Earthcrack: A Lin Hanna Mystery (12 page)

The afternoon was busy but manageable and
passed rather quickly.
 
Lin had seen
Danielle come back from an earlier meeting but she had not had time to speak to
her then.
 
Now, as they were
preparing the center for closing, she saw that Danielle was in the break area
getting something to drink so she approached.

“Things went well with Dr. Smith and the
students this morning,” she offered, “I think I will learn a lot from
them.
 
Their work is very
interesting.”

“Yes, it is,” Danielle smiled, “in fact
that is the main reason I enjoy my assignment here so much.
 
I love the archeology and history.
 
Actually, I majored in history in
college and took a few archeology classes as electives.
 
I’ve always enjoyed field work and would
love to do more someday.”

“ Dr. Smith mentioned that Sarah Chee was
a great source of information about the park including its history and
archeology.
 
He suggested I talk to
her if I wanted to learn more.
 
Would that be possible?” Lin did not want to intrude on the elderly
lady.

“By all means,” Danielle replied, “Sarah
loves visitors and she loves to talk about this place and its people.
 
I think she sometimes gets a little
lonely out here.
 
She has no
children.
 
Her nephew does come to
visit her and sometimes takes her to town when she needs to go. There are a few
cousins but she often goes for days without seeing anyone.
 
She would welcome a visit I feel sure.”

“Hey, I just remembered, we’re having a
sort of open house next week for the monument’s birthday.
 
You could extend a special invitation to
her when you go.
 
It will be in the
local papers and we have some artists coming to display their work.
 
There will even be a birthday cake.
 
She might enjoy coming down.
 
One of us could pick her up and take her
home later, of course,” Danielle was enthusiastic.

 
“That gives me a good excuse to drop in
on her,” Lin smiled.
 
“ I’ll go on
my next day off.”

“No need to wait that long,” Danielle
responded.
 
“Why not go out tomorrow
morning?
 
Our schedule is not heavy
tomorrow and I’ll be here all morning, along with Toby, so we are covered
here.
 
You can wait to come in until
after lunch.
 
Besides, you put in a
lot of hours today.”

Lin was excited.
 
She looked forward to her visit with
Sarah.
 
As she left the center and
headed home to her apartment she was already thinking about things to ask.
 
She would jot down a few questions that
she had after reading some of the articles.
 
It would be fun to have a personal
source of information about this place.

***

Lin woke bright and early, eager to head
out to Sarah’s for her visit, but she was afraid it was still a bit early.
 
She dressed in her uniform so that Sarah
would recognize her as a park representative, then she fixed some breakfast and
took it outside to eat under the tree.
 
The morning was cool and pleasant but the day ahead promised to be
warm.
 
She watched an Abert squirrel
cavorting in the branches of the tree that shaded the yard in front of the
apartments—at least it provided a bit of shade even though it would be
hard to call it a “shade tree” back home.
 
These little squirrels had cute, pointed ears, quite different from
their eastern cousins.

She was also joined by a couple of
western fence lizards that had chosen to sun themselves on a nearby rock.
 
It seemed so peaceful and restful here,
she thought.
 
It was hard to believe
that only a year ago someone had met with a violent death nearby—accident
or no.
 
Lin was still concerned
about the particulars of this incident and she couldn’t seem to put it out of
her mind.

After breakfast she walked down to the
visitor center and grabbed a key to one of the park SUVs.
 
She also grabbed a two-way radio.
 
Radio communication was more dependable
than cell phones in most of the park area.
 
Danielle had sketched a map of the way to Sarah’s home for her.
 
Soon she was on her way.
 

Not far from the visitor center she left
the paved park road for a one-lane dirt track that narrowed even further as it
approached Sarah’s home.
 
The track
ended in front of a small wooden house with a front porch.
 
There was a small Hogan beside the house
and a pen nearby.
 
Several goats and
a handful of chickens roamed the yard.
 

Sarah Chee was seated on the porch in
front of a loom working on a rug she was weaving.
 
Lin was intrigued by the beautiful
designs of these Navajo rugs and this one was not a disappointment.
  
She recognized it as the “Storm”
pattern.
 
Danielle had a similar one
in her house.
 
The zigzags in the
geometric design represented lightning, she had been told.
 
Each clan or location seemed to
specialize in one pattern or another so a weaver usually learned one pattern
from their family and that was the kind of rugs they made.
 

Lin was eager to examine the rug and
speak to Sarah but she knew that courtesy required her to wait in her car until
Sarah acknowledged her presence and invited her in.
 
Soon Sarah reached the end of the row
she was weaving.
 
She carefully put
down her shuttle, got up from her footstool, and motioned for Lin to come.

When she arrived at the porch, Sarah
surprised her by saying, “You must be that new volunteer down at the park.
 
I’m afraid I have forgotten your name.”

“Lin, Lin Hanna,” she responded, “I’m
surprised you knew about me.”

“That boy Toby, he comes to visit me
sometimes.
 
He told me about
you.
 
I have been expecting you to
turn up here sooner or later,” Sarah grinned her pleasure at having company,
revealing a row of white, even teeth gleaming in her copper colored face. “Sit
down, I’ll get you some lemonade.”
 
Sarah entered the house and soon returned with two glasses of lemonade
and a package of store bought cookies.
 
She placed them on a small plastic table and settled herself in the
other plastic lawn chair that graced the small porch.

