Tracking Bear (6 page)

Inside the furnishings were simple. There was a computer on a desk placed against one wall of the living room, and against the other was a well-worn fabric couch.

“Please sit,” he said.

Samuel turned the wooden chair by the desk around and faced Ella as she sat down on the couch.

“I need to know about…” She hesitated, trying to figure out how to avoid using Vera Jim’s name.

“You
can use names. I have no qualms about that when it’s necessary. Nothing has to be carried out to an extreme.”

His answer told her he was a New Traditionalist and that her guess had been right. “Tell me about the Jims, Vera and her husband. I understand that they’ve invested a lot of their financial resources in the NEED project.”

He nodded slowly. “If everything goes as planned, they’ll be prosperous.
If not…” He shrugged. “They funded a large part of the radio and newspaper ads NEED has taken out, and also spent their own money to hire a consultant—an Anglo expert on power plants and the sciences involved with that—to explain things to the council. That’s what gave the council the idea to hire the same man to attend the Chapter House meetings and explain things to the People objectively
without taking sides.”

Ella realized that Samuel was referring to Delbert Shives. Neskahi had mentioned the man’s participation in Chapter House business. “But you haven’t chosen to get involved with NEED. Is that right?”

“I don’t believe this is the right thing for us as a tribe.
’Eyónís
, outsiders, promised us much the same thing before. We were supposed to have all the money we needed. Well,
we don’t, and look at how things turned out. I lived my entire life on land the tribe had allotted to my family, but the sheep died, and the vegetables we grew came out tasting funny. My parents and my brother died of cancer, but the government people told us it was just a coincidence and that it had nothing to do with the uranium mines—less than five hundred yards away.”

“So you moved because
you were afraid of the risks,” Ella said, nodding. She didn’t blame him.

“I didn’t feel safe living there anymore, so I gave the land back to the tribe and moved to Shiprock. Now the tribe will give that land to another family, and they’ll suffer, but I can’t keep it from happening.” He grew quiet for a long time, then finally spoke again.

“Now, some of our own people tell us that we should
build a new, even better power plant that will use uranium taken from our own ground.” He shook his head slowly. “People like the Jims are convinced this will benefit the tribe. But I don’t believe we can afford to take another chance. I asked one of the physicists how long it would be before the Rio Puerco was safe again. He told me that the water contained something called thorium and that had a
life of eighty thousand years.” He gazed at her through sad eyes. “The land is our life and our legacy. We can’t afford another mistake like that one.”

“How far are the ones who support NEED prepared to go to get this project approved? And how do they treat their opposition?”

“You’re worried about your mother, aren’t you?” he asked, then continued, not really expecting an answer. “Mrs. Destea
is an opposition leader with a lot of visibility and credibility, so she’s a threat to them. But although NEED will fight hard, it’ll be a fair fight. They’re good Navajos and businessmen, not hoods.”

“Vera Jim nearly shoved my mother to the ground recently.”

“She’s young—much younger than her husband, and her temper gets the better of her sometimes. But I wouldn’t worry about Vera. She would
back down before she ever really hurt anyone.”

“And there’s the death of the police officer…he was against NEED.”

Silence stretched out between them. Finally, he spoke. “I don’t know any of the details, but I really doubt that had anything to do with NEED. Either way, I guess we’ll both find out soon enough how they deal with those who stand in their way. I intend to make things as difficult
as possible for them by reminding people of the past, and what could happen if we let the promise of wealth and easy money cloud our thinking.”

Unfortunately, no matter how dangerous, Ella knew that Rose would be right there with him. And there was nothing she could do to stop her. Her mom, Dawn, Clifford and his family, and maybe even Kevin could be considered enemies of NEED, and she didn’t
know for sure how far these people would go when confronting those they perceived to be standing in their way.

Ella stopped by home at around two to spend a little time with her daughter, who was just home from day school. She’d have to work late tonight, so this would potentially be the only time she got to spend with Dawn today. She’d call it a late lunch if anyone asked.

