Perhaps she wasn’t being fair to state child welfare systems. Louisiana had been wise enough to give Amande to her. She could only hope that Tennessee would be wise enough to do the right thing for Kali, although Faye couldn’t swear that a scenario that was right for Kali even existed. The best thing for everybody was for Faye to stick to archaeology and let the social worker do what she’d been trained to do.
Thinking about the dark days when she and Joe weren’t sure Amande would ever be theirs, Faye needed very much to talk to her husband. Actually, she needed to see him, and thank God, there was a device in her pocket that would have been futuristic not so very many years before. She pulled out her phone and put in a video call to Joe.
Joe looked like he’d just gotten out of the shower, with his long hair, almost black, hanging around his strong-jawed Muscogee Creek face in wet tangles. He was saying, “Are you out of your mind?” Actually, he was kind of yelling it. Almost.
Joe’s voice hurt her ear, and that said something about how upset he was. He never raised his voice. His next words underscored her husband’s troubled state of mind.
“Get in your car and drive it home. I mean it, Faye.”
Joe never told her what to do. Well, not too often. To be fair, he knew exactly how well it usually went for him when he tried it, but he also was not dictatorial by nature. Not even close. He was the gentlest soul Faye knew.
“Our company has a contract to fulfill,” she reminded him. “With the state of Tennessee? Remember it? Do you want me to renege on that contract? If I do, we’ll never work for the state of Tennessee again. And maybe not for any other government agencies. Those people talk to each other, Joe. You know that. Every time we compete for a job, they make us list our previous government contracts, on pain of perjury, so they can check our references. I can’t just walk away.”
“There won’t be any more jobs if you get yourself killed. If all the government agencies in the world decide they won’t work with us because you quit a job that was too damn dangerous, then that’s the way it is. There was a murder, Faye.”
“And it had nothing to do with this job.”
Faye knew she was tiptoeing out on a flimsy limb with that statement, argumentatively speaking, because the dying woman had been found on the very land she’d been hired to study. Still, the job had nothing to do with Frida, and Frida had nothing to do with the job.
“I’m not stupid, Faye. You went to work this morning. First week on the job, I might add. You found a bleeding, dying woman, buried alive. Don’t tell me it didn’t have nothing to do with this job.” Joe still wasn’t quite yelling, but she could tell he wanted to.
“Fair enough. But remember that this morning was the last time for me to be here working alone. Jeremiah is bringing his crew of student workers. When McDaniel opens up the job site, hopefully soon, I’ll be surrounded by young, strong people. Truly, Joe. I’ll be okay.”
“In the daytime, you’ll be surrounded by people. What about at night?”
Faye was really not looking forward to spending her first night after finding Frida alone in her cabin. Joe knew exactly which of her buttons to push, but she pretended that he was wrong.
“Why should I be afraid? I’ll still be surrounded by all those young, strong, enthusiastic young people. That’s the best part of this job, remember? The client is putting us up in a block of state park cabins, for free. Fully furnished. Full kitchens. Jeremiah’s planning nightly campfires. I’ve been in my beautiful cabin all week and it’s like being on vacation.”
“You live on an island with a beach and three boats. I build you nightly campfires. How is this better?”
“Um, it’s not? But I’m bringing in a paycheck. And you know we need that check.”
“It scares me to think of you being alone there.”
“Everybody I’ve met has been very nice.” They’ve also been scared to death of all the men the poor dead woman ever dated or married, but never mind that.
“You haven’t met everybody. And also, did you forget that I can see you? And where you are?”
Faye turned around and looked behind her. The two houses that were serving as the backdrop for her video chat both sported heavy bars on every window. The tall man walking in front of them wore a tank top exposing arms that were fully inked. His tattoos had the simple, brutalistic look of ink gotten in prison. His tall mohawk swayed in the wind. She didn’t believe in judging people by the way they looked, but she was pretty sure this guy would still be scary if he were tattooless, mohawk-less, and dressed for Sunday School.
“Does your cabin have bars like that on the windows?”
“It has a deadbolt, just like any hotel room, and I use it. I’ll be careful, Joe. I promise.”
She hung up the phone and went looking for McDaniel. She hated to betray Kali’s trust, but it was time to tell him everything the little girl had said. The detective needed all the help he could get to find the killer who took her mother away from her.
Chapter Fourteen
“So you’re telling me that Kali was a witness. To the killing? To the burial? Both? Was she there when you found her mother?”
Walt Walker and Reverend Atkinson had left. Faye and
