Chapter 10
Suspicions
When Carl came back to his office, he
was amazed. His office was tidy. Merlin shut the filing cabinet and turned to
face him.
“Get your .. second opinion okay?”
“How did you do this?” he asked. “Did you wave a magic wand?”
“No, Carl. I worked my butt off. Do I get workers’ comp for paper cuts?”
“It’s incredible … It looks like an office.”
“Well, there’s a thing.” She sighed.
“Just try to keep it this way, huh?”
“Sure!
I don’t want another fire.”
“Good.
I have to go. If you need me for
anything, call. I’m around until July
eighth, then I’m away for a while. After
that .. I should be okay to travel for around three months. Then I’ll probably have to stay close to
home. See you at the fundraiser. Bye.
An’ keep it tidy!”
“Yes, ma’am,” Carl agreed quickly.
Merlin was out in the parking lot and
heading for the 4x4 when Carl’s words finally filtered thru the thick layer of
revelations from Alopex.
Another
fire?
She couldn’t go back and ask. It wasn’t important. She wanted to know what had happened to Nick.
“Peri?”
Merlin swung round. “Alex?
Rachel! What’re you doing here?”
“We’ve been meeting Charlie. Going over some Parkfield stuff. Experiments.
Tests. What’re you doing here?”
“Housework for Carl. Are you heading back now?”
They nodded.
“Good.”
They waited. Merlin looked like she hadn’t finished but
she didn’t know quite how to continue.
“How’s the situation between Nick an’
Steve?”
Rachel and Alex exchanged
glances. “I wouldn’t advise going over
there,” Rachel replied. “They’re
challenging each other.
“When one of them wins,” Alex
remarked.
Merlin slowly nodded. “What kinda contests?”
“I think they’ve been racing,” Alex
said. “Both cars had smashed lights and
dents in the bodywork. It’s been fixed
now but it looked bad.”
“Mostly it’s physical stuff,” Rachel
continued. “Squaring up to each
other. Macho behavior.”
“An’ .. outta character?”
“It was but, now, it’s very in character,” Rachel replied.
That hurt. “Not all of it, surely,” Merlin queried.
“Racing, taking chances .. Nick did
that a lot in the past,” Alex pointed out.
And a manhunt in the woods .. Merlin
had done that with him.
“What about a hunt to the death?”
Rachel’s eyes widened. “What? That’s crazy!”
“Look, there’s something going
on. There’s a lot more to this than
we’ve begun to guess at. It came on very
fast, didn’t it? One second, then the
other … ”
They nodded warily.
“I’ve got Alopex keeping a watch on
Nick. You asked me to tell you if he did
anything out of the ordinary. He
has. He’s raised the stakes, Rachel, an’
he’s hurting more than himself an’ Steve.
Alopex says that what’s going on isn’t good. Be careful, both of you.”
“An’ you stay away,” Rachel urged.
“I have to go there. Maybe I can get to him. I did before, when he came home
yesterday.” Merlin’s shoulders fell. “It just didn’t last long.”
“No.
If something’s going on to affect the both of them to that degree, you
have to stay away. You have to think of
your baby. Nick may not hurt you but
Steve might. An’ you have no
protection.” Rachel straightened. “Leave it with us. We’ll try an’ find out.”
“An’ let me know,” Merlin
insisted. “You keep me in the dark, Rachel,
I’ll come to the island an’ you won’t stop me.”
“We’ll keep you in the loop,” Alex
agreed. “A hunt to the death?
Are you sure?”
“Yeah.
Alopex wouldn’t lie, not about Nick, not to me.”
*****
Alopex drifted invisibly thru the woods
as silently as only a living ghost could.
He was watching Steve at the moment because the darkness smothering him
was thicker and nastier. It meant he was
less able to be trusted. In Alopex’s
watchful eyes, quite a lot less. He had
been there when Nick had said about the thirty minute grace period and he’d
watched the newcomer blatantly cheat.
That was not good for anyone, and especially so in a Legacy guy. If he cheated with this, he was likely to
cheat at other things.
Alopex wasn’t at all sure what was
going on. This wasn’t possession; he
wasn’t picking up any signs of that. The
darkness which lay like a shroud over Steve and Nick wasn’t inside them as
such, not resident and living there. It
was more like a cloud of thick smoke which they breathed in and exhaled
again. Some may have lodged in the cells
of their bodies or their blood.
