Forgotten Bones Read online

  “Tonight? Great.” Skye let out a sigh. So much for a quiet evening and a movie. “I hope pizza’s okay. Why are Judy and Reggie back from their vacation? They weren’t due back until Sunday night.”

  “They’ll tell you all about it when we get there.”

  “Tell me about what? Are they okay?”

  Before he could answer, before she knew what was happening, Sierra took off down the driveway running, her little legs pulling away faster with every step. Skye set off in pursuit, finally capturing the bundle of energy and corralling the youngster by grabbing the only thing she could reach—the child’s hoodie.

  On the other end of the phone, Josh heard a series of harried breaths from Skye. “What’s happening?”

  “Only that your daughter is making her own escape plan,” Skye grumbled right before she dropped her cell phone onto the concrete driveway and watched the cover shatter into a million pieces as it landed on the wet pavement, pouring rain drenching the device.

  “It bwoke,” Sierra shouted. “You bwoke it.”

  “No kidding,” Skye murmured, her shoulders slumping. “The only contact I have with the outside world, and now it’s gone.”

  As if the heavens thought so too, lightning streaked across the sky overhead accompanied by a loud pop of thunder that shook the ground.

  Skye hustled Sierra into the garage and hit the button to close the door. She led the way into a large mudroom and hung up their jackets while Sierra took off again. This time, Sierra scampered through the kitchen. Before Skye reached the other room, she heard shrieks and giggles of laughter as the family dogs greeted the toddler with a round of friendly kisses and slurps.

  No doubt Atka, the Malamute mix, led the way, but it was the most recent addition to the family, an eight-month-old gray and white husky rescue named Bella with big blue eyes that made the most noise.

  Sierra had begged for a baby brother or sister. What she got instead was a rambunctious and willful ball of fur that adored having a place to call home. The two, or rather three—or was it four including Kiya—made a perfect pack. None of them seemed to take any responsibility when a lamp broke, or a toy went missing. They all complained loudly about any form of discipline, especially any bedtime rules that might keep Sierra on anything resembling a schedule.

  Bella’s huge paws alone were enough to sound like a marching band parading through the house with a big drum keeping the beat.

  Skye shrieked when the frisky puppy nudged a nose into her crotch. “Stop that. This summer, you’re going to dog school, young lady.”

  Sierra wrapped her arms around Bella’s body and rested her head on the dog. “Kiya will teach her how to stop that cause that’s what spirit guides do. Teach stuff.”

  “You both should listen to Kiya more often,” Skye tossed back. “You can’t run off into traffic like you just did outside where cars might not see you. It’s dangerous. Promise me you won’t do that again.”

  Sierra hung her head and gripped Bella’s fur tighter. “’Kay. I’m sowwy.”

  “Good. Running out in traffic, bad for everybody, even our four-legged friends. Now, who wants to help me dig up something for dinner?”

  “Mac and cheese,” Sierra hollered, running to the pantry door and grabbing a box of elbow macaroni. Surrounded by the dogs, she held it high above her head like a prize.

  “You always want that. How about we try something different tonight? Like ravioli with red sauce, maybe.”

  Sierra stuck out her chin and shook her head in a defiant gesture Skye recognized well. To sell the disgusting idea of ravioli better, the kid made a perfect pout. “Red sauce tastes yucky. I want mac and cheese with the creamy sauce.”

  To make matters worse, the dogs seemed to sense Sierra’s scowl and joined in the disgust over the red sauce, whining about it to make their case.

  Tired from a long three weeks without having Judy for backup, Skye didn’t feel like another battle with the tot over food, so she gave in and went to dig out a pan. “Why make a big deal over ravioli?” she mumbled to herself. “She’s healthy. The pediatrician said so. I’ll just work on diet choices when she’s older.”

  “Mama, who are you talking to?” Sierra piped in from below.

  Skye looked down at her daughter. “I’m reminding myself what a little fussbudget you are sometimes.”

  Sierra giggled. “I’m not a fuss wudget. I’m a girl.”

  Skye bent down and swooped her up off her feet. “Why don’t you like pizza?”

