Dance of the Bones

Her first inclination was to open the pouch that held the wiw, the sacred tobacco, but she didn’t. Her throat, unaccustomed to smoking, was still raw from the night before. Instead, she located her divining crystals. Had things gone differently that night, she might have given them to Gabe. Since they were still in her possession, she spilled them into the palm of her hand and then, one by one, she held them up, peering at the flickering flame through each hunk of crystal.

She wasn’t sure if what she saw was in the crystal itself or if it was only in her mind’s eye, but it was the same image she had seen in the sacred smoke—-a woman, a Milgahn woman who, despite being Anglo and not susceptible to Staying Sicknesses, was also a Dangerous Object.

Lani understood this even though she couldn’t explain it. And without knowing what kind of Dangerous Object the woman was, it was difficult to tell what kind of treatment might be required.

And so, warmed by the fire, and with Morning Star gleaming in the east, Lani closed her fist around the stones and began to sing:

Oh, I’itoi who is also Spirit of Goodness and Elder Brother,

Please hear me as your daughter calls to you

Asking for your help. A dangerous object is loose in the world.

A dangerous object with silver hair and white skin.

I do not know who this woman is, but she is a danger,

A danger to a boy named Gabe Ortiz who is the son of my heart.

Help me to see my way to find this evil woman.

Help me understand why she is a danger.

Help me to protect Gabe, Elder Brother,

In the same way Nana Dahd protected Davy,

In the same way Betraying Woman protected me.

We need your help so the ghostly woman does not win.

As the sun came up over the distant Tucson Mountains in the east, Lani sang the song over and over, always in sets of four, because four is a magic number all by itself; because all of nature goes in fours.

“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU mean, one of them got away?” Ava demanded into the phone. “How is that even possible?”

“Sorry. I was struggling with Paul, and the youngest one got loose. I’m looking for him now.”

“Sorry my ass! You should be way more than sorry. What about the diamonds? Did you find them?”

“Not yet, but once I catch up with Tim . . .”

“He’s what, twelve years old? Thirteen? You just let him take off and now you can’t find him?”

“I know which way he went. I’ll find him.”

“You’d better,” Ava said. “I want my diamonds back, and I want that damned kid taken out. Those asshole Indians stick together like dog shit on a shoe.”

“What about Max?”

“What about him?”

“Once he hears about what’s happened . . .”

“Don’t worry about Max. You take care of the kid and retrieve the diamonds. I already told you, I’ll handle Max.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the man said. “I hear you loud and clear.”

Bristling with anger, Ava closed the phone. She heard the nurse out in the kitchen, banging around, starting another pot of coffee, and fixing Harold’s breakfast. Ava didn’t usually put in an appearance until all that had been handled. Right now, she needed to make sure the Max José problem would be handled sooner rather than later.

The crew she had in Florence had come in handy on more than one occasion. One was a guard; the rest were inmates—-lifers, mostly, with nothing more to lose. When they did a job for her, she made sure that all payments went to family members who were far enough removed from the action that nothing could be traced back to the actual doers or traced back to her, either.

Ava’s operation was small enough not to attract attention from the cartels, and deadly enough that -people usually did exactly as they were told. As for the guy who’d just called her? He was a dead man walking even if he didn’t know it yet. Once he recovered her diamonds, he’d be gone, too. The desert was a big place with plenty of hidey--holes where dumped bodies would never be found.