High Desert Detective, A Fiona Marlowe Mystery (Fiona Marlowe Mysteries) Read Online Free PDF Page A

case she should
be okay.
    If she opened the door the culprit might be right there. What if
it were something dangerous? She didn’t know all of the animals that lived here,
but she was sure they were dangerous. Probably more dangerous if wounded. Jake
said there were badgers. She didn’t know what a badger looked like or how big
it was but it sounded ugly and dangerous.
    Undecided, she watched the door, listening. The moan had a whine
to it. Maybe it was a dog. There were dogs over at the main house. If it were a
hurt dog, should she let it in out of the wind and cold?
    She trained the flash light on the door and tip-toed across the
floor, stopping at the window by the door. In a flash of courage she trained
the flashlight on the porch floor outside the door. She saw nothing but black,
but the moaning stopped and didn’t start again. That was a relief.
    She turned to go back to bed. The moan started again. Sound
reverberated in odd ways here. The source could be out in the cow pasture or
half-way across the valley.If she didn’t
check this out, she’d never get any sleep. Garnering her scanty courage, she
cracked the door enough to shine the light through. The wind blasted into the
narrow opening. She squinted into darkness.
    Nothing. There was nothing. She opened
the door a hair further, enough to flash the light around on the porch. Nothing. The sound had stopped. She was not about to search
outside on a night like this. The wind honed a cold edge to the night. She
closed the door. There was no lock. She propped one of chairs under the door
knob, a trick she’d learned from TV. They did not teach that maneuver in design
school. Under the circumstances that was the best she could do.
    Crawling under the warm down quilt, she pulled it over her head.
She’d never thought to make a fire in the rusty woodstove. The evening had been
pleasant. But the wind had come up, and now it was cold enough to see her
breath. She checked her watch again. 4:00 A.M. The sky in the east had a light
tinge to it. She curled up in a ball and wished for sleep.
    An unholy pounding woke her. Given the paucity of sleep she had
gotten, she was in a wicked mood, and worse, it was freezing in the bunk house.
She wrapped the comforter around her unhappy body and padded to the door. Of
course, she had to struggle to get the chair out of the way.
    She yanked open the door and squinted into bright light. “What?”
    Jake stood in full buckaroo regalia. “You aren’t ready. We’re
going sightseeing today. Did you forget?”
    “I had a rough night.” She related the story. “It must have been a
ghost. There was nothing, and then it stopped.”
    “You should have taken me up on my offer of sharing my warm bed
in the big house,” he said with a grin.
    She ignored him. She wasn’t in the mood. “It’s freezing in here.”
    “You should have started a fire.”
    “There’s no wood, and I don’t know how anyway. Are you being
annoying because it’s in your DNA or because you enjoy making my life a
misery?”
    “You’re in a temper. Get your stuff. I’ll take you down to the
big house for a shower and a decent breakfast. Then we’ll get on the road. You
don’t have to be some kind of heroine, staying up here at night. Opal has
plenty of extra beds.” He paused then said softly. “And there’s always mine.”
    “I appreciate the offer, but I’m trying to get the feel for the
house so I can make a proper living space out of it.”
    “Right.”

 
 
    Two

 
 
    Everywhere a body went in this country the preferable means of
transportation was by truck or rig, as the locals called a truck or other motorized
conveyance. If it wasn’t four wheel drive, you were asking for trouble. If snow
didn’t end you up in a ditch, the grease they called roads in wet weather would
put you there. That’s what Jake told her as they drove along the improved
gravel road that stretched forever into the distance. Not another vehicle was
on the road.