“Okay, thanks.” Liza sat up and pulled her shorts and T-shirt out from under her pillow. “What I was trying to say about Astrid is that she’s really good at getting people to understand complex things. I mean, look at some of the people here.” She lowered her voice as the last of the women left for the showers. “Most of them are drifters, dropouts ... people who can’t hold a job somewhere else. And she’s got them thinking about things like the Constitution and the structure of a republic. The other night, she read from Thomas Paine and got everybody to talk about it.”
“Why does she do that?”
“She likes that stuff. She says living out here away from everybody and working together the way we do, we have to be our own government. She wants us to understand the right principles, because we all have responsibilities to each other. In a place as small as this, we can’t afford to have problems like the ones they have everywhere else, like drugs or crime ... or people using too much of something.”
“That’s interesting.”
“It really is, especially when you get to see it played out on a small scale like here on the ranch. She’s got some books in the house if you ever want to read something.” Liza reached under the bed and pulled out a tattered paperback. “I’ve been reading this one, but it took me awhile to get through it.”
“John Locke.”
“Yeah, it’s a bunch of essays about things like religion, taxes ... stuff like that.”
Vonne recognized the title as one she had read in a political science class during her freshman year at Annapolis. “You’re finished with it?”
Liza nodded. “But I’ve been hanging on to it because as soon as I turn it in, Astrid will ask me to talk about it at dinner. I don’t want to do that until I know it cold. You know what I mean?”
Vonne nodded, astounded to realize just how much Astrid’s opinion mattered to Liza, and probably to all the others. “Why don’t you practice on me? You can tell me all about Locke when we’re cleaning up.”
“Sure you don’t mind?”
“Nah, it’ll be interesting.”
When the other women began to return from the bathhouse, Liza put her book away, indicating it was time to go clean. They walked over to the bathhouse and she showed Vonne the storage closet where the supplies were kept and they started on the latrines. As they worked, Liza explained as much as she could remember and understand from Locke’s book, while Vonne interjected questions and comments to mimic how Astrid might respond.
“I actually think all this talk is helping,” Liza proclaimed as they finished up by mopping the communal shower. “Who knew you’d turn out to be so useful?”
“Always the smartass.”
Liza gave Vonne a genuine smile and held out her hand for the mop, which she stowed back in the closet. “Now comes the best part. We get to be the first ones to use the clean bathhouse.”
“I’ve been looking forward to this all day, ever since you handed me that sack with the horseshit all over it.” Vonne pulled off her shirt and tossed it onto the bench next to her clean clothes.
Liza too began to get undressed. “I didn’t know it had horseshit on it. It was just on that one side.”
“Yeah, my side.” By this time, Vonne was naked and headed into the shower room. “Which one of these is the best?” she asked, looking at the eight showerheads that protruded from the concrete block wall.
“This one,” Liza answered, arriving just in time to claim the space in the right-hand corner.
“That wasn’t very nice.” Vonne tested each of the showerheads for pressure, settling on one two spaces down from Liza. “God, this feels good.”
“Yeah, that’s another thing about waiting until last. There’s more water pressure and the water heats up again while we’re cleaning.”
“You know all the tricks, don’t you?” Vonne began to massage her head with shampoo from one of the dispensers. From the corner of her eye, she could see Liza watching her ... studying her body as the steamy water poured over it. She didn’t mind—except that with Liza watching her, it was hard to watch Liza.
When they finished, they toweled off and got dressed, their discussion of Locke apparently done for the night. The long day of hard work was catching up with both of them.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m beat,” Liza said as they walked out of the bathhouse.
“If you’re beat, you can imagine how I feel ... being a tenderfoot and all.” Vonne laughed, looking up just in time to see a dark figure exit the bunkhouse and disappear into the shadows by the main house. “Who was that?”
“Where?”
“Somebody just came out of the bunkhouse and went around the corner.”
“It was probably Lorna,” Liza answered, her voice giving away her irritation.
“What would she be doing in the bunkhouse? I thought she had a room of her own in the main house.”
“She does, but she comes in to spy on everybody.”
“What kind of stuff is she looking for?”
“Who knows? I don’t have anything to hide. I just don’t like her being so sneaky all the time.”
“I guess Astrid feels like she needs another set of eyes to keep up with everyone.” Paranoia was a common characteristic of cults—and with every new piece of information, that’s what Sky Ranch was beginning to look like.
“She doesn’t have to worry about any of us. I just think Lorna likes to be nosy, and she uses her position with Astrid to justify it.”
“Some people are like that.” Vonne was tempted to mention her suspicions that Lorna had searched her bags, but she didn’t want anyone to know that she knew. It was becoming obvious Lorna was a major player in whatever Astrid was doing at Sky Ranch.
All in all, Vonne was pleased with how much she already had learned about the workings of this place. The more details she could put together about Astrid and the ranch, the easier Jerry’s job would be. Whatever was going on in the canyon was probably the key, and she was relieved that Liza didn’t seem to be a part of it—at least not knowingly. From what Vonne could gather, only a couple of dozen hands were involved in the canyon activities, and that was a manageable number if Jerry needed to call in help to head off any problems.
