He smoothed his shirt over his chest and buttoned it up. “Do you mind if I have a look at that map?”
“If you think what you’re doing can delay the project, then of course. I can make a copy of it for you on my printer, or you can take a picture of it with your phone.” She held up her finger. “It’s in my office.”
She crossed the living room to an open door near the front entrance where she’d set up a small office. She called out. “It’s just an eight-and-a-half-by-eleven sheet of paper, but it’s detailed. Showed me where the first dig was going to be, anyway.”
As Sam tucked in his shirt, he heard banging and rustling from the office. Maybe Jolene was making him a copy.
He buckled his equipment belt around his waist and strode to the office door. Poking his head inside, he said, “Are you making that copy?”
Jolene spun around, gripping her empty hands in front of her, her eyes dark pools. “It’s gone, Sam. Somebody came in here and stole that map.”
Chapter Five
Jolene dropped to her knees and rested the side of her face on the cool floor as she reached out with one hand to feel beneath the desk. “Maybe it fell to the floor.”
Her words sounded hollow to her own ears. It hadn’t fallen to the floor. She’d left it in the top right drawer of her desk.
Sam walked into the room, his boots clomping on the tile. He loomed over her. “Where did you have it?”
She sat up, bumping her head on the underside of the desk. “I put it in the drawer.”
“Is the drawer full? Could it have gotten stuck?” He yanked open the drawer, and a couple of pens rattled. He shuffled through the sticky notepads, a few business cards and some slips of paper with usernames and passwords scribbled across them.
“It’s gone, Sam.” She sat cross-legged on the floor, rubbing the side of her head. “Someone broke into my house and took it.”
“Is your head okay?” He extended his hand to her, and she grabbed it, more to steady her nerves than for assistance getting up.
“The head’s fine. I’m not.” She swept her hands across the neat desk. “Who would want that map? Why wouldn’t he or she want me to have it?”
“And how’d this person even know you had the map?” Sam leaned his thigh against the desk. “Obviously, someone didn’t randomly break into your house, see a map in a drawer and steal it on a whim, unless...”
“Unless what?” She pressed a hand against her stomach, trying to still the butterflies there—and this time they had nothing to do with Sam’s touch.
“Is there anything else missing?”
She twisted her head from side to side. “Not that I noticed.”
“When was the last time you consulted the map? If you looked at it this morning, the theft occurred when you were at the ground-breaking.” He tapped a knuckle against the desk. “Did you happen to take a picture of it with your phone?”
“I should have, but I didn’t.” She balled her hand into a fist. “I haven’t seen the map since the night I dumped the bones at the construction site. I had it with me that night.”
“Could you have lost it there? Left it in your car?”
“I wish.” The corner of her eye twitched. “I had it in my backpack when I went out there. When I came home, I unloaded my pack and put the map back in the drawer. I’m sure of it.”
“So, somebody broke in at some point after that night.” He swept his arm out to the side. “Have a look around. See if anything else is gone. Maybe it was just a common thief burglarizing your place, saw the map and thought it was buried treasure or something.”
“Really?” She put a hand on her hip. “X marks the spot?”
He flicked a finger beneath her chin. “I’m exaggerating. Maybe he thought he could use it to blackmail someone. Look around.”
“Computer’s still here.” She tapped the top of her closed laptop. “Printer.”
She yanked open the top drawer of a two-drawer oak filing cabinet and thumbed through some files. “My passport, birth certificate, social security card, all here.”
“Forget that stuff. What about valuables? Money? Jewelry?”
“Jewelry? You know I don’t own any expensive pieces of jewelry.” She held her arm in front of her and jangled the wooden bangles on her wrist. “I do have a safe with some cash and a few weapons.”
Sam’s head jerked up. “Weapons?”
“A couple of pieces my dad left me. If he’d have had one of them the night he was murdered, he’d probably still be here.” Her eyes stung as she spun away from Sam. “The safe’s in my bedroom closet.”
