The deputy sighed.
“I think I can look at a pile of stuff and determine what it is, Boss,” he offered.
Callen hoped so.
“No offense meant, Deputy Running Bear.”
Ethan agreed.
“You’d be surprised how mutilated remains can look very un-human-like.”
The deputy looked grossed out by that.
“Uh, okay,” William stated.
Since they needed to see what was under the light cover of snow, Gene was curious.
“Do you have gloves and maybe one of those ice scrapers with the brush on the one side in your cruiser?” he asked the deputy. “So we can clear off one of their faces and bodies to see if they were mauled by bears?”
The deputy was confused.
In fact, the Native man stared at him.
“Uh, why is he here?” he asked Callen.
The man did the introductions.
“Deputy William Running Bear, this is my brother, Special Agent Ethan Blackhawk, and his partner, Special Agent Gene Cantrell.”
Gene showed him his badge, and it wasn’t lost on him that Ethan hadn’t had to do the same thing. They wereNOTequal in this Native’s eyes.
“FBI.”
The deputy got it.
More importantly, he was seeing the elusive Ethan Blackhawk in person. There were plenty of tales running rampant on the reservation regarding this man.
It was clear he did exist.
Not only that, but he and the boss looked similar—with one of them just less Native and more half-breed.
“I do. I’ll get it,” he said, ignoring the two Feds, and talking to his boss only.
The man trotted away, leaving the three of them crouching there with the victim.
Well, he absolutely didn’t like outsiders. Gene didn’t doubt why, and it had everything to do with his ethnicity. If they were lucky, the pile of bodies wouldNOTbe Native.
When Callen went to touch one of the limbs, Ethan grabbed his wrist.
“Trust me. You don’t want to do that. Then, a forensics team is taking your DNA, your fingerprints, a hair sample, and your clothing to eliminate you from the suspect list. They won’t let me give you a pass since you’re my brother.”
At his words, Callen retracted his arm and understood what his brother was saying.
“I see five legs,” Gene admitted. “So, we either have two and a half people, or three.”
Ethan saw the sixth leg.
“There’s one bent under this victim. I think it’s a leg. There’s snow all over it, but it’s definitely shaped like a leg. I think the deputy might have been right. I think we have women.”
