A piercing scream broke through the gale and dragged Ramm’s attention away from the ruined cactus. He leapt from the horse and sprinted toward the rocks without his usual caution. Dog appeared ghostlike out of the darkness, barked, and disappeared again. Wind roared in Ramm’s ears like an oncoming train.
58
COOPER ROLLED DOWN the window and leaned his head out. “Hey! Hold up!” But his voice was drowned out by the wind, so he jumped out and ran after them.
It wasn’t until Cooper grabbed Kate by the arm that she knew he was there. With his mouth inches from her ear he yelled, “Get in the truck!”
Kate pointed ahead to Nunzio. The old man, undaunted by the storm, led the horse in the hazy, reddish glow created by the swirling dust and the Blazer’s headlights. They watched as he scanned the horizon, the vagaries of the storm, for the moment, permitting a clear view of the land to the west. Nunzio shook his head, stopped and then led the roan back toward the truck.
“It’s not here. But I know this is where it should be,” Nunzio’s gravelly voice was filled with anguish.
“What are you looking for?” Cooper shouted.
Nunzio ignored him and looked up into the howling sky. “God! Help me find the Holy Mother.” He fell to his knees, pulled his rosary from his pocket, and began to pray.
Cooper grabbed the man by the shoulders. “Let’s go! Get in the truck where we can sort this out.”
Nunzio stared at Cooper, confusion etched on his craggy face.
“Should’ve given him that shot of tequila,” Kate yelled. Looping her arm through his, she eased Nunzio off the ground, and helped him to the truck.
Cooper slammed the door shutting out the din, then ran his fingers through his windswept hair. “What are we looking for exactly?” He turned to the backseat where the old man perched fingering the rosary.
Kate saw Nunzio’s cloudy eyes fill with tears. She placed her hand on his weathered brown arm to calm him.
“The Holy Mother is by the black rocks.” He rubbed one of the small beads—the type signifying the Hail Mary prayer—between his thumb and forefinger.
“Here we go again.” Cooper hit his hand on the steering wheel.
“Think, Nunzio. Which black rocks?” Kate asked in a soothing voice.
“The ones behind the ancient saguaro,” he said as if a cloud had suddenly lifted. “It is extremely old. Maybe thirty limbs. I have passed it many times, and have used it as a landmark. I know the Holy Mother is near it, in a small cave hidden by the black rocks.” Nunzio sat back in the seat, clutching the rosary to his chest.
“Cooper!” Buddy’s voice blasted from the police radio. “Choppers are on the way. Though the storm is making things pretty hairy. Some areas are clear. Some totally obscured.”
“What are the weather wonks saying?” Cooper peered out the windshield at the frenetic cloud of reddish dust.
“You know how those guys are. This one caught them by surprise. Hell! Too late in the season for this kind of storm.”
“Tough job forecasting the weather in southern Arizona.” Kate watched the towering storm roll over them. “What do they have? Maybe twenty days a year where it’s not hot and sunny?”
“The storm should pass out of the area within the hour,” Buddy said. “And, before you go, I heard from the lab in Phoenix. While it’ll be a while before they have absolute confirmation, a cursory comparison of the prints you took and the ones the military had on file show our boy is definitely not Jason Ramm.”
59
RAMM FELL TO HIS KNEES beside her. “Kelly, I’m here.” His voice was low and calming. “You’re going to be okay. We’re going to get through this.”
Eyes wild with terror, she reached out and clenched onto his arm, her fingers like a vise as another wave of pain engulfed her.
Ramm smoothed Kelly’s hair as she bit her lip and arched her back, fighting against the pain.
“Don’t fight it. You have to make the pain work for you.” He had never delivered a baby, but he knew what to do. He pulled a small flashlight out of a pocket and set it on the ground so he could see. Then he froze.
Kelly’s pants were wet, soaked with blood. Disjointed images flooded his mind. The faces of victims appeared and disappeared. To his horror, the dead kept opening their eyes, looking back at him, alive, no matter how many times he pulled the trigger, or slid a knife through their necks.
