Wind Spirit [Ella Clah 10] (38 page)

“When she didn’t agree to your plan right away, I was sure she’d say no.”

“She was only mulling it over, like I would have. That’s why I pointed out that even if she saw a rifle with a Post-it note attached to it saying ‘used to scare Ella Clah off the Rez,’ we wouldn’t be able to do anything. Legally, she couldn’t take it without his permission, and without running a ballistic test, we’d still have no evidence,” Ella said.

“This plan of yours is brilliant—providing it works the way we hope. They’ll go target shooting in one of the dry arroyos and we’ll dig up the bullets after they leave. If the ones fired from his weapon match the ones we retrieved, we’ve got him.”

“Of course that’s assuming he uses the twenty-two in question,” Ella said.

“It’s a good bet. He’ll want to be accurate, particularly if Emily’s a good shot. If he uses a lower-caliber weapon, he’ll have less recoil and that’ll make it easier for him to maintain accuracy.”

Forty minutes passed slowly as they waited for Emily to emerge from the house. Ella glanced at her watch for the umpteenth time.

“Do you think she’s in trouble?” Justine asked.

“No,” Ella said, hoping with every breath that she was right. “I think she probably wants to move slow and set things up so it all appears to happen naturally.”

They waited another ten minutes, which seemed like several eternities to Ella. Finally, Emily emerged, Preston Garnenez at her side.

“Here we go,” Justine said. “They’ve got targets, two long gun cases, and a box which is probably filled with ammo and shooting equipment.”

“If they go to that dry arroyo over there,” Ella said, pointing north, “it’ll be a piece of cake to dig out the rounds from the earthen sides. And it’s off his property, so we won’t need any warrants either. See the fence line?”

“She still hasn’t given us the sign,” Justine said, using a smaller pair of binoculars. “She told us that she’d put a piece of licorice in her mouth if he had a twenty-two with him.”

Ella held her breath and watched through the binoculars. Emily placed the box in the back of the truck, then reached into her jacket pocket. Ella saw her pull out a long piece of licorice and stick it into her mouth.

“Bingo. She’s got it.”

“It’s the blond hair. Men love it,” Justine said.

Ella laughed softly. “Jealous?”

“Not at all,” Justine said. “I have access to the same bottles at the drugstore.”

“Meow!” Ella answered, laughing as they walked back to the SUV. “Follow them, but at a distance.”

At the site, less than a quarter mile from the house, Ella waited while Emily and Garnenez fired round after round. At first Garnenez brought out skeet-shooting gear and they took turns launching clay targets for each other. Garnenez was particularly skilled with a shotgun, hitting at least seventy-five percent of his targets. Emily barely managed fifty percent.

Then they switched to the twenty-two, firing into the arroyo at small paper bull’s-eye targets that Garnenez had stapled to an old real estate sign with a cardboard backing.

“We have what we need now,” Ella said after they’d both fired at least twenty rounds. “Go ahead and call her on the cell phone as we agreed. She’s done enough work for one day.”

Justine called her. “Sergeant Marquez, we need you back at the station,” she said seriously just in case Garnenez could overhear.

“Right now?” Emily asked plaintively, then added, “Never mind. I’m south of Bloomfield, so give me an hour.”

They saw Emily and Garnenez pack up their shooting supplies, and within five minutes, they were on their way back to his home. Leaving Justine behind to dig out the rounds they’d need for comparison, Ella headed to their rendezvous point farther north near the Angel Peak recreation site.

“Everything go okay?” Ella asked, walking up to Emily’s driver’s side window as soon as the woman arrived.

“He had no idea.” Emily paused thoughtfully, then continued. “I’ve got to tell you, Ella, I just don’t think you’re right about Preston. He’s a game player, but is just too insecure to take direct action unless driven over the edge. In my opinion, if he were really going to try and kill you himself, he would make sure you didn’t survive. He’d be more . . . efficient. He has a .30-06 Winchester in his house that would have been perfect for the job. Just one round through the windshield would have done it. My gut feeling is that you’re barking up the wrong tree. Of course, I could be wrong. He’s playing a role, even now.”

After saying good-bye to Emily, Ella went to pick up Justine, then they drove back toward Shiprock and the station.

“Have you decided if Emily’s the type of roommate you want?” Ella asked.

“I like her and I think we could get along. I’m going to call her in a bit and invite her to move in with me. But I sure hope she likes staying up late. That way I won’t have to tiptoe around the house at night,” she added with a rueful smile.

“Before Dawn was born I used to be a night owl, too. These days, I go to bed at ten-thirty, if I can manage it. Motherhood
changes everything—but it’s a good change,” she added.

“I’m not going to be ready for motherhood for a long, long time,” Justine said. “For now, I don’t want to be accountable to anyone except myself.”

“I was that way, once,” Ella answered. “But needs change. There was a time in my life when I would have never considered getting married again, too. Now, I’m not as willing to shut the door on that possibility.”

“Navajo Ways say that neither sex is complete without the other.”

“Everything exists in two parts and both are needed to balance one another,” Ella said softly, remembering her mother’s teachings. “When I was younger I’d tell my mother that a woman needed a man like a frog needed roller skates. She’d always counter by reminding me of the story of First Man and First Woman.”

“Which one’s that?” Justine asked. “I was brought up Christian, so I’m a little fuzzy in that department.”

“First Woman told First Man that women could get along without men. The men ended up moving across the river and then destroying the rafts that had transported them. After that, both sides ended up with calamities and great suffering. It was only when they finally came together again that harmony was restored. They needed each other.”

Justine smiled. “It makes sense.”

“Yeah, it does, doesn’t it?” she observed, then lapsed into a long silence.

