by Bo Drury
He thought of Doris and walked to her window. The curtain on it was closed tight. Was this just a coincidence? He would have to pay closer attention. Josh pulled in, and he dismissed the thought for now.
“I hear you guys had a close call yesterday,” he said, reaching out to clasp Harry's hand in a warm handshake. “I'd say you were damn lucky to get out of the hole like you did. Scott filled me in on what happened.” Coming in and sitting down, he went on, “That boy doesn't have a clue as to how he got there. He didn't see a thing. Just woke up in the dark, not knowing he was in an underground cavern. It's a pure miracle he didn't kill himself when he fell.” He scratched his head and rubbed his hand across his face, then looked at Harry and asked, “What do you make of all this?”
“Harryeee...come and get me. I want to be in on this,” Doris called from the other room. Josh looked surprised that they were not alone.
Harry jumped up and went after her, saying over his shoulder, “She has some good ideas, Josh, she knows as much about this as we do.”
He placed her on the bed and was starting to sit down when she said, “Get that paperwork and the graphs I made from my room. I want ya'll to study them.” Harry left and brought them in.
Doris spread them on the bed before her, arranging them in order. “You have three people here who are suspect.”
“Three?” Harry asked.
“Yes... Jeb, Hub, and Orlando.”
“Orlando? Why him?” Josh sounded incredulous.
“He was there, he saw Melody that night, he has free range over the property, and he knew Rebecca.”
“What would be his motive?” ventured Harry.
“I don't know. Do I have to figure out everything?” she asked, giving him a wicked look. Turning back to her chart, she said, “Then you have Hub. We don't know much about him except he was the last one to talk to Melody besides Scott. He knew Marie. There could have been more to that relationship than we know. He has the run of the ranch and he is always lurking in the background.” She looked to see how they were taking what she had said to this point. “Then you have Jeb. Everything points to him. He has the motive, the opportunity, and it's all to his advantage. It's too pat. Makes me think he is not the guilty one.”
“What is this, woman's intuition?” Josh chided.
“When it's all said and done, then tell me I'm wrong,” she tossed back.
Harry laughed. Fire and vinegar, fire and vinegar. If he were to compare her to a fruit, it would be an apple, tart and firm.
Josh studied all that she had written down, then looked at Harry. “It might pay you to pay attention to what she has to say,” he joked. “Seriously, she has some good points here. We haven't looked at anyone but Jeb. Time we spread out a little.”
Tapping her pencil against her cheek, Doris appeared to be lost in deep thought and paying little attention to what the guys were saying. Suddenly she asked, “You were telling me that Rebecca had a baby girl?” She looked up at them. They looked back, waiting for her to go on with her thought. “She was given up for adoption... Melody was an adopted child, according to Harry's information he got in Junction. How old is Melody?”
“That would be one strange coincidence. No way could she just happen in and discover that she was the long-lost granddaughter of the old woman...no way.” Harry paced the floor, then stopped. “Or could she?”
“It's too bizarre.” Josh took his turn around the floor, then stood in front of Harry. “Isn't it?”
“I guess stranger things have happened, but it could be that Rebecca had been in touch with her, or her parents. This would add more fuel to Jeb's being the guilty one if he knew about Melody.”
“I think you guys are getting carried away with your suppositions. All I was pointing out was she could be the daughter no one knows, if she is the right age.”
“I'll check with that attorney in Junction. He will have her birth date and maybe more on file.”
“Josh, get a copy of the original birth certificate. We will have her prints and blood type. When and if we find her we can identify her that way.”
“Right! I'll get right on it.”
When he was gone Harry turned to Doris. Giving her an admiring look, he said, “You might make a pretty good detective. I might have to give you a raise.”
“I'd settle for my back pay,” she said as she fell back on the pillows.
“You do know how to hurt a guy.” With a grimace he hung his head, then reached for a deck of cards he had bought for Scott earlier. “You want to cut the cards for your paycheck? Double or nothing, what do you say to that?”
“My man, you are a fool. Cut the cards.”
Harry shuffled and cut, had her cut for luck, then laid the deck in front of her. “Okay, high card wins.” He felt lucky. Doris picked up her card, looked at it, then looked at Harry before she turned the card for him to see.
“Damn.”
Harry went for a walk, leaving Doris with a smile on her face.
[Back to Table of Contents]
* * *
Chapter 14
Darn that girl anyhow. He kicked the dirt as he walked down the street; she had a way of getting under his skin. He had to remind himself she was not interested in a relationship with him. She had made that clear from the beginning, but somehow he had a hard time remembering the rules she laid down. Lord, he never would get her paid—if he wasn't careful she would own the business and he would be working for her. That would never do.
He thought about what she had said about Orlando. He had shown a keen interest in Scott. Harry had watched him fuss over the boy. 'Course I guess he had helped raise him, but still... He would like to spend a little time with him and see what he could find out about his background. It might be quite interesting.
