Framed in Death Valley

by Dana Mentink

  “Here.”

  He thought at first he’d imagined it. Stopping quickly, he almost lost his balance. The wind tickled the leaves in the shrubbery. There was no sign of an intruder, nor Laney. Admiral yipped.

  “I’m here.” Laney’s voice came again, but he still could not figure out from where. He eased Admiral down.

  “Where is she, buddy?”

  Admiral had recovered enough to heave himself along the rough ground and around the spring, toward a pile of boulders.

  Beckett scrambled after him, trying to avoid getting his boots stuck between the rocks. Admiral whined.

  Behind the pile of granite he found her. Her hair framed blue eyes wide with fear. She sat huddled in a ball, arms around her knees. Admiral scrambled next to her, and she scooped him up. Beckett forced some level of calm into his voice, though his insides were jumping like frogs at sundown as he crouched next to her.

  “What happened? Are you hurt? Did you fall? Are you bleeding?”

  She pressed her lips together and cocked an eyebrow. “Which question do you want me to answer first?”

  Sass. That was good. “Let’s start with are you hurt?”

  She considered. “Not really, but my foot is stuck between two rocks.” Though she was all calm and bravado on the surface, her face was pale. She pressed the dog close.

  Beckett bent to look. “Tell me what happened while I get you out of here.”

  She hesitated a moment. “I was coming up to lock the gate. I felt someone was behind me. When I turned to look, this rock came sailing out of nowhere.” She swallowed. “If I hadn’t ducked, it would have clobbered me.”

  He made an effort to unclench his jaw. “Did you see who threw it?”

  “No. Whoever it was hid in the bushes. I ran behind the rocks, but my foot got wedged and I dropped my cell phone. I heard someone running away. I was going to make sure they were gone before I started yelling for help. Then Admiral took off. I thought he was scared. I didn’t know my doggy hero was going to send for reinforcements.” She turned her face away from him and rested it on Admiral’s back, as if she didn’t want to look at him. He heard a sniff that struck him to the core. She was fighting tears.

  With the lightest of touches, he placed a palm on the crown of her head. “It’s okay. You did the right thing to try to hide.” Still she did not look at him, so he pulled his hand away and finished separating the rocks to free her. Taking her elbow before she could refuse the help, he raised her to a standing position.

  “How does your ankle feel?”

  She put weight on it. “Okay. Just scraped, I think.”

  He held her hand while they eased away from the rock pile. “I need to find my cell phone,” she said.

  “I’ll come back at first light and get it.”

  When they reached the side of the pool, he noticed that her legs were trembling and there was blood on her sock. In one fluid movement, he lifted her up, Admiral still in her arms.

  She stiffened. “I don’t need you to carry me.”

  He didn’t answer, just made his way along the path. Her head was tucked under his chin. She’d always been a perfect fit. He was all bristly stubbornness and hardheaded determination, and Laney was the only one in the world who could see past that into the soul of him. He swallowed. It was exquisite pain to hold her, to know the love they’d shared was only alive in his memory.

  She squirmed. “You’re being silly. I can walk.”

  “You’re pregnant.”

  “I’m quite aware of that.”

  “I’ll put you down when we get back to the lodge.”

  She heaved a sigh but did not reply. It seemed as though she weighed nothing at all. Was she eating enough? Was the baby growing properly?

  “Too tight,” she said.

  He realized he was clasping her to his chest too snugly and he eased up. “Sorry.” He also slowed his pace a fraction to prevent jostling her. Not too much, as he considered the fact that the rock thrower may not have actually left the property. He could still be here, with dozens of places to hide.

  When they reached the house, he elbowed the kitchen door open and settled her into a chair.

  Herm entered, holding a stack of coffee mugs, face etched with alarm.

  “I’m okay,” Laney said before he could speak.

  “Call the police,” Beckett said. “She was attacked.”

