Viola had already told me to let her handle talking to Tex and Ellen.
“Remember the fire we had six or so years back?” Viola said.
“No,” Tex said. “Wildfire?”
“House fire,” Viola said. “Two girls were presumably killed, but only one body found. Jenny Horton.”
“Jesus. No, I don’t remember that at all.”
“Were you in Brayn back then?”
“I’ve lived in Brayn all my life.”
Viola looked at me and then back at Tex. I looked at Tex, too. So did Ellen. He noticed the audience, but he only looked at Viola.
“Only one girl’s body was found. The other remains seemed to have been burned up completely,” Viola said.
Tex brought his eyebrows together tightly. “That’s … horrible.”
I wondered if I was the only one who saw the moment when Tex’s eyes gave him away. What had that news made him feel? Surprise, shock, fear? I didn’t know, but I knew that in that briefest of instants, something had changed. I wondered if Viola should have waited for Gril and Donner. What had Gril and Tex discussed the day before? I was torn between being anxious for Gril and Donner to join us and hopeful that Tex would explain more about his girls.
“That’s just terrible,” Ellen said.
Viola and I shared another glance. I suspected she’d seen what I had.
“Viola, when was this exactly?” I asked. “Do you remember?”
“Six years ago. July.” We both watched Tex again. “The girls would have been about two at the time. They’d be eight now.”
I couldn’t see his neck, but there was something about the way the hair on his face moved that made me think Tex had swallowed hard.
“Terrible,” Tex said.
“You don’t know anything about that, do you?” Viola asked.
“No.”
Viola put her hands on her hips and stepped toward Tex. She was a big woman, but still not at big as he was.
“Tex, I gotta ask you, are both of those girls yours?” Viola asked.
“Yes, Viola, they are mine,” he said.
“Where’s their momma?”
“She didn’t stick around.”
“White woman?”
Credit to Tex, he didn’t behave as if he was offended by the questions. He’d heard them before probably, but he didn’t answer, either.
Gril and Donner emerged from the cave, both of them carrying bags of evidence.
“Tex,” Gril said. “I need you to come with me. All right?”
Tex looked at Gril with steely eyes. “Why?”
“I have some questions for you.”
Tex hesitated. “I need to call a tribal representative if I’m going to be talking to the Benedict police.”
“Whatever floats your boat,” Gril said.
“What’s this about?” Tex asked.
“We found some things in the cave we’d like to talk to you about.”
“What?”
“Why don’t you call your tribal rep and have them meet us in Benedict, at my office. Want the address? You come with me, if you don’t mind.”
Tex hesitated, but then said, “I’m sure they can find it.”
“Your truck running, Viola?” Gril asked.
“I think so.”
“You all get back to Benedict in Beth’s truck. Donner will take your truck, and Tex will come with me. We’ll let Tex’s representative know his truck is out here.”
“Am I under arrest?” Tex asked.
“Not yet.”
There was no cell signal out in the woods. Or at least not one reliable enough for Tex to call his representative. Gril loaded Tex into his truck, offering to drive back to Brayn first. Donner took Viola’s truck and headed back to Benedict. Tex’s truck was pulled to the side of the road, inasmuch as there was one.
Finally, Viola, Ellen, and I piled back into my truck.
We were silent for a long time.
“Did Tex say anything when we were inside the cave?” I asked Ellen. “Did he seem nervous?”
“No. He didn’t say much, and I didn’t feel the need to talk, either. Mostly, we were quiet. I thought I saw something in the woods and for a second I was worried it was a bear or something, but he looked and said it was probably just someone checking traps.”
“Why did you think it might be a bear?”
“Looked like one, sort of.” Ellen shrugged. She sat in the middle space and I could tell she was continually readjusting to save herself from the springs.
“How far away were they?”
“What? How far out into the woods?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know. Half a football field or so.”
“From which direction?” I asked.
“Back there.” She pointed.
The other way, the way that would eventually lead to Lane’s house.
“I’m going a different direction,” I said as I maneuvered the truck.
“Why?” Viola asked.
“I want to see if someone has been spying on us.”
“What?” Viola asked.
“It’s just a hunch.”
“It was probably just a trapper, Beth. They’re out here,” Viola said.
“What trapping season is it?” I asked.
“I don’t know. But people trap out of season, too. There’s not much regulation.”
The way might have been “cleared” by the mudslide, but it was still rough going. I didn’t want to give up, though.
We bounced our way over rough terrain. It was a semi-miserable journey. I finally came to a stop and we all looked around the woods.
“You see anything out there?” Viola asked aloud.
“Nothing like someone in a bearskin coat,” Ellen said.
“When do bears hibernate?” I asked.
“Depends,” Viola said. “They don’t all hibernate. If food is available, bears don’t need to hibernate. The pregnant females will anyway, but not all the males. If you head to the northern parts, you’ll find more hibernation. Here, it’s not as necessary. However, an early winter might be an indication that the bears are headed in. Bottom line, it’s hard to know for sure.”
