Land of Echoes

51

So good of you to come all this way to see me," Donny said. His grin was self-satisfied.

"Well, Saturday's your day here. And I sure as heck wasn't driving to Albuquerque at your summons." Julieta's voice stayed level, casual, but she couldn't keep the scorn out of it.

They were on the hill overlooking the mine headquarters, where they'd had their first run-in with Donny. Joyce had joined Julieta and Cree for the ten-mile ride, wearing a cowboy hat again and managing Breeze with the confidence of an old hand. Donny had come up in a company Jeep, accompanied by Nick Stephanovic, who now lounged against the hood thirty feet away. Below, mine operations were in full swing, the machines grinding away, the boom of the distant dragline swinging ponderously. A light plane droned in a slow arc across the cloudless sky to the west.

Saturday afternoon, clear and windless and warm. Five people feigning calm while the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife.

"You sure you want to discuss business with these people here?" Donny said.

"Oh, I think we can trust them."

"Suit yourself. So-I understand you just lost one of your core staff members." Donny's world-weary eyes gloated.

"Lynn Pierce, yes. I had to let her go. But I understand she has a nice position waiting at McCarty Energy."

"Well, we go back a ways," Donny said. "And I'm a big believer in rewarding loyalty. She's a damned good nurse, too. As it happens, we need medical personnel right here in Hunters Point."

"Let's get to it, Donny. I believe you were planning to threaten me?"

"That's an unfortunate way to phrase it. I'd say I wanted to make a trade. Things I know for things you know."

"What do you know?"

"I know you have a boy who's sick and that you're treating it as a supernatural issue. I know Dr. Black is here to exorcise him. I know a medical professional formerly employed at your school who'll testify to how you've handled the situation and who'll be glad to go to the newspapers to make sure the scandal gets good exposure. If that doesn't work, I've got three hundred and seventy-four Navajo employees, which puts me in a great position to informally relay this news to the Navajo community." Donny paused to pull a scrap of paper from his shirt pocket. "And I have the names and phone numbers of some people named, let's see… MacPherson, in Boston, and an outfit called the Osbourne Trust, and a couple of other philanthropic types known to give money to a certain local school. All of whom, I'm sure, would be very interested. I'd think our keeping quiet would be worth quite a bit to you."

Donny was obviously having a blast. Back at the Jeep, Nick chuckled to himself. Under the circumstances, Cree thought, Julieta was doing a remarkable job of keeping her cool.

"What do you want from me?" Julieta asked through her teeth. "Trade for what?"

"Sending Dr. Black and her friends packing, and then shutting up about whatever the hell you think you know. And then staying out of my hair."

Julieta got a faraway look as she thought about that. After a moment, she turned to Nick. "Hey, Nicko. Did you know that Donny once propositioned me? This was about two years after I divorced his father. I still laugh about it."

"The price is going up, Julieta," Donny said darkly. "Better make a deal now."

Nick eased himself off the Jeep and idled over to stand near Donny. He rolled his shoulders and looked around, enjoying the nice weather.

Joyce had said nothing so far, but now she handed her reins to Cree, slipped off her horse, and stood across from the big man. She'd admitted to Cree that she was hankering for some confrontation with him. Now she looked a little bored, preoccupied with one of her fingernails. Cree knew the signs and they made her nervous. The little airplane snoozed back across the western horizon.

Julieta backed Spence away a couple of steps. "Here's the deal, Donny. What I know is, your father shot Peter Yellowhorse in early November 1986. Garrett's dead and can't get punished. But Nick was the one who finished Peter off by burying him in the ravine near the school. He drove my Jeep to the top of the mesa and pushed rocks over the edge. You helped them, Donny, and you helped conceal the crime."

Donny's jaw dropped. He made a dry croak, shot a glance at Nick. Nick hadn't moved, but his pretense of calm was gone in an instant.

"This is bullshit. Where do you come up with this stuff? Your psychic friend here?"

"We exhumed the bones," Julieta lied. "We identified the remains. His belt buckle was there. It's very distinctive-made by one of his uncles."

"You'll never prove what happened," Nick said.

"Then why were you so worried that you came back to check the ravine Tuesday night?"

That got under Nick's skin. He began to move toward Julieta, but Joyce interposed herself. She didn't look so bored now. She was less than half his weight and came up to his armpit, and Nick looked at her incredulously.

"There's nothing, Nick," Donny cautioned. "Not after sixteen years. She's bluffing us."

