American Crow

by Jack Lacey

  ‘That’s him? Do you know where he hangs out?’ I said sparking with optimism again.

  ‘Sorry. A lot of people pass this way, get involved with the mountain protests then disappear. We’re a bit of a meeting point up here at the lake, but as I say, I’ve only seen him, not spoken to him direct.’

  I took the photo back, feeling deflated.

  ‘Is there anyone else here who might know him better?’

  ‘Don McCraw might. He knows most people around these parts.’

  ‘And he’s here tonight?’

  ‘Should be…he comes every year - a real tall guy with cropped grey hair and steely blue eyes. You can’t miss him. He runs an eco-centre called Open Ground, not far from here.’

  I said my thanks and wandered back to the dance. For a second it seemed as if I was finally getting close to the girl. Now it felt as if she could be on the damned moon...

  As I neared the bar again, the band started up with some boisterous tune. Nancy I could see was now paired off with some older guy and running between two lines of people, their outstretched arms forming an arc above them as they ran awkwardly along to its end.

  Our eyes met as I passed through the crowd and she grinned playfully through the throng, looking as if she didn’t have a care in the world. At the entrance to Dexy’s I turned and thought how good she looked, then went inside hoping to find McCraw at the very least.

  ‘Hey,’ Martha called out, handing me another beer through the heaving mass of denim and tattoo.

  ‘It’s my round,’ I shouted.

  ‘Pay me in the next life,’ she hollered as I clocked the flight of stairs at the back of the room. I’d over-looked them. What a fool. Olivia could have been sat upstairs the whole damned time…

  I weaved my way through the tightly-packed crowd, feeling annoyed with the oversight, then jogged quickly upstairs. At the open door I scanned the twenty or so revellers relaxing around the room on sofas and chairs, then at the handful gathered by the open windows enjoying the dance below. All in all, there were around twenty-five to thirty people in the upstairs bar, but no one else who even remotely looked like Olivia Deacon.

  Disappointed, I eyed the mass of pictures and posters stuck to the walls declaring a multitude of protests going back to the Sixties, then went and stood next to a lean-looking guy with grey hair and a goatee wondering if it was McCraw.

  ‘Mighty fine affair these occasions,’ he announced, noticing me at his side suddenly. ‘I love it when the lake’s all lit up like that and everyone comes to dance. Best time to come up here too, before all the Mosquitos hatch. How you doing anyways? The name’s Don McCraw.’

  ‘Blake,’ I said, as we shook hands firmly.

  ‘Is that it? Just Blake?’ he said.

  ‘Sure is.’

  ‘Well, Mr Blake, you enjoying yourself tonight?’

  ‘I would be if I could find someone I’m looking for.’

  He took a swig of his beer and leaned back out over the reveal.

  ‘Well, we’re all looking for someone I reckons.’

  ‘True enough.’

  ‘Where you from?’

  ‘London.’

  I tensed, preparing myself for another cross-examination like I’d experienced at Benjamin’s.

  ‘Heard it’s kind of a busy sort of place.’

  ‘Certainly is.’

  ‘And do you look for people there too, Mr Blake?’ he said, eying me warily for a second.

  ‘Sometimes.’

  ‘Well, it should be easier here, cus everyone knows someone who knows someone. We’re a tight knit bunch us, Kentuckians, doubly so up in the mountains.’

  I leant out of the window reveal, joining him, feeling like he had something to say that was worth hearing.

  ‘Well it shouldn’t be too difficult, because she’s young, attractive and British,’ I said looking down at the now frantic dance unfurling below.

  He took another pull of his beer then looked out into the distance as if deep in thought.

  ‘Is the girl you’re looking for called O-liv-i-a by any chance?’ he said finally, sounding as if he was in on some huge secret from which I’d been excluded.

  ‘Yes…’ I said tensing.

  ‘And why do you wanna find this girl, Blake? Are you one of them private detectives too, like the others who’ve been snooping around here recently?’

  I stood back up rankled.

  ‘Look…I’ve had this conversation with someone else already who gave me the third degree as well…’ I checked myself and offered a jaded smile. ‘Do you know Benjamin from Crow Creek? He makes furniture and toys and stuff.

