by Ken Farmer
Excuse me? Who the hell is Edmond Locard?” asked Mason.
“Director of the very first crime lab in existence…It was in France,” answered Fiona.
Bone started tapping the walls, while Loraine took scraping samples from the bell pull into a bindle.
Loraine looked over at Mason. “Pull the drapes for a moment, please…I want to check for blood,”
“What?…How?” he asked.
“I’ll show you.”
He pulled the thick, heavy drapes, shutting out the light coming from outside.
Loraine took out her bottle of homemade Luminol.
“What’s that, Loraine?” asked Fiona.
“It’s called Luminol in our time. I made some up with an alkaline solution of hydrogen peroxide. Blood will glow blue for a few seconds in the dark.”
She put a small amount in her mouth, and then blew it out in a fine mist like the Cowboy running back, Zeke Elliott, does with water before a game, on the crushed area of the dark green velvet where Clayton Armstrong’s neck would have been.
“Nothing…He did not tear his nails from clawing at the rope,” she said.
“His hands were tied anyway,” said Bone. “But he could have possibly reached up with both hands, I suppose.”
Fiona dusted for prints on the three-legged piano stool with the ground graphite powder. She examined it with a strong magnifying glass.
Mason checked the window. “Hasn’t been opened in years.”
“I don’t find any prints on the piano stool, Bone, even on the underside,” said Fiona.
“I did find some epithelials where the rope was tied around his neck, and a mixture of some at arm level, where guests pull the rope, but, none on the end. I don’t see how he could have possibly tied the knot,” stated Loraine.
Well, kiddies, I found the ubiquitous secret passage, I think,” said Bone.
“Say what?” commented Loraine as she stopped her examination of the pull rope.
“Mason, come over here and help me move this armoire.”
“I thought secret passages were only in the movies,” said Loraine.
“The what?…Oh, right, I remember, the play acting thing on moving pictures,” commented Fiona.”
“Right…They are used a lot in horror or scary movies,” replied Loraine. “Great great grandfather de la Vega was anti-slavery…This house may have been part of the underground railroad for escaped Texas slaves,” added Loraine.
Bone and Mason grabbed the heavy armoire and pulled it out.
Bone tapped on the panel behind it. He pushed on it and it sprung open to reveal a narrow passageway leading to a stairway down.
“Maybe the killer came and went this way,” said Fiona.
Bone shined his light inside. “Uh-uh…Don’t think so…There must be a quarter inch of dust on the floor…Not disturbed. There hasn’t been anybody in here for over fifty years.”
THE CAVE
2018
Padrino and St. John stepped inside and shined their lights around.
“Hasn’t been anybody here but us chickens,” said St. John.
“Would appear so.”
Padrino moved to the center of the cave and took the crystal from the large side pocket of his old time olive drab BDUs. He sat down in the sand in the lotus position and snugged his Marine Corps Veteran ball cap down on his head.
“What do you have to do?” asked St. John.
“I’m going to hold the crystal in both hands, and then I have to clear my mind and start my meditation.”
“That’s it?”
“Well, not quite. Look outside and see if that full moon is rising. It’s a few months from perigee, so that will help…not quite as much as if it were a blue moon, but maybe close enough.”
“Blue moon? Isn’t that when there’s two full moons in the same month?”
“It is, but there won’t be one of those until June 18 of this year…seven months from now. We have ‘em every two to three years,” said Padrino.
St. John walked to the front of the cave, which faced east and looked out at the moon. It was about halfway up the horizon and appeared huge and yellow.
“Be up in about five minutes,” he commented as he moved back to the area in front of Padrino.
“Well, I can get started then. Takes me about that long or longer to get into a zen state and if this is going to work…it’ll be then.”
“I don’t know how you do it. I can’t ever seem to clear my mind…too much going on at the station.”
“That’s really one of the prime reasons to practice it…to still the mind.”
“Easy for you to say.”
“One of the advantages of being retired.” Padrino smiled, shook his head and took several long clearing breaths, relaxed, and then closed his eyes.
“You don’t have to do this.”
“I think I already have,” commented Padrino.
St. John glanced back over his shoulder at the moon still rising. In just a few moments it would be in perfect alignment with the cave opening and would fill the cave with its pale yellow moonlight.
Padrino was still as a statue in his lotus position. His breathing was almost nonexistent.
The moon had cleared the horizon and it’s light now flooded the inside of the cave. St. John glanced back to look and marvel at the giant orb that seemed to cover the entire entrance of the cave a moment and when he turned back to Padrino—he was gone…
§§§
CHAPTER TWELVE
VILLA DE LA VEGA
1898
Bone, Loraine, Sophia, Fiona and Mason are seated around the dining table, finishing off the last of the Spanish lasagna.
“Sophia, I don’t know when I’ve had better lasagna,” said Loraine.
“I’ll A-men that,” added Mason.
“What makes this so different from Italian lasagna?” asked Fiona.
Sophia smiled. “Well, I use fresh chorizo sausage, casings removed, my own recipe of marinara sauce, chopped fresh cilantro, chopped green chiles, ricotta cheese, freshly whipped cream, two large lightly beaten eggs, and my own lasagna noodles.”
