Роберт Паркер - Robert B. Parker's Revelation

“Your call,” Cotton said.

“What do you figure, Everett?”

“After all night of blasting to get into this, I’d say there’s not going to be a reception party waiting for us, but you never know.”

“No telling what we may find,” Virgil said.

“Okay,” Cotton said.

“We just take it real slow,” Virgil said.

The three of us each took a lantern and climbed over the rubble and entered the shaft. We crawled over rock for a good fifteen feet before we got to where we could see the rails on the shaft floor, tapering off into the darkness.

Once we were inside and past where the blast had brought down rock there was nothing to be seen other than crates of supplies and stacked pillar beams lining the tunnel walls.

“Smell dead,” Virgil said.

Cotton nodded.

“That’s not completely uncommon in these mines,” Cotton said. “We find all kinds of animals in these shafts. For one reason or another they die in these tunnels... crawl in wounded, or chased and eaten, coyotes, mountain lions, happens.”

Virgil held up his lantern some looking off into the dark.

“What do you want to do now?” Cotton said.

“Are there no other shoots off this tunnel?” I said.

“No,” Cotton said. “There used to be when this was active, but they are closed up now, not been opened for a long time.”

Virgil held up the lamp in his hand and looked back at the mound of rock behind us, then turned and looked down the rails leading in the opposite direction.

“Only one thing to do,” he said.

Cotton nodded.

“Okay,” he said. “Before we go any farther, let me make sure these pillars are solid.”

Cotton held up his lantern and looked closely at the top of the beams, making sure that they were snugged securely under the crossbeams. He moved into the shaft some ten feet, checking them out on both sides of the tunnel, then turned back to us and nodded.

“Looks okay,” he said. “Come on ahead.”

We walked on through the tunnel toward Cotton. Then he turned when we got to him and the three of us moved into the shaft toward the other side of the mountain.

We walked without talking for a long ways. Then, almost ghostlike, I thought I saw something ahead of us and I moved to the sidewall behind a pillar. Virgil and Cotton followed my lead and got next to me with their backs to the wall.

“You see something?” I whispered.

“No,” Virgil said.

“Thought I did,” I said. “Thought I saw something, some movement.”

I peeked out and looked around the pillar, then moved back.

“What is it, Everett?”

“Somebody,” I said very quietly.

Then we heard some sound. It was a voice, but it was quiet and hard to make out clearly. Especially difficult to hear what was being said, but it was unmistakably a voice we were hearing.

I leaned out and looked past the pillar again, but now I saw nothing. Then I saw movement again. There was someone there in the darkness. They were slowly moving toward us between the rails. I was still protected behind the pillar but was peeking out around the side of it so I could see. Virgil was still next to me and Cotton was next to him.

“What is it, Everett?” he said. “What do you see?”

I raised the lantern up so the light would have a farther reach, and then I saw who it was.

“It’s the Indian,” I said. “Stringer’s Kiowa tracker... Locky.”

Virgil moved out from behind the pillar to have a look and Cotton did the same.

Locky moved slowly toward us, barely staying on his feet. His face was covered in blood.

We walked toward him. He was mumbling in Kiowa as he stumbled between the tracks. The whites of his eyes showed through his bloody face. When he saw that it was Virgil and me, he fell to his knees and said in a raspy voice, “Madre María...”

When Driggs and Allie got close to her house she stopped and turned to him.

“Thank you,” she said.

“This is you?” he said as he kept moving toward the house.

“It is.”

Driggs sensed Allie wanted to call it a night right here, but he continued moving toward the gate as he looked to the house. Driggs knew the difference between want and desire.

“A white picket fence, no less,” he said.

Allie hesitated to follow as she looked around a bit, then lingered after him as he continued toward the house. Driggs stopped at the gate and gazed up at the house for a long moment. When Allie moved up he turned to her a little, then looked back to the house.

“Lovely home,” he said.

“Thank you,” she said as she looked toward the house, then glanced to him. “I appreciate you seeing me home safely.”

“My pleasure.”

He lifted the gate latch.

“After you,” he said.

Allie stuttered a bit as she said with a nervous laugh, “Oh, I can see my way from here.”

“I’m taking you all the way,” he said as he removed his hat and pointed toward the front door.

Allie looked at him without moving, then back at the house, and moved up the rock path toward the door. She could feel Driggs’s formidable presence just behind her as she climbed the steps to the dark porch.

When she got to the door she paused slightly, then turned. He was still holding his hat in his hand.

“You’ve been so kind,” she said as she retrieved the door key from her clutch.

“I aim to please,” he said.

“Well, then,” she said as she held out her hand. “Again, thank you for a lovely evening.”

He took her hand and held it, then brought it up to his lips and kissed it. He then pulled her gently toward him. He leaned and kissed her on the cheek... and just as quickly as he had pulled her out of her world and into his, he released her.

“You are okay from here on, I take it?” he said.

“Yes, yes, of course,” she said as she turned and fumbled, trying to get the key into the lock.

“Allow me,” he said.

Driggs took the key from her and slid it into the hole, turned it, and opened the door. It swung into the room slowly and freely as it offered a long, eerie creak.

She looked up to him and smiled. Then he held up the key. She reached for it, but he held it back slightly.

“Do you want me to come inside?” he said. “Make sure everything feels right?”

“No, I believe I can make it from here, and if I can’t, then I guess they might as well put me under.”

“Let’s not go that far,” he said with a laugh.

She stepped inside and turned to him. He put his hat to his chest, bowed, and said, “Good night... and sweet dreams.”

“Good night,” she said and closed the door.

He put on his hat, turned, and walked down the steps. He opened the gate, shut it behind him, and moved off. Then he looked back just as he passed behind the adjacent building for one last look at the house. He could see Allie’s silhouette as she looked out the front door.

As Driggs moved on, he thought about what it might have been like if he’d gone ahead and got inside that house and did what it was that he did so well. But there were more pressing things churning up now, far more important happenings for him to be concerned with. The fire that he’d felt earlier when he was looking at himself in the mirror in Allie’s dress shop was getting hotter by the hour. He was beginning to feel the full heat all over his body now. It was no longer just in his loins but was spreading like a wildfire through his body.