Undercover Scout
Undercover Scout
Jenna Kernan
Could she trust him with her case…And with her life?Detective Ava Hood knows that Kee Redhorse isn’t involved with her missing girls case. Ava can’t let her feelings for Kee hinder her case – but with the clock ticking, she needs his help. Her career, and perhaps even her heart, are now on the line…
Can she trust him with her case...
And with her life?
Despite clues pointing tribal police detective Ava Hood to one suspect, her instincts scream that Kee Redhorse isn’t involved. She’s deeply attracted to the Apache physician, but she can’t let those feelings hinder her case. With the clock ticking, and Kee willing to help find the missing girls, Ava will use him. Her career, multiple lives and perhaps even her heart are now on the line.
JENNA KERNAN has penned over two dozen novels and has received two RITA® Award nominations. Jenna is every bit as adventurous as her heroines. Her hobbies include recreational gold prospecting, scuba diving and gem hunting. Jenna grew up in the Catskills and currently lives in the Hudson Valley in New York State with her husband. Follow Jenna on Twitter, @jennakernan (https://twitter.com/jennakernan), on Facebook or at www.jennakernan.com (http://www.jennakernan.com).
Also by Jenna Kernan
Surrogate EscapeTribal BloodUndercover ScoutTurquoise GuardianEagle WarriorFirewolfThe Warrior’s WayShadow WolfHunter MoonTribal Law
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Undercover Scout
Jenna Kernan
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-07887-0
UNDERCOVER SCOUT
© 2018 Jeannette H. Monaco
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
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For Jim, always.
Contents
Cover (#u619450bd-a6d2-5190-beec-11c4364c9a58)
Back Cover Text (#ub3624b60-8f91-5284-91f0-948493dff4e6)
About the Author (#u8c9a0a5b-c89b-5e9e-b3c4-72ba2ed3e117)
Booklist (#ufdd7d2ac-2fe2-575a-b933-9528e509afa0)
Title Page (#u8aad3f53-3c60-5dfe-a196-503332d97d98)
Copyright (#u057c56ba-cdf6-5c42-8e43-4f0975f16bca)
Dedication (#u1e31c48d-655c-5c73-9023-e1899a3866de)
Chapter One (#u8ac5df39-383b-53c3-8d03-f6e3baa0439c)
Chapter Two (#uf2d4fb9e-ae42-5794-b141-98d4dda78f1e)
Chapter Three (#ua5077361-b8e9-58eb-95ab-6d26a93249a6)
Chapter Four (#u48954294-3563-5fe0-82d9-ebf3eb57dce3)
Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-One (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Two (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Three (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter One (#u0f8f67cc-2255-5562-b23f-1695a3594d33)
Detective Ava Hood watched her prime suspect, Dr. Kee Redhorse, through her field glasses and scowled. You couldn’t tell about a person by looking. Dr. Redhorse was a great example of that. Charming, well liked by his tribe, above reproach and the very last person you would suspect. But as it turned out, Ava suspected everyone. And no one was this squeaky clean.
Redhorse was a trusted member of the Turquoise Canyon people. A physician, newly board certified and quite possibly a monster.
She sat in her Chevy Malibu, parked nose out, between the battered yellow bulldozer that created the temporary road and a ten-foot pile of gravel. From her position she could see the FEMA housing trailers that included her sister’s and the one assigned to Dr. Richard Day and Dr. Kee Redhorse. She noted in her log that Kee left his assigned FEMA trailer on Sunday to go for a walk at 8:08 a.m., October 15.
Ava didn’t trust the tribal police on this rez mostly because Dr. Redhorse had a brother on the force, Jake Redhorse. Plenty of opportunities to look the other way. She knew if she wanted to get to the bottom of her investigation she had to do it herself and she didn’t have time for official channels. She accepted the potential risks and didn’t care for the cost. State evidence be damned. Justice would be served, one way or another.
Her niece was missing—quite possibly a victim of the series of kidnappings that had recently hit the reservation.
All young women. All to be used as surrogates in a baby trafficking ring run by the Russian mob.
And all of them patients at the clinic shortly before their disappearance. That connection had been made only three weeks ago, ten days before her niece had been taken.
She adjusted her field glasses in her hands and studied her subject. Redhorse was dressed in faded jeans and a college T-shirt, over which he yanked a well-worn, gray hooded sweatshirt as he descended the steps. He looked more approachable in casual clothing, losing some of that air of professionalism that clung to him during his shifts at the tribe’s clinic. She tried to ignore the way the clothing hung on his perfect frame and failed.
“No one is that perfect, Ava,” she muttered to herself. She knew that much.
Today, he wore scratched and scuffed Timberland boots and a ball cap. He was the sort of man that you noticed right off because of his easy smile and dark, intelligent eyes. Ava noticed him because she thought he was guilty. And if she reacted to him as a man, well, she would ignore it.
How much had he gotten away with in his life because of his good looks and natural appeal? She hated charmers because that was how her grandmother described Ava’s father—the father she had never known. A real charmer.
She had been watching both doctors from the reservation clinic, Hector Hauser and Kee Redhorse, since last Saturday night. She’d come the minute she’d heard from Sara that one of the missing girls, Kacey Doka, had reappeared after escaping her captors. She’d hoped to speak to Kacey but she and Colt Redhorse had vanished four days ago and she had suspected the Justice Department had them. She’d taken a leave of absence from her own tribe’s police force, the Saguaro Flats Apache. She only had a few weeks left in the position. She’d already accepted a new job here on the Turquoise Canyon police force, but the job didn’t start until the first of November. That was too long to wait to start her investigation. Time was of the essence and she had to start ASAP. Every good cop knew a missing person’s trail got significantly colder after the first forty-eight hours. Her sixteen-year-old niece, Louisa, had been gone for fourteen days and the police here had found nothing.
No, she couldn’t trust the Turquoise Canyon tribal force to handle the investigation on their own—especially if one of their officers was blocking evidence.
As far as her force knew, she was here only to comfort her sister, Sara, and help Sara out with her daughters, which was true. But they didn’t know she also planned to track down Louisa. That she’d do so alone just made sense. No one else to endanger or to let her down.
Ava had managed to break into both Redhorse’s and Hauser’s temporary FEMA trailers and install a tracking program on their personal computers. The simple program gave her access to their bank records, email, calendars, browser history and social media accounts. She’d done criminal record checks on each and all their closest associates. The only hit was Kee Redhorse’s father, Colton, who was serving a sentence in federal prison for armed robbery. And his brother Ty, who had a juvie record, which was closed. Ava wondered about that one since the dates corresponded exactly to Colton Redhorse’s last heist. Even though there had been no other convictions, Ty was currently under investigation by tribal police for kidnapping Kacey Doka—the girlfriend of his youngest brother, Colt. Not enough evidence had been found to tag him to the crime yet, but there was still a big question mark over his head.
And Colt? His record was clean. After Kacey had escaped her captors and fingered Ty as the driver, Ava had confirmed that Kacey and Colt had entered witness protection until the crime ring could be stopped.
“Something that’s taking too long in my book,” Ava muttered to herself.
Today was day eight of her investigation and she was running out of time. Soon she’d have to ask for help, return home or resign her job and stay. She thought about resigning from Saguaro Flats force altogether before coming here to Turquoise Canyon, but there were perks to being a cop—even one on leave. She still had access to police databases, which was imperative to her success. Quitting the police force would cause her to lose effectiveness.
She knew the FBI was involved with the investigation because she’d received an alert on her reservation from Turquoise Canyon Tribal Police that they had requested assistance last week after it was discovered that one of their missing persons, Kacey Doka, was not a runaway but a victim of kidnapping who’d identified several other missing girls held captive with her. The Bureau’s focus would be on capture and conviction of those responsible. Hers was on recovery by any means.
Ava had already spoken to Kacey’s kidnapper. The Russian was paralyzed from the waist down, still in the hospital at Darabee and on suicide watch. Ava got nothing from him as he still elected to pretend he did not speak English. She did get a photo of his tattoos and was running a check on them through the available database. Gang affiliations were often written on the skin and his said Russian organized crime. But they’d need connections here.
First, she’d figure out who and they’d lead her to where the missing were kept. That was the plan.
She’d learned all she could from her surveillance of Kee and Hauser and from their personal computers and found nothing to implicate either physician.
She needed to get inside that clinic.
Ava drove along the rutted gravel road, hastily laid before the trailers had been hauled in by the dozens. The dam collapse that touched off the move out of the tribe’s tribal seat happened just a little over three weeks ago. The evacuees from lowland areas along the river were moved to temporary shelters out of the potential flood area. The FEMA trailers had arrived and her sister had been among the first to receive one because she had young children.
She parked before her sister’s FEMA trailer and ignored the barking as she opened the door. Woody, the big brown family dog, jumped up to say hello. She was surprised to see him, as he had been staying with her sister’s mother-in-law, who lived outside the reach of potential flooding. Woody had been added to the family at Louisa’s insistence and seeing him made Ava’s throat tighten. She gave him a quick scratch behind the ears and pushed him off until he dropped to all fours. His tail swung back and forth, thick and hairless at the base from too much chewing. A shepherd/pit bull mix, he had a head the size and shape of a shovel.
Ava checked her watch. Redhorse should be back by here in about ten minutes. Woody poked around the trailer and returned with a faded, worn, green tennis ball. Ava accepted the offering and tossed the ball. She kept her attention on the end of the street until Redhorse returned.
He was only a few hundred yards away with a newspaper tucked under his arm when he noticed her. She could tell by the hesitation in his stride.
She continued to toss the ball as Redhorse approached.
This was how he found them. Ava throwing a slippery tennis ball to an oversize puppy.
Kee Redhorse’s black hair was trimmed short. His skin was tawny-brown with bronze undertones. He had a broad forehead, a blade of a nose that hooked downward over a generous mouth and pinholes in each earlobe for earrings, which he did not wear. Handsome by any standard, she thought.
He hadn’t shaved this morning. She found that the dark stubble only added to his appeal. The hair growing beneath his lower lip brought her attention to his mouth. It was a sensual mouth. His lips parted and he inhaled, making his nostrils flare. Then that winning smile appeared. She felt a twitch in her stomach.
Suspect, she reminded herself.
Woody spotted Redhorse and trotted over to say hello. The man offered his hand. It was a nice hand with tight medium brown skin and a sprinkling of dark hair on the back, and the hand itself was broad and square with long elegant fingers. Ava blew away her frustration at her body’s reaction to the doctor.
“He’s friendly,” said Ava and forced a wide smile as she descended the steps and stood with her hands in her back pockets. She’d dressed for success today, in jeans that left room for her ankle holster but hugged everything else and a blouse that was feminine without broadcasting her cup size. Woody sniffed Redhorse’s hand and the wet ball fell to the ground.
Ava made a grab for the ball but Woody was too quick and snatched it up again. The tug-of-war ensued with the dog crouched, growling as he shook his shovel of a head, tail thumping. Ava wasn’t much of a frolicker but she did her best.
Redhorse laughed. “He’s not giving up.”
“He loves to play,” she said.
Woody won. The canine dropped the ball at Redhorse’s feet.
Traitor, she thought.
“He wants you to throw it,” she said keeping her smile until he turned to retrieve the ball.
He did and it was a really good throw. She gauged his physical strength and was glad she had both her service weapon and her training.
Woody returned, chewing as he trotted. He folded to the ground to begin gnawing in earnest, the ball between his paws. She could swear the canine was smiling.
Ava put a hand on her hip and sighed.
“Guess I finally wore him out,” she said and gave Redhorse another smile, making eye contact. He seemed to be looking right through her. Heat sizzled inside her and her stomach tensed. She knew he was single, dated occasionally but never for long and had been engaged to an Anglo in med school. Circumstances of the breakup were unclear.
Redhorse cleared his throat and looked back to the dog. Ava took a deep breath and pinched her lips together as she fought the troubling physical zip of awareness for him. It had never happened to her with a suspect before.
He cast her an effortless smile and the tug grew stronger. She was going to have to arrest him or sleep with him.
Yeah, right. She didn’t have the justification for either action.
Their eyes met and her heart gave an irritating flutter again. She wished she had enough evidence to read him his rights. She bet handcuffs would wipe that smile off his face.
Her grandmother would approve, she thought. Also possibly a felon. She scowled.
Redhorse was a suspect, not a prospect.
Woody stared up at her, his ball forgotten.
She pointed. “That’s Woody.”
Her gaze dropped to the sensual curve of his upper lip.
You’re staring at his mouth.
He switched to Tonto Apache. “Hello. I am Roadrunner born of Wolf, the oldest son of Colton and May Redhorse.” Then he switched back to English as he completed his introduction and extended his free hand. “I’m Doctor Kee Redhorse.”
Trotting out the title, she thought. She didn’t trust him and did not accept his hand. She was already attracted to the man. Touching him would only make the nagging stab of desire worse. Instead, Ava lifted her hands out before her, palms up.
“Wet,” she said, with dog slobber.
He held his smile as his arm dropped to his side. Was he disappointed?
“I live just up that way,” he said, motioning the way he had come. “For now anyway. Until we move back to Piňon Flats.”
She knew that. Likely knew more about him than his own family.
Since the dam collapsed upriver of this reservation, most of the residents of the community of Piňon Flats had been relocated here to high ground in Turquoise Canyon while the temporary rubble dam was reinforced by FEMA. Their permanent houses were still intact, but the dam had already been destroyed in an act of eco-extremism. Neither the tribe elders nor FEMA wanted to put anyone else at risk.
“I heard that will be any day,” she said.
He nodded and grinned.
“How is it I have never seen you before?” he asked and switched to Tonto. “I know that I would remember you.”
That smile made her insides roll and her stomach flutter. It was like swimming against a strong current. Those teeth, that jawline, that elegant nose. Oh, boy, was she in over her head. She hoped he wasn’t guilty because...what? He was handsome? She was smitten? She needed to get a grip.
It wasn’t her job to hope he was guilty or innocent. It was her job to find Louisa. If he had her or was responsible for her disappearance, then that was that.
Ava, you need to lock this down.
“I didn’t get your name,” said Kee.
“I’m Ava Hood.” She didn’t use her legal name, her father’s name. Never had, though her surname, Yokota, did crop up on things like her diplomas and legal documents.
“You didn’t grow up on the rez, Ava. I’d have noticed you.” His smile was so dazzling she needed sunglasses. Suddenly his charm and charisma seemed a threat. It made it easier to resist.
“I am Snake born of Spider,” she said in perfect Tonto Apache in the traditional form of greeting. One always began with the tribe, moved to clans and then relations. Only after these important ties were given, did one mention their own name. “My parents are Eldon and Lydia Hood from Saguaro Flats reservation.” Though her father was Eldon Yokota, she had given the correct first name.
“You speak very well,” he said in English.
The compliment seemed an insult. Besides, she had little choice as her grandmother had no other language but Tonto and she had lived with her until she was eight.
“I know that rez. Small, right?”
“Very.”
“What brings you up here?”
“Visiting my sister. She married a man up here.”
“What’s his name?”
“Diamond Tah.”
Kee’s smile slipped. “Oh.” He nodded and then met her gaze, his smile gone and his eyes serious. “I knew him very well. I used to listen to him play the flute at gatherings. So your sister is—”
“Sara Tah.”
Ava’s sister was newly widowed. Her husband had died one night on his way to the bathroom from a brain aneurysm. He’d been forty-two. That should have been enough tragedy for one year, but it turned out to be only the start.
His gaze flicked away again. Was that guilt? Or did he know that her sister was in far worse shape since her husband’s death than Ava had imagined. The drinking had gotten worse and there had been calls to protective services. It was reason enough for Ava to visit.
Ava waited for him to speak. What would a man who she suspected had a hand in the kidnappings say at this moment?
“I’m very sorry,” he said.
Appropriate, she thought.
“For what?”
He looked surprised, as if this was obvious, but she wanted to hear him say it. “Sara lost her husband recently and now...well, Louisa is missing. I know she’s been...struggling. It’s a terrible tragedy.”
He did not do or say anything that might reveal that he could be the reason for Louisa’s disappearance.
“We are still hopeful.”
“Of course.” He shifted uncomfortably. “How is Sara doing?”
Did he know about her sister’s drinking?
She went on the defensive. It was her fallback position, and protecting her sister came naturally as breathing. The truth was that her sister had lost weight, and didn’t eat. The entire situation made Ava’s chest hurt. “It’s a hard time.”
He nodded. “And the girls?”
She wanted to press a finger into his broad chest and tell him that he didn’t have the right to ask about them. Not ever.
“They’re frightened, mostly. The twins are afraid to leave for school or take the bus. So I’m driving them, for now.”
Margarita and Alexandra were five, and Olivia, only three. These were the children Sara had with Diamond. She’d brought Louisa to the marriage after her first marriage had failed.
Redhorse had treated each one of her sister’s kids. Most damning, he’d treated Louisa on September 30, on her last visit to the tribe’s clinic, just two days before her disappearance.
“I understand that,” he said. “Good of you to be with her at this time. Are you her younger sister?”
“Why do you ask?”
He cast her a shy smile. “You look young.”
“I am the younger sister but not by much. I’m twenty-eight.”
He looked shocked. She got that a lot but not looking her age had advantages. People often underestimated her.
She watched him. He didn’t shift or rub his neck. His gaze did not cut away as if he were anxious to put her behind him. He only held the appropriate look of sadness and concern.
He smiled. “Nice folks.”
“They sure are. I’d do anything for my sister and her kids.” She waited through the awkward pause. Still, he radiated nothing but concern.
“Is that why you bumped into me? You wanted to ask me about them?”
