“Yeah.”
“Who was there, Charles?”
He snorted. “Everybody.”
I squeezed the bridge of my nose. “You know, I’m going to lock the both of you back in here in a minute.”
Nate was the first to break. “Me and a buddy of mine-we were just sitting on the tailgate of the truck, but then a friend of ours came by and said he’d buy us a beer.”
“Who?”
“Kelly Joe Burns.”
That loser again. “Who else?”
“Herbert His Good Horse came in and grabbed a six-pack to go. We tried to cadge a few off of him, but he wouldn’t give us any.” He thought. “Louise Griffin was there with Inez Two Two.”
I frowned. “She’s underage.”
“So?” He paused and then continued. “Besides, her mother-you know, Loraine, the one who works over at Human Services, came and dragged her out. Boy, was Inez pissed.”
I gestured toward the snoring man. “Was your uncle there?”
“No.”
“Anybody borrow your keys?”
He smirked. “It’s a Rez-Ride, man. You don’t need keys; it’s got two little wires that stick out from under the dash, but you gotta turn on the headlights first.”
“How many people would know that?”
“On the Rez? Everybody; half the cars around here don’t have keys and the other half don’t have forward gears.” He smiled. “I had a Chevy Corsica that I drove in reverse for seven months. You had to hook up the wires on it, too.”
“Speaking of hooking up, I’ve got another question-does Artie have a girlfriend?”
“What?”
I sighed and tapped my shirt pocket where I’d stored the CD. “There is a recording of your uncle talking to Clarence Last Bull on the phone, and there’s a woman in the background with him. If I can find out who that woman is, maybe she can go to bat for your uncle.”
The young man stared at me, and for the first time he relaxed. “You really don’t think Artie did it, do you?”
“No, I don’t.”
He thought. “He was hittin’ on some chick up on the Rocky Boy Reservation, but I think she got engaged or something.”
“What about the dental hygienist from Billings?”
“Old news.”
I stepped back and allowed him egress from the cell. “Oh well, it was a thought.”
He stood there, looking at me. “How about I listen to the CD?”
“I don’t have a player.”
“We can go up to KRZZ or I’ve got one in Artie’s truck.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “You don’t have a starter switch, but you’ve got a CD player?”
“I work at a radio station.” He transitioned into his on-air voice. “Pumping the wattage into your li’l red cottage.” He smiled, started for the hallway, and tried to get past Charles, who stepped in front of him.
The big man placed himself between Nate and the wide world. He leaned in. “You ever pull a gun on me again, you better use it.”
“Okay.” The kid’s response was too quick for Charles’s taste.
Charles had him up in the air and against the wall faster than I could’ve possibly reacted. He grabbed fistfuls of the young man’s shirt and then slammed him against the concrete block.
It took both hands, but I wrenched one thumb away, reverse-wrist-locked the large man all the way down the hallway, and shoved him against the far door with a heavy thump. I held him there until he stopped struggling. “Knock it off.”
He didn’t respond verbally-no surprise there-and tried to throw his body against me.
I applied so much pressure that I was afraid I was going to dislocate his thumb. I repeated the words again and felt his body relax just a bit. I let him go and stepped back.
He turned quickly and squared off with me, his face red from the exertion. “Keep your hands off me.”
I raised mine, just to indicate that I was done for now. “How about we all just keep our hands to ourselves?”
Charles raised a finger and pointed at Nate. “Get him out of my jail.”
Nate and I were sitting in Artie’s truck in the Tribal Police parking lot under the yellowish glow of the arc lights as the young man pulled on the light switch and then held the two wires together, causing the small-block to cough, sputter, and then rumble into a lopsided idle. “You gotta have the engine running to get the player to work.”
I handed him the CD-he took it and slipped it into the slot in the dash. We listened to the whole recording three times. “I’m sorry, but it’s not broken into tracks, so we have to listen to it all.”
“That’s all right.”
He leaned in at the portion of the recording where the woman was speaking in the background and focused on what seemed to be the one discernable word. He swallowed and then hit the EJECT button and handed me the CD.
“Do you recognize the woman’s voice?”
“No.”
“Neither do I, but I probably wouldn’t.” I tipped my hat back and looked into the night, the streetlights of Lame Deer trailing away from 212 into the heart of darkness. “Well, it was worth a try.”
“The word she says…”
“Yep. I still can’t quite make it out; something about ‘dome’ or ‘dose’?”
“Dole, she’s saying dole. It’s a word my grandmother uses.”
I waited a moment. “You think that’s your grandmother?”
“No, but that’s the word the woman is using-dole.”
My limitations loomed audible. “What about the music in the background?”
“The jukebox up at Jimtown is always playing.” He shrugged and slipped the truck into reverse. “I can take us to a place where we can hear everything that’s on there.”
I grabbed the open passenger door and held it. “I can’t go anywhere.”
He looked incredulous. “What, you’re still under arrest?”
I looked past him and into the lighted windows of the Tribal Police Headquarters. “Do I have to remind you who Charles’s half-brother is?”
He cleared his throat and rubbed his neck where the patrolman’s grip still showed red. “Oh, man.” He dipped his head and looked up the hill to the blinking light at the top of the radio tower. “KRZZ’s got production studios that can do anything; slow the track down, pump up different levels.” He looked at the wristwatch on the carabiner attached to his belt loop. “I gotta be up there in two hours anyway-why don’t you meet me there?”
“I thought Herbert His Good Horse did morning drive.”
“He does, but he also gets hung over and I get stuck pulling doubles.” He shrugged. “That was mean. He takes care of his nephew, the one that’s got no legs.”
“I saw a poster of him winning some marathon in Japan.”
“He’s unreal.”
I nodded. “If you’re going to be up there all morning, I’ll head to the radio station once Chief Long comes in and replaces Charles.”
“Cool, man.”
“Well, I’d better get back inside before Charles tries to drown your uncle in the toilet.” I closed the door.
Nate tossed a worried look to the jail as I walked around the truck. “Hey, Nate?” I pulled the small revolver from my belt and tossed it into his lap through the open window. “No more of this Indian outlaw stuff, okay?”
