Black Raven's Pride

by Aimée Thurlo

  Hearing a light knock, Nick pulled on his jeans and, shirtless, answered it. Annie came in holding a bottle. “You’ll need this,” she said, and laughed as Chris began to cry. “Just in time.”

  As Eden sat up, the sheet wrapped around her, Annie waved. “Mrs. Chino is here. Since her home will be under repair for a while, she agreed to be Noelle’s nanny. If you’ll let me have Chris, she’ll take care of both babies and then put them downstairs in the playpen.”

  Nick glanced back at Eden, who nodded.

  “That would be great,” Eden said, “but I wonder what Mrs. Chino will say once she finds out I’m here this early.”

  “Don’t worry about that. You and Chris belong here now,” Annie said flatly, then took Chris, giving him his bottle at the same time. “See you two later.”

  As the door closed, Eden got up. “I should have been up sooner,” she said, avoiding Nick’s gaze.

  Instead of the soft light of love he’d hoped to see in her eyes this morning, there was a faraway, worried look that cut through him and filled him with uneasiness.

  “Nick, I need to ask you to do one thing for me,” she said, dressing quickly.

  “Anything,” he answered.

  “Don’t tell anyone Christopher is your son, at least not yet.”

  The words knifed into his heart. Making love to her last night, he’d bared his soul to her in a way that, to him, had transcended anything they’d ever shared in the past. By pulling away from him now, and asking him to deny his own son, she was showing him clearly that it hadn’t meant the same thing to her.

  He looked away from her and remained silent, gathering himself. Finally, he turned to face her.

  “Understand one thing, Eden. Christopher is my son, too, and I intend to play a big part in his life. I have that right.”

  “I’d always hoped you’d feel that way,” Eden said gently.

  He looked at her in confusion. “Then why are you asking me to keep this a secret?”

  “Because of what’s happened. Until we settle the past, letting people know that Chris is your son may carry a very high price.”

  Nick stared at her, the words seeping into his mind slowly, and tearing him up every step of the way. “You’re thinking that no one will allow me to work on an investigation that involves both my father and my son,” he said.

  “Yes and it’s absolutely imperative that you stay on the case. That’ll be the only way we can suppress any evidence we might find incriminating your father. No matter what happens, Nick, I won’t allow Jake, Annie and you to pay for something that happened long ago.”

  “I won’t suppress evidence,” he said flatly. “I believe in my father’s innocence and I’ll prove it. And, if I’m wrong, I’ll face the consequences,” he added. “But I won’t put the weight of that shame on my son’s shoulders, even if it means never claiming him as mine.”

  “If you weren’t welcome at the pueblo, we’d leave also,” Eden said. “Once things are settled, I won’t hide the fact that you’re Chris’s father forever.”

  “No. You’ve worked too hard to give Christopher a life free from shame. He deserves that.”

  “He needs his family—one that sticks together. I want you to put us first, but that works both ways.”

  “We’ll both do whatever it takes to give our son a good life,” he said. Yet even as he spoke, he could sense that she would never allow him to do what he had to. She wasn’t a teenager anymore. This time, if he left, she’d go after him. She would never force herself and Christopher on him, but she’d follow him and let his own heart lead him back to her.

  Without another word, he pulled on his shirt and left the room. Determination filled him as he strode back downstairs. He knew what he had to do. Somehow, he had to find the proof they needed to clear his father and her family.

  Nothing had ever stopped a Black Raven and he wouldn’t fail now. Eden and his son were the most important things in his life and he wouldn’t lose them without one hell of a fight.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Eden met Nick, Jake and Annie downstairs in the den. A somber mood had settled over all of them.

  Jake held his mother’s diary in his hands, staring at it lost in thought.

  Eden spoke first. “Yesterday somebody tried to kidnap Christopher, and almost killed a half-dozen children in the process. The would-be kidnappers probably planned to use my son as leverage. My guess is that they wanted me to pull out all the stops and find the mask and fetish, then hand over the artifacts to them in exchange for Chris.”

