I stopped. “Excuse me?”
She folded her arms and looked just as hard as the baking concrete on which she stood. “That’s it?”
I stepped back toward her, Henry’s hand on my arm. “There’s nothing else to do, Chief. They got ’em red- handed.”
“No pun intended.” Henry glanced back at my daughter. “Come on, we need to go, for numerous reasons.”
Long advanced another step after us. “You were there, you saw how he reacted; neither of us thought Clarence Last Bull did this.” Her head began slowly shaking in disbelief. “You know that.”
I made a beseeching gesture with my hands as the Bear continued to hold onto me. “It’s the nature of the business, Lolo. Sometimes we’re wrong.”
“Yeah, right.” Her head turned just a little, her hair moving with her, exposing the sickle-shaped scar. I stood there for a second more, and then watched as Lolo Long turned, walked back to her unit, and slammed the driver’s-side door behind her.
She threw the car in gear and laid a strip of rubber on the roadside that would’ve made Mickey Thompson proud.
9
Standing in the dirt lot of the Western 8 motel in Ashland Henry and I leaned against the rear quarter panel of Lola, close to five hundred pounds of masculinity quaking before a hundred and thirty pounds of femininity. We tried not to look at each other as Cady stared at the less than a dozen units and pronounced them wanting.
“This sucks.”
I pushed my hat back, pulled off my Ray-Bans, and glanced around at the rundown convenience store, the abandoned garages across the street, and the general dilapidation surrounding us. “We could maybe get some hanging baskets with flowers.”
“Daddy.”
I did what I always did in these types of situations and looked to my Indian if not so much Scout. “Help.”
He thought hard. “There is the Whitetail Cabin in the Custer Forest, up near the Red Shale Campground.”
She folded her arms and turned and looked at us. “What kind of services are there?”
He thought some more. “Porta-Potties.”
Cady didn’t say anything and began nosing a rock in the lot with the front of her turquoise flip-flop. “Are there any other motels?”
I glanced at the Bear, and he responded quickly, realizing what dire straits we were in. “Colstrip.”
I turned and repeated the word to my daughter, as if she couldn’t hear the Cheyenne Nation from only ten feet away. “Colstrip.”
“How far is that?”
Unwilling to be the bearer of bad tidings, I looked at Henry.
He shrugged. “About an hour.”
Her eyes stayed steady on us. “What kind of motel?”
“I am not sure.”
A voice rose from behind us as Lena Moretti arrived from the convenience store with a modified six-pack holder containing juices, sodas, and two bottles of Rainier beer. What a woman. She handed over the cardboard box as she read from the phone in her hand.
“The Super 8 Colstrip is conveniently located in the center of Colstrip, Montana, is AAA rated. Property features forty rooms, Super Start Breakfast, Wireless High Speed Internet, interior corridors, large vehicle parking, pets welcomed, guest laundry, fishing lake within short walking distance, and Subway restaurant is next door.”
She slipped the two bottles of beer out and handed them to us. “Drink up, boys. I think you’re going to need it.”
Henry nodded solemnly as he twisted one open for me so that I wouldn’t argue and then unscrewed the one for him, tapping the necks together. “It’s 4:20 somewhere.”
Lena’s cell phone rang, and I recognized ‘Donna e Mobile’ from Rigoletto and smiled. She looked at the phone in her hand. “Hmm… not a number I recognize.” She hit a button and held the device to her ear. “Hello?” A moment passed, and she grinned, holding the phone out. “It’s for you.”
I looked at her, rather puzzled, and held it up to my own ear. “Hello?”
“Are you still on the fucking Rez?”
“Um, yep.”
I listened as my undersheriff repositioned herself somewhere in Omaha. “Do you know how many people are trying to find you?”
I glanced at Lena and, a little ways away, Cady. “Well, two of them found me.”
“Good, then you’re their problem now.”
The phone went dead in my hand. I smiled and handed it back to Lena as Henry watched me. “Business.”
After an embarrassing pause, Lena ran a hand through her almost black hair and continued. “There is also the Fort Union Inn with twenty rooms and within walking distance of downtown Colstrip, which I’m sure will be a comfort to the young Philadelphians, and the Lakeview Bed and Breakfast with nine rooms, more than half of which face the lake, which will be good for the Brahmans.”
Cady took a fruit juice and unscrewed the top as she spoke to Lena. “You have the list?”
“In my head; we need seventy-three rooms in all.” She immediately dialed the phone in her hands.
I thought about the chances of getting all the rooms during the height of tourist season but kept the thought to myself.
“Hi, is this the Super 8, Colstrip?”
She began walking away as Cady came in closer. “Next is the venue; what’s the hang-up with that?”
“Arbutis Little Bird, the librarian over at the college.”
Henry continued. “It would appear that the college is having a language immersion workshop at Crazy Head Springs on the date of your wedding. Lonnie, your father, and I have all tried to talk to her about it, but she is a battle-ax of a woman and is not giving any inches. We explained that we have had the date reserved now for months and that you have your heart set on the place, but nothing.”
Cady’s eyes sharpened, and she began walking back and forth almost as if she were deliberating in front of a jury, her flip-flops stirring up tiny clouds of dust as she paced. “And this Arbutis works at the library?”
“Yes.”
“Will she be there today?”
“It’s a Sunday, so I’m not sure. Cady…”
“I’ll take care of it, Dad.” She sipped her juice, and I took the time to study her, for the first time noticing the preperfection of her tan-not hiding the faintly visible Cheyenne turtle tattoo at her shoulder-her nails, and even the golden streaks in her otherwise auburn hair. Thank goodness she’d gained some weight back after the accident, and the rehab in the gym had transmogrified into a twice a day regimen. I was pretty sure my daughter was in the best shape she’d ever been in her life.
“You’re beautiful.”
Cady turned to flick her eyes at me. “Thanks, Dad.” She looked embarrassed and quickly changed the subject. “Where is the list?”
“What?”
“The list you mentioned in the car; there’s a list of questions that need answers?”
My voice fell. “Oh, hell.”
“What?”
“I left it with Lolo Long’s mother at Health Services.”
