Killer View

When Walt got home, he put the girls to bed, taking extra time to read to them, wishing he didn’t have to turn off the light.

Returning to his own bedroom, he stopped and looked around. He emptied her closet. Set four black garbage bags of clothes out on the back porch, but that barely scratched the surface. He took off his wedding ring and put it in a drawer with some cuff links he never used. He drank two beers in front of the television and fell asleep in the chair.

70

THE DRIVE UP TO HILLABRAND’S MOUNTAINTOP ESTATE REMINDED Walt again of the man’s power and position, of the enormous wealth in Sun Valley and how carefully one had to tread. He was greeted by an aide and shown inside, exceptionally aware that Sean Lu

Hillabrand met him in the living room, with its panoramic views of Ketchum and Sun Valley. He’d lost his tan, replaced by a gray pallor.

“You look better than I’d have expected,” Walt lied.

“Looks can be deceiving. I’ve seen the worst of it. It was only the one glass, after all. I’m told my liver will scar and I’ll pay for it later in life. For now, they say I’m recovering, though it doesn’t feel like it.”

“I was wrong to put you in that position. That’s what I came to say.”

“Yes, you were.”

“So… it’s done.”

“Yes, it is.”

“That’s all I had.” Walt turned to leave.

Hillabrand stopped him. “You ignored James Peavy’s warning. Why was that?”

“I don’t know. I guess it egged me on more than discouraged me. It led to the discovery of the sheep pit. I’m trained as an investigator. What can I say?”

“People like Coats… We can’t let five or ten people have that kind of effect on our country. That has nothing to do with democracy. It’s vile and wrong.”

“Where does warning i

“I know you don’t believe it, but we had that pretty well under control. If you tested it now, you wouldn’t find a trace of that spill in the aquifer. We were buying time. Trilogy Springs… that was an oversight. A costly oversight. A mistake that cost us dearly. I don’t have any excuses for it.”

“I thought I had you,” Walt admitted. “It never for a minute occurred to me the INL could possibly be the victim.”

“The real victims were the ranchers,” Hillabrand said. “They were willing to stay quiet to benefit their country.”

“They were willing to stay quiet because you paid them to,” Walt said. “And there’s the rub.”

“How’s that?”

“You, and a couple of others in Washington, convinced yourselves that what you were doing was for the good of the country.”

“Yes. And your point?”

Walt hesitated and looked around the sumptuous room with its stu

“What makes you any different than them? The Samaki

Hillabrand began to speak but bit back his words. Then he said, “But we’re the good guys.”

Walt slipped the DVD out of his pocket and placed it down. “Are you so sure? I want you to watch this. I want you to look real closely at the guy with Coats, the guy doing the girl. I’ll expect Sean Lu

Hillabrand handled the DVD, flipping it over. He looked into Walt’s fierce expression. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll look at it.”

Walt thought about that: a man with enough power to make a suspect simply walk through his office door.

“Coats worked for Lu

Hillabrand’s face went red, his neck veins bulging. “No, Sheriff. What does it mean?”

“If Coats worked for Lu

Hillabrand rolled his eyes trying to dodge the accusation. “If Sean Lu

“That may or may not be true,” Walt said. “The courts will sort it out. But given the events, exactly how does that make you the good guys?”

He turned and left Hillabrand in the living room, in the middle of his private panorama, the indicting DVD pinched between his fingers.

71

SHE AGREED TO MEET ON HER TERMS. SHE CHOSE A BENCH on the snow-covered bike path, overlooking a turn in the Big Wood River. Behind them, the traffic on Highway 75 hummed a little loudly for the picturesque setting. They sat shoulder to shoulder, closer than he’d expected. Some mallards came and went on the river below, their wings etching V’s on the darkly moving water.

“Hate me?” he asked.

“This isn’t seventh grade, Walt.”

“For some of us it still is.”

“I… There are things… I visited Kira, and it brought up some stuff.”

“I wasn’t using you and your relationship with Hillabrand. I know what you thought, but it wasn’t true. When you mentioned it, it made some sense, but that wasn’t how it was to begin with.”

“I want us to be able to work together.”

“Of course.” His voice cracked, belying his attempts to keep his feelings out of this. Her words sounded so final.

“Thank you.”

“What about a di

“Being your photographer is good. I like the work a lot.”

“Are you seeing someone?”

She watched a great blue heron fly the length of the river until it was nothing but a speck.

“There was someone,” she said. “Before I moved here. Two, nearly three years ago now. It wasn’t good. I ran away by coming here. All it took was talking to Kira to remind me. Which is a long way of saying a cup of coffee, sure. A movie, maybe. But not di

“A person’s got to move on.”

“Remind me of that after your divorce is final.”

He drew in a breath of sharp, cold air.

“Out of bounds,” she said. “That was awful of me. I’m so sorry. That’s just it, you see? I don’t even know myself.”

“When you get to know you,” he said, “you’ll find you like you a lot.” He added, “I do.”

“Some wounds heal from the outside in and some from the inside out.”

“Who said that?” Walt asked.

“I just did.”

A fly fisherman came around the corner of the river in his waders. He worked the far, snow-covered bank, his casts a thing of beauty.

“Freaks,” Walt said.

“Aren’t we all?” she asked.

“Yeah, I suppose so.”

They talked for a while about the confiscation of her photographs and computer, and how she still had the images from the glider on an SD card in her camera. They weighed the rights of the individual versus the rights of a democracy and argued semantics for a while.

It was the arguing that made Walt feel better. There was comfort in disagreement.

“So none of this ever happened,” she said, after a long bout of silence.

“That’s what I hear.” He added, “Only I didn’t hear it from you.”

She smiled. He warmed up a little.

The fisherman caught something. They heard his cheer well up the ridge where they sat. The fisherman extracted the catch from his net and turned it loose back into the river.

“Catch and release,” Walt said. “I guess now I understand it a little bit better than I did before.”