“Who did you call?” I demand. He ignores me. His mind is working, resorting the pieces based on this new realization of his. I turn my question at Matt. “Who the hell did he just call?”
Matt blinks for a few seconds, obviously trying to decide what the reason is for not telling me. He finally say, “Sheriff Grandy.”
I’m the one who’s blinking now. “What the hell for?”
Matt says nothing. I turn my barely controlled rage back to Brian. “What did you tell him?” His mind is still somewhere else. I grab his arm to get his attention but before I can say another word I find my own arm twisted behind my back, and my face smacking the glass door.
“Don’t ever grab me,” he growls into my ear. The hand that’s not holding my arm takes hold of my hair. My head goes back and I’m afraid he’s going to slam my face into the glass again, maybe through it. “Do you hear me, Zach?”
I know I should say yes, but I think my nose is bleeding and running down my throat, and my shoulder is crying in pain.
“Stop!” Tanya screams. “Get off him!” His grip eases and then her body is between us, my arm free. He bangs my head against the glass again and then let’s loose. “Zach,” Tanya says. “Let me see.” No more than a few minutes ago she would have been glad to be the one to give me a nose bleed. Now she’s playing protective wife and doctor, sending Becky off for towels and ice. I sit down as she orders. She applies her gentle touch and feels about my nose. “I don’t think it’s broken.”
“That’s good,” I say but I think the two words only slur off my tongue. Becky must have returned because suddenly my face is very cold.
“What the hell was going on here?” she demands to whoever will answer. There is only silence. She stands and turns toward Brian. “Well?”
“It’s my fault,” I mutter through the ice pack.
“Shut up. You don’t have a violent bone in your body.” She turns her attention back to Brian. “However, he does have a tongue he can’t control sometimes. I assume then that he said something you don’t like so you got physical. Is that how you Montanans handle yourselves?”
“Sorry, Mrs. Price,” Brian says. “My apologies. I have a tendency to overreact when someone grabs me. From years in law enforcement.”
She looks down at me. “You grabbed him, Zach?”
I nod.
“You don’t grab anybody. If anyone’s violent in this family, it’s me.” Her head snaps back to Brian. “What the hell did you say or do to spark a violent reaction from my husband?”
“Tanya, don’t,” I say.
“Shut up. What was it mister ex-cop?” She pokes him in the chest. He doesn’t react like he did with me. He doesn’t beat up on women. “What the hell is going on in here,” she pokes him again, “that you had to fight?” She turns toward Matt. “What about you? Are you like your dad, a slam them against the wall Montana boy?” She starts to step toward him
“Leave him out of this,” Brian demands and grabs her like I grabbed him. Between the two of them, I’d rather grab Brian around the neck than touch Tanya anywhere in a fight. I briefly realize that when she stepped toward Matt—if you want to rile the bear, go for one of the cubs—she had planted her feet, and that by the time Brian touched her—exactly what she wanted him to do—her muscles where tensed. Now she is like a blur, something she learned in one of those female self-defense classes she took more for her back than for anything else. In one swift, unbroken motion she turns, throws off his hand, grabs a handful of his shirt while at the same time driving her knee up into his crotch. His natural reaction is to lurch over. Since she is pulling him toward her, she dips her chin and uses his forward momentum to slam his face against the top of her head. He drops to the floor. She steps over him toward Matt.
Matt backs into a corner, shocked to see his big cop father taken down in three seconds by a woman. “He called the sheriff,” Matt stammers. “Zach . . . ah, Mister Price wanted to know what he told him.”
Tanya waits for more. All we hear in the silence is Brian’s groaning. “I don’t understand the big deal. Weren’t all the deputies in the world just here?” She looks at me. “Why did you not want him calling the sheriff? What else is going on that I don’t know about?”
“Something to do with Sam,” Matt volunteers. “Dad was getting Sheriff Grandy to investigate who she used to be.”
“You mean Aileen?”
Matt nodes his head.
She looks at me again. “So? Why the hell do you care if she gets investigated? I wouldn’t mind seeing the results of that investigation myself.”
