Sacred Clowns

“Close the door behind you,” the chief said. Leaphorn closed it.

When he came out it was almost thirty minutes later. He climbed the stairs slowly and eased himself into his swivel chair – staring at the radio. How could this have happened? The specifics were obvious – to him if not to Councilman Chester and the chief. Someone had come in, put a tape of that telephone wiretap in his radio tape player, and turned it on. And left it turned on for a while, apparently, because Yazzie’s report said he had heard parts of it at least twice. Once walking down the hall, and once on his return trip. Then, after the notorious broadcast over KNDN up in Kirtland had stirred up an uproar, Yazzie remembered what he had heard. He’d reported it. A check was made and the tape was found, still in Leaphorn’s radio.

The question, of course, was who, and why. Leaphorn hadn’t the faintest idea of how to answer either question. The councilman had no such problem. He knew the answers. Leaphorn was the who, and the why was to destroy the councilman’s reputation. Just why would Leaphorn want to do that? Because the councilman, as chairman of the Justice Committee, had opposed the idea of setting up Leaphorn’s separate Special Investigations Office. And because he suspected Leaphorn was one of the tree huggers fighting the waste dump proposal. And because way back years ago one of Leaphorn’s maternal uncles had lost a grazing-rights dispute with the councilman over in the Checkerboard Reservation. And what was to be done about this misconduct? The councilman wanted Leaphorn charged with illegally tapping his telephone, a third-degree felony. He wanted Leaphorn dismissed from the Navajo Tribal Police for using his office to interfere in the politics of the Navajo Nation.

It ended, as such affairs always seem to end, with an unhappy compromise. The chief would assign Captain Dodge to handle an investigation – to determine exactly what had happened and to collect the evidence needed to prosecute the guilty party.

“Investigation,” Councilman Chester had snorted. “That can drag on forever.”

They had thought about that for a moment, with Leaphorn thinking that Chester, having presided over many of them himself in thirty years on the council, should know.

And so it was decided that Captain Dodge would be given ten days to wrap it up and report.

“And how about him?” the councilman had asked, nodding toward Leaphorn.

The lieutenant, said the chief, would be ordered to cooperate fully with the investigators, to make himself available at all times, to provide all relevant information.

“Come on,” Councilman Chester had said. “Give me a break. He’s one of the top brass around here. What kind of cooperation is Dodge going to get in this department with him looking over everybody’s shoulders?”

“Lieutenant Leaphorn will be off duty until this investigation is completed,” the chief said.

And with that Councilman Jimmy Chester left, slamming the door behind him.

“That mean I’m suspended?” Leaphorn asked. And, of course, that had been exactly what it meant.

He sat now thinking of what this suspension would mean. For one thing, all of this meant he couldn’t follow his instinct to cross-examine everyone in the building. Surely someone would have seen somebody come up here and get into his office. And if they hadn’t, that too would tell him something. But he couldn’t do that now. Captain Dodge would be doing it. Leaphorn wished someone a little brighter had been picked. Why Dodge? He was always reliable. And come to think of it, he was also one of the Towering House Clan. And so was Councilman Chester. Which explained why Chester had seemed moderately satisfied with the deal, and why the chief had picked Dodge.

Where the hell was Chee when he needed him? Leaphorn got up and peered absentmindedly out into the parking lot. No sign of Chee’s always muddy pickup truck. What if Chee had done it? Leaphorn considered that. Chester had labeled Leaphorn a tree hugger, but it was Chee who wanted something done to stop the waste dump, and Chee who wanted this office to go on a corruption hunt. Chee was always in and out of his office, but so were Dodge, and Virginia, and Yazzie, and just about everybody else. Chee had the opportunity. How about motive? Leaphorn considered that.

The young man resented him, that was plain, but Chee also respected him. Liked him, too. And he was way too damned smart to do an illegal wiretap and then be so careless with it. It wouldn’t be Chee. How about Yazzie? Nope. Yazzie was a friend, sort of a protégé, and a member of Emma’s clan. Dodge? Maybe. But only if Councilman Chester had somehow engaged Dodge in some sort of weird conspiracy to discredit Leaphorn. He could think of no possible scenario for that.

And so he dropped it and did what he had been dreading to do. He picked up the telephone, got an outside line, gave the operator his AT amp;T calling card number, and dialed Professor Louisa Bourebonette.

She would understand why he couldn’t go, but she would be disappointed. “I like to travel,” she had told him. “But it can really remind you of your loneliness. When you’re tired, and you’re having trouble with the language, and you’ve gone all day with not a soul to talk to, then it really hits you.”

The telephone in Louisa’s faculty office rang, and rang, and rang. No classes this morning, he remembered. She would be at home. He dialed again, thinking how he would put it. He would want her to know he simply had to cancel until this was over. With even a hint of a criminal investigation aimed at him, he couldn’t leave, and he certainly couldn’t leave the country. But he wouldn’t want her to worry. He’d already done too much to take the fun out of this trip for her.

On the fourth ring, her answering machine kicked in – her pleasant voice telling him to leave a message after the tone. Well, maybe it was better this way.

“Louisa,” he said. “This is Joe. Bad news. I’m sort of suspected of being involved in that Councilman Jimmy Chester telephone tapping thing. The one in the paper where it sounded like Chester was soliciting a bribe. I’m under orders to stay here until it’s cleared up. If it can be cleared up fast I could still make it, but that’s about one chance in a million. So if it doesn’t drag on too long, I’ll try to catch a later flight and join you in Beijing.” But there was no real chance of that, and she would know it.

He paused, searching for something to say, knowing that he wouldn’t be taking a later flight. Things didn’t work out that way with him. “Louisa. I feel terrible about this. I’m really going to miss you.” He paused again. To his surprise, he found himself thinking that he might say a lot more than that. He might say I think I love you, or maybe even I love you. But then the answering machine clicked off.