Tattered Legacy (A Nora Abbott Mystery)

by Shannon Baker

  Deep drifts of fine, red sand covered the grass, burying smaller shrubs and piling around the willows. The destruction of a flash flood showed in the narrow canyon. It must have been a wild hour or so as the water screamed through, drowning anything unfortunate enough to be trapped on the canyon floor. Now the sand piled in drifts, still damp from yesterday’s afternoon shower, and the clump grass and white flowers of the bindweed and evening primrose poked through the surface.

  Vertical walls of sandstone rose high on either side, creating a slot canyon. Their variegated layers blended from yellows to reds with blackened surfaces near the top. The leaves of the cottonwoods rattled in the soft breeze with sweeping arms creating cover from the sun.

  Nora and Abbey plodded after the others. She longed to feel the strength of Cole beside her, but he had his own problems to deal with in Wyoming. He’d been tight-lipped about that on the phone the last couple of days.

  The day warmed enough that Nora removed her light jacket and tied it around her hips. It slapped against the back of her shorts as she trudged up the trail. Sand squeaked under her hiking boots with every step. She’d briefly considered dressing more formally but rejected the idea, knowing Lisa would think it pretentious. The burbling creek felt too cheerful for Nora’s heavy heart. Even the air betrayed Nora’s mood, smelling green and moist and full of summer’s growth.

  The three people ahead of Nora slowed behind an elderly couple making their way up the trail. Behind her, hushed voices of more people broke the silence. Bushes closed in on the hikers, and trees shaded the path. In a few moments Nora and the others entered a large clearing created by several slick red rocks. The creek, now back to normal after the flash flood some time ago, bubbled happily as it wound around the rocks and bumped against the cliff wall.

  About fifty people crowded together under the willows and elms.

  Rachel stood next to the creek. Her blond hair hung straight down her back. Her pale skin only highlighted her red-rimmed eyes and nose. Nora wanted to hug her, to tell her that it would be all right—but it wasn’t all right. Rachel might love again. She might build a life full of exciting and fun challenges, might go on to be successful, and each day might radiate with happiness. But as Nora knew from her own experience after her husband’s death two years ago, the pain would strike at odd moments. It would rush in like a black tide and wipe out the carefully constructed levy around her heart.

  Not overly dramatic, huh, Nora? Okay, well, maybe that was all flowery and nostalgic. Nora and Scott had been headed for divorce, and it’s likely that after they split, Nora would have felt a measure of the loss she felt now when she thought of Scott. But he hadn’t had the chance to divorce Nora. He’d been murdered.

  And Nora had stood on a mountaintop in Flagstaff, in very much the same way Rachel stood here.

  Nora found a place at the back of the crowd so that Abbey could lie in the shade and not be stepped on. He settled under a bush, lowered his head to his paws, and dozed.

  The crowd mostly consisted of outdoors types of various ages—from twenty-somethings all the way to gray-hairs. All wore hiking or casual clothes. Nora didn’t spot any of Lisa’s family, and she hadn’t expected to. They’d turned their backs on Lisa when she’d come out her sophomore year, and as far as Nora knew, Lisa hadn’t wasted any time trying to bring them back into her life.

  A man about Nora’s age in faded Wranglers and cowboy boots stood by himself. He held a black felt cowboy hat that left a ring around his light brown hair. His lips flattened in a look of irritation and he glared at Rachel. Another, more handsome man stood behind Rachel, close enough to touch her. Nora wondered if he was her brother, though with his dark wavy hair, trim and fit body, and alert expression, he looked like her opposite.

  Rachel cleared her throat. “I’m happy to see all of you here. Moonflower was Lisa’s favorite place.”

  Rachel’s composure impressed Nora. She’d barely been able to tie her shoes after Scott’s death.

  “There is nothing Lisa would have loved more than all of you gathered here in the sunshine.”

  Nora stared at the rock under her feet and fought the lump lodged in her throat. Someone sniffled. An older man put his arm around a gray-haired woman and pulled her close.

  Rachel held her shoulders erect, her head high. “What I loved most about Lisa was her one hundred percent devotion to whatever she believed in.”

