Cold Wind - C. J. Box [76]
Joe parked pulled behind Alice Thunder’s car and took a deep breath before opening his door. He told Tube to stay inside. He removed his hat as he walked across the dew-sparkled lawn to her front door.
She opened it as he raised his hand to knock.
“Mrs. Thunder,” he said.
She didn’t smile or grin with greeting or recognition. Her face was still, stoic. He followed her gaze from his pickup to his hat in his hands to his expression, and she said, “She’s gone, isn’t she?”
Joe said, “I’m sorry.”
There was the slightest flicker of her eyes, but her mouth didn’t pucker and there were no tears.
“I knew the second I saw you drive up,” she said. “I’ve had a feeling about Alisha for several days that she was gone.”
He looked at his boots.
She asked, “How?”
He said, “I’m not exactly sure how it happened. She was with Nate when someone went after him. I don’t know who it was or how they got to them. I’m sure she wasn’t targeted.”
Alice Thunder nodded slightly, as if she wasn’t surprised. “Is Nate alive?”
Joe said, “I hope so, but I don’t know that, either. I haven’t heard from him. By the way,” he said, looking up, “law enforcement in Johnson County doesn’t know about this. I didn’t report it. You and my wife are the only people who know. I can give you the location of her body if you want to bring her back or pay your respects.”
Alice said, “I’ll have to think about that. Was her body treated with respect?”
Joe nodded.
“Then it isn’t necessary right now.”
“Thank you for coming and telling me,” she said. “I appreciate that, Joe.”
“Yup.”
“You’ll find out who did it and punish them?”
Joe said, “I think Nate’s on the hunt right now. If I can catch up with him, I’ll do what I can.”
She nodded approvingly. “I hope you don’t mind if I close this door on you right now. I need some time for myself.” And she closed the door.
Joe stood on the porch for a moment, then turned and walked back to his pickup.
For a woman like Alice Thunder, who had seen so much tragedy over the years due to the crime rate on the reservation and so many young people taken away, Joe thought, death was a part of life.
For the next two days while Joe patrolled, the scene in the cave—and especially Alisha’s body on the scaffold—stayed burned into his mind and was there when he closed his eyes at night. His theory, based on the layout of the canyon and Nate’s security system, leaned toward an explosive fired from a distance. Maybe so far away Nate never knew someone had found him.
Which led Joe to wonder who, besides Large Merle and Joe himself, knew where his friend could be found. Sheridan knew because she’d once been there. Marybeth was vaguely aware of Nate’s hideout, but had never been there and couldn’t find it on a map. Joe, of course, had no idea who Nate was in contact with who might have be aware of his location. There was so much about Nate that Joe didn’t know and didn’t want to know that he now wished he did.
While Joe was out on patrol, Marybeth used the long holiday weekend at the library to do research. As she learned specifics about the wind energy industry, she called Joe on his cell. The more she learned, the more agitated she became.
She said, “I always thought all these windmills were going up because the energy they produced was clean and cost-effective. But that’s not the case at all. The reason they’re going up is political, and the demand for the power they generate is because of mandates by states and cities that a certain percentage of their electricity come from renewables like wind or solar.”
“Down, girl,” Joe said. “One thing this state has is wind.”
“I know,” she said. “I’m all worked up. Too much coffee and too much information I never knew before. And, yes, there are places where the wind blows hard enough where some of those turbines actually do make enough electricity to be profitable. Nearly all of the older turbines were put in places where they could actually do some good. But there isn’t anywhere in the state or