Stone Cold Blooded

by Catherine Dilts

  Morgan tugged David’s arm and pulled him behind an outcropping of granite. They crawled to the top of the rocks and peered over. Eustace Day’s compound spread across a flat, open area below them.

  Bobcat machines scooped up broken lumber, chunks of concrete, and trash, depositing their loads into one of two huge Dumpsters. What looked like a concrete swimming pool was the center of a ring of dilapidated buildings of various sizes and states of decay. Dirt filled the pool. Several people in shorts, with bandanas tied around their heads, or wearing wide-brimmed straw hats, shoveled the dirt into wheelbarrows. They rolled full loads out of the pool and into the nearby stand of pine trees.

  “I never expected to see a swimming pool up here,” David said. “A person could only use an outdoor pool, what, a couple months out of the year?”

  “Maybe that’s why it’s full of dirt,” Morgan said. “No one used it. At least it used to have a nice big safety fence around it. Not that any children would find it in the middle of nowhere.”

  The hog wire fencing, with large wire rectangles at the top, becoming smaller at the bottom, had been reinforced with layers of chicken wire. Four lean-tos sat at different points around the pool, possibly situated to give shade at different times of day.

  “The fence is half torn down now,” David said.

  A large mangled gap allowed people and equipment in and out. The sturdy fence could have been blown apart in the explosions that July day. As some part of her brain tried to make sense of the swimming pool, another part insisted it wasn’t a pool.

  “Hey. That’s Burke.” David pointed.

  Burke dug as diligently as the rest, until he pushed his shovel into the dirt, leaving it standing by itself. He started to climb out of the pool. Another worker waved angrily at him, but he kept going, moving toward a row of three portable outhouses.

  “In the enemy camp,” Morgan muttered. “He’s risking his neck over a dinosaur fossil. We’ve got to get him out of there.”

  Morgan started to stand, but David held her arm.

  “Something’s wrong,” David said. “Look. Burke is peeking out of the outhouse door. No, he closed it again.”

  Burke opened the door again, just a crack. Then the door opened wide, and he hurried out. Instead of heading back to the pool, he walked uphill toward the grove of pines where piles of dirt had been dumped. He glanced over his shoulder furtively.

  “He’s trying to escape.” David clambered off the rock outcropping.

  Morgan didn’t have a better plan, so she followed, crouching low and darting between pine trees, grasping rough trunks sticky with sap. They dropped to the same elevation on the hill as Burke. Houdini nonchalantly grazed on the thin grass at the edge of the pine grove.

  Burke reached Houdini, wrapping his arms around the donkey’s neck. He glanced up, spotting Morgan and David. David held up his cell phone. Burke released his grip on Houdini’s neck to pull his phone out of his pocket. He shook his head and silently mouthed some words.

  “Oh.” David looked at his own phone. “No signal.”

  Irrationally, Morgan had to check her phone, too, as though she somehow might have signal when no one else did.

  “Signal can be spotty out here,” Morgan said, “but Eustace was the kind who might have set up some signal blocking device.”

  “Like a giant foil hat?” David asked.

  Burke aimed Houdini toward Morgan and David, crouching on the far side of the donkey. The donkey’s long gray ears perked up, and he stepped purposefully toward them.

  Before Morgan could stop him, David dashed toward Burke and Houdini. They had an animated conversation. Burke’s Hawaiian shirt was stained with the reddish dirt. A bandana covered his braids. Both young men nodded, and David clapped a hand briefly to Burke’s shoulder in a reassuring gesture. David hurried back to their hiding place behind a pine tree.

  “Burke says the group has the Triceratops horn,” David said. “He’s going to circle back and sneak into one of the storage sheds. We’re supposed to meet him at the pizza parlor tonight.”

  “The horn!” Morgan had to wrestle with her own self-serving desire to recover the brow horn before announcing, “We have to get him out of there now. It’s too dangerous.”

