"Have we met?" I said.
She nodded. "Don't you remember me? My name is Laurel." She smiled and bowed. "Though I've also been called the Lady of the Alleghenies."
I searched my mind for some memory of her but came up empty. "I'm drawing a blank. You're sure we've met?"
She looked disappointed. Then shrugged it off. "It'll come back to you, I'm sure. Meanwhile, let's talk about Aegle...about Aggie. I know something about the person who's responsible for her death."
I exchanged a quick look with Duke. "Who's that?"
"Me, I'm afraid," said Laurel. "It's me."
*****
Chapter 14
"I got her killed," said Laurel, a.k.a. the Lady of the Alleghenies. "Aggie's dead because of me."
My ears perked up at that, to say the least. "Why do you say that?" I tried my best to act cool and detached in spite of my interest. Tried also to look relaxed though I was seriously on guard; it was possible Laurel meant to do me harm out there in the middle of nowhere.
"I was feeding her information." Laurel turned and walked slowly toward the cross in the middle of the clearing.
"What kind of information?" I kept my arms loose at my sides, ready for any kind of action. Duke stood alongside me, hands in his pockets—fishing for a weapon that was buried in the earth somewhere, no doubt.
"About a murder in progress." Laurel circled the cross, letting her fingers drift over the rough wood. "She was working on an investigative piece."
"Whose murder?" As I watched her every move, I cast about the hilltop with my mind, getting a feel for the available weaponry I could use against her. Dirt and rocks, in other words.
Laurel looked at me and smiled sadly. "My murder."
"Her investigation must have been helpful," said Duke. "You're still with us."
"Still dying." Laurel shrugged. "They're killing me slowly."
This wasn't making any sense. "Who're 'they?'" I was starting to wonder if Laurel was in her right mind.
"Someone I know," said Laurel. "I think."
"I don't understand," I said. "Assuming someone is trying to kill you..."
"Not trying," said Laurel. "They are."
"Assuming that's true, how does it rate a TV news investigative piece?" I shrugged and shook my head.
Suddenly, Laurel stormed toward me. I tensed, reaching out to grab rocks with my power, preparing to defend myself.
"I'll show you how." Laurel reached for me, and Duke pushed between us, blocking her. She tried to reach around him on the other side, and he blocked her there, too.
"Easy does it, now." Duke said it sternly, with one eyebrow raised.
Laurel backed off a step. "I can show you with a touch," she said. "If you'll let me. I promise I won't hurt you."
I met her gaze for a moment, trying to take her measure. I knew better than to make myself vulnerable to a stranger, especially out on an isolated hilltop in the deep woods...but I realized I trusted her. Something about her put me at ease.
I just hoped it wasn't hypnotic suggestion. Or trickery of the magical variety. "Let her through." I tapped Duke on the shoulder.
Duke sighed and wagged a finger at Laurel. "No funny business." Then, he stepped aside.
Laurel raised one hand and reached toward me. "Here, Gaia." She pressed her fingertips to my forehead. "Here's why my murder rates investigating."
For a moment, I felt nothing but the warm morning breeze on my face. Heard the birds calling back and forth in the trees, smelled the wildflowers in Laurel's hair and on her gown.
Then, without warning, my awareness began to expand. Drifted out beyond my body, taking in the whole hilltop—every bird and leaf and flower. Expanding downward, too, under the ground—much farther down than even I could sense unaided, deeper and deeper into the solid rock heart of the hill. Into the rippled crust of the Earth and still further outward in all directions...down and up and forward and back and right and left. A sphere of sensations, of all the sights and sounds and smells and tastes and textures that existed at that instant in that place for miles around. And then I saw more.
The sphere of my awareness suddenly ballooned. Exploded across hundreds of miles of buckled earth and tree-lined slopes, of peaks and valleys. Every inch of every mile shivering in crystal clarity in my mind—every feather on every bird, every needle on every pine just as rarefied and vibrant as the vast, hulking domes and humps and ridges crawling from horizon to horizon under the sun.
