by Aimée Thurlo
KIM WAS LOOKING through the two-way glass, listening to what was going on in the interrogation room. Preston and Rick had gone inside and Daniel had gone home, but Paul was keeping her company.
“My brother has strong feelings for you, Kim,” he said. “I’ve never seen him relax around anyone except us—until now. He needs you.”
“I need him, too,” she said quietly. “If you’re worried I’ll hurt him, please don’t be. What we have isn’t exactly Romeo and Juliet, but it is right for us.”
He nodded. “Good to hear.”
Looking at Sandoval, who was handcuffed to a table, they focused on what was being said inside.
“I want full immunity,” Sandoval said. “Give me that and I’ll steer you in the right direction.”
“Do you know who cut the gas line at the Brickhouse?” Preston demanded.
Kim looked over at Paul. They already knew that answer.
“Patience,” Paul whispered. “Preston is good at this.”
“No, but I’ve got a pretty good idea who was behind it and why,” Sandoval responded.
“Keep talking. We need to know that what you have is worth something,” Preston said.
He shook his head. “No way. You first.”
“Okay, I’ll drop the charges for attempted assault on a police officer,” Preston said. “Your turn.”
“No weapons charge, either,” Sandoval said.
Preston shrugged. “If what you’ve got leads to a conviction on an attempted murder case, I’ll take this to the D.A. Otherwise, no deal.”
“Maybe you should rethink that. I’m also probably the last person to have seen your foster father alive, and it wasn’t under the best of circumstances. I was there to take something back, and he caught me.”
As she watched, Kim saw Rick’s face turn to stone. His jaw was clenched and so were his fists.
“I went to retrieve something for Angelina Tso—now Curley.”
“We already know she recorded some of his Sings,” Preston said.
“There was more to it than that. Angelina also went through your foster father’s stuff and took photos of other things, like the list of Plant People who could harm. He caught her and demanded she erase everything, but she refused. He grabbed the cell phone but couldn’t erase the images without knowing her password. He refused to give it back until the photos were erased.”
“Why didn’t he just take the memory card?” Preston asked.
“Maybe there wasn’t one, or he didn’t know how to delete the files. Anyway, Angelina hired me to steal the phone back, so I did. The old man caught me, though, and we had a...confrontation. He lost and I took the phone.”
“You—” Rick dived toward him, but Preston got in the way and pushed him back. “Not now!”
Rick pulled himself together in an instant. Only the deadly set of his jaw revealed the rage inside him.
“Do you believe Angelina retaliated against Hosteen Silver after that?” Preston asked.
“Yeah. He threw her out, so she couldn’t become a medicine woman. Angelina was really pissed off. She didn’t think she’d done anything wrong, since she’d paid to learn from him. When you came back home,” he said, looking at Rick, “she offered me a new pickup if I got rid of ‘the marked man.’ She said you were the only one who could connect her with his disappearance. I told her to go fix her own problems.”
“You turned her down? Why should I believe that?” Preston asked.
“Taking on one of you amounts to taking on the whole damned family. I’m not afraid of jail, but I’m not stupid,” Sandoval said.
“You seem to know a lot, Sandoval,” Rick said. “How was my father poisoned?”
“Angelina’s niece—Bonnie—likes to talk, so I can make a good guess. Before she became his apprentice, Angelina and Hosteen Silver were friends,” he said. “He loved breakfast burritos, and Bonnie sold homemade ones with naniscaadas—handmade tortillas. Angelina would deliver some to him every morning when she came for her instruction. One time, after a rain, she got stuck driving through Copper Canyon. I understand you dug her out,” he added, looking directly at Rick.
“Was she still bringing Hosteen Silver food at around the time he disappeared? After they’d had the falling-out?” Preston queried.
“She wasn’t welcome there anymore, so no, but Angelina often helped get the orders ready and it’s possible her niece continued with the deliveries to Hosteen Silver.”
Rick turned to Preston. “We done here?”
“For now,” Preston responded, standing.
“What about me?” Sandoval asked.
“Once we confirm your story, we’ll discuss the deal,” Preston responded.
They were leaving the room when Rick’s cell phone vibrated, indicating a text message.
Rick looked down at the display as Preston closed the door behind them. He showed his brother the message from Detective Bidtah.
“‘The substance in the black paint splashed on your windshield is bad news,’” Preston read aloud.
“There’s more,” Rick said as a new message appeared.
Chapter Nineteen
As soon as they were out in the hall, Rick and Preston met with Paul and Kim. “The paint thrown onto the windshield contained corpse powder, just as I suspected,” Rick reported.
“There are some nasty things going on, then,” Preston said. “If we want to get to the bottom of it, we’re going to have to find Hosteen Silver’s body and have it tested for traces of poison. Without it, proving he was murdered will be impossible.”
“Let’s crash at Daniel’s, get some sleep and set out from the ranch house at first light. Each of us will choose a different path to Angelina’s old home. We can stay in contact via satellite phone,” Rick said, adding, “We’ll want Gene on this, too, so we need to get him down here ASAP. That means calling him tonight.”
