Stabenow, Dana - Shugak 07 - Breakup

by Breakup(lit)

  been the day before. Driving Bobby's Chevy required relearning all the

  hand controls he'd had installed. Kate had them more or less mastered by

  the time she reached her own turnout, pausing just long enough to check

  on the cabin and fetch Mutt. The jet engine was still in the yard,

  unchaperoned; the go team was sleeping in this morning. This lack of

  attention didn't augur well for a quick reimbursement of funds, and Kate

  continued her journey in a gloomy frame of mind. Mutt, annoyed at having

  been left to her own devices the night before, rode shotgun in

  unforgiving silence. They were home by one o'clock in the afternoon with

  a truck

  134 full of groceries and a receipt bearing testimony to Kate's good

  credit with the Alaska Commercial Company, only to find the NTSB once

  more in possession of the clearing. Or so she assumed when she had to

  park fifty feet up the road because her turnout was full of vehicles.

  She recognized most of them, from which she deduced the population of

  Niniltna was exercising their right to a free market by renting their

  personal vehicles out to the go team at undoubtedly exorbitant hourly

  rates. Auntie Vi's Toyota Land Cruiser was first in line, which only

  confirmed her hypothesis.

  Nor was the NTSB crew destined to be her last visitors of the day,

  more's the pity. She was lifting the first box of groceries out of the

  back of the pickup when the sound of an approaching engine filled her

  with foreboding. She raised her head to see her worst fears fulfilled:

  Mandy behind the wheel of her brand-new, newly battered Ford, its

  cockeyed front bumper making it look slightly tipsy. Mr. and Mrs. Baker

  were sitting next to her, erect and composed and looking as if they had

  suffered no ill effects from the previous day's strenuous activities.

  Mandy didn't look happy. Kate had to resist the temptation to cross

  herself and she wasn't even Catholic. At least Chick wasn't along to

  titter in the background.

  Mandy got out. The driver's side. She must have fixed the door. From the

  looks of it, probably with a crowbar. Whatever worked.

  "Hi," Kate said warily, holding the box of groceries like a shield. It

  covered most of her major organs.

  "Kate," Mandy said, voice curt. Great, she'd probably heard about the

  shoot-out at the Roadhouse.

  "Ms. Shugak," Mr. Baker said, handing his wife out. "How nice to see you

  again."

  "Indeed," Mrs. Baker added, unusually warm for her.

  "Kate-" Mandy said.

  "Mandy," Kate said, beating her to it, "I'm sorry about your truck but

  it wasn't my fault. That bear charged us, there wasn't a thing I could

  do about it. George ground-looped 50 Papa practically right on top of

  us, and there was no chance to get out of the

  135 way. And as for the bullet holes-you know what Cindy Bingley's like

  when she goes after Ben. There was nothing I could do, and nobody got

  hurt, not even Ben. At least the last I saw he was okay. And as for the

  Jeppsens and the Kreugers, hell, there's no way I could have-"

  Without doing anything so vulgar as making a face, Mr. Baker wore an

  expression that nevertheless conveyed a distinct message.

  "-no way I could have foreseen that, uh, Cheryl and Kay were going to

  have such a nasty argument," Kate finished weakly. So Mandy hadn't heard

  about the shoot-out. Yet. Kate thrust away the thought of what she might

  say when she did.

  "Truck?" Mandy said, fastening on the one word in the flood that meant

  something to her. "Oh. Kate, don't worry about the truck. Besides, I

  told you. She's yours."

  Kate blinked at her. "What?"

  "You know." Mandy gave her head a tiny jerk in the direction of her

  parents, and winked reassuringly. "For what you did."

  "Mandy-"

  "That's why I'm here, actually," Mandy said, holding out the keys. "I

  already signed over the registration. It's in the glove compartment. And

  Mother and Dad wanted to say thanks for the tour." A faint grin crossed

  her face. "They enjoyed it, even if it did take them till this morning

  to dry out. Internally as well as externally."

  She stood there holding the keys out, and was evidently prepared to

  stand there holding them out until Doomsday, so Kate awkwardly shifted

  the box in her arms and took them. "Well," she said. "Thanks." The one

  word didn't seem like enough somehow, and she added, "Come on down. I'll

  make you some coffee. Now that I have some."

  Mandy looked at the boxes stacked in the back of the truck.

  "Grocery run to Ahtna," Kate said.

  "And you had to borrow Bobby's truck?"

  "Well." Kate tried not to squirm.

