Bad Medicine (33 page)

Ella gave her a surprised look, but Carolyn shook her head. As Howard and the nurses were packing things up, Ella pulled Carolyn
into a hallway. “It’s still early to be calling it a day. People could still be coming in.”

“I’ve been ordered to return to the hospital and bring the team in with me. Pending an investigation, I’m restricted to my job as an M.E. The theory is—I can’t kill the dead.”

*   *   *

As Carolyn and her medical team drove away, Clifford came to speak with Ella. “I saw nothing unusual, little sister,
though I sensed there was danger near.”

“Same here. Let’s see if there’s a rash of illnesses showing up in a few days. That’s all we can do for now.”

“Where did your friend go?”

“She’s been ordered back to the hospital and won’t be doing any more fieldwork.”

Ella gave Julian a hug, then walked to her own vehicle. As she drove back, she heard something shuffling on the floor. The sound was
annoying, and she finally pulled over.

As Ella leaned to search the floorboards for whatever was making the sound, she remembered what it must be. She’d picked up her rubber-banded stack of mail earlier at the station, and taken it with her to read later. It must have fallen off the seat.

Picking the packet of mail up, she looked through the stack quickly and found a letter she wished she’d
seen earlier. It was stamped and canceled, with that bar code mark post offices were using nowadays. There was no return address, but that wasn’t what stopped her heart. Her name and address were written in a handwriting style identical to Randall Clah’s.

Carefully opening the envelope by the edges, she recognized a familiar signature. She read the note, careful not to handle it except on the
edges in the hope that the person passing himself off as Randall had grown careless and left a print.

The message was brief:

The Death Doctor has evil secrets she keeps

even from her best friend.

Randall

Ella’s hands began to shake. The post date on the envelope said it had been mailed only yesterday. Knowing the implications would create even more problems for Carolyn, she placed the note
and envelope into an evidence pouch, then locked it in the glove compartment. For now, it would stay there.

NINETEEN

When Ella entered the police station later that afternoon, people were talking in hushed tones and hurrying about. Something had happened.

Justine called out to Ella as she went past the lab doorway.

Ella noted her assistant’s sober expression. “What happened here?”

“There was more trouble at the mine. Billy Pete and Tony Prentiss started a fight. We had to send five units over there
before we could restore order.”

“Neither of those two guys is that physically imposing. Why didn’t the miners or the supervisors separate them?”

“They tried. The way I heard it, people who came to split them apart would end up becoming part of the fight. It looked like a major league baseball game after a batter got hit with a pitch. Everybody was in a pile, rolling around on the ground.”

“Were Pete and Prentiss hauled in?”

“No. After all that, the mine decided not to press charges. If everybody involved had been arrested, they’d have lost most of two shifts. They just docked everyone a day’s pay and sent the ones whose shift had finished home. I went over there myself to see if I could help out and, I’ve got to tell you, things are getting out of hand.”

“Did you find out what
triggered the fight?”

“The fight, if you can believe Raymond Nez, was started by Prentiss. Billy apparently had been saying that the Navajo workers should get together and run out any Anglo who showed support for either The Brotherhood or their views. Prentiss accused Billy of trying to find excuses to get rid of all the Anglos.”

“And that started the fight?”

“No. Then Senator Yellowhair showed
up. He came to tour the power plant and get some cooperation from both sides for a change. He was obviously out to counter some of the bad publicity he’d been getting. Unfortunately for him, trouble broke out among the workers who’d gathered for a look at him. He was suggesting that both factions ‘set up a constructive dialogue’ when Prentiss made some comment to Billy. Before long, it was a
free for all. The senator’s aides spirited him away. They didn’t want voters associating him with a disturbance like that.”

“I’ll bet you the senator finds a way to convince the press he’s all but sainted.”

“Good guess. He gave a speech just a short time ago at the hospital, drawing attention to another hot topic. Since the threat of meningitis still exists, he’s calling for all tribal resources
to be readied. He knows that many of the traditionalists will resist getting shots, so he’s asking that
hataaliis
be compensated by the tribe for doing Sings to protect those in affected areas who choose the Navajo Way. He says he wants The People to be safeguarded regardless of which path they choose to follow.”

