Red Gold

by Sandy Nadeau

  Jon pulled a radio off his belt

  “Some men had her.” Dean said. Holding Jenny’s red wrists out. “They had her tied up in a cave.”

  “What? Who?” Jon’s voice raised an octave as he placed his hand on Jenny’s shoulder.

  “That guy who works for you, Mark. I don’t know who the other man was. I heard Mark call him Kane.”

  “They kept you tied up? What did they want? Are you hurt anywhere?” Jon stared at her, his eyes narrowing. “Did they…” He stopped.

  “No.” Jenny shook her head, tears in her eyes. “I’m fine. They didn’t…they didn’t…do anything. Just tied me up and wouldn’t let me leave.”

  “Come on. We need to get you back to your folks. They’re worried sick about you. You can fill us all in at the same time, but I’m getting the sheriff to meet us at the house. Jenny you get on with Mandy. Dean, hop on with me. Let’s get her home.”

  “Wait.” Jenny bent down and threw her arms around Barney’s neck. “Oh, Barney. Thank you for being my friend.”

  Mandy knelt by her as tears welled up in her eyes. “I always knew I had a great dog.”

  17

  Connie held her daughter like she would never let her go.

  Rick had them both enveloped in his arms.

  “I’m sorry,” Jenny sobbed.

  “Honey, it’s not your fault. I’m just so glad you are back and safe with us.” Connie ran her hand over Jenny’s hair.

  Rick walked over as the Sheriff approached. “You need to find the men who kidnapped my daughter. I want them arrested, now.”

  The sheriff held up a hand. “We’ll get them. I need to talk to your daughter. We need as much information as we can get. Jon, there’s more deputies on the way. Jenny, Jon told me some of what happened, do you think you can tell me the whole story?”

  “Yes,” Jenny said. “They didn’t hurt me, except for tying the knots too tight. They just didn’t want me to leave the cave. Well, Kane didn’t. Mark…Mark was afraid of Kane and loosened the knots to help me.”

  Mandy motioned towards the picnic shelter near the cafeteria. “Let’s all go sit down.”

  Sue came out of the office. “I radioed everyone, including the forest service, and told them she’s been found safe.”

  “Thanks, Sue. Would you get us some lemonade and some food for Jenny?”

  Everyone gathered around the picnic table under the shelter.

  Jenny began the tale of her captivity. Connie sat next to her with a protective arm around her and held her close. Rick sat on the other side with his fingers tightly entwined. His knuckles were white.

  Jenny had barely gotten into the story when Mr. Shonee tore into the parking lot. He spotted them and drove as close as he could to the shelter. A dust cloud enveloped the group.

  Jon walked over to him.

  The old man struggled out of his car, marched over and yelled, “Now y’uve gone and done it. You got them crazies out there lookin’ for that girl and they drove right over my fence. You know what it takes for an old man like me to fix a dad-blame fence. What’s the matter with you people? You’re fixin’ my fence, Phillips.” A crooked finger pointed at Jon’s face.

  Jon held up his hands as the old man approached.

  “Now listen, Shonee.” The sheriff came over. “The girl is back, no one has been over there, yet.”

  “I know that. I seen her runnin’ and that boy there, too.” He pointed at Dean. “Just before that, some dad-blamed ATVs ran right over my fence across my back property. All the hollerin’ and blasted noisy machines…”

  “The two guys left on ATVs,” Jenny said.

  The sheriff grabbed his radio and gave instructions to the deputies to intercept the pair at the county road that ran to the west of Shonee’s property. Within seconds, police sirens screamed past the ranch in that direction. “The deputies are heading over there to see if they can find them.” He turned to Mr. Shonee. “We’re just hearing the story from the girl about the men who held her captive in a cave.”

  “Well, I’d like to be hearin’ that.” Uninvited, the old man hobbled over and sat down with the group. He hung his cane off the edge of the table, crossed his arms over his chest, and waited.

  “Please continue, Jenny.” The sheriff sat back down.