“You wouldn’t live to see it.”
We all turn our heads to the source of the words, except Brian who is on his back with his knees up and his eyes closed, blood dribbling from his nose. Aileen’s clothes look like she has been living in them for a week; her hair is frizzed to the extreme; and her eyes are aglow. For mine and Becky’s viewing, her aura is strong and pulsing.
“Because of that call, I’m dead . . . for sure this time,” she says matter-of-factly. “All of you as well. He can only assume you know everything.”
“Everything what?” Tanya demands. “And who the hell are you talking about?”
“Victor Vandermill.”
I sense a shiver run down Tanya’s spine.
“The everything,” Aileen continues, “is any information that could lead the FBI to him. The reason I stopped you out there was so I could explain why you couldn’t tell anyone who I was or even who I am. I needed you to forget me.” She looks down at Brian. “Now it’s too late. You have no idea what you just set in motion with that phone call, Brian. Before long Victor’s people will be all over this place. He’ll eliminate anyone he thinks could expose him.”
“I called Sheriff Grandy about you, Sam,” Brian says from the floor. “Not Victor Vandermill.”
“If it were just the Sheriff, I could easily walk away from here. I know how to change my identity. However, there’s no doubt in my mind Victor has lined a few pockets in your community just to keep an eye for me, and I’m reasonably certain one of those pockets is the sheriff. The chances are very high that Grandy is not starting an investigation on me. He’s dialing a number he was given, probably drooling over his new wealth.”
“I don’t believe that.” Brian cautiously comes to a sitting position. “He may have beat me in my reelection bid, but I have a lot of respect for him. He is not corruptible.”
“Are you willing to stake your life on that?”
Brian opens his mouth.
“Or your son’s?”
He closes it.
“The best I can advise you all is get out of here as fast as you can. Forget I exist and anything you know about me. If we all move fast enough we may just get lucky. Even if you’re right, Brian, and Sheriff Grandy is the perfect law enforcement officer, then it’ll be someone else in the Sheriff’s department. If not that, just the fact that he starts asking questions will bring Victor here. He has ears in all the right places. That would give me at best a day or so to get my ass gone, maybe only a few hours.”
“I don’t believe it,” Tanya breaks in. “Do you really think he’d put that much of his energy and resources into watching for someone who supposedly died eight years ago?”
Aileen looks up at the ceiling and blows out a lung-full of impatience. “We don’t have time for me to explain to you my eight-year history.”
“I think you’d better,” I say, “or you’re not going to have Tanya on your side.”
“I don’t want to be on her side!” Tanya says angrily.
“I’m sorry. Bad choice of words. You need to hear how she survived and how she got to here. If she’s right about Vandermill . . . well let’s just say I don’t want to bet your life and Becky’s life on her being wrong.”
She struggles with the desire, figuratively or literally, to slit my throat and then Aileen’s. She drags her eyes from me to Aileen. “If what you say is correct, how much time do w
e have?”
“Twenty-four hours on the outside. An hour on the inside if he has people in the area already.”
“Do you really think that’s possible?”
“No doubt in my mind.”
“You’d better talk really fast, and then I want to know what the hell you just did out there?”
Another lung-full of impatience. “Remember when I was carried off by the cat?”
“Not a night I’ll ever forget.”
“Well,” Aileen continues and for the next thirty minutes she relates everything she already told me, and holds everyone spellbound.
Chapter 39
Aileen finishes with her buying the property and building the house, and then quietly settling into the community. “The first stupid thing I did was have that painting made. You probably thought your camera went with the fire, Zach. Victor grabbed it. Not long before I took off, I found it hidden away. I was surprised to find film still in it. He’d never had it developed. By that time I had set up my new identity, as well as a P.O. Box in Atlanta, so I got a couple new rolls of film and took pictures of his operation and location, as well as a few candid shots of people he did business with. I then sent it all off to be developed and delivered to my P.O. Box. It was quite a surprise to see those photos of me and the sabre kitten when I got to Atlanta. I don’t know what got into me to have that painting made from the photo. For better than three years it’s been hanging there. And then some kid gets lost and wanders into my yard. Of all people to show up it has to be Brian. I made up a story about how I had the painting made as a joke. Since I didn’t get out in the community at all, I wasn’t aware of the rumors circulating about sabre-toothed cats. I don’t know how I could have been so dense. One thing led to another and I wound up hosting the group that was here this morning.” She looks up at the portrait. “Humph! That photo you took became my downfall. Everything just keeps coming around.
