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.And you neverknow."Page 102ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlThey turned west off Route 666 toward Red Rock on Navajo 33.Bourebonette pointed south toward Rol Hai Rock and then toward Barber Peakacross the highway."Those pictures," she said."It could be a little piece ofeither one of those.""Or even of some of those rays that run out from Ship Rock," he said."Any newideas by now of why he took them?""No.Not even an old idea.How about you?""I have an old idea," Leaphorn said."I'm thinking that when we get to thatrock formation Nez's vandal was painting, maybe it will turn out to be thesame formation Ji, or Ji's boy, was photographing."Bourebonette thought about this."Why?"Leaphorn chuckled."I was afraid you'd ask me that," he said."I think it'sbecause since my wife died I've started watching television.That's the waythe plot ought to work out."Bourebonette didn't comment for a while.And then she said: "Well, there hadto be some reason for somebody to shoot Colonel Ji.He was up around where thepainter was working the night Mr.Nez was killed.At least his car was.And hetook pictures of the rocks.So maybe there's a connection."Leaphorn glanced at her, caught her looking at him.She shrugged."Soundssilly, but the same rocks-" she said,"-that would be some connection."Leaphorn made a left turn off the asphalt onto a dirt road which hadn't beenon this year's road grading schedule.They bumped down it, raising dust."Well," he said."We'll soon know."Leaphorn parked at the place the car of Officer Nez had burned.It had beenhauled away-an unusual fate for a derelict vehicle on a reservation where theycommonly rusted away where they died-but the place was marked by the skeletonsof partially burned junipers and scorched cactus."There it is," Bourebonette said, pointing."See the painted places?"The formation rose to the southeast, one of many old volcanic extrusionsscattered along the flanks of the great upthrusts that form the multitude ofmountain ridges of the southern Rockies."Where?" Leaphorn asked and, as hesaid it, saw a stripe of white, and another, and another, where no whiteshould be."Ah," he said, and reached behind the seat of his car for his binoculars.Butbefore he used them, he studied the formation, looking for the same pattern ofshapes he memorized from the photographs.He didn't see it.The formation seemed to have been produced by a series of eruptions.In someplaces the basalt had been worn smooth by eons of time and softened by growthsof lichens-its cracks sprouting buffalo and bunch grass, cactus, and evenscraggly junipers.Elsewhere it was newer, still ragged and black.A couple ofmiles long, Leaphorn guessed, with a smaller formation beyond it extendingperhaps another quarter of a mile.Through the binoculars the formation seemed even rougher and more complex.Inplaces the upthrust seemed to have forced overlying sandstone upward,producing broken walls and leaning slabs in a chaotic labyrinth.There, in thePage 103ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlhighest part of the ridge, the painting had been done.Done carefully.Despite what Chee had told him, that surprised Leaphorn.Atthe point where the binoculars were focused, the black of the basaltic surfaceand the white of the paint formed a slight curve, not perfect but generallyclean-cut.He shifted his vision to the next spot.The shape seemed irregular.Perhaps that was because of his perspective.But here, too, the margin wasclean.He could see too little of the other painted surfaces to form ajudgment.He handed the binoculars to Professor Bourebonette."Notice the edges.Noticehow carefully done," he said.While she looked, he thought about what she wasseeing.As he did he understood exactly where the photographs had been taken.His uncle had been right.Things seem random only because we see them from thewrong perspective.He told Bourebonette about it as they drove down the bumpy road toward theDineyahze place."It still sounds crazy as hell," he said, "but I think either Ji or the boytook all those photographs and blew them up to plan where to put the paint."Professor Bourebonette looked suitably surprised.She considered.Leaphornslowed, let the car roll across the borrow ditch and onto a road, whichquickly became simply two parallel tracks through the bunch grass andsnakeweed."Okay," Bourebonette said finally."If you wanted to paint something regularon a totally irregular surface, I guess that's how you could do it.""I think so," Leaphorn said."You'd pick the spot you wanted to see it from,and take the photographs, mark out the places where the paint had to go.Little bit here on this corner of this slab, and then back here, and up thereand so forth.""That leaves the really big question, though," she said."The big question iswhy anybody sane would want to paint something out here.And what it wouldbe." She looked at him."You have that part of it figured out?""Afraid not," Leaphorn said."I think that would take some real genius."The patrol car eased up a long slope, jolting over rocky places.Thewindshield was coated with dust, but the sun was low in the southwest now, outof their faces.Leaphorn shifted down, and up, and down again.And suddenly hefound another answer.Or maybe he did."I have another thought," he said."About 'what.' Or more about 'why.'"Bourebonette looked at him, waiting.Leaphorn considered whether he would look stupid if he was wrong.It occurredto him that he was showing off.And enjoying it.He considered that.Why wouldhe be showing off? Why enjoying this?"Are you going to tell me?" Bourebonette asked.Leaphorn shifted up again as the tracks leveled off."When we get to the topPage 104ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlof this ridge here, we're going to be able to see that formation again.From adifferent perspective now."I think we're going to see those painted spacescoming together.Forming a unity.""Oh? Like what?""Something to do with this little girl we're going out to visit." And as hesaid it, realized that it sounded absurd.It would be wrong.The paintingwould remain, forever, a crazy jumble.They reached the summit of the ridge.The shoulder was wide here, blockingtheir view of the formation.But they could see the Dineyahze place.It wasbuilt on the slope opposite them.The Dineyahze outfit included a small oblongof house with a tar-paper roof weighed down against windy weather by ascattering of old automobile tires, a hogan built of stone, a mobile home seton concrete blocks, and the usual brush arbors, corrals, and storage sheds [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]