Proof. God damned evidence that Scott worked for Barrett and exactly what he discovered. Ice and fire and more ice raced through Barrett as he struggled to hide all emotion. He had to get that box, destroy it. Right now.
“Iced tea sounds nice but Heather has already missed several hours of work. She needs to earn her keep.” He gestured toward the box, concentrating on not letting his hand shake. “This looks like a box of old records that needs burning.”
Nora collapsed to the bench, all fight sucked out of her. “Yes. Burning.”
He reached down and picked up the box. Slowly, no rush. Don’t act desperate. “I’ll help Heather take it around back.”
Nora looked like a whipped dog. “Good idea.”
Abigail nodded approval.
Barrett hefted the box. “Let’s go, Heather.”
“Wait.” Nora looked up.
No! Burn it now. Do it.
Nora stood and hobbled across the deck. “Leave the box.”
Abigail rushed to throw Nora’s arm over her shoulder for support. “You need to let it go.”
Nora’s face was little more than enormous, tortured eyes. “Leave it.”
Barrett inhaled slowly. God damn it! “Of course. Where would you like me to put it?”
Abigail frowned, arguing wordlessly with Nora. Just as mute, Nora held firm.
Barrett wanted to close his hands around Nora’s scrawny neck and wring the life from her.
Abigail finally relented and sighed. “Let’s put it upstairs for now, shall we? In the back of a closet perhaps.”
Way to the back, where Nora wouldn’t want to retrieve it and where he could snatch it before she ever got the courage to look.
19
Nora rolled over for the billionth time, her wrapped ankle wadding up the sheet. Across the hall, Abigail slept like a baby. Except babies don’t snore like lumber jacks. Maybe she exaggerated. Abigail’s snoring sounded more like a soft purr.
Nora couldn’t sleep anyway. Like worms chewing into her guts, apprehension gnawed at her. She felt a growing resistance to making snow and the only reason she could name was that it felt wrong.
Of course having Barrett on her side was a good thing. He knew how to make money. She should be grateful for his help. But he wasn’t helping. He was running things. And the closer they got to pumping water onto the mountain, the more uneasy Nora felt. At least she got the right sprayers. One small victory.
Abbey woofed on the deck below the apartment. His claws scratched the wood as he scrambled to his feet.
Nora tossed off the covers and stumbled to her bedroom window. Her ankle still throbbed but felt stronger all the time. She slid the window open further and leaned out to see Abbey. He barked again, focused on the woods.
Resting her hands on the ledge she stared into the dark forest. It was as if electricity didn’t exist and the stars jumped from the sky like footlights on a stage.
How many summer nights had she and Scott cuddled in a sleeping bag on the slope and stared at those amazing stars? They’d talked and laughed and made love caught up in the magic.
Just as the chasm in her heart started to crack and bleed she hardened. How often had he done the same thing with Maureen? The stars were just cosmic facts, not divine sparks, and Scott proved to be nothing more than a common cheater. She loved them both once but she knew better now.
Nora lowered her eyes to the forest and that’s when she saw the distinct flicker of fire.
Abbey barked for real now. He ran down the stairs, high-tailing it for the forest.
Nora’s skin froze. Maybe the pinpoint of light deep in the trees was Alex’s dying fire and right now he snuck through the forest, planning to slit their throats.
“Abbey!” Like the well-trained and obedient dog he was, Abbey kept barking and running across the slope.
Abigail snored on. Should she wake Abigail and head for town? But they would have to get to the parking lot and Alex could jump them on the way. Should she call the cops? And tell them what? That someone was camping in the woods, on public lands, for which they have every legal right.
She strained to see the flame but lost sight of it. In the old days--just 2 weeks ago—when she’d taken the time to look at the mountain, the sky or the forest, she saw nature’s beauty. Now it seemed she constantly squinted into the shadows looking for danger.
Abbey stopped at the edge of the trees and kept barking.
