Cave of Bones

by Anne Hillerman

  Cooper’s eyes widened. “You know I love this organization, but, after the board put me on notice, I doubt that I have any credibility. Besides, I’m another of the old coots you’d like to put out to pasture.”

  “We could raise money with a bake sale, and Ms. Mayfair could make the cookies,” Annie broke in. “But don’t make any like those little ones you gave Mr. Cruz. The one he gave me tasted funny. Kind of bitter.”

  Bernie heard the shock in Mayfair’s voice. “You ate one?”

  “No offense, Ms. Mayfair, but I couldn’t even eat it. Officer Bernie thinks it might have made me sick.”

  “Those were the same cookies I always make,” Mayfair said tightly. “Peanut butter.”

  But Annie held her ground. “I love peanut butter, but the one I tried was like a yucky sugar cookie with something brown in it.”

  “You’re wrong about that, Annie,” Mayfair said.

  Bernie frowned. The girl had described the cookie she’d seen in Annie’s pocket perfectly.

  Annie’s voice softened. “It’s OK to screw up, even with cookies. Everybody can make a mistake, right, Officer Bernie?”

  “Right.” Bernie looked at Mayfair. “Did you give anyone else any of those cookies?”

  “No, I baked them especially for Mr. Cruz.”

  Cooper motioned them to start walking toward the office, talking as she moved. “Why? You usually made cookies for all of us.”

  “They were a gift, to show I didn’t have any hard feelings about him being picked for the director job.” Mayfair moved next to Annie now, Bernie and Cooper trailing behind.

  Bernie felt the cold seeping through her socks. She spoke quietly to Cooper. “The FBI thinks Cruz and his sister have something to do with the illegal artifacts business Manzanares was involved with. What do you think?”

  “Never.” Cooper opened the office door and then turned toward Bernie. “Dom is committed to preserving the Malpais, and that included any burials out there.”

  Mayfair pushed her braids behind her shoulders and stood straighter. She smiled at Bernie. “You know, he always stayed after our trips. He said it was to take photos, but maybe there was more to it. Will the FBI check on that?”

  “I’m sure they will.” Bernie shoved her hands in her pockets. She needed to check with the lab to see what they’d found in that cookie.

  Cooper looked at the truck that was blocking the road. “Why is that vehicle still there?”

  “It belongs to Manzanares,” Bernie said, ” I’ll call for a tow.”

  “Wait,” Mayfair said. “Maybe the keys are in it, and I can move it out of the way.”

  Bernie watched her climb inside, heard the engine start, and saw her park it along the road. She handed the keys to Bernie. “Nice ride. I never took that guy for a Cowboys fan.”

  “What you do mean?’

  “The sticker on the bumper. I’m a Patriots girl myself.”

  Bernie got home late. She called Mama and spoke to her only long enough to learn that Darleen had phoned and told her she’d be home the next day. Mama had asked the man who gave her a ride to stay and eat with them.

  Chee served fried bologna sandwiches and tomato soup. Bernie ate like a starving person and then had seconds.

  Chee cleared the table. “All right, tell me about Manzanares getting arrested.”

  “It’s complicated.” She summarized while Chee did dishes.

  “Now, tell me what you said to Darleen when I called you in Santa Fe and handed the phone to her. What made her cry?”

  Bernie grabbed a towel and started to dry the silverware. “Mama kept saying that Sister was ignoring her and hadn’t called or stocked the house with food and essentials like I’d asked. But when I talked to Sister, she said she had talked to Mama every day, and every day our mother scolded her for not calling. She said that Mama didn’t remember.” Bernie’s words rushed out. “She told me they had driven to the grocery store and come home with food, toilet tissue, all the essentials. Plenty for Sister to have been gone an extra week. Something’s going on with Mama. We were both crying by the end of that call. I’m glad I’m off tomorrow morning. I’m driving there to see what I can find out.”

