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It was the most direct criticism of FBI methodology she’d ever heard from him, and it caught Kari by surprise.“That’s… not what I expected you to say.”

A faint smile crossed his features.“Retirement allows for certain professional reassessments.And living in Flagstaff, working with the Navajo and Hopi communities through the museum, has given me perspectives I wish I’d had during my Bureau years.”

This glimpse of evolution in her father’s thinking was something Kari wasn’t prepared for.Before she could respond, her phone rang—Tsosie’s number flashing on the screen.

“I need to take this,” she told her father.

“Of course,” he said.“Will you be talking to Paul about Dr.Redford’s assessment?”

“Eventually,” Kari said, “but I want to follow up on a few things first.”

Her father nodded understanding.“Kari, I meant what I said about us having dinner when your case is over—you, me, Linda.I think you’d like her.”

The invitation hung between them, weighted with unresolved history.“I’ll be in touch,” Kari said, neither committing nor refusing.“I should take this call.”

“Blackhorse,” she answered, stepping away from her father.

“Where are you?”Tsosie’s voice was tense, urgent.

“Still at the university.Why?”

“You need to get back here now.”

“What’s happening?”

“Daniels is pushing to bring in a suspect.Already has a team assembled.”The strain in his voice was unmistakable.“Captain Yazzie is holding them off until you arrive, but he can’t stall much longer.”

“A suspect?Based on what evidence?”Kari asked, already moving quickly toward the exit.

“The profile,” Tsosie said flatly.“And a connection to both victims that Daniels thinks is significant.He’s in full Bureau mode now, Kari.This is happening with or without you.”

“Tell Yazzie to please try to wait a couple of hours,” she said, breaking into a jog as she pushed through the building’s doors into the bright afternoon sunlight.“I’m leaving now.”

“I’ll try.But hurry,” Tsosie replied before ending the call.

Kari glanced back to see her father watching from the doorway, his expression unreadable.She raised a hand in hasty farewell, a gesture he returned with a nod that somehow conveyed both concern and understanding.

As she sprinted to her Jeep, Kari felt the familiar rush of adrenaline that came with a case accelerating toward resolution—or disaster.Daniels moving to make an arrest this quickly meant either he had evidence she wasn’t aware of, or he was pushing his theory regardless of contradictory information.

Either way, she needed to get back to the station before an innocent person became entangled in Daniels’s carefully constructed narrative—a narrative that looked right to those who didn’t know what to look for, but that Kari now knew was fatally flawed.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Kari heard the helicopters before she saw them—the mechanical thrum of rotors cutting through the desert air, hovering like predatory birds.As she rounded the final bend in the road, the scene unfolded with the grim predictability of a tragedy she’d been too late to prevent.

Four tribal police vehicles formed a loose perimeter around a small stone house set back from the main road.Behind them, two unmarked FBI SUVs blocked the driveway.Officers in tactical vests crouched behind open car doors, weapons drawn but lowered.A police negotiator stood beside a vehicle with a bullhorn in hand, his voice carrying across the open space with mechanical distortion.

“Mr.Begay, please come out with your hands visible.We only want to talk.No one needs to get hurt today.”

Kari parked her Jeep at the edge of the growing circus, noting the local news van that had already arrived.A reporter she recognized from Flagstaff stood at a respectful distance, speaking urgently into a microphone while her cameraman captured the standoff.

Tsosie spotted her immediately, breaking away from a group of officers to intercept her before she could reach the command center Daniels had established.

“Thomas Begay,” Tsosie said without preamble, his voice low and tight.“Natoni’s cousin.Thirty-eight, traditional practitioner, teaches Navajo language and culture at the community college in Chinle.”

“What the hell is Daniels thinking?”Kari hissed, scanning the scene.“Thomas has no connection to the murders.”

“He does according to Daniels’s profile.”Tsosie’s expression was carefully neutral, but Kari could read the tension in the set of his shoulders.“Thomas was arrested two years ago after a physical altercation with a white tourist at Canyon de Chelly—specifically, near Spider Rock.The tourist was taking photographs of a ceremony.”

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