Benevolent Evil

Chapter2

CHAPTER

2

Following his cryptic words, only dead air met my ears. Mystified, my thoughts tumbled over each other as I slid the phone in my pocket and reached over to stroke Starlight Sky’s silky hindquarters. What in the world had that been about? I was 90% certain that one of the background voices belonged to his reclusive sister Ronda. The second person could have been his mother or perhaps Ronda’s lifelong friend, the ubiquitous Lucinda Johns, who detested the ground I walked on—and the feeling was certainly mutual. Even though Lucinda was now in a relationship with one of Tally’s ranch hands, I still suspected she had never wavered in her amorous quest of thirty years to snag Tally’s affections. Her cunning decision to buy and board her horse at the Starfire provided her with endless opportunities to flaunt herself in front of Tally. The woman was like a leech—a giant, triple-D-breasted leech strutting around in her super-tight jeans, managing to attach herself to him at every opportunity.

My throat tightened with irritation and the familiar burn of jealousy turned my stomach sour. Stop it! Maybe I was getting myself all worked up into a lather over nothing. I swung around, marched over to the trailer and spent the next hour and a half explaining the changes we had in mind to our architect—adding extra counter space in the kitchen, a fireplace to the master bedroom and making several modifications to Tally’s man cave, before I trekked back to remount Starlight Sky.

Beneath the infinite dome of sapphire blue, the warm sun at my back, I loped my spirited mare most of the way back to the ranch still slightly vexed at being stood up by Tally and unable to stop wondering what awaited me. But, I thought as the stables popped into view, my suspicions could be wrong and Ronda just needed a personal favor. If that were the case though, what prompted Tally to emphatically state that he did not want to get involved?

A glow of pride warmed me at the sight of at least two dozen stunningly beautiful appaloosas grazing peacefully behind the long white-pipe fence as I trotted into the clearing and reined in my horse at the hitching post. Sometimes I still had trouble believing that I would soon be Mrs. Bradley James Talverson and, at that time, I would be vacating my cozy rental house to begin a new life on this magnificent ranch.

At the opposite end of the barn amid the cluster of horse trailers, I spotted Tally’s pickup, Ronda’s crappy, old brown Jeep, and the vet’s dirt-covered red pickup along with a white U.S. Fish and Wildlife truck. Next to the corral gate sat another white pickup with a large covered trailer attached. What was going on? I wondered just as Jake stepped out of the tack room. He tapped the brim of his dog-eared Stetson with one finger, a friendly smile lighting his crinkled, sun-bronzed face. “Mornin’, Miz. O’Dell, I’ll take care of her for ya ifn ya like.”

I dismounted and handed him the reins. “Thanks, Jake, I’d appreciate that.” Normally, I loved currying Starlight Sky after an invigorating ride, but if I were going to make it to the office before Thena arrived, I’d best get home soon. “How’s Rain Dancer?”

“Doc thinks she’s gonna be ok,” he informed me with a lopsided grin.

“Oh, that’s good news!” I said, breathing a sigh of relief, which turned out to be short-lived when I noticed his blue eyes darken and his grin compress into a frown. “Something wrong?”

“Well, Tally’s feelin’ real good about Rain Dancer but I’m bettin’ he ain’t none too happy about them other two hitches.”

I tensed. “What’s happening?”

“Doc had to put Dolly down about an hour ago.”

“Oh no!” I exclaimed, acute sadness invading my heart, “Not Dolly.”

“Yep,” he answered, lifting his hat to scratch his balding scalp. “Her arthritis had got so bad she couldn’t get up this mornin’. Tally and Ronda decided, since the vet was here anyway, they’d best git it over with,” he concluded with a despondent sigh before securing his hat once again.

Tears burned my eyes and heavy guilt coiled in my gut, remembering how I’d given Tally the business about missing the meeting with Neil. This tragic situation definitely took priority. It slowly sank in that I’d never see the ranch’s beloved donkey again, never hear her clownish bray, delight in her quirky personality or admire her ability to instantly bond with people and horses alike. As much as I’d miss the Starfire’s resident mascot, it wouldn’t be nearly as hard on me as on Tally and Ronda since she’d been around since they were children. “What’s the second problem?”

