“If you hadn’t pled guilty this might have come out during a trial, but I still don’t understand,” Lyon said. “What possessed your family, generation after generation, to keep this thing going?”
Rabbit’s gaze seemed drawn toward the river far below the promontory, or perhaps to the wooded hills across the water, or perhaps to a time long ago. “At first a kid doesn’t know anything is wrong. The other kids are about your size, but they keep growing and you don’t. They can be mean, Lyon, God they can be mean. And it hurts. You become the class clown who won’t take any crap, but it gets worse when you’re a teenager with all the problems that implies.”
“And they rescued you with a secret ceremony in that hidden room under the graves,” Lyon said softly.
“Yes, you’ve got it. All that spooky candles and knife stuff can be heavy for a fourteen year old. But it was the ceremony that made us giants among men. We were the only keepers of honor, no matter our size, and for that we swore a blood oath that had to be obeyed.”
“You didn’t fulfill it.”
“I declared the game over. I don’t have children and never will. The covenant is finished.”
“Then it is truly over,” Lyon said as he left the swivel desk chair and walked to the study’s door. He saw the aghast look on Rabbit’s face as he pushed past him.
“Where in the hell do you think you’re going?”
Lyon didn’t answer but continued through the living room and out on the patio.
The Colt exploded behind him and the minié ball shattered a window pane in the French door by his side. Large chunks of glass clattered to the floor. Lyon kept walking.
“You touch a phone and I will blow you apart,” Rabbit said behind him as he ran to catch up.
Lyon continued off the patio and down the few steps into the side yard. He sat on a grassy knoll overlooking the Seven Sister hills in the distance. He flicked a long blade of grass from between his feet and stuck it in his mouth. The lawn needed to be cut. Perhaps this afternoon he’d get the lawn tractor from the shed and do the job.
Rabbit came up behind him. “Are you nuts?” He sat on the grass next to Lyon. Both men let the still day close around them. Clouds moved overhead at a leisurely pace. It would be a good day for ballooning, Lyon thought.
“Is Rocco Herbert looking for me at my house?” Rabbit asked.
“I imagine.”
“Then it’s only a question of time until he figures out where I am.”
“Yes.”
“I know he tried to help me on the sentencing, but five years is still a long time. I don’t think I’ll make it, Lyon.”
“You’re still young. The prison is only an hour-and-a-half drive from here, which means Frieda can come up to see you.”
“I was only in jail for ten days after the gas station holdup. The black guys don’t bother you because they know what it’s like to be different. Most of the white guys don’t give a damn and only want to do their time without bothering anyone. But there’s a cage full of sadistic dumb white bastards up there who give little people a hard time.”
“That kind gives everyone a hard time,” Lyon said.
“I don’t take shit. I fight back and that makes it worse. I know that’s the case, but I have to fight them. It’s what they call a vicious circle.”
Lyon didn’t answer, because it was difficult to argue with what he knew to be the truth.
“I’m going to die there, Lyon. I’m not crying about it. I’m just stating a fact. I’m going to die because I can’t take what they will do to me. I will fight them and eventually they will kill me. I’m not going out to Munchkin Land bleeding to death in some prison shower or laundry room.”
“I can get Bea or Roger Candlin to have you assigned to the prison infirmary. That’s always safer.”
“Sure, and I get dwarf-tossed wearing whites. You know, I was standing in my yard at the little cottage the day you flew over the Pie in your balloon. What’s it feel like to float over the world like that?”
Lyon thought about it a moment. “Like a very large bird that can float on air currents for hours at a time and silently glide over the land.”
“Over everyone’s head. I think I’d like that. Get the balloon ready.”
“No.” Lyon heard the hammer of the single-action six-gun click as Rabbit thumbed it back. “You’re not going to shoot me.”
“I may have to. You would give me no choice.”
“Rabbit, no one, but no one, has ever escaped from anywhere in a hot-air balloon. Even in the relatively small Cloudhopper, you are attached to a huge vehicle. It is visible for at least ten or more miles on a day like this.”
