Redwing's Lady

by Stella Bagwell

  It wasn’t Daniel, this time, she thought with sick relief. But what about next time?

  Chapter Twelve

  A week later Daniel was sitting in a hard plastic chair, trying not to fall asleep as he listened to the beep, beep of the heart monitor next to the sheriff’s hospital bed.

  Daniel had left his office more than two hours ago and had been sitting here beside his boss ever since. It had only been three days since Quito had improved enough for the doctor to allow him to be moved out of the intensive care unit and into a private room.

  Since that time, Daniel had hardly left the man’s bed. The sheriff didn’t have any family. Or at least, none that Daniel knew about. And since Quito had always been like an older brother to Daniel, he’d felt the need to be a brother back to Quito.

  So far the sheriff had remained asleep and unresponsive to anyone’s voice. Daniel had been praying hard to see some kind of sign that the sheriff hadn’t suffered any brain damage from the shooting.

  Restlessly he pushed himself out of the chair and went to the door of the room. Just outside in the hallway, another deputy stood guard.

  “Seen anything unusual, Miguel?” Daniel asked the young man.

  The deputy shook his head. “Nothing. But I won’t let my guard down, Redwing. I don’t care if it’s the head of the hospital, he’ll have to show me some ID before he gets in the sheriff’s room.”

  “Good for you,” Daniel said, patting his shoulder. “If you need to take a break, just let me know.”

  The deputy nodded to Daniel, who slipped back inside the hospital room. He walked over to Quito’s bed and looked helplessly down at the sheriff’s face. Oxygen was being pumped into his nose, and a bandage plastered the left side of his face where he’d been cut from flying glass. His usually dark skin was pale and clammy to the touch.

  “Damn it, Quito, you’ve slept long enough,” Daniel muttered. “And I’m getting sick of this hospital room. Wake up and talk to me!”

  As usual there was no response from the man. With a heavy sigh, Daniel started around the bed to take up his position in the plastic chair. Halfway there he thought he heard a groan and he stopped in his tracks and stared at Quito’s face.

  His heart beating hopefully, he walked back to the sheriff’s side and waited.

  “Can you hear me, you sorry SOB?”

  Quito’s eyelids began to flutter and his lips worked. Daniel reached down and squeezed his arm.

  “Redwing…is that you?”

  The low, slurred question was like heaven to Daniel’s ears, and he smiled broadly as Quito’s eyes slowly opened.

  Leaning his head closer to the other man’s, he said, “Yes. It’s me. Who’d you think it would be?”

  “A blond angel with blue eyes.”

  “Sorry, buddy, I’m the only one who can put up with you for more than twenty-four hours.”

  “Yeah. That’s true.”

  The sheriff lifted his hand and rubbed his nose. A frown marred his forehead as he felt the plastic hose running into both nostrils. “Damn! They got me on oxygen?”

  “They’ve got you on everything, Quito. You nearly left us. But you’re doing better now.”

  His expression fuzzy, he looked at Daniel. “I got shot. What did it do to me?”

  “Shattered two ribs, blew a hole in your lung and collapsed it. They also had to take out your spleen. It was too mangled to save. You’re lucky it wasn’t your heart.”

  Quito closed his eyes and breathed deeply. “Hell, I don’t have one of those. You know that.”

  Daniel knew just the opposite, but he played along with Quito’s tough guy talk.

  “Do you know who shot you?”

  The sheriff’s head moved back and forth upon the pillow. “A black pickup truck. Dodge, I think. Pulled up beside me—I thought the driver was just passing. The first shot shattered the window, but missed me. The second—I felt my side burning and then…I guess I passed out.”

  Daniel gave the man’s arm another reassuring squeeze. “We’re tracking down every lead, Quito. We’ll find the bastard, I promise. All you need to do is get well.”

  “Yeah,” he said weakly, then squinted up at Daniel. “And you need to go home and get some rest.”

  Daniel was about to object when the doctor suddenly entered the room. The tall young man was dressed in a white lab coat, a stethoscope dangling from around his neck. He was happy to see Quito was conscious and communicating. He asked the sheriff many questions before he finally reached for the clipboard attached to the end of the bed and began to scribble.