The campfire either flickered its way out or was deliberately doused. The only lights came from the stars and they refused to help Nora.
Without warning a fireball ignited at the edge of the slope.
Nora gasped. The flames leapt higher than a man. But there was nothing except green grass where it burned, no fuel to feed a fire. It looked like an independent monster, living on its own.
Abbey dove into the shadows. A moment later, his bark turned to a yelp of pain.
“Abbey!” Nora spun from the window, her heart pounding like an unbalanced washing machine. She pulled on her jeans and shoved her feet into shoes, grabbed the flashlight by the door and took the stairs two at a time. She paused at the deck railing and stared into the trees. Abbey made no sound.
The fireball slipped up the slope for several yards and then turned into the forest. It moved with the jerky gait of a runner, but quicker than any sprinter Nora had ever seen.
Was it Alex? For all she knew, it could be Cole out there running up and down with some high tech eco-terrorist lantern. Except it didn’t look like a real person running. It moved too quickly, with random fits and starts.
Nora raced across the open ski run, dew quickly wetting her shoes. Despite the chilly mountain air, a film of sweat covered her body and her heart rampaged against her ribs. After several yards, she didn’t feel the pain in her ankle.
Nora searched the forest ahead but didn’t see Abbey, a flare, dying campfire or anything except thick darkness. Picturing the fireball, she slowed her paced and tried to figure where it would have gone. She entered the trees, her breath sounding like a freight engine.
The moon gave scant light. She was no stranger to nighttime on the mountain, but this was no jaunty moonlight hike.
Nora gripped the flashlight, expecting Alex to jump from behind every tree, his butcher knife poised for her throat.
“Abbey.” To her left the night lit up. Abbey barked. Fire. It blazed too far away to make out any details but the ball of flame appeared to be about the size of a laundry basket and it hovered six feet off the ground. It was definitely not a campfire because it moved, winking in and out behind trees. The flame slipped through the forest about 50 yards uphill and Nora took off after it, following Abbey’s excited bark.
Nora chased the fire through the pines, stumbling over fallen logs and piles of brush, wondering what the hell she’d do if she caught up to it. Not even sure what “it” was. Did she expect to beat it to embers with her flashlight? Was it Alex with some Native American flame carrier?
She followed the light uphill until her thighs burned, turned back toward the ski run and downhill, executing a circle. Abbey barked occasionally but now it sounded more like play. The closer she came to where she entered the forest, the more nervous Nora grew. Just before the flame stepped—if stepped was even the right word —out of the trees, the light disappeared.
Nora stopped and Abbey trotted out of the trees, nose to the ground. He whined and sniffed at the edge of the clearing.
Nora knelt and ran her hands over Abbey. He licked her face once but had more interest in smelling the forest. He seemed in one piece.
“Pas pay um waaynuma.” A quiet voice made Nora gasp and spin around.
The little kachina salesman stepped out from behind a tree, the top of his head nearly two feet lower than the fire ball.
Nora tried to keep from bolting. “Who are you?”
He shrugged. “You must protect dis moun-ain.”
Abbey shoved his muzzle in the man’s hand. The little man greete
d Abbey as if they were friends, speaking to him in a quiet, guttural speech.
Nora gripped the flashlight, doubting she’d need to defend herself physically from this gentle man. But he was just plain scary in the forest in the middle of the night. Strangely, she felt like she needed to justify herself. “I’m not out to ruin Kachina Peak.”
He spoke in soft, halting accent. “You can do much good. Or you can do much harm. You choose.”
The fear and anger that propelled her on this foolhardy journey clung to her. “What is that fire? Why are you here?”
“You love dis moun-ain. You mus’ care for it.” His words fell to the forest floor with no inflection.
She turned away from him and searched the trees for Alex.
“Bad men are here.” A speck of sadness shone in his eyes in the moonlight. “Dey don’t understand Hopi way.”
“If slicing me with knives, strangling me and crashing freight on me and general terrorism is the Hopi way, I think they understand it just fine.