Her mother wasn’t
in sight when Ella came in the door, but Dawn looked up from where she was playing with the toy farm.

“
Shimá!
” Dawn yelled, and ran into her arms.

Dawn gave Ella a hug and a kiss.

Seeing the tiny animals on the floor, Ella suddenly remembered that she hadn’t stopped by Kevin’s. She’d have to do that right after the memorial service.

Ella set her daughter down, and Dawn resumed her play. As
Ella gazed at her daughter, she heard Rose in the kitchen, cooking something. Judging by the sound of pans rattling, it wasn’t a soufflé.

A moment later, Rose came out, looked at Dawn then at Ella. “When she plays her ‘pretendly’ games, she’s off in her own world. She never knew I left the room. To be honest, she reminds me of you at that age,” Rose said smiling. “Your father would come home
and you’d give him a kiss, then go right back to whatever you were doing.”

Dawn picked up a toy horse and looked up at Ella. “I want a horse. Then I can ride like my friend.”

“Her little friend’s mother puts the child on the saddle in front of her and then takes her for a short ride every afternoon,” Rose explained.

Ella looked at Rose, alarmed. “My daughter hasn’t been out on the horse, has
she?”

“No, I wouldn’t allow it. She’s still too young, and horses are unpredictable animals at times, even with an experienced rider. I don’t care how safe her friend’s mother says it is.”

“Good,” Ella said, relieved, then looked at Dawn. “When you get a little older, you can learn how to ride.”

“You teach me?”

Rose laughed.

Ella glared at her mother, then looked back at Dawn. “I’m not very
good with horses, Pumpkin.” If she excelled at anything, it was at getting thrown.

“She’s better with police cars, little one.” Laughing, Rose returned to the kitchen.

Ella sighed. “I’ll find you a good teacher. But you’ll have to get bigger first.”

“How big first?”

“Tall, like Big Bird,” Ella said, and began to tickle her.

Dawn shrieked, but pulled away. “
Shimá
, read me story about the farmer.
Please?”

It was Dawn’s favorite book, and by now, they both knew the story by heart, but the request was repeated daily. “You’ll hear the story at bedtime tonight, okay?”

“Okay.” Dawn turned her attention back to her game, taking a small wagon out of a red-and-yellow plastic barn, and “hitching” up a horse to pull it.

Ella watched her daughter for a moment longer, then went into the kitchen.

“Are you going to that memorial service for the officer tonight?” Rose asked quietly.

Ella nodded. “I have to.”

“Have you been able to find out who killed him yet? Or why he had to die?”

“Answers rarely come that fast—at least not on my cases.”

Rose placed a bowl of mutton stew before her. “Here. Eat now. I have a feeling you haven’t had anything since breakfast.” Rose brought over a piece
of warm fry bread she’d been keeping in a basket beneath a dish towel.

“You’re right. I’m starving.”

The wind had begun to build up outside, and Ella could hear it rattling a loose windowpane. The temperature had gone down by ten degrees in the last hour, but inside the kitchen it was still warm and comfortable. “Mom, I don’t know what I’d do without you. You’ve made this house a real home for
all of us. It welcomes anyone who walks in, and it seems like there’s always something good cooking.”

She smiled. “Daughter, you can stop with the compliments. I’ve known you too long. What you really mean is that you wish I would go back to being the way I was…someone who was always here at home waiting for you, or your father, or your brother. But that can’t be. That time is gone.”

“But you
were happy all those years, weren’t you?” Seeing Rose nod, she added, “Then why change?”

“Because life did. You and your brother grew up, your father passed away, and it was a time for me to begin anew. To not grow, to not change—that is death,” she said matter-of-factly.

Ella understood, but nothing would ever make her stop missing the old days. She ate quickly, knowing she had to return to
work, but enjoying every bit of her food. When she swallowed the last spoonful of stew, she swabbed the bowl with a piece of fry bread to get every last drop of broth.

