Quests

By John M. Brewer

Joe Stallings has woman trouble. Stacey, his pathologically controlling, unfaithful ex-wife, is stalking him. She wants revenge and is hurling threats. At the same time, hes trying to finish his PhD in applied genetics by analyzing an ancient skull, one of forty or fifty gleaned from a cave near Lovelock, Nevada.

Joe is determined to find out where the giant man came from and when he lived by researching the DNA. He joins forces with Penny Echeverria, assistant director of the Winnemucca Museum, to determine the ethnicity. As they work together, they fall in love. However, Penny harbors a terrible secret from her past that threatens their bond.

With just two goals in mindearning his PhD and settling down and starting his own familyJoe journeys through lifes challenges and joys. He gets involved with his boss, Hope, at his day job; shes in a bad relationship with her boyfriend. In addition, Joe must fend off an attacker intent on killing him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Nov 4, 2016
• ISBN: 9781532009242

John M. Brewer

John M. Brewer is a professor of biochemistry at the University of Georgia, and the author of more than a hundred scientific publications. Pilgrim’s Journey is his fifth novel. He and his “yoke mate” live on a lake with a canoe that figured in their courtship.

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Copyright © 2016 John Brewer.

Cover by Mary Sue Brewer

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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.

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ISBN: 978-1-5320-0925-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-0924-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016918193

iUniverse rev. date: 11/04/2016

Contents

1 Negotiations

2 Ancient History: Stacey

3 Married Bliss

4 A Research Project

5 Face from the Past

6 Looking for Answers

7 House on Gold Creek

8 Penny

9 Paranoia’s Reward

10 Keeping in Touch

11 Hope

12 Warning Signs

13 Penny’s Story

14 Disaster

15 Angel of Light

16 Some Loose Ends

17 Dumpster Games

18 Christmastime

"To my wife

From my most successful quest"

1

NEGOTIATIONS

The tall woman with iron-gray hair in charge of the Winnemucca Museum had put on her stone-wall face, but Joe Stallings was expecting it. He waited for her to give her reasons. He was fairly confident because he had what he hoped was a clinching argument.

The Native American Burial Act forbids taking samples for studies like the one you propose, she said.

Joe replied, "The legends of the local Native Americans, the Paiutes, clearly consider these people to not be of their tribe or of any tribe known to them. The Paiutes massacred all of them, so the Paiutes aren’t going to object. And their descriptions are clear and consistent: very tall, with red hair. So the remains you have are not from Native Americans. What I propose to do is take a sample of bone, analyze its DNA, and show they came from somewhere else.

Now, Joe continued, "I may be able to show conclusively the ancestry or ethnicity of the remains you have but possibly also whether the person whose skull you showed me had red hair, what eye color he or she had, maybe even some other traits associated with European ancestry, such as lactase persistence. And if, as the odds favor, the skull is from someone of European ethnicity, the Native American Burial Act is just irrelevant.

Plus, Joe went on, consider the publicity. You—this museum—will be swamped with visitors. Right now there are legends. What I can do—and will do, given a bone sample from that skull—is put legends, hearsay, and gossip on a solid scientific basis. And if I can get a big enough sample of bone or something else made of carbon, I can date when that person died.

She was wavering—Joe could see. She asked, Can you do that sort of analysis?

I have done so, many times.

This was an exaggeration, but Joe had carried out such measurements on more recent samples and was confident he could do so on the skull he had seen.

He added, If the DNA in the skull turns out to be Native American, no more will be said. But the odds are the skull is from someone of European ethnicity. And the odds are also in favor of the skull being pre-Columbian, perhaps by hundreds of years. You will have a media circus in this place.

How much do you need? she asked.

Joe suppressed a feeling of triumph and just answered honestly, More sample is better. Say, a molar. I strongly doubt anyone will notice. But I will be able to get a lot of information from that—believe me. And it is better to get what information we can, now, before we have another fire.

She nodded. Many of the remains from the Lovelock Cave had been destroyed in a fire, a thought that made Joe cringe whenever he remembered it.

