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- Herausgeber: Paraquel Press
- Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024
Slammed by disaster. Playing for her life.
With the tragic death of her husband and son, concert pianist Riley Forte’s life and career shattered. In a struggle to rally, her comeback performance bombs, her sponsor pulls out, and she faces the tattered ruins of a once-happy life.
When the catastrophic eruption of Mt. Rainier traps her in a frightened community tormented by a relentless serial killer, it seems like the end of everything, but it brings a new chance for Riley.
If she can evade the clutches of a demented killer.
In a riveting action story filled with breathtaking suspense, Riley fights to hang on to the one thing she has left—her life—and the one thing she needs to turn it around—redemption.
Fans of Jeffery Deaver, CJ Box, and William Kent Krueger will be captivated by this page-turner.
“Just when I thought I had the killer in a cage, a bombshell reveal, chapters later, knocked me out of the park. This book is a force to be reckoned with and a must for the avid reader.” ~ Terry A. Benedict-Devine (reader, Amazon.com)
If you like a gripping, suspenseful tale, grab your copy of Nocturne in Ashes today and prepare to burn the midnight oil!
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NOCTURNE IN ASHES
A Riley Forte Suspense Thriller
JOSLYN CHASE
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Acclaim for Nocturne in Ashes
What readers are saying...
"Afast-paced, action thriller with a ton of suspense, distinct and memorable characters, and a unique setting."
~ ReadnGrow
"I couldn't put this book down, reading late into the night and every chance I could sneak away from other things that people call important."
~ Monica Dannenberger (reader, Amazon.com)
"Joslyn Chase skillfully connects subplots, then injects a few surprises, then connects things again in an interesting cycle; weave, disassemble, weave, repeat."
~ Ron Keeler, Read 4 Fun
"Joslyn Chase paints intriguing pictures with vivid, colorful descriptions and effortlessly weaves several subplots into one very entertaining story. You feel like you have a front row seat from which to watch as everything unfolds."
~ Gabi Rosetti (reader, Amazon.com)
"There was a twist in the plotline that I didn't see coming. It blindsided me."
~ Read With Me
Contents
Prologue
The summer he turned thirteen, he took his first life.
His first human life.
He’d killed scores of animals. His mother had taught him that.
“We’re living off the fat of the land and sometimes that calls for slaughter,” she’d told him as he watched her work over their latest kill, her long hair tangled and dangling, her arms bloodied to the elbow in the belly of the deer.
He’d learned to heed that call.
He gathered what he needed, sharpened the blade, and laid everything ready to hand. The small pile of sticks and stones, the strip of cotton fabric, the flint and steel. Squinting into the night sky, he dipped his head to the three-quarter moon peering down through the trees, smoothing a layer of silver over the crisped and browning leaves and waving grasses, gilding the rippled lake.
The last of the summer warmth came now in brief snatches, like the kiss of a capricious child. Autumn approached and with it, the familiar melancholy, the stirring ache of loss.
Still sharp, after so many years.
The mantle felt heavy upon him, bowing him down as he mourned the lonely course he was compelled to follow. So few understood his work. No one alive could appreciate his sacrifice.
Was it necessary, what he did? Must he carry on?
He asked the questions, as he had that first time, in his thirteenth year.
He asked the questions as he had every time since.
So many times. And every time, her voice comes back to him in a whisper.
Yes.
And so he plods on. He has seen the fruit of his works, his gift to the world. And yet the hunger, the need grows stronger. Always, more is required.
The killer let his gaze and his thoughts wander to the clump of bushes to his right. No sound or movement drew his attention, but he strained his eyes through the blackness and wondered if the slight shape he discerned was real or a product of his restless imagination. He forced himself to remain still, regulating his breathing and the beat of his heart.
Long moments passed before the scrape of metal against metal reached his ears, raising him from his seat against the smooth bark of an aspen. He watched through the low branches, his eyes focusing across the small clearing with the acuity of a hunter.
The sound was repeated, made by the door of an RV scraping across the ill-fitting steps which extended from it. A figure emerged and lurched down the steps, weaving and muttering as he staggered between the tall birch and whispering pines.
Into the silence of the night came the splash of an over-burdened bladder finding release, and it was under cover of this noise that the killer moved.
The man in the trees zipped up and dug into the pocket of his grungy, low-slung jeans. He came up with a twist of paper and lit it, puffing while he gazed up at the distant moon. Spread over his bare chest and biceps, a parade of inked figures swayed slightly with the gentle movements of hand to mouth.
Cricket song resumed. The night’s gentle pulse beat out. The smell of marijuana drifted on the air.
The killer waited, letting the man finish his smoke. He listened as the man sang and repeated an unfamiliar phrase. He sang, revised, and tried again, staring up at the stars as if for encouragement or inspiration.
The man was a songwriter. Also a guitarist and a talented musician. Two nights ago, the killer had relaxed in the twentieth row of a half-filled auditorium, enjoying the man and his band in concert.
Rolling Stone had featured an interview with the man in one of last year’s issues, and the killer had read every word with interest. But the great band’s comeback tour was falling short of expectation.
Pity.
The singer flicked the butt onto the urine-dampened earth and blew one last lungful into the velvet air. The killer nodded. Gripping the knife, he stepped forward, moving fast and quiet.
The man stopped singing.
Riley stood naked on the dressing room floor.
She fingered the smooth black silkiness of the gown she would wear to cover herself on stage, knowing the very essence of her soul would remain exposed, uncoverable by any length of silk. It was what she always felt before a performance, and the knowledge both exhilarated and terrified her.
She slipped a robe over lace-trimmed undergarments, knotting the cord at her waist, and walked to the battered upright piano shoved into a corner of the cluttered dressing room. Sitting down on the bench, she touched naked fingers to naked keys, and shivered.
In Beethoven, there was no place to hide.
