The Graves of Plague Canyon (The Downwinders Book 3) Read online

  “Of course I’d normally ask Awan, but with him being back east right now…”

  “It’s no problem, Carma, really,” Deem said, grabbing her phone and keys from the desk. “I can be out there and back before the end of the day.”

  “Good, then you must plan on supper here tonight,” Carma said with a look of relief. “I’ll ask Winn to come out, too. You can fill me in on what you find out. You’re a godsend, truly, Deem. I don’t know what I would have done without you here to do this for me!”

  And with that, Carma hurried out of the room.

  I wonder what she’s doing with Lyman? Deem thought, making her way through the house and out the front door to her truck. She climbed inside, took a sip of the Big Gulp in the cup holder, and decided it was too warm. I’ll stop in Hurricane for a refill, she thought. Fredonia — what will that take? Maybe an hour?

  She started up the truck and pulled around the driveway in front of Carma’s old, historic house. It was a good hundred feet from the house to the front gate, and the midday sun was beating down on the hot interior of the cab, making Deem wish she had a drink already. She cranked up the A/C, but it had been fritzing out lately and wasn’t doing a good job of keeping her truck cooled off on really hot Southern Utah days.

  She rolled down a window and let the hot air blow through the cab. It felt good to be outside after sitting cooped up in Carma’s office, endlessly scanning the documents she’d recovered from Claude’s house. They were a history of some of the most unusual and nefarious activities of clandestine underground groups in the area, and Deem had been lucky enough to secure them when Claude was killed. She knew there were plenty of people around town who would love to have the documents, and plenty who would steal to get them, so she’d kept them at Carma’s, where they’d be safe until she could get them all scanned.

  It was hard not to read through them while scanning, but Deem found that it just made the process take longer when she did, so she’d stopped looking them over and tried to become robotic, mindlessly placing them on the scanner and not becoming too involved with their contents. She knew she’d be reading them soon enough, looking for clues on Dayton and his council, and her father’s involvement with them. Claude had been tracking their activities for years, and she was sure that somewhere in his boxes of files and folders she’d uncover something that might help her take down Dayton and his followers.

  That will come later, she thought. Scan first. Make a backup, get it into a safe deposit box somewhere. Maybe two safe deposit boxes. Spread it around in a number of safe places, so if Dayton ever discovers I have it and tries to blackmail me or torture me into giving it up, I can reveal a few locations and satisfy him. He’s a smart man, he’ll expect me to have hidden more than one copy.

  She turned onto the interstate and rolled up her window, hoping the A/C would kick in. She held her fingers over the vents, feeling for cold air — but it wasn’t much colder than the air that had been coming in through the windows.

  Damn, she thought. That’s gonna cost money I don’t have. I’ll have to beg more from Mom.

  Even though it was uncomfortably warm, Deem was happy to be outside, the red rock surrounding her on every side, the asphalt racing away under her. A drive out to Fredonia would clear her mind, allow her to think. She needed that.

  Once she refilled her drink and cleared Hurricane, she felt even more comfortable and was ready for the drive through the desert. She realized she’d forgotten to get the address of where she was going to, so she called Carma, but there was no answer. She called Winn instead.

  “Hello?” Winn answered, breathing heavily.

  “Winn?” I…” Deem started, then she listened for a moment, hearing moaning in the background. “Wait… are you… are you having sex?”

  “None of your business,” Winn said. “Let’s just say you’re lucky I picked up.”

  “You are!” Deem said. “I can’t believe you’re having sex while you talk to me on the phone!”

  “As I said — lucky you!” Winn replied, ending with a grunt.

  Deem paused a moment, listening to the background noise from the call, then stopped herself. “Really disgusting, Winn.”

  “Nope, the exact opposite,” Winn replied.

  She couldn’t tell from the sounds, and curiosity got the better of her, so she asked, “Is it a woman? Or a man?”

  Before Winn could reply, she stopped him. “Never mind. I can’t believe I asked you that.”

  “It’s because you have a healthy sex drive you’ve repressed, like all good little Mormon girls,” Winn said.