  “Actually...” Laney started, but Herm was already off-loading his burden and heading for the phone. Beckett fetched a first-aid kit and peeled off her shoe and sock.

  “I’ll call Dr. Irene soon as I clean this up,” Beckett said.

  “I don’t need her.”

  He dabbed at her ankle with a disinfectant wipe. “Sorry if it stings. Dr. Irene might need to check the baby. Make sure your blood pressure’s okay and stuff.”

  “I’m perfectly fine.”

  He still didn’t look at her. “Or do an ultrasound, to check for...”

  Laney took his chin and tipped it up so he was staring into her pale blue eyes. He went still.

  “Beckett,” she said calmly. “I do not need to see a doctor. I am fine. The baby is fine. A scraped ankle does not require an exam.”

  He was suspended there for a moment, immobilized by her touch, stopped by the weight of what he’d lost. “I... Okay.”

  She folded forward in the chair and watched as he applied a bandage to the scrape on her ankle. “Admiral needs water.”

  “Got it,” Herm said, filling a shallow bowl for the dog, who lapped it with sloppy enthusiasm. “Jude is on his way.”

  “Thanks, Herm.” Beckett noted the carafes of coffee and hot water on the counter. “I figured you’d have the kitchen packed up by now. Someone checking in after hours?” he said hopefully.

  “No, sadly. Got a guest returning late for the night. Waiting to see if she wanted anything ’fore I got the kitchen buttoned up.”

  A guest out late? “What guest?”

  “Rita Brown. Said she was going out on a starlight photography tour.”

  “Yeah? Cloudy for stargazing.” Wrong time of year too. The dazzling display of stars unaffected by light pollution was most vivid in winter and spring, earning Death Valley the designation as the largest Dark Sky National Park in the country.

  Herm shrugged. “Only have so many vacation days, I guess,” he said. “Maybe she couldn’t wait for clearer skies.”

  The best photography outfit around happened to be run by his cousin Willow Duke. If Rita Brown had really been on a photography tour, he’d find out soon enough from Willow. If Rita was caught in a lie, well, perhaps then maybe she’d had something to do with the rock tossed at Laney.

  Either way, he was going to find out exactly who was responsible.

  * * *

  Laney laid the facts out for Jude in as thorough a manner as she could in between Beckett’s interjections. Now Admiral was back in her lap, snoring away. Her ankle did not hurt much. Knowing someone had thrown a rock at her head disturbed her far more.

  Was Beckett correct and this Kenny Sanderson really was after her? Or had it just been mischievous kids with nothing to do but stir up trouble? There were two teen boys staying at the hotel, plus dozens of bored young adults in the town of Furnace Falls. Small desert town, not much in the way of entertainment. They’d had minor problems before with vandalism and trespassers sneaking into the hot springs.

  “I’ll talk to the kids on the property,” Jude said.

  “It’s not teens.” Beckett folded his arms.

  “I already know what your theory is.” Jude frowned. “I’ve got a call in to Kenny’s parole officer to confirm his whereabouts. He’s staying at his uncle’s trailer. Right now Kenny’s not at home, but it’s still well within his parole curfew hours and his schedule is cleared with his PO so he can work at the gas
station until ten p.m. I also have a cop staged outside the uncle’s trailer to see when exactly he does show up and ask him a few questions.”

  “Can you call his cell phone?” Beckett asked.

  “His parole officer did at my request. Kenny’s not answering, but that’s to be expected. Boss at the gas station forbids them from having a phone on them during work hours.”

  Beckett did not look mollified, but at least he didn’t antagonize Jude further. “And the guest? The one who’s out late?”

  “Rita Brown,” Laney said.

  Jude raised an eyebrow. “How is she a part of this?”

  Beckett frowned. “I don’t know, but there’s just something odd about her.”

  “That sounds about right for someone in Furnace Falls. Odd doesn’t give me grounds to interrogate her.”

  “Then I will.”

  He frowned. “No, you won’t.”

