Louise nodded. Ben gave a thin smile in acknowledgment, then went to the car. His hands were buried deep in his pockets, his shoulders bent against a cold wind that wasn’t blowing. I was shivering as well. I hugged myself against the cold that came from inside rather than outside.
Louise and I waited, standing halfway between hogan and car. Her tangled hair made her look tired, older than when we’d started out. She looked up and around, studying sky, ground, distant trees, eyes squinting against the sun. For a moment she reminded me of a wolf taking in the scents.
I finally said, “Did you know what would happen in there? Has she ever talked to you before?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t know if it would work with outsiders watching. Most people, if I said that Joan talks to me, they’d laugh. Or they’d feel sorry for me. They wouldn’t think it was real. But you believe. I think that’s why she came.”
“I’ve had my own conversations with the dead.”
“Some people aren’t ready to go when they die.”
I choked on a lump in my throat. “Yeah.”
“I’m afraid—I’m afraid Miriam might come back. She was angry all the time. I’m afraid that might hold her to this world.”
That damned cabin was going to be haunted forever. I didn’t want to go back there to find out if Miriam’s ghost was hanging around or not. Let someone else deal with it.
I said, “When she died, a man was there, a curandero. He was afraid of the same thing. He did something—I don’t know exactly what. I think it was to keep her from coming back.”
“Then maybe it’ll be okay.” She gave a smile that seemed brave and hopeless all at once.
Ben called us over to the car. He used the hood as a desk and transcribed while Louise told a straightforward version of the story. She signed it where Ben indicated. It seemed like such a slim thing to pin any hopes on. We were grasping at straws. After she’d signed, Ben packed away his briefcase.
“Can we give you a ride back?” I said.
“No thanks. I’m not in too much of a hurry to get back. The walk’ll do me good.”
The walk was something like fifteen miles, but I didn’t argue. I understood the urge to walk yourself to exhaustion.
She drew something out of her pocket, holding it in a tight fist. She kept her face lowered. “I have something for you. The questions about Miriam, the thing she was and what you’re looking for—it’s dangerous. You should leave, you should go back and forget about it all. But I know you won’t, so you need these.”
She opened her hand to show two arrowheads tied to leather cords lying on her palm.
I took them from her. They were warm from her clutching them tightly. She must have sensed my hesitation, because she pulled at a length of leather around her own neck. An arrowhead amulet had been hiding under the collar of her shirt.
“Why do you think that I, out of all my sisters and my brother, am still alive?”
She had a point there.
“Thank you,” I said.
She smiled and seemed calmer. Less fearful. Sometimes rituals weren’t about magic. They were about helping people deal with events. Deal with life. She walked away from the road, heading into the scrubland between here and the town. Didn’t look back.
I gave one of the amulets to Ben. Back in the car, I opened the glove box and pulled out two items: the leather pouch Tony had given me, and Alice’s crystal charm. I lined them up on the dashboard above the steering wheel, added Louise’s arrowhead to the collection, and regarded them, mystified.
Ben looked at me looking at the amulets. “Does this make you super-protected? The safest person in the world?”
I frowned. “I’m thinking they might all cancel each other out. Like red, green, blue light making white.”
“Which do you pick?”
“Local color. I’ll bet Louise knows what she’s talking about.” I took the arrowhead, slipped the cord over my head, and put the others back in the glove box. Ben put on his arrowhead. There we were—protected.
We left. Ben sat with his briefcase on his lap, his head propped on his hand, looking frustrated.
“Will her statement help?” I said.
He made a vague shrug. “Maybe the court will believe it, maybe not. When you get right down to it, there’s an official death certificate saying Joan Wilson died of pneumonia. Louise is the only one saying Miriam killed her. Hearsay and ghost stories. I don’t know, I’ll take whatever I can get at this point.” We trundled along in silence for a few minutes, when he added, “As dysfunctional goes, this family’s really got something going.”