‘Unless behind the bar,’ Abilene muttered.
Cora already had her T-shirt off. Balancing on one foot, she tugged off a shoe. ‘If it worries you, go look.’
‘Me?’
‘Maybe somebody should,’ Helen said, shining her light on the distant bar.
‘I’m not going over there alone.’
‘Gobble-gobble-gobble. ’
‘You check it out, Finley. You’re such a fearless explorer.’
‘Ah, Hickok, what a pussy.’ Laughing softly, shaking her head, she strode quickly alongside the pool. She left the lantern’s brightness behind. Abilene and Helen kept their flashlights on her back.
In unison, they flinched at the noise of a heavy splash.
Abilene whirled around. She saw Cora, long and pale, gliding beneath the water.
Vivian stood motionless beside the pool, gazing toward Finley.
Abilene turned again, and picked up Finley with her flashlight just as the girl stepped behind the bar.
‘Hey. What the…?’ Finley crouched, disappeared.
‘What are you doing?’ Abilene called.
No answer.
‘She’s just screwing around,’ Vivian said.
‘I know. But I wish…’
A sudden harsh clamor made Abilene jump, Helen yelp, Vivian gasp ‘Damn! ’
Abilene, shaken, yelled, ‘You bitch!’
Finley stood up behind the bar. ‘That was just me kicking the bucket.’
‘You’re a riot.’
‘I know, I know.’ She made a little bow, then stepped around the bar and walked toward them. She tossed her flashlight into the air. It tumbled high, its beam somersaulting. She caught it and switched it off.
‘One of these days,’ Helen said, ‘you’re gonna be sorry.’
‘Hope I didn’t upset anyone.’ Joining them, she started to unbutton her safari shirt.
‘Where’s Cora?’ Vivian asked.
They turned to the pool. Abilene saw no one swimming. She heard no sounds except a soft lapping of the water. She saw nothing gliding beneath the surface.
‘Don’t tell me she’s starting to play games.’
‘Oh, man,’ Helen murmured.
The beams of four flashlights began criss-crossing the water. ‘Hey, Cora!’ Finley yelled. ‘You’re making the babes nervous!’
Something pale moved in the archway.
All the lights hit Cora at once. Wincing, she squinted and ducked her head. ‘Gimme a break.’
They lowered their lights.
‘It’s really neat outside. Come on.’ She started to turn around. ‘Just wait for us,’ Vivian said. She sounded upset. ‘You shouldn’t have gone out there alone.’
‘I’m a big girl.’
‘Just wait for us,’ Vivian repeated.
‘Okay, okay.’
The idea of venturing to the outside pool changed Abilene’s mind about wearing a suit.
Finley finished undressing, entered the pool, swam to its far side and waited near Cora while the others put on their swimsuits.
‘I’m taking my flashlight,’ Helen said.
‘Me, too,’ Abilene told her.
‘What about the lantern?’ Helen asked.
Vivian grimaced. ‘No. Leave it here.’
‘It’d ruin the view,’ Cora said from the archway.
‘It’d light us up like
‘Sitting ducks?’ Finley suggested.
‘That’s right,’ Vivian said.
Finley, laughing, waded after Cora. The two of them vanished through the archway as Abilene, Vivian and Helen jumped into the pool.
The hot water felt wonderful sliding against Abilene. She made her way to the center of the pool, found the barred opening, and stepped on top of it. She lingered there, savoring the soft rub of the currents that rolled up from below. Raising the flashlight overhead, she squatted so the water covered her to the neck.
Then she realized that Vivian and Helen were already outside. She was alone. As she looked around at the bright lantern and the darkness beyond its glow, she felt a crawly sensation on the back of her neck.
She waded quickly to the archway and hurried through it.
The others were all in the smaller pool, sitting on the submerged ledges along two of its sides. Helen and Finley sat at the south end. Facing them across the water were Vivian and Cora.
‘Isn’t it terrific out here?’ Cora asked.
‘Nice,’ Abilene said. She waded over to the north end, put her flashlight on the edge, then sank down and sat beside Cora.
‘Fresh air.’