  “For some reason they’re getting desperate. Maybe they’re afraid we’re getting too close and we’ll find out who they are before we locate the artifacts,” Nick said, his hands curling into fists. Someone had tried to hurt his child and the woman he loved. It didn’t get more personal than this. And no matter what it cost him, he’d bring them in. They’d pay for this.

  Jake held up the diary. “If the key to finding those thieves or the stolen artifacts lies here, then let’s make use of it. But I’ve got to tell you, I’ve read those passages time and time again and I can’t make heads or tails out of them. Neither can Annie.” Jake handed Nick the diary. “Here. Maybe you two can.”

  Eden sat next to Nick. “Here she speaks clearly,” Eden said, reading one of the passages. “She talks about my mother needing help. But then it goes cryptic again.”

  “‘Isabel’s answers are written in the winds of the past. When the barren land gives up its secrets, and the rocks tell their story, she will find peace,”’ Nick read out loud.

  Jake shrugged. “I have no idea what the heck that means.”

  Eden read the passage again silently. “She’s obviously talking about the artifacts, but the rest…”

  Nick stood up. “We’re not getting anywhere. There’s got to be another way.”

  Eden closed the diary and, contemplating what she’d just read, ran her fingers over the binding. The leather was smooth, worn with age and the dryness of the New Mexican desert. Yet there was an elegance to the volume that she’d never seen in the more modern hardcover books. As she admired the reddish-brown binding, a slight imperfection caught her eye. There was a small tear in the leather near the spine. It had been skillfully repaired, but the glue had discolored slightly over the years. If the light hadn’t been just right, she would have never seen it.

  She pressed against it and felt a raised section. “I may have something here,” she said slowly, holding the book out to Nick. “I think there’s something inside the tear.”

  Nick took the journal from her and pressed against the repaired section lightly with the tips of his fingers. “You’re right,” he said, then showed it to Jake.

  Jake reached for his pocket knife and as Nick steadied the journal, cut through the glue. “Let’s find out what’s here.” Reaching inside the pocket made by the tear, he pulled out a thin piece of paper and read what it said. “My heart is bound to the land that is no more, a prisoner of the piece that fits.”

  “Great. Another riddle,” Nick grumbled.

  Eden, looking up from her seat on the couch, saw it from another perspective. “That’s my mother’s handwriting. She must have left this with Saya right before she went into hiding. And there’s something on the back.”

  “It’s a map of sorts,” Nick said, “indicating some landmarks, but it’s still very generic. That mountain can be any of four, and the high spot marked as the starting off point from which to take fifty paces, can be any of a hundred hills, mesas, ridges or mounds on pueblo land.” Nick expelled his breath in a hiss. “So we still have nothing.”

  “No, that’s not so,” Eden said slowly. “We’ve all read the passages and figured that your mother was waxing poetic. But this map, drawn by my mother, makes me think Saya was more literal in her clues than any of us realized.” She paused, and studied the simple sketch. “There’s a section of land on our pueblo that is consistent with the markings on the map, and where nothing much ever
grows—the alkali flats. That might be the barren land she mentioned.”

  “Good point,” Nick agreed. “But we’re still talking about a fairly large area that runs for a mile or two along the south end of the pueblo. We need to narrow our search a little more.”

  Eden said nothing for a long time. “What we have to do is get inside my mother’s head. She was obviously scared and getting ready to go on the run when she met with Saya. The two never had much time to discuss things. If I can make myself think like she did, maybe I can see that stretch of desert with new eyes.” She paused for a moment. “I need to go back to my house and look through my mother’s things. I have a box of her personal treasures, and although nothing in there is valuable, they meant something to her. If I reacquaint myself with her in that way, maybe we can make sense out of the map together.”

  “I wouldn’t stay there for long, if I were you,” Jake warned.

