She shook her head. “Are we ready to get out of here?” Elizabeth wanted to get them back to the reservation before the media arrived and began asking questions they didn’t have the answers to at that moment.
“Christina, you ready to wrap the scene?” Blackhawk shouted to his tech.
“Yeah boss, we’re ready.”
“Okay, let’s saddle up team. It’s time to get back to the lab to get to work. I need everything possible at this point.” Elizabeth meandered to the Denali, ignoring the questions from the people gathering.
Once inside the confines of the car, she spilled everything that she and Tori learned from Carly Kester. It wasn’t much, but at least it gave them a timeline to begin working with.
“So she had sex with him, they drank beer, and he dropped her at her door.” Callen reiterated.
“Yeah. So our killer hung out here and waited for the man to arrive home?” Elizabeth didn’t buy it. “I think he probably was following Duffy. It wasn’t like the sheriff was a man that deviated from his plan. Every Friday he got drunk and tried to get laid. The killer would have to know that. If he was at Sal’s watching him, how’d he know he wouldn’t bring Carly home or go to her house?”
“He wouldn’t without knowing his basic routine.”
“Exactly,” she stated. “Our killer is patient and watching the victims. He knew what would get Andrew Sumner to the fence. The killer knew that Jeff Hopper was truffling on Native land. Then toss in the big one with William Boyd. We had our best tracker at his house, and although Julian was feeling something was off, he didn’t notice the hidey hole.”
“So he knew his targets personally, or he was stalking them,” stated Callen.
“I agree with you. We have a man blending in and following the victims. It’s very reminiscent of the legend of the skinwalkers. They merge with their surroundings and track their prey,” Ethan stated.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “I expect that from Callen, not from you. You’re too damn logical to even bring it up.”
Whitefox laughed. “I think I’ve been insulted.”
She smirked. “Let’s head back to the lab and make sure the staff is getting started on the evidence we pulled. I want to put the pressure on and have something by morning.”
“Then we need to head home, check on the kids, feed the one you’re carrying, work on a profile and fill in a whiteboard,” added Ethan. “It looks like another slow Saturday date night at the Blackhawk-Whitefox home.”
Elizabeth laughed. “One of these days I’m going to take you up on this date night thing. I haven’t seen one of those in… ever.”
Blackhawk winked at his woman. “If we get home by next Saturday, I’ll show you a good time.”
His brother snorted. “I call Sunday night!”
Pulling into the parking lot, they weren’t alone. Waiting for them was their tracker’s twin, leaning against his truck.
“Hey Justin, what’s up?” inquired Julian, noticing the look on his brother’s face. Something was definitely bothering him.
“I need to talk to you all,” he said, walking towards them. “Can we talk in private?” he questioned.
Blackhawk led the way. “Cal, can you make sure the team gets into the lab and started?”
“Can do,” he replied, taking over for his brother and getting the tech team settled in to begin sorting the new evidence.
Justin followed his brother into the building and down the hall to the room they were using as their office space. Once the door was closed, they all took a seat.
“What can we do for you, Justin?” asked Elizabeth. The man looked a little rattled and that didn’t bode well. He was a Marine with three tours under his belt. Whatever had him shaken up was bigger than insurgents, bombs and terrorists.
“After mom told us about dad, I started getting curious. She tends to keep just about everything. The woman has all our drawings from when we were kids. While she was out today with her women’s group, I did something sneaky, underhanded and pretty low, and I’m not proud about it.”
Julian stared at his twin. For Justin to sound this raw and torn up, it had him worried. If he had to describe the man, he’d say honorable, trustworthy and diligent. “What did you do, Justin?”
“Know the old chest in her bedroom? The one that she always forbade us to play in, around or near?” he said, staring at his hands.
“Yeah, it was dad’s trunk and we never listened to her warning to avoid it. What about it?” Julian waited for his brother to answer him.
“I searched it. You had me thinking. The other day you mentioned something about a white feather of dad’s, and it just stuck with me. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, because I swear I remember seeing it too.”
“Okay, and?”
Elizabeth tried to be calm, but she really wanted the man to hurry up and dump the details. She was getting that tingle on the back of her brain that said there was a big piece of the puzzle coming.
“I found something,” he said, pulling a plastic bag from his back pocket. He handed it to his brother and leaned back in his chair. “Mom had it saved in a box. I don’t know the significance of it, but I hope you do.”
Unwrapping the package cautiously, Julian stared down at it. “It’s a white feather and a journal.”
“I believe it’s the one that was found with dad when he was killed,” Justin said. “The journal lists everything that was happening on the council for that year. Dad kept a record of everything they discussed or voted on, and a list of people he liked and disliked too.”
The room went silent.
“Mom swiped the evidence.”
~ Chapter Sixteen ~
Sunday Evening
Immediately, Elizabeth pulled gloves from her purse. “Don’t touch it, Julian,” she stated, taking it delicately from the plastic. “Justin, did you handle the feather?”
He shook his head. “It was wrapped in that plastic. I only touched the outside to unroll it.”
