Moonscape

by Julie Weston

  The woman’s face crumpled. “I know. It’s my fault. I’m so sorry, Miss Burns.” She covered her face, and her shoulders shook.

  Nell wondered if her tears and sobs were real or just a part in a play, so she could be the victim. Pearl looked at Nell and gasped. “Your face! You look terrible!”

  Mayor Tom hurried to Nell and helped her to a stump seat. “Do you need a blanket?” he asked.

  “Of course she needs a blanket,” Pearl said. “And water and food! Can’t you see how bad off she is?”

  Tom hurried over with a blanket and a canteen. He unscrewed the top and held it to Nell’s lips. She drank greedily, and some of the water slipped down her chin. Nellie lowered her crutch and stretched out her legs, the blanket around her shoulders. “Where is Rosy?” She supposed her face was bruised, as were her arms. The heat from the fire eased some of her pain.

  “He and the sheriff and another man are off looking for—”

  “Peter Banks,” Nellie said, interrupting Tom. “The only one missing from this group.”

  “My father is missing, too,” Ben chimed in. “We think he may also be after Banks, who has the money my father paid for—”

  “Harriet Thorpe,” Nellie said, interrupting again. “Otherwise known as Hattie.” So, none of these people knew that Cable was dead.

  Effie lifted her head from where she had curled up like a question mark and stopped her mewling. There were no tear streaks that Nell could see in the firelight.

  All the faces turned to Nellie, except the boys. They were arguing over one of the burned sticks and appeared oblivious to the adults. The smoke from the flames, crackling softly in the night air, traveled up. There was no wind.

  “Where were the boys?” she asked.

  “Peter told me where to go,” Mayor Tom said, “once he picked up the money. He left them with Ben and Pearl in the cow camp.” He gestured to the west.

  Was everyone in these lava fields also connected to the murders as well as the kidnappings? As Nellie looked around at each of them—Effie once again curled over; Tom rifling in his pack for food, she hoped; Pearl as usual avoiding looking back; and Ben, his face frowning and looking like his father, as if he had just discovered something—she realized she might be in more danger, except for the boys’ presence. Even as that thought crossed her mind, Effie stood up.

  “I’ll take the boys back to their aunt,” she said. “We can all three ride one of those horses.” She motioned to the dark space outside the circle.

  “No. If anyone goes, I go,” Nellie said. She grasped her makeshift crutch and pulled herself up. “Pearl, could you help me?”

  “Me?” Pearl sounded surprised. “Why me?”

  “Because you’re the only one I trust.” Nell figured if Pearl had been involved with the others, she could easily have hurt or even killed Nell when they had traveled to the cow camp and back. No one would have been the wiser. She was also worried about Pearl’s safety now that Cable O’Donnell was dead. Even though they had parted, maybe on unfriendly terms, O’Donnell had owed Pearl for not exposing him. Nell suspected he had seen she was protected from harm by the moonshiners by sending her to Ben.

  And then they all heard rocks slipping and sliding, the unmistakable sounds of something or someone outside the circle of light. More than one. Rosy appeared and Moonshine along with him. The dog saw Nellie and trotted to her. The sheriff followed, using his crutch and leading a man whose hands were tied with a rope and, behind them, Jacob Levine. Nellie could hardly have been more surprised. All the good men in her life. She wanted to rush to them, except the man in the middle was Peter Banks, who had tried to kill her. His head hung down and didn’t lift, even as they shuffled toward the fire. Jacob carried what looked like a heavy pack.

  The sheriff pushed Peter, and he fell down, his back to one of the stumps. His feet were tied, too, with just enough slack in the rope that he could walk but not run. Justice, thought Nellie. She wanted to kick him. He looked up and around at the circle of people. When his eyes lit on Nellie, he gasped and scooted backwards. “All I wanted was the money,” Peter Banks said. His voice again sounded like the charming man from California. “I needed it to finance the fight to make these lava fields a monument. Tom knows. He feels the same way.” Peter then saw Ben. “I needed it to fight the O’Donnells, who just want grazing to continue, to ruin this rare place.” He sounded eminently reasonable, and Nellie could almost find herself nodding with him.

