Read Endangered Species Online
Authors: Nevada Barr
Tags: #General, #Fiction, #Suspense, #Mystery & Detective, #Women Sleuths, #Pigeon; Anna (Fictitious character), #Women park rangers, #Cumberland Island National Seashore (Ga.)
brought to life by the truck's high beams.
The effects of the marijuana were gone but for lethargy and the
occasional flash of disorientation, yet Anna couldn't seem to fix her
mind on the problem at hand. She knew she should be mapping out a plan
of action or, if she was to bow to the wishes of the Park Service in the
person of Norman Hull, a plan of inaction until all the proper channels
had been followed.
Rolling along at fifteen miles per hour, she was content to let the road
hypnotize her. Had Hull or Guy or the implicated anybody been
available, she might have called them. The Hanson stakeout had denuded
the island of law enforcement for the next eight hours .
It occurred to her to go by the fire dorm and get Rick but this wasn't
his kind of bust. A black belt didn't qualify him for delicate
situations and this was one china shop Anna wouldn't relish seeing a
bull loosed in. With a sinking sadness she knew even her lightest touch
was going to cause irreparable damage.
Pinpricks of light disturbed the black of the forest's ceiling. She had
reached the meadow by Stafford House. The moon had yet to rise and the
meadow slept. As she turned onto the lane, the truck's headlights raked
the dr-y grass, sparking green fire from the eyes of a family of deer
snuggled down for the night.
Life, especially life in such a graceful and benign form as a doe and
her fawn, raised Anna's spirits. She lifted her chin and willed the
mesmerizing flicker of woods from her mind.
Dot and Mona's cottage was almost obscured by the tabby wall that
protected it from the road. A window near the roof shone with yellow
light, creating a portrait of a fairy tale house in the woods .
Images of witches and ovens and murderous children arose to spoil the
effect ." Stop that," Anna told herself.
In front of the gate a darker spot marred the dirt. A pothole, Anna
guessed, though she didn't remember a crater of that magnitude on her
drive south. She had gritted her teeth to take the jar when something
about the shadow's configuration changed. As her headlights hit it, two
glowing green eyes peered up from the tightly curled body of a fawn. Too
late to brake, Anna jerked the wheel to the right and bounced out across
the rough meadow.
The near miss left her shaken. Taken as a ]list straw dropped upon the
back of a camel who'd been stoned literally and pilloried
metaphorically, it weighed heavily. Tears threatened. Anna cursed them
down. Anger followed, but one look at the animal, standing now, gazing
trustingly in her direction, left it nowhere to bestow itself.
"Come on baby," she said, letting herself out of the vehicle ." It's
time you were home in bed." The same could be said for her. The
beneficial effects of her brief catnap were wearing off.
At the sound of her voice Flicka bleated and scampered over to butt his
head against the palms of her hands. Unf,,Iilingly enchanted by the
little creature, Anna folded herself down in the grass and lost herself
in the wonder of his spotted back, the liquid eyes, the strong willowy
neck and tiny perfect hooves.
"Miles to go before I sleep," she explained when she finally forced
herself to rise ." And miles to go. Come on. Let's get you home. Your
fairy godmothers will be worried."
The truck was well off the road, so Anna left it where it was and walked
to the wall. The gate was an unlovely modern addition of welded pipe
and sheep wire. Usually it stood open. Tonight it was shut,
effectively penning Flicka out. Were Dot and Mona weaning the fawn,
teaching him to go back to the wild? Anna abandoned the thought as soon
as it surfaced. The VIPs were too sensible to shut an animal as young
and unafraid as Flicka out on a public road at night.
" After you," she said, and shooed the fawn in ahead of her. He didn't
take much urging. Like any child, at suppertime he wanted to be home
and safe and fed. As she latched the gate behind her, she could hear
his hooves clattering on the stones of the cottage's front walk.
Inside the wall, parked to one side where it was not visible from the
road, was an ATV. She wondered who had come calling that was too
hoity-toity to park in the street like everyone else.
Flicka was scraping at the door with sharp hooves, punctuating this
polite request for admittance with rattling butts to the doorframe.
Either the old ladies weren't at home or they were hard of hearing.
Having followed the fawn up the walk, Anna rapped on the door and
hollered: "Anybody home? It's Anna from fire crew."
Muttering emanated from within and she realized how quiet the house had
been. The cottage didn't have air-conditioning. Windows on either side
of the door were open, the light and air shut inside by tightly closed
mini-blinds. A voice carried through as if Anna were inside with them.
" Who is it?"
Mona: without the stalwart, clever woman in evidence to back up the
voice, Anna heard the tremor of age ." Anna Pigeon fromfire crew," she
repeated.
More muttering, footsteps; then Dot came to the door. She didn't look
pleased to have someone show up on her doorstep after eleven at night.
Anna played her only card ." I found Flicka," she said, and unabashedly
hid behind his adorable spots. Dot's face softened at once, so much so
that Anna was afraid she was going to burst into tears.
