An enormous flash and boom shook the entire attic, yanking the broom right out of her hand. Stunned, Leigh Ann ducked, clapping her hands to her ears, and nearly rolled off the narrow board. Her ears ringing, she peered through the cloud of dust and debris, trying to make sense of what had just happened.
“Leigh Ann. Are you okay?” Rachel’s voice seemed to floating in from the distance. “Leigh Ann? Leigh Ann!”
Leigh Ann shook her head, backed up a couple of feet, then turned around, looking at Rachel, who was halfway into the opening now. “Umm, I’m okay, but something just blew up.”
“What did you do?”
“I don’t know. I hit a string with the broom, then something exploded.”
Rachel pointed. “Over there. Is that a fire? I see smoke.”
As Leigh Ann turned, she saw shattered fishing gear and shreds of cardboard littering the top of the insulation batts. One of the truss beams that braced the connection between the roof and rafters had been peppered with holes and was shattered in half. Farther to the right, she glimpsed something she finally recognized. Sticking out of one of the black plastic bags was a big gun barrel. A thin wisp of smoke curled from the muzzle. “Nope, no fire. I smell gunpowder, though.”
“Rachel, that’s Kurt’s pump shotgun,” she added, still trying to make sense of things. “I wondered why I’d never been able to find it.”
“Did you touch the trigger, or did it go off by itself?”
Suddenly things popped into place in her mind. “Neither. Kurt set a trap with that damn thing! He loaded the shotgun and aimed it at the front of the box. I saw a piece of string, which must have been attached to the trigger. If I’d have moved that metal box myself instead of using the tip of the broom, my brains would be splattered all over the attic right now.”
“Want me to call the sheriff?”
Leigh Ann was still shaking like a leaf. She couldn’t move, and she was almost sure she’d wet her pants, but her thinking was crystal clear. “No. Hold off on that. This wasn’t meant for you or me. Kurt knew we wouldn’t come up here. This was meant for someone else. Before we get the police involved I want to look inside the box. It’s no tool box, it looks more like one of those petty cash containers. There’s a lock on the side below the lid.”
Kurt hadn’t been violent, yet he’d been willing to kill to protect the contents of that box. She had to know what was inside.
Leigh Ann took a shaky breath and reached for the box, making sure that the string was no longer attached to anything. “No more secrets, you bastard.”
“Leigh Ann?” Rachel called.
“I’m coming.” She edged back on hands and knees, dragging the surprisingly heavy box with her, and made it down the small ladder a few minutes later, carrying the box by the handle on top, a piece of string still attached to it. “I can’t stop shaking.”
“It’s little wonder.” Rachel took the metal document box from her hands and tried to open the latch. “It’s locked. Do you know where he kept the key?”
“No. I didn’t even know this box existed until about five minutes ago,After I go get the shotgun I’m coming down.”
I’ll get this thing open even if I have to blast it with buckshot.”
Also by Aimée & David Thurlo
ELLA CLAH NOVELS
Blackening Song
Death Walker
Bad Medicine
Enemy Way
Shooting Chant
Red Mesa
Changing Woman
Tracking Bear
Wind Spirit
White Thunder
Mourning Dove
Turquoise Girl
Coyote’s Wife
Earthway
Black Thunder
Never-Ending-Snake
Plant Them Deep
LEE NEZ NOVELS
Second Sunrise
Blood Retribution
Surrogate Evil
SISTER AGATHA NOVELS
Bad Faith
Thief in Retreat
Prey for a Miracle
False Witness
Prodigal Nun
The Bad Samaritan
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Aimée and David Thurlo have written many novels for Harlequin Intrigue in addition to their critically acclaimed Ella Clah mystery series, which includes Black Thunder and Never-ending-snake. They have also written the Sister Agatha mysteries, several novels about Lee Nez, a Navajo vampire, and The Spirit Line, a young adult novel.
The Thurlos live in Corrales, New Mexico, with a number of animals who reflect their passion for animal adoption. David grew up on the Navajo Reservation and later returned there to teach. Aimée is a native of Cuba who has lived in the American Southwest for more than thirty years.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously.
A TIME OF CHANGE
Copyright © 2013 by Aimée and David Thurlo
All rights reserved.
Cover photographs: figures by David Wagner; background images by Jupiterimages
A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Forge® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Thurlo, Aimée.
A time of change / Aimée Thurlo and David Thurlo.—First edition.
p. cm.
“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
ISBN 978-0-7653-2452-8 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-1458-5 (e-book)
1. Navajo Indians—Fiction. 2. Businessmen—Crimes against—Fiction. 3. Trading posts—New Mexico—Fiction. I. Thurlo, David. II. Title.
PS3570.H82T56 2013
813'.54—dc23
2012042845
e-ISBN 9781466814585
First Edition: April 2013