Shaw ignored him. 'I'd like to find out exactly why Gorman went to New Mexico,' he said. 'That would be interesting.'
'You going to tell me what I need to know about this end? Help me find the Sosi girl?'
'Of course,' Shaw said. 'But I need to know what's behind the Navajos sending a man a thousand miles outside his jurisdiction. It's got to be better than a runaway teenager.'
'They didn't send me,' Chee said. 'I'm taking vacation time. Sort of on my own. Makes it simpler.'
Wells snorted. 'Lordy,' he said. 'Spare me from this. Two of them in the same booth. The vigilantes ride again.'
'My friend here,' said Shaw, tilting his round, red face toward Wells, 'thinks police should just stick to their assignments.'
'Like arson,' said Wells. 'Right now we're supposed to be over on Culver looking into a warehouse fire, which is every bit as much fun as a New Mexico homicide and which the taxpayers are paying us for.'
'You're on your own then?' Shaw said. 'Nothing official. A personal interest?'
'Not exactly,' Chee said. 'The department wants to find the girl, and Old Man Begay. They're more or less missing. And me doing it on time off makes it less complicated.' Chee could see Shaw understood the implications of that.
'Yeah,' Shaw said. 'It's an fbi case.' Some of the caution had left his face, and there was a touch of friendliness there now. And something else. Excitement?
'You were going to tell me what Gorman talked about in the parking lot,' Shaw said.
Chee told him.
'Albert was looking for Leroy?' Shaw frowned. 'Had a picture of a house trailer?' He extracted a leather- covered notebook from a pocket of his coat, put on his bifocals, and read.
'Joseph Joe,' he muttered. 'I wonder why he didn't tell the Feds about that.'
'He did,' Chee said.
Shaw stared at him.
'He told the fbi everything I've told you.'
Shaw digested that. 'Ah,' he said. 'So.'
'If that interests you,' Chee said, 'you might like to know that when the fbi emptied out Albert Gorman's pockets, the photograph Gorman had shown Joe wasn't there.'
'Stranger and stranger,' Shaw said. 'What happened to it?'
'Two obvious possibilities. Gorman threw it away after he got shot. Or Old Man Begay took it.'
Shaw was reading his notebook. 'I suspect you thought of a third possibility,' he said, without looking up.
'That the fbi agent palmed it?'
Shaw glanced up from his notebook, a look that mixed appraisal and approval.
'I'm almost certain that didn't happen. I found the body. I was watching. He didn't have a chance.'
'Could you find that trailer? Albert thought it was in Shiprock. Isn't that a small place?'
'We found it. The man living in it said his name was Grayson. Said he didn't know any Leroy Gorman.'
'Do you know who Leroy Gorman is?' Shaw asked.
'That's one of the things you were going to tell me.'
'Let me see that identification again.'
Chee dug out his ID folder and handed it to Shaw. Shaw studied it, memorizing the information, Chee guessed. 'I'll make a telephone call,' he said. 'Back in a minute.'
Chee sipped his coffee. Through the window came the sound of traffic, the clamor of an ambulance hurrying somewhere. Wells slid his cup back and forth across his saucer, pushing it with a finger.
'He's a good man, Shaw,' he said. 'Great record. But he's going to screw himself up with this. Mess around until he gets into trouble.'
'Why? Why's he so interested?'
'His friend got killed,' Shaw said. 'Died, actually.' He drained the cup and signaled a waitress for a refill. 'However it was, Shaw thinks they killed him, and they're getting away with it. It drives him crazy.'
'He's not happy with the investigation?'
'There isn't any,' Wells said. He waited for the waitress to finish pouring. 'The man had a coronary. Natural causes. No sign of foul play.'
'Oh.'
Wells's face was moody. 'I've been his partner for four years, and I can tell you he's a dandy. Three commendations. Smart as they get. But he can't seem to turn loose of this Upchurch business.'
'Upchurch. Was he the fbi agent?'
Wells stared at him.
'I heard the fbi lost a man on this case,' Chee explained. 'And they seem to be acting funny.'