“Hopi is balance,” he said.
The fireball was gone, she didn’t see Alex anywhere, and cold seeped under her skin. She wanted to go home. “Are you here to tell me not to make snow?”
His eyes showed intensity not evident in his voice. “You are protector of our moun-ain.”
“I’m not Hopi.”
He shrugged. “You love our sacred peak.”
Was she really having a conversation with a shriveled Native American in the forest in the middle of the night?
“Watch for da spirits of the moun-ain ,” he said. “Beware men speaking for Hop.i Dey do not speak da true way.”
“You want me to watch for kachinas?”
If doing the kachina’s bidding made her end up living like this little guy did, no thank you. Impossible to tell when he’d showered last, if ever. Come to think of it, he had no smell. Dust covered his black hair down to his thick moccasins. He looked nothing more than skin and bones and bad teeth, a walking lifetime of malnutrition.
He inclined his head and words formed in slow succession. “Watch for giver of fire, da spirit of death and owner of da upper world. He has no hair, no eyelashes and his skin is marked with scars of many burns.
“Sounds like an attractive guy.”
The little man didn’t acknowledge her sarcasm. “He should not be living on da moun-ain dis time of year. But dere is loss of balance.”
“Is he the one running around here with the fire?”
“Do not meet him face to face. No man may look upon his face.”
With no eyebrows and scars, who would want to?
“Nora.” The sound of Cole’s voice boomed in the still night. He jogged down the trail from deeper in the forest.
Nora sucked in a breath to quiet her startled heart. “What are you doing here?”
He stopped in front of her. “You shouldn’t be out here alone.”
“Why? Are you here to hurt me?”
Cole clenched his teeth. “I’m out here trying to protect you. Apparently, from your own stupidity.”
She needed to get out of here, away from Cole. “I don’t need your protection. I’ve got this guy here keeping watch over the forest.”
“What guy?”
She knew before she turned that the little man had vanished. “Never mind. I may not understand what this fireball thing is or how you’re doing it, but I want you to stop.”
Cole pushed his hair off his forehead. He stared at her a few seconds and let out a breath. Good. He was going to confess. “I saw it, too. What do you think it is? I followed it but couldn’t catch up to it.”
“Right.”
His head shot up as if she’d slapped him. “I’m not your enemy, Nora. I’ve been camping out here for days keeping watch. You don’t seem to understand the danger you’re in.”
Damn right. She needed more protection than a flashlight if she continued to stand in the forest with a dangerous man who admitted to spying on her.
“Big Elk is doing mischief up here on the mountain. I think it has something to do with the lava tubes.”
She stared at him.
“You know about them, right?”
“I know about the opening next to the crash site. There are more?”
He nodded. “The tubes crisscross the mountain and have openings all over. It’s like a tunnel system. My Hopi friend told me about them. I’m not sure what Big Elk is doing with them, though.”
“What could he be doing with them?”
“Most people think there are one or two isolated tubes. Like you know about the one at the crash site. Benny told me it’s more like a subway system with connecting routes. It’s another secret of the tribes and they can use them to move around the mountain.”
“If they are lava tubes, though, aren’t they sharp and dangerous, like the lava fields.” She tried not to think about the razor edges of the lava rock where Scott fell.
Cole shook his head. “Actually, the stone is smooth in the tubes.”
“So you think Big Elk has his Native American gang running through the tubes to jump out and scare people?”
He frowned. “It’s got to be something bigger than that.”
She backed away and started for the lodge. “I’m calling the cops.”
“Good. Tell them someone is using the springs for a camp. I think it might be Alex.”
Her heart leapt to her throat. “What makes you think that?”
“I saw Heather leave some food and supplies there a couple of days ago.”
He’d been in the woods for days, watching, waiting.
“Come on, Abbey.” Nora backed away, ready to sprint for the lodge.
Cole’s hand shot out and grabbed her arm. With Hulk-like strength, he jerked her back into him.
