Still Life With Crows

by Douglas Preston

  They had been here, bearing witness beneath the earth of Medicine Creek, since the evening of August 14, 1865. Those warriors who survived the raid had sacrificed themselves and their horses here, in the darkness of the cave, choosing to die with dignity on their own land. Never would the white men herd them off to a reservation. Never would they be forced to sign a treaty, board railroad cars, send their children to distant schools to be beaten for speaking their own language, to be robbed of their dignity and culture.

  These Ghost Warriors had seen the inexorable roll of the white men across their land. They knew what the future looked like.

  Here, in this great cavern, was where they had hid in ambush. From here they had issued forth during the dust storm, as if out of nowhere, to wreak havoc and destruction on the Forty-Fives. And here was where they had returned to seek eternal peace and honor.

  In both his oral recollections, and at far greater detail in his private journal, Brushy Jims great-grandfather had said the Ghost Warriors seemed to rise up out of the ground. He had been exactly right. Andthough in 1865 the mounds would have been covered in dense brushHarry Beaumont, in the moments before his death, must have realized where the warriors came from. He had cursed the ground for a very specific reason.

  Pendergast paused only long enough to examine his map. Then he hurried past the silent tableau toward the dark tunnel that led deeper into the cave system.

  There was very little time leftif there was any time at all.

  Fifty-Eight

  Hazen followed Lefty and the dogs as they proceeded along the wooden walkway of Krauss Kaverns. Unlike the last pair, these beasts were hot on the trail. They seemed a little too eager: pulling on their leashes, straining forward, issuing growls from deep within their chests. Lefty barely had them under control, being jerked this way and that as he whined and cajoled. They were big dogs, ugly as shit, with enormous puckered assholes and giant balls that hung low like a bulls. Presa canarios, dogs bred to kill dogs. Or anything else on two or four legs, for that matter. Hazen wouldnt want to face them, not even with a brace of Winchesters loaded with double-ought buck. He noticed that the troopers seemed to be hanging back, too. If he had any sense, McFelty would fall to his knees and pray for mercy the moment these ugly mutts turned the corner.

  Sturm! Drang! Lefty shouted.

  What kind of dog names are those? Hazen asked.

  No idea. The breeder names them.

  Well, slow em down, Lefty. This isnt the Indy 500.

  Sturm! Drang! Easy now!

  The dogs paid only the scantest of attention.

  Lefty

  Imtaking them asslowly as I can, Weeks answered, his voice pitched high. Im not exactly dealing with a couple of Pomeranians here, in case you didnt notice.

  With the overhead lights off, the night-vision goggles illuminated the cave in a flat red wash. Hazen had never worn the goggles before and he didnt like the way they reduced the world to a monochromatic, creepy landscape. It was like watching an old TV. The wooden boardwalk ahead swam in the crimson light, like the pathway to hell.

  They passed by the Krystal Kathedral, the Giants Library, the Krystal Chimes. Hazen hadnt been in the cave since he was a kid on a school outing, but they used to come every year and he was surprised how much he remembered of it. Winifred had always done the tour. She hadnt been such a bad-looking woman back then. He remembered his friend Tony making vulgar gestures behind her back as she hammered out some tune on the stalactites. Shed turned into a queer old hag, though.

  They reached the far end of the tourist loop, and Lefty, with a great deal of trouble, reined in the dogs. Hazen stopped well short, keeping a good ten feet between himself and the animals. The dogs were looking intently into the darkness past the Infinity Pool, growling, their tongues like big red diapers hanging out of their mouths. Dripping saliva showed red in the goggles, like blood.

  Hazen waited for the troopers to assemble behind him, then he spoke in a low tone.

  Ive never been beyond this point. From now on, silence. And Lefty, do you think you can get the dogs to tone it down?

  No, Icant, okay? Growlings instinctual for them.

  Hazen shook his head and signaled Lefty forward. He followed with Raskovich; Cole and Brast came next; Larssen brought up the rear.

  They splashed through the pool, climbed down the far end, and then followed Lefty along a tunnel that narrowed, then rose again and took a sharp turn to the right. On the far side of the bend was a second iron door.

