Moonscape

by Julie Weston

  Nellie almost laughed out loud. The expressions on everyone’s faces might have stepped off the stage of a romantic comedy: Effie’s chin dropped, Peter looked frantically around, perhaps looking for an escape, O’Donnell stood there open-mouthed, as if he were a cuckolded husband, and the young woman briefly glanced at all three and slipped through the front door and disappeared.

  Effie recovered first. “Peter! Who was that? What . . . ? I don’t believe . . . !” She was in tears again.

  O’Donnell hurried off the porch and strode around to where Nellie was trying to get back to her automobile. She loosened Moonshine from his tie-up. The man grabbed Nellie’s arm, and Moonie snarled and prepared to leap on him. “Stop, Moonshine.” She attempted to pull her arm away, but it was the arm that had been wounded during the summer, and she couldn’t. “Let go!”

  “What in hell are you doing here? You damned busybody, snooping . . . girl! Didn’t you cause enough trouble last summer?” He had come off the porch without his hat. His hair was disarrayed, and his hairline seemed to be receding, something she had not noticed before. It changed his appearance. At first Nellie could say nothing.

  She floundered. “I—I wanted to see Effie, learn what I could about her sister.” Nellie stood as tall as she could.

  “I am tempted to kill that dog of yours. Serve you right.”

  Fear struck Nellie. This man seemed smaller than she remembered from meeting him at the saloon in Stanley when she was with Gwynn Campbell and again in Twin Falls, but meaner. His voice held more animation than the night they shared a dinner. She remembered it as flat and icy, like his eyes. She looked at his lapel to see if that strange symbol was still pinned. It was too dark to tell.

  “You’re such a meddling hussy. I don’t wonder you are snooping around. Trying to see if your precious sheriff is here with another woman?”

  Effie was beating Peter on his arm, and he kept backing away. He managed to escape through the front door as well. She followed him.

  “I know where he is. Do you know where your wife is?” Maybe she should say “wives,” if he indeed was part of the polygamist group. Even in the dark, she knew her words hit some kind of target. “Or maybe one of your wives isn’t as precious as the other.”

  Nell ducked to avoid his arm trying to knock her over. Moonshine growled and prepared to leap again. “No.” She put her hand on her dog’s head. “I work for the sheriff now, taking photographs of crime scenes. We just spent several days out at Craters of the Moon, where we found two bodies. Do you know anything about that?”

  O’Donnell sat on a stump. “Why would I?” He looked worn out. Maybe Effie’s story had affected him as much as it had Nellie.

  “We think one of them is connected to a group of religious people, and that you might be, too.” It was definitely a stab in the dark.

  “What does that have to do with your being here?”

  “One of the people we believe was with the two who are dead is here at Guyer—Effie, the woman you were just talking to. I wanted to see who was with Effie.”

  “So did I,” he offered. “I wanted to find Elder Joshua. He owes me money.” Curious that he didn’t say anything about Hattie, after Effie’s horrible story.

  “She is not with Elder Joshua. He is dead.” She took another small step backward. She decided not to mention Peter Banks; that was Effie’s business.

  “Where is my money? Did you and the sheriff steal it from him?”

  “Why does he owe you money?” He seemed not to have noticed that she had retreated a few steps.

  “None of your damned business.” The man’s face was turned so no light fell on it. Clouds covered the moon again.

  “The money might still be at the lava fields.” Then she said something she hoped she wouldn’t regret. “I could show you where the bodies were found. Maybe the money is there.”

  “I already—” He cut himself short. He faked a cough but didn’t resume.

  So, he had been out there. Maybe he was there when Nellie, the sheriff, and Mayor Tom had been there, or even when Rosy had joined them.

  “There was a farther cave, near the tree molds. We tried to get into it but couldn’t. Maybe the man you mention—Elder Joshua—put the money there. There was no money on him when we found him.” She took two more steps, this time off to the man’s side. “I am leaving now. I’m expected at home, and, if I don’t show up soon, a whole bunch of people will be looking for me.” Goldie wasn’t exactly “a whole bunch of people,” but, knowing her, she would round up a search party if Nell didn’t return as planned. “I saw your son, by the way. Did he know you were out there?”

  “I will come by that boarding house where you live and pick you up tomorrow. Can you find that last cave again?”

