Read Online High Country- Pigeon 12 by Nevada Barr - Free Book Online
Authors: Nevada Barr
get a person killed under the wrong circumstances. Maybe she was the one in over her head.
"Not exactly," Anna admitted. "I was a school psychologist in my former life."
"Why did you quit?"
"Personal reasons. I needed to get away from the town I lived in for a while."
"Messy divorce?"
"Something like that."
"He beat you?"
Anna said nothing. Lies were getting so easy she could tell them without saying a word. The wicked web's weft and warp was getting complex. Lies take on a life of their own.
"He stalking you?" Nicky asked with an odd mixture of sympathy and hope. She was a child of TV movies and in love with domestic drama.
"I just need to stay away awhile," Anna said in such a way it was clear further questions would be rebuffed. To crowbar the subject back onto the track she wanted to follow, she stood, turned in place, hands on her hips and said: "Then you cleaned up?"
Nicky nodded. "I didn't want anybody to know. They said they'd kill me."
Nicky cleaning was as suspicious as it got, but Anna said nothing. The girl hadn't been thinking clearly. Who could blame her?
Anna got her a cup of hot tea with plenty of sugar. The Brits had it right: good strong tea made everything more bearable. The next half-hour was spent convincing Nicky to report the break-in and the assault. In the end a compromise was struck. Anna would report it, but only if the rangers would first promise not to make a "big deal" out of it. Anna reassured her the chief ranger would probably be circumspect, sending a ranger over in street clothes so the villains would be none the wiser.
Knowing the girl would feel safer that way, Anna sat up with the light on, pretending to read till her roommate's breathing evened out in sleep.
When Nicky first began telling her story, Anna had jumped toward the conclusion that it had been the men she and Mary had spoken with in Dixon's tent cabin. As the tale unfolded and Nicky told of the man who'd restrained her-smooth-handed and sweet smelling, the slacks, the dress shoes-she'd become less sure. Anybody who'd spent time in the tent cabin inherited by the erstwhile climbers would have reeked of tobacco and probably whiskey.
Still, there was such a thing as showers.
Maybe they suspected Anna wasn't who she pretended to be and came to find out if their suspicions were well founded. If so, they'd discovered nothing. She'd been careful not to drag along a single scrap of her past: not a badge, not a gun, nothing.
Anna doubted Bobby, Billy and Ben, the pseudonymous stooges, would have been able to behave with the professional coldness Nicky described, particularly not after consuming the amount of booze they'd downed two hours before the break-in. Mark, the leader, struck her as a man with sufficient control, but who was working with him? He wasn't the one sitting on Nicky's back. He was slight of build and, when Anna met him, he'd just showered. Unless he'd showered again he had been in the tent cabin long enough that his clothes, hair and skin would have recovered their ashtray stink.
However unlikely, these thoughts triggered sudden fear for Mary, Anna's unwitting accomplice. Careful to make no noise, Anna crept out of the room and down the hall to peek into the girl's room. Mary and her roommate slept the sleep of the innocent.
Relieved, Anna returned to her room. For her, the sleep of the innocent had ended many years before. Lying in bed, grateful to the marauders for not harming her roommate and for being the inspiration for cleaning the place, Anna planned her morning. As soon as it was decent for a citizen to go calling, she would return to Camp 4.
CHAPTER 5
Long before sunup Anna was awake. Longitudinally YosemiteNational Park wasn't much farther north than Mississippi, but the deep narrow valley that bore the brunt of visitation-referred to by the park employees as The Ditch-didn't receive day's blessing
"Not exactly," Anna admitted. "I was a school psychologist in my former life."
"Why did you quit?"
"Personal reasons. I needed to get away from the town I lived in for a while."
"Messy divorce?"
"Something like that."
"He beat you?"
Anna said nothing. Lies were getting so easy she could tell them without saying a word. The wicked web's weft and warp was getting complex. Lies take on a life of their own.
"He stalking you?" Nicky asked with an odd mixture of sympathy and hope. She was a child of TV movies and in love with domestic drama.
"I just need to stay away awhile," Anna said in such a way it was clear further questions would be rebuffed. To crowbar the subject back onto the track she wanted to follow, she stood, turned in place, hands on her hips and said: "Then you cleaned up?"
Nicky nodded. "I didn't want anybody to know. They said they'd kill me."
Nicky cleaning was as suspicious as it got, but Anna said nothing. The girl hadn't been thinking clearly. Who could blame her?
Anna got her a cup of hot tea with plenty of sugar. The Brits had it right: good strong tea made everything more bearable. The next half-hour was spent convincing Nicky to report the break-in and the assault. In the end a compromise was struck. Anna would report it, but only if the rangers would first promise not to make a "big deal" out of it. Anna reassured her the chief ranger would probably be circumspect, sending a ranger over in street clothes so the villains would be none the wiser.
Knowing the girl would feel safer that way, Anna sat up with the light on, pretending to read till her roommate's breathing evened out in sleep.
When Nicky first began telling her story, Anna had jumped toward the conclusion that it had been the men she and Mary had spoken with in Dixon's tent cabin. As the tale unfolded and Nicky told of the man who'd restrained her-smooth-handed and sweet smelling, the slacks, the dress shoes-she'd become less sure. Anybody who'd spent time in the tent cabin inherited by the erstwhile climbers would have reeked of tobacco and probably whiskey.
Still, there was such a thing as showers.
Maybe they suspected Anna wasn't who she pretended to be and came to find out if their suspicions were well founded. If so, they'd discovered nothing. She'd been careful not to drag along a single scrap of her past: not a badge, not a gun, nothing.
Anna doubted Bobby, Billy and Ben, the pseudonymous stooges, would have been able to behave with the professional coldness Nicky described, particularly not after consuming the amount of booze they'd downed two hours before the break-in. Mark, the leader, struck her as a man with sufficient control, but who was working with him? He wasn't the one sitting on Nicky's back. He was slight of build and, when Anna met him, he'd just showered. Unless he'd showered again he had been in the tent cabin long enough that his clothes, hair and skin would have recovered their ashtray stink.
However unlikely, these thoughts triggered sudden fear for Mary, Anna's unwitting accomplice. Careful to make no noise, Anna crept out of the room and down the hall to peek into the girl's room. Mary and her roommate slept the sleep of the innocent.
Relieved, Anna returned to her room. For her, the sleep of the innocent had ended many years before. Lying in bed, grateful to the marauders for not harming her roommate and for being the inspiration for cleaning the place, Anna planned her morning. As soon as it was decent for a citizen to go calling, she would return to Camp 4.
CHAPTER 5
Long before sunup Anna was awake. Longitudinally YosemiteNational Park wasn't much farther north than Mississippi, but the deep narrow valley that bore the brunt of visitation-referred to by the park employees as The Ditch-didn't receive day's blessing
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