Spider mountain

1

The uniformed park ranger looked up from his newspaper. “You’re Lieutenant Richter,” he said with a frown.

“That’s right,” I said. “Except for the lieutenant part. I’m not with the sheriff’s office anymore.”

The ranger gave me a stony look, as if this news somehow made my appearance there worse. “I’ll tell her you’re here,” he said curtly. He got up from behind the visitors’ information counter and walked over to an office door. He paused before opening it. “You’re not exactly welcome up here, you know,” he said.

I just waited. The ranger gave me another hard look. I debated quailing in the presence of such ferocity, but yawned instead. He then went into the office, shutting the door behind him. Truth be told, I hadn’t exactly expected a marching band and festive bunting upon my first visit to the Thirty Mile ranger station since the cat dancers case. But that had been two years ago, and I’d almost managed to bury those events in my moving-on box. Almost.

The station hadn’t changed a bit. The unfriendly park ranger was a new face, so whatever he knew about it he’d been told by others. They’d been furious then because I’d put Mary Ellen Goode in grave danger. Apparently they weren’t over it. Nothing I could do about that. She had called me, not the other way around.

Then she was standing there. Still remarkably pretty, although there were some dark circles under those blue eyes and a tinge of gray in her hair. Her smile seemed a bit forced.

“Thanks for coming,” she said. “Let’s go back to my office.”

I followed her down a short hall. She’s thinner, I thought. The sign on her door read M.E. GOODE, PH.D., PARK ECOLOGIST.

“How’s the arm?” she asked as we went into her office.

“Better,” I said. “I can hold it on the steering wheel for almost an hour now. How’re things in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park these days?”

She sat down behind a cluttered desk. “Comparatively quiet,” she said with a rueful smile. “Until six weeks ago.”

I eased myself into a wooden chair and massaged my upper arm. What was left of it. “I’ve missed seeing you,” I said, and meant it.

She looked down at her desk for a moment before answering. “I’m sorry about going radio-silent,” she said finally. “I-it’s been-very difficult.” She took a deep breath. “I’ve not been well.”

I leaned forward. “Hey? That wasn’t an accusation. Just an observation. I have missed seeing you. Now, tell me: Am I going to get out of this station alive?”

She smiled. “Don’t mind them,” she said. “You made them look bad. They’ll get over it.”

“And how about you-are you getting over it?”

“Are you really a private investigator now?” she asked, sidestepping my question.

“After a fashion. I left the Manceford County Sheriff’s Office after-well, after that incident at White Eye’s cabin.” I saw her flinch when I mentioned White Eye. I guess I had my answer. “I couldn’t very well stay on in law enforcement once I refused to testify. So now I do investigative work for the district court system in Triboro. When I want to.”

She gave me an appraising look. “Sheriff Baggett explained that to me,” she said. “Why you wouldn’t testify. I don’t believe I’ve ever thanked you for that.”

I shrugged and immediately regretted it. There were some things my left arm could do, but lifting suddenly wasn’t one of them. “Well, it was my butt, too,” I said. “Until we know we have them all, both of us would have been dreaming about crosshairs for the rest of our lives.”

“Dreaming of crosshairs,” she said softly. “That’s very well put. And are they working it?”

“I think so,” I said, rubbing my arm again. “But of course I’m on the outside now, so I don’t really know.”

“And how about you-are you working it?”

It was my turn to smile. “Oh, yes,” I said. I’d formed a one-man-band consulting company when I left the sheriff’s office, offering myself to handle investigative projects for various court offices. The Major Criminal Apprehension Team, or MCAT, leaderless after I left, had been disbanded, and the team members reassigned within the major crimes division. I’d offered moonlighting jobs to three of my ex-teammates, who all knew the real reasons behind my refusal to testify in the cat dancers case. Together we were quietly assembling a database of candidates for the as yet unapprehended cat dancers.

She nodded, not quite looking at me. She seemed distracted, I thought. Remembering the cave and those big cats hunting them in the dark? My mother had been on antidepressant meds after my father died. She’d been like this. Wistful. Quick to drift. “You called?” I prompted.

She pulled herself together. “Yes, I did. Did you read about the Park Service probationer who was beaten and raped up here in the park? About six weeks ago?”

“Sorry, no,” I said.

“One of ours. New rangers are assigned to an experienced ranger as a mentor when they start their probationary year. Janey Howard was assigned to me. She’d been here almost three months. The chief sent her to one of the backcountry lakes to take water samples. She didn’t come back that afternoon. Once it got dark and we couldn’t raise her on the radio, we launched a search.”

“The local cops join in?”

