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your father’s death, I haven’t seen any of them except at the post office or grocery store. I could ask around, though. I heard someone mention at my weaver’s association meeting that the family was going down to Fort Defiance to visit relatives, and that the senator would be stopping by Window Rock to give some speeches. But that was two weeks ago. Theymay be back, I don’t know. Doesn’t he have an office you can call?”
    “Yes, but he’s not keeping regular hours right now. But thanks for the suggestion, I’ll check it out. Meanwhile, I better get back to work.” As Ella headed back to the car, Rose called out to her.
    “I just remembered something. Have you tried going to the church? I understand they’ve been getting some blankets and coats togetherto send out to the Dineh who live over by Mexican Hat. If the senator’s family is back, his wife might be over there.”
    “Thanks, Mom. I’ll have someone check it out.”
    As she drove back out onto the highway, Ella contacted Justine on the radio. She relayed what she’d learned then asked her to pay a call to the church and see if anyone had seen Mrs. Yellowhair. “If you need me, I’ll be at Carolyn’s.”Her stomach growled, reminding her that she needed food, and soon. “I’ll go ten-sixty-one there,” she added, informing Justine she’d be stopping for something to eat.
    “Ten-four.”
    As Ella stepped out of the hospital basement stairwell, she felt that peculiar coldness that was always present in the morgue and had nothing to do with the temperature. She wasn’t sure how Carolyn stood it, thoughshe knew that the reason her friend worked here was because this was where the tribe needed her most.
    As she walked down the short hallway, she felt a shudder run up her spine. A sudden flashback to the day she’d come to see her father’s body left her feeling weak at the knees. She took a deep breath, steeling herself, and touched the badger fetish around her neck. There was nothing she coulddo to change what had been. She had other duties now.
    As she reached the outer office she could hear Carolyn’s monotone voice as she spoke into a tape recorder inside the autopsy suite. Through the glass that separated them, Ella could see her friend’s back and a corpse’s foot and toe tag. Three stainless steel tables stood empty, but trays filled with surgical equipment surrounded the M.E.
    The smell of disinfectant made Ella feel a little sick to her stomach. She leaned back against the wall for a moment. Suddenly a stocky young man wearing a blue vinyl apron over scrubs rushed out of the autopsy suite, looking pale in the bright lights.
    “What are you doing here?” he demanded, after nearly running over her. As his gaze dropped down to her belt and he saw her badge, he gave her athin smile. “Oops. Sorry. Dr. Roanhorse told me to expect a visit from the police.”
    “I haven’t seen you here before. Who are you?” Ella asked, looking at the young Navajo with surprise.
    “I’m Howard Lee, Dr. Roanhorse’s assistant. I’m the med student assigned to work with her this semester.”
    Ella nodded. That explained it. Carolyn’s job didn’t attract volunteers. “Could you tell her I’m here?”

    “I already know,” Carolyn yelled out, reaching up to turn off the tape recorder’s mike. “Come in.”
    “I’d rather not,” Ella answered.
    “Don’t be such a wuss. You’re a cop.”
    The barb stung, just as Carolyn had intended it to. Ella took a deep breath, then forced herself to enter the room. The body was half-covered with a sheet. Lines marking where the incisions would be made were clearly delineatedon the skull and torso. Ella swallowed the bile rising at the back of her throat.
    Carolyn turned around, bloody gloves held high and away from her body. “Hey, I was wondering when you’d come. You’re just in the nick of time.”
    “For what?”
    “Can you reach that drawer and get the peanut butter cup in there? I’m