  “Maybe. I can get someone to come with us who knows for certain how to get there.” Nell wondered how O’Donnell knew where she lived. Maybe he wasn’t so surprised to see her in Ketchum.

  “No! Just you.”

  “Do you have a compass? I can try. Moonshine has to come with us. And Effie. I have no reason to trust you, on any count.”

  “I will be there by 9:00. See that you are there, too.”

  “Bring Effie,” Nell repeated. She knew she was getting herself in too deep, but it was all she could think of on the spur of the moment. When she retreated to her automobile with Moonie, she realized Effie knew the money had been in the automobile. And a long drive with Cable O’Donnell was the last thing she wanted to do. He couldn’t be trusted at all. She was left with the questions of whether O’Donnell had killed the man in the cave, and why did Elder Joshua owe O’Donnell money?

  CHAPTER 19

  “You can’t go out there alone with that varmint!” Goldie turned to Charlie. “Don’t let her go! I just shake my head at how foolhardy you are sometimes, Nell!”

  “Effie will be with us, too. If O’Donnell wanted to hurt her, he could have done it last night.” Nell knew her arguments were weak. “O’Donnell knows I have you, the sheriff, and others behind me. He’ll know that you know I’m with him. I might get him to admit he killed Elder Joshua, and, even so, he might have done it because Elder killed Hattie.” Nell had recounted the overheard conversation to both Goldie and Charlie. “Or, I might find out why the dead man owes O’Donnell this money.” Nellie swept her hand toward the boxes under the window in the parlor. “Maybe I could take a small part and put it in a cranny somewhere, and he could find it.”

  “No! I won’t have it. Let’s get Rosy to go with you, or that Mayor Tom.”

  Charlie had said nothing about Nell’s explanation of the night before or her plan to go back to the lava fields with O’Donnell and Effie. He sighed. “Keeping Nellie from doing something foolhardy is like stopping a waterfall, Goldie. If she does not go, now that she offered, O’Donnell will think she learned something more about the whole situation, something that implicates him. If she does go, she is in danger.” He stared at Nellie, as if to ask why she was the way she was. He pointed to his leg, still in the cast. “Clearly, I cannot go out onto the lava fields, but I could be in an automobile.” He turned back to Goldie. “If we can get Rosy to be somewhere in the vicinity, then at least we have a back-up position for Nell if something goes wrong.” He looked back at her. “As it always does.”

  “Moonshine is coming with me. I insisted on that.”

  Charlie rolled his eyes. “There is that.” He gathered himself up to his crutches. “I will telephone Rosy and explain what we need. You two stay here.”

  As soon as he was out of the room, his crutches pocking on the floor, Nellie motioned to Goldie. “Help me. I’ll take some of this money and hide it in my camera pack. I do plan to take photos while I am out there. I can stuff a bunch of bills in one of the crevices or holes that we come across and then pretend to find it.” Or, better yet, she thought, go into that last cave by herself before O’Donnell does and place a bag of money in there. “Get me one of your small shopping bags. I’ll use that
.”

  “You will not.” Goldie sniffed, but hovered over the bills. “You’ll need a sack so no one could tell where the bills come from.” She hurried out of the room and returned with a waxy bag, like the kind grocery stores gave out for big loads. “Here, dump some of those bills in here. Then close it up so Charlie won’t notice.”

  When Charlie returned, both Goldie and Nell sat on the couch. “You two look like you are up to something.” He looked from them to the boxes with the money. Both were shut up tight. “Rosy will leave at 9:00 and be there at the wagon road before you. If he is there, it would be difficult for O’Donnell to ignore him. Even if he did, Rosy could follow you. And, since he knows the territory, it makes sense that he stick close and direct you to the correct caves.”

  “Thank you, Sheriff.”

  “Do only as you said, Nell. Nothing more. And take this.” He handed her his gun. “I won’t need it here. And don’t forget water and food.”

  Although Goldie watched Nell nod her head and look exasperated, Goldie didn’t think Nellie knew what the words “nothing more” meant. She wished she could go with her roomer. She left to go to the kitchen and prepare at least a sandwich. “Where’s the canteen?” she called. Nell brought it and filled it. “Don’t worry, Goldie. I’ll be fine.”