No matter what happened in the end, Vonne was committed to making sure innocent people like Liza didn’t get hurt. There were probably lots of people at the ranch like her, workers who were unwittingly caught in a web of manipulation.
yx
Vonne stood in the breakfast line behind Liza, barely aware she was studying a threadbare patch beneath the back pocket of Liza’s jeans. She had gotten a sneak peek at the whole picture last night in the shower, but that wasn’t nearly as tantalizing as seeing this naked sliver of skin. She hadn’t meant to let her thoughts wander down that path, but ever since she caught Liza checking her out, she couldn’t seem to get it out of her mind.
Of course, Jerry would tear her a new asshole if she didn’t behave herself.
“You should try one of these,” Liza said, interrupting her prurient thoughts. They were last in line after making an early morning run to the supply shed so they could stock the vegetable bins.
“What are they?”
“Fruit turnovers. I think these have blackberries inside.”
Vonne put one on her plate. “How come Astrid doesn’t eat breakfast with us?” After their talk in the bathhouse last night, Liza seemed more eager to talk about the ranch’s owner. Vonne was careful to frame her questions so they sounded casual rather than like an investigation—which is precisely what they were.
“I don’t know. She just never does.” Liza looked around to see if anyone was listening. “I heard somebody say that she takes breakfast early in her library.”
“What does she do all day?”
“She usually rides out to the pasture first. Then she goes up to the canyon around ten o’clock. She spends a lot of time up there.”
Vonne didn’t bother to press for more about the
canyon. Liza was convinced it held another herd, and there was no need to arouse her suspicions about what else could be going on up there. The last thing she wanted was for Liza to call attention to herself by asking around. Vonne needed to find a way to investigate without raising suspicions, and she also wanted to have a look at that library Liza had talked about. “So what are we doing today?”
“Mondays are pretty busy. We need to go around to the bunkhouses and pick up the laundry bags. Then we take lunch out to the hands and come back. Lorna should be back by then with the fuel truck.”
“Fuel truck?”
“Yeah, she goes into Denver once a week to get fuel. We have to fill up all the generators and vehicles, then drive the truck up to the canyon.”
“What do they need gas for up there? Aren’t they all on horseback?”
“Yeah, but I guess maybe they have generators up there too.” Liza shrugged. “Maybe that’s what’s in that building. I just know that I leave it out there on Monday and pick it up on Tuesday. Clint used to follow me up there in the pickup so I could ride back with him. He’ll be glad you’re doing it instead because he’d rather stay in the barn. And I’ll be glad because you smell better.”
“I won’t if you keep handing me horseshit.”
“Hey, here comes Astrid now. I hardly ever see her in here in the morning.”
“Her ears must have been burning.”
All conversations stopped as the hands turned their attention to their leader.
“Good morning, everyone. I have two announcements to make before we all head out today.” She nodded in the direction of the couple who had stopped at Sky Ranch on their way to Ohio. “First, Philip and Crystal will be leaving us today, continuing on their journey. We wish them well and thank them for sharing the last three weeks with us. Let’s give them a big sendoff, shall we?”
All the hands stood and applauded in the direction of the departing couple.
“And the other announcement is one I’m sure you’ll think is good news. Dominick will be staying on here at Sky Ranch and joining us today up in the canyon. He said to tell you that he’s not going to handle your horses up there, so don’t even think about it.”
The canyon hands chuckled and Dominick smiled. It was obvious he was a welcome addition to the permanent staff, and Vonne wanted to know how he had gotten into Astrid’s inner circle in only two months.
yx
Vonne reached into the truck bed for the last hay bale and lugged it to the stack just inside the barn door. Liza was right about Mondays—they were murder! Skipping dinner and going straight to her bunk had a lot of appeal.
“Hey, here come the guys,” Liza said. “Looks like Dominick went through some sort of initiation.”
Vonne looked up to see the men riding toward the barn on horseback, laughing raucously at the newest canyon hand, who was covered in mud from head to toe and laughing along with his tormentors.
Clint walked out of the barn to greet the horses. “What the hell happened to you?”
“These guys thought it would be funny to roll me in the mud on my first day,” Dominick explained.
Vonne looked at the others and made a startling observation—they were clean. Not just cleaner than Dominick, but clean as though they hadn’t worked all day. At first she thought she must be imagining it, but she watched them all as they dismounted and turned their horses over to Clint.
Whatever it was these guys did in the canyon all day, it didn’t have anything to do with ranching.
yx
As the first week wore on, Vonne settled into the routine of the ranch, and her back and neck became accustomed to the physical labor. The work went faster, which gave her and Liza more time to relax and talk as they went about their chores. There were plenty of chances for Vonne to ask about Astrid and life at Sky Ranch, but it was growing clear she had gotten just about all the information Liza had to give. Though she had been accepted as a permanent hand, Liza wasn’t privy to the secrets of this place, so the only chance Vonne had to interact with the hands who knew about the canyon was at dinner. Since it was obvious that the canyon’s activities were meant to be secret, no one would be talking about it, and she might even call unwanted attention to herself by asking questions.