“Absolutely. Park Service. Carrigan County deputies. Volunteer firefighters from Marionburg. But we concentrated on where she was supposed to have gone. Found her vehicle there, so that’s where we looked. Some hikers found her two days later, wandering down one of the trails, about ten miles from the lake. Wearing nothing but an old blanket. Barefoot. Dehydrated. Beat up. Among other things.”

“Did she get herself loose or did they dump her?”

“No one knows. She doesn’t know. She remembers nothing, which is probably a good thing. She’s home, over in Cherokee County, in Murphy. Her parents are being-very protective.”

“They mad at the Park Service?”

“ ‘We trusted you to take care of her,’” she recited. “ ‘She was supposed to be a park ranger, not a rape victim. Walking tours, nature hikes with the tourists, butterfly lectures, sweet bunny rabbits, bird watching. See Bambi run. That kind of thing. Instead you people sent her off into the deep woods and some twisted bastard got her. What was she doing out there all alone?’”

“Her job, perhaps?” I said.

Mary Ellen sighed. “It is a beautiful park. And we do all of those nice things. But you and I know that evil can get loose in the backcountry from time to time.”

“Do we ever,” I murmured.

She shot me a sideways look. “And,” she continued, “Janey was working very close to Injun country.”

I raised my eyebrows at her. “Meaning?”

“Meaning that she was working up on the edge of Robbins County.”

“Ah.” I’d heard of Robbins County back when I’d been with the Manceford County Sheriff’s Office. The Great Smokies Park extended into both Tennessee and North Carolina. Robbins County enveloped the southeastern boundary of the park on the Carolina side. It was a place where the hill people lived remote and were determined to keep themselves that way. It was also rumored to be the mother lode for methamphetamine in western North Carolina. The Robbins County Sheriff’s Office was also reputed to be a really interesting organization. Their official motto was “Taking care of business.” I’d heard they’d painted that right on the patrol cars.

“Yes,” she said. “Our local sheriff, Bill Hayes, apparently has to ask permission to operate in Robbins County. They were not exactly forthcoming.”

“The Park Service is federal-you don’t have to ask permission.”

“Yes we do, outside of the park. Anyway, we got her back, but that’s all we got. Which is why I called you.”

I leaned back in my chair. “The Park Service has sworn officers. And I would have guessed they’d get the Bureau into it, especially if you guys suspected criminal collusion from local law.”

She hesitated. “It’s complicated,” she said. “It seems our regional director is scared of starting some kind of feud with local mountain people. Send the FBI in and stir up a hornet’s nest of hillbilly outlaws who would then come into the park for recreation involving the tourists. We’re not staffed to cope with that kind of mess. The visitor count is down already because of what happened to Janey Howard.”

“And the visitor count is important?” I asked.

“It determines the budget, among other things. Especially if it goes down because of bad publicity.”

“Does it have a bearing on other things-such as promotions, seniority, performance evaluations?”

She nodded. “What can I say: We’re a federal bureaucracy. Anyway, I thought perhaps you might have some ideas on how we can find out who did this.”

“What’s Sheriff Hayes doing?”

“The Carrigan County people got nowhere in Robbins County, whose sheriff maintains it didn’t happen on his patch. And, of course, if it didn’t happen in Robbins County, then it probably happened in the park.”

“Either way, technically not Hayes’s problem, either.”

“Not his jurisdiction,” she corrected. “He’s mad as hell about it, and they did more than they had to. It’s just-”

“Right,” I said. “Some cases are just no-win for anybody. So you guys want to hire me? Is that it?”

She put a hand to her mouth in surprise. “Us? The Park Service? Oh, no, we can’t do that. I mean-”

I grinned at her. “I know that. I was just teasing. Besides, my name isn’t exactly enshrined in a place of honor here. I thought I was going to have to call for the dogs, the way that ranger was looking at me.”

“You’ve brought them along?”

“Don’t go anywhere without them,” I said. I saw the alarm flicker in her eyes again and mentally kicked myself. “Why don’t we have dinner,” I said. “We can talk about it some more. I may have some ideas for you.”

She appeared to think about it. “I don’t know if that would be such a good idea,” she said finally. “Marionburg is a very small town. And, well-“ She stopped.

And my being here has resurfaced some very bad memories, I thought. Which she was not, apparently, able to expunge. No wonder the rangers were still mad at me. Before the cat dancers case she had been the brightest object at the station.

“Well,” I said, getting up. “I’m assuming there’s still only the one decent place to eat in Marionburg. I’ll be there around eight if you change your mind. Otherwise, I’ll check around a little and then give you a call. Okay?”

She nodded quickly. Too quickly, I thought. I sensed that she wanted me out of there, and that now would be nice. Plus, she was probably embarrassed. I’d driven almost four hours from Triboro, and now she was probably thinking that her call had been a mistake. “Thank you,” she said in a small voice, again not quite looking at me. “And I’m sorry for being such a drag.”

