American Crow (31 page)

I snorted my contempt. ‘Is that so?’

‘You see, we mine coal here in Appalachia
and are proud of it, Blake. We provide electricity for other states too, that
don’t have any of this magnificent resource. And sometimes we have to bend
rules to keep on doing that, much to the displeasure of the regulators and
those damned protesters with their romantic notion of keeping the mountains
untouched for eternity. We need energy. America needs energy, and some of us
are just brave enough to give her what she wants. We are the true patriots...’

‘Nice speech,’ I said laughing at him
dismissively. ‘How long have we got til we get there, Jerry?’

‘Five minutes.’

‘You’ve got five minutes to say what you
gotta say, Corrigan.’

‘Jesus, man, you’re not one of those
wacky environmentalists too, are you? Do you honestly care about some ignorant
mountain girl who was happy to ignore the truth?’

My finger twitched against the trigger,
but didn’t squeeze.

‘The only thing you care about is your
profit, Corrigan, and your next fuck.’

‘I’m a god-fearing man and live my life
with integrity, sir. Nothing you can say will ever change that.’

I laughed again.

‘Really…and what about your wife? Does
she think that too? She knows that you killed Benjamin by the way...’

‘You spoke to my wife?’

Corrigan looked unsettled by the
revelation, as if it had undermined his self-righteousness somehow.

‘Yes.’

‘Did you harm her?’ he asked tentatively.

‘No, I think you’ve been doing that over
the years with your simmering resentment.’

His aquamarine eyes flashed with anger.

‘I…I’ve given her everything, looked
after her, and…’

‘And destroyed slowly everything she
cared about…the mountains, her self-respect, with all your philandering, then
finally Benjamin whom she still loved.’

‘She knew about Reya?’ he said, as if
that was more important than murdering his brother.

‘Of course.’

‘Mother of God…’

‘You know something else? She asked me to
burn the place to the ground before I left, erase everything that you’ve come to
represent in her life.’

‘She would never say such a thing...’

‘Wouldn’t she?’

‘Two minutes,’ Jerry interrupted, his
voice sounding strained.

‘Did you ever think to ask her what
she
wanted, Corrigan? Did you ever think that your one-man crusade to wipe out the
entire Appalachians was actually going to give her some sort of satisfaction,
some sort of closure about the accident?’

His stony face twitched briefly with a
flicker of emotion. I was beginning to get under his skin and was enjoying it.

‘Who ever really knows what goes on in
the mind of a woman,’ he said belligerently.

‘She wants to start a new life somewhere
else, Lyle. She wants to be left alone now.’

‘Rubbish!’ Corrigan spat, becoming riled
again, his calm exterior beginning to crack.

‘One minute, Blake...’

‘Where’s Olivia?’

‘Do you think I’m going to tell you and
sign my own death warrant,’ he said, his cockiness returning. ‘There’s other’s
involved you know...’

‘Like Reya?’

His laughter was laced with mockery.

‘She doesn’t know...’

I offered a flicker of a
smile.       

‘You’re bluffing.’

‘Well, you’ll soon find out if you kill
me, find out what a fool you’ve been, Blake.’

‘We’re over Black Mountain now,’ the
pilot announced, ‘What do you want me to do?’

‘Circle around.’

‘So it’s stale mate,’ Corrigan announced
smugly, eyeing me up and down, his nostrils flaring in proud defiance.

‘Why did you kill Ethan and his friend?’

‘I didn’t. The men did. And they were
just protecting my property. It’s what any decent upstanding American has the
right to do.’

‘What, even though they weren’t on it and
were driving away when they opened up on them?’

‘They might have come back, harmed some
of the horses, or some of my staff. I know what these extremists are like...’

‘All they did was daub some graffiti on
your stable block wall, wasn’t it?’

‘That’s because the men stopped them. Who
knows what they might have done next if they’d had the chance...’

‘And what about Benjamin? He found
something else out, didn’t he? Something he shouldn’t have, like Ethan and
Olivia had done up at your hunting lodge. What’s up there, Corrigan?’

‘You’re insane.’

‘So you’re not going to tell me, even if
it means saving your life?’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about
plain and simple, sir.’

‘Sure you do…Unclip your belt,’ I
ordered, tiring of the games.

‘Why?’

‘Un-clip-your-belt,’ I repeated, pressing
the gun into his neck to reinforce my point.

He reluctantly unfastened it and turned
back fully in his seat.

‘Now what?’

‘How far is Gallow’s Creek, Jerry?’

‘Not far away, just over the next
valley.’

‘Fly there.’

‘Your idle threats don’t work with me,
Blake. Take me back to the lodge and I’ll take you to the girl, then we’ll
discuss things...’

