Bernadette “Bernie” Manuelito

Bernadette "Bernie" Manuelito is a police officer in Shiprock, New Mexico, where she is happily married to her fellow officer, Jim Chee. Both Manuelito and Chee are extremely focused on their work, spending considerable amounts of their own time either talking about a developing case, or helping the other person actually work on it. In a reflection of the hardscrabble nature of their town, Manuelito and Chee actually live in a trailer together (23).

Bernie is an incredibly independent woman -- so much so that people who knew her from high school are in fact surprised to hear that she had wanted to get married at all. Frequently Bernie will take considerable initiative on her own, such as when she proactively investigates the explosion outside the high school basketball game in the opening scene of the novel. Another example of her willingness to take initiative is when...