“Maybe it was active enough that she thought it was a big deal.”
He eyed me. “Is it?”
“It seems to have died. At least, I didn’t see it. Where was it?”
He shook his head. “Long time ago. Best I recall, few yards from the tunnel.”
“How many yards?”
“You want a guess? Ten. Fifteen. Twenty.”
“Which direction?”
“Southeast, I’d say.”
“Can you show me?”
“What, take you there? Sure. I’ve got Wednesday off. It’s a date.”
“Not till Wednesday?”
“I’ve got a job, Cassie. Protect the peace.” He eyed me. “What’s the hurry? If the spring’s no big deal.”
“The hurry is I’m going back up there and I’d like to know where to dig.”
“Then wait until Wednesday and I’ll go with you.”
“I don’t want to wait, I want to solve this case and, by the way, find out if there’s anything to worry about. We owe it to Georgia to move our butts.”
He said, “Don’t make it personal.”
“How do I not make it personal when the vic is Georgia?”
“I’m not talking about Georgia. I’m talking about you carrying a load of guilt about your little brother and trying to make up for it with every case you work.”
I said, tight, “This isn’t about Henry.”
“You can’t always save the day, Cassie. If you save the day fifty percent of the time then you’re doing damn good.”
“You speaking from experience?”
“Yup.” Eric moved for the chair where his police jacket hung. “Glad I could be of help.”
I got there first and rested my hands on the nylon shoulders. Focus, lady. It’s about Georgia. I said, “I’m not done, Eric. Tell me what you know about Georgia and Gold Dust.”
“What makes you think I know squat?”
“Because you were such a jerk on the retrieval. Because you were ready to send two able-bodied people — and Walter’s still able-bodied, thank you — back down the mountain. And Stobie was on board with you. I think you suspected from the get-go it was murder. I think you knew Georgia was snooping around Gold Dust. I don’t know if one of you guys saw her, or what. And then when she was found, I think you didn’t want two forensic geologists up at the glacier finding that soil in her boots.” I held up a hand. “I know you wouldn’t diddle the evidence. I just think you wanted time to look it over and see if you were right, if she’d died in your secret place.”
Eric flipped the empty bottle, caught it. “That’s conjecture.”
“All right then, explain this. I asked Jimbo for a cartridge to compare to my evidence and he said he didn’t have one when he did. I asked where you guys used to shoot and he couldn’t remember you tested in the mine tunnel.”
“Ask Jimbo about his memory.”
I hadn’t had the heart, after the disaster at the race. “I figured I’d get a straighter answer from you.”
“You got an answer.”
“A non-answer. You owe Georgia. You owe a straight answer.”
His eyes, which absorb everything and give nothing, remained on me. Georgia was there when he lost his left eye. She was there for every milestone. I’m eleven and he’s twelve and there’s a Fourth of July party in the meadow behind our house. The boys are trying to launch tuna cans with M-80s, which are illegal for good reason, but the explosives won’t light. Everyone gives up but Eric, who finally gets one to ignite. It blows up in his face. And it’s Georgia on the spot with the first aid kit, paramedic in a big straw hat bristling with flags. It’s Georgia who drafts tough new regs about fireworks. It’s Georgia who chews Eric’s butt when he recovers and then sets up a junior firefighter course. He grew up fast after that, faster than I’d realized at the time.
“All right,” Eric said. “Straight answer.” Very slowly, he hiked himself onto the table. “Starts with Jimbo’s Fiat. He and I were heading out to Casa Diablo to get in some shooting practice — targets were still up. Jimbo’s car died. Big surprise.”
I nodded. Jimbo’s never heard of car maintenance.
“Georgia comes by, gives us a lift. She’s on her way to Hot Creek — the Council’s debating an ordinance to put the creek off-limits and Georgia wants to take some photos. And,” he gave a brief smile, “Georgia being Georgia, she micromanages. Decides we’re going to drop her at the creek, take her car to Casa and get our practice — she won’t let anything interfere with that, not with the Cup coming — and when we finish we’ll pick her up. Then we’ll go back to town and she’ll drop us at Chevron and we can arrange to get the Fiat towed.” He shook his head.
Hot Creek, I thought. Always Hot Creek. “When was this?”
“Few days before she disappeared.”
I sat on the bed.
“So we get to the creek lot and there’s Krom’s Blazer. Georgia tells us never mind, she’ll catch a ride with him. But we want to make sure he’s cool with it, that he’ll wait for her to do her business. We all go down, look around, can’t find him. Nobody’s around. Finally Georgia says let’s look upstream. So we go. Beyond the spot where rocks pile up and there’s that whirlpool. Noisy, water hissing.” He expelled a breath. “Point is, Krom didn’t hear us coming. Neither did Mike. They were together.”
“Together?”
Eric gave me a flat look. “Together. Come on, Cass, you don’t need me to spell it out.”
I opened my mouth. Shook my head. “But Adrian’s not…”
“Looks like he goes both ways.”
I closed my mouth.
He cuts a wake with the locals, both ladies and gents.
Georgia and Mike.
I thought, tight, looks like Krom would go whatever way would get him what he wants. What did he want from Mike? Loyalty? He’s lining up the troops, those he can count on in time of need? And Mike — there’s a sitting duck. Mike’s last guy stuck with him only a few months before Mike’s temper blew that up. At least according to Jimbo. So there’s Mike, and there’s Georgia. And there’s Krom going after the lovelorn and he even uses the same trysting place. The sonofabitch. He didn’t need to go after me, although I was as much a sitting duck as they were — he found another way in with me, he found the geology.
Eric said, “You okay, Cass?”
I stared at my off-kilter floor. Not really. Tired of being a sitting duck. Tired of stories about Krom’s sex life. Wondering how to balance the scales — sleaze and weirdness on the one hand, and on the other hand the certificates of honor on Krom’s office wall.
I said, “What did Georgia say?”
“Nothing. Neither did Mike. But, the two of them — if looks could kill.”
“What about Adrian?” I asked.
“Real cool, I’ll give him that, he kept things from escalating. At least enough for us to get Georgia out of there.”
“And then?”
“Then she drove us back to the Chevron station. Told us why she was so upset — that she’d had a thing with Krom. She figured we’d caught the drift. We had. We told her it was none of our business and we’d keep our damn mouths shut.”
“Jimbo too?”
Eric gave a dry laugh. “Yeah, he can keep a secret. Believe it or not.”
I found I could believe it.
Eric came off the table. “I’ll take that beer now.”
I got two. We drank halfway down.
Eric said, “Here’s another straight answer for you — about me being a jerk on the retrieval. You’re right about me wanting a first look at the evidence. I was a jerk, Cassie, because I wondered whether things had escalated between Mike and Georgia.”
I went rigid. “You think Mike killed her?”
“I think Mike’s basically a good guy only he’s got a problem with his temper.”
“A problem? He had a problem back in the gondola station when you pulled him off me.”