Rocky Road

by Josi S. Kilpack

  Sadie put the photo beside the grainier newspaper photo and looked between them several times. “Is this the same parking lot?” she asked. The angles weren’t exactly identical, but there was a trail marker that said “Chuckwalla” in both photos—to the left of the smiling women in one and in the right corner of the shot printed in the newspaper. In both photos, the same two-rail wooden fence enclosed the parking area. The line of mountains on the horizon behind them remained unchanged.

  Caro grinned, nodded quickly, and handed Sadie another photo. This one, a landscape photo, showed the same parking lot in the lower corner but was taken from a vantage point farther away. “Look at the cars,” Caro said, pointing to the vehicles in the photos. Sadie had to squint—the cars weren’t the focal point of the picture and didn’t stand out, but she saw a red sedan, a dark-colored truck, and a yellow Hummer. The Hummer was parked in the same place as the Cherokee in the newspaper photo. Caro continued, “No Jeep Cherokee—despite the fact that this photo was taken on Sunday, April tenth, two days after Dr. H left to go hiking.”

  Sadie looked at the photos again to verify the placement of the vehicles. She noted that there was no date and time stamp on the printed photos, which meant there was no way to prove that the photo had been taken on April tenth. She looked up at Caro, “So you think ... what?”

  “I think something’s fishy,” Caro said, looking rather pleased with herself as she returned to her bed. They were facing each other again. “He left on Friday. His car wasn’t there on Sunday, but it was there on Tuesday morning. What if something else happened to him and someone put his car in that lot to make it look like he disappeared while hiking?”

  Sadie chose to play devil’s advocate. “What if he hiked somewhere else on Saturday and then went to the Chuckwalla Trailhead after this photo was taken on the tenth?”

  Caro shook her head. “He was supposed to have been home on Sunday afternoon.”

  “Maybe he wanted to take one more short hike Sunday evening.”

  “And he took his entire sixty-pound frame pack on a quick hike? Sunset is around eight o’clock that time of year—I looked it up. Why take his whole pack if he’s planning to be back to the car in a few hours?”

  Sadie still felt it was a stretch to be too concerned about this, but she couldn’t help asking more questions. “Who’s in this photo?” she said, holding up the one of the two women.

  “That’s Tess’s friend Kathryn,” Caro said, pointing to the younger woman. “She’s a breast cancer survivor like Tess and has gone on a hike every year on the anniversary of her doctor telling her she was cancer free. She doesn’t live here in St. George, and she posted the photos on Facebook only a few weeks ago. When this new article came out, Tess made the connection.” She waved toward the first article Sadie had read. “When I got into town yesterday, Tess showed me the photos to see what I thought. It’s the same parking lot—you can tell, right?—and his car isn’t in it.”

  “But, like I said, that doesn’t prove anything. There’s no proof these photos were taken the same Sunday his car should have been there.”

  “Kathryn talked about the hike before and after on Facebook,” Caro said. “That counts for something.”

  “I’m not saying anyone’s a liar, but—”

  Caro cut her off. “This photo proves there is an inaccuracy in what the police think happened, which is that Dr. H went hiking on Saturday and never came back.”

  “Yes, okay, that’s a good point,” Sadie said with a nod. She’d seen in more than one case how a small detail could make all the difference. She felt better knowing that Caro wasn’t seeing this as proof that foul play had taken place, just that the police assumptions were incorrect in this one small detail. “Did you take this to the police, then?”

  An immediate look of disappointment crossed Caro’s face. “Well, no.”

  Sadie knew she hadn’t. If she’d taken this to the police, the gleam in her eye wouldn’t be quite so bright. Sadie picked up the other articles and handed them and the photographs back to Caro with an understanding smile. “Then that’s the next step.”

  Caro’s shoulders slumped slightly. “I thought you and I could look into it—ya know, see what we could find out on our own.”

  Sadie reached across the aisle between them and put a hand on Caro’s knee in hopes it would make the letdown a little easier. “Caro, this is an active police investigation, and you’ve found potential evidence. You know we need to take it to the police.”