He closed the desk drawer and followed her out of the office.
When she walked into her bedroom, she made a beeline for the walk-in closet and flicked on the switch on the wall outside. She pulled open the door, shoved aside some blouses hanging from a lower rack and crouched in front of the safe, which had been bolted to the floor.
She tapped out the combination and the lock clicked while a green light flashed twice. She swung open the door of the safe and lifted out a .45 and a 9mm Glock. “Hold these.”
Sam took the weapons from her, holding one in each hand, weighing them. He whistled through his teeth. “Nice.”
Thumbing through two stacks of bills, she said, “It doesn’t look like anything was taken from the safe.”
“I suppose you don’t have a camera inside or outside?”
“Nope.” She sat back on her heels. “But maybe I need one.”
“Not a bad idea.” He held out the guns to her, handles first.
She placed the .45, a heavy piece, on top of the cash and slammed the door shut. She entered the combination again, and held her finger on the lock button until it beeped.
“You forgot the Glock.”
“No, I didn’t.” She stood up to face him, clutching the gun in her hand. “I’m keeping this one with me.”
“You do know how to use that thing, don’t you?”
She slid open the chamber, checked the bullet nestled inside and closed it with a snap. “Sure.”
“Do you think Wade found out you printed the map and broke in here to take it back? Did he have to break in? Does he know about the key under the flowerpot?”
“If he does, I never told him. His sister knows, but she wouldn’t blab about that.” She made a move to exit the closet and he stepped to the side.
Their little dance set her clothes into motion, the hangers clicking, the material whispering.
“And how would he know I printed out the map?” She exited the closet, the gun dangling at her side. “That’s why I printed it instead of sending it to myself. That he would’ve noticed, but I don’t think there’s any trail when an image is printed from your phone, is there?”
“I don’t have a clue.” He pressed his thumb against the closet light switch. “Why wouldn’t he want you to see the map? In fact, why did you go all cloak-and-dagger to get the map? You could’ve just asked him for a copy.”
“I didn’t want him to think I had any interest in the project beyond my initial rejection of it. That’s why I was secretive about it. I don’t know why he would be—unless there’s something on that map he wants to keep hush-hush.” She sank to the edge of her bed, thankful she’d had time to make it this morning.
He sat next to her, causing the mattress to dip and her shoulder to bump his. He didn’t move. “Something illegal about the construction maybe? Did you notice anything about the map?”
She scooted away from him. “I don’t know construction. I wouldn’t have noticed anything like that. It was a building-phase map, which is why it helped me because it pinpointed exactly where the workers were going to start digging.”
He patted his pocket. “I think your phone is ringing in the other room. It’s not mine.”
“It’s probably Gran wonder
ing what happened to me.” She bounced up from the bed. “You can give me a ride?”
“Of course.”
She snatched up her ringing phone on the counter, the call coming from Gran’s friend Rosie. “Hello, Rosie?”
“Hi, Jolene. Viv is wondering when you’re going to pick up your car. I’m still here with her, so can you give me a ride back to town? Or I can drive the car to your place, and you can give me a ride home from there.”
“I want to check in on Gran anyway, so I’ll go out there. Sam can drive, and then take you home. He gave me a ride to my place. Is Gran okay?”
“A little wet, but just fine. We were wondering the same about you. Do they know where those bones came from?”
“That’ll take a while, Rosie. Construction has been halted in the meantime.”
“Okay, we’ll wait for you and Sam.”
Gran yelled in the background. “Tell her not to hurry.”
Jolene rolled her eyes at Sam. “We’ll see you in a little while, Rosie.”
Sam scratched Chip’s belly. “Granny Viv and Rosie took your car, leaving Rosie’s grandson to take her car, leaving you to catch a ride home only to drive to the rez, get your car and give Rosie a ride home. Did I get that straight?”
