The Ties That Bind (27 page)

She kissed my neck and extricated herself, looking past me. "Someone's coming."

We all turned. Sure enough, a cloud of dust approached us from the south. "Maybe it's Tom Manyhorses," I offered. "The road ends at his place." I hoped it was. If he stopped, we could talk to him a little bit. The cloud drew closer, pulled by what looked like a white pickup truck. It was, and it slowed when the driver realized there was another vehicle out here and people standing around. A big truck, with dualie back tires and an extended cab. The kind of truck that inhabited rural areas like this.

The driver pulled over to the right-hand side across from Sage's car, passenger wheels off the graded part of the road, and turned off the engine. I saw him through the windshield, a man in sunglasses and a white cowboy hat. He took his sunglasses off and placed them on the dashboard before he opened the door and got out, pushing the brim of his hat back a bit as he approached. Dust from the road coated the toes of his cowboy boots and the hems of his jeans. He was built like a barrel with legs, and his arms seemed too long for his torso. He wore a faded denim shirt tucked into his jeans, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

"Nestor called me," he said in a slow baritone. "Thought you might be out here soon. I'm Tom Manyhorses." He didn't offer his hand but he smiled, maybe a little sad. "I'm sorry for your loss," he said, looking first at Sage then at River.

Damn. How does anybody get away with anything out here?
I nodded at him. "K.C. Fontero. That's my sister Kara." I motioned toward her.

He braced his hands on his hips and addressed Sage and River again. "Nestor thought you might want to know what I saw," he said, voice rumbling up from his chest like distant thunder.

Sage crossed her arms over her chest and River put a hand on her shoulder. "I would," she said, and Manyhorses pursed his lips for a couple seconds then nodded again.

"It was Wednesday, almost two weeks ago. I had to go to town that day and I hadn't been since the Thursday before." He brushed at his face, as if trying to dissuade a fly. "I don't drive too fast on this road, since it's got some bad spots. He was wearing a red shirt, so I saw him--" Manyhorses motioned in the direction of the stake with his chin, and looked at Sage, checking to make sure she wanted him to continue. She didn't stop him, so he did. "He was...facedown. Looked like he'd been out here a while."

I didn't ask him what made him conclude that. I'd seen the autopsy report. Nor did I ask him if he'd gone over to Bill's body. Chances were, he hadn't, because of Navajo beliefs.

"I had my cell phone with me," Manyhorses said after a brief silence. "I called my nephew, who's with the tribal police, and waited for him to get here." He stood, quiet for a moment, looked at his feet, then back at Sage. "I went to Shiprock with the tribal police and gave another statement to the Farmington police. And the agent." He shrugged then and gazed out at the rock formation. "This road doesn't see many people," he continued, still staring toward
Tse Bi dahi
. "It's isolated." He turned back to Sage. "And not a place to be after dark."

Something in the way he said it brought the creepy feeling back that I'd gotten talking about witches with Chris. He rubbed his jaw, an almost pensive gesture. Kara glanced at me, expression unreadable.

"Is this a place you'd bring someone if you wanted to scare him?" Sage asked the question that was on my mind.

Tom studied Sage for a long moment. "This is a place where bad things can happen. Not a place to be after dark," he repeated.

"Mr
.
Manyhorses--" I started, then stopped, trying to decide how to ask my next question. "Did you--did you notice anything that you thought was strange when you saw him?" I avoided using Bill's name.

"I didn't get very close," Manyhorses said, and he sounded like he regretted not being able to help us more. "But from what I saw, he had all his clothes. And the way he was lying on the ground, I did see one of his arms. It had a rope tied on it." He shook his head. "Somebody brought him out here."

"You don't think he was already dead when somebody brought him out here?" I asked, pushing a little. Kara shot another inscrutable look at me.

He was silent, considering. "No. Because if this somebody wanted to make sure he was never found, he would've driven past my turn-off. This road ends there, but there's an old road that goes on past that--a two-rut path, anymore, that goes south for a bit then a couple tenths of a mile east. You can't drive it unless you have high clearance. And at the end of that, there's a wash." He pointed. "I find dead cattle there every now and again. And once, two coyote skins." His eyes were almost black, and he and Sage locked gazes and I knew what his meaning was. The wash was witch country, or at least the locals believed it to be so. "Not a place to be, after dark." He repeated his mantra and a little chill crawled up my back.

