by Vicki Lane
The young man looked toward the heavy cell door beyond which the sound of heavy boots could be heard. Ye hear that? Could be the jury’s done decided and the bailiff’s come fer me.
He sat up, tense and expectant, then slumped back as the sound of footsteps died away.
Maybe they done decided to let me rot.
The Professor waited silently for a moment, then spoke in a confiding tone. Nettie Mae told me it was said that Belle could charm wild creatures with the sound of her voice, that men and beasts alike were ensorcelled by the sinuous melodies she wove.
Lydy stared at the other man, his eyes dull. Women-folk says a lot of things, don’t they? Now Belle could sing and that’s a fact; she’d sit weavin at that loom of hern and the lonesome sound of her songs would twist all around and amongst above the clack of the loom. As fer charming wild critters, she did have her a tame bird, one of them great black and white peckerwoods that has a call like a crazy woman’s laugh. She didn’t keep hit in no cage neither; alls she had to do was to step out the door and call fer hit and here hit come, flapping out of the trees to light on her shoulder and whisper in her ear with hits cruel white beak.
But I reckon what you’re wantin to know is about me and Belle. I might as well tell you the way of it. That first night I was back at the stand, I had made me down a pallet in the hay barn, where I had slept before. But Luellen’s daddy looked at me hard and said, Son, you’d best sleep in the common room afore the fire where you kin stay warm. I figured Luellen would likely find a way to slip out durin the night and though, like I done said, she weren’t so much to my taste no more, still I weren’t agin layin with her. So, think I, I’ll make fer the hay barn atter a time and see if she’s a-waitin fer me.
But I done what her daddy said. I took my place afore the fire with the other drivers. I was some fuddled for Ol’ Luce had been mighty free with the applejack. Afore long I had gone off into a deep sleep filled with troublesome dreams of men turning into hogs and a great fish monster swallowin them whole. And then I was one of them hogs and the monster had me in his cave and there was blood rainin down the walls.
I was thrashin about, tryin to get free of the fish-trap I’d run into, when there was a hand on my shoulder and the feller who’d been sleepin next me was shakin me awake.
Goldarnit, Lydy, you’re like to wake the house. You got yourself all snarled up in that blanket and you’re kickin like a young mule.
I come awake and at first hit was like I was back in that dream where the walls was runnin blood. Then I seen hit was only the light from the fire makin them so red.
Thankee, friend, I whispered. I’ll step outside and get my head clear.
I crept out as quiet as I could, pickin my way between the sleepin men all around the fire. Outside, there was bright moonlight and I decided to lay me down in a little grassy hollow near the barn, where I could watch fer Luellen. I flung my blanket down and stretched out, the cool air washin over my face, takin away the feelin left by that worrisome dream. I was layin there, watchin the moon ridin high above the world, when all to oncet a dark shape comes betwixt me and the moon. I see from the skirts that hit’s a woman and I feel myself getting hard.
Luellen? I says, and the woman kneels down before me. And then her hair is a dark cloud, blotting out the moonlight and her honey breath is in my mouth and in my nose and the hummin sound of her words is filling my ears and her white hands are moving on me and I am Belle Caulwell’s creature forever more.
Chapter 28
Let Nothing You Dismay
Monday, December 25, and Tuesday, December 26
Elizabeth sat at the dining table watching the reflected pinks of the dying day fade on the snowy peaks along the eastern horizon. A new gardening book, filled with glossy photo layouts of heartbreakingly beautiful English gardens, lay open before her.
“You always write your thank-you notes on Christmas Day?” Phillip took the chair at the other end of the table, motioning to the little stack of sealed and stamped envelopes at her elbow.
“Not always—but within a few days. I’d rather get it over with than have to keep reminding myself.”
“And it’s something to keep your mind off all the other things you’re worried about, am I right?” His tone was light but his expression was serious. “Lizabeth, are you going to ask Amanda about this Spencer Greer connection?”