  “But, Sadie—,” Caro said, sounding a little exasperated. She looked past Sadie for a moment, as though lining up her argument, then made eye contact with her again. “You have a gift. You are so good at this stuff. You change lives and find what no one else can find. I’ve seen it.”

  Sadie couldn’t help being flattered, but it didn’t change her mind. Part of her hesitation was likely because the other investigations she’d found herself in were months apart, giving her more time to recover, whereas her last case—if you could call it that—was just a few weeks ago. “I’ve also made a lot of messes, too. And this doesn’t feel like something my skills would lend themselves to. This is a disappearance in the backcountry—not my forte to say the least, and I don’t have any personal investment here—which isn’t an aspect I can just make up.”

  “But if something’s happened, isn’t that enough for you to become personally invested in it?”

  “Not right now, it isn’t,” Sadie said, not liking how cold she sounded but not sure how else to explain it. “I’m getting married next month. There’s been a lot going on. This isn’t the right time.”

  Caro wasn’t giving up. Sadie could see it in the set of her brow and the angle of her chin. “I don’t know that personal investment and timing is the right way to determine what’s right and wrong. In the Bible it says we shouldn’t hide our light under a bushel, Sadie. I think God gave you this light and—”

  “And sometimes those bushels catch on fire,” Sadie said, her voice just a little bit sharper. “Which happened to me just a few weeks ago, and I haven’t healed from it yet. I’m sorry. I’m not ready to tackle another case, and this one isn’t right for me anyway. We need to take these photos to the police and let them handle it.”

  Caro looked into her lap, but Sadie—though she was tempted—was not swayed to give in to her feelings of empathy. In the past, she had been guilty of not going to the police when she should have, and so, while she understood Caro’s reluctance to do so, it didn’t change the facts. When Caro spoke next, her voice was softer, more humble. “Tess had this idea to put together a scrapbook for Dr. H’s family, and we could use that as an excuse to talk to people. Ya know—without getting people all suspicious. Maybe he told someone something, or had some secrets that could explain the discrepancy.”

  Sadie stood her ground. “Caro, the photos are evidence.”

  Caro nodded her understanding, but Sadie could tell she felt the sting of being excited about doing something only to have Sadie shoot it full of lead. “And,” Sadie continued, “it’s important information for the police to have. I bet they’ll be really grateful to have it—in fact, why don’t we take it to them right now?”

  Caro looked conflicted. “Now?”

  “Absolutely,” Sadie said, wanting to validate Caro’s hard work in gathering this information. Regardless of Sadie’s feelings about the case, she could appreciate Caro’s investment and feelings of disappointment. “That article on Sunday shows there’s still community interest in this case, and this could be the break the police need to figure out what’s happened. Maybe they’ve found other discrepancies that this will help support. Who knows? I’m so impressed that you and Tess put all of this together.” It was difficult not to lecture Caro on the fact that she and Tess should have taken this to the police right away, but she hated those lectures when she was on the receiving end and therefore chose the kinder and gentler route. And a scrapbook? Talk about a flimsy cover story. It would never h
ave worked. She was doing Caro and Tess a favor by stopping this before they embarrassed themselves. “The authorities need to know about this. What time are we meeting Tess tonight? Are we still having dinner with her family?”

  Caro still sounded subdued. “Yeah, we’re supposed to be at her house at six o’clock.”

  It was just after four now. “We could run to the police station right now and turn this information in,” Sadie said. “Or ...” She picked up the article with the incriminating photo of the Cherokee and scanned the page. “It says a Sergeant Woodruff is an investigator on the case. We could call him and set up a time to meet with him. That way we would know the information got to the right person.”

  “You really think that’s best? I mean, you don’t want to just, I don’t know, talk to Dr. H’s wife or maybe one of the reporters who’ve followed the case or ... someone else who might know something? I think Tess’s scrapbook idea could really work—she’s already started getting the layout put together.”

