Chapter 3 The Meet-Up #2
“Mostly the latter option.” It was both, but April didn’t want to make her feel any worse than she already did.
Kaya was too close to the situation to remain objective.
“Neither you nor Tiffany dropped the bones off at the police station, though. Any chance you’ll tell me who the guy on the security video is? ”
Kaya blew out a breathy chuckle. “You’d probably use your x-ray vision to read my mind if I said no.”
“Probably,” April teased, though it wasn’t true. Forensic pathologists had a lot of tricks up their sleeves, but a crystal ball wasn’t one of them.
“He’s my boyfriend,” her companion admitted. “It was his idea. He was trying to keep me from becoming a suspect in the very case we’re trying to solve.”
The desperate note in her voice made April’s heart ache for her. “Digging up bones isn’t a crime, Kaya. Neither is turning them in to the police. The truth will prevail. Just give it a chance.”
“Easy for you to say.” Kaya’s lips twisted bitterly. “You don’t know the first thing about poverty and the layers of prejudice that accompany it. Or anything about being Comanche, for that matter.”
“My dad is from India,” April reminded her gently. “I’ve witnessed my share of poverty.”
“Witnessed,” Kaya repeated bitterly. “It’s not the same thing as living it.”
Before their conversation spiraled into a spitting match, April gave her something else to think about.
“You helped bring a forensic pathologist to town for a reason. This is the part where you trust the process.” She cleared her throat.
“In the coming days, it may require sharing your boyfriend’s name with the police in order to clear your uncle’s name.
We’ve got a so-called eyewitness out there claiming she saw Bear put the bones we’re currently examining in the drop box.
If we determine foul play was involved in her death, we’ll need to clear his name. ”
Kaya’s stubborn silence told April there might be more to the situation than she’d previously considered. “Come on, Kaya,” she begged quietly. “I can tell you love your uncle. It shows. There’s no way you’re going to throw him under the bus and walk away.”
“I’m not throwing him under the bus,” Kaya burst out angrily. “I’m dating Ben Haywood, okay? Something my uncle won’t be happy to hear. That’s why I didn’t tell him.”
“Oh.” April was more perplexed than ever, since the snapping-eyed law student seemed to expect a reaction.
“You don’t know, do you?” Kaya’s voice rose in disbelief.
“Know what?” April asked helplessly.
“Our families hate each other, that’s what!”
“The Dakotas and the Haywoods?” April repeated the names carefully.
“Yeah, for eons.” Kaya scowled at her. “I don’t know how you could’ve grown up here and not heard about it.”
April stared at the road ahead of her, knowing an explanation was in order. “My parents didn’t socialize much, and they made sure my biggest priority was schoolwork.”
“Yuck!”
April smiled sadly. “It led to a rewarding career.” It was the only upside to such a lonely existence.
“Back to Ben Haywood, though.” She employed her gentlest voice.
“You don’t strike me as gullible, Kaya. Quite the opposite.
You’re clever and resourceful, so I’m going to go out on a limb here and say Ben is probably a great guy.
Something tells me you wouldn’t settle for anything less. ”
“He is.” Kaya wrinkled her nose. “But it won’t matter if word gets out that he and I are dating. Our families will break us up in no time. Promise me you won’t tell anyone besides the police,” she added anxiously.
“I won’t.” April felt as if she’d taken a big step forward in gaining Kaya’s trust.
“Ben was only trying to help us,” she stressed. “The last thing we intended was for anyone to mistake him for my uncle, much less turn him into a potential murder suspect.” Her words ended with a sob. “Or for Tiff to go missing.”
April feathered her brakes as they approached the entrance to the Comanche reservation. “I really hope she reaches out to you today.”
“Me, too.” Kaya fisted her hands in her lap. “The whole time I’ve known her, I’ve never been this worried.”
That last comment didn’t sit well in April’s gut. “Do you want to call them right now?”
“Yeah, I think it’s time to tell them what I know about everything.” She waved her hands in the air. “Tiff, the bones, all of it.”
“Agreed.” April brought her car to a halt at the security gate and showed her driver’s license to the tall, sun-kissed gate guard.
Kaya leaned across her, waving at him to get his attention. “Hey, Shep! Dr. Chandrakanta is a forensic pathologist, and she’s helping me with a school project.”
“Cool! Welcome to the rez, Doc.” As Shep leaned closer to the car to get a better look at them, April caught sight of his police deputy badge. He was more than a gate guard.
