Moonscape

by Julie Weston

  “I need a rope,” she called. “It’s O’Donnell. He met his just end.” The man was so much smaller in death than in life, as if he had shrunk from losing his bluster and meanness. Still, she felt little sympathy, unlike what she had felt for the two earlier bodies they found, even though she knew this man and the others had been strangers to her. She squeezed out a spoonful of empathy for Ben, who seemed so unlike his father.

  Charlie secured his rope to his saddle horn and then looped the end. “The best way for me to get the rope to you is to lasso you.” Even in the gathering gloom, Nellie could see the sheriff’s teeth in a rare smile. And he did lasso her. The lariat fell over her head and shoulders. Fortunately, he didn’t pull the rope and tighten it around her. Nell could hardly suppress a giggle as she thought about the metaphoric possibilities—“roped her in,” “rounded her up,” “tied her to him.” She must be getting silly from being tired. She pulled the loop up and over her head and then studied how to circle at least one of O’Donnell’s legs without disturbing how he lay. Really, she needed to get both legs together, but that would take more strength than she had and risk his continuing to slide into the hole. Nellie knew she couldn’t prevent the man from sliding once he started.

  She climbed with care over the upper ledge and set her foot on what looked like a stable rock, although she tested it first. No movement. She brought the loop with her and settled the top part on his leg. Inch by inch, she pushed the lower part under O’Donnell’s boot by pulling out first one rock and then another and another. She thought she felt the body shift slightly, so she stopped. Then she continued until the rope circled the boot. Nellie called, “Tighten it!”

  From her huddled position, Nellie clambered back over the ledge. “I think you’ll have to pull very slowly or the rope will pull the boot off. I’ll try to guide the leg up and over.” Even as she helped secure the loop higher on the leg, she realized she had lost her squeamishness around this dead body.

  “Nell,” the sheriff called. “Can you take a photograph of him, now that we have a rope on his boot?”

  Nell stared at the sheriff. How could she have forgotten to even suggest taking a photo? “Yes, of course.” Maybe, she said to herself. She climbed down, secured her camera, several sheets of film, and the black cloth from her pack, then climbed back up. No sense in bringing up the tripod, as there was no place to put it. She would have to steady the camera on the lava ledge itself. She pressed the buttons on top, opening the mechanism and then pulling out the bellows both front and back. She had to stop and think about how to go about focusing on the dead man and stabilizing the camera. There were plenty of rocks to hold the camera in place, but she had to aim it down. His legs would look gigantic and his head too small. There was no help for it. Some cameras could be maneuvered to at least take into account the perspective, but hers could not.

  “Can you do it?”

  Nell didn’t answer. She was trying to do it. Maybe the best she could do was balance the camera on his legs and boots and take it from there. She shuddered as her squeamishness returned. He had left her without any light in the cave and hit Moonshine. She would keep that thought in mind and view this as some form of retribution. She pulled the black cloth over her head so she could see through the ground glass, focused as best she could, and released the shutter. One more angle. She swung one leg over the top of the cone, resettled herself and camera, and took one more.

  “All right. I did what I could.” Nellie replaced the bellows in the box and closed it up. “Wait. I need to return the camera to my pack.” By the time she reached O’Donnell again, she was “plain tuckered out,” as Rosy might have said.

  Now, their aim was to get the body up and out of the cone without losing it. Once Charlie had pulled enough to get the bulk of O’Donnell—everything except his arms and head—over the ledge and headed downhill again, Nellie picked up a rock the size of a bread loaf and dropped it in. She waited but never heard it hit bottom. This dead man would have disappeared forever if Moonshine hadn’t stumbled on the trail and she and Charlie on the coins. She wondered if O’Donnell had dropped the coins on purpose or they had simply fallen out of his pocket as he was dragged along. She hoped the latter. Even she wasn’t steeled enough to hope he died a slow death. His face was scratched and rubbed almost raw; all the blood seemed to be from his head.

