Hillerman, Tony - [Leaphorn & Chee 14] Read Online Free PDF Page B

relationship with Emma—this hashing over of something he
was working on. But now in the light of morning he saw nothing wrong
with it. He told Louisa about Gershwin, the three names and his promise
— ambiguous and vague.
    “Did you shake hands on it? Any of that male-chivalry stuff?”
    Leaphorn grinned. Louisa’s way of striking right to the heart of
matters was something he liked about her.
    “Well, we shook hands, but it was sort of a 'goodbye, glad to see
you again,' handshake. No cutting our wrists and mixing blood,” he
said. “He had the identification information written on a piece of
paper, and he just left that on the table. With sort of an unspoken
understanding that if I took it, I could do whatever I wanted with it.
But promising him confidentiality was implied no matter what I did.”
    “And you took the paper?”
    “Not exactly. I read it, then wadded it up and dropped it in the
wastebasket.”
    She was smiling at him, shaking her head.
    “You’re right,” he said. “Throwing it away didn’t work. I’m still
stuck with the promise.”
    She nodded, cleared her throat, sat very straight. “Mr Leaphorn,”
she said, “I remind you that you are under oath to tell this grand jury
the truth and the whole truth. How did you obtain this information?”
Louisa stared over her glasses at him, her stern look. “Then you say
you read it off a piece of paper left on a restaurant table, and the
lawyer asks if you know who left the paper, and…"
    Leaphorn raised his hand. “I know,” he said.
    “Two choices, really. After all, that Gershwin jerk was just trying
to use you. You could just forget it. Or you could figure out some
sneaky way to get the names to the FBI. How about an anonymous letter?
In fact, don’t you wonder why he didn’t write one himself?”
    “I guess it was timing. A couple of days pass before the letter gets
delivered. Then if it’s anonymous, it goes right to the bottom of the
pile,” Leaphorn said. “I guess he knew that. I think he’s afraid these
days. That the bandits know that he knows, and they don’t trust him,
and if they aren’t caught, they’ll be coming after him.”
    Louisa laughed. “I’d say they have pretty good reason not to trust
him. You shouldn’t either.”
    “I thought about faxing it in from some commercial place where
nobody knows me, or sending an e-mail. But just about everything is
traceable these days. And now there’s a reward out, so they’ll be
getting dozens of tips by now. Probably hundreds.”
    “I guess so,” Louisa said. “Why don’t you call one of your old FBI
buddies? Do the same thing to them Gershwin’s doing to you?”
    Leaphorn laughed. “I tried that. I called Jay Kennedy. You remember
me telling you about him? Used to be Agent in Charge at Gallup, and we
worked on several things together. Anyway, he’s retired over in
Durango. So I tried it on him. No luck.”
    “What did he say?”
    “Same thing you just told me. If he passes it along to the Bureau,
they ask him where he got it. He tells ‘em me. They ask me where I got
it.”
    “So what’s your solution? How about disguising your voice and giving
them a telephone call?”
    “I might try that. The FBI has them flying away. I could tell them
one of the guys is a pilot. That would be easy for them to check, and
if one of them happens to be a flier, then they’d be interested. But
that’s just half of the problem."He paused to take another bite of
pancake.
    She watched him chew, waited, sighed. Said, “OK, what’s the other
half?”
    “Maybe these three guys had nothing to do with it. Maybe Gershwin
just wants them hassled for some personal reason, and if the robbers
aren’t caught, this would damn sure do that sooner or later.”
    She nodded. “I’ll take it under advisement, then,” she said, and
left the kitchen to call her interpreter.
    By the time Leaphorn had the dishes washed she was back, looking
disheartened.
    “Not only is he sick, he has