  Nora lost her fight for control and let the tears spill down her face.

  A smile threatened Rachel’s pale lips. “She’d spend hours watching the giant white flowers of datura open in the evening, delighted with the hawk moths that came to pollinate it.”

  Rachel swallowed and continued. “After hiking trails all over the world and covering almost every foot of her beloved southern Utah wilderness, Lisa died from a freak accident. How did the land she loved so well betray her?”

  Rachel’s voice wavered and she pulled her shoulders back. “When we backpacked together, I always headed out on a mission. I’d pop out of the sleeping bag ready to hit the trail, putting miles under my feet. Lisa loved to linger. She’d sit quietly with one more cup of coffee and watch the sun slide over rocks, shadows changing slowly. She’d pause on the trail to watch a toothpick-size lizard perform pushups or just to listen to the stillness of the desert.” Rachel swallowed a hiccup. “I loved to spend time outdoors with Lisa because she forced me to stop and appreciate what I might otherwise zoom past.”

  Rachel swiped at tears. “Thirty-three years weren’t enough for someone so vital and passionate. She should have had a lifetime to savor, more time to help the land she devoted herself to. And I needed more years to love the woman who brought me so much happiness.”

  A sob sounded from somewhere to the right.

  Rachel’s voice hardened and rang clear in the morning sun. “It was her passion for this place, southern Utah, that killed her.”

  The anger in her tone made Nora lift her head.

  Rachel’s eyes burned into her. “I loved Lisa. But she could be stubborn.” This message seemed aimed at Nora. A subdued chuckle of agreement sounded from those gathered.

  “She couldn’t leave well enough alone.” Rachel’s glare was so fierce a few people turned to look at Nora.

  Rachel started to shake. All at once, her knees buckled. The man behind her leaped forward and closed his arms around her. She leaned into him and buried her head on his shoulder. He spoke in a clear, strong voice. “Rachel would be pleased if you’d join us for a reception at Read Rock Bookstore on Main Street.”

  Rachel’s eyes looked vacant in her pale face, as if she’d used up every bit of emotional strength she possessed. She dropped her head, and the man took hold of her hand, and led her toward the trail.

  Nora glanced up and met the malevolent stare of the man with the black cowboy hat. His dark eyes bored a hole through Nora’s forehead. He slammed his hat on his head, pulled it low over his eyes, and stomped away.

  He must have picked up on whatever ill will Rachel had directed her way.

  A small group of people spoke quietly, several of them with wet eyes, some sniffing. “Obsessed with the film.” “Probably exhausted.” “Wonder what will happen with the film?”

  Most people dribbled away from the clearing with heads down. If they spoke at all, their words were too quiet for Nora to hear.

  Eventually the mourners disappeared, leaving Nora shaken. She lowered herself to the ground, and Abbey rose from his spot under the tree. He sauntered over to her and accepted her caress.

  Before Rachel faded, she’d been angry with Nora. Did she think Nora was responsible for Lisa’s death? Lisa had begged Nora to fund the film. Had Lisa jumped in over her head, making her careless?

  The sun danced through the branches. Humidity from a recent rain weighted the air and brought out the spice of sage and muted scent of damp sand. Life cont
inued in an almost insulting way.

  Nora wouldn’t have been able to stop Lisa even if she hadn’t funded the film. Lisa would have found another way.

  Still, Nora’s being here stabbed Rachel like a splintered arrow. Nora didn’t want to cause her any more pain. She decided to quietly head back to Boulder.

  She stood and brushed the dirt from her hiking shorts. A flash of blue caught her eye. Her heart jumped to her mouth, and she went numb.

  Maybe her kachina was here in the sacred lands of the Southwest. With a growing hope that mingled with dread, Nora faced the spot where she’d seen the color. She stared in the bushes at the edge of the clearing and exhaled. No kachina. Her heart sank just a little.

  But the blue hadn’t been her imagination.

  A wooden box with a beautiful inlaid band of blue sat on a rock by the creek. Nora approached it, Abbey at her heels. It sat alone, oddly at home in the natural setting. Sunlight danced along the inlay. Rachel had been so lost, she must have forgotten this.

