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  He pulled out his cell phone and dialed.

  “VBI Dispatch.”

  He recognized the woman’s voice. It was that kind of state, where people joked about there being only a few dozen residents, grand total. It was more like six hundred thousand really, but that still made it the second least populous state in the country. The number inside the law enforcement community was even more minute by comparison.

  “Hey, Gloria. It’s Joe.”

  Her voice instantly slipped into maternal mode. “Oh, my God. I just heard about your family. I am so sorry. How’re they doing?”

  He wasn’t surprised. Vermont was a small town in some ways, spread thinly across a hilly map. It didn’t take long for everyone to know your business. Fortunately, that was one of the aspects of living here that he cherished. He had no wife, no children, not even a significant other at the moment. The fact that virtual strangers—even a disembodied voice on the phone—knew his life’s latest news actually came as a comfort.

  “They’re hanging in there, thanks. I’m at the hospital now. Actually, I was wondering if you could do me a big favor in connection with that.”

  “Anything at all.”

  “Could you find out who was working the car crash that banged them up? I’d love to talk to him or her.”

  Gloria couldn’t keep the keenness from her voice. “You suspect something?”

  Joe made an effort to laugh easily. “Whoa. You need to cut back on the cop shows, Gloria. I just want to find out who’s on the job.”

  She laughed in return, but he could almost hear her cataloging his request for future in-house gossiping. “It’s the company I keep, Joe. You guys have made me paranoid. I don’t even watch cop shows anymore. Give me about five minutes and I’ll call you back.”

  Joe made sure the phone was set to vibrate, and returned it to his belt. He went back to gazing at his mother’s pale profile, propped on a white pillow, uncomfortably reminiscent of a carved tomb lid in a medieval church.

  She was certainly deserving of a monument of some sort, he thought, though a much more upbeat one. In all his experience, he’d never known a person with more considerate sanity. Just as he’d always looked to his quieter, utterly dependable father for his own reliability, so he blessed his mother for whatever sagacity he could claim. She’d always been thoughtful, patient, and encouraging, though never shy to speak her mind. She had taught her boys to do as little harm as possible, to be considerate of the less fortunate, to be slow to judge, and to maintain a sense of humor. She’d been the only girl in a family of a dozen kids, where the mother had finally died in childbirth, so she’d had good practice. Still, Joe had sometimes wondered how she would have fared with two daughters.

  In any case, he’d lucked out, and he knew that his brother felt the same way. It was going to be a huge threshold to cross when they lost this woman.

  The cell phone began vibrating at his belt, and he yanked it free to answer.

  “Gunther.”

  “Joe, it’s Gloria. The Windsor County sheriff’s got your case. A Deputy Rob Barrows is investigating. If you have a pen, I’ve got his cell number.”

  Joe pulled out a black notepad and scribbled down the number she gave him, thankful that he was where cell coverage was better than most places. As with many things technological, Vermont tended to lag toward the back of the innovation herd.

  “Thanks, Gloria. You’re a peach.”

  “You just take care of that family,” she said, hanging up.

  Joe dialed the number she’d given him.

  “Barrows.” The voice sounded young but confident.

  “Deputy, my name is Joe Gunther. We’ve never met, but—”

  “I’ve heard about you, Agent Gunther. This is a real pleasure. Sorry about the circumstances, though. How’s your brother and mom?”

  Joe was happy not to have to break the ice, go into a whole song and dance about who and what he was, or, worse, ingratiate himself with someone who had a beef against the VBI.

  “They’re in good hands,” he answered vaguely, becoming aware of how often he was going to have to respond to that inquiry. “I was wondering if you’d figured out what happened yet.”

  Perhaps instinctively, Barrows came back with “What did your brother say?”

  Joe was pleased by the reaction. It made him feel he might be talking with someone who truly understood his job.

  “Not much, given the shape he’s in, but he said it was the car, not the road, and I’ll give the man his due—he does know cars.”

  Barrows didn’t argue. “The road looked good to me. They weren’t on much of a curve, and I didn’t find any signs of ice or snow on the surface—road crew had done a good job. Course, I was there after the fact. What did he say about the car?”

  “Just that, nothing more.”

  Joe could almost hear the other man thinking. Generally in an accident like this, with no death resulting and no involvement by anyone else, the physical aspects of the vehicle examination were pretty much limited to the condition of the tire treads. It didn’t make sense to go looking beyond driver error, and it cost a lot more money.

  “Could you do me a favor?” Joe therefore asked, to help the man reach a less hasty conclusion.

  “What’s that?”

  “Could you keep the car where no one can mess with it until I get someone to check it out?”

  Barrows hesitated before asking in turn, “I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes here, sir, but are you not telling me something?”

  “Absolutely not,” Joe reassured him. “I have no reason to think this wasn’t just what it looks like. But given what you and I do for a living, wouldn’t you be curious?”

  “I see your point,” Barrows conceded. “I’ll give it a closer look myself—I know cars, too. And I’ll make sure it’s kept under lock and key.”

  “Thanks, Deputy. I owe you one. I’ll see you a little later.”

