“Did you by any chance know Kile Tripley?” asked Kim.
“Tripley? No. Tripley lived in a villa well away from everybody else. He was above spending time with the common people.”
“Would you say he and Kane were friends?”
“Not particularly. No.”
“He was Kane’s employer,” said Kim.
“That’s not the same thing as being a friend.”
Kim was having a hard time keeping her eyes off the Autumn. “One more thing, Mr. Gould,” she said. “I’m interested in what caused his dark period. Did you sense there was anything other than the explosion that might have influenced his later work? A lost woman, perhaps?”
“I know he was affected by what happened to her.” He looked meaningfully at Emily’s image.
“Did he say that?”
“You can see it in his work. But he never outright said it, no.”
“Anything else?”
“Not other than what I’ve told you. He just more or less went into a shell. Rattled around inside that big house. Sealed off the den, even.”
“Sealed off the den? How do you mean?”
“It had been, I’d stop by, we’d go into the den, have a few drinks. He’d tell me about his latest project. The living room was a formal, stiff place where he didn’t like to go. Then suddenly we were always in the living room and I never saw the den again. I don’t suppose it meant anything, but it was strange. As if he were hiding a woman in there.”
They had dinner at a place called The Rucksack. Snow was beginning to fall and a crisp wind had blown up. Solly plowed steadily through the meat and greens. “As soon as we’re finished here,” he said, “I think we ought to get going.”
“Yeah. Before the weather gets any worse.” The predictions called for the snow to stop around midnight, and for colder temperatures to set in.
“I’m surprised at your choice of artwork,” said Solly.
“Why? It’s quite attractive.”
“I’d have thought you’d have wanted one with Emily. The Autumn. You seemed taken by that.”
She lifted a wine glass and watched it sparkle in the light from the fireplace. “I don’t think so,” she said. “I wanted something I could hang on the wall.”
Solly looked at her. “Is it still that painful?”
She shrugged. “That. And the nudity.”
“I didn’t think you were a prude.”
“I am,” she said, “when the model looks too much like me.”
Solly had been a friend for a long time. Kim felt especially drawn to him that night, perhaps because he’d come with her even though, despite what he said, he thought she was pursuing an illusion. Well, they both thought that.
That night, standing beside him on the walkway overlooking Eagle Point, with the snow blowing and the Severin Woods just downriver a few kilometers, she nearly suggested that they spend the night together. Forget the ghost. But when Solly mentioned that it was late and they should get going, she put the thought aside, and fastened her jacket.
4
…The most famous of the apparitions is undoubtedly the Severin Phantom, which haunts the ruined village whose name it bears. There have been more than two hundred confirmed sightings over the last quarter century. Several deaths have been attributed to it. Today, few persons are foolish enough to venture into the valley after dark.
It was after eleven-thirty when they lifted off the Gateway’s roof and turned south.
Snow was falling steadily. The lights of the casinos and clubs were smeared by the storm, and they faded quickly as the Starlight gained altitude. The screen showed almost no air traffic.
“Do you feel as dumb as I do?” she asked Solly.
He was relaxed, sipping coffee, letting the AI fly the aircraft. “It was an excuse to come,” he said. “Think how warm your bed’ll feel tonight when you get to it.”
The sensors picked out the river, running between wide, forest-laden banks. She looked out into the snowswept darkness and saw another set of lights coming from the west. Probably a train, although it was difficult to be sure.
She took out the town map she’d printed earlier and studied it. “When we get to Severin,” she said, “I think we should do more than just land and hang around for a bit.”
“In this blizzard? What did you have in mind, Kim?”
“Take advantage of the opportunity to look at Tripley’s villa.”
“Why?” asked Solly.
“Who knows what we might find?”
“After twenty-seven years?”
“Nothing to lose by looking.”
“Okay,” he said. “Whatever you say. But if there’s anything there to connect him with the explosion or the missing women, I’d think the police would have found it a long time ago.”
“As far as I can tell from the accounts, the police never looked.”
“They didn’t? Why not?”
“Nobody raised the question. My guess is that there was no substantive reason to think Tripley had anything to do with either incident, and the family had a lot of influence. There was already enough grief. He was presumed lost in the general disaster. What was to be gained by an investigation? Under the circumstances, maybe nobody wanted to irritate the family.”
“Okay,” Solly said. “If you want. Do we know where to find it?”
“As it happens,” she grinned, “I have it marked here.” She tapped her pen on the map.
“Why stop with Tripley? Why not take a look at Kane’s place while we’re at it?”
The Starlight was picking up a heavy headwind. “Kane’s place is underwater.” She showed him.
“I wasn’t serious,” he said.
“When are you? Serious?”
“Never on ghost hunts.” It was cold in the cabin. Solly pulled his jacket tighter, and she raised the temperature.
“If I’d known we were going on an expedition,” he said, “I’d have suggested doing it by daylight.”
Kim was thinking of what she’d say to Sheyel. We went out to the valley. We spent time in the woods. And we even looked in Tripley’s house. There’s nothing.
But she wanted to get it done now. Didn’t want to make a second trip in the morning.
Another aircraft, a patrol flyer, appeared on the edge of the short-range scan, headed in the opposite direction. It passed within two hundred meters, but they never did actually see it.
Eagle Point had receded into the darkness, and there were now no lights visible anywhere. The AI followed the Severin River south, displaying its winding image on the sensor screen. It narrowed and entered the first of a series of gorges which would take it down to the dam.
Her preoccupation with the legends increased as they flew deeper into the night. Even Solly seemed affected. They spoke with lowered voices, the way people do in empty churches, and Kim found herself sinking down inside her jacket even though the temperature in the cabin had now reached a comfortable level. The conversation consisted mostly of bravado. Remarks like how no self-respecting spook would be abroad in weather like this. Or how Solly thought he saw something moving out there. Ha-ha.
Solly’s story of the haunted stateroom came back to trouble her now. At the moment, in the snow, in the glow of the instrument panel, such things seemed possible.
They were only a few hundred meters off the ground when they broke out of the storm. The remains of the Severin Dam loomed just ahead.
The structure had not actually been removed. Weakened sections had been taken down and the rest simply left standing. Now, the river roared around piles of rubble and concrete slabs. The slabs seemed to be moving, an effect created by the flyer’s lights reflected off the water. The aircraft dropped lower and a last few flakes whirled up.