Free Red Mesa by Aimée & David Thurlo Page A

something illegal.”
    “I don’t want Justine down there on her own because she’s personally involved, so I want you to accompany her,” Big Ed said. “I’ll also have the officer in that district meet you. That way Lena Clani will see that we trust our uniformed cops as much as our plainclothes officers. Give this as much of your time asit requires.”
    “Chief, almost anyone can go with Justine,” Ella protested. “Can you assign someone else? That’s a long trip, and I’ve got work to do here.” That wasn’t quite the truth. The fact was she just didn’t want to be far from Dawn and Rose now that she suspected someone was sneaking around the outside of their house. If she told Big Ed, he’d probably let her off, but she didn’t want toraise a false alarm and she had no proof anything was going on.
    “Your work can wait a bit longer,” Big Ed said flatly.
    As they walked out of the chief’s office, Justine glared at Ella. “I’m sorry this is such an inconvenience, Ella. If you want, I’ll go by myself, and just omit that detail from my report. You can do the same and no one will be the wiser. Oh—I nearly forgot. You tend to go backon agreements like those.”
    “Believe what you want, but I never said a word to Big Ed until after he met with you. Since the only people at the convenience store were you, me, the perp, and the clerk, I have to assume that the clerk was the one who told the chief. Maybe he’s a friend or a relative.”
    Justine hesitated, but wasn’t quite ready to capitulate. “Maybe so. But if you still think myaunt and I are just wasting your time, perhaps I can get the new Hopi FBI agent to come with me.”
    “You’ve heard about him?”
    “Of course. Everyone’s talking about Paycheck.”
    “You can’t take Payestewa, Justine, without going through Blalock. And this isn’t a federal matter. The reason I don’t want to go is not because I think it’s a waste of time. It’s because I’m worried about Dawn and Mom rightnow.”
    “Is there a problem at home? You know I’ll do whatever I can to help you,” Justine said quickly, although her voice was still taut.
    “I’m not sure what’s going on yet. It’s complicated,” Ella said, shaking her head. “I’m not quite ready to talk about it.”
    “Is it because after what happened the other night, you don’t quite trust me?”
    “Justine, that’s bull. You’re blowing this whole thingway out of proportion.” Ella recognized the expression on her young cousin’s face. Justine had made up her mind to assume the worst. It seemed like the incident had affected her a lot more than Ella had imagined. Combined with the growing tension several officers had also observed Justine was exhibiting, it made things unpleasant nowadays.
    “I just don’t know why Big Ed was so insistent that you come. He could have easily assigned Sergeant Neskahi to this, or even Ralph Tache,” Justine said.
    Ella shrugged. She’d wondered the same thing, and the only answer she had was that maybe the chief was aware of the tension between Justine and her, and had decided the long drive would give them time to hash things out.
    They got under way a short time later, taking Justine’s unit. It was goingto be a long trip, and for over an hour neither spoke. Justine kept her eyes on the road, occasionally fiddling with the volume on the radio. As time went by, she seemed to grow even more agitated. Chuska Peak was already fading in the distance to the northwest when Justine finally glanced over at her.
    “I heard talk around the station that Mrs. Yellowhair is using you as an example of a rolemodel for our tribe on some radio ads. Since when did you two become such good friends?”
    “We’re not, though I do respect the woman for the way she’s handled herself through all the difficult times she’s had to face.”
    “I was really surprised that she chose you instead of me,” Justine said pointedly.
    Ella looked at her in