“The Italian connection; the Mafia; it doesn’t make sense.” But then he thought of the Gianelli raid and the card he’d found for Gaiatic Charities.
“It does if you saw some of the correspondence I did. Moriarty’s tentacles reach farther than you could ever imagine. I’m convinced that the people on board with him and the movement he’s shaped reach into every strata of society. I’ve been one of these people for years, a committed environmentalist. A lot of them are dupes, like me, with no clue as to the scope or real purpose of the Cause. They think it’s to save the earth. That’s part of it. But I can’t comprehend the end game and how they’ll carry out their plans. I never was able to determine that, but I know one thing: it, and the people behind it, are exceedingly dangerous. They mean to do great harm. They’ll stop at nothing. And I’m so frightened.”
Her lower lip began trembling. Then her whole body. Before Jason could respond, she’d sunk to the ground. She was curling into a fetal position when he reached her. He scooped her into his arms and held her as she shook with sobs of grief and terror racking her.
This was not a woman Jason would classify as an emotional pushover. With the extent of her reaction, he realized how deeply the impact of these events had shaken her world.
As gently as he could, he rocked back and forth and crooned softly in her ear trying to comfort her, to drive the demons away. The massive cloud overhead shut out the sun. For a while the shadows and the coolness created a place where an otherworldliness took over, wrapping them in a cocoon. It held them and nothing else. The cloud passed, and again the sun flared into a brilliant diamond. When its warmth reached Lizzy’s face, the tears dried and she came out of herself, realizing where she was.
Their faces were close, so close that the softness of Lizzy’s breath felt hot on Jason’s skin. Her eyes fluttered open and in the instant of recognition she kissed him on the lips. It was tender at first, then needy.
She threw her arms around his neck and pulled him closer, whispering, “Hold me.”
He responded, wanting to protect her, be with her.
The aerie was theirs alone. Traffic had been non-existent except for the single vehicle Jason remembered hearing. They were in the grass beside the gravel parking area, close to a drop-off that angled down into a tumble of branches and scree.
Suddenly tires squealed. There was a sharp thump, as of body colliding with metal. An inhuman scream filled their ears.
“What was that?” Lizzy said, gasping for the words.
“We’d better see.” Jason hesitated a moment longer, feasting his eyes on Lizzy and the way she returned his gaze. He shook himself out of it saying, “Come on.”
He helped her up and they sprinted toward the sound. They passed through the entrance to the turnoff and ran down the road where they heard an engine idling. Their shoes slapped against the pavement. As they rounded the bend, a car door slammed and the stopped SUV accelerated.
Thirty yards away in the center of the road lay a young deer, blood trickling from its nose, its chest heaving, one leg bent at an ungainly angle.
“Real nice guy,” Jason said. “Can you believe it? He hit her and took off.”
“You got that right about what he is,” Lizzy said. “Not.”
“You know who it was?”
“Oh, yeah. I’d know that Cadillac Escalade anywhere. You see the bumper sticker: ‘Trees are people, too’?”
It rang a bell for Jason. He bent to examine the injured animal. The whites of its eyes showed the terror and pain it was in. He wanted her to confirm the man’s identity. “Who was it?”
Lizzy knelt beside him, her face filled with compassion. “My ex-lover. Moriarty.”
Chapter 30
“Poor thing. What can we do to help her?” Lizzy asked.
“She’s in bad shape. I don’t…hey, wait a minute! I remember a long time ago there was a woman—I think she was actually a veterinarian—who set up a place next to a small lake where she took in stray and injured animals. Is she still around? I think she was getting up in years even when I came across her.”
“Oh, yes,” Lizzy said with a light of recognition. “Her daughter took over for her when she died. I believe she’s at the foot of a mountain—HoneyCrest, in fact.”
“Can you help me get Bambi here into the SUV?” Jason asked.
“Let’s do it.”
Lizzy stayed by the fallen deer while Jason ran for the car and wheeled it into position. He hoped nobody would come speeding around that bend while they struggled with the animal.
