A Dubious Terrain (A Colton Banyon Mystery Book 4)

by Gerald J Kubicki

  “Why the pout on such a pretty face?” Brent sincerely asked.

  “I’ve got a big problem,” she confessed.

  “I’m guessing that I can help?” he confidently replied.

  “I doubt it,” she answered, but stood next to him without moving.

  “Okay, sit down, let’s hear it,” he said.

  Brent was always happy when she came into his office and sat down at the chair next to his desk. Cindy was a beautiful young woman of Chinese descent, who often sought his advice. He felt honored that she confided in him. On those occasions, when she needed his advice, she always wore a short skirt to the office. While she always sat and listened intently, she would fidget and cross and re-cross her legs revealing creamy thighs and more. He knew she was a lesbian and not into men and sometimes wondered why she did it. But in the end, Brent always thought of it as payment for his advice. He leaned back in anticipation.

  “My roommate Chelsea is having a college friend from back East coming out for the weekend and I’m the odd girl out unless I come up with some ideas.”

  “Why don’t you go someplace for the weekend, take a little vacation?”

  “I can’t Brent. You know how much money I make. I’m broke.”

  “But you want to get out of the house, right?”

  “Alesha is coming here to see the sights and to have a big adventure. She is very much an adventurist.” She emphasized the term adventurist by using her fingers to quote.

  “So, she is kind of wild, right?”

  “Yes, but, we can’t afford to take her anywhere,” Cindy responded with her head hung down.

  Brent was good at reading people. He realized that Cindy wanted something, but was afraid to ask. “Cindy, I am your friend. Just tell me what it is that I can help you with, okay.”

  Cindy hesitated then forged ahead, “Brent, we want to get away from the city, someplace that is very open. Someplace where no one will bother us and we can be ourselves.”

  Suddenly Brent realized the roommate and friend were also lesbians. But he was intrigued and wanted to hear more. “Where did you have in mind to go for your trip?”

  “I want you to take us all to Death Valley,” she said as she shot out a delicate finger to point at him and re-crossed her beautiful legs.

  “What?” Brent muttered.

  She suddenly became very animated stood up moved close to his face and spoke very fast. “I’ve been reading up on it. Really I have. It is just a couple of hours from here by car and very isolated. There is a hotel in a place called Furnace Creek.” She paused for a few seconds and studied his face and then she threw in the clincher, “We will only need one room.”

  “But where will I stay?” the astonished Brent blurted out.

  “Why you will stay with us, silly.” She quickly added, “It will be a really good deal for you,” she reasoned.

  Brent was truly confused now, “but Cindy, I know you are all lesbians. What is in it for me?”

  “Dear Brent,” she started sensing a deal. “I can promise you this, if you take us on this trip, for the weekend, all of it, we will be your sex slaves. It will all be part of an exotic adventure, so how about it?” She then sat back down and crossed her legs for emphasis. She stared at him with a look of mischief on her pretty face.

  ***

  Without thinking any further, Brent quickly agreed and he called the hotel for reservations. The rest of the week was torture for him. He had erotic fantasies every time he saw her in the office and she was his assistant. They agreed to take Friday off from work. Friday morning finally came and he was stunned to meet Alesha and Chelsea. His three companions for the weekend had a combined hotness score of 30. They were all tens. The drive to Death Valley was too long, but had turned out to be entertaining so far. He couldn’t wait to get to the hotel.

  They had just passed the small outpost of Stovepipe Wells and they were about twenty minutes from Furnace Creek when Alesha suddenly screamed, “Stop the car. Please stop the car.”

  Brent turned off the road and pulled into a small parking lot. “Is something wrong?” he nervously asked.

  He heard the back door of the car open and someone left the car. “Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!” Alesha exclaimed.

  Brent turned the car off and quickly got out. When he looked at Alesha, he noticed she only had a red thong on her lithe body. She was jumping up and down and was clearly excited. He liked the view. She was pointing straight ahead. He followed her direction, but all he saw were sand dunes. He began to wonder again if this was all some kind of a sting and he was the intended victim. These girls were just a little too crazy.

