High Desert Detective, A Fiona Marlowe Mystery (Fiona Marlowe Mysteries)

by Thelen, Marjorie

  “Jake, what’s the license number?” Fiona called from her vantage point on the rise.

  He moved to the front of the car and called out the Oregon license number. She relayed the number to the dispatcher.

  “Stay with the vehicle, please, until help arrives,” said the dispatcher. “And stay on the line.”

  “I can’t. I have to help and there’s no phone signal down there.” Fiona closed the connection so she didn’t have to get into an argument with the dispatcher who was only doing her job. She trotted back to the edge of the road and gave Jake the news. She searched the horizon to the north and south for motion of any kind. Nothing.

  Jake worked trying to open the driver’s door but had a tough time since the doors appeared to be locked as well as jammed. Fiona felt useless and racked her brain for something in Jake’s truck that could help him out. Bailing twine. Jake had regaled her with the many uses of bailing twine and said he always carried a supply in his tool box.

  “Jake, what about bailing twine?”

  He looked up. “Chain,” he yelled. “The child is moving. I can’t get the door open. See if you can get a chain from my tool box in the rig. I need something heavy. I may have to break a window.”

  She rushed back to the truck, managed to get to the tool box in the bed and drag out a chain that weighed almost as much as she did. There was a stash of loose blue bailing twine, and she tucked a length into her belt just in case. She threw the chain on the ground and dragged it over. She scanned the horizon again for a vehicle. Any vehicle. Nothing. Since this was the only road on this side of the Steens, it would be hard not to find them. At the top of the embankment, she looked down. “Jake, I can’t throw this chain. Maybe I can slide it down to you, if you can come over here.”

  He came up the bank as she tried to push the chain down to him.

  “Do you recognize them?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “Not them or the car. They must be from out of town. Must be tourists who don’t know how to drive these roads.”

  She looked around. She could have sworn she heard the hum of a motor. Jake looked up, too.

  “Do you hear that?” she asked. “It sounds like a vehicle. Where’s it coming from?”

  Jake pointed up the side of the mountain. “That’d be the Easton brothers in their old Chevy.”

  The sound of the motor got louder, and they watched the hill. Around the bend of the last rise, a faded blue truck lumbered into sight, bouncing and jostling over the road.

  Jake struggled up the bank, slipping and sliding on loose stones.

  The truck slowed and ground to a halt beside them.

  “What’s up? We heard the 911 call on our radio,” said a man who might have been in his seventies somewhere. In the driver’s seat sat another man about the same age.

  Jake touched his hat. “Caleb. Zeke. This car tried to pass us and went off the road. We ended up on the bank on the other side trying not to hit him. The child is moving, the driver isn’t, and I can’t get the windows open.”

  The brothers got out and stepped over to the side of the road to assess the accident. They wore baseball caps, as well as faded jeans and plaid shirts, sleeves rolled up. For an interesting fashion twist, they both wore Nike running shoes.

  “How many in there?” asked Caleb.

  “Two, as far as I can see. One appears to be a child.”

  Caleb rubbed a stubble of beard. “That’d be our nephew from Portland. He has a little girl. We’re expecting them. They were on their way here to visit. Zeke, we better hook up the winch. See you got a chain there. Hook it under the front bumper, and we’ll pull the car up the bank.”

  Jake and the Easton brothers got to work. The two old guys stepped into the task with a speed and economy of motion not seen in younger men. They intrigued Fiona, and she wanted to know more about who they were and where they lived but now wasn’t the time.

  By the time a couple from a ranch south of the hot springs arrived, Jake and the brothers had the car hooked to the winch but were having trouble getting the winch to engage. Dora, the woman from the ranch, checked in with Jake then started down the bank, Jake right behind her. Fiona watched from her safe perch by the side of the road, feeling useless. Caleb and Zeke continued to fuss over the winch on their old rust and blue truck.

  Dora tapped on the window of the passenger door. “Can you hear me? Open the door,” she said, her face close to the window. “Unlock the door,” she said, louder. To Jake she said, “The child inside appears to be responding.” She kept rapping. “Open the door,” said Dora again. “The inside lock. Open it. Excellent.”