Joe put another nail in the coffin, so to speak. The results will be published in a reputable scientific journal, he said.

Joe didn’t add that he hoped to get his PhD in applied genetics. He wanted the woman to think he was a professional, which in a sense he was. He needed the results he hoped to get for his doctoral dissertation. And that, in turn, would open many doors.

There was another woman in the office. She had kept quiet during Joe’s proposal.

Now she asked him, When do you want to get the tooth?

Looking at her for the first time, Joe saw she was a middle-sized, sturdy-looking younger woman with curly brown hair and brown eyes. She also had a badge with her name and job title on it, but Joe couldn’t read the badge from where he was sitting.

But he answered, Let me get my gear out of my truck, and I’ll take the tooth out right away.

The older woman looked cornered but did not object. The idea of a media circus probably appealed to her. Joe figured she imagined it would keep the Humboldt County commissioners quiet, at least for a while.

Joe brought his kit in to another room, where the younger woman had brought the skull. He put on a face mask and gloves and took out a sterile bottle and a pair of vise-grip pliers. This was window dressing, since the skull had lain in bat dung, probably for centuries, and then been handled many times, but Joe hoped it would impress the women. He also took out a jar of antibacterial soap solution. He looked carefully at the jawbone of the skull to find the biggest molar he could.

The size of the teeth was impressive. Relieved to find no obvious tooth decay in most of them, he made his choice. He opened the jar of antibacterial soap, dipped the teeth of the vise grips in it for a minute or so, and then used them to pull the tooth he wanted. It came out fairly easily, and Joe put the tooth into the sterile bottle.

Done, he said, rather unnecessarily.

When will you have the results? asked the older woman.

Joe said, I will start work as soon as I get back to Reno. Perhaps a week, perhaps two.

This was a little reckless, but Joe had set everything up in his adviser’s lab, and Joe was the only student, so his work there should not be disturbed. He had only the two weeks, and he figured he’d be able to meet his deadline.

I will phone you with my results.

The older woman, however, told Joe, Give them to Penny here. I go on vacation next week.

Joe nodded, and Penny gave Joe her card. Joe saw the younger woman’s name was Penny Echeverria, and she was the assistant director.

Leaving the museum, Joe was thinking Penny rather attractive, but he had forgotten to look for a wedding ring. Anyway, now he had the tooth. He had a lot of work to do and less than two weeks to do it. He got in his truck and headed west, back to Reno.

2

ANCIENT HISTORY: STACEY

More years back than Joe cared to calculate, he had been a shy, awkward undergraduate at the University of Nevada. He had no social skills whatever but was a very good student, so, having decided to get a PhD in genetics, he had applied for admission to the genetics program.

He not only was admitted to candidacy in the genetics program there but was awarded a federal fellowship. His road was clear and, even better, paid for.

That summer, he worked at a DNA testing laboratory, a local branch of a company called GeneQuestion, the sort of business that establishes parentage or rules it out. Unusually, he was paid, since he had a BS. In fact, he was paid well enough to be able to pay off his school loans, which had been kept relatively modest, thanks to his scholarship. So that fall, he was feeling flush for the first time in his life. He had a bank account and a credit card, though he never used the card.

Aside from taking courses, his duties required him to be a teaching assistant (TA) in the Introductory Genetics class, which included a laboratory. There, in Joe’s second year, one of his students was a very pretty woman named Stacey Porter.

Joe heard the other male students privately calling her Stacey Porterhouse, thinking of her as a superior cut of meat. Stacey had honey-blond hair—it was extensively debated whether that was its natural color—and blue eyes, but most of all a spectacular figure. This prompted more debate about her bra size, whether the bra was padded, and to what extent.

She stood about five feet six inches tall, an inch shorter than Joe.

Though Joe was a conscientious TA who tried to help all his students, he spent a disproportionate amount of time with Stacey. This was not because she needed that much more help, for she was fairly bright, but because Joe very quickly fell in love with her.