The deer was heavy and awkward. Injured and frightened as it was, it made their task difficult. It kicked once and its hooved foot caught Jason in the thigh. He winced and kept prodding and pulling. Once the deer was in and the rear door safely closed, Lizzy climbed into the back seat to comfort the animal while Jason sprinted for the driver’s seat where he headed down the mountain at breakneck speed.
***
The woman was all business. She ministered to the deer with skilled fingers that had conducted thousands such examinations. She cleaned the wounds, set the broken leg, and made sure the young animal was sleeping comfortably before she uttered a word to its rescuers.
As soon as they’d driven into her yard, she’d popped off the rocking chair on her wooden front porch and hurried toward the vehicle with an air like she knew they were coming and were late. Her black hair was streaked with gray and was clad in a tight bun on the top of her head. It framed intelligent brown eyes set in a dark brown face that was severe, but lined with the caring wrinkles of someone who’d seen great suffering and had the ability to alleviate it. She wore a simple long dress with a pastel floral pattern over a petite body that was slender, almost gaunt.
The cabin which served as residence and veterinary clinic was small, but it fronted a larger tin-roofed structure, where she housed her recuperating charges. “Thank you for bringing her to me,” the woman said, ushering them onto the front porch. She stuck out her hand. “I’m Ann, by the way.” Her grip was firm as iron, giving Jason the impression that this tiny woman was master of her domain.
After the rescuers introduced themselves, Jason noticed for the first time the number of animals wandering around and peacefully coexisting in the welcoming yard. With the rush to tend to the deer when they’d arrived, Jason had overlooked the three-legged raccoon playing with the cat without a tail, the albino fox with only one good eye romping with the shaved down Saint Bernard, a scab covering the healing wound on its hip, the blue heron standing guard by the small powerboat at the lake’s edge, where a very thin four point buck was cooling himself and nibbling at a salt lick.
Ann said, “The state cut back on deer hunting permits a couple years ago, and the population has skyrocketed. They have some natural predators to keep them in check but not many. There’s only a miniscule number of wolves, and without the hunters, their births are hitting record numbers. It’s causing all sorts of problems. So many get hit by cars, and there’s a terrible wasting disease that’s doing great harm.” She gestured toward the pitiful buck near the water and shook her head.
“I love animals and believe there should be some regulation to assure their survival, but this is crazy. Some groups want to let the animals populate freely, so they’re against hunting in any form. Much of that is driven by the gun control weenies. They’ve mixed up a supposed love of animals with their desire to rid the earth of the hand of man. Whatever happened to plain old common sense? How about some moderation for a change rather than extreme advocacy for one thing or another which so often conflicts? It’s too much for an old woman like me to deal with.”
“You’re not so old,” Jason said. “You’re just carrying a burden that others don’t.”
“Thank you. I suspect you may be right.”
Lizzy stooped to stroke the cat, which had come up to her and was rubbing against her leg with arched back. She used her fingers to comb from the head to the stump where the tail had been and the cat
promptly rolled onto its back meowing. Lizzy scratched her belly, and the cat went limp with pleasure.
Ann said, “I remember when my mammy took in her first injured animal. I was six and brought a squirrel to her that had been mauled by a dog. It was a bloody mess but still breathing. I wrapped it in my jacket and tearfully presented it to Mammy, begging her to fix it.” A huge smile changed Ann’s face at the remembrance, transforming it from spinsterish to that of an eager young girl. “She did and after that day both she and I were hooked. It became her life’s work. She was simple and unschooled, but wise. I went away to college and veterinary school because she wanted me to know everything she didn’t. When I returned home it became my life’s work as well. All in this very same cabin. I just wish I could make the human vermin go away.”
As if on cue, car brakes sounded, the driver of a vehicle doubtless hitting them to avoid pitching into the ditch alongside the dirt road that wound down to Ann’s cabin by the lake. When the black Cadillac Escalade came into view, the three of them cursed, all for very different reasons.