For that moment, I felt like a mountain range. Did not just receive an impression of sensory input from a mountain range, but knew exactly how it felt to be a mountain range. In particular, the one on which I was standing.
Now I understood what Laurel had said about her other name. Now I knew why she was also called "The Lady of the Alleghenies."
Because somehow, Laurel was the Allegheny Mountains.
I slumped when she pulled her fingers from my forehead. Felt Duke grab my arm and hold me up.
"Are you all right, Earth Angel?" he said.
"Yes." As soon as my eyes came back into focus, I locked them on Laurel. I admit, I was shell-shocked. Like I said, I've run into all kinds of extraordinary people in my life. It takes a lot to surprise me, but Laurel pulled it off. I'd never met someone so vast before; I'd never communed with someone who was literally a mountain range.
"Now do you get it?" Laurel looked a little winded. "Now do you see?"
"But how?" I let Duke hold on to me a little longer; I still felt woozy. "How could someone kill a mountain range?"
"I don't know for sure. That's why I've come to you." Laurel took my hands and folded them into her warm grasp...so unbelievably tender and human after all the harsh grandeur I'd seen in her outlying form. "I want you to find out who it is. I want you to investigate."
I frowned and started to shake my head.
"The same murderer must have killed Aggie," said Laurel. "If you find out who's killing me, you'll find out who killed her."
*****
Chapter 15
Duke and I hiked out of the woods with Laurel and found the Highlander where I'd parked it, along the side of a dirt access road. The three of us got in and headed for town.
Laurel was coming along to get the ball rolling.
Didn't mention having transportation of her own, and we didn't ask. Figured she'd fill us in eventually.
We didn't talk much on the way home. Tell you the truth, it was strange for me after seeing her for who she really was. Experiencing the length and depth and height and breadth of the mountain range, knowing Laurel was a human avatar encapsulating its greatness. I'd never dealt with someone so huge before, if you know what I mean. Someone who so completely dwarfed me in every way. I wasn't sure how to approach her, how to work with her.
She didn't have much to say, either, in the car. "Thanks for the lift." That was about it. "Nice weather we're having." That, too.
Plus this, as we crossed the city limits. "Are you sure you don't remember me, Gaia? Not even a little?"
"I'm sure." I took another look at her violet eyes in the rear-view mirror for good measure. "Unless you mean, do I remember the mountains you come from?"
"No, no," said Laurel. "I meant me as a person. The one who's sitting in your back seat right now."
I shrugged and shook my head. "Sorry, no."
"Well, I remember you," said Laurel. "From a long time ago."
When I checked the rear-view mirror, she looked back at me with eyes narrowed. A piercing gaze that held me a heartbeat longer than it should have.
"I'll have to tell you about it sometime," she said. "We can get caught up."
When I looked in the mirror again, Laurel was staring out the side window. Smiling, her face awash in golden sunlight.
*****
"Caravan" played on the ring tone when I opened the front door of Cruel World Travel. I switched on the lights, and Duke and Laurel followed me in.
"Why the name?" said Laurel. "Why 'Cruel World
?'"
"It's like 'Goodbye, cruel world.' We help people get away from it all." I dropped my keys and sunglasses on my desk. "Plus, our trips always have an edge to them. We always include one stop that could get kind of ugly."
"Ugly?" Laurel drifted through the office, looking at posters on the walls. "You mean dangerous?"
"Not dangerous, just dark," I said. "People expect it, they rave about it. Makes the trip memorable. It's our trademark."
"Ah." Laurel stopped at the electric keyboard on the stand in the back of the room. "Who plays this?"
"That would be me." Duke strolled back behind the keyboard and switched it on. His fingers flickered over the keys, playing a trickle of high notes. "Any requests? 'Nature Boy?' 'Rocky Mountain High?'"
Laurel grinned and laughed. "Do you know 'Take the A-Train?'"
Duke's eyes slowly lifted from the keys. He frowned, then let it melt into a sly smile. "Excellent choice." He played the opening bars, never taking his eyes off her. "Your taste in music is superb."
