Dance of the Bones

“Any idea what they gave her?” one of them asked.

Brandon pointed. “There are some vials over there and a ­couple of used needles.”

“Okay,” the medic said. “We’ll get them. And don’t worry. Her vitals are good. I don’t think she’s in any real danger.”

Brandon had been fine the whole time, but that’s when he lost it. He leaned against the interior wall of the garage and let his body slide down until he was sitting on the floor.

Now the medic was concerned about him. “Sir,” he barked. “Are you okay?”

“Look after Lani,” Brandon muttered. “I’m just a little weak in the knees.”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m sure.”

Bozo evidently shared the medic’s concern. Whining, he walked over to Brandon and nosed him on the shoulder. Grabbing the dog’s sturdy body with both arms and burying his face in his long fur, Brandon Walker did something he hadn’t done in a very long time—­he wept.

DELIA AND LEO ORTIZ WERE camped out in the hospital waiting room. Lorraine José was still too ill to come look in on Tim, so Delia was spending time in his room while Leo went in and out of Gabe’s.

Right now, with both boys asleep and resting, they sat side by side. “Did you know Lorraine has cancer?” Delia asked.

Leo shook his head. “I thought it was just the car accident.”

“She told me tonight that it’s liver cancer,” Delia said. “Fourth stage. They found the tumor when they were treating her other injuries.”

“I didn’t know,” Leo said.

“She’s worried about Tim,” Delia continued, “worried about what will happen to him once she’s gone.”

“Maybe Lorraine’s sister will take him.”

“What about us taking him?” Delia asked. “Those two boys are close, and they will be even more so after everything that happened today. Besides, Gabe’s always wanted a brother.”

“Are you serious?”

Delia nodded. “I am,” she said. “If Lani was willing to help us with Gabe, we should be willing to help Lorraine with Tim.”

“Let’s think about it, then,” Leo said. “We don’t have to rush. We can talk to Lorraine and both boys and see what they think.”

“Yes,” Delia said, “we’ll talk about it after.”

Leo’s phone rang. He answered it, and Delia studied her husband’s stolid face as his expression changed from serious to joyous. “Great,” he said. “That’s wonderful news, Dan! Thank you for letting us know.”

“Know what?”

“They found Lani. It sounds like she’s all right. Rojas is dead. His accomplice is under arrest.”

“Accomplice?”

“He was working with some woman, I guess.” Leo stood up. “I need to go tell Gabe.”

“But he’s asleep.”

“I’ll wake him. He won’t mind.”

Delia nodded. “And I’ll go tell Lorraine.”

Inside Gabe’s room, Leo stood for a moment, looking down in wonder at his sleeping son. Leo and Gabe had talked off and on during the course of the evening. Leo knew about Tim José’s knife and about how Gabe had figured out a way to cut them loose. He also knew now that had Henry Rojas opened the box, his son had been prepared to do battle with him. Leo was grateful it hadn’t come to that, but he was proud to know that his son was brave and that he was old enough to kill a coyote—­old enough to be a man.

Fighting back tears again, Gabe reached down and gently shook the boy’s shoulder. “Dan just called,” he said as Gabe’s eyes blinked open. “Henry Rojas is dead, and Lani is safe.”

Gabe smiled. “I knew she would be,” he said.

“How did you know?”

Gabe reached over and took four tiny transparent stones off his bedside table. “I looked in these,” he said. “They told me she’d be fine.”

With that, Gabe went back to sleep.

CHAPTER 28

AND SO, NAWOJ, MY FRIEND, even today, if you go out into the land of the Desert ­People to that deep water hole in the foothills near Baboquivari that is always full of water, you will find that the White-­Winged Doves still gather there. And if you stand very still and listen, you will hear Shining Falls laughing and singing. And she still holds Little White Feather in her hand.

“MOMMY, WAKE UP.”

When Lani’s eyes opened, she was in a hospital room staring into Micah’s unblinking blue eyes. She looked around. Dan and Angie hovered in the background.

“Who found me?” she asked.

“Daddy and Grandpa,” Micah said. “Grandma was really mad about that. She said Grandpa should have known better.”

Lani laughed. “I’ll bet she said a lot more than that.”

Dan nodded in agreement. “And in not very grandmotherly terms,” he added.

Micah held up his hand. “Where did you get this?”

“Get what?” Lani asked.

He dropped something into her hand. It took a moment for her to realize that it was a tiny olla. She knew from touching the object that this was something ancient and probably very valuable, but maybe dangerous as well. Holding it up to the light to examine it, she spotted the faint images of both a turtle and an owl etched into the clay.

“Where did this come from?”

“You were holding it in your hand when the EMTs carried you out of Ava’s garage,” Dan answered.

“Who’s Ava? That crazy lady?”

Her husband sighed. “It’s a long story. Henry Rojas and Max and Carlos José got caught up with a woman named Ava Richland, who was smuggling blood diamonds through Mexico and into the United States. When everything went south, Ava tasked Henry with getting rid of the younger José brothers while at the same time putting out a hit on the older one.”

“Which was successful?”

Dan nodded.

“Tim’s the only one left?”

Dan nodded again.

“Poor Lorraine.”

“What about Henry Rojas?”

“He’s dead, too. Ava shot Henry and then loaded you in the trunk of your car. We’re pretty sure she was leaving you there to die of an overdose while she drove off into the sunset. The FBI was going after a warrant to track your phone. They probably would have found you before you corked off, but your dad figured out a way to locate you sooner than that—­soon enough that Ava didn’t have a chance to sneak out of Dodge.”

“What’s going to happen to Ava?”

“She’s in jail on suspicion of five counts of homicide and three counts of attempted homicide, to say nothing of several counts of conspiracy and smuggling. The only case where we know for sure she pulled the trigger is Henry’s, but since the others died in the course of the commission of a felony, she’s just as responsible as the shooter.”

“Did you say five?” Lani asked.

Dan ticked them off on his fingers. “Max, Carlos, Paul, a state prison employee named Jason Swanson, and Henry. The attempteds are you, Gabe, and Tim. She’s also a person of interest in two cold cases—­the murder of a guy named Amos Warren back in the seventies and a guy named Ke

“Can I keep the pot?” Micah asked, abruptly changing the subject.

Lani thought about that for a moment. “I’m not sure,” she said. “Let me keep it for right now, okay?”

“Okay,” Micah said. “But why’s there an owl and a turtle on it?”

“Have I ever told you the story of Little White Feather?”

Micah frowned and shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

“I think the woman who made that pot knew about that story—­about how Turtle and Owl helped a girl named Shining Falls. When I get home, maybe I can tell it to you.”