  “Oh, no, Banks,” Tom said. “You wanted the money to go to California. You may think this place is rare, but you’ve no love for it, or you wouldn’t have used it for killing and hiding people. Besides, it’s nigh on to becoming a monument without your help!”

  Nellie crutched toward Banks. “And the boys? And me?” She tried not to screech. She wanted to sound as reasonable as he did. The sheriff came to stand beside her, as did Jacob, on her other side. She pointed her crutch at the man who continued to push himself backwards. “You’re a liar and a murderer.” Effie sucked in her breath behind Nell.

  “No. He’s been trying to help me get our baby back. The money was for me. It’s mine!” Effie approached Peter. “Where’s the money, Peter? You promised!” No tears this time.

  “He took the boys to ransom the money,” Nell said. “The sheriff paid it to him for the boys.” Nell pointed at the pack on Jacob’s back. “I suspect it is in that pack now, but it may not be yours. Or, at least, not all of it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You think it’s yours because Cable O’Donnell was your father, wasn’t he?”

  Effie’s mouth dropped open. “How do you know that?”

  “Rosy showed me Jacob’s photo of you and your sister with your mother, Henrietta Thorpe, and Cable O’Donnell, her husband. Your stepfather, I believe. You and Hattie were stepchildren, but Ben was Cable’s real son.”

  Ben stood up. “I thought Hattie and Effie were my half-sisters. That’s what you said.” He snarled at Effie. “From my father’s second wife, who was Henrietta. My mother was devastated when she found out about the second wife when I was a teenager. I don’t think she knows about Hattie and Effie.”

  Pearl made a disgusted sound. “See, I would have been his third wife!”

  Ben turned back toward Nellie. “What do you mean ‘was’? Where’s my father?”

  The sheriff answered. “Cable O’Donnell was dropped into one of the spatter cones. He did not fall down into it, as his murderer thought. Miss Burns and I found him and pulled him out and took him to the morgue. From the photographs that Miss Burns took, we could confirm that his head had been bashed in—just like the minister’s head, the man who killed Harriet.”

  Ben looked down at Peter. “You did that. I saw you do it.”

  Nellie interrupted again. “Peter killed Elder. I thought maybe you did it because you were out here with your sisters and Elder before all the mayhem. And then you arrived too late to protect them. You helped Peter carry the dead Elder to another cave. When you approached me, you knew who that dead man was.” Nellie sagged. “If you thought Hattie was your half-sister, not just your stepsister—. Was that why you didn’t want to claim that baby as yours?” She pointed to Effie. “She lied. She wanted the baby and Peter Banks, but she wanted you out of her life.”

  Ben looked back and forth between Peter and Nellie. His face had turned ashen, even in the firelight. His eyes closed to slits, as did his mouth. Surprise or anger. He took a step toward Effie. “I loved Hattie. Her child is my child! She wanted to leave because she thought we were related. And so did I.”

  Rosy stepped between Ben and Effie.

  “I didn’t know Hattie and Effie growing up,” Ben said and threw his hands up. “Father never said he had another family until I was working the cattle around here. When I went to Twin Falls, I met Hattie. She said her last name was Thorpe and didn’t say anything about my father.”

  Nellie could only feel sorry for Ben. “Even though Effie didn’t
like your father, he must have loved Hattie.” Nell ignored a small cry from Effie. “He apparently responded to Elder’s blackmail with the money to get her back. I don’t know if he knew she was pregnant. Effie may have told him. She was the one who picked up the cash and delivered it to Elder.” A new thought occurred to Nellie. “Maybe she even kept some of it back for herself.” She swerved to look at Effie, whose face turned grim and then flushed.

  “When I saw Hattie in the cave with the ice pick in her, I couldn’t believe it,” Ben said. “I didn’t know she had had the baby or that Elder Joshua, that crazy polygamist, had stabbed her. I would have killed him, too. Peter did me a favor. I left because I had to get back to the cattle. Peter said he would give Hattie a proper burial and tell her mother. Effie just cried.” He motioned to her, his face rock-hard. “Just like she’s doing now. I don’t know how much of this is her doing, but she is no innocent.” Ben grabbed the bottle from the ground and took a huge swig. “If you know so much,” he said, turning to Nellie, “who killed my father?”