“Don’t beat yourself up, Mary Ellen,” I said gently. “It takes some time. You getting help?”

She nodded. “And you?” she asked. This time she did look at me. The fear was still visible in her eyes. If anything, brighter.

“Scotch at night, the gym during the day, and lots of quality time on the firing range. I’ll be in touch. You stop worrying.”

As I headed out to my Suburban I heard a voice behind me calling my name.

“Lieutenant Richter? A word, please?”

I thought it was the hostile ranger I’d run into when I first arrived, so I turned around very quickly, ready to quash any more bullshit from the hired help. But this ranger was older, and the title on his nameplate read CHIEF RANGER. He stopped abruptly when I spun around.

“Yes?” I said in as official a voice as I could muster. For the record, I’m sixone and I hadn’t been kidding about spending much of the last two years in the gym. The older man had to look up to speak to me.

“I’m Bob Parsons, chief of the station here. My people told me you’d come to see Mary Ellen Goode.”

“That’s right,” I said. I could see two sets of German shepherd ears outlined against the back window of my Suburban. The vehicle’s windows were open and they’d heard my tone of voice. I was about to add that she had called me, but then decided against it.

“My predecessor told me the story,” Parsons said. “About what happened up here and what happened to Mary Ellen.” He paused. “Look, Lieutenant-”

“I’m not a lieutenant anymore,” I said. “I took early retirement from the Manceford County Sheriff’s Office. And I suspect you didn’t get the whole story about what happened.”

Parsons nodded. “Right,” he said quickly. “She said you were a private investigator now.” He hesitated again. “Look,” he said again. “I’m sure there’s stuff I don’t know, and probably don’t need to know. But what I do know is that Mary Ellen is pretty fragile these days. Is it absolutely necessary for you to be here? Can maybe one of us help you instead?”

I considered the question. The chief ranger sounded sincere. “That’ll be up to her, Mr. Parsons,” I said. “For the record, I’m intimately familiar with what she went through. I was there for part of it. And the last thing I want to do is to upset her.”

“Up to her?” Parsons asked, and then he understood. “Ah-she called you?”

“That’s right,” I said.

“Then this is about Janey Howard, isn’t it.”

“Why don’t you ask her, Mr. Parsons. Or you can wait for her to tell you. That actually might be the kinder course of action.”

Parsons shook his head. “The Howard case is complicated, Lieutenant. Very complicated. It involves more than just the Park Service.”

I pretended to be surprised.

Parsons sighed. “We’re not sure where the attack took place. Whether it was in the park or in Robbins County.”

“You are sure about the attack, though?”

“Oh, yes. God, yes. That girl’s lucky to be alive.”

“So. You jailed any bad guys for it?”

Parsons frowned. I suspected he probably did that a lot. “Um, no,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean people have stopped trying.”

“People?”

Parsons avoided the question. “Like I said, it’s complicated. Politically sensitive within the Park Service. I guess what I’m trying to say is you’d be doing everyone a favor if you just went back east. Really, you would.”

“Nice to meet you, Chief Ranger Parsons,” I said. I turned away from the ranger and walked to my vehicle. Parsons stood there for a moment, shook his head, frowned some more, and then walked back into the ranger station.

I took my shepherds for a quick nature walk and then left to find my motel. I wondered how long it would take Parsons to get on the telephone to talk to those mysterious “people,” and how long before they would get in touch with me.

I went into Marionburg and stopped at a grocery store to pick up some supplies for the cabin. Then I drove around the area for half an hour, refreshing my bearings and making sure I remembered where the restaurant was. There was actually quite a bit of traffic. Marionburg was the county seat of Carrigan County and had maybe eight thousand permanent residents. There was one main drag with mostly tourism-oriented shops and restaurants, a center square with the county offices, and rustic-looking residential neighborhoods.

It being early fall, rooms on short notice had been very scarce anywhere near the Smoky Mountains National Park, so I’d ended up acquiring the so-called bridal suite at the Blue Mountains Lodge on the south side of town. It was available because it cost a small fortune to rent it, but since money wasn’t something I had to worry about anymore, I said yes. When I’d told the reservations clerk that I might want the cabin for an entire month, there had been no objections. Weekly rate times four, bride not included.

The lodge featured a standard, two-story motel building next to the road and several outlying cabins in the back for guests who wanted extended stays. The complex was situated on a low bluff overlooking a wide, tree-lined mountain stream. I checked in at the front office at five thirty and then drove around the motel building into the lower parking lot. The cabins were stair-stepped along the creek, and according to the diagram, the bridal suite was at the very end of the left-hand row of cabins. The lower parking lot was almost empty. I surmised that the rest of the guests were still out whitewater rafting, hiking, trail riding, fishing, or even gambling over on the Cherokee Reservation.

