Page 82 of Chaos has a Name (An FBI Romance/Thriller #66)

Getting up, he watched as his wife climbed out the window, and got to the closest thick branch there was. Holding on, she lowered herself down, but still had a good drop. When she let go, Demeter caught her in his arms, and then placed her on her feet.

“Thanks, D,” she said, giving him a kiss.

“Thank me after I catch Callen. He’s much bigger and heavier.”

Callen dropped down, landing on his feet.

“I heard that, asshole,” he whispered, making the man grin.

“You were supposed to.”

Elizabeth stopped them.

“Stay on this treehouse. We need to talk to Wyler. Keep them safe. We’ll be good. I need a gun.”

That was all they had to hear.

Michael reached around his back, and removed a holster and Glock from his person to hand to her.

It was his backup piece.

“Thanks, Saint Michael of the overly armed.”

He winked at her.

“Go. Stay inside, or we have to divide up. Uriel isn’t back, and we’re all you have until morning.”

Oh, well, she wasn’t fucking around and finding out. That was a hard no.

She’d gotten abducted twice here in the fifteen years she’d been a Blackhawk.

That was more than enough.

Callen gave them both fist bumps, and then shoved Demeter onto his ass for the ‘BIGGER’ comment. The whole time, the man laughed, trying to be quiet.

When in doubt, bust a Marine back.

That was their love language.

Heading into the cabin, Elizabeth had been right. At the counter, Wyler was sitting there having some coffee. He looked downright miserable too.

When they came in, he looked over.

“Couldn’t sleep?” she asked.

He shook his head.

“I can go back up if you both need to work in here,” he offered, going to get up.

She stopped him.

“Sit, Dad. You can help us work it out. We’re just trying to figure out our game plan when the sun is up. I’m not upset with you,” she said, giving him a kiss.

Callen didn’t want to make his father miserable. While he was annoyed with the runaway Wyler routine, the man still was their father.

And he’d forgiven him.

“I’m not angry either, Dad. I get it. When people get scared, they make questionable choices. When I saw the man who assaulted me, I left Elizabeth and drove home to escape. Fight or flight is legit.”

His father closed his eyes.

“Thank you, Callen James.”

The two of them sat at the island and joined Wyler to talk. She needed to start digging into this. That began with the men who could be behind this.

“You’re familiar with the oldest men on this reservation, aren’t you?” she asked.

He nodded, reaching into the cabinet for a tin of cookies. He’d made them two days ago, planning to eat them during his pity party. Much like Callen, he liked to eat his problems away.

Unsuccessfully.

“Yeah, I am. There are not many. Most of the eldest Natives here are women. They just live longer.”

She was curious.

“Who are they?” she asked.

“Lance Running Wolf is older than me. Then, there was Elkie’s husband, Joshua. He was the OLDEST of them all. He passed at Christmas,” he admitted.

Elizabeth still had Ethan’s phone, and she was making notes back in her drive.

“Does she have children?”

He nodded.

“Yeah, she does. They are in their sixties like me. She had them young.”

Well, the woman was eighty, so twenty wasn’t that young.

“What are their names?”

He thought about it.

“Roland and Paditi. They work at the bar. Have for as long as I can remember. Roland now owns it, and Paditi is the bartender.”

Callen glanced up and at his wife.

She knew why.

The victim had come from there. That might be their hunting ground to find ‘bad’ natives. She was going to have to talk to them when she went there.

“What was Joshua, her husband, like?”

He opened the tin and offered Elizabeth and Callen a cookie, and then took one himself.

“A damn good hunter. His boys would have eaten them out of house and home.”

She said nothing.

“Let’s go back to Lance Running Wolf,” she said. “Is Rayna his only child?”

He laughed.

“No, he has a son. He left at eighteen. The father and son were always at odds. Lance is very traditional. Take Timothy and shove him into another body. His son, Eli, was a not a fan of his father’s rules, so he left.”

She was curious.

“And he’s still alive? I’m not going to find out he’s a skull in that cave, am I?”

Wyler shrugged.

“I can’t answer that. You’d have to ask Rayna or Lance. I’d go with her. He’s a douchebag.”

Oh, and they knew why they didn’t like each other. Catherine Blackhawk was the reason.

They skipped over that.

“What about Abe Crowfeather?” Callen asked, since he was the ONLY one on the council who didn’t want them investigating.

To him, that was a red flag.

“Abe? He’s not a fan of the Blackhawks or the FBI. Mostly because the Blackhawk boys married the FBI,” he said, pointing at Elizabeth.

She was making notes.

