'Yeah,' Cowboy said. 'I just told him you probably got off with it. Reminded him you were out there when it happened, had your truck and all. They ought to look in the back of your truck.'
The conversation was going approximately in the direction Chee wanted to take it. He adjusted it slightly.
'I think they already have,' he said. 'I didn't tell you about the dea people talking to me. They had about the same idea.'
Cowboy looked startled. 'Hell they did,' he said. 'Seriously?'
'Sounded serious,' Chee said. 'Serious enough so Largo reminded me about Navajo Police not having jurisdiction. Warned me to stay completely away from it.'
'He don't want you distracted from our windmill,' Cowboy said. 'The crime of the century.'
'Trouble is, I think I can guess where they put that car the feds are looking for.'
Cowboy looked at him. 'Oh, yeah?'
'It's up one of those arroyos. If it's out there at all, that's where it is.'
'No it ain't,' Cowboy said. 'The sheriff was talking about that. The dea and the fbi had that idea, too. They checked them all.'
Chee laughed.
'I know what you mean,' Cowboy said. 'But I think they did a pretty good job this time. Looked on the ground, and flew up and down 'em in an airplane.'
'If you were hiding a car, you'd hide it where an airplane couldn't see it. Under an overhang. Under a tree. Cover it up with brush.'
'Sure,' Cowboy said. He was looking at Chee thoughtfully, his elbow propped on the sill of the car window, chin resting on the heel of his hand. 'What makes you think you could find it?'
'Look here,' he said, motioning to Cowboy. He dug his Geological Survey map book out from beneath the seat.
Cowboy climbed out of his patrol car and climbed into Chee's truck. 'I need me a book of those,' he said. 'But the sheriff would be too tight to pay for 'em.'
'You're hiding a car,' Chee said. 'Okay. God knows why, but you're hiding it. And you know the law's going to be looking for it. The law has airplanes, helicopters, all that. So you've got to get it someplace where it can't be seen from the air.'
Cowboy nodded.
'So what do you have?' Chee ran his finger down the crooked blue line which marked Wepo Wash on the map. 'He drove down the wash. No tracks going up. Personally, I'd bet he drove right down here to where it goes under the highway bridge, and then drove off to Los Angeles. But the feds don't think so, and the feds have got some way of knowing things they aren't telling us Indians about. So maybe he did hide his car. So where did he hide it? It's not in the wash. I'd have seen it. Maybe you'd have seen it.' Chee made a doubtful face. 'Maybe even the feds would have seen it. So it's not in the wash. And it's somewhere between where the plane crashed and the highway. Gives you twenty-five miles or so. And it gives you three arroyos which are cut back into country where you've got enough brush and trees and overhang so you could hide a car.' He pointed out the three, and glanced at Cowboy.
Cowboy was interested. He leaned over the map, studying it.
'You agree?'
'Yeah,' Cowboy said slowly. 'Those other ones don't go anywhere.'
'These two lead back into the Big Mountain Mesa,' Chee said. 'This one leads into Black Mesa. In fact, it leads back up toward Kisigi Spring. Back up toward where we found John Doe's body dumped.'
Cowboy was studying the map. 'Yeah,' he said.
'So if Largo hadn't promised to break my arm and fire me if I didn't stay away from this, that's where I'd be looking.'
'Trouble is, they already looked,' Cowboy said. But he didn't sound convinced.
'I can see it. They drive along the wash and when they get to an arroyo, somebody gets out and looks around for tire tracks. They don't find any, so he climbs back in and drives along to the next one. Right?'
'Yeah,' Cowboy said.
'So if you're going to hide the car, what do you do? You think that if you leave tracks they're going to just follow them and find you. So you turn up the arroyo, and you get out, and you take your shirttail or something, and you brush out your tracks for a little ways.'
Cowboy was looking at Chee.
'I don't know how hard the feds looked,' Cowboy said. 'Sometimes they're not the smartest bastards in the world.'
'Look,' Chee said. 'If by chance that car does happen to be hidden out in one of those arroyos, you damn sure better keep quiet about this. Largo'd fire my ass. He was sore. He said I wasn't going to get a second warning.'
'Hell,' Cowboy said. 'He wouldn't fire you.'
'I mean it,' Chee said. 'Leave me out of it.'
'Hell,' Cowboy said. 'I'm like you. That car's long gone by now.'
It was time to change the subject. 'You got any windmill ideas for me?' Chee asked.