Alopex was of the opinion that they’d
been drugged. And that meant two things
– one, they weren’t responsible for what they were doing, or had done, and, two,
there was a good chance they would recover, if they could be extracted
soon. He sensed evil in a vague,
undefined way. There was certainly
nothing to fight. How they’d become like
this was a mystery. He was sure they
hadn’t done it deliberately – that would go against everything they, as Legacy
members, believed in.
The hunt, such as it was, wasn’t
much. The darkness was one mass,
presently divided into two distinct blobs but with a long snaking tendril
connecting them. Slowly but surely, they
were being drawn together again.
Lynx is .. almost one of us. I would defend another Flamefall if they were
under attack. It may come to a fight to
the death but I won’t permit a killing stroke, not from Nick nor from the other
one. It would be murder. It’d be crossing the line with no way back.
It wouldn’t be long now. The woods were thick yet only a hundred yards
separated them. Alopex estimated where
they would eventually meet and went on ahead to prevent the blood from flowing.
*****
Under the influence. Like a drunk.
Or a user. I’m in deep, can’t
seem to help myself. He knows. At some level, he knows what he’s doing and
that it’s wrong. But he can’t stop. No .. he doesn’t want to stop. Or …
When Alopex had dropped his bombshell,
she had wanted to just leave everything in a mess and go to Nick. She hadn’t.
She’d forced herself to finish the task at hand, not because she didn’t
care but because there was little else she could do. Alopex was on the island, watching Nick. If she had left Carl’s office and driven back
to
When Nick came home yesterday, it was
like he was two people. When he came in,
when he assaulted Sophie, and after, he was .. hard, cold. Even at the beginning, when we used to meet
in dreams and the sex was raw and violent, he was never cold. Yesterday he was. Almost a stranger. Yet, for those few minutes after we’d had
sex, while we walked back to the house and started up the stairs, he was the
Nick I’ve always known. Something got to
him. In my house, which is protected,
something got to him. Something he
already brought in. So he was there, he
is there, but .. it’s like he’s buried so deep that he can’t fight free without
help. And this .. whatever it is which
has taken over his mind is stronger than him, me, our baby, our life together,
the Legacy .. everything. And that means
.. he may have cheated on me but he wasn’t responsible for his actions. I can’t blame him. And I don’t.
He’s a victim. And so is Steve.
Sophie said .. it was a dare.
Merlin’s eyes narrowed.
*****
“A hunt to the death?” Rachel echoed,
sounding disgusted. “That’s taking it
too far.”
“But is it out of character?” Alex
questioned.
Rachel paused. “I want to say it is but I can’t. It’s horrible. Hateful.
But I can’t lie, Alex. We know
Nick is capable of violent bursts of temper .. and, if he feels he is in the
right, yeah, he’s capable of killing.
Thus far, all we’ve seen him do is kill the bad guys. Hey, the Legacy wins again, good for us. Steve isn’t the bad guy – he’s one of us.”
“Is he?”
Rachel looked shocked. “Yes, he is.
Whatever’s affecting Nick is affecting Steve too. Think back to his first day. Was he rude?
Pushy? No, he wasn’t. It was during his second day that something
flipped a switch. An’, like some kinda
.. disease, he passed it on.”
“So why haven’t I caught it, or you or
Derek?”
“Maybe it isn’t a disease as
such. It just manifests that way.”
Alex thought about this and set it
aside for more consideration later. “An’
what if Nick’s attitude is just a pretence?”
“That’s what’s worrying me,” Rachel
admitted. “It’s very possible,
Alex. Both Peri an’ I came to that
conclusion as being more likely than Nick feeling true friendship for Steve. But, if it is a pretence an’ he’s on a hunt
to the death … Yeah, it would be in
character an’ yet very outta character.
Nick’s unstable right now, an’ that means Steve is too. We can’t rely on either on them.”
“It fits, doesn’t it? Racing an’ crashing their cars. I woke up when they got back that night. I thought I’d half dreamed it or I was
overreacting .. I know I wasn’t. They
were laughing. Nick’s precious Mustang
.. damaged an’ he was laughing.”
“That’s
outta character,” Rachel declared. “Not
even in the ballpark.”
“Makes you wonder what else they’ve
been doing that we don’t know about,” Alex commented.
Rachel sat up slightly. “Now that is a good idea.”
“What ..?”
“Let’s get Peri on it. She has Alopex watching Nick, an’ he’s the
best guy for the job. Peri is worried
sick an’ she really needs to be doing something about it. Let’s put her to work. It’s away from the island, away from
potential danger, but she’ll be acting instead of thinking.”