I nosed the Suburban into the curb and was about to shut down when another vehicle slid close in alongside mine, so close that I could not have opened my door more than about four inches. It was another Suburban, as big as mine, and there were three men inside. The dogs were alarmed and I gave them a down command. The two windows on the other vehicle’s right side slid down. I lowered my driver’s-side window and looked over at the man in the right front seat. He was middle-aged and extremely hairy-beard, mustache, and a wild mop of grayish black hair on top folded into a ponytail behind. He wore a multicolored hippie headband and dark glasses on a neck rope. He was fox-faced and reminded me of some of the lawyers I’d encountered out riding their weekend Harleys when I’d been a cop. This guy’s coolly superior expression told me they were probably federal drug agents.

“You’re blocking my door,” I said. One of the men in back, dressed more conventionally in a khaki windbreaker and ball cap, snorted out a laugh.

“We need to talk to you,” fox-face said. “You’re Lieutenant Richter, am I right?”

“You’re blocking my door,” I said again. “Back up, please.”

“We’ll back up when we’re good and fucking ready to, Lieutenant. Oh, I guess I forgot, you’re not a lieutenant anymore, are you.”

“Once more, with feeling,” I said. “Back up.”

Fox-face grinned and raised a set of credentials for me to admire. “DEA,” he announced. “And we’re here to invite you to stay away from the Janey Howard case. We think you’re not qualified, not authorized, and not wanted here.”

“You’ve got me confused,” I said calmly.

“What?”

“With someone who gives a shit about what you think about anything. Back up, please.”

“In case you’ve forgotten, Mister Richter,” fox-face snapped, “you’re not a cop anymore. In fact, some people think you were a bent cop. If you’d like, we can reinforce that notion locally. So why don’t you leave? You know, easy way or hard way?”

“Let’s try my way,” I said, and then I punched down the left rear window button and gave a sharp command. The two German shepherds launched serially through the window directly into the other car, where they proceeded to cry havoc. They barked, roared, growled, snapped, slobbered, and pounced between the front and back seats until all three occupants had submerged from sight. I recalled them with a whistle and they happily jumped back into my Suburban, looking very pleased with themselves. The whole thing had taken maybe twenty seconds. Longer for some than others, I thought.

I backed my Suburban away from the DEA-mobile, where no heads had yet reappeared, and parked it about twenty feet away. I let the dogs out and told them to watch the agents’ vehicle. They sat down ten feet away from it. The first head to pop up was the driver’s, whose white-faced visage was greeted with angry barking and raised hackles. The man quickly raised his window and then backed the car all the way out to the ramp leading to the upper parking lot. I watched them go. I wondered if I should wave, but decided not to. Once they’d changed underwear and showered, they’d discover that no one had actually been bitten. That would probably make them really unhappy. Crying shame.

The bridal suite cabin was appropriately designed. It was perched on a large rock that overhung the creek and was separated from the nearest cabin by a thick stand of Leyland cypress. It had all the important bases covered: an enormous bed in the single bedroom; three refrigerators, one each in the bedroom, living room, and kitchen; a large screened porch extending over a small waterfall with yet another bed. There was a pine-paneled living room, complete with a heavily padded bearskin rug and a huge stone fireplace. The bathroom had a large hot tub, which had a built-in cooler within easy reach. Each of the refrigerators was a fully stocked minibar, including the one in the kitchen. The bedroom had a large-screen TV and a stereo system that had been wired throughout the cabin. There did not appear to be any telephones. There was an interesting DVD collection stacked inside some kind of vending cabinet.

The shepherds looked at me as if to ask, And where do we go? I was tempted to put them back in my Suburban. On the other hand, they had done a firstclass monster mash on the uppity DEA guys. I went back out to the Suburban and got their dog beds. The shepherds were called Frick and Frack. My dog-aficionado friends had been appalled at the names, but they had the advantage of sounding different, dog commands being mostly an audio business. Frick was a sable spayed female, about eighty pounds and fairly intense. Frack was an all-black East German border guard number, an easy hundred pounds plus, whose specialty was sitting down and staring with those big amber eyes of his, which seemed to scare the shit out of most people. I set them up on the screened front porch and told them to watch for bad guys. Frick immediately assumed the alert; Frack, not one to sweat the load, yawned and lay down for a nap.

I’d been wrong about the phone. I hunted down the chirping noises and found it stashed inside a tiny pantry closet in the kitchen. I picked it up. Fox-face was back.

“I suppose you think that was funny,” he said. “I could have you arrested for assaulting federal officers.”

