"Maybe.But I wouldn't have seen the pattern without you pointing it out."Carter extended her hand."If you ever get tired of reservation life and want to come work in L.A., give me a call.L.A.P.D.could use more detectives who don't take 'case closed' for an answer."
Kari shook her hand."I'll keep that in mind.And if you ever want to see what real police work looks like no backup, no forensics lab, just you and a thousand square miles of desert—come visit."
Carter laughed."I'll pass.I like my crime scenes with decent cell service."Her expression sobered."Take care of yourself, Blackhorse.And take care of that head of yours.Concussions are nothing to mess around with."
"I know.The doctor gave me a whole list of things I'm not supposed to do for the next two weeks.I plan to ignore most of them."
"Why am I not surprised?"
They shook hands, and then Kari got in the car and headed for the airport.In the rearview mirror, she watched L.A.shrink behind her—the sprawling city of dreams and nightmares, of people reinventing themselves and predators hiding in plain sight.
She wouldn't miss it.But she was glad she'd come.
EPILOGUE
The flight from Los Angeles to Phoenix took barely an hour and a half, but it felt like crossing into another world.
Kari sat in a window seat, watching the landscape transform beneath her.First the sprawl of L.A.—endless grids of streets and highways, the gray-brown smudge of smog hanging over everything, swimming pools glinting like scattered coins in the afternoon sun.Then the mountains, sharp and sudden, a wall of rock separating the coast from everything that lay beyond.And finally the desert, stretching out in every direction, vast and ancient and utterly indifferent to the small dramas of human beings.
She pressed her forehead against the cool plastic of the window and let herself breathe.
It was over.Diana Shepherd—Corinne Lindquist—was in custody, awaiting psychiatric evaluation.Tayen was safe, reunited with Lola, heading home to the reservation to start rebuilding her life.The five women Diana had killed would never get justice in any real sense—nothing could bring them back, nothing could undo the years their families had spent believing their daughters had simply succumbed to the pressures of a brutal industry—but at least there would be answers now.At least there would be acknowledgment that their deaths hadn't merely been tragic accidents.
Kari closed her eyes and saw Diana's face in the storage unit as she explained why she'd killed the women she claimed to love.The anguish in her voice.The absolute conviction that she'd been helping them, saving them from a world that would have destroyed them eventually.
It was the conviction that haunted Kari most.Not the violence—she'd seen violence before, had long ago accepted that human beings were capable of terrible things.But the certainty.The way Diana had constructed a reality in which murder was mercy, in which love meant never letting go, in which the only way to protect someone was to destroy them.
The plane began its descent, and Kari opened her eyes to watch Phoenix rise out of the desert—the cluster of buildings, the highways stretching out like arteries, the mountains standing sentinel in the distance.It wasn't the reservation, not yet, but it was close.She could feel something in her chest loosening, some tension she hadn't realized she'd been carrying starting to ease.
The plane touched down with a gentle bump, and Kari gathered her things.
Time to go home.
The desert air hit Kari like a blessing when she stepped off the plane—hot and dry and clean, nothing like the heavy smog of Los Angeles.She breathed it in deeply as she walked across the tarmac, relaxing a little more with every step.
Ben was waiting for her at the arrivals area, leaning against his truck with his arms crossed.He seemed to be trying very hard to look casual, but he couldn't entirely hide the worry buried deep in his eyes.
"You look like hell," he said by way of greeting.
"Thanks.It's good to see you too."
He grabbed her bag and tossed it in the back of the truck, then held the passenger door open for her with exaggerated courtesy."Heard you got into some trouble out there.Concussion, cracked ribs, nearly strangled by a serial killer in a storage unit."
"News travels fast."
"Detective Carter called me.She wanted to make sure someone would keep an eye on you when you got back."Ben pulled out of the parking lot and onto the highway heading toward the reservation."She also said you were a stubborn pain in the ass who wouldn't follow basic safety protocols and nearly got yourself killed.Her words."
Kari laughed, then winced when her ribs protested."That sounds about right."
They drove in comfortable silence for a while, the familiar landscape rolling past—red rocks and scrub brush and the endless blue sky that Kari had missed more than she'd realized.The land felt ancient and patient, unchanged by the dramas of human beings, indifferent to their struggles and triumphs.There was something comforting in that indifference.
Eventually, though, she turned to Ben."Any updates on the Naalnish investigation?"
Ben shook his head grimly."Nothing.The FBI closed the case, and I haven't been able to dig up anything myself."
"You've looked at the other cases?The ones my mother was investigating?"
"A little."
