The Dead Priest of Sedona

by Charles Williamson

  About 10:00, I received a call from former Sheriff Cook. He had heard about the rock fall at the Woods’ place. He updated me on what he had learned from his friends at the Peaks.

  “Angus Wood was an acquaintance of two of the residents here. Archie Moffitt had a forty-year career in the Forest Service in this area of Arizona. He joined the Service back in 1945 right out of the army. Angus Wood was unusual because he hadn’t served in the military in World War II. Wood was an American citizen by the war, but he was slightly too old for the draft. He served as a volunteer in the Forest Service while the younger men were at war. He continued with the Forest Service through the 1950’s. Archie said that he remembers the Wood family as rather prosperous in the Depression years. They stored their apples and shipped them by train to eastern markets in the off-season, getting good prices,” Sheriff Cook said.

  “Did you find any evidence of criminal activity in the family history?” I asked.

  “Angus made some excellent liquor that was supposed to be good scotch-type moonshine. It was rather famous in northern Arizona as the best homemade shine in the area. He claimed that he aged it for two years. Angus Wood sold it from the trunk of his car every Friday night in downtown Flagstaff during that period.”

  “Moonshine and sacrificial murder are pretty far apart,” I said.

  “I’m just reporting what I learned. Moonshine was popular during the hard years because it was so much cheaper than the real stuff even after prohibition. The Woods served hard cider, beer, and their own moonshine down in the little Apple Tree Tavern. They also had a dozen tourist cabins that were popular with folks escaping the heat in Phoenix. People would rent them for a month at a time in the summer back in those days. It became a regular little community that formed each summer.”

  “No other mention of criminal activity?” I said.

  “I also found someone, Pete Heart, who’s a third cousin of Helen Wood. He said that the Wood family always kept to themselves more than his other relatives. The Wood clan was dominated by old Angus Wood who wanted nothing to do with his son’s in-laws. When I mentioned the murders above the West Fork, he thought that anything was possible with his Wood kinfolk. That’s all I have so far, but I’m still working on it, Mike.”

  I thanked Sheriff Cook. I went to update Chad on what the former sheriff had said and on what I had learned from the financial records. We discussed the case and decided to go to the Woods’ cabins after lunch. The crew from the state highway department was expected at 1:00. Margaret’s comments of last night had made me wonder if it was really the Woods that we saw enter the tavern. Her intuition was often correct, but I had seen them enter the tavern with my own eyes. Since my LASIK surgery, I was 20/10. I might not recognize Walter from an old photo, but I was certain that Malcolm and Helen entered that old rock building.

  CHAPTER 38

  We reached the roadblock at the entry to the Woods’ property at 1:20 but learned that the state highway engineer was running late because of Phoenix traffic. Sheriff Taylor already had eight officers taking fingerprints in the rental cabins and in the Woods’ house. They were also securing samples for DNA testing for the match with the bodies when they were recovered.

  I called LA and asked the police to find something that could be used for a DNA sample in Walter’s apartment. Chad and I decided to investigate the surrounding property to see if there were any structures that we hadn’t looked through. As we approached the area of the tavern, I saw the crime technician from Flagstaff testing for the presence of blood on the rock structure that I thought was a Druid altar.

  We continued walking upstream along the cliff that had formed the back of the tavern. We found old rock irrigation channels. They brought the Oak Creek water to the apple trees through natural gravity flow. It’s an ingenious system also used in other parts of Oak Creek Canyon. About two hundred yards up the canyon, we found a small stone building built with the back wall as part of the cliff. It shared a style with the tavern. I guessed that Angus Wood had built it in his early years at the apple orchard. It also had a green metal roof. The small shed was made with the same river rocks that had been used for the cabins and the tavern. Inside, the back wall was lined with shelves that held tools for pruning and spraying the apple trees. We could see the bare stone of the canyon wall behind the shelves. Its floor creaked with age as we investigated the small storage space. We found nothing interesting.