With Rachmaninoff, Debussy, even Chopin, the possibility of covering up a brief falter, a tiny misstep, without heralding disastrous consequences, existed. But the spare lines and disciplined elegance adhered to by the masters of the Classical era demanded the utmost precision, and Riley had always been known for accuracy.
Execution, interpretation, emotion—all are exposed under the stage lights at the piano.
For twenty-three months she had immersed herself in the music, studying, rehearsing, pouring herself into the work and thinking of little else. She was ready.
Certainly, she was ready.
There was a knock at the door and Helen entered, a sheaf of printed programs in one hand and a spray of roses in the other.
“They’re lovely, aren’t they?” she said.
“Which? The flowers or the programs?” Riley asked, inspecting the thick, ivory-colored cards that spelled out the evening’s fare.
This concrete evidence that she was about to go under the spotlight kicked off a rush of adrenaline, bringing the heady mixture of anticipation and dread. Why do I put myself through this?
That thought was instantly followed by another—what else is there? Her very soul was made of music. Sharing it was all she knew.
Helen placed the flowers on a scratched wooden coffee table, pushing and pulling at the blooms, arranging them to her satisfaction. She was a tiny woman, plump in a way that rounded her features and made her look like a wise, old child. She came to Riley at the piano, dropping beside her on the bench, and squeezed an arm around her.
“You’re gonna do great, kid. Jim would be so proud.”
Riley nodded. She had no doubts on that score.
Helen patted her leg and switched to business. “Miller Cantwell is in the crowd tonight and I think a rep from Universal. Also, Frank Coston and Gabrielle Wilson, so keep your smile pasted on whatever you do. Now get dressed and warm up your fingers. It’s time to knock ‘em dead.”
She waved and left the room, and in that interval before the door shut behind her, Riley heard the bustle of backstage, the faint chatter of the concert hall filling with people. Her hands were like ice against her skin as she pulled the silk gown over her hips and drew up the zipper on the low-cut back.
Pulling the pins from her long, auburn hair, she let it fall loose, filling in the space left bare by the fabric. At the piano, she ran through a series of scales, numbing out, drifting mentally to another plain. With an effort, she shook herself and wrangled her mind back to the little dressing room and the audience filling the auditorium.
Biting her lip, she tried to remember the initial notes of Chopin’s Fantasie Impromptu, which opened the program, but came up blank. A jolt of panic speared through her, and she felt the urge to pull out the sheet music, study, cram, but she knew from experience that the notations would only turn to blurred Chinese characters before her face.
Heaven help me, what do I think I’m doing here?
She closed her eyes, exhaling into her hands to warm them, and brought her breathing into a slow, steady rhythm. Her grandfather, Zach Riley, for whom she was named, had been a jazz pianist doing USO shows during WWII. He’d played through bombshells and cannon fire and been injured more than once.
She fastened her thoughts on him, picturing him playing doggedly through air raids and enemy attacks. She thought of the orchestra members on The Titanic who went down with the ship as they played through, lending courage to others.
This was the heritage she claimed. She could do this.
She had to do this.
Applause flooded over her as she stood center stage and bowed her acknowledgment to a houseful of half-seen faces. Turning toward the piano, she took the first steps on what was always the longest walk, the distance stretching out and holding all the possibilities between triumph and tragedy.
Back straight, chin lifted, she seated herself, arranged her skirts, flexed her fingers, and began.
Striking the first chord, she let it resonate, floating up, drawing the expectant audience, and then the Chopin flowed out, her hands agile and dancing on the keyboard. Her heart pounded, pumping out adrenaline, speeding the tempo, and she pulled back just slightly, a gentle tap on the brake as her fingers raced.
The music enveloped her like a flurry of golden butterflies, filling her with a rush of pure excitement. She executed a perfect, rippling chromatic scale, spanning the keyboard and building to a series of crashing chords.
And then, a slight stumble as she crescendoed down the piano, one finger sliding off the slick surface of a polished key. None but the most distinguishing of ears would catch it, but it threw her concentration and she struggled to maintain the rhythm and balance of the piece as she transitioned into the central melody.
Drawing strength from the gentle, lyrical notes, Riley regained her equilibrium, preparing to face the second round of chromatics and thundering chords. She felt a blip of panic as she approached the section and fought to control the impulse to flee that always hit her when she lost focus.
She clenched her jaw, then released it, zeroing her attention on the keyboard choreography.
Her hands flowed up the keys like a wave on the beach and moved back down again, hitting the chords with determination. She navigated the passage without mishap, returning to the tranquility of the melodic line. As the last gentle notes faded, applause surrounded her, and she felt her face grow pink with pleasure and relief.
A good opening.
She sat tall on the bench, breathing in, breathing out, nodding her thanks to the audience. Lifting her hands to the keyboard, ignoring their palsied tremble, she straightened her spine and began the Tchaikovsky Barcarolle.
She watched her fingers almost with wonder as they produced the tones of heart-rending sadness, feeling the music pulse within her, building through the impassioned midsection before coming back to the opening theme.
The gondola rocked, moonlight rippled, the midway storm raged, and she conquered it. Riley was inside the music, constructing the image, living it, swaying and bobbing on the Venetian waters of the picture she played.
As the last melancholy notes drifted and diminished, applause burst over Riley, and it felt like sunshine.
This was her first concert in over two years, and she had designed a short program, without intermission. She floated through the Bach Prelude and Fugue, the Haydn Sonata, and the Scarlatti. Only the Gershwin Preludes remained.
And the Beethoven.
She tried to push the thought from her mind. It was always at this point, when the finish was in sight without disaster breaking over her, that she tensed up and mistakes loomed like jagged cliffs on the shoreline.
She focused, instead, on Jim, as she always had. He was her fortress, her rock, her support. He was her family, the father of her child, her anchor.
He was gone.
Jim was dead and Tanner, their son, gone with him. But she had practiced through this, prepared for it, playing through the pieces while holding this thought, this harsh fact, in her head.
She’d learned to draw strength from it, to make her work a kind of tribute, allowing her to hold them with her in the music.
