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“He’d like you to be there,” Ward told me, and his tone was apologetic.

Oh fuck.I swallowed. “I’ll be there,” I told him, hoping my voice didn’t shake. I didn’t think it did.

For the record, I didnotwant to be there. I’ve attended exhumations before, and they’reneverpretty. The examinations of the bodies after are also pretty fucking horrific on the scale of forced-confrontation-of-mortality. But if Gregory Crane wanted me to attend his, then I sure as fucking shit was going to.

And then not sleep for a week. But he didn’t need to know that, and neither did my boss.

“He doesn’t want Elliot there,” Ward continued.

“Neither do I,” I replied. Because that was absolutely the last thing Elliot should see. Ever. I wondered if I was going to have to fight with him about it. I hoped to fuck not.

“Then he agrees,” my boss said, his voice soft and sympathetic.

“Okay. Thanks.”

“Hart?”

“Yeah?”

“Take care of yourself.”

“I’ll try,” is what I came back with.

“And Taavi.”

“That I can do.”

We said goodbye, and I called Elliot next.

He gave his permission—and his was the permission we legally needed—and informed me in no uncertain terms that he didnotwant to be there. So at least I wasn’t going to have to fight with him about it.

He also asked if I was going to be, and I’d said yes. I didn’t tell him Gregory had asked for me. Because then I’d have to tell him that Gregory had asked himnotto be there, and I wasn’t sure how he’d take that, even if he shared his father’s opinion.

When I hung up the phone, I felt like I’d just run several miles, even though I hadn’t done anything more strenuous than rub some swabs on some surfaces and then sit on my ass for multiple hours, first in a car, and then in this office chair.

“Email him the form,” I told Olsen, then gave her Elliot’s email. “He’ll sign it.”

“Fantastic!” She grinned, then immediately wiped the expression off her face. “Sorry.”

“Did I hear you agree to observe it?” Smith asked, a tentative hand touching my upper arm.

“Yeah. Elliot asked me to.”

“So did Mr. Crane, if I heard correctly.”

I just nodded.

“I’ll make sure you have the clearance.”

“Thanks.”

Fuck.

24

I’d forgottenhow fast the feds can move if they want to, particularly in comparison to local law enforcement. The exhumation order was issued by the time I set foot back in my parents’ house that night, and the next morning, bright and early before the snow was supposed to start, my ass was driving Mom’s Taurus out to the reservation to witness the feds digging Gregory Crane’s body back out of the frozen ground.

I’d promised Elliot I’d make sure they didn’t damage the spirit house, and I’d gotten Smith’s permission for Henry to be there in his capacity as a spiritual leader of the Mamaceqtaw. The feds were being weird about that, but they were on Nation land—how the fuck they’d gotten the paperwork done for that so quickly, I had no fucking idea.