“I thought you’d be on your way back to Boulder by now.” Marlene sat down at the table with a plate of eggs and soy sausage along with a cup of coffee.
Nora’s attention jolted back to the café patio. Sunshine, flowers, people milling around her. Marlene sitting down. She shoved the woman—Cole’s wife—to the back of her mind and tried focusing on Marlene. Right now, Lisa took precedence.
Nora waited until Marlene settled in and took a sip of her coffee. “Can you think of where Lisa might have hidden her camera or where she might have stored a copy of the footage?”
Marlene glared at her and slowly speared a piece of sausage and put it in her mouth. She chewed longer than necessary and swallowed. “You asked me that already. Let me repeat: You need to forget this nonsense and leave town.” The older activists pushed back from their table, their chairs scraping against the stone patio.
Nora leaned across the table. “You think Lisa was murdered.”
Marlene’s fork dropped to her plate with a clang. “I didn’t say that, but if it’s true, it’s the best reason I know for you to leave.”
Another boat of a vehicle cruised down the road and pulled in front of the outfitter’s. “That seems strange,” Nora commented.
Marlene twisted in her chair to watch seven people climb from the vehicle and head into the office. “What?”
“First Lee Evans pulled up and went in. Then a family, and now this group.”
Marlene whipped back around. “So?” She sounded uninterested, but she frowned anyway.
“So, none of them are dressed in outdoor gear. They’re in jeans or slacks. You don’t go down a river dressed like that.”
Marlene turned and studied the people entering the shop. “They’re tourists. Probably didn’t plan on a river trip today.”
Maybe, but something seemed odd. She dismissed it, turning back to Lisa and her camera. “Aside from the Canyonlands thing, can you think of any other reason someone would want to kill Lisa?”
Marlene picked up her fork with a shaking hand and poked at her scrambled eggs. “Why?”
Argh. Couldn’t she simply answer a question without probing for Nora’s hidden agenda? “Lisa had all this information about Mormons and women in the church. Maybe a religious fanatic hurt her.” The color drained from Marlene’s face.
Interesting, Nora thought. “Maybe something to do with Lisa marrying Rachel?” she continued.
Just then, Darrell rounded the corner, scowling at Lee’s pickup across the street. He took a few steps toward the street, then looked back at the café. He spotted Nora, pasted on a smile, and started toward her. Several heads turned in his direction and a few people whispered. Darrell stopped at a couple of tables as he headed toward Nora, shaking hands and throwing out greetings. He stepped over to Nora. “Just the person I wanted to see.”
He wore Levi’s that seemed to fit him perfectly, deliberately faded to look worn and casual without seeming old. His white shirt, the buttons at his throat open and the sleeves rolled gave a Saturday morning feel, giving him a studied, attractive look. His perfection rivaled Abigail’s and felt just as contrived.
Darrell smiled too warmly, felt way too familiar. “Since time is limited, I think we ought to get busy putting together a presentation with some of the stills Lisa sent us.”
She wanted to get back to her conversation with Marlene. The woman knew something she wasn’t telling Nora. “We’ve already decided the stills won’t have the impact of the film,” she reminded him.
Something in the road caught Nora’s attention. “What the…?” It took her a couple of seconds to understand the looming catastrophe. She jumped up, her chair overturning on the patio, and took off in a run, brushing past Darrell.
The doors of the stock trailer stood wide open. One rangy Hereford cow nosed the back end of the trailer, looking as though she wanted to jump out.
Nora raced to the street, dodging vehicles on her way across the busy road. The cow dropped her two front hooves onto the pavement. Nora yelled to try to scare her back in. If the cow got loose in the road, it would cause trouble and someone—the cow, drivers, pedestrians— could be hurt.
The trailer door swung inward. The cow spooked and backed up. The door closed with the metallic clank of metal banging on metal. Lee threw his weight against it and slammed the latch shut.
Nora panted, hands on her hips. “Thank god. That would have been bad.”
Lee towered over her, fury surging from him. “What were you thinking?”
