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

by Thelen, Marjorie

  “You mean, have a bunch of city people gawking at us buckaroos?”

  Fiona smiled and nodded.

  He shrugged. “I guess not. If it means you’ll stay here, and I get to see you, that’s all the better. But they aren’t my ranch roads yet.”

  Two huge beasts came trotting through the open door, stopped and sniffed.

  “Here, big guys. Come here.” Jake patted his leg.

  The two Great Pyrenees walked resolutely up to Jake, and he scratched them under the chin. “Let me introduce you to the hardest working buckaroos on the ranch. This is Lester and Earl.”

  They came almost to Fiona’s waist they were so huge. They had great black eyes and sloppy, friendly grins. “How do you tell them apart? They look like solid white twins. They remind me of polar bears except they have those huge heads.”

  “After a while you know. Lester is more the philosopher. Earl is more the bloodhound, trotting from one smell to another.”

  Fiona laughed and patted each one on the back. They panted, pink tongues lolling and grinning at the same time. They stood as if waiting for orders.

  Jake ran his fingers through Earl’s long hair. “Their hair is matted and full of brush from being out with the goats. Well have to see to a good brushing and trim later. They’re great guard dogs. We’ll let them wander around the house at nights for a few weeks. I have to make sure the small pasture where we have the goats is secure. Goats can jump and eat their way through just about anything.”

  “How is guard duty going to work?”

  “We start tonight. You and I take the 11:00 PM to 7:00 AM shift and then we rotate nights. Off three, on one. I appreciate your offering to help. You cheered me up. I was in a mean mood when I left the kitchen.”

  “Anything I can do for the boss.”

  “Anything?”

  “We’ll see about that,” she said with a smile. “I’ll see what’s happening in the house. I was headed for the kitchen when I heard the ruckus. Can I get you a cup of coffee?

  “No, it doesn’t go good with beer. I can’t guarantee what will happen in the kitchen. Do you want me to go with you?”

  She shook her head. “No, you have a ranch to run, remember? If I’m going to stay on, I’ll have to get to know all the relations. I might as well start now. I’ll put on my big girl pants.”

  He laughed and said, “Good luck.”

  Fiona walked slowly to the kitchen door. Tillie and Opal had gone back inside or at least they weren’t on the back patio any longer. A light breeze ruffled the blue jean skirt she had donned that morning. She pulled open the screen door and went inside. No one was in the kitchen, but she had not heard the truck leave. The coffee pot was empty, and she went about fixing a new pot. She wondered if Olympia was up and went to find her while she waited for the coffee to brew.

  Jake’s kiss would not leave her mind. The feel of him kept playing over and over again in her head. He was looking better and better every day. He sure would be nice to wake up to in the morning. He had the most incredible build. Solid. Arms that could take a girl to eternity and back. And he sure fit into a pair of jeans real nice. Stop it. Stop it. You know when you get like this something is going to happen, and there won’t be any turning back. The question was did she want to turn back?

  Fiona stopped outside of Olympia’s door, listened then gently opened the door. She wasn’t in the room, and the bed didn’t look like it had been slept in. Bad news. Where had she spent the night and who with? Last night Jake said she had spent the day with Sweet. Her car was in front of the house. Fiona walked down the hall to see if she was in the guest bathroom. No one there. She hoped her friend was not going to rotate her way through all the buckaroos before she left town. Maybe it was time for her to leave.

  * * * * *

  Jake finished work on the motor so he could get a better pump working at the stock tank in the pasture where they had moved the cows. The one there kept cutting off. He had meant to have it fixed before they moved the cows in. But the cattle rustlers made havoc of his schedule. Ranching was like that. It was always something breaking that had to be fixed. Then there were more cows to rotate to other pastures and make sure they had water. Then there were goats to attend to, fences to mend, horse to train, haying to finish, the swather that needed maintenance. The list went on and on. Sometimes he wondered how he had ever got caught up in the ranching business. He should have stayed with rodeos. But by now he probably would have a busted back, and no money to show for it. Hard as ranching was, rodeoing was harder and more dangerous. On the other hand, Opal’s relatives could be more dangerous than bull riding.

