Earthcrack: A Lin Hanna Mystery

by Sharon Canipe

  Leaving the spring site, Lin crossed the wash again and reentered the area around Wupatki ruin at the lower end near the ball court and community room areas. She was growing warmer by the time she regained the walkway near the visitor center. Checking the time, she realized that she needed to step on it if she was going to have time for her trip into town. She returned to her apartment and hurried to shower and dress.

  Shortly afterward she was in her car heading down the park loop road toward Sunset Crater. The terrain changed rapidly as the pinion-juniper area with its scrubby vegetation and open skies gave way to the ponderosa forest that surrounded Sunset Crater. Large open lava fields—treeless areas of jumbled black rocks—punctuated the area, the result of earlier volcanic eruptions. These fields of basalt could be quite dangerous if one left the marked trails. A fall there would surely result in unwelcomed cuts from the sharp lava rocks. Lin made a mental note to explore this area one day soon. That was the beauty of her volunteer status. She had interesting work to do but her assigned hours were limited so she had ample time to explore and learn more about the area.

  A couple of hours later she had finished her errands in Flagstaff having made her purchases of some needed cleaning supplies and a few non-perishable grocery items. It was still morning and she was not due back at work for almost three hours. She decided to take the time to go downtown and explore some of the shops and galleries that Danielle and Toby had told her about. This was her first real chance to spend some time in Flag. Her only previous trip had been an evening venture to the Safeway market at the edge of town shortly after her arrival and then she had stocked up with perishable groceries and needed to hurry back. This was a good time to explore the town more.

  She parked downtown near the park across from the public library and decided to go in and register for a card. The library was a beautiful building with displays of local arts and crafts. She spent a few minutes enjoying these and then checked the shelves for some reading material. Soon she had located a couple of mystery books by favorite authors. She took these to the desk, registered for a card, and then checked them out. She was happy to learn that the library’s Bookmobile would be stopping at Wupatki regularly so she could both return and check out books there if she didn’t have time to come into town. Pocketing her new card she felt like a true resident of Coconino County as she dropped her books in the car and headed for the business district.

  For the next half hour she browsed windows of various shops and galleries. There were several which seemed to specialize in native arts and crafts while others displayed paintings, jewelry, and other items. Beautiful stuff she would enjoy, she felt sure, but maybe a bit too pricey for her limited budget!

  Turning the corner to San Francisco Street she found herself in front of another gallery that had displays of native artwork, both traditional and modern, in the windows. She was looking at these when she noticed someone inside, a tall man talking to another man behind the counter. There were no other customers in the shop it seemed. The tall man turned and she was surprised to see that it was Neal Smith. She hesitated wondering whether she should enter the shop. After all, Dr. Smith had seemed very friendly and interested in her. He was a very attractive person and Lin, while not really seeking any serious relationship, was not opposed to making new friends—maybe even going out for dinner sometime. She had hesitated yesterday but now she thought that it might be interesting to get to know Neal Smith a bit better. She decided to enter the shop and did so quickly—before she changed her mind.

  A bell that signaled her entry broke the quiet and both men looked her way.

  “Dr. Smith,” she said, “what a surprise to see you again so soon.”

  Smith quickly stepped forward, “ Nice to see you Ms. Hanna. Allow me to introduce John Sessions. He owns this beautiful gallery.” Turning to the gallery proprietor he explained that Lin was a volunteer at Wupatki for the summer. “Unfortunately, she was with us when the remains I told you about were discovered, yesterday. Quite a shock—to say the least!”

  Sessions was busy removing some papers that had been on the counter, shoving them into a drawer. He quickly stepped forward, extending his hand.

  “Nice to meet you,” he smiled, “are you looking for something in particular I could help you with? We have lots of beautiful handmade jewelry and our prices are quite reasonable you will find.”

  Realizing that she needed some reason to have come in rather than just seeing Dr Smith, Lin asked him to show her some earrings. She was surprised to discover that the prices were indeed reasonable so she chose a pair as a gift for her daughter and another for herself. While Sessions put the items in boxes for her, she moved to the back of the gallery where Dr. Smith seemed occupied studying some large pottery items.

  “I would guess that these cost far more than that jewelry I just purchased,” she spoke, “they look quite old.”

  “They are,” Smith smiled, “John has a lot of less expensive items for tourists and for the rest of us who like nice things at a reasonable price, but he also deals in antiquities and other collectibles.”

  “I see, these are quite lovely, I wish I knew more about them but I am learning more everyday out at Wupatki.”

  Smith turned toward her, his smiling confident self that she saw when he first arrived at the park the day before, “This must be your day off, would you care to join me for a bite of lunch?”

  “I have to work this afternoon,” she replied, “but I still have an hour to spend here in town so if there is someplace quick…”

  “ I know just the place,” he responded, “if you like Mexican. It is just around the corner.”

  Sessions joined them, her package in hand. “Wish I could join you two but my assistant is not due in just yet. Neal, I appreciate your coming in. I’ll give you a call later and we can continue our discussion.”

