“Sounds good.”
“I wouldn’t bother if I were you,” she chuckled. “After the way you pissed Jack off up there, I don’t think you’re going to have any luck at all.”
“A coincidence,” Harm insisted flatly, taking another sip of his coffee. “That’s all. End of story.”
Elgin and Fisher exchanged quick, knowing glances.
“I dunno,” Jim replied thoughtfully, stroking his chin stubble with his long fingers. “Sounds to me like Ellie could be right. I mean about you pissin’ Captain Jack off like that. Talkin’ so disrespectful right there in his castle, practically on top a his grave. That wind comin’ up when there hasn’t been a breath all day and then you not catchin’ any trout in the best fishin’ spot in the lake.”
“Not even a bite,” Elgin chimed in giggling.
“Well, doesn’t sound natural to me,” he concluded.
Harm continued to sip his coffee and glanced out to the vast black expanse of lake and listened to the other two laughing and talking.
Coming in from the lake, Elgin had run right to Fisher, showing him her creel packed with the limit of beautiful lake trout and losing no time in spinning her ghost story. They’d laughed about it as he’d gutted and cleaned the fish for her, bringing them down to this gorgeous spot by the lake as he’d made a campfire and prepared their dinner.
He had to admit that the fresh trout, French fries made right at the fire, baked corn on the cob, and even the canned pork and beans had been a wonderful meal. Strawberries fresh from a neighbor’s garden and heavy cream whipped by hand and not out of an aerosol can had completed the perfection.
Now, under a canopy of stars sprinkled like powdered sugar and a second cup of fresh coffee, he could almost forget the humiliation of the afternoon. And he could understand Elgin’s need to flee here to this peaceful, safe place.
“Moon’ll be up in a little while,” Fisher commented, looking toward the east. “Full too. Air’ll be full a souls tonight.”
“What do you mean by that?” Harm asked, instantly interested.
“Didn’t you tell this slicker anything?” Jim teased Elgin.
“What’s the point?” she sighed wearily. “He doesn’t believe in things like that. He’s thoroughly modern and scientific.”
“Which makes me all the more curious about your primitive superstitions.”
“Well, we wouldn’t want to hamper your scientific research,” she giggled.
“You go on and tell him, Ellie. You can explain it better than this poor old, ignorant hillbilly.”
They both laughed and Harm felt the pang of an outsider barred from some kind of “inside” joke.
“The Indians who lived around the lake and traveled by canoe and fished and traded, noticed that when people drowned, especially out in the very deepest parts, the bodies never came back up. They believed the drowning victims had actually been snatched up and enslaved by an evil monster who lived at the bottom of the lake.
“Because the lake’s dark and cold, the prisoners couldn’t find their way to the next world and the Great Spirit wept for his children lost to the monster. Finally, he had an idea. In the summer, when the days were long and the air warm, he asked the Full Moon Goddess to travel over the lake, laying down a path of silvery light to slice through the darkness down to the monster’s lair so that the souls could follow it.
“She said she’d try and so, after a long summer day, while the monster slept, she crept across the lake, marking a wide, bright silver trail. The souls saw it and began following it silently up, finally reaching the lake’s surface. On the shore, the Indians saw the wispy, gray spirits moving along the water until they were gradually picked up and taken to the next world by the Full Moon Goddess.
“When the first white men came here and heard the story, they didn’t believe it. They were camped at a little beach and one night they sat up with the Indians, and sure enough, they saw the Moon Goddess collecting the souls from the lake and began calling it ‘Haunted Moon Lake’. And since there seemed to be an awful lot of activity in the water just off from their camp, they called it ‘Spirit Cove’.”
Harm snorted. “The lake is very deep and very cold. I’m sure that when someone drowned, especially in the really deep part, the body didn’t decompose and release gases and therefore, didn’t come back up to the surface. And the ‘spirits’ on the lake are nothing more than foggy mist created by warm air on a cold lake. An interesting tale to tell the tourists around the camp fire.”
“You’re a pathetic cynic,” she told him, trying to be serious but already past her two hard cola limit.
“And you’re drunk. I think it’s time to take you home.”
Elgin stuck out her tongue and made a raspberry.
“Camp’s right,” Fisher agreed rising to his feet and pulling her up with him. “You’re tanked and it’s past my bed time.”
“What a pair of party poops you are.”
“Yeah, well tomorrow is another day young lady, and we have the whole summer.”
“Poops,” she retorted, throwing out her lower lip in a childish pout. “The pair of you. Poops.”
Fisher and Harm took a place on each side of her and guided her gently back to the SUV. Carefully, they got her buckled securely into her seat.
“Good night, Camp,” he beamed. “You come back real soon. I’ll give Ellie another bottle of whiskey and you can stay in the boat, sorta hunkered down where Jack can’t see ya. Catch yer limit the next time.”
“Okay, Jim, you got a deal. Good night.”
As he moved around to the driver’s side, Ellie rolled down the window and reached out to the big man like a small child. “I had a wonderful time, Jim,” she told him. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been this happy.”
“That’s what I want,” he whispered, leaning his face close to hers, brushing a wisp of hair from her forehead. “That’s what I’ve always wanted. Since you were a little girl.”
She stretched up and put her lips on his, feeling the warmth of his body and the prickle of stubble and the tang of Irish Coffee.
“I love you, Jim,” she mumbled.
“I love you too, Ellie.”
“Let’s stop at the Lodge for a nightcap,” she suggested brightly.
“It’s late. You should be in bed.”
“It’s the shank of the evening and I don’t want to go to bed.”
“What happened to your ‘two hard cola limit’?”
“I’m fine.”
“Yeah, well I’m exhausted. I’ve had a lot of sun, a lot of exercise, a lot of good food and more than my share of beer. I need to go to bed.”
“Good. You’re no fun anyway. You can drop me at the Lodge. I’ll call Marty. Unlike certain other people I could name, he is definitely not a poop.”
“Okay, lean back, close your eyes and rest. We’ll be at the Lodge in about ten minutes.”
“Now you’re talking.”
She was fast asleep by the time he reached the gate. Turning the wheels to the right, he set the emergency brake and put the SUV in “Park.” Quietly, he opened the door and slid out, striding quickly to the gate.
The full moon peeked through the trees, giving him enough light to walk and find the gate chain. Concentrating on the gate and the ground as he walked it inward, Harm didn’t hear anything until the wheel crunched on the gravel behind him.
Looking up, horror washed over him as the SUV rolled down the hill toward him. Pete’s mangled body flashed through his mind. This vehicle wasn’t moving at break-neck speed, but its nose pointed downhill just a few feet away. He had neither time nor space to maneuver.
Without thinking, he darted behind the gate, stepping back as far as he could, pulling the heavy metal gate to his chest.
As the car rolled past him, gaining speed, he saw Elgin, her head resting to one side, still asleep.
The instant the car passed him, he bolted across the narrow road, racing to catch up with it. Somehow, the driver’s door had swung shut and the big vehicle picked up speed as it gained downward momentum. And just beyond them a few hundred feet, the road made a sharp curve. Traveling straight would put it into the thick forest just beyond the road. If that happened, even with her seatbelt on…