The trailer seemed to blow up. The beast tore down its ceiling and ripped away its walls. Torn fragments of aluminum hurtled everywhere, along with a billowing cloud of foam and feathers and shredded sheets. Dog Brother, unconscious, was showered in rice and flour and dried fettucine.
John Three Names tried to climb to his feet, his face streaked with blood. He reached for a wall that was no longer there, and teetered. At that moment the Changing Bear Maiden gripped him in both of its claws, and lifted him high over its head. John Three Names screamed. His legs bicycled. The beast’s claws had penetrated his ribcage on both sides, deep into his lungs and his liver.
“No!” he screeched out. “No! I served you! I saved you!”
But then the beast pulled its claws wide apart, and with a loud crackling noise it tore open his body from his neck to his crotch, and then violently shook him, so that he was emptied out all over the floor of the trailer, heart and lungs and stomach and intestines, in a sloppy, splattering heap. The beast then dropped his gutted, flaccid body, all arms and legs like a marionette, and turned toward Jim.
Jim was already running. As soon as the beast had caught hold of John Three Names, he had scrambled toward the door, dropped to the ground, and headed for the Galaxy where Sharon and Mark were waiting.
It was hot, and he was badly shocked. He could hear his shoes chuffing in the dust and it sounded as if somebody were two steps behind him. Sharon was out of the vehicle already, staring in shock at the wildly-exploding trailer. Mark was sitting in the back seat, punching wildly at John Three Names’ mobile phone.
“Sharon! Get back in!” Jim shouted at her, as he ran toward her.
“What? What about Catherine?”
“Get back in!”
He looked back over his shoulder and the spirit-beast was already running toward him, in the heavy, sinister lope of a grizzly bear. It was enormous, almost three times the size of a real bear, and its claws made a clashing noise on the ground as it ran, like somebody sharpening carving-knives.
“Sharon, for Christ’s sake! Get back in!”
He reached the Galaxy and pushed Sharon back into her seat. He climbed behind the wheel, slammed the door and gunned the engine.
“But Catherine!” Sharon shrieked at him. “What about Catherine?”
Jim violently reversed the Galaxy and swung it around so that it was facing back toward the trailer-park. “Catherine isn’t Catherine,” he told her. “Not any more, anyway.”
“But she’s there!” said Sharon, taking hold of his arm and shaking it. “Look, Mr Rook, she’s there!”
Jim kept his foot down and the Galaxy slithered in the dust. Jim looked up in the rear-view mirror and he could see Catherine running after them, her hair swinging as she ran. But when he twisted around in his seat, all he could see was the huge dark shadow of the Changing Bear Maiden, relentlessly trying to catch up.
“Mr Rook, stop!” begged Sharon. “You’re leaving Catherine behind!”
Jim jammed on the brakes. “Sharon, it isn’t Catherine. It’s something else. It may look like Catherine to you, but to me it looks like something else altogether.”
“I called the cops,” said Mark, hopefully, holding up the mobile telephone. “They said they’d try to get here in a half-hour, if they could.”
Catherine was still running toward them. In his mirror, Jim could see that her expression was fixed, her eyes were glazed. She was running like somebody who was determined to catch up with them, no matter what.
“Hold tight,” he said, and stepped on the gas. The Galaxy’s tyres slewed sideways on the dirt, and then they were speeding away. At that moment, however, they felt a catastrophic bang at the back of the vehicle, and the rear window shattered inward. Then they heard a hideous scraping, followed by a jarring, wrenching sound, and Jim felt the Galaxy’s steering wheel twitch in his hands as if it had a mind of its own.
“What’s happening?” said Sharon, in terror.
Jim looked back and saw the Changing Bear Maiden running after them, faster and faster. It lunged at the back of the Galaxy and tore off the rear door panel, which bounced away over the dusty ground. Then it smashed the brake lights and pulled off more of the trim. Fragments of red plastic were scattered all over the ground.
“It’s Catherine,” said Mark. “What the hell is she doing? She’s tearing the whole damn car to pieces!”
