Читать книгу Dead Center - Frank J. Daniels - Страница 8

Introduction

Looming red sandstone cliffs to the southwest are bathed in early morning light which, reflected from the bottom edges of high clouds to the east, imparts a warm pinkish glow. I begin my journey to Shreveport, Louisiana, a respite to which I have been looking forward for a very long time. I am intrigued, as always, by the geologic marvel evidenced in the cliffs at the northern edge of the Uncompahgre Plateau, composed at the base of black Precambrian gneiss and schist underlying bright red Triassic mudstones and clays that support sheer cliffs of Jurassic Wingate sandstone. Twelve thousand million years of rock are missing between the Precambrian and Triassic strata, evidently due to ancient erosion. This valley, the Grand Valley of Western Colorado, is a geologic wonder. When I first moved to this region, the cliffs were just cliffs and the rocks just rocks, but the longer I’ve lived here the more these awesome formations of nature became a part of my spirit. I moved here from Boulder, having just graduated law school at the University of Colorado, to take a job as Deputy District Attorney. That was eighteen years ago. For the past eight years, I have held the position of elected District Attorney.

My interest in geology sprung from my interest in petrified wood. When I first started working as a deputy DA, a part-time investigator named Vince Jones, who had been a special agent in the FBI for thirty years, worked in the office. Many times Vince talked about collecting petrified wood. I became intrigued.

I began to collect some pieces of the wood and when I attended my first gem and mineral show, I quickly learned that these shows were a great place to find top-quality specimens of petrified wood. Dealers from all over the world bring gems, minerals and fossils to sell and display, especially at the huge winter shows in Tucson and Quartzsite, Arizona. There, one will find dealers from all the inhabited continents. Previously unknown material shows up every year. Quartzsite would be nothing more than a hot bump on Interstate 10 in the middle of nowhere without the show, which draws hundreds of thousands of visitors annually. It is in the middle of a rocky desert wasteland and comprises a vast network of tents and recreational vehicles. It was at the Quartzsite show that I met Mr. E. P. Akin of Shreveport, Louisiana, purveyor of the world’s finest petrified Louisiana palm wood.

Mr. Akin first began setting up as a rock dealer in Quartz-site after retiring from operating a successful nursery business in Shreveport. That was thirty-five years ago. A true southern gentleman who celebrated his ninety-fourth birthday this year, he is a man with broad knowledge in a variety of subject matters, ranging from human nature to horticulture and minerals. His knowledge of gem-quality Louisiana palm wood is unparalleled. So when he wrote to me in February that a friend of his in Shreveport was selling the finest collection of fossil palm wood ever assembled, I very much wanted to see it. However, when I received Mr. Akin’s letter, I was still engrossed in the most difficult, complicated and fascinating case I had ever come across. Now that it was over, I badly needed to get away and decided to take up Akin’s kind offer.

There are a number of ways to get from Grand Junction to Shreveport. I allowed myself a week to get there and back. I thought, given my interest in adding both to my knowledge and collection of petrified wood, I could finally stop thinking about the strange death of Bruce Dodson. It has preoccupied me for the last four years. However, though this was my objective, since I have been on the road driving, thoughts of Bruce and my involvement in bringing the truth about his death to light have been flooding my consciousness. I still cannot let it all go; perhaps I never will...