  It was ajar, the iron padlock lying nearby on the ground.

  Hazen gave them a thumbs-up, signaled Lefty on.

  The dogs were growling even more insistently now, deep throaty snarls that prickled the hair on the back of Hazens neck. There would be no taking McFelty by complete surprise, but maybe that wasnt such a bad thing. The growling was enough to inspire even Rambo to throw down his weapons.

  On the far side of the door, the tunnel widened into a cavern. The dogs snuffled ahead eagerly, dragging Lefty along. Hazen gestured for the group behind him to wait. Then he and Raskovich fanned out to the left and right, shotguns at the ready, scanning the room in infrared.

  Bingo: the bootleggers nest. Hazen panned his goggles slowly across the large space. An old table; candle stubs; battered lanterns; broken crockery and bottles. At the far end, the still itself rose out of the reddish murk, a cauldron big enough to boil a horse. So big that it mustve been brought into the cave in pieces and soldered in placeno wonder it never left.

  When Hazen had satisfied himself that the room was empty, he waved the rest forward and approached the still. The smell of smoke still hung faintly in the air, mixed with other, less pleasant odors. He leaned over the cauldron and looked inside. There was something in the bottom, small and vague in the night-vision goggles.

  It was a human ear.

  He turned, feeling a thrill of vindication mingling with disgust. Dont anybody touch anything.

  The others nodded.

  Hazen continued examining the cavern. For a moment, he thought this was the end of the linethat the cave was empty and that McFelty had already escaped. But then he made out a low archway in the side wall, a mere patch of gray leading to deeper darkness. It looks like theres another room that way, he said, pointing. Lets go. Lefty, lead with the dogs.

  They passed through the low archway into the next cavern. This had once been the garbage dump for the moonshiners, and it was still filled with rotting trash, broken bottles, scraps of paper and tin cans and refuse of every kind, all pushed up against one wall. He paused. The room was cold, and in an especially chill series of niches along one wall he could see a stock of recent food supplies. A larder of sorts. He shined his light in to reveal sacks of sugar, cereal, beans, bags of potato chips and other snacks, loaves of bread, packages of beef jerky, tubs of butter. There was also a stack of candles, boxes of kitchen matches, a broken lantern. At the far end, a trash heap of discarded sacks and butter wrappings and cans and candlebutts showed that McFelty had been down here a surprisingly long time.

  Continuing to pan with his night-vision goggles, Hazen saw that the passageway continued, leading to another cavern beyond. McFelty, if he was in here at all, would have heard them by now and would be in that room, maybe with a gun drawn, waiting to surprise them.

  He put a hand on Leftys shoulder and spoke low into his ear. Unleash the dogs and tell em to flush out the next room. Can they do that?

  Of course.

  Sheriff Hazen positioned his men around the mouth of the passage, ready to collar anyone who came out. Then he nodded to Lefty.

  Lefty unhooked the bullsnaps from the collars and stepped back. Sturm, Drang.Clear.

  The animals took off instantly, disappearing into the darkness. Hazen crouched by the opening, shotgun at the ready. He could hear the dogs in the next room, growling, snuffling, licking their wet chops. A few moments passed. The sounds grew fainter.

  Call em back, said Hazen.

 
Lefty gave a low whistle. Sturm, Drang.Return.

  More snuffling and slobbering.

  Sturm! Drang!Return!

  The dogs came back, reluctantly. In the glow of the goggles they looked like the hounds of hell.

  Hazen was now convinced McFelty had gotten out. And yet it wasnt a complete loss; quite the contrary, in fact. Theyd find plenty of physical evidence to prove hed been in the cave and to connect him to the crimes: fingerprints, DNA. And what was no doubt Stotts ear was a terrific find as well, itself worth the trip down. With this kind of evidence against McFelty it would be a piece of cake to plea-bargain the guy and nail Lavender.

  Hazen straightened up. All right, lets go see whats in there.

