The Shape Shifter Part 18

Tommy felt Delonie's neck, looked thoughtful. Tried again. "Feel nothing here," he said. Then he bent over Delonie's face, close, then closer. Sat up, shook his head. "Feel no air coming out. Don't hear anything either."

"All right," Delos said. "Now pull back his jacket and his shirt and take a look at where that second shot got him."

Tommy did as told. He looked back at Delos, held up one hand to display blood on it, and then stood, faced Delos, and put his other hand high on his right-side rib cage. "It hit him right about here," he said. "Bleeding right there. And I think broken rib bone. Maybe two."

"Good," Delos said. "Now you sit there and watch Mr. Delonie. Carefully, I mean, because sometimes people aren't quite as dead as they seem to be. Now I'm going to ask the lieutenant some questions, and I want you to listen. You let me know if he's not being honest with me."

Tommy nodded and sank into a yoga-like position, legs folded under him.

Leaphorn, aware of how his own tired legs were aching, was thinking how comfortable Tommy looked. He felt totally exhausted. Hard day yesterday, almost no sleep, then the long drive, and now this. And he was supposed to be retired. Instead he was standing here like a fool, dizzy with fatigue. Making it worse, he had nothing to blame but his own foolishness.

Delos waved his pistol.

"Lieutenant Leaphorn, I want you now to sit down on the ground and then stretch your legs out in front of you. I want to interview you, and I don't want either of us to be distracted by your deciding you want to try to get the jump on me. Understand that?"

"Clear enough," Leaphorn said. He eased himself down on the thickest patch of gra.s.s and weeds available, leaned back, and stretched out his legs. It felt good, but as Delos intended, it left him with no chance of getting up in a rush. Overhead he noticed the sunrise had turned the strips of fog clouds over the mountain ridges a brilliant scarlet. Almost morning. And the birds knew it. He could hear robins chirping and the odd sound mountain grouse make when seasons are changing.

"First, I'll explain the rules. Very simply. If I see any hint you're just killing time, stalling, playing a game with me, or if I see any hint you're about to do something reckless, then I will shoot you in the leg. You understand?"

"Yes," Leaphorn said, "clear enough."

Delos was grinning at him. "I will let you pick the leg. Which one would you prefer?"

"Take your pick."

"Good," Delos said. "I'll shoot the left one first. Above the knee."

Leaphorn nodded.

"First question," Delos said. "How did Tommy make his connection with you? I want to know what prompted that to happen."

Leaphorn considered that. How much did he want Delos to know? Was Tommy going to remain loyal to Delos, as Delos seemed to think? Was he right in concluding that Delos intended to kill him, and Delonie, and Tommy Vang, too? Vang? Why else prepare that little grave? Vang was the only visitor Delos had been expecting.

"You sort of arranged that yourself," Leaphorn said. "Sending Tommy over to my home in Shiprock to see if he could recapture that specially prepared cherry you'd given me for my lunch."

That provoked a long, thoughtful pause.

"That was the way I told him to behave," Delos said. "Did he just walk right in and ask you for it?"

Leaphorn laughed. "No, he was careful. He waited until he knew I was gone, and then until he saw this professor friend of mine who lives there, too, drive away. Then he got into my garage, but the professor had forgotten something, and she came back and saw him coming out of the garage. She asked him what he was doing. He said he was looking for me, and she told him he could find me at Crownpoint. So he came to Crownpoint to find me."

"Tommy," Delos said, "Is that the way it happened? It sounds like you were being pretty careless."

"Oh, I tried to be careful," Tommy said, sounding penitent. "But bad luck. Both times bad luck. At Crownpoint I found the lieutenant's truck in the parking lot. I found the lunch sack, too, but he saw me getting it."

"You blamed bad luck twice, Tommy. Remember how I tried to teach you about that? We don't give luck any chance to be bad. And I don't want to hear any more of that kind of excuse from you. Now tell me how you let this all happen." He waved his pistol in a circle, bringing in both Delonie and Leaphorn in the sweep. "You were told to come here alone, just to bring me a report."

"Lieutenant Leaphorn, he told me-"

Leaphorn interrupted him.

"You're going to have to take the blame for that yourself, Mr. Delos, for several reasons."

"Oh, now. This is what I've been waiting to hear. If one doesn't understand his mistakes, one is likely to be doomed to repeat them." Delos was smiling down at Leaphorn, pistol pointing directly at him now.

