beyond the expertise of any small-town police chief.”
“Well, all I can say is-”
The phone rang. The look on Alice Holland’s face suggested that her heart had stopped. She looked at the phone mounted on the wall next to the door, let it ring once without getting up. Let it ring a second time.
It wasn’t any of my business whether she answered her phone or not, but I couldn’t help watching her while she let it ring.
Then the door burst open and George grabbed the receiver. “Hello?” He only listened a moment, then slammed the phone back down.
“Death to the dyke bitch again?” the mayor asked.
George nodded once.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“All this over a goddamn fucking parade,” Alice Holland said.
20
“HAVE YOU TOLD HIM?” George Holland asked his wife. “About the other calls? This nonstop harassment?”
Braynor mayor Alice Holland sighed and settled back into the couch. “George is very worried about this,” she told me.
“There’s so many freaks living up here, it could be anybody,” George said. “But I tell you who I blame. I blame that crazy redneck son of a bitch Charles Henry for stirring things up with his petition, that’s who I blame. That motherfucking bastard, I’ll never buy so much as a carton of milk in his store again. I don’t care if we have to drive an hour to get our groceries, he won’t be getting a dime from us.”
“I don’t think I can go in there either,” I said, not bothering to explain.
“He
“Is it the same person every time, or different callers?” I asked.
George said, “I think there’s a couple of them, but I can’t be sure. Now, we just hang up soon as we know what kind of call it is. And I always answer the phone now.”
“What kind of threats?”
Alice Holland, very matter-of-factly, said, “Sometimes, they just say I should die. Other times they call me a lesbian, ask me the name of my girlfriend. One gentleman offered to use a lit stick of dynamite on me in a very personal manner.”
George, seething, looked ready to kill somebody.
“So, Mr. Walker,” Alice said, “I would have to say I share your sense of foreboding, that there’s something in the air, something not very good.”
“I think you should cancel the parade,” I said.
Alice Holland considered that for a moment. “I don’t like caving. Although it would be nice if Mr. Lethbridge would offer to back out. I wouldn’t ask him to, but it would be worth pointing out the risks.”
For a moment I’d forgotten the name. Then I remembered the story in
George said, “The more risk, the less likely he’d be to pull out. It’s like he wants something to happen, so he can be a martyr.”
Mayor Holland nodded. “I suspect there’s some truth to that. Any other suggestions, Mr. Walker?”
“I have a friend coming up tomorrow. He might have some ideas. And like I said earlier, you might want to make some calls to other agencies, see if you can get Orville some help.”
She nodded, then stood up. This, I quickly understood, was my invitation to leave.
“Keep in touch,” the mayor said. “But don’t be surprised if we don’t always answer the phone.”
The morning of my fourth day at Denny’s Cabins, I was up early, and when I emerged from my cabin to head over to Dad’s for breakfast, I spotted Bob Spooner and diaper magnate Leonard Colebert getting ready to go hiking. I was guessing Bob had run out of ways to say no to him.
“Thing is,” he said to me quietly while Leonard went back into his cabin for another water bottle to tuck into his backpack, “he’s not that bad a guy, once you get past his extremely annoying personality.”
“I saw the mayor last night,” I said to Leonard when he came back out with a couple of bottles of Evian in his hands. “She doesn’t seem all that fired up about your resort proposal. She seems to think it’s a bit over the top.”
Leonard was either in denial, or knew something I didn’t, because he had a broad grin on his face. “Oh, she’ll come around. And she’s still just one vote on council. If the others go for it, there won’t be any way she can stop it. This town hasn’t even got a community center. Now suppose someone was willing to pay for one in return for getting approval for his project, what do you think might happen then? Especially when everyone in town finds out they could get a center for nothing?”
Bob shook his head. “Leonard, I really think you need to reconsider some of this. You know, take into account the character of the area, the beauty of it, and just how your place might impact on-”
Leonard slapped Bob on the back. “Come on, let’s go. You think I don’t love nature? I love nature! In fact, why don’t we drive down the highway and we’ll hike into the woods where I’m gonna build my dream. You’ll come around, I know you will, when I show you what I’m actually going to do.”
Bob looked at me and rolled his eyes. “We’ll take my truck,” he said, and off they went.
Lana Gantry’s car, which I’d failed to notice the other morning when I’d walked in and embarrassed myself and everyone else, was parked behind Dad’s cabin, so I rapped lightly on the door before opening it.
“Just me,” I said softly, but loud enough that I could be heard in Dad’s bedroom.
The bathroom door opened and Lana walked out, clothes and makeup and hair all in place. She strode over and gave me a peck on the cheek. “Hi, sweetie,” she said. “Your dad’s still in bed. I’d love to make you breakfast, but you’ll have to come down to the cafe to get it. I got to head straight in. One of my girls is off today.”
It’s difficult to get used to the notion that your father is sleeping with a woman who’s not your mother, even when your mother has been gone for several years. I peeked in on Dad, who was snoring, and went back to the fridge, getting out some orange juice and cream for coffee. Lana was looking in her purse for her car keys.
“So who was that you were having coffee with yesterday?” she asked. “And wasn’t that Timmy Wickens you were talking to on the sidewalk?”
“Hmm?” I said.
“Yesterday. At the cafe.”
“That was his daughter, May.”
“She lives up there at the house with the rest of them?” she asked.
I nodded.
“Well, if I were you,” she said, “I wouldn’t be getting involved with some woman from a family like that.”
“Lana,” I said, “we were just having a coffee.”
“Oh, listen, I know you and Sarah are okay, your dad’s told me that. I’m just saying, don’t get mixed up trying to help anybody from a family like the Wickenses. You’ll get your ass shot off for the trouble.” She discovered her keys, gave them a shake, and smiled on the way out.
A few minutes later, I glanced out the window over the sink and saw two vehicles swoop down over the hill and brake abruptly, tires slipping in gravel. One was Orville’s cruiser, and the second, a blue pickup I didn’t recognize. Orville jumped out of his car and two men hopped out of the pickup.
They were all carrying rifles.
I peaked in on Dad again. “Hey,” I said. “Cavalry’s here.”
Dad opened one eye. “What?”
“Orville. And others. All armed. Come to hunt bear.”
“Jesus.” He opened his other eye, threw back the covers. “Where’s Lana?”
