Buffalo Mesa Mummy

Chapter 20

 “Why did you nosey kids have to go and mess everything up?” The man asked in a familiar quiet voice.

They spun around instantly, shocked to find they were not alone in the underground room. The light was behind them and their bodies cast shadows on the figure. Peter grabbed the oil lamp from the table and held it above their heads.

“Mr. Kershaw? Is that you? What are you doing here?” Maria asked in astonishment when she saw who it was. She started to step forward, but Charlie grabbed her arm stopping her. When Marie looked at him, Charlie motioned with his head toward Mr. Kershaw’s right hand, which was holding a gun.

“When you came into the store to get supplies you said you were going camping, but it was obvious you didn’t want anyone to know where. When you left Betty said you were probably coming out here to The Town and I got scared you would find this place, so I came out early this morning.” Mr. Kershaw said.

“Mr. Kershaw, you said we messed up something. What did we mess up? Does it have something to do with Samantha McMillan?” Peter questioned cautiously. He saw that the man was sweating and his hand, the one holding the gun, was shaking.

Peter slowly backed up, taking Maria and Charlie with him. He wanted to give Mr. Kershaw more room, to make sure he didn’t feel threatened and he wanted to place more of the shadows between them.

When they reached the table again Peter pulled one of the two rickety chairs over and shoved Maria into it. Then he and Charlie positioned themselves in front of her. Maria started to protest, but Charlie thumped her on the head, letting her know she was to stay put. She scowled at him but stayed seated, although she forced them further apart so she could see.

Mr. Kershaw was still stressed, but he did seem less shaky with them a little further away. He still kept the gun on them, but Peter noticed he made sure the barrel was pointed to one side. He took that as a sign that the man did not really want to hurt them.

“Mr. Kershaw, how did you know about this room?” Peter asked.

“I’ve known about it for years. My ex-partner showed it to me.” Mr. Kershaw said the word ‘partner’ with distain and also a deep sadness.

“Who was your partner?” Charlie asked.

“His name was Jackie Dark Wolf, an Indian from the reservation.” Mr. Kershaw stopped and looked embarrassed at using the term Indian instead of Native American.

“It’s ok, Mr. Kershaw,” Maria said, leaning past the two boys, “Charlie and I are proud to be Indians, well mostly Indian anyway. Tell us about Dark Wolf, please.”

The man let out a sigh and lowered the gun to his side. His face looked pained, but at the same time Maria thought he wanted to talk. She tugged on the boys arms, letting them know she wanted them to sit. They reluctantly sat on either side of the chair, their backs against the wall. Peter kept his hand on the back leg of the chair. If Mr. Kershaw made to use the gun he would yank the chair out from under Maria, sending her to the floor, out of the way.

“I had a store up in Los Lunas back then, around 1996 and it was doing pretty good. There was a fire in the storeroom and most of my stock was lost. A week later this guy, a mean looking fellow, shows up and says it was a shame about the fire and all. He says he can help me. If I hadn’t been so stupid I probably would have figured out that he probably set the fire himself.

I don’t even know if Jackie Dark Wolf was his real name. He said he had a plan to make big money. I knew he was bad news, but I needed money real bad or I wouldn’t have even listened to that man.”

Mr. Kershaw pulled an old crate from the corner of the room and sat on it. He held the gun in his lap and stared at it for a long minute before he continued.

Charlie thought the hardware store owner looked very old sitting there in the shadows staring down at a gun he obviously wished he wasn’t holding. 

“Dark Wolf told me he had some valuable stuff he had found on his own land. He needed to sell it and knew some people that would buy. He said that even though the artifacts were his, the government wouldn’t let him sell them, so he needed to do it ‘under the table’ and that was where I came in.” Mr. Kershaw continued, and then suddenly jumped to his feet, and began pacing.

“Why was I so stupid? Trafficking in stolen artifacts. I knew the things he wanted me to handle weren’t his.” The man was waving his gun hand around in agitation as he moved and Peter tensed and gripped Maria’s chair harder until Mr. Kershaw calmed and plopped back down on the crate and continued.

“He started bringing things to the store after I was closed; boxes of old pottery and stuff like that. Then in the next couple of days someone would show up and say they wanted to buy a case of beans and I would go to the back and get one of the boxes. The person would pay cash, lots of it, and that night Dark Wolf would come to the store. 

He would take most of the money for himself, but he gave me enough so that I could get my store stock back up. After a while Dark Wolf told me he needed help moving some of the stuff he had ‘inherited” and I was the one that had to do it.

I told him no, but he said I had no choice. Dark Wolf is a giant and he scared me so I said I would do it, but just once. We went out to Chaco Canyon where he had stuff hidden in a cave. He said we had to move it to a different place because people were snooping around.

That’s how I found out about this place. Dark Wolf said he grew up on the reservation and used to play here in this hidden room. We brought a load of boxes here all the way from Chaco Canyon. Some of the stuff is still in that room behind the shelves, the one I was hiding in when you came back.

I thought that was it, but Dark Wolf told me I had to help him move it all. I told him I wanted out all together, so he beat me up and said if I made him mad again he would kill me.”

Mr. Kershaw just stared blankly at the wall over the three friends’ heads and said nothing else. 

Finally Maria asked softly, “Mr. Kershaw, what about Samantha McMillan? How did you and Dark Wolf know her?” Did you…you bring her here?”

Mr. Kershaw seemed so stricken by Maria’s question that Peter tensed himself for action again, but then the man bowed his head. His shoulders dropped and he slowly shook his head, as if he was reliving all that had happened all those years ago.