Earthcrack: A Lin Hanna Mystery (5 page)

Currently only Lin and Toby were
there.
 
In a few weeks two Student
Conservation Association (SCA) interns would join them for the summer.
 
That would fill the remaining apartments.
 
Lin looked forward to meeting the
students when they came.

Wupatki, like many of the parks, was
usually understaffed.
  
Danielle was the only full time ranger.
 
Toby was seasonal and would only work
through the fall, and the archeologist was not directly involved in running the
park.
 
That left Lin and the soon to
arrive SCA students as the only other regular park service personnel.
  
There was a maintenance guy named
Jacob who cleaned and maintained the visitor center facilities but right now he
was shared with Sunset Crater that was on the same loop road.
 
He had housing there and was on call for
emergencies but they generally only saw him for a few hours a day.
 
They often had to do small jobs
themselves.

It is nice to have neighbors though, Lin
thought.
 
I enjoy Toby and I’m sure
that the students will be good additions to our little community.
  
She unlocked her apartment door
and went in, flipping the switch for the swamp cooler as she entered.
 
It was noisy but it did help to cool the
small space that could be quite warm after being closed up through the hottest
part of the day.
 
Later, when the
sun was waning, it would be cooler and she could turn it off and enjoy the
evening air through the open windows.
 
Spring weather could be tricky.
 
It was quite chilly in the early morning and at night but it could
really heat up during the day and, thus far, this had been an unusually warm
spring for northern Arizona.

Lin decided to take another shower.
 
She felt hot and dusty from being out in
the box canyon so long and she was still a bit shaken by what had
transpired.
 
It was disturbing to
think that someone had fallen into that earth crack and been injured with no
one around to hear them or come to their aid.
 

She let the cool water run over her back—it
felt so good.
 
Her thoughts returned
to the events of the day.
 
She
recalled that nothing was brought up out of the earth crack except the remains
and the rock which might have had traces of blood—no water bottle,
backpack—nothing that a hiker would be expected to have!
 
She hadn’t thought about this until
now.
 
Of course, not everyone who
decided to take a hike prepared himself or herself properly but folks around
here generally respected the arid environment and carried water if nothing
else.
 
It made her wonder.
 
Whoever that person was certainly had
not expected to be in the area very long; they should have had a vehicle parked
somewhere nearby.
 
No one had
mentioned anything about an abandoned vehicle having been found somewhere
nearby in the past; this was another mystery! Lin thought that the whole
incident raised more questions than had been previously mentioned—at
least to this point.
 

Leaving the shower feeling refreshed and
more energetic, Lin dressed comfortably in jeans and a tee shirt and slipped
her feet into her sandals.
 
The
apartment seemed cooler now so she flipped off the noisy swamp cooler and
opened the windows to the evening air.
 
It was almost sunset .
 
Arizona
did not switch to daylight saving time so evening came earlier here than in her
North Carolina home.
 
The air felt
good now but it was still spring and by nightfall it would be chilly.
 
She would probably need a sweatshirt
later, but for now she felt refreshed and comfortable.

Lin moved into her small kitchen and
opened a couple of cans of baked beans.
 
She found some bacon bits she had left in the refrigerator and sprinkled
them on top.
 
She put the whole
thing into the small oven and turned it on just to warm—it was still some
time until dinner.
 
Grabbing a soda
from the refrigerator, Lin went outside and sat down on one of the plastic lawn
chairs arranged in front of the apartments.
 
There was really not much shade there
but the sun was low in the sky and the evening was pleasant.
 
She noticed that Toby had already started
the charcoal in the grill that they all shared—and she could hear him
moving about in his apartment as he prepared for dinner.
 

Lin liked Toby—he reminded her of
her own son a bit and he was about the same age.
 
He was really dedicated to his work in
the park and wanted nothing more than to be a full-time ranger here or
somewhere.
 
The fact was that it was
hard to get a permanent park position.
 
Almost all of the rangers began as seasonals; they were never sure from
year to year if their positions would be funded and sometimes moved between parks
until something opened up.
 
Toby
always scanned the online postings for full time positions that he might be
qualified for.
 
This was his third
summer here at Wupatki and this year Danielle had received funding for a couple
of extra months so he had come on board earlier than usual.
 
He would be employed through September,
a full six months. This was his longest assignment yet.
 
The rest of the year he supported
himself with whatever work he could find in Phoenix, his hometown.
 
Fortunately, he was a skilled handy man
and he generally found plenty of small jobs helping folks with various projects,
so he managed until his next seasonal position came around.
  
His handy man skills were very
useful in the park also as he could sometimes fix things the maintenance man
didn’t have time to tackle during his shared visits.
 
Danielle especially appreciated Toby’s
versatility and his willing spirit.
 
He was a good employee and she would love to have him full time but no
such position was funded currently.

Toby came out carrying a folding table
and Lin helped him to set it up in the shade of the only tree in the housing
area.
  
Together they moved the
chairs to the table area.
 

“The beans are in the oven,” Lin offered,
“should be ready soon.”

Toby returned to his apartment to get the
burgers and Lin followed.
 
His
quarters were identical to hers, just arranged in opposite fashion.
 
