WASHED UP (eBook)

Desert Mysteries
Characters

The Flash Flood

Claire Mary Clancy

Claire is a true blue friend and neighbor; the epitome of a compassionate, people-person. A retired drug abuse rehab counselor who ended up being the CEO of a non-profit, Claire lives by herself across the condo complex “inside” road from RJ. They struck up a friendship during their professional lives and expanded it after moving to their condos. Claire would not venture into the unknown alone, but she and RJ have become fast friends who like to take day trips which they call adventures; and they usually turn out to be adventures unforeseen.

RJ Hamaker
(has never been known by her full name, Rachel Jayne)

RJ is the adventurous type. Her fiery, upbeat personality will take the lead on any trip; any adventure; any . . . well . . . anything. A retired elementary school teacher and principal, RJ worked in public schools for 3 decades before she retired and unexpectedly landed a job as a prevention researcher at the local university. RJ lives by herself across the condo complex “inside” road from Claire. The two had formed a friendship through mutual interests in the well-being of children and picked up where they left off when they ended up as neighbors after they retired. RJ’s second floor condo balcony overlooks a protected desert habitat, including a natural wash crossed by a wooden footbridge leading to a manicured golf course and resort.

Sam Triknots (Samantha)

Sam’s life has been a mix of writer, marriage partner, and Hollywood producer. She is a well-known writer of Western mysteries who fell in love with the Southwest desert, out of love with her ex, and resides in what has been refurbished to look like an old abandoned ranch. It is north of the suburbs of the nearby city and is a site especially designed for commercial use, for both feature-length films and commercials.

Sheriff Charlie Ketchem

Sheriff Charlie, like his father before him, and his grandfather before that, has both a deep-seated love for the community he serves and the investigative knowledge and skills he needs to perform at an exemplary level. He is a real-life version of “protect and serve” dedicated to the well-being of the county’s residents. He is a well-known, and even more highly-respected; a seasoned county Sheriff whose territory includes Sam’s ranch. At first, he is easily flustered by the assertive trio of women who contact him about the memorabilia being dug up by Sam’s dog, Rascal. Over time, however, his signs of irritation give way to genuine regard and a sense of humor about their inquisitiveness.

Chief Waterman

As an experienced search and rescue first responder, Chief Waterman led the crew that responded to the flash flood in the Yavapai Wash. The flash flood waters threatened to overflow the banks of the wash and flood the condo community where Claire and RJ were having their 4th of July lunch.

Max Wachall

The first officer, under the leadership of Chief Waterman, Max accompanied his Chief to all of his calls and was a great help to the Chief when he was needed to organize the response as well as the communication with the communities involved. He enjoyed helping the Chief figure out the best way to interact with community members affected by emergency situations.

The Village

Village of Boulder Creek

Although there are many areas in the Valley of the Sun that could be named this, this village is a totally fictitious place situated in the Sonoran desert north of Phoenix. A close-knit community of ranchers and village shopkeepers whose families have lived in the area for decades and who have helped, supported, nurtured, and watched over their friends and neighbors for generations, and still do.

Burt Reparar

A jack of all trades for the Village of Boulder Creek and the surrounding area, Burt and his brother, Eddie, worked with their widower Father to establish a well-run hardware business in the Village of Boulder Creek. When they assumed ownership of the store after their Father died, Burt took over the field work that required travel to owners’ residences, ranch or home. He is gregarious and gracious as well as a perfectionist when it comes to his work for others.

Eddie Reparar

The overall operations of the hardware store and its inventory and walk-in customers are the sum and substance of Eddie’s daily life. He enjoys the in store work and is known for his knowledge of all types of hardware and equipment as well as the business sense that has proved to be the path to continued success for the store and for their spotless reputation as an important cog in the wheel of the Village’s longevity.

Florence Owens (Flo)

Flo, as everyone calls her, also has lived in the Village all of her life. Her parents built and owned the Mercantile, and she has continued as owner of this historic business. After her parents died, Flo refurbished and restored the Mercantile building, applying for and receiving an Historic Landmark designation for the restored building, creating a much-appreciated tourist attraction for the Village. She is known for her generosity, helpfulness, and her passion for boots. As a classmate of Burt and Eddie, the three have relied on one another for support and share a vision of the Village as a place of peaceful, resourceful, and resilient people.

Annie Renovo

Annie arrived in the Village of Boulder Creek riding a half-dead horse. She, herself, was nearly starved. She told the Villagers that the rest of her family had perished trying to make their way through the mountains from New Mexico. When her parents died during the journey, she had taken the only horse that was still alive and had ridden non-stop until she reached the valley and saw the village in the distance. She was determined to make it as far as the Village where she straggled in and fell off her horse in front of the hardware store. A local rancher took her in and nursed her back to health, providing food and shelter and sharing clothes from two daughters. After healing, Annie found a job as waitress in Mom’s Café, a local diner. She moved into the Village and had stayed there ever since, getting to know everyone and taking good care of her customers.

Pastor Downer

The Pastor is a relative newcomer to the Village. He is a fundamentalist, preaching unwavering, inflexible and strict literalism of the Bible. He knows the truth about everything and often doesn’t allow others to finish their sentences before he explains his interpretation of what they were saying, often inserting quotes from the Bible to make his point. He is known, especially, for interrupting women and discounting their contributions to discussions while, at the same time, wondering why many of the residents attend his services only once.

Ben Ingenero

When Sam was renovating her ranch house, she had searched for a contractor who would be versatile and ready to tackle a very complex combination restoration/renovation project. She had heard about Ben and his high-quality work on other historical sites, including Flo’s Mercantile. When she contacted Ben and explained the complexities of her vision for the property transformation, he was intrigued and quickly agreed to become her contractor. Ben discovered the nearly hidden storage space behind the staples bins in the ranch house’s pantry. To his and Sam’s amazement, the storage space contained hand-written journals about the history of the ranch.

The Second Chance Ranch

Like the Village of Boulder Creek, Second Chance Ranch, including all of the information about how Merry and Ray came to acquire it, is entirely fictitious. Any resemblance to any real ranch is entirely unintended. All references to federal and local agencies that monitored the process of land acquisition at the time, or approved the Chance’s land existence and ownership are the product of the authors’ imaginations and bear no relationship to legitimate processes historically or currently in place.

Merry Chance

As a young woman just finishing high school, Merry met and, after graduating, married Raymond Chance. Both strong-willed and adventurous, they moved from their Missouri home state to Colorado to mine for gold. After some success, but not the hoped-for mother lode, Merry and Ray decided to take a chance on a land grant request and moved to Arizona to undertake building a cattle and quarter horse ranch, literally from the ground up. They bought the bare land, and built ranch buildings for their core stock before constructing a family home in which they could raise their children.

Ray Chance

As a young man, Ray had heard all the stories about the successes of gold mining in Colorado. Believing that they shared a future vision, he convinced his new wife, Merry, to join him on leaving their homes in Missouri and traveling to the mountains to stake out a claim. Ray’s dream was to be a devoted husband and family man. The work in mining, for the degree of...