Witness in the Dark by Lynne Larson

Author:Lynne Larson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LDS;mormon;college;clean;exciting;horse;utah;murder;witness;missing;suspense;mystery;trail;desert
Publisher: Covenant Communications, Inc.
Published: 2017-01-05T23:06:20+00:00

Chapter Eleven

An old man rumbled into Grunwald’s yard on Thursday morning. Jacob Archer was known about town as a castaway, one of those ancient veterans of several generations back who seemed to linger in the present long after he’d become irrelevant. He lived at the county nursing home but still drove his own car and made a habit of cruising the outlying roads of Tooele, “checking on the parameters,” he liked to say. He was a long-time widower with hair as white and tossled as cotton in a windstorm and chin whiskers just as pale. No one paid him much attention except to say, “Howdy, Jake,” or “How’s it goin’, Arch?” and sometimes notice how his eyes had a glaring quality when they focused hard at anything he found of interest.

Luther Grunwald knew Jake Archer. The grizzled fellow liked to talk about old cars, and Luther had a lot of them. Archer spent an occasional afternoon hobbling among the decrepit metal skeletons on Grunwald’s place, tinkering with this twisted door frame and that rusty drive shaft. “A regular graveyard here,” he’d say to Luther. “Bones of many a fine automobile, tales of many a wild Saturday night.”

“I suppose,” Grunwald would return laconically. He put up with Archer but didn’t particularly like him. He never purchased anything and was probably prone to steal a hubcap or hood ornament, if he could get away with it. Luther always had to keep an eye out, and this annoyed him. He was particularly nervous on Friday morning, since the old man seemed less interested in the cars for once and more focused on something he’d never asked about before.

“I had a dream last night, Grunwald,” Archer said the moment he got out of his car. “I saw that old pit of yours, the one just under that boulder pile, there across your property line.” Archer raised his arm and pointed toward the shaft, twenty yards away. “I saw it plain as I’m seein’ it right now. When I woke up this morning, I knew just where to come.”

“You crazy old coot,” laughed Grunwald. “What are ya talkin’ about?”

“I’m talkin’ about my dream, the one I had last night. I seen yer pit there, plain as day.”

Grunwald turned his back, giving the man no interest. “So you saw the pit. So what?”

Archer followed him as he walked, still pleading his cause. “Dreams mean things, Luther. They really do. ’Specially ones as clear as that one was.”

Grunwald faced Archer and threw up his hands. “Like I said, you saw the pit. So what?”

“Ain’t you been reading the papers or listening to the news?” pressed Archer, his brow dissolving into wrinkles. “The valley’s got a girl missing, a bishop’s daughter. She was out riding three or four days ago and never made it back. The horse came home without her. Ya musta heard about it. It’s set up a scramble in this place not seen in twenty years.”

“Yeah, I heard about it,” said Grunwald, disinterested.

“Everybody and his brother is looking for the girl,” said Archer, sticking close to Grunwald as he moved along.

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