She shut her eyes. “I want to. I really, really want to. But for one thing, I don’t think I should mess up Christmas Day for everyone by getting into something that may lead god knows where. And for another, I think I ought to wait till I can hear the rest of whatever it was my sister was starting to tell me. It’ll be midday tomorrow before Glory’ll answer her phone, so I’ll just have to contain myself.”
The sound of boots stamping on the front porch roused James, and he responded with a high-pitched peal of barks but did not leave his snug corner of the love seat.
“You guys should’ve come. We got some amazing shots of the sunset!” Laurel burst through the door, followed by the two dogs and Ben and Rosemary. The girls headed for the fireplace, shedding coats, gloves, and hats as they went. Ben, however, left his outerwear on.
“What’ve you done with Amanda?” Phillip asked when it became obvious she was not out on the porch.
“She was feeling pretty zonked and went to the cabin to take a nap—said to tell you thank you for everything, Aunt E.” Ben came to the table. “She really enjoyed herself—said she wished she’d grown up in a family like this. I was going to give my mom a quick call and get some leftovers to take to the cabin, if that’s okay.”
“Take what you want, Ben. But your mom called while you were up the mountain. She said she was going to a party—you’ll have to try again tomorrow.”
Ben’s eyes rolled. “I expect she was pissed too—in both senses of the word.”
Elizabeth hesitated. “Well, she—”
“Don’t bother, Aunt E. I know how she is. That’s another thing Manda and I have in common—parents that suck.”
Elizabeth awakened to feel a hand on her shoulder. Sleepily she rolled over and reached for Phillip, only to find his side of the bed empty.
“Lizabeth, I’ve got to go. Mac just called. The old house at Gudger’s Stand is on fire. I need to go give him a hand.”
She forced her eyes open. In the partial light from the hall, she saw Phillip zipping his jeans. She tried to focus on the bedside clock and its luminous dial: 1:34. She sat up.
“Just go back to sleep, sweetheart.” Phillip was settling his handgun into its holster. “I’ll give you a call as soon—”
“I’m coming with you.” Elizabeth jumped out of bed, yanked open her closet door, and began pulling on warm clothes. “Please?”
“My guess is arson. Once they get the fire out, I’ll be real surprised if we don’t see evidence of a propellant.”
They had found Mackenzie Blaine by his cruiser, watching as hoses from an assortment of fire engines pumped water through the broken windows along the front and back of the house. When they had first turned onto the bridge, Elizabeth had winced at the sight of the historic building, its lower windows alight with bright flames and heavy smoke spiraling from it into the night sky. But that had evidently been the peak of the fire’s activity, for by the time they were across the bridge and climbing out of their car, the flames had winked out and only the smoke remained.
“Not what you’d call a professional job though,” the sheriff explained. “A real arsonist would have gone for something that would smolder away unnoticed long enough to take hold. Likely whoever it was broke a window to get in, dumped some kerosene on the floor downstairs, then got out and tossed a match through the window. Made a big flare-up inside, mainly down at the far end, where Revis’s bedroom was, but those thick floors and walls just laughed it off. Anyhow, Blake called 911 when he saw the first flames. The fire departments were here in record time.”
In the glare of the lights from the var
ious emergency vehicles, the old building squatted—an apocalyptic vision of an inn for demons and lost souls. Smoke poured from its shattered windows and hacked-open doors, taking form briefly in the wavering beams of light, then obliterating itself against the moonless sky. The firemen, vivid in their yellow turn-out gear, moved back and forth before the house, crisscrossing in and out of the beams, like figures in a silent movie.
With a sick feeling of déjà-vu, Elizabeth saw a dark shape clutching something in its arms emerge from the door on the upper gallery, stagger to the railing, sway, and drop to the floor as smoke, like a vengeful ghost, roiled and billowed after it.
“Phillip! Mackenzie! There’s someone up there!”