  They entered the third cavern. It was smaller than the others. Hazen stopped in surprise. It looked like it had been used as some kind of living quarters, but as his eye traveled around the room he wondered just who it was whod been living there. There was a bed against the wall, rotting and broken, the mattress ticking spilling out, but it was very small: a kids bed. Above the bed was a broken picture of an apple tree, and another of a clown. A few broken wooden toys, rotting and furred with mold, sat in a corner. There was a wooden bureau, once painted fire-engine red, buckling and listing to one side, the drawers sprung. Some rotten clothing could be seen inside. At the far end, the cavern narrowed to a tiny crack.

  Jesus, what a place.Hazen hiked up his pants, fished in his pocket for a Camel. Looks like our bird flew. We probably just missed him.

  Whats all this about? Raskovich asked, shining his light around the room.

  Hazen lit the cigarette, put the match in his pocket. Something left over from moonshine days, Id say.

  There was a long silence. Everyone stood around, looking disappointed.

  Hazen sucked in a lungful, exhaled. Back there, in the pot, is Stotts ear, he announced quietly.

  As expected, this perked them up.

  Thats right. Weve done well, men. Weve got proof the killer was down here, proof this is where he boiled Stott. Proof this was his base of operations. This is a major break in the case.

  Everyone nodded. There were some excited murmurs.

  The dogs began to growl.

  Well get the SOC team and forensic guys down here tomorrow to work the place over. I think our works done for the night. Hazen took another deep drag on his Camel, then pinched off the glowing ash and dropped it into his pocket. Lets go home.

  As he turned, he noticed that Lefty was trying to pull the dogs away from the crack in the far wall. The dogs would have none of it: they were straining toward the crack, deep growls rumbling in their chests.

  Whats with them?

  Lefty gave their leashes another savage jerk. Sturm! Drang!Heel!

  For chrissakes, let em check it out, said Hazen.

  Lefty walked them over. With a yelp the dogs suddenly piled into the crack, jerking the protesting Lefty along behind them. In another moment they were gone.

  Hazen stepped over and peered in. He saw the crack made a ninety-degree turn and ran sharply downhill for a few feet before coming to what looked like a dead end.

  And yet it went on. Ithad to. He could hear Leftys voice echoing back from the unknown darkness beyond, strangely distorted, calling uselessly for the dogs to heel.

  The dogs have a trail, Hazen said over his shoulder. And it looks like a hot one!

  Fifty-Nine

  Corrie lay still, her hands behind her back. He had laughed when she screamed: a horrible, high-pitched laugh that sounded like the squeal of a guinea pig. Now he was doing something to the corpse of Tad. She kept her head turned, eyes closed. She could hear the sound of rending cloth, then a horrible wet tearing sound. She scrunched her eyes tight shut and tried to mentally block out the sound.He was only a few feet from her, humming and talking nonsensically to himself in a singsong while he worked. Every time he moved, a terrible reek washed toward her: sweat, mold, rot, other things even worse.

  The horror, the sheer unreality, was so intense that she found herself shutting down.

  Corrie, just hold on.

  But she couldnt hold on. Not anymore. The instinct for self-preservation that had prompted her to free her hands had faded with the reappearance of thatthing, lugging the dead Tad Franklin.

  Her mind began to wander, curiously numb. Fragmented memories drifted across her consciousness: playing catch as a young child with her father; her mother, wearing curlers and laughing into the telephone; a fat kid who was nice to her once in third grade.

  She was going to die and her life seemed so empty, a wasteland stretching back as far as she could remember.

  Her hands were untied, but what did it matter now? Even if she got away, where would she go? How would she find her way out of the cave?

  A sob escaped her lips, but still the horrible thing paid no attention. He had his back turned. Thank God, thank God.

  She opened one eye and let it fall on the lantern. He had placed it in an angle of rock, where its glow was almost completely obscured. Its ancient metal shutters were closed, letting out only the barest slivers of light. He didnt like light, it seemed. God, he was sowhite, so pasty white he was almost gray. And that face, the sight of that face, the wispy little beard . . .

  A wave of terror washed over her, disordering her mind. He was truly a monster. If she didnt get out, what had happened to Tad Franklin was going to happen to her.

