Wild Indigo by Sandi Ault

Author:Sandi Ault
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group, Inc.
Published: 2007-08-17T04:00:00+00:00

23

No Good News

When Mountain and I arrived at the BLM, phone lines were ringing, Rosa, the receptionist, was talking into the receiver, and Roy was pacing anxiously in the lobby. When he saw me, he hurried over. “Give me the keys to your Jeep,” he said, holding out his palm, a folded newspaper tucked under one arm. “We’re going to have someone come out and take a look at it, see if it’s worth fixing, or if we need to just pay to replace it.”

I got out my key ring, started working the car key off. “I’ll have to get my gear out of my Jeep.” I was thinking of the nachi and the santo—both were in my car.

Roy petted Mountain impatiently. “You can get your things out of your rig when you’re ready to leave; someone will have to give you a ride, you can take your stuff with you then.”

The phones continued to ring. Rosa couldn’t keep up. I tendered the key.

“Have you seen this week’s edition of the Taos paper?” Roy asked. “It just came out today.”

“No.”

“They got a big spread on this mess, right on the front page. There’s even a photo of you driving your Jeep with the door blown off. You look real mad in the picture. Looks like it was taken right out front.”

“What?”

He opened the paper, pointed to the photo. “That reporter—Noah Sherman—he’s the one who took it.”

The headline read: TANOAH PUEBLO MAN KILLED BY RAGING BISON—CARELESS DRIVING MAY HAVE CAUSED STAMPEDE. Right beneath it, the shot of me—angry, speeding away from Noah Sherman in my banged-up Jeep with no driver’s-side door.

The Boss folded the paper again and tucked it under his arm. “I hated to show you that, but I knew you were going to see it. I got a copy in my office. You can read the whole thing later.” He gestured toward the reception area. “The phone’s been ringing like that all day.”

“Roy! Everyone in the Taos Valley will think I’m a murderer!”

He took my arm. “Listen, when you go in to that interview with that attorney, say as little as you can. Don’t go elaborating about things. You stand by what you put in that report—you ain’t got nothing more to add, you hear me?”

“Boss, what’s going to happen to me? Whose side is this guy on?”

“That guy’s not the only one you’re dealing with. There’s also an attorney from the Department of Justice involved now. So you just do like I said.” He released my arm, patted my shoulder. “And let me keep Mountain in my office with me. We don’t need to go calling attention to how unusual you are right now.”

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