  “Peter Banks and Effie came out here to search for the money,” Nell answered. “Cable ran into Effie, is my guess, while Peter had gone into one of the caves. A shot was fired. I heard it and thought it was Cable shooting at an animal. Instead, it was Banks. His shot missed Cable and hit Effie’s leg. Cable took her to that last cave to protect her, I believe. Maybe Effie will tell us. That’s when I saw him, and he took money that was stashed there.” She still didn’t want to own up. “Banks must have seen him and, when he came out, attacked your father, killing him in the same way he murdered Elder Joshua. I know how strong he is.” Nellie glanced at Peter. The hate on his face gave her pause. She was glad Charlie and Rosy were both there. “Peter told me he’d seen the money when I tried to convince him it was counterfeit. That was the only way he could have seen it—in Cable’s hands. Banks killed your father for the money. I took a photograph of one of his cigarette butts outside the cave where Effie was with me. I don’t know if she knew O’Donnell was dead or not, but she had no love for her stepfather. She did help Banks try to get rid of me.” She swayed and turned back to Ben. “Your baby, a little girl, is in Hailey. Goldie knows where she is.”

  Nellie was wavering on her crutch. She was so tired, and her whole body ached, not just her chest and ankle. “And you, Mayor Tom. You were too helpful. You knew all these family ties, didn’t you?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “You helped Peter hide Hattie, didn’t you?”

  “Hide?” Effie stepped closer to Peter. “They buried Hattie. They said.”

  “No, they threw her down a hole. I found her. The sheriff and Rosy pulled her out. She is in the morgue in Hailey. You can bury her.”

  Peter Banks appeared to hop onto his feet and lunged at Nellie, his tied hands grasping for her neck. “You bitch.” His voice lowered and once again he sounded like the man in the car, the man who held her over the spatter cone and then dropped her. The sheriff pulled on the rope, and Peter was upended, close to the fire. “Sit on him, Rosy. Tie his hands in back, and pull the hands and feet toward each other.”

  Nellie had almost fallen, but Jacob moved as fast as Peter had and held Nellie upright, his arms around her back and sides. She sank into the luxury of safety.

  CHAPTER 30

  Nellie lay back in her hospital bed in Twin Falls. She had protested, but all three men overruled her. The doctor who saw her said it was a good thing. She was dehydrated, and all her cuts and bruises, along with her ribs and ankle, needed care along with bed rest. He treated her like an invalid, as did the nurses. Even Gwynn came to see her and held her hand. Mr. and Mrs. Olsen brought a picnic basket of food—the first real food she’d seen since before her ordeal began. They brought a message from Goldie, telling her to stay in bed and mind the doctor.

  Jacob visited and brought some of the photos he had printed from the negatives he had developed at Goldie’s house. He laughed about the primitive conditions she had been forced to use early on. Along with those of O’Donnell were several of her “art” photos as he called them. Craters of the Moon looked spooky in several of them. “Very effective,” Jacob said. “I would never have thought that those lava fields would lend themselves to light and dark as you have captured them.”

  Those words were as healing to Nell as anything he could have said. And, she thought, he was right.

  “Nell, Miss Burns, I wish you would consider moving to Twin Falls and going into partnership with me. My workload is too heavy for me. You do such wonderful photographic work, I know the town would welcome you, too.”

  She wanted to ask, what about his fiancée? She would not welcome Nellie, of that Nell was certain.

  “You do flatter me, Jacob. And no ‘Miss Burns,’ remember? This is something I would have to give some serious thought to. Going by train back and forth to Twin Falls to use your darkroom, which you so kindly have permitted, is difficult. But now, I have such ties to Ketchum and Hailey, I am not sure I could leave.” She thought of Goldie and Rosy and the boys and how little she would see of them if she moved to Twin. But the sheriff loomed largest in her thoughts. He hadn’t even come to visit her in the hospital since dropping her off with not much more than a wave good-bye. Rosy had lingered longest, until the automobile horn had pulled him away.

  “My fiancée is not returning,” Jacob said, as if she had asked. “She has decided the West is not for her. She has asked me to move East, but I cannot do that. Idaho is my home.” He squeezed Nellie’s hand. “Perhaps Twin Falls could be yours, too. We have worked together well.”

