by K C West
With Pup close on my heels, I walked into the study, dropped my briefcase on my desk, and looked longingly at the oak-framed picture of PJ which stood on the corner of my desk. I looked over at her desk. The documents on it were arranged in neat piles next to her monitor. She had my picture there, too. Our desks faced each other across the room, enabling us to blow loving kisses back and forth, or float paper airplanes. PJ was always so delightfully playful. The thought of her antics triggered comforting warmth within my breast.
With a sigh, I looked out the large picture window at the fantastic view of the mountains. The sight usually released all my pent up tensions, but it failed to work its magic spell.
I stared at the bookcases flanking the window and at a long table stacked with archaeological journals, loose notes, pictures, and maps, which filled most of the opposite wall. A bank of oak filing cabinets stood to the right of the door.
The office was spacious, but nearly full of stored, completed material and data yet to be processed. After taking papers from my briefcase, I set it on the floor, powered up the computer, and settled down to work. The next thing I knew, darkness had blocked out most of the light in the room and I heard the wind blowing. Large rain drops splattered against the window. Pup had been sleeping at my feet, but he raised his head and whined as a flash of lightning illuminated the study.
Here it comes.
“We’re inside, safe and sound,” I told him, “though I did lose track of the time.”
I remembered the magnificent storm clouds I had seen earlier. I turned on a light and shut down the computer. Lightning lit the room like a searchlight probing every corner. I did some mental calculations before the thunder boomed and figured the storm was about six miles away. I was still in my town clothes: gray slacks and a lightweight checkered shirt. With the storm so close, I decided to wait on the shower in case the power went off and left me in the dark. My stomach rumbled, reminding me I hadn’t eaten since the early lunch in Santa Fe. Perhaps I had time to fix a sandwich.
I heard a noise from somewhere in the front part of the house. PJ couldn’t be back yet, and Pup was with me. The cats had fled at the first clap of thunder and were probably crouching beneath our bed. They couldn’t have accounted for whatever I heard.
“Jasper, is that you? Little Bird?”
There was no response. “Hmm, must have been the wind.”
Pup stiffened, his hackles rose, and he growled.
I took hold of his collar. “It’s okay, boy. It’s only the storm.”
Chapter 9
It was still early when I landed in Albuquerque and claimed the Jeep from the airport’s extended parking facility. The road home stretched invitingly before me. A good bit of it was seventy-five miles-per-hour, no traffic to speak of and no construction crews on the job yet. I let her rip.
With fingers tapping a beat against the steering wheel, I hummed along with a Beatles CD. My mother had been a fan of the British rock group and I’d grown up listening to their music.
Shallow puddles and muddy craters marred the normally dusty roadsides. The blacktop was dry and made for a stress-free drive. Normal showers dry up quickly without leaving any telltale moisture. Judging by the puddles I could still see, it must have rained a lot during the night. Frog-stranglers, Little Bird liked to call those storms. Good thing Kim had our private road repaired. I’d be faced with a slippery mess, otherwise.
I remembered the “discussion” Kim and I had had about the money issues for that project. Proud to a fault and stubborn, she was the most pigheaded person when it came to expenses. Jesus, she was almost as stubborn as I was. Together, we were quite a pair.
My stomach clenched at the thought of the unresolved issues between us. We’d carefully avoided talking about it on the phone while I was gone, but I’d left without saying a proper good-bye. I’d said some terrible things to her and then compounded the action by not making up with her before this trip.
“Stupid. Asinine. Childish.” I bit my lip as tears welled up. She had to know I didn’t mean it, not really. I loved her more than anything; it was agony being away from her. I couldn’t remember exactly what started the torrent of harsh words, but before it was over, I’d called her some hurtful names. How could I have done that to her?
