Free Bailey and the Santa Fe Secret by Linda McQuinn Carlblom

manhood
.
    Sydney:
You’re kidding
.
    Elizabeth:
His people used to do that as a rite of
passage
.
    McKenzie:
Did he make it to the top?
    Bailey:
Yes, but it was scary. He slipped a couple
of times
.
    Elizabeth:
After he climbed down. his fingers and
knees were bloody
.
    Alex:
Gross! TMI!
    Elizabeth:
Sorry
.
    McKenzie:
So what about the pot? Did you get
in trouble?
    Bailey:
On the way back from the cliffs,
I confessed
.
    Elizabeth:
We apologized, though we knew it
wouldn’t make anything better
.
    Sydney:
How’d the family take it?
    Bailey:
Mom was mad. Can’t blame her
.
    Elizabeth:
Halona was cool
.
    Bailey:
She said Elan’s climb showed what was
important
.
    McKenzie:
Amazing
.
    Kate:
Any consequences?
    Bailey:
Not too bad. Mom took my phone away.
That’s why we’re chatting instead of calling
.
    Elizabeth:
Do you have anything to report?
    Alex:
I found the Tses owned a turquoise mine
north of the northern point of New Mexico in
the Jemez Mountains
.
    Bailey:
I thought the mountains around here
were the Sangre de Cristo Mountains
.
    Sydney:
Sangre de Cristo. I learned those words
in my Spanish class. They mean “Blood of Chrstist.”
    Elizabeth:
Impressive, Syd!
    Alex:
Bales, from what I read, the Sangre de
Cristo Mountains are the most important
mountain range in New Mexico, but the east
side of the Jemez Mountains is where the
Puye Cliff dwellings are
.
    Bailey:
So that probably explains why I’ve heard
more about Sangre de Cristos
.
    Elizabeth:
Alex, did you find out anything about
the deed?
    Alex:
It was issued in 1848 to a man named
Hakan Kaga
.
    Elizabeth wrote the name and date on a paper lying on the nightstand.
    Bailey:
Good work, Alex! I’ll ask Halona if she’s
ever heard that name
.
    Alex:
Don’t bother. I already found out that it
was Halona’s maiden name
.
    Bailey:
Awesome!
    Elizabeth:
Anything else?
    Alex:
That’s it for me
.
    McKenzie:
I don’t have anything
.
    Bailey:
OK. If any of you come up with anything,
call Beth’s phone or e-mail us
.
    Sydney:
Will do
.
    Kate:
C U l8r
.
    Bailey signed off. “We could do a bit of research on the name Hakan Kaga ourselves.”
    Elizabeth’s green eyes twinkled. “Just what I was thinking.” She typed the name into her search engine. Most of what popped up was genealogical information, which she scanned. “Looks like Hakan was Halona’s great-greatgrandfather.”
    “Nothing about a turquoise mine?” Bailey asked.
    “Not on this site. I’ll keep looking.” Elizabeth scrolled down. “Aha.”
    “What?”
    “It says the Suquosa Mine was mined by the Kaga family from the 1600s. Somehow when people began officially purchasing land, it was bought by someone named Taime Wapi. It was bought again by Hakan Kaga in 1848. He worked the mine and passed it on to his family after his death. He was only fifty-eight when he died.”
    “That’s not very old,” Bailey said. “Does it say how he died?”
    Elizabeth kept reading. “Hmm. It says he suffered injuries in a mining accident, but doesn’t say what the injuries were. But the accident happened the same year he died.”
    “I bet that’s no coincidence.”
    “No.” Elizabeth replied. “It might have caused his death.”
    “Can you find a death certificate?”
    “I’m looking.” Beth scanned the listings. “Here. Hakan Kaga. Cause of death: injuries sustained in mining accident.”
    “So he died, then the mine was passed to his family from generation to generation until now it belongs to Halona and no one can find the deed to prove it.” Bailey shook her head. “Can you find out when the mine shut down?”
    Elizabeth typed in “Suquosa Mine.” She clicked on the first entry that came up. “It gives a brief history of the
    mine. Let’s see here.…It says the mine was haunted by the
    deaths of many workers in the early 1900s and finally shut down due to drought and safety issues in 1925.”
    “Anything about where it was located?” Bailey leaned forward.
    “Not really. Just that