Mourning Dove by Aimée & David Thurlo Read Free Book Online Page B

left the padded envelope on your desk,” she said. “What’s inside is a real puzzle.”
    Ella saw the red and yellow envelope as soon as she entered her office. She studied the label. It had been mailed from an office supply store in El Paso with an express counter. She wasn’t familiar with the streets in El Paso, but a glance at a mapwould probably indicate the big envelope had come from a store close to the military base. Jimmy Blacksheep listed his Shiprock area address, and a phone number she didn’t recognize. She hadn’t seen a phone at Jimmy’s home; maybe the number was for his brother, Samuel.
    Confirming it with a quick glance at Samuel’s FPD business card, she returned the card to her pocket and put on a pair of latexgloves. Then she carefully reached inside the already opened thin cardboard envelope and extracted its contents while her team members watched.
    A handwritten letter was stapled to an article about an earlier case Ella had solved. Below that was what, at first glance, appearedto be a short story using the animal characters that featured in the tribe’s creation legends and other names of peopleand places she didn’t recognize.
    Ella read the letter, then looked up at Ralph and Justine, who were understandably curious. “The victim said he knew me by reputation and my honesty was what prompted him to contact me. He said he was in danger and that if anything happened to him, this information would help give me what was needed to restore balance and protect the citizens.”
    “Citizens
Dineh
, or people in general?” Ralph asked.
    “Maybe the rest of the papers here will answer that question,” Ella said. “He wanted to be a writer someday, according to his brother.”
    “His writing wasn’t there yet,” Justine muttered. “I couldn’t make heads or tails out of it. “The obvious Navajo names like Trickster, sure. But not those like
Chopra
. Isn’t he that guru guy?”
    “Yeah.” Ella studied the pages.Paper-clipped together was what appeared to be mostly a Navajo story, handwritten in inks of various shades and using more than one kind of paper. The pages were numbered, using ink that matched the last section. The narrative itself, from what Ella could tell, had been written over a period of time. She could see the evidence of coffee stains and greasy fingerprints on more than one page.
    Justinestood and walked over beside Ella. “What do you think? It’s obviously in code and very confusing.”
    “Did you both read it?” Seeing Tache shake his head, Ella read the story out loud. It was titled “What Mourning Dove Saw” and it was written in the first person, narrated by the animal character, Mourning Dove.
    “ ‘A terrible storm began in a distant valley, and a large hole appeared in the ground,trapping Big Monster. But when Big Monster disappeared from sight, smaller monsters appeared, preying upon the poor creatures stillalive. Sun, who had caused the storm, sent the Proud Tribe from atop the local mesas of the
Diné Tah
into the distant valley to protect the poor creatures. This part of the tale began in the fall.
    “ ‘The Proud Tribe brought their own food—and were expected to sharetheir provisions, delivering firewood, food, and arrows among the worthy. The Proud Tribe also brought beasts of burden to carry the load. I did my part as well.
    “ ‘Soon, I saw that, while most of the Proud Tribe was doing the work of Sun, a few from the Proud Tribe slipped into the shade, and became dark themselves. These Dark Ones decided that the rewards from Sun weren’t enough, so they decidedto trade for other things they coveted. As always, Trickster—Coyote—was with the Dark Ones, but he often went his own way. Others who became the Dark Ones were Gray Wolf, Stripes, and Gopher. As time passed, the Dark Ones found trading partners—Walpole, Mountbatten, Chopra, and Weigel were the ones that I saw and heard, and bartering was very profitable. The Dark Ones acquired