“Ray Sutter’s settin’ in Tally’s office right now chewin’ his backside ‘cause Vernon shot one o’ them so-called, endangered Mexican gray wolves last night. That pack’s been stalkin’ the cattle for a couple of weeks now and finally killed a mama cow and her calf yesterday. Right over there on the far side of the south corral,” he commented, pointing a gnarled forefinger. “Messed ‘em up pretty bad.”

I grimaced and glanced beyond the bucolic scene of grazing horses, but couldn’t see anything from my vantage point. “That’s awful.” Tally was not a man to suffer fools gladly, especially fools from the government. He was particularly incensed about the Agency pushing the bizarre idea that somehow the wolves and cattle were now going to learn to peacefully coexist. I had to agree. How do you alter nature when wolves are natural predators to livestock? The Agency’s suggestion to shoot rubber bullets at them was apparently not working. “I’m sure he’s royally pissed about that.”

“Yeah,” Jake nodded, sagely. “Pretty pissed.”

Both Jake and I turned at the sound of a car door slamming and saw Ronda with her back to us, gesturing and talking to someone sitting in the white pickup. The rising wind made it impossible for me to hear what she was saying. “Who’s that with Ronda?” I asked Jake.

He squinted into the distance. “Somebody from The Last Roundup.”

“What’s that?”

He shot me a questioning look. “You know. Them’s the people who come pick up and dispose of dead animal carcasses.”

“Oh. Of course. For Dolly.”

“Yeah, her and the cows.”

“Really? All this time I thought you just left the cattle out in the desert to decompose.”

“We normally do that, but seein’ how we needed ‘em to pick up Dolly, Ronda decided since we got a passel of people coming this week, she didn’t want folks to see the cows’ remains. On top of that, they’re gonna start to stink here pretty soon and the vultures will be swarmin’ all around. Might scare the tenderfoots.” A wink accompanied his wry smile.

“No doubt,” I muttered. Not very far removed from tenderfoot status myself, I had no doubt that would be a stomach-turning sight for most people. Tally and I had come across more than one bloated, fly-covered animal carcass on our rides across the Starfire property and adjoining BLM grazing lands. Certainly not a pleasant image, but something ranchers accept.

A twinge of melancholy flowed through me as I watched the pickup make a wide turn and head out of the driveway pulling the covered trailer that I now knew held Dolly and whatever remained of the mother cow and her calf. Disposing of dead animals did not sound like the kind of job I would ever care to have. “Thanks again, Jake,” I said, touching his arm briefly. “Catch you later.” I walked a few steps, but turned back adding, “Tell Tally I’m going into work and I’ll contact him later.”

“Sure thing.” He touched the brim of his Stetson again and led Starlight Sky into the stable. I pulled off my hat, fluffed out my unruly curls and had almost made it to the Jeep when I heard a shout.

“Kendall, wait up a minute!”

I swung around to see Ronda running towards me dressed in her usual worn jeans and scuffed boots. “I need to ask you something.” Breathing hard, she fixed me with those unreadable brown eyes and swiped a thatch of auburn hair from her forehead. Even after knowing Tally’s sister for ten months now, I felt I’d never really know her. She was less than forthcoming most of the time, preferred the company of animals to people, and I feared she had inherited some of her mother’s bipolar tendencies, although Tally assured me she was not yet to the point where she needed medications. While part of me was marginally curious about whatever it was that she wanted to ask, a glance at my phone confirmed that I had no time for chitchat.

“Hi Ronda, what’s on your mind?”

Appearing ill at ease, she chewed her lower lip a few seconds. “I need a favor.”

“Name it.”

She shifted her weight, avoiding my gaze. “Um…it’s not really a favor for me exactly.”

It was an effort not to roll my eyes. “Your mother?”

The slight hesitation confirmed my fears. “No.”

Oh, crap. “Lucinda?”

She nodded somberly.

“Is she here?”

“Yep.”

“Why doesn’t she ask me herself?”

Ronda looked down and drew a circle in the dirt with the tip of her boot. “Lucy said she’s afraid.”

I looked at her askance. “Afraid of what?”

“You. Lucy knows she’s not your favorite person, but maybe just this once you could call a truce or something and listen to what she has to say.”