  “Cause it’s icky.”

  “See? That’s a fussbudget. One macaroni and cheese coming up. Why don’t you get the dog food out and scoop it into the dishes for me? I bet your crew is hungry, too.”

  “’Kay.” The girl scooted down to get the chore done, scattering kibble from the pantry to the edge of the counter before turning her attention to helping her mother create the cheese sauce that would go over the pasta.

  Skye had learned to deal with spilled milk and messes. Thirty minutes later, she dished up homemade mac and cheese into a bowl just as Josh and his entourage swept through the front door.

  She looked over at Reggie and Judy as the couple followed Josh into the entryway. “Shouldn’t you guys still be exploring Montana or Wyoming? Please don’t tell me that old RV gave out and left you stranded on the side of the road.”

  Leo Martin trailed after everyone carrying two huge pizza boxes wafting with the smell of pepperoni. “Three nights ago, they had quite the encounter on the road near the Reservation in Idaho. They can’t wait to tell you all about it.”

  “Someone should start talking then,” Skye suggested. “My imagination is coming up with all kinds of issues.”

  “The RV was fine,” Reggie assured her. “Your dad’s motorhome got us there and back without a problem. In fact, Travis has kept it up real nice. It’s a shame he doesn’t use it more often.”

  “Which is the reason I wondered why he bought it in the first place,” Skye muttered. “If it didn’t break down, then why are you guys here before you have to be. Come Tuesday, you’ll be wondering why you came back to civilization so early.”

  “Three weeks is a long time to be away,” Judy stated. “The only thing we’d change about the trip is bringing a car with us. Like idiots, we opted not to tow one. And there were times we really needed a vehicle to go into town instead of taking the RV and trying to park it at the store.”

  “Told ya,” Josh said, looking over at Reggie. “Last time I drove that thing was when I helped Travis store it inside the barn at the ranch. It took me half an hour to straighten it out, so it wasn’t right up against the wall.”

  “Yeah, parking that thing is a nightmare. That part definitely made things hairy wherever we ended up. I can’t tell you how many times I almost whacked the thing into a building.” Reggie winced at revealing that nugget. “You might not want to mention that part to your dad.”

  Skye sent him a smile. “No problem. Your secret is safe with me. Come on in the kitchen. We’ll dive into a bottle of red. That pizza smells heavenly like I could eat one all by myself. Okay, so who’s gonna tell me what happened in Idaho?”

  Judy did the main rehashing while Reggie added his own tidbits when the situation warranted.

  “What we couldn’t understand is why we got such a cold reception from Captain Grayhawk. I mean, he’s Sara’s own brother. You’d think a cop would want any help he could dig up in finding out what happened to his sister.”

  Skye swirled the wine in her glass and looked over at Judy. “Face facts. The FBI and BIA looked into Sara’s case, as well as the others. So did the State Police. Quade Grayhawk might be a territorial jackass when it comes to his cases—or so I’ve heard—but he’s followed protocol and procedure every time a girl went missing. I know that for a fact.”

  “Every time?” Judy’s eyes widened. “Wait a minute. Are you saying you already knew about the missing girls?”

  “Well, yeah. Everybody in the Pacific Northwest k
inda does. Ask Harry Drummond next time you see him.”

  “Could these disappearances be linked to human trafficking? It happens everywhere.”

  “In these cases, no. It’s been rumored for a decade that the Reservation is dealing with a serial offender. Problem is no one has found a single body. And you know law enforcement. Any branch of law enforcement prefers talking about murder only when they have an actual body.”

  “Or prosecutors,” Josh added. “Without a victim, district attorneys and law enforcement are reluctant to proceed. No body, no crime. To them, they’re still a missing person.”

  “These girls have been labeled runaways,” Judy stated, staring over at Skye.

  “Believe me, I know how wrong that is,” Skye said, cutting her eyes toward Judy. “Categorizing children as runaways is often a lazy response.”

  “But not finding a body could mean trafficking.”

  “It could. But what’s happening in Idaho, I’m afraid equates to a serial killer.”

