Twenty-six
Abe returned home from his nightmare rendezvous with
King to find Noah, Ella May and Evie missing. He knew Lazarus was lying
about the circumstances surrounding their disappearance, but he did not
suspect the extent of the lie, or the treachery, until word arrived the
next morning of Noah’s death. Three bodies had been found in a subcompact
parked in the drive to the local mortuary. The bodies had been taken
inside, and the sheriff’s office had been called. Krueger’s deputies had
quickly identified the dead men. The car itself, he was told, had disappeared
before they arrived.
From that point on, Abe knew that Lazarus and Noah
had locked horns with Billy Trevor. Sheriff Krueger had agreed to
accompany him to the Trevor mansion to question Billy Trevor, but the
sheriff had first checked on reports that Ella May’s grocery store had
been left unlocked during the night. Following a search of the area about
the store, Sheriff Krueger had found Ella May’s body in the well.
Ella May’s death had been more than Abe could take.
He had toyed with the idea of killing himself. Instead, he had drank
himself to near oblivion and then returned home to systematically beat
Lazarus Darker to death. He regained consciousness in jail two days
later, not certain whether or not he had succeeded.
At the end of the second day of imprisonment, Delaney
had him released. “I warned you,” Delaney said on the three block walk to
the motel. “It ain’t gonna be easy dealing with King, but hold it
together, my friend. Just try your best to hold it together.”
King was in town and waiting for him, accompanied by
three armed guards in one of the sparsely furnished cabins. King was a
giant of a man who dipped his head each time he passed through a door
frame. Bull-necked, bald-headed and without eyebrows, he had eyes like a
snake, a button nose, and a broad, lipless mouth. And he had teeth of
steel that had tasted human flesh upon more than one occasion.
“You were arrested by local authorities and jailed,”
King stated when Abe stood before the man. “My condolences on the death
of your brother Noah Darker. My condolences on the death of your woman,
the one they called Ella May.”
Abe nodded slightly in acknowledgement.
“I hear you were arrested while attempting to beat
your brother Lazarus to death. I have been told that Lazarus may be
responsible for the death of your Ella May, and indirectly responsible for
the death of Noah.”
Abe kept his eyes lowered, although King held no
terror for him in that moment. His very existence had ceased to be of any
value to him.
“I have heard, too, that three men have been killed
attempting to break into that house on the hill on the south edge of
town. Delaney, are my sources of information correct?”
“The Trevor mansion,” Delaney said, moving to stand
at Abe’s side. “Yes, sir.”
“The house is occupied by Billy Trevor and Evelyn
Darker, Abraham’s sister,” King said, continuing to rattle off the
sequence of facts and events.
“We can’t be certain that Evie’s with him,” Delaney
said. “It seems likely, though.”
“Noah Darker tried to kill Billy Trevor in
retaliation for the death of his father some twelve or so years ago. Do I
have that right?”
“Essentially, yes, sir.”
“And did I hear correctly that the bodies of these
three men were delivered to Abraham’s doorstep, that this Billy Trevor
made no effort whatsoever to contact the authorities and report the
incident?”
“The bodies were delivered to the mortuary, but it
doesn’t look as if the authorities aside from the sheriff were notified.”
“Peter Barkley is the local mortician?”
“Yes, sir.”
“The county sheriff is a friend of ours, I hear.”
“He’s in on the operation,” Delaney said. “As far as
anyone’s gonna know officially, they rolled their car on the highway, Noah
and Jake Estevez and Frank Boker. Jake and Frank have no family.
Nobody’s going to pay them much mind. Noah gets buried as soon as we can
get around to it.”
“Curious fellow, this Billy Trevor. He sounds like
trouble.”
“That he could be,” Delaney admitted.
“I think our associate Abraham Darker here should
have the opportunity to deal with this mysterious individual who has
proven a catalyst for so much turmoil in the community. He should have
the opportunity to show that he can rise above these personal tragedies
and fulfill his commitment to us. It’s unfortunate that his sister’s life
may be at risk, but our priorities dictate specific courses of action.”
King put his hand on Abraham’s shoulder. “I don’t
want your brother Lazarus dead just yet. He may still be of use to me.
But tell me, Abraham Darker—speak for yourself now—I hear that you are a
veteran of the military, and that you’ve had some combat experience.”
It amazed Abe that King could overlook his
catastrophic failure to control events in Silver Ridge and question him on
such trivial matters. But there was still enough fight left in him to
accept the escape route King was offering. If he was going to die, he
wanted to die by his own hand, not with the barrel of Delaney’s gun shoved
in his mouth. “I’ve been through basic training for the National Guard,”
he said. “That was almost ten years ago. I’ve had no actual combat
experience.”
“But you’ve been trained in the operation of small
arms, rifles and perhaps shoulder-fired rocket launchers?”
“Yes, sir, I’ve had some experience with small arms.”
“Then I have just the solution to our problem. Go
home. Wait until dark. Someone will deliver the means of resolving the
snag to our operations in Silver Ridge. I want this obstacle to be
removed and repercussions to resolve themselves by the time our special
merchandise arrives for shipment to its northern destination. Otherwise,
despite the extensive plans that have been laid, I will have to take my
business elsewhere. I would, of course, be forced to cancel our
contract.”