“She’s not exactly crazy about me either,” I remarked coolly. For the life of me, I could not understand why Ronda liked her, but then because of her reclusive nature, Ronda did not appear to have many friends. I knew the two women had been inseparable since preschool. Maybe she was aware of some positive personality trait I missed. Brash, duplicitous, insensitive, disrespectful, mouthy—to me, Lucinda had not one redeeming quality. Well, perhaps one. The Iron Skillet restaurant, operated by Lucinda and her Aunt Polly, whom I did like, served the absolute yummiest food in town.

“I’m kind of behind the eight ball for time today. Can’t this wait?”

“So, you can’t spare her even ten minutes!” Usually so low-key that I hardly noticed her presence most of the time, her indignant declaration startled me. “Look, I wouldn’t normally ask you to get involved, but…this is different. Maybe life or death.”

Seriously? Life or death? I hesitated, thinking her request seemed a bit overblown but at the same instant, her statement had definitely captured my attention. “Ten minutes.”

Her eyes softening with gratitude, she stepped forward and enveloped me in an awkward embrace. Disconcerted, I patted her shoulders, her unexpected response invoking a sense of cautious uncertainty. What was I getting myself into this time? Hadn’t it been just a few months ago that I had been trapped into this very position with Ruth? Her fervent insistence that I follow up on the murder of an old family friend had produced a bombshell story but also disgorged a clattering multitude of unwelcome skeletons from the Talverson closet that they were still coping with to this day. How was I ever going to blend into this dysfunctional family? “Thank you, Kendall.” She drew back and thumbed over her shoulder. “She’s waiting inside.”

I hesitated. “I’m really sorry about Dolly.”

Instant tears glistened in her eyes and she blinked rapidly. “Thanks. She’s been a part of our family for forty years. I’m going to miss her.”

“Me too.” I started towards the barn, dragging my feet. If I could pick anyone on earth, Lucinda would be the last person I would choose to grant a favor. Wary, but also curious, I strode inside wondering what she could possibly want from me while mentally calculating how long it would take me to shower, dress, check on my cats and get to the office before Thena arrived.

The pleasantly pungent aroma of horse manure and hay greeted me as I paused to allow my eyes to adjust to the low light. Within seconds, I spotted my nemesis loitering near the tack room, her back to me. “Ronda said you wanted to talk to me.”

She swung around abruptly, her coffee-colored eyes wide with surprise. “Yeah.” She continued to stare at me as if I were a ghost. Clearly, she had not expected me to come. “Did…a…Ronda tell you anything?”

I eyed her with suspicion. “Only that you needed to talk to me about something and she indicated it might be of a serious nature.”

“It is.” She fidgeted nervously with a hoof pick before setting it on the nearby shelf. Closing her eyes momentarily she inhaled deeply as if steeling herself. “Listen, um…I…I know that we…uh…that I’ve not exactly been—”

“Lucinda, get to the point. I only have a few minutes.”

She swallowed hard. “Okay. My sister Holly is missing.”

I leaned my head to one side, narrowing my gaze. “I didn’t know you had a sister.”

“She’s my half sister actually. I guess because she’s twelve years younger than me, we were never all that close and—she’s had a lot of pretty bad problems in her life.”

“How long has she been missing?”

“Two and a half months.”

I looked at her askance. “That’s a long time. Why are you telling me about this now?”

She cast me a melancholy glance. “She’s run off a lot of times before. Sometimes she’d be gone for weeks…but this time feels different.”

“In what way?”

“I don’t know. Usually, somebody in the family would hear from her every so often, a call, a text, something. She always needed money, she’d swear she was coming home in a few days.” A tiny shoulder hitch. “Sometimes she did, sometimes she didn’t.”

“When did you hear from her last?”

“The day before Thanksgiving.”

I pondered that briefly. “What about her social media pages? Any posts since then?” I knew that a missing person’s digital footprint was critical for law enforcement.

Her forlorn sigh filled the space between us. “Nothing.”

I watched her absently twist a ring on one finger. “I’m assuming you’ve posted her photo and profile online already?”

“Oh, yeah, on a bunch of those missing persons websites, including the Missing Arizonans f*******: page. My mom and me even went to the Missing in Arizona Day event. We had posters made up and handed out a bunch of them, but so far there’s been nothing, not one word even though we’re offering a $1000 reward.” Appearing more downcast than I’d ever seen her, her voice quaked as if she were holding back tears. “It’s like she…I don’t know, dropped off the face of the earth. My mom and Aunt Polly, we’re all scared shitless something god-awful has happened to her and…and....well look, I admit I’ve been a total b***h sometimes and you don’t owe me the time of day, but I was wondering, we were wondering if….” Her expression stricken, she burst out, “If you could try to find her for us?”

