Virtue Falls (17 page)

“I … saw the wave cresting. Tried to turn the clipper. Too late.” A shudder shook Kateri. “Then I saw him.”

Elizabeth leaned closer. “Who? One of your crewmen?”

“The god of below. The giant frog monster who made the earth break apart.”

“Oh.”
Okay.

“The god broke the clipper’s windows, reached in … dragged me out.” Kateri paused to rest. “And flung me into hell.”

Elizabeth nodded. In a way, that made sense, that as a Native American, Kateri would see the Pacific Ocean as a god pulling her from the safety of the clipper and into the maw of death. “You were in the water.”

“I rolled in the wave, over and over, while the god beat me, broke me, stole the breath from my lungs and drank the blood from my body.” Kateri’s breath rasped in her lungs. “Now. Water. Please.”

Elizabeth feared to touch her.

But Kateri turned her head to the side and took short sips from the bottle. She swallowed painfully, then closed her eyes as if exhausted.

Elizabeth’s heart hurt for her friend. “You don’t have to tell me now.”

“Now. It has to be now.” Kateri opened her swollen, bloodshot eyes. “I woke underwater, in the cave of the god. He was green, with hands and feet that wavered in the currents, and a mouth huge and black. I knew … what had happened. I was drowned. My body was worthless, my soul trapped within. The god reached for me and squeezed me, chewed me and swallowed me.” She whimpered, the low, animal sound of pain and anguish. “And I died.”

“You’re here,” Elizabeth said in a voice meant to comfort. “You didn’t die.”

Kateri was not comforted. “I did. I did. I saw things … a person should never see. Heaven and hell. Eternity and beyond. The pain disappeared … and I saw the light. You know … the light I was supposed to go toward?”

“The light that calls you after death.” Elizabeth didn’t believe, but Kateri did. “Yes. Of course.”

“I tried to go toward it—and the god snatched me back. He made me return.”

Elizabeth didn’t know what to say in the face of such delusion. “We’re glad he did.”

“Not me. I’m not glad. Like a candle, the light blew out. Without warning, bubbles, blue seawater, green kelp surrounded me. I was in agony … again. I was rising to the surface. I saw a shark. I knew I was bleeding and I knew he could smell it, and I thought … I thought he would rip me to shreds.” Kateri coughed, and flinched as if that cough caused her a spasm of pain. “The big shark. Came at me, mouth open, pointed teeth … at the last moment, he veered away.” Tears sprang to her eyes and trickled down her cheeks. “Then I knew what I was.”

“What are you?”

“One who has returned.” Beneath the tears, Kateri’s eyes blazed with that terrible anguish. “The shark did not dare touch me. The god would have punished him.”

Elizabeth nodded as if she understood. She did not.

“I bobbed to the surface.” Kateri’s voice came easier now. She was talking faster, as if she knew she was out of time. “I took a long, sweet breath. The ocean slid a piece of debris beneath me, and I floated through the night and into the morning. When I woke, the pain was too much, and I pushed myself into the cold water and hoped to die. Elizabeth? Do I still have my legs?”

Elizabeth lifted the blankets and looked. “From what I can see, you have all your parts. But you are … battered.” Beyond belief. She didn’t know how anyone could live with so many injuries.

“The god gave me back to the earth, but I am changed. I have been reborn … and transformed. I will never be the same Kateri again.” She closed her eyes, as if the effort of speaking had exhausted her … or as if saying good-bye to her former self. “Listen. The god said to tell my people that the might of the earth would free them from the past.”

Elizabeth carefully tucked the blankets back around her. “When you’re healed, you can go to your tribe. You can tell them.”

“Not my tribe. You. The god spoke to you. You are my people. You are like me. We are alike.” Kateri’s eyes opened. “Listen to me. Listen to the earth. No more surprises. You know it all already.” Her lips stretched into a broken parody of a smile. “You don’t have to
remember
. You simply have to
listen
 … Listen…”

From far away, Elizabeth heard a sound that shimmered in the air. Louder and louder, until she could identify the chop-chop of a helicopter blade, the roar of an engine. Like a mighty bird of prey, it swooped off the edge of the cliff and lowered over the dock, over the launch.

Coast Guard.

They had come for one of their own.

Two men descended on cables.

The resort staff scrambled backward.