The two men had been watching the road as yet another fire engine arrived from yet another volunteer fire department. Instantly they swung around to follow her horrified gaze and pointing finger.
“I don’t see anything.” Blaine’s voice was skeptical. “All the smoke and these lights moving around probably made it look like—”
But a hoarse cry had gone up from the firemen on the ground as two yellow-clad figures, both protected by breathing apparatus, burst through the door that gave onto the upper gallery. The two figures swiftly picked up the crumpled body by its shoulders and feet and disappeared back into the smoke-filled interior.
“Who the hell was that?” The sheriff was already jogging toward the house.
Phillip hesitated, looked at her and started to say something, then seemed to think better of it. He turned away and followed Mackenzie Blaine up the drive.
Elizabeth waited for a moment, shivering in the cold air. Then, reasoning that she would only go a little closer, not near enough to get in the way, she followed Phillip.
She stopped, however, at a barrier that had been set up to keep onlookers at a safe distance. On the frozen ground, she saw a little huddle of firefighters, Phillip and the sheriff among them. They were clustered around the recumbent form of the rescued person, and the sheriff was squatting down, evidently speaking to whoever it was. A discussion of some sort was taking place, and the figure on the ground appeared to be attempting to struggle upright.
All around her were first responders and a few other individuals who didn’t seem to have any function, milling about on the edge of the scene. “Fire junkies,” she had heard Phillip call them, men—it was almost always men—who would drop anything at the report of a fire on the scanner and come to watch.
“They get some kind of thrill, watching stuff burn. Some of ’em end up being arsonists—if there aren’t enough fires to satisfy them, they’ll set some. Lots of forest fires probably start that way.”
The skinny, slack-jawed young man in the faded brown heavy coveralls who was staring intently at the busy scene around the house, could he be responsible for this? As she watched, he elbowed the bulky form beside him.
“Well, I was the one told them about that feller in there. They was so busy gittin’ the hoses in place after they busted in the doors and winders that they didn’t see that light moving around upstairs. Finally got one of them old boys to listen to me and quick as they got the flames dousted, they went in after him. What the hell he thunk that he was doin’…”
“Musta had a reason; something in there he didn’t want burned up.” The big man in the camouflage jacket spoke slowly, as if weighing each word.
He sounds familiar. Elizabeth sidled closer, but the big man had turned away to beckon to someone behind him. “You come tell him we was the first ones here—he don’t want to believe me.”
What was it Phillip said, back when Dessie’s house burned? The obvious suspect in any fire is the first person on the scene.
She watched as a second camouflage-suited hulk hove into view. The skinny young man reached out to slap the newcomer on the shoulder.
“Shee-it, son! Y’uns must sleep in your car with the scanner on. I be damned if you and Marval ain’t beat me again.”
A roar of raucous laughter went up from a cluster of firefighters. Elizabeth strained to see what was happening and was rewarded with the sight of Phillip and Thomas Blake. Blake was clutching a sturdy cardboard box to his chest and walking, somewhat unsteadily, toward her, oblivious to Phillip’s supporting hand under his arm. As they reached Elizabeth, the Troll halted abruptly and peered into her face. The unmistakable alcoholic fumes of his breath assaulted her and she drew back, but not before seeing the contents of the box—a pile of old clothes, freshly stained with birth fluids, and a scrawny black cat, curled protectively around three tiny black kittens.
“Miz Goo’weather, your servant. ’S a bitter cold evening for a gen’lewoman to be out. I beg that you will join me and my kin’ frien’ here in my abode for a li’l groggin of nog—’scuse me, the smoke has befuddled my tongue—a noggin of grog.”
He swayed and his attempt at a courtly bow almost dislodged cat and kittens from their nest. Hastily Elizabeth made a grab for the box.
“Let me take her for you, Mr. Blake. Of course, Phillip and I would love to join you for a groggin of—a noggin of grog.”