  “I don’t think we can drag him away. Burke said everyone’s digging in the pit, looking for some buried treasure Eustace Day mentioned in his will.”

  CHAPTER FORTY

  “Eustace Day’s will stated his granddaughter Roxy Day would inherit buried treasure,” Morgan said. “They’re stealing her inheritance. I need to call her.”

  Morgan reached for her phone, then remembered she had no signal.

  “Buried treasure?” David asked. “Man, what a bunch of pirates.”

  “And Burke is in the middle of that den of thieves.” Morgan peeked around the tree. “The coast is clear.”

  “Wait.”

  Crawling out of the swimming pool was a skinny man dressed like a peasant from Tibet, his skin burned pink from high altitude sun. He hiked up to the outhouses and tapped on a door. When no one answered, he yanked it open. He slammed it shut. He tried each door without success, his frustration growing. Then he grabbed the walkie talkie clipped to his belt.

  In an instant, Wenda appeared, dressed in a tunic printed with golden dragons, but paired with practical black leggings and hiking sneakers instead of her usual skirt and spike heels.

  Two men followed, racing ahead of Wenda to the outhouses. The guys were hefty, and looked like they could hold their own in a brawl at a biker bar. Their leather vests and blue jeans looked oppressively hot in the early evening August sun.

  “Maybe they won’t see Burke and Houdini,” David whispered. “He’s almost behind that ridge.”

  If Houdini had been standing still, his gray coat might have blended into the shadows of the forest, but he was moving swiftly as he stepped from behind a boulder. Burke’s legs and sneakers were clearly visible under Houdini’s belly. Wenda scanned the hillside, her hands on her narrow hips. Then she pointed.

  “He’s there!”

  She raced uphill, her sneakers sending up puffs of dust. The man who had discovered Burke was missing and the two bikers followed at her heels. Burke and the donkey traveled at a sedate pace. If Burke knew he was being pursued, he didn’t acknowledge it.

  “Run,” Morgan whispered.

  But he didn’t. Wenda caught up to Houdini.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” she asked.

  “I saw this donkey.” Burke spoke loudly, probably to make sure Morgan and David heard him. “He belongs to the ranch down the street. I’m taking him home.”

  “It found its way here,” Wenda said. “It can find its way back.”

  “Sure, but there are coyotes in the hills,” Burke said. “A pack can bring down a donkey. I need to make sure he gets home safe.”

  “The donkey is not our concern. It is trespassing on Mr. Day’s property. We need you here.”

  “Yeah, about that,” Burke said. “I have a paying gig at the pizza parlor. My shift starts in a couple hours, and I need to get cleaned up.”

  Even from a distance, Morgan could see Wenda grimace. She tensed, her hands forming fists at her sides, before she stepped closer to Burke.

  “We really need you here.” Her voice slid down the scale from authoritative to cloying. She put a hand on Burke’s arm. “Can’t you stay, just a little longer?”

  “I really have to go,” Burke said. “But I’ll be back, first thing in the morning.”

  “I said you need to stay.” All the authority rushed back into her words.

  “Is that what you did to Ned?” Burke asked. “Held him prisoner?”

  “Who?” One biker looked at the other. They both shook their heads.

  “Ned,” Burke said. “Skinny white kid. Boy band hair.”
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br />   “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Wenda said. “No one’s being held against their will. We’ve reached a critical juncture in our excavation. We need you for another hour.”

  Burke’s broad shoulders slumped. “Okay. But just another hour. Then I really have to get to my paying job.”

  * * *

  David swore and started to stand. Morgan grabbed his arm. She shook her head. Wenda and her goons escorted Burke to the swimming pool. The little man in Tibetan garb surveyed the hills for a moment before following the rest.

  Houdini took a few steps as though to follow, then looked up the hill. He marched toward Morgan and David’s hiding place. While they waited for the donkey, David fumed.

  “Burke has been kidnapped! We have to get him out of there!”

  “If Burke felt he was in danger, he would have called to us.”