“Smart cookie. He’s covering all the bases.”

“He also made some calls to the governor’s
office and got two medical teams on loan from the state. They’ll be going out to assist the tribe with the inoculation clinics.”

“It’s a great idea; I just wish I could believe his motives were pure. What a man,” Ella added sarcastically. Ella had barely entered her office before the phone started ringing. It was Carolyn and she sounded scared.

“They’re going to search my home and those of my
team members. I need your help.”

Ella dropped down into her chair. “If the officers don’t have a properly executed search warrant, you don’t have to consent.”

“There’s no search warrant, and the searchers aren’t police officers, they’re bureaucrats from the hospital. This is Yellowhair’s doing. He put pressure on the hospital administrator, and now he’s demanding that we consent to having our
homes searched for contaminants or microbes that might be causing the illnesses at the sites. Everyone else in my team has already consented. If I say no, it’s not going to help matters, but I have the awful feeling I’m being set up again.”

“Insist that we both be present when they search your home.”

“Okay. Will you come right away?”

“I’ll meet you at your trailer. Don’t allow them to go in
until I’m there.”

Ella hurried out of her office and went to see Big Ed. His eyebrows rose as she explained the situation.

“What are you going to do? You’re no lawyer.”

“No, but I can make sure that nothing is planted there while they’re searching. I figure I can say it’s a professional courtesy, since Carolyn is this department’s M.E. Or I can say that I want to make sure no legal evidence
is compromised in the search. Which do you prefer?”

“Neither. Let Justine go.”

“I have to be there, too. Someone’s playing games, not just the senator with his grandstanding.” She told him about the latest note that had been mailed to her. “That conveniently arrived in my office just before this hit the fan. It screams of a setup, don’t you see?”

He nodded slowly. “Did you turn the envelope
and note in for the FBI to go over?”

“Not yet.”

“Don’t screw around with this. Cover yourself every step of the way. Unless you do, they’ll take you down and you’ll burn right along with Dr. Roanhorse.”

“Is that what you think is going to happen to Carolyn?”

He steepled his fingers and regarded her with a pensive frown. “I think things are going to get a lot worse before they get better, I’ll
tell you that.”

Ella stopped at Justine’s office and asked that she follow her to Carolyn’s using her own vehicle.

As Ella drove, her thoughts were racing. Someone was out to destroy Carolyn. Had this happened at another time, she would have done her best to concentrate exclusively on that case, but right now too many other things were demanding her attention—life or death issues. Manpower in
the department was stretched to the limit. Torn between friendship and duty, she felt her heart breaking into pieces.

Ella headed north, past the graffiti-covered mesa the gang kids had spray-painted recently, then turned west onto the dirt track that led to Carolyn’s home. The road rapidly became nothing more than a stretch of vehicle trodden sage and desert shrubs. Carolyn’s small trailer was
sheltered from the elements by a low, juniper-covered hill. It was a rocky, canyon-ridden location, beautiful but not hospitable enough to appeal to anyone interested in raising melons or sheep.

But here, Carolyn had privacy, and no one to make her feel badly about what she did for a living. Ella understood Carolyn’s reason, though she would have given anything if she could have made things different
for her friend.

Two hospital administrators were standing next to the trailer as she and Justine pulled up. Both Navajo men were dressed in western-cut slacks, boots, and bolo ties, with matching bellies protruding over their tooled leather belts. One wore a heavy, silver-inlaid bracelet containing his wristwatch; the other wore no jewelry except for a massive turquoise ring.

Carolyn was sitting
in a chair in the shade cast by the green canvas awning of her trailer home, waiting. She stood up as Ella approached.

“Thanks for coming.” She glanced at Justine, and nodded.

“My name is Andrew Slowman,” the eldest of the two said, coming forward. “I’m the Medical Center’s chief administrator. This is my associate, Lonnie Hoskie. I really fail to see why your presence was necessary. This is
an informal search, not a police matter. We’re simply acting on behalf of the hospital.”