He couldn’t ask her out, partly because he was too shy but also because it was made clear to all the TAs that they were to keep their distance, socially, from their students. However, the second semester he had only grading duties, and she wasn’t in that class.

Joe ate, always alone, in one of the dining halls. The meals were filling but not to the point that they encouraged obesity. One day late in the second semester, he was having dinner when someone sat down opposite him. Joe looked up. It was Stacey.

Hi, Joe, she said.

Joe sat, paralyzed. Should I call her Stacey, Miss Porter, what?

He finally replied with Hello.

She smiled in a friendly, reassuring way and began eating. After another awkward minute, Joe did the same.

Are you TA’ing again? asked Stacey.

Joe managed to swallow whatever it was, drank something, and said, No. Well, yes. That is, I’m grading for the Intro Biology For Nonmajors class.

Joe was going to make some clever remark but couldn’t think of anything to say, so he said nothing.

Stacey didn’t seem put off and said, I’m a premed. I’ve been admitted here. This place is the cheapest. I still haven’t paid off my undergraduate loans. Have you?

Joe forced himself to concentrate on the conversation. He was surprised at her asking such a personal question, but he didn’t really mind. I had a scholarship, he said. That paid tuition. My folks helped out with room and board, and I worked during the summers. In fact, I don’t owe anything for undergraduate school.

What about grad school?

I have a federal fellowship. It pays for four years of tuition and expenses. If I have to stay longer than that to get my PhD, either whoever I work for has to have a grant or I have to pay my own way. But that is two years away. I work in the summer for an outfit called GeneQuestion. The pay there is pretty good, so I’m not worried.

Once you get your PhD, what then? Can you get a job right away?

Joe drank some milk and replied, No, not an academic job. For that, I have to do postdoctoral work for I don’t know how long and I don’t know how many places. Then I would start as assistant professor and try desperately to get a research grant so I can publish enough to make tenure. And it is getting harder to get grants.

Joe thought about what he had said and then smiled at Stacey. "But it’s my dream—a foolish dream, I guess—and I just have to give it my best shot. At least you are guaranteed a job when you get out."

Stacey nodded, got up, and smiled at Joe. Joe smiled back anxiously, wondering if he had said something she didn’t like and if he had, what it was. But she gave Joe a friendly wave and walked away, her perfectly shaped hips swaying. That was very entertaining. He could just see the outline of her panties. The male undergraduates of the genetics lab Joe had supervised spent a lot of time speculating about whether Stacy wore them. Joe stared as long as she was in sight and then finished his meal. He had classes and labs of his own to attend.

Despite Joe’s fears, Stacey again joined him for lunch the next day. This time, she asked, Did I bore you with my problems? If I did, I apologize.

Joe shook his head; in fact, Stacey could have talked about a planned purchase of shoes or a handbag and he would have been enthralled.

Joe said, It’s a major worry of yours, so go ahead and talk about it. I’m here to listen.

Stacey smiled at Joe and began eating.

After a few minutes, she asked Joe, Are your folks from Reno? Do they live here?

Joe shook his head and replied, My mom and dad live in Detroit—well, near the city. Dad worked for Ford, but he’ll be retiring soon.

Making cars? asked Stacey.

Bookkeeper for a Ford dealership, Joe answered. Do your folks live in Nevada?

Stacey shook her head. Divorced. Some time back. I don’t have much contact with either of them, haven’t for several years.

Joe nodded sympathetically. How about summer work?

Stacey said, I sell stationery. I make enough to live just through the summer, but that’s about it. Have you ever thought about working full time for GeneQuestion? Would you make that much more as a professor?

Joe shook his head. He remarked, You don’t go into the professor business to make money. I mean, the pay isn’t bad, I understand you make a comfortable living, but people who go into the academic life have to really want to do that and nothing else.

There was silence while Joe ate several spoonfuls of soup out of a can, a big can, before he resumed. If I was to leave school this semester, I would have to give up the federal fellowship, disappoint my boss, and get a MS. With that, well ….

There was silence while Joe thought about what he was going to say.

"I could get a