  Jake had to yank the door open since at first it wouldn’t budge and was barely clear of the water. He opened it wide and supported it as Dora leaned in, talking to the child in the front in a tone Fiona couldn’t hear. She said something to Jake, and he called up the bank to the brothers who stood watching the operation.

  “Dora says we should leave them in the car and winch them up the bank. The driver’s eyes are half open but he isn’t talking. She doesn’t want to move them until they are properly examined.”

  “What about the child?” asked Fiona.

  “She’s talking, but they’re both in shock.”

  Dora shut the door. “Okay, boys, see if you can pull the car out. Easy now.”

  Fred, her husband, yelled from the bank, “Dora get away from the vehicle. You don’t want to get sucked into some place you don’t want to be.”

  Jake helped Dora back from the car. Zeke started the winch that the two brothers finally had gotten to operate. Slowly the car started moving out of the spring, advanced about two feet and got stuck. Fred came down the bank with waders on and went in the spring to see what the trouble was. The car appeared to be hung up on rocks. Fred called for a shovel and the Easton brothers threw a couple of shovels down the bank. Jake and Fred worked with the shovels trying to clear the wheels of rocks only to stir up the water and make it cloudier with mud and silt.

  “Try it again,” yelled Fred.

  Zeke started the winch which had a thick twisted cable hooked to Jake’s heavy duty chain. The car moved again with a loud crunching sound and an accompanying screech from the winch. The man and child were barely visible, because the windows were darkened, and the sun against the windows made a glare. Fiona stood beside Caleb watching the operation.

  “That boy never could drive worth a darn,” said Caleb.

  “If he’s from the city, it would be tricky to navigate a gravel road going the speed he was doing. Where do you live?” Fiona asked.

  Caleb jerked his thumb up toward the mountains. “Up the mountain a piece.”

  Fiona looked up to where he pointed. She saw only canyon and rim rock.

  “You say these are your relatives?” Fiona asked.

  “Yes, ma’am. He’s one of our brother’s boys. Never had an ounce of sense that one. His little girl got more sense than he does.”

  The car’s nose was now even with the dusty bank which was strewn with rocks and pebbles and peppered with brush. Zeke stopped the winch when Jake held up his hand.

  “Give us a minute,” he said, “to clear some of the brush in front of the fender.”

  They chopped away at grease wood that blocked the upward advance of the vehicle. Caleb lent a hand, and when they were satisfied the car had clear passage they gave the sign for Zeke to start the winch. The car looked like it had been in a demolition derby.

  The focus of the operation was on the car, but Fiona’s eyes were drawn to something that bobbed up out of the water behind the car. She looked around at the others but they were concentrating on the car as it was hauled up the bank. Zeke got in his truck and pulled the car the rest of the way to level ground. Dora went immediately to the driver’s door, and Fred helped her open it.

  Fiona’s attention was drawn back to the blob that floated on the surface of the cloudy water. It looked like clothes or an old sheet puffed up in the water. Had the ca
r hit someone or something in careening down the highway? She watched but saw nothing in or attached to the dirty gray thing that bobbed in the water. Fiona joined the people on the road, wanting to tell them about the odd thing in the water.

  The driver sat in the car, and Dora was checking him over. He held his head in his hands like it hurt. The little girl sat on the seat at the other side of the car, its door wide open to the sun. She clutched a small stuffed toy that looked to Fiona like a frizzy headed rooster. Jake was kneeling, talking to her. Caleb stood by him.

  “We’re good at fixing things,” said Caleb, “but Dora knows a lot more about doctoring than we do.”

  “I hope they’ll be okay,” Fiona said.

  “If anyone can make it right, Dora will,” he said.

  Fiona was impressed with his faith in the small ranch woman, who went to the little girl and asked her name.

  “Molly,” said the little girl. “My name is Molly.”

  “How old are you?” asked Dora.

  She held up seven fingers. “I go to school.”

  “Good,” said Dora. “May I check you for cuts?”

