Endangered Species (42 page)

perps' jail sentences."

Fifteen seconds of silence ticked by while Anna shuffled her thoughts. A

look at Tabby decided her.  The girl was small, frail, drunk, pregnant,

and unarmed.  Piece of cake, Anna thought sourly.

"Thanks for calling, Dijon.  I was worried about you all.  Good talking

to you, old buddy." Dijon's voice jolted in Anna's ear.

"Right.  All that," she said absently, and hung up the phone.

Anna pulled up a kitchen chair and sat across the table from the women,

where she could see them yet keep her distance and her mobility ." I've

got some pictures I want you to look at." She cleared away the magazine

and Cheetos, then dealt the snapshots out, right side up, to her

audience on the couch.  Tabby and Lynette put on faces depicting

interest and enthusiasm, willing to be amused, happy to let Anna in on

the fun.

"What a lovely place," Lynette said, absorbed in the photos as well as

the role of girlfriend ." Northwest?  Olympic maybe?"

Anna was watching Tabby.  At first she'd looked at the snapshots with

the same slightly bleary good cheer as the interpretive ranger .

Slowly it dawned on her what the photos were of and where they'd come

from.  The party look drained from her eyes, then the blood from her

cheeks.  She became so pale Anna was afraid she'd faint .

Her small swollen hands pulled away from the photographs and comforted

one another on her lap.  Her mouth contorted, ready to cry. Anna had

prepared herself for waterworks but none came .

Eventually even a river of tears must run dry.

Grabbing her belly, Tabby began to breathe in short, shallow gasps.

"Don't you even think about having that baby now, Anna said sharply ."

Open your eyes." Tabby opened them ." Breathe in slowly and regularly."

Tabby did.

" What's going on?" Lynette asked.

"Shh," Anna hushed her ." You breathing?" Tabby gulped and nodded ."

Tell me what happened.  I've mostly figured it out, but I want to hear

it from you.  Then we'll decide how best to handle it, okay?"

"Okay," Tabby whispered, and reached for her glass.  It was empty.

" I've got more in the car," Lynette said ." It's warm, but-"

"We don't need more," Anna cut her off ." 'fabby is going to be just

fine.  We're going to work this out." She let a stillness settle around

them.  Anna's rudeness had sufficed to cut through Lynette's alcohol

haze and she sat meekly on the couch waiting for events to unfold.

"I'm .  .  .  going to be sick," Tabby said.

"No you're not," Anna told her ." You'll feel better after you talk to

me."

Tabby laid her head back and closed her eyes.  All the tension went from

her body.  Her fingers ceased their stranglehold on one another and her

hands opened like flowers, palm up on her thighs .

"I wanted to tell," she whispered, and Anna hitched her chair closer to

hear ." But if I told I'd go to jail.  The baby would be born in jail .

My little boy." She opened her eyes and looked at Anna ." They won 't

let you keep a baby in prison, will they?"

" don't know," Anna said honestly.

"They'd take him.  I know they would.  Who'd leave a baby with a

murderer?  He'd know I killed his daddy." From a deeper well of grief,

Tabby drew up tears thick as glycerine.  They slid over her temples to

disappear into her hair.

"There's the burning bed precedent," Anna said without much hope ."

Extenuating circumstances.  Hammond was stalking you, wasn't he?"

Tabby nodded, her fine hair scrunching into a halo against the back of

the sofa ." He started not long after he came to the Cascades.  At first

I was flattered.  He paid attention to me and gave me little things-a

flower, a pretty rock, like that.  I wouldn't ever go farther and he

started being mean.  Following me.  Letting me know he could find me no

matter where I went, that he could get into our house even if we locked

it.  He read my mail.  Left things on the seat of my car when I'd locked

all the doors.  Showing me how easy it would be to get me.  I talked to

the police.  The only real ones were in Hope and they had no say in the

park.  Hope's not even in the United States.  Todd and his two seasonals

were the only law enforcement in the district.  Slattery never got seen

doing anything by anybody but me and sometimes I'd say he'd been

somewhere bothering me and he could find some girl to say he'd been with

her.  The Park Service was kind of wanting Todd to keep out of it, being

as he was my husband and all, but there was nobody else.  I don't think

they believed me anyway.

"Todd got pretty crazy.  I was scared he'd get hurt or kill Slattery and

go to jail.  We got an apartment in town where there'd be people

around-people who could help me if anything .  .  .  happened .

Slattery started doing the same things in town.  I filed a restraining

order a couple of times.  The police thought I was just trying to get

attention because my husband was in the park and stuff.  ]'hen I'd tell

them about Slattery bothering me in the park but that wasn't even in

anada.  Finally they talked to Slattery but he sounded so good and I

sounded so stupid.  And we were Americans and everything was just

screwed up.  Slattery said the restraining orders didn't mean anything.

And he was right-he still found me no matter how hard I tried never to

be alone.  He threatened to hurt Todd so I withdrew my complaints.

" got pregnant and Todd put in for a transfer.  Slattery won, we ran.  I

thought that would be the end of it.  Then he showed up here .

He'd followed us.  Everything started over.  But now there was the baby.

Slattery said things about the baby.  That I was pregnant made him mad.

