He pushed bird, rabbit and jacket into the eagle cage and secured the door. Then he leaned back against the stone, poured himself the last of the coffee, and inspected the damage to himself. It was minimal—just a single cut across the side of his left hand, where the eagle's beak had caught him.
The eagle extricated itself from his jacket, unlocked its talons from the rabbit, and battled frantically against the stiff metal wires that formed the cage.
"First Eagle," Chee said. "Be calm. Be peaceful. I will treat you with respect." The eagle stopped its struggles and fixed Chee with an unblinking stare. "You will go where all eagles go," Chee said, but he was sad when he said it.
Back at the Tuba City police station, Chee parked in the shade. He brought the eagle cage in and put it beside Claire Dineyahze's desk.
"Wow," Claire said. "He looks mean enough. What's he charged with?"
"Resisting arrest and biting a cop," Chee said, displaying the cut on his hand.
"Ugh. You ought to put some disinfectant on that."
"I will," Chee said. "But first I've got to report this capture to the Federal Bureau of Ineptitude in Phoenix. Could you get 'em for me?"
"Sure." She started dialing. "On line three." He picked up the telephone on the adjoining desk. The receptionist at the FBI office said that Agent Reynald was busy and would he leave a message.
"Tell him it concerns the Benjamin Kinsman case," Chee said. "Tell him it's important." He waited. "Yes," the next voice said. "This is Reynald."
"Jim Chee," Chee said. "I want to tell you we have the other eagle in the Jano case."
"Who?"
"Jano," Chee said. "The Hopi who—"
"I know who Jano is," Reynald snapped. "I mean who is the person I'm talking to."
"Jim Chee. Navajo Tribal Police."
"Oh, yes," Reynald said. "Now what's this about an eagle?"
"We caught him today. Where do you want him delivered for the blood testing?"
"We already have the eagle," Reynald said. "Remember? The arresting officer impounded it when he took the perp into custody. It tested negative. No blood was on it."
"This is the other eagle," Chee said. Silence. "Other eagle?"
"Remember?" Chee said, trying to include in the question the same measure of impatience that Reynald had used when he'd asked it. "The suspect's case will be based in part on his claim that the slash on his arm was caused by a first eagle, which he then released," Chee said, reciting it at about the rate a teacher might read a difficult passage to a remedial class. "Whereupon Jano claims he caught a second eagle, which he contends was the bird the arresting officer impounded. He contends that the blood—"
"I know what he contends," Reynald said, and laughed. "I didn't dream you guys—or anybody, for that matter—was taking that seriously."
While Reynald was enjoying his laugh, Chee signaled Claire to listen and to flick on the recording machine.
"Serious or not," Chee said, "we have the eagle now. When the FBI lab checks it for human blood in the talon grooves or the leg ruff feathers, it's either there or it isn't. That takes care of that."
Reynald chuckled. "I can't believe this," he said. "You mean you fellas actually went out and caught yourself a bird to run through the lab? What's that supposed to prove? The lab finds nothing, so you keep catching eagles until you run out of them, and then you tell the jury Jano must have made it up."
"On the other hand, if Jano's blood—" But Reynald was laughing. "And then the defense attorney will say you missed the one he released. Or, better still, the defense catches one for itself, and they put some of Jano's blood on it and present it as evidence."
"Okay," Chee said. "But I want to be clear about this. How does the Federal Bureau of Investigation want me to dispose of this eagle I have here?"
"Whatever you like," Reynald said. "Just don't dump it on me. I'm allergic to feathers."
"All right then, Agent Reynald," Chee said. "It's been a pleasure working with you."
"Just a second," Reynald said. "What I want you to do with that bird is get rid of it. All it can possibly do is complicate this case, and we don't want it complicated. You understand? Get rid of the damned thing."
"I understand," Chee said. "You're telling me to get rid of the eagle."
"And get to work on what you're supposed to be doing. Are you making any progress finding witnesses who can testify that Jano wanted some revenge on Kinsman? People who can swear he was angry about that original arrest?"
"Not yet," Chee said. "I've been busy trying to catch that first eagle."
That out of the way, Chee called the federal public defender's office and asked for Janet Pete. She was in. "Janet, we have the first eagle."
"Really?" She sounded incredulous.
"At least I'm almost certain it's the right one. A couple of its tail feathers are missing, which matches what Jano told us."
"But how did you get it?"
"The same way Jano did. Used the same blind, in fact. Only the decoy rabbit was different."
"Has it gone to the lab yet? When will we know what they find?"
"It hasn't gone to the lab. Reynald didn't want it."
"He what? He said that? When?"
"I called him just a little while ago. He said what it boiled down to was nobody would believe Jano's story and if we dignified it by checking another eagle for his blood, you'd just say we'd caught the wrong eagle and want us to go out and keep catching them. And so forth."
"The sonofabitch," Janet said. There was silence while she thought about it, "But I guess I can see his logic. A negative find wouldn't help his case. Finding Jano's blood on that bird might hurt it. So it would be either no help or a loss for him."
"Unless he wanted justice."
"Well, I don't think he has any doubt Jano killed Kinsman. You don't, do you?"
"I didn't."
"You do now? Really?"
"I want to know if he's telling the truth."
"You may have to let a jury decide."
"Janet, twist Reynald's arm. Tell him you insist on it Tell him if he won't have the tests done you'll petition the court to order it."
Long silence. "Who caught the eagle? How many people know it's caught?"
"I caught it," Chee said. "Claire Dineyahze has it sitting beside her desk right now. That's it."
"Was there dried blood on the feathers? Anywhere else?"
"Not that I could be sure of," Chee said. "Something dried on its feathers. Tell the bastard if he won't order the lab work you'll get it done yourself."
"Jim, it's not that simple."
"Why not?"
"A lot of reasons. In the first place, I won't even know about the eagle until Reynald tells me. If he doesn't think it has any importance, he won't."
"But there's the evidence disclosure rule. Mickey has to tell the defense attorney what evidence he has."
"Not if it's not important enough for him to use. Mickey will say he didn't even intend to mention the eagle in connection with the blood on Kinsman. The defense can use it if it likes. He'll say he considers it too foolish to require any response."
"All that's probably right. So you tell him that you know the eagle was caught, tell him—"
"And he says, How do you know this? Who told you?"
"And you say a confidential informant."
"Come on, Jim," Janet said impatiently. "Don't sound naive. The federal criminal justice world is small and the acoustics are good. How long do you think it took me to know that Mickey had been warning you about leaking stuff to me? My confidential informant said she got it third-hand, but she said Mickey called it 'pillow talk.' Did he?"
"That's what he called it. But do it anyway."
Chee listened while Janet outlined the sort of trouble this would cause for Acting Lieutenant Jim Chee. True, he wasn't a federal employee, but the links between the U.S. justice system and the Tribal Justice operations were strong, close and often personal. And it meant a headache for her, too. She badly wanted to win this case, at the very least to save Jano from the death penalty. It was her first in this new job and she wanted it to be clean, neat and tidy, not a messy affair with her looking like an inept loose cannon who didn't understand the system. And so forth. And while he listened, Chee knew what he had to do. And how to do it. And that the effects might change the direction of his life.