Missing in the Desert

by Dana Mentink

  “Let me secure the dog, and you two can talk in the house.” Levi hurried off and ushered Banjo and Tiny into the back room with a handful of treats as a lure. There was only enough time to straighten the chairs and pick up one of Banjo’s discarded chew bones before Mara and her father came in.

  Mara looked calmer, he thought, but with a touch of wariness.

  “I’ll leave you to chat,” Levi said.

  “Stay,” Mr. Castillo said. “This concerns you, too.”

  Now he felt plenty wary himself. Mr. Castillo declined his offer of instant coffee. “First off, good news. The doctors are discussing Seth’s discharge.”

  Mara gasped, and he could not restrain a whoop of pleasure.

  “That’s the best news I could have gotten,” Mara said, after a gulp.

  Her father held up a palm. “They’re recommending a rehab facility. We’ve decided to take him back home to Henderson since there’s one close to our home.”

  Levi nodded. What had he expected? “Do you know when, sir?”

  “Not yet. Seth’s confusion is clearing up, and he’s been talking incessantly about this ranch. I’m going to have to break it to him that he’s not coming back here.”

  “Dad,” Mara said, “are you saying he’s not going to recover?”

  Her father sighed. “No, of course not, but he can’t pick up and resume his dream of running this place for who-knows-how-long. I’m not sure he’ll ever accept it.”

  Levi knew it was time to make it all real. “He will...if you tell him I’m selling.”

  Mr. Castillo’s eyes flew wide. “What?”

  “I’m selling it, and I’ll return Seth’s half of the payment. There won’t be a ranch to go back to for Seth.” The words felt like glass shards as they cut their way out of his mouth.

  Mr. Castillo was silent when Mara jumped in.

  “I don’t want him to, Dad. I won’t give legal permission on Seth’s behalf.”

  Mr. Castillo heaved a sigh. “Honey, I know it’s not what anyone wanted, but we have to be realistic.” He turned to Levi. “I appreciate what you’re doing. I know you love this ranch, and this is a sacrifice.”

  Levi didn’t dare speak.

  Mr. Castillo stopped Mara’s next comment. “Now. I want you to tell me what exactly is going on here. I overheard Jude Duke talking on his phone while he was at the hospital asking some follow-up questions. I want to know what’s happening and what this has to do with your sister.”

  Mara looked at him with rounded eyes. There was no choice now but to tell him everything.

  By the end of the story, his expression had gone stark. He looked from Mara to Levi and back to his daughter. “Listen to me, both of you. I don’t understand what’s going on with these messages and the attacks. I would love nothing more than to believe my baby...” His voice broke and he swallowed. “To believe that Corinne was alive. All this time...all these years not knowing if she ran off to live somewhere else or someone murdered her. It’s so tantalizing to think there is an answer, but Mara, I cannot and will not allow you to risk yourself to find out anything more. We’ll hire a private detective, just like we did when she first ran away. It will have to wait until we have the funds, after we get your brother settled.”

  “But Dad,” Mara said softly, “by that time there might be nothing to find.”

  “So be it,” he said harshly. “We’ve lost Corinne. We almost lost Seth. Your mother and I cannot endure any more.”

  She reached across the table and took his hand. “I’m sorry, Dad.”

  “Don’t be sorry. Say you’ll come home with us to Henderson.”

  “I’m... I’m helping here. I promised...”

  “No need,” Levi said. Somehow he forced himself to say it. “The ranch is done. I can handle the remaining tasks until it’s sold. It’s time for you to go home.”

  Oh, the hurt that spiraled through those ink-dark eyes. He knew he’d cut her to the quick, made her feel like a work assistant whose contract had come to an end. A jerk, that’s what he was, and a liar, but he could think of no other way to restore what was left of the Castillo family. With every muscle screaming in protest, he stood.

  “Mr. Castillo, thank you for coming. I will continue to pray with everything in me that Seth recovers, and you’ll have his money back as soon as I can get it to you.” And then he walked out, onto the sunlit ranch that would soon be taken from him, away from the woman who’d changed him from the inside out.

  SIXTEEN

  Mara could hear the parade as it passed noisily through town on Wednesday morning. This time she had not bothered to pressure Levi to let her go. He’d pressed his siblings to help, she was sure, to lead the visitors through the parade and back to the property on Gene’s campsite. Jude was sitting on the porch, alternately speaking into his radio and eyeing the shenanigans of Banjo and Tiny. He was her babysitter, pure and simple. His life would also be easier after she did what Levi and her father had asked and left Furnace Falls. Sorrow made her weary and flat as she packed up her belongings.

  It’s time for you to go home.

  The words were benign, but they cut her so deep that she could not help but admit that her feelings for Levi were profound. Dare she recognize that she was beginning to love the man? The same man who had just told her to leave and not look back. There was a sense that something had torn inside her, something that would not ever be mended.

  Her father called to tell her that Seth would be released to rehab on Friday. She intended to drive ahead of them to Henderson, once she retrieved Seth’s SUV from the repair shop the next day. So what was she supposed to do in the meantime? It was awkward and painful to be hanging out on the Rocking Horse with Levi.

