by S. C. King
Multiple traditional tools and instruments were brought to the ceremony, but none of them were from the stolen items. Davis wasn’t expecting to find the artifacts so easily, but the complete lack of clues was exasperating. Nothing in this case was normal, and the detective supposed that its solution would also be abnormal.
Chapter 11
The ceremony went on for a few hours, but after that, almost everyone had to go home. The youngest of the women made sure to clean and put everything in order, while their children played around them. Chenoa’s friends stayed by her side, and informed her that Muraco and the other policeman were here, still looking for the thieves. So far, they hadn’t had the luck to catch any of them, and that was making everyone anxious.
After her father’s death, Chenoa was given a new home to live in, but it was going to be an empty home, without family in it. The young woman still hoped that Muraco would follow her there, but she also feared that he would again choose the world of the white people.
“You don’t have to worry, my dear,” Clare said to her. “My husband and his friends are going to protect you.”
“I am sure they will,” Chenoa agreed with her. “Maybe it is time for me to also go home?” she asked the other woman, wishing she knew where home was right now.
“Right,” Clare smiled at her. “You must be exhausted after all the travelling and the suffering. I will take you to your new home. I am sure that they had all your things already sent there.”
Clare took her to a small two story building, situated near the village center, but not too close to the main road. The house had a living room and a kitchen on the first floor, and three bedrooms on the second one. Everything in it was cleaned up, and arranged to look pretty and in order.
“You did this, didn’t you?” Chenoa asked Clare, once she walked around the house and saw how clean it was.
“Me and a few other women,” Clare smiled at her. “We wanted you to feel at home from the first moment you step inside this house.”
“Thank you, everything looks wonderful.” She looked around and there were her things sitting beside the main bedroom door. “They really took care of my things.”
“Yes, they did,” Clare said. “Listen, I have to go now, but if you need anything, I am just across the street from you. You are always welcome in my house.”
“Thank you, but I think that I will be okay.” Chenoa thanked her once again, and accompanied her to the door.
How wrong everybody was! Chenoa stayed up until early morning in her new home, waiting for Muraco to come for her. She occupied herself by arranging her things in the wardrobe, and looking around the house, but mostly, she simply sat there looking at the door.
This was not the night she expected, and there was a part of her that couldn’t help but wonder if Muraco was really out chasing criminals. Thoughts about other women haunted Chenoa’s thoughts, making her imagining things she never thought about before.
She might still be unmarried, but she had vowed to be faithful to him, and expected him to be her best possible chance. It was nearly sunrise when Muraco finally came into her home. He was dirty, and clearly exhausted.
“I am sorry I left you alone after the ceremony, and I am sorry I am so late,” he said to Chenoa, who was sitting in the living room, waiting for him. “You should have gone to bed.”
“I am fine, thank you,” Chenoa dismissed his worry. “Can I get you something? Do you need some food or something to drink?”
“It is very kind of you, but all I need is to wash up and go to bed. The sun is almost up and tomorrow we will continue to look for the robbers,” Muraco said with a tired voice, while removing his jacket.
He was still dressed in his mourning clothes, and that made Chenoa remember that this was the night she was supposed to say goodbye to her father. The man, however, was clearly exhausted, and after visiting the washroom, went straight to bed.
Chenoa watched him climb the stairs and felt both relieved that he was finally home and foolish for having suspected him of being with other women. She followed Muraco upstairs, and lay down in the bed beside him.
“Good night, Chenoa,” he said softly.
“Good night,” she replied, and finally allowed herself to get some sleep.
They had been promised to each other for years now, but life had taken them apart, leaving both unsatisfied.
Chapter 12
Chenoa had just lost her father...
It was still hard for her to accept the reality of things, but she couldn’t ignore the fact that he was lying in the lineage grave house, waiting to be placed in the Mortuary Pole. Her action from the last few days had been driven by grief and desire to do something. She knew that her father was not coming back, no matter what she did, but she also knew that doing something was helping her deal with the pain.
Muraco had left her bed and her house early in the morning, without saying much, and it killed her to think about him leaving for good, once he finished his job here. Chenoa almost told him that it was her who stole the pole, but it would have been for nothing, so she stayed quiet.
After making sure that no one was following her, Chenoa left the small village and headed towards the place that she and her friends had stored the pole, the canoe, and the rest of the stolen artifacts. In her mind, however, what they have done wasn’t a theft, but retribution. The white people had taken too much from her clan, and she wasn’t going to let them have these objects. The sudden death of her father had awakened in her the old feeling of anger and discontent, and it had been very easy to find willing helpers to break into the museum.
They had visited it one at a time, learning all about the position of the rooms and the rounds made by the security. Then, when the time had been right, they had used the stolen security code to enter the museum, take out the artifacts, and close the door behind them. Everything had gone smoothly, until Sergeant Wood had been called to the scene of the crime.
