Disorder in the Desert (Miranda Marquette Mysteries Book 7)

Book summary

Miranda Marquette and her future sister-in-law, Kara, find themselves in a dangerous predicament after stopping to help strangers in the Arizona desert. What begins as a simple act of kindness spirals into murder charges, forcing Miranda to confront her troubled past while racing to uncover the true killer in Disorder in the Desert.

Excerpt from Disorder in the Desert (Miranda Marquette Mysteries Book 7)

Chapter 1

July 2012

Kara and I sat at our kitchen table on a Sunday afternoon, staring at my laptop. Kara Simon, my brother Michael’s fiancée, and I had been working on our route to New Orleans for several hours without much success. They were relocating down the road from us, on the shores of Coyote Lake, near Gilroy, California.

My sister Sabine and her fiancé, Mark, recently returned to their homes in New Orleans but vowed to move back to Northern California before the year ended. While I loved having family around, I felt overwhelmed with the idea of all-family-all-the-time. On top of that, they had decided to convince my mom and stepdad, Tom, who were the final holdouts in the family, that they needed to come with us to Northern California from The Crescent City. They had resisted so far, but once Mark and Sabine came, they would have no one left to keep them in Louisiana, so I figured they’d come eventually, even if kicking and screaming. I loved my mom but hadn’t lived within a thousand miles of her since I turned eighteen. That could be an adjustment.

Kara traced her finger on the laptop screen over a couple of routes between here and Meraux, Louisiana, our final destination. She looked at me. “I’m so excited to be doing this with you, Miranda. I can’t imagine it not being interesting no matter how we go.” She turned her attention back to the screen. “Now, do you want to go the fastest or the most interesting route?”

I said, before she had a chance to answer, “Probably the quickest, for your sake.” I patted her stomach. “How are you feeling, anyway? Is the baby making you tired?” I was worried this trip might be too much for my almost forty-something soon-to-be sister in law. Which brought up another question. “Have you and Michael set a date to tie the knot yet?”

Kara lit up. “I’m feeling great. And I’m glad you asked. Mikey and I were just talking about it this morning. I know you’ll be busy with Tea’s wedding in August, being the Maid of Honor and all, so we were thinking of having a small family thing in September. The weather will still be nice, and we have a couple of months to prepare. What do you think?”

Tea, my good friend, and co-worker, had recently turned her life around, left her abusive boyfriend, and become engaged to the man of her dreams. Her parents were throwing her an amazing, if not a bit over the top, wedding. I saw it as a touch of a bribe, but what could I say? It made me happy to see her in a healthy relationship too. I thought about the September wedding. “Sounds great. Do you think you’ll have it at your house?”

She smiled slyly. “Um, I thought we could have it here.”

I feigned surprise, even though I knew that’s what she wanted. “Oh, you did? Why’s that?”

She giggled. “Oh, you know, Miranda. We won’t even be settled, and you’ve got more room than we do, at least more usable space outdoors. You’re set up better for entertaining than we are. Please, please, please.”

I laughed. “Of course, we’ll do it here. I always expected to. I figured you’d eventually let me know the date. September might be tight, but if it’s going to be small, it should be no problem.” I looked back at the map on the screen. “Now, we have to figure out the route we’re driving the box truck back to New Orleans.” I thought for a minute. “Hey, there are two main routes, right?”

She reviewed MapQuest. “Yes, there’s the Northern route, which is mainly I-40, and the Southern route, which is mainly I-10.”

I chewed on the end of a pen. “And what are the highlights of each again?”

She whined. “We’ve already gone through this five times. Okay. The I-40 Route includes Bakersfield, Barstow, and Needles, California; Kingman, Flagstaff, and Winslow, Arizona; Gallup, Albuquerque, and Tucumcari, New Mexico; Amarillo, Wichita Falls, and Dallas, Texas; and Shreveport, Baton Rouge and of course New Orleans, Louisiana.”

I smiled. “There are several good lyrical towns on that route. I can think of songs featuring, at least Bakersfield, Needles, Winslow, Tucumcari, Amarillo, Dallas, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans. Maybe we could have a contest, and whoever thinks of the most songs with the towns on our trip featured in lyrics wins.”

She clicked her pen in and out nervously. “I’m not sure about that. I think you already have a huge advantage.” She looked at the screen. “Okay, let’s look at the I-10 route. It features Santa Clarita, Riverside, and Indio, California; Phoenix, Tucson, and Bowie, Arizona; Las Cruces, New Mexico; Juarez, Mexico; Fort Stockton, Auston, and Houston, Texas; Lake Charles, Lafayette, and New Orleans, Louisiana.”

I bit my lip. “Well, not nearly as lyrical, but interesting places, nonetheless. Okay, here’s what I think. We should return to New Orleans via I-40 and then come back here via I-10. That way, we won’t get bored seeing the same scenery twice.”

She closed my laptop. “Finally. If I had to stare at that screen one more second, I thought I’d scream.” She checked her watch. “It’s eight o’clock. What time do we have to go tomorrow?”