  “Okay,” said Molly.

  “Does anything hurt?” Dora asked as she checked and prodded the girl.

  The little girl touched her leg. “My leg hurts.”

  Dora continued her exam while Jake joined Fiona and Caleb. He had opened his sweat darkened shirt to let the breeze blow through.

  “You can come up and dry off at our place. We got a clothes dryer,” said Caleb.

  “I’ll wind dry here any minute,” said Jake, pulling the tails out to aid the drying process.

  Caleb said, “I’m glad those two are alive. Molly’s mama is going to be upset.”

  Jake nodded. “I hope they’ll be all right. They got knocked around pretty good.”

  Caleb nodded toward Jake’s truck. “Better check your rig over to see if it runs.”

  The two walked over, and Jake started the truck but couldn’t get it to move. It landed straddling a rock on the front end and wouldn’t move front or back. Caleb hooked up the winch again and pulled Jake’s big Ford 350 out with his ancient truck. The truck bounced off the bank. The two men checked under the hood. Fiona walked around the chassis checking for damage.

  “It’s got a few dents,” said Fiona.

  “That won’t hurt nothing,” said Jake. “The engine doesn’t seem to have any leaks. I’ll go over it good when we get home. Do you know if your nephew had insurance?” he asked Caleb.

  “Don’t rightly know. This is the first time he ever came to visit.”

  The three of them watched Dora ministering to the accident victims, and Fiona said, “Did you notice there’s something bobbing out there in the water?”

  Jake and Caleb followed Fiona’s finger to the odd phenomenon out on the water.

  “What do you suppose that is?” asked Caleb.

  Jake shaded his eyes to see. “Can’t say. I’ll check.”

  “Check what?” asked Fred. He came over to see what they were looking at.

  “Was anyone else with them?” asked Jake.

  “Not that I know,” said Caleb, “but I’ll ask.”

  While he walked over to his nephew, Fred said, “I got my waders on. I’ll go in to take a look. The waders cut down on the heat of the water a little.”

  He went down the bank and into the water shovel in hand. Carefully, he approached the bobbing object. He tapped at it with the shovel and the bubble collapsed. He poked around in the water, caught a hunk of fabric with the shovel, and pulled up. A long piece of fabric came up and Fred grabbed hold of it.

  “It feels like it’s caught on something,” he said. He pulled harder but the fabric wouldn’t budge.

  Caleb shouted from the bank. “My nephew says they were the only two in the car. He doesn’t know what that might be.”

  Fred put his weight into the pull, leaning back. With a jerk the fabric came free. Fred’s legs went out from under him, and he fell backward onto the bank.

  “Guess I pulled a little too hard,” he said, standing and brushing off.

  More bits and pieces of fabric floated to the surface.

  “This looks like a man’s shirt,” said Fred. He grasped and pulled. “Someone’s dumped their laundry in the spring.”

  He kept pulling and a pair of pants surfaced, too.

  “Something is in these pants.” He hefted them out of the water. “Good golly, these are bones, and this looks like a rib cage in this old shirt.”

  Three

  “Bring that stuff to the bank,” said Jake. “They’re caked with mud and falling apart. They look like they’ve been buried.”

  Fred dumped the load on the bank and one by one bones dropped out of the pants.

  “I wonder what happened to this guy,” Fred said, “and how long he’s been here.” He wrinkled his nose. “Looks like we disturbed this guy’s final resting place. How did he get here, do you suppose? Do you think the guy wrapped himself in a sheet before he took the plunge or somebody did it for him after the fact? ”

  Jake shook his head. “The Sheriff can decide that.” He turned to look at Fiona who had joined him. He could see the lively interest in her eyes. He didn’t know what it was about a mysterious demise that so enticed the woman, but she had that look on her face.

  “We can ask the Sheriff if he’s missing anyone,” Fiona said, warming to the subject.

