Crystalline Crypt

by Mary Coley

  “I’ll go with you.”

  Doobie ran up, tail wagging. He accompanied them up the road to the hillside cabins.

  Behind them, engine noise broke the peaceful silence. A car drove up the road toward the main house.

  “I bet that’s the people who are staying in Cabin 4,” Mandy said. “Let’s hurry. Dale may want me to take them to their cabin after she gets them checked in.”

  “You like this new job of yours.”

  She considered that. “Doesn’t feel like work. It’s not like an office, where you’re chained to a desk handling paperwork all day. Even in a creative business-like marketing and advertising, there’s a certain chained syndrome that comes with it. This is different.”

  They reached the narrow road that veered off to the right to Cabins 1 through 5. At Cabin 3, a white Murano sat in the parking area. Mandy stepped up onto the porch and rapped lightly on the screen door. A man answered her knock.

  “Hi. I’m Mandy, and this is Sean. We’re looking for Lamar. I think he escorted you up to the cabin earlier. Did you notice where he went from here?”

  “Well, the wife and I were unloading the car, but if I remember, a blue truck stopped as he was walking down the hill. He got in and the truck drove that way.” The man indicated the road that passed through the meadow and on to other parts of the former dude ranch.

  Mandy joined Sean again on the road. “Someone picked him up in a blue truck. Max drives a blue truck, the only one I’ve seen around here since I came. And if they drove up the range road, I’m sure it was Max. They must not have finished that fence project.”

  Sean walked silently, glancing at the trees, the meadows and hills, then back toward the cabins. “I keep thinking what it must be like to have lived through a fire that killed your parents and to have lost your only sibling. For such a peaceful place, there’s lots of pain here.”

  Mandy knew that pain. She didn’t want to experience it again.

  If she thought too hard about it, she imagined she could feel a psychic scream in this place. What a horrible day that had been twenty years ago: a woman died, and a family was lost, the parents killed in a fire, their teenage daughters vanished.

  Dale stepped out on the ranch house porch with a middle-aged couple. She waved at Mandy and Sean, and they hurried toward her.

  “Mandy, did you find Lamar?”

  “No. The people in Cabin 3 said someone picked him up in a blue truck. I guess he and Max went back to work on the fence.”

  Dale flicked one hand. “Max finished that. But never mind. Could you take the Johnsons up to Cabin 4? This is Judy and Rick.”

  “Sure.” Mandy introduced herself and Sean. “We’ll walk up the hill. Follow us in your car. Straight ahead and then to the right.”

  She and Sean retraced their steps up the hillside to the row of cabins they’d left minutes before.

  After helping the couple carry their bags into the cabin, Mandy led Sean up the hillside to the burnt-out cabin ruins she’d found the previous day. “It’s morbid, but I can show you where I think it happened. I found this.” She handed him the earring she’d tucked into her jean pocket.

  “It looks like one of Jenna’s. She’s been here.”

  “I’m sure she has. She must have snuck up here, back to the scene.”

  Sean studied the piles of scorched bricks and stepped over a charred timber to stand in what had probably been the living room. “Do you think Jenna realized what Mike had been doing? Did she kill him?”

  The question startled her. “I don’t see Jenna capable of killing anyone. Someone hired Mike to find Jenna. He did his job. I think whoever hired him killed him. They didn’t want to risk that Mike would talk.”

  Sean frowned. “This is very serious. A murderer is looking for Jenna. What if they find her?”

  “We have to find her first. I hope we’re not too late.”

  A crow cawed from a tree branch above them, and another answered from a hundred yards away. A third flew close to land on the ruined chimney, and a fourth flapped up to perch on the partial wall near where Mandy stood.

  “Creepy birds,” Mandy said. “Ravens and crows signal death to me. Maybe they can smell it. I feel sad for the family destroyed right here.”

  “We need to find her, Mandy. Today.”

  Mandy clapped her hands and the birds scattered.

  “Where do we start?” She asked.

  “My cabin. Supposedly she was there earlier. Or someone wants me to believe she was.”

