The First Eagle

"No one was in it?"

Jano glanced at Janet. She nodded.

"No."

"Did you see Officer Kinsman's car driving in?"

Jano glanced at Janet. "What's the purpose of that question?"

"I want to find out if the Jeep was still there when Kinsman arrived." Janet thought about it. "Okay."

"I saw him coming in, yes. And the Jeep was still there."

Chee looked at Janet. "So," he said, "if Pollard was the Jeep driver, she was in the vicinity when Kinsman was killed."

"Injured," Janet said. "But yes, she was."

"I intend to ask your client to just re-create what he saw and heard and did that morning," Chee said.

She thought. "Go ahead. We'll see."

Jano said he arrived about dawn, parked his pickup, unloaded his eagle cage with the rabbit in it that he'd brought along as bait and climbed the saddle to the rim of the butte. He heard an engine sound, watched and saw the Jeep arriving, but he couldn't see who got out of it because of where it had been parked. He had settled himself into the blind and put the rabbit, secured with a cord on the brush, on top of it. Then he had waited about an hour. The eagle came circling over, in its hunting pattern. It saw the rabbit, dived, and caught it. He had caught the eagle by one leg and its tail. It had slashed his forearm with its other talon. "Then I turned the eagle loose and—"

"Just a second," Chee said. "You had the eagle in the cage when I arrested you. The cage was beside the rocks, just a few feet away. Remember?"

"That was the second eagle," Jano said. "You're saying you caught an eagle, released it and then caught a second one?"

"Yes," Jano said. "Will you tell me why you released the first one?"

Jano looked at Janet.

"No, he won't," she said.

"He'll be asked at the trial," Chee said.

"If it goes to trial, he will say his reason involves religious beliefs that he is not free to discuss outside his kiva. He may say that two of its tail feathers were pulled out in the struggle, eliminating its ritual use. And then, if I have to do it, I will call in an authority on the Hopi religion who will also explain why a eagle thus stained by bloody violence could not be used in the role assigned to it in this religious ceremonial."

"Okay," Chee said. "Please continue, Mr. Jano. What happened next?"

"I took the rabbit and walked maybe two miles down the rim of the butte to where another eagle has its hunting ground, got into the blind there and waited. Then the eagle you saw came for the rabbit and I caught it."

Jano stopped, looked at Chee as if waiting for an argument and then went on.

"This time I was more careful." He smiled and displayed his forearm. "No injury this time."

Jano said he had seen the Navajo Tribal Police car driving up the trail while he was carrying the eagle down the saddle toward his truck. He said he'd hidden behind an outcrop of rock for a while, hoping the policeman would leave, and then had crept down the rest of the way, thinking he had not been seen.

"Then I heard a loud voice. I think it was the policeman. I heard him several times. And then—" Chee held up his hand. "Hold it there. Did you hear a response from the person he was talking to?"

"I just heard that one voice," Kinsman said.

"A man's voice?"

"Yes. It sounded like he was giving orders to someone."

"Orders? What do you mean?"

"Yelling. Like he was arresting someone. You know. Ordering them around."

"Could you tell where the voices were coming from?"

"Just one voice," Jano said. "From about over where I found Mr. Kinsman."

"I want you to skip back a little," Chee said. "When you were climbing down the saddle, was the Jeep still parked where you first saw it parked?"

Jano nodded, then looked at the microphone and said: "Yes, the Jeep was still there."

"Okay. Then what did you do when you heard the voice?"

"I hid behind a juniper for a while, just listening. I could hear what sounded like walking. You know, boots on rocky ground and sort of coming in my direction. Then I heard a voice saying something. And then I heard a sort of a thumping sound."

Jano paused, looking at Chee. "I think it might have been Mr. Kinsman being hit on the head with something. And then there was a clatter."

Jano paused again, pursed his lips, seemed to be remembering the moment.

"Then what?" Chee asked. "I just waited there behind the juniper. And after it was silent awhile, I went to look. And there was Mr. Kinsman on the ground, with the blood running out of his head." He shrugged. "Then you walked up and pointed your gun at me."

"Did you recognize Kinsman?"

Janet Pete said: "Hold it. Hold it." She frowned at Chee. "What are you trying to do, Jim? Establish malice?"

"The D.A. will establish that Kinsman had arrested Mr. Jano before," Chee said. "I wasn't trying anything tricky."

"Maybe not," she said. "But this looks like a good place to cut this off."

"Just one more question," Chee said. "Did you see anyone else when you were there? Anyone at all? Or anything? Going in, or coming out, or anything?"

"I saw a bunch of goats over on the other side of the saddle," Jano said. "Lot of trees over there. I couldn't tell for sure. But maybe there was somebody with them."

"Okay," Janet said. "Mr. Jano and I have some things to talk about. Good-bye, Jim."

Chee stood, took a step toward the door, turned back. "Just one more thing," he said. "I found a blind at the rim of Yells Back where you may have caught an eagle." He described the location and the blind. "Is that right?"

Jano looked at Janet, who looked at Chee. She nodded.

"Yes," Jano said.

"The first eagle, or the second one?"

"The second one."

"Where did you catch the first eagle?"

Jano didn't glance at Janet this time for permission to answer. He sat, eyes on Chee, looking thoughtful.

He won't tell me, Chee thought, because there was only one eagle, or he won't tell me because he isn't willing to reveal the location of another of his kiva's hidden hunting blinds.

Janet cleared her throat, rose. "I'm going to cut this off," she said. "I think—"

Jano held up a hand. "Stand there on the rim at the top of the saddle. Look directly at Humphrey's Peak in the San Franciscos. Walk straight toward it. About two miles you come to the rim again. It's a place there where a slab tilted down and left a gap."

"Thank you," Chee said.

Jano smiled at him. "I think you know eagles," he said.

Chapter Twenty

LEAPHORN AWOKE IN A SILENT HOUSE, with the early sun shining on his face. He had built their house in Window Rock with their bedroom window facing the rising sun because that pleased Emma. Therefore, both the sun and the emptiness were familiar. Louisa had left a note on the kitchen table, which began: "Push ON button on the coffeemaker," and went on to outline the availability of various foods for breakfast and concluded on a more personal note. "I have errands to run before class. Good hunting.

Please call and let me know what luck you're having. I enjoyed yesterday. A LOT. Louisa." Leaphorn pushed the on button, dropped bread into the toaster, got out a plate, cup, knife and the butter dish. Then he went to the telephone, began dialing Mrs. Vanders's number in Santa Fe, then hung up. First he would call Chee. Perhaps that would give him something to tell Mrs. Vanders besides that he had nothing at all to tell her.

"He hasn't arrived yet, Lieutenant Leaphorn," the station secretary said. "Do you want his home number?"

"It's 'Just call me mister' now," Leaphorn said. "And thanks, but I have it."

"Wait a minute. Here he comes now."

Leaphorn waited.

"I was just going to call you," Chee said. "We found the Jeep." He gave Leaphorn the details.

"You said the tire tracks showed the sand was still wet when it got there?"