Page 42 of Blood and Bone

Eoghan walked out of the bathroom, and Ari watched his lover smile widely as Riversong returned the smile and shook his hand. It was a relief. Eoghan said something to her and they headed over his way to the conference room.

“Ms. Wilkins, meet my partner, Ari Brown,” Eoghan said as they walked up. “Ari, this is Riversong Wilkins.”

Ari held out his hand as the small woman glanced up at him shyly and shook it. Her hand was cold and finely boned. “I understand you and your partner did me and my family a great service,” she said, offering the hint of a smile.

“I hope so, ma’am.”

She glanced at Joe Two Trees. “The chief told me you found my diary.”

Ari nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Well, I thought I’d hidden it fairly well. That’s some pretty impressive detective work, Marshal. Maybe you missed your calling.”

Ari looked down at the ground. “I’m very sorry, ma’am. I didn’t mean to snoop. We were looking for any clues as to your whereabouts. At that point we couldn’t be sure if you’d been kidnapped or had left home on your own.”

She reached out and squeezed his arm until he looked up and met big, brown eyes. “Yes, Chief Two Trees explained that to me but don’t be sorry. Thanks to you, my Jack might be coming home soon.” She turned and glanced out at the bullpen where several people pecked away on computer keyboards. “I just don’t know what will happen when poor, little Morgan learns the truth.”

“Let’s step inside and close the door,” Two Trees suggested. “I know your children are too young to have had their first shift, but we all have good hearing, even from birth.”

“Yes, of course,” Riversong replied.

They all sat at the conference table as Joe shut the door. He took a seat opposite the window where he could keep an eye on the tribal police employees.

“You were saying something about Morgan,” he encouraged her to go on.

“Yes,” she said, sounding slightly hesitant. “Colt sexually abused me when I was a kid,” she began. “He’s thirteen years older than me. I was about eleven when it started, and it continued until I finally left home at sixteen. I’d started seeing Jack by then and I wanted to make a life. Jack hadn’t had a good upbringing either but he never did anything without reason and he never committed any of those crimes they said he did. He did shoplift but that was because I’d already run away with him, and we were starving. I was already pregnantwith Colt’s baby and he was just trying to make sure I had something to eat to keep my strength up for the baby.”

Tears filled her eyes. “Jack protected me which is why I left with him at such a young age. My parents were deceased, and we were all alone in their house. I used to call it my house of horrors.” She sniffled as tears fell.

Two Trees reached for a box of tissues sitting in the center of the conference room table and pushed them toward her. She thanked him and took a couple, immediately blowing her nose.

“So, the shoplifting charge was the only crime Jack actually committed?” Eoghan asked.

“Yes. I’d been seeing Jack from the time I was thirteen but there was never anything sexual between us. I told him that I wouldn’t let him do that until we were properly married and he had to get a good job before that ever happened. He couldn’t find a job, though. He tried and tried and kept getting turned down. Jack couldn’t understand it. He was almost eighteen, much older than most kids who get their first jobs. When he finally asked one of the interviewers at the supermarket why he wouldn’t hire him, he told him that with his rap sheet, he was lucky to be out on the streets and not behind bars.”

She looked at them with desperation. “My Jack had never been in any trouble at that time. Not a single thing. He’d never been arrested, much less convicted of a crime. So when he asked for a copy of the printout the store manager had which showed a bunch of crimes Jack was supposedly convicted of, he was shocked to see the list. None of it was true. He’d been set up. When he told me, he was utterly stunned. That’s when I told him it had to be Colt.”

“You thought Colt somehow found a way to manufacture crimes and put them on his record?” Two Trees asked.

“Do you remember Julie Rains?” she asked, looking directly at him.

He frowned and then shook his head. “No, who is she?”

“She used to work for you.”

Looking utterly perplexed, he thought for a few seconds before standing up. “Hang on.” He walked over to the doorway and leaned out. When he caught Alo’s attention, he motioned him over. When he appeared at the door, Two Trees introduced him to Riversong. “Do you remember someone named Julie Rains?”

“The data entry clerk who used to work here at the station?” Alo immediately asked.

“Yes, that’s the one,” Riversong replied.

“Oh yeah,” Joe said. “Now I remember. She quit a few years ago.”

“Probably right after Jack was arrested,” Riversong said.

“That sounds about right. We had a lot of turnover around the pandemic.”

“Well, she was dating Colt,” she said. “I think he somehow convinced her to put all those crimes on Jack’s record, basically make up a laundry list of crimes that he’d been charged and convicted of. I bet if you check out all those court dates and so-called convictions, it’s going to turn out to be a lot of baloney. As soon as I told him that I was dating Jack, Colt must have started the whole thing. It must have been the best day of his life when Jack was caught stealing from the grocery store. I know he knew about it because when he found out I’d run away with Jack, he threw it in my face. But it was too late for me. I was already pregnant with Morgan.”