Draw and Order

by Cheryl Hollon

  “We’ll be fine. This house didn’t have electricity when it was built by your grandfather.”

  “Hopefully, everyone will be gone soon.”

  Miranda had barely got those words out of her mouth when the firemen came in and said that the grass fire was completely out. Then the electrical company also made their way down her dirt road after a sincere promise to be back the first thing next morning.

  Austin and Sheriff Larson drove up to the farmhouse from the back and joined Miranda and her mom in the kitchen.

  “He didn’t leave anything behind on the trail,” Austin said. “I’ll come back in the morning and walk it in daylight, but I don’t think he left a trail we could trace.”

  “What about fingerprints on the utility pole or on the chain saw?”

  “Unlikely,” admitted Sheriff Larson. “That pole was taken down by someone who knew that there would be a chain saw in the barn and knew how to use it. He or she probably wore gloves so they’ll be no fingerprints. I know I always wear ’em when I’m running mine. It feels like they planned to cause a disruption, but I think finding the chain saw was an extra opportunity to cause more havoc than they originally thought about.”

  “It’s working, too. We’re all out here trying to recover and not investigating Howard’s murder,” said Miranda.

  The sheriff inhaled a deep breath. “On that point, you need to get back to running your business and leaving me to handle mine.”

  “But—” Miranda interrupted.

  Sheriff Larson yelled, “No buts. This could easily have resulted in a tragedy. As it is, lives were threatened and property was damaged. I can’t have you running around interfering with official investigations. Back off. I mean that.” He stomped out of the farmhouse, got into his patrol car, and sped down the road.

  Miranda flushed a bright rose and folded her arms over her chest. “If he thinks that will put me off, he’s wrong. Aunt Ora asked me to look into this, and that’s what I’m going to do.”

  Chapter 40

  Wednesday Morning, the Farmhouse

  Miranda stood at the edge of the porch holding a steaming mug of coffee and watching the sun rise over the trees across the valley. She had crept out of the bedroom in her pj’s without waking Sandy, lit the oil lamp in the kitchen, and brewed a big pot of coffee. The morning stillness was beginning to fill with the dawn chorus of birdsong as the sunrise approached.

  “Penny for your thoughts.” Dorothy walked out to the edge of the porch and kissed Miranda on the cheek. “I barely slept a wink last night. After everyone finally left, I kept hearing all kinds of sounds that I imagined to be the return of our vandal. But with Sandy and Ron with us, one of them would have called out an alarm. I finally dropped off about an hour ago. Thanks for starting the coffee.” Dorothy turned. “Why the long face?”

  “I’m feeling odd. Not odd exactly. More like balancing on a tightrope with no clue on how to get off the stupid thing.”

  “I know just what you mean. You know, it’s that sensation when you’re searching for a word but it just won’t appear. It’s odd.”

  Miranda sighed. “I feel like I should know who killed Howard, but the clue that resolves everything is just out of reach.”

  Dorothy smiled and her shoulders dropped. “That’s good. You always get like this just before there’s a breakthrough. No matter what you’ve tackled, your education, your painting, even these investigations, there’s been a time when you’ve been on edge.”

  Miranda pressed her lips tight. “I know that it always happens, but it still drives me crazy.” She downed the dregs of her coffee. “I’ve got to get dressed before the utility company arrives. They’ve promised me first priority. Oh, I’ve canceled the tour.”

  “Well, don’t hold your breath, it’s easy to promise.”

  In short order, Miranda raced through her morning chores: caring for Sandy, tidying her bedroom, fetching water from the well, checking the lamps for oil, and setting out fresh batteries in case they were needed.

  She drove down to the general store and got four bags of ice. Then she emptied the contents of her refrigerator into two coolers with an ice bag each and crammed two bags into her freezer. That should hold things until at least tomorrow. After that, she’d be on her way to the Walmart for a generator. She had too much meat in the freezer to risk losing to spoilage. She should probably have a generator to support the distillery anyway.