  “That would be my pleasure.”

  Joe snapped the phone shut and was putting it away when it vibrated in his hand.

  “Hello?”

  Gail Zigman’s voice was tight with concern. “Joe, I just heard. How are they?”

  Joe was startled by his reaction. After something like twenty years, he and Gail were no longer a couple, and hadn’t been for over a year by now. But whether it was his own present vulnerability or simply the preexisting pattern that any couple establishes after so much time together, he was caught between feeling genuine relief and a sense that this was one conversation he just didn’t have the stamina to maintain. One reminder at a time of the price of loss seemed ample.

  “Hi,” he muttered stupidly.

  “Are they all right?” she repeated.

  “They’re alive,” he finally managed. “Leo looks the worse for wear, but he’s conscious. Mom is just asleep.”

  “Asleep?”

  “That’s what I call it. They’re not saying ‘coma’ yet, but that’s probably just for me. Maybe it’s a kind of twilight until things become clear.”

  There was a long pause, followed by “My God, Joe. I am so sorry.”

  “Me, too.”

  “Do you know what happened?”

  “Not yet. All Leo told me was that it was the car, so maybe the brakes went out, or something in the steering. I’ll look into that later.”

  He could almost hear her thinking, examining the angles. Gail was a lawyer, a legislator, someone with ambition who knew how to organize things. After ending her relationship with Joe, she’d moved altogether from Brattleboro to Montpelier, the state capital, so she could fully concentrate on her new political career. If Joe were to bet on it, she had the governorship in her sights.

  “What are your plans?” she asked.

  “I’m on leave until I get a handle on this.”

  “Would you like some company?”

  He had a split second to respond correctly, and almost inevitably chose poorly. “It would mean a lot to them.”<
br />
  Her comeback drove home his error. “I know that’s not true for you, too, but I won’t get in your way. I promise. I would just like it if you said it was okay,” she said. “I feel so awful about this.”

  He scratched his forehead, thinking a rap with his knuckles might have been more appropriate. “Gail, you’d never be in the way. They both love you, and I could do with the help. I’d really appreciate whatever time you can spare.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Absolutely. I’ll clear it with the hospital, too, in case they have rules or something about visitors.”

  Her voice was soft, almost tearful, in response. “Thank you, Joe. I’ll be down as soon as I clear a couple of things up here. Give them my love.”

  Despite his fumbled comeback to her offer, it remained true that Gail’s presence would be helpful, even if painful. He hadn’t been the one to end what they’d shared, but it had certainly been his profession, in large part, that had precipitated her decision. He’d been a cop for enough decades to have made a few enemies, and survived enough bullets, knives, and explosions to understand anyone’s desire to gain a little distance from him. But he did miss her, and having her nearby again was going to be tough.

  He rose and stood before the window, looking down on the snow-dusted trees that circled the hospital.

  It would allow him to be practical, though, and perhaps a little self-preserving. Leo was in good hands, and their mom was out of reach, at least for the time being. There wasn’t much of a role for him here. Gail’s arrival would guarantee that someone he could trust was nearby while he did what he could to find out what had happened.

  He didn’t actually suspect much, of course. He was acting more from professional paranoia, or perhaps habit born of witnessing bad things. But it would keep him busy, and perhaps on the edge of the double emotional tar pits represented by Gail and his family’s plight.

  Besides, there was always the nagging possibility that this had been more than a simple car accident.

  littledk: Marvel’s really better at selling incredibly random merchandise

  kay: Yeah. They sell Marvel perfume

  littledk : ...WHAT

  littledk: see, DC should really get on this. I’m sure they have better-smelling superheroes

  kay: Hee. Yes. Exactly.

  kay: I mean. Do *you* want to smell like the Hulk?

  littledk: ewwww

  littledk: clearly they need to make Hal Jordan perfume

  kay: Clearly!

  kay: Drives the ladies NUTS!

  littledk : Warning: May Cause Spontaneous Subconscious Puberty.

  kay: *giggles*

  littledk: I can’t believe it. they make Spider-man perfume, and the fanboys STILL don’t smell better

  kay: Well. You’ve never smelled the perfume.

  Chapter 4

  It was snowing in a Bing Crosby sort of way—fat, lazy, photogenic flakes that, in the end, wouldn’t amount to much. Under normal circumstances, it was the kind of weather that Joe loved to stand in, designed for kids to catch snow crystals on their tongues.

  Except that he was no longer a kid, and was staring at a scene where no sane parent would let any child run free. He was standing in an auto graveyard on the eastern reaches of Thetford Township, a few miles north of where Leo went off the road, confronting a long, low wall of precariously stacked cars, piled like absurdist bricks and extending from one edge of the property to the other.

  The snow cover had softened some of the visual carnage, but there wasn’t much hope for the raw materials—a virtual billboard of the crushed, sharp-edged, broken detritus of an all-consuming industrial juggernaut. It was a vision only enhanced by its otherwise bucolic surroundings. All around the yard, gently vanishing into the blur of falling snow, were tree-crowded hills, fields, and forestland.

