Endangered Species (41 page)

brought to life by the truck's high beams.

The effects of the marijuana were gone but for lethargy and the

occasional flash of disorientation, yet Anna couldn't seem to fix her

mind on the problem at hand.  She knew she should be mapping out a plan

of action or, if she was to bow to the wishes of the Park Service in the

person of Norman Hull, a plan of inaction until all the proper channels

had been followed.

Rolling along at fifteen miles per hour, she was content to let the road

hypnotize her.  Had Hull or Guy or the implicated anybody been

available, she might have called them.  The Hanson stakeout had denuded

the island of law enforcement for the next eight hours .

It occurred to her to go by the fire dorm and get Rick but this wasn't

his kind of bust.  A black belt didn't qualify him for delicate

situations and this was one china shop Anna wouldn't relish seeing a

bull loosed in.  With a sinking sadness she knew even her lightest touch

was going to cause irreparable damage.

Pinpricks of light disturbed the black of the forest's ceiling.  She had

reached the meadow by Stafford House.  The moon had yet to rise and the

meadow slept.  As she turned onto the lane, the truck's headlights raked

the dr-y grass, sparking green fire from the eyes of a family of deer

snuggled down for the night.

Life, especially life in such a graceful and benign form as a doe and

her fawn, raised Anna's spirits.  She lifted her chin and willed the

mesmerizing flicker of woods from her mind.

Dot and Mona's cottage was almost obscured by the tabby wall that

protected it from the road.  A window near the roof shone with yellow

light, creating a portrait of a fairy tale house in the woods .

Images of witches and ovens and murderous children arose to spoil the

effect ." Stop that," Anna told herself.

In front of the gate a darker spot marred the dirt.  A pothole, Anna

guessed, though she didn't remember a crater of that magnitude on her

drive south.  She had gritted her teeth to take the jar when something

about the shadow's configuration changed.  As her headlights hit it, two

glowing green eyes peered up from the tightly curled body of a fawn. Too

late to brake, Anna jerked the wheel to the right and bounced out across

the rough meadow.

The near miss left her shaken.  Taken as a ]list straw dropped upon the

back of a camel who'd been stoned literally and pilloried

metaphorically, it weighed heavily.  Tears threatened.  Anna cursed them

down.  Anger followed, but one look at the animal, standing now, gazing

trustingly in her direction, left it nowhere to bestow itself.

"Come on baby," she said, letting herself out of the vehicle ." It's

time you were home in bed." The same could be said for her.  The

beneficial effects of her brief catnap were wearing off.

At the sound of her voice Flicka bleated and scampered over to butt his

head against the palms of her hands.  Unf,,Iilingly enchanted by the

little creature, Anna folded herself down in the grass and lost herself

in the wonder of his spotted back, the liquid eyes, the strong willowy

neck and tiny perfect hooves.

"Miles to go before I sleep," she explained when she finally forced

herself to rise ." And miles to go.  Come on.  Let's get you home.  Your

fairy godmothers will be worried."

The truck was well off the road, so Anna left it where it was and walked

to the wall.  The gate was an unlovely modern addition of welded pipe

and sheep wire.  Usually it stood open.  Tonight it was shut,

effectively penning Flicka out.  Were Dot and Mona weaning the fawn,

teaching him to go back to the wild?  Anna abandoned the thought as soon

as it surfaced.  The VIPs were too sensible to shut an animal as young

and unafraid as Flicka out on a public road at night.

" After you," she said, and shooed the fawn in ahead of her.  He didn't

take much urging.  Like any child, at suppertime he wanted to be home

and safe and fed.  As she latched the gate behind her, she could hear

his hooves clattering on the stones of the cottage's front walk.

Inside the wall, parked to one side where it was not visible from the

road, was an ATV.  She wondered who had come calling that was too

hoity-toity to park in the street like everyone else.

Flicka was scraping at the door with sharp hooves, punctuating this

polite request for admittance with rattling butts to the doorframe.

Either the old ladies weren't at home or they were hard of hearing.

Having followed the fawn up the walk, Anna rapped on the door and

hollered: "Anybody home?  It's Anna from fire crew."

Muttering emanated from within and she realized how quiet the house had

been.  The cottage didn't have air-conditioning.  Windows on either side

of the door were open, the light and air shut inside by tightly closed

mini-blinds.  A voice carried through as if Anna were inside with them.

" Who is it?"

Mona: without the stalwart, clever woman in evidence to back up the

voice, Anna heard the tremor of age ." Anna Pigeon fromfire crew," she

repeated.

More muttering, footsteps; then Dot came to the door.  She didn't look

pleased to have someone show up on her doorstep after eleven at night.

Anna played her only card ." I found Flicka," she said, and unabashedly

hid behind his adorable spots.  Dot's face softened at once, so much so

that Anna was afraid she was going to burst into tears.

Pushing open the screen, Dot knelt down, her fat knees filling the Sill,

and gathered Flicka into her arms.  She buried her face against the

fawn's neck, knocking her glasses askew ." Flicka, we've been so worried

about you," she said into the silken hide.