The moment he had appeared in front of the museum, half of her friends had left her side, and declared that they want nothing to do with the crime. Muraco was still well respected and loved by most of the clan, and Chenoa quickly realized that her action might put her in prison at the end.
“Chenoa,” someone called from the shadows of the trees. She had been walking north for almost an hour before she reached the place.
“I am alone,” she answered in Haida dialect, and headed towards the almost invisible cave. “Are you all here?”
A group of four men and two women came out of the cave to greet her. “Things are getting out of control,” the eldest among them said, looking her right in the eyes. “The police came to the potlatch. That is something unheard of.”
“I know, but I thought that if I allowed them there, they would see that we have nothing to hide,” the young woman tried to find an excuse.
“I saw Muraco coming to your house last night,” a young woman said in an accusatory tone.
“He knows nothing...”
“Yes, but for how long?”
“I want to erect the pole and prepare everything for my father. I will honor him and recognize his successor when the time comes.”
“It is dangerous to even think about this right now. We should wait for the police to go away.”
“No,” Chenoa almost shouted. “It is now or never. The ceremony needs to be performed so that my father could reincarnate in a new body.”
No one had the heart to tell her that her father would rather prefer for her to be safe and happy, and the men of the group walked away to start the preparation for the erection of the Mortuary Pole. The women also started cleaning the space in front of the cave and for a moment, Chenoa was left alone.
Tears ran down her face, but the young Indian woman was determined to finish what she had started. The soul of her father would be transported by the canoe to the Land of the Souls, where it would await for the moment of reincarnation, no matter what was going to happen afterwards.
Chapter 13
Davis and Wood watched from the other side of the clearing Chenoa and the others preparing the Mortuary Pole. Wood had done the unthinkable, and had followed the young woman from the village to the cave. Davis had been waiting for him in the morning, ready to follow him everywhere.
“This is the Pole,” he said quietly. “She really stole it.”
“Yes,” Davis agreed with him, but there was no joy in his words. “You were right.”
“We should go and stop them, before they have the chance to erect the pole...”
“No,” the other policeman said. “We are going to return to the village, and wait there for them to come back.”
“Why?”
“I want to find the reason behind all this and if there is a way to keep things quiet, I want to search for it.”
“You would do that?” Wood asked, really surprised.
Davis didn’t answer him in words, but the smile on his face was enough for the young Indian to understand. They retreated carefully, and walked back to the village, following the same path that brought them to the cave. Both were silent during the long walk, with Wood thinking about Chenoa and his own behavior, and Davis trying to find the right way to treat the matter.
Almost four hours after Wood and the detective returned to the village, they saw Chenoa and the others come in one by one. All of them looked calm, and as if they were coming from a walk in the woods. Davis shook his head at the sight, but didn’t change his decision. “Now, you go and speak to Chenoa,” he said to Wood and watched him shake his head.
From the living room window, Chenoa had a full view of the street, and even of the house where the two policemen were staying. She had seen Wood walking out slowly, adjusting his hat and the belt with the revolver on it. He greeted a few neighbors, who were either going to work or running for some errands, but stopped to talk only to a young and beautiful woman, who appeared from a sidewalk right in front of him.
A deep moan left Chenoa’s lips at the sign of the woman, and when she saw Wood glance guiltily in the direction of the house, something cold got hold of her heart. The conversation between him and the other woman was a brief one, but very animated, as Chenoa could clearly see.
The woman was speaking continuously, accompanying her words with a lot of movements of her hands and body. At a point, she even tried to get hold of Wood’s hand, but the man took a step back and walked away. Then the woman called after him, but did not follow. On the contrary, the young and beautiful woman turned back and looked right at Chenoa’s house, smiling victoriously.
Chenoa was sure neither of them saw her watching from that distance, but the effect of their conversation was already showing. She felt horribly jealous again, almost forgetting about the sweet moments they had had together during the night.
“Please, help me to overcome my jealousy,” she prayed, still looking out of the window. “And give to Muraco and me the chance to be happy with each other.”
The knock on the door took her by surprise, as Chenoa had been sitting on the sofa trying to calm herself. She took a deep breath, and opened the door to see Muraco standing there, looking serious and hurt.
“We need to talk, Chenoa,” he said instead of greeting, and walked past her into the living room. “You know that Detective Davis and I came here to investigate the theft of some very precious artifacts. The truth is, we knew from the very beginning who stole them, but we are also willing to give to that person or persons the possibility to make things right.”
“Why are you telling me all this?” Chenoa asked softly.
“I want you to understand why I cannot always be around,” Wood answered.
“I never expected you to be...”