Alex nodded. “And we’ll run interference. Keep Nick an’ Steve outta the way.”
“Compile the evidence .. an’ then we
take it to Derek.”
*****
Nick heard a twig snap and he
froze. Only his eyes moved, carefully
scanning the pockets of gloom under the thick canopy of trees. It could have been an animal but a solitary
twig and then silence? He didn’t think
so. Animals make noise. They push thru undergrowth, breathe, stamp
their feet. They don’t go silent when
they step on a twig. Only the human
animal, capable of rational thought, does that.
He could have waited motionless for
hours. The sound had been fairly
close. But Nick discovered he didn’t
have to wait. A shadow detached itself
from the gloom and eased forward. Steve
moved cautiously, in a half crouch, one hand held out to the left, the other,
holding the knife, was a little in front and to the right. He was maybe thirty feet away and crossing
the small clearing at an oblique angle.
It would take him to Nick’s left.
A handful of steps, he would emerge behind Steve and the sharp edge of
the blade would slice so sweetly across his throat. Nick would win. End of contest.
His eyes glittered blood red as he
stepped forward. One, two, three … Steve was focused on the path, looking to
either side and darting the occasional flaring glance ahead. Four, five …
Nick closed his hand firmly around the hilt of the K-bar. Six, seven, eight … He was behind him now, his feet merely
gliding over the ground. His hand
lifted.
The wood shook to a sudden and
sustained gust of wind which tipped Steve off balance with a muttered curse,
and sent Nick staggering backward. Nick
tried to recover and the wind just blew stronger. In fact, it kept on blowing until he gave up
the attempt.
“Shit!” Nick exploded. “Why can’t I do this one fucking thing? Why can’t I win?”
Steve’s face was ashen as he pulled
himself upright. “Maybe we’re too well
matched.”
“No way. I’m better.
I would’ve beat you in the race an’ I would’ve cut your throat. Never doubt it. You know
I’m right.”
Steve idly tossed the K-bar toward
Nick’s feet. “Dream on, Nicky. You keep losing because you can’t hack
it. You’re soft. You don’t have the fire in your gut.” His voice had been stony and hadn’t matched
the distant horror in his eyes. Steve
grinned abruptly. “Good hunt
though. Had a blast.”
“Do it again sometime?” Nick inquired,
bending to pick up the knife.
“Sure, but .. slightly different. I choose.”
“Whatever, bro,” Nick shrugged. “Just make it real bad.”
They wandered off toward the estate,
shoulder to shoulder, chatting about technique and experience. War stories.
The near miss was already fading into the background. Alopex watched them go and slowly shook his
head. One image remained imprinted in
his mind – the glittering blood red eyes.
*****
Merlin got home first and the first
thing she did was go next door to check on Alopex. She remembered how it used to be all those
years – lying comatose in a bed somewhere while Aquila went to do her thing. She made sure he was comfortable and that
there was water ready for him when he woke.
She left a box of cookies by the bed too. Thirst followed by hunger were always the
main needs to be met after waking. Then
she sat and watched him for a while. He
showed no sign of coming round.
While Merlin did this, Alex and Rachel
arrived at the island. “You go on in,”
Rachel murmured. “I’ll call Peri.”
“Okay.
I think I’m going to suggest to Derek that we cancel the fundraiser.”
Slowly, Rachel nodded. “It’s a good idea. If he looks resistant, amend it to postponing
the fundraiser. He may be more
amenable. But I agree, it shouldn’t go
ahead. It’s too risky.”
Alex went inside and Rachel,
perversely feeling like ten kinds of traitor rolled into one, cast a casual yet
intense glance all around then set off for the corner of the house which would
take her onto the terrace.
I really detest spying on my
colleagues. I know there’s a good
reason. I know it has to be done. But I detest doing it. What if I go thru a rough patch in my life and
start acting erratically? Will they spy
on me? They’d think they have every
right .. and I would hate them for doing it, for not trusting me to know what
I’m doing, my own limits, and when to ask for help.
She speed dialed Merlin’s cell
phone. “C’mon, Peri, pick up …” Rachel stood in the angle of two walls where
the sun warmed her and the cool breeze couldn’t reach her.
“Yeah.”
“Peri, it’s Rachel. Are you home?”
“Next door, checking on Alopex. He isn’t back yet.”
