Cave of Bones

by Anne Hillerman

  Mayfair’s defensiveness puzzled Bernie, but she had dealt with this attitude before. “Based on where Annie’s solo site was, can you help me find the cave? She mentioned a couple landmarks. I’d appreciate it.”

  Mayfair shrugged and started walking again, talking as she hiked, her long braids swinging behind her as she moved. “Well, to start with, Annie doesn’t have much respect for the truth, and she likes attention. Next, this place is full of caves. What kind of directions did she give you?”

  Bernie heard Mayfair’s emphasis. “She said it took her about forty minutes to hike back to base camp from there. She said the moon shone inside it, so that means it must open to the east. The cave had a ledge, large enough for her to sleep on, at least her upper body. And it was roomy enough for her to stretch her legs inside and not hit the wall. She said she could see a big piñon tree with two trunks from the opening

  “Well, that narrows it down. Not a lot of trees get large out here. Not like back east.” Mayfair laughed.

  As Mayfair led the way, Bernie maneuvered over the lava, maintaining the energetic pace the taller woman set. Unlike most civilians Bernie encountered, Mayfair didn’t bombard her with the usual questions: What was it like to be a cop? Did the men on the force treat her as an equal? Had anyone ever tried to shoot her? Had she killed anybody? And, her favorite: What were some dumb things bad guys did that got them arrested? She didn’t even ask about the pending search operation.

  They found Annie’s one-person tent and sleeping bag after about fifteen minutes. Bernie took binoculars from her pack and scanned the lava surrounding them. She didn’t see any caves.

  “How far to an area with the caves?”

  Mayfair put her hands in her pockets. “It depends on which way you go.”

  Bernie waited.

  “The closest are about ten minutes. Well, fifteen for most people.”

  “I need to take a look because of what Annie said. Will you help me?”

  Mayfair spoke quickly. “Like I told you, that girl was unhinged before the trip started, and then she got worse—sulky, uncooperative, acting out, argumentative. Cooper pushed us to include her, and Cruz eventually went along with it, like he always does. I don’t trust most of what Annie says, and you shouldn’t either.”

  Bernie weighed her words. “She mentioned that there might be a burial. Other old bones have been discovered out here, so even though her story might be suspect, I have to follow up.”

  Mayfair sighed. “You see that pile of rocks over there?”

  “The trail marker?”

  “Yes. I’ll leave the equipment there and go with you and show you a cave area. There’s been enough excitement for one day already. We’ll stay together. You don’t want to disappear out here.”

  The irregular surfaces made Bernie glad she’d kept up with her morning runs, worn her hiking boots, and brought the water in her backpack. They passed areas where it looked as though liquid rock had bubbled up from the earth’s core and frozen at the surface like ropes of lava, and pitted black rocks that came to Bernie’s waist. In some places the lava was dotted with white and bright yellow lichens. They passed caves, but none large enough to hold a person.

  “Let’s stop a minute.” Bernie took binoculars from her backpack. She scanned the lava but saw nothing that matched Annie’s description.

  She offered the glasses to her companion, who declined.

  “Manuelito. What kind of a name is that for a Navajo? It sounds Spanish.”

  Bernie thought about what to say, how much detail to go into. “Manuelito was one of the Diné leaders who signed the 1868 treaty with the United States that established the Navajo Indian Reservation. He pushed hard to get education for Navajo children, to help them be part of the new world. I could go on, but it’s your turn. Mayfair—what kind of a name is that?”

  “My own. I selected it after I left home, or got kicked out, depending on who’s telling the story. My parents’ last name is one that everyone on the East Coast who watches public television or goes to art museums recognizes. Mother and Father say they love the idea of my having this job. They’ve suggested that I stay out here indefinitely, working with Wings and Roots.” Mayfair extracted a metal water bottle from her pack and took a sip. “They try to soft-pedal it, but I know it delights them to have their difficult daughter away from their friends, and that she gave herself a new last name.”

  Bernie knew there was more to the story, but Mayfair stopped talking.

