Missing in the Desert

by Dana Mentink

  Nails scrabbled at the door, and she jumped. A peek out the window revealed Banjo scraping at the wood while Levi tried to stop him.

  She opened it.

  His cheeks flushed through his tan. “Sorry. Dog hasn’t got any manners.”

  “That’s okay. You know I like animals.” She dropped to her knees and scratched him under his boney chin. Levi told her about how he’d come to be Banjo’s owner.

  “Named him after a dog we had when I was a kid.”

  The conversation dried up at that point. When the silence became awkward, he said “Seth told me you studied to be a vet tech before you worked at your parents’ store.”

  She sighed and got to her feet. “I’d just gotten started when Corinne left. My mom was devastated, and things began to slide at the furniture store, so I quit vet-tech school and went to work there instead.”

  “Miss the animals?”

  “Desperately, but I was needed elsewhere.” She shrugged. “End of story.”

  “Oh. Well, we got plenty of animals here, horses aside.” He paused. “I, um, figured you hadn’t had dinner, and I’m cooking pasta. Would you like to join me?” He shifted. “Or I can bring you a plate here, you know, if you’d rather.”

  Eating a meal with Levi was not on the top of her list, but it was a kind offer, and they had to find some common ground. “Tell you what. Will you throw in a quick tour of the ranch before dinner?”

  He appeared surprised. “I’d be happy to, but let’s wait until morning.”

  “Why?”

  He shrugged. “Better visibility. Less shadows.”

  Less danger. She suppressed a shiver remembering the bearded man’s question. Why aren’t you dead?

  “We can see it on horseback if you still ride,” Levi added.

  “Yes, I still ride.”

  He led her across the small dirt area to the main house. So close, she thought. She’d been hoping the cabin was tucked in some remote ranch corner, but it was a stone’s throw. The main house was worn, newly repaired shingles standing out against the old ones. Inside was cramped but clean, a small kitchen table, two chairs and a sofa; a bit of the hallway could be seen, which she assumed led to a bedroom and bath. Her eyes were immediately drawn to a wall which was hung with long floor-to-ceiling tubes that sprouted lush bunches of lettuces and herbs. On the floor was an oblong tank filled with glimmering fish and aquatic plants, and rubber tubes maintained some sort of filtration system.

  “What is going on here?” she asked, fingering the tender leaves.

  “It’s aquaponics. I try to be as self-sufficient as possible, and the climate’s just too harsh to support crops without a ton of effort. I have enough work to do, so I set up this system. Fish provide fertilizer, and the water gets pumped up the tubes. We have plenty of sunshine here,” he said with a grin. “That’s one thing Furnace Falls has in abundance. Sun plus water and fertilizer and bingo, greens whenever I want them.”

  He’d made an oasis in the desert. “You always were a dreamer, Levi.” He gave her a sharp look and she realized that perhaps she’d made it sound derogatory. And it was, wasn’t it? Levi and her brother had put everything into the Rocking Horse dream, when her brother knew next to nothing about ranching or horses. Same friend who had convinced her brother in high school that they should enter a chili cook-off when neither one of them had ever cooked the stuff before.

  He kept his eyes on the pot he was filling with water. “Sometimes dreams come true, if God wants them to. That’s why I got this place. My uncle had to sell it while I was still in the service, but then I got my chance when the second owner left.”

  She tried to put the question politely. “Your siblings didn’t want to go in on it with you?”

  “No. They aren’t as into horses as I am.”

  Or perhaps they had enough sense to recognize a losing proposition when they saw one. “And you really feel like you can make it profitable?”

  “Right now I am aiming for self-sufficient. It’s a ranch, Mara. It’s never going to be a lucrative business. That’s not the point.”

  It is if you convince your best friend to bankrupt himself to save it, she thought with a flash of annoyance, but she didn’t want to get into a discussion on the merits of the Rocking Horse. When she offered to help, he directed her to pick some basil and greens. The tender leaves snapped off easily until she had a bowlful.

  “Pick some kale, also. Too bitter for me, but we’re gonna have a visitor who likes it.”

  “A visitor?”

  He left the pot to boil and stepped out on the porch with her. He placed a pile of kale on the weathered wood and drew her back with a finger to his lips. There was a scraping noise, and a small rabbit, head crowned with two enormous ears, appeared over the top of the porch. In a flash, the animal had snatched the greens and returned to his hidey-hole under the porch.

  Banjo raced to the edge of the porch barking into the hole until he tired of the game.

  “Fortunately, Banjo is slower than Rabbit,” Levi said. “I haven’t been able to convince the dog that he’s his brother from another mother.”

  She had to giggle at that one. “Did you adopt Rabbit, too?”

  “Nah. He showed up here one day. He’s got part of a front paw missing, so he needs the shelter of my porch, I think. Wouldn’t make it too long in Death Valley. Figured I had greens to spare.”

  “He needs a better name than Rabbit.”

  “Maybe you can think of one. I’m just the food provider.”

  Levi poured kibble into a bowl for Banjo and joined her at the table with two plates of butter-and-basil sprinkled spaghetti along with a green salad. Her head still pounded, and her stomach roiled from the ongoing tension of worrying about Seth, but she ate a portion of the meal and found it delicious.