  “That had to be the two men Mr. Shonee heard. Mark, and that other guy. They always came on ATVs. I heard them leaving as I untied myself, but I couldn’t see right away when I got outside the cave so I didn’t know exactly where they went. I just ran. Mark had loosened the ropes enough so I could get away. If he hadn’t done that, I’d have been stuck there forever, unless Barney came back again. Mandy, he never left my side until I finally chased him off when I tried to run away, but they caught me before I could get out.”

  Connie gasped.

  “Barney kept growling at those guys whenever they got near me. He kept me warm all last night. They made me work, but Barney just stayed next to me.”

  Rick’s face grew more and more concerned. “What kind of work did they make you do?”

  “Dad, you know that rodo stuff that that little boy showed you the other day?”

  “Rhodochrosite?”

  “Yeah, that stuff. They found a whole mess of it in that cave. I had to sort the red pieces away from the pink ones. I guess that other guy only cared about the dark red ones.”

  “Sheriff, if they found as high a quality as in that little piece the boy found, they could be pulling tens of thousands of dollars out of there. This area of Colorado has shown the richest veins in the country for rhodochrosite. The deep red Jenny mentioned is the most valuable.”

  Jenny told them how Mark had tried to be nice to her, but was clearly under the orders of the other man.

  “We need to get up there and check this out. Did you get a name on the other guy?” The sheriff never looked up from writing down the details.

  “Yeah, Mark called him Kane.”

  Mr. Shonee gasped, went pale, and gripped the table hard.

  Jon reached out and grabbed the old man’s arm. “Are you all right, Mr. Shonee?”

  The old man’s face wrinkled up even more and his voice faltered when he spoke. “What’s this other guy look like?”

  “Well, he was tall, like Jon. He had hair down below his ears but real messy and no style to it. Seemed like brown hair, but it was hard to tell in the dark cave. There were only a few lanterns and they kept them over where they worked.”

  “Did….did he have a mole above his left eyebrow? Deep voice?”

  “Yeah, he did,” Jenny hesitated. “How did you know?”

  All eyes were now on the old man.

  “Kane, you say.”

  “That’s what Mark called him.”

  Shonee hung his head and slammed his fist on the table. “That’s my good-for-nothin’ son.”

  ****

  Jenny sat behind Jon on an ATV and led the way to where the men held her captive.

  Her dad, the sheriff, Dean, and Mandy rode on other machines.

  Connie couldn’t bear to see the place and stayed behind.

  Barney ran along at about twenty feet or so off to the side and snooped around fallen trees.

  Mandy struggled with the knowledge of all these endless new dangers on their property. “Lord,” she began to pray. “This is really getting overwhelming. If I haven’t thanked You enough yet for Jenny’s safe return, I thank You again, now. I’m so relieved she’s OK. Thank You for watching over her. Barney, too. Please help us figure out what these men are up to and where they are.” Her ATV hit a rock and the front end jerked to the side. “And help me drive this thing better, Lord.” she smiled. “In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.”

  As they got closer to Mr. Shonee’s property, Mandy worried for him. He had left without saying a word; a detective followed him to get a picture of Kane. It had to be difficult to learn his son could be capable of such deception, and then to actually keep a young girl captive...the old man had to be d
evastated. But with that hard shell he always put up, how would they ever reach out to him?

  They made their way up the hill. Tire tracks in the earth headed straight over to Mr. Shonee’s now downed fence.

  Jon and the boys would be out here right away to repair it.

  Jenny pointed up the hillside to an area that leveled out a bit before a sheer rock face. A lot of bushes were at the base of the hill.

  Had Jenny found the right spot?

  Jenny had Jon stop near a clump of brush. She hopped off and pulled at the bushes, revealing a large opening. An extensive cave went into the hill. All the brush hid the entrance from view.

  The ATVs had emergency flashlights strapped to the rack so they had plenty of light to go into the cave.

  “No one goes in except myself and Jenny,” the sheriff said. “And don’t touch anything out here until we get a team through here.”

