Murder, Sonoran Style

by Kathy McIntosh

  Tripp stood by the table. “This is no time for infantile jokes. I expected better from you, Madrone.”

  Madrone crossed her arms. “Usually you get it.” Her stiff spine said she wouldn’t apologize more than that.

  “It will soon be too dark to search, Tripp,” Gabe said. “Let’s just move out.”

  “I’m aware of the time.” Tripp walked among the team, pairing up Jesse with Madrone, Gabe with Ben, Heather with himself.

  “What about Flicker?” Heather asked.

  Tripp’s face hardened like quick set concrete. “Flicker was so distraught I sent her home. At that time, we didn’t know we’d be searching for Kate. She’ll get the house ready for all of our unexpected guests.”

  Gabe snickered to himself. Flicker would have been a hazard rather than a help to any search, wouldn’t have lasted as long as her high heeled red boots.

  “Gather up what supplies you can in a few minutes. I want to check my notes on the caches I set for Kate. They’re a start, at least, in a big desert.”

  When he returned, the teams were standing, prepared. “You all have flares. If you find Kate, set one off. Five minutes later, set off another. If she’s able to walk, bring her back. If not, do what you can to make her comfortable and return to the casita. I would rather the teams stay together, but you must make your own decisions.” He huddled with each team, instructing them.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: Hunt for Kate: Madrone & Jesse

  J esse waited while Madrone gave Frances a few brief instructions and then they took off in the direction Tripp had indicated. Even though Jesse was a quiet, solitary man, Madrone made a few attempts to draw him out as they hiked.

  “Angry or not, you’d think Kate might have put her argument with her grandmother on hold until we were all safe back in Tucson.”

  “Hmm.” A fast glance revealed Jesse’s expression hadn’t changed, nor had he nodded in agreement.

  After a while, she tried again. “So you think you’ll enjoy being a guide, working with Adventure Calls?”

  Nothing.

  “It’s a great gig. The guests really love learning about nature. And now that Gabe’s on board, things will go more smoothly.” Without a reply, she added, “I know you’re an expert on all things fauna and flora.”

  Jesse laughed. “Hardly. But being in nature calms me and generally speaking, plants don’t often hassle me. Although I encountered some cacti on my scavenger trial that reached out and grabbed me.”

  Madrone wondered if he meant she was hassling him by trying to start a conversation, but decided to ignore that particular barb. “Some of them carry bacteria that can cause infection. Keep an eye on any scratches.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Jesse smiled to soften his sarcasm.

  “Oh, right. I’m not your trainer anymore. Or your mother.”

  “You can be my trainer anytime you want. You know lots more about this guiding stuff than I do. And you’re nothing like my mother, thank God.”

  Madrone laughed. “I gather that’s a good thing?”

  “Oh, yes. Definitely.” Jesse smiled.

  They walked for a while in a more relaxed silence. Then Madrone couldn’t help herself. “Jesse, you’ve talked more this evening than since I’ve known you. I think you know that Tripp’s planning to pair us up as guides, at least for a while. So forgive my inquiring mind. Is it that you’re more relaxed once you get to know someone or better in a one-on-one situation?”

  “Both.” He chuckled. “You’re one of the good ones, pretty easy to talk to. Not to mention I’d be a fool to be rude to the cook. Plus you’re right. I hate parties, big groups, and pricks like Tripp and the recently departed Everett Poulsen who say one thing and do another. Effin’ hypocrites.”

  “Not sure what to say to that. Except I agree. Not that I’m one of the good ones, although I usually try to be, but that hypocrites should be drawn and quartered.” She threw her hand across her mouth. “Oops. I can’t believe I said that given the current situation.”

  Jesse stopped walking and turned so he could clasp her by the forearms. “I’m glad Tripp’s pairing us up. If we’re going to be partners, I think we ought to be bluntly honest with each other.”

  She looked into his clear blue eyes, wondering if she was looking into the eyes of a murderer. Wondering what to ask that might help clear Gabe. She chickened out and said only, “I agree. I think we’ll make a good team. We’ll figure out the group thing before our first gig. If there is a gig. What if Tripp’s arrested for murder? Or Gabe? Could one of them have it in him to kill Everett?”