  Here in this worn country kitchen with a dog lazing in a corner of waning sunlight and the comfortable conversation with Levi, her troubles seemed far away.

  They’re not, Mara. Your brother is fighting for his life, and the shooter is out there somewhere, waiting for a chance to take another crack at you. This isn’t safe. This isn’t home.

  “Let me help with the dishes,” she said and ignored his protest.

  Dishes done, he walked her back to her tiny shack where he insisted on adjusting the air-conditioning which didn’t seem to be performing to standard. He handled the job quickly. “Easier than working on an army vehicle,” he said.

  She flashed back to the moment when Seth announced that he was enlisting with Levi. Her sister Corinne had been sixteen at the time and was already showing a stubborn streak a mile wide. She remembered her own angry tears, as a newly minted eighteen-year-old. “You are not going away, Seth. You just can’t.” But he could and he did, and sullen Corinne had acted out even more. Once she had even disappeared for an entire weekend, and no amount of chastising or grounding had caused her to reveal where she’d been.

  Mara realized Levi was speaking. “You look...angry.”

  “Not angry. Just thinking back on how my family’s lives changed when Seth joined the army. Corinne acted out, became desperate almost, for attention.”

  Levi looked at the floor. “That must have been hard.”

  “Yes,” she said stiffly. “It was. After what happened, I think my parents wondered if things would have been different with Corinne if Seth had been around. I was furious at you for talking him into enlisting.”

  Levi cocked his head. “Other way around.”

  “What?”

  “He enlisted first and convinced me to join him.”

  She gaped. How had she gotten that backward? “I didn’t know that.” Looking into the blue of his eyes, her pulse fluttered. She suddenly wondered what else she’d gotten wrong about Levi Duke.

  But it didn’t matter about the past. All that was left was the presen
t. She shook off the feelings and put on a businesslike tone. “Meeting in town tomorrow at ten? Ranch tour before then?”

  He nodded. “Maybe pull the curtains and turn the bolt. Precautions, is all.” He opened the door and whistled. Banjo came barreling into the small room, skidding to a stop at her feet. “Since you and ’Jo have hit it off, figured he could be your roomie. Don’t let him on the bed, though. Give him an inch, and he’ll take a mile.”

  She was going to protest, but deep down she did not want to be left alone in the silent cabin. “All right, Banjo. But you heard what Levi said about the sleeping arrangements.”

  She waited for Levi to leave and did as he asked. As she looked out the window at the darkening landscape, she saw movement as Rabbit ventured out to sniff at the grass. She felt a kinship to the vulnerable creature. Who knew what was lurking in the shadows, looking for prey?

  With a shiver, she yanked the drapes closed.

  * * *

  Levi was up before the sun. He’d already saddled the horses, Sunny and Pumpkin Pie, his two sweetest mounts. He’d left out a carrot for Rabbit, and the creature emerged from his hidey-hole to snatch up the treat before Banjo bounded out from Mara’s cabin, Mara right behind him. Good timing. Levi set out the dog’s morning kibble, and once again Banjo wolfed it down in moments.

  Mara walked toward him. She looked more rested but groggy. She still moved tentatively, as if she was sore.

  “Is there any update on Seth?”

  “Mom said she thinks he’s breathing a little better.”

  Better. Good. He’d take any bit of hope God would give them. “Would you like some breakfast?”

  She shook her head and yawned. “I’m fine, thank you. Ready for that ride around the ranch.”

  “Maybe...” he started. “I mean since you just got out of the hospital...”

  She shot him that look, and he stopped talking and offered her his cupped hands for her to climb into the saddle. She surprised him by accepting. He lifted gently, marveling at how slight and athletic she was. The saddle suited her, he thought, then shook the admiration aside.

  Banjo trotted along next to him as they skirted the corral and then headed out to the pasture. He wished the fence posts did not look quite so worn and the secondhand watering trough he’d acquired wasn’t dented on one side. At least the horses were their usual patient, well-behaved selves. “We’re in prime visitor season, of course. People want tours of the park and surroundings.”

  “How many people?”

  He hesitated.

  “Data, Levi. How many tours have you booked this season so far?”

  “Ten.” He felt, rather than saw, her dismay as he kept his gaze fixed on the horizon.

  “Ten? How can you even pay for horse feed?”

  As a matter of fact, he couldn’t. He’d dipped into his savings and taken a second job for a while at the local garage to swing it. “I’m not the only stable in the area. Besides, it will get better. My cousin had some trouble at the Hotsprings, and people weren’t staying, but that’s all past. Camp Town Days are coming. Business is picking up. After today’s meeting, the bookings will start coming in through our web page.”

  “I went over the website and all the files last night, after you gave me the passwords. Who designed the website?”

  He felt his cheeks warm. “I did. Bought a book called Websites for Dummies so it was written just for me. It was like trying to push a boulder uphill, but I finally got it done.”

