Whisper to the Blood (5 page)

Van gave a little wriggle of delight when the ride smoothed out and all
seven thousand parts of the pickup stopped banging against each other, which
noise was replaced by the hiss of vulcanized rubber on asphalt. "I love
paved roads," she said.

He grinned at her. "Me, too. So, where do you want to go first?"

"Costco," she said instantly.

He pretended to groan. "Shopping. I shoulda known. Do you have a
card?"

She nodded enthusiastically. "I'm on Annie's family card."

So they spent a solid hour in the hangar-sized big box, Van trying on every
item of clothing, male and female, there was on offer, Johnny mooning up and
down the tools and auto parts aisles, and both of them drifting inexorably to
the book table.

"That was fun," she said as they were leaving.

He gave her a quizzical look. "We didn't buy anything."

She gave him a sunny smile. "So what? Someday we will."

He laughed. "Okay. Where next? You hungry?"

"Starving!"

He could have taken her to McDonald's-Ahtna had one of those, too-but Johnny
was determined to be cooler than that. "Can we afford this?" she
said, wide-eyed, as they pulled into the parking lot of the Ahtna Lodge.

He grinned at her. "I didn't spend all my money on Old Blue,
here," he said, patting the dashboard. He opened the door and said over
his shoulder, "Most of it, but not all of it." His grin widened when
he heard her laugh behind him. She'd had the same laugh since he'd first met
her, a loud, brash blare of no-holds-barred amusement that sounded like it came
right out of one of the songs of those old blues singers Kate listened to
sometimes, raunchy, rough-edged, knowing, sad. He'd seen adults startled and
sometimes alarmed by that laugh, as if they hadn't expected it to come out of
the mouth of someone so quiet, or so young.

He didn't see the man in the parking lot turn his head at the sound of that
laugh, gaze at Van for a moment, and then look at Johnny. He didn't see the
man's eyes widen. Johnny held out his hand and Van came around the front of the
pickup and took it as if it was the most natural thing in the world, as if
they'd been holding hands for years.

They walked up the steps and through the restaurant doors. A slender,
dark-haired man with a gold hoop earring in one ear and a white apron wrapped
twice around his slim waist spotted Johnny at once. "Hey, kid," he
said, shifting the tray of dirty dishes he was holding from one shoulder to the
other so he could shake Johnny's hand. "How you been? How's Kate?"

Mercifully, he did not comment on its being a school day, which Johnny was
belatedly realizing could be a question raised by everyone who knew who he was
and who he lived with. "Good," Johnny said, "we're both good.
Tony, this is my friend Vanessa."

Vanessa looked startled. It was the first time Johnny had called her
anything but Van. Johnny pretended not to notice, too busy pretending to be a
grown-up.

"Hey, Vanessa," Tony said, giving her an appraising look as he
shook her hand. He winked at Johnny. "You hungry?"

"Stan cooking?" Stan being Tony's partner in life and in the Ahtna
Lodge and the genius behind the steak sandwiches that were a magnet for
everyone within a hundred miles.

"That he is."

"Then we're starving. Can we get a table by the window?" Tony
looked over his shoulder. "Give me five minutes, and it's yours."

"Thanks, Tony."

They were seated and they both ordered the specialty of the house. In the
interval, two virgin daiquiris arrived, ice and syrup and strawberries whipped
to a froth and swirled into glasses the size of hubcaps.

A delighted smile spread across Van's face.

"Uh," Johnny said, loath to see the smile go away. "We didn't
order these, Tony."

Tony nodded at the bar. "Courtesy of your friend."

Uh-oh. Johnny turned his head, hoping against hope it wasn't anybody like
Ahtna police chief Kenny Hazen, who would be sure to mention that he'd seen
Johnny in Ahtna on a school day the next time he saw Jim.

It wasn't Chief Hazen. It was instead someone almost as tall, but with a
rangier build and a broad face that smiled at Johnny from beneath the bill of a
Colorado Rockies ball cap.

"Who is that?" Vanessa said.

"I don't—" Johnny stopped. "Doyle?" He half rose
from his chair, his voice uncertain. "Doyle Greenbaugh?"

Greenbaugh's laugh was hearty. He walked to their table and smacked Johnny's
hand in an enthusiastic grip. "For a minute I thought you didn't recognize
me. How you doing, Johnny?"