He was smart. She’d give him that but that only made him more dangerous if he was guilty.
“Is there something you’d like to get off your chest?” she asked.
“Off my...me? No,” he said and looked puzzled.
She waited as he cocked his head to study her, brow wrinkling.
“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Ava. May I call you Ava?”
She nodded.
“And please call me Kee.”
She preferred to call him prime suspect.
“What do you do down there on your rez, Ava?”
“Why do you ask?”
“I’m not sure. You have a certain directness to you.”
The pause seemed especially long. He stared at her and she noted the golden flecks in his deep brown eyes.
“So what do you do down there on the flats?” he asked again.
“I used to work for the casino. Dealer. High rollers, mostly. But I’m taking a break.” Actually that was her sister’s bio but she wasn’t going to tell him she was ROTC, had done four years of active duty in Germany and had just finished her four additional years on reserve while completing police training, and recently earned her gold shield. Given how her sister had completely withdrawn from society after her husband’s death and buried herself in a bottle, she doubted that Sara would have the opportunity to blow her cover.
The small talk continued. He told her what she already knew, that their clinic had only seven employees. Two physicians. One administrator, Betty Mills, and five nurses, one of whom—Lori Mott Redhorse—was well on her way to becoming a midwife. Lori was also Kee’s sister-in-law and the one who’d first made the connection between the clinic and the six missing women from his tribe.
Ava had already spoken with Lori and believed she was one of the good guys. The woman seemed interested in finding the missing teenagers and willing to do all she could to help the investigation. Not the actions of someone guilty of a crime.
“I thought there were three physicians,” Ava said when she caught an inaccuracy in Redhorse’s story.
“Oh, yes. That’s right. Dr. Day is on loan from FEMA. That’s my roommate, temporarily, until we get the all-clear to move back home.” Since Ava had searched the trailer, she was aware of the roommate situation. But Dr. Day hadn’t been around long enough to be a suspect, so she’d focused entirely on Dr. Kee Redhorse.
“I didn’t know that FEMA provided doctors.”
“Oh, yeah. And they have emergency medical response teams. Our clinic is currently set up in two of their mobile medical units. Crowded, but we are getting the job done. It’s been good to have another set of hands during the crisis. We’ve been super busy but we’ll lose Day soon.”
She quirked a brow. “That so?”
He casually slipped a hand into his back pocket. She watched his hands, wondering if he had a weapon. Kee kept talking.
“Once we get back to the clinic in Piňon Flats and out of those trailers, I’m sure they’ll recall him. Too bad, he’s a nice guy.”
There was something implied in his tone. She took a guess. “But not a good doctor?”
The side of his mouth quirked. His tell, she decided, that little gesture that said she had made the right guess. “He’s adequate.”
“But not Native.”
Kee made a sound that might have been a laugh. “Oh, I don’t mind that. But he is from Minnesota. So he thinks it’s too hot up here.”
“He’d hate Saguaro Flats.”
Now Kee did laugh. The sound buzzed over her skin and the hairs on her neck lifted at the pure musical joy in that deep male rumble of delight. She was reconsidering her strategy. Ava had not anticipated liking her suspect.
“His specialty is emergency medicine. He’s less interested in ongoing treatment of chronic conditions and I think he’s had his fill of diabetes and high blood pressure.”
“I see.”
Woody discovered an abandoned soda bottle, which he trotted over to Ava with. Her attempts to retrieve it from his mouth resulted in another game of chase.
“He can have it,” said Ava, recognizing defeat first. She turned back to her questioning. “How do you like working at the clinic?”
He shifted his weight from one leg to the other. “Oh, I like it, but I really prefer emergency medicine, too. Plus I’m only here part-time. Just finishing up my residency. Dr. Hauser, he’s our head physician, he arranged for me to split my time between here and Darabee Hospital.”
Ava crinkled up her face. “Sounds busy.”
Kee shrugged, a good-natured expression on his face. “It is. Doesn’t leave much time for a social life—or even a chance to catch up with the people in my own family. And since the dam collapse the clinic hours have been crazy. But I love the work and with my loans...” He held a hand to his throat and pretended to be strangling. “Gotta get a position in a hospital. Plan is to leave for a few years to get the best salary possible. I hope to come back someday.”
That didn’t mesh with a man making oodles of money from the Russian mob unless he knew that his tribal police force had made connections between the missing girls and his clinic. Then crying poverty was smart. His little brother was on the force. Had Officer Jake Redhorse given Kee some insider info?
“Medical school is expensive,” she said, hoping she sounded sympathetic. Her computer-hacking had exposed he was in up to his eyeballs in debt and had a really good motive for wanting to make a boatload of fast cash.
“I’ve had some assistance from the tribe. Dr. Hauser helped me qualify for a grant that covered some of it.”
She made a mental note to check on that.
“Sounds like a great guy.” Or a dangerous criminal, she thought.
“Yeah. He is. Hector is the one who encouraged me to practice medicine. I had a leg-length discrepancy as a kid.” He shrugged. “He took an interest.”
She thought of the photo she’d seen in his room in the FEMA trailer. He’d been younger, with a single crutch under one thin arm.
“I had lots of surgeries down in Phoenix.” He held his arms wide. “Now I’m the shortest male in my family.”
He wasn’t short, by any means. She marked him at nearly six feet.
“Why is that?” she asked.
“Well, they can’t add to the shorter leg. You know, make you taller. So they make corrections by reducing the size of the longer limb.”
She flinched as she imagined someone sawing through her lower leg bone.
“Yeah, exactly. Lost three inches. But they even up within an eighth of an inch.” He bent slightly at the waist and presented his straight legs for her examination. They were fine muscular legs. She could see that even through the denim of his jeans. “Hector arranged for all that and the therapy. Pulled strings and it was all taken care of.”
So Hector was a string puller and Kee was forever in his debt. How far would Kee go to pay him back?
“It was a hard time. My dad was...gone.”
In prison, she thought.
“We didn’t have much money.”
“Your head physician sounds like a wonderful man.” Her smile felt tight and unnatural. Kee didn’t seem to notice.
“He used to operate out of a room at tribal headquarters when I was a kid. Gave me all my shots there. But you should see the facility now. We have an urgent care center, triage, three exam rooms, reception, radiology and a woman’s health center with three birthing rooms, plus additional ob-gyn exam rooms.”
“That’s impressive. Paid through gaming?” she asked. It wasn’t, she knew, because she’d seen their budget, via her sister’s login on the tribe’s website. Some areas of the tribe’s website were public while others were password-protected to ensure only tribal members could access them. The page holding the minutes from tribal government meetings was one of these pages.
Kee shrugged. “Our administrator handles all that.”
Betty Mills, Ava knew. Recently divorced. Mother of three grown boys and driving an Audi leased by the clinic.
Woody tore the bottle in two and Ava threw the ball so she could retrieve the jagged pieces.
“I better check on my sister and the girls.” Sara was probably still in bed and likely hungover. The girls were being raised by a game console, as far as Ava could tell. She could at least get them all out of bed and feed them a healthy breakfast.
Anything to keep them all afloat until Louisa and the other missing children could be found.
“Oh,” he looked disappointed. “Of course. Umm, Ava? Will you be here a few days?”
“I plan to be. Yes.”
“Would you like to have a drink sometime this week?” His face was red when he finished, which she was chagrined to find she found absolutely adorable. Her heart was not behaving, hammered as if this was something other than a stakeout. Her department had another word for it...entrapment.
She didn’t care. All rules were off when you messed with hers.
So, here it was, the opportunity she had been hoping for. But that was before she realized she would be attracted to the good doctor. She hesitated, biting her bottom lip as she tapped the two sides of the ruined plastic bottle together before her in a nervous tattoo.
Dating Kee would give her access to him, to Hauser and to the clinic and she needed to know what was going on in there.
“Ava?” His dark brow lifted. “Are you seeing someone?”
She shook her head. “Oh, no. Not currently.” It was unfortunate that not one of the men in her past made her silly heart pitter-patter like this one, here. “I just need to work around the kids’ schedules and my sister. And I don’t really drink.”
Because it meant a possible loss of control and Ava did not go there.
“Oh. Coincidence,” he said. “Neither do I. And I understand about your family. You’re here for them. Family first, my dad always said.”
How reassuring. An adage from a con.
As far as she could tell Kee and Jake were the only ones that visited dear old dad and not often. But at least they had a dad.
“My sister gets home from work at five fifteen. I’ve been getting the kids dinner and I’m free after that.”
“Oh, great.”
“When?” she asked.
“How about Tuesday? Dinner at the casino?”
Ava was known here as Sara’s sister and a member of the Saguaro Flats tribe. But like many detectives, she kept her profession secret mainly so as not to make people uncomfortable but also to allow her to more easily do her job. Anyone who would have asked was told that she worked in her tribe’s adult education program, her usual cover.
“That sounds fun.” Ava held her smile.
“I’ll pick you up around six?”
“Seven.”
“Sure,” Kee agreed.
She drew a pen from her back pocket. “Give me your hand.”
He did. His palm slid across hers, warm and dry. The tingle of awareness began at her fingers and rippled up her arm. Whatever attraction was between them was as strong as it was unwanted. She stared up at him, meeting his welcoming brown eyes. Then she used her teeth to remove the cap to the pen and she wrote her cell phone number on the back of his hand. Her task done, she was both anxious and reluctant to let him go. She did and stepped back, sitting on the step of her sister’s trailer.
“Now, don’t scrub up before you copy that,” she teased lightly.
He studied the back of his hand and grinned. “I won’t.”
His smile made her insides tumble as if she were spinning. She had no trouble returning his grin and that worried her.
“See you Tuesday, Dr. Redhorse.”
“Kee, please.”
“I’ll try to remember that.”
Ava smiled against the chill that swept through her. If he was behind this, she’d see he never got within sight of another girl for as long as he lived.
Chapter Two (#u0f8f67cc-2255-5562-b23f-1695a3594d33)
Monday afternoon the tribe’s urgent care center had gone from crazy to ridiculous. Since the dam collapse in September there was no more normal. Kee had hoped that with the arrival of FEMA things would get better. But the EMTs had just brought him another patient. He knew this one. Not unusual on such a small reservation. But this one was the son of his high school friend Robert Corrales.
Robert had the boy when they were in tenth grade and Robbie Junior was now twelve years old. But he wouldn’t make thirteen if Kee didn’t stop the bleeding.
Lori Mott assisted and he was happy for the extra hands. Redhorse, his mind corrected. She was no longer a Mott, since she had married his younger brother Jake, less than a month ago. Kee kept forgetting to call her Lori Redhorse. His brother had married the nurse so fast, he still hadn’t gotten accustomed to the change.
Kee assessed the damage. The EMTs had done a fair job stopping the bleeding on his arm. But his head wound wasn’t the same story. The plate-glass window had opened a gash on Robbie’s forehead that was giving Kee trouble. Lori kept pressure on that wound, allowing him the time he needed to clamp the artery Robbie had sliced open in his right forearm. Either one was hemorrhaging fast enough to kill him. The boy was pale from shock and blood loss, his lips had gone blue and his skin had taken on the ghastly pallor of a corpse.
“Got it,” he said. “I’ll finish that after I stitch his head.”
“The EMT said he didn’t think he could make it to Darabee,” said Lori.
“He was right.” Kee quickly stitched the gash that ran in a jagged line from the boy’s hairline to above the outer edge of his eyebrow.
Lori shook her head as she assessed the lacerations. “I’ll get another Ringer’s lactate. You want plasma?”
“No. This should do.”
Lori left him to use the computer terminal at the intake station in the FEMA trailer that now served as their urgent care facility. When she came back with the fluids he had the gash closed.
“As soon as he’s stable, arrange transport to Darabee,” said Kee.
Darabee was only twenty miles away but with the river road under construction and the switchbacks leading down the mountain the ride was thirty to forty minutes from Piňon Forks, and from Turquoise Ridge, where the clinic had been temporarily placed, it was more like an hour.
Lori finished inserting the IV and nodded. “You got it. His dad is waiting.”
“He needs a vascular surgeon if he’s going to keep that hand.”
“Betty is calling over. They’ll have one.” She smiled at him. His sister-in-law, he realized. Jake was a lucky man. He was so happy the two had finally worked out their differences.
“Good work, Kee.”
Kee stripped off his gloves as Dr. Hector Hauser stepped into the curtained examining area.
“Need a hand?” he asked.
“We got it,” said Kee.
Lori pulled the blood pressure cuff off the wall and slipped it around Robbie’s thin arm.
Hauser looked around at the amount of blood and bloody gauze and gave a low whistle. He checked the boy’s pupils and his pulse.
“Weak,” he said and then checked the IV bag suspended on the stainless-steel rack.
Day poked his head into the room. “Need a hand?”
Before he could answer, Hauser waved him off. “We got it.”
Kee gave Day an apologetic shrug. Day’s mouth was a grim line as he sighed and returned the way he had come.
“I’ll speak to the dad,” said Hauser.
“You know his expertise is emergency medicine. Right?” Kee lifted his chin toward the exam area Day occupied. “He’s taken the FEMA emergency medical specialist training. And he’s board certified.”
“Well, if the trailer collapses, I’ll be sure to call him.”
Hauser returned a few minutes later with Robbie’s younger brother, Teddy, who had a gash on his lower leg.
“Parents didn’t even see this one,” said Hector. “Cut himself getting to his brother.” He switched to Tonto. “You are a hero, son. Got his big brother help in time.”
Teddy gave him a confused stare. Hector’s smile dropped. “Did you understand that?”
Teddy shook his head.
Hector sighed. It was a crusade of his, that children learn their language. He held Teddy’s hand and steered the boy out of the curtained area and right into the boys’ parents.
Robert Corrales turned to Kee but peered past him to his older boy. “Is Robbie going to be okay?”
“He’ll need some surgery at Darabee. But, yes, he’s going to make it.”
Robert threw himself at Kee, forcing Kee to take a step back as Robert hugged him. His wife joined in and Kee was pressed like chicken salad between two slices of bread. Weeping and thank-yous blurred together. Lori took Teddy into the exam area beside Robbie’s to wait for Dr. Hauser, and the parents crossed through the curtain to their oldest child.
It was another twenty minutes more before Kee was satisfied that Robbie was ready for transport. Robert accompanied his son and his wife remained with Teddy.
Once his patient was off, Kee waited for Hector to finish stitching up Teddy’s lower leg. Kee was aiming for the momentary pause between one patient and the next to speak to Hector about his decision to resign from the clinic. Kee had agonized about leaving at such a time, but his mother had decided to foster the three teenage Doka girls. A wonderful act on her part, but unfortunately, a decision that would leave Kee without a place to live once they returned to Piňon Flats. The young fosterlings would need the space. Kee had moved in with his mother to help decrease his monthly expenses, and it was unrealistic of him to expect to afford a place of his own on his current salary. Not with the massive medical school debt hanging over his head.
Dr. Hauser had been only slightly older than he was now when Kee had first met him in the tribe’s health clinic. He had not known at the time that meeting Hector would change his life. Kee wanted nothing more than to stay on his reservation and tend the sick and injured on Turquoise Canyon. But you did not always get what you wanted. And he had financial obligations that could no longer be put off.
Hector glanced up at Kee over the thick black rims of his transition lenses. His hairline had receded to the point where he had more forehead than hair. What was left was trimmed short so you could see the single gold medicine shield earring he wore in his right earlobe. Kee frowned as he noticed the diagonal earlobe crease, knowing that it was a possible indicator of coronary artery disease.
Hauser lifted his brow, making his forehead a field of furrows. “What’s up?” he asked.
“I need a minute.”
“Sure. Hand me that gauze.” He pointed with a thick finger, his light russet skin a sharp contrast against the white of his lab coat. The dam collapse, which had necessitated them moving into the temporary FEMA trailers, had tripled their workload. Kee had never expected any sort of terrorism to touch his little corner of Arizona. But he thought that the extra load might be too much for Hector, judging from the puffy circles beneath his eyes.
Kee handed over the gauze and Dr. Hauser stripped off the outer covering, then expertly wrapped the boy’s leg in a herringbone pattern that would prevent slipping.
“There, now,” he said to the boy. “All done.”
The boy still had tear tracks on his cheeks but he was quiet now that the Novocain was working and the blood had been mopped up. Hauser turned to the boy’s mother. “Give him some Tylenol when you get him home. Two 80 mg tablets, three times a day, for today only, and keep this dry. Bring him back in ten days and I’ll take out the stitches.”
The boy swung his legs off the table and glanced at Hauser.
“Go on. You can walk on it. But no running or swimming or scratching!” He held out his hand to shake. Teddy hesitated but took Hector’s hand. “Good work today, Teddy. You should be proud. You take care of your brother and look after your mom.”
Teddy nodded his acceptance of this duty and slid to the floor. It was what Kee’s dad had said to him before the sentencing. Ironic, since his father had never done so. He was a living example of what happened when you made your own rules.
The pair headed out of the curtained exam room. Hauser followed to the hall.
“Give me a minute, Lori,” he called.
Lori Redhorse waved in acknowledgment, taking charge of the boy and his mother, ushering them out.
Dr. Day popped his head out of the exam area beside Hauser’s.
“Mrs. Cruz says she wants to see you,” he said to Hauser.
“Well, of course she does. She’s been seeing me since she was born.” He muttered something, and Kee caught the word worthless. “In a minute.” Hauser glanced at Kee, motioning with his head. Kee followed. They paused halfway between Day’s examining area and the reception table, where Lori sat at the computer.
