Part 8 (2/2)

”If we're going to buy food, don't we have to go back to town?” Kelly asked.

Michael said nothing, simply putting the bike in gear and pulling away.

But as they rode away from Villejeune, each of them was thinking the same thing.

I know this person. I've known this person all my life. This is the friend I've never met before.

Though neither of them understood it, both of them felt the instant bond that drew them together the moment they had met.

Somehow, they were connected.

7.

Tim Kitteridge was beginning to wonder if he'd made a mistake. He'd been in the swamp for two hours now, and though he'd followed the map Phil Stubbs had given him, he knew he was lost.

The trouble was, it all looked the same. There were tiny islands everywhere, poking up from the shallow water of the bayous, each one of them identical to all the others. He glanced up at the sun, but even that was no longer of much use. It was noon, and the sun was so high it seemed to be almost overhead. He could be going in any direction at all and would never know the difference.

He was moving slowly, the small outboard motor at the stern of the boat puttering quietly. Suddenly he felt the underside of the boat touch bottom, and quickly cut the engine entirety. But when he tried to tilt the motor up, lifting the propeller above the surface, he realized it was too late. The prop was already stuck in the mire that lay, completely invisible, only a few inches beneath the dark brown water. Using the oars, he tried to push the boat back, but the stern only dug deeper into the mud. At last he laid the oars aside, knowing what he had to do. Taking off his shoes and pants, but leaving his socks on, he slipped his legs into the water. Even through his socks he could feel the slime of the bottom. As he s.h.i.+fted his weight out of the boat, his feet sank into the ooze. For a moment he panicked, afraid he'd stepped into quicksand. But when the muck was halfway up his calves, his feet touched more solid ground. He stood still for a few seconds, hating the feel of the mud sucking at his feet, hating the thoughts of what might be lying unseen in the water.

Still, he had no choice.

He grasped the transom of the boat, heaving it upward, and felt the prop come loose from the quagmire. Twisting sideways, he dropped the boat back into the water and tested it. The tip of the outboard still touched the bottom, and it would rebury itself if he climbed back into the little skiff. He moved the boat a few more feet until he was certain it would float free even with his weight added to it.

He climbed back into the boat, but left his bare legs, covered with mud, hanging over the side. As he began rinsing them off, his hand touched something firm and slimy and he reflexively jerked it away. Swinging his legs into the boat, he stared at the leech that clung to his left calf.

Three inches long, it looked like a slug, except that its head, instead of being raised up, was pressed tightly against his leg. He stared at the hideous creature for a second, then, with a shudder of revulsion, s.n.a.t.c.hed it from his leg, hurling it overboard in the same movement.

There was an angry red welt on his leg, where the leech had been in the process of attaching itself to him.

Still queasy, Kitteridge examined his other leg, then quickly pulled his pants back on. He stripped off his socks, dropped them into the bottom of the boat, and rowed away from the shallows into deeper water. He s.h.i.+pped the oars once more, deciding to let the small boat drift, for even out here where the water seemed to be totally stagnant, there were still gentle currents wafting through the shallow channels.

Once again he remembered Judd Duval's words just before he'd taken off into the swamp: ”If you get lost, just let the boat drift. It don't look like it, but that water's movin', and if you let the current take you, you'll get out.” The swamp rat had grinned sardonically. ”'Course it'll take a few hours, and you'll wind up maybe fifteen, twenty miles from Villejeune, but it's better'n spendin' the night out there, right?”

Well, at least he'd listened, and remembered. He watched the maze of islets drift by. Here there was less cypress, and the landscape was far more open than it was closer to Villejeune. Marsh gra.s.ses grew in profusion; flamingos and herons stood in the shallow water, their beaks searching the bottom for food. As he drifted around a bend, he heard a low snorting sound, and looked around just in time to see a wild boar disappear into the reeds.

Then the landscape began to change again, and he was back under the canopy of moss-laden cypress trees. The current picked up slightly, for here the islands were larger, the channels narrower and deeper.

A house hove into view-if you could call it a house. Actually, it was nothing more than a shack, propped up at the water's edge on rotting stilts. Its floor sagged badly at one corner, and its walls were pierced with gla.s.sless window frames.

At first Kitteridge thought it was nothing more than a fis.h.i.+ng shelter, and a long-abandoned one at that. But as he drew abreast of the structure, a slight movement caught his eye, and he dipped the oars into the water, stroking lightly against the gentle current. His eyes fixed on the sagging structure, and he studied it carefully. For a few moments he thought he must have been wrong, that he had only imagined that someone was inside the building. Then, in a sudden flurry, a form darted through the shadows of the building's interior and out through a back door. Kitteridge pulled hard on the oars, and the skiff shot forward, but by the time he had gained a view of the thicket behind the house, the figure was already disappearing.