He said he'd kill the baby if I didn't do certain things.  You know .  .

.  things."

"I get the picture," Anna said.

"Now I think I'm going to be sick," Lynette said.

"Be my guest.  Go on," Anna told Tabby.

"To dd was losing it.  That's what we were fighting about that night you

broke us up."

" He said he'd leave you."

Tabby jerked her head up.  It bobbed independently from the slack body

as if a puppeteer had pulled but one string ." No sir," she said

childishly.

"'You would leave me."' Anna quoted her words back at her.

"Did he think you'd encouraged Slattery?" Lynette asked gently.

"No.  No.  Nothing like that." Looking both alarmed and mystified, Tabby

fought her way upright on the sofa.  A cloud moved away from her sun and

she smiled in the midst of this grisly recital .

Obviously the threat of Todd's leaving was a greater evil than stalking

or being stalked ." I remember why I said that," she said with relief ."

Todd said he was going to kill Slattery and I said he'd go to jail and

he said that was okay and I said it wasn't, because then he'd leave me."

"Why was he on the plane with Hammond?" Anna asked.

Tabby dropped her face in her hands and rocked herself forward and back

around the embryonic Todd junior ." I don't know.  Maybe he wanted a

place to talk to him in private.  I don't know.  I swear to God I didn't

know Slattery wasn't going by himself.  I never would have done it,

never, if I knew somebody else might be hurt.  I was just scared.  Then

Todd got in .  .  ." Her voice trailed off.  Anna and Lynette exchanged

looks.  Anna was half afraid Lynette's beliefs were going to lure her

into saying something inane about God teaching lessons in his Old

Testament persona.  The look of empathy on Lynette's face made Anna

ashamed of the thought.  Kindness and Christianity were equally

revered-or synonymous-in Lynette's heart.

"So you sabotaged the Beechcraft," Anna summed up for Tabby.

" Ye s."

"Do you know who the brown-haired woman is, the one in the other

pictures?"

Tabby shook her head.

"No matter," Anna said ." If she was another of Hammond's victims, he

won't be bothering her anymore."

"Can I get a drink of water?" Tabby pleaded.

"Go with her," Anna said to Lynette.

A self-confessed murderess and a drunken lover of the deceased left the

scene.  Anna couldn't dredge up an iota of concern.  She couldn't

picture Tabby taking it on the lam in a stolen VW bug .

Trusting in her judgment of human nature was born more of habit than

experience.  She'd written Tabby off as a suspect, deeming her too

ineffectual to ruin the Beech.  Who knows, Anna thought indifrerently,

maybe she was wrong again and Tabby would com(, charging back through

the kitchen door wielding a bread knife a la Psycho.

Inept fumbling noises emanated from that general direction.

"Let me do it," she heard Lynette say, then ice cubes falling into a

glass, clickclickclick.

"Dammit." Anna jumped up from the chair ." Tabby!" she hollered as she

bounded toward the kitchen ." Tabby!" By the second shout she was almost

on top of the girl.  Big-eyed and miserable, Tabby leaned against the

counter clutching her water glass with both hands like a little kid.

"How did you do it?" Anna demanded, taking hold of the narrow shoulders.

Tabby folded in on herself, shrinking from Anna's touch ." I was

scared," Tabby cried with a convincingly terrified quaver in her voice.

"Stop it," Lynette said, and laid her hand on Anna's wrist.

"No," Anna said ." This is good news.  How did you do it, Tabby?

How did you know how to break the airplane so it would crash?"

"I was doing the dishes and a sandwich bag fell in the sink.  It went

down and settled over the drain so the water wouldn't go out."

"You put sandwich bags in the gas tanks so they'd stop the flow of fuel

and the airplane would crash.  Have I got it right?"

Tabby nodded.

"Hallelujah." Anna dropped her hands from the girl's shoulders .

She hadn't misguessed.  Tabby was a lovely little idiot, albeit one with

murderous intent ." You didn't kill Todd and you didn't kill Slattery.

Those bags didn't do a damn thing but float around in there.  Even if by

some freakish chance both bags floated over both outlets and stayed

there long enough to make a difference, the Beech still had its inboard

tanks.  We know what wrecked the airplane," Anna said, trying to get

through the tragic glaze over Tabby's eyes ." It wasn't you.  You

failed.  You didn't hurt anybody.  The baby won't be born in jail.

Nobody will take him away from you."

Tabby was unmoved, face pinched, shoulders hunched.

"Jesus," Anna said in desperation.  You do it, Lynette.  It's all true.

Swear to God.  I've got to go." She stopped at the door and turned back

." Better yet, take Tabby with you.  Get Rick.  Tell him I need backup.

Stafford House.  Soon as he can get there."

"Rick.  Stafford.  ASAP," Lynette repeated.

"Seat belts," Anna reminded the interpreter, and ran down the wooden

stairs hoping it wasn't already too late.

c Click.  Click.  Click.

Clickclickclick.

Remembering, Anna was stunned by her own boneheadedness .

Dot and Mona were vintage World War II stock: B-52s, cigarettes, red

lipstick.  And Morse code.  SOS.  Distress signals had been plentiful: