[Desert Roses 03] - Beneath A Harvest Sky (35 page)
“Gunther wanted the space. . . .”
“Shut up, Driscoll. I’ve had enough of your lip. You were stupidly irresponsible. I specifically told you to pack the tent on top of the car if no other place. Instead you strip the car down, leave the spare tire, the water, the tools, and the only hope we had for any decent shelter from the sun.”
“We have the car.”
Rainy shook her head. The situation was going from bad to worse. “Look, the car is going to heat up, but maybe if we use it sparingly for shade we’ll be all right.”
“Well, that’s just great,” he muttered.
Realizing there was little to do except ask for God’s intervention, Rainy whispered a silent prayer. After a moment she turned back to Gunther. “We’ll need to watch out for snakes and the like.”
“I’m walking back,” Chester said, slapping the lid down on the trunk.
“You’re hardly in any condition for such a thing.
You’ll be dead in a matter of hours,” Rainy said without emotion.
“By all means, let him go,” Gunther muttered.
Rainy shrugged. “Do as you will, but we’ll be better off staying right here.”
Gunther agreed and reluctantly Chester finally settled down. Rainy took a drink and sat down in the backseat to think. Gunther sat in the front passenger seat. He leaned over the seat and shook his head.
“My niece has married an incompetent fool.”
“He’s just not trained,” Rainy said, trying to be kind. “Are you hungry, Gunther? I picked up some lunch for us this morning.”
He smiled. “Always keeping one step ahead of the need, eh? Too bad you didn’t think to pack a spare tire as well.” He shook his head as if still in disbelief over Chester’s actions. Finally he looked at her and nodded. “Yes, I’m quite hungry.”
“Good,” Rainy said. “We need to ration the food out, so I’ll only offer you a sandwich for now.” She dug into the bag and pulled out the packet Daisy had made. “I have roast beef or ham and cheese.”
“Ham and cheese will do nicely.”
She handed him the wax-wrapped sandwich. “I guess I should call Chester and feed him too.” Gun-ther said nothing so Rainy took up another sandwich. Precious Daisy. Bless her for packing a hearty lunch.
“I have a roast beef sandwich for you,” Rainy announced as she approached Chester, who was pacing. “You really should try to conserve your energy and stay cool.”
He snatched the sandwich from her hand. “There isn’t any place out here that’s cool.” He unwrapped the offering and looked back to Rainy. “Where’d you get this?”
“A friend packed a lunch for me to bring along.”
“What else do you have?”
“Nothing for now. We need to ration our food.” Chester grumbled but started munching on the sandwich.
Rainy worried as she made her way back to the car.
Maybe I should separate the food and hide some away
. Chester wouldn’t be likely to listen to her should she protest his actions. She quickly shifted a few things around and left the bulk of the food, including most of her mother’s cookies, inside her bag. She placed the rest of the packet given her by Daisy atop her bag.
“Gunther, would you care for one of my mother’s cookies? I think we can splurge and have a cookie with our sandwich.”
“Perhaps later. I assure you, I understand only too clearly the need to ration our meager fare.”
Rainy leaned back in the seat and felt the heat drain away her energy. She lowered the straw hat down over her eyes and slept.
It seemed like it had only been minutes when she awoke to hear Gunther and Chester arguing behind the car. Groggy from the overheated car, she strained to make sense of their words.
“You are without a doubt the reason we’re stranded here,” Gunther declared. “You’re stupid, Driscoll. You have no common sense and you don’t think any further than what interests you at the moment. How completely foolish to leave basic survival items back in Winslow.”
“I resent you calling me stupid. I’m not stupid. I just thought you wanted as much space as possible for those articles. Have you forgotten our real mission here? Under the circumstances, I believe I’ve shown far more sense and intelligence than you have. After all, you brought Rainy Gordon along.”
Rainy’s brows knit together as she pushed back her hat. She tried to remain still as she edged closer to the open door. She had to catch everything they were saying.
