Alibis and Amethysts

by Sharon Pape

  The waiter appeared with their lobster ravioli in champagne sauce, and Jaye waited until he’d set the plates in front of them, refilled Adam’s wineglass and walked away. “You certainly have a good point there,” she said with a little laugh to convince Adam she was still in his corner. “Without proof, who would trust the word of a blackmailer?” Or a murder suspect? Did Adam really think she was foolish enough to believe him just because he was suave, sophisticated and said it was so? He had to deny knowing about the photo, because knowing would have given him a perfect motive for murder. But since innocent until proven guilty was still the law of the land, Jaye needed confirmation that she was right.

  “Peggy might have been a novice at blackmail,” she said, “but she actually did have a photo of you. She took it out to show her friend at dinner that evening, and I got a glimpse of it.”

  Despite the wine-infused flush in his cheeks, Adam’s face went pale. “It was probably just a harmless, candid shot that she concocted some story about,” he said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

  Jaye shrugged as if it didn’t really matter to her. “Probably. I couldn’t see much detail from where I was sitting. By the way, I’m glad I listened to you—this sauce is amazing.”

  “I’d never steer you wrong.”

  Jaye couldn’t help but wonder if he’d ever used that line on Peggy when their romance was still in its prime.

  They ate quietly for a couple of minutes until Adam brought up the photo again. “Peggy always had her camera with her,” he said with a well-executed sigh of nostalgia. “She loved catching the ordinary moments in life. But let’s face it, a photo of me at my desk doesn’t constitute much of a threat.”

  “Then you have seen it?” Jaye asked with childlike innocence.

  “No, no,” he said quickly, “I was just repeating what you said about it.”

  That was enough for her. If he was the murderer, pointing out that she’d never mentioned the desk might have guaranteed her a prominent spot on his to-do list.

  Adam made a valiant attempt to keep up his end of the conversation, but his jokes fell flat and his thoughts seemed to keep straying. Whatever fire Jaye had ignited in him had clearly fizzled. Just as well, given the circumstances. When the waiter inquired if they’d like to see the dessert tray, Adam made a show of consulting his watch and saying that he had some business to attend to early in the morning.

  “You don’t mind, do you?” he asked Jaye as the waiter left to tally their bill.

  “Not at all,” she responded. “It’s been a long day.”

  And she had some phone calls to make as soon as she got home.

  Chapter 22

  “Please, no lectures,” Jaye said once she’d summed up her conversation with Adam. “Trust me, Sierra bludgeoned me enough for both of you.”

  “I doubt it,” Daniel said. “I don’t see a single mark or bruise on you.” They were in his car on their way to Coal Mine Canyon to meet his mother. “Don’t you get it? If Grayson’s the murderer, he’s now aware his freedom depends on silencing you.”

  “I think you’re overstating the danger. He didn’t even realize I caught him in a lie.”

  “You can’t possibly know that for sure. You might not have been the only one on that date with an agenda.”

  “Date?”

  “Yeah, you know the concept—two people decide they want to get to know each other better over a meal.”

  Jaye was surprised by the sarcastic undertone to his words. “Adam might have thought it was a date, but for me it was just a fact-finding mission.” What was up with Daniel today?

  “Adam, huh?”

  “Well, Mr. Grayson would have been a bit too formal since it’s not 1880 and Queen Victoria isn’t sitting on the British throne,” Jaye said, trying to tease him into a better mood.

  Daniel stared straight ahead at the road, his profile stony.

  This is ridiculous, she thought. And it’s definitely not just about the safety issue. If she didn’t know better, she’d think Daniel was jealous. “Are you okay?” she asked bluntly.

  He didn’t answer for a minute, but when he did, he seemed to have shaken off his pique. “Yeah, I’m good,” he said, turning to her with a halfhearted smile. “Sorry. When I called my mother this morning, she was in the middle of another shouting match with my grandmother. Not the best way to start off the day.”

