Big Noise: A Jo Spence Mystery

by Jen Wright

  Before Amanda would allow them to begin work, she served up coffee and cookies, and the group chatted for a good half an hour. At the conclusion of the pre-work coffee break, Sandy got up and said, "Gotta go to the post office. See you in a couple of hours." Jo opened her mouth to object but remained silent.

  "Can't let the township down. They need their mail."

  The first order of business was to shovel off the roof so that they could get to the repair. The roof was fairly steep, so Amanda set up some jacks along the edge so that, should anyone take a tumble, there would be something to potentially break her fall. While Amanda had previously used a snow rake on the first few feet of slope, the rest had to be done from ladders. Once they were through pulling snow down off of the roof with the long-armed rake, Ree and Amanda climbed up and shoveled what was left.

  The sun was out, making the asphalt shingles safe to walk on. Jo ventured up to take a look. The view from Amanda's roof was spectacular. Her house sat on the highest point for miles, and she could see two lakes and several valleys in the distance.

  They pulled off shingles and boards until they had a ten-foot square section open. The cabin was entirely exposed below, and heat was escaping out of the hole. Amanda descended the ladder and handed replacement boards up one at a time. They set up an assembly-line process to measure, cut (using a handsaw because Amanda had only a small amount of solar power available), and nail the boards into place.

  Zoey worked quietly, which was unusual for her in a social setting. But she stuck close to Jo, holding boards in place while Jo hammered nails. They spoke little, but each provided the other with whatever help was needed.

  After the group had assembled and nailed down all twenty or so boards, Amanda passed up some tarpaper. Once that was secured, they all descended the ladder for a break.

  As they were about to sit down, Sandy walked up. "Nice work!"

  "Better look at it from up there," Amanda teased. Sandy quickly climbed up to the roof and proved herself to be easily the most confident and agile of any of them. Inside, the small cabin warmed up again, and the group lounged in relative comfort even though the shingling remained to be done.

  "What's that big antenna for?" Jo asked.

  "It's an amplifier."

  "Does it help with TV reception, too?"

  Jo looked around for a television and didn't see one. "I don't see a TV." Everyone except Zoey laughed.

  Sandy offered an explanation. "Amanda's legendary disdain for television hasn't made it to the Valley, I guess."

  Jo still looked confused.

  "Well, let's not get her started on a rant. There are no power lines or phone lines along the Hammond grade, so she put that antenna up to help with reception for her cell phone. None of us believe it actually does anything, but she's convinced."

  Jo looked around the simple cabin, assimilating all that she knew about Amanda, and wondered just how absurd this antenna thing was. She apparently went to great lengths to build a simple cabin that was very efficient and minimalist, yet she installed a huge antenna that might or might not aid in reception for her cell phone. Jo finally concluded that Amanda must have had a motivating need for that cell phone. She wondered if there wasn't a sweetheart in the picture somewhere. Maybe it was all part of her duty as a firefighter, but Jo wasn't going to ask, and no one else was talking.

  Jo attempted to figure out Amanda's leisure activities, in light of the fact that she didn't own a TV. She noticed a little space set up with music and a violin. A trombone hung from the ceiling. The overstuffed chair in which Jo sat held remnant wood shavings, and a carved fish lay unfinished on the coffee table. Several books occupied the same table, and others overfilled a built-in shelving unit.

  "Amanda, I know you play the violin, but do you also play the trombone?" Again everyone laughed.

  "Why, yes I do, Jo, especially if you are a bear raiding my compost bin."

  The shingling took less than an hour, and when it was time to leave, Jo turned to Zoey.

  "Mind if I ask Amanda for a tour of her woods? I want to see this area."

  Zoey looked at her quizzically, "Is this about Rick?"

  "Yeah, I need to do something here."

  Zoey nodded. "Is it safe?"

  "Totally. Amanda said that she's noticed a car parked down the grade from here, and I want to check it out. This was several weeks ago. I'll take a look around and let Nate know what I see. It will be a beautiful walk. If Amanda agrees to be my tour guide, that is."

  Jo knew that if she uncovered something that could lead to finding her former client, she wouldn't be able to let it drop. She would pursue it until the end, whatever that was. She didn't intend for this to affect their getaway vacation, but she also remembered Zoey's statement that "your heartache is my heartache."

  "Want me to go with you?"

  Jo took a look at Zoey, and knew that she was beat. "No, we can do this. Go home and get some rest."

  Amanda and Jo headed out directly from Amanda's land in search of any clues about Rick. Amanda seemed thrilled to be guiding her friend on her beloved acreage.

