Winter Hawk's Legend

by Aimée Thurlo

  Daniel glanced back at her, expecting Holly to be close to panic. Instead he found that she’d pulled a chair over to the sink, and was fighting to open the kitchen window.

  “This danged thing won’t budge, either,” she said, thumping the wood with the heel of her hand.

  “Get back. I’m going to break it out.” Daniel picked up the small microwave oven from the kitchen counter, unplugged the cord, then threw the appliance into the glass. The window shattered as the oven flew outside. The opening was now big enough for them to crawl through. Daniel grabbed an oven mitt from a cup hook on the cabinet and started to break away the slivers of glass that still clung to the frame.

  Before he could finish the job, a gunshot shook the house and a bullet whistled past his ear, striking the wall behind him. He ducked away, grabbed Holly and pushed her to the floor. The room was already so full of smoke it was like moving through a toxic fog.

  “There’s a fire in the attic and we’re trapped. He’s won,” she said, her voice breaking. “Either he shoots us or we burn to death.”

  “He won’t be able to stick around much longer. Others will hear the gunshot, and once people look outside or smell smoke, they’ll call for help. Police and fire trucks will respond and the area will be filled with people. He has to take off and we have to stay alive long enough for help to reach us.”

  As Holly started to cough, Daniel grabbed a hand towel from the kitchen island, wet it under the sink faucet, then handed it to her. “Breathe through this, and stay as close to the floor as you can. Smoke rises.”

  He found a dishcloth, then soaked it for himself. Once back on the floor beside Holly, he studied the interior as far as he could see. The gray smoke seemed thickest around the den. They’d have to avoid that section.

  “I’m for getting out of here. Let’s go try a bedroom window,” he said.

  “Hallway, to the left.”

  They worked their way toward the front of the house, crouching as low as they could. As they went past a doorway, he turned his head to check on Holly. Before he could stop her, she ducked into the living room, reached for something on the top shelf of the bookcase and stuck it in her jacket pocket.

  “No! Don’t try to salvage anything now. Focus on getting out of here,” Daniel yelled.

  A coughing spasm made him realize how thick and toxic the air was now. He continued moving, now on his hands and knees, the moist dish towel tied around his face, protecting his lungs. As he made his way down the hall, he felt a rough grid against his knees and looked down. “You’ve got a floor furnace,” he said.

  “Yeah.”

  “Help me lift the register,” he said. “If we can slip down into the crawl space, we can get away from the heat and smoke.”

  “What if the heater comes on? We’ll be roasted.”

  Daniel coughed, then with effort forced himself to stop. It was getting hot and the smoke was building to dangerous levels. “No choice,” he yelled, trying to be heard over the din of the smoke alarm on the ceiling overhead. “Fire’s blocking the way forward,” he said, shifting and letting her see the flames ahead along the wall where curtains had ignited.

  Daniel focused on the metal grill, checking for possible hinges, then stuck his fingers in the grid and yanked. The large, rectangular metal cover came completely loose. Below, he could see the old-school pilot light by one of the burners.

  “Can you squeeze down on the left side?” he asked, pointing into the hole.

  “I think I can wiggle through.” Holly scooted over, dropping her legs over the edge. “How far down before I reach the ground?”

  Daniel could now see flames coming from the kitchen and living room. “Doesn’t matter. Work your way down fast, then grab on to anything that looks solid.”

  Slipping around the metal structure, she wriggled down into the darkness.

  “My turn,” Daniel said as something crashed to the floor in the next room and flames flared out along the floor, extending into the hall.

  Daniel brushed past the warm metal furnace and felt the tip of his boots touch soft dirt. Ducking down, he inched along the ground in a deep crouch.

  The air wasn’t bad here except for the strong scent of dust and dirt. Ahead, he could see Holly on her knees beside a concrete foundation pillar. The heavy floor beams were covered in cobwebs and the entire crawl space smelled funky and damp, but they could breathe.

  “I’m turned around down here,” she called out. “Which way to the back of the house?”