  His eyes flicked to the side. “They say each of us has it in us the ability to kill, given the right provocation and circumstances. I’m sure it’s not Tripp or Gabe.” After a silent moment, he added, “Heck, I have a record. They might arrest me. But you were right back in camp. The odds are, one of us killed Everett. Creeps you out a little.”

  “Yeah. Hard to contemplate.” She considered but abandoned asking him more about his record, for fear she’d lose his trust. Instead she called out, “Kate? You out here?”

  He released her arms and they continued walking, both of them scanning the hillsides and occasionally calling Kate’s name.

  They’d been hiking east for some 45 minutes, on the circuit Tripp had suggested. Madrone figured if she’d urged Gabe to be a sleuth, she ought to try harder. “Who hated Everett enough to kill him?”

  Jesse started. “I wonder if you have to know someone really well to want to kill them, or know them only a little and kill the projection of them you’ve created in your imagination.” They walked on and after a few moments, he said, “We could walk right by Kate’s body or her lying somewhere unconscious, you know. Search and Rescue dogs will have better luck. Even if we have to wait till tomorrow.”

  “I agree this may be futile. But if Kate’s just pissed at Frances and hears us out here searching for her, she’ll respond. Besides, being out here looking is easier than sitting with Frances, trying to reassure her.” Madrone ached at Frances’s pain, but being with her and not taking action had made her feel useless.

  “There’s that.”

  The silence between the two of them was much easier now. After a while, Jesse said, “Kate was pissed at the man on our last night of training. I might believe she’d killed him if it was before Frances told her he was her father. And then she finds out, and poof! All her childhood dreams of meeting her father die. She’s killed her own dad. Ugly.”

  “Kind of like Oedipus,” Madrone said. Jesse’s head jerked around to stare at Madrone in surprise. “I’m not just a pretty face and a drop-dead delicious chef. I’ve got me some book larnin’,” she said.

  Jesse blushed scarlet. “I didn’t mean—it’s not your typical . . . .” His words petered out.

  She smiled broadly. “No worries, Jesse. Really. I majored in literature in college, but didn’t want to be a teacher or flip burgers. So . . . ” She spread her arms. “Here I am, learning something new every single day. And I expect you’ll be a great tutor for me.”

  He swallowed some of his water and said in a meek voice, “I suspect I have more to learn from you.”

  “I suspect we’ll both help each other.” She paused and sipped from her water bottle. “If our jobs still exist.”

  Jesse had stopped and was peering at the map Tripp had sketched for them. “I think we’re almost to where Tripp left the third cache for Kate. Let’s see if she picked it up.”

  “Okeedokee.” Madrone strode forward and Jesse stashed the map and trotted to catch up. They came to where two boulders butted against each other, leaving an open area between them like a tiny cave. It was empty. They saw a number of prints on the softer earth right in front of the rocks.

  Madrone snapped her fingers. “That’s what’s been bothering me.”

  “Just the one thing?”

  “See the prints?” She pointed at Jesse’s feet. “You’re wearing boots, I’m wearing boots, and I just stick arou
nd the camp. But those don’t look like the lugs on most boots, not that I have a shoe fetish. They look more like tennies, but she’d be a fool to wear running shoes out here.”

  “She wears some pretty heavy duty running shoes and snake gaiters. Moving fast means a lot to her, I guess.”

  Madrone realized she’d relaxed so much with Jesse she’d almost confided that she and Gabe planned to solve the murder. Some detective she was. “That explains how she moves so fast. I think boots are better in this kind of terrain, but again, I’m not her mother.” It sounded lame, even to her. “Maybe I’m a little jealous of her—swift, young, beautiful, and that hair.”

  He squatted down to peer into the cache and at the boot prints. “Plus she was talking to Gabe for quite a while.”

  Madrone flushed as scarlet as a desert rose. She decided to ignore his comment. “See anything?”

  He smiled up at her and then turned back to the prints, as if he’d let her off the hook this time. “Only one set of prints. Tripp must have brushed the earth when he planted the caches. Nothing here, so she came here at some point.” He rose without effort, unintentionally reminding Madrone that 29 wasn’t actually the new 19. And that cooking wasn’t that great of exercise.