  Fred dug around with the shovel and gathered up floating pieces of fabric. “It couldn’t have been an Indian burial,” he said. “They did above ground platforms in the old days. Wow, it’s hot in here.” He waded out of the water and started lining up pieces of fabric and bones on the bank in the sun. Fiona moved in to have a look. Fred went back into the water and brought up a shovel full of muck, and there on the end of it sat a human skull grinning at them. He waded to the bank and deposited the find.

  Jake had seen a lot of weird things in his life, but human bones in a hot springs beat them all.

  Dora saw what was happening and joined them. “I wonder who that is. I don’t know anyone who’s been missing in these parts.”

  Caleb shook his head. “Doesn’t look like anyone I’d know, not that I can tell much from bones. All my friends are accounted for. Anybody could wear jeans and a shirt like that.”

  Jake leaned on the shovel, looking at the bones. “The Sheriff will send someone out here. He may come himself. Dora, is the little girl all right?”

  “She may have a broken leg. It needs to be X-rayed. I called about the ambulance. Their injuries don’t appear life threatening so they won’t send the helicopter. I’m concerned about head injuries. The father keeps complaining about his head but I didn’t find any open wounds.”

  “We’ll have to wait until they arrive,” Jake said. “Fiona, lend me your phone. Mine’s in the truck. I want to call the Sheriff.”

  She handed over the cell phone. “Does this happen very often? Didn’t they just find that other skeleton in the desert?”

  Jake nodded. “Yep. This makes two in a short period of time. Both were skeletons before anyone found them, but that doesn’t mean they are related.”

  He climbed the rise to find a signal and dialed Hoover’s direct line. Nathan, one of the deputies, answered.

  “It’s Jake. We’re at an accident scene at the hot springs on the east side of the Steens. No deaths, no apparent life threatening injuries. The ambulance is on the way. The car ended up in the hot springs, and the Easton Brothers pulled it out, but the car disturbed a buried human skeleton. We have skeleton parts drying in the sun.”

  Jake answered Nathan’s questions. Hoover was in the Fields area, not far in Harney Valley terms from where they were. Nathan said he’d contact Hoover and not to leave the scene until he got there.

  “Will do,” said Jake and closed the connection.

  Fiona was already scouring the accident scene for clues and was full of questions. He knew she’d already be formulating a th
eory about what happened.

  Caleb had a mobile ham radio in the truck. Jake went over and listened to the police scanner.

  “Do you hear that?” Caleb asked Jake. “That’s Hoover. He’s on his way. Might be here before the ambulance gets here. I sure hope Farley and Molly are going to be all right. I guess Zeke and I better follow the ambulance.”

  Hoover arrived and started taking statements from everyone. The ambulance pulled in shortly thereafter.

  Jake didn’t like how close Hoover was standing to Fiona or the way he was smiling at her, but maybe that was his imagination. They had pulled the accident car to the side of the road. The medics were loading Molly and her father in the ambulance with Caleb and Zeke hovering over the operation. The rest were looking at the bones.

  “What do you make of this, Jake?” asked Hoover.

  “Looks like foul play to me,” he said. He gave Hoover his side of the story of the accident and finding the body.

  Hoover shook his head. “It’s mighty strange that we find two skeletons on the same side of the Steens so close together.”

  “Are there any unsolved missing persons?” Fiona asked. Jake could see she was dying to ask questions.

  “Hank Little’s wives. We’ll check the files to find if there are any other unsolved disappearances. The bones might not be from around here, so we’ll do a regional search, maybe further than that.”

  “I guess you’ll do forensic work on the bones,” Fiona said.

  Hoover nodded and smiled. “Have you ever done any detective work, Fiona?”

  She smiled. “No, it’s not my line of work. I just like mysteries.”

  “You can help me solve a mystery anytime,” Hoover said.

  Jake rolled his eyes. “Laying it on a little thick, aren’t you?”

  “It’s a wide open playing field, isn’t it?”

  “Depends who’s calling the parameters of the field,” Jake said. “Are you finished with us? We need to be getting back.”

  Hoover smiled. “That’ll be all. I can handle it from here on. I’ll stop by later to see if you’ve thought of anything else. Look forward to seeing you again, Fiona.”