  “Many of us Navajos have several names,” Bernie said. “Our Diné name, our English name, a bunch of nicknames.”

  “I kept telling Cooper she should change her name, but she reminded me that Cooper is a kind of hawk, and now we tell the girls that, too. We’ve even seen a Cooper’s hawk out here. But Cruz? That seemed to fit. His name means ‘cross’ in Spanish, did you know that?”

  “No. I don’t speak much Spanish.”

  “You haven’t been around girls like Annie much either, have you?”

  Bernie heard the judgment in the woman’s voice. “Actually, I have.” She pictured Darleen, her little sister with a big attitude.

  Mayfair waved the comment aside. “I told Dom that his name was appropriate because this program was a crossroads for these kids, and sometimes he has to lay down the law with them, get a little cross.”

  “Did anyone tease Cruz about just cruisin’ along?”

  Mayfair chuckled. “You got that right. I can’t believe Cooper decided he was the one who should be director when she retires.”

  “Why can’t you believe it?”

  “He’s our designated fund-raiser, you know? He’s one of the reasons the program is in financial trouble. With all the good Wings and Roots does, it wouldn’t be right for us to go away, but that’s what could happen when Cruz takes over. And he’s a man; the program deals with a lot of girls. They need a woman as a role model, not only here in the field but as the program’s face, too.”

  They were hiking now up a narrow trail with lava boulders higher than Bernie’s head on either side. They came to a crevice that the taller woman stepped across but Bernie had to jump.

  “Stop a minute.” Bernie scanned the lava again for a cave matching Annie’s description and then put the binoculars back in the pack. Maybe the girl had made it up.

  Mayfair watched as she stowed the glasses. “A few more minutes, and we have to go back. No cave that matches her description, right? Of course Annie would be the one to cause Mr. C to come back out here.”

  “I thought the whole point of the program was to help girls like that.”

  “You can’t help somebody who doesn’t want to be helped. The way I see it, Annie only wanted to get away from her mother. Cooper challenged her, told her she was a con artist, in one of the meetings out here. Annie resented that. I think she left her campsite to give us grief.” She frowned and looked out over the lava bed. “Let’s go. Ten more minutes, and we turn back.”

  Mayfair’s braids bounced as she walked on. The trail kept climbing, offering views of a complicated landscape of boulders, ridges, and valleys, and of the sandstone mesas across the highway. Mount Taylor, pinned to the horizon by the Holy People with a stone knife, rose to the north. Bernie knew it as beautiful Tsoodził, Turquoise Mountain, its higher slopes frosted with early snow—one of the four sacred mountains marking the cardinal directions and the boundaries of the Dinétah, the People’s homeland.

  She stumbled, caught her balance, and focused on the challenge of the ever-changing terrain at Mayfair’s ambitious pace. Had Annie really navigated these trails in the dark?

  Mayfair broke the silence. “I’ve heard that you Navajos have a story that goes with this lava. Is that true?”

  “Our grandparents tell us that this is the blood of a giant monster killed by the Hero Twins in their work to make the earth safe for us humans.” Bernie didn’t get into the complicated details of the Diné Bahane’, the Navajo equivalent to the book of Genesis.

/>   “That’s gruesome. I wish they’d done a better job getting rid of monsters. Lots of monsters still around. People who discriminate against women, for one.”

  The translation of the Diné word for monster that Bernie liked the most was that which gets in the way of a successful life. “The Zuni and the Acoma have their stories about this place, too,” she said. “Their healers come here to collect the herbs and plants they need for their blessings.”

  “It’s wonderful how plants adapt to this environment.” For the first time, there was enthusiasm in Mayfair’s voice. “In the spring I’ve seen ferns, Indian paintbrush, blanket flower, desert globe mallow, Apache plume. More kinds of lichens than I could count. I’ve seen islands of grass and places you find trees that normally don’t grow together—aspen and juniper, for instance—because the environment is so unusual. That’s what I like to share with these girls. I tell them, ‘Put down the electronics and look around at this gorgeous world.’”