“I know, but I wish things could be different,” he smiled at her and tried to take her hand, but Chenoa stood up from her place and walked away.
“I wish that too...”
“Okay, I will be leaving you then... I have to make a few more visits.”
The young woman watched him leave again, and her heart almost gave up at the sight. She loved him and wanted to be with him, but there were so many things that were standing between them...
In the meantime, Sergeant Wood made a round of all the houses in the village, and said the same thing to each person he encountered. He could see in their eyes the fear and desperation, but all he could do was hope that they would make the right decision. As was expected, no one stepped forward to say anything, but the seed was planted, and that was the important thing.
“I told them,” Wood said to Davis later that same day. “Now, we have to wait and see.”
Chapter 14
That night, Chenoa’s friends called a meeting, and she was forced to attend it, although she was very tired. The emotions from the previous days were taking their toll on her nerves, and all Chenoa wanted was for this to be over.
“We have to give the artifacts to the police,” Tom, the oldest among them said, as soon as the last of them was inside the room. The meeting was held in Anna’s house, Anna was one of Chenoa’s best friends. “We all heard what Charlie said. He and the detective are ready to close an eye if we return the artifacts.”
“The moment we go to the police, they will arrest us,” John said. “I think that it would be better to continue with the ceremony and whatever happens, happens.”
“No,” Anna interrupted him. “We should not ruin our lives for such a stupid reason. If we want a Mortuary Pole, we should make one, not steal it from the museum.”
“It is not stealing when you take what is yours...” Chenoa said softly from her place on the table.
“Our elders donated the artifacts to the museum... we all were present...” one of the other men tried to reason with them.
“We can do something else,” Tom again spoke up. “We can return the artifacts to the museum without giving up our identity.”
“That would be difficult,” Anne added.
“Yes, but if we succeed, we would be able to go on without any other problems,” Tom insisted.
They argued for another hour, but at the end, even Chenoa had to agree that returning the artifacts was the right thing to do. Her own father had always insisted that people should always look for the greater good.
Anne asked Chenoa to stay for a while after everyone else left her house. “I want to talk to you,” she said to her, after offering her a cup of tea. “I think that you should consider talking to Muraco.”
“What for?” Chenoa smiled at her friend. “He is already gone...”
“You know where he lives, and I know for a fact that it is not so far from here,” Anne smiled back. “I know how you feel about him, Chenoa. You have to tell him.”
“Now?! Now, when he knows what I did?”
“Yes, after we return the artifacts, everything should go back to normal.”
“I don’t think that it will be possible...” Chenoa looked at the dark window, thinking about what she had lost. “Muraco lives in a different world.”
“He is one of us, Chenoa. Look at what he did for all of us, and especially for you. You realize that he could be arrested for not arresting us, right?”
“Yes, I know... but think about the future. How would we manage?”
“I don’t have all the answers, but I know that you two can overcome everything.”
Chenoa thanked her friend, and returned to her empty house to think about the future. According to the plan they had made that very night, the next day the men from their group were going to take the artifacts to the museum and leave them there for the police to find. They were all aware of the fact that Sergeant Wood would be waiting for them to act soon, so Tom insisted that they do it as soon as possibl
e.
Her thoughts returned to the last time she saw Muraco. Chenoa had accompanied him to the door, just like she did that very morning, and felt another pang of jealousy at the memory of the other woman talking to him. Muraco had wanted to talk. But the idea of expressing her fears with words was not something Chenoa had been looking forward to, but then again, that would have been a great opportunity for her to find out the truth.
Some irrational part of her was still unsure if Muraco was really truthful with her, but she was starting to realize that their future happiness depended on her trusting him to do the right thing. “Just like he is trusting me to do the right thing...”
Chapter 15
Wood sat in the car alone for a long hour, thinking and rethinking all that had happened in the last two days. There were too many unanswered questions for him to calm down and think about his job. The artifacts were still missing, and the young man could not take it anymore, so he had decided to watch over the museum, hoping for them to do the right thing. He suspected that Davis was also awake and hiding somewhere around here.
Outside, it was almost dark, and Wood could see only one person walking away down the street. Most of the houses on the main street had their doors and windows closed, with bright beams of light coming from behind the curtains. The sideways were filled with dark and mysterious shadows, and Wood climbed out from the car.
He felt a shudder ran through his body, when he saw dark shadows moving in the alley near the museum building. The museum was right besides an office building, and Wood walked closer to get a better view. When he was close enough, Wood recognized Tom and one of the other men WHO he could not identify in the dark.
An old fear awakened inside him. “Oh, God, what if they do something stupid?”
The constant doubting was taking its toll, and he needed to know the truth, once and forever. Wood had no idea what he would be doing if it turned to be another theft, but at least he would know.