Darkness Of Truth (An FBI/Romance Thriller~ Book 6) (60 page)

Elizabeth was glad to see Julian smiling again. If anything Wyler was becoming more and more like his father had once been. He was sensitive to other’s feelings and very astute.

“I think we’ll put it in our bedroom,” added Tori. “So we can see it every day.”

Julian returned to the couch, running his fingers over the wood. “This made the day so much better.”

Catherine began wailing and Callen tried to sooth her. This newborn thing was still very new and a little bit scary.

Blackhawk patted him on the leg. “Switch with me,” he said, standing and offering his son for the little girl. “I have the magic touch with the ladies,” he stated, earning a snort from his wife.

“Oh brother,”
Elizabeth muttered as she laughed.

Callen swapped and cuddled CJ in relief. He watched his brother walking Catherine around the room, swaying and rocking her like a pro. Immediately, she calmed.

“Crazy mad baby skills,” he stated, winking at his wife.

“Yeah, when you start growing one, I’ll be impressed,” she teased back, as she
sat on the arm of the couch. It was time to refocus and get started. “Julian, I need to ask you some things about your dad. Are you up to talking about him?” she inquired, gently. “If you can’t do this, it can wait.”

He thought about it. “No, let’s do it. I want to catch the man that killed him and heal my family. It’s an open wound that needs to be fixed.”

At his side, Tori took his hand in hers and squeezed reassuringly. They’d face this together as a team, just as they faced her past. It was her turn to carry the man that took care of her for months.

“What do you want to know? I was fairly young at the time of his death, so I don’t know what I can tell you other than the things my mom shared with me.”

Elizabeth understood. Her memories of her mother were limited too, except for the horrible moments of her death. “Just tell me what you know.”

“Okay,” he paused. “He was on the council as a full member of the tribal committee. My father was planning on running for Chief of the tribe. He was getting ready to
make a bid for the position.”

“Please continue,” Elizabeth requested, interested in everything he was saying.

“The current chief had recently died and my dad had enough tenure with the council to pull a majority of the votes.” Julian squeezed Tori’s hand.

“
Anything else?” she inquired.

He shook his head. “His favorite color was green, he had a temper
, and was stubborn as hell. His brothers would let him win the fights because he held a grudge.” Julian closed his eyes, trying to remember anything else he could come up with. “I’m sorry, but it’s been twenty five years.”

She understood. “I hear a car. It might be the pizza,” Elizabeth said. “You’re doing fine, Julian. It’s okay.”

Wyler peeked outside, and it was indeed the delivery. He paid and was about to close the door when another truck pulled up. “Were you expecting more company?” he inquired, watching the Native man cross the parking lot.

Ethan was immediately by his side. “Hello Rick,” he said, stepping back. “Come on in. We’re about to eat and work on the assignment.”

He nodded at Wyler and entered the house. “If I’m interrupting, I can come back another time. I just figured I’d drop the files off that you requested.”

Elizabeth motioned him into the room. “No need. Want some dinner?” she asked, serving up pizza to everyone.

“Thank you, I’d love some,” he answered, taking a seat and watching the two agents with kids. “I didn’t expect to see children while you were working,” Longtree said, nodding towards the two small kids.

Handing him pizza, she smiled.
“Callen’s holding our son CJ, Ethan has our daughter Catherine, and of course I’m toting around EJ. We like to mix it up and toss in a few infants to keep us on our toes,” she added, laughing.

It made him wonder how they had what appeared to be a newborn while Elizabeth was obviously pregnant, but he said nothing. It wasn’t his business.

“How’d it go with the files?” she questioned, biting into a slice of pizza.

“My
staff went through thirty years of homicides, and although I’d like that to sound like a monumental task it wasn’t. We had maybe fifteen that involved a body. Of those, we found three that had a white feather appear on the crime scene.”

This piqued everyone’s interest.

Opening the files on his lap, he began breaking them down for the team. “First up is a man that was chief of the council. Harold Runningbear. He was victim of a home invasion. Someone broke in, stole some of his property and stabbed him in the heart. The file lists that they found a white feather weaved into each of his braids.”

Julian glanced up from his pizza. “That’s the man my dad was running to replace.”

Elizabeth chewed as she mulled it over. None of them believed in coincidence. There was no such thing. “Please continue, Rick,” she urged, wanting to know more.

“Second victim was Blake Littlemoon. He was found by his brother out in the forest
, when he didn’t return from a hunting trip. In one of his braids, they found another white feather.” Longtree patted his friend on the shoulder. “I’m sorry, Julian.”

He simply shook his head.

“So we had two murders back to back and no one saw that feather as being a big sign something was up?” Elizabeth needed to understand how it slipped past the police.

Rick understood where she was heading with it. “That’s nothing, wait until you hear about the last one,” he hesitated briefly. “I
’ll go on record as the current chief of police that there was a big slip up with all these cases.”

“Spill it Rick,” she pushed, knowing it was going to be huge.

“The third and last victim found with a white feather was Officer Kevin Clark. He was a ten year veteran to the department. One day he was out running, as he did every morning, and he was a victim of an ‘accident’. Someone struck him while he ran.”

Everyone
waited, knowing there had to be more coming that made the chief of police nervous.

“They deemed it
a hit and run, but there were two things that caught Kane Redwolf’s attention when he pulled the file. One was the white feather found under his body.”

Blackhawk needed to know. “The other?”

