When Noah saw him there he said, “You shouldn’t be sitting out here, Tom.”
“Oh? Why’s that?”
The coldness of the exchange said a lot about their feelings toward each other. They hadn’t liked each other for a long time. And each deeply distrusted the other. They spoke like rivals who had to work together rather than like father and adopted son.
“Now you should be smart enough to figure that out, Tom.”
“Go ahead and tell me, Noah. I guess I’m too stupid to understand things most of the time.”
Noah sighed. “I didn’t come here to argue, son.” He always called him son when he wanted to cut the tension. “And all I meant was that since you’re the high sheriff, you shouldn’t be doing a deputy’s work. It doesn’t look right for the sheriff to be sitting right out front.”
Tom had to smile. Noah’s pride was so excessive it was comical. He was always aware of everybody’s status. And he sure didn’t want his son, even his adopted son, to be doing the lowly work of a deputy.
“What can I do for you, Dad?” Tom didn’t try to disguise the ironic tone of “Dad.” Noah had never been a father. He’d just never quite taken to the lad and the lad in turn, after several years of trying, decided that he would never take to his adoptive father, either.
Noah took a seat. He took off the fancy straw hat he was wearing and fanned himself. “It’s a hot one.”
“It sure is.”
“The town sure looks nice. Be sure and tell the mayor I think he outdid himself this year.”
“You ever going to get around to telling me why you’re really here?” He hesitated and then added, “Dad.”
“You’ve got a tongue on you like your mother’s. She was always tryin’ to cut me down, too.”
“Maybe she was just trying to make you tell the truth for once.”
Noah stared at him. “You’re an ungrateful bastard, you know that? All I’ve done for you. All that my name got you.”
Tom rolled himself a cigarette while Noah threw out some more accusations and grief. After he lit his cigarette, Tom said, “Somebody told you I’ve been asking questions today about Skeleton Key. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”
“What the hell right do you have to go around snooping into my private business?”
“There’s a rumor that some people have disappeared. Skeleton Key always comes up. There are a lot of rumors about it.”
“Rumors? Hell, Tom, haven’t you figured it out by now? When you’re rich and powerful the way I am, everybody resents you. And so they start rumors. I once heard that I used to have carnal knowledge of sheep. And don’t smile, boy. That was a very serious rumor for a while.” He shook his head. “Skeleton Key is a perfectly innocent place. If you want to know, I go there to relax. Nobody gets to pester me there. Including all our relatives who’re always asking me for financial help.”
“If it’s so innocent, why all the secrecy?”
“No secrecy, Tom. No secrecy. The island’s there. I’m there. Everybody knows that. That’s no secret.”
“If it’s that innocent, how about letting me look it over?”
Noah scowled. “Hell, no. Why should I? Aren’t I entitled to a little privacy?” But he didn’t wait for an answer. “Damned right I am. And I intend to keep it, too.”
“Then the gossips’ll keep on whispering.”
“Let ’em whisper.”
“Then you’re saying you don’t know anything about these disappearances?”
Noah frowned. “You may hate me—and I suspect you do—but do you really believe I’d have something to do with people disappearing? Some kind of white slavery ring or something? Is that what you’ve got in mind?”
“It was a fair question.”
“And I gave you a fair answer.”
Noah stood up. Winced. “Damned arthritis.” He glared at Tom. “I’ve got spies everywhere, Tom. People may not like me much but they protect me. Because when they protect me, they protect themselves, their jobs, and this peaceable town and the future for their children. So they don’t appreciate anybody, including my own adopted son, tryin’ to snoop into the little privacy I have in life.”
“So you wouldn’t like it if I asked some more questions?”
Noah jabbed a finger at him. “I got you this job. You don’t remember that. But I did. And you know why I did? Because I figured you’d be good at it. And you are. You’re the smartest lawman we’ve ever had here. And from what I hear, you’re also fair. Even the people who don’t care for you say that. Say that you don’t play favorites. They also say you’re not mean, the way some lawmen are.”
Noah started walking to the door. “But you know what? Quick as you got that badge of yours, I could take it away. I could go over to a town council meeting and ask for a private session and then I’d lay out some charges against you—tell them that I hated to do this, you being my stepson and all—and you know what? You’d be out of a job within an hour. They’d find some law on the books that made you ineligible to be sheriff anymore. And you’d be out on your ass.”
“I take it that’s a threat?”
A look of frustration twisted Noah’s face. “All I’m saying, boy, is that you’re doing a good job. Most people like you. You could have a great future. But just let this island thing go. Forget about it. There’s sure a hell of a lot of other work to do, isn’t there? You can just quit wasting your time on rumors. Because there’s nothing to them.” He opened the door. It seemed impossible. The office got even hotter in the few seconds the scorching, dusty wind blew in. A look of reason on his face now. “There’s not one damned thing to those rumors, son. Not one damned thing.”
Noah left.
And now Tom knew for sure that something terrible was going on out there on Skeleton Key. Otherwise the old man wouldn’t have made such a fuss about it.
Liz took down the dagger that had been her husband’s pride. The blade was five inches long, the hilt burnished cooper with a cross carved on the handle. They’d bought it in St. Louis soon after they were married. It was said to have been blessed by the Pope in Italy, where it was crafted. Because of the blessing, the shopkeeper explained, no harm would come to anybody who carried it.
Richard always took it along when he knew that a situation was going to be risky. It had kept him safe. But the night he’d been killed, he’d had no reason to take it along. While he was looking into Skeleton Key, at that particular time he was just doing his regular work. No reason to think he’d be ambushed.
She pressed the dagger to her breast now, in sweet memory of her husband. Tom was so much like him. She was blessed that she’d found two such men in her life.
Now that she was home for the day, she began preparing for tonight. She’d wear brown butternuts and a black shirt. She’d cinch her hair back so that it wouldn’t get in the way. And she’d carry a handgun—and the dagger with the special blessing.
Even on Skeleton Key, the dagger would keep her alive. She was sure of it.
19
Fargo said, “Any caves on this island?”
“Two or three,” Nancy said. “But they aren’t very big. We thought of that, too. But the dogs would find us right away and kill us.”
Fargo smoked his cigarette. Aiming the smoke in a narrow stream at the rough hewn roof of the log cabin. “You ever notice any place in the forest where water backed up in a real small area?”
“Can’t think of any place offhand. Why?”
“Sometimes islands have underground passages that lead to the water. I got trapped in a place like this once before. This Apache I was with got us free that way.”
