The Graves of Plague Canyon (The Downwinders Book 3) by Michael Richan Read Free Book Online

hadn’t bothered to turn on a light in the room. She kept
placing a document on the glass, scanning, turning it over, scanning, and
replacing it with another document. She was becoming numb.
    She jumped a good inch when her phone rang.
    “Hello?” she said, the phone at her ear. She pulled a paper
off the glass with one hand and put another on.
    “Deem?” came the voice at the other end. “It’s Warren.”
    She felt a small rush, something in her chest that made her
think that her heart was beating a little faster. Hmm, she thought. I’ll
analyze that after the call.
    “Hi, Warren,” she said with her most neutral voice.
    “Hey, I know we just talked this morning, but I was wondering
if you were free for lunch sometime. I’m usually off work at one.”
    “Uh, sure, let me check my calendar,” Deem said, grabbing the
paper she was holding on the scanner and rustling it to make it sound as if she
was checking a day planner. “Umm… I can do lunch tomorrow. The rest of the week
is booked.”
    “Tomorrow it is,” Warren said. “Are you still living in
Mesquite?”
    “Yes,” Deem replied. “How about you?”
    “My parents are still out there, but since I took the job
with Willie, I’ve been living in Hurricane. Makes it a lot easier to get to and
from work.”
    “I’ll bet,” Deem replied. “What did you have in mind for
lunch?”
    “Do you know the Bear Paw? In St. George?”
    “Sure I do. I love it.”
    “Well, I was thinking of there,” Warren said. “I could pick
you up around two, and we’d be there by three. If that’s not too late of a
lunch.”
    “No, it’s not too late,” she replied. “But listen, I spend a
lot of time in St. George these days. You don’t have to drive all the way out
to Mesquite. I could meet you there, save you the trip.”
    “Oh,” Warren said, surprised. “Well, sure, if you’re OK with
that.”
    “Yup, I’m sure,” she said, knowing it would eat into his
macho expectations a little to not pick her up.
    “OK,” Warren replied. “Two o’clock then? At the Bear Paw?”
    “See you then!” Deem said, and hung up, feeling a slight
sense of elation. She hadn’t been on a date in several months; not because she
didn’t want to, or because she wasn’t asked, but because she’d been so busy
dealing with the skinrunner and her father’s journals. And even though she had
ulterior motives in meeting with Warren, there was a part of her that was happy
to have the social engagement set up, to have a date hanging on the calendar.
It made her feel normal.
    This is the last scan of the night, she thought, her eyes feeling tired.
Carma had told her she could stay as long as she wanted while she finished the
scanning, and she’d spent several nights there already, but she knew she
wouldn’t be driving back out to her mother’s house in Mesquite tonight. It was
an hour there and back, and with the date with Warren now scheduled for tomorrow,
it didn’t make sense. Her mother wasn’t at home anyway — she was in Arizona,
visiting her sister. Why drive all the way out there to an empty house? she thought.
    She checked the clock on her laptop as the last scan finished
— 9:30. She was done for the night. The image slowly appeared on the screen and
she waited for it to complete and to save. She grabbed the laptop’s lid and was
about to close it when her tired eyes caught a picture on the screen. She
paused.
    It’s the circle , she thought. The circle with the arrow.
    She grabbed the paper from the glass and tried to read it,
but the room was too dark. She rose from the chair and turned on the overhead
light.
    That’s it! she thought. The same mark! A round circle with an arrow
through it!
    She scanned the rest of the page, reading Claude’s
hand-written notes surrounding the drawn image. Then she sat the paper back on
the scanner and picked up her phone to call Winn. It went to voice mail.
    “Call me,” Deem said. “I’ve just discovered