Death Walker (34 page)

Carolyn said nothing for a moment, then finally agreed. “Okay. I’ll take care of it. You going to be home tonight?”

“For several hours at least,” Ella answered.

“I’ll give
you a call there as soon as I can.”

“I appreciate it. Listen, if you get a chance, why don’t you come over and have some dinner with us? Wilson Joe and Justine are both here.”

“Sounds to me like you’ve got plenty of company,” Carolyn said hesitantly.

“Not enough without you. Come on. It’ll do you a world of good to take a few hours off and relax.”

“What time?”

“It’ll take my mother at least
an hour and a half to prepare dinner. I figure she’ll be making stuffed sopaipillas.”

“Are you sure having me there is okay with her?”

“Yes, it’s no problem.”

“All right, but I may be a little late. I’ll stop by and get what I can from the sheep, then come over.” She paused. “Maybe I shouldn’t have put it that way.”

Ella laughed. “Don’t give it another thought. I’m the same way, as you know.
My work and I are no strangers, but tact and I are.”

“Thanks for inviting me to your home. It means a lot to me.”

Ella knew that it was Rose’s acceptance that Carolyn was referring to. Though Ella hadn’t mentioned it, Carolyn knew that the dinner invitation had only come about because of Ella’s intervention.

“You’re always welcome here,” Ella reiterated.

As she hung up the phone, Ella heard
laughter from the living room. She joined Justine and Wilson, and saw how quickly they’d taken to each other. She brushed aside a sudden burst of jealousy. There was no place for it in her world, and she had no claim on Wilson other than friendship.

“Your mom suggested that we keep ourselves busy out here. I think that was a polite way of telling us to get out of the kitchen.”

Ella smiled. “She’s
seen what happens when I try to help.”

Justine lifted her hair up away from her shoulders. “I hate this time of day. I know everyone says that it’s starting to cool off, but I don’t feel any difference until the sun goes down.” She sipped some of the mint tea Rose had put out on a tray for them.

Ella picked up the one glass still on the tray. “Do you remember when we were kids?” Ella asked,
looking at Wilson. “We never worried about things like the weather.”

“Of course we did,” Wilson answered with a grin, “there were just other more important things to talk about.”

“Like guys,” Justine said, giving Ella a teasing wink.

“Or basketball,” Wilson answered.

Silence fell over them for a moment as they each became temporarily lost in their own memories.

“We’ve all come a long way,”
Justine said slowly. “For you two, even further,” she grinned.

“Yeah,” Ella said with a shrug. “Now we talk shop, or get stuck for a topic.”

Wilson laughed. “Are you saying we’ve become dull?”

Justine looked seriously at her older companions. “No, not dull. It’s just that our interests have become totally focused on what we do.”

Wilson smiled at Justine. “Well, it may be too late for Ella
and me to change, but there’s still hope for you.”

Justine shook her head. “I see nothing in either of you two or myself that I’d want to change.”

Rose came out of the kitchen. “Well, I do,” she said. “I was eavesdropping. Why don’t you play some music and dance like you used to when you were kids?”

“Mom, it’s too hot. The evaporative cooler is working, so it’s okay in here, but none of us
have the energy to dance,” Ella protested weakly. She knew her mother was trying to play matchmaker again, and wished she wasn’t quite so dogged about it. Then again, determination was one trait she’d inherited, and it made her a good cop.

Rose sighed and shook her head. “If you youngsters can take the heat for a minute, will you go outside and pick some mint from the garden? I need some for
the tea.”

“Sure.” Ella went outside, and the furnace blast that struck her as she opened the door almost took her breath away. “Wow, I think today’s temperature must have beat the record.”

“It did,” Wilson answered, following her and Justine.

Justine tied her hair back with a piece of yarn she’d grabbed from Rose’s knitting basket. “I tried to start a garden over at my place, but all I grew
were weeds.”

“I have a black thumb,” Ella admitted. “Clifford and Loretta have a wonderful garden. He grows melons, corn, green chiles, and squash. I can’t even keep a houseplant alive.” So much for heredity.

A moment later they stood at the edge of Rose’s wagon-wheel-shaped herb garden. Plants were placed in wedge-shaped sections, separated by cedar edging. Although it had been watered that
morning, the ground was almost parched again.

