Never-ending-snake (25 page)

“He showed up at my door,” Big Ed said.

Joe’s mouth fell open. “You think Mavis told him where you live? But how, she doesn’t know herself—I don’t think.”

“Hattery’s a skilled game player,” Ella said. “Now we
need to figure out how
much he knows. Maybe Mavis can help us there. Why don’t you ask her to come down to the station?”

“My sister would protect confidential information. She’s not an idiot.”

“It’s not a matter of intelligence. It’s experience that counts in something like this. You know how questioning works,” Ella said. “You don’t ask the suspect if he killed the victim. You ask what he was thinking about when
he shot her. Hattery probably used the same technique. If Mavis passed on information, she probably never realized what she was doing.”

Joe sat there, his expression becoming increasingly hard. “I’ll find out what we need to know,” he said flatly, then in barely audible voice, added, “Then I’m going to duct tape her mouth shut.”

“Go easy. She was manipulated by a professional,” Ella said. “Once
she figures out that she was played, she’ll be more careful. It happens to all of us at least once.”

After Joe left, Ella shut the door and turned to her boss. “There’s one more thing I’d like to run past you, Chief,” she said, then told him about Kevin and Dawn and her plan to keep them together to avoid jeopardizing their safety.

“Do you really think your daughter would try to find him?”

“Yes, I do, and that may end up creating an even bigger problem. I need to focus on catching the gunmen and whoever paid them, not worry about my family.”

“Rose may be right, then,” Big Ed said after a beat. “Your home may be the safest place for Kevin simply because it’s not expected. But you’ll have to find a way to transport Tolino without being spotted.”

Ella nodded. “I’d like to turn that
assignment over to my partner. It’ll be better if I’m nowhere around at the time.”

“Agreed,” Big Ed said. “But first make sure Mavis Neskahi didn’t also give that reporter
your
address.”

Ella exhaled loudly. “How could she know? Never mind, you’re right. That’ll be the first order of business.”

As Ella went down the hall, Justine stepped out of her lab to intercept her. “What’s with Joe? He
was like an angry bull when he left the station.”

Ella gave her the highlights.

“Wow. That explains his mood—and the message he asked me to give you. He said he’s going to pick up his sister and bring her to your office. He wants you present when he questions her. He said it’ll make the point far better than he could alone.”

“Good. I’d like to know firsthand how much harm’s been done,” she
said. “Put off our team meeting until after three.”

Ella returned to her office and, eating a sandwich that tasted like the machine it had come from, began to work on the pile of case reports she’d set aside. She hated the tons of paperwork associated with police work. For every hour of actual work done on a case, there were at least two of related paperwork.

Before she knew it, Joe knocked
on her open door. Two steps behind him was a thin, petite young woman wearing a colorful blouse and skirt. “This is my sister, Mavis,” he said to Ella, then gestured to Mavis to take a seat.

Mavis was her brother’s physical opposite—model-like in shape compared to Joe’s burly, wrestler’s build. Her face was attractive, but long for a Navajo, which made her somewhat distinctive.

“We’ve met before,
haven’t we, Mavis? Do you recall where it was?” Ella asked.

“Um, Joe didn’t have a date, so he brought me along to the barbeque on the Fourth of July at Chief Atcitty’s home.
Most of the officers were there, including your second cousin, Justine,” Mavis said, looking up at Joe, who’d rolled his eyes. “What, Joe?”

“Never mind. Just answer our questions, okay?” Joe said. “Sorry. Go ahead, Ella.”

“Tell us what you know about Norm Hattery,” Ella asked.

“We met in the elevator the day the shooting victims were brought to the hospital. I was on a coffee break and we just hit it off right away.”

“What did you tell him about the wounded men?” Joe asked her.

“Just that two Navajo men had been shot at the airstrip and were in bad shape. That was all I knew at the time. Someone else had handled
the admission forms. We also talked a bit about the hospital and my job, and just general stuff about Shiprock and the tribe.”

“But you saw him again?” Ella pressed.

“I guess, but it wasn’t like we were on a date. We had lunch yesterday while I was on break, and last night when I got off work he took me to the Totah for dinner. After that, he drove me back to the hospital so I could pick up
my car and go home.”