  Together, they slipped down the hillside on the carpet of leaf debris. Back on the road, they walked in silence to the staff cabins. Doobie trotted along with them, stopping every few seconds to thrust his nose into the leaves and snort.

  Mandy stepped onto the duplex porch.

  Inside, Moby barked as she unlocked the door.

  ~ Chapter 51 ~

  Sean

  “Who lives in the other half?” The cabin looked comfortable enough, about what you’d expect for staff accommodations. The antler lamps were like nothing Jenna would ever buy.

  “Nobody right now. In the summer, the female staff live here. A maid or two, maybe a cook? The men live in the bunkhouse. Right now, Dale has no staff. Come the holidays, she’ll hire college kids. She said she was going to advertise.”

  Sean surveyed the little cabin before going to the connecting doorway. He twisted the knob. “When I tried to come in the other night, you saw this knob turning?”

  “Yes. I called out without thinking. I never did get back to sleep.”

  “Can you open it?”

  “You mean do I have the key? No.”

  Sean shrugged. “It’s not so hard.” From his pocket, he pulled a carabiner with several attached tools. After he selected one, he stuck it into the deadbolt. With a snap, the lock unlocked. His throat tightened. He twisted the knob and swung the door open.

  The other side of the duplex was the mirror image of Mandy’s half. A musty smell dissipated as Sean rushed away from Mandy to check out the kitchen.

  Nothing conclusive there, only bits of trash in the garbage can. Remnants from the previous employees? It should have been emptied, right?

  Mandy was waiting when he returned to the living room. “Nothing in the kitchen or laundry alcove,” Sean said.

  “I found this in the bedroom.” Mandy opened her hand and showed Sean the mate to the earring she’d found at the cabin ruin. “And I noticed there’s an attic trapdoor in the bedroom closet that I don’t have in mine. We should check up there.”

  Sean’s heartbeat quickened. He barreled into the bedroom and opened the closet door. After he jerked the cord on the attic access trapdoor, it dropped down to reveal a collapsible ladder. The sections of the ladder unfolded. Sean climbed into the darkness of the attic and sneezed in the dusty, musty space.

  “Jenna? Honey, are you up here?” Sean called as Mandy climbed the ladder behind him. Darkness. Air vents allowed only tiny rays of light into the space.

  Sean’s eyes adjusted to the low light level. A thin cord hung above him, to his left. When he pulled the cord, light illuminated most of the attic.

  Something huddled at the edge of the darkness. His heart pounded

  “Jenna?

  The figure moved.

  Downstairs, Sean led Jenna to the sofa and dropped down to sit beside her. Moby sniffed at Jenna, then sat quietly.

  Jenna stared at the floor; Sean stared at Jenna. She’d dyed her light brown hair cinnamon and streaked it with copper highlights. Her face was pale. Her eyes were sunken, but the blue-green irises were still brilliant in the light from the window.

  Mandy hurried to the kitchen. Cabinet doors opened and closed. The stove clicked on.

  “You two must hate me. I’m such a fraud,” Jenna moaned. She wouldn’t look at him.

  “We’re here because we love you. It doesn’t matter what happened all those years ago. That person isn’t who you are now,” Sean said.

  “No? It made
me who I am. I was someone different then. Someone I’m afraid you wouldn’t have liked.”

  Mandy carried two mugs of hot tea into the living room, handed one to Sean and one to Jenna. “Are you Sharon Bergen?” she asked.

  Jenna took the mug but didn’t look up. “My family died because of me.”

  “What are you doing here?” Sean slipped one arm around her shoulders drawing her closer. “Why did you run away from us and come here alone?”

  “When I first saw that painting, I thought it was me, but the second time, I realized it was my sister. She’s here, somewhere. I have to save her.”

  “You have a sister,” Mandy repeated.

  Sean saw disappointment on Mandy’s face. He was not the only one who felt betrayed by Jenna’s secrecy. “The second time?”

  Jenna rubbed her thumbs along the rim of the mug. “I was inside the shop, talking to the clerk, trying to buy the painting when Mandy showed up outside the store. I left through the back alley after telling the clerk I’d buy the painting the next morning.”