"For a minute I didn't," Johnny said, returning Greenbaugh's
handshake. "What are you doing in
Alaska
,
Doyle?"

Greenbaugh shrugged, still grinning. "It's your fault. You made it
sound pretty good. I figured I'd come up and see how much you were bullshitting
me." He nodded over Johnny's shoulder. "Who's your friend?"

Johnny, on his first date with his first-he was pretty sure-his first real
girlfriend, could not resist the urge to show off a little. "Doyle,"
he said proudly, "this is Vanessa Cox." He'd even remembered to
introduce the girl first. "Van, this is Doyle Greenbaugh." He
hesitated, and then said, "I know him from Outside."

"How do, ma'am," Greenbaugh said. He actually removed his cap and
even gave a nod that was halfway to a bow.

Vanessa, as yet unaccustomed to male deference to the fairer sex, tried for
a regal inclination of the head in reply. Her pinkened cheeks gave her away,
though.

"We drove in for lunch," Johnny said, adding manfully, "Would
you like to join us?"

Greenbaugh waved a hand. "No, no, I don't want to intrude." He
turned his head so Vanessa couldn't see and winked.
I won't horn in on your
action.

Johnny felt his ears get hot, and mumbled something in reply.

"We should get together and catch up, though," Greenbaugh said.
"You live in Ahtna? I thought it was another town, can't remember the name
of it. Ninilchik?" He mispronounced it "NIN-il-chik." You could always
tell when someone was new to the state by how badly they mangled the place
names.

"Actually, it was
Anchorage
,"
Johnny said, "but it's Niniltna now."

"How's that?"

"Nuh-NILT-nuh."

"Niniltna," Greenbaugh said. "That close to here?"

"East, up a gravel road a hundred miles or so."

"It the size of this place?"

Johnny laughed. "Not hardly. Only a couple hundred people."
Greenbaugh made a face. "That small, probably no jobs."

"You looking for work?" Greenbaugh shrugged. "Gotta
eat."

"There's an outfit starting up a gold mine in the Park," Johnny
said impulsively. Van, sitting with her eyes downcast, looked at Johnny briefly
and then down again. "They say there are going to be a lot of jobs in
it."

Greenbaugh brightened. "A gold mine?"

"I could maybe talk to somebody for you."

"Man, I'd appreciate that."

"Well, it's not like I don't owe you," Johnny said. Van looked up
again, dark eyes on his face. "You staying here in Ahtna?"

"Yeah, I got a room here."

"Got transportation?"

"Got a little Nissan pickup, packed with all my worldly belongings.
Which ain't much."

"What happened to your rig?"

Greenbaugh grimaced. "One deadhead too many. Bank repossessed
her."

"Damn. I'm sorry, Doyle."

"Luck of the draw. Why I came north, start over."

"
Lot
of people do that," Johnny
said. "
Lot
of people drop their past life
at the Beaver Creek border crossing."

Greenbaugh grinned. "You seen a lot of that in your long life, have
you?"

Johnny felt his ears get red again. "It's just something Kate
says."

"Who's Kate? Vanessa's competition?" He grinned at Vanessa, who
didn't grin back.

For a moment Johnny was stumped for a reply. "Kate's who I live with.
She's my legal guardian. You probably forgot, but my dad's dead, and my mom's .
. . well, my mom's out of the picture."

Greenbaugh gave a thoughtful nod. "I remember now. Your mom's the one
stuck you with your grandparents in
Arizona
.
You didn't like it, so you left. This Kate was who you were headed for when we
met?"

"Yeah."

"What's she do?"

Johnny shrugged. "Whatever she can do to make a buck." Greenbaugh
raised an eyebrow.

Johnny flushed beet red. "Not that!" he said. "Jeez! What I
mean is she's like any other Park rat, she hunts, fishes, traps
sometimes." Johnny felt Vanessa look at him again, and avoided looking back.
He didn't know why he didn't tell Greenbaugh what Kate did for a living. It
wasn't like Greenbaugh wouldn't know five minutes after he stepped into the
Park. Or even if he stuck around Ahtna long enough.

"Park rat?" Greenbaugh said.

Johnny laughed a little too loudly, relieved at the change of subject.
"It's what we call ourselves."

"'Ourselves'?"

