A man appeared in the doorway of the van, blond, in a denim jacket, taller than McKee and younger, with a hearing aid behind his left ear. His blue eyes rested for a second on McKee, registering surprise and shock.
'What the hell happened?' he said. And then he was out of the truck, coming toward McKee.
'Got shot,' McKee said. 'Somebody shot me.' His voice sounded thick. 'Get the bleeding stopped.' He sat down abruptly on the sand.
The blond man was saying something.
'Don't talk,' McKee said. 'Listen. Are you Jim Hall?'
'How did you know that?'
'Listen,' McKee said. 'Tell this boy here that I'm not a witch and he will help you.' He paused now and started again, trying to pronounce the words.
'Ellen Leon was shot, too. Ellen Leon. She's up at that big cliff dwelling in a canyon…' McKee tried to think. 'In that canyon that runs into Many Ruins south and west of here.'
The man was squatting beside McKee now, his face close. McKee had trouble focusing on the face. The face was surprised, amazed, excited, maybe frightened.
'You said Ellen?' the man said. 'What the devil is she doing out here? What happened to her?'
'Man shot her. Needs help.' McKee said. 'Go help her.'
'Who shot her?' the man asked.
'Man named Eddie.' McKee said. He was very tired. Why didn't this fool go? 'Don't worry,' he said, 'Eddie's dead now.' He heard the man asking him something but he couldn't think of an answer. And then the man's hands were on his face, the man was talking right into his face.
'Listen. Tell me. What happened to Eddie? What happened to Eddie? And was there a man with him? Where's the man who was with him?'
McKee couldn't think of how to answer. Something was wrong.
He tried to say, 'Dead,' but Jim Hall was talking again.
'Answer me, damn you,' Hall said, his voice fierce. 'Do the police know about this? Has anybody told the police?'
McKee thought he would answer in a moment. Now he was concentrating on not falling over on his side.
Hall stood up. He was talking to the boy with the red baseball cap, and then the boy was talking. McKee could hear part of it.
'Did you see the witch he killed?'
He couldn't hear what the boy answered.
'You were right when you guessed that,' Hall was saying. This man here is a Navajo Wolf. Give me your rifle.'
McKee stopped listening. He was asking himself how Jim Hall knew about the man with Eddie, asking himself why Hall was acting the way he was acting. Almost immediately, with sick, despairing clarity, he saw the answer. Hall was the Big Navajo's other man.
The boy hadn't given Hall the rifle. He was standing there, looking doubtful.
'Put the rifle in the truck then,' Hall said. 'We'll leave the witch here. Tie him up first. And then we'll drive to Chinle and tell the police about him.' Hall paused. 'Hand me the rifle and I'll put it in the truck.'
'Don't,' McKee said. 'Don't give him the rifle.'
Hall turned to look at him. McKee focused on the face. It looked angry. And then it didn't look angry any more. Another voice had said something, something in Navajo.
It said, 'That's right, Billy Nez, don't give him your rifle.' And the anger left Jim Hall's face as McKee looked at it, and it looked shocked and sick. Then it was gone.
McKee gave up. He fell over on his side. Much better.
The metallic sound of the door in the van slamming and then a voice, the voice of Joe Leaphorn, and a little later a single loud pop.
I can't faint now, McKee told himself, because I have to tell him about Ellen. But he fainted.
Chapter 18
He was aware first of the vague sick smell of ether, of the feel of hospital sheets, of the cast on his chest, and of the splint bandaged tightly on his right hand. The room was dark. There was the shape of a man standing looking out the window into the sunlight. The man was Joe Leaphorn.
'Did you find her?' McKee asked.
'Sure,' Leaphorn said. He sat beside the bed. 'We found her before we found you, as a matter of fact.' He interrupted McKee's question. 'She's right down the hall. Broken cheekbone and a broken shoulder and some lost blood.'
He looked down at McKee, grinning. 'They had to put about ten gallons in you. You were dry.'
'She's going to be all right?'
'She's already all right. You've been in here two days.'
McKee thought for a while.
