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.That was all plausible enough.It left questions, true.How hadVaggan found Albert Gorman so quickly at the Begay hogan? Probably because theMcNair people knew enough about Albert's connections on the reservation tomake an educated guess.After all, one of those involved was a Navajo: Beno.Robert Beno, Upchurch had said.High enough in the organization to warrantgrand jury action, and the only one who managed to run.Another relative,perhaps.Another member of the Turkey Clan.Someone who could guess the onlyplace Albert Gorman could find refuge.Or maybe it was simpler than that.Albert surely had intended to visit his uncle when he came to thereservation-to Chee's Navajo mind such a visit by a nephew was certain andinevitable-and he had told Mrs.Day, who had passed the information along.Anyway, that didn't seem to matter.What mattered was why all the trouble tomake the crime at Begay's hogan invisible.Chee plodded along through ankle-deep snow, examining possibilities.BecauseVaggan didn't want the law to know he was looking for Leroy and was within ahundred miles of finding him? That looked good for a moment, but the shootingin the parking lot had already alerted the fbi.What other motive could therebe? Chee could think of none and skipped over to another question.If theMcNair people knew, or even suspected, that Leroy was hidden away in Shiprock,why weren't they looking for him? Largo had said there was no sign at all ofthat.No strangers asking around.Largo had put the word out, at the gasstations, and trading posts, and convenience stores, the post office, thelaundry, everywhere.It was an old and simple and absolutely efficient system,and Chee had no doubt that if anyone-anyone at all-had shown up in Shiprock,or anywhere near Shiprock, asking questions, Largo would have known it withinfifteen minutes.And unless McNair knew about the aluminum trailer and hadsome idea of where it was parked, Leroy Gorman couldn't be found withoutquestions-hundreds of them.Chee had hunted enough people on the reservationto know how many weary hours of questions.And if McNair did know about thealuminum trailer and the cottonwood tree, Leroy would have been found with noquestions at all.And Leroy would be just as dead as Albert.And so the thinking went, leading around in the same circle back to thepicture of the aluminum trailer mailed as a postcard with something,apparently, written on its back that had brought Albert running and startedall this.Something, even though Leroy didn't remember writing such a stirringmessage-or claimed he didn't remember it.What would Leroy have written thathe'd refuse to admit? Chee would know, he hoped, when he found Margaret BillySosi again-for the third time-and pinned her down long enough to extract fromher either the card itself or her exact and detailed memory of what waswritten on it, and what her grandfather had told her about why Gorman (whichGorman?) was dangerous to be around.And just about when Chee was thinkingthis, he smelled smoke.It was the smell of burning pi¤on, the sweet, perfumed smell of hot resin.Then a blue wisp of the smoke against the junipers on the next hillside, andthe place of Frank Sam Nakai was in view.It was an octagonal log hogan, arectangular frame house covered with black tarpaper, a flatbed truck, a greenPage 94 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlpickup, a corral with a sheep pen built beyond it, the tin building whereNakai kept his cattle feed, and, off against the hillside, the square plankbuilding where the mother of Frank Sam Nakai's late wife lived with Frank SamNakai's daughter.The smoke was coming from stovepipes in both houses, makingwisps of blue as separate as the suppers the occupants were cooking.Chee'suncle and his uncle's mother-in-law were following the instructions ofChanging Woman, who had taught that when men look upon the mothers of thewomen they marry it may cause blindness and other more serious problems.ToJim Chee it seemed perfectly natural.It also seemed natural to Chee that Frank Sam Nakai was absolutely delightedto see him.Nakai had been shoveling snow into barrels, where the sun wouldconvert it into drinking water, when he saw Chee approaching.His shout ofwelcome brought Chee's aunt out of the house
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