Die-Off (22 page)

‘I’m looking for Jim Colson.’

‘They fired Jim and I the same day and we went separate ways, no matter what Lila says. I hardly ever hear from him.’

‘So maybe now I should thank you for your trouble and apologize for bothering you and leave.’

She smiled at that.

‘Don’t leave yet. You don’t have to do that. Let’s go inside where it’s warmer. It’s going to rain again this afternoon. We can build a fire and talk. I’m not going to say I haven’t heard from him at all or that I can fool you.’

Marquez put her in her early thirties with crow’s feet at the corner of her eyes that said some of those years were hard. She looked fit and walked up the steep slope with the gun in her right like she was used to it. She stripped the gun of bullets after they were inside. She did that and looked at him as she laid the gun on the fireplace mantel.

‘So you don’t worry.’

‘What were you going to do if you shot me?’ he asked.

‘Roll you into the river and throw the gun after it and then try to clean up before they came with dogs looking for you. The river would take you some distance. You’d get found downstream after someone driving 299 spotted you and they would come here because I’m sure you told someone you were coming here. The dogs would pick up scent but I’d be gone and wouldn’t be seen for a long while.

‘My grandfather did that once with a man who came here armed and claiming he was owed money.’

She pointed.

‘Grandpa shot him right there where those old wooden chairs are and rolled him off the edge. The man was a thief and no one cared that he disappeared; shooting him was something my grandfather didn’t share for fifteen years. He didn’t like himself for having done it and I think he told me because he was afraid of a violent streak in me.’

‘Is there one?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Well, that’s a nice family story.’

‘It’s one of my favorites.’

Marquez took a look around, a one-room cabin with a cot, a table, and two chairs. She probably learned to shoot and fish from her grandfather. She made tea and stoked the fire and they sat in front of it, Marquez holding the warm mug of tea in his big hands, Lisa talking calmly though the room didn’t feel that way. It felt small. He felt a nervous quicksilver energy coming off her now as if she was balancing a red-hot wire inside.

‘If I knew where to look for Jim and told you, would you leave now?’

‘We need to go farther than that. I’d like to know about your relationship with him and I also recognize your voice.’

‘I don’t have a relationship with him. Sometimes he finds me. Usually, that’s when he needs something. I don’t think we’ve met before. How sure are you that you recognize my voice?’

‘Pretty sure.’

‘Fascinating.’

Marquez took a sip of the tea and it tasted like wood chips. He put the mug down on the stone hearth.

‘I know the tea sucks. It’s a plant that grows around here and we need something stronger for this conversation. It’s too early for whiskey. I’ll get two beers and if we get philosophical later I’ll get out the whiskey. You went to all this trouble to find me so I’m guessing you don’t have to leave immediately.’

She stoked the fire again, leaning over with her back toward him and her shirt sliding up the smooth skin of her back and higher still as she leaned over a cooler and pulled two bottles of beer, water dripping from each onto the stone floor.

‘There’s no refrigeration so it’s going to be on the warm side. If you want to cool it, put it outside. The beer foamed as he opened it. She moved her chair closer to his.

‘Would your testifying that you recognize my voice stand up in court?’

‘No chance.’

‘That’s what I figure too, but there it is, you recognize it. I didn’t want him back in my life, I can promise you that and it’s the real reason I’m out here. I didn’t like making that phone call to you or goading you or even thinking he knew where that gun was. Did it turn out to be the gun used to kill them?’

‘You’d have to ask Rich Voight at the Sheriff’s Office in Yreka that question.’

She smiled. She touched his wrist.

‘You’re not a great liar but you’re a pretty good one. I know that because I’m a little like you. He was in my kitchen when I woke up that morning. I don’t even know how he got in and it scared the shit out of me to walk in and find him there. I go into my kitchen and he’s sitting in a chair with a Starbucks coffee in one hand and one on the table for me, smiling like crazy, like it was such a wonderful surprise. I hadn’t seen him in five years, though he called every so often.’

‘Why?’

‘To say hello, to make sure something in his world was still tied down.’

