it?”

“Yeah, he’s even coming home now. Did you notice anything outside that would help us ID the person who broke in here?” Ella knew Harry was an expert at spotting evidence. She’d hated to see him leave her crime team to join the
Marshals Service because of that.

“I found a place where it looked like a man had crouched and waited behind the shed. My guess is that he stayed there until your mom left. The tracks lead to the back door, and the prints seem to match the impression he made on the finish of the door when he kicked it in.” Harry pointed out the marks on the door again. “It looks like the whole thing was planned.”

“Poisoning Two made it easy for him to break in. With Mom and the dog out of the way, he had a clear field. I wonder what he wanted. I still haven’t spotted anything missing.” As Ella looked around the kitchen curiously, something suddenly occurred to her. “Do you suppose he broke in to leave something behind?”

“You mean like a bug or a hidden camera? Or maybe a bomb?” Harry’s eyes narrowed at
the thought. “You
have
made some enemies, Ella, like the guy I’m tracking.”

“I don’t think he’s the bomb type. That’s too cerebral for him. And where would he get the materials needed?” Ella looked under the sink, noting the pots and pans, which had replaced the cleaning solutions in the prechild housekeeping setup.

“I agree that it doesn’t seem to fit Begaye’s profile,” Harry said. “If he was
ready to attack, he’d probably come up behind you on a street corner or try and run you off the road. A bomb would be too impersonal for someone who enjoyed using his fists and feet to kill someone. But if he wasn’t the one, then who was, and why?”

“Let’s take another slow, careful look around. If you see anything that doesn’t look right, check it out or let me know. Let’s go from room to room
and look for a subtle trap of some sort.” Ella walked over to the refrigerator, opened it up slowly, and looked inside while Harry checked the fittings on the gas stove.

“Here’s something, Harry. He took my last diet cola.” Ella checked the trash can and shook her head. “Must have grabbed it when he left. My mom won’t drink the things, and neither of us would ever give one to Dawn. And there
should be two more apples in there.”

“Unless your mom had a hungry and thirsty guest earlier today,” Harry suggested.

Ella looked in the small plastic, lidded container between the cupboard and the refrigerator. “Then the apple cores and the can would have been here in the trash. She insists I use a glass, and wouldn’t serve the drink still in a can to any visitor. I’ll ask anyway, but I think
we got off lucky if that’s all that’s missing.”

“There’s got to be more to it than that. Let’s keep looking, and have your mom double-check. I doubt this guy went through all the trouble of poisoning the dog and breaking in because he was hungry. The fact that he brought poison along implies a plan being enacted. Anyone breaking in for food would act spontaneously out of hunger.” Harry finished
looking into the cupboards and moved into the living room.

On impulse Ella checked her bedroom, but found her father’s old deer rifle and extra ammunition she kept in a locked drawer still there. All her and her mom’s jewelry seemed undisturbed as well, though the only expensive items they owned were old silver and turquoise squash blossoms and rings.