Marjorie Thelen - High Desert Detective

“It’s got a few dents,” said Fiona.

“That won’t hurt nothing,” said Jake. “The engine doesn’t seem to have any leaks. I’ll go over it good when we get home. Do you know if your nephew had insurance?” he asked Caleb.

“Don’t rightly know. This is the first time he ever came to visit.”

The three of them watched Dora ministering to the accident victims, and Fiona said, “Did you notice there’s something bobbing out there in the water?”

Jake and Caleb followed Fiona’s finger to the odd phenomenon out on the water.

“What do you suppose that is?” asked Caleb.

Jake shaded his eyes to see. “Can’t say. I’ll check.”

“Check what?” asked Fred. He came over to see what they were looking at.

“Was anyone else with them?” asked Jake.

“Not that I know,” said Caleb, “but I’ll ask.”

While he walked over to his nephew, Fred said, “I got my waders on. I’ll go in to take a look. The waders cut down on the heat of the water a little.”

He went down the bank and into the water shovel in hand. Carefully, he approached the bobbing object. He tapped at it with the shovel and the bubble collapsed. He poked around in the water, caught a hunk of fabric with the shovel, and pulled up. A long piece of fabric came up and Fred grabbed hold of it.

“It feels like it’s caught on something,” he said. He pulled harder but the fabric wouldn’t budge.

Caleb shouted from the bank. “My nephew says they were the only two in the car. He doesn’t know what that might be.”

Fred put his weight into the pull, leaning back. With a jerk the fabric came free. Fred’s legs went out from under him, and he fell backward onto the bank.

“Guess I pulled a little too hard,” he said, standing and brushing off.

More bits and pieces of fabric floated to the surface.

“This looks like a man’s shirt,” said Fred. He grasped and pulled. “Someone’s dumped their laundry in the spring.”

He kept pulling and a pair of pants surfaced, too.

“Something is in these pants.” He hefted them out of the water. “Good golly, these are bones, and this looks like a rib cage in this old shirt.”

“Bring that stuff to the bank,” said Jake. “They’re caked with mud and falling apart. They look like they’ve been buried.”

Fred dumped the load on the bank and one by one bones dropped out of the pants.

“I wonder what happened to this guy,” Fred said, “and how long he’s been here.” He wrinkled his nose. “Looks like we disturbed this guy’s final resting place. How did he get here, do you suppose? Do you think the guy wrapped himself in a sheet before he took the plunge or somebody did it for him after the fact? ”

Jake shook his head. “The Sheriff can decide that.” He turned to look at Fiona who had joined him. He could see the lively interest in her eyes. He didn’t know what it was about a mysterious demise that so enticed the woman, but she had that look on her face.

“We can ask the Sheriff if he’s missing anyone,” Fiona said, warming to the subject.

Fred dug around with the shovel and gathered up floating pieces of fabric. “It couldn’t have been an Indian burial,” he said. “They did above ground platforms in the old days. Wow, it’s hot in here.” He waded out of the water and started lining up pieces of fabric and bones on the bank in the sun. Fiona moved in to have a look. Fred went back into the water and brought up a shovel full of muck, and there on the end of it sat a human skull grinning at them. He waded to the bank and deposited the find.

Jake had seen a lot of weird things in his life, but human bones in a hot springs beat them all.

Dora saw what was happening and joined them. “I wonder who that is. I don’t know anyone who’s been missing in these parts.”

Caleb shook his head. “Doesn’t look like anyone I’d know, not that I can tell much from bones. All my friends are accounted for. Anybody could wear jeans and a shirt like that.”

Jake leaned on the shovel, looking at the bones. “The Sheriff will send someone out here. He may come himself. Dora, is the little girl all right?”

“She may have a broken leg. It needs to be X-rayed. I called about the ambulance. Their injuries don’t appear life threatening so they won’t send the helicopter. I’m concerned about head injuries. The father keeps complaining about his head but I didn’t find any open wounds.”

“We’ll have to wait until they arrive,” Jake said. “Fiona, lend me your phone. Mine’s in the truck. I want to call the Sheriff.”

She handed over the cell phone. “Does this happen very often? Didn’t they just find that other skeleton in the desert?”

Jake nodded. “Yep. This makes two in a short period of time. Both were skeletons before anyone found them, but that doesn’t mean they are related.”

He climbed the rise to find a signal and dialed Hoover’s direct line. Nathan, one of the deputies, answered.

“It’s Jake. We’re at an accident scene at the hot springs on the east side of the Steens. No deaths, no apparent life threatening injuries. The ambulance is on the way. The car ended up in the hot springs, and the Easton Brothers pulled it out, but the car disturbed a buried human skeleton. We have skeleton parts drying in the sun.”

Jake answered Nathan’s questions. Hoover was in the Fields area, not far in Harney Valley terms from where they were. Nathan said he’d contact Hoover and not to leave the scene until he got there.

“Will do,” said Jake and closed the connection.

Fiona was already scouring the accident scene for clues and was full of questions. He knew she’d already be formulating a theory about what happened.

Caleb had a mobile ham radio in the truck. Jake went over and listened to the police scanner.

“Do you hear that?” Caleb asked Jake. “That’s Hoover. He’s on his way. Might be here before the ambulance gets here. I sure hope Farley and Molly are going to be all right. I guess Zeke and I better follow the ambulance.”

Hoover arrived and started taking statements from everyone. The ambulance pulled in shortly thereafter.

Jake didn’t like how close Hoover was standing to Fiona or the way he was smiling at her, but maybe that was his imagination. They had pulled the accident car to the side of the road. The medics were loading Molly and her father in the ambulance with Caleb and Zeke hovering over the operation. The rest were looking at the bones.

“What do you make of this, Jake?” asked Hoover.

“Looks like foul play to me,” he said. He gave Hoover his side of the story of the accident and finding the body.

Hoover shook his head. “It’s mighty strange that we find two skeletons on the same side of the Steens so close together.”

“Are there any unsolved missing persons?” Fiona asked. Jake could see she was dying to ask questions.

“Hank Little’s wives. We’ll check the files to find if there are any other unsolved disappearances. The bones might not be from around here, so we’ll do a regional search, maybe further than that.”

“I guess you’ll do forensic work on the bones,” Fiona said.

Hoover nodded and smiled. “Have you ever done any detective work, Fiona?”

She smiled. “No, it’s not my line of work. I just like mysteries.”

“You can help me solve a mystery anytime,” Hoover said.

Jake rolled his eyes. “Laying it on a little thick, aren’t you?”

“It’s a wide open playing field, isn’t it?”

“Depends who’s calling the parameters of the field,” Jake said. “Are you finished with us? We need to be getting back.”

Hoover smiled. “That’ll be all. I can handle it from here on. I’ll stop by later to see if you’ve thought of anything else. Look forward to seeing you again, Fiona.”