The air was warm, but cooler than inside. Its sulphur odor was not so strong, and Abilene could smell the sweet aromas of the forest.
Directly overhead was the porch. From its edge all the way to the treetops at the far end of the lodge’s grounds, the night sky was sprinkled with stars. There were no clouds that Abilene could see.
The high, full moon cast its brightness down on the woods, the field, the ruin of the swimming pool, the brick barbecue and the old picnic table. It lit the area under the porch, as well.
It glinted silver on the rippled surface of the hot pool.
It shone on the girls, gleaming on their hair, painting their skin with its milky glow, leaving black shadows where it couldn’t reach.
Nobody looks quite right, Abilene thought.
Faces pale on one side, dark on the other. Faces that seemed to have holes instead of eyes. She supposed she must look just as strange.
‘Look at all those stars,’ Cora said.
‘I know I’m thrilled,’ Finley said.
‘Bet you don’t see stars like this in L.A.’
‘Maybe we should go back inside,’ Vivian suggested.
‘It’s much nicer out here.’
‘We’re so exposed.’
‘With moonlight like this,’ Abilene said, ‘I could probably read a book by it.’
‘Anybody could be out there. Watching us.’
‘Still worried about that kid,’ Cora said.
‘Maybe he’ll come over and join us,’ Finley said, if he does, I call firsties.’
Abilene realized that they all had their heads turned, were gazing out at the moonlit grounds as if expecting someone to creep out of the forest.
‘What if someone does come along?’ Helen asked, her voice hushed.
‘Stop it,’ Vivian said.
‘We’ll just let Finley keep him busy,’ Abilene said, ‘while the rest of us skedaddle.’
‘My pleasure.’
‘Nobody’s gonna come along,’ Cora said. ‘Why don’t you all just settle down and enjoy yourselves. Helen, you’ve got a story to tell us, don’t you? About the murders?’
‘Maybe this isn’t the best time to tell it.’
‘I’ll second that,’ Vivian said.
‘This is the perfect time for it. Just pretend we’re sitting around a campfire.’
‘This is like sitting around a campfire,’ Abilene said. ‘You know? Supper’s over. Nothing else to do before bedtime. It’s warm and cozy. We’re all gathered here, surrounded by the dark.’
‘Campfires are bright and cheerful,’ Helen pointed out. ‘Finley’s bright and cheerful. She can get in the middle and make crackling sounds.’
‘Cracks is more like it,’ Cora said.
‘I’m hot enough. I just might burst into flame.’
‘People do, you know,’ Helen said. ‘Sometimes, they just bum up for no apparent reason. I’ve read accounts of that happening. I read where some guy went up in smoke, and it happened so fast that his clothes didn’t even get burnt. All they found were ashes and charred bones inside his clothes.’
‘They were probably flame retardant,’ Abilene said.
‘Maybe the guy was a vampire,’ Finley suggested. ‘We made this movie where a guy - one of your basic Dracula types - just crumpled to crap right inside his duds.’
‘Night Fang,’ Helen said.
‘Yeah, that’s the one.’
&nbs
p; ‘You were script supervisor?’ Abilene asked.
‘Right. It was my last big epic before I moved up to assistant director.’
‘I saw it,’ Helen said. ‘The sunlight got him. But that’s different from spontaneous combustion.’
‘I feel like I’m gonna spontaneously combust.’ Finley stood, turned around, and climbed onto the submerged shelf. She sat on the edge of the pool and crossed her legs. And sighed. ‘Ahhh. This is much better.’
‘Are you sure you want to be sitting up there?’ Vivian asked.
‘Yep.’ She stretched, folding her hands behind her head, arching her back, twisting slightly from side to side. ‘Nice breeze.’
‘You really do stick out,’ Helen said.
‘Do I? Thanks.’ Lowering her arms, she gazed down as if inspecting her breasts. ‘Not as much as I’d like, actually.’ Helen chuckled. ‘Not them. You.’
‘You are awfully visible,’ Abilene said. ‘You look like a snowman up there.’
‘Gee, I should’ve brought my camouflage makeup.’
‘You stick out like a sore thumb,’ Helen told her.
