The Howling Cliffs Read online

  The Howling Cliffs

  Sara Mason Mysteries Book 2

  Mary Deal

  Copyright (C) 2017 Mary Deal

  Layout design and Copyright (C) 2017 by Creativia

  Published 2017 by Creativia

  Cover art by Cover Mint

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the author's permission.

  Table of Contents

  Titles by Mary Deal

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  About the Author

  Titles by Mary Deal

  Fiction

  The Ka, a paranormal Egyptian suspense

  River Bones, the original Sara Mason Mystery

  The Howling Cliffs, 1st sequel to River Bones

  Legacy of the Tropics, adventure/suspense

  Down to The Needle, a thriller

  Collections

  Off Center in the Attic – Over the Top Stories

  Nonfiction

  Write It Right – Tips for Authors – The Big Book

  Hypno-Scripts: Life-Changing Techniques Using Self-Hypnosis and Meditation

  Cointributed To

  Killer Recipes (Susan Whitfield)

  A Book and A Dish (Martha A. Cheves)

  25 Years in the Rearview Mirror (Stacy Juba)

  Dedicated to Bruce A. Hennell, USMC (Ret.)

  Semper Fidelis

  Prologue

  Follow Sara Mason as she becomes involved in another cold case in this first sequel to River Bones.

  From the River Bones story, Sara is stalked by a psychopathic killer in California's Sacramento River Delta. She meets Huxley Keane, the love of her life, and then loses him. But Sara and Huxley have built a history together, she having learned that he searches for the remains of his brother and the daughter of their mutual friend, Esmerelda, among other MIAs in Vietnam. Later, Sara agrees to become a decoy for the Sheriff's Department and falls into the clutches of the elusive madman who leaves no live witnesses as human skeletons keep turning up.

  In this story, The Howling Cliffs, Sara and Huxley are deep in the jungle in Vietnam where they find one MIA's meager remains. As Huxley flies back to the United States to get them identified, Sara becomes involved in a cold case on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. Knowing someone wants to put an end to her investigations to keep a cold case cold, and tries to kill her to do it, leads to a half-crazed homicidal maniac who is just sane enough to keep suspicion off himself.

  Chapter 1

  Human bones are occasionally sighted along mountain streams in the Hawaiian Islands where Sara Mason had recently purchased a second home. Ancient burials at remote sites are washed away over time by the effect of torrential tropical rains on eroding lava cliffs and steep hillsides. Since those Hawaiian graves were never identified with markers, such bones could belong to a commoner or a King or Queen. No one could know, but bones along Hawaiian streams were more common than finding remains of American servicemen and women in the Vietnam jungle where Sara Mason, Esmerelda Talbot, Huxley Keane and the veterans' search party presently found themselves.

  “The Yards found Palmer.” Sara glanced across the small clearing to the veteran who had become Huxley's best aide.

  “Yes, the Montenyards, the Hmong people that Huxley told us about.” Esmerelda looked up into the treetops. “To think they used to live in this jungle.” Not that much to see existed anymore except struggling new trees, brush and scrub.

  Sara, with Huxley's help, had developed the Orson Talbot Foundation in the Sacramento River Delta in California, named after Esmerelda's murdered husband. Beside the cold cases they worked on at home, Huxley had gotten her and Esmerelda approved to be included in the searches in Vietnam. Huxley and his team of retired veterans made at least one trip each year searching for his brother's remains, those of Esmerelda's daughter, and the other MIAs in the group of abducted medical personnel.

  Animals previously found in Vietnam, such as elephant herds, Bengal tigers, crocodiles, and a variety of monkeys and birds, could easily have carried any human remains far away or even eaten them.

  Then the forested areas were laid waste by the aerial spraying of Agent Orange and other defoliants. When Agent Orange was sprayed on a plant or tree, it sped up the growth through the trunks and stems and into the leaves at a rate the live plants couldn't handle and thus forced them to die. With no food growing anywhere, animals and other creatures starved and died.

  “You know what I noticed, Esme?” Sara and Esmerelda sat detached from the group in a moment of private conversation.

  “What's that?”

  “The vets in this group, in these trips we've made with them, I've seen them age drastically.”

  “I noticed that too.”

  “It's as if this is their last objective in life and it's taking a toll on them.” Sara motioned with her eyes toward one of the men they had seen go completely gray over the few years since they had first met him.

  “But not your Huxley. He's the mainstay here. He's much younger than these vets and he's strong and aggressive, just what these guys need.”

  Sara glanced at Huxley in admiration. He stood tall and erect with broad shoulders and a determined expression. He was the picture of strength and endurance, the type of leader that kept morale buoyant. Framed by a full head of dark hair that he refused to shave off regardless of the present-day trend among many men, and dark brows, his blue-topaz eyes sparkled, even in the filtered sunlight of the forest.