Hauser’s mouth turned down, making him look like one of the largemouth bass Kee loved to catch. Hauser shook his head. “That ambulance arrived. He—” Hauser jerked his head toward Dr. Day’s examining area “—didn’t even step out to check on it. He must have heard it. You sure did.”
Kee shrugged, having no explanation.
“I swear he needs more looking after than the babies in our NICU. What kind of doctors do they have at FEMA anyway?” He tugged at the black stethoscope looped around his thick neck.
“Give him a chance.”
“Nobody wants to see him. Besides, this is my clinic. Up until now that is. The tribal council has no right to meddle here.”
The dam collapse gave them every right, Kee thought, but said nothing.
Requests like Mrs. Cruz’s had been happening a lot lately but Kee could not figure why so many patients were being so difficult. The clinic was short-staffed and the tribe had managed to get FEMA to provide them with an extra hand. Richard Day seemed nice enough, but he sure was not a hit with patients.
“So...” said Hauser, changing the subject. “How was the interview?”
Kee was a finalist for a position at St. Martin’s Medical Center in Phoenix. It was internal medicine and he preferred emergency medicine and he also preferred to live here with his tribe instead of out there. But beggars could not be choosers. He’d been shocked at how fast the loans came due once he finished the last of his educational requirements. Now he stared up from a seemingly bottomless pit of debt. It would take years and years to get clear of them and return to the tribe. Reaching his dreams had come at a high cost. The ironic part was that his ambition was to help his tribe members the way Hauser had once helped him. Now, instead, he’d be miles away treating strangers.
“They’ve offered me a position,” said Kee.
“Not surprised. But I hope you’ll consider ours, as well.”
Kee’s brows lifted. He hadn’t known that was a possibility and had assumed there would be no place for him. With his residency completed, he needed a job.
“What about Dr. Day?”
“He’s temporary. Once we get back to the clinic at Piňon Flats, we’ll be able to handle the load with two doctors. Maybe add a physician’s assistant.”
They’d had this discussion before. When he got his residency in Darabee, just off the rez, Hauser had managed to keep Kee here part-time and count the hours toward his residency requirements.
“My mother is fostering the Doka girls,” said Kee.
“I heard that. She brought them in for a checkup. Malnourished and need some dental work, but nothing your mom can’t handle.”
“The point is, eventually I’ll need a place to live.” Sharing a FEMA trailer with Dr. Day worked for now, giving him easy access to the temporary clinic. But they expected to be back in their permanent facility this week.
“I see. The Doka girls have taken your bedroom, I imagine.”
Kee nodded. “Dr. Hauser, I need to start repayment on my loans. I can’t afford to work here part-time.” And I don’t know how much longer I can survive with only work, work and more work, with only a few hours of sleep in between.
He’d been living with his mom, but he’d had so little time to spend with her, he barely knew how the transition with the Doka girls was going. And he hadn’t seen his brothers Colt or Ty since a week ago Saturday when they’d driven off on Ty’s motorcycle after he and Jake had tried and failed to get Colt to seek help for his PTSD. Jake had told him that Colt had been seen and released. Kee worried about Colt living up in the woods at the family’s mining claim since he’d come home from Afghanistan. Jake said Colt took off every time he went up there. Only Ty had succeeded in reaching him.
“Listen, is this about your living situation or your loans?”
“Both.”
“Easy. My grant to hire you was approved.”
Kee fiddled with the head of his stethoscope. “I need a permanent posting.”
“Five years sound permanent enough?”
Kee didn’t keep the surprise from his voice. “Five?”
“Yes, includes housing. In the new housing in Piňon Flats. We’re building especially for the tribal employees. Doctors get priority. Should take about three months, so you can move in by Christmas. We’ll all be in the same area near the clinic. Three bedrooms, garage and screened deck. You get an auto allowance of $500 a month. Plus forgiveness of your loans for working in a rural facility if you stay the full five years.”
“And the salary?”
After Dr. Hauser’s response, Kee’s hands dropped to his sides. He blinked in shock.
“Plus a five percent cost of living raise each year,” Hauser added.
Kee had been embarrassed to accept the Big Money his brother Ty had offered. Big Money was the sum total of each tribe member’s royalties from the casino held in trust and released when each member reached their majority. Ty’s money amounted to eighteen thousand and had kept Kee’s head just above water, covering his living expenses during medical school in Phoenix. Without it, Kee could not have completed his education. With the salary Hauser had just offered, he could pay his brother back and fix his mother’s car.
Hauser was still talking. “So about the auto stipend—get rid of that wreck you drive.”
The 2004 midnight blue RAM pickup truck had been used when he bought it. The only reason it was still running was because Ty fixed it for free.
“Besides,” Hauser continued. “I’m used to you. I don’t like breaking in new physicians.” He thumbed toward the corridor and Dr. Day.
“Why didn’t you tell me this before today?” Kee had been interviewing from Flagstaff to Tucson and was heartsick at having to leave the rez, especially now. People were moving and building and naturally getting hurt in the process. Accidents due to drinking were way up and there was a troubling spike in heroin overdoses.
“I only got word today. Email’s in my computer. It’s just been approved by our oversight board. So, you need time to think about it?”
“Forgiveness of all my loans? I have five.”
“All.”
“Private and government?”
“All means all,” said Hauser.
Kee felt the weight of his burden lifting off his shoulders and he almost felt like dancing. He laughed.
“Well, then yes.” Kee grinned. “I could work with that.”
Hauser extended his hand and they shook. His mentor reeled him in and wrapped an arm around Kee’s shoulders.
“Good, good. I’ve been thinking. I’ve been here doing this thirty-five years. When the time comes to turn over the reins, I’d like that someone to be you.”
Kee was speechless.
Hauser let him go and spoke in Tonto. “You are like a second son to me.”
Kee felt the hitch in his throat and didn’t think he could speak.
“You know Turquoise Canyon,” said Hauser. “You are a part of this place. You belong here with your people.” He switched back to English. “Besides, I’ll be damned if I’ll lose you to some big city hospital when you are needed right here.”
“I’m honored to follow your example, sir.”
“Well, it’s settled, then. I’ll get you the paperwork. Get it back when you can.”
Kee felt humbled. This man was all he ever wanted to become and earning his respect...well, Kee was brimming with joy. All the hard work and effort was paying off. Hauser had called him a second son. Kee thought he might cry.
“Now we have to find you a nice girl, hmm?”
Kee flushed. That was an odd thing to say. “Time still for that.”
“No time like the present. Pay off the loans. Find a wife and have a few children. You’ll be all set. Settled. A man the community can trust.”
That was a strange way of saying it, thought Kee. He thought he’d build trust by having a sterling reputation and all the necessary credentials. Unlike his father and Ty, Kee had steered clear of trouble and taken the road that involved hard work and sacrifice.
“My wife has a niece you should meet. She’s beautiful, traditional and lives in Koun’nde,” he said naming one of their three settlements.
“Well, we’ll see.”
Hauser clapped him on the shoulder. “Good man.” Then he turned to go, waving a hand in farewell. “Patients waiting.”
The female voice came from behind them. “Dr. Hauser?”
Kee knew that voice. It was the clinic administrator, Betty Mills.
Hauser turned and smiled at the woman who kept the place running. Betty was in her middle years, with onyx eyes and hair to match. She dressed better than anyone Kee knew, with never a hair out of place. Her makeup was thick and meticulous from the liner to the bright unnatural pink of her lips. High heels and the jangling gold bracelets she always wore on her left arm announced her on each approach. Betty loved her bling. Even the chain that held her reading glasses on the bright purple blouse was gold with clear crystal beads.
“There’s my boss,” said Hauser to Kee and winked. “What’s up, Betty?”
“Waiting room is full and so we’ve set up lawn chairs outside. They’re full now, too. You both need to pick up the pace.” She snapped her fingers, the long acrylic nails painted purple to match her outfit.
Hauser winked at Kee and then scuttled down the corridor to the exam area where Dr. Day waited.
Betty gave Kee a critical stare. “I’ll tell Lori you’re ready for the next one.”
Down the corridor, Dr. Day stepped out of the examination area rubbing his neck. Hauser frowned after him and then drew the curtains closed behind him.
Hauser had not liked Day since the minute the tribal council had informed him that they had voted to get them extra help. It seemed Hector did not mind being bossed by Betty, but he did not like the tribal council interfering with his clinic.
Dr. Day reached Kee and gave him a defeated look. “All I did was ask if he’d speak in English when I’m there.”
“I can imagine how that went over,” said Kee, feeling sympathy for the doctor who was struggling to fit in with the local culture.
Kee glanced to the receiving station and the young mother carrying a crying toddler in his direction. He smiled and motioned them into the free exam area.
She spoke to him in Tonto Apache and Kee answered in kind. He could not believe how lucky he was to be able to stay here in the place he loved with the people he knew. A house. A car and a salary that was more money than he could even imagine. It seemed nearly too good to be true.
Chapter Three (#u0f8f67cc-2255-5562-b23f-1695a3594d33)
Tuesday morning at the temporary clinic was crazy, made more so by the fact that Dr. Day did not appear at his usual time. Kee covered the women’s health clinic, now in the adjoining trailer, and Hauser took the urgent care center. Kee called Day several times but got no answer.
Hauser popped into Kee’s exam area.
“Anything?” he asked.
“No answer on his phone.”
“FEMA sent us a dud.”
Kee didn’t think Hauser was giving Day a chance. He almost seemed to be undercutting his efforts. Kee didn’t understand it because he’d never seen Hauser act like this.
Hauser waved a dismissive hand. “Social skills of a tortoise and just as much personality.”
Kee was now officially really worried. He knew Day had set out with his Subaru at seven, his mountain bike strapped onto the vehicle’s bike rack, and that he was always back by just after eight thirty, which was why he was usually late for their 9 a.m. opening. Still, he was never this late. Something felt off but he told himself to be patient.
Kee glanced at his watch. Day had been missing for hours.
When they reached noon and Kee still had no word, he called his brother Jake Redhorse.
“When did you see him last?” asked Jake.
“This morning. He was going for a ride before work.”
“On a horse?” asked Jake.
“He rides his bike. Mountain biking.”
“Okay, yup. I’ve seen him. Looks like a giant canary escaping a coal mine?”
Kee thought of the bright yellow exercise gear Dr. Day wore when biking and smiled.
“Yeah, that’s him.”
“I’ll put the word out, but I’m down at the worksite on the river. I’ll call FEMA. Meanwhile, you got a neighbor who could see if his car is there? Maybe check the house?”
Kee thought of Ava Hood. She lived just down the street.
“Yeah. I have someone.”
Kee gave Jake the details on Day’s vehicle.
“Let me know if the neighbor finds him.”
“Will do.”
Kee disconnected and held the phone to his chest a moment. He was going to call Ava. He hoped that she was at her sister’s trailer, right down the road from his. He had already put Ava’s number in his contacts. He blew out a breath and made the call.
He explained the situation. “Could you check if his car is in the drive?”
“Hold on. I’m walking out the door now.”
He heard a door open and close.
“He ever do this before?” she asked.
“He bikes every morning. And he’s late every morning. But not like this.”
“Does he have someone here, somewhere he might be?”
“He might have a girlfriend down on the flats somewhere and a brother in some kind of law enforcement. DEA or ICE? I can’t remember. Alphabet soup, you know? But I saw him this morning and it’s a work day.”
“Almost there,” said Ava. “Yeah. Okay. No Subaru. No other vehicle. You want me to look inside?”
“Door is locked.”
“I’m looking in the front door window now. Big hook on the wall in the entrance.”
“For his bike,” said Kee.
“It’s empty. I’m knocking.” He heard the pounding knock and the silence that followed. “No one here, Kee.”
Kee pressed his free hand to his forehead. “So he’s still out there.”
“Call Chief Tinnin. Report him missing. Do you know the route he takes?”
Kee squeezed his eyes shut thinking. “He has several.”
“What are they?”
He relayed the routes he knew and she said she’d drive them. Kee called Jake again. His brother assured him he’d report that Day was unaccounted for. Kee went back to work with a cold knot in his stomach. He just felt something was wrong.
He was just finishing a round of immunizations on an eighteen-month-old when the phone rang. He snatched it out of his pocket right there in the exam room. It was Ava. A glance at the clock showed that it was three in the afternoon. Kee punched the receive button and lifted the phone to his ear.
“I found Day’s car,” Ava said.
He pressed his hand to his forehead. “Where?”
She told him.
“That’s the trailhead to the ruins,” said Kee.
“Hard to know which way he went from there,” she said. “Lots of trails through the cliff dwellings. Right?”
“My brother Ty has a dog. She’s an excellent tracker.”
There was a long pause.
“Ava?”
“Yeah, call him. Meet me here.”
“Should I call the police?” he asked.
“Up to you. Would Ty want the police here?” she asked matter-of-factly.
He pressed his lips together. Ava was just a visitor on their rez and yet she knew about Ty. She likely knew about their father, as well. “I’ll wait.”
“We need something of Day’s,” said Ava. “Something he recently wore or frequently wears, to help the dog find his scent.”
Kee swallowed at this and then raked a hand through his black hair. “I’ll stop at the trailer and find something. Meet you there at the trailhead in ten.”
* * *
AVA LEANED AGAINST her Malibu in the bright golden light of the crisp late afternoon. The blue sky and bird sounds belied her mood. Day had parked in a parking area before the lower ruins. His pale blue Subaru was covered with a fine coating of red dust, so it had been here awhile. It did not make sense that he’d be here all day when he was supposed to be at work.
She checked her service weapon and then returned it to her holster beneath her suede russet-colored jacket. She wore her badge under her shirt. The jacket would cover her service weapon from sight and she just felt more comfortable with the weapon near at hand.
Before Kee’s call, Ava had broken into the tribe’s clinic, which she knew was due to reopen this week. As she suspected, all their files were digitized and the computers password-protected. Kee’s and Hauser’s passwords had been easy to discern, but the clinic’s was a different story. So much for that plan, she thought. Shifting approaches, she’d placed a hidden camera directly over the administrator’s desk. Then she could remotely activate the camera, which had a six-hour battery. But then she had to wait for the clinic to open and for Betty Mills to log in before Ava could gain access to their system.
She wondered how long before their police discovered she was here and how long before her police force learned that she’d very definitely gone off the reservation. What she was doing could cost her her job. Her position gave her authority, respect and the autonomy she’d always longed for. She didn’t want to lose all that. But she was willing to chance it because the only thing more important than being a detective was finding Louisa and saving those missing girls.
She wondered if Day’s disappearance was related to this case. Suspicious things were happening and they all spun like a tornado around that clinic.
She hoped the worst thing that could’ve happened to Dr. Day was an accident that had left him lying along the trail somewhere with a twisted ankle and without a phone. But her gut told her that his disappearance could be related to her case.
Kidnapping a federal employee would be a terrible move and very brazen. Even if they thought he was investigating the clinic and closing in on the culprit, which he likely wasn’t, it would be better to...push him off a cliff.
The thought made Ava’s stomach churn.
Ava stared up at the mountain. Somewhere along that trail were several cliff dwellings. She’d never seen them but her sister, Sara, had told her about them. That also meant that there were cliffs.
Kee pulled up in his old blue pickup. He climbed down and hurried toward her, looking distracted as he greeted her by clasping both elbows and kissing her on the cheek. She was so rattled by the simple brushing of his mouth on her cheek that it wasn’t until Kee was already halfway to Day’s Subaru that she realized what he intended.
“Don’t touch that!” she called.
He paused and turned back. “Why?”
“Umm, what if something happened to him, then wouldn’t this be a crime scene?” That wasn’t well-done, she thought.
Kee backed up. “A crime scene?” He looked even more agitated as he looked in through the dusty windows from a safe distance. “Everything looks normal. He didn’t lock it.”
“You know this trail?” asked Ava, drawing him away from the vehicle.
“Part of it. It’s a quarter mile past the pasture to the lower ruins. I only hiked to the upper ruins once.” He rubbed his leg and frowned. “Couldn’t keep up with my kid brothers.”
How hard that must have been, always being the slowest, Ava thought. She touched his cheek with the palm of her hand.
“Well, you can keep up now.”
They shared a smile and she resisted the urge to step closer. His hands went to her waist and she moved away, not wanting him to discover her service weapon.
“There’s miles of trails up there,” he pointed to the ridgeline against the crystal blue sky. “And cliff dwellings, several. I suppose Richard could have tried to bike it.”
From the distance she heard a low rumble.
Kee turned toward the road. “That will be Ty. You know about him?”
She had run his record but she didn’t say that. Instead she offered a half-truth. “I mentioned meeting you to my sister. And...”
Kee flushed. “She naturally mentioned Ty and...my father, too?”
She nodded, wondering why he looked so ashamed. He hadn’t robbed a store. Mr. Perfect, she thought again. No missteps except the ones of his family reflecting badly on him. The law didn’t judge families; it judged individuals. She did the same. But she knew the pain caused by the poor decisions made by family members. Her mother had been a train wreck and Sara had gotten pregnant in high school. It happened.
“No one is perfect,” she said.
“I’m not like my dad.” He met her gaze and she thought the expression was not shame but anger. Was he angry at his father for being a con or at her sister for gossiping? “I’ve never broken a law in my life.”
She’d have to see about that.
“In fact, seeing my dad’s sentencing, well, it changed me. I’d always been cautious because of my leg. But that made me realize that your reputation, well, it’s more breakable than bones.”
She thought about how one wrong step and her own reputation would be beyond repair. She had a stellar law enforcement career, but even that wouldn’t survive the fallout of her rogue investigation if she was caught. But wasn’t Louisa’s life worth that?
The distinctive sound of a powerful engine brought all heads about.
“That’s his chopper,” said Kee.