“It’s just like I said, Mark,” Jim told him. “It isn’t Catherine, not at the moment. It’s kind of a beast. The same beast that killed Martin Amato. The same beast that wrecked the locker rooms.”
“What are you telling us?” said Sharon. “You’re trying to say that Catherine killed Martin? You’re trying to say that Catherine did all of that damage?”
Jim turned around and saw the beast running up closer. It collided with their rear bumper with a heavy thump and he had to swerve wildly from side to side. They were speeding down the main strip between the trailers now, and there were children and dogs scampering everywhere. Yet he didn’t dare to slow down. The back of the Galaxy was already battered and torn and scored with scratch-marks, and he knew that if he stopped now, the beast would hurtle through the back window into the passenger compartment and tear them into pieces before they had time to open the doors.
“Mr Rook!” screamed Sharon.
Ahead of them, an old Navajo woman was crossing the main strip with a Zimmer frame. She was accompanied by a little girl of no more than six or seven, who was smiling to her and chatting to her and offering her wildflowers.
Jim saw them like a photograph – utterly clear, utterly detailed. He was already hitting 70 mph and he had no chance of stopping before he hit them. He just had time to shout “Hold tight!” before he swerved off the main strip and crashed through somebody’s picket fence, mowed down their garden planted with beans and squash and pumpkins, collided with a water-butt, tore up another length of fence like a giant zip-fastener, skidded around the back of another trailer straight through a line of freshly-hung washing, and then bounced back onto the main strip.
He drove out of the trailer-park, hung a howling right turn, and sped back toward Window Rock with his foot flat against the floor.
He checked his rear-view mirror. Catherine wasn’t running after them any longer. She standing outside the trailer-park watching them speed away. He turned his head around and she was still Catherine. The beast had vanished. He had an almost irresistible urge to U-turn and go back to her. Christ, he was her teacher, he felt responsible for her. He couldn’t imagine what she was going through, what fears she was feeling. But he did know that until she was released from Dog Brother’s influence, she was capable of killing all of them.
“You’re just going to leave her here?” asked Mark.
“I don’t have any choice. This man she’s supposed to be marrying has put a spell on her, for want of a better word. Back then, when she was running after us, you saw Catherine but I saw a huge black beast.”
Mark turned around and looked back along the road, just in time to see Catherine turning back toward the trailer-park. “A beast. It’s hard to believe it.”
“Look at the damage she did to the van. If she wasn’t possessed by this thing, whatever it is, she couldn’t even have dented it.”
“Come on, Mark,” said Sharon. “You know that Mr Rook can see things like spirits and ghosts and all.”
“Yeah, but a beast, man – in broad daylight! Wish I’d seen it!”
Jim said, “Listen,” and told them the legend of the Changing Bear Maiden, the way that John Three Names had told it to him. What he didn’t say was that John Three Names was dead; or that Susan had been killed, too, and burned as an offering to Coyote.
They reached Window Rock and drew up outside the Navajo Nation Inn. “What are we going to do now?” asked Sharon.
“We’re going to pack our bags and get the hell out of here, that’s what.”
“What’s Catherine’s old man going to say when you come ba
ck without her?” asked Mark.
“I’m very much looking forward to finding out.”
“Wait up a minute. You mean – he didn’t expect her to come back?”
“I don’t think he expected any of us to come back. Only me, so that I could confirm that the beast was gone for good. And I doubted if I would have lasted long, after that.”
“I don’t get it. We were all supposed to die, all of us?”
Jim nodded. “Henry Black Eagle took his family to California to duck out of his promise to give Catherine to Dog Brother. But he underestimated how powerful the magic was, and how far it could reach. After Martin was killed, and Paul and Grey Cloud were arrested for murder, he realized that he had to honour his promise. He wanted us killed by the Changing Bear Maiden so that he would have evidence that his sons couldn’t possibly have murdered Martin. Which, of course, they didn’t. They went down on the beach that night to try to find Catherine before she hurt anybody.”