“That means Nick’s still out there. Alex an’ I were talking. We figured you’re in need of something
positive to do, seeing as you can’t really come over here. When Nick an’ Steve got back after racing an’
crashing their cars, they woke Alex. It
was past three in the morning and Alex was still half asleep but she thinks
they were laughing about something. And
it got us wondering what else they might have done.”
Merlin was quiet for a moment. “You want me to go take a look.”
“It’d be doing something instead of
waiting. There’s nothing worse.”
“Damn straight. You know where they went that night?”
“North to Marin County. Up in the mountains.”
“Okay.
I’ll get on it.”
“Keep us posted. It’s all evidence which we’ll take to Derek.”
“Sure thing.”
The line clicked dead and Rachel
shivered. She’d loosed the dogs. Yep.
Ten kinds of traitor rolled into one.
*****
“Derek?”
“In here. How did it go at Berkeley?”
Alex’s mind was on other things and
she had to force herself to remember why she’d gone out. “Oh, it went fine. Charlie was his usual brilliant self. He’s suggested a range of experiments an’
offered to help process the results.
He’s also going to loan us some portable sensors.”
“It’s kind of him,” Derek smiled.
“Yeah, he’s a nice guy. Academic an’ with no life outside his lab.”
“A little like me,” he commented idly.
“Not quite. You have too much to do to have a life. Charlie finds things to do to avoid having
one.”
“A fine distinction which I
appreciate.”
“Derek,” Alex continued and drew in a
deep breath. “The fundraiser. I think you should consider canceling it.”
He leaned back, his eyes puzzled. “Why would I want to do that, Alex?”
“This .. competition between Nick an’
Steve.”
“They are both members of the Luna
Foundation. They will remember that and
not do anything to embarrass us or our guests.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I trust them, Alex. You should have a little faith.”
Alex couldn’t blame him. He didn’t know what she knew, and Alex only
had hearsay. Until she had the proof,
she couldn’t make him understand.
“Then can we postpone it?”
“Andrew would not be pleased with that
suggestion. Our guests have, no doubt,
made arrangements. We’ve made arrangements – caterers, the band. Postponing would be worse than canceling
outright.”
Alex didn’t quite surrender but she
yielded the argument for now. Maybe,
when she had some proof, she would get him to change his mind. The only problem there was that she didn’t
have very long to do it.
*****
Alopex stirred just as Merlin was
about to leave. His eyes opened and he
sighed. “He’s back in the house. They both are.”
“In one piece? No missing limbs?”
He nodded, sitting up rather
stiffly. “He would have done it. He would’ve slit the other guy’s throat. In cold blood too. It was calculated.”
Merlin sank onto the end of the
bed. “What the fuck’s going on ..?”
“I have no idea. But I don’t think I need to gather proof
against him, Peri. This isn’t the Nick I
know. I don’t know who he is. His temperament .. goes from violent rage to
the extreme opposite in the blink of an eye.
They both do. One second, ready
to tear into each other. The next ..
best buddies. It’s weird to watch. If Nick has a grudge against someone, he’s
cool. Implacable. He’ll work to bring them down. He won’t go to murder them.”
“Cool?
You know him, do you?” she asked with a tired grin.
“He may blow hot but, beneath it, he’s
cool. He always has a plan and he
follows it without wavering.” Alopex
gratefully sipped the water. “What
they’re doing .. it’s senseless. There’s
no plan. It’s like children, only
they’re playing grownup games. They take
it in turns to suggest things to do.
It’s very strange. And there’s
the dark cloud around them. The eyes …
” He worked his neck. “I’ll rest up for a while then go back.”
She nodded, thinking about what he’d
said. “Appreciate it, Jon.”
“Will you be next door?”
“No.”
She rose. “I’m heading for the
hills. Marin County. Got some snooping of my own to do.”
*****
“What did he say?” Rachel murmured.
“Wouldn’t even consider it,” Alex
replied softly. “It’s that peculiar
tunnel vision he has at times. Derek is so perceptive, so aware, yet, when
something’s going on right under his nose, he just doesn’t seem to see it or
feel the tension it generates.”
Rachel hesitated. “Be honest, Alex. There isn’t any tension in the house, except
what we’re feeling.”
“Then we must be doing a great job of
disguising it,” Alex commented in a flat voice.
“But don’t tell me Derek can’t have noticed that Nick’s … Maybe he’s making allowances,” she conceded
on a sigh. “It wouldn’t be the first
time. He could think, like us, that
Nick’s playing along. If Derek has one
big failing, it’s also his greatest strength.
