Red Mountain (16 page)

The shooter turned to see the train coming and cursed. He shot desperately at Robert’s hands and missed. Then he turned and walked off the trestle and stood near the side to watch it pass.

I’m going to die…

When the train rolled onto the trestle, Robert saw something he couldn’t believe. A dark figure had sailed down from the bank and landed on top of the shooter. Like a spider pouncing on a bug.

The trestle shook violently. Robert felt his hands slipping on the steel anchors. He could no longer hold on. As he fell backward he reached for the cable but it was much further away than he’d judged.

So far away that it seemed like miles…

He fell through darkness, unable to do anything more about it, thinking to himself that maybe this was the way things were meant to end…

CHAPTER 31

When Marsh peeled himself up from the ground he noticed his cowboy hat lying next to him, smoldering.

 
His hands were red and blistered, and when he moved his eyes up his arms, he saw that all his hair had been singed off. The heat damaged wristwatch he wore said it was after midnight, suggesting he’d been out cold for at least twenty minutes.

 
He rose unsteadily to his feet and stared around at what was left of the trailer. An awful stench of burning tires and plastic assaulted his nose. Something weird caught his eye and he took a few steps closer before bending over to look.

 
It was Stick’s skinny arm, torn away from the elbow, the socket a polished ivory. Flesh bubbled on the surface of the limb like the split crust of an apple pie when it’s been in the oven too long. Marsh dug his toe beneath the limb and kicked it into the cauldron of fire still raging within the collapsed trailer.

 
“You’re fucking dead cunt!” he screamed at the darkness mocking him outside the glow of spitting flames.

 
He went inside the house and looked for his car keys, realizing how badly his skin was burned. In the bathroom he stared at his face in the mirror. His flesh looked like a crab does after you boil it—so livid red it almost glowed. Marsh bent down and rinsed his face in cool water, but it did little to help the raw hurt. The first aid kit was inside the van that had gone to Portland, so there was nothing he could put on it to give himself some relief.

He went and checked to see if he had any phone messages.

 
There were none.

 
Strange, he thought. Perhaps Crain’s final contest was dragging out longer than they had figured it would. Or maybe there’d been some complications. Bad luck always came in threes. No matter. All bets were off. Marsh was going to have to clean up this mess now and make sure the women and children disappeared before they found help.

He wasn’t too worried about them getting far. In fact, he was already enjoying the idea of hunting them down himself. The cool night was still very young. If anyone heard gunshots they’d assume he was just shooting coyotes and wish him well.

It was high time the Crain bitch got what she had coming, even if Stick was only worthless highway trash. There was nothing he hated more than a tricky woman. Oh yes, he was going to save her for last. Introduce her to a world of pain she’d never forget.

Most importantly, Marsh felt he now deserved the fortune of gold he was promised. He was getting tired of waiting, of living in the old run down house and not having any money. If he didn’t pay off his debts soon, nosy bill collectors would be showing up at the front door, creating even more problems he didn’t need.

Once I get my hands on one of those maps, it’s mine. Screw Horn and his crazy plan. I’ve got to take care of number one…

Easier said than done, Marsh thought bitterly. What the hell am I doing? How could I be so goddamn stupid?

You couldn’t exactly tell a ghost to go fuck himself, especially if he’d become part of you, had made a little home in one of the cobwebbed corners of your mind. Marsh braced himself for Horn’s angry voice to boom through his skull but nothing happened. He glanced nervously around the room. The ghost wasn’t even there to threaten him.

 
Bugger must be messing around somewhere else for a change...

 
He picked up his rifle from the kitchen table where he’d been cleaning it the night before and stuffed some extra bullets into his front pocket.

 
The house was quiet, except for the beat of the grandfather clock and a moth darting against the screen door.

 
Marsh glanced cautiously around the room, could hear his pulse beating inside his ears.

 
He didn’t see any ghosts. Not tonight.

 
But when he opened the front door to leave, an icy claw sank into his shoulder and spun him around. Marsh trembled at the sight of Horn’s face so close to his. The ghost’s eyes were like portals to another reality, a place you didn’t need to see twice to know you never wanted to go there…

 
Marsh tried closing his eyes but it was too late. Horn had his eyelids pinched between dark fingertips.

 
“You must honor the bargain we made.”

 
“But the women and children have escaped. They’ll find help. And then the police will come and ...”

 
“Damn you Marsh. Take care of them. Then bring me my rightful kin… Must I teach you another lesson about betraying me?”

 
Marsh’s guts twisted up into cold knots. Horn had his eyelids stretched to their limit. If the ghost wanted to he could tear them off like the wings of a fly.

 
I guess the gold will have to wait…

CHAPTER 32

Robert woke to a tongue licking his face. When he heard Nugget’s concerned whimpering, he opened his eyes. He lifted a hand and stroked her chin.

“Hey girl…”

For a moment he couldn’t remember how he’d ended up sprawled out on a bed of fragrant needles. He vaguely recalled his fall from the train trestle, of bouncing downward from one limb of a giant cedar to the next.

Nugget settled beside him and thumped her tail.

“How’d you get out of the truck?”

Nugget gave him her knowing look. Haven’t you figured it out dad? When she didn’t react to the sounds coming toward them through the undergrowth, he finally understood. Will had found him.

“Robert?”