  It took them about twenty minutes to snowshoe to Amanda's property line. Soon they bisected a logging road. "That car — the old Chevy — was parked on the grade about 300 yards from my driveway back that way." Amanda was pointing southeast.

  "What do you mean by 'that car'? Were there any others?"

  "Not usually at the same time. I've seen a pickup, seemed like it was full of construction materials one time, but it's been there pretty regularly. And a couple of times I saw a white Explorer."

  "Any idea what was going on?"

  "Nope. I try not to think the worst about folks."

  "Sure, but you must have wondered. If it wasn't hunting season, why would anyone park there and just walk in?"

  Amanda, taciturn as always, didn't bother replying.

  "And you think he went this way?" It was more of a statement than a question. Jo noted that Amanda spoke quite sparingly. She was one of the few people Jo knew who spoke less than she did. But when she had something to say, it was worth listening to.

  "Humans usually take the path of least resistance. All animals do, for that matter, unless they are hiding." Amanda nodded to the narrow logging road.

  "We don't even know if the person driving any of those vehicles was Rick. If it was him, it's hard to say what he was up to. It's possible he was just hiking." Not even Jo believed this. If he had been hunting, he might have had a rifle or a shotgun with him. In that case, he could have fallen or injured himself.

  "You hear many shots near here?"

  "All the time, it drives me nuts. Even out of hunting season. Follow me. I want to show you something else."

  Jo and Amanda walked for a good ten minutes before they stopped in front of a tree. Jo couldn't figure out what they were looking at. Amanda pointed to the poplar.

  "What are we looking at here? I don't see anything."

  Amanda pointed up about six feet to a branch in the tree. "See here."

  "Is that a cross?"

  "They're all over these woods. Hundreds of them."

  "Weird." Jo wondered if perhaps they had stumbled across an area used by a cult.

  "You don't know who made them?"

  Amanda shook her head no.

  "Do they all look like this?"

  "No, last fall I noticed one that was quite large and lying on the ground. The smaller ones are usually two sticks tied with twine. Sometimes they are fit together with a dado joint, hand cut with a small axe. Whoever made them is seriously obsessed. I think they made them out here. I've seen axe shavings."

  "Tracks?"

  "I don't know. I've never seen fresh tracks. I noticed the crosses this fall. Haven't been out here much since it snowed. Frankly, I've been a little spooked. You'll talk to your police friends?"

  "I'll definitely tell them about this." Jo wanted to reassure Amanda, but in her mind, she didn't think that a bunch of wooden crosses w
ould get much police attention.

  "Thanks," Amanda said. "Let me know what you come up with, if you don't mind." Jo nodded.

  She resolved to come back again to check further, now that she knew her way in, and she could use the logging road to keep her bearings.

  Amanda and Jo explored for another half hour before heading back. They were losing the light, but they had found one more cross, larger than the first one. Amanda gave Jo a ride home after they snowshoed out her long driveway.

  Jo was exhausted by the time she got back to the rental cabin. The morning ski, the conflict with Zoey, roof repairs, and then the trek through the woods with Amanda all added up to a tiredness bordering on pain. Maybe she was trying to push herself past her usual limits, putting off being alone with Zoey. She knew that her lover would want to finish the conversation that had been interrupted earlier.

  By now Jo had cooled off considerably about their argument. It was only fair that Zoey should decide for herself where she wanted to live. Maybe living with two rambunctious dogs and a clean freak wasn't all that appealing. At this point, Jo felt more like crying than fighting.

  Once home, she took her time warming up in front of the fire. Grateful that Zoey had built one, she hung her wet clothes about the cabin to dry out, consciously draping them haphazardly as if to prove that she could live with clutter if she really wanted to. Zoey had prepared broiled tuna steaks in the gas oven, leaving a plate waiting for Jo on its warming shelf.

  Silently watching Jo eat from the couch, Zoey asked, "You ready to talk about it yet?"

  Jo crossed her arms, preparing herself for whatever Zoey might have to say. Then Zoey surprised her by saying, "You start."

  "OK, so I had my hopes up that you would move in with me. I mean, we are doing so well out here." She gestured to the tiny cabin. "We love spending time together. And we're good together, right?"

  Zoey smiled and nodded. "Yes, we are, love. I think we're perfect. My only hesitation is your work. I don't know how I'll deal with you being in so much danger all the time. I'm not sure if my idea that we should continue living in separate places helps that at all, though." She got that contemplative look that she often had when she was discussing one of her former clients or a student in need of help.

  "Will you just consider it?" Jo said this with her last ounce of energy. She was bone tired.

  "OK, Jo. Why don't we take this vacation to think things over and then talk again?"

  "All right." Jo felt some relief that they had talked. It didn't feel great to know that Zoey had reservations about her, though. She knew that she would always love her work and need to do her part in it. It was who she was.

  Doesn't she realize that she will always come first with me? More than anything, Jo wanted to live with Zoey, and the sooner the better.

  CHAPTER 16

  Jo snuck down the ladder again at around 3:30 a.m., hoping that this wasn't going to be all the sleep she would get for the night. She might have to give in to a nap if that happened.

  She went through her nightly routine, but this time she filled her bowl with vanilla ice cream, put two fresh logs on the fire, and let them ignite fully before closing the woodstove door and shutting down the damper. By the time she was done feeding the fire, her ice cream was little more than a puddle. Just the way she liked it.

  She thought that what had awakened her was her sub-conscious mind working on the problem of where Zoey should live. They had spent more than two days in the tight confines of the cabin. In her mind, it was going wonderfully. Zoey seemed to have enough space to do her work, yet they had plenty of time for each other. They seemed to move in the limited space with no arguments. They didn't fight about who cooked, or about who did the dishes. She chocked this up in part to the fact that they were still falling in love and that things always started out this well.

  No, there were no red flags. She trusted Zoey. She believed that she was who she was with no hidden surprises or hidden agendas. Maybe as a therapist, she really did know what was best for them as a couple. They were both equally invested in this. It somehow felt so much more mature than the other relationships of Jo's life. Jo wondered if she wasn't in her first "grown-up relationship." She chuckled a little at that.

  "You OK, hon?" came a voice from upstairs.

  "Yah, just thinking."

  "We can get you some more ice cream if you run out."

  Jo looked up, and Zoey was leaning on the rail naked.

  "Want some?"

  "Do you want company?"

  "Only if you want to join me. I don't want to keep you up."

  Zoey descended the steps, thankful that Jo had fueled the fire. "Are you dishing?"

  "Sure. Chocolate or vanilla?"

  "Little of each, please."

  As Jo spooned out ice cream, Zoey found her way to the floor space in front of the fire. She had brought the quilt down from the bed and wrapped it around herself. When Jo came to sit beside her, she invited Jo into the blanket with her.

  "Thinking about us?" she said and yawned, placing her head on Jo's shoulder.

  "I am."

  "And you were laughing?"

  "I was."

  "And you're going to make me pull it out of you?"

  "Yup."

  Zoey gave Jo a nudge, causing Jo to chuckle.

  "OK, OK, don't get rough with me. I was just thinking that we're grown-ups."

  "Grown-ups? As in mature?"

  "But still fun." She gave Zoey a nudge back for emphasis.

  "OK, but let's see if we can't get some more sleep."

  They allowed the dogs to clean the ice cream remnants off of their dishes before ascending the ladder to their lofted bedroom again. It seemed like they both had gotten over their little fight.

  Jo, however, couldn't quite drift back to sleep. Her mind kept focusing on Rick. What could he have been up to out here? She missed her connection to Nate and his easy access to all of the police databases.

  She decided it was time to check in with him in case he'd learned more from the runaway or about Rick's dealer. If she couldn't reach him by cell here, she might have to drive to Amanda's to test out that amplifier.

  CHAPTER 17

  Jean walked slowly up to the small stage with her poem grasped just tightly enough to leave an unsightly crease. She didn't know why she kept coming here to read her work. Perhaps it was because it was far enough away from her neighbors that she felt she could safely share all of her inner secrets. Perhaps it was a way for her to relieve some of her guilt.

  She felt guilt every second of every waking moment for cheating on Don, but she knew she couldn't stop. She gladly accepted the free cup of coffee for being able to vent to the world some of what she was going through. She told her husband that she drove the twenty miles to Big Noise so that she could spend time with other writers. She straightened out the paper, without looking up, and started to read.

  Gentle lover,

  guide me from this dream.

  Rain kisses and promises

  upon my parched skin.

  Baptize my arid heart.

  He and his Bible

  strive to martyr me.

  So I hide my scars from his scornful lips

  and cast my eyes down from a looming fist.

  Dogma and duty shall guide his hands.

  I imagine a fairy tale rescue

  from this vengeance and control.

  I cannot endure his worship.

  Can you save me

  from his sins?

  He looks through me with zealot's eyes

  as I pray

  and pray

  he cannot imagine you.

  Jean felt very strange as she made her way to sit down. She felt how ominous this poem sounded and knew that it was a way for her to tell her truth for a change and to bring her fears to the surface.

  Don knows about Frank, and he's going to kill him. He's freaking nuts. He won't kill me, but if he finds out about Frank, it will all be over. Frank is
the only thing holding me together.