Free Hillerman, Tony - [Leaphorn & Chee 17] by Skeleton Man (v4) [html]

dusty wind that made the jail door hard to open and blew Chee’s hat into the room ahead of him.
    “Well, now,” said the woman behind the desk. “Look what the wind blew in. I was hoping we’d finally get some rain.”
    Dashee said, “It’s coming. Today’s the day the Zunis are having their rodeo. They did their rain dance last night.”
    Chee rescued his cap, said, “Hello, Mrs. Sosi.”
    Mrs. Sosi was laughing. “I asked one of them about that last year when they got rained out again. Told him they should do the dance after the rodeo. He said the rain-outs kept the cowboys from getting hurt. Cut down the medical bills. Did you two come in to get out of the weather?”
    “I want to talk to one of your tenants,” Dashee said. “Billy Tuve. He’s my cousin.”
    “Tuve?” Sosi said, frowning. She checked the roster on the desk in front of her. “Mr. Tuve is a popular man today. But you’re too late. He bonded out about an hour ago.”
    “He what?! Wasn’t that bond set at fifty thousand dollars? Was it lowered? Tuve couldn’t have come up with any property valuable enough to cover that. And I guarantee he didn’t have the five thousand he’d have needed to cover the bond company fee.”
    Mrs. Sosi looked down at her records, then looked up with an expression that registered amazed disbelief. “And it was a cash bond,” she said.
    “Cash? Fifty thousand in cash?”
    “Same as cash. Registered, certified cashier’s check,” Mrs. Sosi said. “Bank of America.”
    Dashee’s reaction to all this was shock.
    “Who did it?” Chee asked.
    “A woman. Just about middle-aged. Nice looking. I never saw her before.” She glanced at the record book. “Ms. Joanna Craig. That mean anything to you?”
    “Not to me,” Dashee said.
    “She wasn’t local? Where was she from?”
    “Well, she used a New York City bank account. Shesaid she was representing Mr. Tuve, and I think maybe there was a lawyer with her.”
    Dashee was looking baffled.
    “Did Tuve know her?” Chee asked.
    “He seemed as surprised as you do,” Mrs. Sosi said. “But he walked right out with her. Climbed into the car she was driving.”
    “What kind of car?” Chee asked. “Going where?”
    “She said she was staying at the El Rancho Hotel. The car? It looked like one of those Ford sedans Avis rents out at the airport.”
    “I can’t believe this,” Dashee said. “I think we better go find him.”
    Chee held up his hand. “This lawyer with her. Was he in the car, too?”
    “Just her and Tuve. And this other fella, I don’t know he was a lawyer. He just came in earlier. Big blond guy and he said he came from Tuve’s family, but he sure wasn’t no Hopi. Just said he wanted to talk to Tuve about getting money put up for his bond. The deputy took him back there awhile, and pretty soon he came out and said thank you, and went on out. That’s the last I saw of him.”
    “But he was with the woman?”
    She shook her head and laughed. “We don’t get an awful lot of out-of-town traffic in here, so I just connected them. Both interested in getting Tuve out. But I don’t know,” Mrs. Sosi said. “Now I sort of doubt it. He was gone before she got here. I never saw them together.”
    “Let’s go,” Dashee said. “Come on. Let’s go talk to Tuve. Find out what this is all about.”
    The ride up Railroad Avenue to the El Rancho was asplash through a rain mixed with occasional flurries of popcorn-size hail.
    “What do you think, Jim?” Dashee said. “What sort of mess has the silly bastard got himself into? I can’t think of a thing he could do that would make him worth that much money to anyone.”
    “You think maybe he actually did shoot that tourist shop operator?” But Chee answered his own question with a negative head shake. “No. That wouldn’t add up. Wouldn’t make somebody in New York come out here to buy him out for that much money.” He shook his head, thinking. “I was wondering who that man was. You