The Main Corpse

by Diane Mott Davidson

  My feet slipped on the dense, slick carpet of pine needles, and I stopped to wait for Marla. By the time she caught up with me, the mist was thickening to a light rain. Our scraggly company halted when Jake snuffled in an erratic circle. I hustled up in Arch’s direction, then walked beside him as Jake scrambled over a cluster of rocks. Abruptly, the dog stopped by a pile of granite outcroppings.

  “Pool scent,” Arch muttered under his breath. “Maybe he or they sat down here.”

  Increasingly excited, Jake continued to wheel in a tight circle. I looked up into the pines. Every now and then the object of a search would climb a tree, as Arch’s friend Todd had done on a trail only last week. The last thing I needed was to stare down the barrel of a gun aimed at me by Albert Lipscomb. But the lodgepoles and ponderosas were empty. The trees stood with perfect, eerie stillness in the swirling mist.

  “Wait!” came General Farquhar’s brusque command. He was peering at the ground. “Arch, pull Jake up.” Arch obliged. “There’s something here,” the general insisted.

  I walked carefully over the sodden ground to where Bo and Marla stood by the granite outcroppings. “Marla,” I said as I stared at the ground, “would you reach into the pack and bring out the plastic bags?” Bo dropped down on his knees to make the backpack accessible, and Marla awkwardly unzipped the pack and dug around until she found the cardboard box of Ziplocs, which she handed to me. I impatiently opened the box, carefully removed one bag, and unfolded it over my hand. Then I reached down and snatched the object from the ground, folding the bag up and over, the way I had seen Tom do.

  Jake started off again. General Bo stood quite still and looked at the plastic bag in my hand. Then he snared me in the spell of his eyes. In the fading light, I carefully maneuvered my hand around the article I’d picked up.

  Marla stared at the bag in disbelief. I couldn’t compute what was there. Any graduate of Med Wives 101 knows that, my inner voice reprimanded. What I held in my outstretched hand was a Vacutainer tube, the kind used in blood tests. The nurse sticks you with the hypodermic needle, draws out your blood, and it goes into a sterilized plastic tube. If you’re in for a complete physical, first she fills one tube, then another. The tubes are labeled and capped: one to have your hemoglobin checked, another your thyroid, and so on.

  But this was one plastic Vacutainer tube only, and it was broken. The shards were covered with dried blood.

  Chapter 17

  Marla spoke first. “So what does all this mean?” she demanded impatiently. “Is that Tony’s blood? Albert’s? Or somebody else’s?”

  “Here’s my best guess,” I said. “This tube?” I pointed. “This is where the blood came from that ended up spilled all over the shirt in your trunk.”

  “But whose blood is it?” she repeated impatiently.

  Before any of us could answer, however, Jake darted off, away from the granite outcropping, up the hillside path. Tugged along by his dog, Arch yelled for us to follow. General Bo gave one quick shake of his head, leapt to his feet, and jogged up the path in pursuit. I held Marla’s arm as the two of us struggled to follow.

  The rain thickened to icy drops. Thunder rumbled overhead. The shaggy pine needles overhanging the path trembled as the chill rain pelted downward. I pulled up my jacket collar and looked anxiously up the trail for Arch.

  “Safety alert,” Bo called down to Marla and me. “We shouldn’t be out in a forest, at this altitude, in a lightning storm.” We mumbled assent, and Bo called for Arch to pull Jake up. Then Bo loudly summoned us to a retreat action. “Back to the Jeep, everybody! Time to get dry and look at the map!”

  I made a U-turn on the path. No matter what you were doing, it seemed, the general wanted to be in charge. The rain leaked down my collar. My skin was chilling as fast as the thin membrane of ice that forms on Aspen Meadow Lake each November. Thunder boomed again, much closer this time.

  I hustled up to Arch, who was unfastening the leash from Jake’s working harness. Talking quietly to his dog. Arch then removed the harness itself. This was Jake’s signal that the day’s tracking was over. I held the working harness while Arch clipped on Jake’s regular collar.

  “You’re done, boy, good boy,” Arch murmured. “Dinner soon. I hope.”

  As we ran back toward the car, Jake’s whines at being pulled off the trail almost rivaled the boom of the creek. Did I really want to find Tony? Yes, I said to myself as I gritted my teeth. I did. Dead or alive. I needed to know the truth.

