Two Medicine (42 page)

“
I was actually writing a
statement of everything I know on Clayton, Jake, and even Alia –
not much on her, though.”  He stared down at the legal pad and
then looked up at me again, as if suddenly remembering something.
 “The reason I wanted to talk to you tonight, Will, is make
sure you don’t go to the powwow, not now.”

“
Why not?”

Greg looked at me
dubiously, “Because you are in danger, obviously. Haven’t you
processed yet what I just told you?”

“
Clayton?”  I
asked.

“
Clayton and Jake are
heavily involved in tribal matters; and I’m sure they'll be there
this year with all the talk that’s out there. And they have friends
in the tribe, Will, strong friends.”

I sat back and remembered
Thunderbird’s insistence that I go, and with a shock I wondered if
his whole act had been a farce and if even lovable, harmless,
Teddy-bear-like Thunderbird was in on the deal with Clayton and
Jake too. The entire town seemed altered now, even Two Med did, as
if I was seeing them through a new lense.

Greg saw my worried
expression, and tried to reassure me.  “Look, Will, you’re
safe if you stick around here – the store. But there’s a lot going
on in Browning I don’t know, like I said.  Suffice it to say,
Browning is off limits for you right now – a bad place to be caught
in.  Between the cops, rangers, Indians and locals, your name,
right or wrong, has gotten around in connection with Alia and
murder and Clayton and drugs… basically everything that is wrong in
Browning…  You’ve got to stay away. For good.

“
In fact,” he
continued, “If you really want to play it safe, you should
leave Montana, immediately.”

Leave? The thought seemed
implausible, even with all that was going on.
 
And go where?
 
Atlanta
?  Georgia seemed as foreign to me now as Montana had
seemed in Georgia that morning in the bar with Scott. I shook my
head, “I still can't believe this is happening.”

“
You’re in danger, Will,
there’s no denying it.”  Greg looked past me out over the dark
lawn that led into the trees.  “Glacier is still a wild
place.”

“
No,” I
said, forcing a decision in my mind after considering for a moment.
“That’s what Clayton wants, for me to skip town and take the blame
for Alia with me. Clayton and Jake don't want me
arrested;
they
know I didn’t do it to Alia and that I’m not involved in drug
deals.   No… they want me scared, and gone, leaving me looking
all the more guilty.” 

I stood up and looked down
at Greg. The unfairness of what had happened to sweet little Alia,
the ridiculousness of what was going on now, all burned within me
now with a smoldering, stubborn resentment.  “I am going to
that fucking powwow,
for
Alia – because of her; and I’m going to tell
Clayton and Jake and anybody else who asks that I loved her, and
that she deserved better that she got – I’ll tell anyone who wants
to know.  

“
I’ll tell the whole
fucking tribe that she was a beautiful little girl who was beaten
down and left in the dirt for dead… She was a part of their tribe –
she was one of them.  And I’m the only one who gives a
fuck.”

I turned and walked back
towards the path at the side of the house, but Greg called over to
me. “Wait, Will.”  

I turned around and
watched him get up from his table.  “Then I’m coming with
you.”  

I started to object but he
held up a hand and stopped me. “I may be just a ranger,” he smiled
sarcastically, “but the powwow is on park land every year, so it’s
in my jurisdiction. Even my supervisor can’t argue with that.”
 

I shrugged, and started
walking back. “Just leave the uniform at home this time,
though.”

Thirty-Five

I thought I wouldn’t be
able to sleep a wink when I got in bed later that night.  But
after staring up at the wooden ceiling for a while and thinking
about what Greg had said about Alia’s death, about her killers,
about my name being involved with narcotics investigations, I soon
felt a heavy fatigue that almost forcibly drifted me into a deep
sleep.