‘You made the call to me for him. Why didn’t you call back when you were alone? Why didn’t you come forward?’

‘The short answer is I didn’t want to get involved. The longer answer involves wondering how he knew where to dig for a gun. When I started thinking about that I decided it was time to come up here for a while.’

Marquez nodded. He took another sip of beer and waited. She’d already said enough to put herself in an interview room with Voight and she had to know it was going to lead to many more questions.

‘Do you know why I’m looking for him?’

‘Yes, and I don’t know how he got into the animal thing, but he’s way into it.’

‘Do you call him Rider?’

‘I’ll never use that name but I know it the same as you.’

‘How much do you know about his trafficking?’

‘I know he does it and he’s bragged to me about the money he’s made.’

‘How much money?’

‘Enough to retire and never worry.’

‘Have you ever thought about calling us?’

She took a long drink of her beer and put the can down and came out of her chair to roll two smoldering logs so they burst into flame again. Kneeling and facing the fire with her back to him she started talking.

‘Of course, I’ve thought about doing that, but I don’t really trust cops. They promise you they won’t use your name and then they do and Jim would figure it out and I wouldn’t be able to give you anything to arrest him with. I don’t even know where he lives, so eventually he would come for me. He can be very cruel when he wants to be.’

‘Why not tell me where to look for him and give me your phone number and a way to start a conversation with you.’

‘You must really want to get him. Let’s find out how much.’

She moved her chair closer to his and undid the top button of her shirt.

‘It’s hot by the fire. You want him and he’s looking over his shoulder for you, yet talks like he wants you to keep looking for him, which I wouldn’t do if I were you. I really wouldn’t. There’s a lot of money in the business he has and he can hire people to do what he needs done.’

‘I’m building a case.’

She leaned against him slowly and breathed in his ear, ‘That’s so cop.’

‘I need your help.’

‘Then what are you willing to do?’

She pulled back from him and when he didn’t answer, took her shoes off and slipped out of her pants and underwear and pulled off two shirts and a bra then stood with her back to the fire, her long legs and lovely hips facing him.

‘You’re married, aren’t you, Lieutenant?’

‘Yes.’

‘Love her?’

‘Yes.’

She had a beautiful body.

‘What if I said I want you here and now in front of this fire? I want your clothes off and when we’re done I’ll give you a way to find him. That’s my offer. You’re right on the edge of getting him and I’m sure your wife will understand. I’m sure she’s very supportive. What do you think?’

A
light rain started before Marquez left the cabin. The rock of the chimney was wet and dark and droplets pattered into the duff beneath the trees as he came off the steep slope and picked up the trail out. Low fog lay over the river and strands moved through the trees. If he hadn’t been close to the river and still near enough to her cabin he wouldn’t have seen the boat.

He saw two men, twin outboards, an aluminum-hulled boat working its way slowly along this bank as if searching for where to put in. He heard the engines rev before losing sight of it in fog and decided to get a better look. He moved back toward the small beach below the cabin and heard the aluminum hull grate over rocks and sand as the boat landed. When two men climbed out, Marquez climbed quickly back up to the cabin and rapped on the door.

‘I’m back. Two guys are getting out of a boat at your beach right now. At least one has an assault rifle. Let’s get you out of here.’

She had opened the door with her grandfather’s gun in her hand and now asked him, ‘What are you carrying?’

‘A Glock .40 and it doesn’t matter. We’re not looking for a shoot-out. I’ll deal with these guys later.’

‘I thought you never ran away from anything, but that’s twice today and I only just met you.’

‘Stow it. Let’s go.’

She threw water on the fire and pushed the hearth screen tight around it, turned off an electric lantern, slipped a pack over one shoulder and snapped a Master lock over an iron hoop and clasp at the front door. Without another word she went off the steep back slope fast, the only sound her pack and her coat rustling ahead of him. That told him more about her. They moved down through the trees off the backside of the bluff and circled around under the men who were now climbing the steep switchbacks to the cabin. Marquez and Sorzak were close enough to hear them talking though they couldn’t make out the words.

