Read The Wailing Wind - Leaphorn & Chee 17 for Free Online Page A

me."
    "No," Leaphorn said. "I was just feeling curious about this homicide. I thought I'd come up and see if I could take a look."
    "I can think of two reasons you might be curious," Dashee said, still grinning.
    "Two?"
    "One is the Bureau blaming Jim Chee's girlfriend for messing up the scene. And one is the Bureau looking for a way to connect this with Wiley Denton killing that con man. Killing McKay. You were always interested in that one."
    "Let's just say I'm like an old retired fireman who can't stay away when something's burning." He was thinking how impossible it was to keep a secret, maintain even a shred of privacy, in the small world of police work. "You're looking well, Cowboy," he said. "I haven't seen you since that
Ute
Mountain
casino robbery business."
    Their chat lasted maybe five minutes, and then Leaphorn walked to the tape, looked at the truck, and said: "Found the body in the front seat. That right?"
    "Curled up on the seat cushion," Dashee said. "Head against the driver-side door, feet the other way. Like sleeping. Hell, I'd have figured it just like Bernie did. Another drunk." He held the tape down so Leaphorn could step easily over it. "In case anybody asks, I said you can't come in without permission from the agent in charge."
    Leaphorn peered through the window, touching nothing. He looked in the truck bed, through the small side window into the passenger cab. Crouched to examine the tire treads and to look under the vehicle with Cowboy trailing along, watching him and talking.
    "Oops," Cowboy said. "I hear my radio," and he was trotting away to his car.
    Leaphorn slipped the tobacco tin from its sack and pushed it into a secluded and weedy corner. That done, he circled the truck, examining the maze of tracks left by ambulance people and the swarm of investigators who followed.
    Then Cowboy was back.
    "They're sending a tow for the truck," Cowboy said, moving back toward the tape. "You finished here? Seen anything interesting?"
    "Not much," Leaphorn said. "I guess you noticed that tobacco tin over there by the brush." He pointed. "I thought maybe it might have fallen out of the truck when the medics were taking the body out. Then it could have got kicked over there."
    Dashee examined Leaphorn a moment. "Where?"
    Leaphorn walked over. Pointed.
    Dashee squatted, peered, looked up at Leaphorn, nodded, and straightened up.
    "Funny the crime scene crew didn't notice that," he said, looking at Leaphorn. "Don't you think?"
    Leaphorn shrugged. "City boys, those agents," Leaphorn said. "Lawyers, accountants. Very good at what they're good at. How good would we be working a mail fraud case in
Washington
?"
    Dashee was rewarding Leaphorn with a broad grin tinged with skepticism and directing him back over the crime scene tape, back toward Leaphorn's pickup, opening the door for him.
    Leaphorn got in, started the engine, then turned it off.
    "You said the Bureau was connecting this case with Wiley Denton killing the con man. Do they think Doherty was trying to work some sort of swindle like McKay?"
    "The Federals don't confide much in us sheriff deputies," Dashee said.
    "But they talk to the deputy's boss when they have to and sheriffs like to share the information."
    Dashee grinned. "I've heard a couple of agents were at
Fort
Wingate
following Doherty's tracks, and they found out he was very interested in the archives out there. And they found Wiley Denton's telephone number in Doherty's notebook."
    Denton 's number. Leaphorn's eyebrows raised.
    "Really? If my memory is good from five years ago, Denton had an unlisted number."
    "He still does," Dashee said.
    Leaphorn let this new information digest for a moment.
    "And those archives he was looking into. The Navajo Nation's?" The Navajo Nation had been using one of the multitude of explosives bunkers at the old fort to store its old records and documents. But why would Doherty have an interest in those? None Leaphorn could think of.
    "No," Cowboy said. "He was