Elizabeth found herself shoved aside, then impersonally hoisted out of the launch, out of the way.

Coast Guard medical corpsmen stabilized Kateri, then signaled for a flat stretcher/basket to be lowered. The corpsmen slid her onto the basket and signaled again. The helicopter lifted her into the air. Above them, more Coasties caught the stretcher and pulled her inside. Within minutes the corpsmen had been winched back aboard, and the helicopter whisked away toward Seattle, toward the hospitals and surgeries that could save Kateri’s life.

Elizabeth stared into the empty air, in awe of a crisis that had ended so abruptly. Feeling apart, surreal, she climbed the steps.

At the top, Harold took her arm. “What did she tell you?”

Elizabeth stared at his inquisitive face, and made a decision to save Kateri’s career and reputation. “She told me how she saved herself. She’s an amazing woman, and I’m proud to know her.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

“Shit.” At the sight of the dozenth roadblock, where three police officers stood beside a fallen log, Garik rolled his truck to a halt and wondered when his luck had turned from
just about wonderful
to
every minute sucked.

Oh, wait. That had been about the time Elizabeth left him.

Now, as he looked through the bug-speckled windshield at Sheriff Dennis Foster, the snottiest, most self-important asshole of a law enforcement officer in the continental United States, Garik knew he’d about hit rock bottom.

But by God, this time he was going to bounce.

Foster’s fair, freckled skin was burned. His nose was peeling. His green eyes drooped like a drunk’s after a three-day binge. His uniform hung on him. But with one hand on his firearm, he headed toward Garik’s truck.

Garik got out and slammed the door.

The two men gave that
size you up, you’re an asshole
nod.

Foster spoke first. “Jacobsen, how did you get here?”

“I drove.” It had been more off-roading than driving, and it had taken Garik as long to get this far as it had to get from Vegas to Portland. “In Portland, I did some recon, plus I grew up here and know the side roads. That helped. Of course, you know I grew up here.”

“I remember. I remember those years when you should have been in juvenile detention, and Mrs. Smith bailed you out.” Foster never passed up the chance to snark at Garik. “She’s a sentimental old woman.”

“Don’t tell her that. She’s got power in this community, and you’ve never had quite as much support, have you?”
Take that, asshole.

The asshole said, “Go back. This area is restricted, we’ve got troubles and don’t need another mouth to feed.”

“I figured. That’s why I brought supplies.” Garik waved a hand at the truck bed, packed full of food, bottled water, and filled gas cans.

Foster’s eyes narrowed. “I still can’t let you pass.”

Knee-jerk reaction, Garik diagnosed. Foster was the kind of guy who took a stand and couldn’t back down, no matter what the circumstances.

Garik didn’t care—one way or the other, he was going to win this. “Sure. The law is the law, and you have to enforce it.” He moved toward his truck.

Foster stepped forward. “Don’t you want to know if Mrs. Smith is okay?”

Garik climbed into the cab. “I know Margaret’s okay. In Portland, I got the supplies and had a ham radio installed.” Hearing Margaret’s voice on that ham radio was the best moment of his life.

“A ham radio.” Foster pushed his hat back on his head and scratched his forehead. “I wondered how she got those helicopters here so quickly.”

“Not bad for a sentimental old woman.” Garik shut the door and rolled down the window.

“How about Elizabeth? Don’t you want to know about your ex-wife?” Foster smirked. The smug bastard had investigated her. Or Garik. Or both.

“Sure.” Garik braced himself. “Tell me about Elizabeth.”

“She managed to get herself almost killed within two hours of the earthquake.” Foster wasn’t smirking now.

Which was good, because Garik was not amused. “How?”

“She was filming the tsunami—”

“Of course.” In the throes of a scientific orgasm, no doubt.

“—And afterward, she crawled into the canyon because she saw a bone.”

Garik was going to kill her himself. “A bone? Like a dinosaur bone?”

“No, human, but
she
thought it was a prehistoric find.” Garik recognized the expression on Foster’s face. Law enforcement officers wore that look when citizens did stupid stuff. “I had the coroner look at it. Nineteenth century. Female. Probably from the whores’ cemetery.”

“I always heard about that cemetery.” Garik started the truck. “Never stumbled on it. There really was one?”