Blackhawk watched over his wife’s shoulder, as she delicately freed the potential evidence.
“I think mom kept them after dad was killed as a memento of his life. I didn’t see anything else of his in the chest.”
Elizabeth glanced over at her husband. “We need to have this analyzed and the journal scanned for anything pertinent.”
Blackhawk agreed. “I’ll get Christina and a tech on it as soon as possible. They’ll make copies of the entries, and treat it with the respect it deserves.”
Both men were grateful that they were willing to keep the journal from being destroyed. It was possibly the only surviving thing from their father.
“I feel horrible that I went digging in our mother’s things and violated her trust. She deserves her privacy and past, but this whole thing has me all shaken up.” Justin said, standing. “I just want it solved. I want to move on with my life and not have to live trapped in this past. It hurt as a child to know our dad was dead, but to find out he was murdered is more than I can handle. All these years and we never thought to find the person that took his life. How can his spirit rest peacefully?”
Julian understood where he was coming from, because he had been thinking the same thing. Had the violence of his father’s death kept him from moving on to the Great Spirit and peace? As Natives, it was their belief that everyone’s essence would cross. Had his father been trapped here waiting for all these years to have peace? It was hard to swallow.
“I’ve got to get out of here and away from that,” the man stated, pointing at the feather. “See you later, Jules.”
Everyone watched him go.
Julian stood, unable to leave it at that. Even as boys, he’d always been the one that soothed it all over, and now was no different in his eyes. Justin needed help through this. “I’ll be back,” he stated, following his brother from the office.
Elizabeth placed the journal and feather on the desk. “I can help,” she said, pulling off the gloves.
She nodded, hoping her friend could drag the man she loved and his brother out of the pain threatening to drown them.
“Justin! Wait up!” shouted his brother. “We need to talk about this!” Julian couldn’t remember the last time he saw his brother this worked up about something. If anything, his twin was the jovial lighthearted one that rarely took anything serious. Maybe it was because he saw death so much in life as a soldier, that it offended him when it touched his personal existence.
“I don’t want to talk, Julian. I’m going home to drink a boatload of beer and pass out. I don’t need words of wisdom from you regarding how our mother lied to us our whole damn lives.” The anger surfaced and the volatile brew bubbled over. Yeah, he was mad as hell at her.
“Justin, come on!” Julian finally caught up with his brother and grabbed him by the arm, trying to stop him.
It was the worst possible thing to do. Justin lashed out, striking his brother in the face, grazing his cheek, and taking him to the ground. They rolled around getting in their jabs.
Elizabeth got there in time to see Julian take a gut shot, and she winced for him. Dropping the tailgate of Justin Littlemoon’s truck, she hopped up and sat there, waiting for the storm to pass. It wasn’t the first set of brother’s she’d seen kick the crap out of each other in anger. Ethan and Callen had been known to do it once and while, when they both lost their tempers. It had to be a brother thing, a Native thing, or possibly it was both at this point.
Who knew?
Justin tasted blood and finally calmed down. “I’m sorry,” he stated, lying prone on the ground, while his brother pinned his arms beside him. “I’m sorry, Jules.” All the rage was gone at that point.
“You aren’t the only one pissed off over all of this, Justin. I get the anger. It hurts to know she could have told us and had all these years to heal. I know how you’re feeling. Our father was murdered, how do you get over that?”
Elizabeth took that as her cue to make her presence known. “You don’t boys. I can tell you that a part of you carries that with you the rest of your life.”
Justin stared up at her, temper rushing back at the woman’s words. “Thanks for the advice, but you don’t know how I feel, FBI.”
She patted the spots beside her and tossed it right back at him. “Yes I do, Marine. My father was murdered and for a full year I believed he died of a heart attack. When I found out there was guilt, pain and utter devastation that I didn’t know the truth.”
Julian rolled off his brother and moved towards Elizabeth. He’d never heard this from her before. “I’m sorry to hear about your dad, Elizabeth.”
She nodded, again patting the tailgate. “To add insult to injury, it was my step mother and brother that did it. They stole him away out of anger and left a hole in my heart.”
Justin hopped up beside her. “That sucks.”
Elizabeth smiled gently at him. “I had to have him exhumed to find out what happened. It was the hardest day of my life,” she answered honestly. “I will tell you this. The pain lessens as time passes. When you think about it, you don’t hurt as much. Once I found his killer, I was able to put it to bed here,” she touched her heart. “Cut your mom a break. We all react differently to loss. Look at what you two just did.”
Julian sighed. “I’m angry at her too. I want to yell and scream.”
“So yell and scream, but beating the hell out of each other isn’t going to solve anything. You’re brothers and a team. Yeah, you have sisters and another brother, but you’re identical. You’re one egg that split in half. There’s no other relationship in this world that’s closer than that. You both came from the same place and same small beginning.” Elizabeth rubbed her stomach. “You want to find justice, I’ll help you. You want to beat the hell out of each other in anger; you’re on your own.” She hopped down. “I’m going to take that feather down to the lab and take a look in your father’s book. I’ll let you know what I find.”
