Under Desert Sand

by R Lawson Gamble

  Zack rose to a half crouch, stared through the shadows toward the sound of the shot. He saw an outline of someone holding a rifle that dangled toward the ground. He glanced back at the ridge; the creature was gone.

  Eagle Feather was out of the pit, crawling toward Tav's body on the opposite side from the shooter. He picked up Tav's fallen rifle, rolled to the cover of the dirt mound, used it to rest the rifle barrel, and aimed at the distant figure.

  "Drop you weapon," he shouted.

  The rifle slid to the ground.

  "Walk this way with your hands in the air."

  The figure moved toward them.

  Zack stared through the gloom. As the shooter came into view, he saw long hair under a cowboy hat, a slender build, delicate features––the killer was a girl.

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  The Subaru surrendered to the terrain at the dry riverbed. Susan and Butch climbed out and hurried through encroaching darkness along the light sand ribbon of roadway. It took ten minutes to reach the open gate, the red Jeep just beyond it.

  They ran past two saddled horses tied at the fence, and around the well. Susan faltered, stopped, stared at the tableau of figures rendered in fine chiaroscuro before her. A body sprawled nearby; another lay on the sand at the feet of two men facing a third figure, a young girl.

  "Zack?" Susan cried. "Are you alright?"

  A head turned. "Susan? Is that you? Who is that with you?"

  "It's me, Butch Short."

  "Thank God. Come on over here." Zack turned back to the girl. "Who are you?"

  The girl's voice was edged in bitterness. "My name is Kella Darnell. My father is Frank Darnell. My family owns the Circle Ranch near Fountain Peak." She pointed to the body of Tav Davidson. "That man murdered Col Budster and Julio Castro."

  Susan and Butch came up to the group.

  "How do you know that?" Zack asked.

  The girl saw Susan, seemed to find new courage from the presence of another woman. "I was with the boys when they discovered a map etched into a slab of rock. When I left their camp that day, the last time I saw them alive, I passed this man. He rode on by, acted as if he didn't see me. I wondered why he was there. I never heard from the boys after that. A week later I rode back to visit them but even before I reached their camp I saw their belongings scattered everywhere. When I came closer, I saw this same man digging through their belongings, so I hid behind some rocks and watched." She pointed to Bronc's body. "That man was with him. I didn't learn until later the boys had been murdered." Her voice choked up. She waited a moment, gained her composure and continued. "I knew it had to be these men. I also knew the Julio and Col had intended to search Hidden Springs for something buried here. I've watched everyone who came here ever since." She lifted her eyes to Zack. "I intended to kill the murderers."

  "You shot the tires on our Jeep," Eagle Feather said.

  Kella nodded. "I saw you digging among Col and Julio's things. I didn't know who you were. I didn't want you there."

  Susan felt a surge of sadness for the girl. "You poor thing. Was Col your boyfriend?" She touched Kella's arm.

  At her touch, tears overflowed, ran down Kella's cheeks. "I loved him," she said.

  * * * * *

  Zack felt the weariness of a man just returned from the battlefield. He forced his shoulders back, took command. "Butch, I need you to secure this site until I can get other agents in here. Eagle Feather will assist you until I return. I will take the Jeep and drive somewhere I can get a signal for my phone." He turned to Susan. "Where is your vehicle?"

  "We came in Butch's Subaru. We had to leave it back at the riverbed."

  "Susan, I'd like you to take Ms. Darnell here to the Sheriff's Office in Needles. I'll call Sheriff Connelly and tell him what happened here. Ms. Darnell needs to remain in his custody until I return for her. Have her call her father, ask him to come to the station."

  Zack looked at Butch. "Okay if she takes the Subaru? You can ride back with me."

  Butch grinned. "At this point, it's more her car than mine."

  Zack turned to Kella, spoke gently to her. "I'll have the sheriff send a deputy to trailer the horses back. I think what you need most is to meet with your family and then get a lot of sleep. We'll deal with this later."