  Fortunately, Ron was actually being helpful today. Her mom had decided to take charge of his task priorities. The two of them had patched the screening on the back porch, remounted the circuit breaker box that had been ripped off the back of the farmhouse, and raked up all the burnt grass debris.

  By that time Miranda heard the heavy-duty engines of the power company truck making its way up the road. The truck had a large bucket, apparently for the pole installation.

  She exhaled a sigh of relief. She hoped it wouldn’t take long to get power back up. Someone must have added his or her influence to ensure that she was at the top of the power company’s priority list. She would have to find out who it was so she could thank the person. For now, she was enormously grateful.

  Austin pulled into the driveway and joined her on the porch. “Why aren’t you with the Search and Rescue?”

  “I called and told them to continue without me.” He tilted his head. “I got a strange message just as I was about to leave about someone signaling in Morse code. I think it was from Ben.”

  Miranda led him back to the kitchen and poured him a cup of black coffee. “What? Spill it. How did you get a message?”

  “One of my fellow rangers was patrolling down a fire road looking for poachers.” Austin drank from his cup. “Wow, this is really good. You need to make coffee like this every day.”

  “Come on, life is more than good coffee.” She sipped from her cup, then rolled her eyes. “Well, maybe not. The message, please?”

  “Sure. He saw a flashlight up on one of the cliffs, and at first he thought it was someone walking down one of the trails hoping to surprise a sleeping deer and shoot it.”

  “Oh, really? Like it’s that hard to take deer around here. That’s criminal.”

  “Yeah, but that’s why we patrol. We charge them with poaching. Anyway, as he watched the flashing, he started to figure out that the beam was stationary but the flashing was in a pattern. The pattern was a continuously repeating message in Morse code.”

  “The message?”

  “Hang on. He doesn’t know Morse code, but he took down the repeating pattern.” Austin pulled a notepad from his top shirt pocket. “Even I recognize an SOS, but I don’t know anything more either. However, I think your uncle did. He was a ham radio operator for decades.”

  Miranda snatched the notepad from his hand. “I was a Girl Scout all through elementary school. And Uncle Gene taught me to copy code from his radio set during the summers I lived down here. Let me see if I can still read it.” She looked at the dots and dashes.

  “You’re right. Give me a minute.”

  She ran into her office and rummaged in the desk and pulled out a pencil and fired up the computer.

  Austin followed. “What are you doing?”

  “I don’t remember each individual letter anymore, but the entire code is online.”

  Miranda found the Wikipedia Morse code chart in a few seconds. The problem with the symbols on the notepad is that they were just one after the other with no indication for the gaps that might signify the end of a word. Luckily, the message was short.

  She found a translator and typed in each dot and dash as they were written in the notebook. She didn’t include the SOS sequence, but instead entered the intervening code. She looked up at Austin. “This is going to take a few tries. Hovering isn’t going to help.”

  Austin looked at his feet. “Fine, I’ll be outside helping Ron and your mom. I think they’re up in the barn.”

  Miranda returned her focus to the screen and went letter by let
ter. It was tedious and frustrating, but she finally teased out the message.

  Miranda stood up so quickly she knocked her knee against the edge of her desk. “It’s Ben!” she shouted as she ran out the back of the house. “The message is from Ben.”

  Austin ran out of the barn. “He’s alive?”

  “Yes. We need to get to him before he dies at the hands of the murderer.”

  She showed him the translated message:

  SOS Ben

  “It repeats?” said Austin.

  “Ben is hiding from Kevin.” Miranda could hear the strain in her voice. “Let’s call Sheriff Larson, and if we can get him to believe us, he can broadcast to everyone that Kevin should be picked up.”

  “Right,” said Austin. “But we also need to find Ben. I know where my buddy was when he saw the flashing light. Let’s start searching there for a starting point. My buddy couldn’t see any landmarks in the dark, but we should be able to guess where the signal came from.” Austin looked around the farmhouse at the number of trucks and the activity swarming around them. “Can you leave?”