Lin found Sarah open and friendly, a bit
of a surprise since she knew Navajo were often rather reserved.
 
Evidently Sarah did enjoy having
company.
 
Soon they were chatting
away about happenings in the park.
 
Lin first issued the invitation to next week’s birthday party and Sarah
seemed excited to attend.
 
After
assuring her that someone would pick her up that afternoon, Lin moved the
conversation toward the topic she wanted to discuss.

“I understand that you know a great deal
about the history and archeology of this place,” she inquired.

“Maybe not so much but I know the stories
I have been told and I have met a lot of the people who have worked in the park
at one time or another.
 
My father
used to help with excavations years ago and he told me stories too.”

Soon Sarah was deeply engaged, sharing
some of these stories and talking about how many people thought there was still
good pottery to be found in the area.

“Much of it has already been found and
some has been lost forever,” she spoke seriously, “but this was a place of many
traders in the days of the Anasazi people.” She used the Navajo word for “ancient
enemy” rather than the Hopi ancestral term—Hisatsinom.
 
“My father always said that traders
often hid some of their wares in an area for future trips so that they would
not have to carry so much.
 
After
all, they had newly traded for merchandise to take home and might not want to
carry untraded items back home.
 
Many of them came several times a year so they hid things—sort of
like using a storage unit today I guess.”
 
She smiled at this thought.

“I have read similar things in some of
the articles written by archeologists,” Lin replied. “I guess people are still
looking for these things.
 
I know
Professor Smith and his students are looking for signs but they can’t actually
excavate.”

“Not everyone waits for permission,”
Sarah spoke thoughtfully. “Sometimes I hear folks talk about looking for pots
to sell and make money.
 
It is
wrong, against the law, but that does not stop some people.” She spoke with
sadness in her voice.

“I guess there are always greedy people
about.” Lin did not know what else to say to this.

Sarah did not want to leave this subject,
it seemed. “My nephew Jimmy was here to visit last week.
 
He told me he knew a fellow who was
asking around about pottery in the park—hiding places and such.
 
Seems he knew about some very old things
but they were apparently lost and he was trying to find them.
 
Jimmy did not know him but he knew he was
looking and looking here in the park, too.
 
The fellow told him about coming out here at night to hunt.”

“Really,” Lin was surprised ; she knew
this was not allowed. “I’ll tell Danielle about this.
 
Maybe she can find the time for some
extra patrols.
 
Do you know where he
was supposedly looking?” Lin asked

“Somewhere up around that box canyon near
the Lomaki ruin,” Sarah offered

Lin’s ears perked up.
 
This was the same area that Dr. Smith
was focusing on with his students—and the area where Cullen Honeyestewa’s
remains were found.
 
Now there was
talk of someone else searching this area for old pots.
 
Was there some connection?
 
The park was a big place and it seemed
strange for so much attention to be focused on one area.

Lin sat quietly, not sure what to say at
this point.
 
She was full of
curiosity and had lots of questions but Sarah seemed in a talkative mood and
she did not want to interfere with what she might want to say.
 
She was surprised by what came next.

“There was another fellow last year came
by here talking about old pots and stuff.
 
I guess he was looking around too.
 
Real nice fellow—Hopi—one of those ‘eagle’ fellows. Had
permission to collect feathers and eaglets somewhere in the northwest part of
the park close to Lomaki, I think, but they never tell exactly where.
 
Actually, I had known him when he was a
youngster.
 
His Dad used to come
visit my Dad.
 
They were good
people, a good family.
 
Jimmy told
me something happened to him.
 
He
disappeared sometime after I saw him last year.”

Lin’s mind was reeling with questions but
she spoke slowly, “ Was his name Cullen Honeyestewa by chance?” she asked.

“Yes, that was it.” Sarah responded.

“Sarah, I’m afraid something happened to
him after you saw him.
 
He did
disappear and just last week some remains that were found near Lomaki were
identified as his.”
 
Lin hesitated
but did not want to voice her own suspicions, “The police looked into it and
think he had an accident.
 
Apparently he fell and hit his head.
 
They think he might have had too much to
drink and maybe stumbled and fell into a crack in the earth.”

Sarah looked sad and serious.
 
It was several moments before she spoke.
“That is sad,” she said. “Too many young native men do drink too much—Hopi
and Navajo—it is too bad but it is true.”
 
She paused, “Still, I am surprised you
say that about this man.
 
From what
Jimmy said he was a responsible fellow and I know for a fact that the Hopi
clans do not entrust their sacred duties to irresponsible people.
 
He would not have been one of the ‘eagle’
fellows if he had a reputation for drunkenness and irresponsible behavior.
 
I am surprised by this news.
 
Of course, one does not always know…”

Lin felt agitated and a bit restless all
of a sudden.
 
This information about
the dead man brought her own questions back to mind.
 
She knew in her heart there was more to
this story that had yet been uncovered.
 
Composing herself, she responded to Sarah.

“It is true that sometimes we do not know
everything about someone, but I also had some questions about the remains and
where they were found.
 
There was
nothing found with the remains to give a clue as to what he was doing there—no
water bottle as if he were walking far and no evidence of drinking either.” She
felt she could voice her own concerns with this wise, older woman. “Of course,
any of us can have an unfortunate accident, even if we are careful and are in a
familiar place.”