Palisades Mountains

By Linda Jones

Lori is a retired widow with two grown children and two adorable grandchildren that are the love of her life. As a young child, Lori spent a lot of her summers in the Palisades Mountains with her grandma and grandpa Anders. She fell in love with the area and decided to build her dream cabin there when she retired. Lori worked hard when her husband died to take care of her two children and couldn’t wait to spend most of her retirement in the beautiful mountains.

While spending one of her summer there, things start happening in the Palisades Mountains that are both strange and unexplainable. People are getting hurt, property is getting damaged, and strangers appear all while crime is happening right under their noses. Will they find who is involved in all the mishaps going on? More importantly, will they find them before it is too late?

Palisades Mountains is a story of love, adventure, and suspense by Linda Jones. This novel will keep you on edge from start to finish. Don’t miss this one!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Dec 16, 2016
• ISBN: 9781483462011

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JONES

Copyright © 2016 Linda Jones.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-6202-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-6201-1 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 12/12/2016

The bright yellow

sun was shining bright coming up over the tall mountains and there was a slight crisp breeze in the air. There was nothing but beauty no matter where you looked. From the sights and sounds of the creek running in the back of the cabin to the beautiful green pine trees everywhere. It was pure natural beauty. The morning sunrise colors in the sky were so bright and magnificent it was a sight to behold. Ever since Lori was a little girl she always loved the way she felt when in the mountains. It was so peaceful and filled her with such serenity.

As a little girl Lori’s grandma and Grandpa Anders would take her and her sister Barb to stay the summer in the Palisades Mountains. Lori’s Grandpa Anders was a boss overseeing several Basques men or as they called them sheep herders to herd the sheep through the Palisades Mountains and back down to eventually be branded and shipped away for sale. Their grandpa was a very kind and gentle man. He was also a hardworking and most days worked dust to dawn. Lori never remembers him ever getting upset or saying a mean word about anyone. In Lori’s eyes he was the perfect men and the perfect grandpa. The girls would stay in their grandparent’s camp trailer with no running water or bathroom and enjoyed every minute of roughing it in the mountains. It never felt like an inconvenience just fun filled days with their grandma and grandpa. Lori’s grandparent’s campground was located up a long dirt lane. The lane had mountains and trees on both sides of it. A creek was running down the mountain on the one side of the lane leading to the campground. There were horse corals at the bottom of the lane and their campground was further up the lane where it came to an end at the bottom of the mountain. Their campground was tucked back in the many trees with the crystal clear water creek running along the side of their camp. The bathroom or out house was up the lane a little further. When it was bath time their grandma would heat water in a big metal bucket on the camp fire stove and when it got hot enough she would pour it into a canvas bathtub that they had in a tent behind their camper. One of Grandpa Anders jobs as the boss was buy and pack groceries and supplies to the sheep herders. This task was either done by pick-up or by back packing with horses. It was tons of fun either way. If they back packed they would load the horses with all the supplies the herders would need and then saddle up and ride their own horse forming a line and off they would head to the herders

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camp site deep in the mountains. Grandpa Anders would have a rope connecting one horse to the other so none of them would wonder off. The rope gave them plenty of room to keep a good distance between one another put still stay together. The journey was through the most beautiful scenery you could ever imagine. It was the prettiest Lori had ever seen. There were crystal clear creeks running up and down the beautiful mountains. The water was so clear you could see the rocks and peddles at the bottom of the creek. There were gorgeous purple and yellow wild flowers and an assortment of different trees as far as the eye could see. There were pine trees, willow trees and aspen and many others along the way. The trip would take them all day stopping to carve their name in the white bark of an aspen tree or the occasional bathroom break and to stretch your legs then back on their horse to finish their journey. After arriving at the sheep herders camp their grandpa and herder would unload the sheepherder’s supplies and their grandpa would visit with them for a while. Lori’s grandpa was the only one that spoke Basque and the sheepherders spoke very little English. Therefore their grandpa was the only one that could truly visit with them. While Lori’s grandpa Anders was visiting and advising the herders where to move the sheep next Lori and Barb would run around the mountain top. They would be so tired of riding on the horses they would have to stretch their legs and get rid of some of all the built up energy. Plus there was always something to explore and check-out. On some occasions the herder would cook them something to eat which usually involved lamb of some sort. Growing up as kids they eat a lot of lamb those summer months in the mountains. That might explain why neither one of them were very big fans of lamb to this day. Right before they would leave the sheep herder would usually give their grandpa a letter to mail to his family in Spain. The sheepherder would ask him to put so much of his paycheck in it and to mail it to his family for him. Then with a much lighter load they would get back on the horses and head back down the mountain. The sun would be going down and it was starting to get dusk by the time they made it back to their grandpa and grandma’s camp.

The times their grandpa would use the pick-up truck to go see the sheep-herders Lori and Barb would pile in the back with the groceries and sit up on the metal tool box with their grandpas dog Lassie and sing songs like Ten bottles of beer or On top of Old Smokey, as loud as they could echoing through the mountain tops. Lori remembers looking around and thinking even at a very young age how beautiful it was and feeling such happiness. They would arrive at the herder’s camp and more times than not they would have to hook on to herder’s camp and relocate the sheep herder to a different spot on the mountains. When the sheep grazed and moved to a new location so did the herder. When the truck could no longer get to the location that the herders needed to go then that is when the tents and horses were used instead.