"And your reputation precedes you." Laurel curtsied. "It's an honor."
I listened with increasing interest, working my way back to the keyboard. It sounded like Laurel knew more about Duke than she'd let on at first.
"Well, now." Duke smiled and kept playing, slipping effortlessly from "A-Train" into "Mood Indigo." "I wonder who you think I am, that I deserve such honor."
Suddenly, in the middle of the song, Laurel grabbed his left hand. "I know exactly who you are." She raised his hand to her lips and kissed it. "You are literally a man of the world."
Duke chuckled. He was still playing the keyboard with his right hand while Laurel held his left. "You are absolutely correct. I'm a man of Cruel World Travel."
"A man of the earth, is what I meant." Laurel stroked Duke's hand with one graceful fingertip. "Made of the earth. Not human, not flesh." She let go of his hand. "The word for you is golem, is it not?"
Duke laughed. "And the word for you is forward." Wagging his head, he launched into "C-Jam Blues" on the keyboard, really tearing it up.
Which is when "Caravan" piped up and the front door opened, admitting Sheriff Briar. Duke hit one more chord and stopped playing as the Sheriff's boots hit the floor.
"Oh. Excuse me." Briar's gaze immediately zeroed in on Laurel. He kept his hand on the doorknob, ready to back out. "I see you have a customer."
"More like a lead. Possibly." I gestured at Laurel. "Dale Briar, this is Laurel. Laurel, meet Dale Briar."
Briar took off his cop ball cap and waved. "Good to meet you, Laurel."
"The feeling is mutual." Laurel smiled and curtsied.
I thought she was acting flirty, which annoyed me. I walked in front of her and faced Briar with my hands on my hips. "She claims Aggie was working with her on an investigative piece."
"Another one?" Briar whistled. "That's a lot of investigative journalism for one weather girl."
"Or maybe it was part of the same piece." I folded my arms over my chest and turned to Laurel. "The story Aggie was working on. Did it have to do with something called Divinities?"
Laurel shook her head. "This is the first I've heard of it."
"What about 'Groundswell?'" I said. "An organization called Groundswell?"
"Sorry, no," said Laurel.
Turning sideways, I leaned against the edge of Duke's desk. Looked over at Briar. "What do we have on Groundswell so far? What have you found?"
"There's no record of it." Briar sighed and sat on the corner of my desk. "Phaola said Divinities was financing Groundswell, but we haven't been able to find a trail. They kept no books."
"What about Holloway?" I said.
Briar shook his head. "Just a pimp and a bag man, for all intents and purposes."
"Any link to the Secret Valley people?" I said. "Divinities did hold their little pajama party in the resort's secret underground playhouse."
"Nothing yet," said Briar. "But we're still looking."
"Wow." I blew out my breath and stared at the ceiling. "It was such a big operation. I can't believe you didn't find anything."
"And I can't believe you're even working on this." Briar sounded half ticked off, half teasing. "I thought you wanted to stay hands off."
I ignored the comment. Turned to Laurel instead. "So if Divinities and Groundswell weren't connected to your case, who was? Who was Aggie investigating?"
Laurel flowed into a chair. She suddenly looked less effervescent. "My people. My family. I thought it might be one of them."
"What made you think that?" I said. "Evidence? Threats? Motives?"
"Scope." Laurel plucked a pen from the desk blotter and started clicking the button on the tip, popping the point in and out. "No one else could do a job this size. No one I know of, anyway."
Briar frowned. "What kind of job are we talking about here?" He shot me a puzzled look. "What was Aggie investigating?"
"My murder." Laurel stared at the pen in her hands. Kept clicking it.
Briar's frown turned into a scowl. "Your murder?"
"It's a murder in progress." Laurel smiled sadly. "I'm being poisoned."
"Okay." Briar thought for a moment, scratching the back of his neck. Shifted position on the desk. "And it's incurable?"
"I believe so," said Laurel.
"You've been to a doctor?" said Briar. "He told you this?"
