A Decision at Chaco
After the scare with Julie's uncle and the other bikers at the edge of the Glen Canyon reservoir, we made our way carefully to the RV hidden in the wash. It took a bit of maneuvering to get the rig headed back to the road in the pitch black, but Marian did a great job with a hooded flashlight. She took the other seat and said the women were going to spell each other staying up with me. I didn't say anything but wondered when I would get Julie in my lap again.
On the low beams, we made our way to the trading post and the highway. Nothing but some glowing eyes in the headlights. I headed north at sixty and relaxed. Told Marian to go to bed and forget the relief.
It was a moonless night, so the massive monuments we passed could not be seen. Another time for sightseeing.
On the south side of Cortez was a brightly lighted truck stop. I gassed up and inquired about temporary parking. The man at the counter said the back of the asphalt was fine if I left by eight in the morning.
I put us directly under a light, pointed to the highway. Nudged my way into the pile of bodies and said when the alarm rang in thirty minutes, someone was to take a careful look around from inside and reset the alarm so we stayed semi-alert until dawn.
The sun was just up when I woke to the smell of coffee and bacon. Marian was unpacking a sack from the truck stop diner. Pancakes, bacon and eggs hit the spot. Even the coffee was decent.
Marian had a newspaper. In the local news section was a small picture of Julie under the caption, "Authorities seeking whereabouts of young woman." The story recounted Julie's disappearance from her family home on Saturday, and said she had not been seen since. There was no mention of the 911 call. According to the story, her family was anxious to know she was ok.
Julie read it with anger. "Yeah, they want me all right, they just won't say what for!"
She looked at me and asked, "What can we do?"
I had an idea and woke my editor at her home in California. "Janis, do you still have the number of that telephone anonymizer service?"
She gave me the number and explained how to use it. I went inside and bought a low tech prepaid cell phone.
When I got back to the van, I said to Julie, "Let's try to shut down the searching. There's some risk, but this system lets you make a call through multiple exchanges that effectively makes it impossible to trace. After you use this prepaid phone, we are going to destroy it. So I think you should call this number in the paper for the Fredonia police, and also call your family. Let's make some notes so you seem completely normal and in charge of your life."
Julie came across like a champ. I'll remember her harsh words on the family call, "You want to abuse me and I don't want anything to do with you ever again."
I hugged her and said, "If we are lucky, there is a police tap on the line to your house and they heard the bit about abuse. Might get some questions asked."
An hour later, after paying to use the RV service bay, our tanks were topped up and we headed south for Mesa Verde. At the entrance station, we discovered there was an available RV site and paid our fees.
In a grove of trees, near a modern looking bathroom, we came to a heartfelt stop. We looked at each other and sighed.
The tension release had us all back asleep in minutes. A light knock on the door woke me. I opened it to find a ranger with a badge outside. "Sir, may I have a word with you please."
"May I see some identification." I showed him my driver's license and asked him for his, which were official.
"We have a request from the local authorities to keep an eye out for this vehicle. There is a question about a young woman who is missing."
I gave him the short version of the events of the last three days. "I expect you want to talk to her. She will be happy to do that, but there isn't any chance of her being taken into custody is there?"
We exchanged hard looks and he said, "Not if her version is the same as yours. We don't allow any coercive behavior toward adults."
I went back inside. "Julie, the ranger needs to talk to you. Tell it to him straight. He seems decent and you shouldn't be afraid. You have to be by yourself so he can be sure you are not being held by us."
I added, "Talk to him like you did on the phone, you'll do fine."
He guided her to a table about twenty yards away and they talked for quite a while. At one point, he gave her a piece of paper and she wrote about a page full. When they stood up, he said something to her and she gave him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. Then dashed back to us.
I went out to say goodbye. "You're very kind to take her in from that bunch of no goods over on the strip. I'm going to tell the sheriff here that it looks to us as though the Fredonia police should be investigating the family." We shook hands. "We'll do our best to get her landed someplace to make a decent life."
As we were hiking the ruins of the vanished Indian civilization that afternoon, I considered the possibilities of more trouble. About the only thing left was some of the family looking for revenge when the law came down on their little game of raping and marrying off underage girls.
In the late afternoon, we relaxed at the campsite and read in a brochure about the mysterious disappearance of the Anasazi, and the speculation about repeated drought making the area uninhabitable.
Julie came out with some munchies and a bright smile. She perched on my knee and snatched a quick kiss.
I wrapped an arm around her and said, "You don't seem too much worse for your encounter with the police ranger."
"He was really inquisitive about you. Why was I in a California vehicle. How could I trust strangers. Did I need him to call someone locally that could help me."
"Those are good questions. You are lucky you got a young one who has some training and some sympathy for your situation."
"He was really cute at the end. That's why I kissed him." She giggled and went on, "What I am really lucky about is finding you and the other women. She shook in my arms.
Marian came out and stood behind me. "Sheila says we have to call him dumbass because he is so good to us."
Julie wrinkled her nose and said, "That's gross. We can find a better nickname to put him down with than that!"
Her arms were around both of us. "This is so much better than last night. I was really scared when those bikers showed up again."
I turned around and pulled them into me. "Hey, dumbass was pretty unhappy too!"
We went in to help Sheila with dinner.
Full of food and red wine, I was relaxing on the the bed with my eyes closed. A body climbed over and pressed against my side. "They sent me to keep you company. It's too early to go to bed."
"There are things to do in bed other than sleep."
"I know. Talk to me about my future as your wife. I'm not the mousy librarian anymore. Two other women have attached themselves to you. I'm getting less sex but liking it more. This isn't the road trip you promised me."
The other bodies climbed into the bed. They had been to the shower facility and smelled great. I liked smelling and touching their bare skin and kept my eyes closed.
"I was trying to talk to him about his and my future, but I am doing all the talking."