“I said fill the balloon and show me what to do.”
“There isn’t much to do actually.”
“Then get started.”
Lyon trundled the Cloudhopper envelope and equipment from the barn in its three-wheel cart. He began to spread the flat balloon out on the grass. After a few moments of labor he noticed that Rabbit was working alongside him. They continued without speaking until it was time to start the compressor.
While Lyon held the propane burner across his waist and directed the flame inside the envelope, Rabbit had stuck the large six-gun into his belt. The barrel’s length was awkward and undoubtedly uncomfortable because of the small man’s stature.
“Was your Dad a big person?” Lyon asked. “He was the one who killed the Piper at Fort Dix during the Korean War, wasn’t he?”
“He was and he wasn’t,” Rabbit responded. “I mean, he was not a big person and he did kill the young Lieutenant.”
Lyon was puzzled. “I don’t understand. Lieutenant Piper was killed in the company street after a training exercise. One of his own men must have done it.”
Rabbit laughed. “Pop was clever. Each barrack had a boiler housed in one end. Pop was one of the civilian employees who stoked and maintained them.” He held the far end of the balloon envelope off the ground so that it would fill easier. “I know you’re wondering how he did it. He snuck into the barrack while the men were showering, borrowed a weapon and stuffed the minié ball on top of a blank. He fired from the boiler room and snuck the rifle back to the rack. They never even interviewed him. The Provost people were certain it was one of the men in the platoon. A couple weeks later he managed to get himself fired from the job.”
“And the cannon at the cemetery that fired at Paula was a blank?”
Rabbit’s face clouded. “It wasn’t going to be in the beginning. At first I loaded it with a regular cannonball. And that bothered me so I considered canister shot that would take us all out … including me. That’s when I realized I couldn’t do either and decided it would have to be Peyton who got it. At the last moment I didn’t load any shot, just the charge. I couldn’t hurt Paula, for God’s sake.”
“The bodies were moved around the colonel’s tomb for ease of access?”
“That’s all. No big deal. They just never got sorted back in the right order.”
Lyon noticed that his companion had removed the pistol from his belt. It lay on the grass a few feet away.
The Cloudhopper began to bob from the ground and as a safety measure Lyon tethered it to the iron stake. There was a certain childish wonderment in Rabbit’s face as he looked up at the Cloudhopper whose top was now higher than the roof beam of the barn.
Lyon lunged across the grass, covering the Colt with his body. He snapped to his knees with the gun held in both hands and pointed at the little man. “I have it now, Mr. R.,” he said.
Rabbit looked at him with a bemused smile. “So. You have it. Mount it on your wall. Do what you will with it. Peyton doesn’t need it anymore.”
“I am making a citizen’s arrest.”
Rabbit paid him little attention. “I strap myself in the harness and then pull the lanyard when I want the gas to burn, right?”
“You’re not listening to me, Rabbit,” Lyon said. “You are my prisoner.”
The
small smile faded. “And what in the hell do you think you are going to do about it? Blow my head off? Is that what you want? Go on. Fire, damn you, shoot!” He spread both arms and stood directly in front of Lyon with his head thrown back.
Both men laughed.
“You don’t believe I’ll shoot you?” Lyon asked.
“No, I don’t think you’re going to blow my head off.”
“And you don’t care if I do?”
“That’s correct.”
Lyon grabbed the Colt by its long barrel and bent back, bringing the muscles of his back into play. He sprang forward and threw the pistol as hard as he could over the edge of the promontory. Both men watched the weapon spin out over the river and then fall silently into the water.
“Didn’t make it across,” Rabbit said.
“That toss was a personal best for me,” Lyon said. “I’m not going to shoot you. Why should I? Rocco will figure things out in a few minutes and be over here to haul you in.”
“I figured that. I intend to steal your balloon and be gone.”
“It’s yours. You don’t have to steal it. Like I told you, it’s really not much of a getaway vehicle.”
