Coyote's Wife by Thurlo Aimée

Author:Thurlo, Aimée
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2008-09-04T16:00:00+00:00

FOURTEEN

Ella and Blalock were on their way back to the station when her cell phone rang.

“Shorty,” Big Ed said, making it unnecessary for him to identify himself, “Ervin Benally is going to hold a press conference in about ten minutes at the StarTalk warehouse. He’s announcing the date of the first delivery of satellite phones destined for key public service employees—those in rescue units and a few of our patrol officers assigned to remote areas. I want you at that press conference. I’ve also assigned Officer Phillip Cloud to back you up there in case there’s trouble.”

“I’m with Agent Blalock now,” Ella said. “I’ll have him drop me off.”

After placing the phone back in her jacket pocket, Ella filled Blalock in on the event.

“I’ll go with you. I’d like to get a feel for what’s going on, too,” he said, turning and heading for the StarTalk offices.

Ella lapsed into a thoughtful silence, then at long last spoke. “Ervin Benally has been the primary target so far, but anyone out to get even more attention, or go for the company’s jugular, might decide to switch to his mother-in-law, Abigail Yellowhair,” Ella said slowly. “The press would eat it up if anyone threatened her today. That woman has a lot of pull on the reservation.”

“My only knowledge of that family comes from her late husband’s ambiguous reputation. What makes Mrs. Yellowhair tick?”

“Let me give you some of her background. That’ll fill in the blanks for you.” Ella stopped for a moment to collect her thoughts, then continued. “Abigail came from a dirt-poor family. Her brother died from a ruptured appendix because the family couldn’t get him to a doctor in time. Things were a lot different fifty years ago on the Rez, especially when it came to doctors and clinics. But like the old saying, ‘what doesn’t kill me will make me stronger,’ Abigail persisted.”

“That goes for a lot of others here on the Rez, too, I would imagine,” Blalock said.

She nodded. “Abigail eventually left the Rez to attend the University of New Mexico. At night she worked at an Albuquerque restaurant to make ends meet, and that’s where she met James Yellowhair, a spoiled rich kid with a law degree and more money than ambition. They got married and, as it turned out, her networking and power broker skills were instrumental in getting him elected state senator.

“After James was killed everyone expected Abigail to fade into retirement. But she came out of that even stronger, diversified their business holdings, and settled all the legal issues. Her only setback was losing her bid to replace her husband in the legislature. Now, she’s throwing her considerable support behind her son-in-law’s StarTalk venture.”

“For her daughter Barbara’s sake, you think?”

“Not exclusively, no. In my opinion, StarTalk made sound business sense to her, and she truly believes it’ll be good for the tribe. She loves her daughter, mind you, but something like this would go beyond family loyalty to her. She’s always been more logical than emotional, which isn’t always a bad thing.

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