Earthcrack: A Lin Hanna Mystery (19 page)

The next day dawned bright and crisp with
a promise of a much warmer afternoon ahead.
 
Once again, Lin wasn’t due into the
center until late morning so she took advantage of the cooler morning air to
take a long walk over to Wukoki ruin—a distance of about 2 miles.
 
She was a bit winded when she arrived at
the ruin that was built atop a large rock outcropping.
 
She was really going to have to get more
exercise—she was getting out of shape.

Wukoki was her favorite ruin.
 
From the plaza area atop the outcropping
there was a spectacular view across the park toward the San Francisco Peaks
that still were topped with snow.
 
The
park literature emphasized the excellent defensive position of this ruin,
noting that those who lived there could have seen visitors—friendly or
unfriendly—coming for miles.
 
That was certainly true, but Lin also thought about the women who would
have spent most of their days working in the plaza area doing their daily
chores and tending their children.
 
They must have enjoyed the view.
 
Perhaps that also had figured into the choice of location for these
buildings.

After resting for a while on the plaza
and enjoying her surroundings.
 
Lin
began the walk back to her apartment.
 
She arrived tired and dusty but feeling some satisfaction for having
taken a long walk and getting some much needed exercise.

She hurried to shower and dress so she
wouldn’t be late for work.

Lin tried not to think about her upcoming
afternoon with Neal Smith and the students.
 
She wanted so much to reveal that she
knew he had some sort of connection to Cullen, but at the same time, she
realized that to reveal this too soon would simply hinder her chances of
getting more answers.
 
She would
stick to her resolve not to mention this to him until after she had visited the
gallery in Flagstaff tomorrow.

As it turned out, the students arrived
without Dr. Smith.
 
They walked into
the center with Danielle when she returned from a meeting at park headquarters.

“ Dr. Smith had a meeting on campus,”
Ginger reported, “but he is coming later.
 
He’s going to meet us at the site in about an hour.
 
Luckily, Danielle was coming into town
this morning so she brought us out.
 
We’ll ride back with Dr. Smith later so everything worked out.”

Lin turned to Danielle, “ May we take one
of the park vehicles out to Lomaki for the afternoon?
 
If they are all tied up I could drive my
own car.”

“Not a problem,” Danielle tossed her the
keys,
 
“take that SUV I was
driving.
 
I don’t have plans to go
anywhere this afternoon and there’s always the pick up available if I do need
to go somewhere.”

Lin gathered the keys and her
topographical maps of the area. Neal had given her a copy of the map on which
he had marked the sites he wished to examine.
 
As they drove toward the northern part
of the park, Lin enjoyed the relaxed chatter between the students.
 
It’s probably just as well that Neal isn’t
coming until later, she thought.
 
It
may make it easier for me to stay away from dangerous territory!

“Dr. Smith wants us to go all the way to
the end of the box canyon this afternoon,” Mark explained, “He says that there
is a small slot canyon there that leads back out into the adjacent open
backcountry.
 
He thinks that there
might have been some field houses and storage areas out there at one time.
 
Apparently there are several high areas
as well where eagles have been known to nest.”

“Should be interesting,” Lin remarked, “
I haven’t been that far before.”

Arriving at the Lomaki parking lot, they
left their vehicle on the side away from the main parking area for
visitors.
 
Making sure they had
water, maps, and cameras they headed for the box canyon.
 
Just as they got to the canyon entrance,
Lin stopped.

“I forgot my two-way radio,” she said, “and
that is a must.
 
Our cell phones
wouldn’t work at all out here if we needed anything.
 
I’ll go back to get it and catch up with
you.
 
Wait for me before you enter
the slot area.
 
I’m not familiar
with that and would feel better if we went in together.”
 
The students agreed and then began their
walk up the canyon while Lin hurried back to the car to get the radio.

About 15 minutes later, after walking up
the canyon alone, Lin spotted the students waiting for her beside what looked
like a crack in the canyon’s end wall.
 
They were sitting on a large boulder studying their map.

Mark pointed to a red line marking the
path through the slot that ended at an “x” in the area beyond.
 
This is where Dr. Smith wants us to look
for signs of a field house.
 
He said
it was only a five-minute walk from this point.” He pointed to another “x”
which appeared to be on a higher point, just beyond the first one, “He also
thinks this is another promising site to explore if we have time.”

The three of them entered the slot area
single file.
 
Lin had heard about
these small canyons cut by water through sandstone formations.
 
Some really spectacular, colorful ones
could be found further north near Page, she’d been told.
 
This one was less spectacular but still
pretty and interesting.
 
It was just
wide enough for one person at a time to walk through and it opened out onto a
rugged area of juniper and brush dotted with large boulders.
 
Several higher ridges with rocky slopes
flanked the open area.
 
Some
 
“informal” trails up these slopes and
across this area were obvious signs of previous visitors.
 
Lin knew that such trails posed a
problem for the park—breaking down the thin crusty soil and causing more
erosion; it was simply not possible to prevent such things, especially in the
more secluded areas of the park.
 
Signs were posted near the visited ruins and in the parking lots that
helped at least a bit, though.
 
Of
course, Neal and his students had permission to explore in this particular
area.

“I think the spot marked on the map is
over there just beyond those rocks,” Mark pointed a short distance away.
 