‘What is there to discuss?’ I said
through gritted teeth.

Jerry cut in suddenly.   

‘We’ll be flying over the creek in
exactly a minute, sir.’

‘Where the dam is, you know, the place
with all the toxic sludge in?’

‘Yes…the slurry basin with all the
wash-off, sir.’

‘That’s it, the wash off…sounds so inoffensive
when you put it like that, Jerry, doesn’t it?’ I said eyeing Corrigan.

‘It’s part of the process,’ the tycoon
rebuffed. ‘We need to put the waste somewhere. There are always unsightly
elements to any job, you know that. There are always compromises and sacrifices
in life…’

‘Open the door,’ I ordered, cutting him
off.

‘I shall not.’

‘Open it or I’ll splatter your brains all
over the glass,’ I said coming to the end of my patience.

‘Look, let’s get back on the ground and
we can discuss some sort of compensation for the biologist…How much she was
worth to you?’

I ignored the vile request and stared at
the sun coming up over the mountains in the distance, tingeing the forested
canopy with a soft golden hue.

‘Open the door and step onto the rail.’

‘We’re over Gallow’s Creek now,’ Jerry
announced nervously, glancing at his boss.

‘Everyone has their price,’ Corrigan said
suddenly, trying to sound reasonable.

‘Come on, friend, how much was that poor
mountain girl worth to you…a hundred thousand? Two?’

I looked down at the treacle-black lake
below, thinking how surreal it looked in the half-light then visualized Nancy
slowly falling through the air towards it.

‘Get out on the rail...’

‘Three?’ he said glancing down nervously.

‘Out…’ I pressed placing the gun against
his neck.

‘Half a million…in cash?’ Corrigan added,
sliding off his seat onto the rail, one foot at a time.

‘Keep it steady,’ I said to the pilot,
not wanting a lapse in concentration to spoil the moment.

‘Look, let’s call it a round million, eh?
And call a halt to this nonsense...’ 

The chopper rode a thermal suddenly
making it rise and fall sharply for a second, forcing Corrigan to grip the
upholstery for dear life.

‘God, you drive a hard bargain, sir?’ he
added as the helicopter settled in the air again.’

‘A million, man, a million in cash,
surely she was worth that?’

‘No, she wasn’t,’ I said, eyeing him
coldly. ‘You could never find enough, Corrigan. You could never find enough…’

I leaned forwards and pushed him hard in
the chest sending him toppling backwards as if in slow motion. For a second he
wavered in the air, his face aghast, then mouthed the words, ‘why?’ before
falling backwards into darkness, then downwards, hundreds of feet towards the
pool of toxic sludge that he’d help create.

Jerry looked at me aghast.

‘Jesus, you’ve just killed one of the
most important men in Kentucky, if not in Appalachia…Oh my god…Oh my god.’

‘Back to the lodge, Jerry,’ I said
slamming the door shut, ‘I’ve got a girl to find...’

Chapter Thirty

‘olivia’

T
he five minutes that it took to get back to the landing area
seemed like an eternity, the whir of the chopper’s blades circulating
tirelessly as images of Nancy and Benjamin, traversed my mind.

Killing Corrigan had helped ease some of
my rage that was for sure, but ultimately only finding Olivia alive would
salvage something from Nancy’s senseless death. Salvage something I thought. It
had come to that... 

I tied Jerry to the tree again, much to
his displeasure, then sprinted back through the forest as quickly as I could,
until I saw the hunting lodge loom impressively again in the soft morning
light.

Now there was just a single jeep parked
outside, perhaps a handful of men left behind to protect Tolley, the others I
imagined, having begun the long drive back to Lexington to help with the
clear-up operation.

At the clearing I stopped for a moment,
drew a breath, then peered through the branches, assessing the situation. On
the lower porch, a guard wearing a headset, with a rifle slung over his
shoulder was doing the rounds. He probably had back up of at least another guy.
If I decided to go in, it was going to get real rough again, just like it had
at Corrigan’s ranch…

I waited until the guard had rounded the corner
then threw my jacket on the grass, sprinted towards the porch steps and rolled
underneath them, then waited for his return, my heart beating fast, my Colt
pointing skywards through the slats in case I was spotted from above.

A minute later, the slow purposeful thump
of heavy boots worked their way towards me, accompanied by the sound of a
tuneless whistle. I watched him walk passed, then heard him go down the main
steps one tread at a time, until he was out in the garden and heading towards
the jacket.

I stared at the guy in the half-light,
taking him in fully as he crouched down, then realized it was Redhead, one of
the guys who’d tortured me back in the Daniel Boone. I grunted in satisfaction.
It was time to get re-acquainted...