“He was the man investigating both the murders. When he died, everything he was searching for went with him. Back then there were no computer files or electronic information. Kevin Clark died and took everything he’d discovered with him.”

Everyone in the room was silent until Ethan spoke. “In this case
, I believe it’s safe to say that the white feather has significance and is our center point. In Native tradition it means purity or wholesomeness of heart.”

Elizabeth knew
that along with the feather, there was one other thing that kept popping up. “Is there a way to get a list of everyone that was on the council at that time?”

Longtree pulled out a paper
, handing it to her. “I knew you’d be asking, because my brain went in the same direction.”

She scanned the list and glanced up at Ethan. “
Here’s more coincidence for you,” she started. “Know who else was on the council?”

Callen knew where it was heading. “Let me guess
; the shaman?”

Elizabeth handed the paper to her husband.

His face said it all.

“Yeah, and so is Chief Soaring Eagle
- the man that replaced Runningbear.”

             
                            *   *   *

Christina was completely engrossed in her work and didn’t hear the footsteps. It wasn’t uncommon for her to get lost in details and analysis. Working for the Blackhawk’s meant being spot on and getting everything available, as quickly as possible. At the knock at the door she jumped.

“You scared me,” she proclaimed, hand over her heart. “Gez!”

He laughed
at her jumpiness. This was a woman who handled dead skin without flinching, but a knock nearly did her in. “I was working at my desk and got hungry. Are you in the mood to join me?” Kane Redwolf inquired, holding a pizza box in his hand. All day he’d been stuck thinking about the cheery brunette. Part of him was hoping she’d tell him off and send him away.

It took her a minute to get that the man was asking her to have dinner. “Me?”
She actually looked around her to make sure he was directing his conversation at her.

Kane started laughing. “Yeah you. You’re the only one here.”

It had to be a really good dream. Here was this gorgeous man with a sexy grin wanting her attention. Under the table, she pinched herself.

Nope, she wasn’t asleep.

“I guess,” she admitted. “I have to keep working though. I don’t know how much fun I’ll be. I need to have this to the Blackhawks by morning.”

He entered the room dragging a chair over. “I’ll help.”

Christina really thought this was the most unbelievable thing in the entire world. A sexy native man was just delivered to her door, carrying a pizza. Suddenly, she was very paranoid that she’s scare him away.

“What are you working on?” he asked, opening the pizza box?”

She answered honestly. “I’m comparing the skin of the victim that was left on his corpse to the skin particles that we found at the crime scene.”

Kane stared at the pizza and started laughing. “Wow, and you can eat and do that at the same time?”

And here was the big screw up that would make him run for his life. Sometimes she was just plain clueless. “I’m sorry; I’m not used to people discussing normal things with me. I spend a lot of time in the lab. I’m a science geek.”

He grinned. “No worries. I think what you do is fascinating,” Kane didn’t want to
make her bolt. Already he could tell she was back peddling.

“What I think you wanted to say was gross.”

He started laughing. “Yeah, it was. Am I that transparent?” When he noticed her contemplating that question with really pretty green eyes, he laughed more. “That was rhetorical.”

“Oh,” she said, face flushing with heat. Christina was a lab nerd, and men like this never hit on her before.
Some would try and talk to her, and once they realized she was socially inept under some pretty wrappings, they took off fast.

Kane leaned back in his chair. Something about her was
charming, and that was saying a great deal. It was no secret that he wasn’t big on outsiders, but then again he’d never met a woman that could handle a full piece of human skin and not be sick over it. She was smart, pretty and interesting. All three of those things drew his attention.

“Okay, I have to ask. You look freaked out. Is it me
making you this nervous?” he inquired.

Christina started laughing and couldn’t stop. Was it him? Uh yeah it was.
A sexy man had just shorted out the logic part of her brain. “I’m a disaster with the opposite sex,” she admitted, and then wondered how the words escaped so easily. “Like I just did now. I probably shouldn’t have told you that.”

He leaned forward and dropped his voice. “I’m
horrible with outsiders,” he offered, to make her feel better. Damn it, she was absolutely adorable.

She changed the subject
, feeling incredibly overheated. “Are you working late?”

“I’m officially off duty,” he admitted. “When do you get off?”

Again she flushed, because she wasn’t exactly thinking about work when he said that. “As soon as I analyze a chemical on the feather and finish with the,” she paused, not wanting to gross him out before he tried to eat. “I mean the sample.”

“Maybe we can get a beer
tonight?”

She stared at him and didn’t know what to say. “I uh, I don’t know.”

Kane was charmed. “How about we finish up here, and then we worry about the beer later. I don’t want you to freak out and bolt.” Why he offered up that much information was befuddling to even him. He generally had confidence with women… mostly.

Christina always had this fantasy that some sexy, black haired Native would be flirting with her, but now that it was happening she was
baffled. “Do you know anything about ammonia and its molecular structure? I’m trying to isolate a specific isotope to determine commonality and possible brand.”

He
shook his head, not quite sure what she’d just said. When there was a knock on the door, he shifted focus. “Hey Thomas, you’re working late,” he said to the janitor.

“I split my shift today. I had to take my dad to the doctor. This is the last room I have to collect trash from
, and then I can go home again.”

Christina stood, carrying him the waste paper basket. “Here you go.”

He smiled at her. “Thanks, but I would have gotten it.”

“I don’t mind. I did plow into you
and knock you over,” she answered smiling. “It’s the least I can do.”