American Crow

by Jack Lacey

  ‘Cult extraction, that sort of thing you mean?’

  I nodded.

  ‘Child abduction too. Sometimes I have to work on the wrong side of the law to get the job done, because the law can fail people. The good parent doesn’t always win, especially if the other has the money to hire a good lawyer, or has gone to ground.’

  Tug leant back in his chair taking it all in, his granite face remaining expressionless.

  ‘After my daughter’s funeral, I decided to quit tracing work altogether. I saw her death as a sign, saw it as the reason in fact why she wasn’t here anymore. But I quickly found myself in a rut and needed to do something about it, or go the same way...

  ‘Then, the very day of Laura’s birthday I get a call from my former boss saying that some teenager has gone missing in the U.S. He tells me that she’s exactly the same age as what my Laura would have been if she’d lived, that I’m the only one who can find her, as everyone else has let his client down.

  ‘The next thing I know, I’m wedged under Jed McCain’s rig sneaking over the Canadian border into the U.S, freezing my balls off.’ I stared up at the stars for a second then lowered my gaze to his. ‘I had to take the case on for my own sanity, Tug...’

  The cop ran a hand through his thick hair then blew out some air slowly.

  ‘I would have done the same thing, if I’m honest.’

  For a few seconds we sat in silence until he pursed his lips again, as if preparing to deliver the next question.

  ‘So what did you find out about Ethan and his friend? Chrissie told me the news...We weren’t close by the way. He was a nephew of hers from her first marriage.’

  ‘It wasn’t an accident. There were bullet holes in the bodywork. And the vehicle was taken straight to a junkyard out of town to be scrapped, before a thorough forensic could be carried out.’

  ‘You kidding me? Who was overseeing the investigation?’

  ‘The city police. But they appear to be in Corrigan’s pocket.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Lyle Corrigan. He owns most of the mineral rights in the mountains in these parts, and is prepared to do anything and everything to protect his right to mine them however and whenever he wants.’

  ‘I know the sort of guy. We got plenty in Minnie…’

  ‘Ethan it appears, decided to take some direct action, and ended up getting himself and his best friend killed. I believe that Olivia was with them too now, but wasn’t at the crash scene by the end of it. None of them have been mentioned in the local news either, meaning that she’s probably being held somewhere against her will by Corrigan, or has managed to flee the scene undetected and hasn’t surfaced yet…’

  ‘Are you serious?’

  Tug’s wife tapped on the glass to rebuke him from inside.

  ‘We’ll be in in a minute, sweet pea…’ he yelled not wanting to prise himself away from our conversation.

  ‘So that’s the state of play. You know everything now. No bull crap.’

  ‘Quite a story,’ he said shaking his head slowly. ‘Of course, I’m still going to have to take you in…’ An uneasy silence descended suddenly. I stared straight into the cop’s eyes trying to ascertain if he was serious or not. ‘It’s okay, it’s okay. I’m only playing with ya...’ he announced after a few excruciating seconds.

  ‘You scared the shit out of me there for a moment, Tug.’

  ‘Look, you helped me get Chrissie back, gave me a second chance, and that means a lot to me, makes me feel not so bad about breaking the god-damned rules for once myself…So what do you need?’

  ‘Anything you can get on Lyle Corrigan and quickly.’

  Tug sucked the air through his teeth.

  ‘I’m just a beat cop from Minnesota, you know, but I do have an old friend who lives down this way who might know something. Let me see what I can do...’

  ‘Thanks.’

  We walked in together then Tug quickly dragged Chrissie to one of the lower rooms like a caveman on a mission. Martha bid us good night shortly afterwards too, leaving just myself and Nancy alone in the kitchen again.

  I offered her a tentative smile and she reciprocated with a nervous one. It was understandable. Tug had probably told her a whole heap of stuff that she just wasn’t expecting to hear.

  ‘Look, I think it’s best if I sleep on the sofa tonight, eh?’ I said trying to make her feel at ease over the situation.

  As if on cue, Tug opened the door and stuck his head out.

