Death Song (36 page)
There were somber moments too. Kerney attended the burial of Deputy Tim Riley at the Santa Fe National Cemetery, a memorial service in Albuquerque for Officer Judy Connors, and Denise Riley’s funeral, all within the span of a few days.
Devastated by Denise’s murder and the revelations of her secret past, Helen Muiz chose not to return to work prior to her official retirement date. She sent her husband Ruben to clean out her office, and while he was there he told Kerney that he was taking Helen to Italy to visit the Vatican and that the archbishop was attempting to secure an audience for her with the pope.
Because he was still spending most of his time away from home on the case, Clayton talked Grace into taking some time off from work, letting the kids miss a few days of school, and joining him in Santa Fe. They stayed with Kerney, Sara, and Patrick in the guest quarters at the ranch, and for five days the house was a beehive of activity filled with the sound of children slamming doors, running in and out, giggling and laughing, arguing about what games to play, drawing pictures and coloring at the kitchen table, and asking any adult within earshot to let them go horseback riding again and again and again.
Having Clayton and his family as houseguests clearly emboldened Sara’s spirits. When their guests left to go back home, she told Kerney it had been the best five days since her return from Iraq.
“I could see that,” he said.
“It was my most fun time
ever
,” Patrick said.
“I could see that too,” he said. “Maybe you need a brother or a sister.”
“A little brother,” Patrick announced, “not another grownup one like Clayton.”
“What about a little sister?” Sara asked.
Patrick thought about it for a moment. “That would be okay.”
Sara reached down, scooped him up, and nuzzled his cheek. “We’ll see what we can do.”
There is a ceremonial mesa on the Mescalero Apache Reservation that gives a clear south-southwest view of White Sands, the Tularosa Basin, and the San Andres Mountains beyond, seventy-five miles distant. The day after Lieutenant Clayton Istee had wrapped up the Tim Riley homicide investigation, he tiptoed out of the house at three-thirty in the morning while his wife and children slept, and went to the mesa.
Although the dream of Tim Riley singing the Death Song hadn’t reoccurred, it had become fixed in Clayton’s mind and he needed to shake it off permanently. In the darkness of the night with the Big Dipper overhead, he took two large rocks, placed one at the north compass point and the other at the west, which was the direction the dead always took during their beginning passage. Between the two rocks Clayton buried a photograph of Tim Riley in uniform that he’d taken from the Cañoncito double-wide and then bracketed the photograph with smaller stones to symbolically separate the image from the living world. Finished, he stood back, tossed a handful of dirt into the center of the circle, said a few words about Tim Riley, and left for home.
In four days, he would return to the mesa and remove all traces of the burial ritual. As he drove down the mesa, he could already feel himself letting go of Tim Riley. Or was Riley’s ghost letting go of him?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael McGarrity is the author of the Anthony Award–nominated
Tularosa
, as well as
Mexican Hat, Serpent Gate, Hermit’s Peak, The Judas Judge, Under the Color of Law, The Big Gamble, Everyone Dies, Slow Kill
, and
Nothing but Trouble
. A former deputy sheriff for Santa Fe County, he established the first Sex Crimes Unit for the department. He has also served as an instructor at the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy and as an investigator for the New Mexico Public Defender’s Office. He lives in Santa Fe.
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