Chapter 14
CHAPTER 14
Everyone got quiet as they looked at Catori in shock at the news bomb she’d just delivered. It was evident in the looks from Jace and Warcloud that bit of of information was news to them.
No one spoke for several minutes as they absorbed the information. Now there were more unanswered questions that needed to be dealt with.
“What happened to Iyei’s brother?” Diesel asked as she looked at the confusion on Warcloud and Jace’s face.
“Wait! First, I want to know about this Onan you never talked about.” Jace demanded, hurt in his voice.
“How could I when I never knew him? My mother was pregnant with me when Onam was killed. From what I know, Citali was sent away to live with family somewhere else. Iyei has had no contact with his brother to the best of my knowledge.” Catori answered.
“Wait. So, this fucker’s brother killed your brother and your father had you marry into that family?” York asked, shocked at what was being said.
“Pretty much. From what I was told by my mother before her death, Iyei’s family has been in debt to my father for the rest of their lives. Meaning the father and Iyei since he was the one who told the brother Onan ratted him out after Iyei and his brother told a different story.” Catori informed everyone.
“Hey, babe, can you reach out to Oz and see if he’s stateside? Have him check into Iyei and his family. I want to know where the fuck this brother is. Catori, you need to give my husband what information you have on this shit. I know you don’t think Iyei has anything to do with your daughter’s disappearance, but I’m not as sure as you are.” Pratt asked her husband as she confronted Catori about Iyei.
“Let’s go look at the girl’s room. I want to see what we can find in there.” Diesel nodded at Catori, moving the situation along.
Once the team had arrived at the room that Catori and Jace indicated belonged to both Aiyannei and Enola, the women split into two, looking at each side of the girl’s room. Right away they could see the stark difference in the girls’ personalities.
While they were alike in brains and reading, they could tell their interests lay elsewhere in different subjects. One loved pink everything and the other loved purple and black.
“What was Aiyannei wanting to do after she graduated high school?” Diesel asked as she looked back at Catori standing in the doorway.
“She wanted to join the Air Force and work with drones and aviation. She was fascinated with things that could fly, especially drones.” Jace answered for his mother, knowing something apparently that the mother didn’t know.
“And Enola?” York asked, following along with Diesel.
“Mechanics. She wanted to figure out a way to better the reservations for her people. She wanted to find a way to make our soil better so that we could grow crops in certain areas, get better water without having to depend on outside sources. She wanted to find a way to make our people thrive. Her dream was to find land someday, start a ranch, grow crops and raise horses and give our people a better dream.” Jace answered with a huge smile on his face.
“Both girls were mathematically intelligent. They were number geniuses. Just like Hosa. He was always tutoring me in math. He had a way of explaining the assignment to me that helped me understand it better than our teachers did.” Catori smiled as she looked shyly over at Warcloud.
“You always sell yourself short, Catori. You are intelligent as well. Your father just wore you down to do his bidding. These three didn’t get all my intelligence, they got a lot from their mother as well.”
“Jace, since you’re the one who reached out to your grandfather for us, let him know we will pass on today since he can only give us five minutes. Tell him we’ve got a lead we want to look into. Don’t tell him what it is, just state you don’t know what it is since we wouldn’t share just yet. See if he can see us in a couple of days. That will give us time to speak with Oz about looking into a few things.” Pratt asked Jace as she looked over the bookshelf on Aiyannei’s side of the room.
“What is it, lass?” Highlander asked his wife from the hallway.
“This shelf looks shorter than the others.” Pratt said, tilting her head to the side as she looked at the other shelves on the bookcase.
Diesel and Pratt looked at each other for a couple of seconds before they started pulling the books on the shelf off and placing them on the bed. York and Raso looked at the shelves on Enola’s side of the room and noticed the same thing and started removing books from that shelf as well.
Once all the books had been removed, they noticed a slight indention on the back wall of the bookcase. Pratt reached in on her side and pulled out the small section that was being held into place.
Once the wall had been removed, she noticed that there was a book and some pictures in the small area that had been created. Once she’d pulled out the book and the photos, she looked over towards where York and Raso were working on Enola’s side of the room.
Sure enough, once she looked over, she saw that Raso was pulling out a book with photos in it as well. The four women met in the middle of the room and opened the book to find out that both girls had hidden their diary in the bookcase.
“W-what is that?” Catori asked as she and Jace came into the room.
“Looks like a book with photos. We’d like to take these, with your permission. We can look through everything and bring it back to you. It will help us with trying to find your daughters.” Pratt asked softly, knowing that they were curious.
“What are the photos of?” Jace demanded trying to reach for them before Catori stopped his hand.
“Jace, let them help. They will share what they find with us when they are ready.”