WHERE LEGENDS ROAM

by Lee Murphy

  After the incident on the river, any realistic hope of finding Pearl and the Winnebago was gone. They could only hope to get to civilization before nightfall without catching pneumonia.

  From here they could pick up a ride back to Red Fern.

  Jamie Montagna could not believe how badly things had turned out. First Kodiak did everything he could to release their captured Sasquatch. Then came the business with Norm and his eye. Then finding Dave Bovard splattered like a cherry pie that was dropped from a rooftop. He felt like crying.

  The Night The Red Fern Tavern Burned Down

  In ten minutes it would be nine o'clock, and the girl could close the gift shop for the night. She hated the tourist season, because the work was boring, and the customers, mostly city idiots who wouldn't know a bear from their ass, were usually obnoxious. And she had been putting in longer hours than usual.

  The customers she most hated were the ones who would come in five minutes before closing, screaming that they still had five minutes before nine, and they knew exactly what they wanted which, of course, they didn't.

  When the bell over the front door jingled, she groaned inwardly and expected the worst. Two people came in; a man and a woman. They looked like they had spent the last twenty-four hours in Hell. The man was badly battered. His face was bruised, his right eye was swollen almost shut, there was a nasty cut on his forehead, and he was walking with a noticeable limp.

  The woman was a mess, too, but not as badly beaten as the man. The looks on their faces made it clear they weren't your run-of-the-mill tourists looking to waste her time.

  The man took something off a display rack near the door and brought it over to the counter.

  "This do it for you?" she asked them.

  "That'll do it." The man looked like he was ready to kill somebody, which made his purchase seem all the more bizarre; a deck of playing cards with a picture of Mount Saint Helens in full eruption.

  ***

  Montagna and Norm went to the Red Fern Tavern and were sitting comfortably in a booth, sucking down depth charges.

  When they finally arrived in town, Norm went right to a doctor, just a country practitioner, but capable of treating his eye. He asked Norm about what caused the wound, and chastised him for not cleaning it up better and allowing the dressing to get dirty. He also explained that while he was no specialist, the eye was gone.

  Norm didn't answer any of the doctor's questions, took the prescription for antibiotics, and told the doctor to get screwed.

  Their rooms at the Red Fern Lodge were still rented under their names, so they got cleaned up and put on some fresh clothes before heading to the tavern. Montagna had a Glock model 20 pistol with a fifteen-round magazine in one of his bags that was left in the room prior to going out to Mildred Hunnicut's place. He shoved it in the pocket of his windbreaker and then went to meet Norm for dinner.

  They devoured two New York steaks each, along with baked potatoes, soup, and salad. Then they started in on the booze.

  "Some trip, huh, Jamie?"

  Montagna was preoccupied, thinking about how they had come across two Sasquatches, something that was totally unheard of, and then lost both of them.

  "I'll tell you," Norm said after dropping a shot glass into his beer, "if I ever see that Kodiak... he's a dead man. And that woman, where'd she say she was from? Seattle, that's right. Yeah, I think I'm gonna have to look her up. Jamie? Jamie, are you listening to me?"

  Montagna glanced at him and said, "Yeah. Kodiak."

  "You're not listening to me." Norm belched and sat back. He raised his hand to get the waitress' attention and called, "Couple more shots and Old Milwauks." The waitress came over to the booth, and Norm thought she must be deaf. "Sweetheart, I said a couple more shots--"

  "I got it. I was asked by a gentleman at the bar to deliver something to you..." She took a playing card from her apron pocket and set it on the table between them. She had no idea what it was about, and was even more confounded by the expression of terror that overtook both their faces at the sight of it. She figured it must have something to do with the fact that it was the ace of spades-- the death card.

  Norm grabbed her arm, squeezing off her circulation and baring his ugly, stained teeth. His one exposed eye was wide and crazed-looking. "Where is he?"

  She tried to wriggle free, but was unable. "Let go of me--"

  Norm raised his hand like he was going to beat her. "Where is he?"

  Before she could scream, Montagna pulled Norm off of her. "Forget her. Let's find him." He felt for the Glock in his jacket, and they both looked around the tavern.