  “What are you pointing at?” he asked as he walked up next to her.

  “The dunes,” she yelled. “Look at all the beautiful dunes.”

  “They are just sand dunes,” an impatient Brent replied.

  The other two girls had piled out of the car and were similarly attired. They stood in a line, three naked women and Brent. Alesha was very excited.

  “You don’t understand. I love sand dunes. I have always loved sand dunes. I love the randomness, the uniformity, the starkness and the vast openness. I want to run on top of those dunes, naked. I want to make love deep in the emptiness.” She then turned to the rest of the group and excitedly implored them. “Can we?”

  Brent had already started for the trunk of the car. He opened it and took out two large blankets and a cooler with water in it. When he returned to the side of the car, he found the girls still naked, but with sandals on, and applying sun screen to each other’s bodies.

  He immediately dropped the items. “Can I help?” he croaked.

  “We would be disappointed if you didn’t,” Cindy replied.

  Within minutes the little safari set off for the sand dunes. The girls draped the blankets over their shoulders and Cindy quickly snuck under her roommates’ blanket. Brent followed a few steps behind and admired the sway of their fine nearly naked rear ends. Not a single car had gone past on the highway.

  After they had disappeared in the dunes, Cindy asked, “How come there are sand dunes here?”

  Brent had read up on Death Valley and had the answer. “Well, there are three things needed to produce sand dunes. First is a source. That would be all the mountains around this valley. Dirt breaks loose all the time. Second you need wind to grind and blow the sand. Lots of wind here and last of all, you need a place for it to collect. Death Valley is the lowest place in America.

  “Brent, you are so smart,” Cindy flirted over her shoulder.

  “These dunes are about eight miles long going east to west and they move,” Brent added.

  “What do you mean they move?” Cindy asked.

  “I know that, I know that,” Alesha squealed as she jumped up and down. “The wind pushes sand uphill all the time. As the dune builds, it eventually becomes unstable and cascades forward, burying everything in its path and creeping forward. Pretty cool, huh? I love sand dunes.”

  Brent suddenly said, “This seems like the highest dune right here. This looks like a good spot to me.”

  “Wow, you’re right,” the girls replied almost in unison and set about laying out the blankets. With that done, they plopped down and slid off their thongs. Brent literally ripped off his clothes and went to his knees on the blanket where Cindy beckoned him. Cindy’s smooth Asian body was spread eagled and inviting. Brent was ready.

  “Ouch,” he suddenly yelled out. He then let out several expletives. He grabbed his knee and rolled over in obvious pain.

  Cindy was very concerned. She scrambled to a kneeling position and immediately crawled to his side. She noticed a cut just below his right kneecap, but it didn’t look too bad. “You poor boy, let me kiss it and make it better,” she cooed.

  Brent had already forgotten about the pain as he had much more urgent needs. He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her on top of him. He had just placed her in the proper position when he heard Alesha say, “I’m a nurse
, let me look at it.”

  She was about three feet away when she tripped and fell right into them and knocked Cindy off of Brent.

  A surprised Brent said, “There is enough for all of you. No need to fight over me.”

  Alesha rolled over and immediately started to rub her big toe then replied, “I tripped on something. It was big. There should be nothing big and hard in a sand dune? Well, except for Brent,” she flirted. “Let’s see what it is.”

  The three of them stood up as Chelsea joined the group. “Maybe it is buried treasure,” she said. They picked up the blanket.

  “Look there is something here that looks like a fin of a fish,” Cindy noted. “How could that be?”

  “Let’s dig it out,” Alesha said with excitement in her voice.

  The four of them gathered around the fin and started digging with their hands. The sand was easy to move, but more sand quickly filled the hole. It was slow going but eventually they made some progress.