  After the parade, he returned with the horses and let them into the pasture. He’d begun to rub them down, when she let herself through the gate. “I’ll do that.”

  He jerked a look at her. “Not necessary.”

  “I need to do something,” she said.

  “Mara...” He blew out a breath and closed his mouth.

  She couldn’t help herself. She faced him, gripping the curry brush like a shield. “I know you’re bent on doing right by my family, but do you really want me to leave?” Why had she said it? Now she sounded like some sort of desperate high schooler. Perhaps like Corinne had come across in her phone messages and texts to Teegan?

  He reached out but stopped short of touching her. The silence stretched between them. “It doesn’t matter what I want.”

  Her soul surged.

  “But you need to go. There’s nothing here for you,” he continued.

  Nothing. He turned away and trudged out of the pasture and started to talk to Jude. Maybe he was telling his cousin his babysitting duties would be over soon, she thought bitterly.

  Rubbing angrily at a tear that coursed down her cheek, she set to work, removing the saddles and bridles from the horses. Brushing them down soothed her and the animals.

  She was mulling over how to stay far away from Levi and pass the long hours until she could pick up the car, when a truck with J and K Excavation on the side jerked to a halt in front of the house. Jerry got out. She took one look at what he had in his hand and ran out to meet him as he interrupted Jude and Levi’s conversation.

  There could be no mistaking the dirty bent green notebook he was waving around. “Look here what I found.”

  Jude took it from his hand. “Your old appointment book?”

  “Uh-huh. Took a lot of digging, I’ll tell you, but I figured it was the least I could do since you almost got buried in there, Mara.”

  Her pulse hammered. “Find October twenty-eighth, the day I got the message from your phone. What does it say? Where was Jerry then?”

  Jude flipped a few pages and read the date. He frowned. “Teegan’s place, bidding on a job for his patio.”r />
  Finally. Tangible evidence.

  “That must have been where I lost my phone. But I still can’t figure out who made that call to you.” Jerry rubbed a hand over his bald head.

  Mara watched Jude’s face. Was it enough to convince him?

  “Thanks, Jerry,” Jude said. “I’ll keep this, okay?”

  “Sure,” Jerry said, climbing back into his truck. “I really wish I still had the cell phone. Those things are expensive.”

  They watched him drive away.

  “Jude,” she said slowly. “The picture, and the messages and now this appointment book. It all leads back to the Warrington property. Is it enough now to get a search warrant?”

  “Still sketchy, but I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Mara, your father wants—” Levi started.

  “You don’t have to tell me what my father wants, Levi,” she snapped. “Don’t worry. This is a police matter and I’m leaving tomorrow, as planned. Okay?”

  He didn’t answer, and she whirled away, hurrying back to the horses.

  Her father’s tortured face surfaced in her memory. She knew he’d insisted the whole thing be dropped, but Jude’s search could answer the question that had plagued her since she got that strange text message... Marbles.

  What had really happened to Corinne?

  * * *

  Levi finally started digging holes. He told himself it would be good to replace the two wobbly fence posts, but really it was to keep him from beelining straight for Mara’s door and telling her he didn’t really want her to leave.

  But it was what was best for Mara. Safest. That’s what love was, wanting the best for someone else more than your own desires.

  Love? The thought hit him so powerfully that he dropped the shovel. Retrieving it, he chided himself. Not love. Concern. Honor. Fondness for his best friend’s sister. Respect. Not love. There was no point in even thinking of it. Whatever they’d felt was over now that she was leaving and he was selling.

  He wiped the sweat from his face and kept digging until the new holes were significantly deeper than they should have been. For the umpteenth time he checked his watch. Jude had been gone for two hours. He was probably knee-deep in executing the search warrant.

  His restless energy would not subside. The cabin seemed to call to him. Should he go offer Mara something? Water or a snack? He didn’t dare, coward that he was. It was simply too painful to see the wounded look on her face. But she’d never even wanted to come to Furnace Falls in the first place. The whole situation was maddening.

  He drank two glasses of iced tea, and he sat morosely on the couch trying to ignore his laptop. There was no putting it off. He’d seen the email from the potential buyer earlier in the day, but he hadn’t wanted to open it. Finally he did.

  Levi, on Google Earth it indicates the property encompasses a creek. Intermittent or perennial?

  Fancy words, he thought. He typed in response Intermittent. It was Death Valley, after all, he thought grumpily. A body of water was hardly going to stick around through the warm weather months when it hit a hundred and thirty degrees. A wave of sorrow washed over him. Soon this piece of earth would not be his, anyway. Idly, he opened the Google Earth app and put in the address for the Rocking Horse. From far away it was a vague, indistinct patch of brown until he zoomed closer.

  He saw the dried creek bed, the furrowed ground where his horses were free to roam as they pleased. The clustered pines under which he’d first spotted Banjo, starved and injured. The places that were straight-up blessings in his mind would mean nothing at all to a stranger.

  Swallowing down the sadness, he tried to distract himself by switching locations to Gene’s property. If he zoomed enough, he could make out the strange four-fingered rock formation. No matter how things turned out, he’d always think of Mara when he imagined that big pile of rock. Would she be leaving with answers about Corinne or more questions?