  The place was packed with people: tourists, construction workers, locals, even kids. There was no sign of Kodiak-- not that he'd be stupid enough to stand still for them. Montagna and Norm split up to circle the outer perimeters of the tavern.

  Montagna, adrenalin pumping, kept his hand on the gun as he looked around for Kodiak, or Cyrena, ready to blow either of them away. Between the loud music and the other noise, nobody had noticed the row with the waitress.

  Norm was on the other side of the tavern, anxious, trembling, looking through the sea of faces that all looked frustratingly the same under the dim lights and through just one eye. His white gauze eye patch and distinctive ape face drew more than a few stares. One face he did recognize was the waitress he had strong-armed at the booth. She was looking at him, pointing him out to the bouncer, some local boy who looked like he was on steroids. The bouncer nodded, acknowledging Norm, and started moving towards him with an agility that was alarming for somebody who looked so graceless. Norm cut into the crowd in an attempt to get lost.

  He had to find Jamie. With the bouncer on his tail, and Kodiak lurking about looking to do him grievous bodily harm, Norm suddenly found himself voted least likely to succeed.

  "Hey!" The bouncer was on his toes and spotted Norm in the crowd. He worked his way between bodies to get him. Norm looked for Jamie, but was hopelessly alone, so he pulled up his right pant leg and took Ruth's knife from the case tied to his boot.

  "All right..." As the bouncer put his heavy paw on Norm's shoulder, Norm whirled around and-- WHOOSH! He swung hard with the knife, aiming for the bouncer's throat, but because of his lack of depth perception, he only grazed the bouncer's cheek. But Norm was quick; he drew back and buried the blade deep into the side of the young man's neck. The bouncer screamed, dropping to his knees, as blood oozed between his fingers and down his shirt.

  Dead silence filled the tavern. Somebody even pulled the plug on the juke box. The bouncer was on his belly, jerking in violent spasms, until Norm kicked him in the head and knocked him out.

  There was a gunshot. People screamed. Children were crying. And everyone was looking at Jamie Montagna with his Glock pointed at the bar, where the bartender was slumped over with a gunshot wound to the head. Directly beneath the bartender a shotgun lay on the floor in a pool of his blood.

  Montagna had complete control of the room, scanning the faces around him. "Everybody get at least twenty feet away from the shotgun." The crowd moved well away from the bar. "Anybody so much as moves to scratch his ass, I'll kill him. Norm, I'm gonna watch them. You find Kodiak!"

  Norm wiped the knife on his khaki pants and shoved his way through the crowd. He looked at the waitress and pointed at her, saying, "I'm not through with you, either."

  Montagna got up on a table with his back to the wall for a better view of the tavern.

  Norm looked at every face he could, shoving people out of his way, looking under tables.

  Montagna was feeling very sure of himself. He had complete control of the room and mentally chastised himself for ever being scared of Kodiak.

  His self-satisfaction was short-lived.

  WHACK! He jumped at the sound and turned toward the wall, where a playing card struck the paneling by his head. "NORM!" Montagna jumped off the table and crawled underneath it.

  The crowd freaked out and ran like the outgoing tide for the ex
its.

  In his panic Norm grabbed a ten-year-old girl and held her against his chest, holding the knife to her throat so hard that when she swallowed, the blade cut her.

  Montagna stayed under the table, watching as people's legs stampeded all around him. He spotted Kodiak's blue jeans and black boots, and fired three shots. A high-pitched scream followed, then a woman fell to the floor, clutching at her bloody, shattered legs. Two men reached down and carried her out of the tavern.

  Norm was backed against the wall, surrounded by people waiting for a chance to free the girl, but there was no way they could get at her without jeopardizing her life.

  But Norm had one major disadvantage: Kodiak rose up from the dark corner on Norm's blind side and struck him across the throat with the handle end of a pool cue. The girl tore from Norm's grasp and darted out of the tavern.