  Daniel slipped from the room and waited outside with the guard until the doctor stepped into the hallway.

  “How is he, Dr. Collins?” Daniel questioned the other man.

  “Quito is improving. It’s been slow going, but his regaining consciousness is a big step.”

  Daniel nodded with a measure of relief. “But you do think he’ll make a full recovery? He won’t be permanently disabled from his injuries?”

  Dr. Collins shook his head. “No. Other than the injuries he suffered, the sheriff is a strong, healthy man. I expect him to make a full recovery. Of course, we’ll have to keep a close watch for infection and that sort of thing. And he’ll have to spend several more days in the hospital. How many, I’m not sure yet. But rest assured he will recover.”

  “Thank you, Doctor. Thanks for everything.”

  The doctor nodded and walked across the hallway to catch an elevator. Once he disappeared, Daniel looked down at the guard and grinned.

  “Did you hear that, Miguel? Quito is going to be okay!”

  The young man’s grin was as broad as Daniel’s. “Yeah. Good news. Finally.”

  Daniel glanced at his watch. “I’m going to leave for a while, Miguel. Make sure you keep an eagle eye on who goes through this door. And if you feel sleepy at all, call the next deputy scheduled for guard duty. And if you need me for anything, you have my cell number. Right?”

  “Right. Don’t worry. Go on, you need to get out of here and rest,” the young deputy assured him.

  Feeling as though he could safely leave the hospital now that Quito was on the mend, Daniel caught the elevator and rode down to the bottom floor.

  As he walked across the parking area to his truck, he punched in Jess’s cell number. The second the undersheriff answered, Daniel said, “Quito’s awake. The doctor says he’s going to be okay.”

  Daniel could hear Jess let out a sigh of relief.

  “Thank God for that. Did he remember anything about the shooting?”

  “Not much. He couldn’t see the person. A black pickup truck—a Dodge, he thinks, drove up beside him. Quito thought the truck was meaning to pass. Instead he fired into Quito’s vehicle. The first shot shattered the window and missed Quito. He wasn’t as lucky on the second one. After that, he says, he passed out. He doesn’t remember.”

  Daniel climbed into his truck and started the engine. As he fastened his seat belt, Jess said, “Well, we know that when Leon Statler drove up on the scene, there was nothing but Quito’s wrecked car with him inside and wounded. That was eight-fifteen. The suspect was probably long gone by the time Leon got to a phone and called 911 for help.”

  Leon, an old farmer who lived down the highway from Quito, had just happened to be going into town for chicken feed the morning of the shooting. If they were extremely lucky, the man might remember something about seeing a black truck.

  “Maybe we ought to question Leon about the black truck. It might jog his memory,” Daniel suggested.

  “I’ll question him,” Jess told him. “You’re officially off duty for the weekend. You need rest in the worst kind of way.”

  Daniel laughed mockingly. “And you don’t?”

  “I’ll be fine. Uh, have you told Maggie about Quito?” Jess asked.

  Daniel’s jaw tightened. “No. She won’t answer my calls.”

  “Give her time, Daniel. Women have to think everything through,” Jess reas
oned. “I’ll tell her about Quito. That might help.”

  Daniel seriously doubted it, but he didn’t bother to put his opinion in words. With Quito down, and the shooting investigation going full force, Jess had enough on his plate to deal with besides Daniel’s personal life.

  “If you’re not going to let me work this weekend,” Daniel told him, “I think I’ll drive up to the reservation. My mother and grandfather haven’t seen me in quite a while.”

  Going to his house and wandering around the quiet rooms was the last thing Daniel wanted to do. Everywhere he looked, he remembered Maggie being there, eating, sleeping, laughing and most of all, loving him. He couldn’t sit around and dwell on her and remember and wish. He had to do something to make her see she was ruining something precious, and he could only hope his mother or grandfather had some words of wisdom to help him.

  “Sounds good to me. Get gone and I’ll see you when you get back,” Jess told him.

