The woman turned her gray head.
Crap. It was Mrs. Branyon, who said with her usual lack of charm, “Oh. It’s you. I was due for a break anyway.” Grasping the arms of the chair, she leveraged herself to her feet. Leaning over Rainbow’s still form, she said loudly, “Honey, that Indian woman is here to see you, the one you took the bullet for. I know you like her, so I’ll leave you two alone. I’m going to get some dinner—the food here is okay, better than at the nursing home, but nothing like the grub at the Oceanview Café. Since you got shot and gave up the job, even that food is not much good. Dax is too busy crying in his soup. I’ll be back, don’t you worry. You’ll be okay for a few minutes.” Without wasting a glance at Kateri, she creaked past to the door. She opened it and said, “Young lady, don’t you open those blinds. She doesn’t need the sun shining in her eyes. By the way, you look like hell yourself. You got the sheriff’s job. Do us all a favor and try not to die before you take the oath of office.” On that caring note, she left.
Kateri hurried to Rainbow’s bedside. “Do you know who you had sitting with you? Mrs. Branyon! Holy cow, what did you do to deserve that? Something bad in a former life?” Kateri tucked in the blankets, and picking up Rainbow’s hand, tsked. “Your fingers are frozen. Let me get you a warm blanket. And”—she lowered her voice—“I don’t care what she says, I’m going to open the blinds. The sun is shining outside and I know how much you love the light.” Kateri did as she said; let in the late-afternoon sun, got a blanket out of the warmer. She brought back the blanket, doubled it, placed it over Rainbow’s body from her neck to her toes. “I remember how cold I was when I was in the coma. Seemed like I was in the opposite of hell, but it sure wasn’t heaven.”
Rainbow didn’t indicate by a flicker of an eyelash that she knew Kateri was here.
“I thought I’d better bring you up to date. You know your parents are in Nepal doing social work and learning the local techniques and patterns of weaving. We’ve got people looking for them, but no one’s found them yet. They sure know how to wander away, don’t they?”
No response. Of course.
“I just got out of emergency myself. Your local law enforcement spent a useless day chasing after the Terrances. We did find out only one Terrance is left. John Senior dumped John Junior’s body on the road as a distraction. It worked. Moen and I were in the lead, saw the body hit the ground, slammed headfirst into a tree trying to avoid it, got hit from behind, and I ended up getting hauled to the hospital by none other than Stag Denali.” It seemed like Rainbow would say something now. Something raunchy, something funny, something earthy.
But no, she didn’t move. Her heart monitor beeped quietly, slowly, steadily.
Kateri continued, “I know, I know. You approve. I approve, too, or rather my loins do. Unfortunately, my brain’s kind of worried about the guy. If you’ll recall, he was walking past the Oceanview Café when the shooting occurred. He dove for the ground a split second before we heard anything. And he came through it unscathed. We’ve been digging bullets and buckshot out of every tree and every building in the square, while he laid right on the sidewalk in full sight and didn’t get a scratch. Which is lucky … unless he planned the shooting. I mean, he waltzes into town, romances me in a big way, announces he wants to build a casino on the rez that’s going to cause no end of trouble for law enforcement, and when I say I oppose it and I unexpectedly win the election, I’m gunned down?” Kateri put her hand on her ribs. “As dear Mrs. Branyon pointed out, you’re the one who actually got gunned down. In my place. Like I didn’t already know that.” Kateri found her throat was getting tight. She swallowed. Waited. Swallowed again. “But the point remains, did Stag help the Terrances plan that drive-by? Not that a drive-by is tough to work out, but for them to escape for four days…” Kateri realized she was staring at Rainbow, expecting an answer. Rainbow was so interested in people, she had such insight into people’s minds and hearts, Kateri depended on her, listened to her …
She wanted to hear Rainbow again. Hear her voice.
“Right now they’re doing an autopsy on John Junior. Apparently he was shot during the drive-by. We’ve lost John Senior in the mountains. But Bergen and the guys did find his campsite—or one of them—and his car. He escaped in an off-road vehicle, the bastard.” Sliding her hand under the blanket, Kateri took Rainbow’s cool, still fingers. She leaned close and whispered, “We will get him. I swear to you, we will get him.” She leaned back quickly before her tears could fall on Rainbow’s face.
Behind her, the door opened. She wiped at her face, then faced Mrs. Branyon.
But it wasn’t Mrs. Branyon. It was Officer Moen. “Sheriff, you heard what happened with Terrance?”
She nodded.
“I’m sorry we screwed up.” The pale, redheaded boy scraped his foot across the linoleum.
“We didn’t screw up. We simply didn’t realize the cold bastard would treat his son’s body like garbage.” Truer words she’d never spoken. “We know better now, and we won’t underestimate him again.”
“I can give you the details on the way to City Hall.”
She cleared her throat. “Dr. Frownfelter told me to go home.”
“Um, I don’t think you should. Or … or can.”
For the first time, she focused, really focused, on Moen. He had brown stains on his cuffs and a brown smear across his chest—bloodstains—and the kid looked tired. Grasping his arm, she turned him toward the door and pushed him into the corridor. “Moen, you have to be off duty. Why are you here?”
“Monique Ries came to the hospital in an ambulance. I came in with her.”
Monique Ries was a local, probably in her thirties although she looked older, overweight, overly affectionate when intoxicated—and she was always intoxicated. But for all that, no one disliked Monique enough to hurt her. “What happened to Monique?”
“We had a slashing incident behind the Gem Lounge.”
“Slashing?” Man, this week just got better and better. “Who? How?”
“Unknown perp.”
“Unknown perp…” Yep, better and better.
“Miss Ries was at the bar getting her morning refreshments…”
“Right.”
“She met some guy lurking outside the ladies’ room, he made an offer, she followed him into the alley and he tried to slash her throat with, like, a box knife. Something really sharp.”
“Slash her throat?” Good God almighty. “He … missed?”
“She started shrieking and body-butted him.” Moen looked at Kateri meaningfully. “She carries a lot of body.”
Kateri waved at him to continue.