Sharon pushed the revolving glass door into the reception area. “It seems terrible, leaving Catherine behind like that. I mean whatever she’s turned into now, she was always such a totally sweet person.”
“Sharon, there’s nothing else we can do right now. If we go near her, she’ll rip our heads off. And I’m beginning to think that Dog Brother doesn’t have the slightest intention of sending the Changing Bear Maiden back into limbo, or wherever. I think he likes her fine the way she is.”
Jim rented a Pontiac station-wagon and they drove all the way from Window Rock to Gallup, where they stopped for cheeseburgers; and then 138 mph nonstop to Albuquerque. They arrived in time for an American Airlines flight direct to Los Angeles and they took off into the sun. Sharon and Mark slept for most of the flight. Jim was exhausted but he was still suffering badly from shock and he didn’t want to close his eyes for fear of what he might see.
He took out the silver whistle that Henry Black Eagle had given him. He wasn’t tempted to blow it, but he wondered exactly what it was for. Catherine had warned him that it would alert Dog Brother and give away their location, but Jim didn’t really see the point of a whistle that did nothing more than that. It had snapped Catherine out of her Changing Bear Maiden trance when their airplane had been nosediving into the Cibola Forest, but Jim couldn’t understand how. He had quite a list of questions for Henry Black Eagle when they returned to Los Angeles.
He drove both Mark and Sharon home, and by now it was dark. “Listen,” he said, “I think it would be better if you didn’t tell your parents what happened at Fort Defiance. They’re bound to want a police investigation, and if there’s one situation that the police won’t be able to handle, it’s this. I’m thinking of Catherine, more than anbody else. If the police find her and she goes berserk the way she did at the trailer-park … well, you can use your imagination.”
“We’ll see you tomorrow in class, Mr Rook,” said Sharon, and she unexpectedly gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks for getting us out of trouble.”
“I shouldn’t have gotten you into trouble to start with.”
“Hey, what’s life without a few scares?” said Mark. “I had the best time ever. Better than sitting on your duff watching TV, anyhow.”
“You didn’t think that when we was headed for those trees,” Sharon retorted.
“I didn’t crap myself, did I?”
“If you had, I would have been the first one out of there, with or without a parachute.”
“Listen,” said Jim, “you don’t have to show up for college tomorrow if you don’t want to. Maybe you could use the rest.”
“Try and stop us, Mr Rook. Just try and stop us.”
Chapter Eight
He drove to George Babouris’ house and found George sitting on the porch strumming his bouzouki. “Jim – you’re back already! How about a glass of retsina? You should listen to this song I’ve composed. It’s called How We Danced In Aspropirgos.”
“Catchy title,” said Jim. “Is it OK if I stay here tonight? The super is supposed to be clearing up my apartment, but I’m not sure that I can face going back there, not till tomorrow.”
“Of course you can stay. Are you hungry? I made stuffed peppers yesterday, all they need is a couple of minutes in the microwave.”
“That’s all right, George. I think I just need a drink.”
George led the way inside. To be fair, he seemed to have tidied the place up since Jim had last stayed there. The goldfish were still swimming through a dense turquoise murk, and there was a pair of discarded socks on the back of the couch, but George had thrown out most of his waste paper and empty beer cans and there was even a bowl of oranges on the table.
“Don’t tell me you’re in love,” said Jim.
“Well, not exactly,” George confessed. “But I’ve met this woman and we’ve been getting along pretty well. I think you know her, as a matter of fact. Well, you would know her. She lives in the same apartment block as you do.”
“Go on,” said Jim, suspiciously, setting down his bag.
“You left my number with your super, right, in case he had any questions? So he called and said that he couldn’t replace the kitchen cabinets with exactly the same doors, but would these other doors be OK? So I went around there and they were fine, the doors I mean. They were just like your old ones only better quality. Except that I met your neighbour from downstairs. The woman.”
“You mean Miss Neagle?”