Later, after Justine went into her lab, Ella met with Big Ed and filled him in. Big Ed, as she’d expected, was far from happy about the way she’d worked things out.

“Shorty, what you did is recruit an officer from a different police department without authorization. There are channels we have to follow for that sort of thing and you know it. If
Sheriff Taylor gets wind of what happened, there’ll be hell to pay. He likes things done by the book.”

“Normally, so do I, but this opportunity just presented itself and I took it. Had I waited and gotten other people involved, word might have leaked out. This way was fast and neat.”

“You did get the job done,” he admitted. “But you always do. Next time at least clear it with me first. And let me know what you learn after Justine does a ballistic comparison.”

Ella started to head to her office, then changed her mind and went to Justine’s lab instead. Justine was busy at the microscope so she sat at Justine’s desk and waited.

Although Justine knew Ella was there, she made it a point not to look at her. That was her way of letting Ella know she didn’t want to be interrupted.

About ten minutes later Justine finished her tests and paperwork and looked over at Ella with a smile. “It’s a match. We can move on this guy.”

“I’m ready.”

They were at Garnenez’s house less than an hour later, but Garnenez wasn’t at home and neither was his truck.

Justine took a look around, then peered inside through the curtainless back window. “He’s not here and there’s a half-eaten sandwich on the table. Do you think he’s rabbiting on us?”

“I don’t know if he’s on the run, but I have a bad feeling about this. Let’s head over to the college. He was supposed to have a class there later today anyway. Maybe he just drove over early.”

Once they arrived on campus, they went to Garnenez’s office first but the door was locked. Ella then led the way to the faculty lounge, but he wasn’t there either. “Let’s go find Wilson. He may be able to help us find the professor.” Ella saw Justine’s expression tighten but she nodded.

When Ella and Justine reached Wilson’s office they found
him just saying good-bye to a student. “What brings you both here?” he asked, curious.

“It’s good to see you, too,” Ella said with a tiny smile.

“Hey, when
both
of you show up, I
know
it’s pressing business.”

“He’s got you there,” Justine said quietly.

“We’re looking for Professor Garnenez,” Ella said. “We understood he had an afternoon class to teach.”

“It’s strange that you should ask. He called Charlie Nez, our department head, not long ago and told him that he has to take off for the rest of the week on personal business. He’s entitled to the leave, but Charlie’s going to have a heck of a time finding a replacement on virtually no notice.”

“What kind of personal business?” Ella asked.

“I have no idea. All he told Charlie was that there was a pressing matter he needed to attend to and he’d be out of touch for a while.”

“If you hear anything else, call me,” Ella said, then motioning for Justine to follow, left.

“Where to now?” Justine said, keeping up as Ella hurried toward their vehicle.

“I have an idea. Let’s go talk to Loretta.”

As soon as they were on their way, Ella picked up her cell phone and called her sister-in-law’s home.

Loretta answered in a very shaky voice after the fifth ring. Noting it, Ella felt her gut tighten. “Sister-in-law, is everything all right?”

There was a pause, but then as if the flood tides had opened, Loretta began speaking very quickly. “No, I’m not all right. Everything’s gone crazy all of a sudden. I thought the professor and I were just friends. I knew he found me attractive, but I never thought it was anything to worry about. I thought you were overreacting.”

“And now?” Ella pressed.

“My husband has gone to see a patient and the professor
is coming here
now
. He wouldn’t take no for an answer. He said that I’m only staying with my husband out of loyalty and that I belong with him.”

“When he gets there, don’t open the door.”

“Can you come over? Please? Maybe that’ll be enough to get rid of him.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Ella updated Justine as they hurried toward her brother’s home. “I had a feeling all along that this wasn’t just going to go away. My guess is that once Emily left, the professor began having second thoughts about the reason behind her surprise visit. He must have put two and two together and decided it was time to get out of Dodge. But he didn’t want to leave without Loretta. Remember that he believes she’s in danger because I’m part of her family and visit a lot. More importantly, in my opinion, he’s in love with her.”

“So he wants to take care of Loretta by taking her with him,” Justine said with a nod. “It makes sense and also substantiates what I thought—that he took those shots at you as a way of protecting her.”

“And now Loretta and her family could be the ones in danger. Step on it.”

It took twenty minutes to get to her brother’s home. When they entered the driveway, Ella saw a vehicle she recognized.

“That’s Garnenez’s pickup,” Justine said.

Seeing that the front door of the house was open, Ella climbed out as soon as Justine stopped the vehicle. “I
told
her—”

Loretta suddenly pushed Garnenez out onto the front porch. The professor stumbled, then recapturing his balance quickly, reached for her hand. In a flash, Julian stepped in front of his mother and kicked the professor resoundingly on the shins.

Garnenez cursed, but before he could reach for Loretta again, Ella was there, her hand on her weapon. “Step off the
porch, slowly, then kneel on the ground, hands behind your head.” Ella kept her weapon in her holster. Garnenez didn’t appear to be armed, unless he had a knife in his medicine pouch, and she knew she could use physical force effectively if necessary.

“
You’re
the problem here, so do your own family a favor and leave,” Garnenez said, refusing Ella’s order.

“If you don’t get down on the ground
right now
, I’ll do whatever’s necessary to get you there—including kicking your butt or shooting you.”

Garnenez reluctantly complied. His eyes still on Loretta, he added, “I only wanted to take you and your son away from here, someplace where he could have a proper Sing done and you two would remain safe from contamination.”

“My dad can take care of us!” Julian said angrily. “Go away!”

Justine handcuffed Garnenez and read him his rights as Ella went up on the porch to make sure her sister-in-law was all right.

As she approached, Loretta pushed Julian back inside. “The professor didn’t mean any harm,” Loretta said. “You didn’t have to be so rough or rude to him. He’s out of my house now.”