Fiona looked at her.
“Jake wants to buy this place. I don’t want to put a lot of money into the place and change it into something he doesn’t want.”
Fiona’s eyebrows lifted. This was a game changer. “Is it a done deal?”
“We’re working out the details.”
“What about the relatives?”
“That accounts for some of the details we have to work out.”
“You’d really give up the ranch?”
Opal sighed again. “I’m not getting any younger, and I want to have things tidied up. If I don’t, there’ll be a terrible row when I’m gone.”
Fiona smiled. “You don’t need to worry about that. You won’t be here.”
Opal smiled, too. “I know. But it will be nasty if I don’t make some provisions. I want Jake to have the place. He’s been loyal, he’s very capable, and he loves this place as much as I do. I can’t help he’s not a blood relation.”
“I can see why you love it,” Fiona said softly.
Opal peered at her. “Why Fiona I believe you mean that. I think you might be coming to like it here.”
Fiona smiled. “I am up in the air right now in terms of my life. I don’t know where I’ll come out. But I admit this country has its attractions.”
“Maybe you could rebuild your place on the hill. Maybe run a little bed and breakfast.”
“I’ve thought of that. I don’t know. I’ll pick through the rubble. I haven’t been up there since the fire. Maybe it will exorcise some of the ghosts and give me some ideas what to do.”
“You do that. What happened to your friend?”
She shrugged. “Some days she sleeps all day.”
Fiona walked up the knoll, almost afraid to visit the place she had already come to love and have hopes for the future. The old smoke smell was overpowering. A few brave burned off boards stood as forlorn guards over the sad scene. She walked around the perimeter, looking at the ground, at the rubble, not sure what she might find. She saw the blackened remains of the old coffee pot. The twisted remains of the burner plate were half-way visible. The roof had collapsed and buried everything.
Who would have done this? Jake didn’t seem to think it was personal. He thought it had something to do with the cattle rustling at the ranch. She was a pawn in the game, a ploy to take the attention away from something else. She resented that and given half a chance she could work up a real head of steam over the whole business. But they didn’t know yet who set the fire. Someone had been outside her door that night, and she wanted to know who. How was she going to find that person?
She studied the landscape, the view. There were five acres in the parcel. Five acres of sagebrush and rock. An outside pump for water, no electric, no sewer. Not a place in demand. But the view was spectacular, and Opal said it would never flood. Maybe she should rebuild. She considered what Opal had told her about Jake. He would be owner of the ranch if everything worked out. And she would be sitting up here in what? A cute B & B? For what? Watching Jake ranch? That scenario was cozier than she wanted to get right now.
She walked to where the lone tree stood. It had been charred on one side by the fire, but amazingly enough it was still had green leaves on the other side. Those green leaves spoke of such hope. The tree’s efforts gave her new hope. She studied the footprint of the house and the lay of the land, trying to imagine a totally new structure that would command the knoll. She liked the ranch house look with porches front and back. She looked around the clearing to try to picture if the space would support a larger, rambling structure. A flash of light caught her eye by the tree. The sun caught something shiny, and then it was gone. She couldn’t imagine what it was. Hoover said they had combed the area looking for clues. She stooped to look. A piece of metal lay half hidden under a clump of brush. She pulled aside the brush to have a better look.
It was the barrel of a gun. Fiona frowned. Whose could it be? She didn’t touch it or move it. She knew little about guns. She studied it. It looked like it belonged in a cowboy movie. Only one spot was shiny, the rest looked gray and weathered, like it had been there a long time. She wondered why the Sheriff hadn’t found it. One chance ray of the sun reflecting off the barrel gave it away. She marked the place with a small stack of rocks so she could find it again in the tangled brush.
She walked around the site moving brush aside, pushing rocks out of the way but she found nothing else. She stood for a while and looked from the desolation of the rubble to the timeless basalt rim rock in the distance. The breeze ruffled her hair. Those rocks didn’t care if houses stood or fell. They didn’t care about the silly lives of people. They were the real winners. She felt like a gnat on the back of time. Maybe if she stayed she could learn something from those rocks and this land. Maybe she was always running from life. Maybe she should stay and confront it.
Seven
Olympia was sitting on the front porch with a giant glass of iced tea in hand when Fiona returned from the trip to the knoll. She sat on the chair beside her friend, who wore a frilly chartreuse nightgown with matching boa wrapper. Her hair was disheveled. Her makeup smeared.
“Did I make a fool of myself again?” asked Olympia.
“Not too. You’ve been worse.”
“That cheers me up.”
“However, you shared information about our Australia trip which we had agreed we wouldn’t tell anyone.”
“I talked about that? Oh, dear. I’m so sorry, Fiona.”
Fiona shrugged. “No sense going on about it. But can we agree again not to tell anyone about what happened on that trip?”
Olympia nodded. “I promise. Again.”
They sat for a spell watching the bumble bees busy buzzing on the pink yarrow in Opal’s flower garden that fronted the porch.
“Are you mad at me?” asked Olympia. “You’re not talking.”
“No. I’m thinking about what I’m going to do.”
Olympia sighed. “I’m so jealous of you and Jake. I wish I had someone like you that was head over heels in love with me. I might consider settling down.”
“I’m not sure I like the feeling.”
“Still and all you are very lucky.”
Fiona didn’t respond. She wasn’t ready to talk about Jake. Instead, she went inside the house to retrieve her cell phone. She dialed the Sheriff’s office and waited for him to answer while she walked back on the porch to sit with Olympia.
“Sheriff Hoover? This is Fiona Marlowe. I found an old gun up at the site where the bunk house burned down.” She gave him the details, and he said he’d be out to have a look as soon as he could get away.
“You found a gun up there?” asked Olympia, after Fiona had closed the connection.
“Yes, and it has set me to thinking. What if there is something valuable at the bunkhouse site that someone wanted and couldn’t have while I was there. Someone said an old buckle was found up there. What if there is some kind of treasure? Maybe a cache of old antiquities and the gun was part of that. Then the tale grows up about the place being haunted so that people will stay away.”
“That’s pretty far out. Treasure? Nothing around here looks very valuable.”
“No, nothing looks valuable. But what if it’s something that someone wants? They used to mine gold to the north of here. Maybe there’s a gold mine under my burned up bunkhouse. A relative, or friend, or former employee might know about these things. Jake thought the fire was a diversionary tactic to keep them from witnessing the rustling attempt. But maybe not.”
Olympia rose and fluffed up her hair. “I can tell we are going to be chasing around these rocks trying to find out. I better clean up.”
She went inside, leaving Fiona to study the bumble bees. What if all these events were related? Could those old bones in the hot spring, the fire, an old gun, and cattle rustling be connected? Maybe she was trying to find links where none existed.