“Harley?” she asked, raising her voice as the rumble became a roar.
“Indian,” he said. “Wait. That’s a new bike.”
Ty made an entrance. Up until today, Ava had only heard about him. The family black sheep, currently under investigation for his role in the abduction of Kacey Doka. They had statements from both his youngest brother, Colt, and Kacey, but neither could testify as they were in witness protection. The signed statements implicating Ty in Kacey Doka’s kidnapping from the clinic should be enough to convict him in tribal court. So why were they letting him run around free?
The roar grew louder and Ava had to shout to be heard.
“Isn’t he bringing the dog?” she asked.
Kee nodded and pointed. In rolled Ty Redhorse on a coffee-brown-and-cream Harley Davidson motorcycle laden with so much chrome she could see reflections of the sky and road and man all at once.
At first she thought he was riding double, and he was, after a fashion. The dog sat behind him, paws on his shoulders, with goggles on his massive head. As Ty pulled forward, she could see the shepherd sat in a bucket fixed to the rear seat and wore some sort of restraining belt.
The engine idled and Ty fixed his stare on them both. No smile, she realized, and he looked less than pleased to be here. Ty’s hair was shoulder length and cut blunt. He resembled Kee but for the cleft in his chin. He also sent all her cop senses into high alert. That challenge in his eyes as he met her gaze would have made her pull him over if she had her cruiser.
Badass didn’t cover it. And he wore black, of course.
Ava regarded the dog, with its lolling, pink tongue and—what appeared to be—a wide grin.
“Looks like a wolf,” said Ava.
“German shepherd mix,” said Kee.
“Mixed with wolf,” she said and Kee laughed.
The deep masculine rumble did crazy things to her insides.
“Ty thinks it’s funny because he’s riding with his bi...” Kee changed his mind about what he was going to say and motioned to Ava. “Shall we?”
Ty rocked the bike onto its kickstand. He greeted Kee with a bear hug that nearly lifted Kee off his feet. Ty was taller, broader and more intimidating.
Kee had a cell phone clipped to his clean, fitted jeans and he wore a blue button-up shirt with a turquoise bolo and brown lace-up shoes. Ty had a knife clipped to his leather belt and had a wallet connected to a belt loop by a stainless-steel chain. He wore black leather chaps over jeans, high moccasins with the distinctive toe-tab marking them as Apache footwear and a black muscle shirt that revealed a tribal tattoo circling each arm. What he didn’t wear was a helmet.
She watched Ty stroke his dog’s pointed ear, momentarily bending it flat before releasing her from the bucket-style pet transporter. The dog came forward to sniff Kee and then turned to Ava. She extended her hand, but the dog stopped short of her and dropped to all fours, lying alert before her.
She glanced first to Kee and then to Ty, who was narrowing his eyes at her.
Kee made introductions but Ty remained where he was. Her skin prickled a warning. She was made. She knew it.
Ty gave her a hard look.
“She a cop?” he asked Kee.
She narrowed her eyes, wondering if it was her appearance or his dog that had tipped him off.
“No,” said Kee. “A neighbor.”
“You packing?” he asked.
She nodded and showed her sidearm.
Ty’s eyes narrowed and Kee gaped.
“You can’t carry a weapon here,” said Kee.
Ty held her gaze a long while and Kee shifted restlessly. Finally, he broke the silence.
“We brought something of Richard’s for Hemi,” said Kee. “Let me get it.” He retrieved a pair of gray bike riding gloves.
Kee offered them to Ty and Ava noted that his younger brother was a few inches taller than Kee, but likely hadn’t been originally. The surgeries had taken three inches from his healthy leg.
Ty took the gloves and offered them to Hemi. The dog stood and was all business when she checked out the neoprene gloves and then lowered her head to the ground, making straight for the Subaru.
She jumped so that she stood on her back legs, with her front paws pressed to the door.
“Good girl,” said Ty, in a tone that seemed out of place from such a tough character. It gave her hope that he might be more than he appeared, because he appeared to be a gang member. But he had come at Kee’s request and that allowed her to continue to operate covertly.
Ty waved his dog toward the trail.
“Track,” he said.
Hemi put her nose to the ground and bounded away straight for the path that cut through the pasture toward the lower ruins.
Ty used Richard’s gloves to wipe away the paw prints from the Subaru. Ava’s eyes narrowed. Clearly, he suspected foul play and was removing evidence of Hemi’s contact with the vehicle. Was he just keeping his involvement secret or did he have something to hide?
They headed up the trail with Hemi darting ahead. She fell in beside Kee.
Kee asked Ty about Colt, how he was doing and if he was still talking. Ty paused to give him a long inscrutable look and then told Kee that he was but failed to mention that Colt was not on the rez. Kee didn’t seem to know that and Ty didn’t tell him.
Very odd, she thought.
“When you see him last?” asked Ty.
“The Saturday when you took him to Darabee Hospital.”
Almost two weeks ago. Kee had let his work erode his connection to family. He was right here on the rez but seemed to have little idea what was happening under his nose.
“Is he getting some help?” asked Kee.
“Yeah. Lots of help.”
Help relocating, thought Ava.
She had read in Ty’s file that he had driven a ’73 Plymouth Barracuda when he allegedly kidnapped Kacey Doka, the only girl to escape her captors. But the car was never found. No car, no physical evidence connecting Kacey Doka to Ty Redhorse. Just the statement by Kacey, who was no longer here to back it up with her physical presence during testimony in tribal court, and the tribe’s council had declined the FBI’s request for custody of Ty. That in itself was not unusual. Most tribes were exceedingly reluctant to allow outsiders to try their defendants. Considering the history between the Tonto Apache tribes and the federal government, few would blame them.
“What kind of a car does Ty drive?” Ava asked.
“I can’t keep up,” said Kee. “He changes cars like I change surgical gloves. I think he’s working on a ’67 Pontiac GTO.”
“Fast car. What color? Black?”
“No, gold.”
Gang colors, she thought. Yellow and black. Those were the colors worn by the Wolf Posse here.
So Ty was a gang member, and his brother Jake was a member of the tribal police force. Which side was Kee on?
When they reached the trailhead with the marker of regulations and the one of historical information, they paused. It delineated the rules in bullet points including no fires and no firearms.
Hemi flashed by, circling the ruins. The red stone walls still stood rising ten feet in places and in others lay as piles of rock strewn on the ground. The interior chambers of rooms that had collapsed hundreds of years ago were visible and the roof beams hung at odd angles.
Once an ancient people had lived and farmed in this place, leaving behind the remnants of these communal residences. Her people called them the ancient ones, for they were here and gone before the Apache moved into the Southwestern territory.
Funny that many Americans thought that settlement of this country began in Plymouth in 1622 when at that time this settlement of hunter-farmers was living in an ancient version of a condominium right here.
The upper ruins were even older and of a different people. The Anasazi dwelt in cliffs and the whys of that were still mysterious. A drought? A new enemy? All that was known was what they had left behind.
“How many cliff dwellings up there?” she asked.
“Four, I think. More tucked all over the ridges around here.”
Hemi was now on the move toward the winding path that led to the upper ruins.
Ava knew that the tribal museum gave guided tours to these two archeological sites twice a week or by arrangement. She had never seen either, but she had seen ones like it.
They hiked for thirty minutes up a steep trail. She saw tire tracks in the sandy places consistent with a bike tire. Her thigh muscles burned from the strenuous hike. She wondered how anyone could bike such a thing. The sweat on her body dried in the arid air, making her wish she had brought water.
Hemi disappeared and then reappeared, checking on the progress of the slow-moving humans. They found her, at last sitting beside an expensive-looking mountain bike that lay on its side.
“That’s not good,” said Ty.
“That’s his,” said Kee, studying the bike with worried eyes. He reached and then stopped himself.
She was glad because she didn’t want to talk like a cop in front of Ty.
Ty glanced at Hemi, who lay with her paws outstretched toward the bike.
“Trail ends here,” said Ty.
“Definitely?” asked Kee.
Ty glanced at Hemi, her tongue lolling as his dog looked to him for further instructions.
“It ends here or goes where Hemi can’t follow.”
They all stepped past the bike to look over the cliff. Below were rocks and trees but no obvious sign of Dr. Day.
“Might have fallen,” said Ty.
“With his bike way over there?” she asked. That didn’t seem right.
“Stopped to take in the view. Lost his footing.” Ty shrugged.
Was he trying to sell her on this scenario?
“Either way, he’s not here,” said Kee. “We should call Jake.”
Ty backed away. “If you’re calling tribal, I’m gone. They’re already trying to hang me for giving Kacey a ride. They’ll tie me up in this, too.”
A ride? Is that what he called kidnapping? Ava could not keep from gaping.
Kee stared at Ty. “What are you talking about?”
Didn’t Kee know?
Ty had been detained for questioning and released. He had not been arrested or charged. Tribal police would keep such matters private particularly if there was an ongoing investigation. She knew of Ty’s situation only because her chief had been told of a possible connection to the tribe’s gang and a known associate, Ty Redhorse. But the police here had taken steps to be certain Ty’s detention remained secret. She knew he was a suspect but Kee did not, which meant that his brother had not told him. Ty did not want Kee to know. Was Ty protecting him or hanging him out to dry?
Ty shook his head. “Just tell them you found the car and followed the trail. That you know he bikes this route and you were checking. But I was never here. Got it?”
Kee’s mouth was tight. “You want me to lie to the police?”
“Omit,” said Ty.
“It’s lying.”
“Hey, you do what you want. Just don’t call me for help again.” He turned to Ava and gave her a two-finger salute. “Officer.”
Then he disappeared back down the trail. Hemi followed, venturing out before him.
Kee turned to her immediately. “Why did he call you—”
“What’s that?”
Ava spotted a tiny speck of canary yellow visible between the treetops below the cliff upon which they stood.
Exactly the color Kee said Dr. Day had been wearing.
Chapter Four (#u0f8f67cc-2255-5562-b23f-1695a3594d33)
Ava didn’t think Kee had pushed Richard Day, but she kept him in front of her on the descent. When they reached the bottom of the trail it was nearly six at night. The sun had disappeared behind the opposite ridgeline and the colors were gradually fading all around them. Kee tried tribal police but there was no cell service out here. He offered Ava the last of the water he carried and she took a long swallow before returning the empty bottle.
“You know it will be really dark soon. We have thirty minutes,” she said.
“Maybe we should go to the police.”
Yeah, except she was certain how Detective Jack Bear Den or the chief of police would respond if they knew where her personal leave from her soon-to-be previous job had taken her.
She’d interviewed. Been hired here, and Tinnin himself had briefed her about her first case. This case. The missing women from Turquoise Canyon, but he did not know that the last girl taken was Ava’s niece. The niece that she had helped raise. So Ava was not playing by the rules on this investigation. So for now, she couldn’t let either of those men see her. Not yet.
“We could find him,” she coaxed. “He’s maybe ten minutes in that direction. It will be harder in the dark.”
Kee hesitated, glancing in the direction of the lot.
She gave one final push. “What if he’s alive?”
That set him in motion. She pushed back the admiration. Kee seemed kind and conscientious and really sweet. But appearances could be deceiving.
“Do you know if anyone would want to hurt him?” she asked.
“No. I don’t. He’s only been here since early October. You think it’s him, don’t you?”
“You said he was wearing yellow.”
Kee looked back along the trail. The sky still held a few bands of orange but that wouldn’t last.
“I don’t think anyone could survive such a fall.” He looked to her. “How can you be so calm?”
Because she’d seen death before, too many times.
“We should hurry,” she said, motioning. “Have you seen anyone strange around lately?”
“Outsiders?”
“Yeah. At the clinic or speaking to Day or maybe just in your neighborhood?”
“We only treat tribal members.”
Kee drew up short. “It’s him.”
Ava came alongside him. It was a body, battered and bloody, and wearing yellow spandex that seemed to glow with unnatural brightness in the twilight.
Ava had seen bodies in worse shape. Mostly natural causes, left inside a hot trailer for days before anyone went to check, and then there were the auto accidents. But her reservation was small and relatively quiet and flat. No one fell off anything high and she was not prepared for the damage to Dr. Day.
His body had clearly struck the rock face on the descent and possibly some of the tall pines, judging from the deep lacerations on his torso and thigh. There were branches and debris surrounding him. He lay on his stomach with his arms and legs sprawled as if he were about to use a horizontal Stairmaster.
Kee knelt beside his roommate and checked his carotid pulse, but Ava knew from the brownish stain on Day’s cornea and the pooling of blood in the lower half of his face that Day was gone.
Her Apache heritage included all sorts of beliefs that it was dangerous to touch the dead. That ghosts could follow you even if the deceased was a good friend in life. Ava didn’t believe that dead bodies and ghosts could haunt her but she dearly hoped that whoever did this would be haunted because she was certain Day had not fallen. He’d been pushed. That was her theory and she was going with it.
She swept the body with her gaze, looking for clues, and found them right there in Day’s hand. His nails were torn and bloody and there was skin and hair under them. That was what you’d see if Day had fought his attacker. So whoever pushed him would have scratches on their face or arms. Maybe both.
Ava tried to think of a way to take a sample from his nails.
“I have to call Hector,” said Kee.
That was an odd first call, she thought. Why not to Jake, his brother who was on the force?
He looked at Ava with wide, troubled eyes and swallowed, sending his Adam’s apple bobbing. “He’s our medical examiner.”
Of course he was, she thought.
Kee rocked back on his heels and wiped his mouth with his hand, looking truly unsettled. Rattled, she corrected. She knew he had faced death. All physicians did. But this death was harder. He knew the man, so it was personal. Day was young and he had been Kee’s colleague plus they’d shared a FEMA trailer. Add to that the damage to the corpse and you had a horror that would not soon be forgotten.
She dropped to a knee beside Kee and draped an arm around his shoulders. Kee clasped her hand with his opposite one.
“Look at his nails,” she said and pointed.
“What is that?” He leaned closer.
“Looks like skin.”
Kee straightened and stepped quickly away. She watched him pace, both hands locked behind his head. Finally, he came back beside her.
“You think he was pushed. You think he fought his attacker.”
“Don’t you?”
He nodded gravely.
“Should you take a sample?” she asked.
He shook his head. “The police will do that. I’ll make sure they do.”
“What about photos?” she asked. The scene might not be so pristine later on and it would be dark. She did not want to use her phone knowing that it would be confiscated as evidence and that would give the police here easy access to who she was. But those photos could be vital.
“Should I take some?” He had his phone out.
“Might help your police.”
Kee took a few shots, his mouth squeezed in a look of distaste. She nudged him to photograph Day’s hands, face and all other injuries. Finally she suggested a few long shots of the scene.
“Might help with location,” she said, knowing it would. He finished and his arm dropped to his side with the glowing phone gripped in his hand. He stood staring at Day as if he could not believe what he was seeing.
She slipped her hand into the crook of his elbow and he jumped.
“You want to see if you have cell service here?” she asked.
He placed his hand over hers and rubbed as if to give her comfort. “Doubtful. But I’ll try.”
Kee lifted the phone, searching for a signal.
“Nothing.”
“Come on,” she said. “We’ll go tell the police what we found. You can lead them back here.”
Kee stood over the body, head bowed as if he were a mourner at a grave.
“I was afraid something like this had happened,” he said.
Ava’s antenna picked up. It was the sort of thing a person who knew what would happen would say.
“Why is that?” she asked, keeping her tone conversational.
“He was gone too long.” Kee glanced back toward the body, arms folded protectively before him. “He was going to get a haircut after work today.”
Now, that was the kind of crazy thing people did say when someone was ripped unexpectedly from their life.
She didn’t like to admit it, but her opinions as to Kee’s involvement were eroding. Ava had an instructor in the academy who told her students to keep a few brain cells open to the possibility that your prime suspect was innocent. Those brain cells were recruiting others and that troubled her. What if she was wrong about Dr. Redhorse? If she were, then she needed to expand her search or target his fellow doctor more closely. It just seemed with his brother Ty’s involvement and his brother Colt’s disappearance into witness protection without Kee’s knowledge that the tribe considered Kee a prime suspect. Ava was unsettled and she did not like the uncertainty growing within her.
They walked back using their phone flashlights to help illuminate the trail. Once at the cars they paused. Ava needed to not be here when the police arrived.
“Listen, I’d like to get home. My sister has a thing at the school tonight and if I’m there she can cancel the sitter.” An AA meeting that Sara had promised to attend. “The girls are more anxious since Louisa’s disappearance.” Ava shrugged. “So how about this, I’ll call the police when I get cell service and send them back to you. Okay?”
Kee frowned. “I’m sure they’ll want to speak to you.”
“Yes, I’ll be at my sister’s. They can come there. Better if it’s after nine. Kids in bed.” She shrugged.
“All right. I’ll tell them.” He clasped her arm and she felt the strength of his hands as he leaned in. “You be okay walking back alone?”
“Yes. I’ll be fine.” She tried and failed not to let his concern affect her. Ava smiled and met his warm gaze, feeling the unwelcome stirring of attraction thread between them.
“Thank you, for everything.”
On impulse, Ava lifted to her toes and planted a kiss on his cheek.
Kee’s mouth dropped open and his hand slipped away. She’d surprised him. She took the opportunity to make her escape.
She did call the police, did not give her name, pretending she was upset by events, and sent help in Kee’s direction. They had her number, of course, but there was no need to track it unless they could not find her. If she was lucky, she had a day or two of anonymity left.
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Jenna Kernan
Could she trust him with her case…And with her life?Detective Ava Hood knows that Kee Redhorse isn’t involved with her missing girls case. Ava can’t let her feelings for Kee hinder her case – but with the clock ticking, she needs his help. Her career, and perhaps even her heart, are now on the line…
Can she trust him with her case...