The brothers sat there and didn’t speak for a few minutes. Finally, Julian broke the silence. “I’ll find who killed him.”
Justin hugged him. “I know you will. Keep yourself safe.” Apologies weren’t needed between them and neither were words. The two men had always had each other’s backs their entire lives and that would never change.
He patted Justin on the shoulder, heading back into the office to keep his promise.
Elizabeth found her team downstairs in the lab with the techs, as they were doing their thing. The doctors were working on a few reports silently, and the rest of the personnel were rushing around to find anything in the samples they collected.
“What do we have?” she asked, standing between both her men and linking her arms through theirs, connecting them.
Christina spoke up. “We have the feather from Sheriff Duffy’s body analyzed. It matches the others and like the first two, it isn’t real.”
Ethan handed her the feather that was found with Blake Littlemoon’s body. “Can you run an analysis on this?”
She stared at it. “It’s not the same as the others. This one has a different shaft or stem. It’s similar but not quite a match.” Christina stared at the tip and grabbed a pair of tweezers. “I have a stray thread,” she said, as one of the techs held the little container open for her.
“Thread?” inquired Elizabeth.
Christina pulled on micro goggles to get a closer look at the string. “Yeah, and there’s needle holes in the shaft. It looks like this feather was sewn into something.”
Ethan knew exactly where that feather came from. “In authentic warbonnets, the feathers are sewn into the leather strapping. In mass produced reproductions they’re glued.”
Elizabeth considered his words. “Can you tell me if that’s a real feather, Christina?”
She nodded and snipped a piece of the feathers into a small vile. “I can test them chemically, but I can also guess if you want?”
Both Doctors Leonard and Magnus looked appalled at the words. They weren’t big on speculation.
The team laughed when the ME made a sound somewhere between an objection and choking noise.
“Well, not so much as guess, but observe scientifically the similarities and differences between the feathers.”
Chris Leonard relaxed at her rephrasing. “Thank you, that was so much better.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “Okay, real or fake, Christina?”
She stared at the feather and ran her fingers over the fine details, and then finally glanced up. “In my opinion, this is a real feather. When you stare at the fronds closest to the stem, there isn’t any seaming like on the manufactured feather. It’s all one piece.”
“Test it for confirmation. We want one hundred percent certainty.” Blackhawk wanted no room for error.
She continued, “I also tested your peyote. We had a sample of dried herb dropped off and brought down.” Christina pulled up her report on her tablet and shot it over to Elizabeth, Ethan and Callen’s electronic equipment for later access.
“And?” Callen asked, glad that the man complied with their request.
“We took some and burned it, and it indeed has the exact chemical reaction, make up, and composition as the peyote we found in the extinguished fire.”
Callen started laughing. “You had a peyote party and didn't invite the Natives?” He grunted when Elizabeth gave him a firm jab to his ribs. “Ouch.”
His brother wisely kept his comment to himself or he’d be next.
Elizabeth ignored him and considered what she was saying. “How many different types of peyote are there?”
Christina tapped her chin. “There’s one main plant. That’s the Lophophora williamsii. The sample we obtained isn’t strictly that species.
We have a definite hybrid and that means the combination and possibilities are endless. You’ll have a different looking cactus but you could retain all the hallucinations and drug effects.”
“Is the sample we received the original plant?”
She scanned the report and nodded. “You have the real deal, and we know that it had to be transported in from south of here. It’s not native to this location due to winter climate.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “So basically it’s a dead end and to find the plant I’d need four thousand agents and a small miracle.”
“Yes and no. You can’t trace it to a source. It’s too common and totally illegal, but I can tell you that it’s generally used in rituals and religious rights so likely originated on a reservation. Only Natives can get permission to use it for ceremonies.”
Tori thought about it. “Anyone else find it a coincidence that the shaman had access to it and does ritualistic rites, and so does the killer?”
Julian strolled in at that moment, hearing the conversation he added what he knew. “I remember my dad using it with the council for ceremonies. He once said they used it to channel the Great Spirit. It helped them make the appropriate decisions for the tribe.”
Elizabeth considered what they were saying. “Again we’re pointed back at the council. First we have a shaman with access and now a whole council known to use it.”
Tori went to Julian’s side and ran her fingers over the red mark on his cheek. Gently, she placed a kiss over it and wrapped her arms around his waist.
He dropped a kiss to her forehead, grateful to have her drain away most of his stress with a simple touch.
“Christina run everything and send me the reports,” stated Ethan, glancing down at his watch. “When everything’s processed, head out for the night.”
She nodded. “Absolutely boss.”
“We’re going to be working out of our rental tonight if anyone needs us,” Elizabeth added. “Julian and Tori will be there with us. Get his father’s journal copied. I want it back to him by tomorrow to return to his mother. Am I clear team?”
Darkness Of Truth (An FBI/Romance Thriller~ Book 6) Page 42