  “Lord,” said Marla when we were all packed back into the car. “I’m an icicle in an orange prison suit.”

  I pointed to the storage area behind the back seat. “I brought a bag from your house. Extra sweaters, dry clothes.” She mumbled a thanks but only hugged herself for warmth.

  After snapping on both the overhead and dashboard lights, the general wiped the laminated map and offered it to me. He asked gruffly, “So what’s the next part of the plan, Goldy? Now that both rain and night are falling?”

  I tried to sound confident as I took the map. “Just give me a minute.” On the seat between Arch and me, Jake shook himself and nudged closer.

  Marla was immediately dubious. “What are we doing, a scavenger hunt? Or is this an off-road trip? How long do you think it’s going to take the sheriff’s department to swoop down on us?”

  “Please relax,” I said as I traced Grizzly Creek with my index finger.

  Arch embraced Jake, who slobbered over his face in gratitude. General Bo turned on the engine and clicked on the heat.

  “Do you think,” Marla wondered aloud, “that the sheriff’s department would take the investigation in a different direction, if we turned in that test tube?”

  I snorted. “Do you want to risk the reactions of Hersey, De Groot, and Captain Shockley to what may or may not be evidence in your case? Especially now that you’re an escaped suspect? It’ll take them at least a week to run the tests to figure out whose blood is in your car. Matching with the stuff in the tube could take even longer. And then they’d have forty theories on what it proves.”

  She shook her head dolefully. I went back to the map. Rain pounded on the roof. The only other sounds were Jake’s snuffles and the persistent roar of the creek.

  I’m not great with maps, especially ones of the mountain areas that show elevations, streams, and roads. But this particular map was unusually complex. In addition to the main roads and towns, it depicted trails, campsites, four-wheel-drive roads, and historic landmarks. I had never heard of the Perdito Ghost Town or the Fallen Angel Mine. Making a mental note to check them out sometime, I searched for the Continental Divide. After a moment I made out Interstate 70, Clear Creek, Cottonwood Creek, and the Arapahoe National Forest.

  “Jake’s hungry,” Arch announced to no one in particular.

  “I’ve got food for him,” I said, still bent over the map.

  The general assumed a jovial tone. “Anyone for camping out?”

  Marla groaned. “No, no, no. Not now. Not ever. In fact, there is nothing that would get me back into a tent at any point in my lifetime. Especially when it’s raining. Besides, the last time I camped out on a night like this, bad things happened that I’m still paying for.”

  “Let me see the map,” Arch offered helpfully. Jake awkwardly scrambled into the storage area behind the backseat. “Okay, here’s Aspen Meadow.” Arch’s finger indicated our town’s lake. Then he traced over to Interstate 70, eastward to the approximate point where we had taken Marla from the ambulance. “And here’s where we’ve come.” His stubby finger then indicated the road that ran northwestward out of Aspen Meadow, past the turnoff that led to the general’s compound in Blue Spruce, toward the entrance to the national forest and Grizzly Creek. “That trail we were on goes over a lot of hills, and then just ends up back at I-Seventy, by Georgetown. Mom. Where do you suppose this guy or guys we’re tracking are going? What do you think they’re after?”

  “Honey, that’s what I’m trying to figure
out. There are all kinds of roads back to these campsites.”

  “But,” Arch objected, his concentration back on the map, “why would you go up that path instead of back toward the campsite road, where you could have a car?”

  The general turned on the wipers. They swept thick ripples of rain off the windshield.

  Arch chewed his bottom lip the way he did with a particularly odious math problem. “Okay, we’re not going home or to the general’s compound. And we’re not going to camp out.” He straightened his glasses. “I gotta tell ya. Mom, I don’t think there’s enough room for all of us to sleep in this car.”

  No one commented. Marla asked Bo to pop the trunk, which he did. She hopped into the rain. A moment later she ordered Jake to hold still as she clambered around behind us, looking for dry clothes.

  “Okay everybody,” I said solemnly, “Bride’s Creek isn’t too far away. Remember when we did that party at the Hardcastles’ place. Arch? I think that’s where we should go.”

