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5
An hour after opening time, the Roadhouse was still quiet, and Bernie had time to sit and listen. “Well,” he said when Jim came to the end, “it’ll sure as hell make my life easier.”
“What do you think the general reaction will be?”
Bernie napped a hand. “Nothing to worry about. Hell, the bootleggers’ll run for cover, the dopers will keep their heads low, and ordinary citizens might even think twice about whatever trouble they were pla
“Nothing raises your taxes, Bernie; you do business in a federal park.”
“Shows how much you know about being an employer,” Bernie said. “I just took on a new server-”
“I saw. Yum.” He looked around. “Where is she, by the way?”
“She doesn’t come on shift until four. She’s renting the Gette cabin from the new owners.” He looked up from polishing a glass and checked the window. “It’s a gorgeous day; she’s probably out skiing somewhere. She’s a telemarketer, she tells me. That’s why she moved here-for the snow.”
“Oh yeah?”
Bernie leveled a stern forefinger. “You stay away from Christie Turner, goddamn it. She’s working out. I don’t need her screwed up by some slick talker who only wants to get in her pants.”
Jim gri
Bernie gave him a skeptical look, but whatever he had been about to say was interrupted by the front door slamming open and banging off the wall.
“Hey!” Bernie said indignantly.
Dandy Mike barreled through the doorway, bundled in down pants and parka, his eyes wide and his expression anxious. He spotted Jim and crossed the floor in hasty steps. “Jim, thank god. You’ve got to come, right now.”
“Where? And why?” Jim stood up. “Dandy. You’ve got blood all over your pants.”
Dandy glanced down, up again. “I know. It’s Dina and Ruthe. I went up to deliver their mail, and they’re-” He swallowed. “They’re dead.”
“What?” Bernie said.
“Dina and Ruthe. Somebody broke into their cabin, and Dan-”
“Dan? Dan O’Brian? What about him?”
Dandy swallowed again. “Jim, just come, come right now, okay? Come on.”
Billy’s Explorer made it up the narrow and nearly vertical track to the little cabin, but only just barely, and not without scratching the finish on low-hanging spruce boughs. Dandy’s father was going to be pissed.
Dandy pulled his snow machine to a halt in front of the stairs. Jim parked behind him and got out with the briefcase that held his crime-scene kit, without which he never went anywhere. “Hold it, Dandy,” he said when Dandy put his foot on the bottom stair. “Let me go first.” He checked the camera to see that it held film, got out his notepad and pencil. “Okay,” he said, “I don’t want you in the room. Stay in the doorway and keep everybody else out.”
“Who else?” Dandy said, and even as the words left his mouth, they heard the buzzing of approaching snow machines. He gaped at Jim. “How did you know? How did they know?”
“First thing you learn when working out here: The Bush telegraph is faster than the speed of sound. Keep them out.”
“Will do,” Dandy said, shaken but staunch. Dandy Mike, a charming wastrel with an eye for the ladies every bit as keen as Jim’s own, might have a little bit more backbone about him than Jim had previously supposed.
The door, which Dandy had not closed all the way in his haste to depart, slid open with a snick, and Jim stepped inside. He stayed where he was, immobile except for his eyes, which were surveying and cataloging the scene.
His peripheral vision picked up movement, and he crouched and whirled, one hand on his weapon.
It was Dan O’Brian, pulling himself painfully to his feet, looking bloody, bruised, confused, and dazed.
“Dan!” Jim said incredulously. “What the hell?”
And then a second sound made them both jump. One of the bodies on the floor moved, groaned, whimpered. Jim leapt forward, hurdling the piles of pulled-out books and pushing the overturned table in an effort to reach Ruthe Bauman. Landing next to her, he pressed two fingers against her throat. “Son of a bitch!”
“What’s the matter, Jim?” Dandy said from the porch.
“Ruthe’s still alive!”
“She can’t be!”
“Didn’t you check for life signs?”
“I-” Dandy was at a loss. “I didn’t even go in after I opened the door. I saw them both lying there covered in blood and Dan standing over them. I thought they were dead. Jesus, Jim, I’m-”
“Never mind that now. Back the truck around!”
He checked Dina’s body just to be sure. No pulse, no breath sounds. She was dead, a graceless heap of brittle bone and sagging flesh, her thi
“Jim?”
“Shut up, Dan.”
“Jim, I don’t have to say I didn’t have anything to do with this.”
Jim agonized over whether to move Ruthe, who was on her side, unconscious, colorless, and clammy and who was bleeding from several wounds, including a continuous horrific gash across her breasts.
“Jim?”
“Shut up, Dan. Now.” There was no blood coming from her mouth or her nose, so he took the chance and rolled her onto her back to bind her wounds as best he could with dish towels from the kitchen.
“The truck’s backed around,” Dandy said from the door. He looked like he was going to puke.
“Not in here,” Jim said, pointing outside, and Dandy went gladly.
“You’ll need something to carry her out on.” Dan’s voice was steadier, and when Jim looked at him, he seemed back on balance. “Kitchen table?”
It was on its side and one of the legs was broken off. Dan broke off the other three and he and Jim carefully maneuvered a cocooned Ruthe to the top of it. It was a small table, thankfully, but all the same, Jim ski
“Drive her to Niniltna,” Jim said, “and get her on the first plane out of here.”
“What?” Dandy said, startled. “You’re not taking her in?”
“This didn’t happen that long ago, Dandy. I might be able to catch whoever did this.”
Dandy looked at the ranger. “Yeah, but Jim-”
Dan looked immensely relieved. Jim didn’t have the time, or rather, Ruthe didn’t, but he had to ask. “Why are you here?”
“I wanted to ask Dina and Ruthe for help keeping my job,” Dan said, nodding at the second snow machine pulled to one side of the yard. “I found them like you saw them. And before you ask, no, I didn’t see anyone or hear anything.”
“Where’d you get the bruises?”
The ranger looked at Dandy. “I was headed for the door to go for help when this guy barged in.” He touched his forehead and winced. “The door caught me in the head and knocked me down. I guess I was out for a while, because next thing I know, you’re here.”