His loyalty to his team. He’d
snap himself in two before he’d give up on one of us.”
“So .. what do we do?”
“The only thing we can. We gather what evidence we can find, an’ we
present it to him with our recommendations.
If he still insists that the fundraiser go ahead, I’m gonna ask Peri to
draft in some security for us. If that
means I go over Derek’s head, that’s what I do.”
“You’ll have my support,” Rachel
declared firmly. “You may have to do
that anyway, Alex. The fundraiser’s in a
few days. We don’t have much time to
find proof.”
They glanced round as Nick came
in. He grinned broadly. “What’s going on? Plotting mutiny?”
They knew Nick could move quietly and
they wondered how much of their conversation he might have overheard.
“Just discussing the fundraiser,”
Rachel replied.
“We’re all set. Steve an’ I checked the cameras an’ the fence
today. Everything’s good to go.”
“That’s .. good to know.”
“So .. how’s the Parkfield project?”
Nick inquired, casually folding his arms and leaning against the desk.
“We leave on July eighth. We should have everything we need by then, as
well as specialist help lined up to analyze the results,” Alex replied. “Peri’s coming with us.”
He frowned slightly. “You think that’s wise?”
“She isn’t an invalid, Nick. We won’t work her too hard. An’ she needs this,” Rachel countered. “She’s lonely.”
Nick regarded her, his eyes
unreadable. “I have been neglecting
her,” he admitted. “But .. with Steve
arriving an’ the fundraiser, an’ everything else … She understands I have to be here.”
Alex nodded. “She said as much to us. An’ you’ll
understand that she needs to come to Parkfield.”
“Whatever,” he dismissed, shrugging
easily.
*****
Steve went to his room and into the
bathroom where, suddenly, he threw up.
He felt weak. Trembling and
cold. His head was throbbing with some
kind of backlash to almost dying.
What the hell, life’s too short. Bring it on.
Dare you.
Not now, he thought wearily. I really can’t face any more today. I have to sleep.
Steve lay on his bed and curled into a
ball. The room was swimming, nausea
threatened him again. Chills raced up
his spine yet he was sweating. He closed
his eyes and tried to calm his breathing, his racing heart. He sank into sleep and the tension left his
body. But his brow creased in a frown,
his lips skinned back from his teeth, and he screamed silently.
*****
Merlin didn’t know where to look in
Marin County but she had some ideas. The
sun was definitely in the west, emerging from under a blanket of pearly cloud to
hang over the horizon like a huge, bloody eyeball. Then she turned, following the road, and it
was lost behind the trees.
Way back before Nick met her, he’d
done some wild things. He’d told
her. He’d come into the mountains, find
some old road not used much, switch off the lights and race in the dark. He’d race against the clock, putting his
skill on the line. She hadn’t thought it
was dumb, nor had she tried to talk him out of it. It was his way of testing himself. Nick didn’t have access to the Gorge where
Merlin had gone to test herself, put her skill on the line, each and every
night. He’d had to find some other, more
mundane way.
When Alex had said about racing,
Merlin hadn’t needed to hear Marin County.
He would have returned to his old testing ground. This time, though, he’d taken Steve along
too. Two damaged automobiles .. they’d
raced against each other, had a collision.
That much was as good as proven.
Alex and Rachel had both seen the damage and could corroborate it. What Merlin had to do was find out what else
they might have done in this area. A big
area and ideas couldn’t tell her where to start.
It was at times like this Merlin
wished she could still see like she had been able to in the old days. The ability to switch her visual mode from
normal to aura trace to infrared to night vision to … It was something she just hadn’t truly
appreciated until she couldn’t do it anymore.
She pulled up at a bar and decided to
have a beer. All the roads around were
old or logging trails, or dead ends. It
was the right kind of place, the kind of place Nick liked. A little rough, a little dark and
anonymous. She’d met him in a bar just
like this one.
It was fairly quiet although pretty
full. Not many strangers called in and
she drew some long, curious stares as she went to the counter and sat down on a
tall stool.
“Beer,” she requested.
“Coming right up.” The barman regarded her obliquely. “Passing thru?”
“You could say that. I’m looking for my wayward husband. Trying to track down the sonofabitch. Heard he may have been in this area.” She fished a photograph from her pocket and
held it out as he put the glass in front of her. “Seen him?”
He took the photo and turned it to the
light by the cash register. “Nah. He hasn’t been in here.”
“There any other bars in the
area? He sure loves his booze.”
