The Sisters of Blue Mountain

by Karen Katchur

  Jake wiped his hip where it was wet and slimy and then swiped his hands down his jeans. He smelled. The whole place smelled.

  “What is it you need from me?” Charlie asked, turning his attention away from Linnet and onto Jake.

  “It’s not important.” Jake shook his head. “It can wait.”

  Linnet glared at both Myna and Jake.

  “We’re all going to walk back to the B&B nice and civilized,” Charlie said. “Does everyone understand?”

  Myna nodded and stepped away from Jake, shooing him away. He’d told her and Pop earlier that he’d parked his car up the street from The Snow Goose and had picked his way through the woods to the dam. Myna didn’t have to ask why he hadn’t taken the path. He’d been trying to avoid Linnet this entire time. “Go,” she said to him now. Somewhat reluctantly, he retreated through the woods back the way he came.

  “Where’s he going?” Charlie asked.

  “Let him go,” Linnet said. “He’s just a troublemaker looking for an inside scoop.”

  “All right,” Charlie said. “Come on.” He corralled them together and ushered them back onto the path. Once they were in their driveway, he read Pop his rights and cuffed him.

  “Is that really necessary?” Myna asked.

  “It’s standard procedure,” Charlie said. “I wish I didn’t have to do it, but I have to go by the book. I’ve got a lot of eyes on me right now.”

  “I’ll call your lawyer, and we’ll meet you at the station,” Linnet said to Pop.

  His eyes had clouded over as though he were somewhere else. His spectacles dangled on the edge of his nose. He didn’t have a free hand to push them up. Myna did it for him right before Charlie put him in the back of the patrol car.

  * * *

  Myna sat across from Linnet at the kitchen table. They’d spent the afternoon at the police station. Mr. Lyons had advised Pop not to give Charlie a statement, putting an end to any attempt at discovering whether or not he’d been able to remember anything new about the night in question.

  The clock on the wall ticked off the seconds, fraying Myna’s nerves. Ian and Hank had returned home and walked down to the dam. Hank had wanted to see the dredging equipment. He was taking the news about Pop hard.

  “I don’t understand,” he’d cried, and rubbed his eyes over and over again. “They don’t arrest innocent people. And Pop is innocent. Isn’t he?”

  “Of course he is.” Linnet had put her arm around him. “They made a mistake, and his lawyer will prove it.”

  “But why does he have to stay in jail?”

  “The arraignment is set for tomorrow morning,” Ian said, and then explained what an arraignment was. “My guess is that Pop will be home in time for lunch.”

  Myna could tell her nephew was trying hard to fight the tears that kept rolling down his cheeks. She wanted to hold him, wrap her arms around him, comfort him. Linnet and Ian had beaten her to it.

  Now, Ian had taken Hank to the dam, and the sisters were left alone together.

  Myna pulled the sleeve of her sweatshirt down to cover her arm. She played with the cuff, waiting for Linnet to say something. While she waited, her mind drifted to Ben. He’d been empathetic if a bit careful with his words when she’d spoken to him on the phone. She’d spent most of the time convincing him, or maybe she’d been convincing herself, of Pop’s innocence. And now she’d have to tell him Pop had been arrested. None of it felt real.

  “Well?” Linnet asked. “Are you going to tell me what the hell that was about with Jake?” She kept her voice down.

  Myna put her elbow on the table and rested her forehead in the palm of her hand. “I told you. He wants to know why Pop’s number was on what he thinks is his father’s phone. And if I don’t tell him why, if I don’t tell him the truth, he’s going to go straight to Charlie.” She dropped her hand to the table.

  “Well, why the hell was the phone with his father’s stuff anyway?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I’ve been trying to figure that out. But I don’t think it really matters at this point. Does it?”

  Linnet pushed away from the table and stood. She walked over to the garden window and looked out. After a long moment she said, “I’m worried about Pop.”

  “How do you think he’s doing?” Myna asked.

