Wild Wild Death

by Casey Daniels

  He stood up and pulled out my chair. “I ordered appetizers. I hope that’s okay.”

  It was sweet. I only hoped my stomach would settle down enough to eat. Me, nervous? It was so not my style, but on the way over, I’d made a big decision, and it was time to share it with Jesse. In anticipation, my heart was beating a cha-cha against my ribs.

  “I’m afraid I’m going to have to cut tonight short.” Jesse didn’t have to say he was sorry because I could see it in his eyes. “A couple FBI agents are on their way up from Albuquerque. Said they’d be in this evening. I’ve been keeping them informed every step of the investigation, but we’ve still got a lot to talk about.”

  Not exactly how I’d dreamed of spending the evening. And it meant I didn’t have time to stall. “Listen…” I plunked my elbows on the table and took a sip of my drink. “I’ve been thinking.”

  “Yeah, me, too.” Jesse had a glass of ice tea in front of him, and he added sugar and stirred. “There’s something I want to talk to you about.”

  “Good.” Another drink did nothing for the cha-cha, but it did taste good. “I’ve got something I want to talk to you about, too.”

  Stalemate or the opening I was looking for?

  I didn’t find out because that’s when Dan showed up.

  “Sorry to butt in.” Dan stood next to our table, shifting from foot to foot. He’d gotten a haircut since last I saw him, but he still looked like a shaggy puppy. He still looked miserable, too. Maybe that’s why Jesse took pity on him and waved to a nearby open table.

  “Pull up a chair,” he said. “Join us.”

  “No. I’m going to head over to the pueblo for that meeting we have with the FBI this evening.” Dan held out some papers toward Jesse. “I just wanted you to know that Pepper was right. I found these in with Cari—” He coughed and cleared his throat. “I found these medical reports in with Caridad’s things. She had lung cancer.” His voice was clogged with misery, but he went on. “I can’t believe it. She never said a thing to me about it, she just decided to handle things on her own. But that was Caridad. She was a strong woman. Like…” He poked his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “Like you, Pepper.”

  I gladly accepted the compliment. After all, after nearly getting marooned in the desert, choked to death, and thrown off a cliff, I deserved at least that much. I sipped my drink, thinking, and yes, gloating just a little.

  “Here’s something I don’t get,” I said, sipping done for the moment. “Will Kettle told us he saw you at Norma’s house. But why—”

  “I think I’ve got that figured out.” Jesse sat back in his chair. “Caridad called you and told you to come there, didn’t she?” he asked Dan, who nodded in reply. “Because…”

  “She said I’d find the bones there, and since I knew they were a real treasure to your people, I had to go look. Can you believe what a fool I was?”

  Neither Jesse nor I was cruel enough to answer.

  “She set me up,” Dan said. “She called that other guy and sent him over, right?”

  “Yeah.” Jesse confirmed. “We checked Caridad’s cell phone records. She’s the one who called Will Kettle and told him he could pick up his guitar.”

  “Just so this Will guy could see me there and that would make me look even more guilty.” He was still having trouble processing it; Dan shook his head and looked at Jesse. “Everything else?”

  “All confirmed. John and Gregory, the other two kidnappers, they’ve been picked up back in Cleveland and they’re talking their little hearts out. They did it for the baseball team, you know. All so that the curse could be lifted and the team can start winning again.”

  After all I’d seen in the Great Southwest, this sounded less crazy to me than it would have back home. “Goodshot’s buried,” I said. “Maybe they will start winning again.”

  “Maybe.” Dan back-stepped away from the table. “Pepper, I just want to tell you…”

  “Yeah, I know.” I waved away his concerns with one newly manicured hand, partly because I felt sorry for Dan, but mostly because I knew if I didn’t cut this short, I was going to lose Jesse for the rest of the evening, and I might never again have the nerve to bring up what I was going to bring up. What I hoped he wouldn’t think I was crazy for bringing up. “You were finally going to admit you have lousy taste in wives.”