He hesitated, considering the possibility of following whoever had faded away into the undergrowth, but quickly abandoned the idea. In the boat, at least the current would eventually carry him out. On foot, he was certain he would be hopelessly lost within a matter of minutes.

He moved on, rowing now, following the current as it drifted through the islands. The islands were still larger here, and he began to see more and more of the dilapidated shacks, s.p.a.ced well apart, as if whoever lived in them valued their privacy.

Occasionally he saw people-thin, narrow-faced women, their faces sullen and weathered, clad in faded cotton dresses, some of them with children clinging to their legs. They watched him suspiciously as he drifted by, and he could feel their hostility. A few times he tried calling out a greeting, but no one answered him. At the sound of his voice, they simply disappeared into the gloom of their shanties, herding their children before them.

As he rounded yet another of the endless bends in the slow-moving stream, he saw still another of the wooden shanties. On the porch of this one, though, a lone woman stood, her torso distended in the last stages of pregnancy, and even as he spotted her, Kitteridge knew who she was.

Amelie Coulton, who had led Judd and Marty to the body last night.

And today, from the way she looked, Kitteridge was almost certain she was expecting him. His feeling was confirmed as he drew closer to the house and Amelie gazed down at him, her eyes filled with suspicion.

”It warn't me that killed that man last night,” she said. ”Onliest reason I went out there at all was I thought it might be George. But it warn't.”

”You said George went off last night. With someone called the Dark Man.”

Amelie's sallow complexion turned ashen, and a veil dropped behind her eyes. When she spoke, her voice was flat. ”I don't know nothin' about that.”

”But that's what you told Judd Duval and Marty Templar,” Kitteridge pressed.

Amelie shrugged. ”I warn't feelin' too good last night. I don't remember what I said.”

Kitteridge sensed that he was on the verge of losing the woman entirely, and decided to change tactics. ”But George was out last night?”

He could see Amelie relax a tiny bit. ”He's always out. Out fis.h.i.+n', out drinkin'-don't make no difference, long's he ain't here.”

There was a silence as the man in the boat and the woman on the porch eyed each other suspiciously. ”Where is he now?” Kitteridge finally asked. ”Did he come home last night?”

Amelie shook her head, and Kitteridge had the distinct impression that she would be just as happy if George Coulton never came home at all.

”You don't believe me, do you?” Amelie asked as if she'd read his mind. ”You think I be lyin', and it were George I found out there last night.”

Kitteridge said nothing, but met her gaze steadily.

”Okay,” she said. ”Come on inside. I got a picture of George. You tell me if'n it's the same man.”

Kitteridge climbed up onto the porch and followed Amelie into the shanty. Inside, though it barely seemed possible, the house was even more decrepit than outside. There was a tattered sofa covered with a worn blanket, and broken recliner. In one corner stood a splintering pine table and two more chairs. A wood stove filled another corner, and a makes.h.i.+ft counter had been built along the wall next to it. Through a door, he could see a second room, containing a bed frame on which lay a sagging mattress. There was no sign of a bathroom, and the police chief knew better than to ask about it. Here in the swamp there simply was no plumbing. Through an empty window frame he could see a lopsided outhouse, against which leaned a pile of traps. Well, at least he knew how George Coulton earned whatever money he made. Shaking his head at the poverty of the place, he turned around to find Amelie holding a picture. He studied it carefully, taking it out onto the porch to hold it in the sunlight.

It was a photograph of a couple, and the woman was clearly Amelie Coulton. The man next to her, a lean, gangling figure almost a foot taller than she, had the narrow face typical of the swamp, and empty eyes. His chin was covered with a stubble of beard, and a shotgun was cradled in the crook of his arm. His other arm was draped possessively over Amelie's shoulder. Kitteridge flipped the picture over and read the scrawl on the other side: ”Wedding day-me and George.” It was dated seven months earlier.

Kitteridge studied the picture again. Even allowing for the premature aging of the swamp rats, George Coulton couldn't have been more than twenty-five when the photograph had been taken.

The man in the morgue had to have been at least eighty.

Silently, Kitteridge handed the picture back to Amelie, who had followed him out onto the porch. But as she reached out to take the snapshot from him, her face paled, her eyes widened, and her hand went to the great bulge in her belly. Unsteadily, she sank down onto the rocking chair.

”Oh, my,” she gasped as the sudden spasm of pain drained out of her. ”I think mebbe it's time.”

Kitteridge knew immediately what was happening. ”Was that the first contraction?”

Amelie nodded. ”I told George it was gettin' close,” she said, her voice bitter.

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