But tonight, it wasn’t working.
The fall was coming.
She felt its approach as the tension in her neck and arms increased. Her mind fumbled, small tremors at first and then increasing in intensity like the buildup to an earthquake. The flight impulse threatened again and she wrestled it, fighting to keep herself at the piano even while her mind was already fleeing out the door, down the staircase, into the night.
She was furious with herself, felt hot tears on her face and ignored them. She skittered along to the end of the last Gershwin piece, hardly hearing or acknowledging the applause as it rose and petered out.
Time to finish the program.
She sat motionless on the bench, stomach roiling as the silence stretched and grew, broken only by short, polite coughs and the rustling of paper. Riley took a deep breath and positioned her shaking hands for the opening chords. They hung there, frozen above the keys for an agonizing eternity.
Blood roared in her eardrums and a moan tore from her throat as she jumped up, tipping the piano bench. The swirl of her skirt caught in the adjuster knob, and she heard it tear as she ripped free and fled the burning spotlight.
The bench fell with an echoing thud, punctuated by the staccato clattering of her heels as she ran from the stage, leaving the shreds of her comeback performance drifting like the tatters of her silk dress.
“I’m not a groupie, I’m his wife.”
Detective Nate Quentin eyed the woman who claimed she was married to Coby Waters, bygone rock star and notorious bachelor. He raised his palm, pressing it against the air as if activating a giant pause button.
“Phoebe?” He tossed his voice to the fingerprint tech, but his gaze never left the witness. “What do you think, Feebs?”
“Married, huh?” The small black woman looked up from where she crouched over a powdery surface, rolled her eyes, and considered. “No. I didn’t hear anything about a wedding.”
Nate folded his hands on the table in front of him, waiting for a response. The woman seated across the scarred board that doubled as eating surface and spare bed in the spacious RV sent a searing look in Phoebe’s direction.
The bones in her shoulders rose like hackles under the spaghetti-string tank top and a flush spread from her breast up and over her cheekbones. She seemed to be gearing up for an explosion but then the huff went out of her. She shrugged.
“We got married three and a half weeks ago, in Vegas. We kept it quiet.” She paused, her pink-tinted cheeks going pale. “We didn’t even make it to one month.”
Nate leaned back against the bench seat, glancing at his partner, Rick Jimenez, who hovered over the kitchen sink with a notepad, taking down the details.
“I’m sorry,” Nate said, holding her gaze. “I am. Will you tell us what happened?”
“I already told. Twice. It’s not a moment I want to live over again.”
Nate leaned forward. “Mrs. Waters, those other times you told it, that’s for the record, well and good. But we,” he gestured at Rick and back to himself, “we are the ones who are going to find the guy who did this. You need to be real clear on that and tell us everything.”
“Okay, yeah. I get it.”
She fumbled through a shoulder-bag on the bench beside her, pulled out a pack of menthols and lit up. Nate watched her eyes turn inward as she accessed the part of her brain that housed the terrible memory. She took a long drag.
“We got drunk, you know. We were sleeping it off.” Puff and pause. “I woke up feeling like crap.”
She shuddered and blew out a cloud, waving it away. “I brushed my teeth, got in the shower. Pretty soon, Coby comes hammerin’ on the door.”
“What time was this?” Rick interrupted.
She stared at him. “How do I know? It was the middle of the night. I got no reason to look at a clock that time of day. I had the door locked, you know, so I tell Coby to find a bush.”
She hugged herself, blowing out another mouthful of smoke. “I sent him to his death.”
Nate shook his head. “Don’t shoulder that weight, Mrs. Waters. It’s not your fault.”
She gave him a bleak look and crushed out the cigarette, wrapping her arms tighter. “I put my wet hair up in a towel and went back to bed. Never saw Coby again until—”
Her hands clenched down on her own flesh, talon-like. “I woke up in broad daylight and came out here to the kitchen to put on the coffee. I looked at the clock,” she threw Rick a glare, “and it was eleven forty-seven a.m.”
Rick’s gaze was impassive. “When did you go looking for your husband?”
“After two cups of coffee and three slices of toast. With jam. Let’s make it a quarter past noon. I began to wonder what he was up to, so I went looking. Started off in the wrong direction and ended up walking down caravan way.”
She flung her arm eastward to indicate the sprawl of buses, trucks, and vans that hosted the remainder of the band’s entourage.
“I asked around. No one’d seen Coby. I got to talking with some of the girls, never dreaming anything was wrong, and then that chihuahua started sounding off. We thought he might have got himself hurt. You know, stuck in a trap, sprayed by a raccoon, something like that. But he’d found Coby and raised the alarm.”
She fell silent and Nate decided not to correct her over the raccoon. He watched her rake the tabletop with miserable eyes as if searching for something to cover the awful scene inside her mind.
“He was cut bad, right across the neck, and it seemed every last drop of blood in him must have found its way out. The ground was soaked with it. Damn dog was standing in it, yapping his head off. Danny led me away, then, and I didn’t see no more.”
Nate let a respectful silence pass and then asked, “Why is your trailer separated from the others?”
Her washed-out blue eyes met his with reproach. “It’s not a trailer. It’s a motorhome. Coby’d kick your butt for calling it that.”
She caught her breath and swallowed hard. “He liked to be apart from the crowd. It’s a status thing, right? Heaven knows he got precious little respect any more from the band, but he took what he could get.”
“Downed Illusion used to be a pretty big deal and I understand this tour was meant as a comeback. Can you think of any reason someone might have for harming your husband? Were there any disputes among band members, for instance?”
She stared. “You think someone here could have done this?” Her mouth fell open a little as she considered, then snapped shut with her emphatic head shake. “No way. Their arguments were small-time stuff. A punch in the face, maybe. Never this.”
Nate’s cell phone buzzed with his ex-wife’s ringtone. “Thank you, Mrs. Waters. That’s all for now.”
He walked down the rickety metal steps and pressed the TALK button.