  Kodiak stepped square in front of Norm and made quick work of him. A solid crack to his groin with the pool cue, and then Kodiak spun him around, repeatedly bashing his face into the wall, leaving a bloody imprint on the white stucco surface.

  Satisfied that Norm was no longer of any consequence, Kodiak let him drop to the floor.

  Montagna was on the other side of the tavern, beyond the bar that separated the lounge from the dance floor. Kodiak knew his little deck of playing cards wasn't going to do squat against a gun.

  As the last of the customers ran out the door, the tavern was now empty except for Norm, the unconscious bouncer, the dead bartender, and Montagna, who was still under the table.

  Kodiak took a kerosine storm lantern from a post at the end of the bar and removed the glass cover, exposing the wick. He didn't know exactly which table Montagna was hiding under, so he took a book of matches from the floor and lit the lantern, allowing the flame to take hold before he lobbed it into the lounge. It smashed into a booth, and the flames quickly spread.

  No Montagna.

  Kodiak grabbed another lantern, lit it and hurled it at the lounge. This one struck a table, and the flames engulfed it. No Montagna.

  He grabbed a third lantern, watching the steadily spreading flames on the other side of the tavern. He struck the next match.

  Montagna suddenly got up from under his table and fired several rounds to cover his flight as he ran for the exit.

  BOOM! The floor exploded at Montagna's feet, and he stopped. Kodiak was in front of the bar, aiming the bartender's shotgun right at him. He pumped the shotgun hard for effect.

  The last thing Montagna wanted was to give Kodiak another excuse to kill him, so he threw his Glock as far away from himself as possible and put up his hands.

  Kodiak walked towards him, kicking overturned furniture and other debris out of his way. His eyes were shadowed, and his face looked like stone reflected in the light of the flames that were now threatening to consume the building.

  Montagna remained frozen in his spot and looked at Kodiak's hands covered in the bartender's blood. When Kodiak came up close to him, Montagna could see his own horrified face reflected in Kodiak's eyes. "...Don't..."

  Kodiak didn't shoot him. He drew back with the shotgun and brought the stock hard into Montagna's face, shattering his jaw and sending him crashing to the floor.

  Montagna screamed, crawling on his hands and knees in a psychotic attempt to get away. His mouth hurt like the worst kind of torture, and he spewed blood and teeth through swollen lips.

  The temperature had gone up drastically in the few minutes that the fire had been eating away at the lounge and was now spreading to the walls of the dance area.

  Kodiak came up behind him and drove his foot into Montagna's crotch and flipped him on his back.

  Montagna tried to scream, but gagged on his own blood. Kodiak pressed his boot heel into Montagna's jaw, forcing his head to the floor. He reached down and grabbed Montagna's testicles, vice-gripping them in his fist, and lifted Montagna off the floor.

  Montagna made pathetic animal sounds as Kodiak tightened his grip and hoisted Montagna up by his waist.

  Kodiak never heard the rangers storm into the tavern. They must have yelled at him to release Montagna half a dozen times, before one of them finally struck him across the back of his head and knocked him out.

  Out Of The Woods

  Kodiak woke up in jail. His body protested angrily against his effort to rise, but he finally managed to crawl to what passed for a toilet and got to his feet. His head hurt, and there was a bump the size of a goose egg on the back of it, but he was lucid.

  "Kodiak, you're free to go." Ranger Crichton was standing beside the open cell door, looking at Kodiak with mild disdain. "Can you make it?"

  Kodiak just leaned against the sink, still trying to get his bearings.

  Crichton turned to somebody out of Kodiak's view and said, "You want to give him a hand?"

  Cyrena came in. She was cleaned up, wearing a blue flannel shirt and the khaki slacks that hugged her shapely hips and bottom. She went inside the cell and let Kodiak lean on her as they walked out. "Are you all right?"

  Her soft voice was turning him on, and he knew he'd be okay. "All right enough."

  Crichton went on ahead of them into the main office, and Cyrena led Kodiak down the row of tiny holding cells that lined the corridor. There were five cells, and they were all empty except for the next to last one, where Norm Cocke was being held.

