by Rada, J. R.
Gary loved the strangeness of it all. In his twenty-one years of exploring caves, he had seen things very few people ever saw. He had even seen things that he would like to think he was the first to see, like this cave system. On the surface, there were very few still-unexplored areas. The only true frontiers lay in the water, in space, and below the surface. He felt like one of the members of the cast of Star Trek whose mission it was “to go where no man has gone before.”
Christine suddenly stopped in front of him, and Gary almost ran into her because he had been lost in his own thoughts.
“What’s wrong? Is the tunnel blocked?” he called to Billy Joe.
Billy Joe stepped forward and turned around to face the others. “Look at this,” he said pointing at the ground.
“What is it?” Jared wanted to know.
On the floor was a small wooden doll. It was covered with multi-colored disks and there were corn husks around its eyes and mouth. The teeth were squash seeds. The legs were painted red with black spots, and the torso was covered with a small, fur robe. Hanging around its neck was a necklace of what looked to Gary to be bones.
“It’s an old doll,” Gary said as he reached down to pick it up.
“Be careful,” Billy Joe warned. “It may be fragile.”
Gary nodded as he lifted the doll and passed it to Christine and Jared.
“This is a kachina doll. I’ve seen Hopi and Pueblo children with them. It’s supposed to represent one of their gods or spirits,” Christine said. She taught archeology at the same university as Gary.
“Well, what’s it doing down here?” Jared asked.
“Maybe we’re near the natural entrance,” Gary suggested.
Billy Joe gave him a look that said, “What are you stupid or something?” At three-hundred-and-thirty-three feet below the surface, it was doubtful they were near the natural entrance.
“Do you think we may be near a burial ground? You know some of the Indians buried their dead deep inside caves,” Christine suggested.
Gary shrugged. “Could be, but without knowing where the natural entrance is, we’ve got no way to know unless we start running across bodies. Personally, I don’t relish the thought.”
Christine passed him the doll and he looked at it closely. It was ten-inches long and obviously hand carved. Someone had invested a lot of time in making this doll, so why had it been left behind? And which god did it represent?
“Do you think we’ll find a mummified body?” Billy Joe asked. “This cave is dry enough for it.”
Gary didn’t answer him because he wasn’t sure. All he knew was that this cave system had a lot of hidden secrets, from the formation of its tunnels to how an ancient kachina doll could have found its way over three-hundred feet below the surface. Even Indians who buried their dead in caves didn’t travel far past the twilight zone in a cave.
Gary took a waterproof bag from his knapsack and gently wrapped the doll in it. When he had placed it in his knapsack, he looked at the blackness over Billy Joe’s shoulder and wondered what other surprise the caves held for them.
CHAPTER 29
When David saw Adam and Sarah step out of the tent, he should have felt a sense of relief. After all, it was Adam who David had come to see. He felt the old Indian was probably the only person in the world who could help him make sense out of what was going on in his life. Adam had already helped him understand some of what David had gotten involved in during his missing time in the cave. Maybe Adam could help David make some sense out of the part of his life he could remember but still couldn’t understand.
So why did he climb out of his car feeling angry towards the two Hopi Indians?
They weren’t responsible for Terrie’s death. They didn’t control the Bow Clan any more than he had been able to control them.
But it’s their legends that are coming to life, he thought irrationally. It wasn’t Paul Bunyan or Pecos Bill who had killed Terrie. It was a pale-skinned Indian who lived in an underground world that only the Hopi Indians seemed to know.
Adam stopped in front of David and waited for him to say something.
David counted to ten slowly to keep control of his anger. Finally, he said, “The Bow Clan killed my girlfriend and another man.”
Adam would have been a great poker player because his face showed no expression. David wondered if he would ever be able to distance himself so well from the murders.
“I’m sorry this has happened, but you were lucky to escape,” Adam said as he sat down on the ground.
“I wasn’t there. I tried to help, but I got there too late.”
“Then how do you know the Bow Clan is to blame? The Bow Clan has a single purpose for being in this world and that is to kill you. Though they probably hate all those who live in the Fourth World, they must keep focused on a single goal here. I’m sure they do not want to be discovered. That’s why they are trying to kill you. The Bow Clan must kill you and return to the Third World as quickly as possible if they are to keep their world a secret. If you were not with your girlfriend when she was killed, I am not sure it was the Bow Clan that killed her.”
“It was. I saw them.”
“But you just said you weren’t there,” Sarah interrupted as she moved to stand behind her grandfather.
David turned to her and controlled his urge to yell. “I’m seeing things through one of the Bow Clansman’s eyes. I saw them attack Terrie in my mind.” He tapped his head with his finger. “When I went to her trailer she was dead just as I had seen in my mind.”
“Then you’ve had a vision,” Adam said.
“If so, it’s not the first one. I’ve seen odd things I couldn’t explain a couple of times since I got out of the cave, and now I think they were psychic visions, too.”
“Then Taiowa has given you a great gift.”
David scowled. “I don’t think being able to watch someone murder two people is such a great gift.”
Adam was unconvinced. “But if you can see into their minds, you might be able to figure out how to defeat them.”
