by Alice Sharpe
“I don’t know what’s in the bag,” Echo said, “but he was holding it when I found him.”
The boy looked around the room as if seeing it for the first time. His gaze extended to the kitchen. By the flicker in his expression, Adam could tell he saw the box on the table and also that he knew exactly what it contained. He looked back at Adam.
“You knew it was Dad. You’ve been watching him. He told me so.”
“No,” Adam said, confused. “That’s not so. It’s true I’ve been trying to guard the cave because someone has been stealing things, but I didn’t know your father was the culprit until today.”
“No, you came out here before, he saw you. He told me so.”
Adam shook his head.
Echo gently touched the boy’s arm. “Let’s go outside and call the sheriff. There’s nothing for you to do here.”
“Yes, there is,” Dennis said defiantly and pulled away. “I gotta find my older brothers. I gotta talk to Hank and Tommy. You ain’t gonna get away with this.” He patted his pockets as though searching for a cell phone. With one last defiant look at Adam, the boy went outside, the screen door slamming behind him.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN EVERYONE is gone?” Adam asked Jamie who met him at the end of the driveway to the ranch.
Jamie was at least sixty and had been at Open Sky long before Adam had even been born. Technically, he was the foreman; unofficially, he was one of the family.
He was a bull-legged man, scrappy and opinionated. He had a fond spot for his bay mare and small children and he was one of the few men Adam’s father, Birch, ever really listened to.
“We had another tractor breakdown and someone had to go relieve Mike so he could get some sleep. Your dad went after the parts and your brother took off to the cave. Mike got back here about an hour ago looking like something the cat dragged in.” Jamie dug in his pocket for a second and hauled out two 9mm bullets. “That reminds me. Mike dug these out of a tree up at the mountain. Said it was near the spent .30 caliber casings Echo shot out of your hunting rifle.”
Adam took the bullets. One of them had undoubtedly passed through his shoulder. The invaded skin suddenly throbbed again.
“Me and Pete mowed the rest of the creek field and started in on the north slope. Even Pauline came out and helped for a few hours.” The older man rolled his neck and shoulders. Driving a tractor wasn’t Jamie’s idea of ranching. “Now you tell me a few things. What did the doctor say about you getting shot? I didn’t tell your father about it, but I’m not going to start keeping secrets from him at this stage of my life, so you better come clean.” Without giving Adam a chance to answer, he added, “Where in the heck have you been all day? Why is Echo still in Wyoming?”
The two men were standing in the middle of the yard. It was almost dark—the day had been unbelievably long, even by ranch standards. Adam looked off toward the house where he knew Echo was telling Pauline and her stepfather all that had transpired that day and knew he needed to do the same. He just wished his father and uncle were here so he only had to go through it once.
“My shoulder is fine,” he said. “I didn’t make it to the doctor. As for Echo, someone killed Willet Garvey and she happened to be with him when he died so she has to stay around for a while longer.”
Jamie whistled. “Willet’s dead?”
“Yep. It appears he was our thief. When did Dad leave?”
“Right after you.” They both looked up as headlights appeared on the road topping the hillside. Adam hoped it wasn’t the police—he and Echo had both spent hours with the sheriff’s department that afternoon and had an appointment with him at three the next afternoon for a rehash. When he’d left, deputies had been casting tire tracks out in the grove.
It was his father’s old beater that finally swept into the clearing, however. As he got out of the car and pulled on his tan hat, his limp seemed more pronounced than ever.
“Took you long enough,” Jamie said.
“No one in Woodwind had it. Good thing Riley’s thought to call Big Fir and see if they had one or I’d probably be in Idaho by now. It’s in the trunk.” He looked at Adam. “You hear about Willet Garvey?”
“Yeah, as a matter of fact—wait, where did you hear about it?”
“On the radio. Can’t say it surprises me much.”
“Let’s go inside and get something to eat,” Adam said. “There are things we need to talk about. You come, too, Jamie.”