  “I don’t know.” Linnet shook her head. “Charlie promised he’d stay with him overnight. But if Pop gets confused, he’ll be scared.”

  “What if he’s having one of his good days, or moments? Would that be worse?”

  “Knowing is better than not knowing.”

  “That’s exactly it,” Myna said. “Knowing is better than not knowing.” But she wasn’t talking about Pop any longer. She was talking about Jake.

  Linnet turned her head slightly in Myna’s direction. “You’re going to tell him what we did no matter what I say, aren’t you?”

  Myna wasn’t aware she was picking at her forearm. “We can’t let him think it was Pop’s fault. Pop’s in enough trouble.” She paused. “Pop doesn’t know Mom was going to leave him. He doesn’t know about the affair. If he found out now after all this time, it would destroy him.”

  Linnet didn’t respond for a longtime. Myna watched her sister carefully, checking for signs of anger, bracing for an argument. But her sister’s shoulders slumped, her head bowed.

  When the silence continued, Myna said the one thing she’d felt all along, the thing she’d believed in her heart. “It was never our decision to make, Linny,” she said softly.

  Linnet turned around. There was so much anguish in her sister’s eyes, Myna could do nothing but look away.

  “Okay,” Linnet said finally.

  “You agree I should tell Jake?” she asked.

  “No,” she said. “I’m going to tell him.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  Jake paced back and forth in the parking lot of the Laundromat. He’d gone to the LG to change out of his fish-slimed clothes only to find he hadn’t any clean ones left. His phone went off. Dennis had already left him half a dozen text messages. This last one was meant to serve as a warning. Dennis expected one last article from Jake about the dredging and another short piece on the recent arrest of the old doc, and then he wanted Jake back covering the Lehigh Valley. Dennis was pissed they’d used the doc as an expert on a previous article about the snow geese. Jake had never known Dennis to use so many exclamation points in one text message before. It hurts the paper’s credibility!!! It hurts your credibility as a journalist!!!

  Kim had sent two text messages. They arrested the old geezer! Now what are you going to do? He debated whether or not to get back to her. He didn’t have anything new to tell her other than he might’ve blown his chance to find out the truth from the doc when he’d had the police chief standing right there next to him at the dam.

  But Myna had convinced him with her big brown eyes to hear her out first. Had he been suckered by a pretty woman? He hadn’t thought so. If there was a woman who had made his heart pound and his palms clammy, it was Kim. So what the hell had he been thinking?

  He’d been thinking he could trust her.

  Or maybe there was a small part of him, a deeper part, that didn’t want to know the answer to the questions he’d been asking— Who was his father outside of the wonderful man his mother had painted him to be?

  A cloud had moved in front of the sun, turning the day gray once again. The scent of rain from the morning shower lingered in the air. There was a good chance they’d see more rain before the day ended. April showers bring May flowers and all that crap. A minibus pulled into the lot followed by two smaller vehicles Jake recognized as belonging to the doomsday picketers. Two women piled out of the bus. One of the women carried a large duffel bag similar to Jake’s.

  “Hi,” he said as they approached. Even activists needed clean clothes. But there was something about the group that was different. Whatever spark they’d had earlier in the week had been extinguished.

&n
bsp; As if sensing what was on Jake’s mind, the woman said, “We’re moving on. But, mark my words, this is just the beginning. You’d do best to prepare yourself for Judgment Day.” She pulled a pamphlet from her back pocket. “Keep this,” she said. “In case you lost the other one.”

  So she remembered him.

  They stopped and watched as a couple of news vans drove past. Everyone was heading out of town now that the drama had ended. The fish were being cleaned up, the dam dredged. An argument could be made that even the young professor’s murder had been wrapped up, suspect arrested, nothing new to report. It was time to move on and search for the next big story.

  She heaved the duffel bag over her shoulder. He followed her inside the Laundromat to see if the dryer full of his clothes had stopped. It had. He pulled his clean clothes out and tossed them into the bag, then he made his way back to the LG. The place was deserted. Rodney stood behind the bar drying a glass with a dish towel.

