Path of Secrets

by D. F. Hart

  I’m scared, plain and simple. What Rick and I have is perfect, and I’m worried that taking that final step will alter it - and not in a good way. I’m terrified at the idea of another failed marriage.

  “There, I admitted it,” she muttered under her breath.

  “Admitted what?” the receptionist asked as she walked to the refrigerator.

  “Sorry, thinking out loud,” Faith quickly recovered. “How’s your day been?”

  “Oh, you know,” the woman said gaily. “Not Friday yet, so...”

  “I hear you,” Faith commiserated. “Too bad there’s only one a week, huh?”

  “Yep! See you later,” came the answer as the receptionist retrieved her yogurt and left the breakroom.

  Alone again with her thoughts, Faith absentmindedly stirred her tea, watching the clear water swirl into the deep amber that let her know the bag had steeped long enough. She removed the teabag, added sugar, stirred again, and headed back to her office.

  No way around it, she realized. I’m going to have to talk to Rick about this.

  Crap.

  ***

  “How many miles to Memphis?” Lizzie asked, and Donny consulted the map feature on his phone.

  “About four hundred and eighty,” he confirmed. “You got everything packed up that needs to go with you?”

  “Yep. Guess we’d better get started, huh? I’ll take the first leg,” she offered as she locked the front door behind them. “But that means you’re in charge of snack distribution.”

  “I can live with that,” Donny said as they settled into her SUV and backed out of the driveway.

  CHAPTER SIX

  “You ready?” Mike, one of the techs, asked her.

  “Just about,” Kim answered, twisting her shoulder-length hair up into a bun and securing it so it would be out of her way. It was ten a.m., and Kim was about to climb up into the small cupola space again. She took the time to carefully measure the footprint closest to the stairs and photograph it before she herself stepped up onto the landing.

  She got another clear shot of it from directly above it, grabbed tweezers and a tiny vial and collected a piece of the strange rubbery residue she noticed in the print’s treads, then repeated the entire process with the other footprint further away from the stairs.

  Then Kim turned her attention to the casing she’d spotted the evening before. She carefully placed a number card beside the casing and photographed its location from several distances and angles, then picked it up with tweezers and dusted it lightly.

  “Two nice prints on it, thumb and forefinger, maybe?” she murmured to herself as she bagged it for transport to the lab.

  Next came the discovery of three hairs that were most definitely out of place, and she recorded then bagged those, as well.

  ***

  Grant had just pulled into Stella Williams’ driveway when he heard a shrill voice to his right.

  “Beautiful day isn’t it?” the elderly woman shrewdly observed him as she shuffled toward her own car.

  “Yes, ma’am, it sure is,” Grant politely agreed. “This is Ms. Williams’ house, right?”

  “It is,” the neighbor confirmed.

  “Thanks,” he told her, then walked up the steps and rang the doorbell.

  “Mr. Forrester,” Stella Williams beamed when she answered her front door. “It’s so nice to meet you, young man. Come on in, we’ve got a lot to talk about!”

  She turned and walked into her living room, and he followed.

  As she walked, she said, “Don’t mind my neighbor; she’s an old busybody. Her name is Rosie Allen, but we all call her ‘Nosy Rosie’.”

  “You’ve got a beautiful home, Ms. Williams,” Grant said sincerely, biting back a laugh at Stella’s description of her neighbor. “I love Victorian architecture.”

  “Thanks, me too,” she agreed with a spunky grin. “Matter of fact, this place is registered with the Historic Preservation Society. Just about everything you see here is original and has been carefully restored. Although we did have to update the wiring throughout the entire house. What a lot of work that turned out to be! But it was completely worth it. Now, where shall we start?”

  She sat on the edge of the couch, hands in her lap, perched like she could spring into action at a moment’s notice. Her closely cropped snow-white hair complemented the high cheekbones and vibrant blue eyes that spoke to her Norwegian ancestry.

  “Well,” Grant said as he sat in the high-backed armchair at an angle from the couch, “as I mentioned on the phone, I’m doing a series of articles about the Texas Forts Trail, and I’d like to write a piece about Fort Chadbourne.”