“What’s up, Marilyn? I’m at a crime scene so make it quick.”
“Quick as I can, but it does involve our daughter’s welfare. Forgive me if I take up too much of your time.”
“Come on, that’s not what I meant.”
“Yeah, I know. Sorry. I’ve got a lot on my plate, too.” She paused. “Can you take Sammi next weekend? I want to head out of town for a few days. I need a break.”
“Oh? Who’s going with you? You don’t like traveling alone.”
A moment passed. “Brad is taking me to Vancouver.”
“Geez, Marilyn. That guy? He gives me a bad vibe and I don’t want him around Sammi.”
“Sammi will be with you, I’m hoping.”
“For the weekend, sure, but what then?”
“You’re being ridiculous. Brad is a nice guy. The first guy I’ve really liked since I really liked you. And does this mean you’ll take Sammi?”
Nate sighed. “I would love to have Sammi spend next weekend with me.”
“Wonderful! I’ll let you go. Bye.”
Rick joined him and they sat at a picnic table in the twilight. Lunch and dinner time had come and gone, hours ago and unheeded, and they fell like wolves upon the coffee and sandwiches being passed around.
“Are you thinking it’s the same guy they’re after in Seattle?” Rick asked. “We got a serial case?”
Nate chased down a bite with a swig of coffee, wiped his mouth with a paper napkin, and nodded. “That’s what I’m thinking. We need to get up to speed on those case files. Looks like we’ll be joining the team on this one. Congratulations, partner. Your first case out and you draw the short straw.”
“Hey, I’m happy with it. Go big or go home, right?”
Nate laughed. “Sure, but if you foul this up, you’ll never be able to wash the stink out of your career. It doesn’t even have to be you that falls short. We don’t put this guy down, and fast, we’re all gonna catch hell, but that first case can make or break you.”
“Okay, so the pressure’s on. Let me tell you what I got from the Specials.” Rick flipped to a page in his notepad. “Hansen found a place in the trees where the guy must have waited. Except, get this, there are two spots. So, did he switch from one to the other, or were there two guys? Hansen’s still working it out.”
“We’ll check the other cases, but I don’t remember hearing anything about a second suspect.”
“Also, there was a scattering of sticks and stones which might have been arranged like the cairn-type structures found at the other sites. It may have been knocked apart in the struggle, disturbed by animals, who knows? The makings were there, but unorganized.”
Nate drummed his fingers on the table to accompany his thought process. “Okay,” he said. “Continue.”
Rick checked his notes. “Stevens went into the lake, turned up a plastic raincoat weighted with rocks. Shows traces of blood, no fingerprints. Guy wore gloves and probably galoshes. Heck, he’d have to be completely encased to escape that bloodbath. If he likes the water, there’s plenty of holes around here where he could’ve dumped the gear and weapon, but nothing else has turned up.”
Nate watched a couple of grid-searchers sign their findings into the evidence log. Karen Boggs glanced up, caught his eye, and walked over. She carried something carefully in her gloved hands. Nate hoped it was something good.
“Hi, boss,” she said. “This was outside the perimeter, about a mile from camp, but I snagged it anyway. Figured it wouldn’t hurt. Wanna take a look?”
Nate cleared a spot on the table and she opened the large paper bag and used it like a tablecloth, placing the item in question gently on top. It was a dark blue zip-front jacket, sized for a man. One hundred percent polyester, with a tiny red figure playing polo stitched to the left breast. Nate lifted the cuff of the right sleeve, angled it so Rick could see the smears of blood. In the pocket, he found a wrinkled score card with Mountain Vista Golf Course printed at the top and an eighteen-hole score of 93 penciled in at the bottom.
“Not bad.” Nate liked to golf but hadn’t had time for a round in over three years.
“If you say so.” Rick was not a golfer.
“Relevant to our crime?”
Rick considered, head tilted as he thought. “Hmm. Found a mile away, in a direction traveled only by foot. The blood on the sleeve seems too small an amount and in the wrong place if our guy was wearing gloves and a raincoat.” Rick tilted his head back and forth. “Ehhh…I’m leaning toward no.”
Nate ran a gloved finger down the length of the jacket. “On the other hand, it looks recently dumped and blood is blood. My experience, and my gut, tell me it’s important.”
“Yeah? Okay,” Rick said doubtfully. “Where’s Mountain Vista?”
“Hell if I know, but be ready to head out there tomorrow morning.”
Topper worked in the dark.
Ordinarily, he wouldn’t go near the crater of an active volcano at night. Such an expedition, even in full daylight with a helicopter waiting, is fraught with risk. But there was nothing ordinary about these unfolding events and Topper’s amazement outweighed his fears. He was riding the edge of this thing.
Like David had.
Early in the summer, Mt. Rainier had woken like a fussy baby after a long nap, gassy and petulant. She’d spit up and burped, raged and bawled, and then fallen back into an uneasy sleep. For two months she’d snored away, uttering only an occasional harmless grumble, and Seattle let out its tense-held breath and went back to business.
Topper’s business was volcanoes, and his harvest of data suggested that Seattle’s nonchalance was unwarranted. Geoscientists primarily monitor three predictive factors for volcanic eruption—thrust faults, earthquakes, and tiltmeter readings. When the three factors register critical levels, a warning is issued to the public and safety measures activated.
Last February, Mount Mayon in the Philippines had drawn the gaze of the world. Her thrust fault measurements and tiltmeter readings took drastic turns, but seismic activity remained low and stable. Two out of three tipped the scales, officials issued alerts, and media hyped the story.
Cities and communities were evacuated. Citizens put their lives and livelihoods on hold, perched in temporary housing, and watched the mountain puff serene on the placid landscape. Ten days and millions of pesos later, they returned to their homes and commenced recovery efforts from the damage not caused by the volcano.
Such occurrences are the land mines of leadership, and the political and economic fallout is harsh. Scientists may be willing to lay it on the line, but the political figures who hold the reins are more skittish, put in a position where they must weigh the potential for lost lives against the potential for lost dollars.
