She wasn’t sure if what she saw was in the crystal itself or if it was only in her mind’s eye, but it was the same image she had seen in the sacred smoke—­a woman, a Milgahn woman who, despite being Anglo and not susceptible to Staying Sicknesses, was also a Dangerous Object.

Lani understood this even though she couldn’t explain it. And without knowing what kind of Dangerous Object the woman was, it was difficult to tell what kind of treatment might be required.

And so, warmed by the fire, and with Morning Star gleaming in the east, Lani closed her fist around the stones and began to sing:

Oh, I’itoi who is also Spirit of Goodness and Elder Brother,

Please hear me as your daughter calls to you

Asking for your help. A dangerous object is loose in the world.

A dangerous object with silver hair and white skin.

I do not know who this woman is, but she is a danger,

A danger to a boy named Gabe Ortiz who is the son of my heart.

Help me to see my way to find this evil woman.

Help me understand why she is a danger.

Help me to protect Gabe, Elder Brother,

In the same way Nana Dahd protected Davy,

In the same way Betraying Woman protected me.

We need your help so the ghostly woman does not win.

As the sun came up over the distant Tucson Mountains in the east, Lani sang the song over and over, always in sets of four, because four is a magic number all by itself; because all of nature goes in fours.

“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU mean, one of them got away?” Ava demanded into the phone. “How is that even possible?”

“Sorry. I was struggling with Paul, and the youngest one got loose. I’m looking for him now.”

“Sorry my ass! You should be way more than sorry. What about the diamonds? Did you find them?”

“Not yet, but once I catch up with Tim . . .”

“He’s what, twelve years old? Thirteen? You just let him take off and now you can’t find him?”

“I know which way he went. I’ll find him.”

“You’d better,” Ava said. “I want my diamonds back, and I want that damned kid taken out. Those asshole Indians stick together like dog shit on a shoe.”

“What about Max?”

“What about him?”

“Once he hears about what’s happened . . .”

“Don’t worry about Max. You take care of the kid and retrieve the diamonds. I already told you, I’ll handle Max.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the man said. “I hear you loud and clear.”

Bristling with anger, Ava closed the phone. She heard the nurse out in the kitchen, banging around, starting another pot of coffee, and fixing Harold’s breakfast. Ava didn’t usually put in an appearance until all that had been handled. Right now, she needed to make sure the Max José problem would be handled sooner rather than later.

The crew she had in Florence had come in handy on more than one occasion. One was a guard; the rest were inmates—­lifers, mostly, with nothing more to lose. When they did a job for her, she made sure that all payments went to family members who were far enough removed from the action that nothing could be traced back to the actual doers or traced back to her, either.

Ava’s operation was small enough not to attract attention from the cartels, and deadly enough that ­people usually did exactly as they were told. As for the guy who’d just called her? He was a dead man walking even if he didn’t know it yet. Once he recovered her diamonds, he’d be gone, too. The desert was a big place with plenty of hidey-­holes where dumped bodies would never be found.

Ava finished her calls, knowing she’d done all she could for the time being, then she went back to bed, hoping to grab a little more sleep. It was going to be a busy day.

SOME TIME LATER, AFTER SUNRISE, Lani was startled out of her contemplations by yet another gunshot—­a single one this time. Once again, she peered off the mountain, scanning the desert for any signs of life. No vehicles were visible. Was this related to what had happened earlier? In the silence that followed the gunshot there was no way to tell.

Leo Ortiz arrived a ­couple of hours later, at ten past eight. By then Lani had packed up her stuff and Gabe’s as well. She’d also doused the fire with the remainder of her water and carefully buried the ashes. She heard Leo’s powerful pickup growling its way up the mountain long before the man himself appeared outside the clearing.

Lani had considered hiking down the trail to meet him, but in the end, she simply sat beside the backpacks and waited. When Leo finally showed up, he was panting with exertion. He looked around the clearing and frowned. “Where’s Gabe?” he asked.

That was not the question Lani was expecting. Her heart fell. Her stomach clenched. “Isn’t he home?”

“He wasn’t when we got home this morning. Why isn’t he here?”

“He got mad at me and left,” Lani admitted. “He said he was going home.”

“You let him walk off just like that?” Leo demanded accusingly. “You should have called. It was just a dance. I would have left there in a minute to come get him.”

Lani didn’t lie and claim she had tried to call. Instead, she held up her useless cell phone. “No signal,” she said.

“There’s a radio in the truck,” Leo said. “I can call home on that.”

The trip down to the truck was made in heavy silence. Leo was naturally quiet, but he was also angry, and Lani knew it. As for Lani? If Gabe wasn’t home, if he had been the target of some of those gunshots . . . She couldn’t bear to consider it.

Leo flipped the two packs he was carrying into the bed of the truck, then went straight to the radio. “He’s home,” Leo said a moment later. “Delia said he just woke up and scared her to death because she had no idea he was there. He was in his bedroom with the door closed. We didn’t bother checking his room when we got home because he wasn’t supposed to be there.”

Sick with relief, Lani leaned against the passenger door. Gradually her legs seemed to give way beneath her. She slid slowly down onto her haunches until she was sitting propped on the Tundra’s narrow running board.

Leo came around to where she was sitting. “Sorry,” he said. “He’s a teenager and a boy. I shouldn’t have blamed you. Come on. Let’s get back.”

Lani stood up and tossed her own pack into the truck. “There’s one more thing we need to do,” she said when she again felt capable of speech.

“What’s that?”

“I want to stop by the charco.”

“What charco?” Leo asked.

“That one,” she said, nodding down the mountainside.

“Rattlesnake Skull?” he asked. “How come? ­People say that place is haunted.”

Lani knew that all too well, and one of the haunting spirits was no doubt the soul of Gabe’s murdered second cousin, Gina Antone, but Lani didn’t feel like going into any of that right then.

“It’ll only take a few minutes,” she said. “I’m curious about something.”

“Don’t they always say curiosity killed the cat?” Leo said, letting go of his anger and giving her one of his easy grins.

“Maybe so,” Lani said. “But I still want to go. You can stay in the truck if you want. I can hike in and out.”

“And let you call me a ’fraidy cat?” Leo replied. “No way.”

When they neared the charco, Lani directed him to drive past the turnoff and stop on the shoulder of the road.

As they climbed out of the truck, Leo shot her a questioning look. “What’s going on?” he asked. “You look like something’s wrong.”

“I’m not sure,” Lani said. “Let’s wait and see. I want to follow the tracks.”

Lani had picked up some skill as a tracker from her husband, who had learned that ancient art from his grandfather Micah. Using what Dan had taught her, Lani walked along the road until she saw a place where a single set of tire tracks led off into the brush. A few feet beyond that, she saw evidence of what looked like a struggle and signs of several ­people walking off into the brush.