"Was he lost?" Anna asked ." If he ran off, he must have decided which

side his bread was buttered on.  I found him curled up in the middle of

the road out front." No response from Dot.  Anna was somehow

disappointed ." I nearly ran him over," she added.  Even with the prod,

the expected gush of thanks was not forthcoming.

Dot scooped Flicka up and carried him inside.

"Anna, come in," Mona called.

A sensitive individual might have been put off by Dot's snub, but Anna

wasn't yet ready to go back to the apartment and do her duty, so she

trailed the woman and fawn inside.

The cottage had pioneered the concept of a Great Room when it was an

architectural convenience rather than a status symbol.  A single

multipurpose room was easier to build and heat than a house cobbled up

into private areas.  Dot and Mona had filled the compact space with the

clutter of academia.  Books, papers, boxes, teacups, and overfilled

ashtrays spilled across the dining table and all but three of the

chairs.  Two of these were occupied.  Mona sat upright in a ladder-back

chair.  A cigarette burned in her right hand.  Her left rested on a Coke

can on the table.  She looked tired and distracted .

It added years to her already considerable account.

Marty Schlessinger sat behind the table between Mona and the empty

chair.  One hand was on the table.  The fingers trembled ever so

slightly, like an aspen in a light breeze.  Probably high, Anna thought.

Dot, Flicka captive in her arms, perched on the edge of the third chair.

Anna was left standing ." Turtle stuff." she asked, to fill the awkward

silence she'd brought in with her.

" Always, Mona said.

Thick as a pea soup fog, silence descended again, the only sound Mona's

fiddling with the pop-top on her coke.  Clickclickclick.

"The files are a mess," Schlessinger said.  Her voice was cool and even.

If she'd been using for a while, she probably functioned better high

than straight.  As if on cue, Dot and Mona nodded sagely .

Click.  Click.  Click.

Whatever they were up to, Anna was not needed to make a fourth.  She

took one more stab at an invitation ." An all-nighter?" she asked,

reminded of college and speed and last-minute cramming.

" Surely not." Mona.  Clickclickclick.

So much for fantasies of procrastination.  Anna was forced to take the

hint ." I've got to run , she said ." Places to go, people to meet, all

that sort of thing." No one said a word.  Three pairs of eyes followed

her as she beat a hasty retreat to the door.

"Thanks for bringing Flicka in-" Dot hollered as the screen banged shut.

"But don't let the door slap your ass on the way out," Anna finished the

sentence.

The Chablis had fallen, making two dead soldiers littering the coffee

table.  Fluorescent curls of Cheetos provided a surrealistic array of

Splattered intestines to further the theme.  Tabby and Lynette, heads

together, were giggling over a Victoria's Secret catalogue; a scene from

a pajama party at a home for unwed mothers.

"Hey, Anna." Lynette's voice was delicately blurred by a wash of white

wine ." Did you get what you needed done done?  We missed you.

"Short hair makes you look ten years younger." Tabby repeated a

compliment from earlier in the evening just to be personable.  Wine had

worked its spell on her.  Her cheeks flushed prettily and the tight

reins of tears had been loosed at the corners of her eyes, restoring her

girlishness.

Here, at least, Anna was welcomed.  Not for long, she reminded herself.

The phone rang, jarring Anna but apparently delighting the others. Tabby

snatched it up, burbling a happy, "Hello!" Joy was slapped from her face

by the vicious hand of memory ." Oh, it's you," she said coldly.  Then

to Anna: "It's for you."

" Was it something I said?" came Dijon's voice.

Anna remembered the cruel moments of forgetfulness after Zach had died.

Tabby had thought it was 'Fodd calling ." Nope .

What's up?"

"Jesus.  If I wasn't so bored, I'd hang up.  Nothing's up.  Zip .

Nada.  A bust of a bust.  Captain whoses-the Coast Guard guy-got tired

of waiting and we nabbed 'em.  Two old farts grilling wieners on a

houseboat full of weed.  Talk about your adrenaline rush."

Anna smiled ." No fisticuffs?"

"Shit-shoot, no.  Not even an interrogation under hot lights .

Hull told the Hansons they're suspected of a double homicide as well as

marijuana cultivation and they fell all over themselves to cooperate.

"Hammond was putting the squeeze on them.  Louise swore he made them

plant three times what they had.  'Just plain greedy' she called him."

Dijon laughed ." According to her they were just poor pitiful servants.

Since they burned Hammond's share of the crop, she seemed to think we

should let them keep theirs out of pure gratitude.  Both swore Hammond

did the whole booby trap deal all by his self and they, like good

citizens, removed the hazard as soon as they found out.  Like there's

anybody left alive to say different."

"How about the sabotage?" Anna was uncomfortably aware of Lynette and

Tabby hanging on every word of her side of the conversation.

"'Not guilty." What did you think they'd say?"

A tiny irrational hope that had dared to stir in Anna's breast was

quashed ." You guys coming back anytime soon?" she asked.

"You're kidding, right?  We'll be filling out forms longer than the