He began to hurry across the rugged
terrain—leaving the ladies a bit behind.
 
As he arrived at the rocks he stopped
suddenly, throwing back his arm as if to halt their approach.

“ You might want to stay back.
 
Something is very wrong here.
 
You don’t want to see it.” Mark
cautioned.

Ginger hesitated but Lin pushed on.
 
After all, whatever it was, she was the
park representative and she was the one who had the radio!
 
Bracing herself she approached the rocks
where Mark stood.
 
Ginger took a
deep breath and slowly followed her.

Coming up beside Mark, Lin gave a small
cry.
 
Sprawled on the ground beside
the rocks were two figures—both appeared to be male—and both were
quite obviously dead!

Not taking her eyes away from the scene,
Lin fingered her radio and tried to call the visitor center.
 
She didn’t get through.
 
Looking around she realized that they
were more or less surrounded by the end wall of the canyon and some rather tall
boulders.
 

“I’m going to climb up there,” she
indicated an apparent path which led up to a higher area, “and see if I can get
through from there.
 
You guys stay
here and don’t touch anything!”

A few moments later Lin succeeded in
reaching Danielle at the center.
 
She told her about the grisly scene they had come upon.

“I’ll call the sheriff and then I’ll be
right out in the truck.
 
Tell me
again where you are?”

Lin described the area and Danielle told
her that she would be coming cross-country rather than through the box canyon. “There
is a track which runs from the park road back through the ranch property just
beyond where you are, I think. The boundary between parkland and ranch land
runs right along that area and up behind Lomaki. Sounds like your bodies may be
on ranch land.
 
If I’m right, I can
reach you faster from there.
 
Anyway, I’ll be there as soon as possible.”

Knowing that they would have at least a
half hour to wait for Danielle to arrive and probably longer for the
authorities, Lin went back down to the area where the bodies were.
 
Mark and Ginger had moved back toward
the slot entrance and were sitting on some rocks.
 
Ginger seemed to be in a state of shock.
 
She was pale and shaky.
 
Mark seemed to be ok.
 
Lin went over and made Ginger drink some
water.
 
She then gave her a granola
bar she had in her own pack.
 
Ginger
perked up a bit after that.

Lin turned to Mark, “Mind if I borrow
your camera?” she felt the need to explain further.
 
“There is something about this which
reminds me a bit of the remains we found a couple of weeks ago.
 
Maybe Dr. Smith told you….”

Mark nodded as he handed her the camera. “Go
ahead.
 
I have a new memory card in
here and I seriously doubt we will do any work today anyway.
 
I’ll keep Ginger company.”
  
Lin could see that he had no taste
for poking around dead bodies.

Lin returned to the scene they had just
discovered, taking care to stay in the same path they had already used and
making sure not to disturb the area close to the bodies.
 
Using Mark’s zoom lens, she took several
shots from different angles.
 
From
all appearances both bodies were male, dressed in typical western wear—both
wore boots, plaid western shirts, and jeans— and, judging from their odor
and appearance, they had been dead for a while—possibly a couple of
days.
  
They did not look
familiar to Lin but it would have been hard to identify them anyway in their
current state.
 
The bodies appeared
almost identical.
 
Lin was no expert
but she felt sure this crime had occurred sometime over the weekend just past.

After snapping some pictures of the
bodies from several feet away, Lin turned to examine the surrounding
countryside.
 
Again, she didn’t move
around much and she tried to observe where she was stepping so as not to
disturb any footprints.
 
She tried
to stick to areas where the three of them had already walked when they
approached.
 

As Lin looked past the scene toward the
rutted dirt track just beyond, her eye caught something gleaming in the sun
beside a juniper.
  
Taking care
to swing wide of the area around the bodies, she walked out until she came to a
point near the shiny object. Again, not wanting to disturb the scene, she
remained several feet away and aimed the camera toward the object, using the
zoom lens to bring it into closer view.
 
When the object came into focus she was shocked. There, lying on the
ground beneath the juniper, was a silver belt buckle with a carved eagle head!

Lin couldn’t believe what she was
seeing.
 
This had to be the same
belt buckle that had belonged to Cullen Honeyestewa and had helped to identify
his remains.
 
It was handmade and
was certainly unique.
 
It was highly
unlikely that there were two of them!
 

Lin recalled that Myrna, Cullen’s mother,
had said that she planned to give the buckle to Michael, his nephew.
 
Now its presence here would, once again,
tie this family to a scene of death.
 
Lin photographed the buckle but left it in place.
 
She couldn’t remove it from the scene.

She returned to the place where Mark and
Ginger were waiting and sat down on a nearby boulder.
 
Turning, she saw Danielle approaching
from beyond the crime scene.
 
She
could see the pick up truck parked just off the road she had observed earlier a
short distance beyond.
  
She
called out to Danielle indicating where the bodies were so that she could avoid
walking through the scene.
 
Then, as
she looked up, she saw Neal Smith approaching from the slot canyon.
 
She watched as Mark approached him with
the news of what they had found, hoping to gauge his reaction.
 
He looked down as Mark spoke, and then
lifted his head toward the area where the bodies lay. Lin couldn’t see his
expression.
 
His broad-brimmed hat
shadowed his face.