"What if this someone
did
take him down that road? Would you be able to tell?"

Manyhorses' gaze landed on me, then, and it was like staring at two pieces of obsidian. "Maybe," he said after a while.

"Does anyone go back there?" I had a hunch and I wanted to see how much Manyhorses would reveal.

He pursed his lips and set his hands on his hips. "No one with good intentions," he said vaguely, in a way that told me that yes, it was possible that someone might have taken Bill to a night-swept wash where Navajo witches sometimes gathered and shapeshifted and did whatever shitty things they were compelled to do. If that was what happened, and someone had tied him to something out there, maybe they were just trying to scare him into leaving Ridge Star alone. But maybe Bill got away, and he started walking, following a hint of a road back to the main route that would take him north to Highway 64. Three miles, give or take, from where he'd been hit. A long way to go, especially at night, especially when you were already scared.

I stared south again, back toward Manyhorses' place. Given the angle at which Bill had been hit, the vehicle had been behind him, approaching from Manyhorses' turn-off. His was the last house off this road. Which meant the vehicle could just as easily have originated at the Manyhorses spread. Or, the vehicle might have approached from the north. Bill saw it, and tried to hide. Maybe he was successful at hiding and the vehicle passed, and discovering that Bill wasn't at the wash where he'd been left, the driver then turned around, and went looking for him.
Damn. We need that vehicle. Or a confession. Or something.

"What do you think happened, Mr
.
Manyhorses?" I asked, turning my gaze back to his face, almost as weathered and intractable as
Tse Bi dahi.

He settled the brim of his hat lower over his forehead, shading his eyes. "Nestor told me there were some bad things going on at Ridge Star, and that your father--" he looked at Sage and River again, "was trying to correct them." He shrugged. "Someone didn't agree with what he was doing."

"But do you think that whatever he was doing would have driven someone to kill him?" I winced as Sage's hand dug into my shoulder.

"People kill for much less," Manyhorses said. He shook his head slowly and lapsed into silence. That was a cue, of sorts, for letting us know he was done talking.

"Many thanks for talking to us," I said, the impromptu spokesperson for this situation. "Much appreciated."

He grunted in response. "Sorry for your loss," he said again, and offered a brusque wave as he retreated to his truck and climbed in. We all stood aside as he started the engine and shifted it into gear. It rumbled past and he touched the fingers of his left hand to the brim of his hat as he passed. Dust swirled around our feet in the pickup's wake and we stood in continued silence, watching the tailgate until it was hidden by dust and distance.

River broke our silence. "I'm not real thrilled about going to that wash," he said, but I knew if Sage wanted to, he'd do it. The three of us turned to her and waited. Sage took her sunglasses off her head where she'd placed them and slid them back over her eyes.

"I don't think we should," she pronounced and I exhaled with relief.

"You think Mr
.
Manyhorses told Simmons or Martin about the wash?" Kara asked.

"I'll tell Simmons anyway." Sage turned to look again at the spot where Bill's body had been found. I wasn't sure whether I should offer comfort again or whether she needed some space and as I opened my mouth to ask, Kara's cell phone rang.

"Dang, you get service out here?" River looked at her, surprised, as she took the phone out of her pocket and checked it.

"Apparently. Couple of bars' worth." She opened it. "It's Shoshana," she said to me, though I wasn't going to ask her. "Hey," Kara said into the phone. "What's up?" She walked a few paces away, talking.

"That'd make a good commercial," River intoned.

I glanced over at him, and a little smile lifted the corner of his mouth before I turned my attention back to Sage. She was watching us both. "How about we head back to Farmington?"

River and I both nodded as Kara returned to the car, closing her phone. "There's a new problem," she announced, troubled.

Jesus, now what?
I bit my lip to keep from making any comments I'd regret.

"Shoshana's uncle got a call today."