“Thanks, Deputy.” She kept her tone brisk and businesslike.
“Destination?” he shot back.
April met Kaya’s gaze. “That’s a good question.”
“My uncle’s house,” Bear’s niece supplied in a falsely cheerful voice.
He frowned. “Has he returned home?”
“I doubt it.” Kaya tossed her ponytail. “He left only yesterday.”
Shep’s shoulders relaxed. “The next time you see him, tell him Adriel needs to talk to him, okay?”
“Happy to.” She gave him a playful salute.
He gave her a cheerful salute in return and waved them through the gate.
April rolled up her window and rolled her car forward. “Which way is your uncle’s house?”
“Like I told Shep, my uncle isn’t home,” she reminded loftily. “Turn down this road.” She navigated them down a side road that looked like it didn’t get much traffic, keeping them on the outskirts of the rez.
They reached an old security gate that looked abandoned. Kaya instructed April to zigzag around a set of concrete barriers sitting at odd angles. When they reached the other side of them, they exited the rez, which put them back on the old highway that skirted around Heart Lake.
“We could’ve just stayed on the highway and not cut through the rez,” April pointed out in puzzlement.
“True.” Kaya glanced furtively behind them. “In case I forgot to mention it, the route we took was to ensure we weren’t followed.” She didn’t sound as if she was joking.
Who would be following us? Apprehension crawled through April. “How much longer before we reach your uncle?”
“Not long. Turn here.” Kaya pointed at a dirt road buried beneath such tall weeds that April would’ve driven right past it if her passenger-seat driver hadn’t brought it to her attention.
It was an odd feeling driving through grass taller than her bumper.
While she drove at a snail’s pace, Kaya called the rez police and reported her friend missing.
The way she spoke to the police chief told April that Kaya knew him personally.
Meeting officials like him must be one of the perks of being a retired councilman’s niece.
He promised to pass the word on to the Heart Lake Police Department and coordinate a search-and-rescue mission with them, since it crossed into their jurisdiction.
She half-expected to blow a tire on the overgrown path, but they arrived at a narrow clearing without incident.
A swirl of smoke rose over a banked campfire. There was no other sign of civilization. No buildings. No vehicles. No tents. No people.
“He’s here.” Kaya gestured at April. “Kill the motor.”
“Where?” April turned off the motor, swiveling her head in search of Uri Dakota. All she could see were more trees and grass.
“He’ll come to us,” Kaya assured softly. “We just need to get out of the car and show ourselves first.”
Okay, then. April cautiously pushed open her car door and stepped out.
She tapped her sunglasses higher on her nose, glad she’d worn a skirt today.
It was a pencil skirt in the palest shade of peach that she’d paired with a white shell top and a blue-and-white striped linen blazer.
She looked professional, successful, and more confident than she felt on the inside as she waited.
It was hard to believe she was about to lay eyes again on the rugged outdoorsman who’d starred in her best daydreams over the years.
Kaya was in the middle of climbing out of the car when a tall figure leaped down from the branches of a nearby tree. He landed in a crouch in front of April and bounded nimbly to his feet.
She found herself face-to-face with the man she’d come to see.
“It’s been a while, Dr. Chandrakanta.” He didn’t smile or shake her hand; he simply studied her in stoic silence while he waited for her to answer.
“It’s been more than twenty years, Mr. Dakota.” Too long, she added inside her head.
“You were a resident,” he noted sagely, “ready to test your wings and fly.”
She was blown away that he remembered. “You were a councilman embarking on an entrepreneurial side venture.” She drew a bracing breath. “About to become a newlywed.” She hadn’t found that out until after she’d left town. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you.” His dark gaze was as piercing as she remembered — watchful, wise, and kind.
The lines and planes of his features were more chiseled than before.
Life had a way of doing that to a person.
So did grief. The most surprising change in his appearance, however, was his missing mane of black hair.
His short haircut made him look less like a figure in an Old West movie and more like a magazine advertisement for outdoor gear.
No wonder the single ladies were flocking to sign up for his wilderness retreats!
A sigh slipped from her lips before she could stop it. She started talking again in a rush, saying the first thing that came to mind — anything to avoid sounding like a woman about to melt in a puddle at his feet.
“I’ve often reflected on the encouraging words you gave me all those years ago.” She hoped she wasn’t being too forward. “You might not remember.” She didn’t want to assume.