Skinwalkers by Tony Hillerman

Author:Tony Hillerman
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Police - Southwestern States, Police Procedural, Detective and mystery stories, Police, Leaphorn, Mystery & Detective, Southwest, Navajo Indians, Fiction, Indian reservation police, Chee, Mystery fiction, Joe, New, Suspense, Southwestern States, General, Cultural Heritage, Jim (Fictitious character), Lt. (Fictitious character)
ISBN: 9780061000171
Publisher: HarperPaperbacks
Published: 1990-04-01T06:28:26+00:00

1. Forgetfulness.

2. Impairment of judgment.

3. Inability to handle routine tasks.

4. Lack of spontaneity.

5. Lessening of initiative.

6. Disorientation of time and place.

7. Depression and terror.

8. Disturbance of language.

9. Episodic confusional states.

He had read it in the office, checking them off. The suddenly faltering unfinished sentences, the business of always thinking today was his day off, the lethargy, the trouble with getting the garbage bag installed in the garbage can, the preparation for Agnes’s arrival two days after Agnes had arrived. Worst of all, his awakening in the night to find Emma clutching at him, frantic with some nightmare fear. He had, as was his fashion, made notes in the margin. Emma had scored nine for nine.

Leaphorn had every reason to think of something else.

And so that morning he had thought, first, of Irma Onesalt’s list of the dead, and why death dates would be important to her. As he left Emma still sleeping he heard Agnes stirring in her room. He drove to his office in the clear, sunrise light of another day of heat and drought. Dust was already rising from the rodeo grounds down at the highway intersection—the dust of stock feeding. Sometime today he would think of the rodeo and the myriad of problems it always brought. Now he wanted to think of his homicides.

At the office, he composed a letter to go to the various county health departments in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah that would have been contacted by Onesalt if she followed the advice of Dr. Randall Jenks. It was too complicated, and too sensitive, to be handled by the half-dozen telephone calls it would require. And there was no real urgency. So he put the letter together—very carefully. He explained who he was, explained that the investigation of the murder of Irma Onesalt was involved, described the list as best he could, trying to recall for them the question she might have asked. Finally, with these needed preliminaries out of the way, he inquired if anyone in the department had received a letter or a telephone call from Ms. Onesalt concerning these names, asking death dates. If so, could he have a copy of the letter, or the name of the person who had handled the telephone call, so he could question that person more closely.

He wrote a clean copy of the final draft and a cover memo for the clerk, listing to whom copies should be sent. That done, he considered what Jenks had told him about Chee’s bone bead. It was made of cow bone. A witch, if one believed bona fide witches existed, would have used human bone, presuming the bona fide witch believed Navajo witchcraft mythology in a literal meaning. So if a real witch was involved, presuming such existed, said witch had been swindled by his bone supplier. On the other hand, if someone was merely pretending to be a witch, such things didn’t matter. Those who believed witches magically blew bone particles into their victims would hardly subject said bone to the microscope.

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