He wrenched out of Kelly’s grasp and pressed his back against the wall of the shallow cave. He covered his face with his hands as the blond boy appeared, as always wreathed in black smoke, emerging for the thousandth time from the fire. “Kill me!” the boy screamed. Ramm pulled the trigger, but the boy would not die. He just kept coming, eyes melting from their sockets. “Kill me!” he begged again and again. “Kill me!”
“No!” Ramm pulled at his hair and shook his head. “I won’t do it! I can’t!”
“Help me, Jason! Please!” Kelly reached out and her fingers grazed his arm.
He flinched and turned toward her voice. Then he blinked, the burning boy evaporated along with the black smoke, and her face appeared.
Ramm drew a ragged breath. Then another. Instinct took over. “I’m sorry, Kelly. I’m here. I’m here … I promise.”
Gingerly, he slid Kelly’s pants off and rolled them into a pillow to cushion her head. She’d been sitting on Becky’s blanket so he slid her down on her back and immediately saw the crown of the baby’s head.”
“When you feel a contraction, you need to push. Use your muscles. Don’t hold back.”
She nodded as she clenched her jaw in pain. Kelly closed her eyes and grunted through the contraction. When the pain momentarily passed, she looked up at Jason, tears streaming down her face. “Don’t be angry. I tried to get help, but I wrecked your truck. I don’t know how to drive! So, I took Becky, but then a snake scared her and she ran away and—”
“That’s all over.” He wiped her forehead with his sleeve. “I’m here now.”
“Are you okay?” She placed a warm palm on his cheek.
In that instant, Ramm felt the now-familiar calm spread through him. Part of him wanted to fight the feeling, part wanted to give in to the sensation. Then he heard them coming. In the distance, the air thrummed with that awful sound, vibrations cutting through him like serrated steel. His head pounded. He left Kelly’s side and edged up over the rocks. If some were coming by air, there’d be others on foot.
Kelly screamed, an unearthly sound coming from deep inside as a contraction seized hold of her.
He looked back. “Quiet!”
She screamed against the pain and pushed hard.
Frantic, Ramm took his place beside her again, eyes still focused on the entrance to the tiny cave. “Please! You must be quiet or they’ll find us.”
Kelly’s eyes widened in confusion. She shook her head frantically. When Ramm stared at the girl, he was appalled to find his hands covering her mouth. Kelly fought, still he held her down, blocking her screams.
Finally, Ramm released his grip and pulled back, horrified by what he had done. Kelly coughed and wheezed as she drew air into her lungs. “Forgive me.” He moved to take hold of the child. Ramm gazed at the infant whose blood-covered body emerged, and he knew he had finally found the one who could save him. Tears streamed down his dirt-encrusted cheeks as he cradled the child’s head and upper torso in his hands. The words from Revelation came to him:
And behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me, to give to everyone according to his work.
What reward could he expect to receive for his life’s work? A life of death and pain.
Kelly gave one last push, and the child slipped into Ramm’s waiting hands.
The helicopters were almost on top of them now. But there was still time to beg for forgiveness. This child could heal his wounded soul. All he had to do was ask.
A cold shock wave washed over him. He stared at the girl-child and his dream of forgiveness evaporated, blo
wn to bits like the swirling desert dust. He looked from the child to the sweat-soaked mother who lay panting on the horse blanket. Not the Madonna, after all.
It was no good. There would be no pardon for him. Devastated, Ramm fell back into medic mode. He cleared the mucous from the baby’s mouth and made sure she was breathing properly. Then he placed the infant into Kelly’s arms and tucked the oversized sweatshirt around them both.
The whump whump whump of rotors whirled above them and two searchlights scanned the ground, bouncing wildly over the rocks.
“Are they here for you?” Kelly asked.
Ramm nodded, then leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. He stood. The dog, huddled at the back of the cave, rose, and stared at Ramm. “No, Dog! Stay!” The animal inched over and lay by the girl. “Hold her collar. If you can. Keep her with you.”