“
Bizaadii
is coming over tonight,” Rose said, using the nickname she’d given Herman Cloud as a joke. She called him “the gabby one” though he seldom had much to say. “He and I will watch your daughter.”

At least she wouldn’t have
to worry about her mother tonight. There was a limited amount of trouble she could get into here at home. “Mom, I’d like you to be very careful around people who are pro-NEED. I’m not sure how far they’re willing to go to fight those who don’t agree with them.”

“I don’t think they present a threat to anyone. They’re hoping to sway public opinion, not turn it against themselves by using tactics
and dirty tricks no Navajo would condone. That young girl was just being childish, as one might expect.”

“You’re probably right, but just stay alert. Okay?”

Rose nodded, then began stirring a kettle of soup cooking on the stove. “I always am, more so than you’ve ever realized.”

Ella stood up, her mother’s words troubling her. Sometimes the people you thought you knew best were the ones who
surprised you the most.

The memorial service was a simple affair, in Dr. Franklin’s home. The large buffet table in the dining room was covered with all kinds of food and drink that neighbors and friends had brought with them.

Dr. Franklin greeted everyone as they entered, then moved among the gathering, giving them time to eat. After
about a half hour, he stood at one end of the room and cleared his throat. The people grew silent.

His voice, weak at the beginning, grew stronger as he spoke. “I want to thank you all for coming—my son’s friends and fellow officers, and those who have known our family and have come to pay their respect. My son was a man of courage who always stood up for the tribe and, in the end, he gave his
life for The People. Although I will miss him every day for the rest of my life, I know he died doing exactly what he wanted to do—serve as a police officer.” Professor Franklin paused and swallowed from the cup of water he held in his shaking hand.

“Today I want all of us to celebrate his life, not mourn his passing. He would have wanted it that way.”

The chief stood to say a few words. Officer
Mike Kodaseet would follow and speak about what the department meant to Jason.

Ella glanced around the room, watching those who had come. She recognized all of the department staff from the station, and a few of the officers that had come a long way from their patrol areas in Arizona.

Regardless of their rank, their eyes all mirrored the same emotions. Their shared sense of loss, their shock,
and their anger all drew them together, and gave them strength. What had happened to Jason could have easily happened to any of them, and they knew it. That knowledge would compel all of them to work tirelessly until Patrolman Jason Franklin’s killer was brought to justice.

An hour later, Ella was walking to her unit, when Justine caught up to her.

“Most of the civilians inside who aren’t
with the department are anti-NEED advocates. I spoke to several of them, but there was one kid hanging around in the back of the room who particularly caught my attention. Did you see him? About seventeen or so, with a headband and wearing baggy jeans. He seemed pretty restless in a roomful of cops.”

“I saw you with him after the chief finished speaking.”

“His name is Albert Washburn. Officer
Franklin apparently helped him out once when some gang members came after him, and the kid never forgot it. Albert’s paid him back by keeping his ears to the ground and passing on any information he thought Franklin would be interested in hearing. I understand Officer Franklin made a point to meet with him every Thursday evening during his rounds.”

“Where? At the garage?”

“No such luck,” Justine
said. “They changed the site every week because Albert didn’t want to be seen with a cop. He says he’s not active with the gangs anymore, but he still knows a lot of people.”

“Did Albert know anything about the murder?”

“No, but he did tell me that Officer Franklin had seemed distracted lately. Last Thursday, they were supposed to meet near the hill where the high school seniors arrange whitewashed
rocks to form the number of their graduation year.”

Ella nodded.

“But Franklin didn’t show up. Albert saw him later and went up to him. Franklin told him that he’d had to meet his dad and hadn’t been able to keep his regular meeting with Albert. The kid said that it had been totally out of character for Officer Franklin to put personal matters before business.”

“Was there a problem we don’t
know about between Kee Franklin and his son?”

“I don’t know. I think we should speak to Belinda again. If she’s no help, and we still haven’t heard from the former Mrs. Franklin or are unable to get any help from her, then we need to come back tomorrow and talk to his father.”