“Rainy will keep the Hopi from asking too many questions. They respect her. She’ll be our ticket to success.”
“She certainly wasn’t our ticket to success at the university.”
“You were the fool who put the stolen artifacts in her desk. You were supposed to put them in her father’s desk, but no. You ruined a perfectly good plan to get rid of Raymond Gordon once and for all, but you had to do things your way.”
“I thought I could press her into marrying me.
Lucky for your niece my plan failed.”
“I hardly see it as luck that you and Bethel have married. . . . What in the world?”
Rainy was barely aware she’d climbed from the car until she found the duo looking at her with as much surprise registered in their expressions as she felt must surely be in her own. She stared open-mouthed at Gunther and Chester.
“How could you have betrayed my father like that?” she asked Gunther. “He’s cared for you like a brother.”
“Oh, this is rich,” Gunther said, slamming his fist against the car. “Now do you see what you’ve done?”
“Me?” Chester protested, pointing at the middle of his sweat-soaked shirt. He’d long ago discarded his jacket, but not Gunther.
Now Rainy saw the reason why. Gunther pulled out a revolver he had been hiding under his coat and waved it in the air. “You, my dear, have stumbled into something you should not know about.”
“You’re stealing from the Hopi. You’ve been stealing from the Indians all along—haven’t you?” She backed up a pace and tried to swallow down the dust in her dry throat.
“This is a messy affair,” Gunther said, shaking his head. “I had hoped to spare you the details. You’ve always been kind to me, even if your father did steal my job with the university.”
“How can you say that?”
Gunther’s face contorted. “I say it because it’s true. He took the position that was rightfully mine. I was left with whatever I could get. Begging leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”
Rainy felt light-headed at the thought of what Gun-ther was saying. “So you just pretended to be a friend to my family? For what purpose?”
“For the purpose of getting rich,” he declared.
“Chester immediately understood my goals because his desire was also to get rich. Now with the economy falling apart in bits and shreds, we have to hurry to secure our future.”
“By stealing?”
“By whatever means are necessary.”
Rainy felt sick. She clutched at her stomach as nausea overwhelmed her. “You let me be blamed for the university situation. You ruined my career, my dreams. Chester threatened me several times, then turned around and promised me the moon—including a position with National Geographic—all if I became his mistress.”
Gunther scowled at Chester but said nothing. Chester, however, appeared eager to stay on Gunther’s good side.
“She’s lying, Gunther. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt Bethel.”
“I don’t trust you any farther than I can throw you, Driscoll. You’d been nothing but a greedy pain in the neck since I took you on. I’m sorry you ever married my niece. Miss Gordon may be naïve and overly simplistic in her religious notions, but she isn’t a liar.”
“But I’m telling you—”
“I don’t want to hear it,” Gunther said, holding up his hand. “We have a bad situation here and I need to decide how to resolve it.”
Chester moved away to the edge of the road while Rainy tried to process all that she’d just been told. How could this be? How could her family have so clearly misjudged Gunther’s character?
Chester began to shout. “Look! I see a car!”
Rainy could only pray the vehicle would take them to safety and get her away from Gunther and his gun. She felt weak in the knees.
Maybe the heat has done more
to me than I thought
.
She moved toward the car. “I need a drink of water.”
Gunther didn’t try to stop her. He went instead to stand beside Chester. The gun was cleverly concealed behind his back. Rainy had the water jug midway to her lips when it dawned on her that Gunther would probably force the people in the other car to give up their vehicle.
What can I do to keep them from being
harmed?
Her mind raced as what looked like a black touring car drew nearer.
Oh, God, please help me,
she prayed. She quickly drank from the jug and replaced it as the touring car came within a few hundred yards. Rainy made up her mind then and there to warn the people in the car.