The next day was a Friday,
and the following day was the big powwow.  My shift on Friday
had me at the cash register in the gift area, and Larry,
unfortunately, was back, and it made for an awkward few hours with
his embarrassment over being drunk in front of me evident enough on
his face.   He didn't speak much to anyone, but stood at the
counter near me, typing heavily on a laptop keyboard he sometimes
used to track the stock and sales.  He would reach back and
scratch his bald stubbly head with the easer end of a pencil and
then go back to stabbing at the keyboard in heavy strokes.
 

We were very busy and so I
didn't have much down time to converse with him anyway.  I was
ringing people up non-stop, or getting the shelves restocked here
and there and answering the random tourist questions.  A huge
line had formed at the snack bar due to Katie being the chef, and
Larry eventually got back there with Phyllis and to bail her out.
  Larry ended up kicking her out and she wandered up to help
me at the register.

Katie told me as we worked
that there was another bonfire at the main lodge that night, and
the she was planning on going – Ronnie had told her about it.
 Even she was getting a little restless, apparently. I thought
it odd that Ronnie hadn’t told me about it himself, but she asked
me to go and I told her I was down for it. By the time the store
was locked up and closed down, were had planned for all three of us
go together.  

Once again Katie and I
piled into Ronnie's car and we drove down the road towards the main
lodge.  The night was clear and I could see millions of stars
already lining the black dome of the sky.  I sat in the front
seat and Ronnie drove quickly in the dark; his headlights always
seemed too dim for the dark roads and on this night even more
so.

He was blasting Van Halen
and had it up so loud that we couldn’t have carried on a
conversation if we wanted to.  But with the volume turned up a
little too loud, Ronnie’s grim demeanor as he drove, a cigarette
stuck in his frowning mouth, and Katie’s worried expression as she
watched the two of us, a definite sense of coldness had grown in
the vehicle into elephantine size by the time we arrived at the
lodge. By the time the car came to a stop, I was glad to get out
and get a little fresh little air.

The lodge still
struck me as an odd-looking, out-of-place
monstrosity – all lit up like an airport, floor after floor of
Swiss-looking windows and awnings that struck out peculiarly from
the dark forest surrounding it.  

The staffers already had a
large bonfire roaring in the back; and I saw that there were more
people around than at the last bonfire.  I spotted Cowboy
again sitting on his truck bed and providing the music for the
evening from the stereo in the truck’s cab.  I wondered as I
watched him how his summer had gone so far, in contrast to mine…
The last bonfire I had gone to at the lodge seemed years ago. The
cowboy had a cute redhead sitting next to him, and after staring
for a second I recognized that it was Bridget herself.   She
saw Ronnie and I and waived over to us, and then put an arm around
Cowboy, sending an obvious signal to Ronnie.   Neither Ronnie
nor the Cowboy seemed to notice, however.

Ronnie and I walked with
Katie in tow through the margins of the crowd, and we were quickly
spotted by Jamie who called us over to a group of people near the
fire.  I could feel its heat from thirty feet away, and as we
sat down with Jamie the fire blasted out steady warmth that made
the air further away seem cold and autumn-like in comparison – even
in late summer.

I recognized a frantic
scratching and muffled acoustic-guitar notes coming from over to my
right, and I saw 12-String Boogie still holding court.  His
guitar chords were drowned out by the Cowboy's stereo, once again.
The stereo was blasting Jimmy Buffet.  

I felt a poke in my ribs
and Katie pointed at Jamie, who I realized had been just speaking
to me.  Ronnie had his arm around Jamie.

“
I'm sorry,” I said,
“What'd ya say?” She smiled back at me.  Her black hair was
lit up in red highlights in the flame light, and her skin had a
warm glow, over her rail-thin arms and neck.  

“
Somebody has got
something on his mind…” she said. “But I asked you if you were
still thinking of working for the park over the winter.”
 

Remembering that she could
possibly get me a full-time job, and automatically thought about
Greg's warnings to leave Montana, about Clayton and Jake, about
Browning, and shrugged, “I don’t know, maybe.”  