We saw no animals, no people covered in animal skins. Nothing but the snow-covered woods. Another time on an easier ride, it would be a pretty sight.
“Hang on. We’re going to cross the river,” I said as I put my foot back on the accelerator.
“What?” Ellen said. “That doesn’t sound wise.”
“I hear there’s a low point. Right, Viola?”
“It’s been a while, but give it a shot. I’ll tell you if you need to turn around.”
“Oh boy,” Ellen said.
A long and bumpy few minutes later, we came to the river and the low spot. The water was low, and the rocky riverbed was high; a hump, of sorts, where the water slowed to almost a trickle. I thought I could drive across it—it would probably be easy to walk across.
“Will we get stuck?” I asked Viola.
“Don’t think so, but there’s only one way to find out. Hang on and go.”
“Wait! Want me to get out and check it?” Ellen said.
“Nope. Just hold on tight,” I said.
We made it halfway when my tires started to slip. As Ellen and Viola waited silently, I put my foot back down, nice and easy.
In what seemed like an inch-by-inch infinite journey, we finally made it to the other side.
“Nice,” Viola said.
“Phew, that was something,” Ellen said with a laugh.
“Where to now?” Viola asked.
“I want to see if…”
We came around a sharp curve, and there it was, the place I was looking for. Lane’s house.
I stopped the truck again. “That didn’t take long.”
“What?” Viola said.
“It only took about ten minutes to get here, even getting over the river. How is that possible?” I looked around, trying to understand th
e distances.
“It’s just a shortcut,” Viola said.
“Why weren’t these roads paved instead, then?”
“I’m not a civil engineer, Beth, but I’m guessing because this area was dangerous with the possibility of mudslides. The river might flood. I don’t know.”
“Lane has been hidden out here for years. Now he’s not.”
“Happens,” Viola said.
“Come with me to the door? Make sure he sees your gun.”
“Sure. Why not.”
“Oh boy,” Ellen said again. “I’ll stay in the truck.”
“And I’ll leave you the keys,” I said.
I pulled the truck around to the front of the house, and Viola and I got out.
“What’s going on, Beth?” Viola asked as we walked to the door.
I veered her around the hole in the ground, and we stepped over the now obvious string that had been restrung to arm the cookware alarm. She didn’t seem surprised to see the homemade setup.
“Something that, for some reason, no one wants to tell anyone about,” I said. We stopped walking and looked up at the smoke curling up from the chimney. Even so, the house didn’t seem particularly welcoming.
I knocked on the door and heard noises inside.
Lane opened the door and looked at me, at Viola, and then at her exposed firearm. He didn’t seem to be bothered by it. “I don’t understand why you keep showing up.”
“Were you out in the woods over there toward Brayn a little bit ago?”
Lane crossed his arms in front of himself. “Look, what I do is none of your business. Where I do it is even less your business. Time for you to leave me alone. Got it?”
Viola didn’t introduce herself, didn’t need me to prompt her with a full story, either, apparently, but said, “We were out there, by the ice cave, and thought we saw someone. We wondered if it was you.”
Lane blinked at her but seemed to relax. “I wasn’t out there. Now, that’s the last time I’m answering your questions. Please don’t come back to my house ever again.”
A noise sounded from the back of the house, as if a door had been slammed shut.
“You live alone?” I asked.
Lane sent me a look that would kill, if looks could do such things. And then he closed the door, surprising me by not slamming it, too.
I stepped backward toward the truck and contemplated walking into the woods to search behind the house, but the slamming of the door might have meant someone had gone inside, too.
Just because I wanted answers did not mean they were any of my business. What was I sensing—what connection? What was the missing piece that would pull it all together?
“What does it matter if he was out there?” Viola asked.
“I don’t know yet, but I’m working on it.”
“Come on. We’ve got Ellen. I don’t know this guy.”
“He does come into town, shops at the mercantile.”
“Well, there aren’t many options. That doesn’t tell me much of anything.”
“I know.” I looked into the woods another moment. “All right, let’s get back.”
Ellen was still sitting in the middle spot on the truck’s bench seat. She might not have heard what we’d said, but she’d watched out the windshield.
“You okay?” I said.
She laughed once, nervously. “Well, I’m keeping very distracted.”
“That’s good,” I said.
“That’s very good,” Viola said. “Let’s see what’s going on back in Benedict.”
Thirty-Four
I looked at Randy’s house as we passed by it. He still wasn’t there; maybe he wasn’t even back from Juneau yet.
“Viola, does Randy have any hobbies? Does he hunt or trap?” I asked.
“I don’t think so. He owns the mercantile. It’s his life.”
“Have you remembered his wife, Wanda, any better?”
Viola thought a long moment, then shook her head. “She was unhappy, unfriendly, but that’s the only impression I remember.”
“Where in the world would she have gone? Anywhere around here you can think of?”
“I have no idea. I didn’t have one real conversation with her.”
“Do you remember the day she left?”
“No, Beth. I just don’t. She wasn’t here long as far as I know. Why?”
