Endangered Species (10 page)

Guy settled into the dirt and lay back, using his pack as a headrest. AI

puffed absently on a dead pipe.  Dijon couldn't take the stillness and

leaped up to join Rick gossiping with an extraneous maintenance worker.

Dead strangers evoked a smorgasbord of the lesser emotions and served as

marvelous educational tools, warnings, and veiled threats.  When an

acquaintance was killed it was closer to home; one knew some of the

threads that tied the deceased to a common humanity.  Without enough

real connection to grieve, one was left in an uncomfortable place

between curiosity and embarrassment.

Chief Ranger Hull crossed the clearing, wiping his hands carefully on a

clean white pocket hanky.  Scenting a shift in the action, Rick and

Dijon drifted back to the rest of the crew.

Hull stopped near Guy's feet and the crew boss sat up as a sign of

respect ." Mr.  Marshall here has probably already told you the pilot

was Slattery Hammond.  He was flying drug interdiction for us and the

Department of Forestry." Hull never looked up from his hands while he

talked, but continued to rub meticulously between each finger with the

square of cotton.  His face worked maniacally, the eyebrows rising as if

in sudden surprise, then dropping, his mouth stretching as if he were

trying to scrape something from his rabbity teeth by moving his lips

over them.  For the first time Anna saw the facial gestures for what

they were; not emotion but uncontrolled tics or nervous spasms, worse

now that he was under pressure ." We're pretty sure the second man was

our district ranger, Todd Belfore.  Mr. Marshall said he'd spent time

with you, so I realize this is bad news for you as well as us."

Finally Norman Hull pocketed the handkerchief and Anna breathed a sigh

of relief.  Till it stopped she'd not realized how much his Pontius

Pilate routine was getting on her nerves.

"It will be worst for Mrs.  Belfore-Tabby.  As you are probably aware

she is .  .  .  ah .  .  .  with child.  Very much so." Despite the

god-awful circumstances, his old-world delicacy elicited a mental smile

from the part of Anna's brain that eschewed modern cynicism .

"I would greatly appreciate it, Mr.  Marshall-Guy-if you wouldn't mind

lending me this young lady.  I feel Mrs.  Beffore would be more

comfortable if there was another woman present."

Panic rose in Anna's chest ." Where's Lynette?" she demanded cravenly.

"Lynctte's gone over to the mainland," Hull said.  He sounded offended,

as if he had offered Anna a great honor.  In a way he had.

"Sorry," Anna said ." Caught me off guard.  Sure, I'll come .

Damn." She levered herself up from the duff but she could tell she'd not

been quick enough.  Disapproval flickered through the busy machinations

of the chief ranger's face.

Shouldering her pack, she followed him docilely from the oak woods.  A

shiny blue Ford pickup truck waited for them in the dust of the lane.

That Hull managed to keep it glossy through sand and salt and drought

spoke reams about the man.

Anna buckled herself in and the chief ranger drove south.  The closer

they came to Plum Orchard, the slower the truck moved.

Hull was dreading this as much as she was.  Anna took comfort in that.

Regardless of her gender she didn't doubt he'd do the actual breaking of

the news.  He was chief ranger.  They were paid for that sort of thing

and most took their responsibilities to heart.  Stewardship extended to

all the animals in the park, even the two-legged variety.

Plum Orchard was a gracious old Georgian Revival-style mansion built in

1898 by Andrew Carnegie for his son.  In the grand tradition, it rose

three stories with arched floor-to-ceiling windows along the ground

floor and four fine strong pillars supporting a gabled porch roof two

stories high.  A railed veranda ran around three sides.  Several

additional porches were tucked into odd angles.  One, near the back,

still boasted a wide swinging bench that Anna liked to catnap on when

they were involved in the tedious process of filling rubber stock tanks

with well water.

Two of these tanks marred the expanse of front lawn.  With the

continuing drought the crew kept them full so that should fire break

out, helicopters could fill their drop buckets.  The island was

surrounded by water but so delicate was the chemistry of life that to

use salt water to quench inland fires would damage the ecological

balance.

Beyond the tanks, ancient oaks, furred in resurrection ferns and

dripping veils of Spanish moss, dotted the grounds.  Two stately palms,

grown taller than the house, stood sentinel at the front entrance.

Behind the house was the inland waterway that separated the island from

the mainland and the town of St.  Marys.

Ranger Hull followed the graveled drive around to the back of the house

and switched off the ignition.  He and Anna had not exchanged a single

word since they'd left the burn site.  The bang of a screen door rattled

down from the upstairs apartment and they exchanged guilty glances.

"Waiting isn't going to make it any easier," he said, and pulled the

handle on his door.  Anna noticed he didn't actually push it open till

he satisfied himself that she was going to do the same.  Her earlier

cowardice had not gone unnoticed.  To redeem herself, she stepped

smartly from the truck and walked around the tailgate.

Wooden stairs, added in recent years as a fire escape and to provide

private access to the apartment, led up to the second floor .

Tabby Belfore had come onto the small landing outside the screen door.