  Next morning, when a large automobile pulled up to the front of the boarding house and Nell waved and left, Goldie turned to Charlie. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

  Charlie’s face was a pocket of frowns. He looked his age, which wasn’t all that old, and older. Getting his leg broken had set him back more than almost anything else that had happened to him.

  “What did you tell Rosy?”

  “Just the circumstances and asked if he would go in my place.”

  “You were gone quite a while.” Goldie knew Charlie didn’t like her prying, but she knew both men well, better than they knew themselves, she sometimes surmised. “Do you and Rosy ever talk about Lily?” Now, that was prying.

  “You and Nell must operate on the same set of assumptions about Rosy and me.”

  “We are both women,” Goldie said. “Mebbe the better question is, do you and Rosy ever talk?”

  “About what?”

  Goldie flew her hands up. “Boys. Last Chance Ranch. Drinking. Craters of the Moon. I could list half a dozen things you could talk about. Nell.”

  Charlie smiled. “Yes, we have talked about Nell. We did just now. He did not want her to go out to the lava fields with O’Donnell either. You both had the same reaction.”

  “Does Rosy have a gun?”

  “What do you think?”

  Goldie pondered. “I know he didn’t when he was drinkin’ so much. Mebbe he does now.”

  “I told him where to find one in the house. He now has one.”

  “That makes me breathe a little easier. Does he know how to use one?”

  Charlie leaned his head back. “Rosy has done his share of hunting, Goldie. Every man in this country has. He also herded sheep for a while and knew how to kill a coyote.” He closed his eyes. Goldie knew he wouldn’t answer anything more.

  Worry didn’t keep Goldie from preparing dinner for her boarders. She missed having the young boys there and wondered if Esther could cook or did, in fact, cook. Maybe Rosy had to do it all. If he was gone, his sister would have to do it. “I’m just a jealous old woman,” Goldie said to herself. Talking aloud had long been a habit when she was alone nearly all day. Having Nell in the house with her portrait studio created a new situation. Although she had complained to herself at first, she had grown to like having the younger woman around. “I wonder if Nellie’s mother misses her. I bet she does.” She finished a chicken pot pie and put it in the icebox until time to cook in the oven.

  CHAPTER 20

  Nellie placed her camera pack in the back of the car alongside her tripod, canteen, and lunch. Moonshine occupied the well around her feet. She turned around. “Where’s Effie?”

  “Damned woman.” O’Donnell never spared himself any swear words. “She took off early with a man in his car. They both stayed at that hot springs. That’s what the clerk said.”

  Nellie wanted to back out, but she felt she was committed to go. Maybe they would come across Effie and, she assumed, Peter, at the fields.

  “After my money, I figure.” O’Donnell pressed on the accelerator. The two of them had little to say to each other. The automobile was a newer model than Nellie had ever ridden in, even in Chicago. She enjoyed the space and the luxury of extra-padded seats. Sheepskins covered the seats and almost curled around her backside.

  Nell sought to get information, if she could, from the rancher. “I saw Pearl the other day. Tending cattle seemed to agree with her.” She watched O’Donnell closely to see his reaction to the mention of Pearl.

  “She always was a good rider.” He stared straight ahead. “That’s better for her than working in a saloon in Stanley, even if—”

  “Why did that churchman owe you money?”

  “None of your business. And he isn’t, or wasn’t, a churchman. He left the church, not agreeing with some of the tenets of that religion.”

  “You mean he wanted more than one wife?”

  “The Lord said to be fruitful and multiply. The church caved in to blackmail.” O’Donnell looked over at Nellie. “Seems like you forgot that, too. A single woman like you is an abomination.”

  To whom, Nellie wondered. Men who wanted more than one wife? She studied the landscape outside the automobile window. She felt as if she were treading familiar ground, not only the sagebrush and wrinkled foothills, but the old argument about not getting married. If she thought being a wife was akin to slavery, she figured being one of several wives to one husband must actually be slavery. Did O’Donnell buy the dead woman from Elder Joshua? And so, no wife, no money due?

  “Is Effie related to you? And Hattie?” Nell asked.

  “No,” he said. “Not really.”

  Nell wondered what that meant. Either she was or she wasn’t. He already refused to talk about the money, so Nell rode in silence, watching the scenery.