  Kella and Susan rode with Zack in the Jeep to the dry bed where they transferred to the Subaru. With a nudge from the Jeep, the car regained its grip and the two women went on their way to Needles. Zack drove the opposite way on the Mojave Road and found a signal within two miles. He called Luke Forrestal, his supervisor. Luke promised to send available agents immediately.

  "You know you'll have to recuse yourself, Zack," he said. "You're a material witness now."

  Zack said he'd stay to support Butch Short and the sheriff deputies while they secured the scene and allowed the forensics team do its work. It promised to be a long night.

  It was pitch black before the first deputies arrived. They brought battery operated work lights and the scene was soon transformed from night to day. The crime lab van arrived around midnight; like the Subaru, the large cumbersome vehicle was forced to halt at the riverbed. The forensics team hauled their gear in from there. A large tent went up over the bodies; the entire scene was lit up like Macy's at Christmas.

  A deputy took Zack's statement while a second one interviewed Eagle Feather. Neither man mentioned the creature they had seen on the ridge that so successfully diverted Tav's attention. After their statements were taken, the deputies sent both men away.

  "Go get some sleep," they were told. "We'll need to interview you more thoroughly tomorrow."

  Zack knew the FBI team would be next in line to take their statements when they took over. Tomorrow would be a long day as well.

  Zack and Eagle Feather compared notes on the drive back to Needles.

  "Do you think the girl Kella told the truth?" Eagle Feather asked.

  "It is a rather amazing story," Zack said, musing. "Such a young girl, and so determined to avenge her boyfriend's death. I'd not want to be the object of her revenge."

  "Helluva shot with a rifle."

  Zack glanced at his friend, grimaced. "Thank God for that."

  Eagle Feather stared off into the darkness. "The partnership between Tav and Bronc was made in hell. How do you think they got together?"

  "A marriage of convenience, likely. Bronc must have shared his suspicions about the treasure with Tav. But to do that, he would have to trust Tav, which suggests their relationship began even before Hatchett discovered the map."

  "A disposable relationship in Tav's mind, I think. He did not hesitate to end it."

  Zack stared at the twin cones of light illuminating the pale roadway ahead and creating ghosts from the dust-coated bushes that bordered it. "It upsets me to miss a cue. I should have picked up on Susan's story, when she was nearly shot by Tav." His palm hit the steering wheel in sudden frustration. "Susan underplayed that incident. There's good reason to believe the man tried to kill her with that shot, then changed his mind."

  Eagle Feather nodded. "He may have realized he had better learn what it was she had discovered before he killed her." He paused. "He probably didn't think of that until after he took his first shot."

  "No matter how long I work at this job, no matter how much experience I gain, I still make rookie mistakes." Zack shook his head. "It's very disconcerting."

  They rode in silence after that, each wrapped in thought. Zack's were dark.

  They turned up the ramp to Route 40, the Jeep gained speed. They were in their own world of darkness, no other vehicle or light anywhere in sight.

  Eagle Feather glanced at Zack. "You do have a weakness, White Man, a big one. But it is not what you think. Your weakness is you are too hard on yourself. You dwell on your mistakes. I know I will regret this, but I will say you handled yourself well tonight."

  Zack laughed. "Truth is, I was scared to death. For a while there, it seemed like there was no way out of that pickle." He
glanced at Eagle Feather. "I got to hand it to you, though. Where'd that knife come from, anyway? And you pounced on that rifle like a terrier when Tav went down. You were impressive."

  Eagle Feather looked at Zack, almost smiled. "I know, White Man, I know."

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

  Zack slept long the following day, although not as long as he would have liked. His phone began to ring around nine and it didn't stop. The Sheriff's office, Butch Short at the BMI office, the FBI agents who arrived to take over the case, Luke Forrester back in Tuba City––everyone needed to be briefed, everyone needed his statement, everyone wanted his thoughts. The local press swarmed the motel by midday, soon joined by their colleagues from Las Vegas and even as far as Los Angeles.

  Zack wasn't the only one who had a long day; Eagle Feather and Susan were equally in demand. They passed one another coming and going from various offices.