And with her life?
Despite clues pointing tribal police detective Ava Hood to one suspect, her instincts scream that Kee Redhorse isn’t involved. She’s deeply attracted to the Apache physician, but she can’t let those feelings hinder her case. With the clock ticking, and Kee willing to help find the missing girls, Ava will use him. Her career, multiple lives and perhaps even her heart are now on the line.
JENNA KERNAN has penned over two dozen novels and has received two RITA® Award nominations. Jenna is every bit as adventurous as her heroines. Her hobbies include recreational gold prospecting, scuba diving and gem hunting. Jenna grew up in the Catskills and currently lives in the Hudson Valley in New York State with her husband. Follow Jenna on Twitter, @jennakernan (https://twitter.com/jennakernan), on Facebook or at www.jennakernan.com (http://www.jennakernan.com).
Also by Jenna Kernan
Surrogate EscapeTribal BloodUndercover ScoutTurquoise GuardianEagle WarriorFirewolfThe Warrior’s WayShadow WolfHunter MoonTribal Law
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Undercover Scout
Jenna Kernan
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-07887-0
UNDERCOVER SCOUT
© 2018 Jeannette H. Monaco
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
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For Jim, always.
Contents
Cover (#u619450bd-a6d2-5190-beec-11c4364c9a58)
Back Cover Text (#ub3624b60-8f91-5284-91f0-948493dff4e6)
About the Author (#u8c9a0a5b-c89b-5e9e-b3c4-72ba2ed3e117)
Booklist (#ufdd7d2ac-2fe2-575a-b933-9528e509afa0)
Title Page (#u8aad3f53-3c60-5dfe-a196-503332d97d98)
Copyright (#u057c56ba-cdf6-5c42-8e43-4f0975f16bca)
Dedication (#u1e31c48d-655c-5c73-9023-e1899a3866de)
Chapter One (#u8ac5df39-383b-53c3-8d03-f6e3baa0439c)
Chapter Two (#uf2d4fb9e-ae42-5794-b141-98d4dda78f1e)
Chapter Three (#ua5077361-b8e9-58eb-95ab-6d26a93249a6)
Chapter Four (#u48954294-3563-5fe0-82d9-ebf3eb57dce3)
Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-One (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Two (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty-Three (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter One (#u0f8f67cc-2255-5562-b23f-1695a3594d33)
Detective Ava Hood watched her prime suspect, Dr. Kee Redhorse, through her field glasses and scowled. You couldn’t tell about a person by looking. Dr. Redhorse was a great example of that. Charming, well liked by his tribe, above reproach and the very last person you would suspect. But as it turned out, Ava suspected everyone. And no one was this squeaky clean.
Redhorse was a trusted member of the Turquoise Canyon people. A physician, newly board certified and quite possibly a monster.
She sat in her Chevy Malibu, parked nose out, between the battered yellow bulldozer that created the temporary road and a ten-foot pile of gravel. From her position she could see the FEMA housing trailers that included her sister’s and the one assigned to Dr. Richard Day and Dr. Kee Redhorse. She noted in her log that Kee left his assigned FEMA trailer on Sunday to go for a walk at 8:08 a.m., October 15.
Ava didn’t trust the tribal police on this rez mostly because Dr. Redhorse had a brother on the force, Jake Redhorse. Plenty of opportunities to look the other way. She knew if she wanted to get to the bottom of her investigation she had to do it herself and she didn’t have time for official channels. She accepted the potential risks and didn’t care for the cost. State evidence be damned. Justice would be served, one way or another.
Her niece was missing—quite possibly a victim of the series of kidnappings that had recently hit the reservation.
All young women. All to be used as surrogates in a baby trafficking ring run by the Russian mob.
And all of them patients at the clinic shortly before their disappearance. That connection had been made only three weeks ago, ten days before her niece had been taken.
She adjusted her field glasses in her hands and studied her subject. Redhorse was dressed in faded jeans and a college T-shirt, over which he yanked a well-worn, gray hooded sweatshirt as he descended the steps. He looked more approachable in casual clothing, losing some of that air of professionalism that clung to him during his shifts at the tribe’s clinic. She tried to ignore the way the clothing hung on his perfect frame and failed.
“No one is that perfect, Ava,” she muttered to herself. She knew that much.
Today, he wore scratched and scuffed Timberland boots and a ball cap. He was the sort of man that you noticed right off because of his easy smile and dark, intelligent eyes. Ava noticed him because she thought he was guilty. And if she reacted to him as a man, well, she would ignore it.
How much had he gotten away with in his life because of his good looks and natural appeal? She hated charmers because that was how her grandmother described Ava’s father—the father she had never known. A real charmer.
She had been watching both doctors from the reservation clinic, Hector Hauser and Kee Redhorse, since last Saturday night. She’d come the minute she’d heard from Sara that one of the missing girls, Kacey Doka, had reappeared after escaping her captors. She’d hoped to speak to Kacey but she and Colt Redhorse had vanished four days ago and she had suspected the Justice Department had them. She’d taken a leave of absence from her own tribe’s police force, the Saguaro Flats Apache. She only had a few weeks left in the position. She’d already accepted a new job here on the Turquoise Canyon police force, but the job didn’t start until the first of November. That was too long to wait to start her investigation. Time was of the essence and she had to start ASAP. Every good cop knew a missing person’s trail got significantly colder after the first forty-eight hours. Her sixteen-year-old niece, Louisa, had been gone for fourteen days and the police here had found nothing.
No, she couldn’t trust the Turquoise Canyon tribal force to handle the investigation on their own—especially if one of their officers was blocking evidence.
As far as her force knew, she was here only to comfort her sister, Sara, and help Sara out with her daughters, which was true. But they didn’t know she also planned to track down Louisa. That she’d do so alone just made sense. No one else to endanger or to let her down.
Ava had managed to break into both Redhorse’s and Hauser’s temporary FEMA trailers and install a tracking program on their personal computers. The simple program gave her access to their bank records, email, calendars, browser history and social media accounts. She’d done criminal record checks on each and all their closest associates. The only hit was Kee Redhorse’s father, Colton, who was serving a sentence in federal prison for armed robbery. And his brother Ty, who had a juvie record, which was closed. Ava wondered about that one since the dates corresponded exactly to Colton Redhorse’s last heist. Even though there had been no other convictions, Ty was currently under investigation by tribal police for kidnapping Kacey Doka—the girlfriend of his youngest brother, Colt. Not enough evidence had been found to tag him to the crime yet, but there was still a big question mark over his head.
And Colt? His record was clean. After Kacey had escaped her captors and fingered Ty as the driver, Ava had confirmed that Kacey and Colt had entered witness protection until the crime ring could be stopped.
“Something that’s taking too long in my book,” Ava muttered to herself.
Today was day eight of her investigation and she was running out of time. Soon she’d have to ask for help, return home or resign her job and stay. She thought about resigning from Saguaro Flats force altogether before coming here to Turquoise Canyon, but there were perks to being a cop—even one on leave. She still had access to police databases, which was imperative to her success. Quitting the police force would cause her to lose effectiveness.
She knew the FBI was involved with the investigation because she’d received an alert on her reservation from Turquoise Canyon Tribal Police that they had requested assistance last week after it was discovered that one of their missing persons, Kacey Doka, was not a runaway but a victim of kidnapping who’d identified several other missing girls held captive with her. The Bureau’s focus would be on capture and conviction of those responsible. Hers was on recovery by any means.
Ava had already spoken to Kacey’s kidnapper. The Russian was paralyzed from the waist down, still in the hospital at Darabee and on suicide watch. Ava got nothing from him as he still elected to pretend he did not speak English. She did get a photo of his tattoos and was running a check on them through the available database. Gang affiliations were often written on the skin and his said Russian organized crime. But they’d need connections here.
First, she’d figure out who and they’d lead her to where the missing were kept. That was the plan.
She’d learned all she could from her surveillance of Kee and Hauser and from their personal computers and found nothing to implicate either physician.
She needed to get inside that clinic.
Ava drove along the rutted gravel road, hastily laid before the trailers had been hauled in by the dozens. The dam collapse that touched off the move out of the tribe’s tribal seat happened just a little over three weeks ago. The evacuees from lowland areas along the river were moved to temporary shelters out of the potential flood area. The FEMA trailers had arrived and her sister had been among the first to receive one because she had young children.
She parked before her sister’s FEMA trailer and ignored the barking as she opened the door. Woody, the big brown family dog, jumped up to say hello. She was surprised to see him, as he had been staying with her sister’s mother-in-law, who lived outside the reach of potential flooding. Woody had been added to the family at Louisa’s insistence and seeing him made Ava’s throat tighten. She gave him a quick scratch behind the ears and pushed him off until he dropped to all fours. His tail swung back and forth, thick and hairless at the base from too much chewing. A shepherd/pit bull mix, he had a head the size and shape of a shovel.
Ava checked her watch. Redhorse should be back by here in about ten minutes. Woody poked around the trailer and returned with a faded, worn, green tennis ball. Ava accepted the offering and tossed the ball. She kept her attention on the end of the street until Redhorse returned.
He was only a few hundred yards away with a newspaper tucked under his arm when he noticed her. She could tell by the hesitation in his stride.
She continued to toss the ball as Redhorse approached.
This was how he found them. Ava throwing a slippery tennis ball to an oversize puppy.
Kee Redhorse’s black hair was trimmed short. His skin was tawny-brown with bronze undertones. He had a broad forehead, a blade of a nose that hooked downward over a generous mouth and pinholes in each earlobe for earrings, which he did not wear. Handsome by any standard, she thought.
He hadn’t shaved this morning. She found that the dark stubble only added to his appeal. The hair growing beneath his lower lip brought her attention to his mouth. It was a sensual mouth. His lips parted and he inhaled, making his nostrils flare. Then that winning smile appeared. She felt a twitch in her stomach.
Suspect, she reminded herself.
Woody spotted Redhorse and trotted over to say hello. The man offered his hand. It was a nice hand with tight medium brown skin and a sprinkling of dark hair on the back, and the hand itself was broad and square with long elegant fingers. Ava blew away her frustration at her body’s reaction to the doctor.
“He’s friendly,” said Ava and forced a wide smile as she descended the steps and stood with her hands in her back pockets. She’d dressed for success today, in jeans that left room for her ankle holster but hugged everything else and a blouse that was feminine without broadcasting her cup size. Woody sniffed Redhorse’s hand and the wet ball fell to the ground.
Ava made a grab for the ball but Woody was too quick and snatched it up again. The tug-of-war ensued with the dog crouched, growling as he shook his shovel of a head, tail thumping. Ava wasn’t much of a frolicker but she did her best.
Redhorse laughed. “He’s not giving up.”
“He loves to play,” she said.
Woody won. The canine dropped the ball at Redhorse’s feet.
Traitor, she thought.
“He wants you to throw it,” she said keeping her smile until he turned to retrieve the ball.
He did and it was a really good throw. She gauged his physical strength and was glad she had both her service weapon and her training.
Woody returned, chewing as he trotted. He folded to the ground to begin gnawing in earnest, the ball between his paws. She could swear the canine was smiling.
Ava put a hand on her hip and sighed.
“Guess I finally wore him out,” she said and gave Redhorse another smile, making eye contact. He seemed to be looking right through her. Heat sizzled inside her and her stomach tensed. She knew he was single, dated occasionally but never for long and had been engaged to an Anglo in med school. Circumstances of the breakup were unclear.
Redhorse cleared his throat and looked back to the dog. Ava took a deep breath and pinched her lips together as she fought the troubling physical zip of awareness for him. It had never happened to her with a suspect before.
He cast her an effortless smile and the tug grew stronger. She was going to have to arrest him or sleep with him.
Yeah, right. She didn’t have the justification for either action.
Their eyes met and her heart gave an irritating flutter again. She wished she had enough evidence to read him his rights. She bet handcuffs would wipe that smile off his face.
Her grandmother would approve, she thought. Also possibly a felon. She scowled.
Redhorse was a suspect, not a prospect.
Woody stared up at her, his ball forgotten.
She pointed. “That’s Woody.”
Her gaze dropped to the sensual curve of his upper lip.
You’re staring at his mouth.
He switched to Tonto Apache. “Hello. I am Roadrunner born of Wolf, the oldest son of Colton and May Redhorse.” Then he switched back to English as he completed his introduction and extended his free hand. “I’m Doctor Kee Redhorse.”
Trotting out the title, she thought. She didn’t trust him and did not accept his hand. She was already attracted to the man. Touching him would only make the nagging stab of desire worse. Instead, Ava lifted her hands out before her, palms up.
“Wet,” she said, with dog slobber.
He held his smile as his arm dropped to his side. Was he disappointed?
“I live just up that way,” he said, motioning the way he had come. “For now anyway. Until we move back to Piňon Flats.”
She knew that. Likely knew more about him than his own family.
Since the dam collapsed upriver of this reservation, most of the residents of the community of Piňon Flats had been relocated here to high ground in Turquoise Canyon while the temporary rubble dam was reinforced by FEMA. Their permanent houses were still intact, but the dam had already been destroyed in an act of eco-extremism. Neither the tribe elders nor FEMA wanted to put anyone else at risk.
“I heard that will be any day,” she said.
He nodded and grinned.
“How is it I have never seen you before?” he asked and switched to Tonto. “I know that I would remember you.”
That smile made her insides roll and her stomach flutter. It was like swimming against a strong current. Those teeth, that jawline, that elegant nose. Oh, boy, was she in over her head. She hoped he wasn’t guilty because...what? He was handsome? She was smitten? She needed to get a grip.
It wasn’t her job to hope he was guilty or innocent. It was her job to find Louisa. If he had her or was responsible for her disappearance, then that was that.
Ava, you need to lock this down.
“I didn’t get your name,” said Kee.
“I’m Ava Hood.” She didn’t use her legal name, her father’s name. Never had, though her surname, Yokota, did crop up on things like her diplomas and legal documents.
“You didn’t grow up on the rez, Ava. I’d have noticed you.” His smile was so dazzling she needed sunglasses. Suddenly his charm and charisma seemed a threat. It made it easier to resist.
“I am Snake born of Spider,” she said in perfect Tonto Apache in the traditional form of greeting. One always began with the tribe, moved to clans and then relations. Only after these important ties were given, did one mention their own name. “My parents are Eldon and Lydia Hood from Saguaro Flats reservation.” Though her father was Eldon Yokota, she had given the correct first name.
“You speak very well,” he said in English.
The compliment seemed an insult. Besides, she had little choice as her grandmother had no other language but Tonto and she had lived with her until she was eight.
“I know that rez. Small, right?”
“Very.”
“What brings you up here?”
“Visiting my sister. She married a man up here.”
“What’s his name?”
“Diamond Tah.”
Kee’s smile slipped. “Oh.” He nodded and then met her gaze, his smile gone and his eyes serious. “I knew him very well. I used to listen to him play the flute at gatherings. So your sister is—”
“Sara Tah.”
Ava’s sister was newly widowed. Her husband had died one night on his way to the bathroom from a brain aneurysm. He’d been forty-two. That should have been enough tragedy for one year, but it turned out to be only the start.
His gaze flicked away again. Was that guilt? Or did he know that her sister was in far worse shape since her husband’s death than Ava had imagined. The drinking had gotten worse and there had been calls to protective services. It was reason enough for Ava to visit.
Ava waited for him to speak. What would a man who she suspected had a hand in the kidnappings say at this moment?
“I’m very sorry,” he said.
Appropriate, she thought.
“For what?”
He looked surprised, as if this was obvious, but she wanted to hear him say it. “Sara lost her husband recently and now...well, Louisa is missing. I know she’s been...struggling. It’s a terrible tragedy.”
He did not do or say anything that might reveal that he could be the reason for Louisa’s disappearance.
“We are still hopeful.”
“Of course.” He shifted uncomfortably. “How is Sara doing?”
Did he know about her sister’s drinking?
She went on the defensive. It was her fallback position, and protecting her sister came naturally as breathing. The truth was that her sister had lost weight, and didn’t eat. The entire situation made Ava’s chest hurt. “It’s a hard time.”
He nodded. “And the girls?”
She wanted to press a finger into his broad chest and tell him that he didn’t have the right to ask about them. Not ever.
“They’re frightened, mostly. The twins are afraid to leave for school or take the bus. So I’m driving them, for now.”
Margarita and Alexandra were five, and Olivia, only three. These were the children Sara had with Diamond. She’d brought Louisa to the marriage after her first marriage had failed.
Redhorse had treated each one of her sister’s kids. Most damning, he’d treated Louisa on September 30, on her last visit to the tribe’s clinic, just two days before her disappearance.
“I understand that,” he said. “Good of you to be with her at this time. Are you her younger sister?”
“Why do you ask?”
He cast her a shy smile. “You look young.”
“I am the younger sister but not by much. I’m twenty-eight.”
He looked shocked. She got that a lot but not looking her age had advantages. People often underestimated her.
She watched him. He didn’t shift or rub his neck. His gaze did not cut away as if he were anxious to put her behind him. He only held the appropriate look of sadness and concern.
He smiled. “Nice folks.”
“They sure are. I’d do anything for my sister and her kids.” She waited through the awkward pause. Still, he radiated nothing but concern.
“Is that why you bumped into me? You wanted to ask me about them?”
He was smart. She’d give him that but that only made him more dangerous if he was guilty.
“Is there something you’d like to get off your chest?” she asked.
“Off my...me? No,” he said and looked puzzled.
She waited as he cocked his head to study her, brow wrinkling.