And where the bottom line is lost votes.
At Rainier’s first sign of unrest, scientists had deployed an army of “spiders” and other devices able to monitor the mountain’s activities remotely and their readings were followed with great concern. But as the weeks passed, public interest waned and only the scientists remained keenly aware of the volcano’s activity while Rainier wrapped herself in a blanket of cloud and went back to sleep.
Topper clambered nearer the crater, his snowshoes making a rhythmic shushing sound. The light from his headlamp opened a little vista in the dark, pushing back the shadows which pressed in from all directions. Mt. Rainier appeared to be pulling a Mayon move, but he believed the end of this story would be far more dramatic than the instance in the Philippines.
The western flank of Rainier was primed to blow. For centuries, sulphuric acid had been mixing with rain and snow, seeping through the rock, altering it into a clay-like substance, unstable and susceptible to landslides.
The Osceola mudslide, 5600 years ago, had blown away the east side of the mountain, displacing the altered rock and making the west side the weak spot in the next major eruption.
Topper bent to collect samples of ash and snow, pressing the tube from a solution-filled gas sampling bottle into the vent, taking care to avoid a steam burn. He should have waited until daylight, but he was determined to make his case. His gut told him that Mt. Rainier was poised to erupt, and time was short.
He imagined he felt the hair at the back of his neck singe and crackle. He started down the mountain, headed for the panel of tiltmeters and beyond that, the four-mile hike to the snowcat.
At the tiltmeters, he paused to log in the readings. The figures were astonishing, and he made a note to check the calibration. Stowing the samples and logbook in his backpack, he climbed into the tracked vehicle, maneuvering it forward over the rough terrain, navigable in the dark only because he knew these trails so well.
He worked his way down the mountain until he reached the ranger station, where he parked the snowcat and transferred himself and his collections to his Jeep Wrangler. Firing the engine, he started down the road into the lower span of the mountain.
As he came into range of the nearby cell phone towers, his mobile blipped. He pulled it out of his pocket and squinted one eye at the screen, keeping the other eye on the road which became smoother as he neared civilization.
Four text messages and three missed calls.
He stopped the Jeep and scrolled through the texts. All of them were from Candace.
Call me.
Call me, it’s important.
Urgent you call now.
Call now or die.
His heartbeat surged as his phone blipped again. He read the message.
If you value your paycheck, pick up the damn phone.
Candace was his USGS supervisor at the Seismology lab at The University of Washington, Seattle campus. He knew she was calling from the lab, and with this degree of urgency, he bet they’d hit the Trifecta.
Thrust faults, check.
Tiltmeters, check.
If Rainier’s seismic activity was on the rise, that could bring attention in all the right places.
Before he could punch the speed dial, Candace’s jazzy ringtone blared in the Jeep’s interior. He pressed answer and heard the excitement in her voice.
“Get down here now. You gotta see this.”
The rise and swell of voices in the corridor seemed to Riley like the hum of angry bees.
She’d fled to the dressing room, locked the door, and ignored the persistent demands for entry. Her stomach churned and rolled under an enveloping wave of buffeting, suffusing misery.
She dreaded looking into any human face and longed for the unreserved championing of a dog. In human eyes, she would encounter disdain, resignation, or worst of all, pity. And before she could face that, she needed to wrestle with her own feelings, try to understand the mechanism underlying her disaster.
The wraith of some destructive force teased at the edges of her mind, refusing to come into focus. She could only return to the conclusion which she, and the world at large, had accepted for the last two years. That Jim and Tanner—beloved husband, treasured son—had been taken from her and that the hole they left is a maw which continues to consume her.
The pain was like stepping on broken glass beneath a threadbare rug. Riley sensed something sly and furtive, unwilling to be seen and dealt with, an unknown monster crouching in the shadows of her mind.
A banging louder, over and above the other pounding, shook the door and the theater manager’s voice rose above the ruckus in the hallway.
“Mrs. Forte. There’s an urgent matter we need to discuss.”
He began a persistent clatter on the flimsy wooden door and Riley’s mind shut out the sound, scooping her away to her fourteenth summer when she was a pale, skinny girl in a green one-piece swimsuit. She’d begged her parents to let her go with friends on a rafting trip down the Snake River in Idaho. A very rare treat in her world.
The life of a budding concert pianist yields few such occasions, and she remembered how peculiar it felt for her to do things, and eat things, and say things that ordinary teenagers did and ate and said. It felt almost like dabbling with another species.
She’d started the four-day trip with a surge of homesickness, wishing she hadn’t come, feeling amputated from her piano. A day and a half later she’d become entranced with these creatures and their strange ways, wishing she could always live among them, like Ariel wishing for legs.
Enveloped by a heady passion, she was on a bender, drinking in all they had to offer.
She was scorched bright red by then, her fair skin beginning to blister at the shoulders from sunburn, no matter how much sunblock she applied. Pulling a tee shirt over her bathing suit, she paddled with the rest of them, laughing and splashing as the group pulled their rafts onto a sandbank.
She climbed out and felt the cool sand squish between her toes. In the still water near the river’s edge, water striders flitted over the surface like skaters on a pond, and Riley watched them in fascination until some of the boys began to scale the rocks, pulling themselves like monkeys up the steep face of a cliff.
A shiver of apprehension rippled over Riley as she viewed their climb. “What are they doing?” she asked her friends.
The enquiry was met with a sprinkling of casual assurances.
“We all do it.”
“It’s fun.”
“You’ll love it.”
“Come on!”
There was an alternate way to the top, which most of the girls chose to take, though it was still a rigorous haul up the rock face. A creeping unease began to settle over Riley. She was vulnerable to injury here; her hands could be damaged. Any kind of an injury could throw her piano schedule off track.
She was literally pushed and pulled to the cliff top amid laughter and chatter which fell like an alien language on her anxious ears. When she reached the pinnacle of the rock face, she was horrified to see the boys jumping off into the river far below.