“Anyway, Victor was stupid to trust me. The photos I took are insurance, although I’m not sure it would do me much good once he gets wind of where I am.”
“What about witness protection?” Brian says.
“Ha! Victor has an inside track on that. He’d find me for sure. The way I did it there is not even a paper trail.”
There’s a silence as we digest her words. Then Becky says, “Why did you come here? Wouldn’t you have figured he would look for you here?”
There is another very long silence. Finally Aileen says, “I don’t know.”
I think I do know.
“What in the hell did you do out there a while ago?” Brian seems recovered. Both of our nose bleeds have stopped and the tussle forgotten.
“I don’t know that either,” Aileen says.
“I don’t get it.”
“I know what I did. I just don’t know how I did it. I never do. I have some kind of ability.”
“My grandfather . . .”
“Brian!” There’s an irritation in her voice. “I’m well aware of your grandfather and his ancient theory about the spirit who comes with the army of long knives to take back the land. I’m not that spirit. I did not die and I’m not a ghost. I’m a flesh and bone human being who has a talent of some sort. Kind of like Zach and Reba.”
Brian glances at us. “What do you mean? They can control these sabre-toothed cats, too!”
Aileen laughs. “No. Of course not. They sort of read minds, and feelings. They also have a way of knowing when something bad is about to happen. I used to be able to do that as well, before eight years ago, but it seems to be gone.”
“What do you mean?”
“What she means, Brian,” I interrupt, “is that we get feelings sometimes when something terrible is about to happen near us, like this afternoon when Becky’s car rolled down the hill. We both felt it coming. I had been feeling it all day.”
“Humph! Why didn’t you stop it, then?”
“Actually, in a way, I did, although I’ve never known who it is going to happen to.” He looks at me with total disbelief. “When I struck Becky’s car and sent it into a roll, I saved Tanya’s life.”
“How the hell do you know that if you don’t know who it’s going to happen to?”
“It seems that not only has Becky inherited all my psychic abilities, but she has also improved upon them. She can see who it’s going to effect. In a way, she can see the near future, and she saw her mother being crushed between the two cars. She saw it all happening before it started. That’s why she jumped out of my vehicle and ran back up the hill toward her car to try and stop it before it started rolling.”
Brian stands. “This is all too damn crazy.”
“You, who believes in the Spirit of the Sabre-toothed Cats, can’t believe this?” Aileen says, “This which you just saw with your own eyes?”
“Maybe I believe it, but it’s still crazy.”
“No doubt,” Tanya says.
“Crazy is maybe too gentle a word,” Brian adds. “It’s more like insane.”
“Both of these guys can read minds," Aileen says, "Reba can actually see the future, and I can control these cats. It’s all a mystery to us as well, but there you have it. Now, I’ve spent way too much time explaining things to you. I have a few personal belongings to pack and then I’m gone. I’ve sent the sabres away so I suggest you all get out of here. I can easily disappear. You can’t, and believe me, once he knows who all was involved today, he’ll be looking for you. I’m sorry, but you brought this upon yourselves.” She rises from her seat and heads for the stairs.
“You can’t just leave us!” Becky cries.
Aileen turns and looks at Becky. “Sorry, Sweetie. But you did start this whole mess, didn’t you. There’s nothing I can do.” With that she climbs the stairs and disappears.
No one moves for a long time and then Tanya stands. “I remember dealing with these people and there’s no doubt in my mind that she’s right. He’ll find her, and he’ll be pissed. I’m also sure he’ll kill. I’m not sure he’d commit the resources she says in looking for her after this much time, so I’m not concerned about his goons storming this house in the next few minutes. However, I see no point in hanging around here any longer. Come on, Becky.”