  “It might have seemed like he went voluntarily,” David said, “but did you see the size of those two biker dudes?” He shuddered.

  Houdini followed as they made their way through the woods and back to the fence. David wanted to stay, as a witness if nothing else, but Morgan insisted he go with her. She was sure David had the muscle to take on one biker, but there were two, and they could be armed.

  They held the sagging strands of barbed wire apart. Houdini stepped through. He could have handled it himself, but he accepted their assistance. Back at the ATVs, David called the police and Morgan called Kurt.

  “He spoke to David,” Morgan assured a panicked Kurt. “Burke is fine.”

  “Then why didn’t he leave with you when he had the chance?” Kurt asked.

  “He thinks he found the Triceratops horn. I’ll bet Burke has been planning this visit to the Day ranch since he heard us talking in the motel that night. He’s trying to get the horn back.”

  “I’m on my way.”

  Before Morgan could respond, Kurt hung up.

  “The police are coming to the shop,” David said. “Can you lead them up here?”

  “Where are you going?” Morgan asked.

  “Back to our lookout point. If the situation changes, I can let the police know before they charge in there.”

  “Chief Sharp is not a ‘charge in there’ kind of guy,” Morgan said. “Not unless the situation calls for it. He’ll approach with caution. And how will you alert him to your location with no cell signal? We don’t know enough about those people, and what kind of danger is involved. The two goons might have guns.”

  “Then I’ll have one, too. Del’s at the shop. I can borrow his revolver, or maybe the shotgun.”

  Morgan started to argue, but someone else would have to talk sense into her son, because he wasn’t listening to his mother.

  Chief Sharp and Deputy Parker pulled into the rock shop parking lot at the same time that Morgan and David arrived on the ATVs. Del hurried out of the barn. The old cowboy was always game for vigilante action. While Morgan and David explained what they’d seen, Kurt pulled up, his vintage car scattering gravel as he stopped abruptly.

  Kurt and David were ready to commandeer the ATVs and liberate Burke from the clutches of Wenda and her minions by force if necessary, but Deputy Parker ordered them to stand down with more authority than Morgan had expected the young man to possess.

  “Slow down, people,” Chief Sharp said. “Our first step should be to politely knock on their front door, so to speak, and ask to see Burke.”

  Morgan agreed that made more sense than mounting an armed invasion.

  “But he tried to leave,” David said. “They coerced him into staying.”

  “A visit from the police might be enough to convince them,” Sharp said, “without stirring up a confrontation.”

  While Del decided to stay at the barn, Kurt would not be persuaded. He removed the gun from the holster discretely tucked in the waistband of his slacks, at the small of his back, and gave it to Del for safekeeping.

  “Now can I go?”

  Chief Sharp grumbled, but let Kurt climb into the SUV.

  * * *

  Even the baby donkey could not distract them from their anxious waiting. Finally, the Golden Springs Police SUV returned to the rock shop. Morgan strained to see, glimpsing Burke in the back seat with Kurt’s arm protectively wrapped around his shoulders.

  They emerged, embroiled in a disagreement. Burke’s face was dusted with dirt and streaked with sweat.

  “I’m not pressing charges,” he said.

  “You have to!” Kurt said. “They kidnapped you. You might not be the first, or the last.”

  “Slow down, Dad. They claim they didn’t have Ned, and I believe them. But I’m sure they have the brow horn. I’m the one who lost it. I have to get it back.”

  Morgan turned to Chief Sharp. “Can we search their place for the horn?”

  “We’d need a search warrant. For that, we’d need some evidence that the horn was there.” He turned to Burke. “Did anyone actually say the horn was on the Day property?”

  “No.”

  “Did you personally see it?”

  “No,” Burke said. “I just put the clues together. Wenda lured me away from the table at the mineral show. She must have been the one that paid the Swedish people to stage that fight. Then someone else took the horn.”

  “That’s not what Inga told me,” Morgan said. “They were paid by a large older woman in a Sasquatch T-shirt. But the rest of your theory is correct.”

