heavy machinery was a threat, and cunningly dig pit traps for it to fall into, just as they had dug pit traps for wapiti and even the occasional bison when they had been among the living. They could not understand that pouring sand into hydraulic fluid reservoirs would ruin a vital part of the machinery. They saw that the men on the site guarded and valued the dynamite sticks in the shed-which were only sticks to them. They knew that possums would eat anything, particularly if one poured bear fat over it. They would not understand that those sticks could be made to release lightning and thunder.
Not that they were stupid, and she suspected if anyone ever was around them long enough to teach them the ways of the modern world, they would be more of a menace than even she could dream. But they were facing something completely alien to the world in which they had lived and died, and faced with the alien, they could only improvise with what they themselves knew.
So the questions remained; who had raided the burial hill and cached the relics here? Who had sabotaged the dozer? Who was continuing to sabotage the site? And who had set the trap that had so nearly caught David?
Most of all-were all these acts done by the same hands?
She had to report back to Sleighbow at Romulus that if there had been any threats against Calligan or the site before the explosion, none of his men had ever heard about it. So in that much Calligan was clear.
She had no doubt that the man was a snake; the stories her mother conveyed from other realtors made that perfectly clear. If she looked long and hard enough, she would probably find some way in which he had deceived Romulus. She needed a reason to continue to stay on the case, one that would continue to supply a paycheck, and one that would let her pursue the answer to her questions.
It was time to call Sleighbow and establish that reason. David himself was in her office when she made that call, so that he could see and hear just where her loyalties were with his own eyes and ears.
She put it on speakerphone so he could hear both sides of the conversation.
'Mr. Sleighbow,' she said as soon as she had identified herself and what he had asked her to investigate, 'I have to be up front with you. There are more unanswered questions than answered ones with Calligan so far as I'm concerned, but the job you asked me to do is finished. I can't find any evidence of any threats to Calligan and his property prior to the explosion. Whatever else is going on, he did not deceive Romulus in that regard.'
David looked blank. He obviously could not see where her statement was leading.
'Oh?' There was a long pause. 'I find your phrasing interesting, Miss Talldeer. Do you have any reason to think Rod Calligan has attempted to deceive Romulus Insurance in any other way?'
She sighed, as David frowned, and she made an abrupt gesture to him to warn him to be silent. 'Let me just say this much, Mr. Sleighbow. The information I have leads me to think that Mr. Calligan is less than ethical in his business practices. He is continuing to suffer accidents-some appear to be outright sabotage, and some simply seem to have no possible natural explanation. It may be that he has some business rival that he has annoyed, or some less-than-legal associates that he has angered, and he is attempting to cover their retribution up by claiming that it is all the work of Native American and ecology groups. I am not going to attempt to guess what kind of policy he took out with you, but I suspect that such a situation would not be covered, especially if he deliberately concealed illegal activities and associates.'
'You are quite right, Miss Talldeer,' Sleighbow replied, his voice even and betraying no emotion. 'And those are interesting speculations.'
'They're only speculations, sir,' she said warningly, making a hushing motion at David, since he looked ready to jump in again. 'I have not found any evidence to indicate anything of the sort. All I have found is that he is considered to be less than ethical by his peers, and that there do not appear to have been any terrorist-type threats prior to the explosion. Other than that, I can only say that while I have not actually met the man, the things I have uncovered would make me unlikely to use his services even if he were the only contractor in the three-state area. I certainly would not recommend him to anyone else. My personal feelings are that a man like that collects enemies, and a man like that may well have been involved with some kind of organized crime figure at some time. But that is, strictly a personal feeling and I have no facts to justify it. And I will admit to a slight prejudice against him because he seems to be attempting to make Native Americans into scapegoats for what has been happening to him.'
