The Eagle and the Fox (A Snowy Range Mystery, #1) (8 page)

Josh took a sip of coffee first. Instead of a buzz kill, it added to the mellowed out feeling he’d been nurturing ever since he’d sat down.

Marcus prodded him. “You went outside to look around. What did you see?”

“Not much. At least at first.” He balanced the coffee mug on the sofa arm, using his left hand to draw a diagram in thin air. “I worked the perimeter like you do, keeping out of the floods best I could. At some point I heard a car, but given you’re on the main drag, so to speak, it wasn’t enough to raise a red flag. Saw lights heading north toward the mountains.”

He’d been coming around the east side of the building, shining his torchlight on the ground, making sure he could see the footing. Late in the day as it was, and given his activity earlier, he’d gotten to the point where the pain and stiffness damn near took over, driving away all thought but getting meds into himself and chilling. So he wasn’t paying attention to anything but the ground in front of his eyes and how he set his boots down, one foot at a time.

Marcus asked, “Where was he?”

“On the porch.”

“Jesus H. Christ. Where’d he come from?”

Josh shrugged. He didn’t know for sure but he had a guess. “I suspect his ride was parked down by the crossroad. I was behind the building for a time, looking around. He could’ve come up the hill and hid in the shadows.”

“Or he coulda been inside.” Marcus shut his mouth with a snap, the possibility too strong to ignore.

Attempting to relieve the man’s anxiety, Josh said, “Not likely. We searched. It’s not like you have all that many places to hide.”

Marcus didn’t look convinced. “Doesn’t mean he wasn’t though.”

“No, it don’t. I suspect if he was inside he was looking for Petilune. When he didn’t find her, he probably decided to hang around outside to see if anything popped so he’d know where to look.”

The whereabouts of Petilune was a tangent they couldn’t afford to ignore, but Marcus realized they needed to take it one step at a time. Otherwise they’d be spinning wheels while the girl was getting herself into all manner of trouble. So he asked, “What did the kid do when you showed up?”

“Well, he waited for me to come in front of the store. With the light shining out the windows and the door, it made it damn near impossible to make out his features.” Josh pursed his lips in irritation. “I’m thinking this ain’t the kid’s first rodeo.”

“Not following.”

“He knew how to position himself to put me at a disadvantage.” The muzzle to his temple tilted the odds in the kid’s favor too, but he wasn’t going to mention that to Marcus. Bullet to the brain or cold-cocking him, either way, the juvie had a clear bead on a getaway before Marcus could even process the sound and come out to investigate.

“You able to ID him at all?”

Josh closed his eyes, thinking on what he’d been able to gather in his peripheral vision. “I’m about ninety percent certain it was the guy I spied on Polly’s porch. Dark hair, pulled back. Couldn’t see a braid, but it don’t mean it wasn’t there. Jeans, tee-shirt. Usual uniform. Both dark, impossible to distinguish colors when he was in shadow.”

He took the last swallow of coffee. Marcus took the mug and placed it on one of the milk crates, then egged him on. “So did he say anything? What did
you
do?”

Other than mess my shorts?

“It wasn’t so much what he said, but
how
he said it. He asked...
Where is she?
... and I swear to God he was freaking out, like he was close to tears, his voice all choked up. At that point you were upstairs, and I had hope Petilune would still be there and hadn’t done a runner. So I told him that.”

“And...?”

“And nothing. He took his good old time making up his mind about something. When he finally spoke all he said was...
Promise me you’ll take care of her
.” The muzzle pressuring the soft spot below his ear lobe added emphasis to the request. “
Promise. Or fucking hell...
”

Marcus interrupted. “Or what?”

“We didn’t get that far in the negotiations. He heard you coming through the store and took off. Before he made it over the railing, he told me to tell Petilune Kit Golden Eagle was gonna take care of everything.” Josh sighed. “After that he was in the wind. Even without me being a near cripple, I don’t think I’d have had a snowball’s chance. He was a fast sumbitch. And a hella lot younger than me.”

Marcus mumbled, “Sorry.”

“What for?”

“Well, if I hadn’t shown up when I did maybe you could have gotten something out of him. Like why he’s here. How he met Petilune. And what the heck did he mean that he’s taking care of everything?”