“I’m over here.”

Will parted some sword ferns and bent down under the cedar to join him.

“Jesus Robert, are you hurt?”

Robert didn’t actually know. He hadn’t thought about trying to move anything more than he needed to. He started to gently wiggle his toes, then his legs. They seemed to function normally. But his hip throbbed as if a hot branding iron had been pressed in all the way to the bone. Will bent over and triaged Robert’s injuries. When he saw the wound on Robert’s hip he whistled through his teeth.

“That’s a nasty cut you have, bro. We’re going to have to get it cleaned out as soon as possible… Do you think you can still walk?”

“I haven’t tried… So what happened to the guy who was shooting at me?”

“Don’t worry about him. He’s not going to be a problem. Oh, thanks for the voice messages you fucking jerk. You’re lucky I checked them before I got done with my shift. I was planning to go out with this hot number who’d just started in accounting the other day. I had to give her a goddamn rain check.”

“I’m sorry I lied to you, Will. But this thing is really bad. I promise you I’m going to tell you everything that’s happened.”

Will gnawed his lower lip. His eyes were filled with tears.

“You can tell me all about it later. Right now I think we better get the hell out of here. Before any more of your friends show up and try to kill us.

CHAPTER 33

Peggy was growing concerned. The highway was much further down the basin than she’d realized. In fact the headlights they saw earlier may have come from aircraft flying low on the horizon. Or were they the glow of distant forest fires? This was the time of year when lightning committed its random acts of arson. It burned up acres of drought-stricken pine forests and darkened once green mountains.

Still, there had to be a main road somewhere. With the night sky as clear as it was, there was hope they’d see passing vehicles before long. Early stars began to light up the sky. Bats darted overhead catching moths.

They’d only stopped running a few minutes ago. For the moment Peggy was satisfied no one was following them. Their pace slowed as their lungs worked overtime. It gave them their first opportunity to talk.

“My name is Peggy by the way. And this is Connor.”

A worried smile stretched across the woman’s thin face. Dark circles around her eyes told Peggy she hadn’t slept much lately.

“It’s nice to meet you both. I’m Jan, and my daughter’s name is Krista. Can you tell us where we’re going?”

“We’re looking for the highway. And to be honest with you, I don’t have any idea how far it is from here.”

“When did they take you?”

“Two nights ago. It was really late. They broke into our house. My husband tried to stop them but he’d been hurt in a car accident.”

“Have you heard from him?”

“Only once. The following morning.”

“Did you find out what’s happening? Did he mention my husband?”

“No. He only had time to ask how we were. Then they took the phone away. What about you. How long ago?”

“Three days. My husband went to the store to buy some ice cream. He’d left the door unlocked, thinking he’d be right back. Then these men came into the house wearing ski masks. Krista and I didn’t stand a chance. They tied us up and shoved us in a van. When Steve got back we heard them ambush him. It sounded really bad…”

Jan began to sob. Peggy took her hand and squeezed. Connor was still walking beside her, softly humming one of his own compositions. It was his habit when he was trying to calm his nerves. He’d been doing it since he was a baby. Krista had glanced curiously at Connor, and after awhile she began to join him. They were coping with the situation much better than Peggy had expected. She hoped it would stay that way.

“Listen Jan, we’re going to find help. And as soon as we do, every cop car in this county is going to be screaming toward that old farmhouse.”

“I just wish I could understand what this was all about. We’re good people. We didn’t do anything to deserve this. If it was ransom they wanted, then they’ve got the wrong family. We work hard, but it’s not like we’re rich.”

“It has to be something else. But I don’t believe this was a coincidence. No, this was carefully planned and executed. There must be a connection of some kind, but I’ll be damned if I can find one.”

Jan took some deep breaths and wiped her face.

“I want you to know I appreciate what you’ve done for us. You’ve got a lot more guts than I do, Peggy.”

“Please don’t say that. I’m just as scared as you.”

“You didn’t have to get us. You took a big risk by doing that.”

“There’s no way I would have left you two behind.”

“Well I hope when this is over you’ll be able to meet Steven. I’m sure he’d want to thank you.”

Peggy nodded and stared out at the dozens of new stars appearing in the night sky. It was taking every ounce of her being to stay optimistic, to believe the worst was over. And yet the undertow beneath her emotions seemed to indicate just the opposite, that even more fearful things lay waiting for her arrival.

I’ll still take my chances, she thought. Anything was better than being gassed to death inside a crummy trailer.

CHAPTER 34

Before Jared Horn was welcomed back to Wrath Butte, and before his carvings sent the town into a brief period of madness, only a handful of local hunters had known about his frequent visits to the mountain.

At the time Horn tried to keep to himself if he encountered others on the trail, but the hunters would rarely let him be without inflicting some form of abuse. Whether it was destroying his camp, threatening to hang him from the nearest tree they could find, or stealing what game he’d killed, Horn was unable to find any sanctuary from Brandon Duke’s wicked lies.

When the town finally had a change of heart toward Horn and welcomed him back in the community, no one suspected he’d been planning his revenge all along. By all appearances, the now broken and nervous man seemed forgiving to all those who’d caused him harm. The town embraced with opened arms what they saw as an authentic Christian attitude, and those who felt particularly guilty about how they’d treated Horn in the past became extremely generous with their purses.