“Well.” Bone chuckled. “You made enough for an army…or me.”
Sophia smiled bashfully. “I don’t like anyone to leave my table hungry.”
“I notice there isn’t any left…” Loraine looked at Bone. “What’d you have, honey…three helpings?”
“Waste not, want not…” He grinned his enigmatic smile. “You weren’t bashful either…My acushla.”
Loraine kicked Bone under the table.
Sophia smiled. “That’s Gaelic.”
Bone nodded. “Yessum.”
She got to her feet, stepped over to the mahogany buffet at the side of the room and poured four snifters of brandy.
Sophia set the crystal, short-stemmed glass snifter in front of each. “Veccio 800, ‘76…That’s 1776.”
Bone nodded as he too a sip. “Quite liberating…My, my, this is a first class facility.”
“That’s a terrible pun, Bone,” said Loraine.
“I know…Couldn’t help myself.”
“You never can,” she replied.
“I’m impulse control challenged.”
“Well, this brandy will make you sleep like a baby.”
“Will it stop someone from snoring?”
Bone shot Loraine a look. “Me?…Or yourself, Pard?”
She kicked him again.
Mason held up his snifter. “To good food and good company.”
They all nodded and took a sip.
Bone shook his head. “Like drinking silk.”
Fiona finished off her brandy and set the snifter on the table.
“Well, I hate to break up such a rousing party, but, it’s been a long day…We must have walked five miles today,” said Mason.
“Didn’t you say your mother’s maiden name was McLain, Mason?” asked Sophia.
“Yes, Ma’am.” Her family was from south Texas.”
“I hope ya’ll are not too superstitious about staying in that room,” said Sophia.
“No, Ma’am, doesn’t bother me much,” answered Mason. “You, hon?”
Fiona shook her head. “Not really.”
“Mason doesn’t believe in superstition…he thinks it’s bad luck,” quipped Bone.
“Bone!” snapped Loraine.
He shrugged his shoulders.
“Another example of his impulse control being challenged,” said Fiona as she got to her feet. “Well…night all. Coming, love?” She smiled seductively.
“Right behind you, Pretty.”
“Good night, Mason…Fiona…sleep well,” commented Sophia.
“Don’t let the bed bugs bite.”
“Bone!” Loraine kicked him again under the table.
THE CAVE
Padrino blinked his eyes and took several deep breaths and looked around in the dark cave. “Captain! Captain St. John!”
There was no reply. He rose slowly to his feet, assisted by his right hand, thinking, Wow, getting down here was easy, but getting up is something else altogether…Getting old definitely ain’t for sissies.
He walked slowly to the front of the cave. The full sphere of the moon was well above the entrance.
Padrino glanced down the slope of the ridge toward the cliff’s edge where St. John’s car was parked. It was gone—so was Possum Kingdom Lake.
“I’ll be damned,” he muttered. He put the crystal back in his right side pocket. “Just as well spend the night in the cave and reconnoiter in the morning…Definitely not in 2018…but I wonder when I am.”
He moved down the hill, scouting for firewood.
Twenty minutes later he headed back up to the cave with an armload of deadfall. He dropped it just inside the entrance against the north side wall and started breaking small twigs from some of the wood into tiny pieces.
He stripped some of the loose bark from a piece of long dead cedar and rubbed the brown fibrous material between his palms, turning it into a reddish powder.
Padrino scooped a hole in the sand at the front edge of the cave near the pile of wood on the north wall and laid a larger piece of the cedar bark in the middle. He dumped the powder in the center and began to build a teepee over the top of it with the small, broken twigs, and then added larger pieces.
Padrino took a match out of his waterproof tin, struck it on limestone rock next to the hole he had dug and held it against the cedar punk he had put underneath the teepee. Smoke began to curl up through the twigs and then a yellow flame flared and licked the underneath side of the twigs.
In a short moment, they caught and soon thereafter, the larger pieces began to burn.
“Well, haven’t forgotten how,” he muttered.
He got his small coffee pot and a plastic bag of ground French Roast coffee out. After pouring some water from his canteen, he dropped a large handful of the coffee in the pot, put the lid back on and set it on the rock close to the fire.
Padrino then took a bone bun out of his ruck and the bag of his smoked ham. He sliced the bun in half with his K-Bar and laid a bunch of the ham in between.
“That ought to do it.”
He looked toward the entrance on the other side of the fire and saw two red glowing eyes above the ground just outside.
Padrino pursed his lips and chirruped several times. The sound was repeated from outside and the glowing eyes came closer. He chirruped again, and again was answered by a large raccoon standing on its back legs and walking to the edge of the cave.
“Hungry, girl?” asked Padrino.
The raccoon chittered back.
The wily Marine vet took a chunk of ham from the bag and pitched it at the feet of the big sow. She dropped down to all fours, picked up the meat with her remarkable human-like front paws.
The raccoon held the meat with one hand and brushed the sand from it with her other, and then peeled a bite from the chunk with her teeth.