“What did you two talk about?” Ella asked.

Mavis shrugged. “Nothing important. He told me about his job—working at a TV station, meeting celebrities. Norm’s really interesting and he knows a lot about our tribe. It turns out he’s a friend of Chief Atcitty’s.”

Ella saw the flash of anger in Joe’s eyes, and shot him a quick, hard look, shaking her head in a silent warning.

“He’s not a friend of the chief,” Ella answered, her voice calm.

“Sure he is. He knew that Big Ed lives out on Highway sixty-four past the high school, not far from Rattlesnake.
He commented on the chief’s sheep, too. He told me that he’d been invited to the chief’s house this past spring when he’d been working on a story for the Farmington cable news.”

“A lot of Navajos have animals—horses,
cattle, sheep, goats. Let me guess.
You
mentioned the Churro sheep, not him?” Joe countered in a loud voice.

Mavis gave her brother a look of utter confusion. “Maybe I did. All I know is that we started talking about how different Churro sheep are from the other varieties. I was just making conversation. Was he pumping me for information? Is that what you’re implying?”

Joe threw his hands up
in the air, then, shaking his head, walked over and closed the door.

“Mavis, you were tricked. You gave Hattery just enough information for him to figure out where Big Ed lives,” Ella told her gently. “He actually showed up at the chief’s house asking questions, and that’s made your brother look very bad to this department.”

“But—”

“But nothing,” Joe roared. “You all but put a sign in front
of the chief’s home. What other addresses did you give out?”

“
Nobody’s!
” she said, but her voice broke at the last syllable and tears began streaming down her face.

“It’s okay, Mavis. Relax and try to focus,” Ella said firmly. “In your conversations with Hattery, did you, or he, ever mention other members of this department?”

She nodded. “He asked me about you once,” Mavis said looking at Ella.
“But I told him the truth. I barely know you.”

“I need you to think back—hard. What
exactly
did he ask you? Did you get the impression that he knew me?”

“He
did
know you. He mentioned how pretty you are and how surprised he was that you aren’t married. He also really admires your brother. He said that it takes a special man to
become a
hataalii
,” she said, then added, “Norm loves the Rez, but
I don’t think he really understands life here. He kept telling me how terrific it was that families lived so close together.”

“And you said—what?” Joe snapped.

“I told him he was wrong about that. Some of our clan members live all the way out in Arizona. It’s a big reservation, but everyone has a pickup nowadays so families can still get together.”

“Did he mention knowing where my brother lived?”
Ella asked quickly.

“All he said was that he was surprised a
hataalii
had time to keep sheep.”

“Sheep?” Joe asked, glancing at Ella.

Ella shook her head. “He was fishing.”

“Did he, or you, talk about anyone else in this department?” Joe pressed her, his voice hard.

“No. Mostly we talked about the Rez.”

“Be specific,” Ella said.

“I can’t remember everything,” she said, her voice rising.
“We talked for hours.”

“Try,” Joe said, anger giving that one word a power all its own.

Mavis took a deep, unsteady breath. “He was interested in Navajo businesses and wanted to know how they raised cash when the need was there. Since no one owns land here, he knew equity wasn’t something people could use as collateral.”

“What did you tell him?” Ella asked.

“That I had no idea. I worked for
a salary and didn’t have much in the bank.”

Ella leaned back in her chair. That line of questioning supported her theory that Hattery had known about the money Adam had been carrying. But there were other possibilities, too.

“What else?” Ella asked, pushing Mavis more gently than Joe had done.

“That’s it, I swear. Most of the time I’d try to get him to tell me about his work. Being in front
of a camera, and doing all that traveling for stories is a lot more exciting than my job.”

“Hattery’s not the guy you thought he was,” Ella said. “For one thing, he used the information he got from you to find Big Ed’s home. Things could have gone very wrong after that. We all got lucky.”

While Joe escorted Mavis out, Ella remained seated. The comment about a
hataalii’s
sheep told her that Norm
had no idea where her brother lived, at least at the time he’d spoken to Mavis. Presently, Clifford only had horses, so it had been a calculated effort to elicit information. It also meant he had no idea where her home was—a few miles from Clifford’s and down the same road.

