4
TONY HILLERMAN
curity supervisor wanting the colonel arrested, and an airport official, who turned out to be an army survivor of the Korean War, apologizing to the colonel’s wife and giving the Homeland Security pair a loud public lecture on American history. All happy, easy, and good-natured.
But then Sergeant Jim Chee said: “By the way, Lieutenant, Bernie and I have been wondering what got you interested in the Totter obituary. And why you never called us again. We would have been willing to do some more checking on it for you.”
“Well, thanks,” Leaphorn said. “I knew you would do it, but I knew of a fellow living right there in Oklahoma City who sort of volunteered for the job. No use bothering you honeymooners again. By the looks of things, you’ve decided to settle in right here. Right? Great place, here, right on the bank of the San Juan River.” But that effort to change the subject didn’t work.
“What did he find out for you?” Bernie asked.
Leaphorn shrugged. Drained his coffee cup, extended it toward Bernie, suggesting the need for a refill.
“Didn’t amount to anything,” he said. “Great coffee you’re making, Bernie. I bet you didn’t follow Chee’s old formula of ‘too little grounds, boiled too long.’” Chee was grinning at Leaphorn, ignoring the jibe.
“Come on, Lieutenant, quit the stalling. What’d you find out? And what got you so interested in the first place?”
“You’re a married man now,” Leaphorn said, and handed his empty cup to Chee. “Time to learn how to be a good host.”
“No more coffee until you quit stalling,” Chee said.
Leaphorn sighed, thought a bit. “Well,” he said, “it THE SHAPE SHIFTER
5
turned out the obituary was a fake. Mr. Totter hadn’t died in that Oklahoma City hospital, and hadn’t been buried in that Veterans Administration cemetery.” He paused, shrugged.
“Well, go on,” Chee said. “Why the obituary? What’s the story?”
Bernie took the cup from Leaphorn’s hand.
“But don’t tell it until I get back with the refill,” she said. “I want to hear this.”
“Why the fake being dead?” Chee asked. “What happened to Totter?”
Leaphorn pondered. How much of this could he tell?
He imagined Chee and Bernie, under oath on the witness stand, the U.S. District Attorney’s prosecutor reminding them they were under oath, or the penalty of perjury.
“When did you first hear this? Who told you? When did he tell you? After his Navajo Tribal Police retirement, then?
But wasn’t he still a deputized law enforcement officer for about three Arizona and New Mexico counties?”
“Well?” Chee asked.
“I’m waiting for your wife to get back with the coffee,” Leaphorn said. “Being polite. You should learn about that.”
“I’m back,” Bernie said, and handed him his cup. “I’m curious, too. What happened to Mr. Totter?”
“To tell the truth, we don’t really know,” Leaphorn said. And paused. “Not for sure, anyway.” Another thoughtful pause. “Let me rephrase that. To tell the truth, we think we know what happened to Totter, but we never could have proved it.”
Chee, who had been standing, pulled up a chair and sat down. “Hey,” he said. “I’ll bet this is going to be interesting.”
6
TONY HILLERMAN
“Let me get some more cookies,” Bernie said, hopping out of her chair. “Don’t start until I get back.” That gave Leaphorn about two minutes to decide how to handle this.
“Long and complicated story,” he said, “and it may cause you both to think I’ve gone senile. I’ve got to start it way back by reminding you both of our origin stories, about there being so much meanness, greed, and evil in those first three worlds that the Creator destroyed them, and how our First Man brought all that evil up to this fourth world of ours.”
Chee looked puzzled. And impatient. “How can that connect with Totter’s obituary?”
Leaphorn chuckled. “You’ll probably still be wondering about that when I finish this. But while I’m telling you about it, I want you to think about how our Hero Twins killed the evil monster on the Turquoise Mountain, and how they tried to rid this fourth world of ours of all the other evils and also about that name we sometime use for our worst kind of witches. One version translates into English as
“Fits better sometimes,” Chee said. “The last time someone told me about seeing a skinwalker bothering her sheep, she said when she went into the hogan to get her rifle to shoot it, it saw her coming and turned into an owl. Flew away.”
“My mother told me about one,” Bernie said. “It changed from a wolf into some sort of bird.”
“Well, keep that in mind when I tell you about Totter, and so forth,” Leaphorn said.
Chee was grinning.
THE SHAPE SHIFTER
