The Travelling Man (31 page)

Mrs. Fiorentino led the way and the rest of them followed. Cassie would have liked to check that the place was empty first, but the older woman pushed her way past their group and into the house.

Cassie felt the remaining eyes all staring at her for direction and she weighed the pros and cons of the situation. Mrs. Fiorentino may well have had a few bats shaken loose from her belfry, but she had a free-standing house far enough away from the town centre for Cassie to feel safe. She needed to leave her daughter somewhere out of sight while she took care of business. She had a fleeting moment of uncertainty as something cold and dark walked across her grave sending a bolt of tingling fear up her spine, but the moment passed as quickly as it had arrived. She took a deep breath and stepped through the doorway.

The interior had been carefully rearranged so as to keep the quake’s effects outside where they belonged. Mrs. Fiorentino was obviously a house-proud woman and hadn’t allowed a large scale natural disaster to be an excuse for an untidy home.

“This way, this way,” the landlady said impatiently, waving her arms to point them in the right direction.

“You sure about this, Sheriff?” Kevin whispered quietly under his breath.

“You got a better idea?”

“That woman gives me the creeps,” Jeanne said, joining them in the hallway as Mrs. Fiorentino disappeared from sight.

“Come on, guys, you know the woman as well as I do and for just as long,” Cassie said, unnerved by their concerns. In truth, she felt almost as uncertain but a second glance at Ellie as Kravis half walked and half carried the tired girl up the steps soon made up her mind. “I don’t see any other choice,” she replied firmly.

They all trooped down the long dark hallway, stifling their own feelings of disquiet until the corridor opened up into a large bright and welcoming kitchen. Cassie felt her own fears subside as a sense of normality returned. Mrs. Fiorentino busied herself with placing her looted supplies into cabinets and Cassie was relieved to see that the woman’s larder seemed well stocked.

“Are you sure that you can put us up?” Cassie asked.

“Of course,” the landlady bristled stiffly. “There are two rooms down the hall and another three on the second floor, including Mr. Kravis’, which is still how he left it,” she said a little reproachfully.

“Let’s find you somewhere to lie down for a while,” Cassie said to Ellie as she bent down and touched her daughter’s cheek lightly.

“I’m not tired, Mom,” Ellie said, stifling a yawn.

“Sure you’re not, sweetie,” Cassie said, scooping her up into her arms.

She walked to the kitchen doorway and nodded for Kevin to follow as she caught his eye. The big man followed and Cassie couldn’t help but notice Kravis’ face fall slightly as though she had offended him in some way.

She soon found an empty room upstairs and laid Ellie down on the bed. The girl was asleep as soon as her head hit the clean pillow and Cassie moved back to the doorway where Kevin was waiting. “I want you to stay here with Ellie and Jeanne.”

“What the hell are you talking about, Sheriff? Where you go, I go,” the big man said loyally.

“Not this time, Kevin; this time I need you here.”

“What the hell for?”

“Because that’s my daughter in there, you big moose, and there’s nobody I trust more to keep her safe. Besides, now that the world’s gone to hell and there’s only a handful of us left perhaps you’ll finally ask Jeanne out?”

The big man blushed furiously. “What about Kravis?”

“He’s coming with me.”

“And where exactly is it that you’re going?”

“To finish this, Kevin. My baby’s not going to last much longer if I don’t get her help and I don’t know how I’m going to do that. Jesus, I don’t even know what the hell’s really going on here anymore than you, but I think that Kravis does. I’ve got to try and save my daughter, us and what’s left of this town. I’ve got to finish this or die trying.”

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Kravis watched as the old woman set about boiling water on the gas stove. It was a mundane task but one that seemed to be from a lifetime ago. He found it difficult to place just how many days had passed since the quake as they all seemed to merge into one big foggy haze.

The boarding house had been where he’d been staying since his arrival in Granton but after the quake he had found himself in the Sheriff’s company and hospitality. He was about to ask Mrs. Fiorentino if the water was still on but she placed a pot of boiling water down in front of him before he had time to ask.

“I’d imagine that you would like a chance to wash up,” she said brusquely.

“Thank you,” Kravis answered, surprised. The woman merely nodded curtly.

He carried the hot water up to his room, passing Kevin on the stairs. The big man looked down at the pan of hot water. “Teacher’s pet,” he said raising his eyebrows, but a ghost of a smile crossed his lips letting Kravis know that he was joking.

“Some of us are just irresistible to women, I guess,” Kravis grinned back.

He reached his room and was pleased to see that it had been untouched since he’d left it however many days before. The water in the pan had cooled enough to use and he stripped to the waist, casting his shirt aside, meaning to throw it away as the thing had served with honour but now needed retiring.

He washed himself at the sink using the soap on the side. The hot water was soothing and cathartic and the white porcelain was soon stained with black and brown filth. He placed his hands on the sink and leaned forwards with his forehead touching the large mirror.

“Penny for them?”

He turned to see Cassie standing in the doorway. “I don’t think that they’d be worth that much,” he smiled weakly, not turning around.

Suddenly he felt her hands gently touching his side and he half turned around in confusion until he realised that she was just checking his bandage.

“We’ll have to get you a clean one,” she said, removing it gently.

Kravis felt his insides lurch to one side as she took the strapping away. He lifted one arm up tentatively and he could see the ugly black and purple bruising that stretched from his back around to his front. The Kevlar vest had absorbed the bullet but the impact had been fierce and very painful. “In the bag under the bed,” he said, nodding towards where he had placed one of his bags upon his first arrival at the boarding house.