It took supreme willpower not to gawk at her. Was this for real? After all the months of putting up with her insolent, insufferable behavior towards me, my initial reaction was hell, no! Why should I lift a finger for this manipulative woman?

I groaned inwardly. I really, really did not want to be in the position of having to interact with her on a regular basis for any reason, but was I allowing the rivalry between us to cloud my judgment? “We can run a piece on her, but you should have contacted someone at the paper sooner. This information could have been disseminated a long time ago.”

Her scarlet lips turned down as her shoulders drooped. “She’s been in a lot of trouble since high school. I don’t know, maybe it was my mom’s divorce. Whatever, she started hanging out with some real low-lifes and it just got worse and worse. It’s been a…huge embarrassment to the family and…I guess we didn’t want everybody in the world to know about it.”

I fixed her with a perceptive look. “Drugs?”

“And other… things.”

“Such as?”

“You name it. She’s been busted for DUIs, theft, dealing and…doing, well, whatever she needed to do to get her drugs, if you get my drift,” she stated, grimacing.

“Yeah, I got it.”

A tiny ember of sympathy stirred inside me. Hadn’t my whole family and I just been through hell trying to deal with my brother’s d**g problem a few short months ago? There were thousands of tragic stories like Holly’s all over the country every single day, but was there anything newsworthy about yet another young person who had stupidly thrown her life away and was living on the street or in a c***k house right now? Who wanted to read about more of that?

As Ginger would often say, there were “slim pickin’s” for select assignments in a town as small as Castle Valley and the possibility there could be an even darker side to this story loomed large—human trafficking. Unfortunately, I’d had personal experience with that appalling subject. Last November, I’d broken a horrific human-trafficking story at the border, and it seemed that the nationwide epidemic of kidnappings had become ever more pervasive, especially in Arizona. But, I needed a hook, something to differentiate this incident from just another missing girl case. I’d promised Ronda I’d hear her out; still, I hesitated, reluctant to involve myself with Lucinda under any circumstances.

Responding to my silence, her dark eyes grew misty as her throaty voice took on a plaintive tone. “We’re all getting pretty frantic. She’s never been gone this long before.”

“Can you remember the longest stretch of time that you’ve had no contact from her in the past?”

Her gaze pensive, she hesitated before answering. “Probably two months?”

“So, we’re only talking about two additional weeks of radio silence at this point, correct?”

I think she sensed my skepticism, because she quickly tacked on, “Did I mention she’s got a husband and two darling little girls living in Bagdad that need their mommy?”

I studied her anxious expression. No doubt, she was feeling as uncomfortable as I was. At that instant, I realized that my disdain for her boiled down to raw jealousy based on her hard-to-hide l**t for Tally. Other than that, what reason did I have to dislike her? Moreover, it occurred to me in those fleeting seconds that I didn’t really know much about her personal life because I had not wanted to waste the time and energy trying to find out. “Where’s Bagdad?” I’d heard of the small copper-mining town, but couldn’t remember its exact proximity to Castle Valley.

“Um... about an hour north of here.”

“I’m assuming you’ve been in contact with Marshall.” I surmised, referring to our local sheriff, Marshall Turnbull.

“Yeah. He says Duane and him have followed up on every lead and all of them have gone cold. If you ask me, I’d say they’ve given up looking, so…that’s why I’m…I mean we, my whole family, is asking for your help,” she persisted with a beseeching gaze. “I figured you’d understand considering you just went through those problems with your own brother.”

Her highly-personal reference to my brother Sean’s d**g issues irked me, but then he had stupidly made himself a focal point of my last mind-boggling assignment so it was hardly a secret. I stood in stony silence, weighing my options. While I felt a measure of compassion about her missing sister, I could not get past my stubborn dislike of her. I gave her a dismissive shrug. “I’m sorry,” I stated crisply, “it’s going to be all asses and elbows at work with Tugg gone the rest of this week, but I can certainly assign this to Walter…”

Thunderclouds formed in her eyes. “No! I don’t want Walter. I mean, don’t get me wrong. He’s real nice and all, but Tally said finding missing people is your specialty.” She paused, shrewdly assessing my reaction. When I remained stoic, she quickly added, “He promised me you’d do it.”