“I didn’t assault anybody,” I said. “My dogs may have gone to investigate some impolite assholes who didn’t know how to park their car.”

There was silence on the line. I made a quick decision: I couldn’t operate up here if the feds went to the local sheriff and made trouble.

“You have a name in addition to ‘special agent’?” I asked.

“Greenberg.”

“Okay, Special Agent Greenberg. You want to sit down and have a conversation like an adult, I’m willing to meet with you. But enough of this Miami Vice bullshit.”

I heard Greenberg take a deep breath. “Okay,” he said. “Where and when?”

“You’ve got this number, so you know where I am. I’ll meet with you here. Lose the other clowns. Whenever you’re ready.” I hung up.

Greenberg knocked on the front screen door about ten minutes later. Both shepherds watched him but did not otherwise react. Greenberg watched them very carefully. I gave the dogs a command and then let Greenberg in. The DEA agent was actually kind of short, maybe five-six in his stocking feet, made two inches taller with the aid of expensive-looking cowboy boots. He wore jeans and a truly repulsive untucked Hawaiian shirt. He was broad-shouldered, though, and I thought he’d probably be dangerous in a street fight. Little guys built like this often were. He seemed full of nervous energy, eyes flitting this way and that as he checked his perimeters.

“Scotch okay?” I asked as we sat down on the screened porch over the creek.

Greenberg relaxed fractionally and nodded. I poured. The agent asked if he could smoke, and I said sure. “What is this place?” Greenberg asked. “You’ve got beds everywhere.”

“Honeymoon suite,” I said. “Only thing available on short notice.”

Greenberg grunted. I tipped my glass at him. “Shall we start over?”

The agent sipped some scotch and nodded. “I apologize for that bullshit in the parking lot,” he said. “That was unprofessional.”

“I apologize for setting my dogs on you.”

Greenberg nodded solemnly and then, surprising me, grinned. “That was fucking amazing,” he said. “All three of us are armed to the teeth-belt guns, ankle guns, knives-and nobody even thought about going for a weapon. And then they were just-gone.”

“It takes some training,” I said. “I take it Chief Ranger Parsons called you?”

Greenberg nodded. “He’s apparently a bit of a politician. Your being here has his wires humming. Puppets hate that.”

“Okay,” I said. “Let me tell you why I’m here.”

I explained the background of my relationship with Ranger Dr. Mary Ellen Goode. How she had been drawn into the cat dancers case while I was still with the Manceford County Sheriff’s Office. How she had been taken hostage and held for several days in a cave in the mountains strapped into a homemade electric chair, and how she and I had fought our way out of the cave while being pursued by two starving captive mountain lions.

“Not exactly a great first date,” I said. “She had the living shit scared out of her, and she’s just now getting over it.”

Greenberg sipped some more scotch. “What’s with this dirty-cop rap, then?” he asked. “We checked you out with the Bureau guys in Charlotte after Parsons called. They said you refused to testify in that mountain lion thing.”

“True. And the reason for that is that some of the bad guys involved are still at large. We’re talking local Carolina law and maybe even some feds. Their wire-woman offered us a deal: We both go radio-silent, and there’d be no long guns in the night for Ranger Goode. Otherwise…”

Greenberg nodded. “That reads. I heard some weird shit about that whole business. Heard you became a millionaire when that judge got clipped in Triboro?”

“That judge was my ex-wife. We’d gotten back together when that happened. Frankly, I’d rather have her back.”

“Oh,” he said. “That why people think you took a fall?”

“My boss in Manceford County had some good advice. He said my enemies would think the worst, and my friends would know better. What strangers thought didn’t make a shit either way.”

Greenberg considered that for a moment. “So why’d she call you?” he asked. His left foot was doing this tapping routine, and I wondered if maybe this guy had gotten a little too close to his trade. He was positively wired.

“Like you said, she called me. Said that the Howard case has gone cold and that the Park Service head-shed is afraid of stirring up the ten-gauge, black-hat crowd in Robbins County. Local law here isn’t on speaking terms with the sheriff next door. She basically asked me to look around.”

“You licensed?”

I nodded.

“Okay,” Greenberg said. “My turn. We got called into the Howard case because the Park Service thought she’d maybe stumbled onto a meth pit. There’s never been a case of a park ranger being assaulted up here, not like that, anyway.”

“You think that’s what happened?”

“Who the fuck knows-we’ve got zip-point-shit. That girl was so traumatized she can barely remember her name, so we don’t even know where the hell it happened, in the park or in Robbins County. Which is definitely a place of interest.”

“Meth?” I asked, knowing the answer.

“Meth, indeed,” Greenberg said. “It’s becoming a fucking epidemic. No, not becoming-we’re there. And most of the crank in this region is coming out of these here hills; apparently it beats the shit out of picking ginseng roots when you’re looking for cash money.”