Chapter 29
Tea and Small Talk
Tuesday, December 26
This is one strange scene, thought Phillip as he sat in the cluttered living area beside the Troll. It’s 3:05 in the mother-loving a.m. and she’s back there in this old drunk’s kitchen, making tea and small talk like things are normal.
“I’m warming a little milk for Mama Cat while I’m back here—is that all right?”
Phillip looked at Blake, who seemed now to be almost completely recovered from his brief exposure to the smoke and flames. The walk through the cold air back to his home had cleared the last of the alcoholic slurring from his tongue, and he had been profuse in his apologies and almost manic in his conversation.
“I do appreciate your solicitude, good sir,” he had said as Phillip steered him toward the brick building. “May I have the pleasure of knowing the name of my supporter? Hawkins? Ah, a venerable surname from Mother England—one recalls the redoubtable admiral, Sir Francis Drake’s own cousin, who comported himself so bravely in the time of the Armada.”
Blake had continued on in this garrulous strain as they entered the building that was his home, explaining how he had happened to notice the pregnant cat’s absence and had gone outside to look for her in and under the junk cars that stood around the building.
“Some heartless person abandoned the poor creature beneath the bridge only a few days ago. I saw her and brought her in but she is not yet accustomed to me and my other friends.”
Blake had gestured at the seeming dozens of felines that prowled about the room and crouched or curled on every available surface. “It was obvious that the moment of her accouchement was fast approaching and I knew she would be seeking a place to nest. When I saw the flames up at the Gudger house, my heart sank—I felt a pang, first of apprehension and then of certainty, that she had sought refuge there. After calling 911, I dashed up the hill, having first taken the precaution of wetting a blanket to shield myself from the flames. I mounted the steps, taking them two at a time, and plunged through the open door—”
“The door was open?” Phillip interrupted.
Blake nodded. “The back door, yes. Wide open. Puzzling, as it’s been padlocked for years. I confess, in my haste I neglected to note whether the padlock had been forced or—”
“Excuse me, Blake—I need to give the sheriff this information.” Phillip stood. “Lizabeth, I’m going to step outside and see if I can raise Mac on my cell. He needs to look for that padlock. Back in a few.”
It had been maddening. He could see the sheriff, not a hundred yards away, moving about in the lights of the fire trucks as the weary crews packed up and prepared to leave the old inn, could see him but, in the ever quirky mountain conditions, could not get a cell connection. Remembering at last that the sheriff had called the bridge a “dead zone” as far as cell phones were concerned, he had plodded back up the hill, only to l
earn that Mackenzie had found and bagged the padlock.
“It hadn’t been forced—but it had been tossed over in those brambles. Pure luck that it caught my flashlight’s beam when I scanned the area.”
Fingerprints would be unlikely; they agreed on this. “And since there’s no way of knowing who might have made copies of the key in the past…” Mackenzie had sighed. “It’s a dead end, Hawk. All we can say is it probably wasn’t just random mischief.”
“What about Blake? He was first on the scene. You know—”
But the sheriff was shaking his head with weary certainty. “I don’t think so, Hawk. That individual’s what you might call a troubled soul but he’s no arsonist.”
“I put the box with the cat and her babies in the bottom of that big cupboard back there and left the door open. Maybe that’ll make her feel safe. She’s had plenty to eat and drink and the babies are all nursing again.” Elizabeth handed Thomas Blake a mug of steaming sweet tea. “I hope this is all right. I thought we could both use something hot.”
Gently pushing a gray and white cat off the woven seat, Elizabeth took the tall straight-backed chair near the sofa. Blake, his face pasty white behind the smeared soot, slumped wearily over his tea.
“That was really brave, to go looking for that poor cat. Not many people would risk their lives that way.”
He waved aside her words. “I fear that mine was a spirituous bravery—had I not been quite inebriated I would never have attempted so foolhardy a rescue. But still, one small good deed in a naughty world…”