Death Walker (35 page)

Ella was about to side-step an answer when her pager and Justine’s went off almost simultaneously. Ella glanced at her assistant and saw all the playfulness leave Justine’s expression. In an instant, she’d switched back to the professional police officer.

Ella stood, and led Justine to the phone in the bedroom. She
dialed in first. Sally Nez had called. According to their prearranged plan, she’d agreed to meet Steven behind the Totah Café. “We’re on,” Ella said, filling Justine in.

Justine dialed in next and found that Sally had left a message for her too. Using the pad beside the phone, she took down the message, then showed it to Ella. “Cindi Dodge’s favorite outfit was jeans and a red Shiprock High School
T-shirt. I’ve got jeans, but where am I going to get a T-shirt on short notice?”

“I haven’t got one,” Ella said, “but I think someone at the station might.” She checked her watch. “We’ve got ninety minutes. Get going, and track down what you need. I’ll meet you later. I’ll be parked near the Totah Café, using infrared binoculars to keep an eye on you. Once Nez approaches you, detain him for questioning.
If he makes a move to get away, arrest him. I’ll be there to back you up.”

“Got it.” Justine followed Ella back into the living room.

Wilson and Carolyn were talking, but quieted immediately when they looked up. Wilson’s eyes went to Ella. “You have to leave, right?” he asked morosely.

“Yes,” Ella said softly. “I’m sorry to cut the evening short.”

Wilson nodded. “I understand.” He glanced
at Justine. “Take care of Ella. She’s not as tough as she’d like to be.”

Justine shrugged. “Who is?”

“Am I going to be needed?” Carolyn said, her voice taut.

“I certainly hope not.” Ella smiled grimly.

“In that case, it’s time I went home too.”

Ella said good-bye to Wilson and Carolyn, then went to tell her mother she was leaving. Disapproval came quickly to Rose’s eyes, then she relented.
“Well, your friends and you have much in common. They probably understand better than I do. Be careful, all right?”

“You too.” Ella went through the house, picked up her weapon and jacket, then walked out the front door.

Wilson met her by the Jeep as Justine drove away. “If you don’t mind,” he said to Ella, “I’m going to install those lights you mentioned tonight. The discount store will still
be open, and I think that the sooner it’s done, the better.”

“I’d really appreciate that.” Ella slipped inside her Jeep and turned on the ignition. As she placed the vehicle in gear, she glanced up. “I’m glad we had dinner together.”

Wilson smiled, his gaze gentling. “So am I.”

As Ella followed Justine’s vehicle down the dirt road, she glanced back in the mirror. Her mother had come around
to stand beside Wilson. She was glad he was there, but she was also afraid for him as well as her family. None of them would be safe until the killer was caught and Peterson was back in custody.

NINETEEN

Ella waited in the dark, behind the cover of an old Dumpster beside the Totah Café. She could see Justine beside the old Ford truck she’d borrowed, parked beneath the light that illuminated the Totah Café’s parking area. The hood was up, and she was pretending to work on something in the engine compartment. The Shiprock T-shirt she’d borrowed was a bit too large, making her look even
younger than she was.

Ella knew that Steven would show up soon. As she’d suspected, Steven had not said exactly when he would arrive to meet Sally. He probably wanted to check out the parking lot to make sure it was safe to show himself.

They waited another twenty minutes. Ella noted an old sedan cruising past them on the highway. It had already been by three times. This wasn’t the vehicle they’d
expected. Nez was supposed to have an old beat-up blue truck. But when it went by the fourth time, she knew it was probably him.

Finally she saw the sedan slow down. Justine only allowed him a fleeting glimpse of her face while he was still on the highway. As the man fitting Nez’s description stepped out, Ella began moving forward discreetly.

Justine waited until the man was close before turning,
identifying herself, and ordering him to remain where he was. Nez immediately spun around and raced for his car.

“Police officers, Nez! Don’t do it!” Ella yelled, running forward.

Nez almost made it to the door of his car before Justine tackled him. As he tumbled to the ground, she jumped on his back and grabbed his right arm, twisting it painfully. “Struggling will only prolong the pain, Nez,”
she snapped, scrambling to her feet. “Get up and lean against the car, hands up and apart, feet back.”

