“Tools?” She entered the code for her garage door.
“Don’t tell me you dug through the sand to bury those bones with your two hands. I know you have a shovel. I saw it, remember?”
She ducked under the garage door before it finished opening and grabbed the shovel she’d used earlier in the week. “Anything else?”
“That’s good enough.” He took the shovel from her and threw it in the back of the truck.
As she climbed into the truck, the wind picked up and snatched at her ponytail. She tipped her head back and sniffed the air. “I hope there’s not another monsoon on the way.”
“Wouldn’t surprise me.” Sam slammed her door and went around to the driver’s side. He started the truck and rolled down her driveway.
They rode in silence for a few miles with the radio playing in the background. Jolene gazed out the window and took a deep breath. “You never showed me any pictures of Jess.”
“You never asked.”
“D-do you have some on your phone?” She folded her hands in her lap. “I’d like to see them...her.”
“I do.” He snatched up his phone on the console and entered his passcode with his thumb. He dropped the phone in her lap. “If you go to my photos, you’ll see a whole folder dedicated to her.”
With unsteady hands, Jolene picked up his phone and accessed the folder called Jess. In the first picture, a bright-eyed toddler with curly dark hair grinned back at her.
Jolene’s own lips stretched into a smile almost involuntarily. “She looks like you...and she looks full of mischief.”
“She is.” Sam’s chest almost puffed up. “She’s still small for her age, but her pediatrician says she’ll catch up. She likes books. She likes anything with wheels, and she loves dogs. I showed her a picture of Chip when he was a puppy, and now she calls every dog Chip.”
Tears pricked the back of Jolene’s eyes, and the next picture of Jess riding a plastic Big Wheel blurred before her. “Sounds like you’ll have to get her a dog.”
“I will when she’s older. I...” Sam stopped and his hands tightened on the steering wheel. “She’s funny. She makes me laugh.”
Jolene swiped through several more photos of the happy little girl. She’d made the right choice letting Sam go. Would he have been able to have the same kind of relationship with his daughter living apart from her? Living in another state? And with Aimee using again, he’d have never known a moment’s peace.
She let out a sigh and placed his phone back on the console. “She’s adorable.”
“I want you to meet her, Jolene.”
Tapping on the window, she said, “It’s coming up. We can take the access road to the casino construction site, and then I’ll guide you in from there.”
Sam slowed the truck, but they didn’t have to search for the entrance to the access road this time. A huge orange-and-yellow sign had gone up on the road, proclaiming this the future site of the Yaqui Desert Sun Casino.
The sign made her stomach churn. Her father had died here and it meant nothing to the people he’d led and counseled most of his life. She licked her lips. “Cheerful sign, huh?”
Sam glanced at her. “If you like that sort of thing.”
As he pulled onto the access road, sand pinged the windshield of the truck. “It’s windy out here tonight. If it brings in a storm, we’re gonna abandon ship and do this another night.”
“Yeah, well, I’m sure we’re going to have a limited number of nights before the bones are dismissed as a stunt.” She sat forward in her seat. “The equipment is still here. The builders must think they’ll be back to work soon.”
“Maybe they will.” The truck crawled to a stop, idling at the edge of the construction site, the out-of-commission equipment hulking in the darkness like the bones of some extinct creatures. “Where to?”
She closed her eyes and mumbled a few words, tracing lines in the air with her fingertip.
“What are you doing? Is that an old Yaqui spell?”
She punched his arm. “Remember the map that was stolen?”
“Of course—the map you didn’t accuse Wade of stealing because you didn’t want him to know you had stolen the map from him in case he didn’t realize you’d stolen the map. That map?”
“Yes.” She tapped her head. “I memorized it—or at least the construction areas. There were other sections shaded in blue that were not yet earmarked for building. I think we should start there.”
Sam peered over the steering wheel out the window. “You’re going to know where to go from here without a compass, exact measurements and surveying equipment? We don’t even have light.”
“I have something better. The land has already been divided and marked. This open plot is all for show, for the ground-breaking, to make it look like this is the first time the developers are dipping into the land. Of course, it’s not.” She smacked the dashboard. “Drive forward. We’ll see posts with markings on them that indicate the different areas of the casino. The buffet restaurant is at the south end of the complex and beyond that? Wasteland.”
“I do have a compass in this truck, and we’ll head south.” He put the truck into gear and cranked the wheel to the left.
The truck went off the road, dipping and tipping along the desert floor. Neither Sam’s nor her rental would’ve been able to navigate this terrain.
She grabbed his forearm. “Stop. You see that post up ahead with the reflective lights?”
“Uh-huh. One of the markers?”
“Yeah. I’ll jump out and see what it says.” She reached into the back seat of the truck and yanked her backpack into her lap. She dug into the main compartment and pulled out her flashlight. “I’ll be right back.”
She launched from the truck and rushed to the post. The less time she spent out here with the snakes and scorpions, the better—and she didn’t mean the reptile and bug kind. Those she could