The sun was behind her, shining through the thin fabric of her summer

dress and her fine blond hair.  The dress was pale yellow and sheer,

very much like her hair.  Backlit, the clothing appeared burned away,

only a halo left surrounding her narrow shoulders and swollen belly.  To

Anna she was beautiful, reminiscent of a stunning painting she'd once

seen by Gustay Klimt of a pregnant nude veiled in crimped auburn hair.

Anna found herself running up the steep steps, suddenly afraid Tabby

would fall.

" You're Anna, aren't you?" Tabby began, knowing the answer but feeling

the need to make hostess noises.

"Yes.  Fire crew." Anna had reached the top and, standing between Tabby

and the stairs, felt both relieved and foolish.  Chief Ranger Hull

pushed up behind her and she was glad to turn the situation over to him.

"May we step inside, Mrs.  Belfore?" Hull asked courteously.

All was not well and Tabby sensed it.  Her delicate face closed like a

poppy at sundown.  Wordlessly she backed into the hallway between the

stairs and the kitchen.  A gentleman, Norman Hull held the door and Anna

was forced to enter next.

Tabby closed both hands on her skirt, crumpling the fabric above her

knees.  She continued to back away till a kitchen chitir stopped her.

"Why don't we sit?" Anna said gently.

Obediently, Tabby lowered herself onto the seat.  She looked for all the

",orld like a waif expecting to be beaten.  Her eyes were downcast, her

fingers clutching convulsively, her shoulders pinched up around her ears

as if to ward off a blow.

She didn't ask a single question.

"We have some rather bad news," Hull said.  Anna willed him to kneel,

bend down, anything to close the gulf between Tabby Belfore and himself.

Though the kitchen was small, the space loomed like a gulf and Anna

could imagine Mrs.  Belfore pitching face forward into it.  Quietly she

slipped behind the chair, sat on her heels and rested her elbows on her

knees, forming human arms to the straightbacked chair that held Tabby.

The girl seemed unaware Anna was not part of the furniture.  Her fingers

loosed the flimsy dress and closed around Anna's wrist.

Still she didn't look up and she didn't ask for the news.

"Todd has been killed in an airplane crash," Hull said evenly .

"We are terribly sorry for your loss.  If there's-"

Tabby's head jerked up, her mouth slightly open; a quick look at the

chief ranger, away, and again the look.  A classic double take so out of

place, the beginnings of a laugh were startled out of Anna's throat. The

laughter went on and for an instant Anna thought she'd gone off her

rocker, but it was Tabby who was laughing.  Anna got ready to grab the

girl if she had to.

Abruptly, the laughter stopped ." No.  Not Todd," Tabby said .

"That's not funny."

Norman Hull.  slowly turned his Stetson around, running the brim through

his fingers.  His face was working overtime: the eyebrows up, a sudden

grimace.  Despite the tic, concern was clear in his eyes ." The drug

interdiction plane crashed and the pilot was killed," Hull began again.

This time Tabby was nodding as if she understood, as if she was taking

the information in.

"Todd was with him.  We're pretty sure he didn't feel anything .

Death was instantaneous."

Tabby sat stone-still.  Anna shifted her weight.  Her right leg was

going to sleep.  Hull looked at her for help or corroboration but she

merely shrugged.  Tabby had heard.  There was nothing to do but wait.

"Todd wasn't with him," Tabby said finally.  Neither Anna nor Norman

Hull replied.  Tabby looked from one to the other, the emotions on her

face as readable as those of a very young child: disbelief, rage, fear.

And something else.  The last one, Anna couldn't read.  It was how she

imagined a woman's face would look if her heart suddenly imploded and

she had the misfortune to go on living.

Another few seconds passed.  Anna started to get to her feet .

Tabby began screaming, raw gouts of desperation.  Reaching up, she raked

her fingers down her cheeks.  The nails had been bitten to the quick but

the force of the clawing left angry welts.

Anna turned to Hull ." Get that helicopter.  Get her out of here .

To a hospital."

The chief ranger nodded, put his Stetson square on his head, and left

the kitchen.  Anna could hear his boots clattering down if)e wooden

stairs to the truck where he'd left his radio.

Tabby's screams sawed out with the regularity of breath.  Ann,,] caught

hold of her hands but the fingers remained stiff and curled as if she

were still tearing at her face.  Twice Anna begged her to stop.  The

screams went on and the moment Anna loosed her hands the rending of the

flesh began again.

"Come on, come on, take it easy, we'll get you through this."

Anna was murmuring the words she'd murmured to a hundred shaken and

injured people over the years.  She scarcely heard her own voice.

A coffee cup sat on the drainboard, an inch of cold coffee scummed with

milk in it.  Anna dumped it and refilled it with cold water .  In a

sudden snapping movement she threw it in I'abby's face.

Abruptly the screaming stopped.  Tabby's hands transformed back into

something resembling human appendages.  Spluttering like one nearly

drowned, she wiped the water from the front of her dress.

You can't do this," Anna said quietly ." Much as you want to, you cant

fall apart now."

Tabby smoothed her hands over her belly.  The water made the fabric of