  “Get your recorder ready,” she confirmed with a wide smile. “This is gonna take a while, young man. Lots to tell you.”

  ***

  Kim methodically worked her way across every square inch of her surroundings, pausing only to wipe her forehead on her sleeve as she tried her best to combat the sweltering conditions in the cupola.

  December in Texas, she thought ruefully. Sometimes it’s freezing, and sometimes it’s unseasonably hot, and of course I’d just have to be up here on a day it’s hot...

  She kept processing during her inner monologue, finally reaching the shutter that overlooked the large grassy area where Ed Baker had died. She managed to pull a partial palm print and two more fingerprints from the wood but was dismayed that opening the shutter to reach more of it did nothing to help her working conditions.

  Seriously? Not even a hint of a breeze?

  By the time she returned to the second floor almost three hours later, her face was beet red and glistening with sweat.

  “Very stuffy. No air moving around up there, at all,” she explained morosely to Mike as she patted her face and neck with a small towel from her kit. “I’m glad that’s done.”

  “I thought you might be,” he replied, handing her a bottled water. “Here you go, boss.”

  “Thanks, Mike,” she managed after a long drink. “We get all the fingerprint samples collected from the staff?”

  “Susan finished up about fifteen minutes ago,” he confirmed. “One of the volunteers was running extremely late.”

  “Excellent. Let’s get this stuff back to the lab.”

  On the way back to the team’s SUV, she called Stevens.

  “Hey,” she began, “where are you guys?”

  “Just got back to the visitor lot,” he revealed.

  “We’re heading that way. Meet us at my ride if you wanna see the casing.”

  A few minutes later Kim and her two techs had rejoined the detectives.

  “Voila,” she said, holding up the evidence bag with the spent cartridge in it.

  “Yep, Heming said probably a .44 round, based on what he took out of the body,” Perez told her. “It wasn’t pristine, hit some bone as it traveled, so he couldn’t be one hundred percent certain.”

  “Actually, it’s a .44/40,” she corrected. “See how it tapers a little over midway toward the top? That’s how you know. Regular .44 round doesn’t taper like that.”

  “If we get a suspect gun, you can tell us if it fired that round, right?” Stevens asked, pointing at the shell casing.

  Kim raised an eyebrow. “Did you seriously just ask me that?”

  Stevens grinned. “Just messing with you, Kim. I know you can.”

  She grinned back. “Careful, Stevens. What goes around comes around.”

  “We’re ready, boss. Everything’s loaded except that,” Mike told her, pointing at the evidence bag in her hand.

  “Here, Mike,” she said, handing it to him. “And you and Susan be thinking about what you want – we’re gonna hit the Dairy Queen drive-thru for something cold to drink on the way back.”

  ***

  “I vote for cheeseburgers,” Lizzie said when Donny pointed out that the town they’d just come to - Prescott, Arkansas - was not only halfway to Memphis, but a perfect place to stop for lunch.

  “No argument here.�
��

  ***

  “Wait, I’m confused,” Grant said, shaking his head as he looked at his notes. “Why isn’t Fort Chadbourne part of the Texas Parks and Wildlife system, like Fort Richardson?”

  Stella smiled. “Excellent question, young man. Not many people think to ask it. And the answer is surprisingly simple – the land Fort Chadbourne was built on has never been owned by the government. The U.S. Army only leased it from the original owner, Samuel Maverick. After the Army moved on, the Odom family bought the land from Samuel’s widow, and it’s been in the Odom family since.”

  “Ah,” Grant exclaimed, his face brightening in excitement. “Is that why it’s sometimes called ‘the lost fort’?”

  “Exactly,” she confirmed. “When it was decommissioned the family simply left the buildings in place but used the property for ranching. Preservation of the fort buildings didn’t begin in earnest until 2001.”

  ***

  “Really? Already? Okay, then. Thanks!”

  Jandy hung up and looked at Bella.