Ella noticed out of the corner of her eye that her mother was watching them. “Hey,” she whispered to Justine and Wilson. “Mom’s watching us. Let’s give her a hard time and not find the mint.”

“Which one’s the mint?” Justine said in a normal tone, scratching her head.

Ella hesitated. “That one.” She pointed to a leafy shrub. “No, wait. It might be
that one,” she said quickly, pointing to a plant that seemed to be made mostly of naked stems. “Oh boy, you know what? I have no idea. She uses both of those in her teas, and chamomile, but which is which?”

Wilson crouched by the leafless plant. “It isn’t this one, for sure. I recognize this plant. Locals call it Mormon tea. Doesn’t mint have leaves?”

“Maybe it’s this one,” Justine said enthusiastically,
and crouched by a coltsfoot plant with leaves several inches long.

Rose knocked on the window, then pointed. “The one at the end!” she yelled, her tone clearly showing her exasperation. “Use your nose and smell for it.”

They returned a moment later, Ella holding a cutting of the fragrant plant.

Rose gave her a hard glare. “I can’t believe that you remember every detail of your cases, but you
can’t figure out what’s in the herb garden!”

Ella smiled sheepishly. “I flunked botany, what can I say?”

Justine nodded in agreement, trying to avoid a smile. “We flunked too, right, Wilson?”

He nodded solemnly. “And me a science teacher. How sad.”

Rose rolled her eyes, then walked to the pitcher and dropped a few leaves on the surface. “You idiots go clean up. We’ll be having dinner in another
ten minutes.”

Ella washed her hands in the kitchen sink while Justine and Wilson used the bathrooms. “Carolyn’s going to be dropping by later.”

“Good. It’s nice to have people around you when you’re not working.”

“The same could be said for you,
and
for Loretta. That’s why I hope you’ll ask her and Clifford to move in with us as soon as possible.”

“Do you believe I’m in danger?” Rose asked
pointedly.

“You may be,” Ella admitted. “I’m going to have an officer checking often, but we don’t have the manpower to assign anyone here full-time.”

“And your sister-in-law?”

“The same, but Loretta’s needs exceed what I can provide her with. How is her health?”

Rose took a deep breath and let it out again. “Her greatest problem is her own fear. She’s really very frightened, particularly
since your brother was recently asked to give lectures at the college. She knows the other Singer who took the job is now dead.”

“Does she believe there’s a connection?” Ella asked, wondering how Loretta could have arrived at that conclusion.

Rose shrugged. “She doesn’t want her husband following in the steps of one who was murdered. Who can blame her?”

“Well, there’s something to that,” Ella
admitted.

As the others joined them, Ella helped her mother serve the stuffed sopaipillas. The fry bread had been filled with ground beef, beans, and cheese almost to bursting. A red chile sauce with melted cheese covered it liberally.

Ella took a hearty bite of her favorite dish. “This is wonderful!”

Rose smiled. “That’s what I like to hear. There are also chocolate chip cookies and ice cream
for dessert,” she added.

Ella groaned, thinking of her waistline. “I’m going to have to take up jogging again,” she said, glancing at Wilson and Justine.

Wilson grinned. “Well, I’m not going to feel guilty. I can’t remember the last time someone cooked me a meal like this, and I’m going to enjoy it.”

Justine finished her serving and asked for more iced tea. “I’ll go jogging with you,” she said,
glancing at Ella, “but I’m going to have both the cookies and the ice cream.”

Ella laughed. “Mother, you’re a bad influence.”

As Justine and Rose cleared the table, Ella heard a car pull up. “That sounds like Carolyn. I’ll go greet her.”

Ella walked out quickly, hoping to warn Carolyn not to mention anything about the dead animals within range of her mother’s acute hearing. She hadn’t had a
chance to tell Rose yet, and dinner certainly seemed an inappropriate time.

Ella greeted Carolyn as she parked her vehicle beside Wilson’s. “You’re just in time for dessert, and Mother saved the fixings for a big stuffed sopaipilla for you too.”

Carolyn smiled. “I’ll never turn that down,” she said cheerfully. “Can’t be rude.”

“How did things go with the sheep?” Ella asked, keeping her voice
low.

“Their throats were slit with big knives, just as if they were being slaughtered,” Carolyn answered, matching Ella’s soft tone. “Whoever opened up the animals worked like a pro. Probably a Navajo. But the mutilations required an ax.”