‘Why don’t you get back in,’ Vivian said, ‘before somebody sees you?’
‘Nobody’s gonna see her,’ Cora said.
‘Ah, the voice of reason. You’d think we were in a war zone, the way these babes are carrying on. We’re in the middle of nowhere. Wishful thinking aside, that kid showing up was a fluke. There’s probably nobody but us around for miles.’
‘That’s telling ’em,’ Cora said.
‘It’s not true, though,’ Helen said. ‘There really are people who live in these hills.’
‘The dreaded Hill People,’ Finley said. ‘Who prowl the woods by night.’
‘I’m not joking. I read about them.’
‘Are these the same people who spontaneously combust?’ Finley asked.
‘These are the same people who invaded the Totem Pole Lodge twelve years ago and slaughtered everyone.’
‘All right]' Finley pumped a fist beside her face. ‘We get to hear the story, after all.’
‘Lucky us,’ Vivian muttered.
‘I guess so,’ Helen said. ‘Since Fin wants to insist nobody’s around for miles. The fact is, half a dozen families live within a few miles of here. Or did, anyway. I don’t know if they’re still around. But back at the time of the murders, there were the Sloanes, the Hacketts, the Johnsons…’
‘The Hatfields and McCoys,’ Abilene interrupted.
Finley laughed. ‘You’ve got your geography screwed up, Hickok.’
‘Well, it was never my strong suit.’
‘Let’s shut up and listen,’ Cora said.
‘Anyway, there were these families. They lived near here and they were hill people. They lived in shacks. They didn’t have much to do with the outside world. They hunted and fished and kept to themselves.’
‘Probably some terrific banjo players,’ Abilene said. ‘Apparently, there was a lot of inbreeding.’
‘Halfwits and harelips,’ Cora said.
‘I thought we were supposed to shut up and listen,’ Finley reminded her.
‘And don’t you forget it,’ Cora said.
‘I was behaving.’ Finley leaned back and braced herself up with stiff arms. ‘Go on, Helen.’
‘Well, Cora’s right. The inbreeding did result in some abnormalities. The book didn’t go into much detail about it, just that some of them were retarded and some looked kind of freakish. But they minded their own business, and generally tried to keep their distance from the lodge. They were in the woods all around here, though. So when guests from the lodge would go out fishing or hunting, sometimes they’d spot one or two off in the distance. They used to make jokes about bagging one. How they could have the head stuffed, and hang it up in the lodge along with the other trophies.’
‘These lodge guests sound like charming people,’ Abilene said.
‘Hunters are all like that,’ Vivian said. ‘Macho bastards.’
‘You’ve known some?’ Abilene asked.
‘Hell, my father was one.’
‘I thought he was a neurosurgeon.’
‘He was that, too.’
‘I thought doctors only played golf.’
‘My dad played Daniel Boone. He made me help him dress out a deer when I was ten years old.’
‘What did you dress it in?’ Finley asked.
‘A Tipton shirt,’ Cora said, and laughed.
‘I didn’t dress it in anything. I had to cut off its head and gut it and…’
‘Jesus,’ Helen muttered.
‘I can’t picture you doing something like that,’ Abilene said.
‘Well, I puked all over it.’
‘That I can picture.’
‘He would’ve fit right in with a crowd of guys who think it’d be laughs to plug a hillbilly. He and his pals were all a bunch of gun-toting assholes.’
‘Guys and their guns,’ Finley said.
‘Anyway,’ Helen went on, ‘they did end up shooting one of those people.’
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
‘It wasn’t on purpose, though,’ Helen said. ‘Three guys from the lodge were out deer hunting. They were over near that lake I mentioned. Something moved in the trees, and they opened fire. Then they went over to it, and what they found instead of a deer was a teenaged girl. Only she wasn’t dead. She was hit in the shoulder, is all.’
‘Not only assholes,’ Finley said, ‘but lousy shots.’
‘It’s not funny,’ Vivian muttered.
‘One of the hunters wanted to take the girl back to the lodge and get her to a hospital. At least that’s what he claims, and there was nobody left to refute him. Henderson. He told the whole story to the police later. He said the girl would’ve been all right if they’d gotten her some medical attention. But the other two were against it. They said there’d be hell to pay if it got out about them shooting her.’
