Shifting Dreams: A Cambio Springs Mystery by Hunter Elizabeth

Author:Hunter, Elizabeth [Hunter, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: E. Hunter
Published: 2013-03-02T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Jena’s mouth gaped in horror. Caleb stepped back, looking like he’d been punched in the face.

“It’s… it’s not like that. I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s not that.” He turned to her. “Jena? You don’t believe…?”

Her mind flew in a thousand different directions. He couldn’t. He didn’t. He was a good man; she knew that. But she’d heard the stories, too.

Caleb stared at her for a few more minutes, then a cold mask slid over his features. He walked to the door, then stopped and turned a little, staring at the ground.

“Mr. Charles Yazzie Singer was killed by gunfire during a raid coordinated by federal and local police who were executing arrest warrants in a coordinated operation in the greater Albuquerque metro area. Mr. Singer was killed while attempting to fire on officers in the East Side Narcotic Team led by Detective Caleb Yazzie Gilbert. Detective Gilbert was commended for his actions during the raid.”

Then he opened the door, stepped out, and shut it quietly behind him.

Jena couldn’t breathe. Yazzie. Same middle name. Cousin? Brother? Jena sank onto the couch, tears rolling down her face. Devin was quietly banging his head against the wall.

“Damn, damn, damn, I should have known.” Devin shook his head. “Stupid superstitions. He was the king of the department after that raid. It was all over the news. Even national. He’d been the one to coordinate the local teams with the feds. Hero cop and he takes early retirement. I should have known there was more to the story.”

“I should have known, too.” She swallowed the lump in her throat. “I feel horrible. He thinks I don’t trust him, Dev. Thinks I thought he’d hurt the boys. I know he wouldn’t. I’d never put his shifting together with the Navajo myths. But then I heard that word, and—”

“Don’t blame yourself. Skinwalkers make for some seriously messed up stories.”

Like Devin, Jena had acquainted herself with most of the local legends from the Native American tribes around them. There were lots of shapeshifter stories, few of them were anything but sinister, especially in Navajo beliefs. Skinwalkers were black magic witches that perverted the natural harmony in Navajo beliefs. They killed and cursed to get power. Broke traditional beliefs in a quest to trick and manipulate the people around them. They were said to be able to shift into any animal they wanted. The most evil among them, by killing a relative, were able to wear the skin of human beings themselves.

For anyone raised Navajo, the practice of shifting into an animal or anything else was considered black magic. Jena didn’t know the specifics, doubted anyone outside the tribe did, but it wasn’t good.

But those were just legends. Weren’t they?

“The dead,” she heard Devin say. “He must have touched the dead so many times…”

Dead bodies were a serious taboo for traditional Navajo.

“He worked in homicide before he went into Narcotics,” Devin said. “His family must have loved that. He told you much about them?”

“No. He doesn’t talk about the past.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.