  She felt her breath coming faster as the desperate need to take action returned. Her hands were already free. There was a lantern here: she had light. And at the far end of the little cavern, she could see a well-worn trail leading into the darkness. It might, it just might lead out of the cave.

  Another memory came back to her with an almost piercing clarity. She was out in the grassy softball field behind the trailer park, learning how to ride the two-wheeler her father had just bought for her seventh birthday. Shed tipped and fallen into the sweet grass, again and again. She remembered how her father had wiped away her tears of frustration, had talked to her in the soothing voice that never seemed to grow angry or upset: Dont give up, Cor. Dont give up. Try again.

  All right,she said to the darkness.I wont give up.

  By inches, she began shifting her body around, searching for the sharp outcropping of rock, careful to keep her hands behind her back. Locating it, she raised her tied ankles and began rubbing them slowly back and forth across the edge, trying to be as quiet and inconspicuous as possible. But he was so engrossed in his work that he didnt seem to notice what she was doing. She watched his back through slitted eyes while she chafed the fraying rope against the sharp edge of calcite. He had temporarily left Tads corpse and was now hunched over what appeared to be three small burlap bags, stuffing them full with . . . She turned away, deciding shed rather not know any more.

  She scraped and scraped, and at last felt the rope give. She twisted her feet back and forth, loosening it further. One foot slipped free, then the other.

  She lay back again, thinking. She was free. What now?

  Grab the lantern and make a run for it. Shed follow the trail. It had to go somewhere.

  Yes: shed grab the lantern and run like hell. Hed pursue her, of course, but she was fast, the second fastest girl in her class. Maybe she could outrun him.

  She lay there, breathing deeply, her heart pounding with fear at what she was about to do. Now that she was about to take action, she began to think of a dozen reasons why it would be so much easier just to lie there quietly. He had something else to keep him busy. Maybe hed just forget about her, and . . .

  No.One way or another, she had to get out.

  She glanced around once more, orienting herself. She took a deep breath, let it out, took another, held it.

  And then she counted to three, leapt up, grabbed the lantern, and ran. A loud, inarticulate bellow sounded behind her.

  She skidded on the wet stone; almost fell; found her feet again; and ran headlong into the dark vertical maw at the far end
of the cavern. The slot led to a long crack that opened into a strange gallery of thin, dripping cave straws and evil-looking ribbons of hanging limestone. Beyond was a shallow pool where the ceiling dropped precipitously; she splashed across the water and scrambled through the low place, holding the lantern high. Then she emerged into a larger cavern, filled from floor to ceiling with thickly-tiered stalagmites, many joined with the stalactites overhead to form strange yellow and white pillars.

  Washe following? Was he right behind, about to clutch at her again . . . ?

  She caromed between the pale, glistening pillars, gasping with terror and exertion, light flashing off the great trunks of stone. The lantern banged and the candle flickered, and Corrie was seized with a new fear: if the candle went out, it would all be over.

  Slow down. Slow down.

  She scrambled around another pillar and collided with a crumpled block of calcite that had fallen from the ceiling, badly scraping one knee. She paused a minute and looked around, fighting for breath. She had reached the far end of the cavern. Here, a rubble-strewn trail led upward. As she glanced back and forth, she became aware that there were crude marks etched into the walls, as if with a stone: weird concentric ribbons, sticklike figures, great clouds of frantic scribbles. But this was no time for sightseeing, and she scrambled up the slope, slipping and falling as the loose rocks gave way. Her raw wrists were bleeding afresh. The trail grew steeper, and as she again lifted the lantern over her head she could make out a sill of rock at what appeared to be its upper edge. She grabbed it with her free hand, hoisted herself up.

  Ahead ran a long glossy tunnel of limestone as blue as ice, feathery crystals sprouting from the ceiling. She ran on.

  The tunnel was completely flat, and it snaked gently back and forth. A thin flow of water ran along a rill at its center. Once again, the blue walls were incised with strange, crude, disturbing images. Corrie dashed forward, her feet splashing through the water, her footfalls echoing strangely in the long tunnel. But there were no corresponding sounds of following footsteps.