  They walked in silence for a while. “It’s tough finding a trail through this lava,” Bernie said finally. “It’s disorienting, and it would be easy to twist an ankle, get caught in one of these cracks, step on a lava crust that looks solid but isn’t. I can picture Cruz getting lost out here.”

  “He’s been here so many times, he knows this area like his own backyard. But I guess anything can happen. Cruz told me this was going to be his last trip.”

  Interesting, Bernie thought. “Did he say why?”

  “He was headed for office work and the suit-and-tie circuit of fund-raising. I think he’d burned out as a group leader, probably from too many kids like wacko Annie.”

  “Hold on.” Bernie had spotted a lone piñon that seemed to be growing out of the lava. She studied it with the binoculars before pointing it out to Mayfair. “That looks like Annie’s tree.”

  The piñon was farther away than it seemed. Along the way, Bernie spotted more caves, all too small for even a slim girl to sleep in. When they got to the tree, Bernie scanned the lava, then handed her binoculars to Mayfair. “Up that way, it looks like a cave. You see it?”

  Mayfair put the glasses to her eyes.

  “That’s a big one, but it’s another hike away—Annie wouldn’t have walked that far, especially by herself, in the dark.” She handed the binoculars back to Bernie. “Let’s go pick up her stuff and call it a day. With Cruz gone, I’ve got a lot more work to do.”

  “I want to stay,” said Bernie, “look around, try to figure this out. Go get the equipment and meet me here.”

  Mayfair hesitated. “I’ll be back by this tree in a few minutes. Be here. I don’t want to have to look for you, too.” She headed off at a trot.

  Bernie examined the piñon again, surprised at how well it matched Annie’s description: a lone, double-trunked tree with roots in the dark rock. She had been looking too high. Annie said she had climbed a rise and then knelt down to shine in the light.

  Bernie took the binoculars from her pack again and focused on the waves of lava closest to the tree. Finally, she found what looked like a large, hollow depression in the lava. Next to it was something white. She adjusted the focus and realized that the white came from a spiral petroglyph.

  She negotiated the rough ground toward the cave, concentrating on each step and letting the quiet part of her mind puzzle out her situation. She wanted nothing to do with the ancient dead. Why was she even here? As a Navajo Police officer, she was out of her jurisdiction. Her young informant was both a known liar and a participant in a program designed to alter consciousness. Not only was the girl’s story vague, but the bones she mentioned had no immediate connection to the lost man.

  But she was here, Bernie knew, because her gut said Annie was telling the truth, and her heart told her that if the bones were human, they deserved to rest in peace, away from the restless feet of teenagers on a self-improvement program or anyone else hiking in the lava.

  Whatever that cave preserved had been there a long time. Whatever Annie had seen had terrified her. As a young Navajo girl, despite her purple nail polish and multiple ear piercings, she had heard stories about the evil that is freed with death. Annie had said she sensed something bad inside the cave. If a person was buried there, now, through no fault of his or her own, the grave was in a public place, a national monument or the adjoining wilderness and national conservation areas. Visitors could unintentionally come across the bones, and the idea that someone would stumble upon them again, as Annie had, bothered Bernie. It troubled her even more than the fact that she would have to expose herself to their power to find out whether Annie had told the truth.

  As Bernie neared the depression, she found what might be an entrance, an opening partly obstructed by lava rocks, just as the girl described. She moved closer.

  She had never understood the attraction of climbing into caves, especially little caves, just for fun. When she was with the US Border Patrol, she and the woman whose house she shared had driven to Carlsbad, New Mexico, to see the famous caverns there. That huge, chilly underground space naturally decorated with towering stalagmites stretching toward the ceiling like giant stone cacti captivated her. They went to the amphitheater at the cave entrance at dusk to watch the departure of thousands of Mexican brown bats on their way to gorge on an evening insect feast. She understood the appeal of a cave like that, a unique spot in the American Southwest. But why put yourself inside a small, dark space? She’d opt for the fresh air of open country any day.

