Skye Cree 03: The Bones Will Tell (20 page)

“I never would’ve guessed.
But now we have to figure out how Daniel’s DNA got on Ellen Schreiber’s scarf. That’s the issue.”

“Hey, I intend to dig into that with
a shovel the size of Mercer Island. I want to see the evidence box, Harry.”

“I thought you’d say that. That’s why I made a few copies of info I thought was pertinent.”

“Thanks for that.”

After Harry left
them, the two went back over the entire conversation. She had to face facts. Her father had worked at Fort Lewis two decades earlier. His connection to Ellen Schreiber was unmistakable.

“I refuse to accept that Daniel Cree killed Ellen Schreiber,” Skye
finally said. “That isn’t even on the table for negotiation. The father I knew, the man who raised me, was a good and decent man.”

“
I didn’t know Daniel. But yeah, I’d say that’s a bogus theory. I don’t buy it either.”

“So
how did the killer manage to get Daniel’s DNA on the victim’s clothing?”

“Whoa, back up. Touch DNA
just means that at some point, Daniel had hold of that scarf. A scarf is a simple accessory that could’ve been draped around something other than her neck at any given time while he knew her.”

“Like a
chair or on a hook in her closet, even in a public place?”

“That’s it.
Daniel could’ve handed it off to her when they had dinner out and got ready to leave a restaurant, or picked it out of a drawer for her to wear with an outfit, or touched it when he removed it from a peg in the closet. See? There are a number of scenarios that work other than it’s a definitive piece of evidence against him.”

“
Okay. So what does it prove anyway? That Daniel and the victim were spending time with each other and he had access to her clothing. He never denied he knew Ellen. The two obviously had an affair, which means Daniel touched a great deal more than Ellen’s scarf. So what conclusion does that leave us?”

“
Exactly. All it says is he touched the scarf at some point. Big deal.”

“W
ho are we kidding here, Josh? There are people in prison serving time with less evidence than this. As I said before DNA is pretty strong. I have to face facts. Daniel Cree had some kind of tie-in with our killer. We just have to find out what it is.” All at once, Skye shoved out of the chair, grabbed her satchel. “There’s something I have to do.”

Irritation flashed through Josh. He recognized that withdrawn attitude on her face, a demeanor he thought she’d rid herself of—until right this moment.
“I’ll go with you.”

“No. We aren’t joined at the hip. The sooner you realize that the better off this m
arriage will be.”

“
Don’t shut me out like this, Skye. There’s no need for it. You’re hurting. I get that. But—”

“Right now, I need for you to back off.” With that, she stalked to the elevator, hit the
Down button hard with the palm of her hand, and disappeared inside the car.

Skye
drove around
for a while to clear her head. When that didn’t work she made her way to the cemetery to visit the graves of her parents.

She hadn’t thought to bring flowers. But a
s she stood among the headstones dealing with another painful memory of a different kind, she took out the medicine bag from under her pullover.

With her hand clutching the
power of the talisman, she stood over the ground where Daniel and Jodie Cree had been buried side by side. She went through the only chant she could remember in her native tongue, a simple recitation that spurred memories from childhood.

“Oh Great Spirit, protect
our family. Mother Earth, shine your sun on us for many years to come. Father Sky, let peace and honor be with us always. I believe in you, my father, my mother. I know you believe in me. Oh Great Spirit, bring joy and light as we all travel down life’s road.”

Glancing up at the heavens and
the low-hanging clouds, she spotted a hawk, circling overhead. The magnificent bird wasn’t alone. Not far away in the drifting layer of mist, a crow flapped its wings as it came into view. She breathed in the cool air and let a sense of peace wash over her. And decided there were pluses to having so many protectors looking out for her.

One in particular was very real and could be a pain in the ass when the mood
struck him. It was one of the reasons why Skye fretted over her visit with Travis.

The two of them hadn’t
had much of a chance to revisit the subject of his affair with her mother since last fall. There were still a few crinkles that needed to be ironed out. She had to admit now as she drove through the gate, past the sign that read, The Painted Crow, she’d acted a bit like a child when she’d first found out. She’d been feeling somewhat betrayed at the thought of what her mother had done to Daniel Cree and what Travis had done to the man he considered a brother.

N
ow that she knew Daniel had moved on with Ellen Schreiber, was that enough to temper her outrage at all of them?

She wasn’t sure.
It hadn’t been Daniel’s fault Jodie and Travis had continued to sleep together well after their initial agreement to make a baby. But at some point, Daniel
had
begun an affair with a coworker. Perhaps out of loneliness, perhaps to seek out someone who gave him a measure of happiness, no matter how brief it had been.

Didn’t Daniel deserve happiness
as much as anyone else?

For that reason, s
he was done judging the actions of her parents and those of Travis. It wasn’t her place. What happened was unfortunate for all concerned but it was ancient family history. It was time to let it go and move on. And she would have, if it hadn’t been for the Ellen Schreiber murder. If not for that, she would gladly have put it right where it belonged—two decades ago in the past.

But n
ot having all the details of the story bugged the hell out of her.