I crawled out on my elbows willing him
not to turn like the woman in Minneapolis, then cat-walked up behind him in
double time and cracked his skull hard with the butt of the gun as he looked
around. Red-head groaned and fell forwards unconscious, then remained sprawled at
my feet, temporarily out of the game.

Hurriedly, I dragged the lump of meat
into the cover of the trees, tied his hands behind his back as best I could
with his belt, then tore off his headset, emptied his rifle and threw it into
the undergrowth, then ran back to the house, adrenalin pumping, hoping there
was just one more guy between me and some answers.

I ran softly up the steps towards the
main door and tried the handle slowly. It was open...I raised the Colt and
worked my way into the dimly-lit room. Inside appeared pretty normal, just a
living room stuffed with hunting trophies and bland antiques. I walked over to
a set of glazed doors at the far end and cracked one of them open, sliding the
gun through the gap.

On the other side was just a darkened room
that seemed reserved for Tolley as a working area. The shutters were down and
the distinct smell of oil paints lingered in the air. I scanned the dozen or so
paintings hanging around the walls as my eyes adjusted, then stared bemused at
the handful of work fixed to a half-dozen easels. 

Immediately I could see that they looked
different to the ones I’d seen at the exhibition. They were more abstract. And
portraying people this time, rather than nature; some capturing just the
profile in bold brushstrokes of dark jagged colour, others a writhing,
awkward-looking body, depicting a moment of pain or ecstasy.

I stared at the square of paper attached
to one of the frames and read the title, then the one next to it, then the
next, and felt my stomach tighten at the recurring themes.

Fear
.
Conflict
.
Vengeance
.
Redemption
.

‘Unbelievable…’ I said, my gaze
wandering.

Something else caught my eye that made my
blood run cold. On a long table at the back of the room was a rack filled with a
row of glass vials identical to those I’d seen the doctor use back at the
ranch...

I walked over and studied them
bewildered, then clocked the various paint pigments scattered everywhere; some
in their raw form, others broken down and pummelled into powder using the large
black mortar sat in the centre of the table. I turned and stared at the
paintings again, then back at the table, before realizing the extent of
Tolley’s madness.

‘You sick fucking bitch…’

Seething, I worked my way through to
another set of doors and walked tentatively into the next room. Inside smelt
heavily of frankincense. There were just a couple of easels here, a few metres
apart and a wooden stool where Tolley had obviously been working recently, as
she enjoyed the view that was now becoming clearer as the sun rose up between
the cleft of two distant mountains.

I stared at the bewitching scene for a
moment strangely awed, then at the sizeable painting to my right. It looked
half-finished, yet more detailed than the other works next door. I stepped
closer. It was entitled ‘Aphrodite’, and depicted a group of shadowy figures
gathered around a writhing female in the semi-darkness…

I shuddered at its eerie quality then
eyed the one next to it revealing a close up of someone’s features, their
tortured expression crafted into a terrified scream using a series of heavy
black smudges.

‘Jesus…’

What in the hell was going on in Tolley’s
mind to create such disturbing images, I thought? And more importantly to
infuse the damned paint with someone’s spinal fluid...The woman was truly
debased. Insane...

The sound of footsteps dragged me back to
the job in hand. I ducked beneath the window as the guard strolled past
outside. He was continuing along the veranda, heading for the other side of the
building where I supposed, he would be expecting to see his buddy coming up
from the other direction.

Quickly, I weaved my way back through the
various rooms and out through the back door onto the porch, where I walked
purposefully towards the corner of the building, judging it perfectly, so that
as he rounded the corner, my fist arrived hard in the other guy’s face,
hurtling him back into a hammock strung between the veranda rail and the
hunting lodge wall.

I looked down at the sprawled figure and
realized it was Pig-eyes, then broke into a satisfied smile. He stared at me in
horror as I closed in, belatedly tried to raise his hands to protect his face
as I raised my fist in the air.

‘Please, I...’

I jabbed and jabbed again until he lay
there stunned, then disarmed him effortlessly.

‘Like that do you…boy?’ I said shoving
the gun into his mouth like I’d done with Lutz.

He shook his head in a daze.

‘Where’s the girl?’

‘Fuck you,’ he blurted, gagging on the
barrel.

‘You’re going to have to do better than that,
you ugly piece of shit…Where is she?’ I pushed.

‘Only Corrigan knows where she is. That’s
the way it always is,’ he mouthed as best he could.

I lowered the gun and pulled the hunting
knife out from his belt, then pressed it against his throat.

‘Last chance...’

I saw the resulting look of fear on his
pudgy face and pressed the cold blade harder against his neck, drawing blood.

‘Where?’

‘I don’t know,’ he gasped, his breathing
becoming faster.

