American Crow (23 page)

‘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’

I
t 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...’

‘Yes?’

‘Don’t ruffle too many feathers…’