“I just wondered if it was ugly, if there was a public argument.”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
We were coming up to the Petition and the library. “I need to check in with Orin. Do you mind if I stop there a minute?” I asked.
“A library?” Ellen said as the hand-carved sign came into view.
“Yes, a great one,” I said.
She looked at Viola. “I know you have no real reason to trust me, but could I stay here awhile? I’d love to find some books. I’m not sure I can get a card, but I can read here.”
“Sure,” Viola said. “Just remember, there’s nowhere to run.”
Ellen laughed again. “I know that even more than I did before. We just got back from nowhere. Thank you.”
“You’re doing great, Ellen,” Viola said.
She took a shaky breath. “At the moment, I’m not so sure, but there’s no fix in the near vicinity, so I’ll battle through. All addicts should be lucky enough to have so many strange adventures.”
I thought about Orin’s medicinal painkiller and hoped it wouldn’t cause a problem.
“I’ll just wait here,” Viola said. “Hurry up, Beth. I want to get to Gril’s office. I need my truck.”
I guided Ellen inside and saw her eyes light up as she looked at the shelves, and then dim when she saw the crowd.
“Lots of people,” she said quietly.
“Internet access is like gold around here,” I said. “Everyone will head over to the airport at lunch if Orin shuts down for an hour. You going to be okay getting back to the Benedict House if you need to? Just down the road we were traveling.”
“I’m going to be fine,” Ellen said. “Maybe I’ll never have to leave this library. That might be the best. Oh, but I have to cook dinner and I wouldn’t even think of shirking that duty.”
We were standing right inside the doorway, not speaking too loudly, but probably too noisily for the library setting. I put my hand on her arm and lowered my voice even more.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“No. I mean, yes, I’m fine, but now I’m overloaded with regret and sorrow. I’m trying to ignore it. I mean, people have been killed and I can’t seem to stop thinking about me and all the time I have wasted.”
“Well, I don’t have the right answers, but you can only do better from here on. It’s up to you.”
Ellen looked at me. “Thanks. I’ll try.” She took another deep breath. “I hope to find some good books.” She leaned close and spoke even more quietly. “I think I’ll pass on your books for today, though. Too scary.”
“Sheesh, that’s the truth.” I smiled. I gave her the phone number of the burner phone I’d been using. “Not sure it will do you any good, but if we both happen to be in pockets of coverage, or you use a landline, I’ll try to answer it.”
“Thanks.”
I left her with the readers, the books, and the open laptops, and made my way to Orin’s office.
“Come in,” he said when I knocked.
“Hey,” I said. I closed the door behind me.
“Beth! I got your message. I tried to check on you but no answer. I’m glad to see you. What’s going on?”
I filled him in on the latest.
“Gril thinks the body from three months ago is Paul Horton? What in the hell does that mean? How bizarre,” he said.
“Orin, someone was watching us in the woods. I thought it was Lane, but now I’m not so sure. We just stopped by his house and he said he wasn’t out there by the ice cave, and then I heard a door slam in the back of his house.”
“And we don’t know who that
might have been, coming or going?”
“No clue.”
Orin shook his head once. “And two women are missing—Wanda Phillips, and Ashley Horton. Ashley’s purse was found in the cave?”
“He assumes she’s the female body. And Gril took Tex Southern in for questioning. What if one of Tex’s daughters is the Horton girl who disappeared? What if neither of those girls are his?”
“That could get very ugly, indeed.” Orin sat back in his chair and rested his chin on his steepled fingers.
“What?”
“I’m going to research some more, but I’ll call Gril the second I find something helpful.”
We said we’d talk later. As I left the library, I saw that Ellen had scored one of the comfortable chairs and was nose-deep in a romance.
I rejoined Viola, but then did something that surprised even her. I told her I didn’t want to go with her into Gril’s office, that I had some things I wanted to get done.
I dropped her off at the police cabin, noticing that Gril’s and Viola’s trucks, along with some vehicles I didn’t recognize, were parked out front. Presumably, Tex was in there, too.
I told Viola I’d see her later and took off back to Brayn. I didn’t tell anyone where I was going.
Thirty-Five
Though I didn’t completely understand why, I didn’t want Tex Southern to be guilty of anything. Nevertheless, I hoped he would remain with Gril and Donner for at least a little while.
The dark clouds promised more snow or maybe rain, but none was falling yet. It would, probably when I least wanted it to. For now, I traveled the thirty minutes to Brayn confidently, the road mostly clear, or clear enough.
I drove directly to Tex Southern’s house and knocked on the door.
As I’d hoped, his mother answered. “Hello again,” she said, but not with a friendly tone. People were tired of me knocking on their doors today.
I paused a moment and then stuck my hand out. “My name is Beth Rivers.”
“My son told me your name.”
I took back my hand. “Right. May I come in, Grettl? I’d like to say hello to the girls if they’re here, but that’s not the real reason I’ve stopped by. I’d like to ask you a couple of questions.”
“No, I won’t invite you in,” she said. “The girls are upstairs, and I don’t know you. Tex doesn’t really know you. What right do you have to ask questions?”
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