  “They’re already done with the debris removal,” she shared. “I’m gonna go up and take a look at the site and get a feel for what I’d like to put where. Wanna go?”

  “Sure! Let’s take my car – that way we don’t have to move Charlie’s car seat. Is that all right?”

  “That’s fine,” Jandy replied, and smiled. “Man, I’d forgotten all about stuff like that... Been a long time ago now.”

  “Yeah. Things like having to pack up the entire house,” Bella mentioned with a giggle. “As Charlie’s getting older, I find I need to bring less stuff, but at the beginning? It was ridiculous. When we’d travel, his bag wound up almost bigger than mine sometimes!”

  “Yeah,” Jandy sighed. “But then they’re walking and talking, and before you know it, they’re off to their first day of kindergarten. And you turn around twice and they’re in middle school and playing sports and going to their first dance. Then you blink and suddenly it’s their last homecoming game and caps and gowns and posing for senior pictures...”

  She began to sniffle as her voice failed her.

  Bella, looking concerned, moved closer to her, but Jandy just smiled and said, “I’m fine, dear. Just...wishing I could have saved a few pictures, that’s all.”

  She took a deep breath, then continued, “Now, let’s go take a look at my brand-new blank canvas and do some daydreaming.”

  ***

  After an overview of not only Fort Chadbourne but the entire area surrounding it, Stella Williams suddenly sprang up from the couch.

  “Goodness - look at the time! How about a bite to eat and then a tour?” she suggested, and Grant nodded.

  “And I just realized, I never offered you a beverage,” she added, her face twisting into a frown. “I’m so sorry about that. I’ve just been prattling on and neglecting my hostess duties.”

  “It’s all right,” he reassured her politely. “I didn’t even notice. I was too busy listening!”

  ***

  Bella, Jandy and Charlie pulled into the driveway that now led to an expanse of smoothed earth.

  “Wow,” Jandy exclaimed, “when the Chief said they’d clear everything, he wasn’t joking, was he?”

  “Guess not,” Bella answered as she took Charlie out of his car seat and set him down.

  The child squealed and took off on his tiny legs toward the area where the house had been, with his mother and aunt following behind.

  “Hmm,” Jandy mused as they walked. “We really do have a do-over, here. We can build whatever we like.”

  “What’s your plan?”

  “Well,” Jandy began, “definitely no more stairs. Tony wasn’t joking the other day when he said his knees are giving him trouble. As a matter of fact, his doctor has been on him to have surgery on both of them.”

  “Yikes,” Bella reacted.

  “I know,” Jandy agreed. “But Tony’s resistant. Says he doesn’t want to be ‘out of commission’ for any length of time. If he keeps putting it off, it may get to a point where he doesn’t have a choice.”

  “They can be very stubborn, can’t they?”

  “You know it all too well, dealing with Nathan,” Jandy grinned.

  “And that little guy right there,” Bella answered, quickening her pace to a trot to close the distance when she saw Charlie scoop up a handful of dirt and move it toward his mouth. “Charlie! No sir! Put that down, now!”

  ***

  He'd already been out to the fort and determined that it was not the place where Stella meeting her demise needed to happen.

  Not that there’s a lack of ideal places for me to nest up, he reminded himself. But each visitor is escorted around the property out there by a staff member; trying to time it so that I wind up with Stella is next to impossible. That could take days, and according to Grant’s itinerary, we have a schedule to keep.

  After some thought, he’d followed the tracker beacon to locate Grant’s car in front of Stella’s home.

  There we go, much better, he thought instantly. Won’t be able to use the rifle, I’m afraid. Pity. But maybe that’s a good thing. After all, we can’t have the cops piecing it all together too quickly. Where’s the fun in that?

  From his vantage point down the street, he could see Grant and Stella walking to Grant’s car.

  He counted to one hundred in his head once they’d driven out of sight, then turned the key to start his own car’s motor, and leisurely followed in the direction they’d gone. Ten minutes later, he noticed Grant’s car parked in a half-empty lot next to a family-style restaurant. He smirked and kept going.

