Halfway down the slope, Russell Thorpe spotted a series of five rock cairns arranged in a neat line on a sandy fold in the hillside. He walked to them, wondering what they signified, and noticed that one looked fairly recent. Each cairn was round and no more than three feet high.
He stepped back, knelt down, and pawed at the sand until he hit rock about a foot down. Fifty feet away from the cairns was a small quarry cut into the hillside. There he found a rock pile that matched the stones on the mounds. A wheelbarrow turned upside down leaned against the pile.
As he retraced his footsteps, marking each one with a stone, Thorpe called out for Clayton and Ramona. They converged on him from the north and south.
“The one on the south side looks to be the most recent,” he said as Clayton made a wide loop around the cairns and Ramona took photographs. “The sand gives way to rock about a foot down.”
“I make each one to be about ten feet in diameter,” Clayton said as he eyed the cairns, “and whatever is under them has drawn coyotes. There’s old scat everywhere.”
Ramona lowered the camera. “Let’s rope off this area and get the techs up here.” She slipped on plastic gloves, walked to the newest cairn, and began carefully removing rocks.
“Shouldn’t we wait for them?” Thorpe asked before he keyed his handheld.
“There’s enough work here for everybody,” Clayton said as he joined Ramona at the mound.
Within two hours, three bodies had been partially exhumed.
Two hours of sleep left Kerney feeling better. He came out of the bedroom determined to put the investigation aside and enjoy the evening with Sara, although he did plan to remain cautious and armed. He clipped the holstered. 45 to his belt.
The bulge of the. 38 in the purse on the kitchen table told him Sara was of a like mind.
“Are you ready to go?” he asked as he entered the living room.
Sara nodded, eased herself off the couch, and held out the car keys.
“Don’t you want to drive your new car?” Kerney asked.
“I do, but I’m afraid Patrick Brannon will be a distraction. He’s getting restless and acting up.”
“Maybe we should just stay here.”
Sara shook her head as she put the keys in his hand. “Not a chance. I need to see a beautiful New Mexico sunset on our land, and talk you into letting me add the pergola on the front patio of the house.”
“I’m having second thoughts about the swimming pool,” Kerney said.
“Because of the water we’d use?” Sara asked.
Since he was warned not to run on the leg, the pool was to be the alternative way to keep his new knee operating at peak efficiency. But he’d been raised on a desert ranch where water was precious, which made the whole idea of a swimming pool uncomfortable.
“It’s an indulgence we can do without,” Kerney said. “Plus, even with the recent rains, we’re still in a drought and probably will be for some time to come.”
“Besides, what would the neighbors think?” Sara said with a teasing laugh. “If we installed a pool, none of them would believe for a minute that either of us was really ranch-raised.”
Kerney smiled. “It might cause Jack and Irene Burke to wonder.”
“I’m way ahead of you.” Sara stepped to her grandmother’s desk, gathered up the architectural plans, and brought them to Kerney. The swimming pool had been crossed out.
“I think a terraced flower garden with a few shade trees off to one side would be nice. It doesn’t have to be something we do right away.”
“Let’s go see if it’ll work,” Kerney said.
The doorbell rang. “Whoever it is,” Sara said, “send them packing.”
Kerney opened up.
“Maybe you shouldn’t have turned off all your phones,” Andy Baca said with a shake of his head. He was dressed in civvies with his sidearm on his belt. Gloria waved at Kerney from the passenger seat of Andy’s pickup truck parked in the driveway.
“This better be important, Andy,” Kerney said.
“Look, you don’t have to do anything, but I thought you’d want to know that five bodies, all male, have been discovered buried on Olsen’s property. We don’t know who they are yet or how they died. I’ve got my people working on it with Pino, Thorpe, Istee, and a team of forensic specialists. They’re still uncovering the remains. It will probably take them most of the night to wrap up the preliminary work and get everything up to the medical examiner’s office in Albuquerque.”
“Dammit,” Kerney said.
“It’s being handled,” Andy said as he turned to Sara. “You know, Gloria mentioned that we still haven’t seen the new house you’re putting up. She said you’re going out there. How about giving us a tour?”
“You’re very sneaky, Andy,” Sara said, as she stepped to Kerney’s side.
Andy grinned. “That’s if you don’t mind us tagging along behind you.”
“Come along,” Sara said. “Just let me get my purse.”
Chapter 13
F ast-moving clouds drifted over the Jemez Mountains, diffusing the glare of the sun in short bursts, revealing it again and again as shafts of brilliant light cut through the billowing white cumulus caps. Not yet low enough on the horizon to light up the sky with colors, it studded the tips and underbellies of the clouds with a soft pink hue. Passing shadows dotting the basin gave way to patches of dense blue sky that turned hot white as the sun broke through, lighting up a distant peak and exposing a carmine-colored hillside in high relief.
The breathtaking vista pushed all the fears and worries of the week from Sara’s mind. She felt lighthearted as she walked Andy and Gloria through the clutter of what would one day be her very first house, showing them the footprint for each room. The crew had started laying the interior adobe walls, and for the first time Sara could see actual room dimensions rather than have to imagine them from the plans.
She’d brought her camera, and as she took snapshots, she excitedly pointed out window placements, fireplace locations, how the entry alcove would give way to the great room, and the view she would have from the kitchen window over the sink.
Finally, she took them out on the recently poured slab for the portal that ran the length of the house, where they stood and looked down on the canyon below. A huge cottonwood glistened pale green along the edge of an arroyo that fanned out across the canyon floor. A slash of exposed limestone glimmered in the escarpment that hid the railroad spur from view.
“We’ll hear trains,” Sara said, pointing at the ridgeline that hid the tracks from view.
“I love the sound of trains,” Gloria said.
“You’ll have clear night skies and the Milky Way above you,” Andy said.
“And coyotes howling,” Kerney added, squeezing Sara’s hand.
They stopped talking momentarily to watch a small herd of antelope warily enter the canyon, led by a male who first scanned for danger before beginning to graze. The females and juveniles quickly followed suit.
Sara adjusted the camera lens to zoom in on the herd and snapped the shutter.
“How beautiful,” Gloria said in a whisper. “It’s paradise.”
They walked the perimeter of the house. The curving wall for the courtyard patio had been poured, and Sara showed Gloria where she planned to put the planting beds, how the flagstone walkway would veer off from the main path to an adjacent patio that would be accessed through French doors.
“With a pergola, it would be a perfect, sheltered place to breakfast,” she said, eyeing Kerney. “We’d have a lovely view of the pasture, horse barn, the hill beyond, and the tips of the mountains in the distance.”
Kerney laughed, put his arm around Sara’s waist, and patted her tummy. “Okay, we’ll build the pergola,” he said as the early evening shadows began to lengthen. He turned to Andy and Gloria. “Are you up for a short drive? I want to show you something.”