“How in the world can the DEA infiltrate the coves and the hollers in these mountains?”

Greenberg finished his scotch. I pointed at the bottle, but he shook his head. “Short answer-we can’t, of course. Oh, we can do the usual techie shit: night flights looking for infrared plumes, analysis of geo-science satellite imagery, the occasional roadblock collar. But going among the great unwashed, undercover? Fuh-geddabout it. All my guys have most of their teeth and can speak using the occasional two-syllable word.”

“So how do you work it?”

“We look for an angle, anything that can justify us going into Robbins County.”

“Like the Howard assault?”

“That would be nice. If we can’t get a search warrant based on a rumored drug deal, we get one in connection with an ongoing investigation of this assault on a federal officer. Or we can sample creeks and lakes where they throw their used chemicals and then file environmental charges. Anything we can hang our hats on. Which, admittedly, ain’t much.”

“And the last thing you need is for some Lone Ranger to come in and stir the pot.”

“Right again.”

“Unless maybe I stir it your way?”

Greenberg sat up and gave me a thoughtful look. “You made your manners with Sheriff Bill Hayes yet?” he asked.

“First thing tomorrow morning,” I said. “We’ve met before.”

“Why don’t you do that,” Greenberg said, fishing out one of his cards. “See how much he’ll reveal about the local two-legged wildlife. Especially next door in wild and wonderful Robbins County. If he gives you the okay to work his patch, then maybe you and I can do some business. How’s that sound?”

“Like the makings of a deal, Special Agent. By the way, my name’s Cam.”

Greenberg nodded and got up. “Name’s Ruthe,” he said, looking me right in the eye.

“Ruth.”

“That’s right. But with an e on the end.”

“And if I say anything at all, I’m going to get hurt.”

“Yup.”

“Lemme guess-you go in low and fast.”

“Drop to one knee, left hook into their nuts, and then I stand up as their face comes forward and down. Trick is to remember to keep your teeth together.”

“Ruth.”

“Yup.”

“Nickname?”

“Can’t you guess?”

I thought for a second. “Baby?”

“There you go.”

I nodded, trying not to grin. I thought we were going to get along. “So, Special Agent Ruthe Greenberg, glad to meet you.”

“Look,” Greenberg said. “One thing I’ve learned up here is that the outlaws are networked better than fucking IBM. Dollars to doughnuts somebody who cares already knows you’re on their web.”

“We hear you,” I said.

Greenberg glanced toward the front room and rubbed his beard. “I hear you,” he said. “But one of my guys stopped on the road to nosh a greaseburger two weeks ago? Little roadside pull-off, you know, park benches, trees, burbling fucking brook? He’s sitting there, scarfing fries, and this. 65-caliber Civil War minie ball comes down the mountain and blows up his Happy Meal bag.”

“One of those ‘we could have if we’d wanted to’ love notes?”

“Right. Bullet first, then the boom. Three-, four-hundred-yard shot.”

“Long guns are the scariest,” I said.

“Okay, then, just so you know,” Greenberg said. “They like to reach out and touch someone once in a while. Call me.”

“Call you what, exactly?” I asked.

Greenberg grinned, cocked and fired a finger gun at me, and left. After he’d gone, I wondered if that had been too easy. Most of the information flow had come from me, not Greenberg. On the other hand, the meth problem nationwide was big and getting bigger, so it made sense for the DEA to be out here along the Georgia-North Carolina-Tennessee wilderness nexus. I made a mental note to see if any of my friends in the North Carolina SBI knew “Baby” Greenberg. Either way, the chances were good that the DEA guys would try to use me to their best advantage. Fair enough, I thought. I was perfectly capable of using them right back.

The setting sun had made the porch uncomfortably warm, so I decided to go down to the creek bank, find a rock, and put my feet in the water. As I was sitting on my rock, enjoying the sunset and my scotch, I saw a figure coming down the creek who appeared to be walking on the water. I checked to see how much scotch I’d had and then realized he was wading in the water. I couldn’t make out his features because he was up-sun and there was one hell of a glare in that pristine mountain air. He was wearing hip waders and carrying what looked like a mesh laundry bag and a stick. I realized he was fishing for trash in the creek and, based on the lump of debris in the bag, succeeding.

When he got about ten feet away, I finally said howdy. He turned to see where I was, and I just had to stare. He had the face that you see on the back of a buffalo nickel, and I mean identical-the stereotypical American Indian face, complete with sculpted nose, thick lips, pointed cheekbones, and pretty much the same expression. It was such a resemblance that he was probably not surprised by my reaction.