  The truth or a quick cover-up when he realized his reaction was over the top? Whatever the reason, Jaye was glad the mood had passed. “They fight a lot?” she asked.

  Daniel nodded. “And always about the same thing. You’d think after all this time they’d realize neither one of them will ever change or concede.”

  Jaye couldn’t imagine what issue could come between a mother and daughter when they were beyond lucky just to have each other. “Is it something you’d rather not talk about?”

  “I have no problem with it, but they don’t like outsiders knowing their business.”

  “At least they agree on that.”

  Daniel laughed. “I guess I should be grateful. Look, since you’re not an undercover reporter writing an exposé for the Arizona Republic, I don’t see any reason not to tell you.”

  “Wait a sec while I turn on my tape recorder,” Jaye said, reaching into the pocket of her jeans.

  “You do realize that now I’ll have to strip search you to make sure you’re joking.”

  “As terrific as that sounds, I hereby give up any and all journalistic ambitions. Feel free to unburden your soul.”

  “It’s simple really. My grandmother is old school; my mother isn’t. She doesn’t believe in living by the old ways. In another family that might not be such a big deal, but Doli Joe comes from a long line of medicine women with special insights and abilities. Unfortunately, the line seems to have come to a dead end with my mother. Doli Joe blames her for it, says the gifts have been denied to her because she abandoned the old ways. My mother thinks it’s all a bunch of nonsense and refuses to live in a house without indoor plumbing and electricity. Lately, when they argue about it, she’s started calling my grandmother Amish, which drives her completely crazy.”

  A giggle escaped from Jaye before she could stop it. “I’m sorry,” she said. “It was the Amish remark.”

  “Yeah, it cracked me up the first time I heard it too. Can’t you just picture my grandmother in Amish getup?”

  “So where do you stand on the issue?” Jaye asked, trying to tamp down the urge to keep giggling. It was one thing to lighten the mood with humor, but she didn’t want to trivialize a problem that had no doubt been a source of pain all of Daniel’s life.

  “I don’t honestly know anymore. Over the years I’ve gone back and forth between the two sides. I’ve seen my grandmother’s visions come true. I’ve seen her heal the sick. But it’s hard to believe that my mother’s choice of living conditions is the reason she can’t do those things. I mean, maybe it’s a matter of genetics. Maybe something in my grandfather’s DNA canceled out the magic gene that came from my grandmother.”

  “But that would mean it was Doli Joe’s choice of husband that’s to blame,” Jaye said.

  “Exactly,” Daniel said with a wry smile. “Have any idea how well that would play?”

  “I’m beginning to.”

  “I used to think, okay, this will eventually die with my grandmother. But that was naive. My mother will carry the argument and guilt inside her for the rest of her life, although she’ll never admit it.”

  Jaye was at a loss for words. She put her hand on Daniel’s arm and gave it a gentle squeeze to let him know she was there for him. They rode in silence for several minutes, until she remembered the question that had been poking at her mind earlier. “Did your mother ever say why she wants us to meet her at Coal Mine Canyon?”

 
“Just that there was something she wanted to show us. She refused to tell me more ahead of time. With things like this, it’s just easier to wait until she’s ready.”

  “Strong-willed women in your family.”

  “Yeah, you’d fit right in.”

  “Very funny. Are you sure we’re going the right way?” she asked a moment later. “I haven’t seen a single sign for the canyon.”

  “Yes, we’re going the right way, and no, there are no signs.”

  “Then how do they expect people to find it?”

  “You’re assuming they want people to find it.”

  That hadn’t occurred to Jaye. “Is it some kind of sacred tribal place?” she asked, her mind busy conjuring up mystical rites performed by the light of a full moon. Get a grip, she scolded herself.

  “That would be way more interesting, but I suspect the truth is they don’t feel the need to make every square inch of our land into a tourist attraction. Look out there—you can see part of the canyon now.”

  Ten minutes later, they left the highway and turned onto a dirt road down which they bumped along past an old windmill and a water tank before coming to a parking area. Daniel stopped the Jeep near a forlorn-looking picnic area with concrete tables and the debris of past picnics littering the ground.