“
Well if you want to apply
for a desk job, call me and I fill out some stuff for
you.”

I nodded. “Thanks. That’s
nice of you to even remember I was looking for something.”
 

She reached over and held
Ronnie’s hand, “No problem.  It’ll be nice to have someone
cool to work with over the winter,
finally
.”  

Ronnie was watching me,
and then said, “You couldn't pay me enough to stay here past
September.”   He looked past us over the crowd and then
suddenly stood up.  “I gotta get a drink.  Anybody want
one?”  He stomped off before anyone put in their orders, and I
looked at Jamie who just stared over at the fire with a blank
expression.   

“
Don’t mind him,” Katie
piped up from behind me. “He's been getting more ‘Ronnie-like every
day.”  

 
“I don't know how
you guys live with him,” Jamie said with a smirk. 

“
I don’t even seem him
much anymore,” I said without even thinking about it, but suddenly
I realized how strange it was that people could avoid each other so
successfully in a small, remote log cabin.  

Jamie went off to get us
some beers and Katie scooted up next to me and reached over to hold
my hand.  

“
Will, I never thanked you
for being a gentleman that night,” she said. “You know, in your
room. You coulda had your way with me, I suppose.”
 

“
Maybe we did it…” I
smiled at her, “In your state you probably wouldn’t remember either
way.”  

She punched my shoulder
playfully, and then grew serious.  “You’re a good friend, Will
Benton.  You really are. It’s rare to meet a man you can
trust.”

I was wondering
how trustworthy I was, when I looked out over the
crowd and suddenly recognized Clayton and Jack and my heart stopped
involuntarily for a fraction of a second. I saw Ronnie was with
them, talking to Clayton, and I felt a cold sense of dread,
remembering Greg’s dire warning.  The three of them stood on
the outskirts of the crowd, just like before; and I could barely
see them in the dim, flicking fire light.  And it was hard to
be sure with his mirror finish glasses but it looked like Jake was
staring directly at me.  

Someone suddenly sat
down next to me and I turned and saw Sky, of all people. She was
looking over at the three of them too, and then looked back at me.
She glanced at Katie and then then leaned in close to me, her brown
hair was up in a bun and she had on a leather necklace like the one
around my wrist.  She was wearing a white t shirt that glowed
in the fire light as she sat scooted up
close.   

“
We need to talk Will,”
she said in a flat tone.  Her eyes were clear and her gaze was
direct, she wasn’t drunk, but she was definitely different.
 “You have made yourself some trouble.”

“
Yeah,”
I said, “I’ve been hearing that a lot lately.” I leaned forward and
picked up a twig, flicking it over into the fire.  “So why
do
you
say
that?”

“
Just come with me for a
minute,” she said.  Without waiting for an answer she stood up
and grabbed my hand, pulling me up.  Katie looked at us with
irritation at being left alone but I just shrugged and followed Sky
as she dragged me through the crowd, in the opposite direction from
the fire and Clayton. 

I looked over at Clayton’s
side again but they were lost behind the bonfire, which blocked my
view.  Jimmy Buffet had turned into John Denver, and it made
me think of my arrival at the store, that early afternoon standing
in front of store with a guitar in one hand a suitcase in the
other, having no idea about the place at which I had just arrived.
 How things have changed, I thought to myself… now I knew way
too much.

Sky led me over to a dark
corner of the clearing where there was a smaller, unoccupied fire
pit with a couple of wooden benches, far enough from the group to
not be seen.  She sat down close to me.

“
I wanted to tell you that
there are some people in Browning out to get you, some in the
tribe.” she said in a quiet tone.

“
Old news,” I said with a
frown.

She took out a pack of
Marlboro Lights from her back pocket and pulled one out, offering
the pack to me.  

“
I didn't know you smoke,”
I said, as I shook my head to her offer. “You don’t seem like the
type.”