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

They could have been driving into a black hole.
    Fiona wore jeans, a long sleeve white shirt with paisley neck
scarf, and her new flat brimmed hat that was starting to grow on her.
    “You look the buckaroo,” Jake said.
    She smiled. “Thank you. I’ll take that as a compliment. I don’t
understand why I have to wear long sleeves on a hot day.”
    “Because it will keep you from getting sun burn and eaten alive
by mosquitoes. They’re bad this time of year.”
    “I have a few choice welts to testify to that. Do you always
drive this fast?”
    “What? Eighty? How
else you going to get anywhere?”
    Around noon they stopped for lunch at Mann Lake. Jake spread an
old blanket on the ground, and Fiona laid out the food Queenie had packed. It
was leftovers from the party and smelled more delicious today than yesterday.
    “Oh, no,” she said as Jake sat down on the blanket.
    “What?”
    “I think she put goat in the sandwiches by mistake.”
    “No mistake about it. I asked for it.”
    “You like goat?”
    “You don’t?”
    Her tummy rumbled. She sniffed the sandwiches. “I guess I do
now.” She took a careful bite, like the goat might still be alive and snuffling
around in the bread. She was prepared to hate it, but after a few careful chews
realized the tangy marinade sauce made it palatable, maybe even delicious.
    Jake pulled his vest collar
up around his neck and slapped down his hat. “Wind’s coming up. Eat up and
we’ll high tail it down the road. We got a ways to go.”
    In minutes a fine layer of grit drifted over the blanket and
settled in everything that wasn’t covered. They passed on the pie, packed up,
and climbed into the truck to continue the southward journey. Her teeth felt
like she had consumed goat and grit sandwich. She wondered if they’d have that on
the menu at one of the fancy restaurants back home.
    The sun held, the sky went total blue, and they continued south,
along Steens Mountain looming 9,500 feet to the west. To the east appeared an
expanse of sand covered desert that looked for all the world like the Sahara. It stretched to the southern horizon. Fiona couldn’t see
a stitch of vegetation. Nothing but white sand in a shallow bowl
that stretched to a ridge in the east.
    “What is that?” asked Fiona.
    “It is stark, raving desert. This country was an old lake bed,”
said Jake. “But now there are no rivers that flow from the basin. Hence, you
get some places that are so alkaline, nothing but nothing grows there.”
    Further south, the sky darkened with heavy gray clouds tinged
with black that rolled and tumbled off the Steens. The temperature dropped thirty
degrees in a matter of minutes. Jake turned on the heat.
    “That can’t be snow,” she said. “This is June.”
    “Yep, it’s snow. This isn’t unusual. It’s the elevation. We’re
over four thousand feet,” Jake said.
    The snow turned out to be a
rogue squall and was over as fast as it came on. Sudden bright sunshine forced
Fiona to put on sunglasses. This was a country of weather extremes. Harsh was
the word that came to mind.
    Jake started singing On the
Road Again, and Fiona kept time by tapping her fingers on her knee.
    “I like the one you sang last night,” Fiona said. “What was the
name again?”
    “ Cowboy Lullaby .”
    “That was nice. It went with the evening. Do you know anything
besides cowboy songs? Like opera? You’re a great baritone.”
    “No. I never cared for that caterwauling they call opera. I just
sing country and western, some bluegrass, a little gospel. I guess you like
opera.”
    “Of course. I’ve been to the Met to hear
James Levine conduct Rigoletto , my
very favorite opera . I sometimes get
season tickets for the Washington Opera Company.”
      He wagged his head. “You
and I are very different.”
    “I thought you’d never notice.”
    He looked at her and smiled. “Oh, I notice all right. Maybe I
could learn to appreciate opera.”
    “You could teach me cowboy