Ann didn’t waste a motion. She walked into the cabin and emerged, holding a Remington twelve-gauge shotgun, which she leveled at the driver as he opened the door and stepped from the car.
***
“I was just speaking of vermin to these nice people here,” Ann said to the man.
It was his size and the way he moved that made Jason realize who he was. Although his face had been obscured that winter day at Lizzy’s house and Jason hadn’t gotten much of a look at him, there was no doubt this was the man who’d been arguing with her and had brushed passed Jason on the path behind the house. There was something else…but Jason couldn’t nail it down. Regardless. This was Moriarty.
Jason noticed the dented front bumper with the dried smear of blood. He hadn’t had much doubt when the Escalade appeared, but this dispelled the last shreds. Moriarty had hit the deer, actually got out to look at it, then left it to die. If nothing else, he could have put it out of its misery. Vermin was too nice a word to describe the man.
Seeing him again, Jason remembered the eyes. Black holes that burned with fires too hot to comprehend. That same tightness in his chest from their first brief encounter returned. How could Lizzy have fallen for Moriarty, as disturbing as he was?
Moriarty grinned. “Thought I might find the two of you here. Stupid thing ran right in front of me. I figured you’d take care of the situation, though. Didn’t interrupt anything when I hit her, did I?”
Jason felt his face flush. There’d been no one around in their private mountaintop retreat. Moriarty was either taking a wild leap or had somehow observed their intimacy.
He sauntered toward them, ignoring Ann’s shotgun that was aimed at his chest. Just another beautiful day in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
A young golden retriever with one ear missing came bounding up to Moriarty, its tongue out, eager to play. It began to leap up on its hind legs in an uninhibited gesture of greeting. Moriarty was quick. He caught the dog unawares with a vicious kick in the soft underbelly. The retriever crumpled with a shriek of pain.
Moriarty laughed. “I hate poorly trained dogs. Got to show them who’s master.”
Ann reacted immediately. She pumped the shotgun and took a step forward. He held up a hand and said, “Don’t be rash, woman.”
She halted, eyes fierce, glistening with contempt. The young animal gathered itself and wobbled to its feet, legs shaky, and teetered away. It gave one look behind at Moriarty and bared its teeth, then slunk past Ann, who gave it a soft word and gentle pat on the head. In a moment, it settled into a shaded spot by the house where it collapsed with a breathy sigh to nurse its wounds.
Ann watched the dog, never turning completely from Moriarty. When the dog was at rest, she faced the man squarely again, ten feet from him, the shotgun pointed at him with the barrel supported by her forearm.
“You think you’re going to shoot me, woman?” Moriarty said. “Get yourself a murder rap? I don’t think so. Heh, there’s still juries in these parts that don’t take kindly to uppity negras.” He took a step forward.
“Don’t you come any closer,” Ann ordered in a firm voice.
He held his hands up defensively. “Came to see the young lady behind you for a minute. Wanted to give her something. I don’t mean any harm.”
Another step.
But Ann wasn’t buying. She pulled the trigger.
***
The shotgun erupted with a deafening blast. It rocked the slight woman back, but she held her position.
At Moriarty’s feet the ground gave way. Buckshot kicked gravel and soil into the air pelting Moriarty’s legs. To Jason’s astonishment the man didn’t so much as move his steel-toed hiking boots an inch. He glanced down at the spatter of dirt and rock that had settled on his khakis and flashed his wolfish grin once again. “Darn, woman, I wasn’t planning on taking a shower until later.” He brushed at his pants, and dirt flew in a light cloud that rained to the earth.
Through clenched teeth, Lizzy said, “We have no business together, Stephen.”
“Of course, we do. You’re still our attorney, aren’t you?”
Lizzy hesitated.
“I brought some documents for you to sign.”
“Where are they?”
He gestured with his head. “In the car.”