  “It looks better in the summertime,” he said, getting out of the Jeep. He reached into the backseat and withdrew a knapsack that he hoisted onto his back.

  When Jaye stepped out of the car, a cold gust of wind snatched the open halves of her denim jacket as if trying to rip it off her. She grabbed the sides and fastened the copper buttons

  Daniel came around the Jeep to join her. “It can get real windy and cold out here.”

  “Right, thanks for the heads-up,” she said with a shudder.

  “Hey, at least I remembered to tell you to wear hiking boots.”

  Before Jaye could reply, Kyah’s old green SUV pulled into the lot, stirring up a gritty cloud of dust. She parked a few feet away, turned off the engine and jumped down. She was wearing a fleece jacket over what seemed to be her standard shirt and jeans. She embraced Daniel first, then opened her arms to Jaye for an unexpected hug.

  “How did you let her come out here dressed so lightly?” she demanded of her son. “You know how cold it can be.” She muttered something Jaye couldn’t understand and ran back to the SUV.

  Jaye looked at Daniel. “What did she say?”

  “The closest translation would be ‘Men are useless.’”

  Jaye was glad he had the decency to look a bit abashed, but she couldn’t resist teasing him anyway. “I guess some truths are universal.”

  Kyah returned with a gray sweatshirt that had seen better days. Whatever had been written on it had mostly flaked off, leaving scraps of letters that were like some indecipherable ancient alphabet. “You won’t win any style awards wearing this,” she said, holding it out to Jaye, “but you’re going to be glad you have it on.”

  Jaye thanked her and immediately pulled the sweatshirt over her head. It was soft from countless washings and snuggly warm. She already felt a whole lot better.

  “We women have to look out for one another,” Kyah murmured to her as she led their little expedition out of the parking lot and along the rim of the canyon. As they walked, Daniel pointed out an old abandoned Mormon coal mine and started to explain the reason for the multicolored strata of the canyon before remembering that Jaye was a geologist. But in spite of her background, she was so thoroughly enchanted by the strange spires and hoodoos rising from the canyon floor that she almost forgot the reason they were there.

  They’d been walking along the rim for a while when Kyah stopped at what appeared to be an old trailhead leading down into the canyon. A sign posted there by the Navajo Nation made it clear that hiking anywhere but on the rim was strictly prohibited.

  “Watch your step,” Kyah said as she started down the steep path without even glancing at the sign.

  When Jaye hesitated out of concern for the law, as well as a burning desire to keep her body intact, Daniel coaxed her to go on. “You’ll be fine; it’s not as hard as it looks. I climbed all over this place when I was a kid.” The legal issue didn’t appear to bother him any more than it did his mother. Maybe the sign was meant only for those who weren’t Navajo, but Jaye doubted it. In any case, she decided she was less worried about leaving the canyon in a police car than she was about leaving it in an ambulance. She gave herself a quick pep talk. If Kyah can do this at her age, you can too. You didn’t take time away from finding the murderer to chicken out now. Besides, if there’s something to be learned about the not-a-cat, you need to see it for yourself. She took a deep, nearly steadying breath and started down the path after Kyah. Daniel brought up the rear, offering encouragement whenever they came to a section of the trail that was more difficult to navigate. By the time they were three quarters of the way to the canyon floor, they’d made it past the hardest parts of the hike, and Jaye had gained a good helping of self-confidence. Her heart had finally eased out of her throat and settled back into its proper place in her chest, and she was actually enjoying the exertion.

  A moment later her right foot slid out from under her on the soft sandstone gravel. She cried out in surprise and panic. Her arms windmilling like crazy, she tried to recover her balance, but gravity was tugging at her like a lion bent on taking down its prey. Her hand flew to the cliff wall on her right, scrabbling over its surface to find purchase, but the sandstone had been worn smooth, leaving nothing to grasp. Another scream was racing up her throat when Daniel grabbed her and pulled her back against him. He held on to her while she tried to catch her breath and stop shaking. “You can’t shuffle your feet on this stuff,” he said, the tightness in his voice confirming just how close to disaster she’d come. Once he was satisfied that she was steady on her feet, he shrugged off the knapsack, unzipped it and handed her a bottle of water. “Here, drink.”

