“OK,” Cowboy said. “We’ll just wait.”
They leaned against Cowboy’s patrol car.
“Why didn’t you tell him you were the one who put up the tape?” Chee asked.
“Just being nice,” Cowboy said. “You ought to try that. The feds respond well to kindness.”
Chee let that one pass into a long silence, which he broke with a question.
“Have you heard how the Bureau got the perps identified? I know they announced it to the press, which means they’re sure of ’em. So first I thought they’d found the inside man and got him to talk. This Teddy Bai guy they were holding at the hospital. Do you know if they got him to talk?”
“All I know is fourth-hand,” Cowboy said. “I heard your old boss did it. Got the names for them.”
“Old boss?”
“Joe Leaphorn,” Dashee said. “The Legendary Lieutenant Leaphorn. Who else?”
“Be damned,” Chee said. “How the devil could that have happened?” But he noticed that he wasn’t really surprised.
“They said the sheriff got a call from some old friend from Aneth, or someplace like that—a former county cop named Potts. This Potts said Leaphorn came to his house and asked him about three men and then how to find this Jorie guy’s place. Hour or so later Leaphorn calls the cops from Jorie’s house and tells them Jorie’s killed himself. That’s all I know.”
“Be damned,” Chee said again. “How in hell does -'
“How long did you work for him?” Cowboy asked. “Three, four years?”
“Seemed longer,” Chee said.
“So you know he’s smart,” Cowboy said. “Logical, thinks things out.”
“Yeah,” Chee said, sounding grumpy. “Everything fits into a pattern for him. Every effect has its cause. I told you about his map, didn’t I? Full of different colored pins marking different sort of things. He’d stick ’em in there marking off travel times, confluences, so forth. Looking for a pattern.”
Chee paused, struck by a sudden thought. “Or lack of one,” he added.
Cowboy looked at him. “Like what do you mean?”
“Like I just thought of something that doesn’t fit here. Remember, you told me this truck abandoned here was an oversized cab job, right? And you found two sets of footprints around it. And three was the number of guys seen in the robbery.”
“Right,” Cowboy said. “So where’s that leading?”
“So how did this Jorie get from here to his home up in Utah?”
Silence while Cowboy considered that. He sighed. “I don’t know. How about they dropped him off at his house before they got here. Or how about he actually got out of the truck here, but he was very careful where he stepped.”
“You think that’s possible?”
“No. Not really. I’m pretty good at finding tracks.”
The door of the communications van opened, and the tech leaned out.
“Cabot called in,” he shouted. “Says you guys can take off now. He wants you back here in the morning. About daylight.”
Dashee waved good-bye. The communications tech returned to his reading. Chee said, “Does this somehow remind you of our Great Manhunt of 1998?”
Dashee backed his car up to the track, turned it in the direction of the wandering road that would take them back to pavement.
“Hold it a minute,” Chee said. “Let’s sit here a little while where we can see the lay of the land and think about this.”
“Think?” Dashee said. “You’re not an acting lieutenant anymore. That thinking can get you in trouble.“ But he pulled the car off the track and turned off the ignition.
They sat. After a while Dashee said, “What are you thinking about? I’m thinking about how early we have to hit the floor tomorrow to get up by daylight. How about you?”
“I’m thinking this started out looking like a well-planned operation. Everything was timed out precisely.' Chee looked at Dashee, meshed his fingers together. “Perfect precision,” he said. “You agree.”