  He was about to click off, when something caught his eye. He leaned closer, zoomed in even more. What did it mean, really, that strange shape on his screen? His blood went icy. He zoomed in and out and in again to make sure it wasn’t some sort of optical illusion. Was he witnessing an answer to the riddle or the truth that would crush the Castillo family? He didn’t want to tell Mara, but the burning in his gut would not be ignored.

  Lord, please help me not to hurt her anymore, he prayed before he tucked the laptop under his arm and hurried to her cabin.

  * * *

  Mara stared at the laptop while Levi drove. He’d not been able to reach Jude on his cell phone.

  “We’ll find the nearest cop on the property and explain it,” Levi had said.

  She peered again at the faint image that would only be visible from above. The bird’s-eye view revealed a rectangular outline where the shrubbery was a different hue, parched and deadened while the grass around it showed a dusky green. The rectangle was about a hundred feet from Teegan’s backyard, obscured behind haphazard clusters of rock and tall grasses. His window looked right out on the place.

  “It’s something underground,” Levi had said.

  Something. Like a bomb shelter or a subterranean storage room, completely concealed except the outline.

  It might mean nothing at all.

  Or it might mean everything.

  One way or another, Jude had to include it in the search. Mara tried to unclench her jaw and breathe deeply. It could be a simple storage area, nothing more innocuous than that. But her instincts would simply not stop screaming. Find out. Now.

  Levi pulled through the gate into chaos. Horses were running in every direction with their owners trying to catch them. A mare neatly avoided their vehicle by wheeling around and galloping off.

  Levi rolled down his window. “What’s going on?”

  Jerry jogged up and cast him a quick look. “Someone unhitched the horses and scared ’em with a firecracker. Trying to get ’em all under control again.”

  No accident this time, she thought.

  “Have you seen Jude?” Levi said.

  “Parked at Teegan’s, I think.”

  “What are the chances someone startled the horses at the same time Jude is serving his search warrant?” Levi’s tone was grim.

  She did not answer, jaw tight.

  Levi eased through the scrambling people and horses and increased speed until they rolled up to Teegan’s driveway. There were two police cars there. One officer was trying to assist in rounding up the horses. Jude appeared in the doorway, his hands in latex gloves.

  Levi and Mara hurried to show him the aerial photo. He stared at it and then let out a gusty exhale. “All right. I’ll start there.”

  “I want to see,” Mara said.

  Levi and Jude both went silent.

  “That’s not really a good idea,” Jude said.

  “I’ll take you back to the ranch,” Levi said. “Jude will call as soon as he knows anything.”

  Mara realized her hands were balled into fists. “I understand that you might be about to find out something terrible down in there. Or maybe you’ll find nothing but lawn mowers and jelly jars. I’m not asking to go with you or mess up a police investigation, but I want to stay here until you know for sure this isn’t about my sister.” Her eyes burned, and she felt as if she was igniting from the inside out.

  Jude shifted. “No, Mara. I’m sorry.”

  “I am not going unless you have me arrested.” She flung down the gauntlet, heedless of the consequences. The only thing that mattered now was the truth about Corinne, however tragic it might be. “This is my last day in Furnace Falls, and I’m going to stay here until the search is done. Period.”

  After a moment, Jude sighed. “Wait in Levi’s truck. Do not get out of that vehicle. Are we clear?”

  She nodded.

  “Have you found anything in T
eegan’s house yet?” Levi asked.

  “Haven’t finished.” His expression darkened. “I should tell you it looks like they’re gone.”

  “Gone?” Mara said. “Teegan and Amelia?”

  “And Peter. Their luggage is missing, as though they left in a hurry.”

  A block of ice settled in her stomach. “They wouldn’t have run, not now in the middle of Camp Town Days, unless they’d done something bad.”

  Levi considered. “Think they excited the horses to create a distraction?”

  “I am not going to speculate. I have an officer trying to track down Gene at the campsite. Maybe he can shed some light. Wait in the truck,” Jude said quietly. “Please.”

  Levi led her back to the truck, and she climbed inside, mentally fogged.

  Levi held out his hand to her, and she took it.

  “Levi,” she finally managed, “do you think my sister...?” Her nightmares took hold of her. Died down in that bunker? Was kept a prisoner all these years? She couldn’t force herself to say anymore.

  “We’ll know soon.” He quietly began to pray. Though she could not make any sound, her heart followed with yearning.

  God, no matter how it goes, let me hear the truth, and give me the strength to survive it.

  SEVENTEEN

  It was the longest hour Levi could remember, longer even than when he’d been forced into a wreck in Mara’s car and hung upside down until help arrived. The answer to the strange attacks on him, Seth and Mara was finally going to be unearthed. He was certain of it. He was equally certain it would be useless to try to convince Mara to wait back at the Rocking Horse. She sat next to him, silent as midnight, fingers twined tightly in his. At least she would allow him to offer her what little he could now. He quivered inside to think about what she might find out in a matter of moments.

  But most likely it was nothing, right? The underground structure could be innocent.

  A squad car barreled into the property, red lights strobing, followed by another.

  Why so many police cars if it was nothing?