She would love telling the story to Paul. Soon, a week at most, she would be with him, sitting in front of a fire, snuggled close, her life in front of her. A life she was determined not to lose to any fool that happened by with a penchant for evil and the will to carry it through. Soon Ridley would be back with his Honey, eating hot dish and preparing class lectures. Jonah would be up north, hauling wood and waiting for the next round of hunters. Life would go on. What happened at ISRO would become a legend to amuse visitors around the campfire.
Blue skies would be there again.
Except for Robin and Gavin.
The thought dimmed some of the glow of her gratitude.
“How bad is it?” Gavin asked, as if reading her mind.
“Bad,” Ridley said. “I’ve told the NPS as little as possible, but, when the weather clears tomorrow or the next day, the island will be swarming with law enforcement.”
“Could we go to jail?” Robin asked.
“Tampering with research would get you a slap on the hand,” Anna said. “But your tampering contributed to the death of Katherine Huff. That could get you jail time.”
The fire crackled. Jonah slid down in his chair like a teenager, almost horizontal, chin on his chest. Anna and Jonah were not innocents. Ridley, though young, was touched with world-weariness. Robin and Gavin had not considered jail, that what they were doing was a federal crime, that people could be hurt. Anna watched them from half-closed eyes. The two of them sat close but not touching on the couch opposite hers. The light of the fire painted their faces in translucent oranges and yellows, erasing what faint lines of age and worry recent events had carved there. They looked like children in a storm, lost and lovely.
Gavin lifted his chin and the look was gone, replaced by the clear courage of a man born to carry his weight in the world. “I will make a full confession to whoever hears these things. Robin helped me but the plan was mine, the execution was mostly done by myself and Adam, and Katherine’s death is my sole responsibility.”
Robin opened her mouth, no doubt to try and take the blame from Gavin onto her own shoulders.
“Go for a walk,” Jonah said abruptly.
There was a moment’s startled silence, then Robin said: “It’s night.”
“Go to your room, then,” Jonah said.
Anna laughed and he gave her a dirty look. “Sorry,” she said, though she didn’t know what she was apologizing for.
“Go to our room?” Gavin said, confused.
“Yeah,” Jonah returned. “Just go away and let us talk.”
“Let the grown-ups talk,” Gavin said evenly.
Ridley jumped in before Jonah said anything else. “Would you mind, Gav? You and Robin are… too deeply involved as…”
“Criminals,” Robin finished for him.
Ridley smiled sadly. “Exactly. Would you guys mind?”
Gavin said nothing, but he followed Robin as she left the common room. They went into the bedroom Katherine had occupied and shut the door.
“What is it, Jonah?” Ridley asked.
“We’ve got three dead bodies. The NPS, Homeland Security and probably the state of Michigan are going to come down on us like a ton of bricks.”
“Adam was a suicide and Katherine was an accident,” Anna said.
“I killed whatshisname. Maybe it won’t be so bad after the first excitement dies down.”
It would be bad; she just said it in hopes it would be true.
“Katherine’s death wasn’t an accident,” Jonah said. “Gavin could have helped her get her foot free and hauled her out of there.”
“He thought rescue was coming,” Anna said reasonably. “It was farther back to Feldtmann tower than it was from here to the cedar swamp. Gavin said when he got there Katherine was expecting us at any minute. He couldn’t have known we weren’t coming, that good old Bob turned over and went back to sleep.”
“Gavin could have radioed,” Jonah said.
“Katherine had phoned. Why would he radio?” Anna asked.
“Would you have?”
Jonah grunted.
“Me neither,” Ridley said. “You don’t expect people like Bob. That’s why they win.”
“Bob didn’t win,” Anna said.
“No,” Ridley agreed. “No he didn’t. You did what you had to. I hope you won’t lose any sleep over it.”
“Not a wink.”
“Gavin and Robin might’ve torpedoed your career,” Jonah said to Ridley.
“I don’t think so,” Ridley said.
“We’re going to have to explain. There’s too much. E-mails about the big tracks, the DNA. It’s not going under the rug,” Jonah said.
“When it comes out, our little perpetrators are going to get slammed from every direction.”
“Not if they’re dead,” Anna said with sudden inspiration.
Before Jonah could snatch up the kindling ax to defend himself and Ridley from her homicidal mania – which he looked ready to do – Anna went on: “Adam and Bob set it up. Bob to… what? What would be good?”
“Bob wanted to take over the study himself,” Ridley said slowly.
“Become somebody in research circles.”
“Right,” Jonah said. “Earn the big bucks.”
Ridley laughed. Anna was glad to hear laughter. It had been a long time since she’d heard any that wasn’t tinged with some poison or another.
“There’s fame attached,” Anna said. “You’re somebody. Bob was nobody. People who knew him might buy that.”
“So when did he bring in the goodies?” Jonah asked. “The paw prints and scent lure and doggy cutouts? It won’t work.”
“The windigo!” Anna exclaimed suddenly.
“Are you feverish?” Jonah asked, his concern genuine.
“No. Maybe, but that’s not it. It just occurred to me that was what I was smelling. The windigo is supposed to have this reek that announces its presence. I kept smelling a hint of it. I was smelling the scent lure. That stuff is the essence of all things vile. Dogs and wolves love it. Hah!” she said, pleased to have one more niggling question answered.
“So when did Bob stash his tools?” Jonah went back to his question.
“Adam did that,” Ridley suggested. “Adam was doing it to save the study. Bob figured it out, took over and there was a falling-out. Bob kills Adam and is killed attacking Anna.”
“And Robin and Gavin skip away hand in hand – no harm, no foul?” Jonah said.
“Why not?” Anna said. “Do you want to see them behind bars? Boy, would that ever make you a coldhearted bastard. Why don’t you just turn in Smokey the Bear and Woodsy the Owl and Ranger Rick for ecoterrorism?”
Silence returned. From Katherine’s old room came the gentle murmur of Gavin and Robin talking. The thought of them going to prison, or even through the ruthless misery of the legal system, hurt Anna, an ache in her chest near where her heart was. Justice had been meted out already in the dribs and drabs of violence and insanity that Bob and Adam carried with them to the island. Evil had vanquished itself. What came now, if they let it come, would be politics. Politicians did not sacrifice themselves for the greater good, not if it meant losing their jobs.
She wanted to push Ridley and Jonah, to preach and to beg if need be, but she sensed it would be best to let them alone. So she waited. Finally Ridley spoke.
“We can burn the stuff they used for the hoax. There’s time. And clean up Feldtmann tower. It’s too cold for whatever law shows up to want to dig too deep. Too cold and too isolated.”
Anna felt a surge of affection for the young man. The animosity he’d evinced toward federal law enforcement early in this adventure had annoyed her. Now she loved him for it.
“So we play God?” Jonah asked.
“People always play God,” Anna said. “There’s nobody else to do it.”