  He was in terrible shape; his face was badly disfigured and covered with scabs that made him look like a relief map of some foreign planet. There was an angry red welt on his neck where he had been struck with the pool cue, and he was glaring at them with his one good eye. It was a look of pure, cold hatred that even made Kodiak look away, if only for a moment. "Kodiak." He spoke with a lisp, because one of his front teeth had been knocked out.

  Kodiak stopped, feeling for some absurd reason that he owed Norm a minute.

  Norm walked up to the bars. "Know this. I am going to kill you. Jamie's not gonna let them put me away. Not me. Uh-uh."

  Kodiak was confused by this remark and looked into the other cells. They were all empty. "Where is he?"

  Norm spat, but because of his cracked, swollen lips and missing tooth, it was a pathetic gesture that ended up on his own shirt.

  Kodiak grabbed him and slammed him up against the bars. "Where's Montagna?"

  "Up yours!" The scabs on Norm's face cracked open when he yelled.

  Kodiak shoved him back, as Cyrena gently urged him to keep moving.

  As they walked out of the corridor, Norm shouted at Cyrena, "And you. I'm gonna find you too! You hear me? I'll find you!"

  Ranger Crichton shut the door behind them as they came into the office.

  Kodiak asked, "Why am I being released?"

  Crichton debated how he was going to answer the question, then said, "Mr. Montagna's chosen not to press charges against you. So all you have to do is settle up with the owner of the tavern for damages."

  Kodiak and Cyrena were astounded. He let go of her and took a step toward Crichton, who moved back out of reflex. "What do you mean, he's decided not to press charges? What the hell kind of place are you people running here? Doesn't it matter that he's killed three people? How is it he just gets to up and walk away from that?"

  Crichton was uncomfortable, but wasn't going to lie. "I'm guessing you didn't know he's connected?"

  "Connected? How?"

  "He's government. While you were sleeping off your headache, he placed a couple calls to Washington, D.C., after which I caught all sorts of holy hell for holding him. A few hours later, a couple of feds came to collect him. I had no choice but to cut him loose."

  "And what about that freak you have locked up back there?"

  Crichton became less defensive. "Cocke's another story. He's strictly civilian, so he'll stand trial for the murders of Ben Tyler, the bartender from the tavern, and, once we find the body, Andy Paul. I don't think he'll do too much time in prison, though. After a couple of years, they'll hang him."

  Kodiak was
unimpressed. "Well, thank God for the American system of justice."

  Following Cyrena's report of the previous events, a search of the area turned up Ben Tyler's body at the bottom of a seventy-foot ravine. He was dead from gutshot.

  Crichton became indignant. "I didn't want to let Montagna go! It just turned out that way. But I can assure you of one thing, my friend. He sure as hell didn't let you go out of the kindness of his heart. He's gonna look you up again someday, and he's gonna have some payback in mind."

  "You'll notice I'm not particularly concerned." He gestured Cyrena to the door.

  "By the way," Crichton said, "I understand you people were out there looking for Bigfoot?"

  Kodiak turned back to face him. "And?"

  "Lots of people go looking for those damn things every year, but I never heard of it getting so badly out of hand. So tell me, was it worth it? Did you find anything?"

  Kodiak looked at Ranger Crichton and decided he didn't like him. "Not a damn thing."

  Crichton chuckled. "I didn't think so. You're gonna want to stick around for a couple days, Kodiak. We need your statement for our investigation."

  Kodiak nodded. Then he and Cyrena left the ranger station.

  Outside, the morning air was still chilly, but the sun felt warm, and the scent of pine was strong and intoxicating. Despite the wondrous surroundings, Kodiak preferred looking at Cyrena as she walked beside him. Her auburn hair shined in the daylight and smelled of almond-scented shampoo.

  They walked arm in arm up the street until they came to the Red Fern Lodge. The adjacent tavern was burned to the ground. A work crew was busy removing wreckage.

  "That's gonna cost you."

  He looked at the building, thankful that nobody had been hurt in the fire. "I'll manage. At least the lodge is still intact, so I'll have someplace to stay while I'm stuck here. What about you?"