Free Death Walker by Aimée & David Thurlo Page B

she found Carolyn at her desk, sipping a diet cola and eating a sugar-glazed doughnut.
    Ella smiled. “Diet Coke doesn’t cut the calories of the doughnut,” she teased, “no matter what you may have read in your medical journals.”
    “But it does wonders for the guilt,” Carolyn retorted easily.“Want a doughnut?” She gestured to the box on the table behind her.
    Ella took one of the “smart pills,” a term she’d picked up for pastries among some of the Navajo cops, mainly to be sociable. “Heard you wanted to see me.”
    Carolyn handed her a copy of the autopsy report. “The bone inserted in the victim’s eye came from a cat.”
    Ella skimmed over the report. There was nothing else new there.
    “Notice that there’s no mutilation of the body, like before, except for the eye,” Carolyn said slowly, clearing her throat.
    Ella knew precisely which “before” Carolyn was referring to. When skinwalkers had murdered Ella’s father, their deadly signature had been left on the corpse for all to see.
    “I’m nearly convinced this has nothing to do with skinwalkers,” Ella confessed. “I’m hoping it’s anisolated incident and the killer was hoping to throw us off the trail by leading us on a wild-goose chase.” Ella stood up and took the autopsy report from the desk. “I’ll be talking to you soon. For now, I better get my hind end over to the station. Big Ed wants to meet with me.”
    “Yeah, I heard that from my cousin who works for the department. The chief has a surprise for you.”
    Ella smiled.It was hard to keep any secrets on the Rez. Everyone had too many relatives. “Care to give me a hint?”
    “Your life may get easier—or not.”
    “Gee, thanks,” Ella said, and laughed seeing the mischievous look on Carolyn’s face. The woman had a penchant for riddles. “I guess I’ll be going then.”
    Ella returned to her vehicle and drove down the valley to the station. She wanted to find out if anythingnew had turned up on the case. It was much too early for a report from the bureau, but she could still hope.
    As she walked through the side doors, she heard the clamor of voices coming from the back of the building, and some laughter. The Navajo radio station was playing over the loudspeaker.
    Ella walked down the hall, noting with satisfaction that a surveillance camera had been set up. It wasnot obvious, but the field of view ensured complete coverage of the hallway. She was glad Big Ed had agreed with her recommendation. As she reached her office, she saw that someone had left a copy of the Farmington paper on the floor by her door. Picking it up, she unlocked the door and walked inside. The hostage/suicide situation and the bus accident were twin headlines on the front page. A briefaccount further down the page promised details on the Dodge murder.
    “Great, you’re back.” She heard Big Ed’s unmistakable voice behind her. “I’ve got good news for you.”
    Ella turned around and saw Justine Goodluck, her second cousin, wearing a Navajo police badge clipped to the belt of her slacks. She stood next to Big Ed with a proud smile. “This is your new assistant,” he said obviously pleased.“We scraped some additional money together for this year’s budget. Based on the importance of the crimes you handle and recent events, the council thought we should use it to give you an assistant. Justine has been a patrol officer with the department for two years, as you probably know, and has attended special classes to further her qualifications. She’s now a fully qualified lab technician,and we’re putting together a small lab for her on the premises. Having Justine assigned to you exclusively means Detective Ute will have more time to work on other things. He’s overworked as it is.
    “Justine can conduct most of our routine testing with the equipment she’s been given, so you can have more immediate results. The budget requires her to wear more than one hat in order to warrant