  “Why did you leave town? I don’t understand.” Sean rubbed the back of his neck. “At the house, you could have told me, I would have done anything to help you. You didn’t have to run.” The walls of his stomach were twisting, and pain throbbed in his chest. Was he having a heart attack?

  “I wasn’t ready to tell you.” His wife’s eyes filled with tears. “Everything was so good between us, Sean, and I wasn’t ready for it to end. You’ve been the best to me. I believed I could have a normal life. You gave me that gift. I didn’t want to lose it. Then I saw the painting.”

  “But you didn’t go to the gallery originally to see the painting. Someone sent you a note to meet them at the funeral parlor. Who?” Mandy probed. She sat on the edge of the chair nearest the sofa. On the floor below her, Moby wagged his tail.

  Sean studied Jenna’s face. Exhaustion was evident, but she was still beautiful even though the dark hair dye had washed all the color out of her face.

  “I thought Chad had asked me to meet him. I couldn’t imagine how he found me, but I trusted him, and I thought he might know where my sister was. But after I found the painting, it was clear to me it wasn’t Chad I was meeting, but someone else. I’m afraid of what he’s done to her!”

  “What who’s done to her? What happened?” Sean insisted. He tightened his arm around her shoulders and scooted closer.

  Jenna’s eyes were full of terror. “Oh, my God.” She rocked, and tea sloshed out of her mug.

  Mandy stepped over to kneel in front of them. “It’s going to be okay. Sean and I are here to help you. But you’ve got to trust us.”

  “I don’t know how he found me.” Jenna’s voice quivered.

  “I think I do,” Mandy said. “Mike McNally was working for someone. I thought he was helping me, but he was in it for himself. He was photographing you and Sean, and he was using me to find you.”

  Jenna’s eyes widened. “Mike McNally? That guy you work with? But I don’t even know him.”

  “Whoever he was working for probably killed him,” Sean said. “They shot him last night.”

  Jenna covered her face with her hands. “He must have murdered my sister.”

  “Who?” Mandy and Sean asked in unison.

  Jenna closed her eyes. “I need to start from the beginning. I have to make sense of this.” She took a long sip of tea and sat back on the sofa, shaking. Sean took her mug and set it on the table. She uncovered her eyes and dropped her hands to her lap.

  ~ Chapter 52 ~

  Jenna

  Jenna Wade looked at her husband, Sean, and her best friend, Mandy. She had to trust them. They’d proven they loved her. They’d found her, and that couldn’t have been easy. And now, she had to tell them her deepest secrets and hope they didn’t walk out of her life. She wouldn’t blame them if they did.

  She cleared her throat and glanced out the window before she began. “It was hot that week. Cicadas droned in the trees all day. I had dreaded that family vacation. My parents irritated me. They were old-fashioned, and I wanted excitement.

  “My family had come to Jandafar several summers over the years and my parents always talked about how much fun it was. And it had been fun, when I was younger. It wasn’t the same that year. Molly and I were too old for a family vacation. We were both spoiled brats and bored. By the end of each day, Mom would go quiet. And Dad would stare into the distance.” Jenna sniffed.

  “Go on, honey,” Sean prodded.

  “When I got here this week, my memories were strong. It could have happened yesterday. But so much time has passed. Everything is different. I’m different.

  “I understand how my parents must have felt. Life never stays the same, and yet we hunger to keep it the same. Even if it means we shut things out to keep our world like it used to be.

  “Last night, I wondered if I was wrong about the painting. Maybe there was no message. Maybe it had nothing to do with Jandafar. Maybe it was the time of year that made me think that painting was Molly, and that she was still alive. I’ve been so convinced she had to be dead.”

  She took a long swallow of tea. Sean stared at her with rapt attention. Mandy frowned.

  “After the fire, when I was in the wind, alone and uncertain what to do, I read a news story about the fire, my parents’ deaths, and how my sister and I had disappeared. I was sure I would be blamed for what happened to Mom and Dad if I returned. And I left without my sister. I was so young and so stupid.” A sob escaped her throat. “If I went back to Boulder, I was afraid they’d label me a nutcase and lock me up. I couldn’t go back. I could only go on, alone. My sister would have to fend for herself.” Jenna wiped her nose with one hand. “If she survived the fire.”