“Maybe the scheme didn’t work out quite the way Gran wanted it to, but at least we got to admit our secrets to each other and forge a plan.”
“We forged a plan?” Sam stopped rubbing Chip, who kicked his legs in the air to show his displeasure.
“Of course we did, Sam Cross. We’re going to delay the Desert Sun Casino project long enough to find out if the land is the graveyard of missing people and why my father was murdered there.”
* * *
AS SAM PULLED his truck up in front of Gran’s house, he tapped on the window. “Wade’s here. That could be trouble.”
Jolene narrowed her eyes as she stared at Wade’s yellow Humvee. “Why does he drive that abomination?”
Sam shrugged. “I don’t know. It must be good for maneuvering in the sand.”
“Wrong answer.” Jolene punched his rock-hard bicep. “Maybe I can hint around that I think someone broke into my house and watch his reaction.”
“Not a great idea.” Sam cut the engine on his truck. “Don’t get into it with him at all. The man’s gonna be on edge.”
“The better to trap him.” She yanked on the door handle and slid from the truck, avoiding a puddle of rain in the dirt.
As she and Sam walked up to the porch, her cousin stepped out of the house, all smiles.
“That was quite a ground-breaking ceremony this morning, wasn’t it? Ended in dramatic fashion with a monsoon.” Wade shook out his umbrella.
Jolene raised one eyebrow. “And a pile of bones.”
“Well, it is the desert, right, Sam? There are bound to be bones buried in the desert.” Wade skirted several pools of water with his expensive cowboy boots on his way to the Humvee. He grasped the handle and turned. “You know it’s funny, though. We did survey that land thoroughly and didn’t find any bones before, especially so close to the access road.”
“Maybe your surveyors did a lousy job.” She waved from the porch. “I’m sure you’ll be back in the saddle in no time.”
Wade touched his fingers to his forehead. “Count on it, cuz.”
The Humvee’s engine rumbled as Jolene grabbed the handle of the screen door.
Sam touched her ear with his lips. “He sure is cheery.”
“It’s a facade. He’s running scared.” She pulled open the screen door and knocked on the front door once before pushing her way in. “Gran, it’s me.”
Rosita rose from a chair, holding two coffee mugs. “We just had some tea. Do you want some?”
“I think Sam needs to get the truck back to the Border Patrol station, and I need to get my car.” Jolene strolled to her grandmother’s chair and dropped a kiss on top of her head. “Was I taking too long for you to wait for me, Gran?”
“I knew that storm was going to break any minute, and I figured you and Sam might want to catch up.” She tilted her head back to look into Jolene’s face. “I was right. You two took a while to get here.”
Sam took the cups from Rosita’s hands and carried them into Gran’s small kitchen. “I stopped by Jolene’s house to see Chip...the dog.”
“How was Wade after that debacle at the ground-breaking ceremony?” Jolene perched on the arm of Gran’s chair. “We just saw him outside, and he seemed to be taking it in stride.”
“He was upset when he came over here to check on me, but he made a few calls and seemed to feel better after.” Gran patted Jolene’s knee. “He seemed to think you had something to do with the bones out there, Jolene. He came in here ranting and raving.”
“Right. Like I have a spare skeleton in my closet at home.” Jolene snorted. “Look, the Yaqui council voted, and they decided to go with the casino on that land. Nothing I can do about it.”
“Your father could’ve stopped it.” Gran clicked her tongue. “The rest don’t have the backbone to stand up to Wade.”
“Good thing Dad was conveniently murdered.” Jolene blinked her eyes.
Gran’s fingers turned into claws on Jolene’s leg as she dug them into her flesh. “Wade loved your father, Jolene. He looked up to him. Learned from him. Please don’t say those things to me.”
“I’m sorry, Gran.” Jolene kissed her grandmother’s weathered cheek and stood up as Sam returned from washing the dishes in the sink. “Sam’s going to give Rosie a ride back to her place, as they’re heading in the same direction.”
