Read Online Shadow Wolf by Jenna Kernan - Free Book Online Page B

and they know where the key is and they might be there now. I never thought... It didn’t occur to me. I have to warn them.”
    His voice took on that cold, hard edge that frightened her. “What do they look like?”
    “Nita is Navajo and Ernesta is from Salt River. Like me.”
    Kino accelerated down the highway, racing toward Pima.

Chapter Seven
    Kino hoped the buzzing awareness was not premonition but just his body’s necessary preparation to confront danger. He also hoped that the tribal police had beaten them to the trailer park. He didn’t want Lea in the middle of another shoot-out.
    “There’s no answer,” said Lea, her voice frantic as she pressed her cellular phone to her ear. “I tried them both.”
    Kino said nothing, but focused on driving.
    Lea gripped the phone as if it were a small wild animal struggling to escape. “But Ernesta is taller than I am. And Nita is heavier. We don’t look that much alike and...and he’s seen me close-up. He wouldn’t confuse us.”
    She looked to Kino for reassurance and he had none to give. The shooter might easily confuse them from a distance in the twilight. If he were taking Lea out, he’d do it with a scope. He sure as heck wouldn’t walk up close where anyone in the trailer park might see him.
    “Would he?” asked Lea.
    “We’re almost there.”
    Kino had made only one call, to Clay, requesting he send tribal police to Lea’s address.
    A call came in on Kino’s radio. He grabbed the mike clipped to the loop on the left shoulder of his uniform.
    “Kino.”
    His brother’s voice crackled to life. “Unit is on site.” Here Clay hesitated. “Kino?”
    “Yeah.”
    “She still with you?”
    Kino’s body straightened. “Yes.”
    The silence that followed filled the cab as Kino met Lea’s worried gaze.
    “The unit called in a 451.”
    Kino clenched his jaw and then responded. “Roger. En route.”
    “Units responding,” said Clay. “Out.”
    “What’s a 451?” asked Lea, her voice high, anxious.
    “It’s... Lea, it’s a homicide.”
    She clenched her hands into fists, one still gripping her phone as she pressed them to the sides of her head. “Oh, no. No.”
    Kino pulled into the RV park to find a wall of red and blue flashing lights. Police units lined the narrow road between the trailers.
    “Stay here,” said Kino as he exited to investigate, pressing the button on his key chain to lock all doors so that no one could open the door or see past the tinted glass.
    He identified himself as a police officer to one of the on-duty officers who told him that there had been a shooting. They had no witness. One body. Two shots.
    “Female?” asked Kino.
    “Yeah. No ID yet.”
    “She Indian?”
    The Tohono O’odham tribal officer pressed his mouth into a thin line and nodded.
    Kino looked at the blue tarp covering the body, certain the killer had taken out the wrong woman. Did he know? He would discover his mistake soon enough. He needed to have Lea well away by then.
    “Close range?”
    “Doubt it. Lots of expansion. Entry is in the back and exit in front.”
    Kino wanted to stay, to look at the body and figure out the angle of the shot. To cut for sign. Instead he looked back at his vehicle. Lea was there, watching them, seeing her friend there on the ground just like those men in the desert. He needed to get her out of here.
    He returned to the car and pulled away.
    “Who is it? Is it Nita? Ernesta?”
    He cleared the last trailer and pulled in beside a mobile home.
    “I’m not sure.” He only knew it wasn’t Lea. The relief of that took him off guard.
    She reached for the door handle. “I can identify her. I know them both.”
    He gripped her arm and struggled, but she was small and it was simple to pull her back into his vehicle. She used her arms like a swimmer, trying to free herself, so he gave her shoulders a shake. It got her attention.
    “You can’t help her.”
    He met her gaze, trying not to be affected by her tearstained