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.""But what good would it have done to call for help?" Elisa asked, her voicerising."Hal was dead.He was all broken to pieces on that little ledge.Nobody could bring him back to life again.He was dead!""Was he?""Yes," she shouted."Yes.Yes.Yes."And now Chee understood why Elisa had been so shocked when she learned theskeleton was intact-with not a bone broken.She didn't want to believe it.Refused to believe it still.That made the next question harder to ask.Whathad Eldon told her of the scene at the top? Had he explained why Hal hadstarted his descent before he signed the book? Why he falsified the register?Had he-Ramona rushed into the room, sat beside Elisa, hugged the woman to her.Sheglared at Chee."I said go away now," she said."Get out.No more.No more.She has suffered too much.""It's all right," Elisa said."Ramona, when you came in did you see theLand-Rover in the garage?""No," Ramona said."Just Eldon's pickup truck."Elisa looked at Chee, sighed, and said, "Then I guess he didn't go up to seeabout the mare.He would have taken his truck."Chee picked up his hat and the photographs.He thanked Mrs.Breedlove for thecooperation, apologized for bringing her bad news, and hurried out, withBernie trotting along behind him.The wind was bitter now, and carrying thosedry-as-dust first snowflakes that were the forerunners of a storm.Page 118 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"I want to get Leaphorn on the radio," he said, as Bernie started the engine,"and maybe we'll have to make a fast trip to Canyon de Chelly."Bernie was looking back at the house."Do you think she will be all right?""I think so," Chee said."Ramona will take good care of her.""Ramona's pretty shaken up, too," Bernie said."She was crying when she helpedme look for the rifle.She said it was always the wrong men with Elisa-alwayshaving to take care of them.That Hal was a spoiled baby and Eldon was abully.She said if it wasn't for Eldon she'd be married to a good man whowanted to take care of her.""She say who?""I think it was Tommy Castro.Or maybe Kaster.Something like that.She wascrying." Bernie was staring back at the house, looking worried."Bernie," Chee said."It's starting to snow.It's probably going to be a badone.Start the car.Go.Go.Go.""You're worried about Amos Nez," Bernie said, starting the engine."We canjust call the station at Chinle and have them stop any Land-Rover driving in.Bet Mr.Leaphorn already did that.""He said he would," Chee said."But I want to get a message to him aboutDemott taking off with his thirty-ought-six loaded.Maybe Eldon won't bedriving in.If you can climb seventeen hundred feet up Ship Rock, maybe youcan climb down a six-hundred-foot cliff."26THEY DROVE INTO THE FULL BRUNT of the storm halfway between Mancos and Cortez,the wind buffeting the car and driving a blinding sheet of tiny dry snowflakeshorizontally past their windshield."At least it's sweeping the pavement clear," Bernie said, sounding cheerful.Chee glanced at her.She seemed to be enjoying the adventure.He wasn't.Hisribs hurt, so did the abrasions around his eye, and he was not in the mood forcheer."That won't last long," he said.It didn't.In Cortez, snow was driving over the curbs and the pavement wasbeginning to pack, and the broadcasts on the emergency channel didn't soundpromising.A last gasp of the Pacific hurricane system was pushing across BajaCalifornia into Arizona.There it met the first blast of Arctic air, pressingdown the east slope of the Rockies from Canada.Interstate 40 at Flagstaff,where the two fronts had collided, was already closed by snow.So werehighways through the Wasatch Range in Utah.Autumn was emphatically over onthe Colorado Plateau.They turned onto U.S.666 to make the forty-mile run almost due south toShiprock.With the icy wind pursuing them, the highway emptied of traffic bystorm warnings, and speed limits ignored, Bernie outran the Canadiancontribution to the storm.The sky lightened now.Far ahead, they could seewhere the Pacific half of the blizzard had reached the Chuska range.Its cold,wet air met the dry, warmer air on the New Mexico side at the ridgeline.Thecollision produced a towering wall of white fog, which poured down the slopesPage 119 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmllike a silent slow-motion Niagara."Wow," Bernie said."I never saw anything quite like that before.""The heavy cold air forces itself under the warmer stuff," said Chee, unableto avoid a little showing off."I'll bet it's twenty degrees colder atLukachukai than it is at Red Rock-and they're less than twenty miles apart."They crossed the western corner of the Ute reservation, then roared into NewMexico and across the mesa high above Malpais Arroyo."Wow," Bernie said again."Look at that."Instead Chee glanced at the speedometer and flinched."You drive," he said."I'll check the scenery for both of us." It was worthchecking.They looked down into the vast San Juan River basin-dark with stormto the right, dappled with sunlight to the left.Ship Rock stood just at theedge of the shadow line, a grotesque sunlit thumb thrust into the sky, butthrough some quirk of wind and air pressure, the long bulge of the Hogbackformation was already mostly dark with cloud shadow."I think we're going to get home before the snow," Bernie said.They almost did.It caught them when Bernie pulled into the parking lot at thestation-but the flakes blowing against Chee as he hurried into the buildingwere still small and dry.The Canadian cold front was still dominating thePacific storm."You look terrible," Jenifer said."How do you feel?""I'd say well below average," Chee said."Did Leaphorn call?""Indirectly," Jenifer said, and handed Chee three message slips and anenvelope.It was on top-a call from Sergeant Deke at the Chinle station confirming thatLeaphorn had received Chee's message about Demott leaving his ranch with hisrifle.Leaphorn had gone up the canyon to the Nez place and would either bringNez out with him or stay, depending on the weather, which was terrible.Chee glanced at the other messages.Routine business.The envelope bore theword "Jim" in Janet's hand.He tapped it against the back of his hand.Put itdown.Called Deke."I've seen worse," Deke said."But it's a bad one for this time of year.Stillabove zero but it won't be for long.Blowing snow.We have Navajo 12 closed atUpper Wheatfields, and 191 between here and Ganado, and 59 north of Red Rock,and-well, hell of a night to be driving.How about there?""I think we're just getting the edge of it," Chee said."Did Leaphorn get mymessage?""Yep.He said not to worry.""What do you think? Demott's a rock climber.Is Nez going to be safe enough?""Except for maybe frostbite," Deke said."Nobody's going to be climbing thosecliffs tonight."Page 120 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlAnd so Chee opened the envelope and extracted the note."Jim.Sorry I missed you
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