  “Of course. Let me print off this chart and grab my backpack. I’ll also leave a note to tell Mom and Ron what’s up. They need to be warned about Kevin.” She hit the print button.

  “My outdoor pack is in the truck.” Austin rubbed his chin. “You can call Sheriff Larson as soon as we have cell service.”

  “As soon as we verify that we have something to tell him. He hasn’t been a fan of my involvement in this investigation. But now that we’re tracking down Ben and Kevin, he needs to know what’s going on. I certainly feel better about Ron hanging around now.”

  Austin smiled. “I don’t think I’ve heard that from anyone about Ron.”

  They got in the truck and were nearly to the main road when Miranda said, “You know, it could be that Ben is the killer and wants us to believe that Kevin is after him.”

  Chapter 41

  Wednesday Morning, Daniel Boone National Forest

  Austin stopped the truck at a small widening of the single-track fire break that also served as an access road. “This puts us at almost a match for the GPS coordinates where my buddy noticed the signal. I’ll park back here in this little turnout.”

  They walked down the middle of the road, and Austin stopped in his tracks. “Here’s the exact spot.” Austin put his cell away and they both got out their binoculars. “Let’s scan the cliffs. If the flashes were coming from the east, that means Ben was up there.” Austin pointed to a red sandstone bluff.

  “Wait.” Miranda fished into the side opening in her backpack and pulled out a makeup mirror. “Maybe he’ll see this.” She stood in the middle of the road, looked at the angle of the sun, and started to twitch the mirror in the direction of the cliff. “This might take a little time. We don’t know if he’s actually up there, and even if he is, he might be asleep or might have gone somewhere else entirely.”

  She kept up a nonstop flashing of the mirror while Austin continued to scan the cliffside with his binoculars. He said. “I think this is worth at least a try.”

  “Sure.”

  After ten long minutes, Miranda stopped to relieve her cramped hands. She stretched her back and shoulders as well. She sighed. “That’s disappointing. I was hoping—”

  “What was that?” Austin trained his binoculars on the cliffside. “I saw a flash of light. I think we should try sending him a message?”

  “Sure. Let me get out the chart.” She pulled it out of her back pocket. “I’ll send the general all-purpose CQ. It means ‘calling all stations,’ but sounds a bit like ‘seek you.’ ”

  Miranda flicked the mirror to the section of cliff where Austin had seen the flash. She had time to repeat the CQ twice before she got a response. It was short and simple: Ben.

  “It’s him!”

  “Ask him where he is.”

  “Of course. I don’t remember what the shorthand is for ‘Where the hell are you?’ A simple ‘where’ is going to be it. Get ready to copy down what he says. I don’t know code well enough to read it on the fly.”

  Miranda referred to her chart and flashed the code. In only a few seconds, the returning flashes began. Miranda called out the dots and dashes to make it easier for Austin.

  “Let me ask him to repeat it so we don’t make a mistake.” Miranda signaled the abbreviation for “repeat.”

  As soon as she finished the signal, Ben flashed the message again, only a tiny bit slower. He signaled an EOT for “end of transmission” then Miranda sat down in the road to transcribe the message.

  “He says he’s in a hidden cavern above the Indian Staircase. It has to be the one where we spent the night. He wants just the two of us to come and get him. He says don’t contact the police or rescue groups.” She looked up at Austin.

  “He must think that Kevin would know where he is through the police radio frequencies and could find and kill him.”

  She scrambled up and brushed the trail dirt from her trousers. “Let’s get up there without telling anyone. He must be desperate enough to stay out there overnight.”

  “He may be fully aware of his danger.” Austin turned the truck around in the little turnout and they made their way up to fetch Ben.

  “Do you think this could be a trap?”

  Austin exhaled a frustrated breath. “It could be, but the only way to know is to investigate. Do you want to stop?”