  O’Donnell slowed the automobile and swung off the road onto a narrow strip bordering sharp cascades of black lava. It was as if the lava had hardened just the day before, the piles of broken flows looked so fresh. “Why are we stopping?” she asked.

  “We’ll enter the fields near here. There’s an old Indian trail we can follow past the worst of this, and then we’ll find our way to the caves. Besides, if Effie is here, they must have gone on to the wagon road. This way, we’ll get to the last cave first. I searched the others.”

  “I don’t know this way. I can’t lead you anywhere in this . . . this tortured moonscape.” And, Rosy would be waiting at the wagon road farther along the craters. He wouldn’t see or hear them this far away. If Effie were there, wouldn’t she tell him about O’Donnell? And, what if she did? Charlie already had warned Rosy. A cluster of anxiety threatened Nell. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea. “Moonshine can’t walk across these shards. If he can’t go, I won’t go either.”

  “Your damned dog be hanged. Come or not, but you’ll have to hitchhike back to town.” O’Donnell exited the automobile and opened the boot. He pulled out a pack and a rifle. “The trail leads off the roadway about a quarter mile. If you decide to come, follow it.” And, then he tramped along the road and soon headed down into the cinders.

  Nell waited until she could no longer see O’Donnell, and then she climbed out of the automobile as well. Maybe she could get a message to Rosy, if only another auto would come along the road. She hadn’t seen any all the way to the lava fields. Soon, though, a Model T came chugging along. She flagged it down. An old man drove, and he looked angry at being stopped. “Whatcha want in that fancy carriage there?”

  “I have a friend up the road a ways. Could you stop and tell him that the photographer and the driver are hiking into the craters from here?”

  He grumped and half-nodd
ed his head and took off again. Nell wondered if he would do anything. Should she wait for another? No, she decided. She loaded up her pack and tripod and canteen and called for Moonshine. Up the road she found where O’Donnell had left it, and she followed his track. It was narrow, but had been used for a long time, maybe by the Indians. Moonie followed. Nellie had taken care to place pads on his feet. As she walked, she realized this wasn’t too far from where Charlie, Rosy, and she had left the craters from their last sojourn, a couple of weeks ago, when Charlie broke his leg. Perhaps, this was where Effie escaped from the Craters of the Moon with someone and motored on to Ketchum, carrying a baby with her.

  Nellie passed stacks of lava resembling square houses. She decided to stop and take a photograph. This topography was different than the area she had traveled before, much rougher. If she didn’t get anything out of O’Donnell, then she could at least take photos, build up her portfolio of Idaho landscapes. These stacks almost looked like planned structures—ancient houses built from lava rocks. In the sunlight, their color verged into red. Bright green lichen speckled the cinders, creating almost a cheerful mood. When she finished, she packed up her camera again, squeezing it in beside the bag of money and Charlie’s gun, and studied the ground around her. In the distance, she could see cattle and wondered if the herd belonged to O’Donnell and was being tended by Pearl and Ben. Ben reminded her a little of Ned Tanner, the cowboy she’d met in the Stanley Basin, the one Pearl had seemed keen on. If this area became a national monument, as Mayor Tom had suggested, would those cattle have to be moved? They made the area seem more pastoral than it really was.

  The thought of losing grazing rights must enrage the cattlemen. Mayor Tom had said as much. Dead tourists would not help the cause of those who wanted a monument. People in Arco would benefit from more tourism. And, the lava fields were a strange sight to see, even if forbidding in many ways.

  It was quiet. She hadn’t seen a squirrel or a bird or any other animal. Maybe they were hiding from her, thinking she was a hunter, even though she didn’t carry a rifle, and her gun was hidden in her camera pack. Maybe she should have it handier, she thought, and decided to carry the gun in her waistband in the back where it would be covered by her jacket. She couldn’t shoot anything far away, but, it was when an animal, or man, was up close that was dangerous anyway—a lesson she had learned in the summer. Before she began trekking deeper into the craters, she looked back and studied the path, hoping to see Rosy hiking along it. Nothing. She sighed and hefted her pack. “Come, Moonshine. We should keep going, although I am not sure why anymore. Maybe to find Effie if she is even here. Maybe she and Peter eloped.”