‘It was an accident, wasn’t it?’ Abilene said.
‘Sure. And they figured they’d be all right with the authorities. What worried them was the girl’s family.’
‘Her kinfolks,’ Finley said.
‘Right. When something happens to blood relatives, people around here go nuts. They believe in an eye for an eye. They wouldn’t rest until they’d gotten their revenge, and they wouldn’t be very picky about who they nailed. The hunters were here with their families. Henderson had a wife and two little daughters back at the lodge, and the other two guys told him that nobody’d be safe. Especially daughters. But everything would be all right if the girl they shot could just disappear. That way, nobody would blame people from the lodge. Maybe she just got lost, or ran afoul of some wild animals. One of the other families might even get blamed. Apparently, there was bad blood between some of the clans, and the hunters knew about it.’
‘So they’re discussing all this,’ Cora asked, ‘while the poor kid is lying there bleeding?’
‘I guess so.’
‘What a bunch of bastards.’
‘They were hunters,’ Vivian said. ‘What do you expect?’
‘A little decency.’
‘Fat chance.’
‘The girl couldn’t hear them anyway. She was a deaf mute.’
‘Terrific,’ Vivian muttered.
‘Henderson says he told the guys they were talking about cold-blooded murder, and how this eye-for-an-eye stuff was no excuse to kill an innocent kid. She couldn’t exactly tell on them.’
‘She could point them out,’ Abilene said.
‘And grunt.’
‘You’re seriously disturbed, Finley.’
‘They told Henderson she had to be eliminated, but he didn’t listen. He knelt down and opened her shirt so he could get at the wound. He started to cut off one of her sleeves to use as a bandage, and that’s when one of the other guys clobbered him. Hit him in the head with a rifle butt. He says it knocked him out cold, so he didn’t have anything to do with what happened next.’
br /> ‘There’s a likely story,’ Finley said.
‘That’s what the cops thought. But they didn’t have any evidence against him, so he was never prosecuted. They never found the body. They never found out who she was. They never even found evidence that the murder had taken place, at all. Henderson’s story was all they had to go on. So he was never even arrested.’
‘But Henderson said they killed her?’ Abilene asked.
‘Yeah. And they raped her, too.’
‘Jesus,’ Cora muttered.
‘Henderson was pretty sure they did. When he came to, his buddies were both naked. So was the girl. And the girl was dead by then. Her throat had been slashed. And the guys were busy opening her up and stuffing rocks into her. You know, so she’d sink.’
Vivian groaned. ‘I knew I didn’t want to hear this.’
‘I’m surprised they didn’t kill Henderson,’ Abilene said.
‘It’s only his word,’ Cora said, ‘that he didn’t go along with the whole thing. He might’ve had at her, just like his two buddies. Maybe he was even the one who killed her.’
‘What he claimed,’ Helen explained, ‘was that he was afraid they would kill him. Guys get shot all the time in hunting accidents. So Henderson acted as if he’d had a change of heart and approved of what they’d done. They were still afraid he might turn them in, though. So they had him shoot her. That way, if the cops found her body, there might be ballistics evidence that Henderson’s rifle had been used on the girl.’
‘Pretty smart,’ Abilene said. ‘Or smart of Henderson, making that part of his story.’
‘Well, that was when they stopped being smart. Their idea was to swim out into the lake with the body and let it go. They figured the rocks would sink it, and it’d never be found. But one of them went down to the shore for a look around. They were on the far side of the lake, but apparently it isn’t very large. And the guy who went to scout around noticed some people from the lodge swimming off the dock on the other side. They were afraid they might be seen. So what they decided was to hide the body and come back after dark to take care of sinking it. They covered it with some bushes, then went back to the lodge.’
‘Henderson made up a story about falling down and hitting his head on a rock. He told his family he was still feeling dizzy and sick, and that he thought he’d better check into a hospital. So they all packed up and left. They drove into town. They found an emergency room, and he was being examined right at about the same time that everyone back at the lodge was sitting down in the dining room for supper.