'I doubt it,' Leaphorn said. 'I want to show the list to Krause and see if he notices anything funny. Something missing that should be there. That sort of thing.'
'Did you locate Mrs. Notah?'
'No. I found some of her goats. Somebody's goats, anyway. But she wasn't around. After I waste some of Krause's time this morning, I think I'll go there and look again. See if she can add anything to what she told McGinnis about the skinwalker who looked like a snowman. Did the FBI pick up that eagle?'
'They didn't want it,' Chee said, and told Leaphorn what Reynald had said without mentioning taping the call.
'I'm not too surprised,' Leaphorn said. 'But you can't blame the people. I've known a lot of good agents. It's the system you get with political police. I'll let you know if Mrs. Notah saw anything useful.'
The next two calls were routine business. When call number four arrived, Claire didn't just buzz him. She waved and wrote FBI in the air with her finger.
Chee took a long breath, picked up the telephone, said, 'Jim Chee.'
'This is Reynald. Do you still have that eagle?'
'It's here,' Chee said. 'What do—'
'Agent Evans is en route to pick it up,' Reynald said. 'He'll be there about noon. Be there, because he'll need you to sign a form.'
'What are you—' Chee began, but Reynald had hung up.
Chee leaned back in his chair. One question was now answered, he thought. Janet had told Reynald she knew about the eagle, prodding him into action, or she had told J. D. Mickey, who had told Reynald how to react. That solved the first part of the problem. The FBI would have the lab test the eagle. He would know sooner or later whether Jano had lied. That left the second question. How had Janet used the club he'd handed her?
In the periods between his bad dreams the night before, he had worked out three scenarios for Janet. In the first, she would simply stand aside, as she had suggested she would, and see what happened. If nothing happened, when he appeared on the witness stand as Jano's arresting officer, she would lead him to the eagle during cross- examination.
'Lieutenant Chee,' she would say, 'is it true that you were told by Mr. Jano that he had caught a second eagle after the first one slashed his arm, and that you made an attempt to recapture that first eagle?' To which he would have to say: 'Yes.'
'Did you capture it?'
'Yes.'
'Did you then take the eagle to the laboratory at Northern Arizona University and arrange for an examination to be made to determine if it had Mr. Jano's blood on its talons or feathers?'
'Yes.'
'And what did that report show?'
The answer to that, of course, would depend on the laboratory report.
He could now rule out that scenario. She hadn't stood aside. She had intervened. But how? In scenario two, the one for which he ardently longed, Janet went to one of the key federals, told him she had reason to believe the first eagle had been caught and demanded to see the results of the blood testing. Mickey or Reynald, or both, would evade, deny, argue that her request was ridiculous, imply that she was ruining her career in the Department of Justice if she was too stupid to understand that, demand to know the source of this erroneous leak, and so forth. Janet would bravely stand her ground, threaten court action or a leak to the press. And he would love her for her courage and know that he was wrong in not trusting her.
In scenario three, the cause of the previous night's bad dreams, Janet went to Mickey, told Mickey that he had a problem—that Lieutenant Jim Chee had gone out and captured an eagle that he insisted was the same eagle her client would testify had slashed his arm and he had then released. She would recommend that he take custody of said eagle and have tests done to determine if Jano's blood was on it. Whereupon Mickey would tell her to just relax and let the FBI handle collection of evidence in its routine manner. Then Janet would say the FBI had decided against checking the eagle. And Mickey would ask her if Reynald had told her that. And she'd say no. And he'd say how did you find out then. And she would say Lieutenant Chee had told her. And he'd say Chee was misleading her, trying to cause trouble. And about there Janet would realize that she had already caused career-blighting trouble in Mickey's mind and the only way that could be fixed was by using Chee's secret weapon. She would then pledge Mickey to secrecy. She would let him know that in telling Chee he wouldn't get the eagle tested, Reynald had carelessly allowed his telephone conversation to be taped and that on that tape Agent Reynald could be heard imprudently ordering Leaphorn to get rid of the eagle and thus the evidence.
What would this prove? He knew, but he didn't want to admit it or think about it. And he wouldn't have to until Agent Evans arrived to pick up the bird. And not even then, if Evans's conduct didn't somehow tip him off.
Edgar Evans arrived at eleven minutes before noon. Through his open office door Chee watched him come in, watched Claire point him to the eagle cage in the corner behind her, watched her point him to Chee's office.
'Come in,' Chee said. 'Have a seat.'
'I'll need you to sign this,' Evans said, and handed Chee a triplicate form. 'It certifies that you transferred evidence to me. And I give you this form, which certifies that I received it.'
'This makes it awful hard for anything to get lost,' Chee said. 'Do you always do this?'
Evans stared at Chee. 'No,' he said. 'Not often.'
Chee signed the paper.
'You need to be careful with that bird,' he said. 'It's vicious and that beak is like a knife. I have a blanket out in the car you can put over it to keep it quiet.'
Evans didn't comment.
