Earthcrack: A Lin Hanna Mystery (10 page)

Bolstered by the knowledge that Chou was
ready to do business with him, Darren entered the diner confidently about five
till seven and seated himself in a booth with a good view of the entrance.
 
Seven o ‘ clock came and Chou had not
yet arrived.
 
By five past the hour,
Darren was beginning to waiver a bit—maybe Chou was pulling his leg and
had no intention of coming.
  
A
few more minutes went by and Darren was thinking of leaving.
 
The waitress had already asked for his
order and he had stalled, saying he was expecting someone.
 
Now she came by again.

“How about a coffee while you wait,” she
offered.

“Yes, that would be good.”
 
Darren was glad to respond hoping that
coffee might help him to stay collected.

About 7:15 he looked up to see Lee Chou
enter the diner.
 
With relief he
stood to greet him.
  
Chou
waved him back down in his seat and slid into the seat opposite.

“ Sorry I’m late, something came up at
the gallery I had to take care of and then the traffic was horrible, a wreck
somewhere on the highway I think.”

“I understand,” Darren responded, “it’s
hard for me to get used to all this city traffic anyway.”

The waitress returned and took their
orders.
 
She brought Chou a coffee
and refilled Darren’s then left them alone to wait for their food.
  
Darren tried to stay calm, waiting
for the right moment to tell his story.
 
Chou appeared eager.

“So you are ready to do business, Mr.
Steele, I assume you have the items here with you so that I can examine them
first hand.”

“Well,” Steele responded, “ I do not have
them just yet but…” Carefully, he related the story as he had planned it
out.
  
A short while later he
concluded,
 
“ so you see, I do have
the pottery but I need a bit of time and some tools to properly remove it from
the hiding place.
 
About $250 should
be sufficient.
 
Sort of a finder’s
fee, I guess.”
 
He tried to smile.

Chou sat back, the disappointment and
distrust evident on his face.
 
“ And
Mr. Steele, what assurance do I have that you will not leave with my money and
I have nothing still?”

Darren improvised, “I’ll tell you
what.
 
I ‘ll draw you a map of the
location.
 
It’s not difficult to
find.
 
I’ll trust you with that
information as a sign of my good faith.
 
If something should happen to me, you can get someone else to do the
work.
 
You will know the hiding place.”

Chou looked reflective as he thought this
over. He was not happy with this development but he did want to get his hands
on that pottery somehow.
 
He
produced a pen and flipped his paper placemat over to the blank side.
  
He shoved it across the table.

“ Very well, Mr. Steele, draw your
map.
 
I will take it as an insurance
policy.”

Chou watched carefully as Darren sketched
a neatly drawn map of the Lomaki area of the park.
 
He drew the Box canyon and the slot at
the end.
 
He marked the map to indicate
where the pottery was hidden-- actually, in the place where it was to have been
originally but then Chou did not know anything about that so he did not know
where Darren had searched unsuccessfully before.
 
Besides, he would have had no way to
know where Darren had supposedly “rehidden” the pottery.
 
Darren was not concerned, Chou would not
be able to locate the pottery on his own, he was fairly certain.

Chou took the completed drawing folding
it carefully and placing it in his coat pocket.
 
He then took his wallet and counted out
the “finder’s fee” Darren had requested, placing the bills in front of him on
the table.
 
Darren quickly pocketed
the money just before the waitress arrived with their food.

They ate quickly.
 
Darren was certainly eager to be done
with this and Lee Chou seemed thoughtful and a bit withdrawn.
  
Their conversation was
limited.
 
As they finished eating,
Chou looked seriously toward Darren.

“ I trust you fully understand the
seriousness of your commitment to me,” Chou fixed Darren with a cold gaze, “I
am a businessman and if you and your relative Mr. Tso expect to work with me,
there can be no mistake that I mean business.”

“Indeed,” Darren hoped his voice
reflected confidence he did not really feel, “I will be leaving first thing tomorrow
morning and you will hear from me in a few days, when I have your merchandise
in hand.”

Darren took the check, “This is my
ticket.”
 
He could be generous with
his new funds in hand.
 
Chou nodded
and together they walked out to the parking lot.

