Chapter 14

Bruce was silent during the drive back to the hotel.  Shen and I sensed his need to think things through, so we refrained from disturbing him.  Instead, we focused on contacting Ken to arrange for the use of a kitchen for Elsa.

The same woman, who offered her home for the meeting opened her kitchen to Elsa.  The ride to her Buckeye home from our Scottsdale hotel felt far longer than it did the first time.  I figured it was because we were all anxious to get Bruce taken care of so we could focus on finding Tatyana; each for our own reason, of course.

The sun was well behind the jagged mountain’s edge by the time we reached Millie’s home.  Elsa said little during the drive, except to remark about how bland the houses looked. She didn’t understand the native concept of blending the homes in with the desert landscape with earth tone houses and stones for grass.  She was of the frame of mind that we should celebrate life and o