Kelly nodded.
“Don’t worry. They’ll find you here. Very soon. You’re going to be fine.”
Then Jason Ramm stepped out of the cave, gazed up at the choppers that were being buffeted by the whirling red dust, and took one last look at Kelly. He nodded at her and disappeared into the storm.
60
WEEKS PASSED.
There was no sign of Jason Ramm. Kelly and her healthy, seven-pound baby girl spent one night in a local hospital and then went home to stay with the Children of Light.
Initially, Miranda Garcia balked at having her misshapen daughter back in the area, but she unexpectedly stopped complaining, and suddenly disappeared after packing her possessions and driving off in a brand-new convertible.
One day, to Elect Sun’s astonishment, she opened the back door to find Ramm’s Appaloosa tied under the old cottonwood tree. The animal, originally taken in by a member of the Search and Rescue squad, was purchased from the man one week later by someone unknown to him. The very same day the horse arrived, a carpenter appeared with prepaid work orders to construct a small barn and a corral on the Children’s property.
Elect Sun was shocked again when Garfield Jessup arrived one beautiful fall morning. The wiry, mustachioed man in the three-piece suit smiled as he introduced himself as Elect Sun’s attorney. Though she protested, insisting she had no lawyer—nor any reason to need one—Jessup kept smiling. “It’s all worked out,” he assured her.
A tutor had been arranged for Kelly. And, Jessup explained, if the girl did well, she could use her college fund to go anywhere in the country she wanted. In the meantime, an account had been set up to provide for her and the baby. Jessup then handed Elect Sun the name, address, and phone number of a doctor in California who specialized in facial surgery for people afflicted with Moebius Syndrome. Though the final decision in that regard was up to Kelly. Also, an eye doctor would be calling to examine Elect Sarah. Perhaps all she needed was cataract surgery.
Next came the deed to the land surrounding and including the Rowley Mine. When Kelly turned eighteen, the land and the cabin would belong to her. Jessup then reached into his briefcase and removed a velvet box, which he handed to the girl. Inside was her father’s Silver Star.
The final piece of news concerned one more bank account, this one in the name of the Children of Light. It contained two million dollars. Jessup explained he had been retained to make sure both accounts were managed wisely.
At first, Elect Sun struggled with the windfall. The Children believed money caused much of the world’s evil. In the end, she agreed to keep the funds when Jessup assured her the Children were free to use the money any way they pleased. As it happened, whenever something was needed in Hyder or Agua Caliente or the surrounding area, like money for an operation, or a new roof, or a college education, the funds magically appeared with no strings attached.
Elect Sun was known to say that this “gift from God” would bring light into the lives of their neighbors.
EPILOGUE
ONE YEAR AFTER the wreck of the Sunset Limited, a child searching for firewood came across some bones in South Vietnam just east of the Cambodian border. The man was identified through dental records. Forensic experts agreed the soldier had been severely burned, but that had not been the cause of the man’s death. One neatly placed bullet between the soldier’s eyes had ended his young life. That the bullet had come from an American weapon was disappointing, but since friendly fire deaths often occurred, and the soldier had no living relatives, the military found no reason to release that bit of information
With much ceremony, the soldier was transported to Phoenix, then airlifted by helicopter to an open field not far from a spot where hot springs once bubbled out of the Sonoran Desert ground. A full honor guard carried the flag-draped casket on the short walk to the Agua Caliente Pioneer Cemetery.
Kate and Cooper watched from the edge of the small gathering.
“I wonder who he was. Why pretend to be this man?” Kate asked as they watched the casket being lowered into the ground next to the grave of Alexander Ramm, the itinerant preacher who befriended the Children of Light so many years earlier.
Cooper shook his head. “I don’t know.”