  “It’s the back fin from an airplane,” Brent said. “It looks very old, maybe from the 1960’s. It looks like a war plane. Look at these markings? I don’t recognize them,” Brent acknowledged.

  “Wait, I know that flag. It’s Swedish,” Alesha exclaimed.

  “What would an old Swedish warplane be doing buried in sand dunes in Death Valley?” Brent wondered out loud.

  “We need to report this find to someone. There may be a big reward or something,” Chelsea noted. “But who should we report this to?”

  Cindy suddenly spoke up, “I do know someone who knows a lot about war planes. I met him at a picnic at his house a couple of years ago. Maybe he can tell us something about the value of our find?”

  “What is his name,” Brent asked?

  “His name is Colton Banyon. He is some kind of detective. He finds artifacts. His partner is kind of like my aunt. Her name is Loni Chen. Her family lived next door to us in Hawaii. She used to babysit me back then. I can call her right now. Wait, I don’t have any clothes. My phone is in my purse.

  Everyone starting laughing, then they all realized that none of them had any clothes. This caused them to all laugh harder until Brent produced a phone from his pile of clothes.

  “But, the number is in my phone, I don’t know it off hand,” Cindy said with frustration in her voice.

  “No problem,” offered Brent. “I can take some pictures of the plane and when we get his number, we send this Banyon guy the pictures. Sound like a plan?”

  “I want to get away from this plane,” Alesha suddenly complained. “There could be dead people in there.”

  Everybody took a step back and suddenly sex was not on any bodies mind. Cindy then took control. “Brent you are the only one with clothes, put them on and I will take some pictures. This will prove we were here.”

  Brent looked at her with disappointment, but complied.

  Cindy saw the look and added, “And don’t worry, we are only a few minutes away from the hotel. Does the word ‘orgy’ sound good to you?”

  He soon stood by the partially exposed tailfin and Cindy took several pictures. She also took a few pictures of the naked women nearby, just for fun she said. Brent grabbed the blankets and the cooler and started off towards the car. The girls grabbed their underwear and jogged ahead leaving the tailfin exposed.

  ***

  Twenty minutes later, the now clothed group stood in front of the checkin at the Furnace Creek hotel. Brent was busy checking in and the girls were standing in a semi-circle and chatting.

  “You go first,” Alesha said to Cindy.

  “Why me?” she asked.

  “He likes you the best. But leave some for me,” Chelsea said.

  “Alright, but first I have to call auntie Loni. I’m sure she can tell us what to do about the airplane,” Cindy said.

  “Yeah, imagine finding and old airplane in the middle of the desert? How cool,” exclaimed Chelsea. “Good thing we took some pictures or no one would believe us.”

  The three girls failed to notice the reaction from the checkin clerk when an old warplane was mentioned. The older woman behind the desk immediately spoke. “So you found something in one of the dunes?” she inquired.

  “How did you know?” asked Brent, as he stood at the counter with a suspicious look.

  She ignored his question. “Let me see the pictures,” she demanded. “I am a part-time ranger for the park.”

  Chelsea shrugged and handed her the phone. The clerk took a sharp intake of breath as soon as she saw the plane. “I’ll call the ranger station for you. Where did you find it?”

  “It is in the sand dunes just south of Stovepipe Wells,” Cindy offered.

  Appearing nonchalant the clerk said, “Many things have been found in the desert. But I don’t think anyone has ever found a plane. Tell you what, send my cell phone the picture and I will send it to the ranger station for you. They will know what to do. You will hear from them soon.” The woman paused to see a reaction and then she added, “Why don’t you kids go to your room and freshen up while you are waiting? This may take a while.”

  “Sounds like a plan to me,” Brent said with his own plans on his mind.

  The older woman gave Chelsea her phone number and she was soon staring at the pictures. “Okay, I have them, you can go now,” she dismissed them.

  As soon as the group left to go to their room, the older woman opened her cellphone and called her mother.

  “Mom, someone found the plane. Call the boys; we have some work to do before they discover its secrets.”