Pushing open the screen, Dot knelt down, her fat knees filling the Sill,
and gathered Flicka into her arms. She buried her face against the
fawn's neck, knocking her glasses askew ." Flicka, we've been so worried
about you," she said into the silken hide.
"Was he lost?" Anna asked ." If he ran off, he must have decided which
side his bread was buttered on. I found him curled up in the middle of
the road out front." No response from Dot. Anna was somehow
disappointed ." I nearly ran him over," she added. Even with the prod,
the expected gush of thanks was not forthcoming.
Dot scooped Flicka up and carried him inside.
"Anna, come in," Mona called.
A sensitive individual might have been put off by Dot's snub, but Anna
wasn't yet ready to go back to the apartment and do her duty, so she
trailed the woman and fawn inside.
The cottage had pioneered the concept of a Great Room when it was an
architectural convenience rather than a status symbol. A single
multipurpose room was easier to build and heat than a house cobbled up
into private areas. Dot and Mona had filled the compact space with the
clutter of academia. Books, papers, boxes, teacups, and overfilled
ashtrays spilled across the dining table and all but three of the
chairs. Two of these were occupied. Mona sat upright in a ladder-back
chair. A cigarette burned in her right hand. Her left rested on a Coke
can on the table. She looked tired and distracted .
It added years to her already considerable account.
Marty Schlessinger sat behind the table between Mona and the empty
chair. One hand was on the table. The fingers trembled ever so
slightly, like an aspen in a light breeze. Probably high, Anna thought.
Dot, Flicka captive in her arms, perched on the edge of the third chair.
Anna was left standing ." Turtle stuff." she asked, to fill the awkward
silence she'd brought in with her.
" Always, Mona said.
Thick as a pea soup fog, silence descended again, the only sound Mona's
fiddling with the pop-top on her coke. Clickclickclick.
"The files are a mess," Schlessinger said. Her voice was cool and even.
If she'd been using for a while, she probably functioned better high
than straight. As if on cue, Dot and Mona nodded sagely .
Click. Click. Click.
Whatever they were up to, Anna was not needed to make a fourth. She
took one more stab at an invitation ." An all-nighter?" she asked,
reminded of college and speed and last-minute cramming.
" Surely not." Mona. Clickclickclick.
So much for fantasies of procrastination. Anna was forced to take the
hint ." I've got to run , she said ." Places to go, people to meet, all
that sort of thing." No one said a word. Three pairs of eyes followed
her as she beat a hasty retreat to the door.
"Thanks for bringing Flicka in-" Dot hollered as the screen banged shut.
"But don't let the door slap your ass on the way out," Anna finished the
sentence.
The Chablis had fallen, making two dead soldiers littering the coffee
table. Fluorescent curls of Cheetos provided a surrealistic array of
Splattered intestines to further the theme. Tabby and Lynette, heads
together, were giggling over a Victoria's Secret catalogue; a scene from
a pajama party at a home for unwed mothers.
"Hey, Anna." Lynette's voice was delicately blurred by a wash of white
wine ." Did you get what you needed done done? We missed you.
"Short hair makes you look ten years younger." Tabby repeated a
compliment from earlier in the evening just to be personable. Wine had
worked its spell on her. Her cheeks flushed prettily and the tight
reins of tears had been loosed at the corners of her eyes, restoring her
girlishness.
Here, at least, Anna was welcomed. Not for long, she reminded herself.
The phone rang, jarring Anna but apparently delighting the others. Tabby
snatched it up, burbling a happy, "Hello!" Joy was slapped from her face
by the vicious hand of memory ." Oh, it's you," she said coldly. Then
to Anna: "It's for you."
" Was it something I said?" came Dijon's voice.
Anna remembered the cruel moments of forgetfulness after Zach had died.
Tabby had thought it was 'Fodd calling ." Nope .
What's up?"
"Jesus. If I wasn't so bored, I'd hang up. Nothing's up. Zip .
Nada. A bust of a bust. Captain whoses-the Coast Guard guy-got tired
of waiting and we nabbed 'em. Two old farts grilling wieners on a
houseboat full of weed. Talk about your adrenaline rush."
Anna smiled ." No fisticuffs?"
"Shit-shoot, no. Not even an interrogation under hot lights .
Hull told the Hansons they're suspected of a double homicide as well as
marijuana cultivation and they fell all over themselves to cooperate.
"Hammond was putting the squeeze on them. Louise swore he made them
plant three times what they had. 'Just plain greedy' she called him."
Dijon laughed ." According to her they were just poor pitiful servants.
Since they burned Hammond's share of the crop, she seemed to think we
should let them keep theirs out of pure gratitude. Both swore Hammond
did the whole booby trap deal all by his self and they, like good
citizens, removed the hazard as soon as they found out. Like there's
anybody left alive to say different."
"How about the sabotage?" Anna was uncomfortably aware of Lynette and
Tabby hanging on every word of her side of the conversation.
"'Not guilty." What did you think they'd say?"
A tiny irrational hope that had dared to stir in Anna's breast was
quashed ." You guys coming back anytime soon?" she asked.
"You're kidding, right? We'll be filling out forms longer than the