“I already ate. Birch can catch me up on things later.” And here he gave Adam a look that telegraphed very clearly that he expected the gunfight of the night before to be disclosed. That data seemed like ancient history to Adam. “Give me your keys, Birch,” Jamie added. “I’ll go install the part.”
“Get Mike to help you,” Birch said, tossing the keys to his foreman.
“Mike is sleeping.”
“Then Cody—”
“He took his dog with him to guard the cave.”
“And Pete?”
Jamie took out the part and a sheet of paper. “Pete worked all day. Now he’s inside visiting with Echo I suppose.”
“Damn it!” Birch exploded. “This is a ranch in the middle of haying season. What’s wrong with everyone?”
“Pauline offered to go after the part for you. You didn’t have to run around so stop bellyaching,” Jamie sputtered.
“Come inside,” Adam said. “We need to talk.”
“I don’t want to talk. I’ll help Jamie—”
“I don’t need your help,” Jamie said, slamming the trunk. He handed Birch the paper, which appeared to be an invoice. “I’ll take an electric lantern out to the field. Now that we have the part, it won’t take me more than an hour to fix the tractor. You go inside.”
“But—”
“For once, just listen to someone else,” Jamie said.
But before anyone could move, more lights showed up on the driveway. Adam steeled himself for another disaster and breathed a sigh of relief when he recognized the long white luxury car that belonged to Lonnie Nielsen.
Lonnie was out of the car in a flash. “I heard about Garvey on the television news,” he said. Lonnie wasn’t a rancher anymore—he’d lost his place due to some bad investments years ago and now lived on an estate outside Woodwind where his third wife’s trust fund kept him comfortable. He was built the same as Adam’s father, a big solid man though Lonnie’s head was almost completely bald and his eyebrows were all but missing. He wore alligator cowboy boots with red detailing.
“They said you found him,” he added, glancing at Adam. He’d stuck his right hand in his jeans pocket and was jingling coins.
“More or less.”
“Do they know who did it?”
Birch answered before Adam could. “What are you so steamed up about? I didn’t know you and Willet Garvey even knew each other.”
“I didn’t know him. Never met him,” Lonnie said, coins still rattling. “But a murder in broad daylight. It’s terrible. No one is safe anymore. Do they know why someone would kill him?”
“Willet had to have a fair number of enemies,” Birch said, taking off his hat and scratching his head.
“They said something about a busted drug deal.”
“Boy, those newscasters don’t miss a beat, do they?” Adam said. “Did they mention the relics, too?”
Lonnie froze. “What relics?” he squeaked at last.
“The relics from our cave,” Birch said. “Damn fool was stealing them out of our burial cavern.”
“I didn’t know you had something like that out here.”
“Not many people do. Willet must have heard about it from Lucas or Doyle. Both of them worked here at times. They must have overheard one of us talking about it.”
“Was he killed because of those relics?”
“Hell, I don’t know,” Birch said. He pulled his hat back on his head. “Come on in and have a bite of supper, Lonnie. It’s been a long day.”
“I can’t,” L
onnie said, and he turned and opened his car door. “I have to get back to Janine.”
Without another word, he squeezed in behind the wheel and started the engine. The tires spun out on the gravel as he whipped the car around and headed back the way he’d come.
Birch shook his head and started up the porch steps. Adam followed, the papers Dr. Wilcox had given him clutched in his hand.
Chapter Eight
Echo looked up from a plate of steaming short ribs she had no appetite for as Birch and Adam came into the house. Her uncle looked grouchy which she was beginning to suspect was a more-or-less chronic condition. Adam looked wired. Her stepfather continued to eat silently.
Adam smiled at her, no doubt noticing her damp hair and change of clothes, maybe even the glass of red wine Pauline had insisted Echo take in the aftermath of her ordeal that afternoon. The truth was the hottest shower and the most potent liquor in the world couldn’t chase the image of Willet Garvey’s dying face out of her brain.