  Nellie climbed back down the cone, helping to move the body without scraping his head off. She had wrapped his head in his jacket, so she thought it might be intact. At Charlie’s horse, she held onto the sheriff’s good leg, again. “Now what?” She answered herself: “I should take another photo up close. I know we scraped him some as he came down, but . . .”

  “Yes, that would be good.”

  Nellie unwrapped O’Donnell’s head and went to work. His hair stuck to his skull. The blood, although mostly dry, still seemed sticky in spots. On the side she had not seen as he lay in the hole, the blood was much thicker and goopier. “Look, Charlie. It looks like he was either bludgeoned or maybe shot. You explore. I can’t.” She took the photo and then backed away. “I’ll help you off the horse.”

  “It can wait, Nell. First, we—meaning you—have to build a fire. We are going to have to stay here for the night. I do not want to drag the body clear back to the road. There would not be much left of it.” Charlie held onto Nellie’s shoulder. “You are a strong woman, Nell.” He unlooped the lasso from around the saddlehorn. “I can check the body in the morning.” He turned in the saddle to look back toward the lava fields. “Maybe Rosy will see the fire and come this way.” He turned back. “We can return to the path and leave O’Donnell here for the night. If we are close by, the animals should stay away. Having Moonshine will help. He will warn us if a critter comes creeping. I will stay awake. You can sleep. You need it. First, you have to help me down when we get to the trail.”

  Nellie followed instructions. Not having to think was a bonus after her long day, filled with fright, determination, confrontation, and now photographing another dead person. She trekked back along the path toward the tree molds, as there was little wood near the cones. She wondered if the lava fields were what hell looked like, if one believed in hell. She gathered dead branches and one larger gray piece in a stack about half way between where O’Donnell lay and the path. Charlie had extracted a canvas cloth from his own pack and handed it to her to cover up the lifeless man. He watched her comings and goings but also moved the horse around to find a place to dismount and one as comfortable as possible given the terrain.

  When Nellie found a branch about the size of a crutch, she took it to Charlie. “Time to dismount. You can use this to hobble on.” She hoped. She had tested her own weight on it, but that wasn’t a good test for a man like Charlie. They found a level rock plate, and Nell tried to help relieve the weight on the sheriff’s good leg as he lifted the leg with the cast over the horse. He took the branch and used it in place of his bad leg until he could get his balance. “I found a possible camp site over there.” He nodded with his head. Nellie helped him hobble until they reached a spot with large stones, still warm from the sun, and a sheltered area without rough lava and few signs of any lava, except around the edges, an anomaly. From there, they could also see the fire, which Nellie had lit, using one of her matches and dried grass to get it going. Nell spread Charlie’s coat on the ground with her own and helped him to a sitting position with his bad leg straight out in its cast. His grunts revealed his pain.

  “Build the fire as high as you can. Then come back here and try to sleep, Nell.”

  When she returned, Charlie had built up a pillow with the rope and covered it with yet another piece of canvas. His panniers, which she had lifted from the horse and left near him, seemed a never-ending treasure trove of useful things. She lay down next to him, and he put his arm around her. “It will grow cold. Stay as close as possible.” Moonshine eased up to her other side and curled around to sleep, too.

  As Nellie drifted off to sleep,
she wondered if it really would be cold or Charlie only wanted to hold her. Either way, the situation suited her just fine.

  Nell shivered awake. It was still dark, and Charlie was not next to her. Neither was Moonie. “Charlie!” Nell tried to keep her voice down until she knew where he was and what was happening.

  “Over here,” he called in a normal voice from near the fire. “A coyote came creeping. Moonshine growled, so I decided to move and keep the fire stoked.” He stood in an awkward position and laid several more branches, and the flames leaped up.

  “Why didn’t you wake me?” Nell jumped to her feet and joined him. “I can do this.”

  “So this is where you two ended up!” Rosy’s voice made Nellie start. “I been lookin’ all over for you. I got to thinkin’ you found another cave to search and got lost.” He joined them at the fire. “I saw this fire and figgered no coyote, except maybe the two-legged kind, had set it.”

  Nellie turned and hugged Rosy. “Did you get Effie delivered?”

