Caching Out Read Free Page B

I hear you’re up to your nose in trouble these days.” 
    Tate
reached over and clasped his father’s outstretched hand. “Yeah Dad, I am. But
you must be in some serious trouble too, if you’re  eating at the diner when we
both know that you’re married to the best cook in the state.” 
                “Nothing
like that, Son. Your Mama just thought it was time I come to town to see about
you. Claims she’s not cooking a thing until I make sure our boy’s alright.” A
frown creased the older man’s forehead. “You are alright aren’t you, Son?”
    “I’m
okay, but this case has got me thinking about things I haven’t thought about
since I left the bureau and moved back home—things like this just don’t happen
in Pine Ridge.” Tate leaned forward and lowered his voice, “No leads and no
obvious reason for the killing. Nothing seems to fit, at least not yet. This
woman didn’t seem to have an enemy in the world, yet someone went into her
house and raped and killed her.”
    Jimmy
Echo smiled at Kathy as she sat Tate’s order down on the table, “Think about it
some and it’ll come to you. Might help if you let your hair grow a little
longer!” 
     “I
don’t think the Mayor would understand it if I told him to put this case on the
back burner while my hair grows long so that my spirit will be strong enough to
catch a killer.”
    “You’re
probably right about that, but then people not understanding the Native ways
has always been a problem for us. When your Unci, your grandmother, left
the Reservation to marry your grandfather, folks in Pine Ridge thought he was
crazy for getting tied up with an ‘Indian’ girl and people on the Res shunned
my mother for leaving them for a white man. But that didn’t stop them from
building a good life together for over fifty years.”
     The
two sat in silence as Tate ate his lunch.
    Finally
Jimmy said, “Tate, I know you’re busy, but at least call your mama. She’s
worried sick about you. Says she’s got a real bad feeling about all this and
you know how she is when she gets a feeling about something.” Rising to leave,
Jimmy clasped a hand on his son’s shoulder. “And Son, don’t you worry none
about this case, long hair or short, you’ll figure it out.”
    Tate
watched as his dad left the diner, stopping first to speak to several of the
regulars perched on the round swivel seats at the bar.
    Taking
the last bite of his sandwich, Tate thought of the last time he’d seen his dad
with short hair. It had been when his grandmother died. He was twelve and had
followed his dad down to the creek behind their house. Silently he watched as
his dad pulled his braid to the side and used a hunting knife to cut it off and
then knelt placing it in the water.  He stood and watched it float away. It had
been a few years later before Tate understood that his dad was honoring his Unci by grieving in the Native way, cutting his hair and returning it to the earth.
    Tate
dropped a generous tip on the table and rose to leave. Deciding to give Reva a
day’s reprieve before answering questions, he drove to Saralyn Parker’s house,
hoping to find something that had been overlooked the night before. An hour later,
he admitted to himself that it had been a long shot and a dry run. Tate locked
the small house, stepped over the yellow crime scene tape and made his way back
to his SUV.
    On
the drive home he made a mental note to call his mom. Tate’s parents were first
rate, family was everything to them. His dad owned the only garage in town and
was the best mechanic in the county. Karlee wasn’t his real mother, but she was
the only mother he’d ever remembered or needed. She’d always loved him and made
sure that he knew it.
    On
the short ride to his house, Tate let his thoughts drift to his parents and to
his real mother. Jimmy Echo had married a young local girl shortly after high
school; rumor was that she had been pregnant and ‘that Echo boy had