“That shouldn’t be necessary,” Abe said tersely.
“Not if I have the chance to deal with Trevor.”
“In the meanwhile, I will keep Lazarus with me.
Later, perhaps, we will discuss his value to us, if any, and how we should
deal with the burden he has become. Delaney will accompany you and
evaluate your performance on the mission I have assigned you.”
King removed his hands from Abe’s shoulder. Abe
stumbled back. Delaney gestured with a curt nod for Abe to leave.
He felt cold and empty during the walk in the cool,
but sunny afternoon. His repertoire of emotion was a narrow one at best,
ranging from the hollow feeling in his gut that he felt learning of Noah’s
and Ella May’s death to the cold, clean anger of Lazarus’ betrayal. The
irritating restlessness that plagued him was fear, and Abraham Darker
feared only two things. He feared death, and he feared the unknown, any
unknown that went beyond his personal experience. Both King and Billy
Trevor fell into that gray area. They were elements of the outside world
that should never have intruded upon the simple existence of Silver
Ridge. But from the very beginning, he should never have let his greed
get the best of him.
Delaney arrived at the house after dark. Abe paced
the front porch until two men in a van arrived and set a wooden crate
painted a military olive drab on the front steps. They left without
offering an explanation, forcing Abe to turn to Delaney for one. “King
wants you to figure it out on your own and take action on your own
initiative,” Delaney said. “If you can do it, you’ll survive this mess.”
From a distance, the crate appeared to be U.S. Army
issue, but the markings on the crate were unintelligible. The olive drab
was a shade too dark, and the wooden box was some kind of plastic and not
wood at all. Abe knelt alongside the crate and ran his fingers along the
seam of the lid. Four latches clicked open at a touch. The lid opened to
reveal a rocket launcher nestled in a contoured block of foam rubber.
Luminescent printing on the side of the half foot launcher tube glowed
brightly in the darkness.
TO FIRE: EXTRACT PIN ATTACHED TO RED RING
SIGHT TARGET
DEPRESS TRIGGER
WARNING: USE NIGHTSIGHT EYE PROTECTION
KILL RADIUS: .25 KILOMETER
The launcher was feather light. Caps on each end
read, LEAVE IN PLACE WHEN FIRING. He hoisted the unlikely weapon onto his
shoulder and looked through the dual eyepieces of a sighting device. The
night beyond shone in vivid shades of green as bright as daylight. The
crosshairs shone in fluorescent orange. Even the red ring dangling from
the rear of the tube glowed brightly. Redundant lettering read: EXTRACT
TO ARM.
“Fucking starwars shit,” Abe muttered, his heart
pounding alarmingly. Everything about King from day one had been
unlikely. King was unreal, moving through the world like a grim reaper,
swinging his scythe through any and all obstacles in his path. Despite
the horror stories he had heard of King’s reputation, and the example he
had witnessed for himself, none of it was more unlikely than the
sophisticated rocket launcher he held in his hands.
“I don’t understand,” he said to Delaney who was
standing over him. “Billy Trevor’s just a kid. He’s our problem, not
yours. Why would King want me to blow up the whole damned castle?”
“If King wants that fancy house on the hill blown,
you blow it. Leave King’s reasoning to King.”
Abe rose to his feet in a fury of indignation.
“We’ll draw in every fire and law enforcement department from fifty miles
around, the state police, and God only knows how many Trevors. They’ll
shut the die casting plant down and bring Silver Ridge to its knees!”
Delaney gave him a sick grin. “Buy a new plant.
You’ll be able to afford it.”
Abe put the weapon away and resealed the case. He
set aside his reservations. He would do as he had been told. If he
failed to satisfy the monster, what was left of the Darker clan would die
by King’s hand, and Abe had no intention of allowing that to happen.
He lifted the crate by its soft plastic handle and
carried it to the old pickup he had bought at the saloon to replace the
one Lazarus had burned at the mill. He drove through the quiet evening to
the iron gate and parked the truck. Delaney pulled up behind him in his
own car.
Abe got out and hoisted the crate from the bed of the
truck to the ground, unlatched it, and put the launcher to his shoulder.
He elevated the weapon to put the mansion in the crosshairs, but doubted
that anything small enough to fit in a plastic tube could have such range,
or be destructive enough to blow out more than a single room of the large
house. The bedrooms would be upstairs. He’d aim for a darkened
downstairs room. Evie would go safely out the back way.
“This is bullshit,” he said to Delaney standing
somewhere behind him. “I can’t see where we’re going to do enough damage
to bother with the attention we're going to attract."
Delaney returned to his car without saying a word.
Abe heard the whine of windows being rolled up.
Abe turned away shaking his head. He yanked out the
red pin and caressed the trigger. It was his own survival that was utmost
in his thoughts now. He had already betrayed Silver Ridge by becoming an
agent of the monster that called himself King. King would leave Silver
Ridge in ruin if he failed the beast now. Knowing that Evie was up there
somewhere, knowing the bedrooms were safely upstairs, he put a corner of
the house in the cross-hairs, squeezed the trigger, and felt a part of
himself die.