Her horror intensified as she realized she was expected to follow.
When her turn came, she stood at the edge of the cliff and stared down into a circle of deep water, ringed by the boys and girls who had jumped before her. Their thrashing arms and legs had stirred it into a murky pool, opaque and distant.
Unthinkably distant.
There was no going back. It would be more difficult and dangerous to try climbing down the steep rock than it would be to jump. Yet, jumping seemed an impossible option.
A boy and two girls pushed past her, throwing themselves over the edge, and then Riley was the last one on the clifftop and still she stood, frozen. The cries of encouragement from below took on a tinge of impatience and then, as the minutes ticked by, outright disgust.
They rose up to her like the clamorous pounding on a door, like a persistent knocking, battering her eardrums and her soul. Becoming, at last, unbearable.
She pushed away the fear and jumped.
With a gasp, Riley forced herself back to the present and threw open the dressing room door. A crowd of people flowed in like a surge of murky water, sucking her down so that she felt she couldn’t breathe.
Like cold water billowing over her, she felt darkness closing in. With sinking desperation, she searched the bobbing heads before her, focusing in on one face as it moved through the murk until it reached her.
Teren grasped her by the arm and drew her back into the dressing room, closing the door with a decisive snap. The human wave lapped against it, but muted and murmuring now, and over the sound of it rose Helen’s voice. Tiny Helen, turning back the tide. She would handle the press and the fans and deal with the manager.
“Thank heaven for good agents,” Teren said, hugging her. “Sorry I’m late. I left my conference early so I could be here, but my flight was delayed. I rushed straight from the airport, but I came in just as you were…finishing up.”
Riley dropped onto the sofa, too weary to answer. Teren sank down beside her and took her hand, squeezing it gently. The door opened and Miller Cantwell admitted himself. His recording company had sponsored this event and even Helen knew better than to bar him entrance.
“Riley.” He blew out an exasperated breath. “What was that?”
Riley rubbed a hand over her face. “I apologize, Miller. I just blanked. I couldn’t remember how the Beethoven begins. I just…couldn’t do it.”
Miller sighed, stuck his hands in his pockets. “I just got the word from Henry. We’re pulling our support. I’m sorry, Riley. We really thought you were ready.”
Helen entered the room, slamming the door behind her. “Don’t be hasty, Miller. The situation is salvageable.”
She sent him a look that crackled with challenge as she took up a position behind Riley, rubbing her shoulders, like a trainer on a prize fighter.
“Let’s consider. A few of our guests wanted their money back. Four of them, to be exact. If that’s a fair representation of audience satisfaction, it’s hardly catastrophic.”
Miller opened his mouth, but she gave him a fierce glare and pushed on with her defense. “As for the press, Frank Coston will write a sympathetic story and garner support, making Riley the underdog. Curious concertgoers will queue up for tickets, just to see what she’ll do.”
“Okay, but—”
“And that novelty,” she insisted, “will carry us through this crisis and soon Riley will be in top form. You’ll see.”
She waved down Miller’s sputtered protest. “Yes, I know. Gabrielle Wilson will shred her to pieces in that rag she writes for. So what? I think the bump in publicity from this will come out in our favor. Riley’s a champ.” She gave Riley’s shoulders a squeeze.
Miller walked to the door, placing a hand on the knob.
“For what it’s worth, I agree. You’re a jewel, Riley.” He paused and Riley watched his shoulders slump under his expensive suit. “I’m sorry. We’ll have to cancel the remaining performances.”
He went out the door and Helen swept off after him, her voice raised and cajoling.
Riley sat hunched on the sofa, steeped in misery, wanting the comfort of her own bed and a cup of hot chamomile, unable to believe it had ended like this. Concert pianists do not flee the stage. They simply do not.
She cowered there, in the crook of Teren’s arm, until the voices in the hallway diminished, leaving behind a pervading silence.
Teren patted her knee and stood up. “I took a shuttle to the airport, so I don’t have a car. Can I hitch a ride home?”
The thought of enduring the long drive and the terrible traffic was almost more than she could bear, on top of the deep disappointment and anguish of the night. She watched Teren assess her tired droop and felt a rush of gratitude that he’d come for her. Stretching out a hand, he pulled her to her feet.
“Give me your keys,” he said. “I’ll drive.”
The killer stripped off his clothes.
He folded each item into a neat square, stacking them like a tower, with his shoes forming the foundation as a barrier against the dew-dampened earth. The chill of the early morning gripped him, raising gooseflesh as the watery, lemon-yellow sunlight filtered down through the sparse leaves and pine needles, slowing the flow of his blood to a sluggish stream.
He raised the bloody strip, letting it flutter in the light breeze. This is the way she’d taught him.
By blood and by fire.
He bent to the pile of sticks and stones and began arranging them, layering each of the three different types of wood in a distinctive pattern, using the rocks as cornerstones with the kindling on top. A small burlap sack yielded a nest of oakum, which he placed close at hand, and from a tin box, he removed a cut of char cloth and folded it in half.
A gust of wind shimmered through the little clearing, making the leaves dance in a flurry of orange and gold, raising an eerie whistle in the thinning branches. The killer shivered and picked up the stone flint.
He’d found the stone in the run-off from the Nisqually River and imagined it had spewed from Rainier in some long-ago eruption. It was smooth as glass, except for the sharp edge where it had shattered from the heat or from tossing down the riverbed. It felt oily to his touch.
He placed the folded char cloth on top of the stone and took up a thin strip of steel, curling it around the knuckles of his right hand. He swung the steel down at a thirty-degree angle against the sharp edge of the stone.
Again and again, he struck steel against stone, working to peel away a tiny sliver, waiting for the spark to catch and ignite the char cloth.
The steel was unresponsive.
In the distance, a dog barked. The inhabitants of the earth were waking, moving, swelling every finger and every vein of her. The killer struck harder, working faster.