“ Goodnight, Mr. Steele, I will look
forward to hearing from you soon,” Chou said, heading across the parking lot
toward his car.

Chou watched from his car as Darren
entered the motel next door.
 
He
certainly did not trust this man.
 
He had disappeared for nearly a year and now he turns up saying he had
found the pottery and hidden it somewhere!
 
Why wait so long to come forward?
 
He was not sure that he believed in Darren or his map.
 
He wanted more insurance than this.
 
He flipped open his cell phone and called
an associate.
 
After briefly
describing Darren and where he was staying he said, “I am planning to do
business with this man but I want him followed.
 
I want to know where he goes and what he
does.
 
He is leaving tomorrow
morning.
 
Be ready to leave when he
does and let me know everything you observe.”

“Okay boss, I’m on it,” the associate
replied, “I’ll stake out this motel tonight and follow him when he leaves.”

“Good enough,” Chou answered, “I’ll have
further instructions when you report back to me.”

Chou ended the call, started his car, and
headed back toward the city.
 
He
felt better now that he knew he had Steele and his movements covered.
 
This time he would not disappear on
him.
 
He would have these pots or
there would be consequences.

****

The next day Lee Chou sat in his office
at the gallery and looked at the map Darren Steele had drawn on the
placemat.
 
So this was where the
pottery was hidden, at least he hoped that Steele was not trying to put something
over on him.
 
He was not at all sure
he could be trusted but then, that was no longer a worry.
  
He knew that his own employee
could be trusted to follow Darren and account for his whereabouts and
activities.
  
If Steele tried
any funny business he would know it soon enough.
 
He did not relish doing business with
Steele involved but he was Navajo and he did have the contacts on the
reservation.
 
Chou realized that
these contacts were critical if he wanted to expand his business in that area.
 
It was not easy for an outsider to work
on the Rez.
 
It was remote and many
areas were difficult to access.
 
Yet, it offered the prospect of good finds yet to be discovered.
 
Yes, Steele was probably a handicap but
right now he was needed.
 
Later?
 
Who knows, perhaps he
would not be needed at all.

The pottery was Chou’s primary focus at
this point.
 
If the information he
had been given originally was even close to accurate, this was an unusual and
valuable find and it would be well worth his while to pursue finding it.
 
He relaxed at his desk carefully considering
his options.
 
Once he heard from his
associate concerning Steele’s activities he would be ready to act and move
forward.
 
He smiled at the thought
of how pleased his client in Hong Kong would be to learn that the pottery he
had so wanted last year might still be his after all.

The next morning Lin arrived at the
visitor center shortly before its scheduled opening time.
 
Danielle was already in her office on
the phone and Toby was busy checking the bathrooms and restocking paper towels
and bathroom tissue as needed.
 
The
shared maintenance man rarely had time for such routines.

Lin greeted Toby and gave a nod to
Danielle from the hallway.
 
Picking
up the keys to the cash registers—one for park admissions, the other for
the shop sales—she began to prepare for the opening of the visitor
center.
 
The schedule that morning
looked full.
 
There were two school
groups coming in and a note had been entered about a bus coming with a group of
French tourists.
 
Lin was scheduled
to talk to the school groups down at Wupatki ruin, while Toby handled the
desk.
 
They would swap after
that.
 
Fortunately, the French
tourists came with their own translator as neither Toby nor Lin had much skill
with that language.
 
The park had
information available in several languages; however, so they could provide the
visitors with written descriptions of what they were seeing.
 
Lin was continually surprised by the
fact that the ruins attracted so many visitors from so many parts of the world.
 
Of course, they were a stopping point on
the way to or from the Grand Canyon for many folks but still most of the
visitors seemed genuinely interested in learning about the early Puebloan
people who had built these communities and their connection to modern native
peoples of the southwest.

Lin was hoping for more time to read the
materials she had collected the evening before but with this schedule it was
not likely to happen this morning.
 
She looked up to see a school activity bus entering the parking lot and
hurried to don her hat, grab some guidebooks, and go out to meet the new
arrivals.

Lin’s morning was spent down in the ruin
with first one group and then the next.
 
In each case she had gathered the students in the ruin’s community room
following the tour for questions and discussion.
 
