Tiernan indicated the canopied canteen area, now virtually empty. “Let us go get something to wet our whistles and talk a bit.”
A few minutes later, they were seated at a table away from the food area that afforded them some privacy. Bear Heart stirred cream and sugar into his mug, and Tiernan sipped at his black coffee while he waited.
When the old man put down his spoon, Tiernan said, “I fear for Ella’s life. She will not leave the area, which would be the best thing for her considering what has happened since she arrived.”
“She is stubborn like Joseph.” The old man shook his head. “He wanted to face The People, to prove his innocence.”
“You believed in him, then?”
Bear Heart nodded. “He was my shaman.”
“Was he not everyone’s shaman? What made the others think he was evil?”
“Fear. Superstition. Bad things happening on the rez. Things no one could explain. Then the rumors started. People whispering. Watching. Believing black magic tainted the land. Who else did they have to blame but the shaman?” Bear Heart took a sip of his coffee, then said, “Joseph Thunder did have apprentices.” His dark eyes fathomless, he held Tiernan’s gaze. “All three live on the rez now….”
“And bad things are happening again,” Tiernan finished for him. “Do you think ’tis to drive Ella away? Or does someone want her gone for good?” He explained, “Whoever it is tried running us off the road the other night. Would Nathan Lantero or Leonard Hawkins or Jimmy Iron Horse have reason to want her dead?”
“You would know better than I.”
“I have just met them. I do not know them.”
“But you are the one with the power.”
Tiernan started. He’d said the same to Ella. And like Ella had, he said, “I am no shaman—”
“Call yourself what you will.” Bear Heart raised his mug in salute before taking a drink. “You might have power that whispers now, but it is simply waiting for the chance to shout.”
Stunned into silence, Tiernan wondered if the old man could really feel or see some kind of weird vibrations around him. He did not think he wore his psychic nature like a second skin. While he was not ashamed of what he knew and what he could feel, and while he used his abilities as he could, he never thought of himself as having power.
“Do not deny it,” Bear Heart said. “I am too old to be fooled.”
“Fair enough. Then perhaps you will believe me when I tell you Harold Walks Tall was murdered.”
Bear Heart appeared thoughtful, as if Tiernan’s statement was no shock. “You know this to be true despite what your authorities say?”
Tiernan nodded. “We found the track of the raven where he fell. Ella and I did. The same sign that made your people think her da was evil.”
“I have not heard this.”
Even if the sheriff’s men had noticed the sign, they probably wouldn’t have thought it had any significance, Tiernan thought. Signs weren’t part of their culture.
He said, “So the deaths seem to be connected… Joseph Thunder and Harold Walks Tall. But they were fifteen years apart. What did they have in common?”
Bear Heart shrugged. “Maybe nothing.”
“I think there is, but ’tis something not apparent. Something they both had or wanted or knew,” Tiernan said. “What can you tell me about Harold Walks Tall? What did he do for a living? Who did he do it with? Who were his friends? If we knew more about him, maybe we could surmise why he died, then track the reason back to Joseph Thunder.”
Bear Heart thought for a moment, then said, “Harold did not work, not at any regular job that I know of. He had no family—they all left the rez. Or died young. As to friends, he did not seem to have any. Though I did see him with Marisala Saldana more than once.”
The unexpected connection hit Tiernan hard. “Harold and Marisala—”
“Were together.” Bear Heart put his two forefingers together to illustrate. “At least it seemed so to me.”
Tiernan’s mind whirled. The raven’s track had marked the place where Harold Walks Tall fell to his death… and Ella had found another outside Marisala Saldana’s home.
“There must be a connection, then,” Tiernan mused. “If you think of anything else that might be of interest, will you let me know?”
“I will be sure to send up smoke signals,” the old Lakota said, then laughed to himself. From his pocket, he pulled a cell. “What is your number?”
***
Her cotton skirt pulled up above her knees to cool herself down, Ella sat on a fence rail overlooking the refuge pasture closest to headquarters when Tiernan caught up to her.
“Filming is a wash for the day,” he said. “We start again in the morning with a new Little Fawn.” As if just realizing where she was headed, he asked, “You intend to ride?”
“That was my plan.”
“Even if I have a new lead?”
Her pulse buzzed as she asked, “What?”
“Come with me and I will explain.”
He waited until they were in his truck to tell her that he’d spoken to Bear Heart and had learned that there was some connection—probably personal—between Harold Walks Tall and Marisala Saldana.
“First Harold dies, then Marisala loses her mind,” Tiernan said. “Obviously the murderer got to them both, though why the difference in what happened to them?”
“What if the villain doesn’t like to dirty his own hands with murder?” Ella suggested. “Remember, he used the tribe to do his work there. Harold’s fall might have been an accident during an argument. Or at least it could have been unexpected. But destroying Marisala’s mind was a deliberate act.”
“So that she would forget something the murderer didn’t want her to remember?” Tiernan mused.
“Something she learned from Harold?” Ella thought about it for a moment. “You know, considering she and Harold were an item, she didn’t seem too broken up over his death. Not only that, she wanted me to make a love potion for her, so Harold was barely cold and she was into another man. She said she was desperate to get power over him.”
“The murderer?” Tiernan suggested.
“It seems so,” she agreed. “And if that’s true, then Marisala can tell us who he is.”
“Do you think she will talk?”
“I doubt she can at the moment,” Ella said with a sigh. If only she’d been able to get his name from the woman when Marisala had come to her. “I don’t think she can remember anything of significance. You didn’t see her this morning. She was like a shell, Tiernan. Empty. He did something to her mind.”
“How do we reach her, then? There must be a way.”
Ella fell silent. “There might be a way, if there was a shaman on the rez.”
“You mean, use magic.”
“Something like that.”
They drove in silence for a bit, but Ella could feel Tiernan’s unspoken questions.
Finally, he asked, “Do you know how to get the information from her?”
She shook her head. “I can’t do it.”
“Cannot or will not?”