“They couldn’t wait until I’m in the office?’
“No, they need to get out today.”
Lizzy gritted her teeth. “Very well.” She stepped from the porch and walked past Ann toward Moriarty.
Jason wanted to reach out and haul her back, but he had no claim on her. Simply because Moriarty was a louse didn’t mean Jason could stop Lizzy from conducting her business, as odious—according to her—as that may be. She had to make her own decisions about what to do about it.
Lizzy pulled even with Moriarty who sized her up and down, his eyes lingering on her with a spark glowing in their dead embers.
“Well?” Lizzy said. “Let’s get this over with. I don’t think the owner of this property wants you here.”
To reinforce that contention, Ann jacked another shell into the shotgun’s chamber with a solid ka-chunk.
“Sure.” Instead of moving toward the Escalade, Moriarty’s fingers snaked out to grab Lizzy’s chin. “You must have been in a hurry this morning, Lizzy. Your lipstick is mussed. That’s not like you.”
Color crept up the back of her neck, and she slapped him with a resounding whack. “Maybe so. Let’s get on with this or forget it.”
Moriarty’s guffaw could have been heard at the top of HoneyCrest. “Better watch who you play with. It could get you in trouble.” The hand print on his cheek remained, but he acted as though she hadn’t touched him.
“In the back seat.” He led Lizzy to the Escalade where he swung the door open and pointed to a briefcase on the passenger side. The vehicle was one of the monstrous SUVs. Lizzy boosted herself inside and slid over.
She turned her head with a questioning look when Moriarty slammed the door in her face. She tried the door which wouldn’t open. As she beat on the window, Moriarty hopped into the driver’s seat, fired the engine, and peeled up the steep drive before Jason could make it halfway to the vehicle at a dead run.
Dust from the tires lingered as Jason pulled up. Cursing, he sprinted past Ann for the rented Blazer, gunned it while spinning the steering wheel, and followed. Dust hung in the air and covered the leaves of the encroaching bushes along the road. He was only moments behind and couldn’t believe what he’d witnessed. The man had taken Lizzy in full view of Jason and Ann. What was he possibly thinking?
Jason came around a final bend in the drive before it intersected with the main road, ready to pour it on in full chase. Instead, he stomped on the brakes, just missing Lizzy, who was rising to her feet. Flushed and angry, she swiped at her clothes to remove the grime. Her chest rose and fell in heated bursts, and she glared in the direction Moriarty’s vehic
le had fled.
“Can you believe it?” she muttered, climbing into Jason’s car. “Thinks he owns me and can do whatever he wants.”
“What was that all about?” Jason asked. He was angry as well, but not anywhere near Lizzy’s boiling cauldron.
She got in the car. He turned around and headed back down toward Ann’s place.
“Just playing games. He said I’d better remember who pays my bills. I think he wanted to yank my chain for finding me with you. Forget it.”
Her attitude surprised Jason. Maybe she wasn’t thinking clearly. It wasn’t that long ago that she’d expressed fear at the possibility of Moriarty’s involvement in bugging her house and worse, the wiring of explosives to her car. Maybe it was simply an ex-lovers’ nasty spat. Somehow Jason didn’t think so, but if Lizzy wanted to drop it, he felt it best to acquiesce for now.
Ann was waiting for them, shotgun still cradled in her arms. “I shoulda shot the cockroach when I had the chance,” she said, when they emerged from the Blazer. “Come on and have some iced tea. It’s the least hospitality I can offer after all that.”
Lizzy was still seething as they settled on the porch, Ann in her rocker, Lizzy and Jason in a pair of high-back wicker chairs. “You obviously know Moriarty,” Jason said to Ann.
She rocked, causing the boards of the deck to squeak. Her cheeks took on a pinched expression. “He’s been a thorn in the side of the good folk around these parts for a long time. One of the biggest hypocrites this side of the Appalachians. Takes one side of an issue then turns up on the other. Always throwing big money around regardless of what he does.”
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