  ‘Because I’ve told him, like I’m about to tell you, that I’m not a cop or some stooge working for a mining company, or anyone looking to gain something over someone. I’m here trying to find someone’s missing daughter, because that’s what I do.’

  For a second I felt like I’d blown the connection. All the suspicion in this part of the world was beginning to get to me.

  ‘You know Benjamin?’ he said surprised.

  ‘Yep, and Martha and…’

  ‘Me,’ Nancy said, having come up the stairs unbeknown and joined us.

  ‘He’s a good man, Don, you don’t have to worry. I’ll vouch for him.’

  She wrapped an arm of solidarity around my waist then squeezed, helping to dissipate any residual annoyance.

  ‘Well, that’s all you had to say, honey,’ Don said, breaking into a courteous smile. ‘If you’re a friend of all these good people, then you sure are a friend of mine, son.’

  ‘Thanks,’ I said, offering my silence again so that he could continue unhindered.

  ‘The girl was up here with her boyfriend around a week ago. They were getting involved with the Black Mountain protest big time, saying that they were going to do something decisive for once, something to do with Corrigan.’

  Suddenly I felt a lot better. A week sounded a hell of a lot better than four or five.

  ‘So they’re planning to tie themselves to some trees or something like that, on Black Mountain?’ I said, feeling like I was finally getting somewhere.

  ‘Nope. Too soon…The diggers aren’t due in yet while all the legal stuff is going on. The people of Halo and Vineburg are hoping to stop them at the early stages, citing that it would be adverse to their community; that the operation would be far too close to a lot of major water sources serving them.

  ‘That’s what Nancy’s been working on, as you probably know. But it’s only a matter of time before the money men get their way again, and we’ll see yet another god-damn mountain disappears.’

  ‘I took Blake up there today, Don, showed him what’s really going on in Appalachia,’ Nancy said interrupting.

  McCraw placed a gentle hand on her shoulder then looked at me intensely, a fierce pride moulding his bold features.

  ‘Coal is king in these parts, Blake, but there are a few people like Benjamin and myself who can remember a time when we used to have to dig underground for it, when we left the surface untouched, when there was still a respect for Mother Nature, a love for Appalachia and the old ways.’

  He shook his head slowly.

  ‘If this sort of thing were going on in the Yellowstone, these mining companies would have every environmentalist, politician and housewife breathing down their god-damned necks. Here in the Appalachians you see, we’re already damaged goods, so the destruction goes on.’ Don fell silent suddenly and took a long draw on his beer.

  ‘I respect what you people are doing up here, Mr McCraw, I really do,’ I said, wondering what in the hell Olivia and her boyfriend were planning to do, or maybe had done already, to have attracted so much attention.

  ‘Damned right. And we’ll keep fighting on sister, eh?’ Don said, looking at Nancy fondly.

  ‘So where do you think they might be holed up?’ she said pushing him, as if reading my mind. ‘If they don’t turn up here, then we’ve hit another dead end again.’

&n
bsp; Don stooped down as if to whisper to us.

  ‘Look, you didn’t hear this from me because I trust ya both, and because Benjamin trusts ya...but I heard that a few of them were going to take the protest directly to Corrigan this time.’

  ‘Jesus...What at his offices in Lexington?’ Nancy pushed.

  ‘Maybe, or his ranch in Ver-sailles. That was the talk that was going down.’

  Nancy pursed her lips and whistled in astonishment.

  ‘Are they insane? They’ll get themselves killed if they go anywhere near one of his properties. He’d just love the excuse to dust a few more protesters on his own soil. A guy like that is bound to have serious security too.’

  ‘I tried to offer my advice to them, and to their friends, but they wouldn’t listen...’

  ‘Who else is involved?’ I pressed.

  ‘There was talk of Jake and Laurie pitching in with them, Slade and Phil too I think.’

  ‘Are they coming here tonight?’

  ‘Yea, Jake was around earlier. Look there is he is, down there…’

  Don pointed down to the dance floor at a solid-looking guy with a pony tail, wearing a denim jacket, walking around the periphery of the stage. I turned and sprinted down the stairs and pushed my way through the disgruntled throng, out into the dance where I caught up with him just as he was about to take a seat next to the band.

