Page 23 of Blood and Bone
“I’m done with you, you piece of crap,” Two Trees said, walking over with Uwaite at his side. Together they bent down and grabbed the man’s arms. He cried out in pain as the shifter-strength handcuffs bit into his wrists. When he continued protesting, swearing vengeance up and down every which way, the chief left him with the deputy before striding out into the kitchen. Opening and closing a few cabinets and drawers, he came back with a dirty dishrag and silver roll of duct tape. He shoved the rag in the man’s mouth and covered it with tape as Eoghan and Ari looked on with amusement.
When he turned back to them, he smiled genuinely. “I don’t know how to thank, you two. I feel like a fool for not seeing the whole thing.” He glanced at Ari. “If you hadn’t thought to look behind that painting, I don’t know what would have happened. I’m so grateful you both came.”
“It’s no problem, Chief,” Ari said. “Just promise me he won’t get away with it.”
Two Trees nodded; a stern look on his face. “Our tribal council will deal with it and if I find out that anyone on the council was complicit with this piece of crap in setting up Jack Vandross, I’ll deal with them myself,” he said. “It’s damned embarrassing to admit that this happened under my watch.”
Eoghan nodded and looked over at Ari. “Well, we still have a job to do. We have to locate Riversong and bring her back home.”
“Before you do that, let me call her brother-in-law,” Two Trees said. “If she’s there and if she’ll talk to me, I’ll explain that we found the diary and have Colt Wilkins in custody. Maybe we can get her to come back on her own. I’ll suggest she have her brother-in-law escort her and the kids if it makes her feel any better.”
“I have a feeling she won’t trust you,” Eoghan said. He glanced at Wilkins sitting on the ground with his back against the wall and looking furious. He walked over, pulled out his phone and took a photo of the gagged, red-faced man before coming back and showing it to the chief. “If I send this to my counterparts in Oregon and send them out to her brother-in-law’s house, maybe she’ll let them bring her back.” He glanced around at the empty living room which had been the scene of so much potential violence today. Toys littered several surfaces. He looked back. “This is her home. I’d just bet she and the kids would be much happier here than on the run.”
“Especially if she has hope that Jack will be freed and numbnuts here is in jail.”
“You’re right,” Joe said, smiling. “That’s good thinking.” He glanced at the prisoner. “Let me get this piece of crap locked up while you talk to the I.S.R. in Oregon and then Deputy Uwaite and I can take the two of you out for the best barbeque in Tahoe.” He slapped his belly. “I don’t know about you, but I worked up a hell of an appetite today.”
“That sounds great,” Eoghan said. “Thank you, Two Trees.”
“Please, call me Joe.”
Eoghan smiled. “Will do, Joe.”
Joe nodded. “Meet us at the tribal police station?”
“You bet,” Eoghan said, darting a glance at Ari.
All Ari could do was smile back.
“Good.” He turned and said something to Uwaite in his own language. Uwaite grabbed Wilkins by one elbow and hauled him to his feet. The prisoner struggled only a minute before giving up and dropping his head as he was dragged out of the house with all of them following. Ari and Eoghan watched them shove the opossum into the back of their Chevy Blazer and then get in, waving before backing out of the drive.
“Let’s see if we can save ourselves a trip to Oregon,” Eoghan said, holding up his phone.
“That would be fantastic,” Ari agreed as they walked toward their Charger. They sat inside the car as Eoghan called the chief to get the go ahead to call in their counterparts in Oregon.
“Sapphire? How’s it going up there?” she asked as soon as she answered the phone.
Eoghan relayed everything that had gone on from them meeting the chief and his deputy, to Ari finding the diary and what it had contained, to the way the two lawmen had shifted into massive grizzlies when they’d read it.
“Wow, what a piece of crap,” she said. “It sounds like Colt Wilkins fathered at least one of Riversong’s children and that Jack Vandross was innocent of the crime all along. No wonder he tried to get away with her and the children.”
“If he took the money at all,” Ari said into the speakerphone. “Colt Wilkins or someone he knows could have broken into that safe and planted fingerprints for the police to find.”
“That’s true,” she said. “Well, whatever the case, I think the chief will be contacting Vandross at Folsom. He’ll probably spill the whole story if he’s assured Riversong and the kids are safe and away from her scumbag brother.”
“I just don’t understand why they didn’t tell Gladys and I what happened to them when we arrested them in Redding,” Eoghan said, looking at Ari.
He just shrugged.
“Who knows? Shame and secrets make people do strange things,” Priest said. “Maybe Jack didn’t know anything about it. Or Riversong orchestrated the flight from their reservation after figuring out that her brother set Jack up.”
“But why not say anything after we caught her?” Eoghan asked.
“Well, once she was caught, she knew she’d be going back to the reservation to serve out her own prison sentence. And since her crimes were adjudicated by the tribal council which her brother sits on…who knows? Maybe fear kept her quiet,” Priest said.
“If that’s the case, she must have been devastated when Jack was arrested and convicted. She probably didn’t expect her brother would go that far just to have her,” Eoghan said. “It makes me sick.”
“Well, in any case, I’m going to contact the chief deputy at the I.S.R. in Portland. Send me that photo you took of Wilkins. Meanwhile, I might have another job for you in central Cali, so stay in Tahoe until I know,” she said, pausing. “Good work today. I’m glad you two weren’t torn apart by grizzlies.” The humor in her voice was infectious, and Ari grinned at Eoghan. “I’ll get back to you shortly.” Without waiting for a reply, she hung up.