“What about Detective Bidtah?” Paul asked.
“This kind of search isn’t tribal police business, not unless we find a body,” Preston said. “If we can prove there was a murder, then he has reason to open an investigation.”
“It would also be best not to tell anyone outside the family what we’re doing,” Preston advised. “It’ll upset members of our tribe. They’ll see what we’re doing as dangerous.”
“Maybe it is,” Rick admitted, “but it’s the only shot we’ve got left.”
* * *
KIM WOKE UP suddenly to the blast of a coach’s whistle. Paul, on the floor a few feet away, sat bolt upright.
“What the—?” Paul growled.
Daniel grinned, holding up the silver sports whistle. “We needed to wake up ready to go, and I thought this would help.”
“The aroma of coffee would have been nicer,” Kim muttered. She’d insisted on sleeping in one of the sleeping bags just like the others. The only way to be treated as an equal was never to ask for preferential treatment.
She reluctantly scrambled out of the warm bag, then quickly rolled it up and stowed it out of the way, memories of her days in the military flooding back to her.
“We’ll have a light breakfast and get under way. Take some of the protein bars and water bottles in the kitchen and put them in your backpacks, too.”
Rick stood. “One last thing. We all have to wear our medicine bags where they can be easily seen. If we need help or if another Navajo sees or guesses what we’re doing, we don’t want to be mistaken for skinwalkers.”
“Good thought,” Paul said.
After breakfast, they set out in separate vehicles. Preston rode in his private SUV in case he had to return to Hartley unexpectedly on police business. Daniel and Paul were together in one of their company SUVs.
Once they reached the entrance to Copper Canyon, Daniel would be taking
a foot trail toward the site of Angelina’s mobile home, joining up with Kyle, who’d meet him on the way. Paul would circle the outside walls of the canyon, looking for undiscovered trails that might have been a possible route if their father had actually continued out of the canyon. Later, he’d join Daniel and Kyle on the other side near the highway.
Gene had decided to take his pickup and drive outside the canyon along the highway, searching for foot trails crossing the main road. Later, he’d join Erin at the ranch house, where they’d act as a control center, coordinating the search and passing along information to the others.
Rick and Kim were to hike to the spot in the canyon where he’d found the notebook, then pass through the secret passage behind the house that led through the cliff walls to the highway. From there, they’d take the quickest route to Angelina’s old residence, based on the trails Gene or one of the others discovered.
It was ninety minutes into the plan when Rick and Kim stood beside the highway just west of the hidden passage. Rick consulted a topographic map that Daniel had provided to each of them. “Our trail will take us through that dry canyon I always avoided as a kid,” he said as they crossed the highway. They soon entered a wide, shallow arroyo that extended for miles in a sinuous path. “It’s that one, on your left,” he added, pointing. “This wash narrows up there, and passes right through the gap.”
“What bothered you about that place?” she asked, working to keep up with him in the soft ground. The trek, which would require them to walk uphill for at least three miles, was going to be harder than she’d expected.
“This becomes a narrow passage up there between two sandstone cliffs, and the shadowed side is full of caves dug into some of the softer layers of rock. I used to imagine mountain lions or coyotes hiding up there, waiting to pounce.”
“A boy’s imagination at work,” she said with a smile.
“One day I decided to face my fears, so I went up there with a flashlight and a pointed stick—my spear. It was near dusk, and I discovered that some of the shallow caves were habitats for bats. They all came flying out when I stepped inside with my flashlight. I’ve never been back since.”
“They don’t come out during this time of day, right?” she asked, not eager to face a dark cloud of bats.
“No, but because this is the quickest route to Angelina’s old home, it’s probably the path Hosteen Silver took. If I’m right about that, and he found he couldn’t make it all the way, he may have sought shelter, hoping to gather his strength. There are some bigger caves up there.”
“Makes sense.”
They approached a narrow pass flanked by steep hillsides, climbed out of the arroyo, which had narrowed and deepened, then walked along the steep slopes above the dry channel.
“Are those the caves you were talking about?” she asked, pointing up their side of the canyon. “They don’t seem so high off the ground.”
“You’re right. I guess my perspective has changed over the years.” He gazed at the caves, lost in thought. “If he was getting weak and the weather was turning bad, my gut tells me he’d have chosen the closest one large enough for a man to crawl into.” Rick reached down and touched his medicine pouch. “I’m going in.”
“Rick, let me check. This will be easier on me if we find a body. I’m also a lot smaller than you. Hand me the flashlight and I’ll take a look.”
“No, I have to be there. We can do it together, though,” he said, offering his hand. “Let’s climb.”
The cliff face was by no means vertical, sloping only about forty five degrees, and they didn’t need any special gear because of the many handholds and footholds available.
They reached the opening of the shallow cave several minutes later. On their knees at the entrance, he held out his arm, holding her back. “Let’s make sure there are no animals inside first.”
He brought out his flashlight. “No bats, but there’s a stationary figure deep in the shadows.”
“I see something back there, too,” she whispered.