  ‘There’s nothing you need to worry about, Nancy, okay...The guy just attracts trouble, that’s all.’

  He shut the door with a smile and Nancy laughed awkwardly, more out of relief than anything, before tilting her head to one side as if sizing me up again.

  ‘So there’s nothing more I need to know about you, Blake, huh?’

  I shrugged apologetically.

  ‘I have to play dirty sometimes, that’s all...’

  ‘So does Lyle Corrigan, but he just does it for his own ends,’ she said, her defences softening.

  ‘Look, as soon as I find the girl I’m going to have to leave, you know that,’ I said, finding the words painful as I ejected them. ‘Let’s keep it simple anyway, for both our sakes.’

  Nancy drew close, grabbed me by the hand then led me to the other free room, where she beckoned me in with a beguiling smile before shutting the door behind us. I went to reach for the light switch, but her hand found mine as I fumbled for it. Then I felt the other brush against my cheek…

  ‘You’re prepared to do anything to find this girl, aren’t you, Blake?’ she whispered somewhere in the darkness.

  ‘Yes…I promised her father and Lenny, my boss, that I would. More importantly I promised myself.’

  I listened to her fluctuating breath then felt her lips press nervously against mine, making me flinch. For a second my mind went blank as I enjoyed the sensation. She pulled away for a second then moved her mouth to my ear.

  ‘But what are you willing to do, to keep something you’ve already found, Blake? How much…’

  I felt something give inside me, some barrier dissolve, and I pulled her in tightly so that I could feel her body mould itself into mine, then we stumbled over to the bed where I slowly lowered her down onto the cool cotton covers and undressed her slowly, knowing that this time, sleep was going to have to wait until dawn…

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  ‘goodbyes’

  It was late when we finally awoke again. Nancy’s side of the bed was empty too. Hazily, I opened my eyes and touched the mattress where she’d been, feeling its warmth, remembering the night of passion we’d just shared, then wondered if she’d awoken to regret it.

  The door creaked open suddenly as if to answer my doubts, her rosy face smiling inanely, her eyes searching for mine, as if she too was seeking reassurance. Our gazes met and conveyed our mutual ease with what had happened. I felt myself relax.

  ‘Brought you some juice...’

  I took the outstretched glass and smiled. It tasted as good as she looked, now semi-naked, wearing just a long tee-shirt that fell halfway down her slender thighs, which she had obviously borrowed from Martha as her clothes were still scattered all across the floor. I eased myself up onto my elbows and drank some more.

  ‘Everyone’s gone. We’ve got the place to ourselves...’ she said looking down at me mischievously.

  ‘What about Tug? He was going to ring around for me.’

  ‘He said he’s going to let you know later today. So don’t worry, okay?’

  Nancy clambered into bed beside me, then laid her head against my shoulder and ran a hand playfully over my chest. I closed my eyes and enjoyed her touch, trying to suppress the growing dread that was now intensifying over Olivia’s disappearance.

  ‘That’s if he does indeed call me later, Nancy,’ I said breaking the silence.

  She sighed.

  ‘And you’re certain the girl was there with Ethan?’

  ‘I’m pretty sure.
The trainer was her size...’

  Nancy looked at me quizzically.

  ‘You have to act fast in my line of work, Nance. Time is always against you. The longer you leave it, the higher the chance that you’re going to just end up finding a corpse at the end of the trail…’

  ‘What else do you need, Blake?’ she said sounding frustrated, as if she wanted to forget about the real reason that had brought me to the mountains.

  ‘Anything on Corrigan and his movements would be useful.’

  ‘We could ask Benjamin? He might be able to help.’

  I drained the juice and swung my injured leg over the side of the bed, trying to ignore the intelligent brown eyes that were willing me to stay longer.

  ‘Sounds like a plan,’ I said, wincing.

  ‘If you find this girl, Blake, when will you go? Straight away?’ she said pressing herself tightly into my back.

  I fought with the truth for a second, wanting to say something that she’d want to hear.