“I agree.”

Saying good-bye to Justine, Ella drove directly to Kevin’s home, which was, like her mother’s home, southwest
of Shiprock.

Though the drive to Kevin’s was uneventful, she stayed alert for any sign that she was being tailed. As she turned down the gravel road that led to his home she noted that his porch light was on. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of a shadow moving around Kevin’s sporty sedan. Whoever it was had something in his hand, but she couldn’t make out what it was
from this distance.

Ella had just picked up her cell phone, hoping to be able to warn Kevin, when she saw the outline of a man holding what looked like a rifle come out of the house onto the porch. Ella hit her sirens at the same time, and the figure behind Kevin’s car suddenly took off running up a hillside.

A second later, Ella reached the house, and seeing it was Kevin with a shotgun, ordered
him to stay on the porch.

Familiar enough with the area around Kevin’s home to know her vehicle couldn’t cross the narrow, dry arroyo on the other side of the hill, Ella jumped out of the car with her flashlight and ran after the fleeing man, who’d disappeared over the hill. As she reached the top of the hill, she heard a thump, and aiming her light, she spotted a figure on the other side of
the arroyo, running parallel to it. The arroyo’s width was at least fifteen feet, and the caved-in earthen wall on the far side told her the perp had barely made the jump across the gap.

Ella followed at a jog, making sure of her footing, knowing that the arroyo narrowed even more ahead, and she’d be able to jump over a lot easier and run the perp down.

Using her ears to track the person, she
listened for his footsteps, and knew from the sound that she was closing in on him. Then there was another, hollow thump, and Ella knew he’d probably jumped down into the arroyo to hide. She stopped, slipped down into the steep-sided natural ditch, which at this point was only ten feet across. It was deeper than she was tall, but she could hear the sound of the person moving ahead, and the clank
of something mechanical.

Ella stopped, took out her weapon, and proceeded carefully up the narrowing, claustrophobic pathway, wary of an ambush. The arroyo was as crooked as a desert rattler here, and the perp could easily be waiting for her around the next corner.

She heard an electrical whine, then the cough of a motorcycle starting up. Ella sprinted ahead, but had barely gone twenty feet
before she caught sight of a red taillight, then the single beam of a headlight as the perp roared off on a motorcycle, fishtailing slightly in the soft ground.

Ella called for backup using her handheld radio, though she knew that the chances of getting an officer in position between here and Shiprock within the next fifteen minutes was slim. And if the cyclist went south, or took a side road…

She had to face it. Chances were good that the perp had made a clean getaway.

Ella climbed out of the arroyo and walked quickly back to Kevin’s house, about three hundred yards away. When she came down the hill, she could see Kevin, flashlight in hand, crouched by the tires.

“He got away on a motorcycle. That’s the sound I heard, right?” As she nodded, he continued. “Do you see this?” he pointed
to the slashed tires with the beam of his light. “Branch’s talk shows are going to bury me yet. On tonight’s program he kept hammering me with innuendo and, at one point, said that I was sure a well-off Tribal Council member judging by my nice home and fancy car. But, Ella, I worked my butt off for everything I’ve got.”

His eyes narrowed as he searched her face. “Did you happen to get a good
look at him, or call in for backup so someone can intercept him on the road?”

“Kevin, hasn’t anyone on the Tribal Council been paying attention? I made the call, but there are probably
no
backup units within miles of this place. And manning a roadblock takes calling in cops from patrol areas, and that could take an hour or more. We can’t justify it for vandalism, and it would take too long to
do it anyway.”

“I should have filled his pants with buckshot.”

“Bad idea.”

“Why? He was vandalizing my property. I’m allowed to defend myself.”

“You might have killed him, then what? You’re a lawyer.”

“I’m not that lousy a shot.” He muttered something unintelligible under his breath, then added, “I know things are tough for the police right now. I’ll see if there’s anything I can do to help.
Maybe I can shake some money loose if I make some concessions on other issues.”

“Because you need us now?” Ella asked cynically.

