Free Coyote's Wife by Aimée Thurlo

teachers
immediately.
Then ask the teacher to call me, okay? I don’t want that woman around you.”
    “Sure, but I don’t remember anyone with that name,” Dawn said. “Should I?”
    “No. But remember what I’ve told you,okay? It’s important.”
    “Okay.”
    As another group of parents approached Dawn’s table, Ella went back outside. She strolled around the parking lot for a few minutes, but the four-door green pickup was nowhere to be seen.
    Ella found Mr. Vigil, the school guard, alerted him, and then the office staff. At long last she returned to her SUV and began the drive back to the station. On the way, Elladialed Justine.
    “Have you ever heard of Roxanne Dixon? She’s supposed to have been one of ours,” Ella said.
    “Yeah, I remember Roxanne. If I recall right, she left the department about a year ago, something about anger management issues. I might be able to get you more information off the record, but it would mostly be gossip,” Justine said. “Personnel files are sealed unless a tribal employeeis under formal investigation.”
    “I know. Ask around and see what you get, but make sure you keep it under the radar for now.”
    Ella hung up, lost in thought. Things weren’t adding up right. If Roxanne and Kevin were dating, or had dated in the recent past, how come Kevin hadn’t mentioned her before when they were together with Dawn? And why hadn’t he stayed in touch with her after he moved toWashington? Had Kevin experienced her “anger management issues” firsthand?
    Knowing how Big Ed felt about guarding the privacy of his officers, her chances of taking a look at Dixon’s file without a legal reason were almost zero. The fact that Roxanne had been at Dawn’s science fair to try and push for Kevin’s personal number wouldn’t be enough.
    Better to go through Justine and talk to Kevinlater on as well, or send him an e-mail once she got home. And later, if she got any indication that Roxanne could pose a danger to Dawn, Ella knew Big Ed wouldn’t hesitate to help. He might not actually let her look at Roxanne’s file, but she was sure he’d at least brief her on Dixon’s history with the department.
    As she arrived at the station, Ella met Justine in the hall.
    “Good timing,” Justinesaid. “Big Ed has called the Special Investigations Unit to his office.”
    “Any idea what this is about?” Ella asked, falling into step beside her.
    “Not a one,” she said.
    A moment later, Ralph Tache met them out in the hall and they went inside Big Ed’s office. To her surprise, Sergeant Joe Neskahi was there, waiting.
    They all sat down at Big Ed’s invitation. “I have good news,” he said, rockingback in his chair. “The tribe has boosted the Special Investigations Unit’s budget—enough to put Sergeant Neskahi on your team.”
    Ella was first to congratulate Neskahi, but according to Navajo customs, they didn’t shake hands. There was a hearty round of welcomes from the rest of her team, then the chief looked at each one of them.
    “That was the good news. Now here’s the flip side. What tippedthe scales in our favor on that budget request was a push from Abigail Yellowhair. All of you know she has powerful friends in Window Rock. If truth be told, almost everyone owes Abigail a favor.”
    “Me, too,” Ella admitted grudgingly. “She helped me find Kevin and Dawn after they were forced to go into hiding that time.”
    Big Ed nodded. “She also got us funding for the SI team’s cell phones whenour radio communications were giving us fits. And now this StarTalk issue is coming to a head. Abigail, like others, wants our assurance that George Charley’s death wasn’t related to StarTalk in any way. Of course I couldn’t give it to her at this point. Your investigation isn’t complete, and I told her that. When she insisted we give the problems Benally has been having top priority, I explainedthat the S.I. team was undermanned as it was. Next thing I knew we got the