“I don’t want to defeat them,” David snapped. “I just want them to go away and leave me alone. I want my life back.”
Adam took hold of David’s arm and pulled him down to the ground beside him. David reluctantly sat down on the dirt in front of Adam.
“The Bow Clan will not leave unless they complete what they came here to do. The dark kachinas fear you. Locked inside your head, must be the secret to their defeat. It’s the only reason they would risk exposure,” Adam told him.
David tapped his finger against his temple. “Well, if it’s locked inside my head, then it’s going to stay there because I don’t seem to be remembering anything about those five weeks I was in your Third World.”
“You must. It’s the only way to stop the dark kachinas.”
David was surprised to hear Adam raise his voice. It must be very important to the old man to stop the dark kachinas. Of course it was important, David corrected himself. Adam believed the dark kachinas were going to destroy the world. Something like that would be important to anyone. It should have been important to David, but all he could think about was how the Bow Clan had killed Terrie.
“But at what cost? They killed my girlfriend because they saw her through my eyes when I went to visit her. If I don’t remember what happened soon, who will they kill next trying to get to me? My parents? My boss? I don’t want any more deaths on my conscience.”
Adam frowned. “You may not be able to avoid it.”
David jumped to his feet and dusted his back side off.
“Yes, I can. If I can figure out why I’m seeing things through the Bow Clan’s eyes, and why they’re seeing things through my eyes.”
“I can’t tell you why or even how. I only know that it is.”
“You’re a psychic,” Sarah said suddenly.
“I am not,” David snapped.
“But that would explain why you are seeing things through their eyes. I
t’s like you are reading their minds. You even called what’s happened to you psychic visions.”
David shook his head furiously as if he were trying to shake the words out of his head. “If I were psychic, why would I only be able to see things through their minds? Wouldn’t I also be able to read other people’s minds?”
“Do you?”
“No,” David snapped.
“Maybe you can. Try and see if you can read my mind.”
David laughed. “That’s stupid.”
“Do you have any other ideas?”
David closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. He tried to connect with Sarah’s mind, but he didn’t see anything.
He opened his eyes and shrugged his shoulders.
Sarah sighed and walked back to the tent.
Suddenly, David saw an image in his mind of a dog. For a moment, he thought it might be an actual stray that had wandered into the camp. It was an ugly black-and-white mutt. It sat looking at David with its head cocked and tongue hanging out. Although the dog was right next to Adam, he didn’t seem to see it. David wanted to tell the dog to get away. He opened his mouth to call out to the dog.
“Tagalong,” was what came out of his mouth.
Sarah stopped and turned around. “What did you say?”
David shrugged. “I don’t know. I saw this dog and was going to call out to him.”
“You said, ‘Tagalong.’“
“Did I?” He wasn’t sure what he said, but he knew it wasn’t what he meant to say.
“Tagalong was a dog I had when I lived in Phoenix. I was thinking about him.”
“Was he an ugly black-and-white dog?”
“He was black and white, but I never thought he was ugly,” Sarah answered with some hurt in her voice.
“You have to admit he was mangy.”
Sarah’s eyes widened. “You did see my thoughts.”
Kel´hoya saw the woman and wanted to reach out to her, but he realized she was only an image in his mind. So Pahana had chosen to have another woman protect him. Didn’t he know it was futile to resist the power of the dark kachinas and the Bow Clan? Sooner or later he would be caught and killed and when he was, his death would not be pleasant.
Pahana turned and Kel´hoya saw the old man. This was the one who had knocked Kel´hoya away from Pahana in the white pueblo. If it had not been for him, Kel´hoya would have been able to kill Pahana the first night. He could have returned to Kuskurza by now without having had to suffer the embarrassment of failure in front of To´chi.
If Pahana thought he could find protection with this old man again, he was wrong. He would pay for his defiance.
CHAPTER 30
David drove back to his apartment amazed at what Sarah’s experiment had shown him. He was a psychic. He had suspected it ever since he realized he could see through one of the Bow Clansmen’s eyes, but why couldn’t he remember any psychic incidents between the time he was twelve and waking up in the hospital? Were the psychic urgings so subtle that David hadn’t realized what they were?
He parked his car in front of his apartment and got out. As he started up the stairs toward the front door, he heard someone speak his name.
David turned and saw Sheriff Harding leaning against the hood of his police cruiser. His stomach strained the buttons on his light-brown shirt. David held out his hand to the law officer.
“Hello, sheriff. It’s good to see you,” David said as he approached the sheriff.
Sheriff Harding stared silently at him.
“I wasn’t sure if you’d heard. I wanted to be the one to tell you,” Sheriff Harding said.
“Tell me what?” David wondered for a moment if the sheriff were going to tell him that the Bow Clan had attacked his parents in Provo.
“Terrie McNee was murdered last night.”
David tried to look shocked. He didn’t want the sheriff to know he had driven by Terrie’s trailer last night. The sheriff watched David’s reaction carefully and David wondered if he was successful.
“I wanted to go by and see her last night, but when I called, she said she was busy.” It was a lie, but David was sure Terrie would have said she was busy if he had called.
