Gus took a gulp of air, his eyes turned away, remembering. “Kid says to me, ‘Help me, Grandfather.’ Says, ‘I wanna get off the white road and on the Indian road.’ Says, ‘I need the spiritual power to keep on livin’.’ My heart went out to him. I said, you take instructions, learn the right ways, then you can go on a vision quest to the rock carvings where the spirits are. I told him the spirits would give him the power he needed. So he started taking instructions. Moved out here and bunked in the barn.”
“When was that, Grandfather?” It had started to rain. Drops of water speckled the windowpane.
“Three weeks to the day before he was killed.” The old man’s lips worked around the words. “It wasn’t long enough, but he was in a big hurry to go on the quest. Summer isn’t come yet, I told him. That’s the best time for a vision quest. But he’d been with white folks that want everything right now. Don’t have patience to wait for the right time. He had soul sickness.”
The quiet lengthened between them, like the gray daylight creeping through the window and mingling with the lamplight. After a long moment Gus started talking again. “Go to Bear Lake, I told him. Take your pipe and some sage. Cleanse yourself in the lake and climb up the path to the ledge below the spirit rock. You won’t have nothing to eat, nothing to drink. Just smoke the pipe and pray to the spirit in the rock. You must make yourself ready, I say, in case the spirits decide to come and give you power.”
Gus lifted his head and stared at the ceiling. The rain beat hard on the roof. “After he went to Bear Lake, I heard the first thunder, before the rains started. Means a long life, when you hear the first thunder. I figured it was a good sign. Duncan would’ve heard it, too. But the thunder got louder, crashing around the sky, real angry. I knew the spirits was angry ’cause the boy wasn’t ready yet. I let him go too soon. I knew they was gonna test him. He was supposed to be patient. Be accepting. Keep praying. But he wasn’t strong enough. He got scared and tried to get away.”
Suddenly the old man dropped his head into his hands and began sobbing quietly. The thin shoulders twitched against the back of the chair. After a moment he looked up. “The spirits could’ve come like eagles, swooping down on him, or badgers or deer running after him, or rattlers. They was testing him.” His voice was so soft, Father John could barely hear the words. “Or maybe the thunder keeper came. Thunder is strong when it gets angry. It can kill.”
Father John looked away. This was not the information he’d hoped for. He could imagine the white detective’s expression when Gus explained that Duncan Grover couldn’t have committed suicide. He was killed by the spirits. Ironically both the medicine man and the detective had come to the same conclusion: the kid had hurled himself off the cliff.
The old man was watching him, waiting for his reaction. “Grandfather,” he began, taking a different tack, “Ben thinks Duncan was running from something. Did he mention any trouble in Denver? Say that somebody was following him?”
The old man blinked into the lamplight and shook his head. “Maybe Duncan was the one following somebody.”
Father John could hear the sound of his own breathing. It would explain why Grover had run to the reservation, instead of to Oklahoma, where he had family. He was following somebody.
“What makes you think so, Grandfather?” he said.
“Three days ago the phone rang.” The old man shifted his gaze sideways to the phone on top of the TV stand. “A girl. Says she has to talk to Duncan. I told her Duncan wasn’t back from Bear Lake.” The old man’s eyes clouded over. “Didn’t know he wasn’t ever coming back,” he said. Then, his voice stronger: “The girl says have him call me at the convenience store.”
Convenience store. There must be a half-dozen convenience stores in the area. He could visit them all, but who would he ask for? A girl who had wanted to talk to a murdered man? She didn’t come forward when Duncan’s body was found, or Banner would have mentioned her. Whoever she was, Father John decided, she didn’t want to get involved.
He said, “Duncan ever mention her?”
“Not in words.” Gus shook his head. “But I been doin’ some thinking. I think that’s why he wanted to get on the straight road, ’cause there was a woman that didn’t want him otherwise.” The old man held his gaze a long moment. “Duncan said he’d been stayin’ in Lander before he moved his bedroll into the barn. I been thinking. Maybe he was staying with her.”