Seed of Evil (5 page)

Well after night had settled in, and long after the last of the Indians had left, Geist and Petrie walked from the mercantile to the new building that from the outside resembled a stable. It didn’t have double doors, as a barn or stable would, but only a single door that Geist opened and strode through.

Dryfus, Gratt, and Berber were already there. Dryfus pushed his floppy hat back on his head and said, “What do you think?”

Instead of stalls for horses, there were four rooms just big enough for a bed and a stand for a lamp. They had made the beds from planks and used blankets for a mattress.

Geist went from room to room and nodded in satisfaction. “It’s not much, but it will serve our needs.”

“Are four beds enough?” Berber asked.

“We could put two beds to a room,” Gratt suggested. “Do twice the business.”

“All you think of is filling your poke,” Geist said. His face hardened. “Or is it you’d rather run things?”

Gratt thrust out both hands and vigorously shook his head. “Hold on. I never said any such thing. I just remember how it was in Missouri when you crammed them in like apples in a barrel.”

“We start slow and build,” Geist said. “A year from now we could have three beds to a room. It all depends.”

The door opened and Toad filled the doorway. He came in and looked at each of the rooms, then came back again to stand in front of Geist. “I am against this.”

“I don’t give a damn what you are against,” Geist said, and the others laughed and sneered.

“This wasn’t what I thought you meant when you approached me in St. Louis.”

“If I’d told you I was coming west to set up the first Indian whorehouse, would you have taken us on?” Geist scornfully asked.

“Of course not.”

“There you go.” Geist indicated the door. “Go back to your precious mercantile and don’t butt in again.”

“This is wrong,” Toad said.

“Oh, hell,” Geist said.

“You’ll ruin everything! I’m trying my best to earn their trust, and you’ll bring it all crashing down.”

Petrie leveled his rifle. “Want me to take him back and see that he stays there?”

“No need.” Geist glared at Toad and poked him in the chest. “You listen to me, you dumb bastard. All you are to me is a means to an end. I’ll make more money in one month from my whores than you’ll make in six months from your store.”

“The Crows won’t like it. They’ll massacre us.”

Geist was growing angry. He put a hand on his pistol. “Shows how much you know, Levi. When a stranger visits a Crow village, guess what he’s allowed to have for the night if he wants one?”

“You’re not implying…” Toad began.

“I sure as hell am. They let the stranger have a female for the night. Now think about that. If they let
a man have a woman for free, why in hell would they raise a ruckus over their women parting their legs for money?”

“Maybe because the women would be doing it for you and you’re white.”

“So? The Crows are almost as friendly to whites as the Shoshones. And besides, we’ll be greasing the wheel with gifts to that idiot Chases Rabbits and to their chiefs.” Geist tapped his temple. “I have it all figured out.”

“I still don’t like it, Ranton.”

“The name is Geist now. And if you ever talk to me like this again, I’ll have Petrie blow out your wick.”

“With pleasure,” Petrie said.

Louisa King came out of their cabin and saw her husband by the lake with a storm cloud on his brow. She went past the chicken coop and their cow. “What are you doing out here, as if I can’t guess?”

“I should go back,” Zach said.

Lou fluffed her sandy hair and put her hand on his arm. “You brood better than anyone I know.”

“Thanks.”

“Don’t get prickly on me. You’ve been there once with Touch The Clouds and Drags The Rope and you all agreed those traders are treating the Indians properly. But you’re still not happy.”

“I can’t shake the feeling that something isn’t right.”

“What’s not right,” Lou said, “is you getting worked up when there’s nothing to get worked up about. And you have something more important to focus on.” She took one of his hands and placed it on the swell of her belly.

Zach smiled and squatted and put his ear to her. “Can you feel it move?”

“It?” Louisa said. “You’re calling our son or daughter an
it
?”

“We haven’t picked names yet.”

“It’s still not an
it
.”

Lou then realized what she had said, and laughed. Zach chuckled and caressed her stomach.

“Our first child. I can’t wait.”

“Well, it’ll be months yet, so don’t hold your breath.” Lou embraced him as he straightened and hugged him with all her strength. “I’m so happy and I’m so scared.”

“Scared?”

“What if something goes wrong? We’re in the middle of the mountains. There’s no sawbones for a thousand miles.”

“Now who’s brooding?” Zach teased. “You have my mother and Blue Water Woman to help. Everything will be fine.” He kissed her.

“A woman can’t help worrying. To have a new life come out of me…” Lou looked down at herself. “It’s a miracle.”

“Pa says they were some of the greatest moments of his life, when my sister and I popped out.”

“You did not just say popped.”

“Slid, then? Or is it squeezed out? Or maybe pushed? Whatever it is you women do.”

“You’ll see for yourself.”

“What?”

Louisa raised his hand and pecked his palm. “I want you there with me.”

“You want me in the room with you when the baby is born?”

“You’re the father, aren’t you? What a ridiculous
question.” Lou grinned. “You’ll be there holding me and comforting me.”