Ella thought about Kevin, and, after considering all the arguments for and against it, made up her mind. Picking up her
phone, she called Justine and asked her to come to her office. A few minutes later Justine arrived.

Ella closed the door to give them complete privacy. “Partner, I need a favor,” she said, and explained that she’d need Kevin transported in secret to her home. “The safest thing will be for me to stay away from Kevin. You’ll have to handle all the transportation details. I’m also going to take
Teeny up on his offer. A plainclothes guard not connected to the department, stationed somewhere outside the house in addition to the one inside, should be all that’s needed.”

“I’ll make the arrangements,” Justine said.

“Depending on the timing, I may be involved in a SWAT operation with Blalock when you move Kevin, and that’ll keep me out of touch. That’s just a heads-up in case you can’t get
hold of me.”

“And you’re
sure
you can trust Dawn not to tell any of her friends that her dad’s at the house?”

“You wouldn’t be able to trust most kids with vital information like that, but Dawn’s been raised differently. Having a police officer mom gives her a whole new take on things,” Ella said. “But the bottom line is the way she feels about her father. She’d do whatever she could to protect
him. To her, he’s number one.”

Justine’s eyebrows rose. “Doesn’t that bother you just a little?”

“Sometimes it does,” Ella admitted softly. “But the fact that Kevin loves her as much as I do makes it . . . almost bearable,” she added with a tiny smile.

As Justine left her office, Ella stared at the phone for several long moments, wondering if she was making the right decision. Finally she sighed.
It was time to focus on the business at hand. Ella called Kevin at the hospital and he picked up on the first ring.

“Hey, good news! I’m getting released today,” he said, hearing her voice. “My body still has some mending to do, but the doctors say my vital signs are strong enough for the move. It’ll be good to get out of here.”

“I’d heard rumors. Are you sure it isn’t a little too soon?”

“Hey, I can already make it to the potty and back on my own—well, with a cane at least. I figure I’ll do a lot of sleeping at first, but that’s what I’m doing now. I can do that at home, as long as someone can come by and keep me fed. I’m not up to puttering around the kitchen quite yet.”

“Which brings me to the reason I was calling.” Ella explained the situation and her concerns over Dawn.

“I can forbid her to come see me,” Kevin said. “She wouldn’t like that and neither would I, but she won’t disobey me.” After a pause, he added. “She wouldn’t, would she?”

“She’s your daughter and mine. What do you think?” Ella said, then not expecting an answer, continued. “My job’s to keep everyone safe, so I’m going to propose something that’s
a little unusual.” She told him what she had in
mind, then waited.

A long silence followed. “I’d be bringing danger right to your doorstep. That’s not acceptable to me.”

“If you sleep in Dawn’s room and stay away from the windows, everyone will remain perfectly safe. And we’ll have guards on duty, too—inside and out,” she said, explaining about Teeny’s men. “The catch is that once you’re in place, you won’t be able to leave the house—at all.
But someone will always be there. And Herman can help you get around if you need it, I’m sure.”

“That’ll be tough but, okay, we’ll go with your plan,” Kevin said. “Rose will be doing the cooking, right?”

“Is that a backhanded shot at me? Not that I’d offer.”

“Just kidding. I’m hoping you’ll be out hunting down the bad guys.” After a beat, he changed the subject, “What about Reverend Tome? Are
you going to tell him?”

“Yeah, but believe me, he’s very good keeping secrets. In fact, it’s one of the things he does best,” Ella said.

“Do you really think the Reverend will trust me—us—living under the same roof?” Kevin said somberly, then burst out laughing. “Just kidding.”

Ella didn’t comment. Joke or not, he’d made his point. “Justine will be handling your transportation and working out
the time schedule. Obviously she’ll pick an hour when very few potential witnesses are on the road,” she added.

“I’ll be ready whenever you guys are,” he said.

Ella hung up and considered calling Ford next, but she had more pressing work to do at the moment. It would have to wait.

After another meeting with Big Ed she returned to her office. By then, the crime scene team had gathered and was
waiting for her.

Ella took a seat and began the meeting by warning
everyone about Norm Hattery. “He’s as slippery as a snake, and highly intelligent. I want everyone to stay on the alert for him,” Ella glanced around the room, and noted the absence of one of their members. “Where’s Marianna?”