My cheeks were wet, and I swiped at my eyes to clear my vision. The road split off from Route 25 at Santa Fe and looped northwest on Route 68, forcing me to ease off the gas. I could feel the excitement rising, my heart rate increasing. Not much longer and I’d be home. Yes, I’d been a brat, an asshole. I’d hurt my best friend and dearest love, and left with the words lingering in the air between us like a foul odor. Kim loved me, though. I knew we could make things right between us. I looked forward to leaping into her arms and showering her with repentant kisses.
I negotiated the final bend on the highway before turning into our long, winding driveway. The sight of our home warmed my heart. I’d find Kimmy and apologize, first thing. We’d kiss and snuggle, maybe put our feet up on the coffee table and sip cups of Earl Grey while we caught up on the past several days. Pup and the cats would have missed me. I couldn’t wait to see how they liked the new toys I’d brought them.
The place was quiet.
I drove the Jeep around to the barn and parked it next to the Rover.
The silence was unnerving.
Pup should’ve heard me by now. Were they all sleeping in? My running shoes thunked across the porch’s wide floor beams. The front door was unlocked, and the rug in the hallway canted at a haphazard angle. Something was so not-right here. Fear crept over me, making my ears tingle. At the entrance to the living room, I viewed signs of a struggle: books were scattered on the floor, their pages spread-eagled, a table lamp lay on its side, the shade askew. As alarming as those sights were, they couldn’t compare to the image just beneath my feet. I sank to my knees, stretched out a shaky finger and touched the damp, reddish-brown stain on the carpet. The smell confirmed what my heart refused to believe. Blood.
“Kim! Pup!” On wobbly legs, I ran through all the remaining rooms, shouting for them, willing them to materialize. The emptiness mocked and terrified me. Where in the name of God were they? The kitties emerged from somewhere. They rubbed against my legs and meowed pathetically. What had happened here? In panic, I stumbled back onto the front porch, preparing to search the property. I heard Jasper’s old black truck wheezing up the drive.
“Thank God.” I was at the driver’s side window before he’d turned off the engine. “Where’s Kim and Pup? What happened? There’s blood on - ”
“Whoa. Steady, gal.” He opened the door and put a supportive arm around my shoulders. Jasper and I were still getting to know each other and he was friendly, but respectful around me, so his unfamiliar action only increased my fears. I couldn’t control my shaking.
He guided me up the steps. “Let’s sit up on the porch a minute.”
“Did something bad happen? Please, tell me.”
“I’ll tell you just what I know for sure, okay?” He took off his sweat-stained cowboy hat and wiped the sheen of perspiration from his forehead. I felt myself sweating, too. A cold, foreboding sweat.
“Last night, we had us a whopper of a storm. The wife and I was watching the news on the TV, about ready to turn in, when we heard this whining and howling outside.”
“Pup? It was Pup?”
“Yeah. At first it was nothing special, you know. We weren’t even sure it was ol’ Pup. Thought maybe it was a coyote. But it kept up, and by the time I had the door open, he’d crawled up on our steps and gave out.”
“Oh God. What happened? Is he…?” I choked on the words.
“Don’t you fret yourself now. He’ll be okay.”
“Thank God.”
“But, as near as we can figure, he was shot.”
“Shot?” I felt dizzy. The tingling in my ears was now a roaring freight train. “How? Why?” Reality was slipping away from me.
“I don’t
rightly know. We got him over to Doc Ressler’s. Doc said the bullet went through Pup’s side near his hip. He’ll be okay in a week or so, stiff as all get-out and cranky as a son of a bitch, but okay.”
“Wait, wait! Where was Kim during all this? Why wasn’t she with Pup?” My head pounded as if it would soon come apart. I pinched the bridge of my nose and rubbed my eyes, but nothing helped. “This makes no sense. Kim and Pup are as close as… And where the hell did she go?”
“We don’t know.”
“How could you not know?” I had moved closer to him, clutching at the sleeves of his shirt. He gently pried himself loose, but took my hands in his large, calloused ones.
“I left Little Bird at the animal hospital and came back here to the house. It was still raining and dark as a pot of pitch. Things was just like this. Door unlocked, stuff scattered six ways from Sunday, no sign of her. She’s just gone.”