“But you’ll be…” Zach stopped.

“I’ll be what?”

“You know. On your back with your legs, well…”

Lou giggled. “You’ve seen me that way plenty of times. It’s how I got this way to begin with.”

“That’s not what I meant. The baby will be coming out, and all that other stuff.”

“Stuff?”

“I’ve seen horses give birth and other animals. All that wet and the smell.”

Lou put her hands on her hips. “Zachary King, how dare you? You are my husband and you will be there for me, smell or no smell.”

“Now who’s being prickly?”

“What I am is eating for two and we are out of fresh meat. So why don’t you take your rifle and go off hunting and think about how it makes me feel when you talk about me as if I’m a horse.”

“I never said that.”

Lou wheeled around and stalked toward the cabin, muttering, “Men are the most aggravating creatures on God’s green earth.”

Louder, Zach repeated, “I never said that!” But she paid him no mind. “Women!” He kicked a rock and it clattered a few feet.

The dun was in the corral attached to their cabin. Zach threw on a saddle blanket and saddle, fitted the bridle, and mounted up. He rode north into the dense woods. At this time of day, the deer were lying up in the brush. He knew just where to find some.

As Zach rode, he pondered. He supposed he was being unduly suspicious about the trading post or mercantile or whatever Toad wanted to call it. But
he couldn’t shake a feeling deep in his gut that those men were more than they seemed. Call it a hunch. Call it instinct. Something was bothering him.

The sharp call of a grosbeak brought Zach out of his brooding thoughts. A little farther on, a gray squirrel chittered at him from a high branch.

Zach stayed alert for deer. There was plenty of sign. A jumble of prints showed where the deer went regularly to the lake to drink. He also came across old beds, some with the strong reek of urine.

A magpie flew overhead, distinctive with its white underparts and uncommonly long tail. Where there was one, there were usually more, although they made solitary domes high in the trees when they nested.

Zach breathed deep, savoring the rarefied air, and grinned. He did so love the mountains, or any wilds, for that matter. He had been born and bred in the wilderness, as the whites would say, and he was supremely glad. He had been to towns and cities and couldn’t stand them. Not that he had anything against people. He didn’t like how city life hemmed a man in, how stone and brick replaced the trees and grass, how a man could hardly go anywhere without being under the watchful scrutiny of others. There was barely any privacy, and what little there was came only when a person locked himself in a room.

That wasn’t for Zach. Give him the wide-open spaces where a man could ride for hours or days or even weeks, if he was of a mind, and not see another living soul.

Ahead the forest thinned. Zach rode out of the shadows into the bright sunlight of a meadow—and drew rein.

Not fifty feet away was a wolf.

In his room at the back of the mercantile, Toad paced. He kept glancing at a sheet of paper on the table. Finally he sat and hastily penned a note. He folded the paper in half, then folded it again and slipped it into his pocket. “It is the best I can do,” he said out loud.

Toad stood and went to the window. It faced the foothills to the west. To his left was the building that looked like a stable but wasn’t. Gratt was just going in. “May you all rot in hell,” Toad said.

Toad stepped to the door. He smoothed his shirt and patted the pocket. His palms were sweaty and he wiped them on his pants. He jerked the door open and was startled to see Petrie leaning against the wall. “You!”

Petrie unfolded. “Had a nice nap, did you?” he asked sarcastically.

“Yes,” Toad lied. He made it a habit to rest for half an hour after his midday meal. It helped with his digestion. “What are you doing here? Keeping an eye on me?”

“Neil wants to see you.”

“Shouldn’t you call him Geist?” Toad said.

“I can call him any damn thing I want, you sack of pus.”

Toad had been wondering about something and now he came right out and asked. “Why do you hate me so much? I’ve never done anything to you. I
resent that Geist deceived me, but I’ve gone along with what you’ve demanded of me, haven’t I?”

“You don’t have a choice. You go along or you die.”

“There’s that,” Toad admitted. “So why do you hate me?”

“Three reasons,” Petrie said. “First, you’re about the ugliest son of a bitch I’ve ever set eyes on. Looking at you, I want to puke.”

Toad winced. “I was born this way. You can’t blame a man for that.”

“Care to bet?” Petrie rejoined, and then said, “Second, your last name is
Levi
.”

“So you’re one of those.”

“Third,” Petrie said, ignoring the interruption, “and this is the most important, I hate most everybody. People are worthless and stupid and good for nothing and better off dead. Except Neil.”

“You go around killing people just for that?”

“I do it all the time. Back in the States, I’m wanted for more murders than you have fingers. Neil too.”

“Good God.”

“There ain’t one, you simpleton. There’s just us.”

“Wait. Geist is like you? He kills people just because he despises them?”

“No. He always has a reason.” Petrie’s mouth curled in a vicious smirk. “Sometimes it’s because they’re no longer of any use to us.” He gestured. “Now move your fat ass. He’s waiting.”

Several Crows were examining the knife display. A Nez Perce was fingering blankets.