“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Ava. May I call you Ava?”
She nodded.
“And please call me Kee.”
She preferred to call him prime suspect.
“What do you do down there on your rez, Ava?”
“Why do you ask?”
“I’m not sure. You have a certain directness to you.”
The pause seemed especially long. He stared at her and she noted the golden flecks in his deep brown eyes.
“So what do you do down there on the flats?” he asked again.
“I used to work for the casino. Dealer. High rollers, mostly. But I’m taking a break.” Actually that was her sister’s bio but she wasn’t going to tell him she was ROTC, had done four years of active duty in Germany and had just finished her four additional years on reserve while completing police training, and recently earned her gold shield. Given how her sister had completely withdrawn from society after her husband’s death and buried herself in a bottle, she doubted that Sara would have the opportunity to blow her cover.
The small talk continued. He told her what she already knew, that their clinic had only seven employees. Two physicians. One administrator, Betty Mills, and five nurses, one of whom—Lori Mott Redhorse—was well on her way to becoming a midwife. Lori was also Kee’s sister-in-law and the one who’d first made the connection between the clinic and the six missing women from his tribe.
Ava had already spoken with Lori and believed she was one of the good guys. The woman seemed interested in finding the missing teenagers and willing to do all she could to help the investigation. Not the actions of someone guilty of a crime.
“I thought there were three physicians,” Ava said when she caught an inaccuracy in Redhorse’s story.
“Oh, yes. That’s right. Dr. Day is on loan from FEMA. That’s my roommate, temporarily, until we get the all-clear to move back home.” Since Ava had searched the trailer, she was aware of the roommate situation. But Dr. Day hadn’t been around long enough to be a suspect, so she’d focused entirely on Dr. Kee Redhorse.
“I didn’t know that FEMA provided doctors.”
“Oh, yeah. And they have emergency medical response teams. Our clinic is currently set up in two of their mobile medical units. Crowded, but we are getting the job done. It’s been good to have another set of hands during the crisis. We’ve been super busy but we’ll lose Day soon.”
She quirked a brow. “That so?”
He casually slipped a hand into his back pocket. She watched his hands, wondering if he had a weapon. Kee kept talking.
“Once we get back to the clinic in Piňon Flats and out of those trailers, I’m sure they’ll recall him. Too bad, he’s a nice guy.”
There was something implied in his tone. She took a guess. “But not a good doctor?”
The side of his mouth quirked. His tell, she decided, that little gesture that said she had made the right guess. “He’s adequate.”
“But not Native.”
Kee made a sound that might have been a laugh. “Oh, I don’t mind that. But he is from Minnesota. So he thinks it’s too hot up here.”
“He’d hate Saguaro Flats.”
Now Kee did laugh. The sound buzzed over her skin and the hairs on her neck lifted at the pure musical joy in that deep male rumble of delight. She was reconsidering her strategy. Ava had not anticipated liking her suspect.
“His specialty is emergency medicine. He’s less interested in ongoing treatment of chronic conditions and I think he’s had his fill of diabetes and high blood pressure.”
“I see.”
Woody discovered an abandoned soda bottle, which he trotted over to Ava with. Her attempts to retrieve it from his mouth resulted in another game of chase.
“He can have it,” said Ava, recognizing defeat first. She turned back to her questioning. “How do you like working at the clinic?”
He shifted his weight from one leg to the other. “Oh, I like it, but I really prefer emergency medicine, too. Plus I’m only here part-time. Just finishing up my residency. Dr. Hauser, he’s our head physician, he arranged for me to split my time between here and Darabee Hospital.”
Ava crinkled up her face. “Sounds busy.”
Kee shrugged, a good-natured expression on his face. “It is. Doesn’t leave much time for a social life—or even a chance to catch up with the people in my own family. And since the dam collapse the clinic hours have been crazy. But I love the work and with my loans...” He held a hand to his throat and pretended to be strangling. “Gotta get a position in a hospital. Plan is to leave for a few years to get the best salary possible. I hope to come back someday.”
That didn’t mesh with a man making oodles of money from the Russian mob unless he knew that his tribal police force had made connections between the missing girls and his clinic. Then crying poverty was smart. His little brother was on the force. Had Officer Jake Redhorse given Kee some insider info?
“Medical school is expensive,” she said, hoping she sounded sympathetic. Her computer-hacking had exposed he was in up to his eyeballs in debt and had a really good motive for wanting to make a boatload of fast cash.
“I’ve had some assistance from the tribe. Dr. Hauser helped me qualify for a grant that covered some of it.”
She made a mental note to check on that.
“Sounds like a great guy.” Or a dangerous criminal, she thought.
“Yeah. He is. Hector is the one who encouraged me to practice medicine. I had a leg-length discrepancy as a kid.” He shrugged. “He took an interest.”
She thought of the photo she’d seen in his room in the FEMA trailer. He’d been younger, with a single crutch under one thin arm.
“I had lots of surgeries down in Phoenix.” He held his arms wide. “Now I’m the shortest male in my family.”
He wasn’t short, by any means. She marked him at nearly six feet.
“Why is that?” she asked.
“Well, they can’t add to the shorter leg. You know, make you taller. So they make corrections by reducing the size of the longer limb.”
She flinched as she imagined someone sawing through her lower leg bone.
“Yeah, exactly. Lost three inches. But they even up within an eighth of an inch.” He bent slightly at the waist and presented his straight legs for her examination. They were fine muscular legs. She could see that even through the denim of his jeans. “Hector arranged for all that and the therapy. Pulled strings and it was all taken care of.”
So Hector was a string puller and Kee was forever in his debt. How far would Kee go to pay him back?
“It was a hard time. My dad was...gone.”
In prison, she thought.
“We didn’t have much money.”
“Your head physician sounds like a wonderful man.” Her smile felt tight and unnatural. Kee didn’t seem to notice.
“He used to operate out of a room at tribal headquarters when I was a kid. Gave me all my shots there. But you should see the facility now. We have an urgent care center, triage, three exam rooms, reception, radiology and a woman’s health center with three birthing rooms, plus additional ob-gyn exam rooms.”
“That’s impressive. Paid through gaming?” she asked. It wasn’t, she knew, because she’d seen their budget, via her sister’s login on the tribe’s website. Some areas of the tribe’s website were public while others were password-protected to ensure only tribal members could access them. The page holding the minutes from tribal government meetings was one of these pages.
Kee shrugged. “Our administrator handles all that.”
Betty Mills, Ava knew. Recently divorced. Mother of three grown boys and driving an Audi leased by the clinic.
Woody tore the bottle in two and Ava threw the ball so she could retrieve the jagged pieces.
“I better check on my sister and the girls.” Sara was probably still in bed and likely hungover. The girls were being raised by a game console, as far as Ava could tell. She could at least get them all out of bed and feed them a healthy breakfast.
Anything to keep them all afloat until Louisa and the other missing children could be found.
“Oh,” he looked disappointed. “Of course. Umm, Ava? Will you be here a few days?”
“I plan to be. Yes.”
“Would you like to have a drink sometime this week?” His face was red when he finished, which she was chagrined to find she found absolutely adorable. Her heart was not behaving, hammered as if this was something other than a stakeout. Her department had another word for it...entrapment.
She didn’t care. All rules were off when you messed with hers.
So, here it was, the opportunity she had been hoping for. But that was before she realized she would be attracted to the good doctor. She hesitated, biting her bottom lip as she tapped the two sides of the ruined plastic bottle together before her in a nervous tattoo.
Dating Kee would give her access to him, to Hauser and to the clinic and she needed to know what was going on in there.
“Ava?” His dark brow lifted. “Are you seeing someone?”
She shook her head. “Oh, no. Not currently.” It was unfortunate that not one of the men in her past made her silly heart pitter-patter like this one, here. “I just need to work around the kids’ schedules and my sister. And I don’t really drink.”
Because it meant a possible loss of control and Ava did not go there.
“Oh. Coincidence,” he said. “Neither do I. And I understand about your family. You’re here for them. Family first, my dad always said.”
How reassuring. An adage from a con.
As far as she could tell Kee and Jake were the only ones that visited dear old dad and not often. But at least they had a dad.
“My sister gets home from work at five fifteen. I’ve been getting the kids dinner and I’m free after that.”
“Oh, great.”
“When?” she asked.
“How about Tuesday? Dinner at the casino?”
Ava was known here as Sara’s sister and a member of the Saguaro Flats tribe. But like many detectives, she kept her profession secret mainly so as not to make people uncomfortable but also to allow her to more easily do her job. Anyone who would have asked was told that she worked in her tribe’s adult education program, her usual cover.
“That sounds fun.” Ava held her smile.
“I’ll pick you up around six?”
“Seven.”
“Sure,” Kee agreed.
She drew a pen from her back pocket. “Give me your hand.”
He did. His palm slid across hers, warm and dry. The tingle of awareness began at her fingers and rippled up her arm. Whatever attraction was between them was as strong as it was unwanted. She stared up at him, meeting his welcoming brown eyes. Then she used her teeth to remove the cap to the pen and she wrote her cell phone number on the back of his hand. Her task done, she was both anxious and reluctant to let him go. She did and stepped back, sitting on the step of her sister’s trailer.
“Now, don’t scrub up before you copy that,” she teased lightly.
He studied the back of his hand and grinned. “I won’t.”
His smile made her insides tumble as if she were spinning. She had no trouble returning his grin and that worried her.
“See you Tuesday, Dr. Redhorse.”
“Kee, please.”
“I’ll try to remember that.”
Ava smiled against the chill that swept through her. If he was behind this, she’d see he never got within sight of another girl for as long as he lived.
Chapter Two (#u0f8f67cc-2255-5562-b23f-1695a3594d33)
Monday afternoon the tribe’s urgent care center had gone from crazy to ridiculous. Since the dam collapse in September there was no more normal. Kee had hoped that with the arrival of FEMA things would get better. But the EMTs had just brought him another patient. He knew this one. Not unusual on such a small reservation. But this one was the son of his high school friend Robert Corrales.
Robert had the boy when they were in tenth grade and Robbie Junior was now twelve years old. But he wouldn’t make thirteen if Kee didn’t stop the bleeding.
Lori Mott assisted and he was happy for the extra hands. Redhorse, his mind corrected. She was no longer a Mott, since she had married his younger brother Jake, less than a month ago. Kee kept forgetting to call her Lori Redhorse. His brother had married the nurse so fast, he still hadn’t gotten accustomed to the change.
Kee assessed the damage. The EMTs had done a fair job stopping the bleeding on his arm. But his head wound wasn’t the same story. The plate-glass window had opened a gash on Robbie’s forehead that was giving Kee trouble. Lori kept pressure on that wound, allowing him the time he needed to clamp the artery Robbie had sliced open in his right forearm. Either one was hemorrhaging fast enough to kill him. The boy was pale from shock and blood loss, his lips had gone blue and his skin had taken on the ghastly pallor of a corpse.
“Got it,” he said. “I’ll finish that after I stitch his head.”
“The EMT said he didn’t think he could make it to Darabee,” said Lori.
“He was right.” Kee quickly stitched the gash that ran in a jagged line from the boy’s hairline to above the outer edge of his eyebrow.
Lori shook her head as she assessed the lacerations. “I’ll get another Ringer’s lactate. You want plasma?”
“No. This should do.”
Lori left him to use the computer terminal at the intake station in the FEMA trailer that now served as their urgent care facility. When she came back with the fluids he had the gash closed.
“As soon as he’s stable, arrange transport to Darabee,” said Kee.
Darabee was only twenty miles away but with the river road under construction and the switchbacks leading down the mountain the ride was thirty to forty minutes from Piňon Forks, and from Turquoise Ridge, where the clinic had been temporarily placed, it was more like an hour.
Lori finished inserting the IV and nodded. “You got it. His dad is waiting.”
“He needs a vascular surgeon if he’s going to keep that hand.”
“Betty is calling over. They’ll have one.” She smiled at him. His sister-in-law, he realized. Jake was a lucky man. He was so happy the two had finally worked out their differences.
“Good work, Kee.”
Kee stripped off his gloves as Dr. Hector Hauser stepped into the curtained examining area.
“Need a hand?” he asked.
“We got it,” said Kee.
Lori pulled the blood pressure cuff off the wall and slipped it around Robbie’s thin arm.
Hauser looked around at the amount of blood and bloody gauze and gave a low whistle. He checked the boy’s pupils and his pulse.
“Weak,” he said and then checked the IV bag suspended on the stainless-steel rack.
Day poked his head into the room. “Need a hand?”
Before he could answer, Hauser waved him off. “We got it.”
Kee gave Day an apologetic shrug. Day’s mouth was a grim line as he sighed and returned the way he had come.
“I’ll speak to the dad,” said Hauser.
“You know his expertise is emergency medicine. Right?” Kee lifted his chin toward the exam area Day occupied. “He’s taken the FEMA emergency medical specialist training. And he’s board certified.”
“Well, if the trailer collapses, I’ll be sure to call him.”
Hauser returned a few minutes later with Robbie’s younger brother, Teddy, who had a gash on his lower leg.
“Parents didn’t even see this one,” said Hector. “Cut himself getting to his brother.” He switched to Tonto. “You are a hero, son. Got his big brother help in time.”
Teddy gave him a confused stare. Hector’s smile dropped. “Did you understand that?”
Teddy shook his head.
Hector sighed. It was a crusade of his, that children learn their language. He held Teddy’s hand and steered the boy out of the curtained area and right into the boys’ parents.
Robert Corrales turned to Kee but peered past him to his older boy. “Is Robbie going to be okay?”
“He’ll need some surgery at Darabee. But, yes, he’s going to make it.”
Robert threw himself at Kee, forcing Kee to take a step back as Robert hugged him. His wife joined in and Kee was pressed like chicken salad between two slices of bread. Weeping and thank-yous blurred together. Lori took Teddy into the exam area beside Robbie’s to wait for Dr. Hauser, and the parents crossed through the curtain to their oldest child.
It was another twenty minutes more before Kee was satisfied that Robbie was ready for transport. Robert accompanied his son and his wife remained with Teddy.
Once his patient was off, Kee waited for Hector to finish stitching up Teddy’s lower leg. Kee was aiming for the momentary pause between one patient and the next to speak to Hector about his decision to resign from the clinic. Kee had agonized about leaving at such a time, but his mother had decided to foster the three teenage Doka girls. A wonderful act on her part, but unfortunately, a decision that would leave Kee without a place to live once they returned to Piňon Flats. The young fosterlings would need the space. Kee had moved in with his mother to help decrease his monthly expenses, and it was unrealistic of him to expect to afford a place of his own on his current salary. Not with the massive medical school debt hanging over his head.
Dr. Hauser had been only slightly older than he was now when Kee had first met him in the tribe’s health clinic. He had not known at the time that meeting Hector would change his life. Kee wanted nothing more than to stay on his reservation and tend the sick and injured on Turquoise Canyon. But you did not always get what you wanted. And he had financial obligations that could no longer be put off.
Hector glanced up at Kee over the thick black rims of his transition lenses. His hairline had receded to the point where he had more forehead than hair. What was left was trimmed short so you could see the single gold medicine shield earring he wore in his right earlobe. Kee frowned as he noticed the diagonal earlobe crease, knowing that it was a possible indicator of coronary artery disease.
Hauser lifted his brow, making his forehead a field of furrows. “What’s up?” he asked.
“I need a minute.”
“Sure. Hand me that gauze.” He pointed with a thick finger, his light russet skin a sharp contrast against the white of his lab coat. The dam collapse, which had necessitated them moving into the temporary FEMA trailers, had tripled their workload. Kee had never expected any sort of terrorism to touch his little corner of Arizona. But he thought that the extra load might be too much for Hector, judging from the puffy circles beneath his eyes.
Kee handed over the gauze and Dr. Hauser stripped off the outer covering, then expertly wrapped the boy’s leg in a herringbone pattern that would prevent slipping.
“There, now,” he said to the boy. “All done.”
The boy still had tear tracks on his cheeks but he was quiet now that the Novocain was working and the blood had been mopped up. Hauser turned to the boy’s mother. “Give him some Tylenol when you get him home. Two 80 mg tablets, three times a day, for today only, and keep this dry. Bring him back in ten days and I’ll take out the stitches.”
The boy swung his legs off the table and glanced at Hauser.
“Go on. You can walk on it. But no running or swimming or scratching!” He held out his hand to shake. Teddy hesitated but took Hector’s hand. “Good work today, Teddy. You should be proud. You take care of your brother and look after your mom.”
Teddy nodded his acceptance of this duty and slid to the floor. It was what Kee’s dad had said to him before the sentencing. Ironic, since his father had never done so. He was a living example of what happened when you made your own rules.
The pair headed out of the curtained exam room. Hauser followed to the hall.
“Give me a minute, Lori,” he called.
Lori Redhorse waved in acknowledgment, taking charge of the boy and his mother, ushering them out.
Dr. Day popped his head out of the exam area beside Hauser’s.
“Mrs. Cruz says she wants to see you,” he said to Hauser.
“Well, of course she does. She’s been seeing me since she was born.” He muttered something, and Kee caught the word worthless. “In a minute.” Hauser glanced at Kee, motioning with his head. Kee followed. They paused halfway between Day’s examining area and the reception table, where Lori sat at the computer.
Hauser’s mouth turned down, making him look like one of the largemouth bass Kee loved to catch. Hauser shook his head. “That ambulance arrived. He—” Hauser jerked his head toward Dr. Day’s examining area “—didn’t even step out to check on it. He must have heard it. You sure did.”
Kee shrugged, having no explanation.