The students seemed interested in the
fact that the people who lived at Wupatki would have also gathered in this
place for meetings and talk.
 
They
were most interested in the ball court, imagining the ball game that was played
between these people and visiting groups of traders from other places.
 
This was a very aggressive game.
 
It was known that similar games played
further south in Mexico often ended in death for the losers but there was no
evidence to indicate that the Wupatki games were quite that aggressive!
 
Still, the ball was hard and the players
had no protection so the risk of injury was always present.

After finishing the groups, Lin returned
to the visitor center hot and thirsty.
 
She grabbed a bottle of water from the office refrigerator and walked
out to the desk.

“I’m back Toby, I can take over for you
now,” she offered.

“Take a break, the group’s guide called
and they were delayed leaving the canyon this morning so they pushed back their
visit until afternoon.
 
I can finish
out this shift and you can take over for me after your lunch break, ” Toby
replied, lowering his voice he added, “ Deputy Taylor is in the back with
Danielle.”

Lin simply nodded, “ Thanks Toby.
 
I think I’ll go read some of the
material on the park archeology but call me if you get really busy here.”

She went to the back office that housed
several desks for the use of the park volunteers and staff, passing Danielle’s
closed office door on her way.
 
She
could see Deputy Taylor through the glass of the door.
 
He was flipping through pages from a
file and talking but she could not hear what he was saying.
 
Not wanting to seem too interested, she
moved past quickly.
 
She grabbed her
file of articles from her box and sat down at the desk she had been using near
the back office wall.

Lin began to read the material regarding
park archeology but she was having a hard time concentrating on it.
 
Sure, it was interesting and she had
been fascinated by what she had read last night but now her thoughts kept
traveling back to Deputy Taylor and his report.
 
What had the official investigation
revealed?
 
Had all the questions,
which she considered important, been addressed and answered?
 
She simply could not accept the fact
that an adult who was familiar with this area and worked in it regularly would
be so careless as to be out hiking alone with no water.
 
She also wondered why there would be no
evidence of alcohol consumption, if the person were drinking.
 
One might be too drunk and careless to
remember water but where was the evidence of beer bottles or liquor?
 
Where had the person come from?
 
Where was his vehicle?
 
There were so many questions unanswered.

Lin heard Danielle’s office door open and
the sound of voices emerged into the hallway.

“Thank you for sharing your report, Billy—er—Deputy
Taylor,” Danielle said, “I appreciate having a copy for our files.”

“ Thanks to you and your staff for your
cooperation,” Taylor replied, “I’m glad we were able to resolve this quickly
without major disruptions to your activities here in the park.
 
Please let us know should you have
further need of us.” They moved toward the entrance to the center and Lin was
unable to clearly hear the last words they were speaking but the matter seemed
closed to her.
 
She hoped that
Danielle would share the report with Toby and her but she knew that was not
required.
 
Sometimes she wished she
were not so curious about everything.

She heard Danielle come back down the
hallway to her office so she got up and walked out herself.
 
The office door was open so she paused
and looked in, she had to know something!

“Well, can you share what the report
concluded?” she decided to be brave and simply ask.

“Basically what I said earlier,” Danielle
replied stacking the papers back in the report file and laying it on the corner
of her desk.
 
“The death was ruled
accidental due to a fall.
 
The
victim struck his head on a rock when he fell.
 
He was obviously careless, traveling the
back country on foot with no water—most likely because he had been
drinking and his judgment was impaired,” she added.

“ What about his vehicle? Where was that?”

“It seems that he drove a pickup truck
and had parked it on some ranch land adjacent to that part of the park.
 
Most likely he did not want to be seen,
if he was coming into the park drunk, so he walked in from the back way.”

“Was this the person you and Toby
thought?” Lin pressed for more information.

“Yes, Deputy Taylor visited the family,
when he learned that a truck had been found abandoned last year that was
registered to this man.
 
It was
Cullen Honeyestewa and his folks live in Moenkopi.
  
They had been contacted last year
about the truck being found and they came to pick it up but they had no
knowledge of where he might have gone.
 
All they knew was he came to the park to collect eaglets and feathers
for ceremonies from time to time.”

“ How did they determine it was him?
 