‘Final time. Where?’

‘Fuck you, Limey...’

I pulled the knife away with a smile,
making his shoulders drop, then cut the cotton scarf away from his neck and
shoved it into his mouth.

‘I’m not going to ask you again, boy...’

He mouthed something in defiance through
the gag then sat there staring at me like I was a piece shit on his shoe. I
shook my head in disappointment then guided the blade to his ear, pulled out
the gag, and asked him again.

‘Where is she?’

He started laughing and I nodded blankly
in response. The guy was getting under my damned skin. He wasn’t going to tell
me a thing. I shoved the gag back in his mouth and pinned him down hard with
all my weight.

‘You’re not going to tell me, are you?’

He shook his head wildly, his eyes
mocking me. I laughed back as if getting the joke, then increased my pressure
on the blade, until I started to slice through his ear like I was cutting
through a Sunday joint. He screamed like a spring lamb then eventually went
limp. I released my grip then dragged his unconscious body along the porch and
into the living room, leaving a bright scarlet trail smeared across the porch.

I dumped the body behind the sofa then
checked all the ground floor rooms carefully. Eventually I reached the main
lobby area where a variety of boar and bear heads were hung from the oak-panel
walls. I eyed the staircase and decided to take it. Tolley would still be in
bed hopefully. Maybe
she
could give me some answers? Maybe Corrigan had
just been trying to protect her, and she did know of Olivia’s whereabouts?

I climbed the stairs one step at a time,
scanning left to right with the gun for trouble. Hopefully the tycoon had left
just the two guys to protect Tolley and the hard work was done...

At the top, I found seven or eight doors,
two of which were open. I walked on the balls of my toes to the nearest and
peered through the first opening. Just an unused guest room...

The second door was shut, but quickly
revealed the same. Gradually I worked my way along the landing finding empty
bathrooms and bedrooms until I came to a sixth door. I pushed it gently open
and stared into the gloom, then made out Tolley’s lithe frame laying on the
large ironwork bed opposite. I entered quietly and sat down on the mattress,
then prodded her arm with the cold tip of the automatic. No reaction...I
clocked the sleeping tablets on the side table. No wonder she was still asleep,
she must have taken some medication before the call...

She murmured and moved her arm slightly
as if a fly was bothering her, then became still again. I prodded her harder
making her moan and roll over, then tiring of her unconsciousness, slapped her
hard around the face.

‘Lyle!’ she yelled
wide-eyed.      

‘No…’ I said calmly, ‘it’s Blake...’

‘Who…you were at the exhibition, weren’t
you?’ she stammered, clutching her reddened cheek.

‘Yes, that’s right. Get your clothes on.’

She looked at me dumbfounded.

‘I’ve taken care of the three guards.
There’s no use screaming....’

‘I thought it was just Irwin and…’

‘Good. I thought so. Well, you’re on your
own now…’

She looked at me quizzically.

‘Lyle will be back soon, so you better
get the hell out of my room...’

‘Err…no he won’t.’

She gasped then pursed her lips, the
question she didn’t want to ask lodged between them.

‘He’s otherwise indisposed, put it like
that…Disposed being the operative word,’ I said coldly, enjoying the look of
distress slowly moulding her soft features.

‘He’s…dead?’ she said, stunned.

‘I dropped him off at the lake earlier,
that tar-filled slurry basin called Gallow’s Creek on the other side of Black
Mountain which he loved. I think he fancied an early morning dip, you know...’

She cried out in anguish then held her
head in her hands and started to sob loudly.

‘Where’s the girl?’ I pushed.

‘Go to hell...’

‘Tell me where the girl is...’

‘You’re going to kill me anyway, so I
reckon it’s best if the girl rots, don’t you?’ she said, her sophisticated face
now forming some monstrous mask.

‘Tell me where she is, and I’ll let you
live. Don’t, and you’ll die...Simple really,’ I said controlling my rage for a
second.

‘How can I trust you?’ she said, eyeing
me with disgust.

‘I killed Corrigan because he killed
Nancy. My grievance isn’t with you,’ I lied. ‘As it wasn’t with his wife when I
broke in and spoke to her.’

‘So it was
you
who started the
fire?’

‘At the request of his wife. She knew
about you two by the way, and has done for a while...’

The revelation silenced her for a moment.

‘So if I tell you how to find the girl,
you’ll let me go free? If she’s still alive that is...’

‘If?’ I said tensing.

‘Look, I don’t know where Lyle buried
her, okay…’ she said calmly as if talking about a dead cat.

‘You fucking buried her?’

‘It was his idea. It was for the
group...’

I eased my finger away from the trigger,
realizing Corrigan was involved in something bigger, something darker...