“You saw Shaw today?” Chee sounded as much shocked as surprised.
“Sure,” Leaphorn said. “I showed him the photographs. After all, I spent his money getting them.”
“What’d he think?”
“He acted disappointed. Probably was. He’d like to be able to prove that Hal was dead about a week or so before he signed that register.”
Chee nodded.
“There’s a problem with your second theory, too.”
“What?”
“I was talking with Demott on the telephone September twenty-fourth. Twice, in fact.”
“You remember that? After eleven years?”
“No. I keep a case diary. I looked it up.”
“Mobile phone, maybe?”
“No. I called him at the ranch. Elisa didn’t remember the license number on the Land-Rover. I called him about the middle of the morning and he gave me the number. Then I called him again in the afternoon to make sure Breedlove hadn’t checked in. And to find out if he’d had any other calls. Anything worthwhile.”
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“Well, hell,” Chee said. “Then I guess we’re left with Breedlove climbing up there alone, or with Shaw, and then taking the suicidal shortcut down.”
Leaphorn’s expression suggested he didn’t agree with that conclusion, but he didn’t comment on it directly.
“It also means I’m going to have to run down all these people who climbed up there in the next ten years and find out if any of them got off with a long piece of that climbing rope.”
“Not necessarily,” Leaphorn said. “You’re forgetting our Fallen Man business is still not a crime. It’s a missing person case solved by the discovery of an accidental death.”
“Yeah,” Chee said, doubtful.
“It makes me glad I’m a civilian these days.”
The wind gusted, rattling sand against the aluminum side of Chee’s home, whistling around its aluminum cracks and corners.
“So does the weather,” Leaphorn said. “Everybody in uniform is going to be working overtime and getting frostbite this week.” Chee pointed to Leaphorn’s plate. “Want some more?”
“I’m full. Probably ate too much. And I took too much of your time.” He got up, retrieved his hat.
“I’m going to leave you these pictures,” he said. “Rosebrough has the negatives. He’s a lawyer. An agent of the court. They’ll stand up as evidence if it comes to that.”
“You mean if anyone gets up there and steals the ledger?”
“It’s a thought,” Leaphorn said. “What are you going to do tomorrow?” Chee had worked for Leaphorn long enough for this question to produce a familiar uneasy feeling. “Why?”
“If I go up to the ranch tomorrow and show Demott and Elisa these pictures and ask her what she thinks about them, and ask her who was trying to climb that mountain on that September eighteenth date, then I think I could be accused of tampering with a witness.”
“Witness to what? Officially there’s no crime yet,” Chee reminded him.
“Don’t you think there will be one? Presuming we’re smart enough to get this sorted out.”
“You mean not counting Maryboy and me? Yeah. I guess so. But you could probably get away with talking to Elisa until the official connection is made. Now you’re just a representative of the family lawyer. Perfectly legit.”
“But why would Demott or the widow want to talk to a representative of the family’s lawyer?” Chee nodded, conceding the point.
“And I think there’s something else I should be doing.”
Chee let his stare ask the question.
“Old Amos Nez trusts me,” Leaphorn said, and paused to consider it. “Well, more or less. I want to show him this evidence that Hal climbed Ship Rock just one week after he left the canyon and tell him about Maryboy being murdered, and ask him if Hal said anything about trying to climb Ship Rock just before he came to the canyon. Things like that.”
“That could wait,” Chee said, thinking of his aching ribs and the long painful drive up into Colorado.
“Maybe it could wait,” Leaphorn said. “But you know the other afternoon you decided Hosteen Maryboy couldn’t wait and you rushed right out there to see if he could identify those climbers for you. And you were right. Turned out it couldn’t wait.”
“Ah,” Chee said. “But I’m not clear on what makes Amos Nez so important. You think Breedlove might have told him something?”