Buying a bag of peanuts, a half-gallon of ice cream and chocolate syrup, he started back to the room, still thinking of the chart Doris had made. Hub did always seem to be lurking in the background. He probably knew everything that went on, like Rosa, the cook. They didn't make a noise and no one paid any attention to them, like they weren't there watching every move that was made. He intended to look into Hub's background now!
Entering the room, he went directly to the bed and picked up the graph. Doris watched him wide-eyed. He put his finger on Hub's name and picked up the phone, calling the desk.
“I need a computer in here; do you have one I can use? A laptop?” Looking at Doris for confirmation, he nodded. “That will work. I'll come and get it.” Turning to Doris, he said, “There's ice cream in that sack if you want some, and chocolate syrup. I'm going after the computer. We have work to do.”
“Work...I'm on sick leave, Harry.”
“All that money you just got...you're gonna have to earn it.”
“What money?” Doris moaned, then grinned when he left the room. This was right up her alley; she loved detective work.
Coming back with his arms full, her employer dumped several items in her lap, then plugged in the computer and handed it to her.
“What are we looking up, Boss?” She bore down on the last word.
“Find me everything you can on Hub Long; his first name is probably Hubert or Herbert. Where he came from, who he worked for, the whole nine yards. I want to know him well when we are through.”
Signing on to their search network, Doris put in his name and waited. One hundred and fifty names popped up. “I will have to weed them out one by one. How old do you think he is?”
“Late forties, early fifties, five foot ten or eleven, one seventy, one eighty pounds, brown hair, hazel eyes—that should narrow it down some.”
Getting comfortable, she settled down to eliminate those who didn't fit the description Harry had given her. It was going to be a long night.
Harry lay down on the bed alongside her, watching the screen as she went through the names. A soft fluttery snore got her attention, and she turned to see him sound asleep.
“That's about right—I work, he
sleeps,” she said to the quiet room.
As she studied the man beside her, a smile came to her lips. Reaching out, she pushed a sandy lock from his forehead then went back to work. She was anxious to see what she could find out about Mr. Herbert Long.
Harry opened his eyes. Something was nagging at him, something he needed to remember. What was it? He looked at Doris, absorbed in her work. He watched her for a few minutes; his lids grew heavy and he drifted off again.
He was back in the cave. It wasn't Doris with him; it was the woman from the photograph, Rebecca. They were trying to find their way out. The water was deep and moving swiftly. He was trying to hang on to her. The water pulled, trying to sweep her from him. Her fingers clawed at him. She was pulling him down. He tried to loosen her grip and she slipped away. She screamed as the foaming water took over. He tried to grab her... He was screaming, “Mel-o-d-e-e-e..."
He jerked awake and sat up sweating, the terror of the dream still on him.
Doris was looking at him with concern. “You okay, Harry? That must have been one wild dream you were having. You were yelling for Melody.”
“She's in that cave somewhere. We have to go back and find her. She needs our help.” He sat on the side of the bed. “I think she is Rebecca's daughter.”
“Harry, you were dreaming.” She watched him as he wrestled with the remnants of the nightmare. “What makes you think that?”
“It looked just like her.”
“You've never seen Melody.”
He turned to stare at her, still feeling disoriented. After a minute he nodded. “You're right, it was all a dream.” But still he puzzled over it. “It was so real.”
Going in to take a shower, he came back a new man, refreshed and ready to continue the search on Hub. “What have you found so far?”
“Nothing that would make me think any of these are our man.”
“We need a fingerprint. If we had that, Mark could run his prints. In the morning we will move out to the ranch, since Jeb invited us. That will give us the opportunity to keep an eye on all of them and we can get prints. Let me help you back to your room; we need to get some shut-eye now.”
Taking the laptop and setting it aside, he picked her up and carried her to her room. Placing her on the bed, he asked, “You think you can manage?”
“Yes, Harry, thanks.” Then looking up she added, “And shut the door behind you.”
“You sure of that?” he questioned with a grin.
“I'm sure,” she said, waving him out the door.
“Well, you can't blame a guy for trying,” he said as he pulled the door to.
Too keyed up to go to sleep, Harry dressed and walked to the little all-nighter down the road. He couldn't get the dream off his mind. He had a strong feeling Melody was still alive and in that tunnel someplace. He had to go back and see if he could find her, but this time he would go prepared.
Ordering a late night breakfast from the tired looking waitress, he leaned back and mulled over all the events up to now. He couldn't shake the feeling he knew something he was forgetting. It nagged at him. Suddenly he realized the woman behind the counter was talking to him. “I'm sorry, I didn't catch what you said.”
“You that guy from out at the Stockton ranch?”
“Yes,” he answered hesitantly, wondering where this was leading.
“Rebecca and I went to school together. I sure was sorry to hear about her passing.”
Harry nodded.
“I felt sorry for her when her ma kicked her out. She brought that fella in here a few times. They was really in love.” Wiping at the counter, she went on, “Old lady Stockton was a real snob. Rebecca wasn't like that at all.” She went to pick up his order and set it in front of him. “He came back here looking for her; the old lady sent him packing. It was sad. I think he looked all over but couldn't find her.”
