Red Mesa Read Online Free PDF Page B

intuition, something that often gave her the edge on her investigations, and her mother’s ability to sometimes predict what was about to happen were all believed to be part of a dark legacy connected to their ancestor Mist Eagle.
    In all fairness, none of their abilities was so remarkable as tobe considered astounding. Ella’s intuition could have been attributed to other things, like the powers of observation police work demanded, or in Clifford’s and her mother’s case, talent, coincidence, and plain luck, but the rumors persisted.
    Ella parked near the river and unfastened her excited child from the car seat. As they walked down to the narrow, sandy banks lining this section of theSan Juan River, she began to feel the presence of something or someone nearby. She looked around her, peering into the saltbush and willows, and past them into the cottonwood trees that comprised the bosque, but no one was about.
    This isolated area south of Shiprock was deserted, not an unusual occurrence for the middle of the week. But something niggled at the back of her mind, and Ella kepta firm grip on Dawn’s tiny hand. The birds were quiet, and the only sound was that of the murky water twenty feet away. The damp sand where they were standing reminded her of the smell of catfish, but there was something else around that kept nature at bay.
    She couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched, but at the same time, she didn’t feel any sense of imminent danger. Reaching upto touch the carved badger fetish resting as a pendant around her neck, she discovered it was cool, not warm as it normally was when something bad was about to happen.
    Unwilling to take any chances with her daughter along, Ella turned around and started heading back, promising Dawn an ice cream cone instead. It was then that she heard a soft whistling to her right. She smiled, recognizing thehabit if not the tune.
    “Hello, Harry.”
    She heard a deep-throated laugh as the former tribal cop and member of her investigative team stepped out from behind a large salt cedar, a wide grin on his face. “Hey, Ella. How have you been?”
    At first all she could do was stare. Harry Ute had always been cadaverously thin, but in the past year he had put on at least twenty pounds of muscle. Clad injeans and a dark blue western shirt, he had the build of a rodeo cowboy. As far back as she’d known him, Harry’s expression had been so serious, almost glum. But although the man before her still retained that familiar intensity of purpose, gone was the perpetually gloomy expression.
    “I hope you’re here to tell me that you’ve decided to leave the Marshals Service and come back to us.”
    He croucheddown and smiled at Dawn. “Hey, little one. You’re already getting tall like your mother.”
    Dawn smiled, then looked up at Ella. “Can I play now?”
    “Yes, but stay here where the sand is damp, and don’t go near the water.”
    Dawn sat down a few feet away and began forming a mound of damp sand into something only she could identify.
    “No, I haven’t come back for good,” Harry said, squatting down andsifting sand through his fingers. “I’m where I belong now. My new job suits me.”
    “Then what’s brought you back, and why haven’t you stopped by the station? There’re lots of people who’d love to say hello to you.”
    “Can’t do it. I’m undercover right now, tracking a fugitive. I followed you down here so I could catch you alone and advise you to stay on your guard. Remember Samuel Begaye, who wassent up for murder when he beat a guy to death in a bar fight? He swore he’d get you and Justine for bringing him in.”
    “I remember,” Ella said. “He was one mean drunk. He nearly took off Justine’s head with a shovel when we caught up to him. It took the both of us to subdue and cuff him.”
    “He hates you and Justine with a passion. He believes that if it hadn’t been for you showing up when youdid, he would have made it up into