Page 2 of The Watcher

"Best not to ask," she murmured back.

Rainbow returned and bore down on the steaming towel, using elbow grease to remove dried ketchup spots on the counter.

"I thought you were headed for home," Bergen said to Kateri.

"Rainbow called. There's a crisis."

"I've been sitting right here the whole time." Bergen glared balefully at Rainbow. "I'm capable of handling the same stuff Kateri is."

Rainbow threw the towel into the sink behind the counter. "It's not your kind of crisis."

He got very still and unbending; offense radiated from him. "What does that mean?"

Rainbow leaned forward and rested her ample cleavage on the counter.

He lost all that starchy affront, cleared his throat and looked at the ceiling.

Rainbow grinned at Kateri. Making men uncomfortable always gave her an alarming amount of pleasure. “Marie came in earlier. She needed to get away from the camp.”

Bergen stopped staring at the ceiling long enough to say “Marie? Camp?” He looked at Kateri to see if she was following along.

“You know Marie Cardinal," Rainbow said. "She lives on the rez, she's married to Nathan, the camp director, and she comes into town whenever she can’t deal with his long-winded stories or the kids running and shrieking. Two weeks of camp is alongtime."

"Right. I know her. And I know the camp. I went there as a kid." At the memory, Bergen hitched himself forward and grinned. "I had a great time!”

“It helps that you can pee standing up,” Rainbow said sarcastically.

Bergen blushed. The man was so modest. "Sandra and I were talking about sending the girls out next summer. Is the camp having problems?"

“You could say that. Marie said that the kids are scared. They keep telling Nathan that there’s a guy out in the woods watching them.”

"A man? Stalking the kids?" Bergen put his hand to his service pistol and stood. "I'll go."

Kateri put her hand on his arm. "Wait. Rainbow, is this a real man, or…?"

Rainbow straightened up and got serious. "He comes at night. He can't get past the protective circle. They catch glimpses of him pacing, back and forth, back and forth."

"So he's a spirit," Kateri said.

Bergen sat back down. "Right."

“That’s creepy." And not at all what Kateri was expecting. “Does Marie think it’s true?”

Rainbow shrugged. “Marie doesn't believe in the magic of the ancient gods, but she was tense. Uneasy. She said that teens don’t usually want to act like wussies in front of each other, and she can’t think of a good reason why they would — or could — invent this tale."

"Maybe the older kids are trying to scare the younger ones." Bergen had no imagination.

"They're all scared," Rainbow said. "The older girls are petrified and the older guys are jumpy."

“Do you want me to head out there and investigate?” Bergen made the offer, but it was at most half-hearted.

“This really isn’t your area of expertise," Kateri told him.

Rainbow nodded sagely. “That’s true. Kateri knows a lot more about woo-woo than all the rest of us put together.” She straightened her hobbit vest. “I think Kateri’s connection to the tribe might get them to open up more anyway.”

Bergen let out his held breath. What a relief to not get wrapped up in the inexplicable. He liked rational, reasonable issues, like traffic tickets and drug cases.

“I’ll stay on duty tonight, then," Bergen said.

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