  “It’s broad daylight, and I won’t be alone. No one’s going to try and threaten me there, not with Nick along,” Eden said.

  “She’s got that right,” Nick growled.

  Eden kissed Christopher goodbye, leaving him in Mrs. Chino’s care. With Jake, Martin, Annie, and several ranch hands around, Chris would be safe.

  Nick led Eden to his tribal unit, and drove her home. He insisted on going inside the house first and taking a look around. “Okay. Everything’s as it should be.”

  Eden went directly to her office, then pulled two small, decorative boxes from the far shelf. Next to them, lying on its side, was an old photo album.

  “Do the photos in that book date back to your parents’ time as well?” he asked.

  She nodded. “Mom usually slipped the snapshots loosely in there between the covers. That’s why it’s bulging so much. I mounted a lot of the photos myself, but it was hard facing all those memories, so I never got around to finishing the job.”

  “I think we should look through it now,” he said gently.

  “Okay.” She handed him the boxes, and carefully carried the album herself.

  As Eden sat down on the sofa next to him and began to sort through the photos, an undeniable sadness settled over her.

  Noting it, Nick stopped her. “Why don’t you let me take a look. If there are any photos of people or things I don’t recognize, I can show those to you.”

  She nodded. “I’d appreciate that. Looking through things like this just hurts too much, particularly since I haven’t accomplished what I came to do—proving their innocence.” She stood up. “Let me go to the bedroom and get a few more things to take back to Black Raven Ranch.”

  By the time she returned to the living room, Nick was holding what appeared to be half of a photograph. “What’s that?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure. It’s hard to make out. I found it deliberately lodged near the spine of the album, beneath twenty or thirty other photos.” He held it out to her. “It appears to be a piece of a photo taken with an instant camera. All you can see are three faces, and just barely, at that.”

  Eden picked it up carefully, though she doubted she could have damaged it any more than it already was. The lighting had been bad, and now there were so many scratches on the photo itself, it was hard to make anything out clearly.

  “Do you happen to have a magnifying glass?” Nick asked.

  “Sort of,” she said. She went to her desk drawer and pulled out a tiny device that was used to inspect mineral samples. “This is a hand lens. Its viewing field is much smaller, but in this case, it should do nicely.”

  Nick held it near the faces for a long moment. “I think that’s Rita Korman and her brother, Wayne. Boy, did he have long hair back then. But I don’t know that third person. Do you?” He handed the small magnifying device to her.

  She tried to study the man’s face, but finally shook her head. “It’s hard to say, the photo quality is zilch, but I don’t think that’s anyone I know.”

  Nick stared pensively at the photo, then looked up at her. “Do you have a computer I can use?”

  “Sure, but I don’t have scanners and fancy equipment,” she warned.

  “I don’t need that as long as you have a modem hooked up. What I’m going to do is log into the police data banks from here.”

  “The modem came with the computer, and I’ve used it to get information for my classes from the Internet.” Eden led him to her worktable and switched the computer on for him.

  After gaining access to her Internet provider, Nick entered the police department’s site address. Using his password, he logged in a moment later. “I’m going to follow a hunch and check to see who the known fences were at the time of the thefts.”

  He began pulling up rap sheets and studying the accompanying photos. Ten minutes later, he struck pay dirt. “This looks like it could be the same guy.”

  Eden looked over his shoulder. “There are similarities,” she conceded.

  “This guy was pretty well known around here twenty years ago, from what I can tell. He went to prison just before your parents’ murder, but it was for an unrelated crime.”

  “I can think of only one reason why Rita and Wayne would have met with this man,” Eden said slowly.

  “Me, too. But this isn’t proof Eden. Not by a long shot. From a legal standpoint, the most we can call this is an interesting coincidence.”

  “I know. But it does suggest that my mom and dad believed Rita and Wayne were the thieves. They must have been trying to gather evidence against them. Remember, Dad was a cop. He would have gone after them, one way or another.”

