Nothing gold can stay (32 page)

Liam started forward, hand out to wake Rebecca Hanover. Moses got in his way. “Ive got to talk to her, Moses, Liam said.

“No you dont, Moses said. “She didnt kill anybody.

The voices tell you so? Liam wanted to say. “At the very least, he said, “shes a material witness to the death of her husband. I have to talk to her. Let me wake her up.

“Shell wake up in her own good time, Moses said flatly. “And no, he said pointedly, “they didnt. They havent been real mouthy on this trip.

Liam cleared his throat and couldnt think of anything else to say.

Standoff.

“No one is going anywhere in this pea soup anyway, Bill said practically, defusing the tension. “Youll have plenty of time to wait for her to wake up. Shes not going anywhere. Amelia, make some more coffee. Tim, get down two more mugs. Are you hungry? How about a tuna fish sandwich? Ill just

“Whats that? Wy turned her head, listening.

“What? Bill moved forward a step, and cursed the apprehensive note in her voice. She was nervous. She couldnt remember the last time shed been nervous. She couldnt have said why she was now.

Into it floated a voice, high, thin, thready. “Elaine. Elaine the fair. Elaine the lovable. Elaine, the lily maid. Come out, Elaine. Come out.

On the bed, Rebecca whimpered without waking, her legs pumping against the blankets.

“What the hell? Moses said, and went to the door.

“No, wait Liam said.

But Moses was before him and pulled the door open. “Theres no one named Elaine in here, but come on in and get out of the snow!

The door pushed open against him and a man stood there.

“Gun! Liam shouted, and Moses dropped into form one second too late. The weapon fired, the noise of the shot deafening everyone in the cabin, and Moses, foot half raised in something Liam recognized as the beginning of Kick Horizontally, crumpled to the floor without a sound.

Bill made a sound low in her throat and moved forward.

“Hold it, the man said.

She either ignored him or didnt hear him, dropping to her knees next to the old man, who suddenly looked infinitely older, whose blood welled red from beneath the fingers pressed to his side.

The man had a brown, seamed face surrounded by a halo of tangled, dirty gray hair, hair repeated in the collar of his shirt and on the backs of the hands gripping the rifle. A Browning, Liam noted. A semi-automatic, .270 maybe, or a.30-06. What did one of those hold, four rounds? Three, in magnum. He looked Moses, at his wound. Not magnum. Three left, then.

“Uuiliriq, Tim breathed. “Its the Hairy Man, Mom.

Amelias eyes were enormous in her small face.

Mad eyes looked at Liam, saw the weapon strapped to his side and raised his rifle. “Lose the gun, son. The words sounded rusty with disuse.

Liam didnt move.

With uncanny instinct, the man took two steps forward and jammed the barrel of the rifle beneath Wys chin. She rose swiftly to her feet, to stand on tiptoe. Her eyes were wide but she looked more angry than frightened. His Wy. His own Wy, nobody elses. Liam felt an answering anger kindle inside him.

The smell of the man filled the cabin, woodsmoke, dead fish, dried blood, sweat. Later, Liam would think it was that smell more than anything that made him pull out his weapon and lay it on the floor.

“Kick it to me, the man said.

Liam managed to put enough of a spin on the kick that it slid to the opposite corner of the cabin, coming to rest beneath the bunk where Rebecca Hanover lay, motionless now, even her eyes still beneath their lids.

The man followed the path of the pistol with steady steps, and paused next to the bed. “Elaine. His voice was low but audible to them all. “Oh, my Elaine. Why did you do this to yourself?

He reached out a hand as if to brush the hair from her face, and she exploded into action, launching herself at him too quickly for him to raise the weapon. They both went crashing to the floor.

Liam went for the rifle, but the ragged man threw off Rebecca, who thudded hard into the wall, slid down and lay still. The ragged man got to the rifle a split second before Liam, but didnt have time to aim before the rifle fired a second time. The shot boomed in the close confines of the room. Behind him Liam heard someone cry out, a soft thud as a body hit the floor. A second later, like Moses a second too late, he tackled the man and grabbed for the rifle, his hands closing around the barrel, warm from the two shots.