Justine handcuffed and frisked Nez quickly while he cursed an endless stream of obscenities, some in Navajo, some in English.

“I’ve heard them all, and in much more creative phrases, Nez, so do us all a favor and shut up,” Ella said pleasantly, and proceeded to read him his rights.

“You’ve
got nothing on me.”

“Is that why you ran?” Ella countered.

“I thought I was going to be mugged.”

“By a woman half your weight? Where’s your pride? You can come up with a better excuse than that.”

“I thought my wife was trying to get me arrested for taking the pickup. It’s in her name. I want a lawyer.”

“You can have one,” Ella said.

“You really are making things look bad for yourself,” Justine
said. “Why have you been hiding out? That just makes you look guilty of murder.”

“I’m not! I swear!” he protested as Ella led him to her vehicle. “But I knew I was one of the last to see Dodge alive. I’m on everybody’s shit list at the moment. It didn’t look good for me, and I knew it. Besides, who says I’ve been hiding? My wife kicked me out. I’ve been looking for a place to stay, that’s all.
I’m not that Packrat guy. Search me.”

“You knew we wanted to question you. You just admitted it. If you have nothing to hide, why didn’t you come in voluntarily?” Ella demanded.

“I want a lawyer,” he said once again.

“Okay. The tribe will provide one for you. But if you’re involved with skinwalkers, you’re going to need more than a lawyer to keep you in one piece. Our people don’t have much
sympathy for Navajo witches.” Ella wanted to undermine his confidence, and this was one way to do it.

“Skinwalkers! What the hell are you talking about? It’s bad enough that everyone around knows I was going out with Cindi Dodge. Where does this bull about skinwalkers come from? Are they back again?”

“Are you joining them?” Ella asked.

“You’re crazy! Those guys are on loco weed half the time.
I’d have nothing to do with them.” He paused. “But I’ve heard their women sit around naked…” He shrugged with a grin.

Ella shook her head. “You’ve got a one-track mind.”

“I want a lawyer. You’re out to put somebody away, and it isn’t going to be me. Sure I like the ladies, but I’m no killer and no skinwalker. Pin this on someone else.”

“By the way, where were you when Dodge was killed?”

“I’m
not answering one more thing until I have a tribal lawyer next to me.”

*   *   *

Ella transported the suspect, handcuffed in the backseat, while Justine followed close behind. Nez stayed silent the whole way to the station, but Ella could feel his gaze boring holes through the back of her skull.

She wasn’t sure whether to believe him. Much would depend on his alibi, but her instincts were telling
her that he wasn’t the Packrat. His feet seemed too large, for one, and he wore boots. He was also older and heavier than Mrs. Zah’s description. He did smell, but that was from a popular aftershave Ella recognized. Of course, these details would have to be checked more definitively later.

All in all, Ella was disappointed. Steven Nez just didn’t seem to be the man they were looking for.

Afterward,
at the station, Nez met a tribe-appointed lawyer named Chester Manuelito. The young Navajo man spoke briefly with Nez, then approached Ella. “You can’t hold him.”

“I can for twenty-four hours,” Ella replied.

“It would be a waste of time. My client has done nothing illegal,” Manuelito argued.

“I want to know where he was on the night of Kee Dodge’s murder, and what he’s done since then.”

“He
was at his brother’s,” the young attorney answered for his client.

Ella estimated Manuelito to be around Justine’s age, and just as eager to prove himself at his chosen profession. For a moment, she sized him up as a possible mate for Justine. Suddenly, realizing what she was doing, Ella halted that line of thought. She was doing to her cousin precisely what she hated people doing for her. Maybe
she was turning into her mother after all.

“His brother can verify his whereabouts then?” Ella looked from attorney to client.

“Only partially. They weren’t together all the time. His brother, for instance, didn’t come home until the afternoon after Dodge’s murder took place. Same with Haske’s.”

“So he has no alibi.”

“You can’t prove my client was at either murder scene. If you can, let’s
see the evidence.”

“We’re not revealing any specifics until we go to court. If your client wants to be released before tomorrow, however, he’d better be able to account for his whereabouts for every moment, from the last time he saw Kee Dodge alive to the moment we arrested him tonight. I want the names of anyone who can confirm that too. Is he willing to do that, or do I lock him up?” Ella crossed
her arms and waited.