  For the first time since that night on the mountain, Dan grinned. “Yeah,” he said. “Something like that. And I was going to tell you that you’re a good friend, and I appreciate it. I was going to say, too, that the next time I’m in Cleveland…” He made a face. “You know, now that I think about it, I probably won’t call you the next time I’m in Cleveland. Seems like every time I do that, I put you in some kind of mortal danger.”

  He didn’t say good-bye before he walked away. I was grateful. I also appreciated that, even though he didn’t know it, he’d given me the perfect opening.

  I swirled the little plastic straw in my drink. “Speaking of Cleveland…”

  “Exactly what I was going to say.” It wasn’t my imagination. Jesse was just as nervous as I was. Before I could even wonder why, he said, “At the pueblo. You know, when Strong Eagle performed the ritual… I was wondering, did you see anything?”

  Not exactly what I wanted to talk about so I sighed. Better get it over with. “You’re telling me you didn’t.”

  “I saw Strong Eagle. And a beautiful morning. And the smoke from the sage.”

  “But no ghosts?”

  “I felt…” Like he could still feel it, Jesse scraped his hands over his arms. “I felt something in the air. Like the electricity before a thunderstorm. I didn’t see a thing, though, but I was watching you. You were talking to somebody.”

  I grinned. “Goodshot says thanks for all your help.”

  A smile brightened Jesse’s expression. “You did see him. Does that mean…”

  “Ghosts are us. I’m back in business.”

  “Is that good news or bad?”

  I thought about it while I sipped my drink. “I’m not sure yet. In fact, there’s only one thing I am sure of.”

  He reached across the table and took my hand. “Yeah, me, too.”

  “And Jesse, I have to go back to Cleveland, and I’ve been thinking…”

  Apparently, I hesitated just a tad too long because at the same time I finally said what I’d been bracing myself to say, “I’d like you to come with me,” Jesse blurted out, “I want you to stay here.”

  We laughed. At least until we realized what the deadlock meant.

  “It’s great here,” I said, lying just a bit—I mean about the dust and the fact that there’s not always running water, and the lousy cell phone service and the coyotes and such. “It’s beautiful and you’re here and… but, well…” I held tight to his hand. “It isn’t home.”

  “And Cleveland wouldn’t be home for me, either. My family is here, and I’m not used to cities. I like the wide-open spaces, the mountains, and the sage.”

  “We could grow sage in the garden.”

  He appreciated my attempt at being funny and squeezed my hand. “My people are here. And yours are there. I was afraid this was how tonight might end.”

  Our waitress brought over tacos and burritos and set them down.

  “Hey, don’t look so gloomy,” Jesse said. “We’ve got time.”

  “Yeah.” I pushed the closest plate away. “And I’m suddenly not all that hungry anymore.”

  Jesse stood up and pulled me out of my chair. “I’ve got two hours,” he said. He tossed up a room key and caught it in one hand. “And I know exactly how I’d like to spend them.”

  It was a great two hours, and sometime during that time, we decided it would be easier—on both of us—if we just said our good-byes there in that room at the Taos Inn. So it was no wonder I was surprised when I was putting my suitcases in my car back at the motel in Antonito the next morning and Jesse pulled up in the Taopi Police vehicle.

  I slammed
my trunk closed. “I already spent the night being miserable,” I said as soon as he was out of the SUV. “So if you haven’t come to tell me you’re hopping in the Mustang and heading east with me—”

  He stopped me with a kiss. “Wish I could. I’ve got”—he poked a thumb over his shoulder back toward New Mexico and the pueblo—“meetings coming out the yin-yang today,” he said. “Everybody from the elders to the FBI. But I couldn’t let you leave without giving you this.”

  He opened his hand and the morning sunlight winked against a silver chain with a small silver charm on it, a bird. “It’s a raven,” Jesse said, carefully looping it around the still-red skin of my neck and fastening it. “And every time you look at it, I want you to remember that he is your spirit guide. He’s strong. Like you. And brave. Like you. He welcomes new experiences, but remembers the past.”