A cold sweat now coated his naked body, chilling him further, gathering in his creases like a distillation of fear. The dog barked again, nearer this time, and accompanied by the faint droning of human voices.
He threw himself face down on the leaf-strewn forest floor, digging his hands and toes into the soil, feeling for the pulse of the earth. Pressing his moistened nose into the dirt, he drew shallow breaths through his mouth, and prayed.
His mind went away, drawn down into the bowels, the warm, sheltering channels of the earth. His need, and the primitive instinct for deep cover, would envelop him in her protective womb.
Time passed.
When he returned to himself, the filtered sunlight fell with more heat on his bare skin and the woods were as silent as woods can ever be. He scrambled to his feet and took up the flint and steel. It sparked right away, as he knew it would.
Transferring the burning char cloth to the oakum, he blew gently as smoke curled up from the nest of delicate fibers, catching and growing. He watched the tongue of flame lick and devour, felt his own answering arousal, the echoing fervor within himself.
Soon the altar fire was burning in earnest, sending long tendrils of dancing vapor up into the welcoming branches of pine, maple, and birch. The dry wood hissed and crackled as it burned, adding its voice to the proceedings. All was in readiness.
The killer held up the banner of blood and began.
Rick entered the empty squad room.
He stirred cream into his coffee and took a tentative sip as he surveyed the bulletin board littered with notices, flyers, and bits of random information. The bitter-hot liquid stung his lip, and he placed the cup on the table amid a smattering of sticky rings.
The first to arrive, he made use of the time before his fellow officers entered by reviewing the Seattle PD files on the first two murders seemingly linked to the Coby Waters killing. He marveled that fate had drawn him into the very case he’d hoped to investigate. He was as green as they come, having just earned the rank of Detective, but he’d worked hard preparing for this over the last four and a half years.
He thought about that long-ago rainy day in the dingy, run-down taco joint. He mused over the memory of that meeting with Cal and how it had changed the course of his life.
After that day, he’d finished his third tour with the Navy SEALs, squeezing every bit of knowledge, training, and experience he could out of those years. He took an honorable discharge and entered the Police Academy, studied and earned a degree in Criminal Justice, and struggled his way up the ranks.
He worked and waited for further instruction, pushing back at the wall of doubt, the whispering voice that said Cal and his people had forgotten all about him.
And then two weeks ago, after years of no contact, Cal had called.
“You in the mood for tacos?”
“Do bears take a dump in the woods?”
They’d met again at Chico’s and Cal assured Rick he’d not been forgotten. On the contrary, from the details of their discussion, Rick understood he’d been under close observation for much of those last four years.
He felt vindicated. And a little creeped out.
They sat in a dimly lit booth, eating fish tacos, dripping sauce from their chins and mopping it up with waxy paper napkins while they talked about the future.
Now, in the squad room, Rick’s coffee had cooled to the perfect temperature. He drank it down and pondered the possibility that it had not been fate, but something more deliberate, that had maneuvered him onto this case.
He didn’t want to over analyze. When the brass ring presents, you grab it and go.
All other considerations aside, one thing was clear—this was a test he must not fail.
The other members of the squad trickled in, cradling their own coffee cups while Nate herded in the stragglers and closed the door. Nate was the acting homicide supervisor, while the detective who carried the official title was out on emergency medical leave, undergoing back surgery.
He began by asking for updates on current investigations, inquiring into plans and making assignments. Rick was half afraid Nate would change his mind about letting a rookie homicide detective partner with him on such a high-profile case, but he sent the members of the squad about their business until only the two of them were left.
Nate scratched a few notes into the case book and flipped it shut. “Did you get an address for Mountain Vista?”
“It’s clear out in Mason County,” Rick told him. “You could just about stand on the eighteenth hole and cast a line into the Hood Canal. It’ll take all day just to follow up that one lead.”
He hesitated, unsure if Nate would appreciate what he was about to propose. “Why don’t we split up, cover more ground?”
“Makes sense,” Nate said in a tone that suggested he was willing to be reasonable, even with a guy who had no track record. “You comfortable with that?”
“I am. I’d like to comb through these files, maybe follow up with some of the witnesses. I also want to check if the specialists turned up anything more with the trace evidence and be Johnny on the spot if any new information comes to light.”
“In other words, you still think the blood-stained jacket’s got no legs.”
Rick grinned. “Jackets don’t, as a rule.”
“Got me there,” Nate said. “One problem, though. It’s a long drive to Mason County and my car’s got a bum radiator. I should have replaced it months ago, just never have the time.”
Rick was assigned one of the unmarked Ford Explorers used by the department detective squads, but Nate was accustomed to riding shotgun when he was on the clock, so he drove his own car to the station each day.
“Leave me your jalopy and take the Explorer. Gas card’s in the glove compartment.”
Nate shrugged. “You sure?”
Rick felt a surge of confidence. “Absolutely.”
Nate dug in his pocket and tossed over his car keys, accepting Rick’s in return.
“There’s a jug of coolant in the trunk and four gallons of water. If you need to drive anywhere, just keep an eye on the temp gauge. You might have to stop to let her cool down and top it off.”
“Sure. I got it covered.”
Nate slapped him on the back and headed for the parking lot.
Once he was gone, Rick walked down two floors and entered the men’s restroom. He made sure he was alone and let himself into a stall, taking a cheap cell phone from his pocket and punching in a number he’d memorized but never called.
Someone picked up and invited him to speak.
“I’m in,” was all he said.
Rainier was awake and screaming.
Topper stared at the data showing that the earthquakes had resumed, increasing in both magnitude and frequency, accompanied by harmonic tremor for the first time in six weeks. He was galvanized, nearly dancing with frustration over the unresponsive attitude of so many authorities in the vicinity. Seattle and many surrounding communities slept within reach of the volcano, filled with populations lulled into complacency.
Someone had placed a copy of The Seattle Times on his desk, opened to an inner page, a short article circled in red pencil.
