Okay. But lets get out of here.
She glanced back at the living room, heaving a long sigh. I want him back, Joe. The words had become Maggies mantra, echoing inside Joes thoughts.
He stared at the plain room with what looked like hand-me-down furniture. The faint scent of talcum powder and baby lotion permeated the air. The only bright spots in the room were the playpen in the corner and a few toys scattered on the couch cushions and the floor. A happy enough environment to raise a kid, missing only one thing.
The kid.
Joes gut twisted and he wrapped an arm around Maggies shoulders. Well find him.
Alive? she said, her voice a breathy whisper.
Yes. If it was the last thing he did.
MAGGIE CLIMBED into the passenger seat of the SUV Joe used as his official tribal police vehicle. She felt funny, as though she was the criminal, even though the cage between the front and back seats was behind her. The thought angered her. Her house had been violated and her baby stolen, not the other way around. She jumped when the radio on Joes shoulder squawked.
Sorry. He flipped a switch on the device and it quieted.
Joe sat silent all the way to reservation police headquarters, a metal building with tan siding in the heart of the scattered community.
He climbed down and rounded the hood while Maggie sat with her hands clenched in her lap, her eyes staring out the windshield. As her mind replayed the message from the kidnappers, she tried to read into it any glimmer of a clue. But she came up with nothing.
He opened the passenger door and held out his hand.
Maggie turned to stare down at him. Joe, Saturday is three days from now. I cant wait that long to find my baby.
I know. Thats why were here. Were not waiting. He helped her from the truck and walked her toward the building without removing his hand from hers.
The pressure of his big gloved fingers against hers, provided a little of the reassurance she so dearly craved. She needed it to keep her from stomping her feet in the gravel parking lot and screaming against the injustice. With every nerve sizzling beneath her skin she felt like a firecracker on the verge of exploding. Wheres my son!
Once inside, Joe seated Maggie at his office and pulled a digital recorder, pad and pen from a drawer. Lets start from the beginning.
Maggie listed off the names of the juveniles shed worked with prior to Kiyas suicide.
Can you think of any reason why shed show up at the center after taking meth?
No. And the tribal police were clueless. It didnt make sense. If she was back on drugs after all everyone had done for her, Id think shed feel so guilty shed hide in shame.
Unless she realized her mistake and came back for help.
A little too late. Maggie had thought of that, distraught that she hadnt been there for Kiya when shed needed her most.
I cant understand what went so wrong during the time I was gone. Joe tapped his pen against the metal desk.
Things were different. The tribal police didnt have their leader. They tried to keep things together, but all I could figure was the teenagers were being influenced by an outside source.
Joe shoved a hand through his dark hair. My deployment couldnt have come at a worse time.
Maggie almost snorted, but held her reaction in check. Youre telling me. Shed listened to the man shed fallen in love with inform her they had no future. Then hed walked awayor rather flown awayto the other side of the world. Two weeks later, she confirmed her suspicions, she was pregnant.
She gazed at the top of Joes head as he bent to the task of noting her responses and her heart softened. Fourteen months had given her time to get over her anger and to learn more about this man through the people on the reservation. The more she learned, the more she understood the reasons for his reaction to their night of lovemaking.
Joe had lost his father when he was ten years old. Chaska Lonewolf had been a gentle man, proud of his heritage, proud of his son and determined to instill in him the ways of his ancestors. But he hadnt had the chance. Hed died while out hunting when his truck had flipped onto him.
The loss of Chaska Lonewolf as a husband and financial provider for the family had devastated Joes mother. Shed taken Joe from the reservation, the only home hed ever known, and gone to work in Rapid City, where shed met and married Kevin Brandt. Shortly after the wedding, Kevins ex-wife had dumped six-year-old Paul on the new family and left town.
School wasnt easy for a Native American boy in a white mans world, but Joe had kept his head low and studied hard, determined to return to the reservation and his way of life as soon as he was old enough. The time had come sooner than hed expected when Kevin was laid off and once again the family was destitute.
Theyd packed up their meager belongings and moved back to the reservation where Kevin drank, bragged about Paul and berated Joe every chance he could get. A miserable life for a little boy whod lost a loving father. No wonder hed pushed Maggie away. What had the white man done for him besides give him pain?
Maggie felt deep compassion for the ten-year-old Joe. Shed struggled with the truth of Dakotas parentage. He deserved a father like Joes. He deserved Joe. But Joe had spelled it out in his parting speech. There was no room in his life for her. So Maggie had to make arrangements to keep the tribe from knowing the baby was Joes.
Her first instinct was to leave her job and run as far from the reservation as she could. But the teens shed been working with needed her almost as much as her unborn baby. When Paul started coming around her work, flirting with her, she jumped at a solution.
As it turned out, Paul was the only one whod known she was pregnant before she married him. Hed been patient, waiting for her to get over the man who got her in that condition. In love with her from the start, he waited throughout her pregnancy, showering her with encouragement and as much affection as shed let him. But when the baby was born, the wall of her emotions for Joe still stood between them. Maggie wanted to love this man whod stepped in and helped her in her time of need, but she couldnt.
Paul must have realized this because he spent more and more time working at the casino. Maggie never saw him. For the most part, she and Dakota were on their own.
Without her son, Maggie felt more alone in the world than ever. If not for Joe, she didnt know what shed do.
AFTER MAGGIES INTERVIEW, Joe dropped her off at the youth center, despite his better judgment. Shed insisted, saying she needed time to check on her kids and to think.
Hed grabbed her hand before she slipped out of his vehicle. Promise me youll call if you need anything?
I will, she said, climbing down.
Ill pick you up around three.
Her head jerked up and she stared at him, her eyes glassy as if she had to concentrate to focus. No need.
A gentle smile lifted his lips. You dont have your car here.
Oh. She was preoccupied, and rightly so with her baby missing. Okay. That was all she said before she turned and walked toward the building, pulling her coat tightly around her.
Joe wanted to go after her and coax her into telling him everything going on in her head. He felt like she was living detached from him and the world around them and he couldnt get through to her.