Shrugging, Josh took another tack and asked Marcus if he had a notebook he could borrow. When the man returned with a notepad and pen, Josh jotted down all he could remember about the teen, including the few words they’d exchanged.

Mumbling to himself, Josh recorded as many physical characteristics as he could dredge up. The boy was around five-nine or -ten, slim build but not scrawny, and dusky-complexioned. And though the face had been cast in deep shadow, he could tell the boy had the high cheekbones and flat features typical of his race.

In the margins, Josh jotted down
Sig P226
? It was most likely a tactical 9 mil since they were relatively easy to find. He still felt the imprint of cold alloy under his jawline.

Marcus gawked at the notation, then opted to ignore it. Instead, he pointed to the boy’s name and asked, “You think he’s come down from the Wind River Rez?”

“Possible, but...” Josh thought back to the rhythms in the boy’s speech patterns. Despite the tension and the obvious emotion coloring his words, there was an underlying accent that was just on the edge of familiar. Pursuing that thought he asked Marcus, “You met George, Janice’s no account missing husband, right?”

Marcus nodded. “Unfortunately I’ve had the pleasure. Why?”

“Well, when he wasn’t drunk or shooting up, if you listened to him talk, he had a certain way of pronouncing words. Like his last name.”

“Yeah, Goggles, wasn’t it?”

“Uh huh. Well, this kid sounded to me like he came from North Dakota, not northwest Wyoming. Certainly not from the rez.” After pausing to scratch at his itchy beard, Josh asked, “What the hell kind of name is Goggles anyway. Near as I remember he’s Northern Arapaho, ain’t he?”

Marcus chuckled. “You can thank the government for that. Back in the day, when it came to taking a census, they used translations of Indian names. When I took on Petilune, I got curious about the family so I did some digging on the internet. ‘Goggles’ isn’t as unusual as it sounds. Initially it was put down as ‘Iron Eyes.’ But like sometimes happens, the records got destroyed so the Bureau just assigned random English surnames or rough translations when that didn’t suit. In George’s family tree, it ended up being what it was. No rhyme or reason to it.”

Josh raised an eyebrow. “Am I wrong thinking maybe that child isn’t the fruit of those particular loins?”

“It’d be a kindness if she wasn’t. That’s bad blood there, make no mistake about it. Those two brothers of hers are heading for trouble, sure as I’m sitting here. The further she stays away from that den of dysfunction the better off she’ll be.”

And that brought them back to the fact they had no idea where Petilune had gone off to.

“That child got any girlfriends she might hang out with? Anybody we can ask, see if they’ve seen or heard anything at all?” Josh stood and groaned from the effort. It had been a long, trying day and his body was ready to give up the ghost on him. He was clutching at straws, but they were out of options so he asked, “Should we go by Janice’s and see if by some miracle the kid decided to crawl in a window and is hiding under her bed?”

Although, to Josh, that seemed a reasonable thing to do, Marcus cautioned there could be problems with that idea. “It’s coming ten. Janice will be either passed out by now, or still awake but well on her way to being comatose. In any case, she’s a mean drunk and if Pet’s not there it’s gonna unleash a firestorm I’m not sure will help our cause.” He rubbed his palms on his thighs, a nervous gesture Josh recognized. “Us going there is a little tricky no matter how you cut it.”

Searching for alternatives, Josh asked, “How about I go to the school tomorrow and talk with the principal? I hear she’s a pretty reasonable person and might be somebody to get on our side.”

Marcus agreed but added, “I'm not comfortable waiting that long to find out if Petilune has surfaced, are you? She's just a kid, after all.”

“I don't like it either. Damned if we do, damned if we don't. One thing I
do
know... I'm not gonna sleep tonight if we don't find out one way or the other.”

Marcus muttered, “Shit,” and disappeared into the back recesses of the loft. When he returned, he had his keys in his hand. “How drunk are you?”

“I can drive.”

Marcus tossed the keys in the air. Josh swooped them into his hand and grinned. “Was that a test?”

“Yeah, you passed. Now let’s go see if that crazy-assed girl is home. If she is, then all we’ll need is to find a way to get her to spill about this Kit guy. If she isn’t...”