I stared at him. My brain refused to process such an incomprehensible occurrence. Part of me wanted to back the whole thing up and start over from the time I drove into the yard, convinced the outcome would be different. Kim would be sleeping in, or taking a shower, or any number of possible things besides the one, irrefutable thing I didn’t dare believe, or it would destroy me. Kim was gone… and not of her own volition.
He released my hands and I paced the length of the deck, feeling weak in the knees and disconnected from the rest of my body.
Think. Think hard. Did she have a trip planned? No. Besides, that wouldn’t explain Pup’s being shot.
My stomach churned, sending burning acid up the back of my throat.
Fight the nausea. You can’t lose it now, Kim is depending on you. Form a plan. “So, you called the police, right? Where are they? What have they done so far?”
Jasper scratched the stubble on his chin. “Oh, ‘course we called. Some deputies came once the rain let up and they nosed around. Said they couldn’t really count Kim missing on account of forty-eight hours had to go by. They said she maybe went for a walk or some nonsense.”
“In the middle of the night, with a storm raging? That’s absurd. And with Pup hurt? You told them Pup was shot, didn’t you?”
“Yep. They thought maybe she’d accidentally shot him and couldn’t deal with it.”
“Kim doesn’t even own a gun!” I ran my fingers through my hair and leaned against the porch rail. “I can’t believe this. Do you know any of these people? Or the State Police? It’s been hours now. She could be seriously hurt somewhere.” My voice wavered, and I refused to consider any other possibilities.
He stood and reached to steady me again. “Try to stay calm.”
I pushed his arm away. “Damn it! You know she wouldn’t run off and leave Pup hurt like that. She’d never do that. Not willingly.”
“A bunch of ranchers’ll meet me here in a bit, and we’ll search the whole place. I was home calling them out when you got here.” He picked up his hat and put it back on. “Don’t you worry none, Miss PJ. We’ll find her.”
I left him on the porch waiting for his search party and went into the kitchen. All I really wanted was to collapse in a dark corner and cry. I’d been close to tears ever since I saw the blood, but now wasn’t the time for a meltdown. I needed to see about bringing Pup home to recuperate, but first, I needed to light a fire under the local Police. Somebody in that joke of a police station was going to take some action or heads would roll. I punched in the numbers and asked for the person in charge.
Lieutenant Keller didn’t know it yet, but I was going to hound him until my partner was found. I’d be his worst nightmare.
No. That position was reserved for the person or persons who took Kim away from me in the first place.
I called everyone I could think of who might’ve seen Kim or heard something from or about her. Then I phoned the Curtis Foundation to see if they’d had any contact from her directly or if they’d heard anything at all from any of the many people who were part of the Foundation. They hadn’t. I started to call Dad, but wasn’t sure where in Greece he was or even what time of day or night it was there.
Later. I’ll talk to him a bit later, when I know something more. Maybe Kim will turn up by then, and I won’t even have to contact him.
A couple of county deputies drove up our road and after a quick look around, they set up a perimeter around the house and yard. They wouldn’t let me inside until the detectives in charge arrived.
“Is it okay if I head over to our caretakers’ house?” I pointed to where a corner of Jasper and Little Bird’s single story dwelling was visible.
“Just don’t leave the area,” one of the officers said. “We’ll want to talk to you and to them.”
“The man who alerted you about the missing person is out looking over the property with some of the neighboring ranchers. He’s in an old black Ford truck. I’ll see if his wife has heard anything from him.”
Little Bird had no new information, but she fixed us both a mug of tea and we sat at her kitchen table, trying to reassure each other that no news would be good news.
I needed to fill in some of the gaps in Jasper’s story about the past evening. “Other than Pup coming to the front steps, you heard nothing?”
Little Bird shook her head.
“No shot? There must have been one, maybe more, since we know Pup was hit.”
“I’m so sorry, PJ.” She balled her strong fingers into fists and pounded the table. “The storm was loud, and we had the TV on for a while before the power went out. We should have checked on Kim to make sure she was home safely from town.”