  We heard another vehicle arrive and walked back to the area where the tavern had been located. The two engineers from the highway department introduced themselves. We described the tavern. The experts maintained that the huge size of this rock fall would make the recovery of the bodies extremely difficult. Some drilling and blasting would be needed. When they were through, not much that was recognizable would remain of the tavern or its inhabitants.

  I explained that we only needed DNA samples to identify the bodies, but I’d like to check anything from the inside of the tavern for fingerprints. I wanted to know who else might have been in the bar in the past few weeks. The engineers estimated that it would take three weeks to a month to remove this rock fall in a way that would preserve some evidence. The state would begin tomorrow.

  After our visit to the Woods’ property, Chad and I drove up Oak Creek Canyon to the turnoff that led to the forest service road nearest Pagan Point. The road was deeply rutted by the passage of many military trucks. We bounced along the rutted snow-packed road until we reached the turnoff where the National Guard had improved the formerly closed road out to the edge of the West Fork Canyon. They had used steel sheets to form a roadbed and cut down only enough trees to widen the road for their large trucks. We parked and stepped out into ten inches of fresh snow that had been packed down by the activity in the busy area. In the dark green tent in the center of the complex, there were scores of tables with skeletons. Human remains were also on the tent floor in black body bags along two sides of the fifty-foot long morgue. It was profoundly shocking to see the bodies laid out like this. They all showed blackened feet and leg bones. White coated specialists moved around the tables. All the bodies had been recovered now; there were fifty-two, not counting Father Sean and Kevin Riker. Sadly, I was not even certain that this was the full accounting of their victims. The stone altar was still being tested for human blood.

  One of the sheriff’s deputies showed us around the area. The plan was to assemble the bodies here, and then transport them to the armory in Flagstaff before more snow made this location even more difficult to maintain. At the recovery site, a crane was situated with its arm over the side of the cliff. It was used to raise and lower a platform like high-rise window washers use. The deputy explained that the crew was finished. The crane would be gone tomorrow, and the bodies would be moved within a couple of days.

  I asked about the small shed that had been found back in the woods a quarter mile from the circular grove. It was difficult walking through the untrammeled snow to the shed. The building was well hidden behind large ponderosa pines. It was built in exactly the same style as the shed we had seen down in the apple orchard a few hours earlier. It used the local volcanic rock, but the stones were laid in the same manner. It had an identical green metal roof. When we opened the metal door, the rings formed over many years by the metal cage were visible on the concrete floor. It exactly matched the diameter of the murder cage. The deputy explained that no prints had been found.

  It was easy to understand the method used in the crime, but I was still baffled by the motivation for the fifty years of murders. It just seemed irrational and crazy. Chad suggested that we call Professor Stone and see if he now thinks there might be an active Druid cult here in Arizona. When we got back to the Explorer, I called the academic on the satellite phone and made an appointment for that afternoon.

  As we drove into town, Chad and I discussed the case. It soon became clear that Chad was much more optimistic about catching the Secret Mountain Wilderness murderers than I was. It had never oc
curred to Chad that these criminal bastards might actually escape justice. This was Chad’s first murder investigation. I had managed more than two hundred murder investigations in my thirty years in Los Angeles.

  Unfortunately, I realized that if the murderer was not directly connected to the victim or caught in the act of murder, our odds were less than fifty-fifty. Our only solid leads had been cut off at the Apple Tree Tavern. I saw no reason to spoil Chad’s optimism. Good police work greatly improves the odds.

  CHAPTER 39

  After parking the Explorer, we walked the two blocks to Professor Stone’s office through a light snowfall. I had not heard the forecast, but it looked like the snow was going to get heavy. The professor had his door open and greeted us warmly. “Gentlemen, I’m glad that you came to see me. I’ve been following your case, and I’d certainly like to do anything I can to help. Clearly, I was incorrect about there being no Druids, or at least pseudo Druids, in Arizona. These crimes actually look like Druid sacrifices as they were reported by Roman chroniclers of two thousand years ago. At least the pseudo Druids studied their history. What can I do to help?”

