Sapphire Nights (Crystal Magic Book 1)(73)

“I hope they don’t suspect poor Xavier now. I’m afraid if he held a gun in his hand, he’d put it to his head. He seems to be an unhappy person.”

But Xavier had carried a kerosene can. Would the same person who burned the mountain be the one who shot a man in the back?

“I remember Xavier from when my father was alive,” Monty said thoughtfully. “When he first started coming here, he didn’t pay Kurt or me any attention. But he seemed to change overnight, into a ghost of a man who jumped if we said boo. I assumed he fried his brain on drugs, but he manages the rental office fine. He must have been sharp once. I can’t imagine him shooting Juan for any reason.”

Sam hid her excitement at finding someone actually willing to talk to her. Walker was too professional to reveal police findings, and he hadn’t lived here all those years ago. “Do you think Juan’s death is related to the finding of the skeleton?”

“Yeah, I’m afraid it may be,” he said grimly. “Which will tie it to my family now that Walker’s father has been identified. My mother has suffered enough over all these years. I don’t want her put through that kind of grinder. I hope she stays in Hawaii until this settles. It always relaxes her to get away.”

“She’s sensitive to the negative energy, I suspect,” Sam said aloud, forgetting she was talking to a Null.

Her half-uncle went silent again. Oops. She cast him a look, but he was simply studying the terrain ahead.

“The farmhouse used to be over by that patch of green on the left. Looks like the bluff protected the shrubs. There’s a stone foundation in there. Usually, morning glories cover it, but they won’t be blooming at this hour, if they survived. There aren’t too many hiding places.”

“Where would she hide a golf cart?” Sam studied what must have been her grandparents’ home, but in the twilight, it didn’t look any different than the rest of the mountain. She felt a connection to the land but nothing else.

“Daisy gets her stones from somewhere. I guess this is as good a place as any. She probably has a favorite spot for that ugly lump of metal. Daisy!” Monty shouted as they headed down the hill into the secluded basin.

A few of the bushes appeared to move. Sam hurried in that direction. “Daisy!”

A stick raised up above a sprawling manzanita hedge singed by the fire. The staff swung lazily, so the bearer didn’t seem to have any urgent message.

“Not having cell phones is a real pain,” Sam muttered, hurrying down the rocky, burned out path.

“If she’s hurt, I’ll jog back and find Walker. She may be heavy but she’s not large. We can haul her out easily enough, especially if the cart isn’t out of gas.” Monty strode along with confidence, apparently knowing the land.

Sam wondered if he knew she and Valdis were purportedly heirs to the property. Surely, if he’d been researching property rights, he had a full scale map of every lot. But he wasn’t saying anything. Interesting.

Before they reached the hedge, Sam nearly stumbled over what at first appeared to be a stack of stones. On this side of the bluff, the shadows were long. She took Monty’s flashlight and flashed it over the ground.

Lined up around what appeared to be the farm foundation was a military row of small stone statues similar to the one Daisy had left for Sam last night. These weren’t quite as artistic, consisting mostly of three stones maybe a foot high, wired together with whatever bits of flotsam Daisy could summon from her surroundings. Manzanita arms were the primary decoration. One or two had shiny pebbles as ornaments—decorated generals maybe, Sam thought with amusement.

“What the. . .” Monty bit off the rest of the curse as he examined the line.

Sam’s staff quit pulsating. “Daisy, is it okay for us to cross the line?”

The bushes parted and Daisy’s graying head peered out. Sam breathed in relief.

“Yes, yes, come along.” She disappeared behind the bushes again.

“Are you hurt? Do you need help?” Sam asked anxiously, stepping across the statues.

“I’m fine. Montgomery, go home. You’re useless,” Daisy called, actually sounding coherent for a change.

“You can tell the other searchers to go home,” Sam said, holding back a sigh of exasperation. “I’m sorry you got dragged away from your busy schedule.”

Monty almost chuckled. “Par for the course up here. Valdis is probably engraving stones in the cemetery. But I needed the exercise. It’s good to remember what the mountain is about, and I needed to see how much damage the fire did.”

“I think this part of the land will be fine with a little care,” Sam said cautiously. “I studied controlled burns. There are recommended actions that can be taken.”

He nodded without expression. “I’ll send a few of the women down with flashlights. You’ll all have broken ankles stumbling around in the dark.”

“I’m not hanging around to be found by snakes and cougars,” she said tartly. “But I’ll stay with Daisy until the others decide what they want to do.”

“Glad you understand she won’t be persuaded away until she’s ready.” He handed her the flashlight and stalked back up the way they came.

“Good, he’s gone,” Daisy said from behind the hedge. “We need more lamassu. I should have thought of this sooner. We can’t have bulldozers here.”