Laurel shook her head. "I just know. I can feel it working inside me."
Briar let out an exasperated sigh and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "You said something about the scope of this. About how not everyone could do a job this size. What did you mean by that?"
"Not just anyone could poison an entire mountain range." Laurel stopped clicking and smiled at him. "That's what I meant."
"I should've known." Briar chuckled in my direction. "Should've known she was one of your bunch."
"Actually," said Laurel, "I'm not."
"But you have to be," said Briar. "Some kind of naiad or dryad or nymph or something."
"No I don't." Laurel started clicking the pen again. "I don't have to be anything you've ever heard of before." She looked my way. "Or at least, anything you remember."
"So what are you then?" said Briar.
"An avatar," I said. "The Allegheny Mountains in human form."
"More than that," said Laurel. "I'm Landkind."
"Landkind?" I said. "What's that?"
"All will be revealed." Laurel dropped the pen and got up from her chair. "After we have a drink."
*****
Chapter 16
Briar, Laurel, and I piled into Briar's cruiser. Duke stayed behind to take care of some customers.
Laurel called the shots, leading us twenty minutes up the road to Ohiopyle—white water rafting country over the border in Fayette County. We stopped at a bar and grill outside the entrance to Ohiopyle State Park. The name on the sign out front was "Doc Yough's."
Briar parked in the gravel lot and got out of the cruiser. "Doc Yough's, huh?" "Doc" rhymed with "Yough," pronounced "Yock," which was short for the Youghiogheny River, Ohiopyle's claim to fame. "What's the attraction here?"
"We get a discount," said Laurel. "Friend of mine owns the place."
As I got out of the cruiser and looked around, I thought Doc Yough's looked okay. Somewhere in the middle—not exactly classy, but not a dive, either. It was a single-story building with a log cabin front and cedar shake around the sides. Neat but not tidy, if you know what I mean. A little rough around the edges.
There were three pickups and two motorcycles in the parking lot. It was two in the afternoon on a Monday, but I still would've expected more customers. Ohiopyle drew a hell of a crowd on summer days like this, bringing in rafters and fishermen and mountain bikers from a wide radius including Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.
Laurel led us inside, which was brighter than most bars I'd been to. Sunlight streamed in through windows and skylights, bounced off mirrors and brass, made white tablecloths flare. I almost put m
y sunglasses back on but settled for squinting till my eyes could adjust.
The light flared from Laurel's white gown, too. She looked dazzling; the customers, eight men scattered around the room, couldn't take their eyes off her.
"I'm thirsty." She winked at me, then glided to the bar. Knocked on it three times, then kept knocking. "Hey, barkeep! What's a mountain gotta do to get a drink around here?"
A deep, raspy voice spoke up from behind me. "Pour it yourself?"
Turning, I saw a man in his sixties, at least, with a bushy bale of salt-and-pepper hair and a beard to match. He was skinny to the point of scrawny...make that emaciated. Sunken cheeks under cheekbones like elbows, sunken chest, legs like ski poles. The waist of his blue jeans was cinched tight as a bread wrapper around his tucked-in green plaid flannel shirt.
"Owen!" Laurel hurried over and snapped up his hands. "I couldn't stay away a day longer!"
Owen peered at me with owlish blue eyes from behind spectacles as thick as glass bricks. "Translation, she wants free drinks."
"And lucky you, I've brought friends." Laurel placed her hand on my shoulder and leaned in close to me. "This young lady is Gaia Charmer, travel agent. Gaia, meet Owen Harkins."
"Nice to meet you, Owen," I said.
Owen grinned as he shook my hand...but his expression changed. He cocked his head to one side and stared with increasing intensity. Made me feel uncomfortable, especially when his grip tightened on my hand.
"I know you." Owen nodded slowly. "Sure I do."
"Sorry." I tugged my hand free and shrugged. "We haven't met."
"We most certainly have." Owen wagged a finger at me. "I never forget a pretty face."
I was getting irritated. It was the same routine I'd been getting from Laurel. "Well, you're mistaken this time."
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