  Smith nodded to Sessions, “ I’ll wait to hear from you.” He turned to Lin and held the door for her as they exited the gallery.

  Soon they were seated in the small Mexican restaurant and warm, steaming burritos were placed in front of them. They were delicious and Lin realized once again that she was hungry. She had only taken time to grab an apple for breakfast as she left this morning. For a few minutes they ate quietly with little conversation, then Smith asked her about her work at the park, where she was from, how long she would be there—making small talk, but not a single mention of the rather traumatic morning they had shared the previous day! It seemed as if he had already put it out of his mind, or else, perhaps he wanted to avoid the topic.

  Pushing aside the remains of her burrito, Lin decided to be bold. She still had a lot of lingering questions about the previous day’s incident, “ I’m still feeling shocked by what happened yesterday and I am sure you must be also,” she ventured, “how about your students, were they ok?”

  Smith stared at his food for a moment, “ It was a shock certainly,” he responded, “I talked to the students on the ride back and assured them that everything would be ok. The authorities will handle the case. It looks as if that person might have been a backcountry hiker who got into trouble. It was a good opportunity to caution the students about the dangers of the backcountry around here.”

  “ Of course, I am sorry about what happened but accidents do occur and it seemed this was another unfortunate incident,” he concluded, “probably a hiker who failed to register his presence in the park. Folks do not realize how important it is that someone know where they are in case they get into trouble.”

  Lin continued the conversation, “ I’m not sure that this person was a hiker. I noticed that no water bottle or backpack was found, that seems strange to me.”

  Smith shifted in his seat; did he seem nervous with this conversation? He seemed uneasy since the talk had turned to the incident of the previous day. Lin was not ready to drop the subject “ Well, Danielle and Toby think they may have identified the person. You may remember that Danielle thought his belt buckle looked
familiar. “

  Smith shifted in his seat, “ Really? I’m afraid I must not have heard that.”

  “Yes,” Lin went on. “ Toby White, our seasonal ranger, remembered seeing a buckle like Danielle described and thought it belonged to one of the Hopi men who collect eagle feathers in the park. Thought his name was Cullen but he hadn’t seen him for a long time. Danielle called headquarters later and they confirmed that a Cullen Honeyestewa was one of those men. They also had not seen nor heard from him in a long while. It looks like he may be the person whose remains were found.”

  “ Well, even so,” Smith said, “he must have ventured out unprepared and without letting anyone know where he was going. Too bad, to have such an unfortunate accident.”

  Lin observed that Smith was clearly uncomfortable talking about this. He had shifted his gaze away from her when Cullen’s name was mentioned so she could not catch his expression. Now he seemed ready to leave, signaling the waitress for their check.

  Lin looked at her watch, “Yes, it is time to go. I need to get back and get changed for work. I’ll pay for my own lunch, Dr. Smith.”

  “Do let me,” Smith had seemingly regained his composure, “it would be my pleasure and do call me Neal. We don’t have to be so formal.”

  Lin smiled, “ Then I’m Lin.” She responded, dropping her insistence on paying her own way.

  Smith had regained his calm demeanor and turned a warm smile on her, “A pleasure Lin, I do hope we can get together again soon. Maybe even dinner some evening?”

  “Perhaps,” Lin replied, “I’m not sure what my schedule will be the next few weeks so perhaps we had better wait and see before making plans.” She thought she would enjoy seeing Neal again but wanted to proceed with caution.

  They parted company and Lin started back to her car. When she reached the corner she looked back. Surprisingly, she saw Dr. Smith heading back into the art gallery.

  Lin felt pretty sure that she had heard the gallery owner tell Neal that he would call him the following day about some business they were discussing and Neal had indicated that he would wait to hear from him. Wonder why he is going back now? Lin thought to herself.

  Arriving at her car, she added her jewelry purchase to the earlier packages. She hadn’t intended to buy anything like that but the jewelry was nice and the earrings would be a good gift for her daughter. She would enjoy her pair too—they were pretty reasonably priced for handcrafted items. She smiled to herself as she drove out of town and turned up Highway 89 toward the park. It had been a very nice morning and she had enjoyed her lunch also.

  Lin reflected on her conversation with Neal. He seemed to assume that the person found the day before had fallen victim to an accident also; he definitely seemed uneasy about the topic and had not wanted to discuss it further. She wondered why? It had certainly been a shocking experience but it was mysterious and she still felt there were lots of unanswered questions. She had wanted to explore these with Smith to see what he thought but he had steered away from that topic. She wondered why? Maybe he found the entire incident too disturbing.

  ***

  Returning to her apartment, Lin quickly dressed in her uniform and reported to the visitor’s center a few minutes early for her afternoon shift. The center was crowded when she arrived, a school group from one of the local middle schools had just finished a tour and program and the kids were milling around looking at the exhibits. Some were considering purchases of T shirts, magnets, and even books. With her practiced principal’s eyes, Lin quickly ascertained that this was a lively but basically well-behaved group of kids. She sometimes missed the times when she had been able to accompany groups on such field trips. If properly prepared for and well led the students could learn a lot and such trips added much to their curriculum. This appeared to be such a group and Lin took a moment to complement the teacher on the group’s behavior before she took her place at the desk near the entrance.

