Earthcrack: A Lin Hanna Mystery (7 page)

Lin looked at her watch, “Yes, it is time
to go.
 
I need to get back and get
changed for work.
 
I’ll pay for my
own lunch, Dr. Smith.”

“Do let me,” Smith had seemingly regained
his composure, “it would be my pleasure and do call me Neal.
 
We don’t have to be so formal.”

Lin smiled, “ Then I’m Lin.” She
responded, dropping her insistence on paying her own way.

Smith had regained his calm demeanor and
turned a warm smile on her, “A pleasure Lin, I do hope we can get together
again soon.
 
Maybe even dinner some
evening?”

“Perhaps,” Lin replied, “I’m not sure
what my schedule will be the next few weeks so perhaps we had better wait and
see before making plans.”
 
She
thought she would enjoy seeing Neal again but wanted to proceed with caution.

They parted company and Lin started back
to her car.
 
When she reached the
corner she looked back.
 
Surprisingly, she saw Dr. Smith heading back into the art gallery.
 

Lin felt pretty sure that she had heard
the gallery owner tell Neal that he would call him the following day about some
business they were discussing and Neal had indicated that he would wait to hear
from him.
 
Wonder why he is going
back now?
 
Lin thought to herself.

Arriving at her car, she added her
jewelry purchase to the earlier packages.
 
She hadn’t intended to buy anything like that but the jewelry was nice
and the earrings would be a good gift for her daughter.
 
She would enjoy her pair too—they
were pretty reasonably priced for handcrafted items.
 
She smiled to herself as she drove out
of town and turned up Highway 89 toward the park.
 
It had been a very nice morning and she
had enjoyed her lunch also.
 

Lin reflected on her conversation with
Neal.
 
He seemed to assume that the
person found the day before had fallen victim to an accident also; he
definitely seemed uneasy about the topic and had not wanted to discuss it
further.
 
She wondered why?
 
It had certainly been a shocking
experience but it was mysterious and she still felt there were lots of unanswered
questions.
 
She had wanted to
explore these with Smith to see what he thought but he had steered away from
that topic.
 
She wondered why?
 
Maybe he found the entire incident too
disturbing.

***

Returning to her apartment, Lin quickly
dressed in her uniform and reported to the visitor’s center a few minutes early
for her afternoon shift.
 
The center
was crowded when she arrived, a school group from one of the local middle
schools had just finished a tour and program and the kids were milling around
looking at the exhibits.
 
Some were
considering purchases of T shirts, magnets, and even books.
 
With her practiced principal’s eyes, Lin
quickly ascertained that this was a lively but basically well-behaved group of
kids.
 
She sometimes missed the
times when she had been able to accompany groups on such field trips.
 
If properly prepared for and well led
the students could learn a lot and such trips added much to their
curriculum.
 
This appeared to be
such a group and Lin took a moment to complement the teacher on the group’s
behavior before she took her place at the desk near the entrance.

After the group departed the rest of the
afternoon saw a slower procession of visitors.
 
It was steady; however, with the tourist
season not yet really underway, the situation was easily manageable by one
person.
 
She felt sure that once
summer arrived they would all be grateful to have the extra help of the SCA
students.
 
This park was “on the way”
to Grand Canyon, one of the most visited parks in the country.
 
Many visitors from across the US and
around the world stopped to see the ruins as they traveled to and from the Canyon.
 
Today, however, there were not so many
visitors. As closing time approached, the visitor center grew empty.

Lin took the opportunity afforded by the lull
in visitor traffic to take a short break.
 
While keeping an eye out for any new arrivals, she poured herself a cup
of slightly old coffee and checked the schedule for the following week.
 
She noted her own work times on a sheet
of paper from the recycle box near the copier, noting with interest when Neal
Smith was scheduled to visit during one of her duty times.
 
He had mentioned that he might bring his
summer graduate interns out if the area were open by then. Perhaps they would
talk again… She heard sounds near the entrance and returned to the desk to see
that Toby was coming in with the stocky, blond deputy who had been at the
incident scene yesterday.
 
Both men
looked a bit warm and dusty and were happy to accept the bottled water she
grabbed from the refrigerator and offered.

“Deputy Bill Taylor,” Toby offered, “I’m
sure you remember him from yesterday.”

“Yes, hello Deputy Taylor,” Lin greeted
him with a handshake. “Have you learned any more about the person whose remains
were found?”
 
She could not contain
her curiosity.

“ Well, yes and no,” Taylor responded,
pausing to take another long drink of water. “Thanks to Toby and Danielle
having good memories we do have a name we are checking out.
 
We contacted the tribal police on the
Hopi reservation to see if they have any reports on this fellow being
missing.
 
They were not really
sure.
 
It seems that they have a lot
of folks go missing who then turn up later and they are never notified so they
are checking with the family before confirming anything with us.
 
I’m afraid a lot of natives have
problems with alcohol.
 
They drink
too much and wander off—sometimes for days on end.
 
The family reports them missing and then
when they turn up they forget about calling the authorities.”

Toby interjected, “I seriously doubt that
a person with an alcohol problem would be among those authorized to collect
eaglets or feathers for the ceremonies.
 
Those are responsible positions, taken very seriously but…who knows, we’ll
have to wait and see.”

“Yeah,” Deputy Taylor sighed, “ but we
should know more tomorrow about that and the ME report should be ready in a few
more days.
  