  While it sounded plausible to Morgan, she could understand Chief Sharp’s reaction. He shook his head while a pained expression creased his face.

  “I’ll write up a report,” he told Kurt, “but if your son won’t press charges, we can’t arrest anyone.”

  “What about Ned?” Morgan asked. “He was kidnapped for ten days, and forced to bring that fake brow horn for ransom. Did he recognize Wenda? Or those bikers?”

  “The kidnapper kept him blindfolded,” Deputy Parker said. “All he was certain of was that the kidnapper wasn’t female.”

  They watched the police SUV leave, kicking up dust. The sun lowered to the tops of the mountains.

  “I didn’t realize it was so late,” Morgan said.

  “We need to get that rodent,” David said. “It’s gonna need water.”

  “Rodent?” Kurt asked.

  “You caught the alien?” For a kid who had narrowly escaped imprisonment by two tough bikers, Burke seemed emotionally unscathed.

  Ned had bounced back quickly from his ordeal, too. Morgan wished she possessed the resiliency of youth. She feared her nerves were frayed beyond repair.

  * * *

  Del stayed in the barn to watch over the three donkeys. Morgan and David rode one ATV, while Kurt and Burke rode the other. The ATV tracks in the dusty pasture were easy to follow, even in the dusk. David led them to the pine tree where he’d left the cage. They all dismounted to study the creature for a moment, then David strapped the trap to the back of his ATV.

  When they returned, Kendall joined them in the barn. Del took one look at the cage, then doubled over in laughter. Not until he had wiped tears off his cheeks with a blue bandana could he get the words out.

  “That’s no alien,” he said, still choking on laughter. “That’s a prairie dog.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  David and Burke raced to see who could pull up information about prairie dogs on their smart phones first.

  “I can see why we missed identifying it,” David said. “Prairie dogs look really different naked.”

  “Like those bald Rex cats,” Burke said. “They look kinda like aliens, too.”

  “A bald prairie dog with a toupee,” David said.

  Burke laughed and pointed. “Tease that up a little, and it looks like Jase’s do.”

  “Have you posted any photos yet?” Morgan asked the young men. />
  “Just getting ready to,” Burke said, his fingers poised over his phone’s screen.

  “Don’t!” Morgan said. “Let’s think about this.”

  “Oh, right,” Burke said. “We end the mystery, the customers stop coming.”

  “That’s not it,” Morgan said. “The true believers will still be convinced the prairie dog is an alien, and with Sonny Day just up the road, we’d be overrun by people wanting to see the living proof.”

  Burke slid his phone into a pocket on the side of his cargo shorts. He stuck a finger through the bars to stroke the wrinkled skin of the creature.

  “That’s a wild animal, son,” Del said. “It might have rabies, or bubonic plague. At the least, it could bite you, and rodents have nasty teeth.”

  “It doesn’t act wild,” Kurt said. “It’s not trying to escape, and it doesn’t seem nervous with all of us humans staring at it.”

  “We should give it some water,” Morgan said.

  “There are a couple dog kennels in the garage,” Kendall said.

  As soon as the prairie dog had been transferred to a kennel, it eagerly lapped up water from a dog dish. It was remarkably docile. Allie brought it some scraps from their evening salad, but let Burke put the food in the cage. She kept Marissa far away.

  “It’s almost cute,” Allie said. “That puff of fur on top of its head does make it look like a little man, or a leprechaun.”

  “I’ll call Dr. McCormick tomorrow,” Morgan said. “Maybe he can tell us if the prairie dog is free of disease.”

  “And what we should do with it,” Kendall said. “I can’t imagine a furless animal making it long in the mountains.”

  “I can keep it,” Burke said.

  Morgan smiled at the thought of a prairie dog living in Kurt’s townhome decorated with antiques from the 1940s.

  “I’m sure it will feel more at home here in the barn,” Kendall said.

  “I’m going to reset the trap,” David said. “If we caught one, maybe there’s another.”