Kari made a mental note of the name.Silver might be able to tell Kari crucial details about the cold case—assuming he was still alive.
"Did he ever mention cases involving ceremonial aspects?"Kari continued."Crimes where traditional elements were misused or involved somehow?"
Ruth's gaze sharpened, her earlier openness receding like water absorbed by desert sand."Why do you ask these specific questions, Asdza´a´ K'os?"
"I told you, I want to know more about my grandfather."
Ruth smiled thinly."You want to know about hiswork.Do not lie to me, granddaughter."
The moment of truth had arrived.Kari opened the folder, removing the crime scene photographs—not of the body itself, which would be disrespectful to show, but close-up images of the herb bundle found in Martin Reynolds' mouth.She placed these on the small table between them.
"A professor was killed at Cold Water Canyon yesterday," she said simply."These were placed in his mouth after death."
Ruth didn't immediately reach for the photographs.Instead, she studied Kari's face with an intensity that seemed to search for something beyond words.Finally, she looked down at the images.
The change was instantaneous and alarming.Ruth's composure—the steady presence that had weathered decades of hardship without visible strain—cracked like parched earth during drought.Her hands, always so steady even in her advanced years, trembled visibly as she touched the edge of one photograph with a single fingertip.
"Where did you find these?"she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
"The killer placed them in the victim's mouth," Kari explained."Dr.Hatathli identified most of the components—sage, cedar, juniper—but wasn't certain about the white flowers.I thought you might recognize the specific combination."
Ruth stood abruptly, moving with uncharacteristic urgency to a cedar chest in the corner of the room.Her hands shook as she opened it, removing a small bundle wrapped in red cloth.
"Shimásání?"Kari asked, concerned."What's wrong?"
Ruth didn't answer immediately.Instead she unwrapped the cloth, revealing a smudge bundle composed of the same plants visible in the photographs, bound with similar red thread.Without explanation, she lit the bundle from a candle that had been burning throughout their conversation, waiting until the herbs began to smolder and release fragrant smoke.
"Stand," she instructed Kari, her tone brooking no argument.
Confused but compliant, Kari rose as Ruth began moving the smoking bundle around her in specific patterns—up and down her body, in circles around her head, across her shoulders.The older woman murmured in Navajo, words too low and rapid for Kari to follow completely, though she recognized phrases invoking protection and purification.
"Shimásání, please," Kari said when Ruth finally stepped back."Tell me what this means.What are you protecting me from?"
Ruth extinguished the smoldering bundle in a shell containing sand.Then she sank down on her stool again, looking every bit her age.
"Fifty years," she murmured, seeming to speak more to herself than to Kari."It returns after fifty years, as the old ones said it would."
Gooseflesh sprang along Kari's arms."What returns?What are you talking about?"
Ruth gazed off into space, saying nothing.
Kari tried a different tack."We found cases from 1973—exactly fifty years ago.Three professors killed the same way, with the same herb combination placed in their mouths.Grandfather investigated those murders."
Ruth closed her eyes, pain etching new lines into her weathered face."Joseph never solved those cases.Not officially.But he knew."She looked directly at Kari."He knew, and the knowing nearly destroyed him."
"Knew what?What did he discover?"
Ruth shook her head, sudden resolve hardening her features."No.This case is not for you, Asdza´a´ K'os.You must give it to someone else—Ben, or your FBI friend Daniels.Someone without Chee blood."
Kari thought of pointing out that Agent Paul Daniels, her father's former partner, wasn't her 'friend.'But that was neither here nor there.In all the months since returning to the reservation, through all the cases she'd investigated including those with ceremonial aspects, Ruth had never once attempted to interfere with Kari's police work.This unprecedented intervention struck Kari with the force of physical impact.
"I can't just walk away from a murder investigation because of some—"
"Some what?"Ruth interrupted, her voice sharp."Some superstition?Some old woman's fear?Is that what you were going to say?"
Kari exhaled slowly, reining in her frustration."I didn't mean it that way.But I need to understand why you're asking this of me.What connection does our family have to these cases?What did my grandfather discover that was so dangerous?"
"Some knowledge is like poison," Ruth said, gathering the photographs and returning them to the folder with hands that seemed to have steadied through effort of will alone."It changes those who consume it.Joseph was never the same after those murders.The searching hollowed him from inside, year by year."