  Chad started by saying, “Professor, we’ve had a number of things that led us to the Wood family down in Oak Creek, Malcolm, Helen, and their son Walter. Yesterday, they were killed in a landslide that destroyed their tavern. You had some relationship with Angus Wood many years ago. We are trying to understand the motivation for these crimes. Can you tell us what is going through these pagans’ minds?”

  In the window behind professor Stone, it was snowing harder. The professor focused on a spot about a foot above my head and replied, “Gentlemen, I have a theory about these crimes. I think old Angus Wood was fascinated with the ancient Druids. He probably already had this obsession when he immigrated to the US before the Second World War. I think that he took my class to learn more about the Celtic religion. Sadly, he involved his son and later his grandson in his mania. My friend Sean Murphy might have discovered the Woods’ pre-Christian religion. I believe that Father Sean fell prey to their desire to cover up their long history of human sacrifices.”

  “Fell prey” seemed an odd phrasing as if they were wild animals not homicidal humans, but I didn’t interrupt because he seemed to be on a roll.

  “The previous sacrifices only involved the dredges of society, men who were not missed. When they killed a well-known history scholar, they increased the profile of the crime. He was certain to be missed. Through the bad luck of Kevin Riker’s hiking trip, the whole history of Druidic practices in the area was uncovered.”

  It seemed like another long lecture was on tap. I interrupted saying, “That may all be true Professor, but it does not explain any motivation for the crimes that the Sean Murphy and Kevin Riker murderers were trying to hide. Why would Druids, either modern or ancient, want to conduct human sacrifice on Halloween?”

  “There is no connection between ancient and modern Druids,” he said. “The true Druid religion ended twelve centuries ago. Modern Druids are a harmless lot. Winston Churchill was reportedly one. Most of them have some sort of ecology and nature orientation. If the Wood family were Druids, they made up this sacrifice ritual. Human sacrifice is definitely not part of modern Druid practices.” He fiddled with the pen on his desk and talked to a spot between Chad and me.

  “Father Sean believed that the true Druids persisted in Eastern Poland, Northern England and Scotland until the sixteenth century. Angus Wood was from Northern England. In fact, he was from the Lake District where the last Druids in England were reported,” I said.

  “Sean Murphy was unequivocally wrong.” The professor was speaking as if I personally insulted him in some manner. “Sean may have been a good priest, but his scholarship was weak. There were no Druids in England after 800 AD. This article he wrote about Druids in Poland was just fantasy. I don’t know what nonsense you’re referring to in Northern England, but there were no Druids at that time.”

  The snow was falling hard and the view of campus outside the professor’s window was gone. I wondered if 89A would be plowed before we headed back to Sedona. I was not ready to give up on the stubborn professor. “Professor Stone, maybe you can explain why the ancient Druids during the period when Caesar was conquering Gaul were sacrificing people by burning them on Samhain. What was their motivation?”

  It was fun to watch the professor’s expression as he realized that I was not entirely ignorant of history. “The Druids,” he said, “understood the world was dependent on their religious practices to keep the cosmic order. Without a Samhain Sacrifice, the spirits of the afterworld would run free on Earth. The spirits could do great mischief and harm to the tribe. The Samhain and other ceremonial practices were needed for the good of society, and the Druid priests were performing an important public service in their rituals. They were the scholars, judges, counselors, and historians of their society. The Samhain ritual was only a very small part of the Druid priests’ important duties. It was considered a noble service to society. The priests kept chaos from engulfing the world.”

  Before I could ask another question, Professor Stone got up and walked out saying only, “Sorry. Class.”

  Chad looked over at me uttering only a single anatomical obscenity that was an apt description of the distinguished, egotistical professor. We walked back to the car through the heavy snowfall talking about Moon Lady. We wondered if the psychologist that the sheriff had used was able to make something of her nonsense chant.