There was a moment of silence, punctuated by the ticking of someone using a keyboard. 'I respect and appreciate your candor, Miss Talldeer,' Sleighbow said at last. 'And I also respect the 'hunches' of a private investigator with some experience. 'Hunches' seldom prove to be as mystical as most people think.' The keyboard clicks returned. 'I've noted your observations. If you have no objection, I would like to authorize you to continue to investigate. However, in light of the fact that there have been more 'accidents' and that you yourself said that you are not Nancy Drew, you may feel free to withdraw, and I will find another investigator to take up where you left off.'
David was practically bursting out of his chair, but he kept quiet, at least. Jennifer pretended to give the matter a moment of thought, although her answer was a foregone conclusion. 'I would like to continue, sir,' she said. 'I hate to leave something half done.'
'Good.' A few more clicks signaled a few more keystrokes. Jennifer was now certain that he was recording this interview and adding it to the records. 'You're on indefinite retainer. I respect your honesty enough to be certain you will tell me when you feel your investigation has come to an end. Two suggestions, please. Don't hesitate to call me if you feel you are in over your head. I'll see to it that you are fairly compensated. And if you do uncover some kind of criminal activity, please report it not only to me but to your local police and the state's attorney general.'
'Yes, sir,' she promised, with some satisfaction. Sleighbow hung up then, and she took the phone off 'speaker' mode.
David practically exploded. 'What were you doing?' he shouted. 'I thought you were-'
'Didn't I just, truthfully, manage to get the suspicion away from the Rights Movement?' she interrupted.
'Yes,' he said, after a moment. 'But what was all that crap about organized crime?'
'Complete truth, just not all the truth.' She leaned back in her chair and regarded him through narrowed eyes. 'Calligan is the kind of man who might be involved with criminals, even organized crime. I said I didn't have any evidence. Sleighbow just gave me carte blanche to go look for some.
So now I have a legitimate reason to continue poking around Calligan Construction. I could hardly mention that I'd seen the Little People while I was poking around Calligan's site illegally.'
David subsided. 'I guess not,' he said, reluctantly. 'But I don't see why you couldn't do what you want.'
She shrugged. 'I have to have a reason for staying on Calligan's back if the cops ask,' she pointed out. 'My own personal curiosity doesn't count, and since I'm Indian it could be taken as harassment, and that's illegal. I've got plenty of evidence that no protest group threatened Calligan-now I have to prove that there weren't threats from sources he wouldn't report. It's still work, David, and. it's work I can do while I'm checking up on other things.' She! stared up at the ceiling for a moment. 'You know,' she said, half to herself, 'I'd kind of like to find something to nail Calligan to the wall. If half of what I've heard about him is true, he's long overdue to be nailed. I suspect him of being behind Bob Anger's broadcast this morning.'
David looked blank. 'Who?'
She blinked, and focused on him again. 'You mean you haven't-oh, that's right, you haven't lived here for a while, Local talk-show host, makes Rush Limbaugh look like a Franciscan monk. The only reason he hasn't been sued is because the people he insults are either too poor to sue, or he doesn't name names when they have the money for lawyers.' She reached into her drawer for the padded envelope that had come by messenger from the office of the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, pulled the cassette out of the envelope, and stuck it in her cassette deck. 'This was the broadcast this morning.'
She watched David's face as he listened, his expressions running the entire gamut from incredulous, to disgusted, to angry . . . trying to guess the moment when he would ballistic.
She was a little off. Before he could explode, she snapped the recorder off.
'There's more where that came from,' she offered. 'About another forty-five minutes' worth. Where are you going?' she added, as he launched himself for the door.
'I'm going to do something about that-'
'Wilma Mankiller's office is already handling it,' she said, cutting him off. The news that the Principal Chief of the Cherokees was already involved stopped him with his hand on the door. 'They sent me a copy of the tape, since I passed the word that I'm on the case to her office. I told them when Sleighbow hired me, just on the off chance that anyone in Cherokee Nation had anything useful to tell me that I hadn't already heard on my own.'
