"We're checking," Diana said, "but I thought you'd want to know what was going on."
"You don't think she's been kidnapped, or something, do you?" Davy demanded. "Shouldn't somebody contact the FBI?"
"Brandon is handling it."
"What can I do to help?" Davy asked urgently.
"Nothing much, for right now," Diana answered. "I just wanted you to know, that's all."
"Thanks," he said. "Are you and Dad going to be all right?"
Diana felt herself choking on the phone. "We'll be okay," she said. "But hurry home. Hurry as fast as you can. And call every night so we can keep you posted."
"I will," Davy said. "I promise."
A stricken David Ladd handed the phone over to Candace. "I was right," he said. "Something awful has happened. Lani's gone."
Candace was the one who put the phone back in its cradle and switched on the light. "Gone where?" she asked.
Davy shrugged. "Nobody knows."
"Your parents think she's been kidnapped?"
"Maybe, but they're not sure. Candace, I've never heard my mother this upset. She never even asked who you were." While he spoke, Davy had crawled out of bed and was starting toward the bathroom.
"What are you doing?" Candace asked.
"I'm going to shower and get dressed."
"But why?"
"So I can leave. You heard me. I told Mom I'd be there as soon as I can. If I go right now, I can be halfway to Bloomington before morning rush hour starts."
"We,"Candace said pointedly. "If weleave right now. Besides, it's Sunday; there isn't going to be a rush hour."
David nodded. "I meant we," he said.
"Doesn't that seem like a stupid thing to do?" Candace asked.
"Stupid? Didn't you hear what I said? This is a crisis, Candace. My family needs me."
"I didn't say going was stupid. Driving is. Why not fly?" Candace asked. "We can put the tickets on my AmEx. If we take a plane, we can be in Tucson by noon. Driving, that's about as long as it would take us to make it to the Iowa state line."
"What about the car? What about all my stuff?"
"I'll call Bridget," Candace said decisively. "She works only a few blocks from here. If we leave the parking claim ticket at the desk, she can come over on Monday after work, pick up the car, and take it home with her. She and Larry can keep it with them until we can make arrangements to come back and get it later. In the meantime, we can take a cab to the airport. That's a lot less trouble than fighting the parking-garage wars."
Candace wrestled a city phone book out of the nightstand drawer and started looking through it.
"What are you doing?" David asked.
"Calling the airlines to find the earliest plane and get us a reservation."
David looked at her wonderingly. "You'd do this for me? Go to all this trouble?"
She looked at him in mock exasperation as the "all lines are busy" message played out in her ear. "David," Candace said, "we're a team. I've been telling you for months now that I love you. If there's a crisis in your life, then there's a crisis in mine, too."
Just then a live person somewhere in the airline industry must have come on the phone. "What's your earliest flight from Chicago to Tucson?" she asked. There was a long pause. "Six A.M.?" she said a moment later.
Looking at the clock on the nightstand, Candace groaned. "Not much time for sleep, is there? But that's the one we need. Two seats, together, if you have them." There was a pause. "The return flight?" She glanced questioningly in David's direction. "I don't know about that. I guess we'd better just leave the return trip open for now."
After making arrangements to pay for the tickets at the counter, Candace put down the phone. "Don't you think we ought to try to sleep for another hour or so? We don't want to get there and be so shot from lack of sleep that we can't help out."
Obligingly, Davy lay back down on the bed, but he didn't crawl back under the sheets because he didn't expect to fall asleep again. He did, though. The next thing he knew, the alarm in the clock radio next to his head was going off. It was four-thirty.
From the light leaking out of the bathroom and from the sound of running water, he could tell that Candace was already up and in the shower. Moments later, David Ladd was, too.
He was standing under the steaming spray of water when he remembered his dream from the day before-the dream and Lani's horrifying scream.
Rocked by a terrible sense of foreboding, Davy braced himself against the shower wall to keep from falling. He knew now that the scream could mean only one thing.
Dolores Lanita Walker was already dead.
14
When the Indians heard the bad news-that PaDaj O'othham were coming again to steal their crops-they held another council. Everybody came. U'uwhig-the Birds-told their friends the Indians about a mountain which was not far from their village and quite near their fields. The people went to this mountain, and on the side of it they built three big walls of rock.
Those walls of rock are there, even to this day.
Then all the women and children went up on top of the mountain, behind the walls of rock. But the men stayed down to protect the fields.
Soon the Bad People of the South came once again.
The Wasps, the Scorpions, and Snakes were leading them. ButNuhwi — the Buzzards-andChuk U'uwhig — the Blackbirds-and all the larger birds were on guard.Nuhwi — Buzzard-would catchKo'owi — Snake-and break his back.Tatdai — Roadrunner-watched for the Scorpions, andPa-nahl — the Bees-foughtWihpsh — the Wasps.
So at last the Bad People were driven away. The Desert People returned to their village and their fields. They built houses and were very happy. A great many of the Bad People had been killed in this fight, so it was a long time before they felt strong enough to fight again. But after a while they were very hungry. AndWihpsh — the Wasps-carried word to them that the Indian women were once again filling their ollas and grain baskets with corn and beans and honey.
This timePaDaj O'othham waited until it was very dry and hot. Then they started north.
This timeShoh'o — Grasshopper-had listened to the plans of the Bad People.Shoh'o started to jump to reach his friends, the Desert People, and warn them. The harder and faster Grasshopper jumped, the longer grew his hind legs. Still he could not go fast enough. So he took two leaves and fastened them on and flew. Before he arrived, he wore out one pair of leaves and put on another pair. To this dayShoh'o — Grasshopper-still carries one large thin pair of wings, and another thin small green pair.
One minute Deputy Fellows was wide awake, staring at the doors to the ICU waiting room. The next minute, Gabe Ortiz was shaking him awake.
"Brian?"
Brian's eyes flicked open. It took a moment for the face in front of his to register. "Fat Crack!" he exclaimed. "How the hell are you, and what are you doing here?"
"Delia Cachora, Manny Chavez's daughter, works with me out on the reservation. When we heard about her father, I offered to drive her into town."
Brian glanced around the waiting room. No one else was there. "Where is she?" he asked.
"A nurse took Delia in to see him," Fat Crack said. "How does it look?"
Brian shook his head. "Not good," he said. "It's his back. Broken."
"How did it happen?" Gabe Ortiz asked. "I heard it had something to do with Rattlesnake Skull."
Brian nodded. "At the charco. It sounds as though he came across someone-an Anglo-digging up bones there by the water hole. We think Mr. Chavez thought the guy was digging up ancient artifacts and tried to stop him. The guy attacked Mr. Chavez with a shovel."
Fat Crack was shaking his head when an Indian woman in her mid- to late thirties emerged from behind the doors to the ICU. "He's still unconscious," she said, addressing Gabe Ortiz. "No one knows when he'll come out from under the anesthetic. His condition is serious enough that somebody had a priest come around and deliver last rites. The nurse said he was really bent out of shape about that. My father stopped being a Catholic a long time ago."