“No, it’s more personal than that. I don’t want the mother of my child killed because of the way things are.”

“I don’t want the mother of your child killed either,” she said with a thin smile. “What really worries me is that people are soon going to be doing the same
thing you just did—taking matters into their own hands because they can’t count on the police.” Ella took a deep breath. Almost every household on the Rez had a rifle or a shotgun.

“That bastard sliced all four of my tires. Leaving the porch light on wasn’t enough. I’m going to have to get someone to guard my property while I’m sleeping. Or maybe I’ll just get a big, mean dog.”

“Then it’ll bite
you, too.”

“Probably—particularly the way my luck’s been going.” He cocked his head toward the house. “Come on in. The damage is already done, so there’s no sense hanging around out here in the cold. I’ve got Dawn’s present inside, so I need to get that for you. Can you stay a while?”

Ella shook her head. “I really should be getting home. I just came from the memorial service, and there are
a few things I need to work through in my head before tomorrow.”

“Things are always complicated for you and me—both at work and in our personal lives. I wonder if that’s why we stink at relationships?”

“Probably, but neither of us is going to change,” Ella answered with a shrug.

“Good thing Rose isn’t here to hear you say that.”

Ella laughed. “Someday she’s going to finally understand that
being single works best for me.”

He shook his head. “Just because
her
life is changing doesn’t mean she’s ready to let go of the hopes she’s had for you,” Kevin said with a smile as they stepped up onto his front porch. “She’s still your mother.”

“I know, and that’s why it’s hard for me to accept this new side of her.”

He grew serious. “You really should be very proud of your mother. She’s
becoming a force to be reckoned with, even at council discussions.”

“Yes, but she’s also putting herself in a vulnerable position—being in a leadership position always carries a risk.”

“That’s true. She made a name for herself on the gaming issue last year, but along the way she picked up some enemies, too. But I expect what worries you the most now is that she’s made her position on the NEED
project very public.”

“What do you mean ‘very public’?” she asked, following him inside, but not sitting down.

“Haven’t you heard?” Kevin shook his head. “Never mind. You should hear it from her, not me.”

“Kevin, you started this. Finish it.”

“George Branch interviewed her today on the air.”

Ella stared at him in muted shock. She was getting to loathe surprises, particularly when it came
to things involving her mother. “That weasel? Give me the highlights.”

“Rose came across as very intelligent and logical, Ella. You would have been proud of her. She said that she wasn’t as much against NEED as she was
for
the rights of the tribe, and that she wanted to make sure all the safety and environmental concerns were answered satisfactorily before any decisions were made on the new power
plant. But Branch kept pressing her, you know how he is. Finally, she admitted based on what she knew at that moment she could not in good conscience stand in favor of a nuclear power plant on the Rez.”

Kevin paused, then continued. “And that, unfortunately, is all people will remember. It was the sound bite Branch was looking for.”

Ella closed her eyes, then opened them again. “So those who
are against it will see my mother as their ally—and those for it will become her enemies.”

“That would be my assessment.”

Ella sighed. “I’ve got to get going. Do you have Dawn’s present ready?”

“Hang on. I’ll be right back.” He came out a moment later with an enormous box covered with bright ribbons.

“What on earth is in there?” Ella asked.

“It’s a tricycle. The plastic kind with the big
wheels so she can go across soft ground. I had them find a box big enough, and then wrap it up because I thought it would be more fun for her.”

Ella smiled and shook her head. “You really should stop being so extravagant with her.”

“I enjoy doing things like this for her, Ella. She’s my only daughter. I know you don’t approve, but sometimes it’s the only way I have of reminding her how special
she is to me. I don’t get to live with her like you do. If you were in my shoes, you’d do the same.”

She couldn’t even imagine not having Dawn with her. “She’s crazy about you, Kevin. Even if you never give her another present, she would still think you’re the best thing since Barney and Big Bird.”

“Thanks…I think.”

“In Dawn-speak, that’s a big deal,” she said.