  “You’re certain?” Judy asked, leaning against the counter, unimpressed. “But if you knew about the girls and believe it’s murder…then why haven’t you done anything about it?”

  Skye traded looks with Josh before narrowing her eyes on Judy. “Despite what you may think, I’m not in the habit of barreling my way into a Tribal Police Department, or for that matter any other police department in the country and demanding that they do what I want them to do. I used to do that. Back in the day when I was naïve. It didn’t go well. Not for anybody. It didn’t take long for me to learn a valuable lesson about butting my nose into where it’s not welcome or appreciated. That’s the exact reason we started the Artemis Foundation. We wanted to do more, a lot more. Under the umbrella of the Foundation, we have the respectability that I lacked by myself. Do you remember when you first started working there and I explained about the FBI when you asked me why they didn’t jump in and use their expertise to solve every murder?”

  Judy plopped into one of the kitchen chairs. “Of course. The FBI can’t enter a local case unless the police in that jurisdiction put in a request for them to do so. But you aren’t the FBI.”

  “No, I’m not. But these days I can pick up the phone and call Quantico and speak to an agent. Why? Because I’ve carved out a level of respect. I get results. This team gets results. We find missing girls. We find serial killers. Do you have any idea how long it took for Seattle PD, or King County for that matter, to recognize what I could do for them? Years. When I first started, I got kicked out of more substations than I care to count. Redmond. Bellingham. Tacoma. I got the same cold reception wherever I showed up, unannounced, and tried to offer my help. A couple of times they almost got a restraining order to keep me from entering the building. For years, Harry Drummond was the only one on the force who believed in me. He’s the only detective there who, on occasion, might even ask for my help. Then he’d take the heat for it, get laughed at for it. That stung. A lot. But that relationship took years to develop, Harry knowing me…on a personal level…before it ever moved in the right direction. Think about it. The faith law enforcement has in me now is rather recent. It wasn’t until after Harry retired that King County came around. So please don’t sit there and judge me with that look.”

  “What look would that be?”

  “The pious look that says I’m not doing enough to find fifteen missing girls over in Idaho.”

  Judy looked down at her hands in her lap. “Sorry. It’s just that…I thought you’d want to find out what’s going on. No one else seems to give a hang about these girls.”

  “I’m sure that’s not true. From what I’ve heard about Quade Grayhawk, he cares. For what it’s worth, I’m not opposed to looking into any of their disappearances. I’d be willing if the rest of you are. We are a team,” Skye reminded her. “Some time back, I already formed an opinion about the perpetrator. Over the years, Josh and I’ve talked about this case plenty of times.”

  Across the table, Josh nodded and lifted his glass. “But every time we’ve approached the Tribal Police and Grayhawk, we’ve been rebuffed. Then there was that one time that Skye offered to bring Grayhawk a mobile crime lab to use.”

  Skye crossed her arms over her chest. “I’d forgotten about that. He told me where to stick my mobile crime lab and reminded me that it wouldn’t do any good since he didn’t have a single crime scene.”

  “So…we stepped back,” Josh continued. “We didn’t want to, but we decided pushing our way into the situation might be a bad idea. Skye and I talked it over and agreed that having no bodies make it difficult to work the case anyway from an outsider’s standpoint. And if we do this now, we’d have to take each missing girl and start from the beginning, build out from that point. A few might actually be runaways.”

  Judy sat up straighter. “I knew it. I knew you two wouldn’t let Captain Grayhawk intimidate you from staying away.”

  Skye rolled her eyes toward Judy. “It’s not that simple. And you know it. If what you say is true and this Sergeant Tanoose is going behind his boss’s back, it will eventually trickle back to Grayhawk. It won’t be pretty when that happens. And I won’t need to be in Idaho to hear the blowback when the man finds out. Which he will. If Reggie could convince this guy to keep feeding us information from the inside, though, that could make a world of difference in how we approach this.”

