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a
hataalii
to come to the hospital and do a Come-to-Life Sing,” Mr. Lonewolf said.
    Ella knew that her brother Clifford specialized in those. As one of the tribe’s most respected
hataaliis
, medicine men, he was often called in to perform the ceremony whenever a Navajo was rendered unconscious. Navajos believed that the living part of a man, his lifespirit, sometimes became separated from the body. When that happened the proper ceremony was needed to restore order and bring about harmony.
    Leaving them to work out the details, Ella joined Blalock, who’d gone over to buy two cans of soda. He handed one to Ella without comment. “Thanks,” she mumbled, opening the can with a tug on the ring.
    “Ready to go?” he asked.
    “Let me touch base withthe surgeon one last time,” she said, heading toward the doctor, who’d just stepped away from the Lonewolf family.
    He met her halfway. “I’ve left instructions for you to be called when either of the men regain consciousness.”
    “Thank you. I appreciate that.”
    He looked back at the Lonewolf family and shook his head. “I’ve worked here for almost ten years, but I still can’t get used to givingmedicine men access to my patients.”
    “Our tribal beliefs matter,” Ella said simply.
    “Yes, and to be fair, I’ve seen your medicine men get results I can’t even come close to explaining. But in this particular case, with the chance of infection and complications sohigh—” Before he could finish, his pager went off. Excusing himself, he hurried down the hall.
    “They always come ready to dismisswhat they don’t understand, and end up finding more than they bargained for,” Ella told Blalock, who’d come up.
    He nodded. “It’s that way for most Anglos, including me.”
    Ella finished her soda and tossed it in the proper bin. “This case is going to bring major league pressure down on the department,” she said.
    “I know. The Bureau’s already received a call from your tribal president. Whateveryou need, you’ve got.”
    Ella glanced around. “Before we go, I need to arrange for an officer to be posted by Kevin’s door and another by Lonewolf’s. Hospital security has additional personnel patrolling the area whenever shooting victims arrive, but that’s not going to be enough in this case.”
    “I agree. If this was a hit, the suspects will find out soon enough that they didn’t get the job done.They might decide to try again.”
    Ella contacted Big Ed, their police chief, and briefed him. “We’ll need plainclothes officers brought in to guard the men. Uniforms will point out the rooms to any potential assailant.”
    “We’re fully deployed, so I’ll have to pull two of our people off the manhunt,” he said. “And, Shorty, I want a full briefing as soon as you can manage it.”
    “Copy.”
    After makingsure that armed, plainclothes security guards would be in place until tribal officers arrived, Ella rode with Blalock back to the station. Everyone else had been notified, and by the time they reached the Shiprock police station her team had already assembled in Big Ed Atcitty’s office.
    Blalock took his usual seat to the left hand side of thedesk, and the tribal officers either stood or saton the other available chairs.
    Big Ed, a barrel-chested man in his early sixties, looked her over closely without speaking, obviously accessing her condition and state of mind. He leaned forward in his chair, a question on the tip of his tongue.
    Seeing it, Ella preempted him. “Don’t worry about me. I’m one hundred percent, Chief,” she said.
    “Update me on your situation,” Big Ed said.
    “AttorneyTolino is out of surgery and stable with a good prognosis, but Adam Lonewolf is listed as critical. The two would-be assassins remain on the loose.”
    “I’m still not clear on what went down at the airstrip. Fill us in, Shorty,” Big Ed said, using his nickname for Ella, though she was a head taller than him. He held up a recorder so