  “I’m not a good little Mormon girl,” Deem replied.

  Winn responded by grunting a few times. Deem imagined thrusting.

  “So, sorry to interrupt and all, but you did pick up,” Deem said.

  “Yeah,” Winn replied, his voice rising. “Guess you should tell me what you want… unless you wanna keep listening.”

  “I need a favor,” Deem soldiered through, the moaning in the background continuing. “Carma’s going to invite you over for dinner tonight. In the meantime, I’m driving out to Fredonia on an errand for her, but I forgot to get the address of the place I’m supposed to visit. I tried calling her, but she doesn’t answer.”

  “Yeah, I noticed she often doesn’t pick up,” Winn said, grunting. “I don’t think she likes using phones.”

  “Well,” Deem said, “I’m well on my way out here, and I don’t want to turn around and go back, so I was wondering if you’d head into her place a little early, get the address from her, and text it to me? I’ll be in Fredonia in an hour and can kill time until you do.”

  She heard the moaning in the background reach a crescendo, and Winn panted back into the phone, “Yeah! Yeah, no problem.”

  “Did you just…?” Deem asked. “No, no − don’t answer that.”

  “I can only imagine what’s going through your mind,” Winn snickered into the phone.

  “That’s really disgusting, Winn,” Deem said. “I’m hanging up now.”

  “I’ll text you,” Winn said with a long sigh, and Deem hung up her phone.

  God, he’s such a sex fiend, she thought, and for a moment she tried to fill in the gaps of the conversation, but then she decided instead to wipe all of the images from her mind and pretend she hadn’t just talked to Winn while he climaxed.

  Eeeww, she thought.

  ▪ ▪ ▪

  She checked the address on the white adobe house in front of her with the address Winn had texted. They matched. Deem turned off the truck and hopped out.

  She stepped over the corrugated pipe that arched over the cement irrigation ditch running in front of the house and walked up to the front door, passing nicely tended rose bushes on either side of the path. A curtain fluttered in a large window by the door, and she suspected someone had seen her walking up.

  The door opened before she could knock, and a large black dog with a broad yellow collar leapt out at her. She stepped back, and the dog rose up on its hind legs, landing its front paws on her chest.

  “Monte!” came a voice from inside. “Down! Monte! Come here!”

  Deem looked up and saw a middle aged woman staring at the dog over small reading glasses. The woman looked up at Deem. “He won’t bite, don’t worry,” she said apologetically.

  Deem reached out to pet the dog, and the animal, encouraged, leapt more.

  “If you do that, he’ll just keep jumping,” the woman said, and then patted her legs and called for the dog once again.

  “Friendly dog!” Deem said, as Monte finally obeyed the woman and ran back inside.

  “Yeah, sorry about that,” the woman side. “What can I do for you?”

  “Carma sent me,” Deem replied. “Said you needed some help reading a diagnosis?”

  The woman’s eyes went wide, as though she was seeing an oddity from a circus sideshow.

  “Oh, Carma didn’t tell me,” the woman replied. She lowered her voice. “So, yo
u’re… you’re that way?”

  “If by that you mean gifted, yes,” Deem whispered back.

  “Come in,” the woman said, standing back from the door. Deem entered and was assaulted by the dog once again.

  “Monte! Stay down!” the woman yelled, but the dog was too excited to listen to the commands.

  “Give me just a moment, will you?” she asked. “I’m going to tie him up in the backyard. Have a seat, I’ll be right back.”

  Deem glanced around the room and chose a chair next to a fireplace. Hung over the fireplace, in an ornately gold frame, was a large painting of the St. George temple. Within moments the woman returned.

  “I’m Ester Tait,” she said, extending her hand. Deem rose to shake it. “Oh, sit, please,” Ester said.

  “I’m Deem.”

  “What an unusual name!” Ester replied.

  Deem had heard it a thousand times, so she just continued on. “Carma seemed overwhelmed with something, that’s why she asked me to come out. You’re Carma’s niece?”