He nodded. “There’s the Roadhouse about twenty minutes
more along this stretch, Flynn’s down in the valley, the Logger’s Inn over the
next mountain, an’ the Truckstop farther up the trail from that, but I wouldn’t
go there.”
“Why?”
“It’s shutting down. Outta business. Couple of guys trashed the place about two
weeks ago. Big fight, I heard. Cops never caught ’em. I keep a loaded gun under the counter in case
they try the same thing here,” he confided.
“Wow, sounds nasty. Anyone hurt?” Merlin inquired.
“Everyone in there at the time. Billy’s got no insurance. Fixing the place would bankrupt him so he’s
closing down.”
“He get robbed too?”
“Nah.
They were just meaning to fight an’ trash the place. Smash it to bits. Some guys, huh? What they’ll do for kicks.”
“Yeah.
Men can be bastards,” Merlin agreed.
She drank her beer and waved as she
left. “Good luck with finding him,” the
barman called.
She nodded. Now I got a good idea where to look …
*****
Derek sat down to supper and at a
depleted table. Alex was there, so was
Rachel, but Steve was a no show and Nick had decided to go home for the night.
“Go home?” Alex queried quickly. So much for running interference.
Derek raised an eyebrow. “Is there a reason why he shouldn’t?” he
inquired mildly.
“Er .. no,” Alex answered.
“Peri isn’t there,” Rachel added. “He’s been here so much lately that .. she’s
decided to go out tonight.”
“Well, it’s her right. She isn’t a prisoner in her house. They’re married, Rachel, not bound at the
hip.”
“It’s just .. Nick will go home to an
empty house,” she enlarged.
“A taste of the medicine he’s been
giving her,” Derek remarked. “If it
tastes bitter enough, he may decide to go home a little more regularly.” He regarded them over the top of his wine
glass as they picked at the food on their plates. “Could there be another reason, perhaps?”
Rachel slowly shook her head. “I don’t think so. Do you
feel there could be another reason?”
“I am not privy to Peri’s
deliberations and I’m sure that is how it should be. I have no power to force her to tell me
anything. On the other hand, if it
should concern me or this house, I’m equally sure that she would volunteer such
information.”
Rachel deliberately put down her
fork. “C’mon, Derek, can we stop with
the games? There’s more than enough of
that going on already.”
“By all means,” he agreed.
“You have to cancel the
fundraiser. The situation here is outta
control. It isn’t safe for the guests.”
“Forgive me but I don’t see it the
same way. We are having supper. Steve is upstairs. Nick has gone home. In what way is the situation out of control?”
“It’s a smokescreen!” Rachel
exclaimed. “You have to trust us, okay?”
“But I am not to accord the same level
of trust to Steve or Nick. You want me
to have favorites.”
“I didn’t say that,” she protested.
“Then what are you saying, Rachel?” Derek asked, bending his dark gaze on her.
“We’re not trying to divide the house,
Derek,” Alex said forcefully. “We’re
trying to bring it together. But we knew
you’d react like this. You need proof so
we’re trying to get it for you. That’s
what Peri’s doing – gone to find proof.
An’ she’ll come home to find Nick waiting for her. She can’t defend herself. If he loses it, she could get hurt.”
He frowned. “Would Nick do that? I think you’re painting him a blacker shade
than is necessary. However, I applaud
your efforts. When you have amassed the
evidence, I’d be interested to see it.”
Alex sighed and felt the onset of a
headache. It came from hitting her head
against a metaphorical brick wall.
*****
Merlin called in at Flynn’s and hit
pay dirt. She spun the same story as
before and the barman nodded when he studied the photograph.
“Yep, he was here. Had his twin brother with him. They had supper. Didn’t drink though, not alcohol anyways. I remember they played pinball for .. oh
hell, over two hours straight, an’ they played like the fate of the world hung
on the outcome. Man, I ain’t never seen
no one play pinball like that before.
S’why I remember ’em.”
“About what time did they leave?”
Merlin inquired, sipping her beer and inhaling smoke.
He thought, eyes narrowed. “Around .. nine fifteen, nine thirty, I
think. Could’ve been later. Before ten anyways.”
“An’ they didn’t come back.”
“Not here. Hey, I hope you find him. He looked .. tough, hard, y’know? Like he would’ve killed anyone who got in his
way. To be truthful, I was glad when
they walked out.”
“Yeah,
he can be like that. Well, thanks for
sharing what you know.”
