Wild Inferno by Sandi Ault Read Free Book Online

given me.
    I drove south down Highway 151 past Navajo Lake, then west across high desert country into the next county and the small town of Ignacio, home of the Southern Ute Agency and the Sky Ute Casino. Heat shimmered on the asphalt and the temperature in my Jeep was sweltering.
    At Ignacio Intermediate School, I asked the summer classes coordinator to help me find Clara White Deer. I was directed to the music room—past the empty gymnasium and down a quiet hall that rang with my footsteps. When I looked through the glass window in the door, a slender woman with long black braids was alone in the room, dusting off the music stands. She wore a turquoise tank top, jeans, and sandals. I knocked, then opened the door enough to stick my head in. “Ms. White Deer?” I asked.
    A tawny, good-looking face with high cheekbones and large, dark eyes turned toward me. She was stunningly good-looking, perhaps in her midfifties, and I could just imagine how beautiful she must have been in her youth. The woman pushed her chin up in a gesture of pride and said, “I am Clara White Deer.”
    â€œMay I come in?” I asked, opening the door a bit wider. “I’m the liaison officer with the incident command team on the fire. I wanted to talk with you a moment.”
    She returned to her dusting, rubbing the stand in front of her with sharp, quick strokes. “Did you guys find him?”
    I stepped into the room and was quiet a moment. Then I said, “Could we sit down and talk?”
    She stopped dusting and looked at me. “I don’t want to sit down. I can’t.”
    I moved forward, coming around so I was in front of her. “I believe someone from the sheriff’s office talked to you.”
    â€œYes. He didn’t have any news. Do you have any news?”
    â€œI wonder—is there someplace I could buy you a glass of iced tea?”
    Clara White Deer tipped her head to one side. “Did you find him or not? Just tell me. I don’t need a glass of iced tea, and even if I did, I can buy my own. In fact, I should probably buy yours—you work for the US government, so I bet you don’t make too much money doing that. I probably make a lot more than you do just for being a member of the Southern Ute tribe.” She started wiping her hands on her dust rag, then cut in front of me and walked to the desk at the front of the room.
    â€œI just thought perhaps we could sit down someplace so we could visit,” I said.
    â€œWe can visit right here,” she said, locking eyes with me as she dropped the rag on the desk and brushed her hands together loudly to signify that she was done with the chore.
    I stepped forward so I was standing in front of the desk. Clara White Deer never let her eyes leave mine. I spoke in a calm voice. “I just wanted to tell you that we did everything we could to try to find Grampa Ned where you last saw him. The fire blew up, and we had to suspend all activity in the area. We had firefighters in danger at the time, and we couldn’t even go after them. We still don’t know about any of them—Ned or the firefighters.”
    Finally, Clara White Deer looked away. She shook her head back and forth. “That old man,” she said. “That stinking old man. I ask him for one thing, one thing. I never asked him for anything before. But I ask Ned Spotted Cloud for one little thing, and he goes and gets himself burned up in a fire.”
    I held up a hand. “Wait! We don’t know that. He could be anyplace. We have no evidence.”
    She shook her head even faster. “I don’t need evidence. I saw him going down that road toward the ruins back there by the mine. He drove right through the yellow tape and broke it. He ran over one of those orange cones that was set across the road. I honked at him, and he just waved his hand out the window. The sheriff said you found his truck back in there, right?”
    â€œYes, we