The crowd that turned out to honor the boy who had given his life for his country so long ago was silent as the soldiers aimed their rifles into the bright fall sky, the salvos echoing off the nearby basalt mountain. Among the mourners were Elect Sun and Elect Peter who had cherished the motherless boy and who had figured prominently in the countless stories the young man had told his best friend while they served side by side in Vietnam.
Now, after thirty years in a shallow foreign grave, Jason Ramm was finally home, and his friend had once again disappeared.
NOTES
The facts surrounding the wreck of the Amtrak Sunset Limited are true. However, I have taken literary license on two counts. The train, which was derailed during the early-morning hours of October 9, 1995, was heading toward Los Angeles, but was east of Hyder when it plunged off the tracks. Also, there is no train station in Hyder. There was a stop in the tiny town years ago, but it has long since been closed. Other than these two discrepancies, the newsworthy events leading up to the derailment, including the burning of the Southern Pacific Railroad trestle, the discovery of dynamite in the gas station restroom, and the derailment itself are as they occurred.
All of the characters in A Light in the Desert are fictitious with the exception of the following people.
Mitchell Bates, an Amtrak employee, died in the crash. Dr. Yair Bar El was the first to clinically identify the Jerusalem Syndrome and is the former head of the psychiatric hospital Kfur Shaul in Israel. Sheriff Joe Arpaio was the long-time sheriff of Arizona’s Maricopa County. John Signor authored the historical article on the deadly 1939 Harney, Nevada derailment in SP Trainline. In 1909, Mrs. H. Rowley, along with her husband, put a claim on the Arizona mine that bears their name. David Koresh, the self-proclaimed Messiah and leader of the Branch Davidians, was killed along with 75 of his followers by federal forces during a shootout and subsequent fire at his compound in Waco, Texas in 1993. All other characters in the book are of my own creation and are meant to bear no resemblance to anyone living or dead.
At the date of this writing, the wreck of the Amtrak Sunset Limited remains an unsolved crime.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I would like to extend my appreciation to everyone who helped me complete A Light in the Desert. First, I’d like to thank my agent, Donna Eastman of Parkeast Literary Agency, for her patience, guidance, and belief in me. Kristina Makansi at Amphora Publishing Group not only served as my editor – a position that never gets the credit it truly deserves – she also designed the cover. Thank you, Kristy, for wearing both hats on this project. I’d also like to thank my fabulous group of beta readers who, in this case, ferreted out all those errors that skipped past me. To Marissa De Santiago, Mary Jo West, Dr. Susan Taffer, Kim Sivey, and Dr. Laurie Rappl thank you for catching my mistakes. I am especially grateful to the Children of Light for enduring my questions as they endeavored to explain their beliefs to me. I would
like to thank the people at what was formerly the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum for their guidance and the librarians at the Saguaro Branch of the Phoenix Public Library. Special thanks go to Maricopa County Deputy Sheriff Dave Woolley, one of the first to arrive at the scene of the wreck of the Amtrak Sunset Limited, and to my dear late friend Don Clarkson for his stories about Vietnam. Finally, my heartfelt thanks to Ryan Pickard for accompanying me on those trips to Hyder and always having a sense of humor when he did.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anne Butler Montgomery has worked as a television sportscaster, newspaper and magazine writer, teacher, amateur baseball umpire, and high school football referee. Her first TV job came at WRBL-TV in Columbus, Georgia, and led to positions at WROC-TV in Rochester, New York, KTSP-TV in Phoenix, Arizona, and ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut, where she anchored the Emmy and ACE award-winning SportsCenter. She finished her on-camera broadcasting career with a two-year stint as the studio host for the NBA’s Phoenix Suns. Montgomery was a freelance and/or staff reporter for six publications, writing sports, features, movie reviews, and archeological pieces. Her novels include: The Scent of Rain, A Light in the Desert and the forthcoming Nothing But Echoes. Montgomery teaches journalism at South Mountain High School in Phoenix, is a foster mom to three sons, and is an Arizona Interscholastic Association football referee and crew chief. When she can, she indulges in her passions: rock collecting, football officiating, scuba diving, and playing her guitar.
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