Bill Pronzini - The Lighthouse

“Not really. I have a handgun and I’m a good shot.”

“Oh. I’m afraid of guns myself.”

“I grew up handling them. My father belonged to the NRA.” Fortunately for Alix-who was pro-gun control-Cassie did not want to discuss the subject any further. She said, “But tell me about you. Are you interested in art?”

“Actually, I’m an artist myself.”

“You are? For heaven’s sake!” The woman seemed genuinely pleased. “What kind of work do you do?”

Alix told her, describing some of her more interesting projects and mentioning both her sketches for Jan’s book and her future business venture. When she had finished, Cassie looked so impressed and wistful that she quickly said, “But that’s enough about me. Tell me how you came to start this gallery. Have you always lived in Hilliard?”

The other woman looked startled, almost shocked. “Oh no! I was born in Eugene, lived there most of my life.”

“When did you move here?”

A certain reticence had come into Cassie’s expression, a kind of closing off. “Only a year ago. I… I was divorced, and I’d always liked this part of the coast. Hilliard seemed like a good place to start over.” She smiled wryly. “Too bad I didn’t know about the lack of tourist trade.”

“You’re making ends meet, though?”

“Just barely. I own the house and the gallery outright-I bought them with my divorce settlement. And it doesn’t cost much to live here.”

“Have you made many friends among the locals?”

“Acquaintences, yes. I know almost everyone in the village. But no, I’m not friends with anyone.”

“Are they such hard people to know?”

“Oh yes. Hard to know, hard to talk to. Particularly when you don’t have much in common with them-and I don’t. Hilliard’s a cultural wasteland. High culture to the people here is watching the Super Bowl on the widescreen TV at the Sea Breeze Tavern.”

“I’d gathered as much.” Alix looked down into her coffee cup, thinking of her last visit to Hilliard. “Tell me, do you know a couple of local fishermen named Mitch Novotny and Hod Barnett?”

“Yes. Why?”

It didn’t seem as though Cassie had heard about Jan’s run-in with Novotny, and Alix didn’t care to enlighten her. “My husband and I saw them at the general store last week,” she said. “I’ve been curious about them.”

“Oh. Well, Mitch’s family has been in Hilliard for generations, and as far as I know they’ve all been fishermen. It’s a funny thing about villages like this.”

“What is?”

“People just keep on doing the same things, generation after generation,” Cassie said. “I don’t suppose Mitch’s way of life is much different than his father’s or grandfather’s, except now they have TV. And higher taxes, of course.”

“Is the same true of Hod Barnett?”

“No. He moved here several years ago from Coos Bay, I gather. He owned his own boat for a while but lost it just after I moved into town; couldn’t make the mortgage payments. Now he works as a deck-hand for Mitch, not that that makes him a living wage. Mitch can barely make ends meet himself. The fishing all along the coast has been poor the past three seasons.”

“Yes, that’s what my husband told me.”

“Hod lives in a little trailer in that encampment on the north end with his wife and three kids. Must be awful to have to live like that. There are no utility hookups, and they have to haul water from a central faucet. Adam Reese has made some improvements since he moved in, most of them for free, but the conditions are still primitive.”

“Adam Reese?”

“The local handyman. Lillian Hilliard has him building shelves in her storeroom these days; she’s the only one in the village with any money. You’ve met her, I’m sure?”

“Yes,” Alix said.

“I guess you could say Lillian epitomizes the spirit of Hilliard-if it has any. She’s the last living member of the founding family, and so proud of it that when she married she insisted on keeping the family name. There’s a consensus in the village that the husband-Ben Gates, I think his name was-died young because it was the path of least resistance, certainly easier than standing up to Lillian. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was true.”

“She does seem to rule that store with an iron hand.”

Cassie smiled, not warmly. “Oh, she does. Collects gossip, dispenses charity-when she feels like it-and pronounces judgment on everything that goes on in town. If there’s ever anything you need to know about anyone in Hilliard, just see Lillian.”

Alix nodded, vaguely uncomfortable, thinking that Cassie-given the chance-might rival Lillian Hilliard in the gossip department. She hoped she hadn’t been too candid about herself, imparted too many personal details to a virtual stranger.

She finished her coffee and then looked at her watch. “Oh, it’s getting late. I’ve got to get moving-laundry day.”

“Please stay. Have another cup of coffee—”

“I’d love to, but I do have to go. Perhaps we can get together soon, though. Have you ever been to the lighthouse?”

“Out near it, but never inside.”

“I’ll show you around, then, if you’d like to come out.”

Cassie smiled. “I’m already looking forward to it.”

As she got into the station wagon, Alix realized her headache was gone. It had been more from tension than from anything else-a tension that probably stemmed from too much worry and introspection. Inconsequential chatter-and even gossip-over coffee had proved good for her, and she resolved to call Cassie soon and reemphasize her invitation to visit the lighthouse.

She lifted her sopping laundry from the washing machine and dropped it into the wire cart, then pushed it toward the dryer and began unloading. The Hilliard Launderette was completely deserted. Two of the other dryers were in operation, wisking a bright assortment of clothing round and round, but the owner of that laundry was mercifully absent. Alix was grateful for the solitude, glad there were no villagers to cast curious glances at her, the stranger from California.

She set the dryer in motion and sat down with the paperback novel she’d brought along. It was one of those thick imperiled-children sagas that were so much in vogue, and had begun to bore her after the first chapter. Now she set it aside and merely sat, watching the clothes whirl hypnotically, still feeling warmed by her visit with Cassie Lang.

The visit had brought a sense of normalcy into her day; it was much the same sort of thing she would have done at home. There she often met with other free-lancers for morning coffee; at noon there were luncheons with clients; and in late afternoon it was not uncommon for someone to stop by for a glass of wine. Perhaps a friendship with Cassie would provide a needed balance to her life here in Hilliard…

The door opened, letting in a gust of cold air, and Alix glanced up. Della Barnett came in and walked to one of the still-turning machines. The woman wore the same soiled quilted coat she’d had on in the store the week before, and her hair, if possible, looked even more greasy and stringy. An auburn-haired teenaged girl in a bold-figured blue-and-white poncho and jeans followed behind her, Alix recognized her as the one she’d seen smoking grass on the road to the lighthouse that first morning they’d driven into Hilliard. Della’s daughter? The girl was attractive; when she shed the last of her baby fat, she might even be pretty. Hard to believe Della and Hod Barnett could have produced her.

The girl saw Alix and her blue eyes registered recognition. She glanced at Della, then looked back at Alix. Fear molded her expression briefly; then it modulated into a look of defiance and challenge that seemed to say, “I don’t care if you know I was smoking dope that day. Go ahead and tell my mother if you want to. I’ll just call you a liar.”