  Sadie took a breath and kept her smile in place. Oh, how well she remembered feeling this way when she was worked up about a new case and people told her to just be still. How ironic that, for once, it was Sadie giving the counsel to do less and pull back. “It’s a police matter, Caro. The very best thing we can do is help them do their best work, and this will help them do that. Why don’t you call Sergeant Woodruff and ask him what we should do with all this information?”

  Caro looked at the articles in her hands again and nodded. “Can I make copies of everything first?” Caro asked, giving Sadie a hopeful look. “Just in case?”

  Chapter 3

  In the end, Sadie agreed to let Caro make copies of the articles, and Caro agreed to call Sergeant Woodruff. The call went to voice mail. When Sergeant Woodruff didn’t call them back by five o’clock, Sadie convinced Caro that they should take the original documents into the police department and set up an appointment to speak to someone there the next day. That would allow the officers time to go over the documents.

  At the police station, Sadie let Caro be the spokesperson, hoping it would help her be satisfied and keep Sadie’s name out of the situation. She didn’t look too good on paper these days—at least not to law enforcement.

  A desk officer assured them he’d get the documents to the investigator currently in charge of the case and that Caro would be contacted if he felt it was necessary.

  “I really have to explain the photos for it to make sense,” Caro said as they pushed through the front doors of the station on their way back to her car.

  “I’m certain they’ll call if they need more information,” Sadie said. “You did the right thing.”

  Caro’s blue car seemed to glow in the bright summer sun. Pointing the key fob, she pushed the button to unlock the doors, and the car beeped in confirmation.

  “Tess is going to be disappointed,” Caro said. “She was really into the idea of looking into this ourselves.”

  “That’s only because she’s never dug around in other people’s business before. Don’t you remember how intense everything got last time?” Sadie hadn’t forgotten the overwhelming fear she’d felt when things came to a head. Returning to those moments in her mind made it even more surprising to her that Caro wanted to take on another case.

  “Sure I remember.” They reached the car and moved to their respective doors. “But it was also exciting.”

  Sadie gave her a doubtful look as they looked at each other across the top of the car. “So you don’t remember.”

  Caro laughed and they both slid into their seats and pulled the doors closed.

  Though it was beautiful, the desert region of St. George was hot. The heat trapped in the car, first at the hotel, and again when they went into the police station, was stifling. And so very dry. It was different from Colorado heat, or even the heat in New Mexico where Caro lived. Was there any humidity in the air at all? Sadie immediately turned the air conditioning to high and said a silent prayer of gratitude for Freon.

  They headed south toward St. George Boulevard, one of the main east-west streets in the city center. Caro turned right, then merged into the left lane and made the first turn toward the white-domed tower that rose above the city, marking the Mormon Temple in St. George. They planned to tour the grounds and visitors center while they were in town, and Sadie was excited to learn more about it. The bright white building was like a pivot point, as though the entire city had grown from that one plot of land. Maybe it had.

  “Tess lives just a few blocks from here,” Caro said, noting the way Sadie looked at the temple. “You can see the top of the temple from her house—she and her husband, Paul, were married there.”

  “It’s beautiful,” Sadie said, craning her neck as they passed the building. When she faced forward she asked about Caro’s children—twin daughters attending two different colleges—and Caro’s husband, Rex. It had been so long since she and Caro had had a chance to just catch up. Caro was happy to give an update.

  It sounded as though things were on the mend for Caro and her husband; they’d been in a rough patch when Sadie had stayed with them last year. Rex had started coming to the gym with gym-rat Caro in the evenings and they had joined a horseback-riding group made up of other couples who took weekend day trips all over New Mexico. Sadie hadn’t even known they liked horses; they didn’t own any of their own. Could you rent horses for a weekend like a car or a carpet cleaner? What an odd concept.

  In September they were going on an eight-day horseback trip somewhere in Texas.

  “We were going to go in July,” Caro said, turning onto a residential street. About half of the houses had xeriscaped yards, with limited vegetation, while the other ones had grass. Sadie could only imagine how much water it took to keep the grass green in this climate. Caro continued, “but then someone decided to get married and we had to reschedule—luckily we hadn’t finalized the travel plans yet.”