  Mandy looked at her, one eyebrow ever so slightly raised, and

  136 for just a moment the resemblance to her father was very pronounced.

  "You didn't believe me about the truck, did you?"

  "Well," Kate said again, shifting from foot to foot. "I guess I just

  didn't know how right Fitzgerald was."

  "How so?"

  "The rich really are different."

  Mandy's mouth turned up at the corners. "Yeah, and you know what

  Hemingway said in reply?"

  "What?"

  " 'Yes, they have more money than you and me.' "

  "Glad to hear it," Kate said, regaining some of her composure. "If

  that's all the difference there is, you can help me hump these boxes

  down to the cabin."

  They loaded up, even Mrs. Baker, and Mutt led her train of native

  bearers single file down the trail with her tail cocked at a lordly

  angle. "What's with all the traffic?" Mandy said behind her.

  "I just got here, I'm guessing the go team is back."

  At that moment a Sikorsky helicopter with a sling attached have into

  view over the trees. "Great," Kate said, hastening her pace. "Now maybe

  they'll get that hunk of junk out of my front yard."

  It was unfortunate that just before reaching the clearing Mandy tripped

  over a tree root and into a clump of alders, dumping her box of canned

  goods and making enough noise for three bears, two moose and a hoary

  marmot. Her subsequent crash and burn was loud enough to be heard even

  over the Sikorsky's engine, because it became immediately obvious that

  the Park Uninvitational Four- Footed Grand Prix across the homestead the

  previous morning had had a strong and lasting effect.

  A shot rang out and a bullet thudded into a tree trunk a foot above

  Kate's head.

  Mutt let loose with a ferocious bark.

  Kate yelled, "Stay!" In a move that seemed almost routine by now, she

  dropped her groceries and dove for the ground, grabbing for Mr. and Mrs.

  Baker's ankles along the way, and none too soon,

  137 because in the next moment there was a Whoosh! and a cloud of spray

  hit the bushes directly in front of them.

  Kate's eyes began to water and she pulled the neck of her T-shirt up

  over her face. Mutt whined and dropped flat, rubbing her face in her

  paws. Mandy sneezed violently. The whites of her parents' eyes turned a

  bright red and their noses began to run. Mrs. Baker began to cough.

  Another bullet thunked into the tree trunk.
>
  The pilot of the Sikorsky must have thought he was back in Da Nang and

  raised ship high and fast.

  138

  The noise of the engine faded.

  Kate pushed herself up to her knees and yelled, "Hey! Whoever's in the

  clearing! Cease fire, dammit!" punctuating her appeal with a tremendous

  sneeze.

  "I hate breakup," Mandy said, choking and coughing.

  "Amanda dear, don't you think we should-"

  There was another shot and another spray and, incensed, Kate yelled

  again, "Cut it out, you guys! It's Kate Shugak, and you sonsabitches had

  better either shoot me on sight or have an awful goddam good excuse for

  shooting and spraying at me before!"

  The shots and spray ceased. "Kate?" A voice she recognized as John

  Stewman's spoke hesitantly. "Kate, is that you?"

  Kate's reply was almost muffled by another tremendous sneeze. "No,

  asshole, it's the tooth fairy!"

  139 She saw Mrs. Baker reach as if to rub her eyes and snatched at her

  hand. "No, don't rub it, that'll only make it worse." She stood, wet and

  muddy and furious. "Stewman, you disarm those people of yours or my dog

  and I will disarm them for you! And we won't care how gentle we do it,

  either!"

  There was a brief pause, a rustle of movement. "All right, Kate. You can

  come out now."

  They staggered down the path into the clearing to come face to face with

  Selina and Bickford, white-faced and trembling. Bickford was holding a

  rifle. Selina had acquired a bright orange can of bear repellent, still

  held at the ready. The rest of the team were clustered protectively

  together behind them. Kate couldn't imagine why, if the idiots had

  thought they were about to be charged by a bear, they hadn't at least

  run for the cabin.

  A stray wisp of the pepper spray caught at her throat. "Put that down,"

  she said, coughing. Neither Bickford nor Selina moved. Kate stepped

  forward and reached for the rifle. Bickford seemed disinclined to give

  it to her.

  Kate looked at him and said very carefully, "Give me that rifle before I

  take it away from you and shoot you with it."

  Bickford was not the stuff of which heroes were made. He surrendered.

  She cleared the chamber and clicked on the safety. It was the .30-06

  from the gun rack over her door. Now, that would have been downright

  embarrassing, getting shot on her own doorstep with her own gun. Another

  time Kate might have found the prospect mildly amusing, but considering

  the accumulation of events during the past two days, too many of which

  had offered bodily harm to her person, she was fresh out of a sense of

  humor.