“Does he have sons? Daughters?” she asked, thinking beyond Ethan’s profile. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him, but she had to keep an open mind.

He nodded.

“One of each. They’d be as old as you guys, I think. Abe is one of the older men still alive. He’s my age.”

Callen ate his cookie.

“Do you know any people who were older who died and they also had sons?” he asked, using Ethan’s profile to find anything that might help.

Wyler considered it.

“No. Most of the men who died as of late, in the last five years, I’d say, didn’t have sons.”

It made Elizabeth wonder.

Could the apprentices be non-related? Could they just be people who were steeped in the tradition of Native ways?

She asked.

“Do you know anyone who is hardcore NATIVE—like hates outsiders, and would believe that the place is haunted by a Wendigo?”

He nodded.

“A lot of people. It’s like how some people believe in ghosts or an afterlife. Some do, and some don’t.”

Elizabeth knew that was going to be a harder route to take, so she stayed focused.

Something was bothering her.

“When Uriel was bringing Rayna back, I spoke to him after. He said that Lance was coming out of the woods. Is his cabin near the council house?”

He shook his head.

“No, he lives closer toward the bar.”

Elizabeth kept going.

Until she could interview in a few hours, she had to take any kernel of knowledge that she could, and use it to her advantage.

“And you’re sure his son hated the father?”

He shrugged.

“I mean, my kids hated me, and then didn’t hate me, and I’m back to the beginning again with Ethan. That could have changed. I don’t really talk to Lance, so you’d have to ask Rayna, again.”

And she would.

“What about the chief?” she asked, knowing that the man was older than Wyler, and not close to as good a shape. He was…rotund.

He didn’t hesitate.

Wyler shared what he could.

“He has two sons. There were three, but one of them disappeared. He left the reservation about ten years ago. When I came back to help close up the cabin, I was talking to one of my friends and he told me he was gone. The son who left wanted to see the world, like Callen did. He ran as fast as he could out of here.”

Callen laughed.

“I was chasing her,” he said, pointing at his wife. When she handed him a cookie, he took it because cookies were his weakness.

Much like Elizabeth.

“A lot of people leave here, but what about his sons?” she asked. “The ones who didn’t leave.”

He stopped her.

“Oh, they left. They come back on occasion, but I haven’t seen them in over a few years. Again, I’m not here all the time. You might have to ask their father.”

She could, and would, do that.

“What are their names?”

Wyler gave them to Callen.

Using his phone, he ran them.

When he was done, he shared with his wife what he’d found.

“One is an investment banker in Texas, Houston, to be exact, and one is a researcher for a pharmaceutical group. A scientist.”

To her, that didn’t sound like people who would hunt people, and eat them. Plus, they had lives not here.

“Are they married? Engaged? Own their own meat market?”

Callen choked on his cookie.

“Too far,” he muttered, as his father handed him his coffee to get the cookie out of his throat.

She just shrugged.

Elizabeth had to be herself.

“I wish I could help more, Elizabeth, but I don’t spend much time here. Over the last week, I mostly went to the council house, and to the woods to hunt. You can ask them tomorrow at the council house—because once they find out you have bones, they are calling you there.”

Oh, she was aware.

There was no doubt they’d try to reach her first thing in the morning. Elizabeth knew how the council worked.

That was on her list of interviews.

“We got our hands on a journal from Lance. There’s some tales in it about things going wrong here on the rez over the years.”

He stopped her.

“Elizabeth, it’s the rez. It’s all wrong most of the time. You guys made the difference here. If not, poverty, starvation, and unhappy Natives are the norm.”

He had a point.

“Do you think this could have started because of just ordinary reservation issues?” Callen asked.

She shrugged.

“I mean, it takes a catalyst. One hundred years ago, I’m sure it was shitty. I wish Timothy was around to tell me all about it.”

They all wished he was around.

“I remember my father mentioning long ago that the medicine men spent a lot of time trying to protect the reservation. Timothy’s father and grandfather were practitioners, and he followed in their steps.”

Elizabeth was considering it.

Medicine men liked woo-woo.

When she opened her mouth, he already knew what she was thinking.

“I can tell you for a fact my father didn’t kill someone once a year to get rid of a Wendigo. I can also tell you that Timothy was an only child—as far as I know.”

She figured as much.

Had Timothy’s father and grandfather been involved, it would have passed down, but she couldn’t see him partaking in this.

Plus, he had locked his sons inside on that day to keep them safe with him.

Oh, and they’d know if Wyler was up to shenanigans when he came here. This was the first solstice he’d been back here.