I leaned into him, the brim of my hat about two inches from his forehead. “I would not let you anywhere near my daughter-even on a bet.”
He smiled a becoming smile and stuck a hand out to Last Bull. “Really sorry about your loss, Clarence.” He glanced back at me for a second. “You’re in good hands, and I’m sure we’ll find who did this.”
He then pulled a thick manila envelope from under his arm and held it out to me. “Full ME’s report; I thought you might need it.” He watched as I shifted my eyes to Chief Long and pivoted his arm as if he’d meant to hand it to her all along. “There you go, Chief. I would’ve put it on your desk back at the office, but I didn’t want to clutter things up.”
After we’d dropped Clarence off, she drove up the hill from Lame Deer on 212 at a regular speed for once. “Do you want to explain to me what just happened?”
I was studying the file on my lap. “I would say that the federal government just ceded jurisdiction on this case to the tribal police.”
“Obviously they don’t think he did it.”
“I’d guess not.”
She settled back in the seat and upped the air-conditioning. “How did you know about Inez Two Two?”
“Her mother told me.”
“Who?”
“Her mother, the waitress at the casino you slapped the dish away from last night.”
“Oh.”
“See, if you’re nice to people they tell you things.”
We drove along in silence for a while.
“Is fooling around with thirteen-year-olds indicative of Clarence’s character?”
She thought about it. “I guess.”
I read the white placards on the fence posts that warned passing motorists to not shoot the prairie dogs because the Department of Wildlife and Parks was conducting an experiment.
“He… I knew him before he enlisted-real ladies’ man. They say he was in a mortar shell raid that did some damage to his private parts. I don’t know if that’s what happened to him over there, but whatever it was, it messed him up. Anyway, he came back and he and Audrey hit a rough patch and he meets this kid, Inez, down at the White Buffalo.”
She placed an elbow on the driver’s-side doorsill and ran her fingers into the thick mane of her hair. I was struck by her monochromatic beauty-the jet-black hair, the jasper-colored eyes, and the sunset-colored skin.
“So pretty soon they’re an item, but Audrey, who is pregnant at the time, mind you…”
“I guess Clarence wasn’t messed up too badly.”
“Yeah, well, she gets wind of this little tryst and catches Inez at the IGA and about beats the shit out of her.”
“This Audrey was pretty tough.”
“Yeah.” The hand disengaged with the hair. “Was.”
“Maybe we should go talk to Inez Two Two.”
She nodded. “Maybe. Look, I really don’t like Clarence, and I’ve never liked the way he treated Audrey, but I don’t think he pushed her and Ado off a cliff.”
I continued to watch the scenery pass.
“Why did you ask about Audrey’s work?”
I shrugged. “Home and the office-those are usually the places of conflict; people spend most of their lives at one place or the other. What kind of position did she have at Human Services?”
“Secretary, receptionist, or something-I mean, she was the first face you saw when you came in the door-well, along with Herbert His Good Horse and Loraine Two Two.” She put her finger in her mouth.
“Something?”
“Oh, I was just thinking about the sign they have on the wall beside her desk about how if you use strong language or raise your voice you will be physically ejected from the building.”
That was interesting. “What, exactly, does Human Services do that they have to worry enough about abusive behavior to post a sign like that?”
“They’re in charge of the federal support checks, and when the money runs out toward the end of the month, the natives get restless.”
“So Audrey could have enemies through work.”
“Indirectly, I suppose.” She passed a slow-moving truck hauling a trailer with about five tons of small-bale hay. “I mean, it wasn’t like she was the one who wrote the checks or anything-she just handed them out.”
I nodded and repeated her words back to her. “But she was the first face you saw when you came through the door.”
She rolled her eyes. “All right, when we get through in Rabbit Town we’ll head back to Lame Deer and have a talk with Herbert.”
“The disc jockey?”
“The bit he does for KRZZ is a second income. His Honorable Herbert His Good Horse is Audrey’s boss; nothing goes on at tribal HQ without his knowing about it.”
I raised a fist. “Stay calm, have courage-”
She smirked. “And wait for signs.”
The trees were all stunted on the highlands of the Cheyenne Reservation. After the Baby Dean fire swept across the ridges and carried sixty thousand acres of Ponderosa pine with it, the remains were sold at salvage, including the three trailer-loads of logs Henry Standing Bear brought down to my place that had built my house.
Her voice interrupted my wandering thoughts. “What I’m trying to figure out is why he didn’t respond when you and the Bear yelled?”
I found it interesting that she’d just mentioned Henry in such a personal way but decided not to remark. “He says he was drunk, woke up, and they were gone. There are more than a couple of scenarios-maybe he was passed out and didn’t hear us, another is that they did as he suspected and left.”
“How do you explain both she and Adrian falling off the cliff then?”
“They came back after Clarence drove home, or somebody brought them back.”
She shook her head. “Did you see any other tracks?”
“No, but just because I didn’t see them doesn’t mean they weren’t there.”
She didn’t answer.
I leaned back in the seat, determined to enjoy the ride. “Do you mind telling me who we’re going to see?”
“Fella by the name of Small Song.”
“Artie Small Song?”
She nodded. “Yeah, you know him?”
“Unfortunately.”
“He’s got the only ’71 red GMC registered on the Rez. Closest thing I could find to your Chevy.” She studied me. “How do you know him?” She watched as I pulled the Colt from my back, dropping the clip and reinserting it back in the grip. “You’re not going to shoot yourself, are you?”
I had to smile. “If it’s the only way out of this chickenshit outfit.” I holstered the Colt. “Are we going to the mother’s place or the dental hygienist he’s been shacking up with?”
She flicked some jasper shards at me. “And might I ask how it is that you are so intimate with Artie Small Song’s personal life?”
“We liked him for the Little Bird case.”
She concentrated on the road, for which I was thankful. “The only address I’ve got is the mother out on Otter Creek Road. Did you read his file?”
“I didn’t have time; why?”
I twisted my wife’s engagement ring on my little finger. “He’s what my undersheriff, Vic, would call a bad motor scooter.”
Lolo glanced at my finger. “Priors?”
I let go of the ring and draped my hand out the window. “Beaucoup, and he has a tendency to be well-armed-really, really well-armed.”
She smiled as she accelerated, slapping a hand on her overloaded holster. “Maybe you’ll be glad I’ve got this. 44 after all.”
I looked out at the burnt husks of dead trees, like black veins in the crystal-blue sky. “I doubt it.”
5
I’d been to Artie’s mother’s house before-it was up one of the fingerling canyons that ran down to Otter Creek-and it reminded me a little of the departed Geo Stewart’s junkyard back in Durant. The rusted vehicles trailed all the way down to the main road toward the more populated areas of the unincorporated Rabbit Town. I don’t know why Rabbit Town is called Rabbit Town other than there might’ve been rabbits there at one time, but I hadn’t seen any so far today.