“That’s it. Valerie! And I can tell you something, Jim, two people never got on better than Valerie and me. The spontaneity! It was great! And she’s crazy for Greek café music!”
“Well, George. I hardly know what to say. I’m very happy for you – both of you.”
“I’m going round to see her later this evening. Say – why don’t you join me? You could see how your apartment’s coming along.”
“I don’t know. I don’t want to get in the way.”
George opened the fridge and took out two cans of Pabst. “You won’t. So how was Indian country? Did you manage to get everything sorted out?”
“To tell you the truth, George, it was a disaster.”
“Hey – how come? I thought you were looking forward to it. Acting as a marriage guidance counsellor to Native Americans. Smoking peace-pipes. Dancing round the totem-pole.”
“Henry Black Eagle was lying to me all along. He didn’t want me to take Catherine back to the reservation to break off her engagement. He simply wanted me to chaperone her, to make sure that she returned there safe, and married this guy.
“He made a deal with a devil, George, and then he found he couldn’t go back on it.”
“When you say ‘devil’—?”
“I mean exactly that. Devil, or demon, or evil spirit, or whatever you want to call it. The man that Catherine is supposed to be marrying has some way of invoking the worst of all the Navajo spirits, called Coyote. His name’s Dog Brother. He can turn people into beasts.”
“He can turn people into beasts?” George repeated, raising one black bushy eyebrow.
“I know it doesn’t sound very believable, but there are dozens of mythological stories from all kinds of cultures about demons turning men and women into animals. In Ireland, there’s a jealous fairy who turned men into dogs. In Africa, there’s a demon who makes women into monkeys. I don’t know whether any of these myths have any basis in fact, but here in America there’s a spirit who can turn a young girl like Catherine into a huge black creature like a bear. It was Catherine who wrecked the locker rooms. It was Catherine who trashed my apartment. It was Catherine who murdered Martin Amato. Worse than that, she’s killed two other people, too.”
“I’m finding this difficult,” said George. “Who?”
“John Three Names, the Navajo guide who took us out to meet Catherine’s prospective husband. She tore him apart.” He hesitated, and he found that he could hardly speak. “The other was Susan.”
“Susan? Susan Randall? You’re kidding me!”
Jim’s eyes were suddenly blurred with tears. This was the first time that he had allowed himself to show his emotions since Susan had been killed. “The beast just went for her, George. It took off her head. It ripped her apart. I was shouting at her to warn her but I couldn’t do anything.”
“So what – so where did this happen?”
“Window Rock … in back of our hotel. We burned her body on a fire.”
George pressed his beer-can against his forehead. “Jesus Christ, Jim. Catherine turned into a beast and killed Susan and then you burned Susan on a fire?”
Jim took off his glasses and said, “I swear to God, George. It’s true. All of it. It’s true. You only have to ask Sharon and Mark.”
“And what about this John Three Names?”
“It happened in Dog Brother’s trailer. I was trying to get her out of there. She just – well, one second she was a pretty girl and the next second she was a raging black creature who could tear holes in steel.”
“Jesus Christ, Jim. What are you going to do?”
“There’s only one thing I can do. I have a responsibility to Catherine, for what I did, taking her back to the reservation. All right, I was deceived, I didn’t know what I was getting her into. But she’s an innocent party in all of this, George, and I helped to take her back to a life she doesn’t want and a man she doesn’t love.”
“But she killed Susan.”
“Not her, George. The Changing Bear Maiden – the beast – that’s what killed Susan.”
“What are you going to tell Dr Ehrlichman? What are you going to tell Susan’s family? You think they’re going to believe you? Like, I know you, and I trust you, but even I’m not sure if I believe you.”
“What I tell people is going to have to wait. Right now there’s only one way to see justice for Susan and to save Catherine from a whole lifetime of living on the reservation with this Dog Brother character – and that’s to exorcize her, or whatever the hell you’re supposed to do when somebody’s possessed with a ten-foot invisible creature with claws like goddamned scimitars.”
Rook & Tooth and Claw Page 37