  Daniel thanked him, then clicked off the cell phone. Once he’d tossed the instrument onto the passenger seat, he quickly made a U-turn in the middle of the highway and headed toward Colorado.

  Later that evening Daniel drove up to Pelipa Redwing’s small, wood-framed house, located three miles west of Towaoc. Here the high-desert mountains stretched for miles, and the only living thing to see among the rock-strewn landscape was a sheep or a goat scavenging for a morsel of grass. But here the colors of the earth were unlike anywhere else Daniel had ever seen. Muted reds, yellows and purples streaked the mountains and made one think that heaven had to be near. But in reality Daniel knew the reservation was a harsh place to live.

  “My son, is that you?”

  His mother was standing in the open doorway, silhouetted by the light behind her. She appeared thin and frail, her shoulders bent just enough to add twenty years to her age. Each time Daniel saw her, he wanted to kill Robert Redwing all over again. But then, she hadn’t been forced to love the man, he thought.

  “Yes, it’s me, Mother,” he answered.

  She waited until he reached the two rocks that served as steps before she reached out for him. He took her into his arms and for long moments said nothing as he held her close against him.

  “It’s late,” she said after he’d finally released her. “Is something wrong?”

  The sun had gone down an hour ago. That was late for a woman who lived on the desert with nothing more to do than feed her chickens and milk the goat.

  “No. I just wanted to see you and Grandfather.”

  She smiled and took him by the arm. “Come in. You look so tired.”

  The house was no different from the way it had been when Daniel was a child. It was still sparsely decorated with linoleum covering the floors rather than carpet. He’d often offered to have the house carpeted for her so that the rooms would be warmer in the wintertime, but she always refused. A floor was meant to be swept, she often told him.

  To his surprise and pleasure, he found his grandfather stretched out on a recliner in front of the television. Even though the screen was mostly snow, he seemed to be enjoying a rerun of Bonanza.

  He went to greet the older man. “Grandfather, how are you?”

  Joe SilverBear quickly turned off the television and rose to his feet. With both hands he clasped Daniel’s hand and crushed it tightly.

  The old Ute was tall and stick thin, with iron-gray braids and deeply creviced skin. Over the years his looks hadn’t changed much, and Daniel wondered if Joe had always looked like an old man to him simply because he was his grandfather.

  “It’s good to see you, boy,” Joe said. “Are you here for the night?”

  Daniel nodded and glanced toward his mother. “I hope you haven’t thrown my things away. I didn’t bring any clothes. I left from town.”

  She motioned for him to sit on the couch. “Everything is just like you left it,” she said fondly. “You sit with your grandfather and I’ll make coffee.”

  Daniel did as she suggested and Joe sank back into the recliner.

  Once Pelipa was out of sight, Daniel turned a concerned eye on his grandfather. “Has Mother been ailing? Is that why you’re here tonight?”

  Normally at this time of night Joe would be at his own house, taking care of his dogs. He had a pen full of mongrels he believed should be treated like royalty. Apparently his grandfather had already taken care of the canines for the evening.

  “No. Pelipa has been feeling okay.” He waved his hand as though everything should be obvious to Daniel. “Your mother gets lonely, you know.”

  Daniel frowned as he crossed his legs out in front of him. “And why wouldn’t she? This place is out in the middle of nowhere. She doesn’t drive and she has only a handful of friends. She…no, both of you should come to Aztec and live. I could keep watch over both of you there.”

  Joe’s lined face grew tight. “We don’t belong there.”

  Daniel was about to argue when his mother appeared with a tray holding an old aluminum drip pot and three cups. Indian fry bread, dripping with honey, was piled on a nearby plate.

  She served her father first, before she carried the tray over to Daniel. He poured himself a full cup of the coffee and took some of the fry bread. It was the first thing he’d eaten since early this morning.

  “We heard about your sheriff,” Pelipa said as she took a seat on the couch. “It was on the television news from Durango.”

  Daniel nodded and told them what he knew about the shooting and how Quito was getting along. The news obviously distressed his mother, and she looked at him with great concern.