  CHAPTER 40

  When we reached the sheriff’s office for our regular meeting, we found a man I did not recognize waiting with Sheriff Taylor. The sheriff introduced Mayor James Hall. The mayor opened the meeting by saying, “Congratulations, gentlemen, for solving the Secret Mountain murders. We now know that the Wood family of Sedona killed fifty-four people over a period of half a century. They committed suicide yesterday. I would like to announce that the cases are solved before ski season starts. We’ve got good snow this year and this new storm should help. The two weeks around Christmas can be the biggest of the year. I suggest that you have another press conference tomorrow and announce that we’ve solved the Secret Mountain Murders.”

  I was speechless. “Now Jim,” the sheriff said, “you are really jumping the gun. We haven’t even recovered the Woods’ bodies yet. Even when we do find their remains, we can’t be sure that there are not more people involved. I suggest that we only report on things we know for certain. We should wait for the weekly briefing on Friday afternoon.”

  The mayor looked annoyed, but said, “Greg, we need this case closed by the end of November. People can’t enjoy coming here for skiing if they think they might be burned alive in some pagan ritual. Close this case by December 1.” The Mayor smiled the politician smile, shook hands with all of us, and left.

  We sat around the sheriff’s conference table. “Don’t worry,” the sheriff said with a grin. “I work for the county, not the city of Flagstaff. The mayor has no influence in this case. There are too many loose ends. We didn’t find any real evidence that Malcolm and Helen Wood are even involved. We have fingerprint evidence that their son took the Navigator that killed Kevin Riker. The fact that they had a bar in an apple orchard called the Apple Tree Tavern and all the rest of the Druid supposition is not much use in court. We don’t even have unequivocal proof that more than three people were involved. There were prints from two vehicles at the end of the forest service road near the circular grove, but that only proves that there were at least two people.”

  “Malcolm was a big man, but I don’t think he could have hung that cage and gotten the victims into it with only the help of his wife and son,” I said stating my opinion for the record. I knew there were more Druids out there somewhere.

  The sheriff leaned back in his chair and said, “The facts indicate that Walter Wood was involved in the hit and run death of Kevin Riker. That is really the only evidence we’ve got that’s solid. We’ll continue following every lead until we hav
e solved this case for real. No fake announcements of success. We’ve got until December 1 before the mayor blows a gasket.”

  “Has the shrink learned anything from Moon Lady?” Chad asked.

  The sheriff retrieved a file folder from his desk and opened it. “Our psychologist, Kathleen Hawley, believes that Molly saw the abductions that she described to you. She thinks that Molly is relating real events in a somewhat poetic style. Dr. Hawley has Molly on some new medications. She hopes to have more information in a few days, but at this point Molly has described three abductions in good detail. Dr. Hawley believes that more than three people were involved in abducting the victims. Molly reports that five people grabbed the German victim after using the magic touch. I think that Molly is describing a device like this.”

  The sheriff retrieved a small device the size of a Palm Pilot from his pants pocket. It had two metal points sticking out of one end. “These little devices deliver an incapacitating shock. They can be ordered through catalogues or on the Internet. Molly recognized that this stun gun was her magic touch. I think that liquor and drugs were sometimes used, but this little gadget is quick and makes no noise. The murderers just pushed their incapacitated victim into their vehicle and sped away. By the way, I found out that Molly has a history degree from NAU. She graduated in 1968. Her minor was in German.”

  Chad and I reported on our activity for the day. We decided that finding the old tires from the Woods’ truck was a high priority. It would tie Helen and Malcolm to the crime. We still needed to find who ordered or produced the woad dye. We’d have a lot of fingerprints from the Woods’ rental cabins to investigate by tomorrow. I still hadn’t received a reply to my e-mail to Dr. Beech who owned the property where the Navigator had been hidden. We planned our investigation, but now good leads were scarce. This was going to be a very difficult investigation. Chad was certain that the other Druids would soon be in custody, but I was not as confident. There were six inches of new snow by the time we drove down the switchbacks to Sedona.