  “Yup. She dang near talked my head off the whole way back. I tried to leave her at the hotel, but she wouldn’t have none of that. Said she was afraid she’d get killed, like the other two. So, I left her with Esther. Sorry ’bout using your house as a way station, Charlie. Goldie was there with the boys, too. Passel of women to take care of ’em, so we can take our time gettin’ back.”

  “What did Effie say?” Nellie asked.

  “What didn’t she say makes more sense.” Rosy dropped the pack off his back. “You two hungry?”

  “I should smile,” Charlie said. “At least I am. It’s been a long day and an even longer night.”

  “Where’s your horse?”

  “Back over there, tied to a rock. Nell gathered all this wood, and I suspect she could eat a horse.”

  “Where’s Moonshine?”

  “Oh my heavens! I completely forgot about Moonie. He slept next to me for a while.” Nellie hurried back to the trail and called. “Moonie! Moonie! Where are you?” She hoped he hadn’t found another porcupine. She hurried to the horse and then back to the nest Charlie had built. Moonshine lifted his head from behind the rope pillow. “Oh, thank heavens!” She crouched down and held her dog in a body hug.

  Rosy had followed Nell. “Just sleepin’. He was clobbered, Effie said. She could talk the tail off a coyote. I didn’t always know what she was jabberin’ about, but I did get a few things. One was that you were abandoned in the cave and then helped her out. Saved her life, she said.”

  “Did she say anything about Cable O’Donnell?”

  “Plenty. C’mon back to the fire, and I’ll tell you both. Charlie said O’Donnell is over there, deader’n this here lava rock.”

  All three of them and Moonshine gathered around the fire. “Nell, I did not know what a time you had in that cave. I could have sent Rosy back with Effie,” the sheriff said. “Rosy, maybe you should take Nell to the automobile instead of staying here. You could take the horse and then bring it back.”

  The sheriff still leaned on the branch, but Nell thought he looked as if he could fall over at any moment. Carrying that cast around probably sapped his strength. “And what would you do? And what would we do with O’Donnell there?” Nell came to Charlie’s side. “We all go, or we all stay until morning. Then we can decide what to do.”

  Neither man responded.

  “That settles that.” Nellie folded herself down near the fire.

  Rosy helped the sheriff sit down and found a rock for his leg to rest on. Then he sat down himself and pulled wrapped sandwiches and cookies from his pack. “Goldie knew food was wanted,” he said, chuckling. “While you two eat, I’ll tell you about Effie.” He tossed a few pieces of jerky to Moonshine, who gobbled them up. He was as hungry as the other two.

  Effie was the dead girl’s sister. Her name was Hattie. Elder found her in a train station in Pocatello, trying to buy a ticket East, but she had little money and even less baggage. He took her to Utah City and planned on her being his wife, until he found out she was pregnant. Elder was furious because he thought he had a virgin in hand, apparently a scarce commodity. He said he was taking her to a crystal cave to have her baby, and it would be dedicated to God. Hattie was able to telephone Effie to meet them in Idaho Falls and help her. Effie contacted O’Donnell, because she knew he was part of the same group of polygamists that Elder belonged to. O’Donnell said he would pay enough money to Elder for the return of Hattie, who had run from Twin Falls. Effie took it with her and handed it over to Elder, but the old man still wanted to proceed with his plan. After the baby was born, Hattie could go to O’Donnell.

  “Effie didn’t have no choice but to stay with Hattie and hope she could save her. Hattie was terrified. She never did say who the pa was, although Effie said she thought she knew, but she wasn’t tellin’ either.”

  “Did Effie tell you what happened in the caves?”

  “No, she just kept crying about her sister and the lost money. She says she has to pay it to O’Donnell, who was tryin’ to save her sister. She did say somethin’ strange, though. That O’Donnell said he’d get the money back from Elder, one way or t’other. Maybe O’Donnell had strings he could pull at Utah City. Effie thinks he helps support the place and may provide a bride or two or three. She don’t like O’Donnell at all.” Rosy wound down.