  April had passed, the time of year the majority in the group preferred to be in the jungle. The dry season was over and now gave way to escalating temperatures, causing the moist jungle floor to become insufferably humid.

  Since the first trip they made with the group, Sara and Esmerelda accepted the sight of the crew, especially the Vietnamese in their camp, who would strip down to shorts and boots.
They were on a mission and would do whatever necessary to accomplish their goal. The group had packed an enormous supply of bug repellant. Sara, Esmerelda and one-half of the photographic duo were the only women along and wouldn't be taking off much of their clothing. Sara and Esmerelda rested on some rocks at the edge of a stream. They removed their waterproof hats to give their perspiration soaked scalps a chance to breathe.

  The search team followed a well-worn and widened trail through dense jungle and rocky terrain southwest of Krong Klang below Quang Tri in central Vietnam; the same trail used by the Viet Cong to escape with the MIAs for which the team searched. The ever-present fog and fine drizzle gave the forest a mythical aura during the daylight hours and an eerie cast under moonlight. Soon, it would be typhoon season north of the 18th Parallel. Hopefully no storm that strong would hit their location.

  The sun broke through with penetrating heat stirring up the humidity and adding an additional bit of discomfort. In place of the majestic triple canopy of trees that stood before chemical defoliation, after the war mangroves were planted near all the streams and waterways. The Mangroves should have invited the return of birds. Yet, closing in on half a century later, not many were sighted or heard.

  The estimate was that the normal forest would take well over one hundred years to grow back. Whole herds of wild elephants and other creatures died out from Agent Orange and other defoliants. It was hoped that any survivors crossed over to Laos and Cambodia. Not many elephants existed presently in Vietnam except in zoos. However, wild herds had recently been reported around Dac Lac, a Central Highlands province.

  Sara and Esmerelda eyed each other's matted hair and chuckled. They were a pair! Sara's long natural sun-streaked blond hair with a few premature grays contrasted to Esmerelda's short, dyed jet-black waves. For convenience sake, Sara kept her hair braided. Esmerelda, having been away from a beauty shop for many weeks, had a lot of telltale gray beginning to show through her short coiffed strands.

  On the outside they seemed different as noon and midnight. On the inside, they were closer than mother and daughter. On a day-to-day basis, both had reserves of energy and their thoughts and actions played off each other. Sara was naturally thin. Despite her age, Esmerelda would have no part of what she termed an old lady's shape. Being active kept them thin and fit, which was a prerequisite for joining the search team. They sipped bottled water and watched two of the crew interact over by some tall shrubs.

  One was the former Marine 1st Lieutenant, Palmer Dane, forced out of the group by his VC captors, shot and left to die in dense jungle when he became weakened by dysentery. The VC were kept so busy trying to find their way, no one went back to check on him.

  The other was the Yard, Thanh Van Thuy, who was not present during the prisoners' march through the jungle, but was one of the tribesmen who helped the U.S. military in Vietnam. The Montenyards were who found the 1st Lieutenant close to death in the bush and spirited him out of danger. Several of the rugged Hmong took turns carrying him on their backs, despite his dead weight. When the terrain got rough, they carried him on a makeshift stretcher of poles and reeds. He recovered at the NSA naval hospital near Marble Mountain at Da Nang.

  After coming out of a three-day coma due to infection, when Palmer was able to clarify what the Hmong had tried to explain though unable to speak English, a search party was sent out for the others, but to no avail. As far as the search team was able to penetrate the jungle without compromising their own safety, they had found scant evidence that the trail had been used for anything more than normal passage through the forest.

  “Hux found Thanh.” Sara spoke quietly and reverently there in the jungle. The Human Remains Detection canine that Hux usually brought was on a job elsewhere. “Hux contacted dog trainers in Honolulu and that's when he met Thanh.”

  Chapter 2

  During the Vietnam conflict, a young American junior senator turned his back on the Montenyards, who helped the U.S. military at every turn. Then most of the Hmong tribes people were slaughtered by the Viet Cong for their participation with U.S. troops.

  Thanh's family were among the dead. Then Thanh and a group of refugees braved the Pacific Ocean in a rag-tag fleet of flimsy boats. Half of them died at sea. Boats broke apart and sank, drowning the occupants. Sharks attacked. Thanh's overcrowded vessel and two others barely made it to friendly waters off Hawaii. Fishermen rescued them. Thanh stayed, eventually gaining American citizenship and fulfilling a dream of becoming a Honolulu Police Officer.

  While U.S. veterans were being compensated for their grave health issues caused by Agent Orange and other defoliants, Thanh and the Montenyards were denied benefits.

