I jammed my armpit into the shale, as the other hand grasped my upper arm like a number 6 bear trap and pulled me over the edge. The rain poured all around us, and the lightning flamed again and glowed, illuminating the perfect, flashing grin in the dark, shrouded face of Henry Standing Bear.
7
I set the bag full of Danny Lone Elk’s prescription drugs between my boots and leaned forward on the Durant Memorial Hospital waiting room sofa. Pulling the Mallo Cup play money card from my pocket, I studied it. “So, it wasn’t you?”
The Cheyenne Nation played with the bandage on his hand where he’d received a few stitches in honor of his rough landing across the canyon cliffs, and stretched the expandable wrap so that the bandage was looser. “Of course not.”
“How did you know where we were?”
“I called Ruby, and she said you had gone to the Lone Elk Ranch to ask Randy some questions. I thought I might be of help, so I went there and they told me you had gone to the dig site.” The Bear reached down and thumped Dog on his side, which was built like a barrel. “When I got there, your truck was parked but the three of you were gone, and it was hailing, sleeting, and raining, so I hiked up the ridge and that is when I heard this one barking.”
I continued to study the card in my hands. “Lucky us.”
He smiled. “Lucky all of you, except for your truck.”
I glanced out at my dented vehicle, the sheet metal marked like a kid with the chicken pox. “Yep, I guess I’m going to have to get some bodywork done.” I also looked at his battered ranch truck, parked beside mine. “Good thing you were driving Rezdawg. No breakdowns?”
He shook his head. “No, the rain puts out the fires under the hood.”
I nodded and eased back into the sofa, for once the only one without wounds. “So it wasn’t you out on the ridge, which begs the question.”
He nodded. “You say the young man, Taylor, has had these same visions?”
“Yep.”
“And Vic?”
“Yep.”
He turned to look at me. “And you?”
“Yep.”
He looked at the mauve carpet, the mauve walls, the mauve furniture, and then back at me, probably just trying to focus on something that wasn’t mauve. “Interesting. You see, without his eyes, Danny’s spirit is condemned to wander this plane of existence without rest.”
“Well, he’s been getting around a lot lately.”
He grunted. “For a blind dead man?”
“Yep.” I sat forward. “So, this is touchy stuff, huh?”
“It can be.” He looked up at the ceiling. “Randy is now the leader of the family, but his uncle Enic is the religious one. Since Randy does not care about such things, he has given him that mantle. We will have to do numerous transfer rites to prepare Danny for the Hanging Road and the Camp of the Dead, along with a wake for the white man’s heaven.”
“Even if the blinding was accidental?”
“Do we know that for sure?”
I nodded. “According to Isaac. But you can have a look at the body yourself, seeing as we’re in the hospital.”
His voice took on a serious tone. “If the blinding was accidental, it could be even more serious.” He cocked his head. “Acts of man are one thing but acts of nature another. Turtles are big medicine, and there will be questions as to how this could have come to be.”
“Autopsy?”
He smiled and shook his head. “Not likely with him being a Traditional.” He looked at me. “Why? You suspect that somebody also took his life?”
“Maybe.” I picked up the bag of drugs and tossed them onto the sofa. “So, were the Lone Elks surprised to see you?”
“Why?”
“Your name came up in the conversation when we were down there.”
He flexed the hand that had lifted all three of us to safety. “Ahhh . . .”
I stood and, walking to the plate-glass window, gazed at the steady rain. “Why would someone be impersonating Danny Lone Elk?” The Bear turned to look at me. “Don’t tell me the thought hasn’t crossed your mind.”
He shrugged. “It is possible, I suppose.”
I turned and showed him the Mallo Cup card that I’d found near the dig. “Is this supposed to mean something other than you have accumulated five points toward a five-hundred-point two-dollar rebate?”
“When I was on the mountain with Virgil White Buffalo, he was eating Mallo Cups and saying they were his favorites. He even left me one at the top of Cloud Peak.”
Henry reached down and brushed his thumb on the fur between Dog’s eyes. “I do not suppose you know if this one saw him?”
Before I could answer, David Nickerson came through the swinging doors, spoke briefly with Janine, my dispatcher’s granddaughter and the hospital receptionist, and then approached us. “Well, we’re not going to have to put her down.”
“That’s good news.”
“But she’s getting the boot and crutches.”
“Oh, that’s not going to be fun.”
David smiled and shook his head. “She’s not a good patient.”
The Cheyenne Nation stood and handed me back the card. “You noticed?”
“When we manipulated the ankle, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard language like that in those combinations since high school football.”
“In that particular discipline, she’s kind of an artist in her own right.” Thinking it might be wise to check the progress of the plane coming into Sheridan, I pulled out my pocket watch, though I was pretty sure that it was likely to be delayed because of the weather. “Can we see her?”
“Sure.”
I stuffed the candy card in my jacket pocket. “Can I bring Dog?”
• • •
Vic was sitting on a gurney in the open area of the ER with some curtains partially pulled to afford her a little privacy but doing little to protect the ears of her fellow patients.
“Motherfucker.”
Her classification was seemingly directed at Henry, who placed a hand on his chest in all innocence. “Moi?”
“What the hell were you doing out there impersonating Danny Lone Elk?”
“It was not I.”
“Bullshit.”
“It wasn’t him.” I raised a hand in his defense. “When he got there, he arrived from the same direction that we came from.” I walked over to the gurney and examined the bandage wrapped around her skull, Dog following, placing his heavy head next to her hand. “When you saw the figure, where was it?”
Not taking her eyes off the Bear, she responded, “On that ridge across the canyon.”
“Well, when I first saw him he jumped the cliffs from the west, and I don’t think anybody in their right mind would make that jump once let alone two times.”
Henry grunted. “In all actuality, the western cliff is slightly higher than the one under which the three of you were taking cover. I do not think you could make that same jump in the other direction—at least I could not.” He held up his bandaged hand. “I barely made it once.”
She folded her arms. “I take back the motherfucker.”
“Thank you.” He smiled. “I have a question for you.”
“Shoot.”
He lip-pointed at Dog. “Did he see Danny, too?”
Vic looked at Dog and then back at the Cheyenne Nation. “He did; he barked at whoever it was when I was standing there—barked more than once.”
The Bear spread his hands. “Human.”
I glanced at him. “You’re sure?”
“Of course not.”
“Well, that’s helpful.”
“Animals react differently. There is an old wives’ tale that if an animal responds to a spirit, then you can look between the animal’s ears and see that spirit.”
Vic ventured an opinion. “Old wives are full of shit.”