Geist was behind the counter, a glass of whiskey at his elbow. “About damn time.”

“You said I could rest,” Toad reminded him.

“I aim to please,” Geist said, his tone suggesting the opposite.

“What is it you wanted to see me about?”

“I’ve decided to change our business arrangement.”

“Is that what you call it when you hold a gun to a man’s head and demand he take you in as a partner, or else?”

Geist emptied his glass and turned to the shelf for a bottle. “I haven’t pulled the trigger yet, have I?”

Petrie chuckled.

Geist refilled his glass and leaned on the counter. He cast an eye at the Crows, who were several shelves away, then fixed his gazed on Toad. “I didn’t like your little flare-up in the whorehouse. It hit me that you still don’t understand. So I’ll make it as plain as plain can be.” He paused to take another sip. “When I saw your advertisement in the St. Louis newspaper, I knew you were just the cover I needed. The law was hot on my trail and I had to get out of the States. So me and my men signed on to help you get your goods across the prairie and start up this mercantile. Halfway here I took over and now you work for me. I can get rid of you any time I want.”

“Why don’t you, then?” Toad asked sullenly. “Why do you toy with me like a cat with a mouse?”

“You don’t know anything, do you?”

“I know I hate being forced to do your bidding. I hate living in constant fear.”

Petrie said to Geist, “At least he has the brains to be scared.”

“So long as you serve a purpose, you get to go on living,” Geist said.

“What purpose is that, might I ask?”

“Weren’t you listening? You’re my cover, Levi. I
wouldn’t put it past the law to send someone this far. So I pretend to work for you, while the whole time I really run things. But if you become too much of a nuisance, you’ll disappear.”

“By disappear, you mean die.”

“Everything has to be spelled out for you, doesn’t it? Petrie here will take you off into the hills and dispose of you. Anyone asks, we’ll say you got attacked by a bear or bit by a rattler.”

“One less
Levi
in the world,” Petrie said.

“Now are we clear?” Geist said. “No more talking back. Do exactly as I say when I say it.” He reached across the counter and gripped the front of Toad’s shirt. “Let me hear the words.”

Toad flushed, and swallowed. “From here on out you won’t hear a peep of protest out of me.”

“Good.” Geist let go and smoothed the man’s shirt. “Now go make yourself useful and sell something to those Crows.”

“Whatever you say.”

“I like the sound of that,” Geist said, and chuckled.

Toad went down the third aisle to the Crows.

They turned and smiled and one said something in their tongue.

“I’m sorry, I don’t speak your language,” Toad said. “Do any of you speak English?” When all they did was stare blankly, he lowered his voice and said, “Chases Rabbits? Do you understand that at least? I have something for you to give him.” He started to reach into his pocket but stopped when it was obvious they didn’t comprehend. He let out a sigh. His luck of late was all bad.

There had to be a way to turn the tables on Geist,
Toad told himself. There had to be someone who could do what he wasn’t capable of.

Zach King snapped his Hawken to his shoulder. Wolves this close to the cabin were a danger to the livestock. He had seen wolf tracks around his cabin off and on for some months now, but could never catch the wolf. At first he’d been concerned that it was after the chickens, but it never tried to get into the coop or attack the rooster and hens when they were roaming about during the day.

Zach took aim, then noticed that the wolf was just standing there, staring. It showed no fear or alarm. He noticed, too, that it was uncommonly old; it was mostly hide and bones, its muzzle almost entirely light gray while the rest was darker. It had a white mark that reminded him of the wolf cub he’d raised when he was young. Curious, he said out loud, “Blaze?”

The wolf pricked its ears and whined. It took a few steps in his direction, limping.

Zach lowered the Hawken a little. “It can’t be,” he said. Years ago his wolf had gone off to answer the call of the wild. He’d always reckoned that it was long since dead. “Blaze?”

The wolf whined again and came haltingly forward, its limp more pronounced.

The dun snorted and pranced. Zach spoke to it and patted its neck, then climbed down, keeping a firm grip on the reins. He held the Hawken ready to shoot as the wolf came to within a few yards and stared at him as he was staring at it. “Blaze? Is that you, boy?” He couldn’t be sure. “After all these years?”

Zach held out a hand as he used to do, his fingers extended.

The wolf slowly came up and sniffed. It whined and licked his fingertips.

Zach carefully touched the white mark. He was coiled to defend himself should the wolf attack, but all it did was lick him some more. “Well, what do you know?” He decided to put it to another test. Sinking onto his knee, he said, “Do you remember what you used to do?”

The wolf’s jaw was so close that with a lightning snap it could rend Zach’s throat. Instead, it dipped its muzzle and pressed its forehead to his chest as Blaze used to do when he wanted to be petted. Zach rubbed its head and its neck and ran a hand over its side; he could feel every rib.

“Blaze, is it really you?”

The wolf raised its head and licked him.

Zach scratched and petted its chin. “Has to be you. No wild wolf would let me do this.” It licked him again and he beamed. “I can’t wait for my wife to see you.”