  “Like I’ll always remember my time here.” I closed my palm around the charm, and I know it sounds crazy, but I could swear I felt the warmth of the raven’s body and a sort of hum from deep inside it, the twin of what I’d felt from the sacred silver bowl. This was no ordinary bird, and it was no ordinary guy who’d given it to me.

  “Strong Eagle blessed it for you,” Jesse said, reading my mind. “He tells you to be safe, and to always remember that your Gift is special.”

  “Thanks.” It was my turn to kiss him, and when we were done, I knew I had to move, and fast. I got into the Mustang and wheeled out of the parking lot and I was almost strong enough to just keep going. Even though I knew it was going to make my heart crack in two, I couldn’t help myself. As I headed north out of the parking lot, I looked over my shoulder.

  Jesse was smiling.

  Without Goodshot, the ride back to Cleveland wasn’t nearly as interesting as the ride out West. I made it in four days and could have done it faster except for that outlet mall in Nebraska. Shopping always helps, right? Well, it always had before. I tried my best, but by the time I got back to Cleveland, I was already missing Jesse and feeling blue. I was just headed past Garden View Cemetery and toward my apartment when my cell rang. Ella needed to see me ASAP.

  About a thousand reasons floated through my head—one of Ella’s teenaged daughters was in trouble, there had been a murder and nobody could seem to get a handle on it, Ella needed fashion advice.

  In fact, I thought of everything in the book except—

  “It’s good news and bad news, Pepper.” Since there were tears streaming down Ella’s face, it was hard to decide which was which. Her cheeks were a cherry red that matched the suit she was wearing. “We’ve had quite a bit of commotion around here today, Pepper. Jim… our administrator… well, of course you know Jim. He was the one who instituted all those austerity measures. Staff doing landscaping work, and going through the trash for recyclables and—”

  “Picking staples out of old memos so we could reuse the paper.” I’d never forgive Jim for the damage he’d done to my nails. “Of course I remember all that, Ella. Jim’s budget cuts, that’s why I lost my job.”

  “Jim’s budget cuts… Well, it turns out…” We were the only ones in Ella’s office, but she lowered her voice, anyway. “We were operating in the red because Jim was cooking the books. He had an off-shore account somewhere and was planning on disappearing with all the cemetery’s money.”

  Not something I was expecting and I dropped into Ella’s guest chair, my mouth open.

  My question was only natural. “You’re sure?”

  “There’s been a big investigation and the news came down this afternoon. Jim’s outta here.” To demonstrate, Ella zipped a finger across her neck. “The police took him away an hour ago.”

  “That’s terrible,” I said.

  “It is.” Nobody is as sympathetic as Ella. Except that she was smiling. “But the good news is…” She drew in a deep breath. “The board of directors has asked me to take Jim’s job. Pepper, I hate to take advantage of another’s misfortune, but…” Her grin was as bright as the New Mexico sun. “After all these years of hard work, I’ve been promoted. I’m the new administrator of Garden View Cemetery!”

  It was well deserved and I jumped to my feet and gave her a hug. “But who—”

  “Community relations manager, yes.” Still smiling, Ella circled around her desk and sat down. “It’s a big job. Not only is that person responsible for our tours, but for our newsletter, for being a liaison with the media, for our speakers bureau and public relations. I know you can do it.”

  “Me?” Yeah, I was sitting again, but that was because my knees had turned to rubber.

  The phone on Ella’s desk rang. “Jennine was supposed to ring me when the board was reconvening so I’ve got to go. They’ll want an answer. What do you say, Pepper?”

  I looked around her office—my new office—and I didn’t have to say a thing. Humming, Ella scurried out.

  And I got up, walked around to the other side of the desk, and sat down.

  Just like that, I was back at Garden View. Working with the dead.

  Right where I belonged.