Josh let silence be their answer. They’d have to deal with whatever came, one piece at a time.

****

“W
ell, that was fun.” Marcus slid into the passenger seat of his truck and attached the seat belt.

Josh smirked. “I’d like to know how that coke head learned the word ‘indisposed.’ Guess we were lucky they were all high as a kite. Not sure I’d want to confront the oldest one if he was feeling cross about anything.”

“I’m actually glad Petilune wasn’t there. Jesus, those assholes are toxic.” Marcus scrubbed at his face as if desperate to rid himself of contamination.

Josh asked, “You ever consider going to child services and getting Petilune out of there?”

“Yeah, I did initially. Especially when...”

“What?”

“Never mind. It’s not important.”

Josh was pretty sure whatever it was,
not important
didn’t cut it. They had trust growing between them, but for some reason, the way Marcus cut him off clued him in that there was more to the story, and it wasn’t a happy ever after fairy tale.

In any case, child services didn’t place kids in their area. Fostering was concentrated in larger towns and cities where the kids could be monitored, after a fashion. On the other side of the coin were the sometimes dubious reasons for folks to take in those lost kids. The idea of it being a business transaction rather than a service dedicated to the welfare of the child made him uncomfortable. He suspected Marcus felt the same.

It’d be a hell of a lot easier to monitor Petilune’s situation if she was with her family. Except, they hadn’t done a bang up job on that monitoring shit.

The thought crossed his mind that Marcus might make the perfect foster parent. The man was kindness personified. He treated the girl with patience and tenderness, like she was a priceless gift. He might not realize it, but if any man should have been a father, Marcus Colton was that man.

That he’d spent nearly twenty years sharing a bachelor pad with his distant cousin and business partner, Tom Henderson, had had some tongues wagging back in the day. He’d been in high school then, so when they first set up housekeeping together, it hadn’t made much impression on him. He’d been more concerned about his own confused feelings to worry about two old guys in town becoming roomies.

Old guys. Wonder what Marcus would think if he heard me say that out loud.

Marcus noticed Polly’s place still had the lights on in the back section where she kept a small office for doing her books. Josh anticipated the request and pulled in. Since Marcus knew the woman better than he did, he let him knock on the door. Polly cracked it open. When she saw who it was, she grinned and waved them both inside.

“You fellas are up kinda late, aintcha? Can I get you anything? Coffee. A beer?”

Marcus answered, “No ma’am. But we do have a question. And I’m hoping you can keep this to yourself for a time.” The woman looked concerned but nodded for Marcus to continue. “Petilune’s gone missing. We checked her house and she’s not there.”

Polly snorted. “Bout time that child left that pit of vipers.” She got a cagy expression on her face. “I saw you hustling the gal away from the fracas in the parking lot. Care to tell me what that was about?”

Since Marcus looked like he was about to swallow his tongue, Josh said, “Not much to tell. The girl was upset by the fighting and Marcus here thought she’d be better off someplace where she could calm down.” He wasn’t keen on saying more than that and regretted having stopped by to ask. But now that they had, there was no turning back. He continued, “She was in the upstairs loft at the store while Marcus and I were shooting the shit outside. At some point, I guess she decided to leave without telling us. I’m sure she didn’t mean nothing by it, but we’re a
little
concerned is all.” He shrugged, hoping the emphasis on ‘little’ was enough to keep Polly from drawing the wrong conclusions.

The woman mulled it over for a few minutes, then said, “Well, that child’s not the sharpest tack in the box. I suspect she’s found a hidey hole and will turn up in the morning. Wouldn’t be the first time she’s gone wandering.”

Josh and Marcus exchanged a glance. That was news to them, and not necessarily of the good kind. But if Petilune had made a habit of disappearing—and heaven knew the kid had more than enough reason to do so—well then, their best bet was to wait and see what transpired.

They thanked Polly and made a quick escape. Marcus muttered, “Don’t that beat all. No wonder Janice wasn’t concerned about her daughter. If she makes a habit of disappearing for short periods, there’s maybe nothing to worry about. Right?”

Josh didn’t bother to answer. They both knew, whatever habits young Petilune might have developed in order to cope with her situation at home, this time it was different. This time there was a gang of thugs roaming the area, getting into who knew what mischief.