The ragged man was incredibly strong. They were close enough to touch, to kiss if theyd wanted to. The ragged mans mouth was open in a rictus of a grin. He shifted his weight suddenly. Liam lost his balance and fell heavily to one side, maintaining through sheer will his grip on the rifle barrel. The ragged man snarled and the barrel inched down and there was nothing Liam could do to stop it. The rifle fired again, almost jolting his grip loose. His hands stung but he held on. One shot left.

Wy had been going for Moses.30-06, mounted on a rack next to the door. The third shot had caught the .30-06 squarely on the breech, shattering it.

Wy cursed and hefted the rifle by the barrel in a strong batters grip. If it couldnt shoot, it could club.

The ragged man twisted like a fish, dropping the rifle in a sudden movement and closing his hands around Liams throat. In an instinctive gesture, Liam dropped the barrel to grab for the ragged mans wrists. The rifle was held between them by the press of their bodies, so tightly that it couldnt fall. Liam was choking, his face a dull red, his hands clawing.

“Leave him go! Wy shouted, and made good on her words when she swung the rifle. The butt connected with the ragged mans skull with a satisfyingly solid smack.

His hands loosened from around Liams throat. He rolled to one side to lie on his back on the floor and blink up at the ceiling in a puzzled way.

Wy reached him first, kicking his rifle out of reach. “You son of a bitch! she said fiercely.

He ignored her, turning his head to look at Rebecca Hanover sprawled in an ungainly heap, only just beginning to blink her way back into consciousness. “Elaine the fair, Elaine the lovable, he said dreamily. “Elaine, the lily maid of Astolat. My own Elaine.

Behind them, Moses had crawled to Amelia and was cradling her in his arms. Tim knelt at his side, his face white and shocked. Blood had gathered and pooled on the floor beneath all three of them, but it had ceased now to flow.

“Goddamn it, Moses said, in a tired voice Bill had never heard before. “Goddamn it all to hell.

He put back his head and yelled, “You have to be right, dont you, you sons a bitches! You just have to be right!

Bill put her hands on his shoulders. “Hush, old man, she said. “Hush now.

“Goddamn it, he said again.

He closed his eyes and rested his head on Bills breast.

TWENTY-TWO

Newenham, September 16

Liam came in at ten that evening. “She found it, he said flatly, and disappeared into the bathroom.

“Would you like to sleep in the camper tonight? she said suddenly.

His nose startled out of
The Lost Wagon,
Tim looked up from where he was curled on the couch and said, “What?

“Sleep in the camper tonight, she said. “Thats an order.

He looked toward the bathroom, and when he spoke she could have wept at the effort it took him to make the joke. “Whats it worth to you?

“A smack upside the head, she said, grabbing for him.

He hot-footed it out of reach, not quite smiling but nearly there. He loved sleeping in the trailer, having his own little self-contained house around him.

She eased the bathroom door open and slipped inside. Liam was outlined behind the curtain, hands propped on the wall on either side of the shower head, head bent beneath the stream of steaming water. She stripped and stepped into the tub behind him.

He jumped when he felt her hands on him, but he was instantly responsive. He tried to turn, tried to reach for her, and she wouldnt let him. It was part seduction, part subjugation and part the staking of a claim. He recognized it for what it was and the sum of all its parts, and he let her have her way with him.

She made him a late supper of cold moose roast sandwiches and Corona, and then they made love again on the living room couch, a fire in the fireplace and the curtains open to the river and sky. “My turn, he murmured.

“Do your worst, she whispered, lying back.

“God, he said later, “the worst day fucking is better than the best day fishing.

She shoved him off the couch and he landed smack on his bare ass, yelping and laughing. She hung over the side, looking at him. “Can you talk about it now?

“Yeah. The laughter faded. He climbed back up on the couch and snuggled next to her. Her hair was a wild tangle that tickled his nose, and her elbow was jabbing uncomfortably into his chest. He cupped a palm around her breast and trailed a finger down her spine. Her thigh was between his and pressed up against him, his was pressed against her. Marking their spots. He could live with the elbow and the tickly hair.

“We were about to pack it in for the day, but she insisted we stay out as long as there was light to see by. She spotted it up this canyon, nearly a ravine, totally overgrown. We couldnt have made it in a plane.

“No strip?

“No strip. He liked his privacy, the sick little bastard. Search and Rescue had to set the chopper down nearly a mile out. We hiked in, and it wasnt easy. I dont know how she got away.

“She told us. Windex.