Then she turned around and gave a piece to each of the two kits behind her, and then ate the rest herself.
The female raccoon looked at Padrino and chittered again.
He tore a large piece from the bone bread bun and pitched it to her. This time, she caught it in the air, tore several pieces of the chewy bread off and gave it to her family.
Without fear, after they had eaten, she led her two offspring inside and over to the opposite wall behind a couple of rocks where there was a pile of grasses.
“Huh…Looks like I’ve usurped your den, m’lady.” Padrino grinned at her. “Hope you don’t mind me sharing.”
The raccoon sow chittered back at him, turned around several times like a dog and laid down in a curl with her babies snuggled against her stomach for the night.
“I’ll be gone in the morning, madam, not to fear.”
Padrino smiled again, checked the coffee and found it was ready. He took a metal granitewear cup from his bag, filled it and stepped outside the opening.
He stood, mesmerized at the beauty of the skies overhead, blew across the top, and then took a sip.
“Oh, my, my…Nothing like this in my time.”
The moon was almost directly overhead and, though full, was not as bright as when it was just rising. He looked off to the north and easily found the North Star and the Big Dipper.
“Amazing, just amazing…Completely unspoiled by the light pollution of modern times, it’s as though…”
He was interrupted by a large, very bright shooting star or meteor arching across the black blanket of the star strewn night from southwest to northeast. “Star light, star bright…The first star I see tonight…I wish I may…I wish I might, Have the wish I wish tonight…”
Padrino finished the ancient nursery rhyme, sotto voce, then his lips pursed and a single tear rolled down his weathered cheek.
WILSON/bone RANCH
1898
Lucy sat bolt upright in her feather bed on the north side of the Wilson’s house and rushed to the window in time to see a large meteor streaking across the night sky.
She got a puzzled look on her pixie face, slowly walked back to her bed, crawled in and pulled her covers up to her chin. Lucy stared at the beaded ceiling, lit only by the moonlight streaming in her window, for a long while and finally drifted back off to sleep. She mumbled a word she’d heard only in Bone’s mind, “Padrino?”
VILLA DE LA VEGA
1898
“I think I’m about ready for bed also,” said Loraine.
“Thought you’d never bring it up.” Bone looked over at Sophia and grinned. “Our wedding night, you know.”
Loraine blushed.
Upstairs, Loraine stepped out of the attached dressing room in a long white cotton granny gown.
“Did you wear your armor under that?”
“You’ll have to find out on your own, big boy.” she replied with a grin.
“I sleep commando.”
“Not here, you don’t, mister, you’re wearing PJs or I’ll shoot you…You can wait till we get back to Jacksboro to go commando…No telling what’s going to happen tonight.”
“Killjoy…But you do have a point.”
“I know,” Loraine replied grinning again and winking at him.
Moonlight streamed in through the window later that night. Bone sat up, threw back the covers and stood on the floor, wearing only his red long john bottoms.
He then started walking slowly toward the wall where a shadowbox holding an antique Spanish Vaquero’s fifty foot braided rawhide riata was mounted. He opened it, took out the riata and walked to the large vertical mirror on the wall.
Loraine’s eyes snapped open when Bone opened the shadowbox.
Bone reached up to the top of the mirror and pushed a hidden catch. The mirror swung open and revealed an opening in the wall. He stepped in, extended his hand upward, pushed another hidden catch, and then eased the opposite mirror in Mason and Fiona’s room open.
Bone stepped through into the s
emi-dark room, lit only by the moon light coming in between the partially closed drapes on the window.
Loraine quickly got to her feet wearing only her long white granny grown and followed him through the opening. She stepped into the room just behind Bone.
She watched him open the riata, take the honda loop in his right hand and walk to the Flynn’s bed.
He stood next to the bed and dropped the honda loop over the top rail of their four poster, pulled it down and draped the noose over Mason’s head…
§§§
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
THE CAVe
1898
Padrino continued to stare in awe at the black blanket of diamonds with an amazingly crystal clear full moon directly overhead. He took another drink of coffee and stopped in mid-sip. “Lucy?”
He sat down in the sand in front of the cave, put his coffee cup aside and once again went into his zen mode.
For the next five minutes, he and Lucy communicated. It can’t really be called a conversation as much as a linkage or exchange of information and images. He knew her thoughts, memories and feelings and she knew his.
Even though they wouldn’t originally meet until 2014, Lucy knew of their relationship from Bone’s memories—again the paradox of the folds in the time and space continuum.
He knew she was at the very ranch in the same room where he and Captain St. John were that morning, searching for information on Bone, but, 120 years in the past.
Padrino picked up his cold coffee cup, pitched the remaining coffee and the grounds to the dirt and got to his feet. He looked up at the sky once again before turning and heading back into the cave.
He refilled his cup with hot coffee and stepped back to the front to take a sip and look back up once more. “See you soon, Lucy…my sky queen,” he muttered.
VILLA DE LA VEGA
1898
Bone underhanded a few coils of the riata over the four-poster rail above Mason’s head. He dropped the rest to the floor and started to take up the slack.