  “That’s tough, sweetheart. I encountered a lady at Tesuque Pueblo who makes me appreciate how lucky I am that your mama is part of my life.” Chee told her about Mrs. Vigil and George Curley, finding the humor in it and making Bernie smile. “Curley did some work on a ranch out here and said he was going home. He’s still missing, and I helped his wife file the missing person report. The photo Mrs. Vigil gave me to use had Curley in the background. It was mostly a picture of the new truck he and his wife had just got. The picture even had the Cowboys bumper sticker and the numbers on the license plate. Mrs. Vigil didn’t care about Curley, but she wanted that truck back.”

  Chee rubbed a knuckle over his chin. “You know, he’s lucky he’s not working for Manzanares anymore. He’d probably never get paid.”

  Bernie looked at him. “Did the truck turn up?”

  “I haven’t heard that it did.”

  “What did it look like?”

  Chee paused. “A new Ford pickup. Hold on. I took a picture of the photo I left at the Santa Fe County Sherrif office.” He pulled out his phone and scrolled until he came to it. He stood and passed the phone to Bernie.

  She studied the picture and sat up a little taller. “I think Manzanares was driving it. What work was Curley doing for him?”

  “Cris said he was selling lava rock for landscaping, and Curley helped with the hauling. I thought that was funny because Curley is a little guy, about the same size as Manzanares. Five foot five at the most.”

  “Just the right size to crawl into a cave to remove some grave goods.”

  Chee sat down. “His mother said that something spooked him, and he’d talked to her about a ceremony but never came home to make the arrangements. Why didn’t he follow through?”

  “I know why.” She sighed. “Let’s get to bed early. We’ll have a long day tomorrow. I’d like you to go out to the lava flow with me.”

  They called the station and then left for the Malpais before first light, arriving just as the search and rescue team was setting up coffee. Bernie gave the commander on duty information about where they were headed, and she and Chee set off.

  She led them to the entrance to Annie’s cave through a combination of memory, logic, and good luck. It seemed undisturbed since her last visit.

  “I can take a look inside if you’d rather not,” Chee said. “You’ve already been in there once.”

  Bernie shook her head. “Come on. Let’s get this over with.”

  They hiked up to the ledge, where Chee squatted next to her as they peered into the darkness. The cave looked just as it had when she’d first found it, although it was smaller than she remembered.

  Chee stood up. “That space is really tight. I don’t think I can get very far inside.”

  “That’s right. But George Curley could have maneuvered in here. Like you said, he was a little guy—five-five, just slightly bigger than me.”

  “Was?” Chee sniffed the air. “Oh.”

  “And after Curley said no to looting graves, Manzanares would have fit inside, too. Would you shine your light to the rear of the cave?”

  He watched the beam against the lava. “What’s that? The stone on that back wall looks different.”

  “That’s what I thought. I believe I know why it looks that way now.” She brought up her own beam to match his and then turned it off. “I’m climbing back there.”

  She quickly put on the gloves and knee pads she’d brought. “Can you give me as much light as possible?”

  Chee shone his flashlight ahead of her. “Take your time. It could be treacherous.”

  Bernie inched her way through the tight entrance with as much respect for the old bones as she could manage, using her own flashlight to help avoid contact. Then she moved to the larger space, the area of the cave she
hadn’t explored before. She could stand up if she hunched forward.

  She shone her light along what had looked like smooth lava as she approached, breath by breath, step by cautious step. It wasn’t rock. It was black plastic. Her light reflected off a large bag, the kind a restaurant might use to line an extra-large garbage can.

  She turned away from the stench toward the cave opening. “Can you give me more light back here?”

  “I’ll try.” He did. Bernie moved to the end of the bag. Someone had tied it in a knot. She propped her flashlight against a rock and used both hands to rip through the plastic, then grabbed the flashlight again. Before she could think about what she’d see, she moved the beam to shine inside the bag.

  Bernie turned her face toward the mouth of the cave. “I think I’ve found the man you were asking about at the pueblo.”