She
finished her drink and went out to the parking lot. Being bereft of special senses made her make
use of the ordinary ones and the intuitive tool everyone possessed – her
mind. Merlin had the ability to think
things thru and reach a possible conclusion.
Okay. I leave Angel Island at some point during the
early afternoon. It’s a .. two hour
drive to the mountains. It’s broad
daylight when I get here. If I’m racing in
the dark .. why leave myself so much time to kill? Right.
I’d need to find my road. Has to
be somewhere remote. Something with a
bit of bite to it, a challenge. Getting
to it may be difficult. Best to find it
in daylight. Then, once I’ve done that,
I head back here, eat, waste time till it’s dark enough. So, between nine and ten, I leave here and go
to my chosen racetrack. I race .. and
have a minor collision in the process.
The race either ends or it’s called off.
And, finally, I don’t drive two hours all the way home. Why not?
If I lost or it was abandoned, I’d still feel pretty pumped. Victory would’ve let it out safely. I’d still need to do that, let it out. I wouldn’t go where I’d just spent several
hours earlier in the day. They’d remember
me. I’d go someplace else.
She
climbed into the 4x4 and set off. The
Truckstop was up the mountain and she reached it inside an hour. Somewhere between Flynn’s in the valley and
here, Nick and Steve had put their lives on the line.
Having
viewed the smashed windows, she pushed open the door and, by the light of a
solitary lamp, halted to stare at the destruction.
“We’re
closed, an’ we ain’t opening again.”
“What
the hell happened?” she asked, her voice shocked.
“I
got a visit from the twins from hell,” Billy, the owner, replied. “Nine nights back, they came in. Dripping wet.
Been out in the rain. It was
late. They ordered beer. Drank it like they had some kinda almighty
thirst, ordered another, drank that the same way, an’ then … ” He shook his head. “No one had said a word to ’em, ’cept for me
asking what they wanted to drink. No one
provoked ’em. But they just lay into the
two guys on either side an’ that set the whole place to fighting. I called the cops. Couldn’t do much else. I’m still finding bits of teeth in the
floorboards. One of ’em threw a pool cue
like it was a spear or something, straight thru the TV. Less than a goddam year old that TV was. Guys muscled in to fight for their buddies ..
it didn’t do no good. Those two were a
couple of maniacs, I tell you. Smashed
the place up for the hell of it. Cops
have a long way to come to get out this far an’ they were long gone before the
cops showed. They won’t be found.” He shook his head again. “They put me outta business. I can’t afford to get it fixed up an’ I’m too
old to start over.”
“Insurance?” Merlin already knew he didn’t have it but she
ought to ask.
“Never
needed it before, not that kinda insurance.
I got fire insurance cos there’s a chance of that. Mostly, the guys in here are people I know
an’ have known for a long time. Loggers
an’ truckers. I provide a welcome
service after a long day’s haul. They’d
have no reason to shut me down.”
“Do
you have any enemies?” she wondered, more for the show of it than
anything. “Business rivals?”
He
angled his head. “No, I do not. I’m strictly small fry. No competition to anyone. There ain’t that many of us this far
out. We each get enough business to make
it worthwhile without getting rich.”
“How
much would it take to fix?” she asked.
“The building’s structurally sound.
It’s just .. fixtures an’ fittings.
Furniture. Glass. A new TV.
What’s your estimate?”
Billy
looked around and tears came to his mild brown eyes. “Ten thou.
Maybe fifteen. I’d need to strip
the floor and repaint it. Get the
bloodstains out.”
“I
don’t have that much on me,” Merlin said quietly. “I’m sorry.”
“It
ain’t your fault.”
Merlin
looked at the mess. No, it isn’t my
fault, but I might have prevented it if I’d been more on the ball.
“I’m
really very sorry.”
“Thank
you, ma’am. I’d offer you a drink but ..
I ain’t got nothing left.”
She
silently returned to the 4x4. Once
inside, she pulled out a checkbook and wrote a check for twenty five thousand
dollars. She put it in an envelope and
scrawled ‘Billy’ on the front. Then,
just as silently, she slipped back and pushed it under his door.
On
the way home, Merlin put the events in the proper order. Nick and Steve had gone to race. It had started to rain. They’d had a collision in the dark and the
wet. The race had to be abandoned. Still pumped, they’d gone to the
Truckstop. Adrenaline was high, they
were thirsty. Two beers and then they’d
started the fight which had knocked out teeth and put a man out of business.