  Arch said, “Some of the Prospect Financial people were there, weren’t they? That’s where I met Sam the soup guy.”

  I said glumly, “No one is supposed to be there now. Let’s just hope the property isn’t under water.”

  The general pressed the accelerator. The engine roared in response, and Bo snapped the car into reverse. Unanchored by a seatbelt, Marla squealed as she bounced across the storage area.

  “Wait a minute!” she cried.

  Bo braked and Marla yelped again. “I know where Bride’s Creek is,” he announced. “Adele’s ashes are scattered there.” At the mention of her dead sister, Marla groaned. Bo ignored her. “How do we get to this cabin?” he demanded.

  I endeavored to keep the irritation out of my voice. What had I been thinking—getting us all into this mess? Tom was going to kill me. If the general didn’t manage to do it first. “We need to be very careful,” I said. “If I ever get back home, I’d like to have a business to go back to. We’ll spend the night under a real roof and come back early tomorrow to pick up Tony’s trail.” It shouldn’t be so bad, if we don’t break anything, I consoled myself. Then I added mentally, I’ll give Edna and Whit a discount on their next party.

  If I have a next party.

  Chapter 18

  Marla scrambled back to the front seat, now clad in a sequined burgundy sweat suit. The general made an efficient three-point turn. As we zipped along, I recalled the details of the roast pork luncheon Arch and I had done for the Hardcastles in the fall. It had been a lavish fund-raiser for historic lands preservation. I hadn’t met Albert Lipscomb that day, but I knew he’d been a guest. Marla and Tony had been in attendance, too, as had Amanda Trotfield, although her husband had been flying a charter to Buenos Aires. Edna Hardcastle had hired Sam Perdue to make vichyssoise. She’d told me she was trying to spread her money around among Aspen Meadow food folks. At the time, I’d been miffed, but I’d been assured by Eileen Tobey, whose bank was a big sponsor of historic land preservation, that Sam’s cold potato-leek soup couldn’t touch mine. Now, I didn’t give a hoot about the luncheon or what had been served. I concentrated on trying to remember where the Hardcastles kept the spare key to their cabin door.

  With a screech and thud, the general catapulted the Jeep onto the state highway. To the east were his compound and Aspen Meadow; to the west, the Continental Divide and the high mountains. I half expected to see a dozen police cars lying in wait for us where the dirt met the gravel. But there was only the rain.

  “May I see the map?” Marla asked meekly. I handed it to her. She turned the light on over her seat and bent over it.

  Incredibly, undoubtedly from habit, I tried to decide what we were all going to have for dinner. I had no idea what foodstuffs General Bo had brought for us. The more I stared at the rain streaking our windows, the more unwelcome, catering-type worries crowded my mind. There was the problem of the Hardcastles’ wood stove—would there be enough dry firewood to keep it going through the evening? And what would we have for breakfast? I almost laughed. Then my mind posed another question: Didn’t the Hardcastles have a caretaker living near the cabin? Would he see us breaking in? If he did, wouldn’t he call the police?

  Within thirty minutes we turned onto the road paralleling Bride’s Creek. After following the swollen, turbulent waterway for a few miles, we came to the split rail fence that announced the beginning of the Hardcastles’ extensive property. Arch excitedly pointed to the driveway with its stone pillars. I held my breath as the Jeep rocked over the narrow wooden bridge that barely spanned the muddy wash of the usually idyllic stream.

  Peering through the gloom for signs of life at the caretaker’s white house, I quickly realized there wouldn’t be any. Set in a low-lying area near the water’s edge, the diminutive clapboard residence had been claimed by the creek’s overflowing banks. Water rippled around the house, which stood like a beleaguered island.

  “So much for the caretaker,” muttered Marla. “It’s just us and the ghost of the bride.”

  “Excuse me?” said Bo, his eyes on the road. “When we scattered Adele’s ashes up here, it was because her Episcopal church was still arguing about a columbarium. I never heard any of the history.”

  Marla tsked. “They gave us the spiel on the reason for the creek’s name at the historic lands luncheon. There was a popular hotel downstream. Early in the century, the place was famous for luxurious honeymoon cabins.” She sighed, as if renting a honeymoon cabin was the stupidest thing she’d ever heard of. “In the twenties, one newlywed couple came up in their Rolls and took over the most spacious cabin. Under a full moon, and presumably after the marriage had been consummated, the bride stepped out for a stroll. She got too close to the creek, slipped, and drowned. Now people say they see her ghost by the water. Especially when there’s a fall moon.”