  Thanh was retired now and donating his time working with HRD and other forensic trained dogs. Then along came Huxley seeking another animal for his next trip to Vietnam. Thanh found a new purpose when Huxley explained about looking for MIAs along a trail the VC used to march the prisoners. Hux and Thanh shared information, the most startling of which was Thanh's knowledge of many trails, particularly the one where Hux and other veterans had searched for MIAs each and every year for the past ten years. Thanh had been back to his home country and searched for surviving tribes people. He had traveled many of those same trails.

  Before the slaughter, thousands of Hmong lived in the jungle. Over time, he found one cousin and few others. The Hmong lived their lives knowing about the acidic soil. The few Hmong remaining knew they would find no remains of their family and friends. Ruins of homes and other representations of life were still found, mostly metal items that wouldn't be claimed as easily back into the earth. Sometimes those scant remains were how the survivors found remnants of their former lives. While the Hmong had flourished living in the forests, they were now reliant upon their livelihoods from life in the villages that struggled to get restarted.

  The biggest MIA lead came when Thanh told Huxley that the stream the search team followed had changed course more than a couple of decades earlier. They were missing a vital search area.

  When Huxley was able to trust that Thanh would not lead them astray in the jungle as payback for U.S. war crimes, Thanh was accepted into the group to go to Vietnam with the HRD dogs. The former Marine 1st Lieutenant, Palmer Dane, was enthusiastic about having one of the Hmong participate. His feelings toward Thanh for the Montenyards having saved his life was overwhelming. Now the two were inseparable. One tall white-headed American and one short and stocky black-haired Vietnamese shared forgiveness that set them free.

  “Hux's brother Rockford was a nurse, like my Betty.” Esmerelda continued to stare at the water gurgling around rocks below their feet. “Betty was elevated to 2nd Lieutenant when she enlisted, fresh out of nursing school in San Francisco.”

  Sara was careful not to dangle her feet in the water. “You said she'd been here only two or three weeks.”

  Esmerelda evidently needed to relive the memories made real again by their frequent trips. “They were working at the NSA naval hospital in Da Nang when they were kidnapped.” She shrugged in a sad way. “One by one, they were grabbed right outside the hospital or at the showers while cleaning up after some surgeries.”

  “They took her in the dead of night.” Sara nodded, remembering what she had learned. “Along with a number of other nurses.”

  “Palmer just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Esmerelda straightened her shoulders as if facing a bad memory head-on. “According to Palmer, they were bound, gagged and hidden in the backs of nondescript rickety old farm trucks and taken into the jungle. They were met by a large band of Viet Cong who marched them northward, possibly toward the Ho Chi Minh Highway. They thought they might be taken to a prison camp.” She sighed again with a far-away look in her eyes.

  “That could have been true.” Sara had thought the same when she first heard the details.

  “Maybe the Viet Cong were going to force them to treat their own wounded. The nurses didn't understand the language and really didn't know
why they were taken or where they were in the jungle.”

  Sara had heard most of the history. After a week on the trail, and judging by the purported actions of the VC, they and their hostages were lost. “Palmer said Betty was the first to get dysentery. Then he got sick.”

  “Betty, a thin wisp of a thing, probably didn't last long before she dropped. To get dysentery that took them so fast, maybe they drank from a stream.” Esmerelda's eyes were glassy, the memory always bringing tears.

  Esmerelda shouldn't dwell on how her daughter died. They needed to focus on finding her remains. “Esme,” Sara said, meaning to caution, but then hesitated.

  However, knowing this, her third trip, or any trip could be her last if visas weren't approved each year, Esmerelda rested little and investigated everything that caught her attention. She admitted to feeling a great measure of peace just being in the jungle where her daughter last walked.

  “Betty was allergic to bug bites, chemicals and lots of other stuff. The U.S. military was desperate for personnel if all they could manage was to send a person with her health issues to a place like this.” She shrugged and flashed a look of disbelief. “On top of all that, she had a rare blood type. AB Negative.”

  “And that would affect her being here?”

  “When she started nursing school, she used to donate her blood. Betty once commented that maybe the reason she was sent here was in case a wounded person needed her blood type.”

  Sara shrugged, had thought the military was prepared for such emergencies with a stock of blood types. “Palmer told us Betty lagged behind because she had gotten weak. He was weak, too, so they forced him to leave the group. He was slowing them down.”

  Though frustrated at hearing no new helpful information, Sara would help Esmerelda run through the details as many times as Esmerelda needed to hear it and no matter she didn't. “He ran into the bush with the VC shooting at him.”

  “That's right. He took a bullet in the shoulder but found a place to hide and played dead, waiting for the entourage to pass.”