  Jaye didn’t think she was thirsty, but once she started drinking she didn’t stop until she’d downed two thirds of the bottle.

  Having heard the commotion behind her, Kyah had quickly backtracked to reach them. “What happened? Jaye, are you all right?” she demanded, giving her a careful once-over.

  “I slipped a little, but I’m fine,” Jaye said, wishing her voice sounded as sure as her words. It was bad enough that Daniel had seen how clumsy she was, but it was mortifying to appear like such an uncoordinated oaf in front of Kyah.

  “There’s no such thing as slipping a little when you’re climbing down a canyon like this,” Kyah said. “I’m sorry. I’m afraid this was not a good idea.”

  “No, I just got overconfident and lost my focus,” Jaye insisted. She didn’t want Kyah to blame herself or Daniel, and she had no intention of giving up before she’d seen what Kyah wanted to show them. “I guarantee that will never happen again.” There—her voice had stopped trembling.

  Kyah turned her gaze on her son. It was clearly a look he understood, because although his mother hadn’t uttered a word, he answered her. “She’ll be okay. We’ll keep going.”

  Jaye could have hugged him for the vote of confidence. If Kyah didn’t agree, she accepted his answer without further comment. She took the lead again, but moved more slowly. Jaye followed, concentrating on each footfall, and they made their way to the bottom without further incident. As she left the path, Jaye was almost dizzy with relief. She felt like doing a little end zone dance to celebrate her victory, until she remembered they hadn’t yet reached their destination and, more soberingly, they still had to climb back up to the canyon’s rim.

  “It’s not far now,” Kyah said, stopping on the level ground to give Jaye a couple of minutes to catch her breath. As they struck out across the canyon floor, Jaye could feel the curiosity and anticipation building up inside her. Ten minutes later, Kyah stopped
at the base of one of the cliff walls and pointed to a low arch that had been formed when the sandstone beneath it had been carved away by the elements.

  “In there,” Kyah said without fanfare.

  All Jaye could see beneath the arch was darkness. “Is it a cave?”

  “Personally, I think it’s too shallow to be called a cave,” Kyah replied. “I doubt anyone ever lived in it, but someone might have taken shelter there in a storm.” She pulled a small flashlight from the pocket of her fleece jacket and hunched over so she could pass beneath the archway. Jaye and Daniel followed. The space was barely wide enough to accommodate all of them, and with the ceiling less than five feet at its highest point, they were forced to squat or sit on the ground in order to look around.

  Kyah swept the flashlight slowly across the sides and back of the depression. Nothing appeared in the beam of light but the uneven surface of the sandstone. “I know it’s here,” she said, clearly frustrated. “But it’s been a long time since I last saw it.”

  Jaye was about to ask her exactly what “it” was, when she spotted a little smudge of white at the upper edge of the beam’s glow. “Kyah, wait. I think I saw something on your flashlight’s last pass. Shine the light up a little higher, closer to the ceiling. Kyah moved the flashlight according to Jaye’s directions. “No, more to the left.” Jaye was beginning to think she’d imagined the chalklike mark because she didn’t want to have come all this way for nothing. When the flashlight finally homed in on the spot, she found herself staring at a picture of Raffles.

  Chapter 23

  “That’s Raffles,” Jaye said after a brief stunned silence. “When Daniel told me you had something to show us, I thought it might be a picture that sort of looked like her. This drawing is crude, but it’s right on the mark—the pouch, the upright posture.”

  Daniel was staring at the pictograph in openmouthed wonder himself. “It’s not possible for her to be that old,” he said finally. “Which means there are more of her kind or at least there were.”