Racing across the short distance, she yelped in pain when Gunther reached out and yanked her back. Her ankle burned from the violent twist Gunther gave her.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“I won’t let you hurt them.” She tried to fight him, but by now the car had stopped in front of them and Gunther had raised his gun to her head.
She grew still and looked across to find a shocked Sonny and Duncan staring back at her from inside the car.
D
uncan wanted only to remove Rainy from harm. Seeing her there, blue eyes wide with fear, gun to her head, made him less than a patient man. He got out of the car without even waiting to see if Sonny had some kind of plan.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he asked Gunther.
“Stay back. You don’t want to hurt her, do you?”
Rainy tried to pull away, but Gunther held her tight. Seeing her struggle made Duncan desperate to free her. “Let her go.”
“I don’t believe you’re in a position to give orders, Mr. Hartford,” Chester Driscoll declared.
Duncan waited for Sonny to come around the car. With a smile the auburn-haired man shoved his hands in his pockets and struck a nonthreatening pose. “What’s this all about, Gunther? Get too much sun today?”
“He’s the one who’s been taking the artifacts,” Rainy declared, trying to balance on one foot. Duncan could see that she favored her left side. He 5wondered how badly she was hurt and whether or not she could run for cover if need be. “He and Chester are the ones who planted those Indian pieces in my desk and then blamed me.”
Sonny frowned. “Why would you do that, Gun-ther? You’re like an uncle to us. I thought you were our friend.”
Gunther laughed and his pockmarked face contorted. “I did what I had to do to earn your father’s trust. I never intended to cause Rainy harm. Chester took matters into his own hands and ruined my plans to see your father dismissed or, better yet, jailed. But that’s not important. Right now I’m hot and tired and I want to leave. And you, Sonny, are going to take me where I want to go.”
“Sure, we can all pile in the touring car.”
Gunther shook his head. “No. Not all of us. Just you and me and Chester.” He shoved Rainy into Duncan’s waiting arms.
Duncan quickly shielded her with his body as Rainy cried out in pain. He didn’t know what to think of the strange matter of Gunther Albright being responsible for the thefts. He really didn’t even know the man, although he’d had a couple of minor encounters with him through the university.
Duncan looked to Sonny, who seemed to think the arrangement acceptable. “That’s fine, Gunther. We can leave Duncan and Rainy here. I can come back for them later.”
Gunther raised his gun again and pointed it straight at Duncan. “I can’t have witnesses. I’ll have to leave the state now as it is. But I won’t be pursued. Your sister knows too much, and while I’ve always liked her, I can’t have her sending the police after me.”
“Ah, Rainy won’t say anything,” Sonny assured in his very matter-of-fact manner. “Will you, Rainy?”
“I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you from hurting Sonny,” Rainy declared from behind Duncan. She tried to pop around in order to see Gunther, but Duncan refused to let her and held her fast.
“See?” Sonny continued. “She’ll be a good gal because she doesn’t want you to hurt me. That’s an even trade.”
“Hardly,” Gunther said. He seemed to consider the matter momentarily. “She said we’re about fifteen miles from Winslow. Is that a fair assessment?”
Sonny nodded. “Easy fifteen.”
Gunther sighed. “Very well. Take us to Winslow. We’ll deal with things from there.” He moved closer to Duncan while Chester went to the car. “If you say one word of this to anyone—if you walk out of here and send the authorities after me—I’ll not hesitate to kill Sonny. Do you understand?”
Rainy peered around Duncan and this time he didn’t attempt to stop her. “We understand. We won’t do anything to endanger Sonny’s life. Please don’t hurt him.”
“Sonny will be my insurance against problems. If either one of you does anything to cause me grief, Sonny will pay the price. Just remember that.” Gun-ther gathered his things and then, on what seemed to be a whim, picked up the water jug and took a long drink before emptying the rest of the contents onto the parched ground. He shrugged at Duncan as if offering an apology, then made his way to the car. “Let that be added incentive.”