  Daniel studied the plumbing as he inched over beside her. “That way,” he said, pointing. “Why?”

  “That’s where the crawl space door is,” Holly said. “Do you think he nailed or glued it shut?”

  “Even if he did, I can probably kick that open,” Daniel said.

  There was a loud crash, then sparks and flames erupted as part of the floor broke through, bringing something down into the crawl space with them.

  “My old wardrobe.” Holly tried to swallow back her tears. “The fire’s destroying everything I love.”

  “It’ll take us, too, unless we get out of here before the gas line ruptures. Head for the back wall.”

  The glow of the fire now illuminated their way. Fifteen seconds later, on hands and knees, they stopped by the small door, barely three-feet wide and two-feet high. Daniel pushed against it, but it didn’t move.

  Muttering an oath, he brought up his knees and kicked hard near the left edge of the door. It swung open, revealing two pink slippers attached to a pair of legs.

  “Here she is!” a woman cried out. “Help! Over here!”

  “Lois, my next door neighbor,” Holly told Daniel, taking the hand the woman offered.

  FIREMEN WERE ALREADY PULLING up when Holly and Daniel reached the front yard. One of her neighbors had broken the window on Holly’s old pickup and rolled the vehicle out into the street, so it hadn’t burned along with the house.

  Daniel’s SUV, parked along the curb, was also untouched. EMTs checked them out for smoke inhalation, then pronounced them lucky, and in good shape.

  Holly stood back in the street, looking at the still-blazing pile of rubble that had once been her home. The only recognizable feature that remained intact was the brick chimney, and it glowed from the intense heat. She swallowed hard, sure she was going to be sick.

  As a kid, she’d repeatedly lost the things she loved every time she and her dad had left town—usually in the dead of night. Her father’s love of gambling had invariably brought enemies to their doorstep, and if not that, then bill collectors or court clerks carrying a summons.

  She’d made her own home into a fortress of sorts, filling it with treasures she’d believed would never be taken away from her, but fate was having the last laugh. As she watched helplessly, fire stripped her of everything that had defined her. Only one small keepsake remained, what she’d managed to pluck off the shelf at the last minute.

  As the flames slowly receded, Holly felt as if a piece of her were disappearing along with the thin gray smoke that rose upward into the dark sky. Though her heart was breaking, she couldn’t take her eyes off the glowing embers the fire hoses had yet to quench.

  Daniel came to stand beside her, and placed his arm over her shoulders. “You can rebuild the house, Holly. It’ll be a new beginning for you.”

  “I’ve had too many of those fresh starts, and experience doesn’t make it any easier,” she said, giving him a thin smile.

  “What was it that you stopped to get out of the living room?” he asked.

  “A piece of my past, something I would never be able to replace.”

  Before Daniel could ask what it was, Preston joined them. He looked at Daniel, then at Holly. “You two look like hell, but I’m glad you’re okay,” he said bluntly. “What happened?”

  Daniel gave him the highlights, suggesting that his brother work with the fire marshal to determine why they couldn’t open either door. “Someone in the neighborhood may have seen whoev
er did that,” Daniel said.

  “I’ll handle it. Did either of you get a look at your assailant?” Preston asked.

  Holly shook her head. “Not me.”

  “This wasn’t an in-your-face type of attack,” Daniel said. “He set a trap, then waited. We never saw him.”

  “Is it possible Ross…” Holly asked, leaving the question hanging.

  “No. We’ve had an officer watching his place. He never left,” Preston said.

  “So we’re back to square one,” Daniel said.

  “Less than that,” Holly said. “At square one I had a home.”

  “Find a place to stay,” Preston said, “but avoid any location that’s logical to anyone who knows anything about you.”

  “My place is well guarded,” Daniel said.

  Preston shook his head. “If he knew where she lived, it’s more than likely he knows all about you, too. Give me some time to get manpower in place around your office and set up some patrols in that area before you take her back there. I’ll need till morning, at least.”