PARTY’S WINDING DOWN
Mt. Rainer has entertained Seattle in grand fashion since mid-July, but her game has grown old and now government officials are scratching their heads over how to pay for the road closures and lost revenue. Yes, Daddy has taken the T-bird away. We can no longer afford to pay attention to Rainier’s theatrics. The show’s over, Seattle. It’s back to business as usual.
The press had moved on, the briefings ended, excitement over.
Topper squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath. He knew when Rainier blew, it would not be lava flow or ash which posed the greatest danger, although these would be devastating. It would be the lahars, the rivers of mud created by landslides of melting snow mixing with boulders and debris, growing and picking up speed as they surged down the mountain like wet cement at forty miles per hour, destroying everything in their path.
Acoustic Flow Monitors, AFMs, had been installed on the mountain at the heads of major river valleys. These had sensitive microphones that can detect the sound of lahars traveling over ground and send the alarm. Scientists, working with local emergency services, had developed evacuation plans for the communities at risk, but time would be perilously short and the paths to safety were remarkably limited.
Some towns, directly in the flow channel, were equipped with a hi-lo siren signal and even the school children were drilled in how to react to it—run to high ground. But outside of these communities, few were prepared for the catastrophic effects of a big eruption.
The natural disaster would be eclipsed by man-made pandemonium.
Candace gave the wall of his cubicle a quick double-knock. “They’ve shut the mountain,” she told him. “Moved the roadblocks down, restricted the area. The ball is rolling.”
Topper pulled at his hair. “That’s spit in the wind. No one’s taking it seriously.”
“It’s progress,” Candace said. “The Forest Service can close federal lands, but anything beyond that requires the governor’s approval and she’s under a lot of pressure not to close.”
“This is crazy.” Topper blew out a long, frustrated breath. “Private citizens assert their property rights and ignore the roadblocks. Logging companies sign waivers and send their people in. Thrill-seekers get their kicks sneaking in as close to the monster as they can get.”
He seized a tension ball from the desktop and squeezed it hard.
“Rainier is going to blow,” he said. “She’s gonna blow big and she’s gonna blow soon. The governor needs to issue a state of emergency and evacuate.”
Candace banged her head gently against his cubicle wall, echoing his vexation. “I agree, and we’re working on it.” She ran a tired hand through her long, dark hair. “But it’s like building a boat while you’re rowing it, and the funds for dealing with it have been drained over the last two months.”
“Someone’s got to front the cash. This has to be done.”
“No argument here, but we’re dealing with ‘the boy who cried wolf’ syndrome. The mountain has been threatening and then not following through for so long that no one listens anymore. The Game Commission lobbies to keep areas open for fishing and hunting, so they don’t lose license revenue. Business owners cry foul when closures affect their bottom line.”
Topper started to protest but she held up a hand, cutting him off.
“On top of that,” she continued, “we’re dealing with multiple jurisdictions. Who’s responsible for setting the roadblocks? Who pays to maintain them? Who’s in charge? There’s a lot to consider—”
“Wrong,” Topper broke in. “There’s only one thing to consider. How to get people away from the mountain as quickly as possible.”
“Yes, and that starts with an official action. Like I said, we’re working on it.”
Topper smacked his fist down, sending a tub of paperclips skittering across the desk. “Put me in a helo. Let me go up and get some more samples. I’ll bet the SO2 levels have spiked since last night.”
“And what if they have?”
Topper saw that her chest was heaving under the white lab coat she wore. Her cheeks were flushed, her brows drawn down in a shape like a winging bird. He felt a little sorry for her. She was getting pounded from both sides.
Reaching up, he traced his thumb along her full bottom lip, where the red tint she always wore had gone a little smudgy. “I’ll take care of this,” he said.
She slapped his hand away. “What are you going to do?”
He sketched a salute and backed toward the door.
“Topper, stand down. Leave it!”
He ignored the alarm in her voice as he shut the door behind him. At the other end of the hallway, he entered the lounge and saw Jack Ridley drowsing on a couch after a long night running samples.
“Hey, buddy,” Topper said, “You up for a road trip?”
They headed south on I-5, threading through the early Saturday traffic. The morning was cool, the air clear, and Topper could see Rainier rising in the distance, the tallest mountain in the Cascade range, part of the fabled ‘ring of fire.’ He kept his foot pressed down on the accelerator and watched for cops.
He heard paper crinkling as Jack peeled the wrapper off another Egg McMuffin from the sack on the console between them. “So, you’re convinced eruption is imminent,” Jack said through a mouthful of sandwich. “And yet you’re taking us to the mountain? If you’ve got a hot date with death, why’d you have to bring me along?”
Topper munched a hash brown patty. “I need someone to help me put the fear of God into these people. I aim to cheat death, not cozy up with it.”
Jack swigged some orange juice. “You know the old Sufi story, right? The Appointment in Samarra?”
“Let’s say I don’t.”
“It happens in Baghdad, where a certain servant goes to the market and sees this scary looking dude and realizes it’s Death. With a capital D. So, Death reaches out to him with his bony arm, and it scares the guy out of his wits. He rushes back to his master and begs for a horse so he can ride to Samarra and escape the terrible fate waiting for him in Baghdad.”
Jack paused for another bite of breakfast and Topper waited for the rest of the story, though he had a fair suspicion about how it would end.
“So, the master is a decent fellow and sends him away on his fastest horse. Then he goes out to investigate and see if he can figure out what so terrified his servant. The master finds Death in the marketplace, and asks him, ‘Hey, what’s the big idea? Why’d you have to scare away my servant?’ And Death says, ‘I didn’t mean to frighten him. I was just so surprised to see him here because I have an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.’”
Topper swallowed potato and opened his juice. “The moral being that you can’t cheat death. I get it, but don’t you think part of the human contract is to try? People do. It’s an accepted practice.”
“Of course,” Jack said. “But then there are those who accept their fate with grace. Remember what David always said?”
Topper nodded. “If I die young, I hope it’s in an eruption.”
