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''The Sinister Pig'' is the sixteenth crime fiction novel in the Joe Leaphorn / Jim Chee Navajo Tribal Police series by Tony Hillerman, first published in 2003. It was a New York Times best-seller.〔(New York Times best-seller listing for June 8, 2003 )〕 A mystery involving diverted oil and gas revenues, abandoned pipelines, Washington D.C. insiders, and illegal drugs involves Navajo Tribal Police Sergeant Jim Chee and Bernadette Manuelito, now a federal Border Patrol officer. Each turns to retired Lt. Joe Leaphorn, now called legendary by his colleagues as well as by Chee, for assistance. Along the way, elegant and dramatic romances reach happy conclusions. ==Plot summary== Not long after Carl Manken leaves Washington D.C. to investigate an issue in the news, his murdered corpse is found on the edge of the Checkerboard part of the Navajo Reservation, near the Apache Jicarilla Reservation. Soon, his vehicle is found on the Jicarilla Reservation. Each use of Manken’s credit card is monitored by the issuer, a high-level intervention that sends Sgt. Chee and FBI Agent Osborne to retrieve the card from the workmen using it after finding it in trash they picked up. In Washington D.C., the newsworthy issue is the large amount of royalties never paid to the tribes who own the land providing natural resources, including oil, natural gas and coal; the tribes are suing the Department of Interior. Bernadette Manuelito is on routine surveillance in her new position as a US Customs Patrol Officer, when she finds the Tuttle ranch in the boot heel of New Mexico, where a truck with Mexican license plates enters. She investigates, taking photos of the exotic wildlife and the construction project underway, described as a pump for water for the oryxes and ibexes. She shares the prints of her photos with Sgt. Chee, who in turn shares them with Lt. Leaphorn. One of the trucks in her photos is from Seamless Weld of El Paso, Texas, the same company that the dead man reported as his employer on the rental car form. Her boss, Ed Henry, takes the negatives and other set of prints, while taking a photo of her and telling her to leave the ranch alone. On her first successful solo netting, taking in a group of illegal aliens, the brother-in-law in the group recognizes Manuelito from photos circulating among the drug dealers in Sonora, with word to kill her. Her roommate Mrs. Garza calls Leaphorn with this information, because Manuelito will not call Chee. Leaphorn finds that the pathway of the unused pipeline from the now disused Mexican copper mine passes right through the Tuttle ranch, shown on an old map when the smelter was active. He figures the work recently done at each place is to get the pipeline working again, either to divert natural gas or oil southbound, or to bring in drugs, northbound. The Tuttle ranch is a lease on BLM lands, giving Dashee authority to be there; he and Sgt. Chee head for the ranch directly. Directed by her boss to the Tuttle ranch, Manuelito finds herself in an awkward position. The usually locked and guarded gate is swinging open, and no one is in sight. She drives to the building, climbing on her vehicle to look in through the only windows. Three men approach her; Winsor aims his hunting rifle at her. Her weapon is taken by Diego and the four proceed inside the building. Manuelito sees the drugs at the opening from the pipeline. Winsor plans to execute her. Budge tells her in Spanish to claim she is from DEA and willing to take a cut of the money Winsor will get from the amount of drugs she sees, which she does. Winsor talks about the mistaken killing of Manken, who was not involved in illegal drugs, but hunting out the situation on royalties owed for resources extraction, and mentions the fate of Chrissy. Budge takes her weapon from Diego while Manuelito kicks the rifle. Winslow hits her with the butt of the rifle; then Budge shoots Winslow. Budge tends to her wound. He and Diego leave. Manuelito sits in her vehicle, after calling her own dispatcher and the state police for assistance. Sgt. Chee and Cowboy Dashee arrive at the ranch to find her resting in her vehicle. This scene evokes the words from Chee that he loves Bernie, words he could not say these six months. Then he and Dashee listen to what happened, and see the private airplane above, heading for Mexico. Customs officers, the FBI, the DEA, the state and county police, and Dashee of the Bureau of Land Management discuss who has authority, until someone from Homeland Security arrives to trump them all. Manuelito takes pain medication from the medics, who take her to the hospital. In the Epilog: Away in Mexico, Budge finds Chrissy, whom he did not kill, as he loves her and asks her to marry him. Back in Shiprock, Manuelito looks over the trailer that serves Chee as home, suggesting they move it away and build a real house. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Sinister Pig」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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