Ella nodded. She now suspected more than ever that Peterson had engineered the incident. She remembered how he and his skinwalker friends had enjoyed using
symbols like these to spread fear. Navajos believed that even looking at a dead animal not intended for food was dangerous.

“My mother doesn’t know about this yet, so please be careful what you say around her. I intend to tell her later, but I haven’t had a chance, and I didn’t want to upset her now. She has enough on her mind worrying about my sister-in-law, who’s having a hard time with her
pregnancy.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard about that through the gossip mill. Don’t worry. I’ll keep quiet. I’d offer to keep my mouth shut, but I’m starving.”

Ella looked at Carolyn and started laughing. “You know, we’ve all put on weight.”

“I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of dieting. I’ve come to the conclusion that some of us are meant to be rounded, and some of us are meant to be angular. I’m
in the rounded category. Besides, at the risk of sounding sorry for myself, it’s not as if I have an active social life. The people I see most are way past looking at anything. So I might as well indulge myself.”

As they walked into the kitchen, Rose turned her head from what she was frying and smiled at Carolyn. “I’m glad you came to see us. I’m fixing you a stuffed sopaipilla.”

“They’re
wonderful,
” Justine said. “Then we’re going to have ice cream and cookies.”

To Ella, Justine suddenly sounded as young as she looked. She glanced at Carolyn, who grinned from ear to ear. “There’s no generation gap between this child and me. She has her priorities straight.”

Even Rose laughed as she placed a large platter of food before Carolyn. “Enjoy,” she said. “Now I’ll leave you to entertain yourselves.
The cookies and ice cream are in the fridge.”

As Rose walked down the hall, Ella turned on the Navajo radio station. They finished dinner in easy camaraderie. Country-western music with Navajo-language lyrics might have sounded strange back in L.A., but here it was the rule rather than the exception. Ella loved it.

Wilson watched Carolyn thoughtfully. He started to speak but then reached for
his iced tea instead.

Carolyn glanced up as she took her last mouthful of sopaipilla. “What’s on your mind, Wilson?”

Wilson glanced away, embarrassed. “I’m trying to figure out how to ask you something. I hope it’s not out of line.”

“Go ahead. Speak your mind.”

Ella stared at Wilson, unable to believe that he would ever purposely hurt Carolyn’s feelings. Yet he was obviously leading up to
something sensitive.

“You were a family doctor for years, and had a good practice,” he said. “You had the respect of everyone. Why did you go into forensics? You must have known how most Navajos would react to that.”

Carolyn took a deep breath and leaned back. “Years ago, I made a deal with myself. The tribe paid for my schooling so, in return, I decided that I’d always make myself as useful
as possible. I would place the People’s needs at the top of my list. When the position of forensic pathologist became open, no Anglo would take it. The pay was less than they wanted to make, and they didn’t like living here. Our own medical staff wouldn’t touch it. The need was there and I was qualified, so I stepped in.”

Wilson nodded slowly. “You have more courage than I do.”

“You don’t believe
in ghost sickness, do you?” Carolyn asked, surprised.

“Not really, I guess. But I don’t think I’d be able to stand the way a lot of people avoid someone in your field.”

“I haven’t lost all my friends,” Carolyn said.

“Like Sadie Morgan?” Wilson smiled.

“Yes, like her.”

“That name sounds familiar,” Ella said, bringing out the platter of cookies.

“She’s on staff at the college. She teaches
advanced Navajo to students. Sadie’s also working on a special project. She’s taping the Navajo language into an audio dictionary, so its sounds will never be lost,” Wilson replied.

“She’s a tough old gal too,” Carolyn said with a half smile. “We suit each other well.”

Ella recalled that Sadie Morgan was one of the local experts who had been warned about the Packrat.

Carolyn filled their dishes
with big scoops of vanilla ice cream, then began to pass them around. “You know, it’s nice to share a meal with friends.”

Ella felt the tug at her heart. For a moment she saw herself, years from now, in Carolyn’s shoes: a professional woman, busy, but too alone.

“Earth calling,” Justine teased, holding out a bowl of ice cream to Ella.

“Thanks,” Ella said, her attention back to dessert again.

“Don’t tell me. You’re thinking about work, right?” Carolyn said with a smile.