Fatalis

Chapter Sixty-Four

By the time Hannah and the Wall reached Grand, the scientist was just getting back onto his feet Hannah didn't have to ask what had caused him to cry out. She saw for herself. The sight was vulgar and revolting. In addition to the one bloody cat in the sung, she saw others lying around the ridge. It was disturbing enough to be around death but it was more disturbing to be present for an extinction. Hannah wasn't a religious woman but the air felt chill and its whistle seemed mournful. She could swear she felt God frowning. Or Nature.

Something.

The Wall snapped several pictures. The small, quick click of the shutter made the deaths seem more real, more tragic. It made Hannah think of the Chumash artists who had put so much effort into rendering animal likenesses on the cave walls. They made the paints, maybe spent hours getting in touch with the animal spirits, then sketched what they felt. They put living images on the cold stone. The Wall's images were of death.

They climbed the mountain, though their movements were now a blur. The smell of sinkholes being paved on nearby Route 166 wafted over. All Hannah could think about was the loss of these last surviving members of a magnificent race. She could only begin to imagine what was going through Grand's heart and mind.

When the trio finally reached the site it was worse than Hannah had imagined. Army National guardsmen were milling about different sections of the ridge. There were four dead cats still on the ridge and four red-flag markers near them. That meant human bodies had been removed from those spots. She wondered, coldly, whether those deaths had been what drew Gearhart to the ridge or whether they were a result of the sheriff having attacked the cats.

Grand reached the ridge first and ran toward the nearest of the cats. One of the National guardsmen moved to intercept him; Grand knocked him aside. Two other soldiers rushed forward to grab him. Grand reached the nearest of the cats before the men got to him. The soldiers tried to pick him up by his arms but Grand shook them off and stood.

"Leave him!" Gearhart shouted.

The soldiers stepped back as the sheriff approached. Grand crouched beside the cat. Hannah and the Wall arrived as Gearhart did. The photographer immediately started snapping pictures in case they were chased away. But Gearhart didn't seem to mind. To the contrary. He was obviously pleased with himself and seemed almost to be inviting coverage of his grotesque triumph.

Gearhart stood on the other side of the dead cat. He spoke loudly to be heard over the chopper.

"This is a restricted area," the sheriff yelled, then looked at Hannah. "But I'll tell you what. If you want some good shots, some really choice pictures that are sure to sell papers, go to the base camp where we've evac'ed the bodies of the guardsmen and my deputy. You'll spot them easy enough. They're the ones that look like sharkfood."

Hannah watched as Grand touched the cat-its ear, then its muzzle, then its bloody shoulder. She'd once seen her father's groom touch a sick horse the same way, with tenderness and great sadness. Hannah wished there were something she could do for Grand.

"You didn't have to do this," Grand said.

"No?"

"You see what these animals are now-"

"Yeah. Killers."

"And what are you?" Hannah asked. "Why don't you ask the people in town?" Gearhart said. "Ask the families of Roche and Greene, if they'll talk to you. Ask the Rangers who work in the mountains. See if they agree with you."

Grand's hand moved along the lithe, muscular body. "It still didn't have to end this way. It wasn't necessary to kill them or lose any men."

Gearhart squatted and looked into Grand's eyes. "Is that your professional police opinion?"

Grand looked at the blood on his hand. "It's a fact."

"Is it? Sorry, but you were only batting.333 in your own field. There were more than two cats, you got that right. But you had the direction they were moving wrong and they came out in daylight." Gearhart reached across his body and slipped the hunting knife from his belt. "Deputy Bright was part of the unit up here. He had a wife and a young son who adored him." Gearhart wrapped his fingers around the cat's foot-long tail. Then he slid the knife underneath it and sawed across the base of the tail.

"Oh Christ don't-!" Hannah said.

The tail came free. Gearhart held it replaced the knife, and stood.

Grand just stared at him.

"I know Mrs. Bright very well," Gearhart said, "and I don't give a good goddamn whether the animal rights people picket my office round the clock, throw red paint at my house, or build a shrine up here and burn me in effigy. I don't care whether I get voted out of office and run out of town. Knowing that I did my duty here is the only thing that matters."

"Is it?" Grand asked.

"It is."

Grand's eyes swept across the ridge and then he looked back at Gearhart The scientist stood and walked over to the cat that was being loaded onto the sling. He examined it and then he looked at the other cats. Finally, he walked back to Gearhart.

"You know what really matters, Sheriff?" Grand asked. "Patience. It gets you everything. Respect, cooperation, and most important-knowledge."

"What are you talking about?" Gearhart asked.

"Killing these cats may have created a bigger problem. They're just part of a larger group."

"You mean, the Chumash painting of the eyes?" Hannah asked.

"Not just that," Grand said. "The other group is almost certainly moving southeast, as I said. These cats were here for another reason."

"How do you know that?" Gearhart asked.

"A little zoological police work."

"Grand, don't fuck with me-"

"I'm not," Grand said. "I'm telling you that the worst is still to come. These dead cats are all female."

"So?"

Grand said, "The cats Hannah and I faced in the pipe were males."