  What he really wanted to know was who was stealing cows and sneaking around the ranch. He stopped and stared out the workshop window. Three ravens flew a zigzag pattern over gold and brown fields, chased by a four angry little birds. He wondered what mischief the ravens were up to this time. They were like cattle rustlers, thieves in the night.

  He wondered if the ranch would ever be his. Now he wasn’t so sure.

  * * * * *

  Sweet shared what they called the new bunkhouse with Mort Glory and Tommy Hide. It sported the same weathered look as the rest of the buildings on the ranch. Fiona’s designer’s eye had imagined them painted at first. But now she realized that the weathered look reflected ranch life. Her idea of making everything look new didn’t work here. Rustic was a new shade of color in her designer book.

  She walked toward the new bunkhouse which was a ways from the main house around behind the horse corrals and the open-sided hay barn. Sweet had ridden in with the goats, but she hadn’t seen where he had gone. Jake said Glory and Tommy were haying. She didn’t know one pasture from another, the place was so big, so endless. She didn’t know how many acres made up Opal’s ranch. Jake had said it took thousands of acres to pasture cows in the high desert. He’d said they leased some of the land from the Bureau of Land Management. She felt the uncertainty in him now about the ranch and was a little upset with Opal. In all fairness, Opal had more than her share of worries to deal with.

  She wasn’t sure if Olympia would be at the bunkhouse, but she had a sinking feeling that was where she had spent the night since she hadn’t seen her last evening. While Olympia was a grown woman, her playing fast and loose wouldn’t help anything while things were in such turmoil. Most of the time, she could laugh off Olympia’s amoral approach to living, but none of them needed her complicating things now.

  Fiona had never been in the new bunkhouse. She didn’t know whether to knock or just go in. She didn’t detect any movement inside through the open blinds. There was a small wooden porch with two chairs sitting to the side of the entrance. She paused, hands on her hips and looked around. Where could Olympia be? Fiona had visions of her sleeping off a drunken night in one of the buckaroo’s beds, or maybe they had had a foursome. She cringed at the thought.

  Working up her nerve, she knocked on the door. No one answered. She turned the knob. The door wasn’t locked. No one seemed to lock doors in this valley. She opened it and peeked inside. A messy living room dominated by a wide screen TV greeted her gaze. Beer cans littered the coffee table. A ratty looking recliner and sagging couch faced the TV. Four closed doors fronted on the room. She stepped into the room, feeling like an intruder.

  “Olympia? Yoo. Hoo. You in here?”

  No answer. This was annoying. Where was she? She might be sleeping one off in any one of the rooms. Fiona hated doing this and was about to turn and leave when something caught her attention on the couch. She tiptoed over to get a closer look.

  An old revolver lay on the couch. She hesitated then picked up the rusted old thing to have a closer look. Along the handle was one bright silver patch that had caught the sun on the day she had found it. How many old rusted guns could there be on one ranch, and what was the one from her knoll doing here? Carefully, she replaced the gun on the couch and debated what to do.

  No one was going to believe that she had discovered t
he gun again unless she took it as evidence. If she took it, then she might be stealing, and they’d know she was in their house, sneaking around. But she wasn’t really sneaking around. She was looking for Olympia. If she didn’t take it, and it disappeared what would that prove? How many old revolvers could there be? If it were the same gun, why did one of the guys bring it here to the house and leave it in plain sight?

  She reached into her skirt pocket for her smart phone. Looking around for the best light she aimed and took a photo of the gun lying on the couch. This time at least she had a photo. She looked at the picture on the small screen. It showed up fairly well, but she snapped another with a wider view of the couch in the room to be on the safe side.