  ‘As soon as I find her, Nancy, I’ve said that, because Corrigan isn’t the sort who will take anything lying down. And if I come back here when I have, it will almost certainly put you and Martha in danger again…’

  ‘I don’t mind being put in danger, Blake.’

  I looked at her coldly trying to ignore the warmth she was exuding.

  ‘I can’t. I’ve already been punished for some of the choices I’ve made in my life...’

  ‘But that wasn’t your fault,’ she said squeezing me tenderly.

  ‘Then whose was it...God’s?’

  ‘Maybe it was no-one’s’?’

  ‘Maybe.’

  Silence again, but this time, excruciating.

  ‘Then that might have been our first and only night of intimacy together. Is that what you’re saying?’

  ‘Perhaps.’

  ‘Then the least you can do is get back into bed while we’ve got the whole house to ourselves,’ she said, the sadness tangible in her seductive voice. ‘Think of it as one last request…’

  I turned and met her eager mouth, then slid back under the bed sheets, and back into her arms, feeling good to be there, but angry at myself for putting off the search, even for a minute longer. And I knew I had to shut that emotional door soon for both our sake’s, before it became impossible to do so...

  *

  We drove through Crow Creek and pulled up the track for Benjamin’s place several hours later, feeling closer after the intimacy, but strangely distant now we both knew that it was probably soon going to end.

  I stepped out of the pick-up then walked towards the trailer alone, hands in pockets, trying to get focused on the job again, trying to forget about Nancy’s athletic body, that beguiling smile of hers, her touch.

  She joined me at the steps and we climbed them together, her arm wrapped around my waist just like we were old lovers. I offered a flicker of a smile and she responded with a child-like grin. I turned and knocked on the door loudly, feeling frustrated.

  After a good minute or so we were still standing outside. I knocked again harder and thought I heard some movement inside. I readied myself for the huge frame of the old timer to swing the open door again and welcome us in. No one came. I pressed my face against the glass panel set in the upper portion of the door depicting a rising sun, and stared in. The fire looked dead, the place empty...

  ‘He must have gone out.’

  Nancy peered through a window.

  ‘But it’s lunch time. He’s always back for his lunch, unless a friend needs him somewhere.’

  We wandered around the back of the trailer weaving between rows of exquisitely hand-carved furniture, a rocking-horse and several impressive sculptures. I stepped onto a crate and looked in through the half-open curtains into what appeared his bedroom. It looked as ramshackle as the living room, and just as quiet…

  ‘He’s not in bed.’

  ‘Let’s leave him a note. He’s obviously gone out,’ Nancy said returning to the front.

  A few seconds later when I heard the scream I knew that he hadn’t. I sprinted back around and bolted through the door to find her kneeling beside Benjamin’s sprawled body, a congealed pool of blood fanning out from his head.

  ‘Oh no…’

  ‘He’s dead!’ Nancy sobbed running a hand through his matted hair.

  ‘Who in god’s name would do that?’

  I stared at the axe lying close by, that only the day before I’d used to chop some wood, then thought about the force that had been used to create such a vicious wound.

  ‘I don’t know…Whoever did it was standing right behind him, and caught him unawares that was for sure, which means that he probably knew who his killer was. This trailer is so damned creaky you’d hear someone entering unless he was fast asleep or drunk at the time.’ I scanned the immediate surroundings. ‘He’s nowhere near his chair too...In fact, it looks as if he was attending to the stove when the killer landed the blow.’

  ‘I feel sick,’ she murmured, the shock setting in.

  Nancy stood up, wobbled, and just made it to the door before she vomited. I followed her out and held her hair back as she convulsed some more.

  ‘He was such a lovely man…he’d do anything for anyone,’ she groaned.

  ‘You okay?’

  She nodded and righted herself.

  ‘If it was the mining people, then I’m surprised they didn’t do it to him years ago,’ she said, tears running down her flushed cheeks.

  I went back in and knelt down by the body.

  ‘He’s been dead a while. The body’s cold...’