  Kella had her first interview the night before, was then remanded to the custody of her parents. A sheriff's deputy went to stay at Circle Ranch to keep an eye on her until the hearing.

  The story behind the multiple murders gradually came clear. It all began a century ago, as Susan had surmised. The secret of the buried gold remained with Simmons and Skaggs after the deadly Johnson and Skowler gunfight. It later died with Simmons, but lived on for three generations of the Skaggs family. None of the descendants took it seriously until Tav Davidson came along. He met Aretha Skaggs while in college; she was fascinated by his Indian heritage, he by her family's history in Fairfield. Tav continued his studies in geology and wildlife ecology and when the time came, made application to serve as a Ranger in the Mojave National Preserve. There wasn't a lot of competition for the post. By the time he assumed his duties at the Preserve, his wife had died, the circumstances unclear. The loss soured him.

  Investigating agents guessed the gold story simmered in Tav's brain until it gained new life when Bronc told him of an old map Hatchett found in his attic. It leant credence to what he already knew, and stoked his fire to recover the rumored gold hoard.

  Bronc was a range tramp. He attached himself to Jim Hatchett at the Kellogg Ranch. He was not a character of high moral fiber, or particularly loyal, and found no problem falling in with Tav's schemes to pursue a fortune in gold.

  Although the rest is theory, investigators believed Bronc was frustrated in his attempts to gain access to Hatchett's map. When he deduced Old Juan had seen it and apparently knew the location it described, he visited the old shepherd and tried to wheedle the information from him. He did not succeed.

  It's anybody's guess why Juan decided to etch the map onto the stone slab; perhaps he didn't trust his own memory, or maybe he had a premonition of disaster. Either way, it was universally accepted Juan himself flipped the slab over with his horse to hide it. After that he must have ridden to Hidden Springs to try to uncover the treasure, unaware Bronc was shadowing him. Juan mistakenly read the map backwards, as Zack and Eagle Feather would later do, and began to dig in the wrong place. Most agree Bronc believed Old Juan was close to finding the gold, and shot him. But there was nothing in Juan's pit, so Bronc buried him there. The Sheriff guessed Bronc left Juan's horse dead on a mesa somewhere. Tav likely helped Bronc search through Juan's personal things later at the sheep camp, then took it all away to leave the impression the old shepherd had simply ridden off.

  Before Col and Julio arrived, there was nothing Tav and Bronc could do without the map. Bronc may have tried to get a glimpse of Hatchett's map, but Jim Hatchett himself had no interest in it other than as a family curiosity and left it locked in his safe.

  Kella described how Bronc visited Col and Julio to inquire about papers Old Juan might have left, still hoping to find a map copy; how she and the boys found the map scored on the stone slab. The evening the boys decided to try out the map, Bronc was no doubt watching the camp, and followed them. Kella had gone home, her father had not let her return while the boys were on the treasure hunt, believing, correctly, she might be in danger. Bronc or Tav or both watched while the boys searched, saw they used some sort of map, possibly from Old Juan. While it seems unlikely they decided to shoot the boys to get the map, when they might simply have taken it from them at gunpoint, Bronc must have grown uneasy when it appeared they might have found Old Juan's body with their probes. The forensics lab would try to match the bullets that killed the boys to a rifle, to determine who actually shot which boy, but for now it didn't matter.

  Zack suspected it was Tav's idea not to approach the bodies after they shot them, but leave the scene to look as if there had been a shootout, mirroring the historic one at the same place, and so disguise their crime, but their hopes for treasure were frustrated once again; they knew the spot the boys planned to dig held no treasure, only Old Juan's body. So where was the gold hidden? They couldn't approach the boys' bodies to retrieve their map without compromising themselves.

  Investigators believed the two men destroyed the shepherd boys' camp in an attempt to find other clues. With the double murder, and the publicity it drew, they couldn't search for the treasure at Hidden Springs until it all died down. Once again, all they could do was wait. It must have been very frustrating. Tav could not have been pleased when Zack and Susan showed up; their presence was an indication of Butch Short's suspicions.