"I'm a Park rat now, too," Johnny said, betraying his youth with
his pride.

Greenbaugh shrugged. "Okay. Any place decent for a man to stay in
Niniltna?"

"Nuh-NILT-nuh," Johnny said again. Again, he hesitated, and then
said, "Sure, just ask the way to Auntie Vi's, she runs a B and B in town.
I'll tell her you're coming."

"Sounds good. Thanks, kid."

"Thanks for the drinks."

"Be seeing you." Greenbaugh sketched a wave and was gone. Johnny
sat back down.

"How do you know him?" Vanessa said.

At that moment Stanislav himself brought out their steak sandwiches, a
platter upon which red meat sizzled with a heavenly aroma, and everything else
was put on hold.

But Vanessa hadn't forgotten, and on their way home and safely past the
Lost
Chance
Creek
Bridge
she said, "How do you know that Greenbaugh guy?"

Johnny negotiated a turn with care. "It's just somebody I met on the
way home from
Arizona
.
You heard him."

"Hey, look, another moose," Vanessa said. "What's that make,
the tenth or twelfth one we've seen today? Annie says when they come down out
of the mountains this early it means a long cold winter." She turned to
him again. "Come on, Johnny. Who is that guy?"

Johnny sighed. "Okay. Remember I told you my mom sent me to
Arizona
when my dad
died?"

"Yes. You told me the two of you didn't get along."

That was an understatement. "No. We don't." In a burst of candor
he added, "I don't think she even liked me that much. Mostly she just used
me to piss off Dad."

Van said nothing, and Johnny appreciated her tact. "So when he died,
she didn't need me around anymore, so she sent me to her folks in
Arizona
."

"And you didn't like it there."

"No," he said, very definitely. "So I hitchhiked home. Doyle
Greenbaugh was one of the guys who picked me up. He was driving a semi. He
picked me up outside
Phoenix
and took me all the
way to
Seattle
."

"Oh." She digested this in silence for a moment. "So he
followed you up here? That's kinda creepy."

Johnny shrugged. "It was a long drive. We talked a lot. He asked me
where I was going, and I told him I was going home. He'd never been to
Alaska
, and he wanted to
know what it was like." And he hadn't asked Johnny any uncomfortable
questions, like why somebody Johnny's age was standing with his thumb out on an
interstate in the middle of the night. "He was a good guy, and he didn't
try anything."

She knew a faint chill. "Did someone else? Johnny?"

He shifted in his seat. "Maybe. Yeah." He risked a look at her.
"Don't worry, I figured out what was going on in time and I bailed before
anything happened."

She swallowed. "That's . . . that's awful, Johnny."

"Woulda been," he said. "Wasn't. I was careful."

"And lucky."

"And lucky," he said, nodding. He hadn't thought about it at the
time, but he'd thought about it after, or he had when Kate had finally stopped
yelling at him. He had been very lucky.

Van said, "How come your mom lets you live with Kate?"

"I'm sixteen now, so it's my choice. But before, when I got here? I
think Kate blackmailed her."

Van turned her head to stare at him, eyes wide, and grabbed for the dash
when the truck jounced through a pothole. "You're kidding."

"Nope."

"What did she blackmail her with?"

"I don't know. I don't want to know. All I cared about was staying with
Kate, and Kate made it happen. She made Jane give her custody." He smiled
at her. "And here I am."

She drew a deep breath. "Yeah. Yes, you are. Did I say thank you for
today? It's been fun."

"Yeah," he said, happily. "It has, hasn't it?"

"Pull over," she said impulsively.

"Huh?"

"Pull over. There, at that trailhead."

"How come?" Johnny said, obediently pulling over and putting the
pickup into park.

"So I can do this." She slid across the bench seat and put her arms
around his neck. She smiled at him, a little shyly, and kissed him. Her lips
were warm and soft, and she smelled faintly of flowers, and maybe a little bit
of wood smoke.

"Wow," he said, dazed, when she raised her head.

Her cheeks were pink. "There," she said. "Our first kiss. Now
we don't have to fumble around worrying about if you want to, or if I want you
to."

"I want to," he said fervently. "I've wanted to for a long
time."

"I know," she said. "I wasn't ready."

"It's okay," he said, anxious that she wouldn't take his comment
as a rebuke.