Leaphorn shifted his legs, making them more comfortable and getting them in a slightly better position to move fast if the opportunity to do anything ever developed. At the moment, that didn't seem likely. Even if something happened to distract Delos-maybe a mountain lion trotting by, or a minor earthquake-Leaphorn hadn't come up with any sensible idea of what he could do. The only plan he had seemed pretty hopeless. When Delos had ordered him to sit down, he'd noticed a promising-looking stone, about the size of an apple. When he was lowering himself to the ground, he'd carefully covered the rock with his hands. Finally, when Delos was looking at Tommy, Leaphorn had pulled it closer. Now he had it gripped in his palm. Fairly good throwing size, if he ever had a chance. And if he did get the chance, maybe about one in a million odds that he could hit Delos with it before Delos shot him. But better than nothing.

"Crownpoint," Delos said. "That seems to be where you sort of added Tommy to your team, or tried to, if I have this figured right. How did Tommy do that?"

"Actually you get credit for that, too," Leaphorn said.

Delos stared at him. "Explain."

"That old, obsolete map you gave him. The roads have been rerouted some in the years since that thing was drawn."

"So why did Tommy tell you where he was going?"

Leaphorn glanced over at Tommy, who was staring at him and looking very tense.

"You know," Leaphorn said, "I think we should skip all the way back to the beginning where all this started. That's where you made your first mistake."

"The beginning? Where do you think that would be, Lieutenant?"

"I know where it was for me," Leaphorn said. "It was when you stole those two five-gallon cans of pinyon sap from Grandma Peshlakai."

Delos was frowning. "Are you going all the way back to that fire at the trading post? How does that-" He stopped. "You're stalling, Lieutenant. Remember what I promised you I'd do." He aimed the pistol. "Was it the left leg you chose?"

"If you don't believe that was a mistake, let me tell you another one. This one more serious." Leaphorn stopped, grinning at Delos, trying desperately to think of some Delos error he could come up with.

"Make it fast, then," Delos said. "I am losing-"

Delonie emitted a sort of choking groan, and moved one of his legs.

The Delos pistol swerved from Leaphorn to Delonie. He aimed it, carefully.

Then he raised the gun and focused on Tommy Vang.

"It seems your diagnosis of Mr. Delonie's health was far too pessimistic, Tommy. And now you'll have an opportunity to correct it."

"I think his arm is hurting him," Vang said. "The bone is broken. I think-"

"Stop thinking, Tommy. Pick up the rifle there. Now you have a chance to demonstrate that you are-just as I always tried to teach you-that you are good enough material to become one of the predator cla.s.s."

"Oh," Tommy said.

"Pick it up," Delos said.

Tommy picked up the 30-30, looked at it, looked at Delonie.

"Make sure it's loaded," Delos said.

"It is loaded."

"Now remember what I taught you. When something has to be done, don't hesitate thinking about it, simply decide the best way to do it and get it done immediately. Here, for example, where do you shoot Mr. Delonie to save him from his pain, and you from your problem? I would suggest the center of his chest. But it is your choice. You pick your place."

Vang raised the rifle, swung it past Delonie's body, and shot Delos in the chest.

Then, as Delos staggered backward, he shot him again.

22.

The first step now for Leaphorn was to deal with Tommy Vang, who was standing at the edge of the porch, rifle dangling from his right hand, as pale and wan as his brown skin would allow, and looking totally stricken. Leaphorn stepped off the porch floor, took the rifle, tossed it away, and hugged him.

"Tommy, Tommy," he said. "You did exactly what you had to do. You saved our lives. Saved not just Mr. Delonie, but me and yourself. He was going to kill us all. You saw that, didn't you."

"I guess Mr. Delos is dead," Tommy said. "Did I kill Mr. Delos?"

"He is dead," Leaphorn said, and hugged Tommy again. "We thank you for that."

"I didn't want to shoot anyone," Tommy mumbled. "Not even Mr. Delos."

"Well, don't feel bad about it," Leaphorn said. "We are very proud of you. Mr. Delonie and I."

"But now...now what I do? What do I do?"

"First, you'll help me get Mr. Delonie into the house there, and then we will bandage his arm and put a splint on it, and see about getting him some medical attention. Then we'll think about that."

Getting Delonie into the house was no problem. As Delos had suspected, Delonie was not nearly as badly hurt as he'd been pretending. He stepped onto the porch, cushioning his broken arm with his good one, grimacing, and pausing a moment to look down at Delos.

"Well, Shewnack, you dirty son of a b.i.t.c.h, you finally got what you deserve," he said. He prodded Delos's shoulder with his foot, went into the cabin, and the cleanup work began.

Vang dashed back to the truck to get the first-aid kit Delos always kept in its glove box, and Leaphorn peeled off Delonie's jacket and his b.l.o.o.d.y shirt. The cabin had been supplied to meet the needs of tired and dirty hunters. Leaphorn filled a pan with water from the twenty-gallon tank labeled FOR COOKING FOR COOKING, which stood beside the stove, got towels from a cabinet drawer, ordered Delonie to sit by the table, and started carefully washing away the dried blood from the entry and exit holes the bullet had made about three inches below his elbow. By the time he'd finished that-with Delonie watching, expression grim and teeth gritted-the water was steaming and Vang was back with the kit.

