The Wailing Wind by Tony Hillerman

Author:Tony Hillerman
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Police Procedural, Police, Leaphorn, Mystery & Detective, Navajo Indians, Lt. (Fictitious character), General, Indian reservation police, Chee, New Mexico, Fiction, Cultural Heritage, Jim (Fictitious character), Joe
ISBN: 9780061967818
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2010-09-28T06:28:11+00:00

16

Leaphorn had been trying to explain to Professor Louisa Bourbonette the confusing business of the maps.

“I might have known,” said Louisa, “that if you got yourself mixed up in this it would involve maps.”

For once Louisa had no other commitments, no academic duties at Northern Arizona U., and no reason not to take a ride with Leaphorn. This one was to a coffee shop in Shiprock and an appointment with Sergeant Jim Chee.

“Aside from that,” Leaphorn said, “can you think of a reason Denton would want to lie to me about it?”

“Maybe he didn’t,” Louisa said. “Maybe McKay had two maps in that briefcase. He showed Denton the one Denton told you about. Denton kept it. And after he shot McKay, Denton hid it away somewhere before police arrived.”

They both thought about that for a moment.

“That’s possible,” Leaphorn said.

“But not likely,” she said. “Can you think of a reason he’d bring along two maps? You might bring two maps yourself. In fact, you probably have two maps with you right now.”

Leaphorn laughed. “Actually, I have three today.” He extracted an American Automobile Association Indian Country map from the door pocket, and two pages copied from the U.S.G.S. quadrangle maps book from the glove compartment.

They hadn’t settled the puzzle of Denton’s wrong map, nor why Denton had lied about McKay’s jacket, if indeed he had, or any of the several other things that had been bothering Leaphorn. But Louisa had firmly and emphatically resolved the Linda-Wiley relationship. Yes, Wiley was in love with Linda, and vice versa. Louisa had no doubt at all.

Sergeant Chee’s patrol car was parked at the café, and Chee was inside holding a corner table. He stood to greet them.

“I owe you a big favor if you ever need one,” he told Leaphorn. “Osborne didn’t seem to have anything to complain about.”

Leaphorn nodded.

“Is this something I’m not supposed to know about?” Louisa asked.

“Just avoiding some bureaucratic red tape,” Leaphorn said.

“How about you, Sergeant Chee? Are you willing to tell me?”

“A piece of evidence got misplaced,” Chee said. “I wasn’t sure how to deal with it, and I asked Lieutenant Leaphorn for advice. He handled it for me.”

Louisa laughed. “No rules broken either, not so anyone would notice it. Right?”

“Let’s just say no harm was done,” Leaphorn said.

Officer Bernadette Manuelito was hurrying up to the table, looking flustered, saying she was sorry to be late. Leaphorn pulled back a chair for her, introduced her to Louisa, told her he was glad she could join them.

“Sergeant Chee asked me to come,” Bernie said. “He said you were interested in the Doherty homicide.”

“I think we were just talking about that,” Louisa said. “Something that got Joe involved in it.”

Professor Bourbonette had been around long enough, attended enough meetings with touchy faculty prima donnas, to sense instantly that she would have been better off to have restricted herself to smiles and nods.

Officer Manuelito’s face expressed unnaturally intense interest. Leaphorn and Chee looked merely embarrassed.

“But I gather no harm was done,” the professor added.

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