“Wha—?”
He tilted his head down the street toward the older activists, now lurking in the shade of a shop that rented four-wheel drives. “You and your buddies thought it would be funny to turn my cows loose to prove how bad they are? Did you think someone might be hurt? Did you even think about safety of the cows?”
“I didn’t—”
Darrell joined them. “Hey, let’s calm down. Nora was at the café with me.”
Lee turned on Darrell. “You’re involved in this?” He took a step toward Darrell and lowered his face so they were nose to nose.
“Now isn’t the time,” Darrell threatened.
“When then? You’re gonna have to answer for all this. For bringing these meddlers here,” Lee shot back.
Marlene stood on the far side of the road, watching with full attention. Her focus wasn’t on the men by the stock trailer, though. Nora followed her line of sight. The family with the four kids were climbing into their SUV, the doors slamming one by one.
Lee whirled, facing Nora. “Meddlers like you and your friend.” “Leave her alone,” Darrell warned.
Lee, full of menace, leaned toward Nora. “Only you lost this round. That film Lisa was making is gone, along with all the money you spent on it.”
How did he get his information? It had to be from Rachel. Nora egged him on, defiant. “Lisa told me where she left her camera. I’ll finish that film.”
He folded his arms. “That so?”
Coupled with the disturbing phone conversation, Nora bristled with stupid bravado. “When we show it to the committee, they’ll vote to expand the borders and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Lee smirked at her. “Yep. Seems I heard that before.”
17
Warren studied the rock art panel under the glass and let the hand of the ancients pull at him. His feet nestled in the plush of his carpet as he stood in the climate-controlled comfort of his office, but his mind soared over the high desert outside Moab. He felt the crunch of rough sand under his boots, squinting in the blazing sun. His strong, young body climbed the twists in the trail, winding through the spires of Fiery Furnace. The weathered rocks formed a forest of jutting hoodoos that created a maze so dense, hikers weren’t allowed to enter without a permit and guide. A hawk sailed overhead. Warren saw it all as if he were actually drawing breath in Utah.
Heat radiated from the rocks that baked in the sun, but between the spires, shadows cooled the sand. Orange globemallow and pinkish milkweed bobbed in the constant wind sweeping across the open desert. Warren traveled deeper into the rocks that stood more dense than the towers that lined Wall Street.
He tilted his head back and lifted his gaze to the revelation some twenty-five feet from the sandy floor. Warren remembered the day his destiny was revealed to him.
The ancients wrote it on the rock for him to discover. His uncle had told him about the sacred drawings located here, but only after Warren had already discovered the messages written on the rocks at the ranch. It had taken Warren days of searching Fiery Furnace to find the rock that told him all he needed to know.
He stared up at the rock and drifted between the past and future. The torment of the Third World’s end melded with the coming destruction. Warren saw it all, just as the ancients intended. He alone knew what was coming and had prepared for it.
As they’d done that day over thirty years ago, the couple wandered into his view, interrupting his vision. He knew their
meeting was not coincidence. The man, only slightly older than Warren, was obviously Native American. He had to be Hopi, sent to instruct Warren. It was no mystery why the ancients brought them together.
Even now, all these years later, Warren’s heart still clutched when he thought of the woman. He’d never felt that way about anyone, before or since. He’d been consumed with her at first glance. Surely God had created her for him, and Warren thought she’d been sent to be his helpmate. But time proved God had only sent her to tempt Warren and harden his will while teaching him self-discipline.
Warren’s phone rang and he whiplashed back to his weak body. He took a step toward his desk and his feet shrieked in pain, the neuropathy from the chemo plaguing him.
He picked up the phone and dropped into his office chair, his eyes focusing on the rock art panel, hoping to hold on to the power of the ancients.
“I think we’ve got a problem.” His nephew, always full of dire warnings.
“I trust you can manage it.”
“It’s that Nora Abbott woman. She’s nosing around. What if she finds out about Lisa Taylor’s death?”
A minor annoyance at this stage, thought Warren.