  “Yes, we have,” Nellie said. “I have to think about this, Jacob. Thank you for asking me.” The lowering sun sent shadows through her window. She closed her eyes.

  When Nellie opened her eyes, her room was almost dark, and she was alone. No, someone sat in the chair near the door. Jacob?

  “You slept quite a while,” Charlie said. “I did not want to wake you. The doctor said you needed as much rest as possible. How do you feel?”

  The sheriff stood and used his one crutch to come to her bedside. A light in the hallway outlined his figure.

  “Like I’ve been roped and tied and branded,” Nellie said and tried to smile. “I do feel better but still aches and pains here and there. It may be a little while before I can be your photographer again.” She gestured to his crutch. “Aren’t we a pair? Did you learn anything more? I hope Peter Banks is in jail.” She shuddered to remember her time in the spatter cone hole.

  “Banks is in jail here in Twin Falls. He will be tried for murder and attempted murder. You will have to testify. We are not sure yet if Effie will, and she knows the most.” He shifted to get more comfortable on his crutch. Nellie patted the bed to indicate he should sit, but he stayed on his foot. “Effie—Euphemia—told us more about what happened with Elder. He had found the ice-bound cave and herded Hattie and Effie into it, saying that was where the child should be born. He also expected to sacrifice the baby as a bastard.”

  “What a terrible man!”

  “It gets worse, although you heard most of it at Guyer Hot Springs. Effie laid Hattie down where we found her and helped deliver the baby. Then Elder stabbed the stalactite into Hattie. He had planned something like that all along, Effie thought, although Hattie believed she was going to be redeemed for her sin. Effie grabbed the baby and began to run out of the cave, but slipped. Elder grabbed for her, planning to kill the child— ‘spawn of the devil’ he called her. It was then that Peter Banks appeared. Effie had telephoned him from Mayor Tom’s filling station. He shoved Effie out of the cave with the baby and grabbed a rock and killed Elder. He didn’t die immediately, as he had bruises all over his chest and neck, probably from Effie kicking at him. Ben arrived, too, as he had grown suspicious of Elder when he rode over to see what was going on. And then Tom. They helped carry Elder to the cave where we found him.”

  “What a tragic story,” Nellie said. “No wonder Effie was almost hysterical half the time.” She shifted
in the bed, trying to ease her ribs. “That sort of explains why she did everything Peter Banks told her to do. He was a frightening man, it turns out. Will he be charged with Elder’s murder?” Nellie reached out to Charlie.

  “I doubt it. Self-defense, or at least defense of Effie and the baby, would probably stand.” Charlie took her hand and sat down on Nellie’s bed.

  “And what about Mayor Tom? He wasn’t exactly innocent in all this.” She wanted the sheriff closer to her, but that was as good as she was going to get, she thought.

  “Tom will be a witness against Banks about the kidnapping, so, no, even though he was tangled up with Peter, partly because they had both been on the earlier expedition. I do not think he had anything to do with O’Donnell’s murder or the attempt to murder you. Banks was just a packer and part-time guide for the real explorers, even though he made it sound like more.”

  “What about Pearl? I don’t think she was involved, but I hope she does go to Oregon.”

  “Oregon? Why there?”

  “Ned Tanner, the cowboy.”

  Charlie nodded. “So that was what she meant. She did sign a statement about last summer, although it doesn’t really matter anymore. Not with O’Donnell dead.”

  “At least he tried to save Hattie.” Nell slumped against her pillow. “What is going to happen to that baby? Will Ben claim her?”

  “Effie and Ben have decided they will raise her. I do not know how that will work, but at least two people will take care of her. Effie’s mother will help, too.”

  “Are Effie and Ben getting together?” That seemed like a twosome doomed to failure.

  “No, I think they are approaching this task as brother and sister.” Charlie shrugged his shoulders, as if to say it might work.

  Nellie sat up taller. “How is your leg? Scooting around on the lava must have been hard on it.”

  “It is healing. I get the cast off next week.” The sheriff continued to hold Nellie’s hand. His wide palm and long fingers dwarfed hers, and his calluses, hard and rough at the same time, made her hand feel fragile. His darker skin contrasted sharply with her paler skin. “You and I have made good partners against criminals, Nell. You solved more than half these crimes, and your photographs are invaluable.”