Tracking Bear An Ella Clah Novel

ONE Special Investigator Ella Clah leaned back in her office chair and rubbed her weary eyes. It was only 6 P.M., but she was tired of sitting in her office at the tribal police station in Shiprock. For the past few months things had been quiet on the Navajo Nation, at least here in the Four Corners area, but the paperwork never seemed to slow down. To make matters worse, these days almost every form she filled out was a request for additional funding. Manpower, along with morale, was lower than she'd ever seen it at the department. According to the October staffing reports, there were fewer than 360 cops responsible for the entire Rez nowan area roughly the size of West Virginia. To make matters even worse, their police equipmenteverything from radios to the patrol units themselveswas worn or obsolete and not being properly maintained because funding cuts were already to the bone. The situation was critical, but it didn't appear to be something that would be resolved anytime soon. It was November, and winter was still officially a month away, but already the cold evenings on the Colorado Plateau were giving the patrol officers fits when it came to starting up their vehicles in the mornings. Many of the officers, including Ella, had found it necessary to tune up their own vehicles just to keep the units in service. Ella loosened and removed the silver barrette from her long, ebony hair and shook it loose over her neck and back, then glanced at her watch for the third time in the last half hour. It was probably dark outside, or nearly so already, with Daylight Savings Time now in effect. It was finally time for her to call it a day. The requisition forms, the one thing they seemed to have in abundant supply, would wait until morning. Tonight, she wanted to spend some time with her three-year-old daughter, Dawn. All too often her family was forced to take a backseat to her duties as the lead investigator of the Special Investigations Unit, but there was no way Dawn was going to take second place to paperwork. Ella turned out the light in her small office, then walked down the hall past the squad room. The place was virtually deserted, with all available officers already out on patrol. Nodding to the duty officer behind the lobby counter, she pushed open the station door and walked outside. It was cool, and she stopped to zip up her lined leather jacket. Not being in uniform was a distinctive plus during the severe winters experienced here in northern New Mexico. As she walked over to her unmarked blue Jeep, Ella noticed that Officer Justine Goodluck, her partner and second cousin, was heading to her own unit, a white department sedan with the gold department markings. "What are you still doing here?" Ella asked. "I needed to finish an overdue laboratory inventory I should have completed yesterday." Justine stopped and pulled down a black stocking cap over her ears. Justine was short and slender, and looked too young to be a cop until one noticed the pistol on her belt and had a look at the hardness already appearing in her eyes. "At least you had the chance to move around the room a little. I think I'm going to be eligible for early retirement, the way that computer keyboard is cramping up my wrists. What are the symptoms for carpal tunnel syndrome?" Ella held out her hands, then curled her fingers up. "See, just like two dead spiders." "You think you've got it bad, cousin?" Justine smiled. "My fingers are being worn to a nub." She held up her right hand, showing her index finger, which had lost two joints courtesy of a madman over a year ago. Ella laughed, glad that Justine had gotten over the incident well enough to kid about it now. "You win, partner.&Thurlo, Aimée is the author of 'Tracking Bear An Ella Clah Novel', published 2004 under ISBN 9780765343963 and ISBN 0765343967.