  “Tell us what happened that day,” Sean urged.

  Jenna stared up at the ceiling and closed her eyes. “I’ve pushed these memories aside for so long. It hurts so much to remember.” Tears ran down her cheeks.

  “Molly and I signed up for the morning trail ride, along with a dozen other guests. Chad and Lamar, the cowboys, had been flirting with us all week, and so had some of the men.

  She explained the rules of the trail ride: single file, no racing, no gait faster than a trot. Those who broke the rules had to walk back to the lodge.

  “We reached a meadow. Most of the group had been riding all week, so Chad said we could lope across the meadow. I kicked my horse, and in four strides, she was loping. The woman riding beside me kicked her horse and kicked me. Our horses took off in a fast gallop, racing.

  “I hung onto the saddle horn and tugged on the reins. My horse eventually slowed to a trot. The horses scattered across the meadow. My horse reared up and staggered on her hind legs. Not far from me, a horse screamed.” She closed her eyes, and the scene was there on the back of her eyelids.

  “One horse was down; one rider was down. A hysterical man shoved at the downed mare. The two cowboys ran to the animal. I couldn’t see who was underneath the horse. I was frantic, afraid it was my sister. I tried to control my horse.

  “When I spotted Molly across the meadow, I rode to her. ‘You were racing that woman!’ she yelled. ‘Her horse fell on her.’

  “The horse kept screaming. My horse bucked again. I calmed her down, and we all waited, watching the thrashing horse. Finally, the animal got up, but the woman didn’t move.

  “Lamar lined us up and led us across the meadow to the trail. At one point, I turned and looked back. My sister said, ‘I think she’s dead.’”

  Jenna closed her eyes. Her mouth quivered. Sean slipped his arms around her. Her heart raced. The story was far from over. She had to finish. Jenna gently pushed him away and opened her eyes.

  “At dinner, the ranch owner announced that the woman had died. He called it an ‘unfortunate accident.’”

  Jenna grabbed her mug and swallowed the remaining tea. “As if that wasn’t bad enough, what happened that evening was worse.” Her voice cracked.

  “W
e want to know, Jenna. But we need to get you away from here,” Mandy said. “I’ll walk over to the house and let Dale know we’re leaving. I hate to let her down, but we need to find the sheriff and let him know you are all right.”

  “Dale? Who’s Dale?”

  “Dale and Max own the B&B.”

  Jenna’s face froze. “Max? Do you mean Max Hardesty?” The blood rushed from her face and her heart plummeted.

  ~ Chapter 53 ~

  Sean

  “Max is Chad’s older brother. You know him?” Sean asked. His wife’s eyes were wide, her expression scared. He wanted to bundle her into the car and drive her away from this place.

  “It was Max,” Jenna whispered.

  “What do you mean?” Sean enclosed her free hand in his.

  “The man who raped me that night. The man who set the fire. The man who killed my parents.”

  Sean threw his arms around her and pulled her to him. Jenna was shaking.

  Mandy scooted closer. “Max Hardesty. Are you sure?”

  “I was there, wasn’t I? I’ve been running from him for twenty years,” Jenna whispered.

  “Lamar told me Chad was in love with you,” Mandy said. “He was upset when you disappeared. Everyone—Dale, Lamar, and even Max—said he went crazy after you disappeared. He’s been a recluse since.”

  Jenna ducked out of Sean’s grasp. He reached for her again, but she folded her arms across her stomach and swayed. A tear traveled down her cheek. “It wasn’t entirely because of me. It was what his brother Max did. He showed up drunk that night when Chad and I were making out. I thought he was handsome, and I wanted to make Chad jealous. I was drunk, I flirted.” She paused and took a deep breath.

  “Max took my hand and led me outside. We kissed. He got rough, pushed me into the woods, threw me down on the ground, and raped me. When I finally got away and ran, he chased me to my cabin.” Mandy reached for her hand.