I gently took her hands in mine. “Don’t blame yourselves, please. You couldn’t have known anything was going to happen. And you know her well enough to assume that she could manage in bad weather. She was prepared for anything.”
Except for what happened, apparently.
“Most anything,” I amended, softly.
Tears trickled down Little Bird’s plump cheeks. She freed one hand to dash them away and gave my hand a hard squeeze with the other. “Kim is tough. She’ll be okay.”
“I know,” I said, when in actuality, I knew nothing of the sort, but I wanted to believe it. For both our sakes, I changed the topic of conversation. “Do you think it was a robbery?” I asked. “When I went inside, I saw things were messed up, and Jasper confirmed that for me, but once I knew that Kim was missing, I really didn’t process anything else.”
Except the blood on the rug.
Little Bird stared off into space without answering my question. “The deputies are over there now investigating,” I said. “They didn’t want me in the way while they worked, but they said some detectives would be out soon to ask us questions. So, I don’t know for sure, but it makes sense that it was a break-in that Kim came home and interrupted.”
We heard Jasper’s truck lurching up the road and we hurried to meet him.
One look at his dejected expression and I knew there would be no good news.
“Tell me, please. What did you find?”
He unfolded himself from the cab, pulling the Stetson from his head and stood fiddling with it. “We did our damnedest, Miss PJ, but we couldn’t find hide nor hair of her. Not one blame thing. The guys are still out there looking and I promise you, if she’s anywhere on the property, we’ll find her.”
We walked toward Little Bird, who was waiting on the front porch, searching her husband’s eyes for some sort of revelation.
“And if she isn’t on the property?” I asked.
“Shoot. She’ll be walking up here any minute, wondering what all the fuss is about.”
I nodded and forced a smile. “Yeah, probably. Listen, I’d better get back. Some detectives will be here soon to talk to me and to both of you.”
They nodded. “We’ll check on Pup, and then we’ll come over and help you, PJ,” Little Bird said. “You shouldn’t face this alone.”
I nodded. “Thanks. You’ve done so much already.” I turned my attenti
on to Jasper. “I want to apologize for earlier, when I freaked out.”
“Oh, hey. You was just upset, is all.”
“And scared. I’m still so scared.” I looked down, blinking away tears. “But, if you hadn’t taken Pup to the vet when you did…” I started to cry.
He took a shuffling step toward me, holding out his arms awkwardly and Little Bird joined us in a group hug.
I pressed myself into his damp shirt, sniffing back tears, breathing in the smell of moist earth and pine woods he and his friends had roamed, searching for Kim.
“We’ll find her, and Pup’ll be right as rain in no time. You’ll see.”
“We’re with you,” Little Bird added. “And she’ll be home with you soon.”
I gave them each another hug. “I hope you’re right. I truly hope you’re right.”
Chapter 10
As the storm drew closer, the sky became a stage upon which heavenly beings swirled their skirts of light while throwing spears, cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-earth. The storm was so close that the sound of each thunder clap joined the receding rumble of the one before it. I stood beside the window, mesmerized by the ferocity of Mother Nature. Even with the window closed, I could smell the phosphorus that lingered after each lightning strike. I ducked, reacting involuntarily to an explosion as a tree several hundred yards from the house erupted in flame.
Pup stiffened and growled. I knelt beside him. “It’s all right fella, it’s just the storm. It scares me, too.” Pup pulled away from me. He hunched down and moved stealthily toward the door, his teeth bared. By the time he reached the hallway, he was a vicious predator stalking unseen prey. If he was trying to make me nervous, he was doing a good job of it. I followed him into the living room expecting to find the reason for Pup’s displeasure, but there was nothing there. My tension eased until he growled again.
I knelt beside him, keeping my voice steady. “What is it, boy? Is there something out there?” I rose and peered through the rain-soaked window. “Relax, okay? There’s nothing there. Why don’t we go fix something to eat?”