  “Get out of there now!” Chee yelled back to her. “Follow my light, and be careful. We need to call OMI.”

  When Bernie reached the mouth of the cave, she watched the worry in Chee’s face turn to relief. She’d never been so happy to see the sunlight. The office of the medical investigator would handle the body, but they knew the man in the bag must be Mr. Curley.

  They walked silently for a few minutes before Chee spoke again. “Why would Manzanares risk everything he’d worked for to loot graves? He had the ranch. He had a good retirement on top of that.”

  Bernie let the question hang unanswered in the cold air over the lava trail.

  “You know,” Chee said, “if he’d figured out how to get the new truck back to Mrs. Vigil, Manzanares might have gotten away with it.”

  “I think you’re right. That, and if Annie hadn’t told the truth about the cave of bones.”

  At the search base camp, while Chee called the medical investigator’s office and talked to the state police about the scene, Bernie told Katz about the body.

  “I’m a deputized officer, and I’ve dealt with body retrieval, crime scenes, and OMI many times. Too many times.” Katz gave Bernie a sad smile. “You two go on home. I’ll make sure they keep you in the loop.”

  “Thanks.” Bernie shook hands with Katz. “And let me know when you find Mr. Cruz.”

  “Of course.”

  Chee offered to drive. Bernie watched the scenery and thought about George Curley and his wife and mother, thought about how death sometimes came unexpectedly. She thought about Mama. She wondered if shifting to specialize in domestic violence would be a transition she’d feel comfortable with. As they approached Shiprock, Chee radioed the office with the news of what Bernie had found and told Sandra they were heading home.

  He drove straight to their trailer, and they went inside. “Are you still planning to visit your mother?” Chee asked. “Since your sister will be home soon, she can check things out and save you a trip.”

  Bernie nodded. “You’re right. So, tell me about Darleen and the IAIA and that video.”

  Chee filled her in on the school, the dorm situation, Clyde Herbert’s evident rehabilitation, and the video. “The whole experience gave me new respect for CS.”

  “What about Sister and drinking?”

  Chee stayed silent.

  “Did you give her a lecture?”

  “I talked to her about it, yeah. She told me she’s going to focus on her art. You would have been proud of her, the way her work looked in that show. She has talent.”

  “So what about—” Bernie gave him the wait-a-minute sign and reached in her pocket for her phone. She looked at the ID and answered.

  “Sure, go ahead. This is great. I’ve been waiting to hear test results.” She listened, nodding occasionally, as if the person on the other end could see her agreement.

  “You mean, like fraternal twins?”

  She listened some more.

  “Can you send me an official copy of that, and one to Agent Johnson?”

  She smiled. “Thanks. I really appreciate it.”

  She put her phone down. “The lab found high levels of a poisonous alkaloid in the cookie Annie had saved in her coat pocket.”

  He didn’t even have to ask.

  “That means eating some of that could have been the cause of her hallucinations. Probably was. But the substance wasn’t datura, as the hospital assumed, but some botanical cousin.”

  “I heard you say fraternal twins, and that made me think of Dom and Merilee.”

  Bernie nodded. “That’s right, but the report referrs to another member of the brugmansia family, another plant that can cause trouble if people aren’t careful. In addition to hallucinations, the alkaloid leads to heart failure, respiratory problems, and even death.”

  “So Annie was lucky that she was on the van when that happened,” Chee said. “If a person ingests that stuff by accident and starts hallucinating, she thinks she’s going crazy.”

  Bernie nodded. “Cruz gave the girl that cookie. If he ate some too, that explains how he could have lost his way in familiar territory.”

  “Where did the cookies come from?”

  “A coworker made them and offered them to him as gift. I’m going to call Agent Johnson and tell her to expect the lab report.” Bernie put her hand on his. “It’s been a long morning, and we have to go to work in a few hours. How about a nap?”

  “Wait a minute. Darleen asked me to give you something.” He reached in his shirt pocket and pulled out a pair of heart-shaped earrings with red stones, earrings he’d given Bernie as a speical gift. Earrings she had reluctantly loaned her sister for the video and never really expected to see again.

