that made it difficult to defy, deny, or criticize her. She was Mother Theresa in a headdress.
“Is Sam around?” Jake flinched as Abby pulled off the bloody gauze pad.
“Upstairs, I believe.” She applied more of the salve and a fresh bandage to his forehead. “Alex and I are going to try a new Mexican restaurant in town. Sam doesn’t care to join us.”
“She’s probably still pissed about her suspension.”
“Sam was suspended?”
“She has a habit of sticking her foot in her mouth. Now she has a whole week off.”
Abby had him hold the bandage in place while she cut strips of tape. “Maybe I should stay home.” She finished the bandaging and pressed the back of her hand to his face.
“Don’t worry. Sam planned it that way,” Jake said. Abby’s look of confusion prompted him to explain. “This way she has more time to work on a case that Captain Murphy closed.”
Abby shook two aspirins out of a bottle and handed them to Jake. “You have a slight fever. Other than that, the wound is healing.”
“How can I thank you and Alex?”
Patting his hand, Abby said, “You don’t have to thank me.”
“There has to be something I can do for Alex. It was his medicine. Although I’m sure he doesn’t want anything from me.”
Fabric rustled as Abby sat down. She gazed out at the backyard where Alex was riding up the asphalt path in the golf cart.
“Actually, there is one thing Alex would like.” She told Jake about an Irish Setter at the pet shop next to a spice emporium. Alex would go next door to play with the dog while Abby shopped. Alex had a similar dog on the reservation but it had been run over by a truck. “He denies that he has a soft spot for that dog and, knowing Alex, I’m sure he feels he would be imposing on Sam.”
“But it wouldn’t be here in this house. It would stay with Alex.”
“I know, but Alex…”
Alex walked in looking dapper in blue jeans, a navy blue sportscoat, navy blue shirt, and a silver conch as a tie. His long gray hair was pulled back in his usual pony tail. His navy hat had a matching conch.
He gave a nod toward Jake, looked at his head. “How is it doing?”
“It lets me know it’s still there when I try to do too much, but I’ll live.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to come?” Abby asked.
“No, thanks.”
“There are leftovers in the frig and cake in the cake saver.”
Once they left, Jake walked into the study. There was a plexiboard on the wall. With magic markers Sam had written the word HAP on the left side of the board. A line extended to the right where she wrote the year Hap allegedly died. Another line continued to the date Hap’s body was found.
Jake picked up a red magic marker. By Hap’s name on the left he printed, YONGCHOU. A little to the right of that he wrote HAWAII.
Chapter 44
Sam took a breather, settling back on the lumpy couch in the master bedroom. She had spent the afternoon cleaning out the walk-in closet. Boxes were marked with colored tape based on whether they were for the church rummage sale or storage until the remodeling was complete.
The master bedroom had fond memories for her of how she used to climb into bed and get lost in the mounds of pillows. She would curl up on her father’s side just to smell his aftershave, feel as though he were always there even though he was half way around the world on a news story.
The room looked out of place now. Not just because the decor didn’t match the rest of the house, but because it seemed so empty, so
… she couldn’t bring herself to say the word dead. She pulled a mahogany jewelry box onto her lap and opened it. Inside were cuff links, tie tacks, and a variety of sterling silver bracelets and necklaces with inlaid turquoise and coral.
Her fingers picked through the tarnished silver and leather wristbands until a familiar-looking pin caught her eye. She slammed the lid shut and hurried down the staircase.
“Abby?” Sam clutched the jewelry box as she ran through the dining room into the kitchen.
Jake strode in from the study with his typical gait, long strides, similar to her father’s. Maybe it was their height. Even at the precinct, she noticed Jake had a purpose to his walk. It wasn’t an arrogant strut. Jake’s head would be bent slightly forward, always kept straight, but his eyes would sweep the room from left to right under those thick brows.
“Abby and Alex just left,” Jake said. He opened the refrigerator and checked the contents.
Sam cocked her head slightly, looked up at Jake’s wet hair and his clean knit shirt that smelled of Abby’s fabric softener. “This isn’t a goddam hotel, Mitchell. You’re getting your clothes washed, your bandages changed…”
Jake slammed the refrigerator door shut, knocking some of the magnets off the front panel. “I’m outta here.”
He slid the screen door open just as Sam said, “Wait.” She opened the jewelry box and mumbled, “I need your help.”
Jake jerked his head around. “Excuse me?”
Sam took a deep breath despising the fact that she had to repeat herself knowing full well he had heard her the first time. “I said I need your help.” She looked at him and tried to stop the tears that were welling up. She whispered, “Please.” Jake closed the screen door and walked over to Sam. “I found this in my father’s jewelry box.” She held up a gold pin in the shape of a lightning bolt.
Chapter 45
“And you never looked in your father’s jewelry box before?” Jake asked.
“I had no reason to. Everything has been packed away since his death.”
“Damn.” He held the pin between his fingers. “It’s definitely the same. But he was too young to have been in the Korean War.”
“Hap had one, Preston, Abbott, and now my father. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“We can’t think on an empty stomach.” Jake set the bowls of leftovers on the counter and they loaded their plates.
Sam picked at her food as Jake fingered the heavy silver bracelets and leather bands. He found a matching men’s necklace. Her gaze swept over his muscular arms and the magnificent way he filled his blue Henley knit shirt. The room was filled with the subtle scent of his woodsy aftershave. She felt a warmth spreading rapidly through her body.
He held up a silver arrowhead on a leather cord. “Beautiful jewelry.”
“Abby used to bring back jewelry from the reservation. That’s how she met Alex. These are some of his earlier pieces.”
“Tell me more about Alex.”
“Alex Red Cloud. He’s a fantastic jewelry maker, herbologist, animal doctor, does great rain dances…”
Jake arched one eyebrow. “Rain dances?”
“He came here about ten years ago. Said that in a vision the spirits told him he had been chosen to protect wicasa wakan.”
“What’s that?” Jake retrieved two liqueur glasses from the cabinet.
“It’s a holy man or medicine man, someone who speaks with the Wakinyan Oyate and heyoka, the Thunder-