“We all know you’re here because an influential official has suggested such a search could yield evidence of a criminal nature. That’s why we’re here,” Justine said. “We want to make sure any evidence you find holds up. What are you searching for anyway?”

“Anything from the hospital that shouldn’t be here.
Medical equipment or supplies, hospital records, things like that. But we’ll be conducting the search. You’ll just be in our way,” Hoskie said.

“Tough. If this really is an informal search, done with the consent of Dr. Roanhorse, you’re not going to be making up any rules about how it’s done. It will be done by the book and the police will be present because that’s the way Dr. Roanhorse wants
it,” Ella said, nodding to Carolyn.

Ella followed the men inside. As she glanced around she felt her heart sink. Some of the things here were not going to endear Carolyn to traditional Navajos, or even more fundamental Christians. She saw Lonnie Hoskie pick up a Ouija board from a shelf and look at it with obvious distaste. Ella shut her eyes and opened them again. She knew that Carolyn had kept
the board as a memento from her college days, but she doubted that Hoskie was into nostalgia.

Hoskie turned around and gave Carolyn a long look. “Interesting tastes, Doctor.”

“Her tastes are her own,” Ella said, in quiet warning. “You probably just flip a coin to make
your
decisions. Respect her privacy. You’re not here to pass judgment on her recreational material, but to search for potential
contaminants.”

Hoskie’s face hardened, and he moved off to search a desk.

Andrew Slowman entered the bedroom, Justine at his heels. Ella positioned herself between the two rooms, watching both men. If it had been her searching, she would have checked the refrigerator first for biological agents. These two were obviously just businessmen on a fishing expedition, not scientists or experienced
investigators.

Slowman went to the nightstand and opened the drawer. Nothing seemed to interest him there, so he went to the closet. He lowered several shoe boxes that cluttered the top shelf, and put them down on the bed.

As he opened each, Ella realized that Carolyn seemed to store everything but shoes inside the shoe boxes. Check registers, old photos, and product warranties occupied the
boxes. One box, however, actually did contain a pair of white sneakers. Giving up, he moved to the small writing desk and began to search the top drawer. He pulled out a worn tarot deck, then held it up to Ella. “I don’t think we’d find many of these on our land.”

“I’ve never counted. Have you?”

He shrugged, then returned to the kitchen where he finally looked inside the refrigerator and cupboards.
The man must have finally remembered what he was supposed to be looking for. Hoskie was in the living room searching the bookcase, removing books and shaking them out one by one. As he took a handful of medical texts down from the shelf, he uncovered a pack of syringes in the space behind them.

Hoskie stopped, books still in hand, and glanced back at Slowman, who had just entered the room.

Slowman came over and took the pack down from the shelf, examining them closely. “These medical supplies must have come from the hospital. It’s a brand we purchase.”

“You can also find them in any doctor’s office for a thousand miles. But, for the record, I didn’t put them there,” Carolyn said. “There’s also nothing around here to inject. Think about it and you’ll see it makes no sense. If I had
stolen the syringes, would I have gone to the trouble of hiding them? I didn’t know you were planning to search my place today, and you arrived here the same time I did. Had I been worried in general terms about them being found, I’d have put them some place other than my home. I have eight years of medical school training beyond college. I’m not stupid.”

Slowman nodded. “Yes, that all makes
sense, but the fact is they’re here. How
do
you explain it?”

“Besides the obvious, that someone’s out to frame me?” she countered waspishly. “Face it. I don’t have to steal syringes like those. I could have written myself a prescription. Do you think I can’t afford it on my salary? It’s no munificent sum, that’s true, but look around, I don’t have big expenses.”

“That doesn’t explain their presence
here.”

“Oh, for cripes sakes! I just told you that I can’t explain their presence because I didn’t bring them here. What part of ‘I didn’t do it’ don’t you understand?”

Ella stepped in front of her friend. When Carolyn got truly ticked off, there was no telling what would come out of her mouth. And Ella knew from experience that, under the circumstances, whatever did, would only make things
worse.