I’d been doing a bit of calculating the old-fashioned way, on a pad of paper. “Okay, now the total trip is 2,179 miles, and it’s supposed to take thirty-one hours and fifty-one minutes. I’m sure that doesn’t take side trips or stopping to sight-see into account, so we should probably figure twelve hours a day. I’d say we should be on the road by six. That way, we have a few hours to collect ourselves and eat before we have to do it all over again. Based on that, we should stay overnight in Winslow, Arizona, and Wichita Falls, Texas.”

Kara stood with her hands on her hips. “Are you sure you never worked for AAA?”

My mapping handiwork made me proud. “I did think briefly about working as a travel agent and seeing the world for free, making commissions on other people’s expensive vacations. It sounded too good to be true. And to a certain degree, that’s how it turned out. This thing called the internet came along, and suddenly, we all became our own travel agents.”

Kara patted me on the back. “You can handle my travel plans any time.” She headed out the back door. “I can’t believe I can walk home now. I’m so excited to live so close. What doesn’t thrill me is that our stuff is scattered everywhere, and it’s going to take us forever to move in.” She whispered just before she headed home, “Thanks, Miranda, for taking this trip with me so I don’t have to deal with moving in. By the time I get back, Mikey should have it all done.”

I laughed. “You don’t have to whisper. Michael’s at your house, and Jason’s out somewhere. Come to think of it, he never told me his destination.” I scratched my head. “He’d better have a good explanation. He’s not going to see me for a week. He should be at my beck and call at least for the next few hours.” I winked.

She waved as she walked down the driveway.

Chapter 2

I snuck out of bed at 5 a.m., readying for our adventure. It felt nice getting back to normal after Kara and Michael had spent nearly two months with us before moving down the street. Because I am a light sleeper, Jason and I rarely shared a bedroom, but since I was leaving town for a week, last night proved to be a heavenly special occasion where he clearly let me know that he would be missing me while I traveled.

Kara tapped lightly on the back door at 5:45 as I served up the coffee. She still looked half asleep as she dragged her suitcase behind her. I passed her a mug. “Ready for the adventure of a lifetime?”

She nodded as she breathed in the nectar of the gods. “You’re lucky I got here at all. With that puppy dog look on Mikey’s face, you would have thought I was leaving for a year. I finally had to pry him off of me or I’d still be over there.”

I smiled. “How sweet. I didn’t know he had it in him.” I whispered. “I know what you mean, though, Jason was extra lovable this morning. I could barely get out of bed.”

She grinned. “Anyway, are you one of those control freaks who has to drive the whole way, or are we going to take turns?”

I grabbed my suitcase as we approached the box truck parked next to the barn. This would be our home away from home for the next three days. “Oh, I’m definitely switching off. There’s no way I’m going to drive thirty-six hours straight while you get a free ride. You guys have two vehicles, right? So, we’ll have to drive all the way back separately. That doesn’t sound like such a good a time. So, at least let’s have a little fun in this direction.”

She laughed. “I know. Who thought of this anyway?”

I chuckled. “Um, I think you guys did. I was more than willing to fly back and have your vehicles shipped but my brother is too damned cheap.”

As we approached the back of the box truck, I pulled up the rear door. “Okay, let’s throw our suitcases in here. At least we’ll have more room in the cab. Do you have a lock?”

Kara stared at me blankly. “Um. No. Don’t you have one?”

I pulled the door closed. “No. We’ll have to get one on the road. I’d just hate to worry about someone ripping us off every time we go inside to use the bathroom or get something to eat.”

She nodded. “Good idea. See, that’s why I need you with me. I would never have thought of that.”

I figured I should see if she needed anything before we left. “Okay, speak now or forever hold your peace. There’s no turning back now. It’s almost six. Our first destination is Needles by 1 p.m.”

We chatted as we walked to the cab. She asked, “Do you really think we can get that far in seven hours? It’s almost five hundred miles.”

I shrugged. “It’s all going to depend on traffic on the 5. Once we pass Bakersfield, we’ll have a good idea of how we are doing because then we’ll start heading west, and the rest of the traffic will be going east.”

Kara climbed into the passenger side and said, “You might as well drive first since you might know the area that will help get us out of town quickly.”

I agreed. “Smart girl.” I got into the driver’s seat and started the engine. We both waved out the window at the landscape as we pulled out of the driveway.

We talked off and on while I negotiated the canyons and mountains between Coyote Lake and the I-15, but mostly she dozed. Around eight, Kara woke up enough to ask, “Hey, Miranda, remember the game we were going to play with song lyrics?”

It surprised me that she remembered about the game because she hadn’t seemed very keen on the idea when I brought it up. I nodded. “Uh-huh.”

She turned to face me. “Let’s do this. When we enter a place where either of us knows a song that includes the name of the locale, we repeat the title, a line containing the location, and another identifier, like who wrote it or performed it. You know, something to prove that we know it. And no using phones except to check our answers if there’s a dispute, like Scrabble.”