After he’d gone, Lucy sat staring at the door, a thoughtful expression on her face.
“He talks tough, but he’s upset about Curt, too,” said Ellie, reading her mind and answering Lucy’s unspoken thoughts. “It’s funny about the tribe. It’s like a big family. We get mad at each other, but if one of us gets hurt in some way, it’s like all of us got hurt. He’s a lot more upset than he’s letting on, believe me. Especially since Curt was killed. Maybe whoever did it had it in for Curt, or maybe they hate all Indians. It wouldn’t be the first time.”
“Curt made a lot of enemies,” said Lucy.
“Yeah,” agreed Ellie. “So you want to see the dog? I put him outside.”
Lucy followed Ellie outside through the fog and drizzle to the empty chicken coop Ellie was using as a temporary kennel. Inside the wire fence, Kadjo was lying down with his chin on his front paws. He didn’t get up as they approached. He just cocked an eye at them and sighed. It was a huge sigh—a sigh that seemed to express immense sadness.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say he’s mourning for his master,” said Lucy.
“He is mourning for him.” Ellie pulled the hood of her jacket over her head.
“How could he know?”
“Dogs know. Always. Bees, too.”
“Bees?”
“When a beekeeper dies . . .”
“I don’t believe it,” said Lucy, sticking her hands in her pocket for warmth.
Ellie shrugged and opened the gate. When they entered the pen, Kadjo got to his feet, but he didn’t make any gesture. He didn’t wag his tail in welcome; he didn’t growl in warning. Ellie reached down and scratched him behind the ears. He looked up at her with sad yellow-brown eyes.
Lucy stroked his neck, feeling the muscles beneath his thick, coarse coat, which was beaded with moisture. “Poor old boy,” she said.
He expelled another huge sigh and leaned his shoulder against her leg.
“I’ll take him,” she said.
“Great,” said Ellie. “You won’t regret it.”
Lucy was regretting it already.
“But not until Sunday when my company has left and the house is quiet.”
“That’s good.” Ellie patted Kadjo’s massive head. “That way you’ll be able to get acquainted in peace.”
“Not likely,” said Lucy. “This will probably cause a divorce.”
“Look on the bright side—at least you’ll have a dog.”
“Might not be such a bad deal after all,” said Lucy with a small smile. She started to go, then remembered something she’d meant to ask Ellie about. “Fred Rumford called me Wednesday night. He accused Curt of taking the war club from Chris White. Do you know anything about that?”
“Kids! Curt saw Chris and some other members of the team loading a keg of beer into a car. They also had the war club. They’d left it lying on the roof of the car, in fact, so he told them to give it to him for safekeeping. He was going to take it back to the college.”
“Even though he thought it should belong to the tribe?”
“Of course. The tribe doesn’t have a safe place for it now. He wanted it for the museum—the one that’s supposed to be part of the casino deal.”
“You’re sure about this?”
“Absolutely.”
“But the police couldn’t find him Wednesday night. Do you know where he was?”
A look of peace settled on Ellie’s face and she smiled. “He was with the ancestors, showing them the war club and promising to keep it safe.”
Lucy nodded, as if she understood; then she realized she didn’t. “And where did he find the ancestors?” she asked, hoping she wasn’t being rude.
“On the island, of course. Metinnicut Island in the bay.”
“Did he go alone?”
Ellie nodded. Then her face crumpled and Lucy wrapped her arms around the sobbing woman. They stood there together—two women and a dog in the cold November drizzle—for a long time.
CHAPTER 13
What had Lucy done? Was she out of her mind? How on earth was she going to convince Bill to accept Kadjo when she didn’t even know herself why she had agreed to take the dog?
This was insane, she thought as she drove down Ellie Martin’s driveway and turned onto Main Street Extension. It must be some sort of empty-nest syndrome, she theorized. Maternal instincts gone awry. Toby had flown off to college. He preferred his friends over his family, and she was reeling from the snub. What other explanation could there be?
All that was perfectly understandable, she could hear Bill saying as the Subaru wagon whizzed past the brown fields and bare trees, but why should the whole family have to suffer because of her motherly neurosis? Why should they have to put up with a huge, unruly, smelly beast of a dog that nobody wanted but her? A dog like that must eat an awful lot. How much did dog food cost? Did she have any idea? Not to mention vet bills. What if he got sick or was hit by a car? How would they afford that?
She didn’t have any answers, she admitted to herself as she passed a deep stand of dark pine woods. All she knew was that she wanted to adopt Kadjo and she was determined to do it. Besides, she rationalized, she didn’t ask much for herself. She never bought anything—clothing or shoes—that wasn’t on sale, and when the kids asked what she wanted for Christmas or her birthday, she always told them to make her a nice card because that would mean more to her than anything they could buy. And it was true.
Now, for the first time in a very long time, she wanted something. She wanted Kadjo, and she decided as she pulled up at a stop sign that she was going to have him no matter what.
That settled, she found herself feeling remarkably cheerful and lighthearted. She could hardly wait until Monday when she could bring the dog home.
She had just pulled out onto Route 1 and was speeding along, eager to tell the kids about her
