Cedar Breaks

By Dan Allex

"Cedar Breaks," is the third in the series of Dan Allex mysteries that starts with a frozen corpse on a mountain trail. The mystery unfolds in Southern Utah were ex-sheriff Dave and his wife, and friends, along with the the FBI try to solve the murder of one of their own. The suspense increases and the action leads to Las Vegas where things gradually come together and finally end with a bang.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dan Allex
• Release date: Dec 7, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301719273

Dan Allex

Dan Allex (Dan Kubicek) was born in Austin, Minnesota. I am retired and enjoy exploring the mountains of Colorado after moving here 5 years ago. My hobbies are golf, fly fishing, pheasant hunting, skiing and reading.My wife and I had lived in Las Vegas, Nv. for twenty-five years, and recently relocated to Denver to be closer to our son and his family.I enjoy telling a story, and I hope people get some enjoyment from my books. Visit danallex-com1.webs.com/ for more information about the upcoming mysteries and the author.Books in print are available now at danallex-com1.webs.com where you can order direct for less.Take a look at Chisago Creek, my latest book. It is a Minnesota mystery that is a page-turner. If you visit to Austin, stop in and browse at Sweet Reads, my favorite bookstore.

Book preview

Cedar Breaks

by Dan Allex

Copyright 2013 by Dan Kubicek

This is a work of fiction, and all names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Second Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Dedicated to my mother and best fan. Thanks for your encouragement and support.

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

Mark Twain

Prologue

Morning comes slowly in the mountains, and a good cup of coffee makes the wait easier. The gray twilight lingers postponing dawn, because of the reach of the mountain peaks that keep the day from breaking through. Dave Johnson sat on their deck in the crisp morning air enjoying his Caribou blend, as the sun was inching its way over the top of Brian Head mountain. The giant Douglas fir trees that surround their deck gave off a special odor that was so comforting any time-comfort that would be even more appreciated after the day that lies ahead of him.

Chapter 1

Dave and Jan Johnson had been renting condos at Brian Head only a few times, and with each stay they began to feel more at home. Dave’s brother, Pete, had lived in the Las Vegas area for years, and he and his wife had taken them to Brian Head on one of their visits in the mid 80’s. They did some skiing there and fell in love with the area. It is southern Utah’s best kept secret with some of the greatest snow on earth and scenery that is exceptional.

The Johnson’s primary residence was in Henderson, Nevada, but as the summer heat baked the Las Vegas area the draw of the cool mountain air is hard to resist. Air conditioning made the desert livable, but Dave couldn’t believe it was healthy never to leave it month after month.

Jan and Dave became officially retired and moved to Nevada to follow their son and his family. They moved because of a job opportunity and took along their only two grandkids, so they had to follow. Jan had retired a couple of years before him from a teaching job, and Dave threw in the towel after twenty-five years as deputy and eventually Sheriff of Lake County Minnesota. Dave never saw myself retired and both of them felt like they really didn’t have the funds to make the move. A stray bullet from a local domestic dispute pushed him toward an early retirement. The shot from the quarreling drunks nicked an artery in Dave’s hip, and if it hadn’t of been for his neighbor and longtime friend, Willard Olson, driving by, he would have bled out as the couple watched stupefied. Recovery was complicated by some nerve damage, and after the ordeal, Dave passed on his badge and decided to give retirement a try.

His savior, Willard (or Will as he prefers to be called) was visiting them from Minnesota for the weekend. Shortly after his arrival, they packed him in the SUV and took him to Brian Head. Will was sharing the coffee with Dave this morning while their Chihuahua, Chief, was lounging and hoping for a snack. Chief had an eating disorder, and recently had to be put on a diet after tipping the scales at twenty-five pounds!

Will had been their good neighbor and friend when they lived on the lake in Minnesota. He is a semi-retired pharmacist and loves to think of himself as an amateur detective. This morning Dave and Will were going to the edge of Cedar Breaks Canyon with their fly rods to a secluded little alpine pond that included a few monster brown trout. Coming from Minnesota neither Will nor Dave had been fly fisherman-you just don’t do that for Walleyes and Northern Pike. Fly fishing is something they both picked up as they got more involved with retirement.

Cedar Breaks and the pond were only about three miles from town, and they could have taken ATVs, but with the fly rods and gear it would have been difficult. They drove the SUV to the Ranger Station and parked in the lot there that overlooks Cedar Breaks Canyon. The canyon is one of Brian Head’s most scenic delights. It is especially breathtaking in the early morning light, and also as the sun is setting. Depending on the time of day the colors in the canyon change along with the shadows. Words just can’t describe its beauty, and it is one of the reasons that the Johnsons love Southern Utah so much.