  ***

  “Are you sure?” Kim asked with exasperation.

  “Positive,” Mike confirmed, nodding his head sadly.

  “Dammit,” she growled, then picked up the phone, dialed, and waited.

  “Hi, Trish,” she said. “It’s Kim, with San Angelo PD. We met at the annual conference in Austin back in September, remember?”

  “Hey, Kim,” Trish Sevins said, leaning back on her lab stool. “Yes, I remember. How have you been?”

  “I’ve been fine. But I’ve got an issue that I need help with,” Kim answered. “My mass spectrometer just up and died on me, and I’ve got a casing, hairs, and some residue to process.”

  “Send as much up here as you need to, I’m happy to run them for you,” Trish offered.

  “I was hoping you’d say that. I’ll send them your way, priority overnight.”

  The two made shop talk for bit until her computer chirped and Trish said, “Hey, gotta go. Just got some results back I need to look at. I’ll be in touch.”

  “Thanks, Trish. I owe you one.”

  Kim sighed and looked at her two techs. “Get the Baker evidence ready for transport, please.”

  She took off her lab coat and started out the door.

  “Where are you going?” Sarah asked.

  “To beg for new equipment,” came the reply. “Wish me luck.”

  ***

  Lizzie and Donny indulged her cheeseburger craving, and after filling up the SUV’s gas tank, they were underway again, with Donny taking over the driving.

  “Time to switch again,” she sighed when the station they’d listened to for a hundred miles was finally overcome with static. “Roulette?”

  Donny laughed. “Go for it.”

  “Here goes nothing,” Lizzie announced as she pressed the button for auto-scroll.

  It took four complete revolutions through the FM channels before they finally landed on a classic rock-and-roll station.

  “Yes!” Donny exclaimed, and turned up Steppenwolf’s ‘Born to Be Wild’. “That’s more like it.”

  ***

  By dinnertime Tony and Jandy were deep in conversation about when to meet the builder onsite.

  “I’m just anxious to get started,” Jandy announced. “The sooner we begin, the sooner we’re back in our own place and out of Bella and Nathan’s hair.”

  “I
know,” Tony answered with a wink. “Which is why I set a meeting for us with Jacob for ten a.m. tomorrow.”

  “And don’t forget, we’re totally okay with however long it takes, sis,” Nathan reminded her as he attached the tray to Charlie’s highchair. “As much as you’ve done for me over the years, trust me, I love being able to return the favor and help you out for once.”

  His big sister kissed his cheek and softly said, “I know, honey, and I appreciate it. Truly.”

  “So, did you decide on the floor plan?” Bella asked after she settled in next to Charlie.

  “We did,” Tony revealed. “It was a toss-up between the Windsor and the Glen, but once Jacob told us the Glen had a few more customization options, the choice became easy.”

  ***

  When they arrived at Fort Chadbourne Stella had a brief word with the curator, then pointed at a golf cart.

  “This is the best way to see this place. Hop in,” she said with a grin, and Grant did as he was told.

  “To date there’s been six buildings completely restored since 2001. Others have been stabilized,” Stella said as she guided the golf cart along the rough path, gliding to a stop next to a remnant. “This is the hospital building. Once the soldiers marched up here from San Antonio, they lived in tents while they built the fort, and the hospital was the first building they erected. As a matter of fact, this structure was the first recorded hospital building in the entire state of Texas.”

  Grant’s jaw dropped open.

  With each place they stopped the cart, Stella had more to share.

  “That’s Oak Creek,” she said at one point, waving her left hand back and forth toward one edge of the land they were on. “One of the more interesting stories about the fort involves that creek. There was a young private named Watson who crossed the creek, went into the little settlement not far from here, and got drunk. On his return trip he was crossing the creek again when he was ambushed by the Comanche. His fellow soldiers found him and brought him to the fort doctor, who counted thirteen separate arrows sticking out of Watson’s body. Amazingly, the young man lived – and, as it turns out, was one of Dr. Ebenezer Swift’s last patients here, since the transfer that Swift had requested months earlier had finally been granted.”