His nephew sounded distressed. “She was at the pick-up site today.”
He clenched his fist. “Did she see anything?”
Warren heard the worry in his nephew’s voice. “Don’t know. But she threw attention our way and that bookstore owner sure looked interested.”
“Can’t Rachel get her to leave?” He’d hoped Rachel would join them. She’d had so many opportunities to destroy them, yet she’d kept her own counsel. But now that her friend—Warren couldn’t stomach the disgust he felt at the real definition of their relationship—was dead by his nephew’s hand, they’d need to keep her much closer. This was a critical time for Rachel. She’d either become one with them or turn against them.
His nephew didn’t sound convinced. “I can try.” “I would prefer you don’t kill her.”
Shock found its way to his nephew’s voice. “Rachel?”
“Either of them.” They’d all known the far too independent Rachel since she was born and Warren preferred to keep her alive.
The excitability that often led his nephew to bad decisions flowed in the voice on the phone. “I won’t if I don’t have to.”
Warren crossed his leg over his knee and rubbed his foot, barely biting back a moan of pain. His doctors wanted him to take it easy— no travel, no stress. That wasn’t going to happen.
“I’ll be there tomorrow.”
18
Amid a cloud of dirt and flying pebbles, Nora jammed on her brakes and jumped from the Jeep. Abbey clambered after her.
Married.
She’d tried to ignore the news from Wyoming, to let it sit until she had time to talk to Cole. But it flooded into her head until everything else washed away.
His wife? When did this happen? Not more than a week ago they’d been talking about their future together. He’d told her how lucky he felt to be with her. Nora finally trusted the relationship, trusted him.
Damn it! Were all men pigs or did she have unusually bad luck? First Scott, handsome and mischievous. He’d been faithful for about ten minutes. The only reason she’d been open to loving again was because Cole had been so patient and kind.
She’d pushed him away and yet he’d wormed his way back to her. She’d treated him pretty rotten and still, he’d stayed by her side through some terrible times. He’d taken a bullet for her. He’d risked his life. And in a couple of days, he’d married someone else.
Betrayed. Again.
Abigail and Charlie stood at their Buick with the trunk open. Abigail crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head, her mouth moving. Charlie bent into the trunk and pulled out a large suitcase, then hefted a different one from the ground. They both spun around at the sound of the Jeep.
“Nora slammed the door closed and ran for the porch steps. She needed to focus on something other than herself. Lisa’s murder. If it was a murder.
Of course it was. Rachel, Marlene, and Darrell all warned her to leave town. They lived here and they had suspicions. Add to that, Lee’s arrogance and veiled threats and it made him a prime suspect.
“Nora, what’s the matter?” Abigail called after her.
The screen door swung open and Rachel stood in the threshold. “I hear you’re spreading it all over town that you’re going to find Lisa’s film.” It hadn’t taken Lee long to call Rachel. What a surprise—the backward cowboy had a cell phone! Okay, that was snide and unfair and a tired stereotype. Too bad.
Nora detoured to the side of the porch and climbed over the railing, dropping to the sand.
“Hey!” Rachel shouted. “What’s wrong with you?”
Nora was obviously too upset to make nice with Rachel. “Nora! For heaven’s sake,” Abigail called again.
Nora stomped off around the back of the cabin, Abbey hot on her heels, ignoring everyone. Think about Lisa. The film. A lump the size of Castle Rock lodged in her throat. She closed her eyes and fought for control, clenching her fists and teeth.
“Nora.” Abigail caught her and placed a hand on Nora’s rock-hard shoulder. “Are you okay?”
Nora opened her eyes. “Yep.” She drew a deep breath and focused on relaxing. “Did you call Cole and tell him I was in danger?”
“What’s the matter? Did you and Cole have a fight?” Abigail asked. “I wouldn’t take it too seriously, dear. We know Cole is a good man. But every man, especially young ones, can be insensitive at times.”
“A fight?”