Angling the flashlight as he leaned forward, resting on his elbows, he finally managed to illuminate the prone shape. He moved the beam around for a few seconds before turning it off.
“Is that him?” Kim asked softly.
“Yes, the heat and the desert appear to have mummified his remains, but that long silver hair and the custom belt buckle tell me all I need to know.” His voice was taut.
“He’s on his back, like he went to sleep. Would you like me to go over and check for a wallet or something else?” she asked, placing a gentle hand on his arm.
“No. I’ll radio my brothers once we’re back outside. Once they arrive we’ll photograph everything, check the cave for evidence, then put the body in a bag. If the tribe approves, we’ll take it to the office of the regional medical investigator in Hartley. Forensic people can check it out. If he was poisoned, then it’ll fall to Bidtah to investigate,” Rick said, his tone flat and emotionless.
Despite his determination to keep his emotions well under control, she knew he was hurting. Without thinking about it, she threw her arms around him. “I’m so sorry, Rick.”
“Searching for his body seems like a betrayal, but if he really was poisoned, letting his murderer go free would have been worse,” he said, holding on to her tightly.
“You followed your highest sense of right. He would have expected nothing less from you,” she said.
He eased his hold. “I have to let my brothers know,” he said, clearing his throat.
Once they were outside the cave, he contacted them. “Make sure we have two sets of gloves for everyone,” he added before ending the call. “Not for us but out of respect for him. Hosteen Silver would have wanted it that way.”
* * *
IT TOOK THEM two hours to get the body into the back of Preston’s vehicle.
“Gene, if you can help Preston deliver the remains, I’d like to continue on to where Angelina’s mobile home stood at one time and have a look around,” Rick said, then glanced at Kim. “You can come with me, or go back to the ranch house and we’ll meet there later.”
“I’m sticking with you,” she said.
“I’ll conduct a grid search from the cave where we found the body to see if there’s any other physical evidence that’ll explain his reasons for coming here,” Daniel said. “I’ll be in the area, so when you’re done, give me a call and I’ll either come and get you or meet you someplace.”
As Rick and Kim set out, she noticed how quiet he’d become. “Are you okay?”
“I guess.”
She took his hand. “You don’t always have to be so tough, Rick. We’re all human and that means we’re all vulnerable,” she said gently.
He gave her hand a squeeze. “Right now, you and I have to focus on one thing—life. We’re still in danger, so stay alert.”
Their route led them away from the canyon and onto a long, downhill slope with low, scattered piñon and juniper trees and waist-high sagebrush. They moved steadily but carefully, on the alert for danger now that the vegetation provided cover for anyone wanting to ambush them.
Soon, they spotted the worn tar-paper roof of a red outbuilding and a flat area cleared of everything but low grass and tumbleweeds. “That’s her barn, and to the left is the concrete slab where Angelina’s mobile home stood. Let’s go take a look around there.” He turned and looked back toward the canyon.
“My foster father got within a mile of her trailer before he died,” Rick observed. “There’s also the possibility that he actually got here, then crawled up into the cave on his way back. Let’s see if we can find a lead.”
“Like something that belonged to Hosteen Silver, or evidence she overlooked?”
“Exactly.”
As they approached, a flock of blackbirds flew up into the sky. He h
eld up his hand and stayed perfectly still, listening.
Kim froze and searched the area, her heart beating as fast as it had when on convoy duty in Afghanistan. Even little clues mattered in life-and-death situations.
Staying behind the cover of a thick juniper, they waited. Then she saw movement and, getting Rick’s attention, pointed.
Chapter Twenty
A moment later a coyote come out of the brush with a rabbit in its mouth. The successful hunter then trotted off, quickly disappearing.
“He’s found food, so he’s not interested in us,” Rick said, remaining on alert.
Sensing his uneasiness, she whispered, “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s seeing Coyote, the Trickster. That’s how he’s known in our legends,” he said. “Stay watchful and expect the unexpected.”
“All right.”
He looked around carefully, then called Daniel. “We’re going to move in on the property, but I’ve got a hunch someone is out there watching. Have you seen anyone, any vehicles?”
“Just a dust trail a while ago along a dirt road east of you. Probably a local. I’ll drive over to see if they parked or kept going. It’ll take a while for me to get there, so give me a call if you need anything. Be on the lookout for any surprises, like a bear or coyote trap. Whoever is doing this has tried just about everything so far.”
“Stay safe,” Rick added, ending the call. “All right, then,” he said to Kim, “let’s move in. Search for footprints or any indication that someone’s been by here. Daniel advised us to look for traps, just in case.”
He moved forward cautiously, but the birds had come back and all seemed normal as they approached the concrete pad. They circled the area, searching for anything interesting, but only found a few cinder blocks that had probably been used to help level the mobile home.
There were no signs that anyone had been there in quite a while. Cockle burrs, goat-heads and Russian thistle had already appeared in what had been a cleared area. The chain of succession had begun.
“Barns aren’t that common out here. Most people have sheep pens,” he said, looking over at the dark red building that was about the size of a one-car garage.