  Ester smiled back. “She said niece? More like great-great-great-niece. Might be more than that, I don’t know.”

  “Oh!” Deem replied, surprised. Then she remembered that Carma seemed a lot younger than she really was.

  “My daughter’s been ill for several days now,” Ester said. “We took her to doctors, but she told us they wouldn’t find anything, and she was right. She called someone the day before yesterday and asked her to diagnose what was wrong with her. It came in this afternoon’s mail. I can’t make heads or tails of it.” Ester held up a small envelope. She handed it to Deem.

  “Can I talk to your daughter?” Deem asked.

  “I wish you could,” Ester replied. “She goes in and out of consciousness. Right now she’s out; she’s been out since last night. That’s why I called Carma — I’m so worried! I don’t know if that letter you’re holding will matter one way or the other, but I need to know before I drive her back to the hospital! Come on, I’ll show you.”

  Ester rose from her seat and walked down a short hallway, turning into the first bedroom on the right. Deem followed. Inside was a twin bed with a woman about Deem’s age lying under a blanket. She looked peaceful and calm, as though she was sleeping.

  “You have no idea what’s wrong with her?” Deem asked.

  “No,” Ester replied. “Neither did the doctors. But look…”

  Ester walked to her daughter. She pulled down the covers and lifted her hand, showing Deem. Then she pinched her daughter.

  “See? Nothing!” Ester said. “No response.”

  She replaced the hand and covered her daughter back up.

  “Alright,” Deem said, opening the letter. “Let’s see what this says.” She pulled a single sheet of paper from the envelope and opened it.

  There were about ten hand-written lines. She struggled to read the elaborate cursive, but after a while realized it wasn’t just the fancy lettering that was giving her trouble — there were some words she just couldn’t make out at all, even when she tried to sound out the letters.

  “I’m sorry,” Deem said, looking up at Ester. “I can only read part of this.”

  “You have the gift, but you can’t read it either?” Ester asked.

  “This must be something I’m unfamiliar with,” Deem said. “Until I understand the context of something in the River, I can’t read about it. This was written by someone who understands something I don’t.”

  “The River?” Ester asked.

  “It’s what we call the place we go to, to see things that other people can’t see,” Deem replied. “Your daughter never talked about the River?”

  “No, Lizzy never mentioned it,” Ester said. “Then again, I don’t exactly encourage those things.”

  “Ah,” Deem replied, thinking of her own mother and how she disliked anything related to her gift, considering it evil. Deem flipped the letter over, checking the back side, and dropped into the River briefly to inspect it, but nothing special appeared. Then she took another look at the envelope.

  “There’s a return address in New Harmony,” Deem said. “Do you know who sent this?”

  “No idea,” Ester said. “Lizzy said she’d reached out to someone who could diagnose her, and that’s all she communicated before she passed out yesterday. I have no idea who she talked to.”

  “Well, I can take this letter back to Carma if you want,” Deem said. “If she thinks it’s a good idea, I can drive up to New Harmony and try to talk to whoever sent it.”

  “Oh, would you?” Ester asked. “I’m worried sick about her, and I just don’t know what to do to help. I’m not a big believer in these things, but I know Lizzy is, so if you would do that for me, I’d be extremely grateful.”

  “Sure,” Deem said. “No problem.” She stared down at the girl in the bed, and couldn’t help thinking that she seemed a lot like herself — same age, same size, same looks. Even the same hairstyle, though Lizzy’s hair was dark black.

  “I guess I better head back,” Deem said. “Can you give me your phone number? I’ll call you as soon as I find out anything.”

  “Sure,” Ester said, leading them out of the bedroom and back into the living room. She went to the kitchen and jotted her number down on a small pad, then ripped off the top paper and handed it to Deem. “Here it is. Thank you for coming all the way out here. I’m really quite desperate, and Carma was the only one I could think of to turn to. With her unresponsive like this, I want to take her back to the hospital, but Lizzy was so insistent that it wouldn’t help. I really need Carma’s opinion on what I should do.” Ester opened the door for Deem.