“Scary, isn’t it?” he said with a small smile, resting on his pickup stick for a moment. I had to laugh. He was heavy in the chest and shoulders and had to be at least six-foot-something in height. He had jet black hair pulled back in a short ponytail and was wearing a buckskin shirt above the rubber waders. I had half-expected a grunt or even a Hollywood “How,” but his accent was not even remotely western Carolina. The shepherds appeared just then from the underbrush and looked him over.

“Nice dogs,” he said. “You staying here at the lodge?”

I said yes and asked him what he was doing out there in the creek.

“My contribution to the environment,” he said, shifting his weight from foot to foot. That water had to be very cold. “All this natural beauty, people come out here, gawk at it, ooh and aah, then throw their shit in the creek.” He glanced at the drink in my hand.

“Scotch,” I said. “Join me?”

“Absolutely,” he said, wading over to my side of the creek. He sat down on a rock and began to undo the elaborate wader rig. I went up to the cabin and got another glass and the bottle. The shepherds stayed with me up and back. He was sitting on a dry rock when I got back down to the bank. He was wearing what looked like two sets of red woolen long Johns and extra-thick socks, and the boots and waders were piled in a sodden heap beside him. He accepted the drink gratefully and knocked half of it back, following up with a satisfied sigh. Up close, I could see that he was probably in his late fifties, if not sixty. His face was permanently tanned, telling me he spent all of his time outdoors.

“Perfect,” he announced. “I needed that.”

“You live up here?”

“Retired,” he said. “Came from these parts about a hundred years ago. Robbins County, actually, right next door.”

“You don’t sound like western Carolina,” I said. The shepherds sat behind us; from their posture, it was plain they hadn’t made up their minds yet about this guy. It was hard not to stare at that face; it was just such a perfect resemblance to the Fraser sculpture.

“Got the hell out, like most folks who had the chance and half a brain,” he said. “How about you?”

I told him I was retired from the Manceford County sheriff’s office back in Triboro.

“Don’t look old enough,” he said, eyeing me as he finished the scotch. I offered him a refill, but he shook his head. “Thanks, gotta drive my Harley.”

“I thought a snoot-full was a prerequisite for righteous hog wrangling.”

“A snoot-full and a Harley is a summons for the undertaker,” he said.

“They come after you for reenactments up at that Cherokee Village?” I asked.

“All the time,” he said, chuckling. “I don’t, but I do go downtown sometimes and do my wise old Indian act when I’m looking to pick up women.” He grinned and suddenly looked ten years younger. Retirement was agreeing with him.

“What brings you up here?” he asked. “Vacation?”

“I do a little consulting work on the side for the courts back east,” I said. “A friend needed some help with something, asked me to come up.”

He nodded, but didn’t pursue it. “I do private guide work in the backcountry of the Smokies,” he said. “Name’s Mose, by the way. Mose Walsh.”

“Cam Richter,” I said. “Those guys behind us are Frick and Frack.”

He laughed out loud. “They must hate you for that.”

“No, it’s a sound thing. Easy name differentiation for commands.”

He looked over his shoulder at the shepherds, who looked back. “Keep ’em with you all the time?”

I nodded.

“Good deal,” he said. “Especially for a cop. I had a shepherd once. He got eaten by something in the woods. Bear, feral pig, I don’t know what, maybe even a big cat.”

I felt a tingle on the back of my neck. “Big cat? You mean like mountain lion?”

He shook his head. “Folks say they’re out there, but I’ve never seen any real sign of’em. Too bad, in a way. Some’a these tourists would be more respectful of the park if there was something out there could eat ’em.”

“People keep saying they’ve seen big cats,” I said.

“The park rangers are hard-over on that subject,” he said. “The big ones are long gone. No, if it was a cat got Kraut, it was probably a bobcat. Damned dog liked to corner woods critters. Something cornered him back, that’s all.”

I thought about telling him about my own experiences with some all too real mountain lions out there, but decided not to. It was history best left alone. Then I remembered what Greenberg had said about Robbins County, and I asked Mose about that.

“Robbins County is a place unto itself,” he said. “Me, I keep to the park.”

“I ran into some DEA guys this afternoon,” I said. “They make Robbins County sound like, um-”

“Injun country?” he said with a mock suspicious look on his face. Then we both laughed. That was exactly what I’d been about to say.

“Most of that county is classified as state game lands,” he said. “Hunters go up there more than tourists; you just have to be circumspect about what you see sometimes.”

“How long you been guiding?”

“Going on ten years now. Made a nice change. You found your chapter two yet?”

“Not really,” I said. “Still figuring it out.”

“Well,” he said, getting up from his rock. “Thanks much for the firewater. You ever need some guide services, give me a holler. Moses Walsh, Esquire. I’m in the book.”

