“How did they know we were here?” Annie asked.

“Maybe someone’s been watching Paavola’s cabin, just in case?” Daniel suggested.

“A long vigil,” Bonhomme said. “I think they must’ve had a more efficient way of keeping tabs on one of us.”

“How?” Jenny said, a sharp edge to that word.

“A tracker would be my first guess,” Bonhomme replied. “We need to check our vehicles.”

They spent a good deal of time going carefully over each vehicle. They found it on Cork’s Expedition, a little white disk hidden behind his back license plate, an AirTag.

“How long has it been there?” Daniel said.

“My guess?” Cork said. “Only a couple of days. Probably since we began poking into the two girls’ deaths.”

“Since Waaboo touched their spirits,” Daniel said. He looked to where Jenny and Meloux, and Annie and Maria huddled around the little boy as if to shield him from harm. “They want to make sure he doesn’t help us any further.”

“A desperate move,” Bonhomme said. “They must be afraid of how close we’re getting.”

“Which is maybe why Waaboo sensed that the spirit of Fawn Blacksmith was not so sad,” Daniel said, sounding hopeful.

Cork spotted Prophet coming from the trail that led past the gnomes to the blueberry patch. When Prophet reached the men, he said, “I found this where he hid and fired the shot.” He held out his hand. In his gloved palm, he cradled a shell casing.

Cork put on gloves, took the casing, and checked the headstamp. “Remington thirty-aught-six. Annie said the guy who tried to break into our house last night had a rifle slung over his shoulder.”

“She thought it was this Lewis guy, right? The security cop from the protest?” Daniel said. “But he was white, not Shinnob. If it was him, what was he doing wearing a cap with the Thunderbird on it?”

Cork said, “We need to find Lewis and ask him.”

CHAPTER 28

Daniel returned to Crow Point with Jenny and Waaboo. They didn’t say much on the drive or on the long walk in from the double-trunk birch. Waaboo, normally talkative, seemed deep in thought. And as for Jenny, Daniel could feel the wall she had erected, built with the bricks of her anger at him for putting Waaboo in danger.

Prophet had driven Meloux to Crow Point in the ATV, and the two men sat on the bench in front of Meloux’s cabin, waiting. When the others arrived, Meloux rose and said, “Walk with me, Little Rabbit.”

Daniel watched the old man and the boy cross the meadow. His heart was heavy because he knew Jenny was right. He’d put their son in harm’s way, and for what? Fawn Blacksmith and Olivia Hamilton were dead. Sacrificing his son in an attempt to discover who was responsible for the crimes wouldn’t bring them back.

“Waaboo has a lot to learn,” Prophet said, breaking the long, tense silence Daniel and Jenny had brought with them. “Henry is doing what he can to help. He asked me to speak to you.”

“I hope that you’re going to tell me my son is no longer in danger,” Jenny said.

“Will you sit?” Prophet held his hand toward Meloux’s bench. When they seated themselves, he said, “Henry already told you that the gift Waaboo has been given is one that may often put him in danger. The why of it, only the Great Mystery knows. My own guess is that it’s because Waaboo has a spirit strong enough to shoulder this responsibility. And my guess as well is that the Great Mystery had a reason for choosing you to find that child under the rock where he’d been hidden.”

“If you’re going to tell me it’s because I’m strong, too, I don’t want to hear it,” Jenny said.

“Then maybe I can tell you something else. I never knew my parents. I grew up in a residential school in Canada. Most of my life, I had no idea who I was. You already know that when I met Henry, it was because I was hunting him, leading men who wanted him dead. Everything in my life changed when I found him waiting for me in the Boundary Waters. It took me decades of struggle to reach the place the Great Mystery had always meant me to come to. I had no one guiding me, loving me, reassuring me. Waaboo is different. He’s been given you. You can’t protect him forever, but you can be his comfort on the difficult path ahead. If I’d had that, I still might not have come to this place of peace, this place of harmony, this place of my own destiny any sooner, but I’m sure the journey wouldn’t have been so hard, so full of regret.”

“If that’s supposed to make me feel better about someone shooting at my son, it doesn’t,” Jenny said.

“I love our son, too.” Daniel took Jenny’s hand. “I would never knowingly put him in danger. We can never be sure what will or won’t put him in harm’s way. But one thing is for sure. He can’t stay on Crow Point forever.”

Jenny looked away from him, stared across the meadow at where her son and the old Mide had become two small figures in the tall grass. “He can stay here until we’ve found these devils.”

“There will be others,” Prophet said.

“I will fight them like a she-bear,” Jenny vowed.

“And I’ll be right there beside you,” Daniel promised her.

“He’s just a child,” Jenny said. Tears began to roll down her cheeks.

Daniel took her in his arms. “I would die before I’d let anyone hurt Waaboo. Or you.”

Prophet said, “He has one other gift, your little rabbit, just as important as the one that’s put him in danger now.”

Jenny wiped her eyes and looked up at him, expectantly.

“He walks surrounded in the beauty and strength of those who love him. And there are so many.”

Daniel kissed Jenny’s cheek and echoed, “So many.”

He left his wife and child on Crow Point and headed to the office of the Iron Lake Tribal Police. LuJean Desjardins greeted him with “Monte told me about the shooter this morning. When we catch that coward, and we will, I say we string him up by his balls.”

“Where’s Monte?”

“A meeting with Sheriff Dross in Aurora. Your father-in-law is there, too. As I understand it, they’re coming up with a strategy. I’d love to be in on that, but our chief says someone needs to see to law enforcement on the rez. And because you seem to have your hands full, he dropped that job in my lap.”

“Anything happening here?”

“Wanda LeFevre called in a complaint about a wolf giving that new goat of hers a scare. Zippy took a run out there. Turned out to be Simon Chevalier’s dog Junker. Big old hound, but gentle as a kitten, really. Just curious about the goat. Simon assured Zippy that Junker’s curiosity was satisfied and he wouldn’t be giving that goat or Wanda any more worry. Other than that, I got Monte’s paperwork. A boatload related to the powwow next month. Care to give me a hand?”

“Did Monte say anything about me?”

“Not specifically. He didn’t know how long you’d be out on Crow Point.”

“Then I think I’ll head to Aurora, see what I can contribute to this strategy session. Zippy can give you a hand with the paperwork when he comes back in.”

“That’ll thrill him no end.”

When Daniel walked into the sheriff’s office, he found that Agent Shirley had joined the others. They brought him up to speed.

“I’ve let the BCA know about the shot this morning at the blueberry patch,” the sheriff said. “I’ve also let them know about the connection between Fawn Blacksmith and Irene Boyle, who, according to Cloquet PD, is still missing. They said they’ll take that under advisement.”

“Advisement,” Agent Shirley said with a note of disdain. “I talked to them as well and got an update on their investigation. They believe they have a good lead on one of the bikers who was at the Howling Wolf the night Olivia Hamilton went missing. Seems he was picked up in Fargo last night for assaulting an undercover cop posing as a prostitute. He managed to get away from the arresting officers. Now a lot of their manpower has been diverted to helping locate this biker. Apparently, that’s where all the media attention has gone.”

“Which may go a long way in explaining why Gooseberry Lane is quiet again. The vultures are circling somewhere else. Any connection between this guy and Paavola?”

“They didn’t have a chance to interview him. But he’s their main focus at the moment.” She shook her head. “Still barking up the wrong tree, if you ask me.”