  This section of the Connecticut River Valley was absurdly pretty, slicing between New Hampshire and Vermont, and decorated with covered bridges, backwater bays, and cow-sprinkled farms. The background of ancient mountains behind the massive, undulating, dark river told a tale of humanity’s struggle with nature, since both these weather-beaten New England states had eschewed their peaks for the water’s edge and turned the river into a commercial highway for over two hundred years, luring pioneers, aboriginal and white, who had forged far inland and upstream for reasons benign and not.

  Held up against such a portrait of heritage and beauty, not even a car graveyard stood much chance of becoming a significant eyesore.

  “Who’re you?”

  Joe turned at the voice coming from the low building to his left. A man had appeared at a door haphazardly cut into the sheet metal siding. He was bearded, long-haired, and dressed in the standard-issue green uniform of mechanics and road crew workers everywhere, complete with name tag stitched above his breast pocket. The man was labeled “Mitch.”

  Joe pulled his badge from his pocket. “Police. I was looking for a car brought in last night. A Subaru.”

  “That’s sealed up. Can’t get to it. Sheriff’s got the key.”

  That’s one of the things Joe had wanted to hear. It seemed Deputy Barrows was efficient as well as accommodating. “You ever get a look at it?” he asked.

  Mitch shook his head. “I wasn’t on. You here to pick it up? The boss wants it gone. It’s taking up space.”

  “The sheriff not paying you?”

  “Sure, but we’re not a storage unit. We got work to do. We need the bay.” He waved at the picturesque falling snow, adding, “’Specially in this shit.”

  “Won’t be much longer,” Joe reassured him with no basis whatsoever. “Who’s the boss?”

  “E. T. Griffis.”

  Joe had turned toward his parked car, getting ready to leave, but he faced Mitch again at this. “E. T.? No kidding.”

  “You know him?” Mitch asked.

  “Everybody knows him.”

  Mitch cocked his bushy head to one side. “Everybody local. That you?”

  Joe smiled before heading back to his car. “Used to be. I’ll tell the sheriff to get that car out of here soon.”

  Joe continued up the road. It had been a poignant and disturbing journey so far—from the hospital, to the crash site, to where the car was stored, and now on to the family farm—perhaps exacerbated by the very beauty he’d been admiring earlier. The familiar name of E. T. Griffis commingled with his sentiments to form a curious mixture of comfort and pain. One generally revisited one’s place of upbringing for support, not to wonder if it might become the watershed where everything falls apart.

  Because that was a distinct possibility: His entire family was so small that the present situation had the potential of leaving him all by himself.

  The mention of E. T. also served to highlight what few degrees of separation there were within Vermont’s scant population. A small, square man with blunt hands and a manner to match, E. T. had been a near mythological fixture in the greater Thetford area for as long as Joe could think back. He seemed to own at least a piece of every rough-edged business around. And his impact on Joe hadn’t stopped with nostalgic memory—years earlier, Joe had also arrested his youngest son, Andy, for a crime committed in Brattleboro, revealing an abrupt fragility to E. T.’s aura of indomitable feudal lord.

  Joe could sympathize. He had received such reversals himself over time, starting as a young man, when he lost his seemingly indestructible father. After that, life had never seemed quite so secure, and the more of it he’d seen, from combat to police work to the vagaries of the daily grind, the more he’d been confirmed in his skepticism. His wife had been taken by cancer; colleagues had died in the line of duty; Gail, years ago now, had been raped and forever transformed. His personal experience had not been lacking in drama, nor his emotional wariness left wanting for evidence. That a local monolith like E. T. Griffis had begotten a son who would later end up a jailbird was mere proof of the futility of denying humanity’s clay feet.

  Joe Gunther h
ad become a student of hard knocks. As he approached the homestead, he was under no delusions that life would suddenly surprise him by cooperating.

  The farm was less than it had once been. In fact, it wasn’t a farm at all anymore. Much of its land had been sold off to neighbors to retire debts and establish a nest egg. But the core remained, and certainly its appearance was unchanged. All his life, Joe had learned to come up the winding drive and trust that his heart would beat easier. Even now, despite its inhabitants being in the hospital, the place still lent him hopefulness by simply standing strong.

  Ostensibly, Joe was here to feed the cat, turn off the lights, check the doors, and do whatever else hadn’t been considered by two people thinking they’d be out for a couple of hours. In fact, he discovered that this housekeeping applied more to himself. He took his time wandering through the rooms, absorbing the scents and scenery that had populated his upbringing, and tried to position his thinking to accept whatever might be coming. He didn’t want to be pessimistic, but he did want to be prepared.

  He stood, finally, in the living room, his mother’s center of operations. There was a docking station of tables and a desk laden with reading material, a phone, a recently added only-the-basics computer, all facing a large, empty-eyed TV set. Only her wheelchair was missing to make it complete, and it looked barren as a result. He used the opportunity to remember to check on the wheelchair’s welfare in the back of the ruined car. When Mom woke up, she’d be clamoring to get back here and tend to her piled-up projects.