Short Cut to Santa Fe Read Online Free PDF

old?”
    â€œSame age as me,” she said. “Eleven. We’re twins. I’m Caroline. He’s Stuart.”
    â€œThat’s easy. We’ll have him for you in a second.” And he was gone.
    â€œIs he—” She looked worried.
    â€œHe’s a policeman,” said Harriet. “You couldn’t have picked a better person to ask.” She saw him emerge from the men’s room, shake his head, and start for the door that led to the landing field. Meanwhile the area had emptied of extraneous humanity. “Are you on this tour?” asked Harriet.
    â€œOh no,” said Caroline. “But our parents know Mr. Andreas. He owns the tour company. Mum and Dad run a hotel near Taos and Mr. Andreas is one of their biggest customers. He’s nice,” she added doubtfully. “I guess. We don’t know him very well. Stuart and me, I mean. Anyway, if there’s room on the plane from Dallas he lets us catch a ride. And then Bert, he’s the bus driver, takes us to where our road is. He drops us off at the intersection and Mum comes and picks us up. Otherwise she’d have to drive all the way to Albuquerque and back to bring us home and that isn’t very convenient. It’s already a long way from our place to the road.”
    Harriet could hear the self-justifying voice that Caroline was unconsciously imitating. If she were mother to this pleasant child, she thought, she wouldn’t leave her to find her way on her own to an intersection on the highway, and there to wait to be picked up. But still—who knows what sort of difficult life the woman might lead? “Were you visiting people in Dallas?” she asked, desperately trying to keep up a conversation to hold those imminent tears back.
    â€œOh no,” said Caroline. “We live near Dallas with Aunt Jan. It’s because of school, you see. We go to school there and we come home a lot for the weekends. We’ve been doing it since September,” she added. “It’s sort of fun traveling. And Aunt Jan is nice.” She looked a little doubtful, as if “fun” were too strong a word to describe the situation.
    â€œI see,” said Harriet. “Where does the bus go after it leaves your place?” she asked, looking impatiently around for John. She was running out of topics.
    â€œTo Taos. I don’t know where it goes after that.”
    â€œThat’s where we’re going tonight,” said Harriet. “And I hope it doesn’t take us as long to drive up there as it took me to get down here. I’d like to arrive before dark if I can.”
    â€œThen follow us,” said Caroline. “Bert knows a really fast way to get onto the road north from here. Otherwise you have to—”
    â€œYes, I know. The long way. That’s how I came in. It sounds like a very good—”
    She was interrupted by an excited burst of conversation behind her. Coming in the door from the landing field was a man in a captain’s uniform, his hand resting lightly on the shoulder of a boy who could only be the twin brother of the grave Caroline. John stalked behind them carrying two suitcases.
    â€œI found him discussing the finer points of aircraft design with the captain. He had picked up the luggage and left it just outside the door when he went to investigate.”
    â€œStuart, the bus is going to leave without us,” said Caroline, “if you don’t hurry up. Thank you for finding my brother, sir,” she added graciously, turned and ran, just in time to see the bus driver climb aboard, close the door, and pull away from the curb.
    In the hot, dry, sand-and-rock-filled gully at the foot of a tree-covered mountain, a crow was first on the scene, investigating a heap of pallid flesh, lying face down, dressed in navy-blue socks, striped boxer shorts, and a white T-shirt. He screeched and flapped his wings. The passenger in a pickup truck traveling