  “I’ll tell you one thing. If Rita and Wayne were dealing with this guy, they were playing in the big leagues. A guy with a rap sheet this long wouldn’t have taken it kindly if Rita and Wayne failed to deliver what they’d promised. My guess is that when Isabel kept the artifacts from them, Rita and Wayne found themselves in danger of losing their lives.”

  “I know my mom and dad wouldn’t have handed over something they knew belonged to the tribe. They would have gone down fighting,” she said, her voice trembling. “And that’s exactly what happened.”

  He tried to take her hand, but she pulled away. “No. I need to stay focused. If those two animals are the ones who killed my parents and tried to take Christopher, I want to nail them.”

  “And we will,” he growled. “I give you my word.”

  He gestured to the keepsake boxes she’d brought out. “Let’s look through those. Maybe we’ll find something else that’ll help us.”

  Eden set the first one upon the table. “My grandmother threw out or gave away a lot of Mom and Dad’s things, but these keepsake boxes contained their personal effects, and I held on to them.” She opened the lid carefully. Nestled inside was a faded rose encased in plastic. She took it out carefully, her voice thoughtful as she spoke. “My father gave this to Mom on their first anniversary, and she always kept it. Even after they started having problems, she’d often go into the bedroom, take it out and look at it. I saw her holding it one time when Dad had to go back to work though it was late at night. She told me then never to marry a cop unless I wanted to have my heart broken,” she said sadly.

  “It doesn’t have to be that way, Eden,” he said.

  “I know,” she said simply, but didn’t continue. She couldn’t bring herself to talk about anything that had to do with their own future, not while looking at her mother’s things and remembering.

  Eden laid the other trinkets inside the box out on the table. There was a small Apache tear pendant made from volcanic glass, a silver four-leaf clover, and a blue-and-white feather she’d found on a hike one day. “Mom noticed and valued the simple things most people overlooked. She had no desire for wealth. That’s why it was so incredibly painful for her when people branded her a thief. The theft was an affront to everything she stood for and believed in.”

  Eden opened the second box. “I have to admit, I’ve only looked inside this one once before. The things my father kept were a lot diffe
rent from my mother’s. See?” She pulled out a stuffed pig wearing a badge. She squeezed it and it squealed loudly. There was also a turquoise-and-silver ring. Eden picked it up. “That’ll be Christopher’s someday.”

  Eden then picked up a large, reddish-brown rock. “Ugly, isn’t it?”

  “Why the rock?” Nick asked.

  “I have no idea. Near as I can figure, it’s just a piece of volcanic rock from one of the lava flows. Had I found this in my mother’s box, I would have thought it was something she picked up where Dad first kissed her, or something along those lines. But Dad wasn’t the sentimental type.”

  “He must have kept it for a reason,” Nick said, taking the heavy stone from her and studying it. “One edge is less weathered, and look at these metallic, silver scrapes. It’s as if someone used a steel tool, like a hammer, to break this piece off a larger chunk.”

  Eden drew in a breath. “Wait a minute. Remember my mother’s map and her clue? She said something about ‘prisoner of the piece that fits.’ This may be what she was talking about. I can’t think of any other reason why someone who lives in the desert would keep a piece of volcanic rock. They’re found in almost every part of the state.”

  “If it really is a clue, it’s not a very good one. Do you have any idea how many of those rocks there are out in the alkali flats and the surrounding mesas? Looking for one with a piece missing is going to be all but impossible. One whole layer of those mesas comes from an old lava flow.”

  “I didn’t say it would be easy,” she answered with a thin smile. “I only said we had a clue.”

  He mulled it over. “We only have one choice left.”

  “We have to go out there and look around,” she finished for him.

  “It’s a rugged hike. To get to the flats we have to cross an escarpment filled with hiding places for rattlers. And they love to sit out on the rocks and get warm this time of year. Or I should say, if we’re lucky, that’s where they’ll be. Better the rattler you see than the one you don’t. Take it from me, they don’t like to be disturbed.”