Douglas Preston - Cold Vengeance

It was amazing. The bastard Pendergast was still making trouble for him, even from beyond the grave. It must have been Pendergast this priest bumped into, out there on the moors. He would have been weak from loss of blood, half mad with pain, just minutes from death. What had he told the man? Esterhazy could not leave Scotland without knowing.

The churchman rose awkwardly as Esterhazy approached, brushing twigs and grass off his knees. A large sheet of rice paper lay on the tomb; the rubbing was half complete. A portfolio of other rubbings lay nearby, spread out on a piece of canvas with crayons, pastels, and charcoal.

“ Ouf! ” muttered the priest, adjusting his clothes and patting himself back into order. “Afternoon to you.” He had a picturesque Welsh accent, and his face was red and veined.

Esterhazy’s habitual caution evaporated as the priest extended his hand. His grasp was unpleasantly damp and not altogether clean.

“You must be the priest up from Anglesey,” Esterhazy said.

“That’s right.” The man’s smile gave way to a look of confusion. “And how might you be knowing that?”

“I’ve just come from the pub at Inverkirkton. They mentioned you were in the neighborhood. Making rubbings of gravestones.” Esterhazy nodded toward the tomb.

The old man beamed. “Quite right! Quite right!”

“What a coincidence running into you like this. My name’s Wickham.”

“Delighted to make your acquaintance.”

They stood a moment in amiable silence.

“They also mentioned you told them quite a story,” Esterhazy went on. “About a rather desperate fellow you encountered on the moor.”

“And so I did!” The eagerness in the priest’s face told Esterhazy he was one of those men who avidly sought to give advice on any and all subjects.

Esterhazy glanced around, feigning disinterest. “I’d be curious to hear about it.”

An eager nod. “Yes, indeed. Indeed. It was… let’s see… early October.”

Esterhazy waited impatiently, trying not to press the priest too hard.

“I ran into a man. Lurching across the moors.”

“His appearance?”

“Dreadful. He was sick, or at least that’s what he said… I think he might have been drunk, or more likely on the run from the law. Must have fallen on the rocks, too — his face was bloody. He was very pale, muddy… soaked to the bone. It had rained heavily that afternoon, as I recall. Yes, I do recall that rain. Fortunately, I had brought along my double waterproof—”

“But his exact appearance? Hair color?”

The clergyman paused, as if thinking of something for the first time. “What’s your interest in this, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“I–I write mysteries. I’m always looking for ideas.”

“Oh. Well, in that case, let me see: pale hair, pale face, tall. Dressed in hunting tweeds.” The priest shook his head and gave a bird-like cluck. “The poor fellow was in a state, and no mistake.”

“And did he say anything?”

“Well, yes. But I can’t really talk about that, you understand. A man’s confessions to God are a sacred secret.”

The priest was speaking so slowly, so deliberately, that Esterhazy felt he might go mad. “What a fascinating story. Is there anything else you can tell me?”

“He asked me the way around the marshes. I told him it was several miles.” The priest puckered his lips. “But he insisted, so I drew him a little map.”

“A map?”

“Well, yes, it was the least I could do. I had to draw him the route. It’s terribly treacherous, bogs everywhere.”

“But you’re up from Anglesey. How do you know this area?”

The priest chuckled. “I’ve been coming here for years. Decades! I’ve wandered all over these moors. I’ve visited every kirkyard between here and Loch Linnhe! This is a very historic area, you see. I’ve rubbed hundreds of tombstones, including those of the lairds of—”

“Yes, yes. But tell me about the map you drew. Can you draw the same map for me?”

“Of course! Delighted! You see, I sent him around the marshes because the way by Kilchurn Lodge is even more dangerous. I honestly don’t know how he got out there in the first place.” He clucked again as he drew a crude map, with atrocious draftsmanship, cramped and small. “Here is where we were,” he said, poking at an X .

Esterhazy was forced to bend down to see better. “Where?”

“ Here .”

Even before Esterhazy could comprehend what was happening, he felt a ferocious jerk. Then he was forced to the ground and pinned, his arm twisted behind his back, his face pressed into the turf — and the cold barrel of a pistol was jammed so hard into his ear canal that it cut his flesh, drawing blood.

“Talk,” said the clergyman.

The voice was that of Pendergast.

Esterhazy struggled, his mind wild, but the barrel jammed in relentlessly. He felt a wave of horror and terror. Just when he was sure the devil was dead and gone, he reappeared. This was the end. Pendergast had finally won. The enormity of it sank in like poison.

“You said Helen was alive,” came the voice, almost a whisper. “Now tell me the rest. All of it.”

Esterhazy struggled to bring his mind into order, to overcome his shock, to consider what he would say and how he would say it. The smell of turf filled his nostrils, gagging him. “Just a moment,” he gasped. “Let me explain from the beginning. Please, let me up.”

“No. Stay down. We have plenty of time. And I have no compunctions about forcing you to talk. You will talk. But if you lie to me, even once, I’ll kill you. No warning.”

Esterhazy grappled with an almost overwhelming fear. “But then… then you’ll never know.”

“Wrong. Now that I know she’s alive, I’ll find her regardless. But you could spare me a lot of time and trouble. I repeat: truth or die.”

Esterhazy heard the soft click of the safety being thumbed off.

“Yes, I understand…” He tried once again to collect his thoughts, calm himself down. “You have no idea,” he gasped, “no idea what’s involved here. It goes back, before Longitude.” He heaved, struggling for air in the dew-laden grass. “It goes back even before we were born.”

“I’m listening.”

Esterhazy took a heaving breath. This was harder than he ever imagined. The truth was so very, very awful…

“Start at the beginning.”

“That would be April 1945…”

The pressure of the gun abruptly vanished. “My dear fellow, that was a nasty fall! Let me help you up.” Pendergast’s voice had changed, and the Welsh accent was back in force.

For a moment Esterhazy was utterly confused.

“You’ve cut your ear! Oh, dear!” Pendergast dabbed at the ear and Esterhazy felt the gun, now in Pendergast’s pocket, pressing into his side. At the same time he heard a car door slam, then voices — a chorus of voices. He looked up from the earth, blinking. A jolly group of men and women approached, with walking sticks, waterproofs, notebooks, cameras, and pens. The van in which they had arrived was parked just beyond the old stone wall enclosing the kirkyard. Neither of them had heard it come, so intense was their confrontation.

“Hallo!” said their leader, a short, fat, vigorous man, who came stumping toward them waving a furled umbrella. “Are you all right?”

“Just a little fall,” said Pendergast, helping Esterhazy to his feet but at the same time gripping him with a hand of steel, the gun barrel rammed like a pike into his kidneys.

“Fancy meeting other people in this forgotten corner of Scotland! And you here by bicycle, no less! What brings you to these wild climes?”

“Tomb iconography,” said Pendergast, with remarkable calmness. His eyes, however, were anything but calm.