Lena Jones 02 - Desert Wives

returning to a moment of lucidity. How long that would last was anybody’s guess.
    I heard Meade sigh. “We went to visit the graveyard, Uncle Jacob. And then we came up here and hunted for a while. See? I shot two rabbits? But after awhile you, uh, began feeling sick. We’re on our way back home now.”
    Murmurs I couldn’t quite catch. Then, “You’re a good boy, Meade.”
    “Thank you, Uncle Jacob.” Never had I heard such despair in a boy’s voice.
    The rest of the walk down the canyon proved uneventful. Jacob’s Alzheimer’s allowed him a time of respite, and his conversation with Meade appeared more or less normal—for a polygamy compound, anyway: who was marrying whom, the health problems of Sister Hanna’s new baby, lamentations over a parasite that was attacking the stored grain.
    There seemed to be little I could learn from them now, so I dropped back to make certain they’d arrive at the compound before me. A hollow rumble made me look up. Thunder. While I’d been in the canyon, fat black clouds had rumbled down from the north, bringing the promise of rain. With rain, I realized, came the flash floods that turned so many of the Arizona Strip’s canyons into death traps.
    Hurry, hurry, hurry,
I mentally goaded Jacob and Meade, But they, too, had heard the thunder. Their footsteps quickened, then began to fade as they drew farther away from me. I gave them a few minutes, time enough to get back to the compound, then hurried my own pace, emerging from the canyon just as the first drops of rain began to fall.
    I allowed myself a little jog trot as I hurried toward Saul’s house. After the heat of the past few days, the rain felt cold and it reminded me that autumn, and then winter, weren’t that far away. Winter would be a different season up here in the high desert than back in Scottsdale. A sudden wave of homesickness swept over me.
    A battered Ford pickup truck I hadn’t seen before drove into the compound just as I reached Saul’s porch. I watched it pull in front of Jacob Waldman’s house.
    A young man and a girl emerged, but because of the increasing ferocity of the rain, it took me a minute to recognize the girl.
    Rebecca.

Chapter 18
    I ducked my head and ran into the house before Rebecca could recognize me and give me away. Fortunately, Ruby was nowhere to be seen, and Saul, after looking up briefly from the tape recorder, returned to it.
    Confident that the shadows on the porch would make peering into the window difficult, I pulled back the window sheers and looked out. It was Rebecca, all right, and the man with her was Abel Corbett himself. She didn’t appear frightened, either. When I’d first seen her alight from the truck, I’d taken it for granted that her father had kidnapped her once again, but as I watched her more closely, I began to doubt that scenario. Rebecca looked much too relaxed.
    Happy to be with her father? Happy to be back on the compound with her friends? I couldn’t help but notice the joy of the compound’s children as they braved the increasingly heavy downpour and swarmed around their playmate as Rebecca and Abel hurried toward Jacob Waldman’s house. Whatever the answer, I had to contact her somehow before she gave my presence in the compound away. If she hadn’t already done so.
    I turned from the window and cleared my throat. “Husband, could I have a word with you?”
    He looked up. “Can’t I just listen to this?”
    “I need to talk to you about something, um, private.”
    Grumbling, he started down the hall to the bedroom. I followed, eager to avoid Ruby. The second Saul closed the bedroom door behind us, I told him what he needed to do.
    “So you want me to go see Rebecca and warn her not to let the cat out of the bag? Considering the fact that I’m about as popular in this compound as you are, how do you figure I’m going to do that? Just walk over to Brother Jacob’s and tell him I need to be alone with his granddaughter for a few minutes? Fat chance, Lena.”
    He was right. If Jacob Waldman had his wits about him today, he probably wouldn’t even open the door to Saul, let alone allow a meeting with Rebecca. This meant I’d have to find a way to catch Rebecca alone myself, and as soon as possible.
    For once, the Fates were on my side. An hour later the rain stopped. Children drifted slowly out of doors again and headed with Rebecca toward the playground. After making sure that no adults lurked about to hear any surprised