  Nellie and the sheriff stared into the fire. She was too tired to go over what she had heard Effie tell O’Donnell, and she did not want to speculate out loud, but she had her own opinion about O’Donnell. Still, if he had tried to save Hattie, and even put up the money to do it, he must not have been all bad. And, why would a young woman as pretty as Hattie have had anything to do with the rancher? He was so much older. Maybe his money was the lure. Certainly, Hattie would not have been the first to succumb to the possibility of riches, especially if she wanted to escape from a background of poverty or abuse. Pearl seemed to have done the same thing. Nell hugged Moonshine closer. The next thing she knew, the sun had brightened the sky before topping the hills to the east.

  Rosy stirred up the fire, pulled out a fry pan, and made biscuits and bacon. Charlie hobbled to the body, and, using his flashlight as another crutch, he lowered himself near the head and inspected the head, neck, and the rest of the man. He managed to stand up again and joined the others at the fire. He replaced his items in the pannier or around the saddle horn of his horse as it stood closer to the group.

  “We been talkin’, Nell,” said Rosy. “I’m goin’ to take you and that body there back to the automobile. We’ll take it into Arco and arrange to get it moved to Hailey to the morgue. Charlie here will wait ’til I come back and get him.”

  “I’m not going to ride that horse with the body on it! Why don’t you two take it back, and I’ll wait here. Moonshine can keep me company. I can take photographs and keep myself busy. With O’Donnell dead, I don’t think there is anyone else out here who would harm me.” She stood up to sound firmer. “And, I have a gun.”

  Rosy looked at Charlie. “Told you she wasn’t goin’ to go along with it. Stubbornest female I ever did know.” Nellie heard the postscript in her head and wondered if Charlie did: “just like Lily.”

  “I have examined O’Donnell as carefully as I could. I didn’t want to roll him over as I might scratch him up even more. You were right, Nell. Either someone hit him with a sharp rock or maybe he was shot. I think there is something more to see. I want to get him to the coroner as soon as possible. He was stiff last night, but rigor mortis is about gone. He can be carried slung over the back of the horse. You and Rosy can walk. I can wait here until Rosy comes back to get me.”

  “You’ll be out here for hours! That doesn’t make sense at all.” Nell wrapped her arms in front of her. “You ride. The body rides. Rosy and I will walk. Then no one waits here.” As if it was all decided, she began to pack up her coat and camera. The two men shrugged at each other, and they, too, began to pack up. Moonshine herded them back and forth, more energetic than t
he day before.

  When Rosy and Nellie reached Charlie at the automobile, both wanted nothing more than to stop and nap. Charlie had managed to dismount the horse and waited, his leg extended, by the side of the wagon road on a tuft of bunch grass, turned gold. The dead O’Donnell remained slung over the horse. Nellie wanted him out of her sight.

  “Now what?” Nellie gestured to the dead man. “He won’t fit well into the boot of the auto.”

  “Guess I better drive to Arco and get Mayor Tom’s help,” Rosy said. “He’ll need to pick up this horse, too.”

  Charlie sat, his face a stone image. Nellie thought he could easily meld into the rock of the craters, except his color wasn’t as dark. Moonshine looked from one to the other, also silent. He was probably as tired as they all were, but he at least had slept most of the night.

  The sheriff’s shoulders sagged. “If it were not for my carelessness . . .” He slapped the leg in the cast. He straightened and nodded. “All right, Rosy. I cannot think of another solution. We will wait here. If you can, telephone Goldie about the cash, but do not let Tom or anyone else hear you. Better not to call than to alert someone that the money is still at the boarding house.”

  “D’you think Tom is involved in all this?”

  “He might be,” Nell answered. “He certainly hasn’t been honest about his actions, even if he has been helpful out here.” Helpful or scheming, she wondered. She had told the sheriff and Rosy about her conversation with Tom. He was so thoughtful about Moonie, it was hard to think of him as a murderer or even as an accessory of some kind. “He certainly wants this area to be declared a national monument, and he probably could use the money to wage some kind of effort.” She faced Rosy. “Does it cost money to get a national monument?”