I gave him my reasons as we spun down the road. His hatred of women, his hatred of me. The physical evidence. “I think he set up the whole thing to get me a life sentence in the booby hatch,” I said. “And Polar Bears was hoping he’d shoot me, so that I couldn’t say anything about how Alison Greening really died. He sent you off so you’d be far away when it happened.”
“Christ, I don’t know,” said Lokken. “It’s crazy. What’s this about Alison Greening?”
So I told him that too. “And I think Duane has been half-crazy ever since,” I ended. “When I wrote him that I was coming back, I think he just snapped.”
“Holy man.”
“I sort of snapped too. Otherwise I think I would have seen it earlier. I had a crazy theory, but last night it turned out to be wrong.”
“Everything about this is crazy,” Lokken said in despair. He pulled the car up on the shoulder of the road beside the rows of corn. Polar Bears’ car sat, facing the way we had come, on the other side of the road. “Looks like you were right about the Chief, anyhow. You think they’re both up there?”
“I think Duane would go with Polar Bears,” I said. “It’d be too risky for him not to.”
“Let’s have a look. Hell, let’s have a look.” We got out of the car and jumped the ditch.
He said nothing, the run up toward the woods took much of his breath, but after we had forded the creek Lokken spoke again. “If what you say is right, Duane might of tried something on the Chief.”
“I don’t think he would,” I said.
“Yeah, but he might of,” he said, and drew his gun. “I don’t exactly remember where the damn clearing was.”
I said, “Follow me,” and began to work up over the rise and toward the beginning of the woods. Lokken crashed along behind me.
When I reached the first of the trees I began to trot uphill, going in the direction of Rinn’s old cabin. I had no idea of how the scene would be played. For once, I was grateful for Lokken’s presence. It did not make sense that Polar Bears would have spent the entire night in the clearing. Gradually the big gnarled trees drew closer. I slowed to a walk. In places I had to part branches and tall weeds with my hands.
“Do you notice anything funny?” I said after a time.
“Huh?” Lokken’s voice came from a good distance behind me.
“There isn’t any noise. No birds, no squirrels. No animal noises.”
“Huh,” said Lokken.
It was true. Other times when I had come up into the woods, I had been aware of a constant natural chatter about me. Now it was as though all the birds and animals had died. In that dark place, surrounded by the looming trees, the silence was decidedly spooky.
“Gunshot scares ‘em off,” Lokken said. “Maybe there was some trouble.” He sounded as apprehensive as I felt, and I knew that he still had the gun in his hand.
“We’re pretty close to the clearing now,” I said. “We’ll know soon.”
A few minutes later I saw the ring of trees around the clearing. “Right through there,” I said, and looked around at Lokken. His face was red with effort.
“Yeah. I remember now.” He cupped his hands around his mouth. “Chief? You there?” He got not even an echo; he shouted again. “Chief! Chief Hovre!” He looked at me hard, angry and frustrated, sweat running down his face. “Dammit, Teagarden, shake your butt.”
Though I felt cold, I too had begun to sweat. I could not tell Lokken that I was afraid to go into the clearing. Just then the woods seemed very potent.
“Come on, we saw the car, we know he’s here,” said Lokken.
“Something’s funny,” I said. I almost thought I could smell cold water. But that was not possible.
“Come on. Let’s go. Move it.” I heard the revolver click against a tree as he shook it at me.
I went toward the circle of trees; light hovered in the clearing beyond them.
Then I went through the sentinel trees and stepped into the clearing. The sudden dazzle of light at first made it difficult to see. Smoke came from the banked fire at the clearing’s center. I took another step toward it. I wiped my eyes. There was no humming, vibrant noise of insects.
Then I saw them. I stopped walking. I could not speak.
Lokken noisily broke into the clearing behind me. “Hey, what’s goin’ on? Hey, Teagarden, they in here? You—” His voice ended as if chopped off with an ax.
I knew why Lokken had vomited when he had seen the body of Jenny Strand.
Polar Bears was in front, Duane behind him fixed to a shorter tree. They were pinned to their trees, both naked, their bodies blackened and hanging like crushed fruit.
Lokken came up beside me, making a noise in his throat. I could not take my eyes from them. It was the most savage thing I had ever seen. I heard the handgun thump onto the earth. “What the—” Lokken began. “What—”
“I was wrong,” I whispered. “Jesus Christ, I was wrong. She’s back after all.”
“What—” Lokken’s face had turned a glistening, cloudy white.
“It wasn’t Duane after all,” I said. “It was Alison Greening. They came up here last night and she killed them.”
“Jesus, look at their skin,” moaned Lokken.
“She was saving me. She knew she could get me any time.”
“Their skin…”
“She punished them for raping and killing her,” I said. “Oh my God.”
Lokken half-sat, half-fell into the tall grass.
“Now she’ll be after Duane’s daughter,” I said, suddenly realizing that another life was probably lost. “We have to get down to the farm right now.” Lokken was retching into the grass.
“How could someone — someone lift them two like that—”
“My crazy theory was right.” I said to him. “We have to get to the farm right now. Can you run?”
“Run?”
“Then follow me as soon as you can. Go down and drive your car to Duane’s place.”
“… place,” he said. Then his eyes cleared a little, and he picked up the gun and waved it at me. “You wait. You don’t go anywhere, hear?”
I bent over and pushed the gun aside. “I brought you here, remember? And do you think I’m strong enough to lift those two and pin them to trees like that? Now hurry up and get straight. If it isn’t too late, we have to keep this from happening again.”
“How—”
“I don’t know,” I said, and turned away from him, and turned again with an idea. “Give me your keys. You can hotwire Polar Bears’ car.”
When I got back down to the road I hastily got into the squadcar and twisted Lokken’s key in the ignition. The motor started at once. I rolled away from Polar Bears’ car and stepped the accelerator all the way down to the floor.
A tractor chugged down the road before Bertilsson’s church; it straddled two lanes. I blew the horn, and the straw-hatted overweight man on the tractor’s seat wagged his hand without looking back. I looked for the siren button and found it. The farmer jerked around on the seat, saw the car, and steered the tractor to the side of the road. I blasted the horn and zipped by.
When I drove up to the old farmhouse I could see nothing unusual — the mare grazed among the cows, the lawn lay ripped and burned, Alison was not in sight. I swallowed, turning into the drive, afraid that I would find her as I had found her father and Polar Bears. I braked as I cut the car onto the lawn, and jumped out before it had stopped rolling.
I could smell her — I could smell cold water, as if rain had just ceased to fall. My legs nearly refused to move, and in my stomach lay an iciness that fear had deposited there.
I began to jog up the path to Duane’s house. A door slammed. I realized that Alison Updahl had seen the squadcar pull into the drive. She came running around the side of her house. When she saw me instead of Polar Bears or Dave Lokken, she stopped running and stood hesitantly on the path, looking worried, pleased and confused all at once. The air seemed to tighten, as it had on my first night in the woods: it seemed to grow thick and tight with malevolence. “Run!” I shouted to the girl. I waved my arms, semaphoring. “Get going!” The smell of the quarry washed over us, and this time she too caught it, for she half-turned and lifted her head.