And his dying words? Her secret. She didn’t know what to make of them, she wouldn’t repeat them, not to anyone.
And the silver disk? No. There had to be another explanation for that. That would be a secret, too.
The two men sat down at the table as Pauline hurried to bring them cold drinks. Birch dished up a plate for himself and shoved the serving dish toward Adam, who opened an envelope instead, spreading the contents on top of his empty plate.
“What’s all that?” Birch asked as he tucked into his dinner.
“These papers are the way we’re going to get back to being ranchers, which is what you keep saying you want. Things have happened you don’t know about.”
Echo took a deep breath. The atmosphere had suddenly gone from borderline tense to crackling. That plane she hadn’t caught looked damn attractive about now.
Didn’t it?
It had that morning. Okay, maybe it hadn’t in a way. Maybe part of her had wanted to stick around and get to know Adam better. But that kind of stupid thinking was reason enough to get out of here…?.
“Like what?” Birch said.
Adam pushed himself away from the table. He walked to the unlit dining-room fireplace and rested his good shoulder against the mantle. “Yesterday we were shot at inside the cave. It was a defensive measure used to secure a getaway. Echo fell as a result.”
“I know about that—”
“And last night both Echo and I were up on the mountain again. I took a bullet in the shoulder that time. The thief advanced on us when he thought we were down. I wholeheartedly believe we’re alive because Echo scared the pants off him.”
Pete quietly stared at his stepdaughter.
Echo did her best not to show how pleased Adam’s remarks made her. Hopefully he wouldn’t mention the fact she had thought she’d killed him…?.
Birch chewed and swallowed. He accepted a glass of ice water from Pauline and finally said, “Why didn’t anyone tell me about this?” Echo noticed how her stepfather avoided Adam’s gaze.
“Because I asked them not to. Let me finish. This afternoon I spoke to a professor at the university. They start researching the cave tomorrow morning. They’ll handle security until they’re done excavating and removing the artifacts to the university for study and proper placement.”
Birch took another bite. Echo looked up at Adam and tried to telegraph support—not that he needed it or wanted it from her.
“We’ve been through this a million times,” Birch said at last. “Nothing has changed. Westin men have protected the site since my grandfather’s day.”
Adam rubbed his eyes. “No, Dad, it’s not the same anymore. It used to be a secret of sorts but it’s not anymore. Echo and I went out to the Garvey place today. As a matter of fact, she’s the one who found Willet. He was still alive, but just barely.”
“Still alive!” Birch said, his attention immediately snapping to Echo. The force of his gaze froze her for a second.
“Did he say anything? Did he see who shot him?”
“He didn’t speak,” she said, and hoped her voice didn’t reveal the truth.
Birch rounded on his son. “Why was she the one who found Willet? I can’t believe you took her out there. Where the heck were you?”
“I was chasing someone across the field. Someone who left the house right before Willet died. Probably the man who killed him.”
“Did you see who it was?” Birch asked anxiously. “Do the police have any suspects?”
“One,” Adam said. “Me.”
Birch put down his fork. “You!”
“Dennis is convinced I killed his father.”
Birch snorted. “Poppycock!”
“I agree. I don’t think the sheriff takes it seriously, either. I have an iron-tight alibi because I was with Dr. Wilcox and then with Echo, but that doesn’t mean the Garvey boys won’t come looking for revenge. From their point of view, we’ve pretty much decimated their family and before Willet died, he apparently told his son he’d seen me hanging around their place.”
“Was Garvey the scoundrel robbing the cave?”
“It sure looks like it. There’s a whole box of artifacts on his kitchen table.”
“And now he’s dead so that’s the end of that,” Birch said as he tore a piece of bread and used it to sop up the gravy on his plate.
“No,” Adam said firmly, “that’s not the end. It’s just the beginning.”