  “We probably won’t be able to see the moon tonight,” Arch commented pragmatically. “Too cloudy.”

  “Yeah, well,” Marla said knowingly. “That doesn’t mean she’s not still out there. They couldn’t do autopsies back then, the way they do them now. My guess is her new husband pushed her into the creek and held her down. You’d have to be pretty dumb to fall into the water. Pushing somebody, that’s altogether different. At least, that’s what they kept telling me down at the Furman County Jail.”

  “Tell me about the cabin,” Bo demanded as we rounded a stand of evergreens. The rain had once again turned to mist. “I suppose it’s historic, too?”

  “Yes, we heard all about it last fall, too,” I said wearily. “Built around … oh, what did they say? 1860. It was a trapper’s cabin by the stream. The cabin became a stage stop and then a schoolhouse—the only one between here and Aspen Meadow. Then it morphed into a general store. Furman County came up about twenty years ago and claimed the cabin was on their right-of-way. They needed to pave the road along Bride’s Creek, and they wanted to tear the cabin down. Mrs. Hardcastle’s mother, Maureen Colbert, stepped in and waved a preservation flag, probably one of the first. Mrs. Colbert, who was also a big benefactor of the Denver Zoo, bought the cabin from the county, purchased this adjoining property, and had the cabin reassembled, log by log, on higher ground. When she died, she left it to her only daughter, Edna, who married Whitaker Hardcastle, a petroleum geologist. They’ve got a daughter, too, and she was supposed to get married up here this spring, but she reneged.” I remembered how much my bank account and I had been looking forward to catering the Hardcastles’ daughter’s wedding reception. Now my bank account seemed like the least of my problems.

  “Yeah,” Arch interjected, “but we did that lunch fund-raiser here last fall, after Julian left. It was one of the first times I helped Mom on my own.”

  We passed the toolshed, pump, and outdoor shower the Hardcastles had constructed near the cabin. Mrs. Hardcastle’s mother had wanted the cabin not just to be moved but to be restored, so that when you came up to visit, you could stay there and imagine yourself a trapper.

 
Make that a very wealthy trapper. A real trapper wouldn’t have built a fake well next to the pump. In her desire to make the cabin look authentically rustic, Edna Hardcastle had constructed a cute little well superstructure —the round, roofed type the Disney folks might have put by a cabin in Frontierland. It was in the well bucket, I remembered suddenly as we pulled up, that the Hardcastles kept their spare key. I thanked heaven I’d remembered, and then silently requested forgiveness for felony trespassing.

  We all jumped out. Jake immediately lifted his snout to the skies and howled; Arch shushed him. The well crank squeaked ominously as I hauled on the rope, but the bucket popped up, and I fished out the dark plastic container that held the key to the cabin’s massive front door. As the general busily unloaded gear from the rear of the Jeep, Arch continued to reassure a nervous, barking Jake that he would eat soon. Marla stood apart, refusing to join us. Her arms were crossed, and she gazed into the distance. More than ever, I wanted to get her through this mess.

  With a determined shrug—we were, after all, adding breaking and entering to our list of crimes—I put the key into the lock. Before turning it, I noticed deep, new grooves beside the doorjamb. It looked as if someone with a crowbar had preceded us.

  Without touching the key, I pushed on the knob. The door creaked on its hinges and opened wide. Immediately a flood of damp, musty air washed out onto the stoop, I said weakly, “Somebody’s broken in.”

  “All right, let me check this out,” the general ordered. He assumed a straight-backed military bearing and pulled out his gun. In his free hand he brandished a high-powered flashlight that made the silver tube affairs I’d known from summer camp look like toys. Skimming silently across the floorboards with the Glock poised, he swept the interior space with the beam of his light. After a few minutes of probing, he seemed satisfied that the place was empty. He put the gun and the flashlight down on a table, fished out matches, and scraped one of the more sturdy-looking chairs into the center of the room. Then he lit the kerosene lamps hanging from the ceiling. Light filtered to the far edges of the cabin interior.