“Esquire-you a lawyer?”

“Na-ah,” he said. “The ‘esquire’ keeps those pesky telemarketers away.” He grinned again, and I said good-bye. He gathered up his wet gear, the bag, and the stick and headed up the gravel walk toward the parking lot, looking faintly ridiculous in those baggy red long Johns. A couple of teenaged girls were on the pathway. They stared at him as he lumbered by them. He raised his right hand and gave them a very convincing Big Chief grunt as he passed them, and they broke into fits of giggles. A minute later I heard the unmistakable rumble of a Harley firing up in the parking lot. Sitting Bull on a Harley; that must make quite a sight.

At nine, I was finishing dinner in town when Mary Ellen Goode came into the bar and looked into the dining room. I waved her over. Despite those shadows under her eyes, she was still pretty enough to cause most of the men in the dining room to fumble what they were doing. She was wearing jeans and a shortsleeved blouse, and she was definitely thinner than the last time I’d seen her. Her face exuded that slightly haunted, lingering, longing look. But not for me, I suddenly realized. I started to get up, but she waved me down and slid into a chair.

“You’re bigger than I remembered,” she said. “Weights?”

I nodded. “After I left the sheriff’s office I was really feeling sorry for myself. Left under a professional cloud, my best buddy dead up in the mountains somewhere, and an unknown number of the bad guys still out there. The sheriff came by one evening and was unsympathetic. Next day one of the SWAT team supervisors showed up and hauled my sorry ass down to his gym. Introduced me to the notion of applied pain as therapy.”

“Did it help the arm?”

“Actually, it did. I was mostly doing the Napoleon bit after the incident, but now I can hold a glass when I pour my scotch. But you’re right-two years of free weights and you tend to bulk up. Had to buy all new clothes. How about you?”

She smiled. It did wonders for her face, but it wasn’t the dazzling, sunny smile I remembered from when I’d first met her. “I came back to work after a month’s leave. Told my boss everything. Big mistake. They wanted to transfer me out west, or to Washington headquarters. I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving the Smokies.”

“So then they, what-put you in a cocoon?”

“Exactly. I was having trouble sleeping, so they sent me to a counselor. He fell in love, or at least lust, and I had to disentangle myself from that mess. If I wanted to go out to the backcountry they always sent someone along. That screwed up the duty rotation, had people standing extra duty. I thought about quitting, but what else would I do? I had no idea.”

“I know the feeling,” I said. “I was a cop. That’s a job that defines you in today’s society. Now I’m supposed to be some kind of private eye and I feel a little ridiculous most of the time. Plus, everyone knows I don’t have to work anymore.”

“So the big bucks came to pass, then?”

“Boy, did they ever. Even after taxes and grasping lawyers, it was a hell of a lot of money. You eaten?”

She shook her head. “I typically have a late lunch and leave it at that.”

I talked her into dessert and coffee, and we talked about the past two years. She had written me a letter after the dust settled that seemed to invite a relationship, but it hadn’t panned out. I’d been too busy reestablishing my identity to get away from Triboro, and she had become increasingly reclusive. I asked her why she really wanted me to look into the Janey Howard incident.

“It’s become a political football,” she said. “The incident involved two counties and the national park, and no one wants to own it. Meanwhile Janey is a whimpering wreck over in Murphy, and, of course, she’s provided zero useful information. Her parents finally got disgusted and told everyone to go away. She was my newbie, and I feel responsible.”

“What’d the investigation reveal?”

“Not much. We found her Jeep and tracked around the lake with dogs, but it had rained and they got nowhere.”

“What kind of dogs?”

“Labs, as I remember.”

I snorted; I despised Labs. Blockheaded, passive-aggressive lumps, every one.

“Anyway, she was found some miles away from the lake, so she may have been abducted, taken somewhere, and then assaulted.”

“And she’s said nothing?”

“One of the EMTs reported she said two words on the way to the hospital-‘hangman’ and ‘grinning.’”

I sighed. “Not much. Almost sounds like that tarot stuff.”

She touched my hand. “You can forget the whole thing if you’d like to,” she said. “At least three authorities did look and came up with zero. I’ve no right to impose on you this way.”

At that moment she looked over my shoulder and withdrew her hand. I turned to see the young ranger who had been so unfriendly earlier come in and give Mary Ellen a disapproving look as he went into the bar. “Oh-oh,” I said. “You’ve been spotted consorting with the devil.”

“They’re just being protective, Cam,” she said.

“Well, let’s face it, Mary Ellen-last time I came out to these parts two people died and you were taken hostage. I guess I can see their point.”

“That case was very different,” she said. “This was just a straightforward assault.”

Ain’t no such thing, I thought. Especially up here in the western Carolina mountains.