Michael Koryta - Last Words

“Not hardly. He came to the house. She was sure he was going to kill her. Then they got in the cave and he said he wanted to... to do her thing.”

“He wanted to go into trance in the cave.”

“I suppose that’s what you’d call it. I suppose they made it too. She says they did. I don’t know anything about that. I don’t know what I believe of it, to tell you the truth.”

“Believe more than you want to,” Mark said. “It’s a start. Trust me. I’ve stood in your place on that one. Any luck locating Ridley?”

“Not yet. We’ll get him, though.”

Mark didn’t share his confidence, and, after seeing Ridley’s face in those last moments, he wasn’t sure they should want him back on the surface.

“What about Danielle MacAlister?” he asked. “Was Julianne able to tell you anything?”

“Danielle MacAlister walked out of the house while Ridley and Julianne were heading toward the cave. Ridley started to go for his knife, then let her pass. They were just inside the cave when they heard a gunshot.”

“Cecil.”

“It would seem that way, yes. Cecil was talking for a time. Then he realized his story wasn’t as believable as he needed it to be, and he asked for a lawyer. I was with him in the hospital while he told a weak story about going into the cave to try to make sure Julianne Grossman was safe.”

“Bullshit. He went in to kill them. The only problem he had was that they were in the dark. That meant he had to show himself to them instead of the other way around. There’s no sneaking up on Ridley Barnes in the dark. If Cecil wanted to clip him, he should have done it on the town square under a bright sun. My guess is he’d have found a sympathetic jury in Garrison.”

Blankenship let that one pass and said, “You understand why he killed Danielle?”

“She was done with whatever story they’d been protecting, would be my guess. She went down there to prep him for my arrival and found him trussed up. Cut him loose, and then...”

“Paid for that mistake,” Blankenship finished. “Yes. That’s my read. Cecil has some risk in all this that I don’t quite understand yet, some risk that made murder acceptable so long as he could blame Ridley for it.”

“But what is that? What’s he protecting?”

“You see the shit Ridley brought in there? The paperwork?”

“I saw it, but I couldn’t tell you what it was. I was just aware that it was there. Looked like he’d burned some of it.”

“Uh-huh. Well, it’s a trust document. Interesting read. Deeds the property to Cecil and Ridley.”

“Cecil and Ridley?”

“Yes. The document Ridley took down there has an effective date that is only a few months away, or when Pershing dies, whichever comes first. Fun thing about that? Pershing has to die of natural causes. It’s the strangest damn protective order in history, essentially.”

“Why is the cave willed to them?”

“Because Pershing gave Ridley the motive to kill Sarah.”

“What?”

“Cecil puts the blame on Pershing. Pershing can’t speak to defend himself, and now his daughter can’t defend him either. But according to Cecil, Ridley reached a point where he wouldn’t take money for mapping the cave. He wanted a piece of ownership. Pershing didn’t want to grant that. So he drew Ridley up a nice little cartoon trust to keep him going with the exploration and keep him silent about just what he was finding. Only problem is that Ridley went down to the courthouse to inquire about it.”

The disclosure should have felt like a triumph, but Mark’s stomach turned.

“Ridley found out he had a handful of wooden nickels? And then Sarah went missing how much later?”

“Six weeks later,” Blankenship said. He had trouble with the words.

“Why in the hell didn’t Ridley tell anyone this?”

“Because they drew up the new trust. It contented him, apparently. This is what he explained to Julianne Grossman.”

“But that came after Sarah.”

Blankenship nodded and when he spoke again, his voice had a honed edge. “So Pershing and Cecil knew the man was crazy, they played him for a fool, and then they got caught. All in the summer before... before Sarah. By the time I enter the frame, all of this has come to pass and she’s missing in the cave and I pull rank and demand that they send Ridley in after her. Pershing put up some resistance, I’ll admit that and already have, but the chickenshit never came close to saying what needed to be said. He didn’t want to admit it in front of Diane, is what Cecil and Danielle told me. He also didn’t think Ridley would hurt Sarah; he thought that she was just lost. But I’ll tell you this right now — I was the one who dealt with Pershing, and he was scared of Ridley Barnes. Never said a word of the true reasons, though. Never said enough to convince me Ridley was a threat and had reason to want to hurt Pershing, hurt the family. So I let him in, and then Ridley went in there and killed her! ”

Mark let him run out of steam and allowed a few seconds to pass before he spoke.

“I think you’re almost there,” he said. “But you’re having trouble seeing past Pershing. I don’t blame you. It’s the reason they pulled you back then, but I don’t blame you a bit.”

“What am I missing, Novak?”

“The dark man that Ridley talks about like some sort of ghost or spirit of the cave? I think he was real. There was somebody else down there with him.”

“Cecil, probably.”

“I don’t think so. If Ridley told Julianne the truth last night, the dark man from that encounter is a dead man now. Ridley killed him.”

“I should have seen a crime report on him, then. This dark man. Somebody should have noticed he was missing.”

“I think you’ve got his teeth,” Mark said.

Blankenship went silent for a few seconds. “You think Carson Borders was down there.”

“Maybe, yeah.”

“Teeth came from Detroit. Motive for killing him came from Detroit. Connections to Ridley don’t exist.”

“His son is connected to it,” Mark said. “Of that, I’m certain. Where’s Evan?”

“Missing. Same as his cousins.”

“You’ll need to find him,” Mark said.

“I’m not buying Ridley’s version of what happened in that cave, whether he was hypnotized for it or not,” Blankenship said, but the words came slowly and his eyes had a far-off look.

“You’re wondering about it, though.”

“No.”

He was lying. Mark had seen similar lights in investigators’ eyes before. He’d felt that light.

Blankenship’s chest filled with a tired breath. “I suppose if Ridley ever comes back to the surface, I can ask him.”

“You can’t ask him,” Mark said. “That’s the hell of it, Sheriff. You’ve got to figure out his world to see where the pieces of your own got lost in it.”

Ridley was freezing and wet and it was impossible to dry off down here in the damp air. The chilled water beaded all along his goosefleshed skin, and when he shivered water sprayed from him like a dog shaking dry. Even by Ridley’s standards, it was far too cold, and that meant he was entering dangerous ground. He’d flirted with hypothermia before, but nothing like this.

He sat on a lip of stone, pondering problems that light alone could not fix. Ahead of him was a steep drop of at least thirty feet, and while he remembered it and knew that he was on the right path, he’d had climbing gear the first time through. He’d removed his backpack to work with Julianne, a critical mistake. He needed it now, but going back didn’t seem like an option. He wasn’t sure that the cave would allow him to pass back through the water again. He had to stay in pursuit until he found the dark man, but that meant finding a way down this wall. There were bolts in the stone and that surprised him because he didn’t remember running any bolts when he’d come this way searching for Sarah Martin. He was almost certain he hadn’t, but it was foolish to think that the dark man would have needed them. He could pass through as he wanted; the cave yielded for him, and surely he did not require mechanical assistance.