What? He promised her. So much for him not getting involved. Cheeks on fire, I struggled to suppress the sarcasm creeping into my voice. “Oh, he did, did he?”

“Yeah. He did. He thinks you’re the best reporter on the planet.” A hopeful gleam shimmered in her dark eyes as she squeezed out what I suspected was a totally fake smile in her lame attempt at flattery.

I could have walked at that moment, but something made me stay. It was true that the bulk of the five stories I’d uncovered this past year revolved around people gone missing. While four of them appeared to have no connection to the human-trafficking problem, nevertheless countless poor souls, including men and children, seemed to just vanish into thin air in Arizona—an abundance of them. Was it because the vast stretches of open desert provided an inviting place to hide or bury bodies, along with the plethora of abandoned vertical mines that scarred the sometimes-barren landscape? I peeked at my phone. “I’ll look into it.” I said tersely, the reporter-half of me intrigued, the resentful-female-half angry at Tally for putting me into this untenable situation.

Gratitude flashing in her moist eyes, she pressed her palms together in a prayer-like gesture. “I…we all can’t thank you enough.”

“I’ll check with Marshall and we can talk again when I have more time.” I swiveled around, then stopped and turned back, adding as I handed her my business card, “Any other information that might help locate her would be useful and I’ll need a recent photo.”

“I can show you one now!” She pulled her phone from her back pocket, scrolled and pointed the screen towards me. I tried not to gasp. While Lucinda was not unattractive, this girl had one of the most strikingly beautiful faces I’d ever seen—long dark hair, turned-up nose, flawless skin, full sensuous lips and large almond-shaped brown eyes fringed with thick lashes. She could have easily passed for a top model or movie star. What a tragic waste of a life. Acute dread chilled me imagining the worst of what might have happened to her.

“Send me that photo and I’ll get back with you.” I turned to leave when she reached out and touched my arm. “Thank you.” Gone was the hard glint of malice usually emanating from her eyes. Instead, the angst reflected in her gaze appeared genuine. I was having trouble processing her sudden transformation from queen of snark to this unrecognizable woman in need of my help.

“I can’t guarantee anything,” I answered, keeping my tone noncommittal.

“I know. I know. I promised my family I’d at least try.”

“And you’re positive about her not posting anywhere on social media?”

She shook her head sadly. “Nothing. Not even once since November.” She swiped a tear from her cheek. “It’s just plain shitty not knowing what happened to her, especially since we were all super excited about her coming home.”

“What do you mean?”

She hastily scrolled through her phone again. “Wait!” she announced breathlessly. “I almost forgot to tell you the most important thing.” More frantic scrolling, then, “She called Lynnis the night before Thanksgiving from a truck stop just this side of Kingman.”

“Who’s Lynnis?”

She looked up at me. “Her husband.”

“Which truck stop?”

She glanced again at her phone. “Roadrunner.”

“Did he give any details of the conversation?”

“He told us that she swore she was done with drugs forever and promised to get sober and…and…she begged him to come and get her.”

I raised a quizzical brow. “And did he?”

Lips crushed in a straight line, she shook her head. “He told her to go pound sand, so she told him to go screw himself and that she’d hitch a ride to Bagdad.” Her expression morose, she said faintly, “Holly was less than two hours away but we haven’t heard from her since.”

While the scenario sounded worrisome, I remained dubious. Was Lucinda plotting to send me on the proverbial wild goose chase so she could resume her pursuit of Tally with me safely out of the picture? Playing devil’s advocate, I countered, “You said this has happened before quite a few times.”

Chewing her lower lip, she shifted her weight, appearing uncomfortable. “Yeah, it has.”

“So, is it possible she changed her mind and took off again?”

Her fixed gaze reflected bemused annoyance. “I suppose it’s possible. Anything is possible, right? But…Deputy Potts left me a weird message two days ago that makes no sense to any of us.”

That centered my attention. “What?”

“He said they have surveillance footage proving Holly was at the Family Dollar store in Aguila about 8:30 pm the same night she called Lynnis.”

“And that’s weird why?”

“Because Aguila is the opposite direction from Bagdad.”