“Apparently. If the tsunami raked it over, we’ll find more bones—the quake has unearthed all kinds of weird stuff. I just wish your wife didn’t feel as if she had to kill herself over it.” Foster’s pocket squawked. He looked surprised, pulled out his cell phone, and in a vicious tone said, “Goddamn son-of-a-bitch.”

“You got cell service?” Garik looked at his own cell phone. “I don’t.”

“I’ve got cell service.” Foster turned off the sound and stuck the phone back in his pocket. “Because God hates me.”

“It’s a text, right? Aren’t you going to read it?” Garik asked.

“It’s Mother. She wants me home.” Foster pulled off his hat and crushed it in his hands. It looked like he’d been doing that a lot. “I’m busy here!”

“Right. Okay.” Garik kept his hands on the wheel. “I’d better get going.”

“You ought to get those two women under control.”

“What two women? You mean … Margaret and Elizabeth?” Garik laughed out loud. “
Those
two women? Right. I’ll do that.” He put the truck in reverse.

Before he could move, Foster slapped his hand on the door. “You’re going to the resort anyway, aren’t you?”

Garik looked down at him, right into his mean little eyes. “I might not be able to get control of those two women, but I sure as hell can protect them.”

Foster shouted to the guys manning the roadblock, “Let him through!”

Garik pressed on the gas. With any luck, he would be home before lunch.

*   *   *

Garik pulled into Virtue Falls Resort, stopped the truck, and stared. The windows had been blasted out. The wraparound porch had lost a post and the roof hung drunkenly to one side. Shingles paved the parking lot. But compared to some of the damage he’d seen while skirting Virtue Falls, the resort looked good.

He drove around to the service entrance, grabbed one of the coolers out of the truck bed, and headed for the kitchen. He walked in on a dozen dirty, tired-looking people eating lunch. He lifted the cooler high, then set it beside the restaurant-sized refrigerator. “I brought milk!”

The members of the resort workforce laughed, gave him a general thumbs-up, then returned to their meal.

“You made it,” Harold said. “Good thing. The old dear’s been fussing—she thought you’d be here when she got up this morning.”

Garik put his hand on Harold’s shoulder and kept him in his seat. “Her and me both. Where is she?”

“In her room. But Elizabeth’s not with her right now.”

“Elizabeth has been here? She’s staying here?” Garik kept his voice cool, but his skin prickled in anticipation.

“Yes, and she went for a walk this morning. She didn’t return. I don’t know where she is. Ask the old dear. Miss Banner would have told her.”

“She better have.” Garik tossed his car keys to Harold. “When you finish eating, there are supplies to be unloaded.”

“Good,” Harold said. “I’ve got most of the staff working in Virtue Falls doing rescue and cleanup, and Chef and his cooks have committed themselves to fixing lunch everyday at the shelter, so we’ve got a lot of mouths to feed.”

“We’ll get the town put back together,” Garik said, and headed into the great room and up the stairs. Margaret’s door was open, so he knocked on the sill.

She came in from her private deck with her arms outstretched. “My darling boy!”

He hugged her tenderly, marveling at how tiny she was. When he had first met her, he had been eight, and she had seemed tall. Actually, she’d only been five-three, and as she aged, she lost five inches in height. Now she was stooped, and skinny, all bird bones and thin skin … yet her heart was as big as ever.

She looked him over. “You’re a little thin. We’ll feed you.”

“I have no doubt about that.” He led Margaret to the chair beside her bed. He sat her down, then pulled the other chair around so it faced her. Seating himself, he stared into her face. “How are you?”

For him, she let down the mask, and wilted. Even her gray hair drooped as if it was weary. “When I was younger, I might have been better prepared to face a calamity of this magnitude.” She sighed, and straightened her shoulders. “But I’m surviving. Did you know your wife came to me for shelter?”

“Harold told me.”

“Damn the man! He never allows me the fun of breaking the news.”

Garik couldn’t help it. He laughed.

Three days ago he had been alone as no man had ever been before, and seconds away from killing himself. Now, within a few moments of arriving in Virtue Falls, he was alive again. He had a function. He was needed by one old, independent, hardheaded woman and one determined, oblivious, far-too-intelligent young woman.

Both of them could function on their own. Neither of them would ever admit to needing him. And yet they did.