  All Selina's attention was occupied in trying to clip the can of bear

  repellent to her belt. Her hands were shaking so badly she wasn't having

  much success, and irritated as always at a simple job poorly done, Kate

  slung her rifle, snatched the can, yanked Selina's waistband away from

  her waist until she could see all the way

  140 down to her boots and jammed the clip over the belt. The elastic of

  the waistband snapped back and the can smacked into her belly. The other

  woman gave an inarticulate protest.

  "Shut up," Kate said.

  Selina shut up.

  "The only reason you're still living," Kate told her, "is because you

  didn't score any direct hits." It wasn't easy to glare with watery eyes,

  but Kate managed it. "Now just what the hell is going on here?"

  There was some shuffling of feet, a few inaudible mumbles and a great

  deal of staring up at the sky or down at the ground or off into space.

  After a moment John Stewman stepped manfully forward. "Well, Kate, some

  of us got a little nervous after the bear incident yesterday. And then

  we heard about what happened to that woman up to the mine-"

  "That was thirty miles from here," Kate said. Nobody looked convinced.

  She shook her head and swore tiredly. "I didn't used to feel this old,"

  she said, mostly to herself. To Bickford she said pointedly, "I assume

  that sky crane was to get that hunk of junk out of here once and for all?"

  He nodded mutely.

  "Good. Call it back. The sooner I see your backsides heading up that

  trail, the safer I'm going to feel. Mutt!"

  There was a rustle at the opposite end of the clearing, and Kate looked

  around to find an extremely wary Mutt, yellow eyes turned an original

  shade of magenta, standing at the edge of the clearing in what could

  only be described as a tentative manner. Generally instinct and training

  compelled her to protect, but after the last two days Kate didn't know

  that she blamed Mutt if her first reflex was to run as far from the

  homestead as she could get. "It's okay, girl, it's safe to come out now."

  Mutt wasn't entirely convinced, but she did come out of the bushes.

  Mandy, who had borne the brunt of the pepper spray, she gave a wide

  berth. "Thanks a lot," Mandy told her, and gave a

  141 convulsive sneeze, which was the signal for first her mother and

  then her father to follow suit.

  "Come on," Kate said, and led the way into the cabin, where she pumped

  up a bucket of water into which Mandy immediately immersed her entire

  head, and emerged snorting and trumpeting like an elephant down at the

  local mud hole. Kate pumped up another bucket of water and Mandy's

  parents made do with a more refined rinse. Kate simply stood at the

  sink, head beneath the spout, and pumped. She wrung out her hair and

  groped for a towel. Head wrapped in a turban, she blinked at the room.

  Mandy had replaced the rifle in its rack over the door. The rest of the

  cabin looked much as she had left it. Lucky for the NTSB.

  Mr. Baker had dried off and gone back outside, and through the kitchen

  window Kate could see him standing next to Kevin Bickford, who had his

  Earlybird cap pulled low over eyes that were darting nervously back and

  forth. The Sikorsky was back, and they were watching the sling being

  maneuvered around the engine. Kate just hoped the corpse didn't

  disintegrate when they tried to lift it into the air.

  Mrs. Baker was standing next to the couch, staring down at the hole in

  it. Evidently she'd missed it the previous morning. She looked up to see

  Kate watching her, decided it would be a breach of good manners to ask

  and moved to the other leg of the couch to sit down, a little heavily,

  as if all this might have been just a little too much, finally.

  "Goodness," she said at last. "Amanda dear, you never told us how

  exciting life is in Alaska."

  "It isn't always like this, Mother," Mandy said, but her voice was weak,

  and Mrs. Baker looked about as convinced as Mutt had when Kate called

  her into the clearing.

  Mandy combed fingers through her damp hair. "We'd better get the rest of

  those supplies down the trail before it gets dark."

  It took the four of them three trips, by which time the jet engine was

  gone. Stewman and the rest of the team remained behind for an hour or

  so, locating, photographing, cataloging and bagging

  142 any scrap of metal they had missed in the previous search that Kate

  could no
t immediately identify or claim, all under Mutt's bleak and

  intimidating eye. Kate gave her a piece of beef jerky in reward, and

  something about the sight of those large, sharp teeth ripping into the

  strip of meat made the investigators work faster.

  The pickup looked even more flattened without the engine than it had

  with it. Kate resolutely turned her back on the mortal remains. Mr.