She handed him the salt and pepper and reached down the counter, picked up a packet of jelly and placed it by his plate. “I see him every once in a while.”
“What?” Harry jumped at that bit of information. “He's still around here?”
Surprised at his sudden interest, she warmed up to the information she had. “Yeah, he comes in about once a month and eats. I think he works around here someplace. He don't remember me, I'm sure, but I remember him. I always thought they was so sweet together. You know, he was in the service and they shipped him out was why they got separated.”
Reading the name tag on her shirt, he leaned on the bar, friendly-like. “What did he look like, Maggie?”
She smiled and leaned toward him. “He's slim, wears a cap all the time when he comes in. I think his hair is brown. I don't remember about his eyes, they may be brown too. He's real tan—must work outside a lot. He's not very friendly, doesn't take up with anyone, keeps to himself.”
“Maggie, I'm going to leave you my number. If he comes in again I want you to call me. I would like to meet him.” Writing his number on a card from his pocket, he handed it to her. As she scanned the print on it, her eyebrows rose and she looked up at him. “You're a detective?”
“Yes I am, Maggie, and I am looking for a young woman who has vanished. He may have a clue to where she is. You can help me out if you will just call me when he comes in next. I sure would be grateful.” He gave her his best smile and left a five dollar tip by his plate.
Going back to his room, he thought of the peanut shells by his window and approached cautiously, hoping to catch someone lurking nearby. Finding no one, he went in and, securing the door, crawled into bed. The clock showed three a.m. as he closed his eyes. He was afraid he wouldn't be able to go to sleep, but next thing he knew, he woke up and the clock was on seven a.m. He would have sworn he had just shut his eyes.
Eager to share what he had learned from the waitress at the diner, he dressed and rapped on the connecting door.
“Come on in,” Doris called out.
Going in, he found her propped up in bed, her hair wet from her shower and looking refreshed and perky. As he told her about his late-night outing, she was all ears. Grabbing up her pad, she made notes, filling in some more of the graph.
“I will get you some breakfast and coffee, and then I need to check on Scott at the hospital.”
“First hook up the laptop for me. There are some things I want to look up first thing this morning that I thought of last night.”
“When I come back, I'll load us up and we can go to the ranch.”
“I'm not in any hurry to go out there. That place puts off bad vibes. I think that place has seen a lot of unhappiness.”
“Bad vibes? I think that must be a woman thing.” Harry laughed as he went out the door. Had he looked back he would have seen Doris frowning as she muttered, “Woman thing! I'll make you think woman thing, you just wait and see, Harry Mann. There is an evil presence at that house.”
Scott still looked worn and haggard when Harry entered the room. He was a skeleton of the boy who came to his office looking for help in finding Melody. His face lit up when he saw Harry.
“How you doing, Scott?” he asked, tossing a sack full of goodies on the bed.
“Well, I'm alive. That's about all I can say.”
Perching on the edge of the bed, Harry questioned him. “Do you remember anything about how you got into the cavern or who might have put you there?”
“Not a thing, Harry. It's all a blank.”
“Relive it, Scott, from the time you left the motel till you fell into the pit in the cavern. Close your eyes and talk to me.”
Harry quietly waited as Scott closed his eyes and tried to remember.
“The wind was whipping the jeep around as I drove out. When I turned onto the caliche road to the house, the dust covered me; the wind was blowing just right for it to come back on me. It got in my eyes. When I stopped the car, I tried to wipe it from my eyes. I could hardly see; my eyes were burning and full of tears.
“I was mad at Jeb. I wanted to go in and beat the hell
out of him. I couldn't believe all the things they had kept from me. I got out of the jeep and started for the door. I didn't see anyone...or maybe I did see something move toward me from the side.” He sat quiet for a minute, remembering. “Something dropped over my face, like a sack. There was a strong sweet smell. I felt like I was swirling down into a well...
“I woke up and it was blacker than pitch...I didn't have a clue where I was. I stood up and felt my way down a corridor, then the floor dropped out from under me. I knew my leg was broke—I heard it snap.” Scott opened his eyes and looked at Harry. “Whoever put me there figured I would never get out, didn't they? Who is doing this, Harry? Who wants me dead?”
“I wish I knew, Scott.” They sat in silence, each lost in thought.
Harry said, “When we got there, it was right after you did. I can't imagine that anyone had time to knock you out and hide you before we got there. That puzzles the heck out of me. We searched that whole place. Everyone on the ranch was looking for you. We were in pairs, no single person was alone. You were not to be found. We went back and searched the second time— still nothing. We went through the house with a fine-toothed comb; there is no hiding place there. I even looked for secret passages.” They both grinned at that. “But there has to be a secret place where someone hid you. Everyone was there taking part in the search. So whoever it is did not have time to take you to the cavern. They probably did that after dark, when we had all given up.”
“Who do you think it is, Harry? Do you think it is Uncle Jeb?”
Harry just shook his head and looked at the floor. He didn't know what to think. He felt sorry for Scott, wondering if the only family he had in the world was trying to kill him. Harry hoped that was not the case, but all the evidence pointed in that direction.