“It’ll do. Show me how it works.”
Lyon adjusted the parachute harness for Rabbit’s torso. He explained the propane lanyard and the red-coded line for emergency venting if a quick descent was desired.
“Why don’t you take my car?” Lyon suggested.
“You’d get in trouble. I am a wanted and dangerous criminal.”
“Steal it, then.”
“I’m stealing your balloon.”
Lyon shrugged. “You won’t be hard to find.”
“Where am I going?”
Lyon snatched a handful of grass from the lawn and tossed it in the air. It blew due east at a moderate rate. “You’ll drift out over the Sound. If you had enough fuel you might even reach Long Island.”
“But I don’t?”
“No,” Lyon answered. “Estimating wind and drift, I’d say you have enough fuel for about halfway. The Coast Guard will pick you up if you’re lucky.”
Rabbit began to strap himself into the harness of the Cloudhopper. He smiled at Lyon. “Thanks, old buddy.” He waved as he jerked the tethering line loose from the stake and gave the burner a long burst of flame. The balloon bobbed a moment and then shot into the air, jerking Rabbit off his feet as he was snatched aloft.
“We are giants among men!” Rabbit yelled down.
Lyon heard the car in the driveway behind him. The screech of brakes at the end of the road and the slamming door announced the arrival of Rocco Herbert.
“Persistent little bugger, isn’t he?” Rocco said as he stood next to Lyon and jacked a shell into the rifle’s chamber. “I can blow him out of the sky. Where does he think he’s going?”
“Judging by the wind, I’d say somewhere in the channel between Block Island and Montauk Point.”
Rocco lowered the rifle. “Oh.”
“Don’t you want to scramble the U.S. Air Force and shoot him down or something?”
“I think not.” Rocco lay the rifle gently on the grass between their feet and continued staring up at the balloon as it drifted along the waterway above the Connecticut River. “Does he have a chance to make it?”
“If he doesn’t snag those power lines below the Seven Sisters he’ll make the Sound.”
“No further?”
Lyon didn’t answer. They both knew where Rabbit would land. “He said he was a giant among men.”
Both men watched the balloon drift away and perhaps they heard the surprisingly deep voice of the small man as he screamed in exaltation.
Turn the page to continue reading from the Lyon and Bea Wentworth Mysteries
ONE
‘Spook did this!’
There was a slight quiver in the young patrolman’s voice as he stooped to look more closely at the naked corpse. The flesh around his cheek bones tightened. His fists clenched and unclenched as he turned toward his superior who paced a dozen yards away. His first words had been inaudible due to a stiff breeze blowing from the river in eddies that swept through the high stand of pines lining the promontory.
‘Spook killed her!’ he repeated in a louder voice.
Police Chief Rocco Herbert acknowledged the statement with a nod. He continued to pace a slow parabolic path that traced an orbit a dozen yards from the body. He carried his large bulk on a massive frame with surprising lightness. He walked with a supple grace that belied his six-and-a-half-feet height, which was matched by a body weight that was closer to three than two hundred pounds.
Patrolman Jamie Martin stood rigidly erect. He exhaled with a snorting vent of air. Although he had been on the Murphysville, Connecticut police force for several years, Jamie presented a naivety and innocence. Town residents still referred to him as ‘that nice young policeman.’
‘Spook ripped her clothes off, raped her, and then killed her.’ He delivered the assessment in a near shout that bounced off the large glacial boulders that bounded the perimeter of the small wooded cove. ‘I don’t know, maybe he raped her after he killed her,’ he said in a lower tone.
Rocco stopped at the foot of a black and white checkered blanket spread neatly on the ground on the far side of the clearing. A carefully folded pile of clothing—panties, bra, simple white blouse and jeans—was placed to the side. ‘Think not, Jamie.’