  The sun was lowering in the sky so they hurried on to an outcropping of rocks above a deep arroyo. Once they reached there, they were to follow the arroyo west toward the casita, according to Tripp. Beneath the outcropping, they found an area of earth that had been cleared of rocks and smoothed out. “She must have bedded down here,” Madrone said. “There’s some shelter from the wind.”

  “The only way she could have headed is across the arroyo and up or follow it for a while. You think we’ll be able to see where she went down into it?”

  “Unless she found an animal trail we’re likely to find some sign of her.”

  They did find an animal trail, but disturbed stones and a few broken twigs indicated to Madrone that a human had descended. “Of course it might have been a javelina family. They’re not particularly graceful and they don’t see all that well.” She sniffed. “But I don’t smell anything, so it couldn’t have been a javelina, at least not recently.”

  “I saw a family of them during our ‘final,’” Jesse said. “Cute.”

  “But not cuddly. As I’ve mentioned before, those tusks can be deadly. Disturb a mama and her babies to your sorrow.”

  “I know. But still, it was fun to see them. I walked over to where I’d seen them and you’re right, they’re stinky beasts.”

  “A lot like all of you smelled when you got back to the casita.”

  Jesse squatted down to examine the bush Madrone had pointed out with its broken stems. “Ah, the power of a shower.” He peered at the bush. “So you think a person rather than an animal did this?”

  “I’m not a master tracker, but that’s my guess. Let’s see where it leads.”

  It led them down the hill to the bottom of the draw. There they saw the path lead back up the opposite side. Prints were obvious in the sandy arroyo floor. They followed the track up. “You were right. She came through here.” Jesse looked at Madrone. “Think we ought to follow this path for a while?”

  Madrone looked back toward the casita then up the hill. “That would be going against Tripp’s plan. Let’s do it. We can always backtrack and follow the arroyo later.”

  Jesse grinned at her and gave her a high five. “You’re already a regular employee. We’d better make a vow right here not to tell him we strayed from the path of righteousness. Although I don’t see Gabe worrying about nits like that.”

  She hooked her pinky finger in the air. “Pinky swear.”

  Jesse’s mouth fell open. “Pinky swear? No way. That is too, too girly.”

  Madrone stood there, pinky raised, and eyed him, saying not a word.

  After a moment, Jesse hooked her little finger with his. “Pinky swear.” He shook his head. “And you better not tell anyone I did this.”

  “Of course not.”

  They decided to push up the hill and move quickly while there was enough light to follow Kate’s tracks. Once they lost sight of them or lost daylight, they’d head back toward the casita.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: Hunt for Kate: Ben and Gabe

  G abe again relied on his research skills now that he had time alone with Ben. He’d start with the general overview and then narrow the focus to specific targets. Maybe begin with a hypothesis? Like “Ben Burtoff killed Everett Poulsen because Kate didn’t like him and Ben likes Kate.” Totally bogus.

  Ten minutes away from the casita, he took a sip from his water bottle. Okay. Let the sleuthing begin. “Beautiful country out here. I thought Colorado was my ideal territory, but this desert grows on a guy.”

  “Gets under your skin, and I’m not talking about cactus spines.” Ben laughed. “I went to True West up in Durango a few times. Nice place, tough rodeo.”

  “Yeah, I went a couple of times. As a spectator. You riders, you’re tough,” Gabe said. “I’ve had horses try to scrape me off under a tree on a simple trail ride. Can’t imagine being a competitive rodeo rider.”

  “I’ve been everything from clown to bronc buster to bull rider. Never a star, but even the also-rans can earn some good purses. It’s a living.”

  “A hard one.”

  “Let’s hope the guide gig is easier, with fewer broken bones. I figure I suck up to some rich old ladies and dudes and the tips will be ginormous.” Ben slowed his steps. “Not sure if I should be saying that to the boss.”

  “No problem. But the rich folks I know are misers. Better hope for some generous middle class ones.” He paused. “I sure hope Kate’s okay. This desert can be treacherous, even if it is beautiful.”