"Then there's the in situ uranium plant," Julieta went on. "You're under court injunction not to start building it. But you've been going ahead anyway, over on Area Eighteen. You could get hit for millions in fines and have to tear it all down."

Donny chuckled. "There's no plant. There's no construction. And if you've trespassed on my land to find out different, it's illegally gained information and inadmissible. Fruit of the poisoned tree and all that."

Julieta raised her hand to point to the west. "Yeah, but your airspace is public. Overflight's perfectly legal. And that little Cessna that's been circling for the last half hour? Dr. Edgar Mayfield, Dr. Black's associate, hired it from Gallup. He's up there with a good camera and telephoto lens. He's an engineer and a physicist. Knows what to look for."

Donny whirled to look at the little plane, buzzing sleepily through another slow circle in the distance. Nick looked to him for instructions, but Donny appeared speechless.

"One more thing, Donny. Your source at school is lying. There's no sick boy, and there's no exorcist. There's a consulting clinical psychologist from Seattle, and there's a kid who's fully recovered from a temporary illness. That's all a matter of record. If I hear any suggestion you're spreading rumors to the contrary, I'll have you in court so fast your head will spin."

"What do you want, Julieta?" Donny croaked.

"I want a charitable donation to my school for a million dollars. I want construction on the in situ plant stopped and whatever's there dismantled. And I want Nick turned in to the police with a confession. Afterward, I leave you alone and you leave me alone."

"Not a chance," Donny said derisively. But his expression was anything but confident. He was making that gulping movement in his throat again.

"Fine. We'll see how it shakes out." Julieta brought Spence around and made ready to leave.

"Nick, stop her horse! I need a minute to think this through."

Nick took a step and reached for Spence's bridle, but it was a mistake to take his eyes off Joyce. Cree had seen her use the move in tae kwon do competition: She leapt up, lithe body spinning as her left leg slashed in a savage backward arc. The heel of her boot hit the side of Nick's head with an awful sound. He dropped like a sack of potatoes.

Joyce landed like a ballerina and went to look down at him. Flat on his back, he goggled up at her, eyes wide, mouth moving soundlessly.

Joyce gave him a lascivious smile and asked, "Oh, honey! Was that as good for you as it was for me?"

She turned disdainfully away, took Breeze's reins, boosted herself into the saddle. The three of them urged the horses away.

When Cree glanced back, Nick was still trying to get up. Donny didn't look too happy.

"Sorry," Joyce said ten minutes later. "I couldn't resist." The encounter had put her in a good humor. Cree shook her head, unable to suppress a smile.

Julieta didn't share the mood. She rode with her head tipped down, shoulders slumped. "It's all a bluff, of course. I don't want to exhume Peter's bones, I want to leave him be. And I can't let anyone know about his murder, or about my past, it'll only hurt the school. And you're right, Joyce, after all these years there wouldn't be any evidence to implicate Nick or Donny. Donny's smart enough to figure all that out. He might stop construction on the in situ plant, but he'll never stop hassling me. They'll never have to pay for killing Peter." She rode on and added quietly, "And I don't need the past coming back anymore. I don't want an ongoing feud with Donny. I just want a new life. I have a chance to do things right now. I've already waited long enough."

Cree had no answer. She was glad Julieta saw her own path in the right way. But it was so wrong for them to go unpunished. She felt Julieta's despondency come over her.

They rode in silence for a few minutes.

"You know," Joyce said to no one in particular, "I learned some interesting things while I was out poking around. A lot of stuff on the McCartys and their mines, and some fascinating stuff about Navajo traditions. One of the old ceremonies is called… what was it, something like Turning the Basket. It's used if the patient's suffering is inflicted by someone else, like a bad person or a witch. The medicine man turns the evil back on the person who sent it. Rebounds it. It cures the sick person and punishes the wrongdoer in one swell foop. Kind of got me thinking." Maybe it was just the lingering endorphin high from her demolition of Nick Stephanovic, but her small sharklike grin never wavered.

Julieta nodded distractedly. Cree thought about whether such a ceremony might be of symbolic value for Tommy. But he'd been put through a lot of curing, an endless month of fuss and bother. Sometimes you had to let it go, Cree thought. Sometimes justice took the long way around, just like love. Sometimes peace of mind meant relinquishing things. It seemed intolerable to let Nick and Donny get by without consequences, but there wasn't anything anyone could do about it.

Joyce looked over at her thoughtfully, seemed about to say more, but then clammed up for the rest of the ride.