  “I worry the same thing will happen to you, Daniel. There’s so much evil in the world today.”

  Pelipa Redwing didn’t know the half of it, Daniel thought. Life here on the reservation might be harsh and limited but it was also sheltered. And for the first time since he’d contemplated the idea, Daniel realized this was the best place for his mother. She wasn’t strong enough to see the seedy side of civilization.

  “I could be hurt here on the reservation, Mother.”

  She nodded solemnly, and Daniel knew it would be her last word on the subject. To her, being submissive to her male relatives meant showing respect. But he’d often wished Pelipa would get riled and talk back, show the same sort of spunk and fight that Maggie did. At least she wasn’t afraid to tell him how she felt about his work, even though she was afraid to marry him.

  For the next hour Daniel finished off the coffee and fry bread while his mother and grandfather caught him up on local news. As usual most of the talk was about the revenue the new casino was bringing in and how they planned to build up the place. Daniel could plainly see that neither Pelipa nor Joe thought very highly of building up anything.

  Finally, when the conversation dropped off, Daniel looked over at Joe SilverBear and said, “Grandfather, I’ve found the redheaded woman.”

  Daniel didn’t have to say more. Joe remembered everything, especially his visions. The old man rose up in his chair and looked at Daniel with renewed interest.

  “And have you asked her to marry you?”

  Daniel nodded while Pelipa looked on with surprise.

  “But she refuses,” Daniel said starkly. “She’s afraid that I will die—like her first husband. He was gored to death by a bull.”

  Pelipa’s mouth dropped open with shock while Joe shook his head grimly.

  “We never know what the Great Spirit holds in store for us,” Joe said. “But there is a reason.”

  Daniel couldn’t think of any reason why Maggie had suffered such a loss. But he didn’t say this to his grandfather. Joe looked at most everything in a spiritual way and expected Daniel to do the same.

  “Who is this woman, Daniel? How did you meet her?” his mother asked.

  Even without the expression of surprise on Pelipa’s face, Daniel knew the idea of her son wanting to marry was shocking for his mother. He’d often sworn to her that he would never marry or be caught up in the horrible situa
tion that she’d been in with Robert Redwing. But then Maggie had come along with her softness and beauty and loving heart. And the world had suddenly changed for him.

  “Her name is Maggie Ketchum and I met her through my work,” Daniel answered. “She married into the rich Ketchum family that owns the T Bar K. They own thousands of acres of land and lots of horses and cattle.”

  “Then she is rich,” Joe stated thoughtfully.

  Pelipa frowned with confusion. “She doesn’t sound like a person you would marry.”

  Daniel glanced back and forth between his mother and grandfather. They both looked hesitant and wary.

  “Maggie doesn’t live like she’s rich. She’s just a normal, down-to-earth woman. And she has a young son named Aaron. He’s a good boy and we get along fine. He needs a father and I want to be that for him.”

  Joe began to nod, and Pelipa let out a long sigh.

  “If this is the woman you want, then I’m glad you have found her,” his mother said. “I’ve always prayed you would find someone, Daniel. Your heart is too good to stay empty the rest of your life.”

  Yet if Maggie wouldn’t marry him, his heart would be empty the rest of his life, Daniel thought. If she refused to see him or even talk to him then his love would be a painful waste.

  Rising from the couch, he gathered up his coffee cup and the plate of bread crumbs. “If you two don’t mind, I’m going to bed. I’ll see you both in the morning.”

  Both Pelipa and Joe murmured their good-nights to him, and Daniel walked through the small house to the bedroom he’d used as a child.

  His mother had never been one for change. Tonight as he looked around the small room he noticed that only the bedcover and the curtains at the windows were different. The plain pine bed was the same one he’d slept in as a small boy. The scarred chest of drawers had held what few clothes he’d owned.

  There was a handful of pictures on the wall. All of them, except for one, were taken of him and Joe after a hunt or during a horseback ride through the rough cliffs and mountains of Mesa Verde. The last one, hanging a small distance away from the rest, was of Pelipa holding Daniel as a baby.