Forbidden Ground (Cold Creek #2)(74)

*

Still trembling with anger after reburying the box and replacing the stones, Kate rushed back to the house, washed her hands and went out to her car. She threw her tools in the trunk atop the others she’d brought along, hoping there would be some Adena dig she could work on in the area. The morning sun had heated the car’s interior. She didn’t mind, sitting there, feeling inwardly chilled on the warm June morning. She didn’t start the motor, but her mind raced.

She would guess that Brad—maybe with Grant—had found the mica arrowhead in the same area where her team had found the shape of the ax head yesterday. He—or they—might have taken that arrowhead, and Brad had buried it above where he’d interred his pet dog. But had they found the ax head or other artifacts that came from the mica seam? Had Todd been involved, too, maybe had taken the ax head, then told his eldest son, Jason, about that or even showed it to him? These relics needed to be traced and studied, not buried or shown privately.

“You can’t keep treasures—and the truth—buried.” She repeated one of Carson’s classroom mantras aloud.

She started the car and headed toward Todd and Amber’s house.

*

Kate was in a hurry, but she accepted a cup of coffee from Amber’s mother and was filled in on Todd’s progress. “Slow, but after all the tests, they know what they need to do,” she told Kate. “Ruptured spleen, but at least he can live without that. The doctor is operating on that today. Oh, by the way, we wanted to thank you again for getting that apartment where Amber could stay free at night with your friend in Columbus. We are so very grateful to you, and it’s good to see Grant have a chance at real happiness again.”

So much for her plan to talk to Todd about the ax head later today, Kate thought, but she was deeply touched by feeling appreciated here, at least by some people. As for Grant being happy—she wasn’t so sure about that. But she realized she would love to make him happy. As much as he frustrated her, she would love to love him.

As soon as she could, Kate went out to the backyard, where the McCollum kids were playing while their grandfather kept an eye on them. She chatted with him briefly and was touched to see how the kids stopped their running around long enough to greet her. She finally managed to corral Jason alone over by the picnic table.

“So, I was thinking about that interesting drawing you did for your dad,” she told Jason as they sat close together on the bench.

“Mom said he liked it okay.”

“I’ll bet he did. But I was wondering why you drew an ax head and blood, since when your dad fell, I didn’t see an ax or blood.”

“No, that was the other time. I wanted him to know I felt bad when I got hurt, too—like, I understand he’s hurt bad.”

“Oh, you fell, too? When you and Dad were chopping down a tree?”

He shook his head. “I didn’t fall. In the attic I found the ax and it was really cool, but I was playing with it and cut myself bad.”

“Oh, I see. I’m sorry about that. Did the ax have a handle on it?”

“No—just the top part, a kind of shiny black stone, and pretty sharp. I needed eleven stitches,” he said, thrusting out his arm to her where she could see the pale red marks. “I didn’t know it was hid in the attic. Mom was pretty upset, but Dad said he’d put it somewhere else. He found it when he was little, playing with Uncle Grant. Miss Kate, is my dad gonna be all right? I get mad at him sometimes, but I love him, and if he died I’d be really sad I didn’t tell him that more.”

Grant knows about the Adena arrowhead and ax head! And what else? Fighting to keep calm, she put her hand on the boy’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “It may take a while, and he’ll need your help, but I’m sure he’ll get lots better.”

She was right that Grant, Brad and Todd—maybe Paul—had found some Adena artifacts near the mica seam and hidden them. Yet her thoughts flew to her own father. I get mad at him sometimes, but I love him, and if he died I’d be really sad I didn’t tell him that more.

As Jason went back to play with his brothers, she recalled how she, Tess and Char used to play in back of their house. She remembered her mother calling them in, saying that Dad would be late or wouldn’t be home tonight. And, as angry as she was—she knew she had to stop hating her father.





24

Instead of heading home—that was, to Grant’s—Kate drove straight to Columbus.

She tried to keep her mind on her driving, but she kept rehearsing tirades to Carson and Grant. Right now, everything annoyed her—the Columbus traffic, the fact she didn’t have a faculty parking pass and had a long walk across campus, how big and old the Smith Laboratory anthropology building was and how their department had to share it with swarms of students taking physics, math, astronomy, public health and even film studies. Yet she really missed teaching here.

Most of all, she was upset about having to face Carson. She was no closer to permission for excavating Mason Mound, and he was still trying to force her to do so anyway. He was bombarding her with news about smashed skulls in Italy, setting up his grad assistants to push his new Toltec/Adena theory, which would ruin years of her work because his articles and speeches would have more clout than hers if she fought him on it. And she was ready to do just that. But she still didn’t have the missing link of an artifact that the European Celts had in common with the Adena.