“I swear he needs more looking after than the babies in our NICU. What kind of doctors do they have at FEMA anyway?” He tugged at the black stethoscope looped around his thick neck.
“Give him a chance.”
“Nobody wants to see him. Besides, this is my clinic. Up until now that is. The tribal council has no right to meddle here.”
The dam collapse gave them every right, Kee thought, but said nothing.
Requests like Mrs. Cruz’s had been happening a lot lately but Kee could not figure why so many patients were being so difficult. The clinic was short-staffed and the tribe had managed to get FEMA to provide them with an extra hand. Richard Day seemed nice enough, but he sure was not a hit with patients.
“So...” said Hauser, changing the subject. “How was the interview?”
Kee was a finalist for a position at St. Martin’s Medical Center in Phoenix. It was internal medicine and he preferred emergency medicine and he also preferred to live here with his tribe instead of out there. But beggars could not be choosers. He’d been shocked at how fast the loans came due once he finished the last of his educational requirements. Now he stared up from a seemingly bottomless pit of debt. It would take years and years to get clear of them and return to the tribe. Reaching his dreams had come at a high cost. The ironic part was that his ambition was to help his tribe members the way Hauser had once helped him. Now, instead, he’d be miles away treating strangers.
“They’ve offered me a position,” said Kee.
“Not surprised. But I hope you’ll consider ours, as well.”
Kee’s brows lifted. He hadn’t known that was a possibility and had assumed there would be no place for him. With his residency completed, he needed a job.
“What about Dr. Day?”
“He’s temporary. Once we get back to the clinic at Piňon Flats, we’ll be able to handle the load with two doctors. Maybe add a physician’s assistant.”
They’d had this discussion before. When he got his residency in Darabee, just off the rez, Hauser had managed to keep Kee here part-time and count the hours toward his residency requirements.
“My mother is fostering the Doka girls,” said Kee.
“I heard that. She brought them in for a checkup. Malnourished and need some dental work, but nothing your mom can’t handle.”
“The point is, eventually I’ll need a place to live.” Sharing a FEMA trailer with Dr. Day worked for now, giving him easy access to the temporary clinic. But they expected to be back in their permanent facility this week.
“I see. The Doka girls have taken your bedroom, I imagine.”
Kee nodded. “Dr. Hauser, I need to start repayment on my loans. I can’t afford to work here part-time.” And I don’t know how much longer I can survive with only work, work and more work, with only a few hours of sleep in between.
He’d been living with his mom, but he’d had so little time to spend with her, he barely knew how the transition with the Doka girls was going. And he hadn’t seen his brothers Colt or Ty since a week ago Saturday when they’d driven off on Ty’s motorcycle after he and Jake had tried and failed to get Colt to seek help for his PTSD. Jake had told him that Colt had been seen and released. Kee worried about Colt living up in the woods at the family’s mining claim since he’d come home from Afghanistan. Jake said Colt took off every time he went up there. Only Ty had succeeded in reaching him.
“Listen, is this about your living situation or your loans?”
“Both.”
“Easy. My grant to hire you was approved.”
Kee fiddled with the head of his stethoscope. “I need a permanent posting.”
“Five years sound permanent enough?”
Kee didn’t keep the surprise from his voice. “Five?”
“Yes, includes housing. In the new housing in Piňon Flats. We’re building especially for the tribal employees. Doctors get priority. Should take about three months, so you can move in by Christmas. We’ll all be in the same area near the clinic. Three bedrooms, garage and screened deck. You get an auto allowance of $500 a month. Plus forgiveness of your loans for working in a rural facility if you stay the full five years.”
“And the salary?”
After Dr. Hauser’s response, Kee’s hands dropped to his sides. He blinked in shock.
“Plus a five percent cost of living raise each year,” Hauser added.
Kee had been embarrassed to accept the Big Money his brother Ty had offered. Big Money was the sum total of each tribe member’s royalties from the casino held in trust and released when each member reached their majority. Ty’s money amounted to eighteen thousand and had kept Kee’s head just above water, covering his living expenses during medical school in Phoenix. Without it, Kee could not have completed his education. With the salary Hauser had just offered, he could pay his brother back and fix his mother’s car.
Hauser was still talking. “So about the auto stipend—get rid of that wreck you drive.”
The 2004 midnight blue RAM pickup truck had been used when he bought it. The only reason it was still running was because Ty fixed it for free.
“Besides,” Hauser continued. “I’m used to you. I don’t like breaking in new physicians.” He thumbed toward the corridor and Dr. Day.
“Why didn’t you tell me this before today?” Kee had been interviewing from Flagstaff to Tucson and was heartsick at having to leave the rez, especially now. People were moving and building and naturally getting hurt in the process. Accidents due to drinking were way up and there was a troubling spike in heroin overdoses.
“I only got word today. Email’s in my computer. It’s just been approved by our oversight board. So, you need time to think about it?”
“Forgiveness of all my loans? I have five.”
“All.”
“Private and government?”
“All means all,” said Hauser.
Kee felt the weight of his burden lifting off his shoulders and he almost felt like dancing. He laughed.
“Well, then yes.” Kee grinned. “I could work with that.”
Hauser extended his hand and they shook. His mentor reeled him in and wrapped an arm around Kee’s shoulders.
“Good, good. I’ve been thinking. I’ve been here doing this thirty-five years. When the time comes to turn over the reins, I’d like that someone to be you.”
Kee was speechless.
Hauser let him go and spoke in Tonto. “You are like a second son to me.”
Kee felt the hitch in his throat and didn’t think he could speak.
“You know Turquoise Canyon,” said Hauser. “You are a part of this place. You belong here with your people.” He switched back to English. “Besides, I’ll be damned if I’ll lose you to some big city hospital when you are needed right here.”
“I’m honored to follow your example, sir.”
“Well, it’s settled, then. I’ll get you the paperwork. Get it back when you can.”
Kee felt humbled. This man was all he ever wanted to become and earning his respect...well, Kee was brimming with joy. All the hard work and effort was paying off. Hauser had called him a second son. Kee thought he might cry.
“Now we have to find you a nice girl, hmm?”
Kee flushed. That was an odd thing to say. “Time still for that.”
“No time like the present. Pay off the loans. Find a wife and have a few children. You’ll be all set. Settled. A man the community can trust.”
That was a strange way of saying it, thought Kee. He thought he’d build trust by having a sterling reputation and all the necessary credentials. Unlike his father and Ty, Kee had steered clear of trouble and taken the road that involved hard work and sacrifice.
“My wife has a niece you should meet. She’s beautiful, traditional and lives in Koun’nde,” he said naming one of their three settlements.
“Well, we’ll see.”
Hauser clapped him on the shoulder. “Good man.” Then he turned to go, waving a hand in farewell. “Patients waiting.”
The female voice came from behind them. “Dr. Hauser?”
Kee knew that voice. It was the clinic administrator, Betty Mills.
Hauser turned and smiled at the woman who kept the place running. Betty was in her middle years, with onyx eyes and hair to match. She dressed better than anyone Kee knew, with never a hair out of place. Her makeup was thick and meticulous from the liner to the bright unnatural pink of her lips. High heels and the jangling gold bracelets she always wore on her left arm announced her on each approach. Betty loved her bling. Even the chain that held her reading glasses on the bright purple blouse was gold with clear crystal beads.
“There’s my boss,” said Hauser to Kee and winked. “What’s up, Betty?”
“Waiting room is full and so we’ve set up lawn chairs outside. They’re full now, too. You both need to pick up the pace.” She snapped her fingers, the long acrylic nails painted purple to match her outfit.
Hauser winked at Kee and then scuttled down the corridor to the exam area where Dr. Day waited.
Betty gave Kee a critical stare. “I’ll tell Lori you’re ready for the next one.”
Down the corridor, Dr. Day stepped out of the examination area rubbing his neck. Hauser frowned after him and then drew the curtains closed behind him.
Hauser had not liked Day since the minute the tribal council had informed him that they had voted to get them extra help. It seemed Hector did not mind being bossed by Betty, but he did not like the tribal council interfering with his clinic.
Dr. Day reached Kee and gave him a defeated look. “All I did was ask if he’d speak in English when I’m there.”
“I can imagine how that went over,” said Kee, feeling sympathy for the doctor who was struggling to fit in with the local culture.
Kee glanced to the receiving station and the young mother carrying a crying toddler in his direction. He smiled and motioned them into the free exam area.
She spoke to him in Tonto Apache and Kee answered in kind. He could not believe how lucky he was to be able to stay here in the place he loved with the people he knew. A house. A car and a salary that was more money than he could even imagine. It seemed nearly too good to be true.
Chapter Three (#u0f8f67cc-2255-5562-b23f-1695a3594d33)
Tuesday morning at the temporary clinic was crazy, made more so by the fact that Dr. Day did not appear at his usual time. Kee covered the women’s health clinic, now in the adjoining trailer, and Hauser took the urgent care center. Kee called Day several times but got no answer.
Hauser popped into Kee’s exam area.
“Anything?” he asked.
“No answer on his phone.”
“FEMA sent us a dud.”
Kee didn’t think Hauser was giving Day a chance. He almost seemed to be undercutting his efforts. Kee didn’t understand it because he’d never seen Hauser act like this.
Hauser waved a dismissive hand. “Social skills of a tortoise and just as much personality.”
Kee was now officially really worried. He knew Day had set out with his Subaru at seven, his mountain bike strapped onto the vehicle’s bike rack, and that he was always back by just after eight thirty, which was why he was usually late for their 9 a.m. opening. Still, he was never this late. Something felt off but he told himself to be patient.
Kee glanced at his watch. Day had been missing for hours.
When they reached noon and Kee still had no word, he called his brother Jake Redhorse.
“When did you see him last?” asked Jake.
“This morning. He was going for a ride before work.”
“On a horse?” asked Jake.
“He rides his bike. Mountain biking.”
“Okay, yup. I’ve seen him. Looks like a giant canary escaping a coal mine?”
Kee thought of the bright yellow exercise gear Dr. Day wore when biking and smiled.
“Yeah, that’s him.”
“I’ll put the word out, but I’m down at the worksite on the river. I’ll call FEMA. Meanwhile, you got a neighbor who could see if his car is there? Maybe check the house?”
Kee thought of Ava Hood. She lived just down the street.
“Yeah. I have someone.”
Kee gave Jake the details on Day’s vehicle.
“Let me know if the neighbor finds him.”
“Will do.”
Kee disconnected and held the phone to his chest a moment. He was going to call Ava. He hoped that she was at her sister’s trailer, right down the road from his. He had already put Ava’s number in his contacts. He blew out a breath and made the call.
He explained the situation. “Could you check if his car is in the drive?”
“Hold on. I’m walking out the door now.”
He heard a door open and close.
“He ever do this before?” she asked.
“He bikes every morning. And he’s late every morning. But not like this.”
“Does he have someone here, somewhere he might be?”
“He might have a girlfriend down on the flats somewhere and a brother in some kind of law enforcement. DEA or ICE? I can’t remember. Alphabet soup, you know? But I saw him this morning and it’s a work day.”
“Almost there,” said Ava. “Yeah. Okay. No Subaru. No other vehicle. You want me to look inside?”
“Door is locked.”
“I’m looking in the front door window now. Big hook on the wall in the entrance.”
“For his bike,” said Kee.
“It’s empty. I’m knocking.” He heard the pounding knock and the silence that followed. “No one here, Kee.”
Kee pressed his free hand to his forehead. “So he’s still out there.”
“Call Chief Tinnin. Report him missing. Do you know the route he takes?”
Kee squeezed his eyes shut thinking. “He has several.”
“What are they?”
He relayed the routes he knew and she said she’d drive them. Kee called Jake again. His brother assured him he’d report that Day was unaccounted for. Kee went back to work with a cold knot in his stomach. He just felt something was wrong.
He was just finishing a round of immunizations on an eighteen-month-old when the phone rang. He snatched it out of his pocket right there in the exam room. It was Ava. A glance at the clock showed that it was three in the afternoon. Kee punched the receive button and lifted the phone to his ear.
“I found Day’s car,” Ava said.
He pressed his hand to his forehead. “Where?”
She told him.
“That’s the trailhead to the ruins,” said Kee.
“Hard to know which way he went from there,” she said. “Lots of trails through the cliff dwellings. Right?”
“My brother Ty has a dog. She’s an excellent tracker.”
There was a long pause.
“Ava?”
“Yeah, call him. Meet me here.”
“Should I call the police?” he asked.
“Up to you. Would Ty want the police here?” she asked matter-of-factly.
He pressed his lips together. Ava was just a visitor on their rez and yet she knew about Ty. She likely knew about their father, as well. “I’ll wait.”
“We need something of Day’s,” said Ava. “Something he recently wore or frequently wears, to help the dog find his scent.”
Kee swallowed at this and then raked a hand through his black hair. “I’ll stop at the trailer and find something. Meet you there at the trailhead in ten.”
* * *
AVA LEANED AGAINST her Malibu in the bright golden light of the crisp late afternoon. The blue sky and bird sounds belied her mood. Day had parked in a parking area before the lower ruins. His pale blue Subaru was covered with a fine coating of red dust, so it had been here awhile. It did not make sense that he’d be here all day when he was supposed to be at work.
She checked her service weapon and then returned it to her holster beneath her suede russet-colored jacket. She wore her badge under her shirt. The jacket would cover her service weapon from sight and she just felt more comfortable with the weapon near at hand.
Before Kee’s call, Ava had broken into the tribe’s clinic, which she knew was due to reopen this week. As she suspected, all their files were digitized and the computers password-protected. Kee’s and Hauser’s passwords had been easy to discern, but the clinic’s was a different story. So much for that plan, she thought. Shifting approaches, she’d placed a hidden camera directly over the administrator’s desk. Then she could remotely activate the camera, which had a six-hour battery. But then she had to wait for the clinic to open and for Betty Mills to log in before Ava could gain access to their system.
She wondered how long before their police discovered she was here and how long before her police force learned that she’d very definitely gone off the reservation. What she was doing could cost her her job. Her position gave her authority, respect and the autonomy she’d always longed for. She didn’t want to lose all that. But she was willing to chance it because the only thing more important than being a detective was finding Louisa and saving those missing girls.
She wondered if Day’s disappearance was related to this case. Suspicious things were happening and they all spun like a tornado around that clinic.
She hoped the worst thing that could’ve happened to Dr. Day was an accident that had left him lying along the trail somewhere with a twisted ankle and without a phone. But her gut told her that his disappearance could be related to her case.
Kidnapping a federal employee would be a terrible move and very brazen. Even if they thought he was investigating the clinic and closing in on the culprit, which he likely wasn’t, it would be better to...push him off a cliff.
The thought made Ava’s stomach churn.
Ava stared up at the mountain. Somewhere along that trail were several cliff dwellings. She’d never seen them but her sister, Sara, had told her about them. That also meant that there were cliffs.
Kee pulled up in his old blue pickup. He climbed down and hurried toward her, looking distracted as he greeted her by clasping both elbows and kissing her on the cheek. She was so rattled by the simple brushing of his mouth on her cheek that it wasn’t until Kee was already halfway to Day’s Subaru that she realized what he intended.
“Don’t touch that!” she called.
He paused and turned back. “Why?”
“Umm, what if something happened to him, then wouldn’t this be a crime scene?” That wasn’t well-done, she thought.
Kee backed up. “A crime scene?” He looked even more agitated as he looked in through the dusty windows from a safe distance. “Everything looks normal. He didn’t lock it.”
“You know this trail?” asked Ava, drawing him away from the vehicle.
“Part of it. It’s a quarter mile past the pasture to the lower ruins. I only hiked to the upper ruins once.” He rubbed his leg and frowned. “Couldn’t keep up with my kid brothers.”
How hard that must have been, always being the slowest, Ava thought. She touched his cheek with the palm of her hand.
“Well, you can keep up now.”
They shared a smile and she resisted the urge to step closer. His hands went to her waist and she moved away, not wanting him to discover her service weapon.
“There’s miles of trails up there,” he pointed to the ridgeline against the crystal blue sky. “And cliff dwellings, several. I suppose Richard could have tried to bike it.”
From the distance she heard a low rumble.
Kee turned toward the road. “That will be Ty. You know about him?”
She had run his record but she didn’t say that. Instead she offered a half-truth. “I mentioned meeting you to my sister. And...”
Kee flushed. “She naturally mentioned Ty and...my father, too?”
She nodded, wondering why he looked so ashamed. He hadn’t robbed a store. Mr. Perfect, she thought again. No missteps except the ones of his family reflecting badly on him. The law didn’t judge families; it judged individuals. She did the same. But she knew the pain caused by the poor decisions made by family members. Her mother had been a train wreck and Sara had gotten pregnant in high school. It happened.
“No one is perfect,” she said.
“I’m not like my dad.” He met her gaze and she thought the expression was not shame but anger. Was he angry at his father for being a con or at her sister for gossiping? “I’ve never broken a law in my life.”
She’d have to see about that.
“In fact, seeing my dad’s sentencing, well, it changed me. I’d always been cautious because of my leg. But that made me realize that your reputation, well, it’s more breakable than bones.”
She thought about how one wrong step and her own reputation would be beyond repair. She had a stellar law enforcement career, but even that wouldn’t survive the fallout of her rogue investigation if she was caught. But wasn’t Louisa’s life worth that?
The distinctive sound of a powerful engine brought all heads about.
“That’s his chopper,” said Kee.
“Harley?” she asked, raising her voice as the rumble became a roar.
“Indian,” he said. “Wait. That’s a new bike.”
