Part 9 (2/2)

”Hey,” said Chee, ”I'd like to hear about that.”

”As I understand it, the recorded facts are that a civilian quartermaster employee at Fort Wingate, a man named Theodore Mott, was sent with four soldiers to deliver some supplies to the camp where they were building Fort Defiance. The soldiers were detached to join the cavalry unit at Defiance. Mott came back alone and resigned from his job. There's paperwork for that much in the army records. The interesting part is just talk about him finding a gold deposit on his trip.”

Louisa paused. Bernie leaned forward again. Chee said: ”Go ahead. This is going to be the interesting part.”

”The legend is that Mott came back with a sack of placer gold. Several thousand dollars worth of it, very big money those days. He's supposed to have told a tale of having to detour going to Fort Defiance to avoid a band of Navajos who looked hostile. It was early summer after a wet winter-and the snowy winter is also recorded. They did an overnight camp in a canyon carrying runoff water. Mott did some placer mining with a frying pan and liked what he saw in the sand. On the way back, alone now, he stopped again and-the way he told it-collected the sack of gold between sundown and dark and the higher he got up the canyon, the richer the sand. When he awakened the next morning, six Navajos were standing around him. He said their leader was a shaman and while none of the Navajos could speak English, he knew enough Navajo words to know the shaman was telling him this canyon was a sacred place and being there for him was taboo, and if he came back again they would kill him.”

The waiter was hovering, waiting to hand them their menus and to take their drink orders. Louisa paused while the group did their duty.

Bernie leaned forward, opened her mouth, said: ”I'd like to know-”

”Yes,” said Chee. ”What happened next? Did he leave?”

”There's a sort of vague reference in Fort Wingate military records of Mott asking a military escort for a project, and the request being denied. But apparently he got three other men to join him and they left with pack animals, telling people they were going to be prospecting down in the Zuni Mountains. Later one of the men came back to Wingate. He left a bunch of letters Mott had written to people at the fort to be mailed, and, according to the story, he turned in a substantial amount of placer gold at the a.s.sayer's office, and bought supplies, and headed out again.” She threw up her hands. ”That's the end of it. No one ever saw Mott or any of his partners again.”

”Sounds a little like the story about the Lost Adams diggings,” Leaphorn said.

”Killed by us savages,” Chee said.

Bernie said: ”I'd like to hear more about that tobacco tin.”

Chee said: ”Ah, well ...”

Silence ensued.

Leaphorn cleared his throat.

”It seems a tobacco tin had been taken from the site where Mr. Doherty's body was found,” said Leaphorn. ”Later the officer in charge discovered the sand in this can contained a bit of placer gold and reported it. Sergeant Chee asked me to help devise a way to get it back where it had been and make sure the Federal Bureau of Investigation folks would find it there.” He paused, glanced nervously at Bernie, cleared his throat. ”That was accomplished. No harm done. No big deal.”

Silence descended again on the table.

”I've always enjoyed this drive up here from Gallup,” Louisa said. ”When we pa.s.s that old volcanic throat east of the highway, Joe always tells me stories about it being a meeting place for skinwalkers. Where they held their initiation ceremonies.”

”She's a very patient lady,” Leaphorn said, nodding to Louisa. ”I think she should have those tales memorized by now.”

”I've heard a few of them myself,” said Chee, happy to join the rush away from the tobacco-can debacle. ”In fact, I may have made up a few of my own.”

The waiter appeared and delivered four coffees, then took their food orders.

”Well, Lieutenant,” said Chee, rus.h.i.+ng in to keep the conversation away from tobacco tins and bruised feelings, ”you said you're trying to find if there's a connection between the Doherty case and McKay. I can think of the placer gold link. And then Doherty having Denton's unlisted telephone number. But I think you were aware of both of those.”

”I'd heard,” Leaphorn said. ”I guess that's what got me interested to start with. And now I should let you know where I stand. Denton asked me to do some work for him. He wants me to see if I can find out what happened to his wife. Find her, if she's findable.”

Chee looked surprised. ”You think that's possible? After all this time? I've heard two theories about Mrs. Denton. One is she's dead, and the other is she doesn't want to be found.”

”I couldn't give him any hope. And I told him I wouldn't even try if he didn't lay everything out for me. But I've always wondered what happened to that woman.”

”Has he 'laid everything out'?”

Leaphorn laughed. ”Well, no. He seems to have misled me about what McKay was trying to sell him, for one thing. And he seems to have been lying a little about what was going on when he shot the man.”

”Like how?”

”About the sale deal? Well-” Leaphorn reached into his inside jacket pocket and extracted a roll of paper and unrolled it on the table, exposing two maps.

”Maps,” Chee said, grinning. ”Why am I not the least bit surprised?”

”Well,” said Leaphorn, sounding slightly defensive, ”this whole business has been about maps, hasn't it?”

”Right,” Chee said. ”Sorry.”

”McKay told Denton the location of this so-called Golden Calf dig was on this map-about here.” With his fork, Leaphorn indicated a place on the southeast slope of the Zuni Mountains.

”Denton told me he knew it couldn't possibly be there. Said he personally knows the geology of that area. Had walked all over it. So he ordered McKay out. They quarreled, McKay pulled a pistol out of his jacket pocket, picked up his briefcase and the bag of money Denton had ready to pay him, and said he was leaving with both. As this was happening Denton got his own pistol out of his desk drawer and shot McKay. That's Denton's story.”

Chee nodded. ”That sounds like what came out of the sentencing hearing.”

”Right,” Leaphorn said. ”But that's not the map McKay had locked in his briefcase when the cops came to look at his body. And the part about McKay pulling the pistol out of his jacket pocket doesn't work. Big, fat revolver, little jacket pockets. And he didn't have the jacket on when Denton shot him. No holes in it, no blood, and it was hanging over the back of a chair.”

Leaphorn expanded his summary with the details of his exploration of the evidence basket and his conversation with Price. During all this, Officer Manuelito was leaning forward, studying the second of Leaphorn's maps. Leaphorn caught her eye.

”I believe this is where Mr. Doherty was shot,” she said. ”I think this is where the gold came from that was in that Prince Albert tin.”

”I think you're right,” Leaphorn said. ”At least about the first part. But maybe McKay had collected it there. Not Doherty.”

Bernie was looking at Chee, her expression odd, but for Leaphorn unreadable.

”Do you know which deputy found it?” Bernie asked.

”Price didn't say,” Leaphorn said.

Chee, who had been studying the Mesa de los Lobos map, felt an urge to get off the tobacco-tin subject fast.

”Speaking of that McKay evidence basket,” Chee said, ”Osborne told me that Doherty may have also taken a business card out of it with a number written on it. He asked me if that number had any meaning to me. It didn't, except maybe the 'D' referred to Denton. How about the rest of you? It was 'D2187.'”

”End of the Denton telephone number, license plate, Social Security number?” said Bernie.

No one else had a suggestion.

”Much more important,” Chee said: ”Officer Manuelito here”-he acknowledged Bernie with a smile- ”has pretty well established that this Coyote Canyon drainage off Mesa de los Lobos is where Doherty was shot. Doherty had worked that fire in there during that bad season a couple of years ago-part of one of the BLM fire crews. The fire burned out the brush and uncovered an old mining sluice. Bernie found his tracks in there and a place where he seems to have dug some sand out of the sluice. And while she was in there, somebody shot at her.”

”Shot at you?” said Leaphorn.

”Oh! Oh!” said Professor Bourbonette. ”Tried to shoot you!”

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