The memory of Lacey’s pleading eyes made Kateri decide she had to try. Yes, Rainbow’s life was barely a flicker, but if death was inevitable … Going to Rainbow’s side, Kateri took Rainbow’s hand. “It’s me. It’s Kateri. You know what I can do … sometimes. Save someone’s life … sometimes. If the conditions are right. I want to try. With you. Is that okay?”
The hospital had removed Rainbow from all the machines except the monitor that tracked her heartbeat, and that had been silenced. The room was quiet, the hush almost holy, and although Kateri listened, she felt no stirring in Rainbow’s mind, no response to her question. Going to the window, she opened the curtains and let the dawn into the room. Returning to the bed, Kateri could smell death in the scent of Rainbow’s exhalation. But there was also life, wanting to take control. Kateri breathed Rainbow’s breath into her lungs, let them mix, exhaled close, hoping her essence would mix with Rainbow’s and together they would feed life’s fire. “My gift comes from the frog god,” she whispered to Rainbow. “Sip it. Taste it. Inhale and let it warm your blood and bring you strength.”
Rainbow’s chest rose and fell, rose and fell.
She was breathing more deeply, absorbing Kateri’s essence.
“That’s it, Rainbow. That’s it!” Kateri had been a fool to worry; she could do this! She could save Rainbow!
Then … Rainbow’s chest collapsed. The heart monitor went flat.
“No. No, Rainbow!” Kateri blew air at Rainbow. “Listen to me. You have to live!”
A nurse rushed in. Another nurse. They pushed Kateri out of the way, took Rainbow’s pulse, lifted her lids. Significantly, they didn’t speak.
Kateri had done it, all right. She’d killed Rainbow.
Dr. Frownfelter came in, white coat flapping. He caught Kateri’s arm. “Don’t,” he said. “We knew this was coming. There was nothing you could do.” Letting her go, he hurried to the bed.
She blundered out into the corridor, into Stag’s solid form.
He took one look at her face, picked up Lacey and put her into her arms, and disappeared into the room.
Kateri hugged her dog, rocked her while Lacey licked her face in distress.
Stag stepped out of Rainbow’s room. “She’s going now. Do you want to go in and be with her?”
“I’m afraid to go near her.”
“What happened?”
“I had to try.”
“To save her?”
“I thought I would be okay with whatever happened. I’m not. I was afraid I would blow out the flame of Rainbow’s life. I did.”
“Oh, honey.” Stag put his arm around her, enveloping Kateri and Lacey.
Kateri stood straight and stiff.
“Hey. Stop blaming yourself.”
“I don’t blame myself. I didn’t shoot her.” She pushed away.
Again Stag tried to hug her. “The Terrances shot her.”
“It was such good timing, with me and Bergen in the Oceanview Café.”
Now Stag stiffened. He stepped away. “What are you trying to say?”
She looked up at him.
His eyes were blank, black, closed off. Like a storm, he was gathering fury.
She wet her lips.
He took another step away. “You might as well say it, Kateri Kwinault.”
Now that she’d started this, she was afraid. Afraid she’d made a mistake. “I just wondered if you…”
“No. If I had arranged it, you would be dead.” His tone was flat, implacable.
Giving voice to her suspicions was the worst mistake of her life.
He continued, “It’s one thing not to trust me to bring home almond milk. It’s another thing not to trust me to run a law-abiding construction site. And it’s another to believe I orchestrated the shooting at the Oceanview Café.”
One look at his flinty eyes and she discarded any flippant suggestion that she trusted him with the milk.
Lacey whimpered.
Kateri petted her and tried to explain, to backtrack. “You were walking down the street. Your reflexes were so fast. You hit the ground before anyone else heard the Terrances’ car or noticed anything … I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help but think how much easier it would be for your casino if the sheriff and the deputy sheriff were replaced by people more … amenable to…” Her voice petered out.
Stag stood in that cool hospital corridor, hands loose, staring at her. He didn’t look defensive, or indignant, and as she watched, his fury dissipated, leaving only grief.
That frightened her.
Taking her face in his hands, he leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “Good-bye, my beautiful Kateri.” Turning, he walked away.
There was a finality about that kiss that at last drove home what she had done. She had killed Rainbow and now, she had killed something beautiful, something she would never find again.
Worse, if his expression was anything to go by, she had hurt Stag Denali as he had never been hurt before. “Oh, Lacey,” she said. “What have I done?”
Lacey struggled in her arms.
Kateri placed her on the floor.
Lacey trotted after Stag, then looked back at Kateri, then trotted a few more steps, then looked back at Kateri. Kateri understood her clearly: What’s wrong with you? Let’s go. We belong with Stag.
Kateri’s tears welled in her eyes. She hurt. She hurt all over. For Rainbow. For Lacey. For herself. And for Stag. But she didn’t sob out loud; that wouldn’t be fair to Lacey.
The little prom queen of a dog got all the way to the door before she turned around and trotted back to Kateri.
Overcome with regret, with anguish, with old fears that drove her to foolishness, Kateri dropped to her knees and hugged her.
Then the radio on her shoulder crackled to life.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
In all her life, Kateri had never been so glad to be interrupted.
“Weston here.” The cocky, overconfident law enforcement officer sounded as if he were a kid talking to the principal. “Sheriff…”
In the background she heard Bergen say, “You have to tell her. I’m not gonna.”
Weston’s voice quavered. “Sheriff, Rainbow’s house was broken into and, um, searched.”
Kateri wanted to shout, to rage about his incompetence and his inability to follow orders.
But all he’d done was fail to protect Rainbow’s property.
Kateri had killed her.
So in a reasonable tone of voice, she asked, “Is it trashed?”
“Nothing’s hurt, but it’s not neat anymore. Like … like your place when someone searched. Everything shoved around, but nothing’s broken, nothing’s missing that I can see.”
Kateri rubbed her forehead. “You don’t know who did this?”
“No.”
“Or when?”
“Sometime in the last twenty-four hours?”
“You don’t sound sure.”
“Maybe thirty hours.”
“Weston.”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“When you decided to not follow my orders to protect Rainbow’s property, did it not occur to you to install some kind of security in her home?”
“No, ma’am. I thought that…”
“I was overreacting?” God save her from superior young men. “Rather than be fired for this blatant incompetence, I suggest that you spend your off-duty hours cleaning up the mess in Rainbow’s house.”
“Even in her bedroom?”
Kateri could hear him squirming. “Even in her bedroom.”
“She’s got … in there, she’s got … it’s red satin and there are these … toys…”
“I don’t expect you to enjoy it. I expect you to do it.”
“Yes, ma’am.” For once, Sean Weston sounded subdued.