  “I hate motels,” Holly said, her voice flat and far away as she remembered days long past.

  “Think of something,” Preston said. “Meanwhile, while you two hole up, I’ll talk to everyone here. Do you think any of your neighbors have security cameras?” he asked, looking around.

  Holly gave him an exhausted, sad smile. “Probably not. This has always been a quiet neighborhood. Trouble here was usually limited to Mrs. Sanchez’s tomcat, and his forays into Mr. Goldberg’s greenhouse. We do have one well-meaning busybody who’s always watching out her window. Mrs. Harris might be able to help you. I hear she’s even got a telescope.”

  “Where does she live?” Preston asked.

  Holly pointed down the block. “Three houses down, but if she’d seen anyone hanging around, like the guy who tampered with the back door and windows, she would have called your department in a flash.”

  “I’ll speak to her. In the meantime, lay low until you hear from me,” Preston said.

  Daniel nodded once, then led Holly back to his SUV. He’d moved it to make room for a fire truck.

  “You hate this as much as I do,” she said, noting Daniel’s grim expression as they set out. “You want to go on the offensive and draw him out.”

  “Yeah, I do, but my assignment is to keep you safe.”

  “I won’t be safe as long as he’s out there. He’s taken my home, and if he keeps this up, he’ll make it impossible for me to continue my work. My company will fold, and then I’ll have nothing left. I need to fight him now before he ruins my life completely.”

  “When you fight an opponent like this one, both sides get bloody. It’s a dirty business,” he said, pulling away.

  “He’s destroying me one piece at a time. I’ve got to strike back.” Her voice broke, and she fell silent. “What this man has taken from me is more than just my house. It was the home I loved. Living there also made me part of that wonderful neighborhood. I’d made a place for myself there. Now everything’s changed.”

  As a foster kid who’d never belonged anywhere until Hosteen Silver took him in, he understood the need to carve out a place for yourself. “It might seem almost impossible to you now, but you’ll recover from this.”

  “Not as long as he remains out there, waiting.” She took a slow, deep breath. “I want my life back, and that means we need to come up with a plan to catch him.”

  “He’ll find out pretty soon that we’re both alive and well. Then he’ll come after us again. That’s when we’ll make our move,” Daniel said. “It’s all about strategy and timing.”

  Holly leaned back into her seat as they headed down the highway. “So where to now?”

  “Deep into the Rez.”

  “What if we’re tailed?”

  “We haven’t been,” he said. “I’ve kept an eye out.”

  He made a sudden right turn that left her grabbing for the door handle to keep her balance. “Hey—”

  “Just making sure.” He looked in the rearview mirror again. “Nope. No one there.”

  Daniel had an unshakable confidence, and from what she’d seen so far, it wasn’t misplaced. She wished she could have given him and Preston more help. “This man always comes at me out of nowhere. I wish I could figure out who he is so I can end this once and for all.”

  “What we have to do next is go back to our original question—how and why he targeted you. I want you to expand that list of suspects by considering people you only have limited contact with, like a grocery clerk, for example. What kind of things do you do on a regular schedule? Think of all your activities throughout the course of a week.”

  “I go grocery shopping on Monday. Tuesdays I get gas. Wednesdays and Thursdays I work late at the office. Fridays and Saturdays I usually stay home. Sundays I have dinner at Simple Pleasures, and go for a walk around the neighborhood, talk to my neighbors, maybe go to our neighborhood association meeting. Afterward, I head home.”

  “Always on the same days?”

  “Yes. I tend to follow set schedules. That’s why I get everything done.”

  “While I keep driving, call Preston and tell him what you just told me.”

  She dialed the number Daniel had on speed dial and gave the detective the information, then she called her insurance company. At least she’d had the foresight to keep a copy of all her important papers in her office safe.

  When she ended the calls, she looked around and saw that they were heading west. They’d gone past the turnoff to the natural gas plant and were traveling even farther into the Navajo Nation. “How deep into the Rez are we going? Remember that I have to meet Martin early tomorrow. I need my job more than ever now, and I can’t afford to give him any reasons to start searching for a replacement.”

