I thought about how little progress I’d been making for Cady’s wedding; I glanced at the receiver and thought about where I could go and hide when Hazel Long returned and smiled at me. “Ruby, excuse me for a minute.” I held the phone on my shoulder. “Hazel, could you loan me a pen and paper?”
She nodded and placed both on the upper counter between us.
“Thanks.”
I noticed that Chief Long had returned from the parking lot and joined Clarence as they stood a little away from each other in the doorway across the hall, Lolo’s eyes giving me an exasperated high sign.
I continued to hold the phone against myself as if I were attempting to smother it and looked down at what seemed to be the only friendly eyes in the hospital. “Hey Hazel, can I ask you a really big favor?” She smiled, and I could’ve kissed her. “I’ve got an angry dispatcher by the name of Ruby on the other end of this line who has an entire list of angry people who want to yell at me. Is there any way I could get you to write that list down?”
She held out her capable hands, and I deposited my life’s problems into them. As I turned around, I almost bumped into Lolo, who had walked over with Last Bull. “What’s up?”
“I’m going to take Clarence home and then make a run to Rabbit Town over on the other side of the Rez, and I think you’d better come along.”
I glanced back toward the room they had come from. “Is Dog in with Adrian?”
“Yeah.” She gestured toward her mother, who was still scribbling away. “Mom put food and water and even a bed in there, but he hasn’t touched any of it. Do you want to look in on the two of them before we go?”
I cracked the door open and could see Dog’s large head rise up from the other side of the bed. I whispered, “Just because you’re on guard doesn’t mean you have to go without food and water, you know?” He wagged once and then settled in again as I studied the sleeping child, who seemed to be resting comfortably. The little body was so small, and I thought about what Henry had said one time about the world being hard on little things. Adrian Plain Feather had overcome some pretty spectacular odds so far, and who knew, maybe he’d be all right.
I closed the door and crossed back to the group, joining Chief Long as she studied me. “You don’t really think that dog understands what you’re saying, do you?”
“Yes, I do.”
The automatic doors swooshed aside, and we were suddenly confronted with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, complete with a smiling Cliff Cly and a phalanx of two other federal agents. The AIC straightened the folder under his arm. “How’s the kid?”
I shrugged. “Still not talking.”
“I hate using the rubber hose on infants, but you gotta get results.” He folded his arms. “Am I mistaken or are you not only out of your jurisdiction but in the wrong state?”
“You are not mistaken. I’m in Montana because Cady’s getting married up here next week and I’m making arrangements.”
He looked genuinely surprised, but with Cly you never knew. “This the daughter I talked to on the phone at the bar in Absalom?”
“Yep.”
He levitated his eyebrows, a look which expressed a loss of options. “Damn, I was hoping to meet her before she got hitched.”
I leaned into him, the brim of my hat about two inches from his forehead. “I would not let you anywhere near my daughter-even on a bet.”
He smiled a becoming smile and stuck a hand out to Last Bull. “Really sorry about your loss, Clarence.” He glanced back at me for a second. “You’re in good hands, and I’m sure we’ll find who did this.”
He then pulled a thick manila envelope from under his arm and held it out to me. “Full ME’s report; I thought you might need it.” He watched as I shifted my eyes to Chief Long and pivoted his arm as if he’d meant to hand it to her all along. “There you go, Chief. I would’ve put it on your desk back at the office, but I didn’t want to clutter things up.”
After we’d dropped Clarence off, she drove up the hill from Lame Deer on 212 at a regular speed for once. “Do you want to explain to me what just happened?”
I was studying the file on my lap. “I would say that the federal government just ceded jurisdiction on this case to the tribal police.”
“Obviously they don’t think he did it.”
“I’d guess not.”
She settled back in the seat and upped the air-conditioning. “How did you know about Inez Two Two?”
“Her mother told me.”
“Who?”
“Her mother, the waitress at the casino you slapped the dish away from last night.”
“Oh.”
“See, if you’re nice to people they tell you things.”
We drove along in silence for a while.
“Is fooling around with thirteen-year-olds indicative of Clarence’s character?”
She thought about it. “I guess.”
I read the white placards on the fence posts that warned passing motorists to not shoot the prairie dogs because the Department of Wildlife and Parks was conducting an experiment.
“He… I knew him before he enlisted-real ladies’ man. They say he was in a mortar shell raid that did some damage to his private parts. I don’t know if that’s what happened to him over there, but whatever it was, it messed him up. Anyway, he came back and he and Audrey hit a rough patch and he meets this kid, Inez, down at the White Buffalo.”
She placed an elbow on the driver’s-side doorsill and ran her fingers into the thick mane of her hair. I was struck by her monochromatic beauty-the jet-black hair, the jasper-colored eyes, and the sunset-colored skin.
“So pretty soon they’re an item, but Audrey, who is pregnant at the time, mind you…”
“I guess Clarence wasn’t messed up too badly.”
“Yeah, well, she gets wind of this little tryst and catches Inez at the IGA and about beats the shit out of her.”
“This Audrey was pretty tough.”
“Yeah.” The hand disengaged with the hair. “Was.”
“Maybe we should go talk to Inez Two Two.”
She nodded. “Maybe. Look, I really don’t like Clarence, and I’ve never liked the way he treated Audrey, but I don’t think he pushed her and Ado off a cliff.”
I continued to watch the scenery pass.
“Why did you ask about Audrey’s work?”
I shrugged. “Home and the office-those are usually the places of conflict; people spend most of their lives at one place or the other. What kind of position did she have at Human Services?”
“Secretary, receptionist, or something-I mean, she was the first face you saw when you came in the door- well, along with Herbert His Good Horse and Loraine Two Two.” She put her finger in her mouth.
“Something?”
“Oh, I was just thinking about the sign they have on the wall beside her desk about how if you use strong language or raise your voice you will be physically ejected from the building.”
That was interesting. “What, exactly, does Human Services do that they have to worry enough about abusive behavior to post a sign like that?”
“They’re in charge of the federal support checks, and when the money runs out toward the end of the month, the natives get restless.”
“So Audrey could have enemies through work.”
“Indirectly, I suppose.” She passed a slow-moving truck hauling a trailer with about five tons of small-bale hay. “I mean, it wasn’t like she was the one who wrote the checks or anything-she just handed them out.”
I nodded and repeated her words back to her. “But she was the first face you saw when you came through the door.”
She rolled her eyes. “All right, when we get through in Rabbit Town we’ll head back to Lame Deer and have a talk with Herbert.”