  Nora placed a hand on the sun-warmed surface of the box and sank to her knees.

  It was Lisa.

  Five

  The weight of Abbey’s head rested comfortingly in her lap. Tiny wrens and warblers chirped and flitted amid the branches. The sun warmed the crown of Nora’s head. The willows swayed gently, their wispy green leaves contrasting with the deeper green of the new grass peeking out from the sand. The creek chattered along the bend. To the life in the clearing, it was just another day.

  The kindest thing for Rachel would be for Nora to skip the gathering at the bookstore and head back to Boulder. But Nora couldn’t leave Lisa out here. She tightened her lips.

  Nora shifted to stand, disturbing Abbey. He pulled himself up and shook, starting at his head and vibrating all the way to his tail.

  “Guess we’re going to Moab,” she told him.

  Nora picked up the polished wood box. Its heavy weight surprised her. The beauty of the intricate Native American inlaid border in blue and black suited Lisa’s taste. It seemed impossible that Lisa’s vibrancy and energy hsd been reduced to this.

  Nora trudged up the path to the empty parking lot at the trailhead. The Jeep sat alone on the side of the road. Nora let Abbey in, placed Lisa’s box on the floor of the passenger side, and climbed behind the wheel. She glanced up the quiet road and twisted to see the area behind her. Two lanes stretched in both directions, empty. About a quarter of a mile to the south, the road curved east. A slight rise to the north blocked the view after several yards. Nora hadn’t seen any traffic on her walk from the trailhead. Like much of the area around Moab, this was a lonely stretch of road.

  It was the emptiness Lisa had found so compelling. The vast swathes of rugged spires and canyons and stunning red rock formations resulting from millions of years of wind, ancient oceans, and the hands of the gods spoke to Lisa. She felt compelled to protect them from the modern world. Lisa raved about the archaeological sites with their petroglyphs and pottery shards much like other women might babble about their babies.

  Nora inserted her key into the Jeep, and as she turned it, a squawking noise startled her. For a moment she thought she had a problem with her engine, then realized it was her phone. Fay, one of the staffers at the Trust, had programmed Nora’s phone with bird calls. This one sounded like an angry raven. She reached into her pack in the back seat and pulled it out.

  Along with the announcement for the incoming call, Nora noticed six new voicemails. She punched a button to answer.

  “Etta here.” The no-nonsense blast from the chairwoman of the Board for Living Earth Trust sent the usual ball of snakes into Nora’s gut. “I’ve been thinking about Lisa Taylor and this situation.”

  Did Etta think the Trust should make a tribute? A grant in Lisa’s name or tree-planting event would be nice. Maybe gather money from the staff for a memorial. “What situation?”

  “The film, of course. We’ve invested well over a hundred thousand dollars so far. The committee vote is in three weeks, so they need to see this film tomorrow, if not yesterday.”

  Nora’s grief left little space to worry about the film. “The screening is scheduled in two weeks. I’ll be back in the office on Monday. Can I call you then?”

  Etta exhaled. “Today is Thursday. I don’t feel we have days to waste. How close was Lisa to completing the film?”

  Nora stared out her windshield at the yellow wild asters and tried to sound like a smart and savvy executive director. She failed with her first uh. “I haven’t seen much of the footage. Lisa wanted to edit it and show it to me when it was done so I’d get the full impact.”

  “Oh,” Etta said and paused. “I would have thought you’d be in on the whole project.”

  Nora lowered her voice to sound more confident. “Lisa was close to being done.”

  “Good. Bring it back to Boulder. I’ll meet you on Monday, and we’ll see what we need to do from there.”

  The last thing Nora wanted to do was to confront Rachel and ask for Lisa’s work. “I’m not sure I can do it that soon.”

  Etta’s long-suffering sigh wafted from the phone. “I’ll get an early flight from DC and be at the office Monday.” Etta didn’t wait for Nora’s reply. The phone went dead.

  Nora tugged on Abbey’s ear. “You don’t think it would be awkward to ask Rachel for the film on the day of her wife’s funeral, do you?” Abbey’s eyes drooped at the massage.