We were out at the
box canyon this afternoon.
 
I wanted
to take another look at the scene.
 
Didn’t find anything else though so I think you can reopen that site
tomorrow.
 
There is nothing more we
can do out there.
 
This looks like
it is shaping up to be one of those unfortunate accidents.
 
Maybe this Cullen fellow, if that is who
it is, had a problem no one talked about.
 
He could have wandered around out there having had too much to drink and
fallen.
 
He hit his head on that
rock and that was all it took.”

Lin could not contain her own lingering
questions, “But you didn’t find a bottle, or anything else out there for that
matter, and how did he get out there?
 
Have there been reports of an abandoned vehicle nearby?
 
There have been none in the park.”
 
She caught herself before throwing out
any more thoughts.
 
After all, she
was the newcomer and she did not want to appear to be questioning the local authorities.
 
She took a deep breath and went back to
her post at the desk, trying not to appear to be questioning.
  
She caught Toby smiling at her
from behind Deputy Taylor’s back though.

Taylor gave her a rather impatient look; “
We’re on top of that,” he responded, “got someone checking on vehicles right
now.
 
We’ll have this all wrapped up
by next week.
 
You can count on it.”

Taylor thanked Toby for his help, went
back to the office to speak to Danielle and shortly afterward left the
center.
 

Toby went back to office area to check on
some reports he had to finish and Lin began to count the cash in the register
and prepare the report on sales for the day.
 
It was almost time to close the center
and there were no cars in the parking lot.
 
When she finished that task, she went outside and walked to the
viewpoint to make sure there were no visitors still at the ruin even though the
lack of cars indicated all had left.
 
After confirming this she returned to the center where Danielle was
closing up shop.

“I have to go in to headquarters to pick
up something,” Danielle reported, “so I may be a bit late coming in tomorrow
morning,” she turned to Toby who had just emerged from the office area, “can
you open things up tomorrow?”

“Sure,” Toby responded, “ and I’ll drive
out to Lomaki to pick up the signs right now so that will be taken care
of.
 
Taylor said we could reopen the
area”

“Good and thanks,” Danielle responded as
she left the center heading for her house.

Lin lingered as Toby finished locking up
then asked, “Want some company picking up the signs?
 
I could ride out with you—I don’t
have any plans this evening.”

“Sure,” Toby replied, “it shouldn’t take
long but I always love company.”

Lin was eager to share her experience in
town with Toby.
 
As they drove out to
Lomaki she recounted her chance meeting with Smith at the gallery as well as
their lunch conversation.
 
She
concluded her tale by mentioning that he had gone back into the gallery when
she clearly remembered that he was earlier planning to wait for Sessions to
call regarding whatever they had been discussing when she arrived.

“Sounds like you are suspicious of Dr.
Smith,” Toby offered, “are you playing amateur detective?”

“No, no,” Lin replied, “I’m just curious
as to why he reacted as he did today at lunch. He clearly became ill at ease
when I brought up the incident.”
 

“Maybe the whole thing just spooked him a
bit,” Toby said. “It was a bit unnerving to say the least.”

“That’s certainly true.
 
Maybe it just bothered him more than I
realized—perhaps because of his students and his concern for the impact
of this incident on them.
 
He did
seem to accept the fact that this was probably an accidental death—but I
still see a lot of unanswered questions.”

“Well, I think Deputy Taylor is
definitely leaning toward the accident theory,” Toby said. “ They will wait on
the ME report but with not much evidence it looks to me like the ruling will be
an accidental death.”

“Well, I for one have questions that I
wish could be answered. Whatever happened, this person was important to others
and I feel sure he is missed.
 
They
deserve good answers as to what happened to him and I hope they get them.”

They arrived at Lomaki and picked up the
signs.
 
The area would be opened
again to visitors tomorrow just as if nothing had happened here.
 
Lin could not forget that this man,
whatever had happened to him, was someone’s son, brother, husband.
 
He had important responsibilities to his
clan and community and he was certain to have been missed by someone.
 
She could not forget this.
 
She could only hope that some good
answers would be found and the family could have closure.

The sun was beginning to set as Lin and
Toby arrived back at the housing area.
 
Toby dropped Lin off in front of the apartments and then drove the park
vehicle back around to its parking spot.
  
He then headed back toward the
visitor center to put away the keys.

 
Lin suddenly felt tired, even though she’d
had a pretty routine afternoon.
  
She couldn’t forget the way Neal Smith looked and behaved when she brought
up the subject of the remains that had been found.
 
She knew there was more to this story
and she hoped the authorities would pursue some of these questions before
completing their report.
 
She did
enjoy the lunch today, though.
 
She
would certainly not mind if Neal Smith wanted to get together again.

Returning to her apartment, she opened up
the windows to catch the cooler evening breezes and changed into more
comfortable clothes.
 
She grabbed
one of the new mysteries she had checked out from the library and settled on
the sofa to read.
 
Try as she might
though, she couldn’t completely forget the questions that troubled her about
this incident.
 
Realizing that there
could be no real answers until the authorities made their report, she tried to
put her thoughts about the case aside and get into the fictional case in her
book.
 
Soon she was absorbed in the
story and she continued reading until well past her usual bedtime, pausing only
to prepare some soup and a sandwich when hunger finally caught up with her.
  
Her questions would have to wait.