  She listened. Still not a sound behind any of the doors. She hesitated then decided to be brave. Going to every closed door she quietly opened each one. No Olympia. Three were bedrooms with unmade single beds. The fourth was a bathroom surprisingly clean for a guy bathroom. No sign of female occupancy.

  Puzzled, she left the house, closing the door behind her. She hadn’t found Olympia, but she had found something more interesting. This time she would show Jake the photo so that someone would believe her. She wondered if the gun had any significance at all. Maybe one of the guys took it after she saw it. Maybe they had lost it up on the knoll and had gone back to retrieve it. Maybe she was making too big a deal out of this.

  Outside she walked back to the house by the opposite route, looking around hoping to run into Olympia. Where could her crazy friend be? She walked by the workshop. Jake wasn’t there. Where was everyone? Remembering the fresh pot of coffee she had made, she returned to the kitchen to find Olympia sitting at the table with a mug of coffee before her.

  “Where have you been?” asked Fiona, “I’ve been looking all over for you.”

  “Me? I got up early and took a walk. Where have you been? I didn’t see you around. Did you spend the night with Mr. Hunky?”

  Fiona poured a mug of coffee and sank into a kitchen chair. “Will you please stop that? His name is Jake.”

  “No need to get huffy.”

  Fiona eyed her friend. “Where did you spend the night, since you brought up the subject?”

  Olympia sat up straighter in the chair. “I spent the night in my own bed.”

  “It was made and hadn’t been slept in when I looked in.”

  “I made it myself.”

  “You made your own bed? You’ve never made a bed in your life.”

  Olympia grinned like a Cheshire cat. “I’m turning over a new leaf.”

  Fiona studied her friend. She had her hair piled on her head and wore slacks and a rhinestone studded cotton pullover. She looked pretty plain for Olympia. She wondered about the new leaf.

  “You mean you didn’t end up in bed with Sweet?”

  “Of course not. He has a girlfriend.”

  “That never stopped you before.”

  “Honestly, Fiona. He’s too young for me. I told you I’m turning over a new leaf.”

  “What brought that on?”

  She shrugged. “Maybe it’s this place. Maybe I’m having a mid-life crisis. Maybe I’m thinking I should grow up.”

  “That’s astounding. Even more astounding is that you took a walk this morning. You’ve never exercised in your life.”

  Olympia sighed into her empty coffee mug and said nothing.

  “What is really bothering you?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know. It must be this place. I seem to be coming face to face with myself, and I don’t like what I see.”

  Fiona nodded. “I’m having the same problem. There’s something about the silence and the wind and the sun and big sky here that can change one’s perspective.”

  “It’s more than that. It’s the people. It’s the lack of pretense in the folks. They’re closer to the land and Mother Nature. They’re more down-to-earth.”

  “It hasn’t taken you long to discover that.”

  “I’m an astute judge of people, my dear friend. I have to be. I’m a writer. I’m always observing people and what they do, how they act, what they say. These people are friendly and open and don’t put on airs like city people do.”

  “I agree. As long as we are confessing, I have to tell you that I want to stay here.”

  “I’m not surprised, and I don’t blame you. I don’t think I could live here permanently since my writer schedule demands city amenities, but I could see buying a place to come for a retreat. Maybe I’ll sell off some of my other houses and consolidate here.” She got up and poured another mug of coffee and sat back down. “What about you and Jake?”

  “I have to make a decision on an offer he made this morning. He asked me to stay on with him, no commitment asked.”

  “You could do worse. I like Jake. He’s solid.” She smiled. “Real solid. Absolutely hunky.”

  Fiona laughed. “He is that.” She paused. “But there are problems in paradise. Opal is selling Jake the ranch. She told Tillie and Howie this morning. They’re upset. Jake is upset that Opal told Tillie before they settled. But the really bad news is that Opal has leukemia.”

  “Oh, no. I am so sorry to hear that about Opal. This is terrible. I can see why everyone is upset.” Olympia reflected for a minute. “Real life is more dramatic than anything I can write.”