"Here something for the pain," Vang said, holding up a paper package and a small bottle, "and here is something to kill off the germs."

"Hand me the bottle," Delonie said. He glanced at it, said, "Wrong kind of alcohol," and laid it on the table.

"Ah," Vang said. "I look in the cabinets. I go find the whiskey."

Leaphorn used the contents of the small bottle on Delonie's wounds, both arm and chest, and then applied the prescribed salves to the proper places. Vang handed Delonie a large brown bottle, cap already removed.

"Tommy, Tommy," Delonie said, with a huge smile, "If you decide not to go home to your Hmong mountains now, you can move right in with me. This is Black Label Johnny Walker you just handed me. Just what the doctor ordered." He raised the bottle, admired it, tilted his head back, and took in a large mouthful. Then another. Sighed. And smiled again.

Vang was watching this, looking forlorn.

"Better I go home to my Hmong people. But I guess there's no way to do that now." He sighed. "I guess there never was. I guess I just never did get smart enough to know that."

Delonie, who had been watching Leaphorn wrapping strips of torn toweling around his arm splint, was studying Tommy now.

"There's a way you can go back, if that's what you want," he said. "Just collect some of all that money Delos owes you, and get yourself a ticket."

Vang stared, looking baffled.

"Go out there on the porch right now and see if the b.a.s.t.a.r.d has a wallet in his hip pocket. Or in his jacket. Fish it out and bring it in here. I figure he owes you about twenty-five years' wages. He won't have that much on him, probably, but let's see what he has."

Tommy was shaking his head. "I wouldn't do that. Not take the wallet from Mr. Delos. I don't do that."

Delonie said nothing to that. Neither did Leaphorn, who was securing the last strip around Delonie's arm. Leaphorn was wondering what Delonie was thinking. Leaphorn was thinking of what he had here. A dead victim of a homicide, done deliberately but in self-defense. A victim of an attempted homicide. Two witnesses to the homicide, and two witnesses to the attempted homicide, one of them the perpetrator of this whole mess. And himself, a sworn officer of the law, more or less retired but still carrying deputy badges.

"Well," Leaphorn said to Delonie, "I guess that's as good as I can get you fixed. Any ideas of what-"

Delonie stood up abruptly and walked out the door onto the porch, rolled Delos's corpse enough to feel the hip pocket, then felt through the jacket pockets. Finally he extracted a large leather wallet. He brought it back into the cabin.

"Here we are, Tommy. Let's see what your employer left for you."

He slipped an a.s.sortment of bills out of the wallet onto the tabletop and separated them into piles while Tommy watched.

"Here you have five one hundreds," Delonie said, tapping the money. "And here you have nine fifties, and here are four twenties, and five tens, and an a.s.sortment of fives and ones. You do the arithmetic for me, but I'll bet it would be right at a thousand dollars, maybe a little more."

Tommy Vang was separating the bills, counting. "I say it would be one thousand one hundred and ninety-three dollars," Tommy told them.

"Enough to fly you to where you find your Hmong family, you think? Maybe not. But you could p.a.w.n that expensive rifle Delos was carrying. That would bring a couple of hundred more, at least."

Tommy considered that, standing rigid, rubbing his hands against the side of his trouser legs, worried, deep in thought.

Leaphorn was also thinking. Homicide charge, attempted homicide, armed robbery now. What else? What could he be charged with? Aiding and abetting about everything, he guessed. The list for him would be less violent but quite a bit longer when the attorneys got involved. But why worry about it now?

"If you're ready to move, we better tidy up here some and get going," Leaphorn said.

"What about Mr. Delos," Tommy said. "We leave him?"

"I think Mr. Delos deserves a decent burial," Delonie said. "He dug a nice little grave out there for you, Tommy. I think we should let him use it."

Leaphorn had been thinking the same thing. "Better than just leaving him out for the coyotes and the ravens," he said. "We could say a little prayer over him."

"I don't think he would have cared about that," Tommy Vang said.

They slid Delos off the porch, Tommy carrying his legs, Leaphorn holding his shoulders, sat him beside the grave, and slid him sideways into it. The body lay on its right side, legs folded. Delonie picked up the shovel, handed it to Leaphorn.

"I think we should let Mr. Delos take his luggage with him," Leaphorn said.

"Oh," Delonie said. And laughed. "I guess we wouldn't want the ranch cleanup crew to worry about his driving off and leaving all his stuff behind. That would cause a lot of trouble." He secured the shovel and handed it to Leaphorn. "Tommy, why don't you look around in there and bring out his bag, or his shaving stuff, or whatever he brought with him. Want to leave the place tidy."