Rider at the Gate

“Tell me. Use words. I want to hear it, Hawley.”

“Jonas says—”

He brought the rifle up. “I don’t give a damn what Jonas says. You tell me. About the gold, Hawley. What about the gold?”

“We didn’t know about it. We didn’t know! She just thought we did!”

He was <going to shoot. Dead center of Hawley’s gut.>

“Guil, I swear—we just guessed it. I mean, anybody could guess, the truckers were guessing—”

“Keep talking.”

“And Aby was mad about it. Aby didn’t want anybody to know. And by the time we got up to Verden she wasn’t speaking to us— she didn’t want to be around us. I think she was rattled, she thought she’d spilled it, but, hell, we knew, Guil, once we was on to it, we could get it from folk all round us—”

You knew when Hawley was outright lying. And sometimes when Hawley was telling all the truth he knew. And this was, he thought, the truth as Hawley knew it.

“Guil, I swear to you—”

His arm was shaking. He let the rifle rest on his leg again. “I’m listening. Keep going, Hawley. You be thorough. I’ve got nothing but time.”

“The truckers, they caught it, too. You could feel the upset all over, and this truck, its brakes weren’t good. They was spooked, didn’t want us to pitch that truck out of the line, and Aby, she told me she wanted them hurry up with that truck. I come along, you know, just walking the line—” <Trucks waiting in convoy, village center.> “And that truck, the one with the stuff, you know—they were at fixing the brakes when I come along, and they don’t want me to see, but I know, and they don’t want to have me pull that truck—they’re logs they’re hauling, but they got something in the cab they don’t want across by daylight, everybody was watching, you know—and Aby was wanting us out of there—”

“The gold.”

“Yeah. I mean, Guil, they didn’t want to have to move that box. And we wasn’t supposed to know about it. I don’t think they trusted any of us. And Aby was madder ’n hell all morning. But they give me money, Guil, they give me money, they say shut up, don’t talk about the brakes—and I had the money, and they’d fixed that brake line. I mean, they really fixed it. But then I’d got to worrying about it, I was going to give it back, I was going to tell Aby—I was going to tell her, Guil. I knew it was wrong to take the money. But she give the order, we started rolling then, and she was up front, and we was in the rear—Guil, I knew this one turn was bad, but I didn’t think the drivers was going to risk their own necks. Aby was worried about the weather, worried about us getting down to the meeting-place, maybe after dark, but we’d get there—”

“So it was just the brakes. And there never wasany rogue.”

“There was a rogue, Guil, there was for sure a rogue—”

“ Beforethat truck went off? Or later, Hawley? Was there a rogue when you got to that turn? Was there a rogue there then?”

“I don’t know, Guil. It was there, was all.”

“I shotMoon, Hawley. Moon was the rogue.”

“Moon’s dead. I saw her down there on the rocks, I saw <her with Aby.> I saw it, I saw it plain as plain—Ice saw it, Jonas and Luke saw it—we all saw it—Guil, for God’s sake, we didn’t lie to you!”

It hurt, that image. He thought about pulling the trigger and blowing Hawley off the mountain. He thought about not dealing with it at all, anymore. But Hawley—was so damned earnest, Hawley believed what he was saying.

“Hawley, go back and tell Jonas I want to talk to him. Tell Jonas get his ass up here. And get yours out of my sight. Right now.”

“Guil, I’ll give you the money—I swear, I’ll give you the money—I was going to give it to you—”

His finger twitched. Twice. Stayed still, then, the gun unfired. Sight came and went. “Only thing that recommends you, Hawley. You got a single focus. Always know where you are. Always know what matters, don’t you? Truckers put money in your hand and you don’t know how to turn it loose. You get the hell down that road, Hawley, tell Jonas I said get up here. Now. Hear me? You tell Jonas get up here or I’ll blow him to hell. Hear?”

“Yeah,” Hawley said, anxious, confused as Hawley often was. “Yeah.” He swung up on Ice, and rode fast down the hill.

Tara said, faintly, “I think it was the truth, Guil. But it doesn’t make sense.”

He was glad to know that. He didn’t trust his own perceptions. He left the rifle over his knee. He watched as Hawley came down to Jonas; and Jonas looked uphill toward him, and then started up toward him.

“Give the son of a bitch credit,” Guil muttered.

Tara said, his voice of sanity, “You asked him, Guil. Hear him out. You asked to hear him.”

So he waited. He sat with the wound begi

Jonas rode up all the way, on Shadow. And sat there, to talk to him.

“So?” Guil asked. “Aby didn’t trust you. Truckers bribed Hawley not to tell about the brakes. And the brakes failed. Not a lot of people trusted you, Jonas. What happened up there? You tell me. I want to hear this.”

“We knew there was something on board. Aby didn’t like us knowing. Truckers suspected. And they spooked. Didn’t want to stop, didn’t want to camp out on the road on that height and they didn’t want to leave that damn truck on the High Loop. Guil, I swear to you—Aby didn’t trust anybody. Shedidn’t want to stop. She was spooked—she knew we knew something, we tried to talk to her, and she wouldn’t have it. It spooked the drivers—”

“Her fault, is it?”

Jonas shook his head. “Brakes failed. Hawley told you—”

“Hawley told me about the brakes.”

“They were taking it too damn fast. Riding the brakes too much. Aby wasn’t with us, she wouldn’t ride near us. The truck went runaway—she was down there. I swear to you, Guil, we did everything we could. It just happened—so fast—”

“She and Moon went over, did they?”

“Both of them.” <Dead, on the rocks.>

“That’s a lie, Jonas.”

Shadow spooked. Made a move forward that Burn opposed with a snarl and a threatened lunge.

And Jonas didn’t answer him. Jonas didn’t know the truth.

“I saw her,” Jonas said. And it was that image again, <Aby and Moon. Together. Dead.> “Guil, I didn’t know about the brakes. Didn’t know until Hawley told me, last night.”

He stayed still, his finger on the trigger. But the pieces fell together, finally.

<Lying on the rocks. Dead horse.> That was where Moon had imaged being. With Aby.

He said quietly, “She fooled you, Jonas. Moon fooled you. You understand. Moon wantedto be down there. In her mind—she wasdown there. And wasn’t. She was up on that hillside looking down the same as you were, and you saw what sheimaged. I tell you, Jonas, I believe you. I believe you about Aby. I believe you about the gold. Which I think is what you came up here to find. Is that true, Jonas?”

“Yeah,” Jonas said after a moment. “Yeah. —But I didn’t know Hawley’d robbed you, Guil. I’d no idea.”

“Just going to turn that box in yourself, weren’t you? Nobody the wiser. You, with big credit with Cassivey.”

“I’d have dealt you in.”

“Yeah, me, who never took the Anveney jobs. I tell you, Jonas, you go on down to the junction. You take that downhill road. And I want you to take Hawley somewhere we won’t meet for maybe, two, three years. Then maybe we’ll talk. You understand me?”

“Guil, we’d take you down country.”

“I’ll handle it. You get to helloff this mountain.”

Jonas stayed still a moment, turned Shadow half-away, then looked back. “There’s some kids, Guil. Rider named Da