  Chapter Two

  As soon as they were settled in their room, Cindy said she wanted to call her auntie. She grabbed her cellphone and uploaded the pictures from Brent’s phone. She then opened the slider to the room and went out onto the small ground floor patio to make the call.

  Alesha looked at Brent and said, “Can we move these two beds together? We would have more room?”

  “Seems reasonable to me,” he happily replied. “But then I will need to shower to get all this sand off of me.”

  “Tell you what,” Chelsea said. “Help us move the beds together and Alesha and I will join you in the shower, right Alesha?”

  “Only if I can clean the hard spots,” she giggled.

  “But girls I feel so dirty,” Brent replied as he rushed to move the beds. He had a lecherous smile on his face.

  Meanwhile Cindy sat at the small patio table outside the room. She was ready to make the call, but hesitated. The truth was she was not ‘on good terms’ with her auntie. This concerned her. It had started with the picnic a year and a half ago. Cindy was living in Chicago then and attending DePaul University. One day she had gotten a call from auntie Loni. Loni invited her to a party at the home of Colton Banyon. Banyon and Loni were partners in a detective agency and had just become lovers as well. Banyon had three unmarried sons and they would all be at the party. Loni wanted to please them, so she was inviting several young pretty Asian women to entertain them. Loni had instructed the girls to wear provocative outfits. The Banyon family was rich, and the sons would be good catches.

  There was only one requirement. The girls were told not to flirt with Colton Banyon. Loni was many things, but most of all she was insanely jealous. Colton was her man and she would not tolerate anyone else flirting with her man. While Loni was much older than Cindy, she had retained her youthful look and could pass as a sister to Cindy. She however thought of herself as an old hag. She saw Banyon as her last shot and no one was going to take him away from her.

  Unfortunately, Cindy was all flirt. She could not help herself from torturing any male and now female she fancied. Loni had caught Cindy flirting with Colton in the kitchen. A verbal battle in Chinese had ensued. Cindy was banished from the party and was disowned by Loni. Cindy had moved to San Francisco as soon as she had graduated. She had not talked to Loni since. Her auntie Loni was also known to hold a grudge.

  After reliving the experience she scrolled through her phone numb
ers hit the button to dial Loni Chen. She answered on the third ring.

  “This is the LCH Detective Agency, Loni Chen speaking,” Loni said this in her Asian singsong voice.

  “Auntie Loni, this is Cindy,” she said as sweetly as possible.

  “I know no one named Cindy.” It was a frosty reply.

  “Auntie Loni, I am truly sorry for what happened. You are still with Colt, aren’t you?” Cindy asked with as much humility as possible.

  “No thanks to you,” Loni persisted.

  “I need your help. I’ve changed. I like girls now,” she reasoned.

  “Do you have a tongue stud?” Loni suddenly asked.

  “What? No. Why does that matter?” a confused Cindy asked.

  “No reason,” she answered cheerily. “And yes Colt and I are doing just fine, in fact we are currently in Las Vegas to attend a wedding and recently have bought a second home here for the winter,” Loni said.

  “Wow,” Cindy exclaimed. “I’m very happy for you both.”

  “So, tell me why have you called?”

  “Well, it is kind of a long story, but I’m actually in The Death Valley National Park on vacation with some friends.”

  “And,” Loni inquired suspiciously. She knew that Las Vegas was only a couple of hours drive from the park.

  “We were hanging out in the sand dunes and found something ancient.”

  Suddenly interested, Loni asked, “What did you find?”

  “We found a very old plane — a big old war plane. It was buried in the sand. We were wondering if perhaps Colton could identify it. They may be a reward or something”

  “Well Colton is not here right now, but I expect him to be back in less than an hour,” Loni stated. “What can you tell me about the plane? I’m not an expert, but he certainly is. I’ll pass it on and he can call you back, okay.”

  “I can do better than that,” Cindy proclaimed. We took pictures. I can send them to your phone for Colton to look at. There is one strange thing though.”