“Sure do look that way,” Hawk said.
“Think we ought to stroll in?” I said.
“Be easier just to shoot each other up here, save the walk.”
I nodded. “Let’s sit and watch for a while.”
We sat among the low spread of a big evergreen with our backs against the bare trunk beneath the limbs and looked at the lodge. Nothing happened. It was a pleasant fall day in the rain forest of the Pacific Northwest and the smell of woodsmoke spiced the easy wilderness air.
“You figure they staked out around the house in the woods?” Hawk said.
“Yes,” I said.
“They probably work in shifts,” Hawk said.
“And if we sit quiet maybe we can watch the shift change.”
“Un huh.”
We could see the whole lodge area maybe a hundred yards away in its little valley. Rustic with its shining glass and carefully fitted fieldstone. The power lines ran along one side of the road and crossed over and tied into the lodge near the southwest corner of the balcony.
“Takes a lot of discipline to sit quiet for hours in the woods without any idea when someone going to show up,” Hawk said.
“Too much,” I said. “We’ll spot them in a while.”
“How long we going to sit.”
“Until something happens,” I said. “We got time. We’ll sit and watch until we see what’s going on.”
“Be nice to know what we’re doing,” Hawk said. “Been scrambling since we came out here.”
CHAPTER 18
THE SHIFT CHANGE CAME AROUND THREE IN THE afternoon. Four men with long guns came out of the lodge and went into the woods at four points around the clearing. Four other guys came out of the woods and went to the lodge.
“Rifles,” Hawk said. “Look like .30-.30’s.”
“Okay,” I said. “We know that setup. I wonder what’s in the house.”
“Some guns,” Hawk said. “But we don’t know where or how many.”
“And maybe Susan,” I said.
“Doubtful,” Hawk said.
“Got to know,” I said.
“Yes.”
There were some squirrels in the woods, looking oddly out of place away from the city. And there was bird sound. When the sun went down around five thirty it began to get colder.
“The best thing for Susan would be to save herself,” I said.
“Don’t look like she can right now,” Hawk said.
“Maybe we just get her out and away and then let her save herself.”
“Yeah.”
“Course we eliminate Russell and then maybe there be nothing to save herself from.”
“Maybe that wouldn’t be good for her.”
Hawk was silent for a while. When the sun went down floodlights went on all around the lodge, lighting the entire area.
“Photoelectric switch,” I said.
Hawk said, “You saying we go easy on Russell?”
“I don’t know, exactly, what I’m saying. I don’t know enough. I am trying to make sense out of stuff I don’t understand.”
“That called life, babe,” Hawk said.
“Maybe she needs to be able to save herself and that may mean dealing with Russell.”
“I been working on the assumption,” Hawk said, “that Russell is a dead man. I owe Russell some things.”
“I know,” I said. “I been thinking about how we’d decide which one gets him. But maybe not.”
“Ah’s jess a simple darkie, bawse. Killing the motherfucker seem like a good idea to me.”
“But if it’s bad for Susan?”
“Then we don’t,” Hawk said. “Ah ain’t that simple. We not here to fuck her up. I don’t need to kill Russell, I’d just like it.”
“I’d like it too,” I said. “Maybe more than you.”