Manuelito glanced over to Steven Nez, who nodded reluctantly. “He’ll do it. Then you release him, right?”

“For now. One more thing, Counselor. If your client gets near his wife, she’s prepared to file a restraining order. And this department will make darned sure that it’s upheld.” Ella wanted no reprisals against Sally, and she wanted Nez to realize that she wouldn’t stand
for it.

Steven gave her a slow, lazy smile. “You’ve got me all wrong, Officer. I want my wife back. I wouldn’t do anything to drive her away from me.”

“You’d better be telling the truth. I’ve got enough problems on my hands without you harassing the mother of two children. I’ll haul you in here so fast you won’t know what hit you.”

Steven scowled at her. “Have you been turning my wife against
me?”

Ella met his gaze without flinching. “No, you’ve done that all by yourself. Now go to the front desk, get yourself some paper and a pen, and give me a statement.”

Anger shone in Steven’s eyes, but before he could reply, his attorney shoved him out the door.

Justine appeared in the interview room doorway just as Ella was preparing to go back to her office. “Big Ed wants to see you,” she
said in a muted voice.

“What’s going on?” Ella asked, knowing how fast rumors traveled.

“I think he’s worried that we’re not making enough progress.”

“So a head or two on the chopping block will help him pass the time?” she teased halfheartedly.

Justine shrugged. “Something like that, I suppose.”

Ella went down the hall to Big Ed’s office. His secretary wasn’t at her desk, so she went all
the way through the outer office and knocked lightly on her boss’s partially open door.

She heard him conclude a telephone conversation, then replace the receiver. “Get in here,” he barked.

Ella stepped inside his office and, following the waved invitation to sit down, took the chair closest to his desk.

“I’m getting a lot of pressure from the top to find the ‘packrat’ killer, and to do everything
in my power to see that he doesn’t strike again.”

“I’m doing my best, but he hasn’t left us much to go on. We have a profile, which you’ve seen. But that doesn’t point to any particular individual yet. We’ve finally lured Steven Nez out of hiding, but that’s led us nowhere so far. He had the most obvious motive for the Dodge murder, and he doesn’t have an alibi, but linking him to Haske is going
to be tough, and he doesn’t match the description we’ve compiled.”

“What motive can tie him with the second one?”

Ella pressed her lips together. “He could have killed Haske to divert suspicion from the fact he’d killed Dodge. Maybe he thought he could lead us off the trail by staging the Packrat profile.”

“That has a certain perverse logic, but is it true?” Big Ed leaned back in his chair
and steepled his fingers beneath his chin. His eyes never left Ella’s face.

“No,” she admitted. “I don’t think so. Nez doesn’t seem smart enough to come up with a scheme like that, and a lot of the physical clues, like shoe style and size, point in another direction. You can fake a larger shoe size, but not a smaller one.”

“I’ve been empowered to borrow any cops from Farmington who volunteer,
to help with the roadblocks. We now have some extra manpower, though it’s costing the department a fortune.”

“I think Yazzie is on the Rez already. Somebody dumped some freshly mutilated sheep by my mom’s mailbox this morning,” Ella informed him.

“If that was his work, then we can drop the roadblocks and use the officers to track down other leads.” Big Ed shrugged. “You know Yazzie better than
I do. What will his next move be?”

“What makes Yazzie such a formidable criminal is that he’s part chameleon. He can hide out right under our noses, and we’ll still have a problem finding him. I’m not surprised he beat the roadblocks.”

“You mean with his skinwalker illusions?”

“Or his skills as an actor and magician. Take your pick.”

“Do you think he’s behind the killings?”

She took a deep
breath then let it out slowly. “I think he would like to be, but I don’t think he’s as involved as he wants me to believe. It is possible, however, that it’s one of his followers, a wannabe, and he knows precisely who it is. That I have no problem believing.”

“Do what you have to to find out, but get results. I don’t like taking this heat. The whole tribe is on edge about this. And make darned
sure no more victims crop up. I’ll go ahead and cancel the roadblocks, but I want the extra manpower that becomes freed up to maintain surveillance on potential targets.”

“Okay. Any idea how many cops we’ll have available for that?”