A Thief of Time

species,' his thesis chairman liked to say. 'To understand how we came to behave the way we do.' But finally it had seemed to Leaphorn he could understand this better among the living. It was the spring he'd met Emma. When the semester ended in May he'd left Arizona State and his graduate fellowship and his intentions of becoming Dr. Leaphorn, and joined the recruit class of the Navajo Tribal Police. And he and Emmaa?S

Leaphorn noticed Chee watching him. He cleared his throat. Sipped coffee.

'Did you have any clear idea of what she was excited about?' Leaphorn asked. 'I mean just before she disappeared. We know she drove over to Bluff and talked to a man over there named Houk. Man who sometimes deals in pots. She asked him about a pot she'd seen advertised in an auction catalog. Wanted to know where it came from. Houk told us she was very intense about it. He told her how to get the documentation letter. Did she say why she was going to New York?'

'Not to me, she didn't,' Mrs. Luna said.

'Or why she was excited?'

'I know some more of those polychrome pots had turned up. Several, I think. Same potter. Some identical and some with a more mature style. Later work. And it turned out they came from somewhere else -- away from the Chaco. She thought she could prove her potter had migrated.'

'Did you know Ellie had a pistol?'

Luna and his wife spoke simultaneously. 'I didn't,' she said. Luna said: 'It doesn't surprise me. I'd guess Maxie has one, too. For snakes,' he added, and laughed. 'Actually it's for safety.'

'Do you know if she ever hired Jimmy Etcitty to find pots for her?'

'Boy, that was a shock,' Luna said. 'He hadn't worked here long. Less than a year. But he was a good hand. And a good man.'

'And he didn't mind digging around graves.'

'He was a Christian,' Luna said. 'A fundamentalist born-again Christian. No more chindi. But no, I doubt if he worked for Ellie. Hadn't heard of it.'

'Had you ever heard he might be a Navajo Wolf?' Leaphorn asked. 'Into any kind of witchcraft. Being a skinwalker?'

Luna looked surprised. And so, Leaphorn noticed, did Jim Chee. Not at the question, Leaphorn guessed. That fooling around with the bones they'd found at the ruins would suggest witchcraft to anyone who knew the Navajo tradition of skinwalkers robbing graves for bones to grind into corpse powder. But Chee would be surprised at Leaphorn's thinking. Leaphorn was aware that his contempt for the Navajo witchcraft business was widely known throughout the department. Chee, certainly, was aware of it. They had worked together in the past.

'Well,' Luna said. 'Not exactly. But the other men who worked here didn't have much to do with him. Maybe that was because he was willing to dig around the burials. Had given up the traditional ways. But they gossiped about him. Not to me but among themselves. And I sort of sensed they were wary of him.'

'Davis told me Lehman came. The man she had the appointment with.'

'Her project supervisor?'

&#8220Yeah.'

'Did he say what the meeting was about?'

'She'd told him she had one more piece of evidence to get and then she'd be ready to publish. And she wanted to show it all to him and talk it over. He stuck around the next day and then drove back to Albuquerque.'

'I'll get his address from you,' Leaphorn said. 'Did he have any idea what that one piece of evidence was?'

'He thought she'd probably found some more pots. Ones that fit. He said she was supposed to have them when they met.'

Leaphorn thought about that. He noticed Chee had marked it, too. It seemed to mean that when Ellie left Chaco it was to pick up those final pots.

'Would Maxie Davis or Elliot be likely to know any more about all this?'

Mrs. Luna answered that one. 'Maxie, maybe. She and Ellie were friends.' She considered that statement, found it too strong. 'Sort of friends. At least they'd known each other for years. I don't think they'd ever worked together -- as Maxie and Elliot sometimes do. Teamed.'

'Teamed,' Leaphorn said.

Mrs. Luna looked embarrassed. 'Sue,' she said. 'Allen. Don't you two have any homework? Tomorrow is a school day.'

'Not me,' Allen said. 'I did mine on the bus.'

'Me either,' Sue said. 'This is interesting.'

'They're friends,' Mrs. Luna said, looking at Sue, but meaning Maxie and Elliot.

'When Mr. Thatcher and I talked to them it seemed pretty obvious that Elliot wanted it that way,' Leaphorn said. 'I wasn't so sure about Miss Davis.'

'Elliot wants to get married,' Mrs. Luna said. 'Maxie doesn't.'

She glanced at her children again, and at Luna.

'Kids,' Luna said. 'Sue, you better see about your horse. And Allen, find something to do.'

They pushed back their chairs. 'Nice to have met you,' Allen said, nodding to Leaphorn and to Chee.

'Great children,' Leaphorn said, as they disappeared down the hallway. 'They ride the bus? To where?'

'Crownpoint,' Mrs. Luna said.