A faint laugh rumbled up out of his chest. “Right. Your all-purpose cleaner and killer deterrent.

She trailed a fingertip down the crack of his behind, and he twitched, distracted, as she had meant him to be.

“Guys a master builder, Ill say that for him. Everything hand-hewn, fitted together like pieces of a puzzle. And literally invisible from the air. You couldnt even see the smoke rising from the chimney.

“Fine, he can bid on the addition to Spring Creek. That ought to be a lifetime guarantee of work.

“If he doesnt get off by reason of insanity.

“He couldnt. They wouldnt!

He said nothing.

After a moment, she said, “Were there twelve graves, like she said?

His chest rose and fell on a sigh. “Yes. There wasnt time to dig them up this afternoon. We logged the location on the GPS. Well go back tomorrow with shovels and body bags.

He rolled over, pinning her to the back of the sofa, nudging her legs apart to slide smoothly home. Something between a gasp and a moan caught in the back of her throat, and he smiled at her. “Why is it were screwing around on this couch when there is a perfectly good bed in your bedroom?

“You tell me, she whispered back, and pushed back, rolling so that she was on top. She rode him, she rode him hard, so that his only thought, at least for those precious few minutes, was of her and only of her, and when he came she was watching, waiting for it, and she whispered, “I love you, Liam, and followed him over.

The next day Liam returned to the perfect little cabin in the perfect little canyon. They disinterred the bodies, one beneath each of the wooden markers. There were no years carved into the markers, only the name and the line of verse, repeated twelve times, barely legible on the earlier markers, crisp and clean around the edges on the more recent ones.

They found a small arsenal in a concealed locker in the crawl space beneath the cabin, one that appeared to have been acquired along with the victims. The BAR Hairy Man (the killer was resisting all attempts at identification) was carrying at Old Man had been registered three years before in Cheryl Montgomerys name. A twenty-two pistol was eventually proved to have been the weapon that killed Opal Nunapitchuk; later another of the victims parents identified it as having belonged to the victims grandmother, who had given it to her granddaughter on her twenty-first birthday. There was a Winchester Field Model 16339 shotgun, and Teddy Engebretsen and John Kvichak were released into the relieved arms of their families.

When they had the bodies loaded and were ascending once again into the air, Liam looked his last on the cabin, now engulfed in flames. He glanced at the woman sitting beside him, who had insisted on accompanying them that day. He had protested, but Wy had said, “She earned it, Liam. Let her go.

Rebecca had started the fire herself, on the floor in the middle of the cabin with a Firestarter log and a match. The wood, seasoned over thirty years, spread fast and burned hot, reaching up with greedy fingers to engulf first the walls and then the roof. He supposed he should have stopped her doing it, but he hadnt, and it was beginning to rain anyway, a gentle pattering on the bracken. A heavy gray layer of clouds building between the surrounding peaks promised more on the way.

None of them, in fact, had tried to stop her. They stood behind her, almost at attention, an honor guard, watching the flames lick across the floor, catch at the walls, crawl to the ceiling.

“Are you all right? he said to her as the helicopter hovered over the canyon.

She looked at him. “I want to go home now.

“You heard the lady, he said over his headset.

The helicopter put its nose down and skidded across the sky toward Newenham.

Once during the flight he saw her looking out the window. “Easier than covering the same distance on foot, he said.

She looked at him, but she said nothing.

He put her on the jet to town that afternoon, foiling Jos attempt to talk to her. “Shes been through enough, Jo. Leave her alone.

“I will, Jo said, “but the jackals will be waiting at the gate in Anchorage.

They were; Liam and Wy watched it on television that evening, pictures of Rebecca Hanover shoving her way through a crowd of people with cameras and lights.WOMAN ESCAPES SERIAL KILLER BY TREK THROUGH BUSH , screamed the next days headlines, and subsequent issues were given over to the stories of all the victims, including baby pictures, high school pictures, prom pictures and wedding pictures. Grieving parents and spouses were interviewed; Lyle Montgomery was photographed walking up to the door of Rebeccas friend Ninas house. He was the only person unknown to her who was permitted inside. He stayed half an hour and came out again, walking swiftly to his car, getting in and driving off at once, refusing to speak or even to look at the people calling his name. Still, the camera showed the tears rolling down his cheeks quite clearly.