  After the group departed the rest of the afternoon saw a slower procession of visitors. It was steady; however, with the tourist season not yet really underway, the situation was easily manageable by one person. She felt sure that once summer arrived they would all be grateful to have the extra help of the SCA students. This park was “on the way” to Grand Canyon, one of the most visited parks in the country. Many visitors from across the US and around the world stopped to see the ruins as they traveled to and from the Canyon. Today, however, there were not so many visitors. As closing time approached, the visitor center grew empty.

  Lin took the opportunity afforded by the lull in visitor traffic to take a short break. While keeping an eye out for any new arrivals, she poured herself a cup of slightly old coffee and checked the schedule for the following week. She noted her own work times on a sheet of paper from the recycle box near the copier, noting with interest when Neal Smith was scheduled to visit during one of her duty times. He had mentioned that he might bring his summer graduate interns out if the area were open by then. Perhaps they would talk again… She heard sounds near the entrance and returned to the desk to see that Toby was coming in with the stocky, blond deputy who had been at the incident scene yesterday. Both men looked a bit warm and dusty and were happy to accept the bottled water she grabbed from the refrigerator and offered.

  “Deputy Bill Taylor,” Toby offered, “I’m sure you remember him from yesterday.”

  “Yes, hello Deputy Taylor,” Lin greeted him with a handshake. “Have you learned any more about the person whose remains were found?” She could not contain her curiosity.

  “ Well, yes and no,” Taylor responded, pausing to take another long drink of water. “Thanks to Toby and Danielle having good memories we do have a name we are checking out. We contacted the tribal police on the Hopi reservation to see if they have any reports on this fellow being missing. They were not really sure. It seems that they have a lot of folks go missing who then turn up later and they are never notified so they are checking with the family before confirming anything with us. I’m afraid a lot of natives have problems with alcohol. They drink too much and wander off—sometimes for days on end. The family reports them missing and then when they turn up they forget about calling the authorities.”

  Toby interjected, “I seriously doubt that a person with an alcohol problem would be among those authorized to collect eaglets or feathers for the ceremonies. Those are responsible positions, taken very seriously but…who knows, we’ll have to wait and see.”

  “Yeah,” Deputy Taylor sighed, “ but we should know more tomorrow about that and the ME report should be ready in a few more days. We were out at the box canyon this afternoon. I wanted to take another look at the scene. Didn’t find anything else though so I think you can reopen that site tomorrow. There is nothing more we can do out there. This looks like it is shaping up to be one of those unfortunate accidents. Maybe this Cullen fellow, if that is who it is, had a problem no one talked about. He could have wandered around out there having had too much to drink and fallen. He hit his head on that rock and that was all it took.”

  Lin could not contain her own lingering questions, “But you didn’t find a bottle, or anything else out there for that matter, and how did he get out there? Have there been reports of an abandoned vehicle nearby? There have been none in the park.” She caught herself before throwing out any more thoughts. After all, she was the newcomer and she did not want to appear to be questioning the local authorities. She took a deep breath and went back to her post at the desk, trying not to appear to be questioning. She caught Toby smiling at her from behind Deputy Taylor’s back though.

  Taylor gave her a rather impatient look; “ We’re on top of that,” he responded, “got someone checking on vehicles right now. We’ll have this all wrapped up by next week. You can count on it.”

  Taylor thanked Toby for his help, went back to the office to speak to Danielle and shortly afterward left the center.

  Toby went back to office area to check on some reports he had to fin
ish and Lin began to count the cash in the register and prepare the report on sales for the day. It was almost time to close the center and there were no cars in the parking lot. When she finished that task, she went outside and walked to the viewpoint to make sure there were no visitors still at the ruin even though the lack of cars indicated all had left. After confirming this she returned to the center where Danielle was closing up shop.

  “I have to go in to headquarters to pick up something,” Danielle reported, “so I may be a bit late coming in tomorrow morning,” she turned to Toby who had just emerged from the office area, “can you open things up tomorrow?”

  “Sure,” Toby responded, “ and I’ll drive out to Lomaki to pick up the signs right now so that will be taken care of. Taylor said we could reopen the area”

  “Good and thanks,” Danielle responded as she left the center heading for her house.

  Lin lingered as Toby finished locking up then asked, “Want some company picking up the signs? I could ride out with you—I don’t have any plans this evening.”

  “Sure,” Toby replied, “it shouldn’t take long but I always love company.”

  Lin was eager to share her experience in town with Toby. As they drove out to Lomaki she recounted her chance meeting with Smith at the gallery as well as their lunch conversation. She concluded her tale by mentioning that he had gone back into the gallery when she clearly remembered that he was earlier planning to wait for Sessions to call regarding whatever they had been discussing when she arrived.