She helped him carry the remaining items
for the meal out to the table and soon the burgers were sizzling on the hot
grill giving off a wonderful aroma.
 
Lin began to realize how hungry she was.
 
She had had only a sandwich for lunch—all
she had packed for the field trip.
 
She looked forward to this evening meal.

“Quite a day we had,” Toby offered. “I’ll
bet you didn’t expect anything like this to happen on your first volunteer job!”

“Indeed,” Lin offered, “I do wonder what
happened to that person.
 
There are
a lot of questions.”

“Yeah,” Toby responded. “Danielle and I
talked.
 
I think I remember that one
of the Hopi men who collects eagle feathers for ceremonies had a belt buckle
like that.
 
I only saw him a couple
of times, and that was more than a year ago, but that is a pretty unusual
buckle.
 
I didn’t know him really,
just saw him once.
 
The natives have
permission to collect in certain areas of the park.
 
They take young eaglets and also
feathers, only for ceremonial purposes, but they generally come and go as they
please.
 
I guess headquarters knows
when they are collecting—it is seasonal—but they don’t always come
to the visitor center.
 
I think they
are probably supposed to check in but it is out of the way for them so I
believe they generally just call headquarters and they let Danielle know when
they will be in the park.
 
There are
only two or three of them who do the collecting.
 
Danielle doesn’t remember seeing this
guy last year but I do, I think his name was Cullen something—I can’t
really remember and I never saw him again after that.”

Lin noticed that the burgers were ready
to flip over so she went to get the beans.
 
When she returned Danielle had arrived with the cake.
 
Soon they were all digging in—more
than ready for dinner!
 
They ate in
silence for a while—everyone was hungry.

 
Finally Danielle spoke, “ Toby, I called
headquarters to check on that man you remembered from last summer.
 
They said his name was Cullen Honeyestewa
and he was registered with them to collect here for the ceremonies.
 
They have not heard anything from him in
over a year.
 
He might be our guy.
 
The park superintendent said he would
call the sheriff’s office and give them that information.
 
That should help with the ID.
  
Actually, I also learned that the
box canyon is not that far from the area where he generally collected.
 
He may have decided to go in that way
and had an accident.
 
They mentioned
that he had not called them in quite a long time but sometimes they thought
that he, and the others having permission to collect, didn’t always call.
 
They are supposed to but it is hard to
keep track of that so he could have come anytime, I guess.”

Toby reflected on this information, “I
never really knew him, just remember seeing him sometimes.
 
It is really sad to think that someone
could die like that all alone with no help.
 
Guess that’s a good reason to make sure
someone knows where you’re going and when you should return around here.”

Lin asked why Danielle had called the
Coconino County Sheriff’s office to investigate the remains that had been
found. “I thought the FBI handled all such cases in the national parks.”

“That depends on the circumstances and
the jurisdiction in the particular park,” Danielle explained. “We practice
concurrent jurisdiction here.
 
Our
local authorities are the primary responders but they work closely with the
feds and, if it seems necessary, they will turn their findings over in criminal
cases.
 
Actually, the FBI in this region
is stretched pretty thin so the sheriff handles most of our cases.” She added, “Billy
would turn this over if he found it necessary I feel sure.”

“That makes sense to me,” Lin said.
 
“I was thinking it strange that the
authorities apparently did not find any water bottle or backpack with the
remains.
 
This is such a dry area
you would think anyone going into the backcountry for any reason would carry
water.
 
Also, I didn’t hear anyone
mention any reports of vehicles abandoned in the area anytime—have there
been any?”

“Not in the park, at least not since I
have been here, and that has been two plus years,” Danielle responded, “but
there are lots of back roads and tracks around just outside the area and I
wouldn’t necessarily know about them. In some places around here it’s hard to
know if you are in the park, the national forest, or on private land.”

“Still seems odd,” Lin replied, “why park
far away outside the park when there is a paved parking lot and road nearby?”

“Well, we should hear from the sheriff’s
department when they get the ME report.
 
It does look like an accident though.”
 
Danielle concluded, as she sliced pieces
of cake for the three of them.

Lin continued to think about the incident
as she ate her dessert.
 
Toby had
made some coffee and they sat in the cool of the twilight and enjoyed watching
the stars pop out in the darkening evening skies.
 
The dry atmosphere here and distance
from any city lights made for brilliant night skies.
 
Lin had been amazed to discover just how
many stars you could see when conditions were right.
 
Back home the humidity and light from
urban areas made stargazing difficult.
 
She found herself growing increasingly sleepy as they sat and relaxed
from their busy day.
 
Soon she
excused herself and went back to her apartment.

 
The act of getting up and taking stuff
inside woke her up a bit so she decided to drive up to the picnic area and make
a phone call.
 
There was strong cell
signal at that point.

By the time she arrived at the picnic
area parking lot the moon was up and there was pretty good light in the
area.
 
She called her son and then
her daughter, reporting on the day’s events and the questions raised in her own
thinking about them.
 
Her kids were
sympathetic and expressed concern about the fate of the person whose remains
had been found but both of them warned her to let the authorities handle
everything.