Shooting Chant Read Free

and recordsthat may help establish the identity of a killer, and the ‘place’ can be this entire facility.”
    “Killer? I thought you said it was suicide.”
    “You said it was suicide, I didn’t,” Ella said.
    “What makes you think it’s murder?”
    “I won’t know for sure until the ME’s report is in, but the evidence is not as open and shut as you think. If you insist on standing in our way, there’s also a littlematter of obstruction of justice you might want to think about.”
    “Look, let’s not get all worked up. I’ll get you Kyle Hansen’s file, if you’ll just sign for it.”
    “No problem.”
    As he left the room, Taylor looked at her, his eyebrows raised. “You learn all that bad cop stuff in the FBI?”
    Ella smiled. “That guy just annoys me,” she replied. “I dislike anyone who tries to tell me how to do myjob.”
    Landreth returned a few minutes later. “Off the record, Hansen was slowly going over the edge. His personal problems kept interfering with business. I would have fired him a long time ago if he hadn’t been so important to our production line.”
    Ella glanced at the employee file Landreth had handed her. “It says here that he was always arguing with his supervisor.”
    “That’s true. I am—was—hissupervisor. I hired him to program the machines that sterilize our products. That’s precise, methodical work and he was an excellent systems designer. But he had mood swings that really interfered with his performance. One call from his ex-wife or her lawyer, and he’d go into a depression that would last for days. Then he’d just sit there like a stone and no one would be able to communicatewith him.”
    “We’ll have to talk to his coworkers. Also, we’ll need to question Jimmie Herder since he found the body,” Ella said.
    “I can’t help you with that at the moment. Jimmie took off shortly after he notified us. We’ve had to call in another one of our security people to man the gate. I’ve tried calling Jimmie’s home several times already just to make sure he’s okay, but no one’s there.”

    Ella knew Jimmie. He was a traditionalist and so was his wife. Ghost sickness was a real fear among many of the Dineh, The People, but it was particularly so with the traditionalists. It was said that the chindi, the evil in a man, remained earthbound after his death and could contaminate the living. Jimmie would have wanted to have an evil-chasing chant done for him and would not have hung around.In all fairness, even a progressive wouldn’t have tempted fate by hanging around a corpse unless it was absolutely necessary.
    “What about that list of his coworkers?” Ella pressed.
    “No, you’ve gotten all you’re going to get from me for now. If your coroner finds that it’s murder, then come back and we’ll see. But until then, I’m finished.” Landreth gave her a hard look. “I’d be risking a lawsuitby giving you anything more and I’m just not willing to do that.”
    “Okay. Just don’t be surprised to see us out in the parking lot tomorrow, stopping people as they come in. I hope that doesn’t make them late for work,” Ella said with a shrug.
    By the time Ella and Taylor left the building, the crime scene team was working the parking lot area, and the medical examiner had arrived.
    Taylor’s handheldradio at his belt crackled and his call sign came over the air. He spoke quickly, then turned back to Ella. “I’m going to have to return to my office. Let me know what else you find out?”
    “You’ve got it.”
    As he drove off, Ella met with Dr. Carolyn Roanhorse, the tribe’s ME, and one of the few medical examiners in New Mexico not assigned to the Office of the Medical Investigators in Albuquerque.Carolyn was a large woman by any standards, but few had the nerve to point it out to her.
    Seeing Ella, Carolyn held up one hand and finished speaking into her tape recorder. After switching it off, she looked up. “You want me to tell