  The view from here was spectacular, at least. Tsoodził stood with its head in the clouds. The dark river of the lava contrasted with the deep blue of the western New Mexico sky. She turned her attention back to the cave, keeping the opening in her line of vision as she hiked, pushing herself to go faster. As she approached, she could see a small, flat ledge inside it, a shelf of rock she hadn’t been aware of through the binoculars, just as Annie had described.

  Maneuvering her way through the rocks that blocked the cave’s entrance, Bernie carefully lowered herself to sit on the ledge. She caught her breath, pulled the flashlight off her duty belt, put on her gloves, and thought about what she had to do next. Maybe what Annie had seen was a hallucination or an animal’s skeleton. Maybe a pack rat had a nest in there and had found some yucca somewhere that Annie took to be an old fiber sandal.

  Maybe.

  The flashlight felt solid in her hand as she turned it on and let the light penetrate the cave’s secrets. There was a pungent smell in the air. Her eyes took a moment to adjust from the bright December day to the cave’s total darkness. The beam bounced off rocks and shone into deep blackness. She scanned systematically, moving clockwise, the same direction she would go if physically entering a hogan. At about the halfway point, her light reflected off a long, amber-colored something on the cave floor. She crept forward into the cave to get closer, and then she realized what she was looking at: a human femur. She moved beyond and found the smaller bones of a human arm and then the aged remains of a yucca fiber sandal. She forced herself to continue the scan, her light discovering small yellowed bones that once were human fingers on the black stone. The cave’s floor sloped away from her, and her light penetrated a space that seemed to grow larger in the rear.

  “Mr. Cruz, are you back there?”

  Bernie’s voice bounced off the rock. She remembered Annie’s strong assertion that Cruz was not in the cave, and Cooper’s description of him as a man as large as Chee. The space she’d just crawled through would be too small for him. Still, she had a job to do. She inched forward, careful not to disturb the bones. Her light shone on more blackness, rough, sharp lava and then a section that looked smoother.

  “Mr. Cruz?”

  She stayed long enough to convince herself without a doubt that there was no sign of him and that the human bones had been in the cave much, much longer than Domingo Cruz had been missing.

  Bernie climbed out of the cave, turning off the light and replacing it on her belt as she said a quick prayer for pro
tection. She forced her thoughts away from what she’d seen. She’d call Largo so he could inform the tribal office that dealt with disturbed graves, the park service, and probably the office of the medical investigator. If this person had been buried with grave goods to help him or her move to the next world, all that was gone. The looters, at least as far as she could tell, had left nothing behind to identify themselves. The bones would remain silent about who had desecrated them.

  She made her way back to the meeting place in time to see Mayfair approaching, bringing a tent and sleeping bag.

  “Did you find anything up there?”

  “Only some old bones.” Bernie ignored the question in Mayfair’s eyes. “Let’s go. I can help you with Annie’s stuff.”

  Mayfair handed her the tent, compressed into a tubular shape with a sturdy handle.

  “If you tell me more, I’ll let you carry the sleeping bag. It’s lighter.”

  “There’s no more to say.”

  They hiked on in silence.

  Back at the parking area, Cooper and the girls were nearly done with the packing. Bernie put Annie’s tent with the others. Cooper sat in the sun on a picnic bench and motioned Bernie over.

  “What did you see out there?”

  “I found the cave that Annie mentioned. No sign of Mr. Cruz.” Bernie could tell that Cooper wanted more, but there was nothing more she wanted to say.

  Cooper handed her a sheet of paper. “While you were gone, I wrote up a more detailed description of him for the searchers. I’d like to stay until they come, or until Dom returns, but we’ll cause a riot if we don’t get back to Grants, and we’re already an hour late.”

  Bernie looked at the sheet Cooper had prepared. “This will be helpful, but they still might want to talk you.”

  Cooper shook her head. “I have to get the girls out of here. They might be even more upset if they’re around when the search starts. I’m glad you came, Bernie. You know how to deal with stuff like this.”

  “Can’t Mayfair handle the trip? I can give you a ride in my unit once the—”