That body was certainly some distance
away from where the truck had been found,” Lin still had questions.

“It was the belt buckle really,” Danielle
said. “You will remember that it was what Toby and I recalled also—really
a unique piece—and the family said it was definitely his.”

“I see,” Lin realized that Danielle
seemed ready to move on.
 
She
probably had something else on her schedule, “Well, thanks for sharing.”

Lin watched as Danielle went back to her
office.
 
She went out to the desk
and told Toby she was going to take her lunch break and would be back soon to
relieve him at the desk.
 
“By the
way, the death was ruled accidental.
 
It was that Honeyestewa fellow you and Danielle thought it might be.”

“Yeah, I heard,” Toby responded. “You
know, I’m a little surprised that he would have gone out there like that—drinking
and all.
 
He seemed like a pretty
responsible person to me—but then I really only saw him a few times and
at long intervals.
 
I guess we don’t
really always know what folks are really like when we see them only in one
role.
 
Too bad for his family
though.”

“Yes,” Lin replied, “I know firsthand how
hard it can be to lose someone you are close to.”
 
She turned and left the center, heading
to her apartment and lunch.

***

The afternoon passed in routine fashion
following Lin’s return to the center after lunch.
 
Toby took his break and returned just as
his group of French tourists was arriving.
 
Lin manned the desk, taking admissions, ringing up sales from the shop,
and answering routine visitor questions.
 
The early afternoon was rather busy but later when things slowed a bit
she began once more to think about the incident that had occurred just one week
previously.

These had been human remains that were
found.
 
No evidence other than a
bloody rock had been there; yet, there seemed to be an entire story that had
now arisen around this man, one that labeled him as, at best, careless and
possibly even reckless and wanton.
 
Just another drunk Indian wandering around who fell and killed
himself.
 
Lin found it hard to
accept these conclusions; of course, she did not know this person and was not
really familiar with life on the reservations.
 
She just found it hard to accept that
someone with a responsible position in his community would be guilty of such
reckless behavior.
 
Well, bad things
did happen to good people so maybe she was just being overly curious about
this.
 
Still, she really thought she
would like to read more of the details in the report—but Danielle had not
offered to share.

Shortly before time for closing, Toby
returned to the desk and suggested that Lin take a break.
  
She decided to go back to the
staff office and try to read more of the archeological material.
 
After all, her first meeting with Neal
Smith and his graduate students would be tomorrow morning and she did want to
appear knowledgeable about the park.
  
She noted that Danielle’s office door had been left open even though she
was patrolling in the field; however, the file containing the police report was
no longer on her desk.
 
Resisting
the impulse to look for it, Lin continued on to the staff office and settled in
to read for a while.
 
She had the
room to herself and the quiet helped her to concentrate on what she was
doing.
 
Shoving her curiosity about
the police report to the background, she was soon absorbed in reading about
archeological fieldwork in the park over the years and the treasure trove of
pottery and artifacts that it had yielded.
 
This was how we knew about the lifestyle of these people—through
the things that they left behind.
 
She was reminded of the slope behind Wupatki ruin that was thought to
have been the village trash dump when it was occupied.
 
In fact, that was where many artifacts
had been found.
 
The broken remains
of our everyday lives tell much about us!

Lin became so absorbed in her reading
that she didn’t realize that Toby had entered the room and was standing nearby.

“You going home or are you going to stay and
work some more?”
 
Toby asked.

Lin jumped, “I didn’t hear you come in,
you startled me!
 
Guess I was really
absorbed.
 
This is interesting stuff
but I think I am ready to call it a day.
 
She gathered her articles and replaced them in the file, “ Maybe I will
read some more tonight.”

“You’re beginning to sound like a
workaholic,” Toby grinned, “ time to relax a bit and have some fun.
 
What are you doing for dinner?”

“No plans,” Lin replied, “ what did you
have in mind?”

“Well, a couple of us are going down to
the Horseman’s Lodge.
 
It’s on the
east side of Flag—not too far—and they have great steaks and ribs
and stuff.
 
Salad bar is pretty good
too, if you want lighter fare.
 
Why
don’t you join us?”

“Sure, thanks for asking this ‘old lady’
to go along,” Lin smiled.