ride to a safe-house. The lawyer coached Toni through the procedure with sublime disregard for Mooncrow, who smudged Toni, the kids, the lawyer, and the papers impartially, chanting and drumming with his other hand.
Then again, this probably wasn't the strangest ceremony these offices had ever seen. Hadn't Jennie said something about being part of the dedication ceremonies?
Yes, she had told him about it. She'd offered an Osage purification and blessing, along with a female rabbi, a female Episcopalian priest, a female minister, a voodoo priestess, and some kind of witch. ...
No wonder the lawyer wasn't fazed. On the other hand, given what they 're doing here, they probably figured they needed all the blessings they could get, he decided.
Mooncrow and the lawyer were equally efficient; they finished at about the same time, and both stood aside to let Maria herd up Toni and her kids like a faithful sheepdog and whisk them off to somewhere a lot safer.
'Wait,' Toni said, just before Maria herded them out the door. Maria paused, and Toni looked back at David. 'Before we go off-I didn't get a chance to tell you this. I want you to get hold of the cops that are investigating the bombing,' she said, firmly. 'Tell them that I have things they need to know, things I found out over the past couple of days. I want to testify against Rod. And I found a lot of papers and tapes in the safe in his office when I got in there this morning. He had them in a box marked 'Insurance.' I guess he thought that was clever; they're all in my suitcase.'
David nodded, and looked at Maria, who grimaced. 'Actually, Toni, if you have things you think might put you in danger, I'll take you downtown before I take you to the shelter. You might qualify for the witness protection program, and that would free up a little more space for another woman who doesn't.'
'I thought about that,' Toni replied, and licked her lips nervously. 'With what I overheard on the phone-I think I would qualify, and I'd feel a lot safer with the cops watching us. No insult meant, Maria, but your people don't know Rod, and I do. I-think he might try something really drastic when he realizes we're gone.'
'You're on.' Maria waved her out the door, and David relaxed a little, then joined the lawyer in opening windows and fanning smoke out of the room.
'Sorry about this-' he began, apologetically. The lawyer laughed.
'Don't worry about it,' she assured him. 'I've seen weirder, believe me. The worst was the time we got some poor little Haitian girl in here who was so terrified of a curse that she wouldn't even pick up a pen until we brought in the woman that helped at the dedication. A little smoke is nothing-the obeah brought in chickens, a goat-I thought we were never going to get the goat smell out, and we're still finding feathers in odd corners!'
David laughed as they chased the last of the smoke out the windows and opened the door to the rest of the office. Then he borrowed the office phone long enough to call in a progress report to Sleighbow and Romulus Insurance. And Mr. Sleighbow was very interested in what Toni Calligan had said before she left. Very interested.
'Thank you, Mr. Horse,' he said, gravely. 'I'll get in touch with the Tulsa P.D. and have them call me as soon as they've taken Mrs. Calligan's statement. If she is that concerned-' he hesitated for a moment'-please remind Ms. Talldeer that she told me she was not Nancy Drew. Urge her to take extreme caution.'
Well, it's a little too late for that, David thought, with heavy irony. But Sleighbow didn't know about the past three days; the attack was the one thing that Jennie had insisted on keeping from him. She had pointed out that she could not prove that her attackers had been sent by Calligan. If, however, she could get the thugs picked up, they would very probably sing some fascinating tunes.
At least Sleighbbw was concerned for Jennie's safety. David had to respect that and the man himself. Sleighbow didn't know Jennie personally; she was just a 'hired hand.'
So David made sure to thank the man, and promised him another update as soon as they had any information at all.
The rest of the Shelter volunteers were clustered around a television set as he came out of the little office, and it did not look as if they were watching soaps. Not with the expressions of shock on their faces. 'My God!' said one.
'Isn't that Jennie Talldeer?'
'What?' he exclaimed, sudden images of Jennie lying hurt or worse flashing into his mind. He practically leapt the desk to try and get a look at the screen himself.
He got a brief glimpse of Jennie-Alive, all right, oh thank god!-before the station went to a commercial. The woman who had made the exclamation spotted him crowding in, and said, 'Aren't you Jennie's boyfriend?' Then, before he could answer, she reached for the channel changer. 'Hang on, I'll bet they'll have this on another channel!'
This time they apparently came in right at the beginning of the newsbreak; a different reporter was on the scene of some kind of accident. ...
He recognized the spot immediately; near the top of the bluff above the Verdigris River on Highway 20. The camera panned down the bluff to the smoking remains of some kind of vehicle far below, before turning to the road, and showing a bus and Jennie's Brat, practically nose-to-nose.
A different reporter was interviewing Jennie, who looked remarkably composed. Unless you knew her, and knew that it was nothing but a mask.
The woman turned up the sound.
'-acted like they'd been drinking, and tried to pass me just in front of the blind curve,' Jennie was saying. 'I slammed on the brakes just as the bus came around the other side. That poor bus driver didn't have a prayer of missing them, and the only reason I didn't end up in the wreck was because I had already stopped. The driver should get a medal for keeping that bus under control and on the road!'
The reporter thanked her, and went on to interview one of the passengers on the bus. The cameraman panned down on the wrecked car again.
Was it a Lincoln? It sure could have been.
David looked over at Mooncrow, who only nodded.
Nodded? Wait a minute-Mooncrow looked a lot more tired than he should be for the simple ceremony he'd just completed. Unless, of course, he had been doing Other Things at the same time!
David got the old man aside while the attention of the women was still on the television, and hissed, 'You knew about this, didn't you? You knew she was in trouble!'
Mooncrow shrugged. 'What good would it have done to tell you? I did what I could, and you could have done nothing.'
David scowled and gritted his teeth. The old man might be right about that-but still!
When Jennie came in about an hour later, the entire volunteer staff had cycled through and no one knew of her involvement in the bus accident. David got to her first.
'I don't know whether to hold you or hit you,' he said under his breath, as he caught her in a tight embrace.
'Hold me,' she advised. 'I have enough people trying to hit me.'
She looked as gray as Mooncrow, and about as tired. The old man came up beside them, and David watched them trade significant looks with a sense of frustration.
I hope to hell they get around to telling me about what's been going on, he thought, grinding his teeth a little. But there was no point in taking out his frustration on her. Did those close to all Medicine People feel left out like this?
'Toni's in police custody,' he told her, instead of snapping at her. 'She found something out, something big enough that she wants to testify.'
Jennie's head came up at that, alertly. 'Damn!' she swore softly. 'In that case-we'd better get those papers served on Rod Calligan, before he gets wind of that and goes into hiding. If we can't serve the protective order and the divorce papers on him, that's only going to complicate the state's case. Did you call Sleighbow for me?'
'Already taken care of; I figured he'd want to hear that,' David said, pleased that he'd thought of it. 'My only question is, are you up to this paper thing?'
'You need me along,' she replied, staunchly. 'Or actually, to be completely truthful, we need each other. If he's going to try anything, we'll be two against one. I don't think that he'll try anything with a witness around.'
David grimaced, but she was right. And given Rod Calligan's recent history, he wasn't going to bet on the man reacting sanely to the papers being served.
'All right,' he said. 'Let's rock.'