The trail down to the pond was well marked and winds through the woods for about a mile and a half. It is downhill so the trek is much easier than the climb back up. The forest in the area is dense and mostly Douglas Fir and Aspen. Will and Dave got their gear and said a good morning to the Ranger as they headed down the path.

It was this Ranger that had put the bug in Dave’s ear about the trout in the little pond. After Jan and he had been on the same trail a year ago they stopped and talked to him about the pond they had seen on their hike. Dave told him that he thought for sure he had seen a fish lying in the shadows of a downed tree in the alpine pond. He shared a secret with them that yes, there are trout in the spring fed pond, and he and his Ranger buddies had recently caught one huge brown trout. Dave had to ask him the question that had been nagging him on the hike back up...how did the trout get in the pond? There were no streams going in or out or any signs of one from the past. He smiled and said that years ago Utah had an unusual fish stocking program that included air lifting fish into remote bodies of water that the Fish and Game department had researched and determined could support a fish population. They knew that this particular pond never froze completely, and had never gone dry, because of the fresh spring water that fed it. So it was the perfect place to plant some fingerling trout. The fish had thrived and were now approaching the two to three pound size.

After Dave had told Will this story, he was anxious to try his luck. He was more than anxious-he had gotten up this morning around six am and quietly fired up the Mr. Coffee. He was dressed and ready to go when Dave wondered out at 6:30. He told Will he hadn’t fished there before and was saving it for his visit. It was more than he could stand and he was practically running down the path toward the pond.

As they approached the water, Will could only say, My God, Dave, this is absolutely beautiful!

Dave had to say, The Ranger said that there is a downside to fishing here, Will. The fish have very little competition, and the surrounding area is so dense with trees and bushes that they have all the bugs and feed they need. Which is why they are growing nicely, but it also means they are very picky about what is presented to them.

The Ranger had warned them again this morning that they would have to be patient, and they might want to switch flies often if they weren’t getting any results. Dave and Will each staked out an area of the pond they wanted to fish, and started assembling their rods and reels. The night before they had gone through their fly selection comparing what they had, while Dave’s wife, Jan, teased them about looking like little boys comparing their tackle. Walleye fishing is much more straight forward and an active, medium sized minnow is usually the bait of choice. Dave had stopped into Bass-pro in Las Vegas to update his fly selection and was mesmerized by their number of choices. Of course if you aren’t fired up enough about fly fishing they have a tank with two to three pound trout swimming lazily right outside the shop. It is easy to overthink fly fishing, and he doesn’t agree that it is quite the science that these outfitters make it. The fish the hatch approach is valid, but it all boils down to how hungry the fish are, and if what you throw in front of them looks good to them at the moment.

The semi retired sales person in the fly shop just happens to be their neighbor at the townhouse complex in Henderson. Vern Schmidt originally was from Utah, so he has a good idea of the flies that are proven winners.

So Dave asked him to pick out six winners for Willard and he, and that’s what they started presenting to the monster browns.

The pond was crystal clear and not that deep. It had several downed trees that laid in the water creating natural hiding places and cool shade for the trout. It made casting difficult, but not impossible. As their first casts went out, they could see the fish slowly coming out of their cover to check out the latest splash in the pond. Their interest was not enthusiastic, but they did get the attention of three of them, and they could see them circling like sharks, each taking turns making advances toward their flies, but not striking.

This went on for some time and they decided to take the Ranger’s advice and switch flies.

After hearing the Ranger’s story about how picky these fish can be, Dave took off his tapered leader and went with a straight two pound test monofilament that was claimed to be invisible in the water. He tried this once before when he had trouble getting picky trout to strike. The line really is invisible, but the drawback is that without the tapering it makes the line harder to cast. That takes some time to get used to, but a roll cast instead of an overhead seems to help. The roll cast is also Dave’s choice because of a shoulder that doesn’t quite work the way it used to and balks at repetitive overhead casting.

Will and Dave both took a break and changed flies while making sure once again that they each had a different type.

Will said, These guys are teasers, Dave. Are you sure that anybody has ever caught one?

Hey, Will, you heard the Ranger. His buddy caught one two weeks ago that went a little over three pounds.

Well, I can see that they are nice sized fish, but they are coming up and looking at the flies, poking around, and swimming away. Kind of reminds me of some of the women customers at the drugstore when we have sidewalk sales-pick, pick, pick.

They tried the same routine over and over for close to two hours with the same lukewarm response. Occasionally a new fly would get an increase in enthusiasm, but still not enough for a strike.

Well, Will, what do you think?

I think these fat little bastards are the laziest, goddam fish I’ve ever seen.

Okay, Will-guess I feel about the same, but you do have a way with words. Next time (if there is a next time) I think we should get here earlier when the water is cooler and the sun lower to try to get them when they are hungrier.