Also during that week, Vonne had found herself enjoying Liza’s company more than she liked to admit, and it wasn’t just because her hormones were flying off the scale. Liza was fun to work with and she could talk about practically anything and sound intelligent. The only bit that bothered Vonne was Liza’s almost unconditional deference to Astrid, and all the beliefs she espoused. She had seen that sort of over-the-top devotion before, and knew it could be dangerous under the wrong influence.
“You ready for dinner?”
“Sure,” Vonne answered, hopping down from her bunk. “You nervous?”
“What do you think?”
After two more days of talking about the Locke book, Liza had finally gotten the nerve to return it to Astrid. The rancher had been pleased, and indicated she was looking forward to discussing Locke at dinner.
“Don’t worry about it. You know it. And I’d say you’re right about the main theme being natural law. I think that’s why Astrid wanted you to read it.”
They went through the line and filled their plates. Liza expected the questions to begin as soon as everyone was settled with their food. Suddenly, all eyes turned to the head table, where Astrid abruptly stood and tossed her napkin onto her plate.
“We do not discuss private matters here!” Astrid retreated immediately into the main area of the house, with the canyon hand who had come to her table close on her heels. A few moments later, a woman stood with her toddler and followed.
“What was that all about?” Vonne whispered. The room was deathly quiet.
Liza frowned and shook her head. Like the other hands, she kept her face down as she hurried to finish her meal. One by one, the workers rose and returned their trays to the kitchen, seemingly eager to leave the uncomfortable silence.
yx
Not a soul had spoken of the events from last night’s dinner. In fact, the whole ranch had taken on a pall, as though Astrid’s outburst had them all afraid to speak.
At the side of the main house, Vonne and Liza loaded the pickup with laundry and clean linens bound for the men’s bunkhouse. From their position, it was impossible to avoid the scene in the courtyard, where Lorna was helping load suitcases for the family that had created the commotion at dinner the night before.
“Looks like they’re leaving,” Vonne said.
“Don’t stare, Vonne.” Liza handed her a stack of sheets from the large pile. “Astrid says we shouldn’t stick our noses in people’s business. She says we all deserve our privacy.”
Despite the warning, Vonne continued to steal glances at the courtyard. One of the range hands, a burly man named Ray who usually sat beside Astrid at dinner, had joined them to finish loading the van as the couple climbed in with their child. “I was just—”
“Eyes here—now!” Liza said sharply. “You need to stay out of stuff that doesn’t concern you.”
All day, the scene played over and over in Vonne’s head, but she held back from asking more. Liza was barely talking and she didn’t want to make things worse. If her hunches about Sky Ranch were true—that it was a cult in every sense of the word, and that something sinister was going on in the canyon—it was indeed extraordinary that people were being sent away or simply allowed to leave. It was different with Philip and Crystal. They were just temporaries like Vonne, and they apparently didn’t fit into Astrid’s plans. Letting them go wasn’t a risk, since they weren’t privy to the secrets of Sky Ranch. But that wasn’t the case with this couple, since the man worked up in the canyon.
Vonne had experience with dangerous cults. Last year in Florida, she had kidnapped a teenage boy from a religious cult, only to discover that he was wired with explosives. The bomb was dismantled, but the leader had to be taken down i
n order to break his psychological hold on the boy and others.
“I’m sorry I yelled at you earlier,” Liza offered out of the blue as they stopped for lunch at the creek. “I just didn’t want you to get into trouble.”
“Who would I get in trouble with?” Her question was met with silence. “Astrid?”
Liza sighed. “Not trouble, really. Just ... she can really make you feel bad about stuff like that. One time, I went into the main house because I heard somebody crying. I just wanted to see if there was something wrong and if I could help.” She frowned and looked down at her hands, obviously upset by the memory.
“What happened?”
“Astrid came in right when I did and yelled at me to leave. She said I had no right to interfere, that people didn’t want others to see them cry.”
“But you were only trying to help.”
“I shouldn’t have, though. We’re always told to ask for help only when we really need it. Astrid says it makes us try harder to do things on our own, and that makes us stronger.”
Astrid says ... Vonne wanted to speak her mind, to say that Astrid’s behavior was bizarre and even abusive, but she figured Liza would only defend her.
“Anyway, I felt bad for what I did, and I didn’t want the same thing to happen to you.”
Astrid seemed to have a firm grip on all of the hands, easily controlling their behavior through guilt and manipulation. She hated to think what that couple who left had gone through.
“I appreciate you looking out for me, Liza. I’ll try not to do anything that Astrid won’t like.” Vonne could almost see the tension drain from Liza’s face. “So what’s for lunch today?”
It was early afternoon when the van returned to the ranch and the truth came to light, as least for Vonne. She watched from behind the pickup as Lorna got out with the small child and Ray began to unload all of the suitcases they had packed just this morning. The man and woman who left had probably met an unfortunate fate.
yx
Vonne watched the bunkhouse through the crack in the door. From her vantage point in the latrine, she could also see the lights on upstairs in the main house. That was uncommon for this late hour, but everything about today had been different.
Undercover Tales Page 24
