She raised her chin, stretching her smooth neck. She lowered it, and turned her head once left, then right, before she said, "Your voice? I'm beginning to know its melodies. You're wondering if I've changed my mind, if I'm going to press charges against Joey, aren't you?"
"Yes. I am."
"I can't prove what happened back then. And if I accuse Joey, you know that he'll deny it." She examined the flesh on the palm of her left hand as though God's own advice was inscribed there.
"What I'm thinking right now is this: My parents managed to survive this tragedy with one child remaining. Perhaps so should Dell Franklin."
She smiled at me with warmth, but no mirth, and asked to be left alone for a while.
When I rejoined the group, Sam and Lauren were listening to Flynn and Russ describe how they had been lured to the blow down to help with the recovery of Dorothy Levins body. Flynn excused herself at the conclusion of that part of the story so that she could keep a promise to visit Kimber at the hospital.
Everyone but Sam was done eating before it was my turn to describe how Kimber and I had been lured to the blow down and what had happened afterward in the Routt Divide with Phil Barrett and with Dell and Cathy Franklin.
It was near midnight before Russ answered the last question about what had transpired after dawn with Raymond Welle at the Silky Road Ranch.
Lauren said, "I'm ready for bed, I think. If I'm this tired, the rest of you must be exhausted."
"I sure am," said Satoshi, who had finally rejoined the group.
Just then Russ's cell phone chirped in his pocket. He stood and carried it to the bay window before he began speaking. I couldn't hear many words of his conversation.
When he walked back to the table he held the phone out in front of him and said, "Apparently Flynn and I are going back to the District tonight. Kimber wants to be in his own fortified castle-which isn't surprising-before the press discovers everything that happened here. He apparently talked the anesthesiologist into giving him a scale the block-it's a nerve block of his arm and shoulder-so he's not going to be in any pain for the next ten hours or so.
The surgeon isn't thrilled about his leaving, but…" Russ shrugged his shoulders.
"Kimbers hired a nurse to accompany him home. Dell Franklin arranged to have Joey's jet waiting at the airport. I'm supposed to go upstairs and pack up Flynn's things and meet them at the plane."
"Is Dell out of jail?" I asked.
"Apparently on personal recognizance."
"Thank God."
Lauren turned to me and said, "We need to say good-bye to Kimber, Alan. It's important."
"And I'd really like to meet him before he goes," said Satoshi.
"I want to thank him."
We made it to the Yampa Valley Regional Airport about forty-five minutes later.
Satoshi, Lauren, and I spent the drive crammed together in the backseat of Sam's old Cherokee.
The jet was ready when we arrived. So was Hans. He stood tall at the top of the short stairs with his hands behind his back.
Flynn greeted us on the tarmac. Her eye patch was plastered with tiny iridescent stars. It looked just like the night sky above the Routt Divide. She said, "Kimbers already on board. He'd like to meet with Satoshi alone before we take off. Because of his… uh, condition… he's never had the chance to meet any family members after Locard has finished one of the investigations.
It's important to him that he talk with her."
Satoshi hesitated. She gestured toward the jet with her chin and said, "It's not really Joey's plane, right?" Russ said, "Nah, it's a rental."
She mouthed something to herself and climbed the stairs to the cabin. Hans escorted her inside.
Flynn said, "He seems fine, Kimber does. He has an IV running. But because of the nerve block the nurse said the pain won't start until after he gets home." "Is his shoulder going to be okay?" Lauren asked.
"Apparently. But the recuperation is going to be painful."
I helped Russ transfer the luggage to the plane. Sam and I promised to ferry the Taurus over to the rental car company lot and drop the keys into the after-hours box.
Ten or fifteen minutes later, Satoshi emerged from the jet cabin and asked us all on board.
"Mr. Lister wants to say good-bye to everyone."
Lauren preceded me up the steps. At the landing she paused and made a little sound that was somewhere between a yelp and a coo.
"Are you all right?" I asked, startled.
When she turned to me her face and eyes were lit with a smile. She lowered both hands to her abdomen and said, "Sweetie, the baby just moved."
It took us a minute or two-maybe three-to make it the last few feet through the door. The plane seemed much smaller with so many people on board.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Although I found Steamboat Springs on my own, Lester Wall pointed me toward the splendors of the Elk River Valley and Larry and Marilyn Shames planted the seeds that led me from there to the blow down in the Mount Zirkel Wilderness.
I'm grateful for their guidance.
While writing and revising, I received invaluable advice from trusted friends and colleagues Harry Ma clean Mark Graham, Elyse Morgan, Jaime Brown, and Tom Schantz. Over the years I've learned to rely on their counsel as I rely on their friendship. Each completed book reminds me of the first, which would not have been possible without the help of the Limericks, Patricia and Jeff. My gratitude to them endures.
As always, my most precious thanks to my family, especially to my mother, Sara Kellas.