Sheriff Harding barely nodded keeping his eyes on David. “So what did you do last night?”
“I stayed home and rested. I’ve only been out of the hospital a couple of days. I’m still not quite myself.”
“That’s interesting. I tried calling you last night and I didn’t get an answer.”
David thought for a moment and then said, “Well, you must have called when I took the trash out to the curb or when I went to the store for some milk and bread. I guess you didn’t leave a message on my answering machine because I checked both times I came back in.”
David didn’t like lying to the sheriff. His mother had taught him when he was younger that a man’s lies always come back to haunt him, but David couldn’t very well say he was having psychic visions. The sheriff would never believe him. It was hard enough for David to believe it himself.
“Did you know a man named Randy Houser?” the sheriff asked.
David shook his head.
“It seems your girlfriend might have known him. He was with her in the trailer when she was killed.”
David tried not to react. Houser. So that was Randy’s last name. Not that it mattered much now.
“I’m sorry to hear that, sheriff. I guess it might have been me if Terrie had told me to come over.”
“How was your relationship with Terrie, Mr. Purcell?” Sheriff Harding asked suddenly.
The sheriff suspected him! How could he think David would kill anyone? But why not? Hadn’t David unknowingly led the Bow Clan to Terrie and Randy? Didn’t that make him an accomplice?
“Things haven’t been great for the last couple of months. We both discovered we wanted different things out of life and those wants had started leading us in different directions. If she thought I had died in the caves, she might have been seeing someone else if that’s what you’re getting at.”
Sheriff Harding pushed himself off the hood of the car and stood face to face with David.
“That’s part of what I was wondering about. The other part is: If she was seeing someone else, how would you feel about it?”
David thought about his answer. If he didn’t phrase it quite right, the sheriff would surely suspect him. If he outright lied, he might be too obvious or unconvincing.
“Well, if I things had been great between us, I would have been very upset. As it was, I’ve been expecting a breakup. In fact, she hinted at it when I was in the hospital. I think she was just waiting for me to be released from the hospital. So, if she had been seeing someone, I would have been upset, but I don’t think I would have been surprised.”
The sheriff nodded, but said nothing. “Are you still on disability with your company, Mr. Purcell?”
David thought that was a strange question to ask amid all the others.
“Till the end of the month.”
“Good. I hope to have some answers on this case by then, so until then I would like to ask that you not to leave the county.”
“Do you think I killed Terrie and Randy, Sheriff?”
Sheriff Harding had a poker face that rivaled Adam’s.
“I’m not saying that at all, Mr. Purcell. It’s just that I have a double homicide in my county, the first I’ve ever seen in my ten years as a law officer. I don’t mind telling you, I don’t like it at all. And you happen to have known one of the victims quite well. If I have any questions about Terrie, I may need to talk to you. I don’t want this murder to go unsolved for long. There’s an election coming up, and people have a funny way of not re-electing a sheriff who can’t solve the county’s first murders in four years.”
“What happens if I need to leave the county for some reason?”
“Why would you need to do that? You don’t have to go to work.”
Sheriff Harding sounded like an innocent boy,
but David was beginning to feel led by the nose.
“But what if? I was supposed to see my parents in Provo this weekend,” David asked.
“Well, I can’t keep you in the county, but it certainly wouldn’t look good if you left. Do you know what I mean?”
David did. He was a suspect in Terrie’s murder.
CHAPTER 31
The Bow Clan watched the Outlanders from their position behind the scrub brush. The dark kachinas had given them another night to help them hide, but their pa´tuwvotas and the scrub brush were still needed to shield the glow of their white skin from the Outlanders.
Kel´hoya watched the old man with particular interest. He knew To´chi wanted to make the woman a slave, and perhaps, his personal breeder in Kuskurza. This was fine with Kel´hoya. All he wanted was to kill the old man and avenge himself of his defeat and embarrassment two nights ago.
The deaths of the other two Outlanders last night had put the taste of murder in his mouth and a war cry in his heart. The murders had helped him align his wandering mind and focus himself on his purpose for being in the Fourth World. He was here to protect the dark kachinas from the Outlanders. In a few years when the light had faded enough, the dark kachinas would be all powerful once again. They would rise to the Fourth World and destroy the Outlanders in the same way Taiowa had destroyed the ancients in the First and Second Worlds.
Kel´hoya closed his eyes to narrow slits and watched the movement in front of him over the top of his pa´tuwvota. The female Outlander walked around the camp while the old man sat in front of the fire with his back toward it. He was facing away from Kel´hoya so the Bow Clansman did not know if the old man was awake or asleep. He hoped he was awake. A man should always look death in the face before it took him.
Kel´hoya expected the old man to fight well. He had shown his spirit in the white pueblo. It would be an honor for Kel´hoya to face him now and take his life. To´chi thought the woman would be easy to take, but Kel´hoya did not underestimate her ability, either. He had thought the old man as useless as the old men of Kuskurza, but this one had a warrior’s spirit. If the woman was his child, she might have inherited some of his spirit, which would make her a formidable opponent. The Sun Clan women were excellent warriors, and so was this one.