  ‘Can we talk?’ I said grabbing him firmly by the arm.

  ‘What in the hell…’

  ‘It’s okay, he’s a friend,’ Nancy added, coming to my rescue again.

  ‘I’m trying to find Olivia Deacon, the British girl who was up here with Ethan. I’m a friend of her father’s.’

  He looked at me blankly, but I saw through his ruse instantly.

  ‘Look, I know about what you were all planning at Corrigan’s place. I’m genuinely worried for her, and her father is too. She’s only just turned eighteen and she’s all he’s got. I need to know if she’s okay.’

  Jake sighed.

  ‘We decided not to do it. Me and Laurie thought it was crazy. Those dudes are armed at his ranch. Ethan had this grand idea that we were just going to waltz on in there and uncover some stuff about Corrigan that could be used against him.

  ‘We headed up there and staked the place out a few days ago but quickly realised that the whole thing was just plain crazy. He’s got guys everywhere. And I mean everywhere, man. I said to Ethan there and then, that me and Laurie were out of whatever he was planning. We’ll protest another way…

  ‘Him and Phil though got it into their heads, saying that it was going to make a difference to the campaign. Ethan’s pretty damned stubborn you know. Phil and Slade more too. I think he convinced Olivia to go along with them as well...’

  I tensed.

  ‘So did they?’ Nancy said hands on hips.

  ‘Not sure. We left them in Lexington, at the place where Ethan’s aunt is staying.’

  I wondered if Martha knew, if she’d been holding out on me to protect her friend’s whereabouts in case I told Tug. It was possible if they were tight. Chrissie’s phone had been dead from the beginning, which made me think that she’d just dumped the old one to reduce the harassment level, and Martha had chosen not to reveal the new number.

  ‘Go on…’ I pushed swallowing my annoyance.

  ‘They said that they’d be here tonight, but they haven’t turned up. No one’s heard from them. You’re not the only one who’s worried, okay...’

  ‘Have you got Ethan’s number? Has he got a cell?’ I pushed, feeling more and more anxious.

  ‘I’ve rang him a thousand times, man, and it just goes through to voice mail and so do the others. Look, you can try it if you want…’

  Jake held out the phone. I took it and searched for Ethan’s number, then punched it into my own and rang it on the loudspeaker for everyone’s benefit. It was dead too. I tried the next two numbers he flagged up for his friends. They were both the same.

  ‘I’m telling you...I reckon they’ve got themselves knee-deep into some right proper crap this time, man. They were snooping around Corrigan’s hunting lodge two or three weeks ago and nearly got their heads blown off,’ Jake said, shaking his head slowly.

  ‘Have you tried the aunt? Got her number?’

  ‘No I haven’t, dude. All I know, is that she works in one of the main hospitals in Lexington.’

  I looked at Nancy. She nodded, knowing what was coming next.

  ‘Thanks, Jake.’

  ‘No worries. If you find them, can you get them to give us a ring, okay?

  ‘Sure thing,’ I said, heading back to the pick-up.

  I felt Nancy’s hand grab mine, then pull me in the direction of the dance as the band struck up a slower tune.

  ‘If you’re going early, then at least you can do is give your girl a dance first, huh?’

  ‘Na, I don’t do dancing unless the music’s hard and fast and I’m very drunk,’ I said, trying to steer her away from the crowd.

  ‘Well, there’s a first time for everything, soldier. Wouldn’t you wish that it was with some delightful southern belle when you did?’

  I stopped and disengaged, then shook my head, hating what was about to come out of my mouth.

  ‘One dance, then I really have to go...’

  She squealed with pleasure and beckoned me to the centre of the floor, then pulled me in close with the warmest of smiles.

  ‘I’ll come with you to the hospital, Blake. I can drive as I know the way. I’m sure someone can give Martha a lift back later.’

  I looked into her generous eyes and connected again.

  ‘Thanks, Nancy. But after that, I have to go it alone, okay...’