  I stood back up and wandered around the trailer looking for clues, then strolled through to the bedroom at the far end. On the mattress I found a drawer that had been pulled out from somewhere. Inside were bundles of yellowing documents, a couple of war medals and some old photos.

  I sat down and started to work my way through them methodically.

  ‘You better come and look at this…’ I said.

  She came and stood in the door.

  ‘Do you know what Benjamin’s real surname is, Nancy?

  ‘Leighton.’

  ‘No, he had another. In the past...’

  ‘You serious?’

  She drew close and leaned over my shoulder, then took in the name printed in faded letters on the document I was holding.

  ‘Corrigan…’ she whispered in disbelief. ‘I don’t…’

  ‘It looks like he changed it way back…’

  ‘I can understand why. No one with any conscience would want to be related to that monster.’

  ‘Maybe that’s why he never took the money and stayed?’ I said flicking through another sheaf of papers.

  ‘It wasn’t just about mining. It was a personal stand,’ Nancy added.

  ‘And that’s why he wasn’t intimidated into leaving like so many of the others were. But why kill him now?’ I said, flicking through some photos.

  ‘Look…’ Nancy said, pointing to one that had fallen out face up, depicting two young men on a hunting trip.

  ‘That’s Benjamin. I can tell by the eyes.’

  I turned it over and read the writing scrawled across the back:

  Me and Lyle, Cumberland Mountains, ‘63’

  ‘I think Lyle Corrigan was his brother,’ I said looking up at Nancy’s distraught face.

  ‘Let’s get the hell out of here, Blake. I can’t believe what’s just happened. I...’

  I headed back out then stared at Benjamin’s lifeless body again, not quite believing what we had walked into too, and what the old timer had suffered.

  ‘We’ll call the sheriff’s office so that they can sort this mess out. But we were never here though, okay? We’ve contaminated the crime scene enough as it is...’

  ‘Sure,’ Nancy said numbly.

  The biologist said her final goodbyes as I waited outside, then we both drove a good distance in silence until we found an old payphone at a gas station where we could make the
call without being traced.

  Just as we were pulling up outside Martha’s place again, the phone rang. It was Tug.

  ‘You’re in luck,’ he said brightly.

  ‘Doesn’t feel like it at the moment,’ I said, absorbing the distraught look on Nancy’s face.

  ‘You up to no good again, Blake? I’ve only just left you,’ the cop said, sounding like a different man now he had his wife back.

  ‘We found a good friend of Nancy’s dead this morning.’

  ‘Foul play?’

  ‘He had an axe buried in his head...’

  I heard the cop suck some air through his teeth on the other end of the line.

  ‘Bad luck just follows you around, don’t it, Blake. I’m beginning to think that you’re some sort of angel of death or something.’

  ‘I’m beginning to think that too, Tug’ I said, staying in the pick-up while Nancy headed inside to break the bad news.

  ‘You think it was something to do with the missing girl?’ Tug quizzed.

  ‘I wouldn’t be surprised after everything that has happened.’

  I heard a cry of anguish break from the cabin. Martha had known Benjamin for a long time as well, Nancy had said.

  ‘Well you might appreciate this fresh lead then,’ Tug continued, drawing my attention back to the call.

  ‘Fire away...’

  ‘I’ve just spoken to my friend down there who’s got a buddy who repairs picture frames and all that crap. Evidently he’s just done a major job for a woman who it’s rumoured has been getting it on with Lyle Corrigan. She’s some high-flying artist who lives in the Big Apple these days, but is originally from Kentucky.’

  ‘Go on...’

  ‘Well, this friend of mine, Hal Dickinson, said she’s holding a launch for some of her new paintings. It’s over in Lexington, tonight. He says he’s been sorting out some of the frames for her that got damaged in transit. Thought you might want to go along and check it out...’

  I felt a surge of excitement pulse through me. It would allow me to check out Corrigan close up and personal, and that could be useful.

  ‘You’re a star, Tug.’

  ‘The exhibition is at the Bernstein Gallery, in the centre of town. Starts at seven. And Blake...’