The police chief had purposely not advanced further toward the body. He had recognized the young woman from a dozen feet away. He had faced her at least once a week for the past six months as she worked the express checkout counter at the town’s only supermarket. He knew her as an attractive, flirtatious young woman, with a ripe voluptuousness and zest. Her darting eyes at men of any age were the merriment of a girl passing over the cusp of youth into womanhood. The flirting gestures did not promise future commitments as much as they expressed feminine vitality. The live girl of the express check-out line had somehow come to represent all young women of that age. He had casually enjoyed her youthful energy, which was now dissipated by the obscene position that signified a violent death.
The nude girl sprawled in the clearing was nearly the same age and build as his own daughter, who was a rising sophomore at a small liberal arts college in upper New York State. It was this similarity that kept him from an immediate examination of her body. ‘Why do you think it’s Spook?’ he asked tiredly.
Jamie Martin reached toward the corpse’s outstretched hand and prized the fingers apart. He removed a small piece of cloth containing yellow and black markings. He waved it overhead like a miniature flag. ‘Here’s the evidence that proves it!’ he crowed.
‘Oh, my God,’ Rocco muttered as he turned away. This violation of the rules of evidence made him want to bang his head against the nearest rock in complete frustration. ‘Jamie,’ he finally managed to say after a pause that was long enough for him to regain control. ‘During your training at the Police Academy, did they not casually mention, in passing, something about the proper method to establish a proper chain of evidence? Did they not touch on the rules of gathering said evidence?’
The young patrolman looked sheepishly at the patch of yellow and black clutched in his fist. ‘It’s a First Cav army shoulder patch, Chief. Look.’ As if in propitiation, he thrust the patch reverently toward Rocco. ‘Everyone knows how Spook is about the First Cav. He hands these things out to anyone who will take one. It was clutched in her fingers.’
As he knew he would eventually be forced to do, Rocco approached the body. He walked gingerly as if the ground beneath him were brittle enough to shatter and hurl him into a deep abyss. He avoided her as long as he could while he looked toward the distant Connecticut River below the cliff. He took the patch from Jamie and glanced at it long enough to establish that it was a First Cavalry Division shoulder patch. He gently placed the cloth in the dead girl’s outstretched hand and folded her fingers shut.
‘You never touched he
r, understand, Jamie?’
‘Yes, sir. I never got close to her.’ He backed halfway across the clearing. ‘She died hard, Chief.’
Rocco ignored his subordinate. ‘Go back to the car and radio Communications to send an assistant medical examiner out here. And for Christ’s sake, tell them not to send laughing Lars this time.’ Jamie gave a half salute. ‘Bring an evidence bag and tweezers from my car,’ Rocco yelled after him. ‘I want the ME to take the patch from her fingers. Go!’ Rocco turned his attention back to the sprawled cadaver as Jamie jogged toward the logging road.
Her painful progress across the clearing was obvious. A trail of blood flecks and disturbed leaves led from the blanket to the far edge of the clearing. She seemed to have fallen midway across and crawled the last few yards with the last shreds of her strength. Her direction seemed to be toward the cliff path that led down to the river.
He forced himself to kneel for a closer examination. She lay on her side while the hand clutching the patch stretched beyond her head. An apron of blood below her waist covered the belly and pelvic area. The injury seemed to indicate a low wound near or through the umbilicus that possibly severed the lower abdominal aorta. The autopsy would confirm that and indicate any sexual activity as well as the exact cause of death.
There was no question that the patch Jamie had taken from her fingers was a First Cavalry Division shoulder insignia. Every resident of Murphysville knew that Spook was obsessed with the First Cav, which was his old Viet Nam unit. The traumatized veteran had forced the patch on countless adults and numerous children. Its appearance clutched in the dead girl’s fingers could be very significant or perfectly innocent.
He took a last look at the young woman’s face before he stood and turned away from the body. Her after-image haunted him. The final freeze of expression had multiple meanings: a look of astonishment at the ferocity of her attack, utter disbelief in her mortal wound, and a look of despair that only the young can create when their past visions of immortality are shattered.
The Pied Piper of Death Page 22