“Yeah,” Leaphorn said. “I thought about that. Trouble is, why hadn’t the climbing buddy signed the register before they started down?”
Chee shook his head, dealt Leaphorn some more of the Vienna-and-eggs mixture, and put down the pan.
“Modesty, you think?” Leaphorn said. “He didn’t want to take the credit?”
“The only reason I can think of involves first-degree murder,” Chee said. “The premeditated kind.”
“Right,” Leaphorn said. “Now, how about a motive?”
“Easy,” Chee said. “It would have something to do with the ranch, and with that moly mine deal.” Leaphorn nodded.
“Now Hal has inherited. It’s his. So let’s say George Shaw figures Hal’s going to keep his threat and do his own deal on the mineral lease, cutting out Shaw and the rest of the family. So Shaw drops him.”
“Maybe,” Leaphorn said. “One problem with that, though.”
“Or maybe Demott’s the climbing buddy. He knows Hal’s going for the open strip mine, so he knocks him off to save his ranch. But what’s the problem with the first idea?”
“Elisa inherits from Hal. Shaw would have to deal with her.”
“Maybe he thought he could?”
“He says he couldn’t. He told me this afternoon that Elisa was just as fanatical about the ranch as her brother. Said she told him there wouldn’t be any strip-mining on it as long as she was alive.”
“You saw Shaw today?” Chee sounded as much shocked as surprised.
“Sure,” Leaphorn said. “I showed him the photographs. After all, I spent his money getting them.”
“What’d he think?”
“He acted disappointed. Probably was. He’d like to be able to prove that Hal was dead about a week or so before he signed that register.”
Chee nodded.
“There’s a problem with your second theory, too.”
“What?”
“I was talking with Demott on the telephone September twenty-fourth. Twice, in fact.”
“You remember that? After eleven years?”
“No. I keep a case diary. I looked it up.”
“Mobile phone, maybe?”
“No. I called him at the ranch. Elisa didn’t remember the license number on the Land-Rover. I called him about the middle of the morning and he gave me the number. Then I called him again in the afternoon to make sure Breedlove hadn’t checked in. And to find out if he’d had any other calls. Anything worthwhile.”
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“Well, hell,” Chee said. “Then I guess we’re left with Breedlove climbing up there alone, or with Shaw, and then taking the suicidal shortcut down.”
Leaphorn’s expression suggested he didn’t agree with that conclusion, but he didn’t comment on it directly.
“It also means I’m going to have to run down all these people who climbed up there in the next ten years and find out if any of them got off with a long piece of that climbing rope.”
“Not necessarily,” Leaphorn said. “You’re forgetting our Fallen Man business is still not a crime. It’s a missing person case solved by the discovery of an accidental death.”
“Yeah,” Chee said, doubtful.
“It makes me glad I’m a civilian these days.”
The wind gusted, rattling sand against the aluminum side of Chee’s home, whistling around its aluminum cracks and corners.
“So does the weather,” Leaphorn said. “Everybody in uniform is going to be working overtime and getting frostbite this week.” Chee pointed to Leaphorn’s plate. “Want some more?”
“I’m full. Probably ate too much. And I took too much of your time.” He got up, retrieved his hat.
“I’m going to leave you these pictures,” he said. “Rosebrough has the negatives. He’s a lawyer. An agent of the court. They’ll stand up as evidence if it comes to that.”
“You mean if anyone gets up there and steals the ledger?”
“It’s a thought,” Leaphorn said. “What are you going to do tomorrow?” Chee had worked for Leaphorn long enough for this question to produce a familiar uneasy feeling. “Why?”
“If I go up to the ranch tomorrow and show Demott and Elisa these pictures and ask her what she thinks about them, and ask her who was trying to climb that mountain on that September eighteenth date, then I think I could be accused of tampering with a witness.”
“Witness to what? Officially there’s no crime yet,” Chee reminded him.
“Don’t you think there will be one? Presuming we’re smart enough to get this sorted out.”
“You mean not counting Maryboy and me? Yeah. I guess so. But you could probably get away with talking to Elisa until the official connection is made. Now you’re just a representative of the family lawyer. Perfectly legit.”
“But why would Demott or the widow want to talk to a representative of the family’s lawyer?” Chee nodded, conceding the point.
“And I think there’s something else I should be doing.”
Chee let his stare ask the question.
“Old Amos Nez trusts me,” Leaphorn said, and paused to consider it. “Well, more or less. I want to show him this evidence that Hal climbed Ship Rock just one week after he left the canyon and tell him about Maryboy being murdered, and ask him if Hal said anything about trying to climb Ship Rock just before he came to the canyon. Things like that.”
“That could wait,” Chee said, thinking of his aching ribs and the long painful drive up into Colorado.
“Maybe it could wait,” Leaphorn said. “But you know the other afternoon you decided Hosteen Maryboy couldn’t wait and you rushed right out there to see if he could identify those climbers for you. And you were right. Turned out it couldn’t wait.”
“Ah,” Chee said. “But I’m not clear on what makes Amos Nez so important. You think Breedlove might have told him something?”
“Let’s try another theory,” Leaphorn said. “Let’s say that Hal Breedlove didn’t live until his thirtieth birthday. Let’s say those people Hosteen Sam saw climbing on September eighteenth got to the top, or at least two of them did. One of the two was Hal. The other one—or maybe two—push him off. Or, more likely he just falls. Now he’s dead and he’s dead two days too soon. He’s still twenty-nine years old. So the climber’s register is falsified to show he was alive after his birthday.” Chee held up his hand, grinning. “Huge hole in that one,” he said. “Remember Hal was prowling around the canyon with his wife and Amos Nez until the twenty-third of . . . “ Chee’s voice trailed off into silence. And then he said, “Oh!” and stared at Leaphorn.
Leaphorn was making a wry face, shaking his head. “It sure took me long enough to see that possibility,” he said. “I never could have if you hadn’t got into old man Sam’s register.”
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“My God,” Chee said. “If that’s the way it worked, I can see why they have to kill Nez. And if they’re smart, the sooner the better.”
“I’m going to ask you to call the Lazy B and find out if Demott and the widow are there and then arrange to drive up tomorrow and talk to them about what we found on top of the mountain.”
“What if they’re not at home?”
“Then I think we ought to be doing a little more to keep Amos Nez safe,” Leaphorn said. And he opened the door and stepped out into the icy wind.
24
ELISA BREEDLOVE HAD ANSWERED
the telephone. And, yes, Eldon was home and they’d be glad to talk to him. How about sometime tomorrow afternoon?