Without
Alopex’s warning, Merlin might, just, have been prepared to accept that Nick
and Steve were engaged in some titanic battle of wills if it had stopped at
racing. It hadn’t. Starting a fight for no reason, and teaming
up with a former opponent to fight together against the regular customers, that
wasn’t Nick. It just wasn’t in his
nature to do that. Someone or something
had put it there. Now she had to find
out what .. and stop it.
*****
It
was past
“Jon,
are you around ..?” she whispered. There
was no answer, no faint, ghostly image.
Probably, once Nick got home to an empty house, Alopex would have
suspended the surveillance and called it a night.
Merlin
took a handgun from under the seat and checked to make sure it was loaded. Nick had insisted she kept one. It was a precaution, nothing more. She was sure that, when he’d said that, he
had never thought it might be against him.
Right now, he was unstable and under the influence of something. She couldn’t afford to take any chances.
The
house was in darkness when Merlin went in.
She moved slowly, letting her eyes adjust. There was no sound at all. She reached the foyer and was deciding which
way to go when the lights blazed on.
Merlin blinked, squinting.
“Hi,
babe.”
She
stilled. “Nicky, what a surprise. I wasn’t expecting you.”
“Kinda
figured that much.” Slowly, he strolled
down the stairs. “Though .. you must’ve
known I was here. Soon as you saw my
car. Where you been?”
“Just
out,” she shrugged. “Driving
around. Something to do, y’know?”
“Meeting
some guy, having a good time.” He’d
reached the bottom of the stairs and she saw his eyes were hard, frosty. “I wouldn’t blame you. I haven’t been home much lately .. though I
haven’t stayed in or been on my own.”
Merlin
took a step away, ignoring the painful stab in her heart. I can’t blame him, he isn’t responsible. This is just provocation.
“I
was on my own, Nick.”
“Sure. That’s why I can smell alcohol an’ tobacco on
you.” His gaze flickered down and back
to her eyes. “Packing some heat?”
“Just
a precaution. Can’t be too sure of
anything these days.”
“You
scared of me?” he grinned.
Something
snapped inside. Merlin had never been a
victim and she wasn’t going to start now.
“No,
I’m not. I was mad at you but I’m not
scared. You’re not worth me feeling
scared.”
Nick
took three rapid strides toward her and Merlin held her ground, meeting his
gaze with a steady stare of her own.
“Then
why the firearm? You gonna take me down,
Merli?”
“Do
I need to?”
He
looked right into her eyes. “I’m your
husband. I love you. Why would you want to shoot me?”
“I
don’t know.” She tossed it to the
floor. “I don’t need it, not against
you.”
He
smiled. “Big mistake.”
Merlin’s
eyes blazed. “You wanna hurt me? Go ahead.
You wanna beat on me like you did those guys in the bar? Sure.
Knock my teeth out. Go crazy, wreck the house. But I don’t think you will. You don’t have your buddy here to help you –
”
“I
don’t need his help to have a good time.”
“Then
you don’t have him here to watch. Oh,
but you could tell him all about it, right?
As good as him being here. These
.. challenges you set each other. He
told you, didn’t he, to make a move on Sophie.”
“Uh
huh. An’ I did.”
“I
know.” She watched him. “What else has he challenged you to do,
Nick? Did you cheat on me?”
He
nodded. “More than once, more than one
girl.”
“You
thought .. nothing wrong in that.”
“It
was fun. Life’s too short. Bring it on.”
“An’
why did you come home tonight? Feel
sorry for me?”
“Are
you kidding? You’re mine. I don’t share you unless I want to share
you. You don’t do anything without my approval.”
“What
do you mean to do to me tonight?” Merlin asked steadily.
“I’ll
think of something. You deserve to be
taught a lesson. Rape maybe. Get rid of that baby. I don’t want it messing up my life.”
She
nodded. “Yeah, I can see that a baby
would seriously impact on your new an’ improved lifestyle.”
“Big
time,” he grinned.
It
was a mistake. Merlin’s maternal
instinct suddenly kicked into overdrive.
“Bring
it on,” she invited, her voice as cold and hard as his eyes.
Nick’s
lips pulled back in a feral smile, his eyes flickered red, and his hands
reached for her.
Merlin
slapped them away and sidestepped, moving in closer to twist his arm around and
up his spine toward his neck.
“This is fun,” she hissed into his
ear. “Now, I think it’s time I gave you
a challenge. How about you do what I say.”
He
struggled, but couldn’t get free. “Fuck
you! I’m not – ”
Merlin
forced his arm just a little higher.
“Dare you.”
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