“I assumed he doesn’t think you should stay here in Moab. He thinks you should go back with him to Wyoming. And you, being the independent woman you are, said no. I’m solid with that.”
Nora had difficulty following Abigail’s blather. “‘Solid’?” Abigail straightened her shoulders. “I’ve been reading the Urban
Dictionary. I can Google it on my notebook and they send me a word of the day. You should try it. It would do you good to update your vocabulary and keep up with technology. That phone of yours is pathetic.”
Nora rubbed her forehead, stress headache beginning to throb.
Abigail moved behind Nora and reached up to knead her shoulders. “Let Cole cool off and he’ll apologize.”
“He’s not going to apologize.” Nora lifted her chin and stepped away from Abigail’s massage. She strode back toward the front of the house.
Abigail scurried after her and tucked Nora’s hand in her arm. She slowed Nora’s gait. “He’s just miffed right now. Give him time.”
Nora tugged at Abigail’s arm. “He’s married.”
“When he cools off, he’ll—” Abigail stopped. “What?” “His wife talked to me today when I was in Moab.”
Abigail stood in the sand, hand on hips. “What did he say? There’s got to be an explanation.”
“What explanation could there possibly be? We’re through.”
Abigail studied Nora as if waiting for a punch line. When Nora started walking again, Abigail fell in step with her. “You can’t take this lying down.”
“I knew when he told me he loved me that something like this would happen.”
“You need to fight for him.”
Fight for a man who’d already made an irrevocable decision? “I’d say the battle was over before I even knew shots were fired.”
Abigail sounded exasperated. “Marriage isn’t permanent, you know.”
That one stopped Nora in her tracks. Abigail shrugged. “Well, it’s not.”
Nora strode away, kicking sand, her backbone hardening with each step.
Abigail struggled to keep up. “What are you going to do?”
Did she mean instead of curling into a ball and waiting for the desert sands to bury her? “I’m going to figure out who killed Lisa.”
“Killed? What? Now you’re being silly.”
Nora regretted blurting that out. “Killed as in worki
ng too hard on the film and having the accident.”
“Of course. You need to be more careful what you say. People can take things the wrong way.” Abigail’s attention turned toward Charlie. “No. That bag needs to be up front.” She hurried away.
Nora stopped in the driveway and tried to shove Cole from her mind. Focus on something else.
Lisa.
Rachel and Lee had a relationship, but just how close were they? Lee didn’t want the film made. The locals didn’t approve of Rachel marrying Lisa. Just before Lisa died, she’d mentioned petroglyphs and Mormons and that she’d been afraid. It certainly pointed toward Lee. But if Nora was going to get law enforcement to look into anything, she’d need some proof.
Charlie held a small picnic cooler. He spoke to Abigail. “I’ve packed your water and Diet Coke. There are those little cheeses you like. I didn’t have room for the apples.”
Abigail considered that. “I hope there’s not too much cheese. I don’t need the extra pounds.”
Charlie patted her still-shapely rear as he ambled to the backseat of the Buick. “Extra pounds just means more of you for me to adore.” Abigail swatted at him. “Oh, you.” She turned her focus back to Nora, probably gearing up for a lecture about the difficulties and rewards of a committed relationship. A thought interrupted and she turned back to Charlie. “Did you remember those biscuits I bought yesterday?”
He looked puzzled.
“Biscuits,” she repeated. When he still didn’t get it, she said, “The cookies with the dark chocolate.” Abigail could spend the rest of her life trying to pound Charlie into a pretentious dandy, but she’d never succeed. “We can stop in Monticello and get some coffee for that boring drive across the reservation.”
Nora shook her head. “That boring drive is called Monument Valley.”
Abigail shrugged. “I’ve seen it a thousand times.”
Nora stepped toward Charlie and gave him a hug. He smelled of pine forest and friendship. “Come visit me in Boulder soon.”
Abigail joined them. She put a palm on Nora’s cheek just as she’d done when Nora was a little girl. “Go to Wyoming, dear.”
The Nora Abbott Mystery series Box Set Page 66