Nora pushed against him but he didn’t give.
A loud shshshsh hit her ears. She followed the sound to the lift house halfway down the mountain. Cole stared in the same direction.
She didn’t have time to focus her eyes when the world erupted around her.
Light exploded and her eardrums boxed with pressure. A blast of heat added confusion to the fire at the lift house. The jet engine roar of the explosion echoed across the mountain.
Nora fell against Cole or he might have pulled her to him. He shrouded her, blocking the heat of the explosion with the cocoon of his body. Yellow flames danced in the distance.
20
Nora stared at the gnarled metal that used to be the lift house, now drenched in water from the fireman’s hose. The grass and top soil around the lift base washed away, leaving a red muddy sludge of rocks and cinder. The cables weighted down with bent and twisted chairs eventually rose to the next pole, heading up the mountain into the gray dawn. The lift house sat as a bent shell, blackened with soot.
Abigail shoved a steaming cup of coffee under Nora’s nose. Nora couldn’t think what to do with it.
Abigail picked up Nora’s hand and wrapped it around the cup. “Drink this, dear. It will help.”
Help what? It wouldn’t rebuild the lift or save them from Big Elk and his gang. She longed to feel Scott’s arms around her, let his warmth reassure her. The last bit of blood drained from her heart, knowing if he lived Scott wouldn’t be here with her.
Abigail stepped back. She might have jumped to Tibet for all Nora knew or cared. She couldn’t pull her eyes from the wreckage and her vision narrowed to block everything else.
The police had scrambled over the area, taking notes, asking her questions, and stringing yellow crime scene tape.
Cole answered police questions but asked a lot more. He finally tromped into the forest grumbling about incompetent police investigations. The cops left a while ago. Now the mountain rested in early morning silence.
“Those sons of bitches.” Nora shouted, feeling some life at the echo of her words on the mountain.
“Nora, language.” Armageddon could strike and Abigail would demand linen napkins on her luncheon table.
Nora turned to Abigail and was shocked out of her stupor. Abigail stood next to Charlie wrapped in his army jacket. It enveloped her so she looked like a camo version of SpongeBob Squarepants. Her hair and make-up, of course, were perfect.
Charlie appeared scruffier than usual, probably because he hurried over when he heard the explosion and hadn’t supplied his jacket with beer. “This is not cool,” he said.
“We can’t stand around here all day staring at this mess.” Abigail took her all-business tone. “I’ll fix some breakfast while you shower and dress. You’ll feel better.”
“No, Mother. I don’t think putting on a happy face is going to fix this.”
“For heaven’s sake, of course not. But action is better than moping around.”
Charlie rubbed his hands together. “Breakfast with you two lovely ladies would be the highlight of my life.”
Abigail huffed in disgust.
“You go ahead. I’ll be right up,” Nora said.
“You’re just saying that to make me go away.” Nothing escaped Abigail.
Nora’s head felt filled with tiny, fire-breathing dragons, their sharp tails stabbing her brain.
Abigail sighed in an injured way. “Stay out here staring at the ruin all day then. I’m going to behave in a civilized fashion.” She stomped toward the lodge.
Charlie put a hand on Nora’s shoulder. “Do you want to be alone with your thoughts?”
The old rascal. “Go get some breakfast.”
“I could stay with you.”
“Better take advantage of this opportunity. Breakfast is her best meal.”
Charlie bowed as he backed away. “It’s not just the food, you know. I’d eat sand if she prepared it for me.”
“She’s so mean to you. Why do you adore her?”
Charlie’s eyes got a soft, faraway look. “You think she’s all sharp angles and cold surfaces. But I see the light in her eyes that opens the way to her loving heart.”
Nora blew air out her mouth. “Come on.”
She changed the subject to what really nagged. “Don’t you think it’s suspicious that Cole is always around when things go bad?”
The Nora Abbott Mystery series Box Set Page 12
