Part 21 (1/2)
The grin vanished. ”How'd your brother die?”
”He was murdered.”
Vernon's face remained expressionless. ”Back in Maine?”
I nodded.
”And you think this woman might be out this way?”
”I don't know where she is. But I think she might have come from this area.”
”Why's that?”
”She had a book that came from around here. The Dayton ranch.”
His eyes narrowed. ”Fred Dayton's ranch?”
”When Lorenzo Clay owned it.”
”You know Lorenzo Clay?”
”I spoke to him. He said you might be able to help me.”
Vernon suddenly appeared more accommodating, though only slightly, not a man who would grovel before wealth and power, only one smart enough to know who had it and who didn't.
”What was this woman's name?”
”I don't know. The one she used came from a magazine.”
”With no name, I don't see how I can be of much help.”
”What can you tell me about Catherine Shay?”
A light flickered in Vernon's eyes. ”What's Catherine Shay got to do with anything?”
”The woman I'm looking for said she was from California,” I told him. ”And she had scars on her back.”
Vernon's eyes widened. ”Are you telling me you think this woman might actually be Catherine Shay?”
”I'd like to make sure she isn't.”
”Well, I can tell you this, Mr. Chase. If this woman is Catherine Shay, you got no hope of finding her.”
”Why not?”
”Because Catherine has spent her life making sure no one knows where she is.”
I saw Dora as she so often appeared, moving quickly through the darkness, perpetually in flight. ”Why?”
”Because of Adrian Cash,” Vernon answered. ”The man who cut her. She's spent her life hiding from him. So even if I knew where Catherine was, I wouldn't tell you.” He worked to regain his earlier, more languid manner, his voice now as slow and steady as the swing of an old saloon door. ”What do you actually know about Catherine anyway?”
”Only what Clay told me.”
”Which was?”
”That she was at the Dayton ranch the night the family was killed. And that she was a.s.saulted.”
”a.s.saulted doesn't begin to describe what happened to Catherine Shay,” the sheriff said. ”That's why she's been on the run for twenty years. That's why she's changed her name a dozen times, roamed from coast to coast.”
I waited, said nothing, confident he would go on.
”Catherine heard everything, you see. She was in the house the whole time the others were being killed. Hiding in a little room down the hall from the kitchen. She was already on her way back to the kitchen when it started.”
I saw a little girl step into an unlighted corridor, then stop, shrink back.
”She heard this girl say, 'I'm hungry, do you have some food?' That was Irene Dement. The girl Cash had been living with. After that, all h.e.l.l broke loose. People being tied up. People being murdered. Catherine heard all of that.”
Then abruptly it had stopped, the last moans fading away.
”Once everybody was dead, Cash and Irene started robbing the place. They went through closets, drawers, that sort of thing. Picked up the stuff they got caught with a month later. Myra's pearl earrings. Fred's leather gloves. Catherine heard all that commotion too, of course.”
I felt that I was with her now, in that dark room, a little boy myself, huddled in the same inescapable blackness, locked in the same mute terror.
”They stuffed what they could in a couple of feed sacks, then they left. Catherine didn't see them go. But she heard the screen door bang shut, heard them talking as they headed away from the house. Cash was cussing Irene, telling her what a dumb b.i.t.c.h she was, stuff like that. Then, nothing.”
A little girl's voice whispered in the silence, They're gone.
”She waited a little while, then she came out of the room,” Vernon said.
I saw her rise, walk to the door, open it softly, peer into the dark corridor.
My voice was a boy's, Don't go.
She looked at me, her green eyes curiously a.s.sured, They're gone.
I was at the door now, watching her move slowly down the corridor, toward a single square of light that came from the distant kitchen. In a frantic whisper, I said, Come back. Please, come back. She turned to me, her long, blond hair s.h.i.+ning in the light, I can't.
”She walked straight to that kitchen,” Vernon said. ”Saw what had been done to them.”