The First Eagle

wind away from the San Francisco Peaks. 'That's our sacred mountain of the west, you know, made by First Man himself, but—'

'He built it with earth brought up from the Fourth World in the usual version of the myth,' Louisa said. 'But if it 'wasn't that,' then what was it?'

'I was going to tell you that in the stories told out here on the west side of the reservation, some of the clans also call it 'Mother of Clouds.'' He pointed through the windshield. 'You can see why. When there's any humidity, the west winds hit the slopes, rise, the moisture cools with altitude, the clouds form, and the wind drifts them, one after another, out over the desert. Like a cat having a litter of kittens.'

Louisa was smiling at him. 'Mr. Leaphorn, am I to conclude that you don't want to tell me what it was with Miss Pete and Jim Chee if it wasn't another man?'

'I'd just be passing along gossip. That's all I have. Just guesswork and gossip.'

'You don't start something like that with someone and just leave it hanging. Not if you're going to be trapped in the front seat with them all day. They'll nag you. They'll get mad and surly.'

'Well, then,' Leaphorn said, 'maybe I better make up some sort of a story.'

'Do it.'

Leaphorn sipped coffee, handed her the empty cup.

'Miss Pete's half Navajo. On the paternal side. Her dad's dead and her mother's a socialite rich lady. Ivy League type. Janet came out here to work for DNA after quitting a job with some big Washington law firm, which handled tribal legal work. Now we get to the gossipy part.'

'Good,' Louisa said.

'The way the gossips tell it, she and one of the big-shot lawyers were very good friends, and she quit the job because they had a breakup, and she was very, very, very angry with the guy. She was sort of his protegee from way back when he was a professor and she was his law student.'

Leaphorn stopped talking and glanced at Louisa. He found himself thinking how much he had come to like this woman. How comfortable he felt with her. How much more pleasant this drive was because she was there on the seat beside him.

'You enjoying this so far?'

'So far, so good,' she said. 'But I wonder if it's going to have a happy ending.'

'I don't know,' Leaphorn said. '1 doubt it. But anyway. Out here, she and Jim meet because she's defending Navajo suspects and he's arresting them. They get to be friends and—' Leaphorn paused, gave Louisa a doubtful look. 'Now this is about fifthhand. Pure hearsay. Anyway, the gossips had it that what Miss Pete had told Chee about her ex-boss and boyfriend had Jim hating the guy, too. You know, thinking he was a real gold-plated manipulative jerk who had simply used Janet. Understand?'

'Sure,' Louisa said. 'Probably true, too.'

'Understand, it's just gossip.'

'Get on with it,' Louisa said.

'So Chee tells her some of the information he s learned in a case he's working on. It involved a client of her old Washington law firm and her old boyfriend. So she passes it along to her old boyfriend. Jim figures she's betrayed him. She figures he's being unreasonable, that she was just being friendly and helpful. No harm done, she says. Chee's just being jealous. They have an angry row. She moves back to Washington with no more talk of marriage.'

'Oh,' Louisa said. 'And now she's back.'

'It's all just gossip,' Leaphorn said. 'And you didn't get any of it from me.'

'Okay,' Louisa said, and shook her head. 'Poor Mr. Dashee. What did you tell him?'

'I told him I'd talk to Jim the first chance I get. Probably today.' He made a face. 'That won't be so easy either, talking to Chee. I'm his ex-boss and he's sort of touchy with me. And, after all, it's none of my business.'

'Well, it shouldn't be.'

Leaphorn took his eyes off the road long enough to study her expression. 'What do you mean by that?'

'You should have just told Mrs. Vanders you were too busy. Or something like that.' Leaphorn let that pass.

'You're retired, you know. The golden years. Now's the time to travel, do all those things you wanted to do.'

'That's true,' Leaphorn said. 'I could trot down to the senior center and play—whatever they do down there.'

'You're not too old to get into golf.'

'I already did that,' Leaphorn said. 'At a federal law-enforcement seminar in Phoenix. The feds stay at those three-hundred-dollar-a-night resort places with the big golf courses. I went out with some FBI agents and knocked the ball in all eighteen holes. It wasn't hard, but once you've done it, I don't know why you'd want to do it again.'

'You think you're going to like this being a private detective any better?'

Leaphorn smiled at her. 'I think it may be a lot harder to get the hang of than golf,' he said. 'Even the FBI agents mastered golf. They don't have much luck at detecting.'

'You know, Joe, I have a feeling that Mr. Dashee might be right about what Pollard's aunt has in mind. I think the old lady might not really want you to find her niece.'