"In other words, he's coming, like it or lump it."
Gabe Ortiz nodded. "I suppose that's about it," he said. "But wait until you meet him. He's an unusual young man. I think you'll like him."
"I wouldn't count on it," Delia muttered. She opened the car door. "In fact, I wouldn't count on that at all."
Delia started out of the car and would have walked away, but just then a tow truck, red lights flashing, followed by a Law and Order patrol car, pulled up and stopped directly in front of the Crown Victoria. Gabe's other son, Richard, climbed down from the truck.
"Here they are," he was saying to the officer piling out of the patrol car.
As Gabe climbed out of the Crown Victoria, he immediately recognized Ira Segundo, a young patrol officer for the Tohono O'othham tribal police. "What's the matter, Ira?" Gabe asked.
"I'm looking for Mrs. Cachora," Ira said. "Baby told me she might be here with you."
"I'm Delia Cachora," she said, stepping forward. "What's wrong?"
"It's about your dad," Ira Segundo said. "There was a problem over off Coleman Road. He's been hurt."
A curtain of wariness more than concern settled over Delia's face. Since she had returned to the reservation, her father and her younger brother, Eddie, had only come to see her to ask for money. "What about him?"
"It happened at a charco over by where Rattlesnake Skull used to be-"
"By Rattlesnake Skull?" Gabe Ortiz interrupted.
Ira nodded. "We think maybe there was a fight of some kind. He must be hurt pretty bad. They air-lifted him to TMC."
"You should be telling my brother this instead of me," Delia said. "He's the one who lives with him, but he's probably off drunk somewhere. I'll go get my car."
"No, Delia," Gabe said. "Get in. I'll give you a ride." Gabe Ortiz turned to his son. "Richard, I'm leaving you to take your mother home from the dance when she's ready to go. Ira, I want you to put on your flashers and lead us into town."
"Sure thing, Mr. Ortiz," Ira said.
Still angry, Delia wanted to object, but something about the way Gabe issued the orders stopped her. She did as she was told and climbed back into the Crown Victoria. "I don't know why you're doing this," she said, once Gabe was back inside and had started the engine. "It's my father, and I'm perfectly capable of driving myself."
Already Gabe was threading his way through the army of parked cars. In the reflected glow of the dashboard lights, Delia was surprised by the grim set of his face.
"You've been away from the reservation a long time," he said, sounding suddenly tired. "Have you ever heard of Rattlesnake Skull?"
"Never," she said. "I gather from what he said that it's a deserted village."
They were out of the parking lot now, and the lights on the patrol car were flashing in front of them. "Right," Gabe said. "It is deserted, but a lot has happened there over the years. Before you go see your father and before you meet Davy Ladd, you should hear about some of it. I'm probably the only one who can tell you."
When the banquet was finally over, Brandon and Diana Walker drove west across town. The evening had been surprisingly fun, and Diana was still giggling.
"You were absolutely great," she told Brandon. "I don't know why you've ever been spooked at the idea of talking to little old ladies. You charmed the socks off every one that got within spitting distance of you."
Brandon grinned. "There's nothing like a little sex in the afternoon to give a guy's sagging ego a boost. But it turns out they were a pretty nice bunch of little old ladies…"
"And men," Diana added.
"And a few men," Brandon corrected. "The difference between the people we met tonight and most people is that the ones at the banquet all think I'm lucky to be able to be retired at age fifty-four. Everybody else thinks I'm either crazy or some kind of laggard."
"They haven't seen your woodpile," Diana said.
Their mood was still light, right up until they drove up to the house in Gates Pass. "Damn it," Brandon said. "It looks like Lani left every light in the house burning. One of these days she'll have to pay her own utility bills. It's going to come as a real shock."
Brandon hit the automatic door opener and the gate on the side of the house swung open. "She also left her bike in the middle of the damn carport. What on earth is she thinking of?"
Diana sighed, dismayed to hear Brandon's mood change from good to bad in the space of a few yards of driveway. "Stop the car," she said. "I'll get out and move the bike out of the way."
She pushed the bike up to the front of the carport, giving Brandon enough room to park his Nissan next to her Suburban. No doubt the fragile mood of the evening was irretrievably broken. One way or another, children did that to their parents with astounding regularity.
The back door was unlocked, which most likely meant that Lani was home, but that was something else that would annoy her father. When Lani was home alone, she was supposed to keep the front and back doors locked.
Shaking her head, Diana went inside and discovered that Brandon was right. Almost every light in the house was blazing, but the note for Lani that Diana had left on the counter-the Post-it containing Davy's phone number and telling Lani to call him back-was still on the counter, exactly where Diana had left it.
Through years of mothering teenagers, Diana Ladd Walker had discovered that looking in the sink and checking the most recent set of dirty dishes was usually a good way of getting a handle on who all was home, how long they'd been there, and whether or not they had dragged any visitors into the house with them.
The evidence in the sink this time left Diana puzzled. Other than the pair of champagne glasses she and Brandon had left there earlier in the afternoon, there was nothing but a pair of rubber-handled kitchen tongs. Knowing it wasn't hers, Diana picked the utensil up and examined it under the light. The gripper part was somewhat scorched. It looked as though it had been used to cook meat of some kind, but there was nothing in the kitchen-no accompanying greasy mess-that gave Diana any hint of what that might have been.
As Diana automatically moved to the phone to check for messages, she could hear Brandon walking through the rest of the house, calling for Lani and switching off lights as he went. When Diana punched in the code, she found there were a total of five messages waiting for her. That bugged her. It was Saturday night. Couldn't she and Brandon even go out to dinner without having the whole world phone in their absence?
The first message was timed in at three twenty-one. "Lani," a female voice said. "This is Mrs. Allison from the museum. If you aren't able to take your shift, you should always call in as soon as possible to let us know. I know tomorrow is scheduled to be your day off. If for some reason you aren't going to be able to make your next shift on Monday, please call in on Sunday if you can. If I'm not there, leave word on the machine."
Lani hadn't made it to work? That didn't make sense. She had left for work. How could it be that she was absent? The next message, at six-eleven, moments after Diana and Brandon had left for the banquet, was from Jessica Carpenter.
"Lani, what are you going to wear? Call me and let me know."
"That figures," Diana muttered as she erased that one.
The one after that was more worrisome. "Lani," Jessica Carpenter said. "I thought you were going to be here by now. Mom has to go someplace after she drops me off, and if we don't leave in a few minutes, she'll be late. She says I should leave your ticket at the box office. I'll put it in an envelope with your name on it."
The next message, at nine-fifteen, was another one from Davy. "Hi, Mom and Dad. I'm still trying to get hold of Lani, but I guess nobody's home. Give me a call. Bye."