  “Can’t my dad and Mandy go with me?” Jenny’s voice wobbled and tears filled her eyes.

  The sheriff looked at the adults, and then nodded. “Jenny, it’s a crime scene, so do not touch anything, you are simply leading us in to look around. Make sure nothing dangerous is going on.”

  Rick looked at the size of the opening. “There must be enough ventilation in here. Methane gas tends to be present in caves and mines, and can be deadly, but Jenny obviously didn’t have any ill effects.”

  Jenny latched onto Mandy’s arm and Mandy could feel her trembling. She slung an arm around the girl’s shoulders.

  They had to duck a bit as they made their way inside. They soon entered a larger open area.

  Rick shone his light all around. “Oh my gosh…this is amazing.”

  Jenny pointed to the opposite side of the cave, her voice barely above a whisper. “That’s where they kept me tied up. See the ropes?”

  Mandy tightened her hold on the girl, pulled her closer and whispered, “It’s OK now.”

  Rick walked over to the wall. “This cave most likely formed from high pressure water erosion leaving the sedimentary rock. It seems to be primarily calcium carbonate, or limestone. There is some dolomite here, too. Where these elements occur, rhodochrosite forms as the calcium carbonate rich water drips and forms. It looks like they found a low to medium hydrothermal vein of it along here.” His face was near the wall of rock, fingers slightly in the air following the remains of the vein. “There are traces of the deep red color that signify minimal iron content.”

  Mandy, the sheriff, and Jenny looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

  Rick looked around at the silent group. “Oh, um…conditions were right for the rhodochrosite to form. Apparently, they must have the more valuable specimens, making this all worth their while. No wonder they didn’t want Jenny to get away.

  “Do you know that rhodochrosite became the state mineral of Colorado in 2002?” No one replied, so he went on to explain, “During a study of rocks and minerals, John Ghist’s Earth Science class from Platte Canyon High School near Bailey found that this state did not have an official mineral. Colorado has such a rich history of mining gold and minerals. They contacted State Representative Carl Miller and suggested rhodochrosite be named the state’s mineral. He introduced legislation and less than three months later it received that designation.

  “Colorado has such a translucent red variety in some areas that it is prized the world over. Some of it can bring tens of thousands of dollars, if the piece is large.”

  The sheriff had been listening intently, taking notes. “Well, we have our motive. Any idea how much they may have pulled out of here?”

  “I sorted a lot from two big buckets.” Jenny pointed to her spot.

  “There’s really no way to determine how much they got out of here at this point. The quality and clarity would be indicative of the value. To keep my daughter prisoner, they must have been finding a great deal of it. You need to find these men, Sheriff.”

  “Yes, we do. We’ll have to check if there has been an influx of this mineral in the market, yet. I want everyone out of here now until we can get a team in to collect evidence. Thank you for showing this to us, Jenny. I know it has to be hard to be in this cave.”

  “You’re welcome, but I want out, now.” Jenny pulled on Mandy’s arm, practically dragging her towards the entrance.

  18

  When they got back to the ranch, Mandy told Sue to contact the reporter and get a new story done on Jenny’s return. Then she did some damage control to hang on to the remaining reservations.

  Jon and Nate went up to repair the downed fence for Mr. Shonee. Nate couldn’t believe it when he heard the whole story.

  “No wonder Mark always seemed so distant around us. He was up to no good and probably didn’t want to give anything away.”

  Jon removed the barb wire from the broken post. “Yeah, it’s too bad we never got through to him. Maybe none of this would have happened.”

  Nate grabbed the new post strapped onto his ATV and carried it to where Jon worked. “Can’t beat yourself up over that one, Jon. You did your best. You were real good to him. He was the one who betrayed you. Don’t forget that.”

  “I know. I just hate to think what will happen to him now. He’s a nice guy and still needs God. He helped Jenny escape.”

  “He also has to suffer the consequences. He made his decisions.”

  The two had the fence repaired quickly and headed back to the ranch.