  He placed them in Bernie’s upraised palm. “She asked me to tell you she’s sorry she kept them so long.”

  28

  The search team discovered the body of Domingo Cruz a week later, right around Christmas, in a deep, snow-filled crevice far from the Wings and Roots base camp. The victim’s skull had fractured in numerous places, and exposure compounded the deadly situation. They found no signs of struggle, indicating that he had died on impact.

  By then Larry Hoffman’s death had been ruled a prescription-opioid overdose, enhanced by the alcohol in his system. The death raised the question of accidental overdose, but in Bernie’s mind there was no doubt that Manzanares had given Hoffman the fatal drug.

  The autopsy confirmed that George Curley died of gunshot wounds, including one to the heart. He had been dead approximately a month when Chee and Bernie discovered him in the cave. The murder weapon matched the gun with which Manzanares had shot Franklin.

  Bernie was surprised when Merilee called her a few hours after she’d learned that Dom’s body had been recovered. “I’m glad they found him,” she said. “But even though I assumed he was dead, it’s tough.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “At least I’m not worried about him now.”

  “I heard that the FBI came to see you.” Bernie tried to be tactful. “Did Agent Johnson ask about your brother’s photos?”

  “Right. I think we worked it out, but I may need a lawyer. Manzanares is claiming that I knew he was raiding the graves and colluded with him to raise that anonymous money for Wings and Roots. I could kick myself for having gotten involved with him and, even worse, involving Dom.”

  “I’m sorry I never met your brother.”

  “You would have liked him. Franklin and I are helping each other get through this. I’m grateful and lucky to have his friendship.”

  “How is Franklin?”

  “Sad, relieved, stunned. About like me.” She paused. “There’s something I’d like to give you. I’ll drop it off at the substation when I get a chance.”

  “I noticed that the bag of brugmansia seeds you were saving was gone. Did you give them to someone?”

  “I think Mayfair has them. Maybe she thought I said she could take them when I offered her the herbs.”

  As soon as Merilee hung up, Bernie called Wings and Roots. She expected Mayfair to answer, but it was Cooper.

  “Mayfair’s gone,” she sai
d. “She left before I could fire her.”

  “Why?”

  Cooper rushed to answer. “Those anonymous donations didn’t sit right with me. I tracked them down through a friend who works at a branch of the same brokerage house that issued the cashier’s check. My friend could get fired over telling me this, but it turns out the money came from a foundation set up by Mayfair’s family.”

  Bernie recalled their conversation in the Malpais, Mayfair saying her parents were glad she’d moved away.

  “I talked to Mayfair and tried to thank her, but she blew up at me. I’d seen that temper before, when I told her I was recommending Dom for the director’s job. I told her to take a walk, get herself under control. Instead, she started swearing. I knew I had to fire her—what if she lost it like that with the kids?”

  “Did you?”

  “I wanted to dial back my own anger first, so I went outside to shovel the driveway. When I came back, Mayfair had left her key and a letter of resignation, for so-called personal reasons.”

  Bernie processed the information. “So I guess you aren’t retiring.”

  “I can’t leave until I get all that settled. I love this program, and I’ve got good volunteers and some students who might be interested in working part-time until I can find another professional to train to take my place.”

  After Cooper hung up, Bernie called Agent Johnson and left a message about the missing seeds and Mayfair’s parents. “She told me she’d changed her name when she left home. I’m sure Cooper can fill you in. I know she’s responsible for Domingo Cruz’s death.”

  At home that night, Bernie shared what she’d learned with Chee.

  “Agent Johnson still thinks Cruz may have been scouting for sites to loot in the wilderness area or the conservation land or even on Ramah. No one who lives the Navajo Way, like the man who took those pictures, would mess with graves. I bet Mr. Curley couldn’t do it either once he realized that’s what Manzanares wanted. Johnson makes me wish Agent Cordova were still here.”