“Are you ready, Rosie?” Sam captured Gran’s hand and kissed her gnarled fingers. “I’ll see you later, Granny Viv.”
“You can come by any time if you’re washing dishes.”
Rosie gathered her umbrella and purse and waved at Gran getting out of her chair. “Take a seat, Viv. We can see ourselves out.”
Outside, Sam took Rosie’s arm and steered her around the puddles to his truck as Jolene watched them, a hand on her hip.
After he handed Rosie into his truck, he approached Jolene. “What are you staring at?”
“You’re such a gentleman...to the old gals.”
“Hilarious.” He placed his hands on her shoulders. “Be careful. Wade, or whoever, wanted that map back for some reason.”
“Maybe he just wanted to make sure I didn’t pull any stunts like the one today. I beat him to the punch, and now he’s over it.” She took a step back into Gran’s house, hanging on to the screen door.
“Why wouldn’t he just approach you? Tell you he’s aware you took the map from his phone, planted the bones and he’s going to out you to the authorities?” He brushed some hair from her eyes. “There must be something else on that map he’s hiding.”
“Not sure I’ll have another shot at it now.” She waved to Rosie in the passenger seat of Sam’s truck. “Thanks for the ride, Sam. Remember, I won’t tell if you won’t.”
He pressed a finger to his lips and strode to his truck. She watched while Sam climbed in his truck and pulled out. As he peeled away from the house, he beeped his horn.
Jolene returned to Gran and spent the next hour giving her evasive answers about her and Sam. When she stood up and stretched, she gazed out the window at the rain coming down in sheets.
“I’d better get going, Gran. Do you need anything else?”
Gran patted her arm. “Just for you to be happy, Jolene.”
She dropped a kiss on her grandmother’s head. “Always that.”
Outside, the rain lashed her as she ran to her car. She folded herself into the driver’s seat and blasted the defroster. She rolled slowly along the roads of the reservation, and then turned onto the highway. The wipers on her car could barely keep up with the onslaught of water pouring across her windshield.
> She sat forward in her seat, hunching over the steering wheel, easing off the accelerator. The car seemed to be floating underwater, the landscape a blurry, watery tapestry.
She picked up speed as she headed down an incline. She tapped her brakes and mumbled a few obscenities beneath her breath. The water had made her brakes squishy. She tapped again, putting a little more force into it.
As she stepped on the brake, the car whooshed forward, going even faster. She jerked the steering wheel harder than she wanted as she coasted into a slight curve in the road.
She tried the brakes again, and this time her foot hit the floor. Her back tires hydroplaned and the car began to fishtail. Gripping the steering wheel with one hand, she fumbled for the hand brake with the other.
The car lurched and skidded, and the rain-soaked scenery blurred into a kaleidoscope of colors as she careened out of control.
Chapter Six
Sam rolled to a stop in front of Rosie’s neat Spanish-style house, the tiles on the roof dyed to a deep red from the torrent of rain, now moving sideways.
“Hold on a minute.” He grabbed Rosie’s umbrella and came around to the passenger side of the truck to let her out.
He held the umbrella over her head as he walked her to the front door.
Her grandson threw open the door. “Hurry, Abuela, before you get swept away.”
Rosie turned to Sam on the porch. “You can take my umbrella back to the truck with you.”
“That’s okay.” He handed the pink-and-red umbrella back to her. “I’m already wet. A little more rain isn’t going to make much difference.”
Head down, he jogged back to the truck. When he got behind the wheel, he flicked down the visor and slicked his hair back from his face, dripping with water.
He scowled at his reflection. “So much for drying your clothes at Jolene’s.”
It was a good ruse for taking half his clothes off at her place, anyway. Not that it did him much good. If he wanted to get back into her good graces...and her bed, he’d have to take things slowly. He’d burned her once, and she wasn’t the type of woman who trusted easily—her mother’s abandonment and her father’s death had seen to that.
Buried Secrets Page 5