Nobody said anything, waiting for her to tell us.

"From a guy who made a threat."

"And?" I asked.

Kara locked gazes with me. "The guy didn't identify himself, but he said if Jamison talked to anybody else, he'd end up like Bill."

I stared at her. "How the hell did this guy even know Purcell talked to anyone?" I ran a hand through my hair, anxiety kicking around in my gut. "What the fuck?"

"Shoshana doesn't know, but she thinks somebody's been watching her uncle's place since Bill was found."

"But why?" This was so damn frustrating. "Why the hell watch
his
place and not Nestor's? Or Tonya's?"
Oh, Jesus. Unless they are already watching those places.
"And what do they want?"

"Maybe the notebook?" Sage put her hand on my arm.

Of course. The notebook.
Somebody knew Bill had kept a record of what was happening. Nestor knew. Tonya knew. Jamison might have known. "So somebody at Ridge Star knows Bill was keeping track of shit. And maybe whoever it is, they're trying to figure out where Bill stashed his documents."

"So whoever it is probably knows what we look like." River made a little noise as he sucked air between his teeth. "Unless there's somebody else who's been out there." He looked at Kara for confirmation.

"I asked Shoshana that. Nobody since us."

River made the noise again. "What about before us?"

"Shoshana doesn't think so. Jamison seems to think the call referred to our visit because he told her he hadn't gotten any calls like this."

"So he says." River pulled on his earlobe for a moment. "We already know he didn't tell us the full story."

Silently, I agreed with him. We were going with what Purcell told us, after all.

"He's scared," Kara said, and it sounded defensive. I shot her a look.

"Okay, wait," I interjected. "I don't see the point of pushing him. Maybe Shoshana can talk to him and get a better feel for what's got him freaked out. That is, if she wants to." I waited for Kara's take but all she did was shrug. "I'll call Shoshana and ask her what she thinks we should do, if anything, to follow up with her uncle," I said, cautious, though it still felt like a boundary violation with Kara. "What do you think?" I asked her.

"Not sure. Let me think on that," Kara said, and I didn't press it.

"Next question. Do we take the notebook to Simmons?" I looked at Sage first.

"I think we should make a couple of copies of it and then take it to her." She kept her shades on, but I knew her gaze was directed at me.

"Good idea. Chris would be proud."

Sage smiled. "I say we do that as soon as we get back to Farmington."

River muttered an affirmative and Kara and I nodded. "Okay. Then what?"

"Tomorrow, River and I are going to Tonya's to have a look at Dad's things, but she can't see us until around noon because she has some stuff to do. So we can take the original notebook to Simmons before we do that."

"Sounds good. Kara and I are still on tomorrow morning for Ridge Star--" I raised my eyebrows at her and she nodded. "So we'll do that. Then how about we all go back to Albuquerque and see what Simmons can do with Bill's notebook and whatever else we dig up tomorrow?" I just wanted to go home. I wanted to forget this ever happened, that Sage's father had ended up dead on the side of a reservation road, and that there weren't potentially dangerous people watching us.

"Seems about all we can do," River said, and I thought I heard relief in his voice. "Plus, you have to be back for your Thursday thing." He directed the last statement at Sage, who nodded and then started moving toward the car.

"All right. Let's go make some copies." She opened the door and slid into the driver's seat.

KARA PURSED HER lips and regarded me from her chair next

to the motel room's door after I'd finished telling her everything about the weird things that had been happening since Bill had died. Actually, since I'd read that damn article in the
Journal
.

"So there's a little bit of tension between you and Sage," she said. It wasn't a question.

I sighed. "Yeah. I'm trying really hard to be supportive--I mean, she didn't like the guy, but his death still brings old shit up. But all this crazy stuff--witches? Dark forces? I don't know what to do with that. And the nutso thing is, something happened on the porch that night. I can't shake the feeling that this really is something I can't understand and it's somehow related to all the other stuff. But I don't know how." I was sitting on the end of one of the hotel beds, my feet on the floor. Kara was seated in one of the chairs next to the little table where my laptop sat. The chair was patterned in some commercial interpretation of southwestern Native style.