“Poppycock,” Birch repeated.
Pete cleared his throat and spoke for the first time. “Birch is right. If Willet was the thief and now he’s dead, no more robberies. What’s the point in having the university poking around?”
Adam was working on the knot in his jaw so Echo answered. “The sheriff’s office knows those things were taken from your cave. It’ll be all over town by tomorrow. Even if Mr. Garvey isn’t around to sneak into the cave, someone else will. You’ll be stuck posting a guard there until the end of time. Either that, or everything will simply disappear.”
She looked from one old man’s face to the other, so alike in many ways, especially when it came to stubborn. “And I agree with Adam. There was as much rage in Dennis’s face as there was grief. Who knows what he and his brothers will do?”
“We’ll just—” Birch began, but Adam turned suddenly and the look on his face was fierce. His father closed his mouth.
“We won’t just anything,” Adam said. “We’re going to invite the university to document and archive that damn burial chamber, to preserve and learn from it. Period.”
Birch pushed back his chair and stood. “Are you forgetting who’s boss around here?”
“No, sir, I’m not,” Adam said. “But your pride is going to get one or more of us killed.”
“My pride is what keeps this family going,” Birch growled. “My hard work, my—”
“Listen to yourself,” Adam said. “Do you really believe you’re the only one who’s sunk their heart and soul into this place? What about Cody and the price he’s paid? What about Jamie and Mike and even me?”
Birch shook his head. “I didn’t mean it that way.”
“You used to say this was a family ranch. All for one and one for all. I hope you still believe that.”
“Of course I do.”
“I understand that legally you hold all the power. I’m hoping that your respect and concern for the rest of us is strong enough to open your eyes to this new reality. The whole family is going to be under a microscope until Willet Garvey’s murderer is found. Things like this can ruin reputations and lives. It would be great if we could keep the burial cavern intact, the way it was intended, but it’s too late for that now. We need to work together and the first order of business is taking care of the past.”
“And Cody agrees? Pierce?”
“Both of them. Dad, the dig will be run professionally. Minimal contact with us. They can even use the forest service road on the east side for access. You won’t even know it’s going on. The remains and arti
facts will be photographed in situ and then moved to the university for preservation, just like I said. They’ll want to study the cavern, as well, but it won’t involve us. And best of all, you will have done the right thing and protected your family in the bargain.”
“Just a bunch of academics, huh?”
“That’s all. Just a bunch of teachers and students.”
“I’ll think about it,” he said.
Echo took a sip from her wineglass as she looked from father to son. They stood at an angle to her, facing each other. In profile, their appearance was so similar; the male Westin gene pool must be a very strong one. Birch’s hair was lighter thanks to the gray and he was a tad shorter in stature and a little heavier, but clothes and hats would mitigate those differences…?.
Dennis said his father had told him Adam had been watching him, that he’d come out to their house—could Willet have seen Birch, not Adam? Had he seen the concho band and made an assumption he found out today was wrong? Had his dying words not been to indict Adam but to admit he was mistaken?
Equally, was it possible Uncle Birch knew it was Willet behind the thefts? If he had chosen to deal with Willet directly, had he gone there today to reason with him, gotten into a fight—was it possible Birch killed Willet?
What about the drugs? Where did they come in?
“Echo?”
Startled, she set down her glass too quickly and it toppled over, spilling red wine across the white cloth. She gasped, but Pauline simply handed her a napkin.
Adam moved to her side. “You look beat.”
She swallowed hard. Where were these crazy thoughts coming from? “Yes, you’re right. I am. It’s been a terrible day.” She gave up on the stain, set the napkin aside and got to her feet. “I’ll clear the table—”
“You’ll do no such thing,” Pauline said. “And Birch, you’d better finish up, sign those papers and get going. Del Halverson called a while ago to remind you there’s a card game tonight over at Lonnie’s. He said you should take Pete.”