  Reggie slid another slice of pizza onto his plate. “Felix. After three days of shooting emails back and forth, I’m on a first-name basis with Tanoose. And he’s already sent me a bunch of emails. It’s like Felix is excited to have somewhere to send the data. I think he’s reaching out the only way he can, the only way he feels comfortable going behind his boss’s back. Felix called that bulletin board their Wall of Shame. That must mean that he’s fed up with his boss’s nonchalant attitude.”

  “I doubt Grayhawk is indifferent to the loss of his sister,” Skye cautioned. “I’d suggest treading softly there when you’re communicating with Tanoose. You really don’t want it to blow up in your face. Or Felix’s.”

  Leo had been listening to the round table discussion without entering the fray. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “You said you had formed an opinion about the perpetrator. That must mean you’ve developed a profile. Who do you think the guy is? And are you prepared to consider it might be someone from the Reservation, a member of the tribe?”

  “It’s not,” Skye stated with conviction. “This guy obviously hunts on the Reservation, but he isn’t part of it. Only two of his victims are White. The others are either Native American or African American. My guess is the guy is there as some type of worker, consultant, or handyman like a construction worker who comes onto the Rez routinely for work. But he doesn’t live there.”

  “Interesting,” Leo said. “But wouldn’t an outsider stand out like a sore thumb?”

  “You’d think but not really. Not if people are used to seeing him, used to dealing with him on a routine basis. Look, without leaving behind bodies, this guy has to have a massive dumping ground that’s not on the Reservation, not where anyone routinely travels. But before we get ahead of ourselves and I start speculating a whole lot more, I’d like to do my own research, take it in steps, and get a feel for the victims, especially the latest one, get up to speed with the entire case.”

  Judy swiped her phone. “The latest missing girl is Laurel Smith, age fourteen, who went missing last December, four days before Christmas. She’d gone into town to pick up a present for her little sister.”

  Skye scowled over at Judy. “I’m surprised you don’t remember us sending out flyers about Laurel. We sent emails out to more than a hundred law enforcement agencies in six states. That’s what the Foundation does to help when a girl goes missing.”

  Judy’s hands flew to her face. “Oh, my God, I do remember that. That day I rushed out of the office to finish my Christmas shopping. That afternoon was a blur. After getting all the emails out, I took of
f out of there like a speed demon. What with the holidays, I must’ve filed it away in my memory bank. I guess I forgot about the case. It was in Idaho, and I thought surely someone there would take care of finding poor Laurel Smith before Christmas. I’m sorry.”

  Skye let out a sigh. “It’s impossible for us to go out on every single alert that we get, especially when it’s out of state, and especially when the authorities don’t want us there. Josh and I followed up after Christmas. January was the last time Grayhawk told us to quit bugging him.”

  “Yeah, but, I thought, you know…I’m sorry what I said about you not reacting.”

  “Stop saying that,” Skye said. “If you didn’t get worked up about a missing child, I’d start to worry about you. Don’t ever apologize for feeling angry or frustrated. None of you should. The thing I remember most about this Idaho connection is when I started dabbling online for facts. Everyone said that thirteen-year-old Sara Grayhawk was the first victim. Which is interesting since she’s the girl you saw at your campsite.”

  Reggie shifted in his chair. “Felix believes Sara’s spirit is trying to find its way back home.”

  Skye leaned back and picked up her glass of wine. “A reasonable assumption. But it might mean more than that. You say there have been other reports that Sara has made an appearance. The girl might be trying to tell us about her killer. If we do this, I think Sara Grayhawk should be our starting point, her, and the entire Grayhawk family. I’ll get in touch with Wren Grayhawk, Sara’s mother, maybe get her to convince her son to cooperate with the team.”

  “You know Wren Grayhawk?” Judy asked.

  Skye smiled. “Not at all. But her name is mentioned several times online.”

  “And what happens if she can’t persuade Grayhawk?” Reggie proffered. “Who’s gonna confront this guy? Judy and I did already, and he told us the same thing he told you and Josh, only he said it to our faces.”

  Skye steepled her fingers. “I think this is so personal for Quade Grayhawk that he wants to be the one to catch this guy without outside interference. It sounds to me like he might be blinded by his lust for revenge.”