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Lori would always say if someone would ask her what your fondest memories as a child she would reply staying in Palisades. That is why it is no surprise to Lori that as she grew older and had to decide where she wanted to live, at least in the summer and fall, she picked Palisades. It took a lot of years and a lot struggles but she finally made it back to the place that brought her so much joy and peacefulness.

Lori grew up with her sister Barb and their mother Janelle. Lori’s parents were divorced when Lori was just five years old. Although their father lived in a nearby town they never really saw a lot of him. But on those special occasions when he did call to take them somewhere the two of them would be so excited that they could hardly wait for him to get there. Lori’s and Barb’s mom would get them all dressed up and they would wait on the couch until their dad would get there to take them wherever they were going. It was very disappointing to the girls when they would get ready and patiently wait on the couch and their father would not show up to pick them up. Even though they didn’t get to spend a lot of time with their dad they both loved him very much. When he did come to pick them up they would have a great time. Most of the time they would go eat and sometimes to a movie. It was a ritual for them to stop at the Mason Jar Bar on our way and their dad would buy them a long stick pepperoni and a bottle of coke. Lori and Barb always considered that a treat and looked forward to it.

Lori’s mom worked very hard to take care of the two girls. Janelle would work two jobs and sometimes three just to make sure neither one of them went without. Lori learned at a young age what it meant to work hard. At the age of 10 Lori started picking rocks in the hot summer heat for farmers in the area. Her and a crew of four or five other people would pick up the large rocks from out of the fields and threw them in the back of a ten wheel truck. Lori also would baby-sit for many different families in their little town. She worked odds and ends jobs and at the age of 12 she got her first real job washing dishes at the local bowling alley. After washing dishes for some time her boss promoted her to waitress. Lori loved the idea of having her own money so she could spend it on the things she wanted.

After finishing high school Lori went on to college and that’s where she met her husband Steve. Steve was studying to be an airline pilot and Lori was studying business. The first time they met each other they hit it off. It wasn’t long before they were together every chance they got. It was very unusual to see one without the other. Right after graduation Steve proposed to Lori and they were married the following fall. Steve took a job with Delta Airlines when he graduated from college and Lori took a job with a local finance company. Lori and Steve both enjoyed their jobs very much and were very happy with their life together.

It was two years after they were married that Lori became pregnant with their first child. They both couldn’t be happier. Then three years after that came their second child. Their kids were the light of their lives. Lori took a little time off work when each child was born and as they got a little older she returned to work. They both had very busy lives with their jobs and family. But their family would always make sure that they took time for a vacation each year. With Steve working for Delta Airlines they were able to travel to a lot of exciting places for free or at a huge discount. They all enjoyed spending time with each other and lived for the next vacation to come around. They would no more end their vacation and then start planning for the next one.

When both of Lori’s kids were still in elementary school Lori’s life changed forever. Steve passed away from an airplane crash. He had rented a small single engine piston Cessna airplane to fly him and his friend Chuck to a golfing tournament out of state. The weather turned bad and it was raining and blowing hard. The wind was rocking the plane back and forth and the rain was coming down so hard that he wasn’t able to see out the window. Steve tried to fly the plane above the storm clouds but was unable to do so. He struggled with all his might to keep the aircraft in flight but was unable to do so. He had radioed in that he was having serious problems and was cleared to land at the nearest run way. Steve unfortunately lost totally control of the plane and their plane went down about five miles from the landing strip. The plane exploded and neither Steve nor his friend survived the cash.

Life after Steve’s death was very hard for Lori as well as her two children. She continued to work at the finances company and took on a part-time job cashiering at the local grocery store at nights and on the week-ends. Both of Lori’s kids were small and needed a babysitter at the time. So Lori’s mom and other family members would help her out with the kids. Lori spent most of her younger years exhausted from working all the time but was grateful to have her jobs so she and the kids could get by.

Several years after Lori’s husband death the finance company she was working for did away with Lori’s position. Lori had worked there for many years but the company was struggling to keep on all of their employees. The news devastated Lori at the time and she had no idea what she was going to do. Both of her kids were older by then and didn’t need anyone to watch them and Lori had given up her second job after she had gotten back on her feet. A friend of Lori’s told her about a job opening at a door manufacturing plant that recently had been built the next town over. He had told her the work was hard but the wages were really good. At that point Lori needed the money more than she could worry about how hard the work was so she went and applied for the job. Unsure if she would get the job beings how she didn’t have any experience she was super excited when she received a call a few days later asking her when she could come to work. Lori’s friend was not lying when he told her the job was hard. It took her some time before she was got use to using muscles she didn’t even know she had. The first month of work Lori would come home so tired and sore she didn’t know if she would make it. But she would give herself a pep talk and remind herself that she had to do it, her kids needed her to do it. Not to mention the bills needed to be paid and food need to be on the table. Lori had way too much pride to ask anyone for help. She would have worked herself into the grave before she ever did that. After working at the factory Lori got promoted to shop supervisor and was very proud of her self. The job was usually given to a man and Lori not only worked hard but she worked just as hard as the men. The best part the promotion meant more money and less stress for her. Lori continued to work at the door manufacturing plant until close to her retirement age. The job became easier over time but at the same time Lori got older and it became hard for her again.

An opportunity came up to go in as partners on a boutique in town. Both Lori’s kids were grown and had moved out by then. She thought it would be a nice change and she was looking forward to easier physical work. At first Lori was at their boutique night and day. She loved the work and loved all the people that came in to boutique. It was a women’s dream to be able to