  “I’ll discuss it with her,” Deem said, walking through and down the front steps. She turned back to Ester. “Don’t worry. I’ll call you!” she said, and watched as the worried look on Ester’s face melted a little into thankfulness.

  Chapter Two

  “I just think it’s disgusting that you’d pick up the phone while you’re having sex,” Deem said as Carma scooped a large spoonful of casserole from a baking dish in the center of the table and dropped the steaming hot food onto Deem’s plate.

  “Oh, Winn, you didn’t?” Carma said, tilting her head toward Winn and giving him a disapproving look that held a small smile.

  “Have sex?” Winn asked, sipping from a beer. “Of course I had sex.”

  “Who would take a phone call in the middle of sex?” Deem asked, digging into her casserole. “Not only is it weird, what must the other person think? Weird and rude!”

  “What if they were on the phone to someone else, too?” Winn asked, cracking a smile at Deem.

  “I don’t understand sex these days,” Carma said, pouring wine for Deem and herself. “Back in my day it was so simple and clothed. Now everyone gets naked for sex. Doesn’t seem very erotic.”

  “I’ll have to try that,” Winn said. “Sex while fully clothed. I don’t think I’ve ever done it.”

  “Oh, my,” Carma said. “This talk is making me blush. Can we please change the subject?’

  “Want to go with me up to New Harmony after dinner?” Deem asked Winn.

  “What’s up in New Harmony?” Winn replied.

  “Deem did the most wonderful favor for me today,” Carma said. “She drove all the way out to Fredonia to check on my niece. Her daughter is ill, and received a diagnosis that was far too cryptic to read.”

  “By the way, Ester says she’s your great-great-great-niece or thereabouts,” Deem said.

  “Details,” Carma replied, waving her hand dismissively.

  “The diagnosis was mailed by someone in New Harmony,” Deem said, “but I couldn’t make sense of it. I brought it back, and Carma can make out most of the rest, but there’s still a few words we don’t understand.”

  “I’m telling you,” Carma said, “it’s Batchelder. She’s losing it in her old age. Writing a diagnosis that the reader likely couldn’t make out. She knows better.”

  “You know this wo
man in New Harmony?” Winn asked, shoveling a forkful of casserole into his mouth.

  “From way back,” Carma replied. “She’s so old, I’m surprised she can still write. She does remote visits for a fee, so I expect my niece paid her.”

  “Remote visits?” Deem asked.

  “She can travel extensively from her body while in the River,” Carma said, “and she made a name for herself visiting the sick in very remote places. Normally she’d heal them while she’s there; sending a diagnosis like this after the visit is a bit unusual.”

  “Here,” Deem said, handing Winn the envelope. He opened it and inspected the letter inside.

  “I can’t read most of this,” Winn said. “The words just confuse me.”

  “Well, not that I’d want to give away my age,” Carma said, “but I can read a lot of it. The problem is the four or five words I can’t read. They could be important. Batchelder should never have made it so complex. I doubt my niece would ever have been able to do anything with it.”

  “What about the part you can read?” Winn asked.

  “It doesn’t look good,” Deem said.

  “Yes, she’s in a bad state,” Carma said. “I feel anxious for her. If you go to New Harmony and talk to Batchelder, she should be able to explain what the unintelligible words are. If she’s willing to talk to you, that is. She can be so infuriatingly anal. She’s very opinionated and wordy, too. If I didn’t despise the c-word so much, I’d call her that.”

  Winn snickered.

  Deem rolled her eyes at the snickering. Sometimes he’s so immature, she thought.

  “No, I’m not kidding!” Carma said to Winn. “You go with Deem and meet her. Come back and tell me if she isn’t a… a c-word.”

  Winn began to laugh.

  Carma turned to Deem. “What’s so funny?”

  “Ignore him,” Deem said, returning to her plate of food.

  “It’s the way you say ‘c-word’,” Winn said, laughing more. “Your face scrunches up like you’ve bitten into a lemon.”

  Carma looked at Deem again. “I like lemons!” she said.