  “One thing at a time. We need to get through tonight first.”

  The reality of his words hit her hard. She swallowed and said nothing. Reaching into her purse, she felt for the one treasure she’d saved. It was all she had, but it reminded her of how far she’d come.

  “When you’re up against an enemy like this one, you need two things. One is endurance, and the other’s patience,” he said. “He’ll pay for what he’s done, Holly. That’s a guarantee.”

  Though she knew he was as good as his word, the fear in her heart remained. There was more than one kind of danger ahead. To trust, to hope…. That left you too open and vulnerable in a world that favored the strong.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Although the drive continued to take them farther west into the reservation, and they were now driving up a dirt road in the foothills, she hadn’t asked him again where he was headed. Daniel had respected her privacy by not pressuring her to tell him what she’d salvaged from her home. Now it was her turn. Honoring the Navajo sense of balance, she showed her trust in him by her silence.

  “Okay, go ahead and ask.” His voice was low and deep, and echoed with that ever-present hint of danger. “I know you want to know where I’m going. And don’t worry. I won’t press you for information about what you took out of your home.”

  “The two things are completely different. Our location impacts both of us because knowing where I am may help determine my survival. What I took….” She left it hanging.

  “Is personal?” he said, finishing the thought for her. “Then the two things aren’t as different as you might think. You’ll understand once we get there,” he said. Moments later, he pointed ahead. “The moon’s out, so once we round the bend, you’ll see it.”

  “It’s a log cabin,” she said, leaning forward, struggling to catch a glimpse through the pines.

  “Yes. That’s where we lived the first year we stayed with Hosteen Silver.”

  As they completed the turn, the place came into full view, resting against a hill. “It looks very small, particularly for three men.”

  “It is, and when we first arrived, there was no running water inside. Gene and I had to carry it uphill two
buckets at a time from the well down in a hollow. Let me tell you, for two city kids, that seemed like torture.”

  “I gather you two didn’t warm up to Hosteen Silver right away?”

  He laughed. “He scared the hell out of both of us, and keep in mind that we came from tough backgrounds. That man had a stare that could drill holes into you, and, well, that hataalii stuff…. We both saw him do things….” He shook his head. “I’d tell you, but you’d think I was nuts—and I wouldn’t blame you.”

  “I’ve worked for your tribe for years and have met many interesting people. I won’t judge. Just because I can’t explain it doesn’t mean it isn’t valid or real.”

  He considered it, then nodded. “Hosteen Silver was a healer, but he had another talent, too. He sometimes knew things before they happened. When he told you something good—or bad—was coming, it would happen as he said.”

  “That’s an amazing gift,” she said.

  He nodded slowly. “He could stargaze, something not all hataaliis can do. He’d stare at a crystal or at the sky and see things no one else could. Yet most of the time he’d refuse to tell us what he saw because he didn’t want to clear the path ahead for us. He believed that the ability to meet a challenge was the real measure of a man.”

  “He sounds like a remarkable person. I wish I’d have known him.”

  “I think he would have liked you,” Daniel said.

  She couldn’t help but smile. “Why, because I keep an open mind?”

  He shook his head. “No, because you have the strength to take whatever life throws at you. Losing your home cut you to the bone and I know you’re hurting inside, but you refuse to fall apart.”

  “Do you want to know what really gets to me about all this? It was my father’s lifestyle that attracted this kind of trouble, not mine. I’ve spent my entire adult life playing by different rules. I don’t understand why or how violence found me.”

  “The Diné believe that good and evil coexist, each keeping the other in check. You can’t escape either, because both are a part of life.”

  A moment later Daniel parked in front of the wood cabin. “Let’s go. This late at night, and at this altitude, it’s extremely cold, so we need to get inside. It’s not five-star lodging, but these days it does have running water. Mind you, there’s no hot water, but you can heat it in the wood-and-coal stove.”