Kari's heart sank."What happened?"
"Emma Talayesva was attacked at her home about an hour ago."
Another body.A third victim.
"But she's alive," the Chief continued, surprising Kari."She's at the station giving a statement.I thought you'd want to talk with her."
Kari was on her feet before he finished speaking, already grabbing her jacket."I'll be there in twenty minutes."
She called Polacca as she headed to her Jeep, the night air cold enough to make her breath visible.Polacca answered on the second ring, her voice alert despite the hour—clearly she hadn't been sleeping either.
"Emma was attacked," Kari said without preamble."I'm heading to the station now."
"I'll meet you there."
The drive through the dark was tense, Kari's mind racing through implications.The killer had gone after Emma.Of course, they had—Emma was the keeper of Patricia's research, the coordinator of the genealogical project, the person who knew what had been discovered.If Emma was dead, that would have left the encrypted files as their only access point, effectively shutting down that avenue of investigation.
But Emma was alive.The Chief had said she was safe.Which meant either the killer had been interrupted, or Emma had fought back, or something had gone wrong with the attack.
The Hopi Tribal Police station was lit up, several vehicles in the parking lot despite the late hour.Kari found Polacca already waiting by the entrance, her expression grim.
"What do we know?"Polacca asked as they walked in together.
"Just that she was attacked and survived.Nothing else yet."
Chief Lomayesva met them in the hallway, looking tired and angry."She's in interview room two.I've had officers process her house—the attacker broke in through a bedroom window, left the knife behind when they fled.We're running it for prints now, but I'm not optimistic."
"She saw them?"Kari asked.
"Ask her yourself.She's been waiting to talk to you."
Emma Talayesva sat at a table with a blanket around her shoulders and a cup of tea held in her trembling hands.She looked exhausted, her eyes red-rimmed, her hair disheveled.But she was alive.She was here.
"Ms.Talayesva," Kari said gently, sitting across from her.Polacca took the chair beside Kari."I'm glad you're safe.Can you tell us what happened?"
Emma took a shaky breath and began.She described hearing the neighbor's dog barking, the growing sense of unease, the sound of someone entering through her bedroom window.Her voice was steady at first, but grew more strained as she reached the moment of confrontation.
"I was in the living room when I heard someone in the hallway.I could hear them breathing—this fast, strange breathing, like he was struggling to get enough air."Emma's hands tightened on the cup."Then he came into the light."
"He?"Polacca asked."You're sure?"
Emma nodded.
"What did he look like?"Kari asked.
"He was wearing dark clothes and a mask."
Kari felt a chill."What kind of mask?"
"I couldn't tell exactly—it was dark, and I was terrified.But it was definitely Hopi, definitely ceremonial.The kind you'd see in dances, in sacred contexts."Emma's voice shook with what might have been anger as much as fear."He was using something sacred to hide his face while he tried to kill me."
"Did he say anything?"Polacca asked.
"He asked about Patricia's files.Demanded to know where they were."Emma looked down at her tea."I told him I couldn't access them, that they were encrypted.He said if I couldn't provide the files, I was no use to him.Then he showed me the knife."
Had the killer made similar demands of the other victims?
"What happened next?"Kari kept her voice calm, even as her pulse quickened.