  ‘You don’t have to do anything in this life if you don’t want to, Blake,’ she said placing her cheek against mine.

  I thought about what she said for a while as we slowly worked our way around the dance floor, my feet interweaving with hers awkwardly as we circuited.

  ‘I’ve said I’d find this girl, Nancy, and that’s what I’m going to do. If things are going to get heavy, which they look like they will, I’d rather it that you weren’t around when it kicks off, that’s all.’

  She gripped me tighter and I felt her lips brush my ear.

  ‘But I am involved, Blake, and have been from the moment you pulled me out of that damned car...’

  Chapter Twenty-One

  ‘bad news’

  Chrissie was an attractive woman with an Amazonian build and intelligent eyes. In an instant, I could see why Tug wanted her back so badly. She looked like the sort who’d stand by you through thick and thin, and say it how it was, which the hardened cop probably needed from time to time to keep him in line.

  I watched her slide out a coffee from the serving hatch of the vending machine, then pull up a seat before I spoke.

  ‘He wants you back, you know…’

  ‘Damned right he does,’ she said running a hand through her long, grey hair.

  For a second I didn’t know what to say.

  ‘Martha speaks highly of you,’ Nancy cut in, trying to keep the conversation light.

  ‘Yeah, she’s a honey. She put in a good word for me when I reapplied for a job here in the maternity department. We used to work together back in Phillie when we were young and carefree...’

  ‘I remember those days,’ Nancy replied, sounding as if her best ones were over too.

  ‘At least you got plenty more to come, darling. You’ve still got your looks. Me, well, everything is heading south. All the way to the South Pole actually...’

  Nancy and I laughed in tandem.

  ‘What can I do for you?’ she said leaning back into the chair, looking tired.

  ‘We’re looking for Olivia Deacon and your nephew Ethan, her boyfriend. I’ve been asked by the girl’s father in London to find her and check that she’s okay whilst I’m in town. He hasn’t heard from her in over six weeks now, not even on her birthday.

  ‘Some frie
nds of theirs said that she was staying at your place for a time. He’s worried Chrissie...’

  Her face fractured into one of disdain.

  ‘That schmutz? She was trying to get away from him. You some sort of detective too?’

  ‘No,’ Nancy replied, glancing at me. ‘He’s just a family friend trying to do a good turn while on vacation.’

  ‘Good, I’ve had enough with that sort for a bit...’

  I gave her the space to continue.

  ‘To answer your question, then yes, they came and stayed at my place for a couple of nights a few days ago, and a while back when I first moved down here. But I haven’t spoken to either of them since.’

  ‘Chrissie, they were talking about breaking into some property owned by a mining tycoon called Lyle Corrigan. Do you know much about that?’ I pushed.

  ‘Sure I did. Tried to talk some sense into them too, like Jake and Laurie did, as well as some of the others who hang around with them…but Ethan and another guy seemed intent on doing it. They’re probably locked up right now downtown getting a reality check.’ She sipped some more of her coffee looking like she needed it. ‘That’s the first place I would look if I was you. And no, they haven’t called me since. I thought that they’ve got to learn their own lessons, especially after nearly getting their heads blown off at Jackson’s Hollow.’

  ‘Jackson’s Hollow?’ I said tensing.

  ‘They found out where Corrigan’s hunting lodge was and decided to have a snoop around recently, that’s what. Nearly got themselves caught. Stupid thing to do if you ask me…The guy’s a maniac.’

  I nodded absentmindedly, wondering if Olivia was already being held by the cops somewhere, then hoped that she was. At least she would be safe...

  ‘Those kids have got to learn to take responsibility,’ Martha continued, ‘realize that sometimes you can’t put a sticky plaster on a gaping wound. A cheap stunt isn’t going stop someone like Lyle Corrigan, everyone knows that.

  ‘If Ethan had a proper job it would help to keep him level-headed, like the one he had back at the gallery, which he threw away...Work that doesn’t involve selling god-damned pot for once.’ She sighed. ‘I’m not earning much myself at the moment, with the few shifts I’m being given, but at least it’s an honest living. It’ll be enough to keep me going while I straighten myself out.