  They were nose to nose, both big framed and square chinned, as were most of the Duke men. Stubborn was another trait they shared equally. Laney stood up, drawing their attention. “I’m with Jude on this one, Beckett. Rita is not the norm, but we can’t afford to alienate visitors with a nearly empty hotel on our hands. We need every guest we can get at this point.”

  “I wasn’t able to trace the call to the hotel you told me about,” Jude said.

  She nodded and rolled her ankle to test the bandage.

  “Do you need me to...?” Beckett started.

  “I am perfectly fine to walk to my room and tuck myself in.”

  “At least let me carry the dog.”

  Before she could argue, Beckett had taken the solid lump from her. Though she wouldn’t admit it, it was easier not to tote his dead weight along. Beckett followed her down the hallway and across the sprawling courtyard to their cabin. She opened the door and turned to take Admiral from him, but he was already moving past her. After setting the dog down, he began checking the windows and the door, which opened onto a minuscule porch area that housed her collection of desert plants. Aghast, she watched him take a quick glance into the closet and under the bed.

  He fixed her with a scowl. “You need to keep everything locked.”

  She stared at him, refusing to be bossed. “Thank you for the advice. I’ve learned how to take care of myself.”

  His mouth tightened. “I mean it.”

  “Beckett, what happened might have just been teens out for excitement. Let’s not blow this all out of proportion.”

  “It’s not teens.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “Laney,” he said, eyes ablaze with emotion that kicked up her nerves. “I did not kill Pauline Sanderson.”

  It was not what she had expected him to say. “I know.”

  He exhaled, long and slow. “I’m glad you still believe me about that, anyway.”

  She looked down. “I never doubted it. I told you as much, even at the jail before you stopped letting me visit.”

  He blinked hard, and she saw his Adam’s apple move. It took a few minutes for him to be able to speak. “Pauline’s murderer was never caught.”

  Never caught.

  His expression went distant, as if he were peering at something a thousand miles away. “I’ve had a lot of time to think it over. They set me up from the beginning, leaving a note for me to meet Pauline, putting her sweater in my truck. It was premeditated.”

  A prickle of gooseflesh erupted across her shoulders. She didn’t want to think about that terrible night, but she could not walk away from the conversation.

  He continued. “There was no apparent motive for the crime. She still had money in her pocket. There was another reason someone wanted her dead.”

  Laney felt the thud of her heart whacking against her ribs. In spite of her fear, she made herself ask. “What are you saying?”

  “Even if you don’t believe Kenny is a threat, there’s still a killer at large.”

  “That would be foolish in a small town like this. I’m sure they’re long gone by now, someone traveling through, a stranger.”

  “Maybe or maybe not. There’s a possibility it’s someone who stayed right here, someone we know and trust, who needed to silence Pauline for some reason.”

  Someone we know and trust. “I’ll keep the door locked, I promise.”

  “And don’t go anywhere alone.”

  “I’ll do what I can, but I’ve got a hotel to run.”

  “We have a hotel to run, Laney.”

  She went stock-still. “You’re not staying.”

  “Not permanently, but I’m here until you’re safe. I told you and I wasn’t kidding.”

  She glared. “I don’t want you shadowing me like some sort of bodyguard.”

  His lips quirked with the hint of a smile. “I’ll be subtle...like a bull in a china shop.”

  It was their joke from years before when he had dropped an entire tray of dishware in the middle of a dinner service and broken every single piece. Beckett had always said he was not built for interior spaces. He proved it by breaking things with regularity until she’d put her collection of porcelain animals up on a high shelf. She would not allow herself to be caught up in nostalgia.

  “I don’t want you here, but what I want isn’t going to change your mind, is it?”

  She saw him struggling to compose an answer.

  “Nope,” he finally said. “Sorry.”

  She heaved a sigh that felt like it came all the way from her toes. “All right, but remember, Beckett, this is temporary. We are getting a divorce. When Kenny is captured, one of us is leaving this hotel.”