  “It’s really sad about Opal. I bought a truck so I can drive her back and forth to town for treatments.”

  “You bought a truck?”

  “Believe it or not, I did. I pick it up Wednesday.”

  “I’m aghast. Fiona Marlowe, cultured city slicker, in a truck? I’m jealous. Do you think I should trade the Red Bomb in for a truck?”

  “Not yet. You just got the Bomb. Anyway, what are your plans? You can’t stay on here indefinitely. Things are getting a little tense. I may have to move myself.”

  “I thought I’d drive into town today and talk to a realtor. We could find something we could both move into. You want to drive along?”

  “You bet.”

  They collected their purses and were heading out the front door when Opal, Tillie and Howie came down the hall from the office.

  So that’s where they were, Fiona thought. They’ve been sequestered in the office. She wondered what kind of a deal Tillie had gotten out of Opal. None of them looked very happy.

  “Here’s Fiona and her friend,” Opal said to Tillie. “You remember I was telling you, she’s a famous writer.”

  “Nice to meet you,” said Tillie. “I don’t have time to read much.”

  “Some people don’t,” said Olympia. “I’m enjoying your lovely country. We’re on our way into town to shop.”

  “Do you need anything, Opal?”

  “I’m good. You girls go on and have a good time.”

  Fiona drove the Red Bomb slowly down the lane, searching the landscape to see if she could spot Jake. They didn’t see him so Fiona continued on into town without having a chance to show him the photo she had taken that morning of the gun.

  * * * * *

  Jake was in a temper when he got back from installing the repaired motor. The cows had little feed in the new pasture, and he’d have to move them soon. The goats had gotten away from Sweet, and they had spent half the day rounding them up. Tommy and Glory had worked on the swather so they could continue cutting in the morning. But they had found a stripped bolt, and Jake didn’t have one the right size at the ranch which meant another trip to town. He sent Glory after the part. Some days it didn’t pay to get out of bed. But then he thought of Fiona’s kiss in the workshop, and the world came right again.

  He found Opal in the office going over the books. It was the first time he had a chance to talk to her since the scene in the kitchen that morning.

  “How do things look?” he asked after giving Opal the rundown of the day’s problems.

  She looked tired. He wondered if it was the cancer or Tillie that had her worn out.

  “Jake,” she said in a hesitating voic
e. “I’m not sure how I’m going to make ends meet what with the cattle that we lost.”

  “We can sell off some of the bulls, if you need money to cover the bills. We should finish the first cutting of hay in a few days. Hay prices are high this year because of the drought so that will bring in more. I already have a broker lined up.”

  “You better sit down,” she said.

  Jake didn’t like the look in her eyes. He sat down without saying another word.

  “Tillie,” she began and stopped.

  Here it comes, thought Jake.

  “Tillie and Howie need a loan again.”

  Jake kept his face neutral. “Did they pay off the last one?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “How much do they owe on the last one.”

  She cleared her throat. “They haven’t paid it back yet.”

  “I see. And now they need more.”

  She nodded.

  “How much?’

  “The bank is going to foreclose on their place if they don’t meet the balloon payment this month.”

  “Which they knew was coming, which they should have been saving for but haven’t.”

  Opal let out a long, low sigh that was a commentary on relatives in general. “That’s right. They’ve never been able to make anything of that hard scrabble place they have. It gets worse. Howie lost his job.”

  “Again.”

  “Again.”

  “I guess AA is not an option.”

  “He’s never stuck. Alcohol has him permanently poisoned.”

  Jake took off his baseball cap and tossed it on the desk. “What are you going to do for them?”

  “I was trying to find the money in our accounts to pay off their balloon.”

  “It’s not there. We’re pretty close to only breaking even ourselves.”

  “I see that.”

  “Opal, you can’t keep bailing them out.”

  “I know. We’ve had this discussion before.” She looked like she had been stomped by a couple of bulls. “I can’t let them be put out on the street, Jake. They’re my relations.”