But Marquez didn’t need to. Both carried assault rifles. One had a backpack. He motioned her to get down lower and closer to him, then whispered, ‘We’ll let them get closer to the cabin before we go to their boat.’

The men climbed and when fog hid them Marquez and Sorzak hurried down the trail to the beach. At the beach they heard a hollow pounding above them and then a burst of gunfire as Marquez boarded the boat. He turned to her.

‘They just broke into your cabin. What are they looking for?’

‘Me.’

‘What else?’

‘I have no fucking idea but I’m angry.’

Now there was a deep whooshing concussive roar and a rush of flame and glass tinkling as the cabin windows exploded onto the surrounding rocks. They saw flames and what smelled to Marquez like high-octane fuel.

‘Fuck! They just torched my cabin.’

‘Push the bow around. We’re leaving.’ She moved the bow and climbed on as he touched the ignition wires together. The engines kicked over and caught. With the fire he didn’t think the men would hear, but they must have already started back toward the boat because one yelled. Then they started shooting, shots zipping into the water, but nothing came close and Marquez drove the boat into fog. As he did, she reached to take the wheel.

‘I grew up on the river. I know the river. I’ll steer.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Don’t be a dumb-ass.’

She took the wheel and there were more shots but they were around the first bend and couldn’t even see the fire anymore and the pair couldn’t see them.

‘Why do you think they were here, Lisa?’

‘To rape and kill me and lose the evidence by burning the cabin. I don’t know why they’re here and they just took out something I loved. I don’t feel much like talking about it right now.’

It was slow and a little iffy in the fog but she seemed to know the river and inside twenty minutes they were at a boat access point and tied off. There were four boat trailers and a narrow dirt road leading up to the highway. After they tied off Lisa went from one boat trailer to the next.

‘I know that one and that one. He lives here and the other man is from over in Weaverville and has a cabin like me or like I had.’

Marquez listened then said, ‘I’m going to hike up to the road and see if I can get cell reception there.’

The phone worked and he got through to the local warden, Logan, who reported the fire and started toward them. Marquez walked back down and found Lisa.

‘Show me the vehicles you don’t recognize.’

She did that and told him she wouldn’t need a ride anywhere. She had a friend she could call.

‘You can’t leave yet, Lisa, you’re the victim here. You need to make a statement.’

‘I don’t have anything to say except I want to kill them.’

‘You’re not leaving yet.’

Marquez disabled the boat so if the men showed up it wouldn’t start. Then he and Lisa got out of the rain and waited under trees. He could feel how anxious she was to get away and didn’t read it as fear of the men showing up. He tried to talk to her.

‘You’re alive. You could have been in the cabin.’

She moved away from him when he said that and sat on a fallen log staring out at the river fog. He gave her a few minutes then sat down alongside her.

‘They were looking for something.’

‘Me.’

‘And what else? They searched inside before burning the cabin.’

‘Leave it alone today, okay?’

‘I heard them before they went in.’

‘There was nothing in there. You were inside. You know that.’

‘Where is Colson from?’

‘From hell, and why are you asking about him?’

‘Lila Philbrick said he sounded like he came out of the south. She guessed he was from along the Arkansas-Texas border.’

‘Lila was stoned, drunk, or high on drugs for the two and a half years I worked there. It’s amazing she still remembers what her name is. She used to do a line of coke on the bar top and chase it with two double cappuccinos laced with vodka every morning. She doesn’t know shit about where he was from.’

‘How close were you and Jim Colson?’

‘Look, my cabin just got torched and I’m not really in the mood to talk more about Colson. I already told you everything I know and I was never close to him. Yeah, we slept together and we looked out for each other for a little while, but that was a long time ago.’

She turned. ‘Colson has serious fucking issues and they’re not mine. He once told me that he left everything behind and I don’t know about that but he definitely left his soul back wherever he came from. When he got here he didn’t care about anything and he didn’t believe in anything.’ She paused on that and added, ‘That’s what we had in common.’