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this. I saw the perp going in one direction and followed. Justine had done the same earlier, but lost track of him in the dark. Then she ran into me, thinking I was theperp. The fact is that the perp appeared to be in two different places at nearly the same time.”
    “So you’re saying that there might have been two suspects, both dressed the same as you?”
    “Unless one of us is having memory problems, it’s the only way our differences in timing and location of the suspect make any sense at all. I haven’t found evidence that it was a two-man job yet, but I intendto pursue it from that angle. In the meantime, I think Justine deserves a break. We’ve all been trained to react automatically to certain situations, and I believe that she was manipulated into doing exactly what she did.”
    Big Ed regarded her thoughtfully for what seemed an eternity. “I trust your instincts. I always have. But this time…”
    “Justine’s a good officer, and she had a difficult, split-seconddecision to make. She had already been fired upon, and was really pumped up. If we ride her too hard before we have all the facts, we’ll ruin what’s left of her confidence, and without that, she’ll be no good as a cop.”
    The chief said nothing, staring at a daddy longlegs spider crawling up the wall. “Okay,” he said at length. “But I want her out at the range going over target selection and lethal-forceprocedures twice a week until further notice.”
    “Done.”
    “By the way, isn’t this supposed to be your day off?”
    Ella nodded, then shrugged. “We debriefed last night, but I came in to make sure Justine was okay, and to make out my report. Officially, I’m not here.”
    Ella walked toward her office and on the way stopped by Justine’s lab. Justine wasn’t there, so Ella left a note on her desk askingJustine to call her at home. She wanted this straightened out.
    She also wanted to try and figure out where Big Ed had gotten all the details. Only four people had been there. Ella, Justine, the perp, and the clerk. It was possible that Justine had inadvertently said more than she intended, or the chief had caught her in an inconsistency, but that didn’t seem likely. The perp was long gone, andthe clerk hadn’t seen anything. He’d been inside the store. Of course, it was very possible that he’d overheard their conversation outside. But would he make it a point to talk to the chief about it? That seemed like a stretch.
    After making out her report and dropping it by Big Ed’s office, she left the station. She’d told Dawn she’d take her to play by the river’s edge today, and she wouldn’tbreak the promise.
    Remembering the cryptic warning she’d received on her computer, Ella stopped by the Totah Cafe and picked up the latest issue of the tribal newspaper and a copy of the Farmington daily, the biggest paper from the area. She wanted to reacquaint herself with the latest news in and around the Rez. If there really was trouble brewing, she had no intention of being caught unawares.

THREE
    On the way home, Ella listened to a Navajo radio station, and in particular to the hourly news. If there was a major conspiracy going on, maybe it was connected to an event or an institution, like the tribal government. Major elections were coming up in another year, and already many politicians and wanna-be politicians were starting to position themselves to run for elected office.
    Mrs.Yellowhair, the late state senator’s wife, would be running for the office her husband had held. An interim appointee held the seat now, an Anglo car dealer no one outside Farmington supported. Abigail Yellowhair, seeing that as a sign to move forward and accomplish her own goals, was gearing up her campaign.
    After the terrorist incident last year, the tribe’s faith in their elected officialsand the tribal government had plummeted. Corruption allegations and scandals continued to rock the hierarchy on the Rez, creating even more