Cassie pulled the bag out and unzipped it. She started pulling out various medical supplies. “You came here prepared,” she mused.

“I didn’t know what I was in for,” he shrugged. “But I never thought that it would be something like this.”

He winced as she began to wind a long clean bandage around his side. Her breath tickled his skin as she breathed hard in concentration. He felt vulnerable standing topless in front of her and wished that she’d hurry up so he could get dressed again. Part of him wondered what it would be like to kiss her and feel her smooth body under his, but a much larger and stronger part of him shut those thoughts down early. He had come to Granton to find the man who had murdered his sister and he had to keep that promise above all other things, regardless of how he might feel.

“You want to go after him, don’t you?” he stated, more than asked.

“I don’t see any other way, do you?”

Kravis thought for a minute. “No,” he finally conceded. “I was hoping that I would have more time, that he would be his usual elusive and subtle self. But this mass destruction, I don’t know what his goal is but I can’t help but feel that time is running out fast.”

“Have you got any idea how we stop him?”

“Not a clue,” he admitted.

“Do you even know what he is? I mean, is he a man at all?”

Kravis thought about it. “I honestly don’t see how he can be, certainly not when you consider what he seems capable of doing. Do you have a plan?”

Cassie fixed him with a hard stare that chilled him. “I was thinking about shooting him in the head a bunch of times and seeing how that works out.”

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Jim Lesnar watched the boarding house from his vantage point. His squat body was pressed low to the ground and he kept out of sight. Grange’s voice still hummed irritatingly just out of earshot but he worked hard to keep it at bay. This was his time now and he was eager to take what was so rightfully his. His mouth salivated at the thought of her creamy soft flesh beneath his hardness and he could almost hear her pants and screams. He had to move his bulk as the pressure in his pants made it uncomfortable to lie on his front.

The five members of the Sheriff’s group had followed the landlady into the house and no one had yet to emerge again. While he was supremely confident in his ability, he was still cautious enough to not want to take any unnecessary risks, not when his prize was this close.

The sky this far from the town centre was darker and when he looked back over his shoulder he could see the flashes of purple lightning overhead. All hell was breaking loose back there and it was the perfect opportunity for him to slip away and indulge his baser desires.

There was little cover between him and the large house but he felt that he had luck on his side as he moved quickly down the slope. They would not see him coming and even if they did, they would under estimate him just like they always had. He had spent a lifetime being a joke who was only tolerated because of his mine and his money, but he was going to show them. He was going to show them all.  

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Jeanne Rainwood tried her best to help around the kitchen but Mrs. Fiorentino wouldn’t allow it. The landlady kept her own counsel and kept it silently.

Jeanne left the kitchen feeling at a loose end. The Sheriff was still in charge and she still wore her badge proudly. Kevin was her right hand as far as the law was concerned and Cassie seemed to have found an attachment to the new guy, Kravis. Jeanne currently had no idea as to just where she fit into the group, especially if Mrs. Fiorentino was going to play “mother”, albeit a stern one.

She wandered out of the kitchen and into the main house. She could hear voices up above drifting down the stairs and figured that plans were afoot.

She turned from the sound, instinctively deciding that they were not meant for her ears. She moved along the hallway and out of the door at the rear of the house. She couldn’t help but feel less than useless. Her life had been halted in its tracks by an abusive husband who put a ring on her finger and presumed that it gave him dominion over her. She had suffered at his violent hands until one day she had just reached the end of her patience. It had been a revelation to discover that she didn’t have to stay and take his fists or aluminum baseball bat anymore. She had spent more years than she could remember coming to the conclusion that her life was ordinary and deserved, despite the best intentions of Cassie and Kevin. Her cheeks blushed red at just the thought of his name.

The official story was that her husband had come at her just one last time with murder in his eyes, but in reality she had waited until he’d fallen into a drunken stupor before killing him. She had called Kevin with a calm mind and fully willing to accept her fate, but Kevin had swept her idea aside and arranged the scene to make it look like self-defense. He had promised that he would keep their secret and, as far as she knew, he always had. The only trouble with having such a secret between them was that there was always a distance; a trench had been dug and filled with darkness and it was one that they had yet to cross. She knew that Cassie often ragged on Kevin for not making a move, but the Sheriff didn’t know what had happened to Jeanne’s husband and what part Kevin had played in the aftermath.

She looked out across the desert plains under the strange red glowing sky that seemed to be emanating from back in town somewhere. None of this made any sense, least of all the weather.

She wrapped her arms around herself as a chill wind blew through her bones. For a split second she felt someone else’s company behind her but as she started to turn, hoping to greet Kevin, a shadow fell over her and everything went black.

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Cassie desperately wanted one last look at Ellie before she headed out, but she knew that every peek in on her daughter would make it more difficult to leave. She knew in her heart that there was only one way out of here and that was through the man calling himself Gilbert Grange. She also knew that she had to push all rational thought to one side, no matter what she might believe. Kravis had told her that this man was capable of anything and, as she stared out at the ruined landscape that had once been her town, she found that easy to believe. The quake was one thing, but the fact that they had been marooned from the rest of the world was quite another.

She wished that they had some kind of knowledge or weapon to face Grange, but all she had was hope and a prayer that good would prevail.

Kravis was waiting for her by the front door. “You ready?” he asked.

“As I’ll ever be,” she sighed heavily, casting a look back towards her daughter above.

“Here,” Kevin said, joining them and holding out his sidearm to Kravis.

“Hey, man, won’t you need that?” Kravis said, looking doubtfully down at the large automatic.

“I think I can handle three women without resorting to gunfire,” Kevin grinned back.