Sacred Clowns

“That’s a government requirement,” Ellie said. “We have to do that. It’s automatic.”

“Could I get a copy?”

“We already made one for the sheriff,” Ellie said. “And for the Farmington cops.”

“How about for me?”

Ellie inspected him, and giggled. “Why not?” she said. “You’ll have to wait a minute.”

While he waited, Chee peered out into the parking lot at his pickup and the other vehicles there. Through the glass at this range he couldn’t read the courteous driving saves lives or the buckle up, it’s the law stickers on his own bumper. He made out the National Rifle Association membership sticker on the adjoining truck only because it was familiar, if Ellie had read the Ernie sticker on the suspect’s truck it must have been printed large. He’d ask about that when she got back, which was at that very moment.

“Here it is,” she said, handing him a cassette. “No charge to a policeman.”

“Thanks,” Chee said. “You remember where the man’s pickup was parked?”

“Right there,” she said, pointing. “The nearest spot.”

“You’re certain about what the bumper sticker said? The report says the truck was muddy. There was dirt on the license plate.”

“Not on the sticker,” Ellie said. “It looked brand-new. And it was great big. The letters, I mean.”

“Well,” Chee said, “thanks a lot.” He handed her two cards, one identifying him as a Navajo Tribal Policeman and giving his office number, the other identifying him as a hataalii and a singer of the Blessing Way and giving the number of the telephone in his trailer. “Home and office,” he explained. “Would you give me a call if you think of anything else? Anything at all that might help me find this guy.”

“The only other thing I can think of that was fu

“Fu

“I don’t mean ha-ha fu

“That was a good thing to notice,” Chee said, smiling at her. “It’s the sort of unusual thing which might help us find him. Can you think of anything else?”

Ellie’s expression said she was trying. She thought of something, considered it, looked doubtful, went back to thinking.

“You thought of something,” Chee said. “What was it?”

She giggled. “I don’t see how this will help. But I remember the fu

“I’ll bet he’d been eating a hamburger,” Chee said. “Maybe a Lottaburger. They have lots of onions.” Which was the reason Chee favored them himself.

“No,” she said. “It was morning. And it was his clothing, I think. Strong enough to make your eyes water.” She was looking at the cards he’d given her. “You’re a hataalii,” she said, looking up at him. “Really? I didn’t know you can be a medicine man and a policeman at the same time.”

“I’m begi

Chapter 16

ON HIS WAY out to his pickup Chee decided his next step would be to check places in Farmington where bumper stickers were printed. Probably he’d find no more than one or two. He’d ask at the city police station and check the telephone book. And when he’d found the one that had printed the ernie is the greatest business he would have another shot at finding the cold-blooded bastard he was looking for. Then he’d complete this investigation. He’d make the arrest. He would impress Lieutenant Leaphorn, sew on his sergeant stripes, and add about five hundred bucks to his monthly income. Then he would be in much better shape to persuade Janet to marry him. In better shape, that is, if the Hunger People Clan didn’t link with one of his own and make her his sister and therefore sexually taboo. And if Janet would forgive him for the clumsy way he’d handled that. If he’d done it as badly as he remembered, that didn’t seem likely. Finally, there was the original question of whether a sophisticated, urbane graduate of Stanford Law School and member of the bar would marry a sheep camp boy turned cop, under any circumstances.

And what if she was a clan sister? What would he do then? Chee didn’t want to think about it. He drove down Main toward the police station deliberately not thinking about it. Instead, he got himself better organized mentally on the Lieutenant Leaphorn front. Leaphorn had made it abundantly clear that his help would not be welcomed by the BIA nor by the Albuquerque FBI in the Sayesva homicide. “Stay away from Tano” was the lieutenant’s final instruction.

And then there was the matter of the Councilman Chester bribery business. He had rushed off without leaving Leaphorn any explanation of that tape he’d left in the tape player on the lieutenant’s desk. Not that much explanation would be needed. It would be clear enough to Leaphorn. Someone had tapped Jimmy Chester’s telephone – or maybe Ed Zeck’s. Ed Zeck was an old-time Indian Country lawyer – a regular lobbyist at tribal council meetings. So you had a tape of Chester du

The Farmington police, it turned out, were way ahead of Chee. Chee was referred to Sergeant Eddie Bell.

“We handled that right after it happened,” Bell said. “There’re seven places in the yellow pages that do printing, and all but two will do bumper stickers if you want a thousand or so, and three of ’em would run off a single if you were willing to pay the preparation cost, and not a damn one of them remembered doing an ernie is the greatest job.”

“Well, hell,” Chee said. “You’d think somebody would remember an odd one like that. It would have to be one of those places that does singles, I’d think.” This concept was new to Chee. He had admired thousands of bumper stickers, from assurances that God loved him, to recommendations for saving the planet, to obscenities, to dire warnings about following too closely. Declarations of red power, and even one that simply said bumper sticker. But he’d never given a thought to where they came from.

“Do they do that?” he asked Bell. “You just walk in and tell them what you want and they print you one?”

“Sure,” Bell said. “Quikprint right down in the next block will run one off for you in five minutes. But it’s pretty expensive that way. Not like so much a thousand. So they don’t do many, and everyone we talked to says they thought they’d remember that ernie is the greatest. It’s sort of weird.”

“I guess he must have got it printed somewhere else,” Chee said.

Sergeant Bell’s expression said he thought that was a statement too obvious to need saying.

“We asked for checks of printers at Albuquerque, and Gallup, and Flagstaff, and Phoenix. So far they all came up blank. But you know how that is.”

“Yeah,” Chee said. People tended to be way too busy to do other people’s work. Or to do it well. He was disappointed and Bell saw it.

“Look. If you’re going to keep working on this sticker business, be careful with it. It’s an easy one to spot. If he finds out we’re watching for it, he’ll scrape it off. And if he doesn’t scrape it off, we’re going to have him sooner or later.”

Now Bell also had said something too obvious to need saying. They were even.