Yah, either that or dynamite them.

Spoken like the true American sportsman, Will.

Well, I’ve been casting until my bursitis is barking at me without a nibble and I hate to lose.

It’s getting close to lunch time. What do you say we swing by and pick up Jan, so we can head over to Tony’s for a pizza and a microbrew? That might help our aching shoulders too.

Sounds good. How about we give that Ranger a piece of our mind on the way out? I’d like to tell him what I think of his monster browns.

Come on now, Will, I come up here off and on, so let’s not poison the well.

I know, Dave, just kidding. These trout can be fickle, and if they aren’t biting-they aren’t biting. Let’s go get a beer and pizza and who know’s, it might even help my disposition!

Chapter 2

Will and Dave started their uphill climb the mile and a half back to the parking lot.

That part of the canyon wall was approximately 10,500 feet in elevation, so they were both glad they hadn’t packed in a lot of gear. Jan and Dave had done quite a bit of hiking in the area to keep in shape, and they both appreciate the outdoors. Will claimed he could keep up because he stayed in good shape by chasing younger women. He always had a way to get a chuckle out of Dave, and his statement was probably true.

In the shadowed areas of the woods there were still a few snowdrifts that refused to give into the warming spring temperatures. Both fishermen stopped for a breather after an especially steep section of the path, and Dave noticed the sunlight reflecting off a metallic object that was close to one of the drifts. He walked off the path, and found a nice pair of sunglasses that were half buried in the wet earth and leaves next to the drift. As he pulled the glasses out, he saw that one of the bows had a croaky attached. The other end of the croaky wasn’t attached to the glasses, but led back into the snowdrift.

Will said, Come on, Dave-what the hell did you find?

A nice pair of sunglasses, Will. They have a croaky attached here to one bow, but the other end seems to be frozen into the snowdrift.

Dave, I don’t know how you spot this stuff. You always have your eyes on the ground.

He picked up the glasses and pulled on the croaky cord, but it held fast in the snow and ice. Dave bent over closer to the area where the cord was attached, and started to remove the snow. He screamed and jumped back when he removed a handful of snow, and it revealed an eyeball staring back at him!

Chapter 3

He called Jan earlier before they left the pond and asked her if she would like to join Will and he for pizza. She said she would see them there in about a half hour. So Dave rang her back and started telling her they would be a little late.

Sorry, Jan. Will and I will be a little late. In fact you might as well plan on pizza for dinner instead of lunch.

What happened, Dave? Are you guys okay? It’s Will isn’t it? A heart attack?

Jan, stop-we are fine. Both of us are fine. As we were walking the path from the pond to the Ranger station, we stopped after that steep section to catch our breath, and I spotted something shiny in the leaves and snow. You know those drifts that are still along the path in the shade? When I bent down I could see that it was the reflective lens of a pair of sunglasses that was peeking out from under the leaves next to the drift.

Oh God, Dave! Don’t tell me, I know what you are going to say.

I know you know. It’s a body that’s been there for a while. It scared the hell out of me. We went straight to the Ranger station to tell what we had found without doing anymore digging. The Ranger phoned it in, and we are filling out a statement now that will take about an hour or so. I am curious of course, but will find out more once all the agencies arrive and start digging out the body. It’s in a National Park so the feds will be out in force.

"Dave, you don’t need to know any more-you are retired, remember?

Well, Willard wants to know more.

Dave, you and Will leave and get home as soon as you can. I’m sure they can get along without a couple of retired busybodies snooping around.

Chapter 4

Jan was right-anyway that’s what Dave told her. He can tell when it does no good to argue. Besides, Will and he can miss the busy work of digging out the corpse and processing the crime area. They would be in the way. When it’s all cleaned up and the facts are in, Dave could give Sheriff Wilden a call and get up to speed on the situation. It really isn’t any of his business, but Dave couldn't help it. Twenty-five years of digging into cases was hard to stop cold turkey, and he don’t want to quit. He still liked to be involved and he knew Sheriff Wilden appreciated his input. That’s what he said when Dave helped him solve a couple of murders a year and a half ago. They also had the help of his FBI friend, agent Roberts, that Dave had worked with in Minnesota. It took a while, but they tied up all the loose ends. Jan gets upset because for some reason he always ended up in the middle of these things. Will loves to go over clues and help solve mysteries too. He is more of a busybody than his pal ever was. Dave had a hard time pulling him away from the Ranger station after Sheriff Wilden and his deputy, Nancy, had arrived and the investigation started. Dave introduced the sheriff and Nancy to Will, and then pulled him out of the station to the SUV.

"Geez, Dave, what’s the damn big hurry? Say, that Nancy is a hottie isn’t