Ty made an entrance. Up until today, Ava had only heard about him. The family black sheep, currently under investigation for his role in the abduction of Kacey Doka. They had statements from both his youngest brother, Colt, and Kacey, but neither could testify as they were in witness protection. The signed statements implicating Ty in Kacey Doka’s kidnapping from the clinic should be enough to convict him in tribal court. So why were they letting him run around free?
The roar grew louder and Ava had to shout to be heard.
“Isn’t he bringing the dog?” she asked.
Kee nodded and pointed. In rolled Ty Redhorse on a coffee-brown-and-cream Harley Davidson motorcycle laden with so much chrome she could see reflections of the sky and road and man all at once.
At first she thought he was riding double, and he was, after a fashion. The dog sat behind him, paws on his shoulders, with goggles on his massive head. As Ty pulled forward, she could see the shepherd sat in a bucket fixed to the rear seat and wore some sort of restraining belt.
The engine idled and Ty fixed his stare on them both. No smile, she realized, and he looked less than pleased to be here. Ty’s hair was shoulder length and cut blunt. He resembled Kee but for the cleft in his chin. He also sent all her cop senses into high alert. That challenge in his eyes as he met her gaze would have made her pull him over if she had her cruiser.
Badass didn’t cover it. And he wore black, of course.
Ava regarded the dog, with its lolling, pink tongue and—what appeared to be—a wide grin.
“Looks like a wolf,” said Ava.
“German shepherd mix,” said Kee.
“Mixed with wolf,” she said and Kee laughed.
The deep masculine rumble did crazy things to her insides.
“Ty thinks it’s funny because he’s riding with his bi...” Kee changed his mind about what he was going to say and motioned to Ava. “Shall we?”
Ty rocked the bike onto its kickstand. He greeted Kee with a bear hug that nearly lifted Kee off his feet. Ty was taller, broader and more intimidating.
Kee had a cell phone clipped to his clean, fitted jeans and he wore a blue button-up shirt with a turquoise bolo and brown lace-up shoes. Ty had a knife clipped to his leather belt and had a wallet connected to a belt loop by a stainless-steel chain. He wore black leather chaps over jeans, high moccasins with the distinctive toe-tab marking them as Apache footwear and a black muscle shirt that revealed a tribal tattoo circling each arm. What he didn’t wear was a helmet.
She watched Ty stroke his dog’s pointed ear, momentarily bending it flat before releasing her from the bucket-style pet transporter. The dog came forward to sniff Kee and then turned to Ava. She extended her hand, but the dog stopped short of her and dropped to all fours, lying alert before her.
She glanced first to Kee and then to Ty, who was narrowing his eyes at her.
Kee made introductions but Ty remained where he was. Her skin prickled a warning. She was made. She knew it.
Ty gave her a hard look.
“She a cop?” he asked Kee.
She narrowed her eyes, wondering if it was her appearance or his dog that had tipped him off.
“No,” said Kee. “A neighbor.”
“You packing?” he asked.
She nodded and showed her sidearm.
Ty’s eyes narrowed and Kee gaped.
“You can’t carry a weapon here,” said Kee.
Ty held her gaze a long while and Kee shifted restlessly. Finally, he broke the silence.
“We brought something of Richard’s for Hemi,” said Kee. “Let me get it.” He retrieved a pair of gray bike riding gloves.
Kee offered them to Ty and Ava noted that his younger brother was a few inches taller than Kee, but likely hadn’t been originally. The surgeries had taken three inches from his healthy leg.
Ty took the gloves and offered them to Hemi. The dog stood and was all business when she checked out the neoprene gloves and then lowered her head to the ground, making straight for the Subaru.
She jumped so that she stood on her back legs, with her front paws pressed to the door.
“Good girl,” said Ty, in a tone that seemed out of place from such a tough character. It gave her hope that he might be more than he appeared, because he appeared to be a gang member. But he had come at Kee’s request and that allowed her to continue to operate covertly.
Ty waved his dog toward the trail.
“Track,” he said.
Hemi put her nose to the ground and bounded away straight for the path that cut through the pasture toward the lower ruins.
Ty used Richard’s gloves to wipe away the paw prints from the Subaru. Ava’s eyes narrowed. Clearly, he suspected foul play and was removing evidence of Hemi’s contact with the vehicle. Was he just keeping his involvement secret or did he have something to hide?
They headed up the trail with Hemi darting ahead. She fell in beside Kee.
Kee asked Ty about Colt, how he was doing and if he was still talking. Ty paused to give him a long inscrutable look and then told Kee that he was but failed to mention that Colt was not on the rez. Kee didn’t seem to know that and Ty didn’t tell him.
Very odd, she thought.
“When you see him last?” asked Ty.
“The Saturday when you took him to Darabee Hospital.”
Almost two weeks ago. Kee had let his work erode his connection to family. He was right here on the rez but seemed to have little idea what was happening under his nose.
“Is he getting some help?” asked Kee.
“Yeah. Lots of help.”
Help relocating, thought Ava.
She had read in Ty’s file that he had driven a ’73 Plymouth Barracuda when he allegedly kidnapped Kacey Doka, the only girl to escape her captors. But the car was never found. No car, no physical evidence connecting Kacey Doka to Ty Redhorse. Just the statement by Kacey, who was no longer here to back it up with her physical presence during testimony in tribal court, and the tribe’s council had declined the FBI’s request for custody of Ty. That in itself was not unusual. Most tribes were exceedingly reluctant to allow outsiders to try their defendants. Considering the history between the Tonto Apache tribes and the federal government, few would blame them.
“What kind of a car does Ty drive?” Ava asked.
“I can’t keep up,” said Kee. “He changes cars like I change surgical gloves. I think he’s working on a ’67 Pontiac GTO.”
“Fast car. What color? Black?”
“No, gold.”
Gang colors, she thought. Yellow and black. Those were the colors worn by the Wolf Posse here.
So Ty was a gang member, and his brother Jake was a member of the tribal police force. Which side was Kee on?
When they reached the trailhead with the marker of regulations and the one of historical information, they paused. It delineated the rules in bullet points including no fires and no firearms.
Hemi flashed by, circling the ruins. The red stone walls still stood rising ten feet in places and in others lay as piles of rock strewn on the ground. The interior chambers of rooms that had collapsed hundreds of years ago were visible and the roof beams hung at odd angles.
Once an ancient people had lived and farmed in this place, leaving behind the remnants of these communal residences. Her people called them the ancient ones, for they were here and gone before the Apache moved into the Southwestern territory.
Funny that many Americans thought that settlement of this country began in Plymouth in 1622 when at that time this settlement of hunter-farmers was living in an ancient version of a condominium right here.
The upper ruins were even older and of a different people. The Anasazi dwelt in cliffs and the whys of that were still mysterious. A drought? A new enemy? All that was known was what they had left behind.
“How many cliff dwellings up there?” she asked.
“Four, I think. More tucked all over the ridges around here.”
Hemi was now on the move toward the winding path that led to the upper ruins.
Ava knew that the tribal museum gave guided tours to these two archeological sites twice a week or by arrangement. She had never seen either, but she had seen ones like it.
They hiked for thirty minutes up a steep trail. She saw tire tracks in the sandy places consistent with a bike tire. Her thigh muscles burned from the strenuous hike. She wondered how anyone could bike such a thing. The sweat on her body dried in the arid air, making her wish she had brought water.
Hemi disappeared and then reappeared, checking on the progress of the slow-moving humans. They found her, at last sitting beside an expensive-looking mountain bike that lay on its side.
“That’s not good,” said Ty.
“That’s his,” said Kee, studying the bike with worried eyes. He reached and then stopped himself.
She was glad because she didn’t want to talk like a cop in front of Ty.
Ty glanced at Hemi, who lay with her paws outstretched toward the bike.
“Trail ends here,” said Ty.
“Definitely?” asked Kee.
Ty glanced at Hemi, her tongue lolling as his dog looked to him for further instructions.
“It ends here or goes where Hemi can’t follow.”
They all stepped past the bike to look over the cliff. Below were rocks and trees but no obvious sign of Dr. Day.
“Might have fallen,” said Ty.
“With his bike way over there?” she asked. That didn’t seem right.
“Stopped to take in the view. Lost his footing.” Ty shrugged.
Was he trying to sell her on this scenario?
“Either way, he’s not here,” said Kee. “We should call Jake.”
Ty backed away. “If you’re calling tribal, I’m gone. They’re already trying to hang me for giving Kacey a ride. They’ll tie me up in this, too.”
A ride? Is that what he called kidnapping? Ava could not keep from gaping.
Kee stared at Ty. “What are you talking about?”
Didn’t Kee know?
Ty had been detained for questioning and released. He had not been arrested or charged. Tribal police would keep such matters private particularly if there was an ongoing investigation. She knew of Ty’s situation only because her chief had been told of a possible connection to the tribe’s gang and a known associate, Ty Redhorse. But the police here had taken steps to be certain Ty’s detention remained secret. She knew he was a suspect but Kee did not, which meant that his brother had not told him. Ty did not want Kee to know. Was Ty protecting him or hanging him out to dry?
Ty shook his head. “Just tell them you found the car and followed the trail. That you know he bikes this route and you were checking. But I was never here. Got it?”
Kee’s mouth was tight. “You want me to lie to the police?”
“Omit,” said Ty.
“It’s lying.”
“Hey, you do what you want. Just don’t call me for help again.” He turned to Ava and gave her a two-finger salute. “Officer.”
Then he disappeared back down the trail. Hemi followed, venturing out before him.
Kee turned to her immediately. “Why did he call you—”
“What’s that?”
Ava spotted a tiny speck of canary yellow visible between the treetops below the cliff upon which they stood.
Exactly the color Kee said Dr. Day had been wearing.
Chapter Four (#u0f8f67cc-2255-5562-b23f-1695a3594d33)
Ava didn’t think Kee had pushed Richard Day, but she kept him in front of her on the descent. When they reached the bottom of the trail it was nearly six at night. The sun had disappeared behind the opposite ridgeline and the colors were gradually fading all around them. Kee tried tribal police but there was no cell service out here. He offered Ava the last of the water he carried and she took a long swallow before returning the empty bottle.
“You know it will be really dark soon. We have thirty minutes,” she said.
“Maybe we should go to the police.”
Yeah, except she was certain how Detective Jack Bear Den or the chief of police would respond if they knew where her personal leave from her soon-to-be previous job had taken her.
She’d interviewed. Been hired here, and Tinnin himself had briefed her about her first case. This case. The missing women from Turquoise Canyon, but he did not know that the last girl taken was Ava’s niece. The niece that she had helped raise. So Ava was not playing by the rules on this investigation. So for now, she couldn’t let either of those men see her. Not yet.
“We could find him,” she coaxed. “He’s maybe ten minutes in that direction. It will be harder in the dark.”
Kee hesitated, glancing in the direction of the lot.
She gave one final push. “What if he’s alive?”
That set him in motion. She pushed back the admiration. Kee seemed kind and conscientious and really sweet. But appearances could be deceiving.
“Do you know if anyone would want to hurt him?” she asked.
“No. I don’t. He’s only been here since early October. You think it’s him, don’t you?”
“You said he was wearing yellow.”
Kee looked back along the trail. The sky still held a few bands of orange but that wouldn’t last.
“I don’t think anyone could survive such a fall.” He looked to her. “How can you be so calm?”
Because she’d seen death before, too many times.
“We should hurry,” she said, motioning. “Have you seen anyone strange around lately?”
“Outsiders?”
“Yeah. At the clinic or speaking to Day or maybe just in your neighborhood?”
“We only treat tribal members.”
Kee drew up short. “It’s him.”
Ava came alongside him. It was a body, battered and bloody, and wearing yellow spandex that seemed to glow with unnatural brightness in the twilight.
Ava had seen bodies in worse shape. Mostly natural causes, left inside a hot trailer for days before anyone went to check, and then there were the auto accidents. But her reservation was small and relatively quiet and flat. No one fell off anything high and she was not prepared for the damage to Dr. Day.
His body had clearly struck the rock face on the descent and possibly some of the tall pines, judging from the deep lacerations on his torso and thigh. There were branches and debris surrounding him. He lay on his stomach with his arms and legs sprawled as if he were about to use a horizontal Stairmaster.
Kee knelt beside his roommate and checked his carotid pulse, but Ava knew from the brownish stain on Day’s cornea and the pooling of blood in the lower half of his face that Day was gone.
Her Apache heritage included all sorts of beliefs that it was dangerous to touch the dead. That ghosts could follow you even if the deceased was a good friend in life. Ava didn’t believe that dead bodies and ghosts could haunt her but she dearly hoped that whoever did this would be haunted because she was certain Day had not fallen. He’d been pushed. That was her theory and she was going with it.
She swept the body with her gaze, looking for clues, and found them right there in Day’s hand. His nails were torn and bloody and there was skin and hair under them. That was what you’d see if Day had fought his attacker. So whoever pushed him would have scratches on their face or arms. Maybe both.
Ava tried to think of a way to take a sample from his nails.
“I have to call Hector,” said Kee.
That was an odd first call, she thought. Why not to Jake, his brother who was on the force?
He looked at Ava with wide, troubled eyes and swallowed, sending his Adam’s apple bobbing. “He’s our medical examiner.”
Of course he was, she thought.
Kee rocked back on his heels and wiped his mouth with his hand, looking truly unsettled. Rattled, she corrected. She knew he had faced death. All physicians did. But this death was harder. He knew the man, so it was personal. Day was young and he had been Kee’s colleague plus they’d shared a FEMA trailer. Add to that the damage to the corpse and you had a horror that would not soon be forgotten.
She dropped to a knee beside Kee and draped an arm around his shoulders. Kee clasped her hand with his opposite one.
“Look at his nails,” she said and pointed.
“What is that?” He leaned closer.
“Looks like skin.”
Kee straightened and stepped quickly away. She watched him pace, both hands locked behind his head. Finally, he came back beside her.
“You think he was pushed. You think he fought his attacker.”
“Don’t you?”
He nodded gravely.
“Should you take a sample?” she asked.
He shook his head. “The police will do that. I’ll make sure they do.”
“What about photos?” she asked. The scene might not be so pristine later on and it would be dark. She did not want to use her phone knowing that it would be confiscated as evidence and that would give the police here easy access to who she was. But those photos could be vital.
“Should I take some?” He had his phone out.
“Might help your police.”
Kee took a few shots, his mouth squeezed in a look of distaste. She nudged him to photograph Day’s hands, face and all other injuries. Finally she suggested a few long shots of the scene.
“Might help with location,” she said, knowing it would. He finished and his arm dropped to his side with the glowing phone gripped in his hand. He stood staring at Day as if he could not believe what he was seeing.
She slipped her hand into the crook of his elbow and he jumped.
“You want to see if you have cell service here?” she asked.
He placed his hand over hers and rubbed as if to give her comfort. “Doubtful. But I’ll try.”
Kee lifted the phone, searching for a signal.
“Nothing.”
“Come on,” she said. “We’ll go tell the police what we found. You can lead them back here.”
Kee stood over the body, head bowed as if he were a mourner at a grave.
“I was afraid something like this had happened,” he said.
Ava’s antenna picked up. It was the sort of thing a person who knew what would happen would say.
“Why is that?” she asked, keeping her tone conversational.
“He was gone too long.” Kee glanced back toward the body, arms folded protectively before him. “He was going to get a haircut after work today.”
Now, that was the kind of crazy thing people did say when someone was ripped unexpectedly from their life.
She didn’t like to admit it, but her opinions as to Kee’s involvement were eroding. Ava had an instructor in the academy who told her students to keep a few brain cells open to the possibility that your prime suspect was innocent. Those brain cells were recruiting others and that troubled her. What if she was wrong about Dr. Redhorse? If she were, then she needed to expand her search or target his fellow doctor more closely. It just seemed with his brother Ty’s involvement and his brother Colt’s disappearance into witness protection without Kee’s knowledge that the tribe considered Kee a prime suspect. Ava was unsettled and she did not like the uncertainty growing within her.
They walked back using their phone flashlights to help illuminate the trail. Once at the cars they paused. Ava needed to not be here when the police arrived.
“Listen, I’d like to get home. My sister has a thing at the school tonight and if I’m there she can cancel the sitter.” An AA meeting that Sara had promised to attend. “The girls are more anxious since Louisa’s disappearance.” Ava shrugged. “So how about this, I’ll call the police when I get cell service and send them back to you. Okay?”
Kee frowned. “I’m sure they’ll want to speak to you.”
“Yes, I’ll be at my sister’s. They can come there. Better if it’s after nine. Kids in bed.” She shrugged.
“All right. I’ll tell them.” He clasped her arm and she felt the strength of his hands as he leaned in. “You be okay walking back alone?”
“Yes. I’ll be fine.” She tried and failed not to let his concern affect her. Ava smiled and met his warm gaze, feeling the unwelcome stirring of attraction thread between them.
“Thank you, for everything.”
On impulse, Ava lifted to her toes and planted a kiss on his cheek.
Kee’s mouth dropped open and his hand slipped away. She’d surprised him. She took the opportunity to make her escape.
She did call the police, did not give her name, pretending she was upset by events, and sent help in Kee’s direction. They had her number, of course, but there was no need to track it unless they could not find her. If she was lucky, she had a day or two of anonymity left.
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Jenna Kernan
Тип: электронная книга
Жанр: Современные любовные романы
Язык: на английском языке
Издательство: HarperCollins
Дата публикации: 16.04.2024
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О книге: Could she trust him with her case…And with her life?Detective Ava Hood knows that Kee Redhorse isn’t involved with her missing girls case. Ava can’t let her feelings for Kee hinder her case – but with the clock ticking, she needs his help. Her career, and perhaps even her heart, are now on the line…