I stand with Becky. Tanya looks at me as though she just remembered that I was there. “You’ve got a motel room. I guess we all could stay there tonight. We’ll follow you.”
I’m relieved, though I expect I’m not forgiven. I’m sure I’ll be kneeling on the carpet before her when we get back to Dallas. It’ll be a while before I’m back in her good graces; however, I sense that the black clouds of divorce have passed. Yet, her words, ‘I guess we all could stay there tonight,’ leave me concerned that she considered other options; that if I do or say the wrong thing she might change her mind; that I’m on probation.
Then it occurs to me, as we navigate up the stairs, that I should be more concerned right now about the storming goons. Unlike Tanya, I do believe what Aileen said about Vandermill being willing to commit the resources. I recall a brief few moments eight years before when he let his guard down and I saw his dark core, when I became deathly aware of what he had in store for Tanya and me.
My thoughts are suddenly overcome by a lurch in my stomach and I begin taking the stairs two at a time—they being wide enough for four people—and pass Becky to get in front of Tanya as we hit the top landing. “Wait!” I say as I turn to face her. “I have a bad feeling.”
She looks irritated at first and then translates my meaning. “Soon, do you think?”
That actually wasn’t my meaning, at least I don’t think. Normally I’d have believed that the lurch in my stomach was the result of the rising fear that Vandermill could be approaching, Now she has me wondering. I look past her, down to Becky. Tanya follows my eyes.
“What?” Becky demands.
“Do you feel anything?” I ask. I see the understanding of the question in her face and watch as her eyes go out of focus and she looks inside herself. A few s
econds later she’s back.
“No. Nothing.”
I look at Tanya. “It’s probably nothing, maybe just some stomach acid bubbling over my worry about what . . . ah . . . she said.” What is my problem? I have yet to be able to think of Aileen in terms of the name, Sam, yet I find myself unable to say Aileen to my wife’s face. I can also see from the sudden set to Tanya’s jaw that she didn’t miss it. Although it’s too late to cover or do damage control, I attempt to do the manly thing. I avoid it by shifting focus. “Let’s walk out cautiously. Let me look first to be sure there’s no threat, and then we’ll head for the cars.”
Without waiting for a confirmation I turn and stride toward the foyer and the front door. I open it and peer out, but before I can be sure everything is okay, Tanya shoulders me out of the way and steps out onto the porch.
“If I’m following you, you’d better get moving,” she says.
Becky stops and looks into the darkness and then gives me a look of pity. “I’m sorry,” she says softly and then looks past me, into the house. She drops her eyes and then goes after her mother. I look over my shoulder and find Matt standing behind me. He is watching Becky walk away; the look on his face a mixture of fear, anger, and desire. Or is the desire what every father sees in all young men who look as their daughters? He looks at me and his face turns darker.
Brian steps around him and says, “Nice seeing you, Zach, but wish you and your daughter had stayed away.” He steps off the porch, gradually becoming a dark form as he walks toward his truck. Matt is right behind him.
Because Tanya’s car is still parked at the spot of her altercation with Aileen, she and Becky are just getting in when Brian throws up dirt in his rush to get away. Tanya’s lights come on but she doesn’t move. She’s waiting for me and I’m still standing on the porch. I fumble in my pocket for my rental key. I start down the steps and look up the hill to where Brian’s taillights disappear. All is quiet now except for the hum of Tanya’s car engine. I can imagine her drumming her impatient fingers against the steering wheel. There’s an evil part of me that is thrilled at making her wait. I know she’ll turn it back at me later, but what the hell. I get in the Blazer, close the door, poke around for a few seconds until I get the key in and then start the engine. I let it idle as I come to the understanding that the primary reason I’m in no rush to get away from here is because I’m not in a hurry to be stuck in the same room with her all night. And then I get to thinking that we’d better check for flight availability tonight because flights south may depart not long after the crack of dawn. I back up and then bring my rental about so as to pull up next to her and let her know we need to swing by the airport. I stop at the sudden appearance of light at the top of the hill.
Sabre-Toothed Cat Trilogy Page 60