  By the end of the second day the investigation was complete and the witnesses were free to go. Susan, Eagle Feather and Zack met one final time at the Wagon Wheel. They enjoyed house margaritas while waiting for their entrees.

  "What will happen to Kella, do you think?' Susan asked Zack.

  "I expect she'll be released, at most a short probation period. After all, she saved our lives when she shot Tav."

  "What a hard beginning to a young life."

  "She is made of sturdy stock," Eagle Feather said. "I think she will recover."

  Susan peered at him, gave a teasing smile. "Do I sense some grudging admiration for the young lady?"

  Eagle Feather looked away, didn't answer.

  Zack grew philosophical. "You know, there is a certain irony here. Think about the original gunfight in 1905. If it was about gold, as we theorize, two men died over it and the surviving two men were unable to collect it due to the publicity the gunfight caused. They had to wait; apparently both died still waiting. Then a second gunfight, albeit truly a double murder committed by new gold seekers caused more publicity, the place becomes a crime site, and again the men must wait before attempting to recover the gold. Finally, here we come to try to locate whatever is buried there, another gun battle erupts, another crime site and even more publicity, and again no chance to look for the buried treasure." Zack glanced at his companions. "Do you think anyone will ever recover it?"

  "If it's even there," Susan said.

  "It might not be the kind of treasure we think it is."

  Susan and Zack swung their heads to look at Eagle Feather.

  "What do you mean?" Susan asked.

  Eagle Feather glanced at Zack. "Perhaps what we saw there is guarding something of its own."

  Susan stared from one man to the other. "What thing?"

  Eagle Feather looked at Zack, waited.

  Zack looked down at his glass, a little sheepish. "We didn't mention this to you before, we needed to wait until the interrogations were over. There was someone or something else at Hidden Springs during the shooting. Whatever it was, it helped to save our lives."

  "It distracted Tav, gave Kella the chance to shoot him," Eagle Feather said.

  Susan stared. "What was it?"

  "Well, that's a good question," Zack said. "You remember I told you about my conversation with Chief Dan Singletree, and the witness he brought to see me who described the creature she saw at Hidden Springs? That thing."

  Susan drew in her breath. "Really! What did it look like?"

  Zack described what he saw. "It looked quite similar to creatures we have seen before," he added.

  "Really!" Susan continued to s
tare. "What happened to it?"

  "That's a very good question. A lot was happening all at once. First Tav was emptying his rifle at the thing; next Kella blows his head off. By the time I thought to look for it, if I even did, it was gone."

  Susan turned to Eagle Feather. "You saw it too."

  He nodded.

  "Describe it."

  "Like Zack says, just like the creatures we have seen before; very large, red eyes, lots of hair, a hostile beast."

  "Did you see what happened to it?"

  "I, too, was busy. I sensed it moved toward the tree. It seemed to disappear."

  The three margaritas remained on the table, forgotten for the moment.

  "And you bastards didn't say a word to me."

  Zack put his hand on her arm. "Susan, we didn't say a word to anybody, not even each other. This is the first time we have spoken of it."

  Eagle Feather raised an eyebrow. "Imagine how describing this creature would have complicated the investigation. We would still be in there talking to those guys."

  Zack added, "I am sorry, Susan. I was going to tell you, until I thought how knowing might skew your own testimony. I didn't want you to have to obfuscate."

  Susan was silent, then patted Zack's hand and removed her arm. "I suppose you were right not to tell me. You're telling me now, anyway." She paused. "Did Kella see it?"

  Zack and Eagle Feather exchanged glances.

  "I don't know," Zack said.

  "Seems like she must have," Eagle Feather said.

  Zack turned his Margarita glass to the salty side, scooped some of it with a finger. "I know she didn't mention it. I read her testimony."

  The three friends pondered this in silence.

  Zack licked his finger. "Isn't it interesting how we seem to see these creatures each time the three of us are involved in a case like this? What do you think? Are we just lucky, or are they following us around?"

  "If we knew the answer to that, we would know more about them. Now we can only guess."