  Sadie couldn’t help but grin. She looked at the diamond on her hand again. Zing. She forced herself to look away. She had kept herself from thinking about wedding plans for several hours, but now those thoughts began to surface. There was so much to be done, but most of it would need to wait until she was back in Garrison. She could wait a few more days. “So—tell me about Tess,” Sadie said aloud, to change the direction of her thoughts. “Other than the fact that she’s your cousin—on your mother’s side, right?—and had breast cancer.” With so much going on, Sadie hadn’t asked as many questions as she normally would.

  “Well, she came to St. George for college and met Paul, her husband. She has two awesome kids, and she’s a big-time scrapbooker. She’s really wonderful and high-energy and fun—did I tell you she’s only thirty-two?”

  “That’s so young,” Sadie said, heavy with the realization. How old were her kids when she was diagnosed? Sadie wondered.

  “It is young, too young. Latinas don’t have high breast cancer rates to begin with, and our family doesn’t have a history of it, so we were all taken by surprise. Tess was only twenty-nine when she found the lump.”

  “And Dr. Hendricks was her doctor at that time?”

  Caro nodded. “He’d delivered Gabby a few years earlier. She didn’t have insurance when she found the lump so she went through the foundation.”

  “And that’s what the walk is for on Friday.” It was the reason they had come this weekend. So much had happened in the last few weeks that Sadie hadn’t taken note of all the details Caro must have already told her. She hoped talking about Dr. Hendricks didn’t re-whet Caro’s interest in pursuing the case.

  “Right. They help uninsured women get mammograms and things. Dr. H oversaw her through the whole diagnostic procedure, and then, before they did any treatment, Dr. H helped her freeze some of her eggs so she might be able to have a baby after everything was over—most women are made sterile through the treatments, and Tess wanted more children.”

  “The foundation paid for all of that?” Sadie said, sur
prised that such additional costs as egg preservation would be covered.

  Caro nodded and glanced at Sadie. “Amazing, huh? Once she’s been cancer-free for five years, they’ll consider in vitro. Hopefully it will work out and she’ll get to be a mother again.”

  “And she’s Mormon?” Sadie asked, assuming as much because Tess had been married in a Mormon temple. Sadie knew that Mormons had pretty much settled the state of Utah after being run out of the cities they built back east.

  “Yeah, she converted in college—Paul was born and raised in the Mormon church. He’s one of seven kids. Mormons usually have big families.”

  “I’ve heard that,” Sadie said with a nod. “Is that why Tess wants more? Because of her church?”

  “Not necessarily, but I’m sure it’s part of it. Being a mom is really important to her and they struggled to get pregnant with Gabby as it was. It was devastating when she realized she might not have the chance to even try again—which makes Dr. H that much more important to her, ya know?”

  Sadie nodded. “But she’s doing well now? Cancer free?”

  “Sure is,” Caro said with a tender smile as she made another right-hand turn. “She had reconstruction surgery just six months after her mastectomy and has really done great with her diet and exercise to improve her overall health—I’ve been really proud of her. I can’t imagine going through something like that, especially at her age.”

  “They’ve come such a long way with breast cancer research in recent years. When I was Tess’s age, it was a death sentence.”

  “I know,” Caro said with a nod. “Early detection makes all the difference—Dr. H and his foundation saved her life. She was only six weeks post-op the first time we did the fund-raising walk, and she just walked the first mile. I finished the rest for her. Last year we walked the whole thing together. This year, we’re planning to run-walk it.”

  “I’m so glad she’s doing well,” Sadie said, wondering if she could run-walk twelve whole miles. She was in good shape these days. She had taken a page out of Caro’s book and realized how important it was to remain strong as she aged, but twelve miles was ... well, it was twelve miles. “I look forward to meeting Tess,” Sadie said. She also hoped that her not wanting to investigate Dr. Hendricks’s death wouldn’t destroy the potential friendship between her and Tess. She wanted very much to like this woman Caro thought so highly of.