Knowing
how much Travis valued his privacy, she figured he would never have come clean in the first place if she hadn’t pushed him to do it. That day she’d seen too many emotions on his face to describe the turmoil running through him. She didn’t take that angst lightly.

And now, here she was again with an inquiring mind and a head full of questions.
She doubted Travis would be happy about it.

To escape Seattle’s
hectic lifestyle, Travis raised and bred American Paint Horses on forty acres of ranchland outside Everett. She knew the place to be a picturesque spot he’d bought during one of the darkest times of his life.

Crawling
out of the Subaru with the earthy smells of manure and hay hanging in the damp air, she understood why he found solace here among the rolling hills and evergreens. Maybe she needed a great big dose of it herself. Maybe she needed a retreat where she could get away from all the hassles her life had become.

When she spotted her father making his way from
the stable, she sent him a wave.

“What a wonderful surprise,” Travis said as he pulled her into his chest for a hug. After kissing her cheek, he put her at arm’s length to study her face. “Something’s wrong.”

The sky started to mist rain so they looped their way up the pebbled walkway past the corral and inside the stable.

“
How about I help you groom the horses?”

“Sure. But you didn’t drive all the way up here in traffic to become the stable hand for the afternoon.
What gives?”

“
I used to hate being Native,” Skye blurted out as she took off her jacket so she could move around better. “Don’t worry,” She assured him as she picked up a curry comb. Eyeing the disappointed look on his face, she quickly added, “It was a phase. I’ve been out of that mode for several years now. I was young and stupid and didn’t appreciate my heritage back then.”

“
Okay. Glad to hear it. You want to tell me why you’re here? Not that I don’t appreciate the visit. Did something happen between you and Josh?”

A layer of guilt moved in at the
question. She wasn’t proud of the way she’d stormed out of the loft. She’d have to deal with her temper later. First things first though, she decided. “I’ll fix things with Josh. I promise. Right now, I need to know more about the time Daniel spent working at Fort Lewis.”

Travis narrowed his eyes to slits.
“Why’s that?”

She told him about the meeting with Harry, about Ellen Schreiber, about the DNA on the scarf linking back to Daniel.

“What? That’s impossible. They made a mistake, that’s all,” Travis insisted after hearing it pour out of her.

“No, it seems they took DNA when I went missing. They found a young girl about my age and needed to make sure it wasn’t me. They entered Daniel’s DNA in
to CODIS, where it’s been sitting all this time. I’m not even sure why he’d bother with providing a sample knowing it wouldn’t match to me.”

“
That’s just it, Skye. I’m telling you they made a mistake.”

She focused on his
dark brown eyes, beginning to pick up the implication. “Why are you so certain of that?”

“
Because the DNA belongs to me. The day they collected the swab, Daniel and I did a switcheroo.”

She stared at him with her mouth gaped open. Letting the words sink in, she finally got her brain to work.
“That’s impossible. How?”

“They weren’t as particular about it then as they are now, standing over you with a
long Q-tip every single second, watching your every move the entire time. When the tech handed Daniel the stick, he distracted her long enough that I was able to snatch it out of his hand then swab my own mouth, handed it back to Daniel. It took maybe an extra four seconds.”

Skye shook her head. “You’re kidding?
While the tech did what exactly? Harry was so sure you two couldn’t have pulled it off.”

“So you put it on the table, huh?
Thanks for thinking the worst of us, kiddo,” Travis teased.

“Turns out,
I wasn’t that far off the mark. So if the DNA belongs to you instead of Daniel, who actually knew Ellen intimately, if you get my drift, then what the hell is going on with the evidence?”

“It cou
ld mean her killer had access.”

“
That’s crazy. I don’t even believe that.”

He
paced away from her and then turned to head back, covering the same band of space. “I knew Ellen.”

“What?”
Skye’s shoulders slumped. “How?”

“
Not well, of course, but Ellen came into your mother’s ceramics shop a couple of times when I was there. I watched the place while she and Jodie went to lunch at a little cafe two doors down.”

Skye huffed out a breath.
“I don’t understand how it is that the four of you could be so civilized during what had to be a very awkward encounter. If Josh cheated on me I’d want to scratch out the other woman’s eyes. You’re saying my mother and Ellen sat down, broke bread together, and then had a conversation. Unbelievable.”

“
Civilized? I guess we were. Jodie had a tremendous chunk of guilt over our affair. She struggled with it for some time. The three of us had to maintain a certain amount of civility because of you. Try to remember, in the end, Jodie chose Daniel over me. Besides that, I’m pretty sure Ellen wasn’t that serious about Daniel in the first place. She had a boyfriend or rather an ex-boyfriend she couldn’t seem to shake. At least that’s what Daniel told me. She continued to see the guy the whole time she was with Daniel.”

“
I need to find out his name. It’s odd but Harry never mentioned anything about Ellen having an ex-lover. Do you happen to know who it was?”

“No idea.
Probably some guy on base. But it has to be somewhere in her file if they did a thorough enough investigation. Harry couldn’t possibly believe Daniel had anything to do with Ellen’s death.”

“No,
Harry didn’t give me that impression. But there are people sitting in prison who were convicted on a lot less. DNA of any kind is a powerful piece of evidence to overcome in court.”