  “Where is everybody?” Jake asked, checking his phone for messages and the time. It was late afternoon. There were usually a few regulars at the bar getting a head start on happy hour.

  “They’re all at the dam. I think the whole town is there pulling up weeds and cleaning up the fish. The birds were one thing, but the guys around here won’t have anything disrupt their fishing season.”

  Jake nodded. So it had become a town effort to salvage the fishing season. He told Rodney he’d see him later, and he made his way to the door that led upstairs to his room. Once inside, he changed into a clean pair of jeans and a long-sleeve shirt. Then he sat on the bed—back against the headboard, legs crossed, his cell phone placed directly in front of him—waiting for a text from Myna.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  Linnet parked two blocks away from the Loose Goose. She got out of the car. Myna got out with her, and the two of them walked shoulder to shoulder to the bar. The phrase dead man walking crossed her mind, but in their case it was dead sisters walking.

  “Are you sure Jake said the LG was deserted?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Myna said. “He said we’d be able to talk in private. Rodney told him everyone was at the dam and would be until the sun goes down.”

  She nodded. She’d heard the men’s voices cutting across the water in between the sounds of the dredging equipment. She hadn’t dared to return to the dam to do her part in the community’s cleanup effort, not since she’d thrown the fish at Jake earlier that morning, and definitely not since Pop had been arrested.

  A flock of snow geese honked overhead. Both she and Myna stopped and looked to the sky. They watched the geese fly by and disappear behind the mountain. Only when the birds were out of sight did they continue walking again.

  Linnet pulled the door open and held it for her sister to walk through first. She stepped in behind her. Jake was sitting at a table in the corner of the bar. He stood upon seeing them, or rather, he shot up out of his chair upon seeing her.

  “I gather you didn’t tell him I was coming,” she said to Myna.

  “I thought it was best he didn’t know up front,” Myna said as they made their way over to him.

  Jake pulled his shoulders back. He gazed at Myna, giving her a look that Linnet interpreted as asking what the heck she was doing here. “You’re not planning on throwing any more fish at me, are you?” he asked her.

  She snorted. “You’re getting off easy this time,” she said, and laid her purse on the table. “But don’t tempt me.”

  “Let’s sit,” Myna said. “And please, no more talk about throwing fish.” She directed this last statement at Linnet.

  Rodney cleared his throat from behind the bar. He flipped the dish towel onto his shoulder. “What can I get you, ladies?”

  “Club soda,” she said at the same time Myna said, “A pitcher of beer.”

  Rodney’s eyebrows shot up. Then he poured a pitcher of beer and a single glass of club soda.

  Linnet pulled out a chair and plopped down on it. Myna and Jake followed her lead. They waited to say anything more until Rodney brought over their drinks.

  “Thanks,” Jake said to him.

  Rodney hesitated a beat or two, eying them up before returning behind the bar. He turned on the small television and continued drying glasses while he stared at the screen. The low hum of the news coming from the tiny speakers was the only sound filling the room.

  Jake pulled the old black cell phone from his pocket and tossed it on the table between them. Linnet concentrated on keeping her face neutral. Myna had already started rubbing her forearm. Linnet wondered if her sister was even aware she was doing it.

  “May I?” Linnet asked, and pointed to the phone.

  “Go ahead,” Jake said.

  She picked it up and turned it over. The back was full of scratches. She ran her finger over the grooves, the jagged lines rough on her skin. The memory of that night on the mountain road had always been in the dark corners of her mind. Sometimes she’d dream about it, waking up sweaty and frantic. Other times it was as though none of it had been real, the memories more like remnants, broken pieces of a long-forgotten childhood nightmare.

  She laid the Nokia down. “It was our phone,” she said to Jake. “Mine and Myna’s when we were teenagers.”

  Underneath the table, Myna reached for Linnet’s hand.

  “Your phone?” Jake asked. “Then how did my father end up with it?”

  “I’m not sure exactly,” she said. “But I have an idea.”