  Her good-natured laughter seemed to mingle with the cool of the morning. Encouraged, he put his best spin on the tour, highlighting the new saddles and the qualities of the other nine horses that were munching on the hay he’d scattered that morning. She didn’t say much, but she pitched in to unsaddle and groom their horses when they returned, before they loaded up in his truck.

  “No, ’Jo,” he called to the dog. “You stay here and keep watch, huh?”

  Banjo tipped his wedge of a head as if to say, “You have to ask?”

  They drove slowly off the ranch and onto the main road. As they passed the Hotsprings Hotel, he noticed several cars in the parking lot. Finally, Beckett and Laney seemed to be gaining ground, as he’d told Mara. They’d earned it. Never had he seen two people so deeply in love, except maybe his parents. After forty years, his father still lit up whenever his mom returned from a trip or errand.

  “I got my honeybunch home,” he would say.

  The sentiment always awakened a kind of longing in Levi. He’d never been much for dating. Girls made him so nervous, he rarely gathered up the courage to ask one out. Mara was different, though. His other attractions came and went, but he’d never quite been able to forget the dark-haired girl who was his best friend’s sister. Seth hadn’t said much when Levi asked Mara to the senior prom. He wondered all of a sudden what he would say if they’d started a relationship. Thinking about Mara made Levi’s mind wander into confusing circles. He regripped the wheel and focused hard on the road. It wasn’t the time to be distracted, that was for certain.

  He’d remembered to stow his rifle in the back of the truck, covered by an old barn blanket. But nothing would happen today, he reassured himself. They’d be in town with plenty of people around.

  Including the one who had shot Seth and tried to kill Mara?

  His teeth ground together.

  I’ve got her back, Seth. Don’t you worry.

  SIX

  Furnace Falls was not much changed, Mara noted. The small town tucked at the edge of the Nevada side of the Death Valley National Park provided the basic necessities minus many frills. There was a post office, a health clinic, a gas station and a couple of eateries surrounded by a whole lot of sunbaked acreage and the spectacular Funeral Mountain Range. The pastel-painted Sweet Shop was new since they’d moved away, and a veterinary hospital now stood on the corner that had been an empty lot when Mara was in high school. The miniscule A’s Art Studio caught her attention, the planters outside the door bursting with wildly twisted cactus.

  Levi parked the truck outside the Grange Hall, next to a dozen other cars. The yellow stonework of the building glowed in the morning sunlight. A cluster of pines rustled in the breeze as they crossed the sun-splashed patio. Inside, the rows of folding chairs were nearly full of people, including plenty of bearded men. Fear hit her like a blow. She gasped and drew back. Her mind might have forgotten, but her body had not... She’d almost been murdered by a man like this.

  Her brain replayed the hateful words. Why aren’t you dead?

  Levi held her arm. “All the participants from the Mule Team reenactment try to look the part. I should have thought to warn you.”

  She forced her breathing to steady. There were probably fifteen men, faces hidden by bushy facial hair and floppy felt hats. Memories of the wreck, of the hands that covered her mouth in the hospital erupted, leaving her suddenly cold.

  “Do you recognize anyone?”

  “More like everyone,” she said. But the man wouldn’t be here, would he? Even if he was, she’d be safe with plenty of witnesses around. She felt more at ease with Levi holding her arm. He wasn’t forcing her in, merely standing, allowing her to proceed or to retreat. Jude waved from a corner of the room. She exhaled. Nothing would happen, and none of these men wanted her dead.

  Did they?

  Yet another man with a beard and hat climbed to the podium. “For any of you who don’t know me, I’m Gene Warrington, and I have the honor of chairing this amazing event this year.” There were whoops and claps from the audience. “I’m a newbie in this role, so I hope you’ll be patient with my mistakes. Honored that you’re all here and taking part. Let’s dive into the schedule first. That ought to take an hour or so to debrief. Lunch will be provided, thanks to the Hotsprings Hotel, and the afternoon will wrap up with a ride along the route to check the terrain. We had some ground failure so
keep a look out for it. Plenty of time for you all to retrieve your horses and trailer them over.” He gestured to a helper to start up a PowerPoint, which was projected onto the wall. Mara made notes, mentally configuring how to maximize the involvement for the Rocking Horse. She became so wrapped up in the details she almost missed the slender man who raised his hand. He was clean-shaven, hair long enough to touch his shoulders.

  “Not to interrupt, Dad, but I just wanted to introduce myself. I’m Teegan Warrington, and I’m organizing the vendor fair, which will be staged inside the Grange Hall. See me during the lunch break for details.”

  Mara did not realize she’d dropped the notepad on which she’d been furiously scribbling.

  Shock hit her like a hammer blow.

  Levi leaned close and whispered in her ear. “What’s wrong?”

  She couldn’t answer. Fortunately, the room was still darkened to accommodate the PowerPoint. The need to escape overwhelmed her, and she hurried out of the hall, Levi following.

  She made it to the shade of the pines and tried to talk sense to herself. It couldn’t be, but it was. What did it mean?

  Levi bent and gently lifted her chin. “Mara, tell me what’s wrong.”

  “I’m not sure. This can’t be right.”

  “What?”

  “Teegan Warrington.”