  “No way.”

  As soon as the forest ranger truck was spotted at the Gladie Learning Center, the coordinator latched on to Austin, assuming he was there to take over a shift.

  Austin waved hi. “I’ve got another lead that I want to confirm before I modify your search plans. It might come to nothing, and you guys are doing what has to be done so effectively, I don’t want to divert your focus.”

  After a bit of fast talking, Austin and Miranda were on their way up the trail.

  “I’m finally getting good at this climb,” Miranda commented from atop the Indian Staircase. “Not the kind of practice I was expecting, but it’s good.”

  Austin reached the top and they stood for a moment. “I don’t think we should shout. The cliffs and ravines will distort the sound and could possibly alert Kevin that we think Ben is here.”

  “What if we tap Morse code with something?”

  “Smart,” said Austin. “I never know what you’re going to come up with.”

  Miranda took a Swiss Army knife out of her pack and tapped out CQ on the face of her watch. “It’s not very loud. Let’s walk the perimeter and see if he’ll come out.”

  When they were close to the entrance of the cavern, Miranda increased the sound of the CQ a little. Then she heard a rustling on the right side of the cavern.

  “Ben,” she called quietly. “Ben. It’s me and Austin. No one else is here. You can come out.”

  A sharp tapping carried on the wind.

  Miranda motioned for Austin to be silent, then she moved in the direction where she heard the tapping.

  A small game trail was off to the side, and she stepped onto the narrow path. She pointed to some crushed leaves, which indicated that someone had recently been here. A few more yards down the trail and a thicket presented what looked like an impasse. Miranda bent down and followed a small opening through to a sheltered clearing on the other side.

  She stood up and waited for Austin. There was enough room for him to stand beside her. “Have you been in here?” she asked.

  “I had no idea this was even here.”

  They heard the tapping. It sounded much louder now.

  Miranda whispered, “I’m getting nervous. What if this is another trick? This group has been a constant source of surprises. I don’t really want another one up here.”

  “Good point. We need to be extra cautious.” Miranda used her fingers to follow the cliffside toward the sound of the Morse code. In about twenty feet, they came upon a waist-high cave opening. The sound was coming from inside. She signaled for Au
stin to respond.

  “Ben,” said Austin. “Are you in there?”

  A faint response reached them from inside. “Yes. Yes. Are you alone?”

  “We are,” replied Miranda. “It’s just me and Austin.” She mouthed to Austin that it was definitely Ben. She recognized his voice.

  “Come on in,” said Ben. “We need to talk. I need your help.”

  Austin and Miranda got out their flashlights and examined the entrance. The cave was not entirely a natural opening. On one side were marks left by a pickax that had been used to widen the opening. Miranda thought the excavation had been some time ago since the marks were worn smooth.

  As she started to go into the cave, she felt Austin pull on her shoulder. “I should go first in case he has a gun.”

  “But if you follow me, you can pull me out if things get dangerous. I can’t pull you out as easily as you can pull me out. I’m strong, but I wouldn’t be quick about it.”

  He scrunched his brow. “Right.” He motioned for her to go ahead.

  She pointed to the marks and whispered, “This was mined at some point.”

  Austin nodded yes. “Mined for what? It’s pretty high up for coal.”

  “Silver?”

  “That’s possible.”

  “Hey, are you guys coming in here or not? What’s going on?”

  “Hold your horses,” whispered Miranda. “It’s a narrow passage.”

  They crept into the opening on hands and knees, dragging their backpacks behind them in a slow, steady progress. After about ten feet, the passage ended up in a roomy cavern about the size of a small living room. Miranda stood up and shifted over to the left to give Austin enough space to get in.

  Miranda panned her flashlight from left to right and finally it lit upon Ben, who was sitting on the floor of the cave next to a small backpacker tent. He had dragged in pine needles for underneath the tent and had a small pile of firewood ready to feed the tiny fire that had mostly burned to embers.