Michael Koryta - So Cold the River

“I’ll make ’em remember you,” he said. “Might have to burn this whole town down to do it, but I’ll make ’em remember you, and I’ll get what’s owed to us.”

That last notion-of burning the town to the ground in order to see Campbell get his due-lingered in his mind. He envisioned those damn hotels going up in the same way the private eye’s van had, a burst of white-to-orange heat, and he smiled. That would be fucking gorgeous. See the shining dome of the West Baden hotel exploding into a cloud of flame? Yes, that would be as sweet a sight as he’d ever happened across. Wouldn’t be as easy as blowing that van up had been, though. It would require a good bit more than a pocketknife and a cigarette lighter, would require time and high-grade explosives and…

He stopped walking. The wind had died momentarily but now it returned in an irritable gust, blowing a squall line of rain into his face. It hit hard, the water like pebbles on his flesh, but he didn’t so much as blink. Just stood there staring into the dark.

High-grade explosives.

He’d just walked a few miles away from an abandoned timber camp where a box of explosives sat, those strange sausage-looking dynamite strands. It was old stuff, probably not even potent enough to blow. Certainly not worth the walk back, because even if he had the shit, what in the hell was he going to do with it? The shotgun would be all the assistance he required. And yet…

It had been there for him. A box of dynamite, sitting in a barn that had stood empty for as long as he could remember. It felt almost planned, felt almost… promised.

All you got to do is listen, Josiah. All you got to do is listen to me.

Yes, that was a promise. Consistent as clockworks, that’s what Campbell had called himself, and who cared that he was a dead man-he was a stronger friend than Josiah had left among the living.

He wiped the rainwater from his face and turned his head and spat and looked up at the hill he’d just climbed down, a slow, painstaking climb. No way he could carry that box of explosives all the way to Anne McKinney’s house. Not if he had all day, and he didn’t. He’d have to take the truck, and that was one hell of a risk.

“That shit won’t even be good anymore,” he said. “No way it’s still good.”

And yet it was there. As if it had been waiting for him. And all he had to do was listen…

He was halfway back up the hill before the rain started again in earnest.

THERE WERE NO VISIONS.

Eric couldn’t believe it after the first hour-and half of the bottle-had passed, went back and drank the rest down, waited thirty minutes, and started on the second bottle.

Nothing.

The headache might have faded. Might have. It didn’t worsen, but didn’t disappear either, and his hands shook unless he held them clenched together. A tremor had taken hold in his left eyelid, too, made it hard to watch Claire, the damn thing fluttering constantly, twitching. This was not good.

He got back into bed as dawn rose, lay behind Claire’s tightly curled body and stroked her arms and smelled her hair. Her presence was comforting, but still the water’s lack of impact nagged at him. He could go for Anne’s water in a few hours. Maybe that would help. But he was no longer sure that it would, and he was sure that it wouldn’t be enough. Not after the way he’d gone through it tonight.

So it was the spring, then. The source itself. He had to find it.

He did not sleep. About an hour after he got back into the bed, Claire woke slowly, letting out a soft groan before stretching and rolling over to face him, and he leaned over and kissed her. When he did that, her eyes opened for the first time and he saw a flicker in them, a trace of anger. What am I doing in bed with you? her eyes seemed to say. You left. Why am I here with you again?

It would be that way, though. It would have to be. A smooth return wasn’t reasonable; too much had happened, there would have to be awkward, painful moments. But he could minimize them. He could try to do that.

“Morning,” she said, and he had a feeling she was thinking the same thoughts.

“Morning.”

She sat up, pulling the sheet up to cover herself, and ran both hands through her hair, then held them to her face, eyes lost in thought.

“Is that a What have I done? look or a What do we do now? look?” Eric said.

“Neither,” she said, and then, “both.”

But she smiled, and that was enough. He kissed her again and this time she returned it without the same flicker in the eyes.

“What we do now,” she said, “is the simple part. Today, at least.”

“Yeah?”

“We go home.”

He looked away.

“Eric?”

“You said we would talk it out in the morning,” he said. He had his hands pushed hard against the mattress, to still the shaking lest she notice.

“I also said that I would not stay.”

“There’s something I need to do,” he said. “Something I need to resolve first. Once it’s resolved, I’ll leave with you. I promise I will leave with you. But first there are a few things I need to know. Document who the boy’s uncle was, for one. That will be a legal help, Claire, maybe an important one.”

She didn’t respond. He felt desperation creeping on.

“I need you to understand, Claire, that what I’m going through, what’s happening to me, it’s powerful. It is strong. So I’m just struggling to deal with it, figure it out.”

“I know that.”

“Twelve hours, then. Give me that much. Give me one day.”

“What can possibly be accomplished in a day?”

“I can try to get the answers I just told you I needed,” he said. “If I can’t do it by then, we’ll leave, go home, and figure the rest of it out from there.”

I can find that spring in twelve hours. I better. I sure as shit better.

“My preference,” she said slowly, “would be to get in the car and head north. No pausing for loose ends, breakfast, even a shower. Just go. That would be my preference.”

He waited.

“But if you need the day, take the day,” she said. “We’ll leave tonight, though?”

“Yes. We will leave tonight.”

She stared into his eyes for a long time before nodding. “All right. In that case, I guess I’ll go ahead and take the shower.”

She slipped out of the bed naked and walked into the bathroom, beautiful and elegant as she moved through the dim light, always comfortable in her own skin. He watched her go, thought, my wife, savoring the sound of it.

She’d just closed the door when the phone rang.

He rolled onto his side and lifted the phone, said, “Yeah?”

“Eric. How you holding up, son?”

“Hello, Paul,” Eric said, voice flat, and the bathroom door opened and Claire peered out.

“I’ve heard that you ran into some trouble down there.”

Ran into some trouble, yes. Just like I did in California, just like you’re sure I’ll do again, and you want to play the role of the protector for your daughter now, prove to her yet again that I was a mistake, you passive-aggressive prick. He wanted to shout it all, but Claire was standing there at the bathroom door, watching him as if he were taking a test, and he said only, “It hasn’t been a real good week.”

“So I’ve gathered. Claire is with you?”

“Yes.” And she’s going to stay with me, Paul, and I will stay with her, your influence be damned.

“Good. Listen, I’ve been trying to help. I’ve been trying to find out who hired this man Murray, the one who was killed.”

“Uh-huh.”

“The investigations firm has been hiding behind attorney-client privilege so far, but when I called them, I said I’d be representing you-”