Mourning Dove by Aimée & David Thurlo Page A

was my
brother
. I’m not goingto just sit back.”
    “You have to, and the very fact that you don’t see why that’s necessary, makes you a liability. Go back to your own department. Do the job you’ve been assigned. The carjackings seem to be at the heart of what’s going on and at least half of those have happened over in your jurisdiction. If you want to do something, see what you get on that.”
    “All right. I’ll see what I cando.”
    As he drove away, Ella followed. With one road leading into Shiprock, she’d be behind him for a few miles. Still ticked off about the stunt Samuel had pulled, she stormed into the station a short time later and nearly ran into Big Ed as she went around a corner.
    “Sorry, Chief, I wasn’t watching where I was going.”
    “Glad you weren’t on the highway. My office,” he said, then as soon as theyreached it, waved her to a chair. “What’s happening, Shorty?” He looked down at the report she’d left for him earlier.
    Ella gave him the highlights. “If the victim wasn’t singled out and the carjackers are now escalating to murder when it’s expedient, then we have a huge problem on our hands. The thieves are well organized, and very tight-lipped. None of our usual sources seem to know anythingabout them. So far the gang’s used an attractive woman who flags down a passing motorist—someone driving alone and always in a pickup. They strike in isolated areas, in the early morning hours. The carjackers leave behind the stolen, older sedan they used to lure in their victim and take the target vehicle. The leave-behind car, always an inexpensive sedan, is invariably wiped clean so we’ll havenothing to go on. Intimidation and strong-arming have been part of their M.O., but there’ve been no deaths—until now.”
    “From your written report I gather that some of the circumstances were different this last time. No vehicle was left behind, and guns came into play, for instance,” Big Ed said. “That leads me to believe that the murder wasn’t so much a precedent or anindication of things tocome, but rather an isolated instance where the violence got out of hand.”
    “You may be right,” she said, “but there’s also a possibility that Jimmy was their real target. Since I’m not sure, I’ve increased patrols in the areas the carjackers have worked in the past.
The Dineh Times
has also run a story cautioning people not to stop automatically. The Farmington paper ran a similar piece. Butthe carjackers are targeting rural areas where people may or may not get the paper. There are fewer witnesses there, too, and pickups are almost a given.”
    He nodded, lost in thought. “They’ve concentrated on trucks—so why a rental sedan this time?”
    “That’s another discrepancy,” Ella said, “and I have no answer for you. Stealing an inexpensive sedan to set up as bait, but then stealing anotherinexpensive sedan—admittedly a newer model—still doesn’t quite fit their established M.O. Since none of the stolen trucks have been found, we suspect that the ring takes them out of state—maybe even out of the country to Mexico where there’s a thriving market for hot pickups and SUVs, particularly those that can carry a heavy load.”
    “And so far no informants?” Big Ed pressed.
    She shook her head.“The ring is staying very much under the radar. I’ll be meeting with Agent Blalock next. The FBI has been very interested in the carjackings because of the suspected south-of-the-border connection. That puts it into federal jurisdiction. But Blalock’s working alone again these days, so he’s swamped. None of the younger agents they send stick around for long. Look at the last one, what, six months?”

    “Are you surprised? The Four Corners’ beat isn’t exactly a career-maker.”
    “True enough,” she admitted. “When I first joined the Bureau I wanted to be on the fast track, too,” she said, then remembered her father’s death—the case that had