  The cave still had yellow police tape across the front area, and a team of investigators were going in and out of it with cameras and bags marked with the word ”evidence” in their hands.

  Jon hoped they would finish soon so they could eliminate yet another danger. He and Mandy had always thought it great to have an old mine on their property, but now he wondered if it was worth it. What else lurked on their land?

  ****

  Mandy noticed the delightful smell of chocolate chip cookies. She asked the cook to bag up a dozen. She had to go see Mr. Shonee. The news of his son had to be tearing him up. She hoped the cookies would be a peace offering. She would ride Maggie.

  Rick waved as she rode out of the corral.

  Mr. Shonee was on his front porch in a chair leaning forward, hands resting on his cane. Weariness seemed to have aged the man even more.

  She tied her horse to the rail by his garage and walked up to the house. “Hello, Mr. Shonee. I wanted to come by and see if you were all right.”

  He grunted. Moisture glistened in his eyes.

  “I brought you some cookies. Chocolate chip.” She waved the bag towards him.

  “What do you want? You gonna gloat?”

  She sat down and placed the bag of cookies on the small table next to him. “Jon and Nate fixed your fence.” She dared to pat his hand. “Mr. Shonee, we care about you. You may not believe it, but we do. I came to make sure you were OK.”

  “You don’t give a flip about me. We’ve never gotten along. Why should you care now?” His gruff exterior held its sharpness.

  “We could get along fine if we just worked out our differences instead of taking it to the extreme. We want to be good neighbors to you, Mr. Shonee. We really do. We’d like it so much if we could help you instead of you getting angry at us. God tells us to love our neighbors, and we do, it just…gets a little challenging, sometimes.”

  He finally looked at her, and he leaned back in his chair. “Me and God ain’t been on speakin’ terms for a long while.” He reached for the bag next to his chair and took out a cookie.

  “He loves you, you know.”

  Another grunt. He offered her a cookie.

  She took it, hoping it was a tentative peace offering.

  “No, I don’t think so. God don’t give a hoot about me. If he did, my rotten son wouldn’t have turned out like this. I had to throw him out of here, ya know.”

  “No, I didn’t know. Do you want to talk about it?”

  “Nothin’ to talk about. He expects me to give him everything he wants. He ain’t
ever held a job long enough to pay a bill. Sat around drinkin’ and talkin’ big, but never did nothin’ about it. I got tired of takin’ care of the lazy bum.”

  “I’m sorry. That had to have been hard.”

  “You know, I used to own part of your property. Sold it off. He always told me I was stupid for doing that.”

  “Yeah, I remember hearing that when we bought the place. There was an extra hundred acres to it, which is why we found it so attractive for our business.”

  “Yeah, that was mine. Just didn’t see the need for it. My wife took sick and Kane did nothin’ but bleed me dry. I needed the money. Dang near forty years old now, you’d think he’d grow up sometime.”

  Mandy took a moment to say a quiet prayer. “Kane has made his own decisions in life. God isn’t going to force him to do anything. Kane has to want to do right. God isn’t punishing you with your son’s choices. God cares about you individually. He has to work on Kane separately.”

  “He’s got a mighty big job ahead of Him.”

  Mandy laughed. “God has a mighty big job with all of us, don’t you think?”

  “Yeah, I reckon you’re right about that. Guess maybe He done something today with you and me sittin’ here eatin’ cookies together.”

  “I think you’re right. I’m rather enjoying myself.”

  The old man turned quiet. He shifted in his chair after a minute. “Yeah, I think I am, too.”

  They sat in silence for a time watching the trees move with the wind.

  “How’s that girl?”

  “She’s fine. I think she’ll sleep for most of the day. Her scratches weren’t deep so physically she’ll heal up OK. She was pretty scared.”

  “Sure feel bad my own son did that to that family.”

  “I know,” Mandy said. “He didn’t hurt her, except for tying the ropes. He scared her, but he didn’t do anything else.”

  There was a long silence.

  Mr. Shonee finally broke it. “Want some coffee?”

  “I’d love some.”