  “She’s savvy. She should be fine. The desert is deadly, true, but it has plenty of gifts to share, if you know how to find them.” He paused to take a scan with his binoculars. “No sign of Kate. But there’s a canyon up there with a hidden spring.”

  Gabe gaped at his companion. “You saw that through the binocs?”

  Ben laughed. “Nah. Used to spend a lot of time out here, herding cattle.”

  “No lie? I didn’t know that. Seems like you had an edge on the rest of us for that scavenger hunt. Not that it mattered. We all had our maps and our quotes.”

  “Yeah, those never-to-be-forgotten quotes.” He looked out into the desert. “It’s been a long time since I worked out here. Things change. That spring up there was pretty special to me and my sister.” After a moment, he muttered, “At least I thought it was.”

  “Did you live nearby? Benson?”

  “We lived right on this acreage Poulsen planned to develop. Family ranch. But . . . things change.”

  Was that bitterness in Ben’s words, or something else? “Hard to imagine you selling out to a developer like Poulsen. What happened? Or is it none of my business?”

  “Old story. My sister Patsy had the land, she’s a lot older than me. She decided to sell up and move to Tucson and that’s all she wrote.” He shrugged. “Water under the bridge. Kind of fun to revisit the old stomping grounds, though.” He upped his pace. “We ought to walk a little faster if we’re gonna hit the turnaround and get back before dark.”

  Every muscle in Gabe’s body was whining about the ground he’d already covered on this long, long day, but he upped his pace. Kate could be out there, hurt. No complaints. He rolled his shoulders back and scanned the land ahead of them. Thought he saw something move. He froze, afraid to lose sight of whatever he’d seen. “You see something out there?” He pointed straight ahead. “Around two o’clock?”

  Ben scanned the area Gabe had indicated and then brought his binoculars to his eyes. “It’s Kate. Moving way slow. But she’s headed the right way.”

  So probably not dehydrated and disoriented. They took off in her direction, moving fast. Gabe struggled to stay up with the younger man.

  When they drew closer, they hailed her. “Kate.”

  She shuffled
on, not looking up, apparently not hearing their calls. This didn’t look like the young woman who’d strode out of camp two days earlier. She looked older than Frances. Both men broke into a run.

  “Something’s very wrong,” Ben said over his shoulder. He upped his pace. Gabe trotted behind him, knowing he couldn’t keep up with Ben. He called her name again. And again.

  When Ben drew within thirty yards of her, his boots pounding into the earth, she finally looked up. She stopped her slow march west and waited for the two men.

  Ben glanced back at Gabe and apparently decided to wait, perhaps unsure how to approach her.

  As they walked toward her, she waved, more of a flap of one hand. “What brings you two out here?” Her voice was low-pitched and throaty, lacking the energy and enthusiasm that had been her hallmark throughout their training.

  An annoyed expression crossed Ben’s face. “You do. Where’ve you been?”

  Gabe tried a softer approach. “Tripp flew the emergency balloon to call us in. When you didn’t arrive, we worried.” He touched her shoulder and she flinched. “You okay?”

  “I’ve been better. I couldn’t have seen the balloon.” She removed her sunglasses, revealing swollen, puffy skin surrounding red eyes. He stifled a gasp but his face had to reveal his shock.

  Ben extended his water bottle to her. “What the hell happened to you?” He too had softened his tone.

  “Got caught in a little dust devil,” she said without much conviction. “Eyes got scratched and dried out. Figured I’d better just wait it out.”

  “Hate to say this to someone as pretty as you but you look like you’ve been lassoed and dragged face down,” Ben said.

  Gabe ventured an arm around her shoulder. “Frances told us you two had argued.” She stiffened. “Said she’d told you Everett Poulsen was your dad.”

  Kate pulled away from Gabe and stood erect and alone. “Well, gosh, isn’t it nice of my wonderful gran to share our family secrets with the whole crew.” Her head fell forward as she blew out a huge sigh.

  Ben dared to touch Kate’s back. “She wouldn’t have, but she and the rest of us were worried about you when you didn’t come back in.”