“Where did Pinto get his hands on them?”
“No idea.” Kennedy looked irritated. “How would we know something like that?”
“Did anybody check on the driver of the car Chee met going to the fire?”
Kennedy shook his head. “I told you it was a sloppy job. But damn it, Joe, why would they check on that? Look what you had there. No big mystery. A drunk gets arrested and kills the policeman. Doesn’t even deny it. What’s to investigate? I know you think we loaf around a lot, but we do have things to do.”
“Did Pinto have his jish with him? You know where that is?”
“Jish?” Kennedy said. “His medicine bundle? I don’t know.”
“He was a shaman. A crystal gazer. If he was on a job, he’d have his crystals with him, and his jish.”
“I’ll find out,” Kennedy said. “Probably he wasn’t working. Left it home.”
“We didn’t find it at his place.”
Kennedy looked at him. “You been out to his place, then.”
The waitress delivered the waffles, which smelled delicious. Leaphorn applied butter, poured on syrup. He was hungry and he hadn’t been hungry much lately. This Ashie Pinto business must be good for him.
Kennedy had hardly looked at his waffle. He was still looking at Leaphorn.
“We?” he said. “You been out searching Pinto’s hogan? Who’s we?”
“Pinto’s niece,” Leaphorn said. “And a woman named Bourebonette. A professor at Northern Arizona University. You guys turn up anything about her?”
“Bourebonette? No. Why would we? How would she fit into this?”
“That’s what bothers me,” Leaphorn said. “She says Pinto was one of her sources for myths, legends, so forth. That’s her field. Mythology. She says she’s into it because he’s a friend. Just that.”
Kennedy peered at him. “You sound like you have trouble believing that.”
Leaphorn shrugged. “Sophisticated, urbane university professor. Old illiterate Navajo. And she’s going to a hell of a lot of trouble.”
“You’re getting even worse with age,” Kennedy said. “Emma used to make you a little more human.” He buttered his waffle. “Okay, then. What do you think motivates the woman?”
Leaphorn shrugged again. “Maybe she’s working on a book. Needs more out of him to finish it off.”
“She could get to him in prison. They’re not going to put somebody like that in solitary. Not even for killing a policeman.”
“I don’t know then. What do you think?”
“Why not just believe she’s nuts? Likes the old bastard. She’s doing it for humanitarian reasons. You actually went all the way out there and searched the old man’s hogan?”
“I didn’t search. No warrant.”
“You’re getting serious about this, aren’t you?” Kennedy said. “You think there’s something more to it than just Pinto being drunk and killing your man?”
“No,” Leaphorn said. “I’m just curious.” The waffle was wonderful. He chewed a second bite, swallowed, sipped his coffee. “Have you found that car that Chee saw? The old white Jeepster?”
“Didn’t we already cover that? You asked me about the driver.”
“And I noticed how you didn’t exactly answer. You just sort of nodded, and said it had been sloppy work, and then did your little sermon about why waste time on a made case.” Leaphorn was grinning at him. “When the Bureau dumps you I hope you don’t get into playing poker for a profession.”
Kennedy made a wry face. He chewed for a while.
“It took you longer to get to it than I expected,” Kennedy said. “But you never fail to get there. Right to the touchy spot.”
“Touchy?”
“How much do you know about the car?”
“Nothing,” Leaphorn said. “Just what was in the report. Chee saw an old white Jeepster coming from the direction of the crime, turning on a gravel road toward Ship Rock. Chee thought it belonged to an Oriental who teaches at the high school. There was nothing in the report about checking on that car.”
“They found it,” Kennedy said. He eyed Leaphorn. “This is one of those ‘you don’t remember where you heard it’ times.”
“Sure,” Leaphorn said.
“The car belonged to a man named Huan Ji. He teaches math at Ship Rock High School. Just been there four years. No way he’d have anything to do with this crime. He couldn’t have known Pinto or Nez.”
Leaphorn waited for more. Kennedy sipped the last of his coffee, signaled the pretty Zuni girl who was their waitress.
“Ready for a refill,” he said, indicating his cup.
Kennedy had said all he wanted to say about Juan Gee and the car. Why?
“What was this Gee doing way out there in the rain?” Leaphorn asked. “What did he see? What did he tell you?”
