Dance of the Bones Read Online Free

a chance to finish his threat.
    Ava had told him the truth. She really did know how to use the weapon in her hand. The first bullet caught him clean in the heart. Amos Warren was dead before he hit the ground. The second and third bullets—­the unnecessary ones? Those she fired just for good measure, simply because she could. And those were what the prosecutor would later label as overkill and a sign of rage when it came time to try John Lassiter for first-­degree murder.

 
    CHAPTER 1
    M ARCH 2015
    THEY SAY IT HAPPENED LONG ago, that Sun —­ Tash —­ came so close to Earth that it was very hot. The corn and wheat dried up, and so did all the other plants. Soon there was no water left. The Tohono O ’ odham, the Desert ­People, could make nothing grow. Soon even the food they had set aside dried up and had no taste.
    The Indians held a council and decided to send Tokithhud —­ Spider —­ to deal with Sun.
    Every morning when Sun travels from his home in the East to the West, he makes four jumps. Spider decided to make the same four jumps. At the end of the fourth jump, he spun a web. The web, tokithhud ­chuaggia , was so large that, the next day, when Tash made his fourth jump, the web caught him. Spider, hiding nearby, pulled his web so tightly around Sun ’ s legs that he fell over and hurt himself.
    Sun was very angry. No one had ever hurt him before, and he could not believe that the ­people who had always loved him and sung to him would do such a terrible thing. And so he went away to his house in the East, leaving the Earth all dull and cloudy.
    Soon it was very dark. The Desert ­People worried when Sun did not return. Their food was gone. They could not see to plant. At last the Tohono O ’ odham sent a message to some of the Little ­People, the ones who can see in the dark, and asked them what they should do. The Little ­People said they should divide time into four parts. In two parts they should light big fires so they could see to work in the fields. The other two parts, the ones without fires, would be for sleeping and resting.
    But even though they tried this plan and worked very hard, the fires did not give enough light for the seeds to grow.
    DR. LANI WALKER-­PARDEE, AN EMERGENCY physician at Sells Indian Hospital, believed in being prepared. The last three things she tucked into her backpack were a well-­stocked first aid kit, followed by her somewhat frayed medicine basket and the new one she had made in hopes of giving it to Gabe. After fastening the pack shut she sat down on the edge of the bed, pulled on her hiking boots, and bent to lace them.
    â€œI still don’t understand why you and Gabe have to do this,” her husband, Dan Pardee, grumbled. The Gabe in question was Lani’s godson, Gabe Ortiz. “It’s not safe for the two of you to be out there overnight. It’s just not.”
    â€œI’ll have Gabe with me,” she said.
    Dan hooted with laughter. “Gabe is thirteen. From what his dad tells me, the kid is next to useless these days. If you did get into some kind of confrontation, how much help do you think he’d be?”
    Straightening up, Lani sighed and gazed at her husband with a look that was equal parts love and exasperation. “Whether he’s a help or not, I still have to do it,” Lani said. “I’m Gabe’s godmother. Helping out at a time like this is my duty. It’s expected. It’s what godmothers do. We’ll be fine.”
    Despite her reassurances, Lani could see that Dan remained unconvinced. Theirs was a mixed but generally happy marriage. On occasion, however, things could become complicated, and this was one of those times.
    Lani was born of the Tohono O’odham, the Desert ­People, who had lived for thousands of years hunting and gathering in the desert west of where Tucson is now. Daniel was Apache through and through. The Apache