Read Online Death Walker by Aimée & David Thurlo - Free Book Online

found herself unable to decline. It was more than her appetite though; she needed the familiarity and the normalcy of food just as badly as the nourishment. “I’m still working, but I’d love some.”
    Loretta smiled. “Sister-in-law, work or not, you have to eat. How can you ever attract a man of your own if you’re justskin and bones?”
    Ella grinned back, knowing that the comment was Loretta’s way of teasing her, more than an actual observation. “I don’t want to attract any men. I want to intimidate the bad guys. And I can do that best by being a lean, mean, fighting machine.”
    Loretta laughed. “Not exactly the way I’d describe you, though I’m sure it’s the way you love to see yourself. In my opinion, you’retoo thin. You’re lean from lack of eating, and if you keep skipping meals you’ll be too weak to be a fighting machine.”
    Ella looked greedily at the food Loretta placed before her. At least some fences had been mended. There had been a time when her sister-in-law and she hadn’t had much to say to each other. “I gather my brother isn’t home?”
    “He’ll be back in a little bit. He went over to seeBetty Natoni. She still lives alone in that hogan out near Dry Wash. Betty said that she’d been struck by a whirlwind and hadn’t been feeling well. She wanted your brother to do a Wind Chant.”
    Ella nodded. Betty was in her eighties, a proud woman who adhered to the old ways. She would no more go to the PHS hospital than she would move out of the hogan she’d lived in since she was a child.
    Ellaate her mutton stew, lost in thought. There had been a time when she would have claimed it was foolish to turn down the progress that had come to the People from the outside. Now, she wasn’t so sure. She still resisted clinging only to the old ways, but she had also learned that there was much to be said for them.
    To walk in beauty, to find harmony—that carried a value all its own. Nowadays mostpeople agreed that one’s mental state affected health. Navajos had been saying that since long before Columbus was even born. Progress wasn’t as easy to define as Ella had once believed.
    Loretta recognized the roar of a pickup’s engine and went to the window saying, “Here’s my husband now.”
    Loretta met Clifford at the front door. “I’m glad you’re home,” she said.
    “It took longer than I expected,”Clifford said softly.
    Ella came out of the kitchen, bowl still in hand. She could see the weariness etched on her brother’s face as he took off his denim jacket and placed it on a big hook beside the door. “Hi,” she said, greeting him with a wave of her spoon.
    Clifford looked past Loretta and smiled at her. “Good, I see you’re finally eating something that isn’t smothered in ketchup. But it’sFriday night. Why aren’t you out with one of the men from the tribe?”
    Ella rolled her eyes. “I’m working.”
    His eyes clouded for an instant. Then as if sharing his wife’s concern, he forced a thin smile. “You’re always working.”
    “Just like you,” Ella countered with a smile.
    “Good point,” he agreed.
    “Can I talk to you for a few minutes? I need your help figuring something out.”
    Loretta tookthe empty bowl from Ella’s hands. “You two go ahead,” she said gesturing to the sofa. “I’ll be in the kitchen making some coffee.”
    As soon as Loretta was out of view, Clifford gave her a worried glance. “I’m glad you didn’t say anything to Loretta. I don’t want her worried. I’ve been hearing gossip about the murder then that accident all day. Is it true? Are they back?”
    There was no need forClifford to explain who “they” were. Ella could see the touch of fear that made Clifford’s eyes narrow, accentuating the patchwork of tiny lines that framed them. “That’s what I want you to tell me. I don’t know what’s going on, brother, but I think we’re being manipulated.”
    She recounted what she knew about the murder of Kee