As the Crow Flies [by] Craig Johnson
[New York
978-0-670-02351-6; $25.95
Walt Longmire is getting ready for his daughter Cady’s wedding. Henry Standing Bear has made most of the arrangements, but now it appears that the local Cheyenne
Cheyenne Chief Lonnie Little Bird suggests that Henry show Walt the area around a colorful standing rock called the Painted Warrior, so Henry and Walt get into Henry’s broken-down old truck Rezdawg to go check it out. They take Dog with them. Just out of town, they are stopped by the new Tribal Police Chief, Lolo Long, who gives Henry a ticket for not stopping at a stop sign, plus other charges. Since her vehicle does not have any markings on it, Walt points out that they couldn’t have known to stop, which only angers Ms. Long.
When they get to the Painted Warrior, Walt concedes that it is a lovely place, but probably not where Cady and Michael would like to get married. Looking up at the cliffs, he spots something shiny, but can’t tell what it is. When he takes a picture to send to Cady, he sees something falling from the cliff. Then they hear a scream and start running. They find a girl, body broken, lying in an horrific position. As Henry takes her in his arms, she breathes 3 times and dies. Then Dog begins to bark. Walt tells him to shut up, and calls to see if there is anyone at the top of the cliff, but no one responds.
Dog is so insistent, that they have to notice. In front of him is a little bundle of blanket, with a tiny hand sticking out. Then the baby cries and they run to it. It’s a boy. In their rush to get it to the Tribal Medical Center
While all of this is happening, Rezdawg gains momentum, pulling away from them and aiming at the rest of the cars, taking out several, as the chief runs after it.
It is only when she comes into the building, and is faced by her mother, a nurse who has just registered the baby into the hospital, that Chief Long sees reason. She tells her about the little boy and the dead woman, and introduces her to Walt. Then she and Walt go out to the site of the woman’s death. When Long recognizes the woman, Walt takes over, taking the photos and measurements, letting Long rest and recuperate from the shock. Then he asks her who the victim is. Her name is Audrey Plain Feather. The little boy’s name is Adrian
When they climb to the top of the cliff, Walt finds where a vehicle had driven in, parked, and then made a two-point turn to leave. There are spots of differential fluid and wide tire track. He guesses it was a Jeep. Long tells him that the man Audrey lived with, Adrian
After a brief meeting with the FBI Agent in Charge, and the State Crime Lab folks, Long and Walt go to the home of Audrey’s common law husband, Clarence Last Bull. He answers the door, with a shotgun in his hand. Walt notices that the gun is jacked open, but the Chief puts her foot through the door. Walt runs around the house and trips Last Bull with a rake. Long jumps on him just as he is trying to get up. She bashes him in the head with her gun and puts him in handcuffs.
Lolo offers to buy Walt dinner at the Charging Horse Casino, where they are greeted by the maitre d’, the previous police chief. They order and then the Chief asks the Sheriff how he thought she did in the law-and-order biz that day. He said that she hardly did anything right, and began to tell her how wrong it was. Last Bull would walk, if he had any kind of a decent public defender, because of the way she broke into his house. She told him that apologies are a sign of weakness, and he told her, they are a sign of being aware of what’s going on, and not being a cocksure idiot. Just then, the waitress arrives with the food, and Lolo stalks off, flipping one of the plates of food over the woman’s shoulder, where it cascades down in a shower of broken china and food. No apology forthcoming.
Walt apologizes for the fiasco and offers to help her clean up, but she says no. He introduces himself to her and finds out she is Loraine Two Two. They talk a little about the case, and Loraine tells Walt that last year, when her daughter Inez was 13, Clarence Last Bull was paying entirely too much attention to her.
As Walt walks back to Lonnie Little Bird’s house, where he is to sleep that night, Walt finds a red truck aimed right at him, with a dead elk tied to the front. He manages to get out of the way, but just barely. He gets to Lonnie’s house and, just a little later, Lolo turns up – to apologize and to ask for his help in training her.
Walt questions Clarence, and finds that he and Audrey and Adrian went to the cliffs to have a party. Clarence was a chef in the Army, and he found a job cooking and he was celebrating it. He would go first to the job, which is off the Rez, and then call for Audrey and the boy when he was settled. Audrey didn’t want to wait to go, and there was an argument. They walked off a little, and Clarence, having drunk too much beer, fell asleep. When he woke up, he couldn’t find them, and expected to find them walking home, but he didn’t he didn’t know where they were. Walt admitted he was a widower, and created a bond with Clarence. Long was impressed, and mentioned it while her mother took Clarence to see his son. Walt says there are problems with his story, but he doesn’t think Clarence killed Audrey. Long agrees. Walt also tells Long about his being attacked by the truck outside Lonnie’s.
The only truck that fits this truck’s description belongs to Artie Small Song, a guy that Walt’s Undersheriff Vic would call “a bad motor scooter.” They go to see if he is at his mother’s. She is cooking the elk that was on the front of the truck, but says Artie is not there. They
Come back later and partake of the elk, and speak to Artie, who denies he had anything to do with chasing Walt. Walt participates in a peyote ceremony and has visions, which give him a perspective on things.
Cady, not believing that the menfolk in her life are doing very well at lobbying for her interests, arrives with her future mother-in-law in tow. They take over Henry’s beautiful car Lola and proceed to getting things done.
Walt continues to mentor Chief Long, and he begins to involve more and more people, until he gets the full picture, and, just before the wedding he solves the crime, with a little help from his friends. Then comes the wedding, combining red and white cultures in a beautiful ceremony.
This is a fun book, with teasing and fun passages amid the hard story, which lighten the load, even though it’s a story of abuse and neglect and misunderstandings all around. Each character is beautifully drawn, and the story engages the reader at many levels. This is one of the best mystery series out there. Highly recommended. ~lss-r
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My book.
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