  “It’s going to be deeded to you, just like I said, Laney.”

  “You don’t have to do that. You’re out of jail now. You can run it, and I’ll go.”

  “It’s yours and...” He took a breath. “Yours and the baby’s.”

  The way he said it made her eyes pool, but she would not let them spill. Silently, she nodded.

  “Is it...? I mean...do you know if it’s a girl or boy?”

  Pain circled through her in burning waves. Somehow, she got the words out. “I don’t know. Aunt Kitty thinks it’s a girl.”

  For a moment, his smile stripped the weariness from his face, and the wonder of their child danced between them. “A girl.” His gaze roamed her face hungrily. “She’ll be every bit as amazing as her mother.”

  His comment struck her as almost cruel. Amazing? The woman he’d decided to divorce? Before she could reply, Beckett was striding away, shoulders hunched, a long, tall silhouette against the setting sun.

  FIVE

  Beckett didn’t return to the tent. After he retrieved Laney’s phone from between some rocks near the spring, he settled in at the battered table in the dining room where he had a clear view of the front parking lot. Rita Brown would return eventually. She’d have to enter through the front or take the long route around to her room, but either way, he’d spot her.

  He shifted to ease the ache in his battered ribs. The dining room was finally starting to cool as the heat of the day dissipated. His view out the front window pained him. Though the wide vista of multihued rock was gorgeous, it reminded him of what he’d held most dear and lost. A swirl of tiny shadows danced along the horizon, bats on their evening forage. The sun finally surrendered and sank fully behind the distant cliffs.

  Jude had settled himself in the kitchen to return phone calls. Beckett made use of the time to do some investigation on his own, texting his cousin Willow to check if Rita had been on her starlight tour. Jude would not approve of him making inquiries, but Beckett was past caring.

  I’m out with Tony, she texted back. No tour tonight. Too cloudy.

  Tony Ortega was the navy pilot Willow had been dating for almost a year. As far as Beckett could tell, the single father was good for his gregarious cous
in, who had been hurt too many times in the love department. So...there had been no starlight tour for Rita. Willow was the only one offering organized photography excursions in and around Death Valley, as far as he knew. So where had Rita been? Too cloudy for good photo ops. Nightlife was next to nil in Furnace Falls. Neighboring Beatty, with a population just over one thousand, offered a few restaurants, a historical museum and a handful of small shops, so it was possible she’d taken a quick trip there, but most everything would have been closed hours earlier. The roads were long and isolated, and it would be easy for an out-of-towner to become disoriented. Not smart to go out exploring alone.

  Beckett sat quietly, arms folded, the picture of patience. He imagined how his father would laugh looking at him now. As a teen, Beckett had resented working long hours at the hotel. Like most of his peers, he’d wanted to be out riding horses, practicing football, basketball and playing arcade games. Beckett had fancied himself a skilled athlete with a possible professional career. Instead, he’d been required to change linens, take out trash and carry luggage, tasks he’d felt were beneath him. What a fool he’d been.

  It pained him to think of his teenage personality, restless and selfish. Life had steamed the impatience out of him. A day spent emptying trash cans and changing bed linens now seemed like what his father used to tell him was God’s work. After his train wreck of a life, he wasn’t sure anything he did would be valued by God. God watched over other people, not Beckett.

  Waiting did not bother him at all now, not if it meant he could poke the bushes to shed some light on who’d thrown a rock at Laney. In order to do that, he could be as patient as a stone statue and just as still.

  Clouds hemmed in the moonlight so it only shone in patches over the dry ground. In the past they’d keep the front windows open to allow the precious fall cool to seep in, but he’d closed and locked them, the entrance doors, as well. He would take no chances with Laney and the baby’s safety. A baby... The realization hit him afresh that there was a little life wrapped snugly inside his wife. Almost your ex-wife... He swallowed, his throat suddenly dust dry.