  Nora tapped at the voicemail retrieval and entered her password. “Hey, Nor,” began the first message. Her heart stopped, and her hand holding the phone turned to ice.

  Lisa.

  When had she called? And how had Nora missed it?

  Lisa’s voice sounded strained. “I really need to talk to you. You know those petroglyphs I told you about? In Fiery Furnace?”

  Nora couldn’t focus on the words. Lisa’s voice sounded so alive. Nora’s eyes came to rest on the box of ashes.

  “The Mormons are—well, it’s at the Tokpela Ranch. There’s this—oh, shit. I’ve got to go.”

  There was some fumbling on the other end, then a breathless continuation. “I taped it all just in case. You’ll know where the camera is. You know … if I can’t call.”

  Nora listened to the silence for a few seconds before the automated voice invited her to delete the message or save it to the archives. She pressed the archive number before it disconnected.

  She replayed it again and again, noting the call had come in the evening before Lisa’s accident. She checked the other five messages. All were from Abigail the morning after Lisa’s accident. Nora was so changing her phone plan as soon as she got home.

  “She sounded scared,” Nora told Abbey. He opened his mouth to pant in the warm Jeep.

  Fiery Furnace was a labyrinth of rock fins and canyons in Arches National Park. While Canyonlands encompassed a huge tract of land south of Moab, Arches was a smaller, if no less dramatic, park just a couple of miles north of town. Lisa had mentioned Fiery Furnace a few days ago. What about Tokpela Ranch?

  She started the Jeep and turned the wheel to make a U-turn across the lanes and head to Moab. What should she do about Lisa’s call?

  Just as the Jeep moved into the middle of the road, a white pickup popped over the western hill. Instead of slowing, the pickup seemed to gain speed. The driver laid on the horn.

  Electricity sparked in Nora. Her mind blanked.

  The truck sped toward her like a flash flood in a slot canyon, arrowed at the very spot where she sat frozen, hands on the wheel.

  She stomped on the gas and shot across the road, straight into the sandy shoulder. She slammed on the brakes before crashing into a stand of willows. Abbey tumbled from the seat to the floor, coming to rest on top of the box of ashes.

  Still leaning on the horn, the pickup sped past her bumper, close enough to shake the Jeep. Nora turned
in her seat, spotting the black cowboy hat of the driver as the pickup slowed, eased into the right lane, and continued around the curve and out of sight.

  Not nearly as shaken as Nora, Abbey scrambled back on the seat. He wagged his tail and licked at Nora’s face. She managed to avoid his tongue as she sucked in a breath.

  Blood that had froze in those milliseconds of panic now thinned and surged. She concentrated on breathing. After a few seconds, Nora leaned over and righted Lisa’s box. Thank goodness the lid was still nailed shut. She couldn’t have faced her best friend’s spilled ashes.

  Nora put the Jeep into reverse. It revved. The tires spun in the sand; the Jeep didn’t budge. She shoved it into first and hoped to rock it to gain momentum. More spinning.

  “All this rock around here and I have to find a sand pile,” she grumbled. Abbey didn’t care.

  Nora climbed out and located the shovel she kept in the back. She went to work. The six-hour drive, the exertion, and the sun stole any crispness that had remained from her shower a million years ago at her apartment in Boulder.

  She dug a trench behind the wheels, found a few large stones to line it, and reversed the Jeep. It popped out onto the road and Nora and Abbey were back in business, sweaty, irritated, and craving a cool drink.

  By the time they made it to the Read Rock Bookstore and circled around the block to find parking in the back, not many cars remained. An alley ran between the bookstore and another building that led to Main Street.

  Easing the Jeep into a spot shaded by the building that would catch enough cool breeze to keep Abbey comfortable, Nora frowned at her disheveled appearance. She rummaged in her overnight bag, found a brush to run through her hair, and scrubbed the dried sweat from her face with a hand wipe from a container she kept in her glove box. It was the best she could do for now.

  She pulled Abbey’s collapsible dish from the back, filled it with water from the jug she always carried in the Jeep, and waited while he lapped it up.