  “Go on,” Jake said.

  She glimpsed at the ring on Jake’s pinky. She turned to her sister and looked into her eyes, a look that she hoped said, I’m doing this for you as much as I am for Pop. By telling the truth, maybe, just maybe, she and Myna could find their way back to each other. “Let me start at the beginning,” she said.

  * * *

  Linnet viewed the mountain road through the headlights, two small orbs piercing a thick curtain of darkness. The hills grew taller, bulkier as the road narrowed, the mountain swallowing her with each tick of the odometer. The tree branches, full with new spring leaves, created a lush green tunnel over the road that was breathtaking in daylight, but now felt ominous and monster-like. Pop had warned about driving over the mountain, how it was treacherous in daytime at best and impossible to navigate at night.

  She’d dismissed his concerns, thinking him a worrywart, an apprehensive father with the kind of overdeveloped sense of caution that came with age. He was older than most of the other kids’ fathers by at least a decade. My god, he was in his fifties. Ancient.

  And Linnet, the teenager, wasn’t anything like him. She was afraid of nothing. Well, that wasn’t altogether true. She was afraid of one thing, more frightened than even Myna knew—Myna, who knew everything there was to know about her. But Linnet wouldn’t think about that right now. She wouldn’t think about their mother, wouldn’t think about where she might be going or whether she would be coming back.

  She soared over the winding road, the wind of freedom blowing through her hair. There were boys over the mountain, and not just any boys, but college boys. Excitement fluttered like a thousand butterflies in her stomach. She glanced in the rearview mirror. Nothing behind her but a stream of darkness. She resisted the urge to check her makeup in the visor mirror, keeping her hands firmly on the wheel. She didn’t need to check her face, she decided. Her makeup had come out perfect, not a clump in her black mascara. Her hair was washed and sleek. She’d taken her time on it with the flatiron, sectioning off pieces one at a time until it lay smooth and straight. The low humidity on this particular spring night had kept the frizz away.

  She looked over at her sister, taking her eyes off of the road for a second. Myna had stuck her head out the window as if she were a dog, her curly hair blowing in a mess of tangles. Normally, Linnet would’ve made her sister stick her head back inside the car; beg for her to fix herself up, make herself presentable. But she was in too good of a mood to let Myna’s wild appearance bother her.
She had a feeling something big was about to happen. She’d felt it in her bones as soon as she climbed into the car, and she still felt it now as they sped down a small hill and crested another, TLC blaring from the tiny speakers, warning their listeners about the dangers of chasing waterfalls.

  She braked around a bend, her whole body leaning into the sharp turn. The headlights cut across the woods, lighting the trunks of trees as though cutting them off at the knees. The road straightened for a stretch, then bent to the left before winding its way to the right again. Her stomach dipped and swayed with the back-and-forth motion.

  Myna pulled her head back into the car. “Do you have your high beams on?” she asked at the same time Linnet saw something in the road. She slammed on the brake, swerving into the oncoming lane. Myna flew into the dashboard, knocking hard against the plastic interior. The car skidded before coming to a stop. Linnet’s first thought was, What was that? and then, Why wasn’t Myna wearing her seat belt?

  “What the hell?” Myna held her right cheek.

  “Are you hurt?” She would never forgive herself if she’d harmed her baby sister.

  “I’m okay I think,” she said, checking her cheek in the visor mirror. “What happened?”

  “I thought I saw something in the road.” Linnet was hesitant to look over her shoulder, hoping there was something there and at the same time hoping there wasn’t. It could’ve been the shadows, her eyes playing tricks on her.

  Myna looked back for her. “What is that?” she asked.

  So there was something there. “I’m not sure. Hang on.” She put the car in reverse, then back in drive, and in reverse again, making a K-turn like she’d learned to do in driver’s education class last summer. Once the car was turned around and they were facing the direction of home, the headlights settled in the opposite lane. “It’s a car,” she said. It was flipped over on its roof.

  “Holy shit,” Myna said. “Do you see anyone?”