Earthshaker

Chapter 16

Chapter 16Briar, Laurel, and I piled into Briar's cruiser. Duke stayed behind to take care of some customers.

Laurel called the shots, leading us twenty minutes up the road to Ohiopyle—white water rafting country over the border in Fayette County. We stopped at a bar and grill outside the entrance to Ohiopyle State Park. The name on the sign out front was "Doc Yough's."

Briar parked in the gravel lot and got out of the cruiser. "Doc Yough's, huh?" "Doc" rhymed with "Yough," pronounced "Yock," which was short for the Youghiogheny River, Ohiopyle's claim to fame. "What's the attraction here?"

"We get a discount," said Laurel. "Friend of mine owns the place."

As I got out of the cruiser and looked around, I thought Doc Yough's looked okay. Somewhere in the middle—not exactly classy, but not a dive, either. It was a single-story building with a log cabin front and cedar shake around the sides. Neat but not tidy, if you know what I mean. A little rough around the edges.

There were three pickups and two motorcycles in the parking lot. It was two in the afternoon on a Monday, but I still would've expected more customers. Ohiopyle drew a hell of a crowd on summer days like this, bringing in rafters and fishermen and mountain bikers from a wide radius including Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.

Laurel led us inside, which was brighter than most bars I'd been to. Sunlight streamed in through windows and skylights, bounced off mirrors and brass, made white tablecloths flare. I almost put my sunglasses back on but settled for squinting till my eyes could adjust.

The light flared from Laurel's white gown, too. She looked dazzling; the customers, eight men scattered around the room, couldn't take their eyes off her.

"I'm thirsty." She winked at me, then glided to the bar. Knocked on it three times, then kept knocking. "Hey, barkeep! What's a mountain gotta do to get a drink around here?"

A deep, raspy voice spoke up from behind me. "Pour it yourself?"

Turning, I saw a man in his sixties, at least, with a bushy bale of salt-and-pepper hair and a beard to match. He was skinny to the point of scrawny...make that emaciated. Sunken cheeks under cheekbones like elbows, sunken chest, legs like ski poles. The waist of his blue jeans was cinched tight as a bread wrapper around his tucked-in green plaid flannel shirt.

"Owen!" Laurel hurried over and snapped up his hands. "I couldn't stay away a day longer!"

Owen peered at me with owlish blue eyes from behind spectacles as thick as glass bricks. "Translation, she wants free drinks."

"And lucky you, I've brought friends." Laurel placed her hand on my shoulder and leaned in close to me. "This young lady is Gaia Charmer, travel agent. Gaia, meet Owen Harkins."

"Nice to meet you, Owen," I said.

Owen grinned as he shook my hand...but his expression changed. He c****d his head to one side and stared with increasing intensity. Made me feel uncomfortable, especially when his grip tightened on my hand.

"I know you." Owen nodded slowly. "Sure I do."

"Sorry." I tugged my hand free and shrugged. "We haven't met."

"We most certainly have." Owen wagged a finger at me. "I never forget a pretty face."

I was getting irritated. It was the same routine I'd been getting from Laurel. "Well, you're mistaken this time."

"But...but..." Owen kept staring and pointing.

Just then, Laurel interceded. Tapped Owen on the shoulder and cleared her throat. "My other friend is getting jealous. My other friend, Sheriff Briar."

It was enough to snap Owen out of his stare-athon. "Sheriff Briar?" He turned and shook Briar's hand. "Law enforcement's always welcome in my establishment."

"Thanks," said Briar.

"Now that everyone knows everyone else, can we get that drink?" Laurel took Owen by the arm and steered him toward the bar. "On the house, right?"

"Are you kidding? They've never been on the house." Owen's chuckle was deep as a note from a tuba. "You should see the tab you've racked up over the years."

"I'm a mountain range, Owen," said Laurel. "You know I could ruin your watershed and wreck the rapids, right?"

"Then who would rinse away the crud filtering down from your slopes?" Owen strolled behind the bar and grabbed a beer mug from an overhead rack. "Who would lull you to sleep with the sound of rushing white water?"

"Maybe I'd find someone else," said Laurel.

"Don't cross me, baby." Owen chuckled as he swung the mug under a tap and poured beer into it. "You know I ran away with your heart."

Laurel grinned at me and Briar and hiked a thumb at Owen. "River humor. He has a million of them."

"You can bank on it," said Owen.

"What do you expect?" Laurel shrugged. "He is a river."

"More like the river, tributaries, flood plain, and surrounding valley." Owen finished pouring the beer and plunked the mug down in front of Laurel. "Think of me as Big Daddy Ohiopyle."

Briar and I shared a look. Once again, he was along for the ride, taking everything in stride. It was one of the things he did best, one of the things I liked about him. No matter how strange things got, Briar didn't get rattled; he just played it by ear. So far, anyway.

"Just as I represent the Allegheny Mountains," said Laurel, "Owen represents Ohiopyle. We're the essences of these places, given human form."

"More than essences, I'd say." Owen tipped another mug under the tap and started pouring another beer. "We're like...facets of the same diamond."

"Landkind." Laurel smiled and reached for her beer. "That's what we are."

Landkind. It was a new one on me. So new I wasn't sure I could buy it just yet. "Why don't I remember ever coming across you before?"

Laurel and Owen exchanged a glance. "Honestly," said Laurel, "we don't know."

Owen frowned as he topped off the second beer. "Something isn't right, that's for sure."

"So how many of you are there?" said Briar.

"We don't really keep count." Laurel sat on a barstool, cradling her beer with both hands. "Millions, probably. One for every distinct place. Every mountain range, every river, every lake, every beach, every island."

"Not places marked by lines on a map," said Owen. "Places marked by formations of the Earth."

"Millions?" I sat on a barstool beside Laurel, and Owen pushed a beer in my direction. "But I've never met any of you till now. Never even heard of you."

"We don't exactly call attention to ourselves," said Laurel.

"Then why are you talking about this in front of them?" Briar bobbed his head toward two customers at the far end of the bar, then the others at tables around Doc Yough's.

"Because," said Owen. "They're all a part of it."

"Most of them are like us," said Laurel. "Right, Jack?"

"Next round's on me." The man's voice made me turn and look toward the end of the bar. A tall, slender guy with black hair was doing the talking, perched on a barstool beside an old timer in a John Deere cap. "Courtesy of Indian Lake."

Someone else spoke up from a table. "We'll get the round after that." This time, a middle-aged man with sandy hair and a brown jacket waved at us. "Blue Knob Mountain."

The heavyset guy sitting across from him looked over his shoulder at us. "And Prince Gallitzin Park. Nice to meet you."

That left four more guys sitting at a big table in the corner. The muscular blond one with the toothpick in his mouth did the introductions. "I'm Deep Creek, and this is Rocky Gap." He patted the shoulder of the craggy-faced guy beside him. "We're from down Maryland way. And these are Berkeley Springs and Cacapon Mountain, from West Virginia." He gestured toward the other two at the table—young guys with good-natured grins and matching shocks of red hair.

"You're all Landkind?" I said.

They all said they were except the old-timer in the John Deere hat.

I leaned my elbow on the bar and rubbed my eyes hard. Having trouble processing. "I don't get it. I'm linked to the Earth. I can sense things that are connected to it. Other people in tune with it. So why haven't I picked up on any of you before?"

"Maybe because we didn't seek you out until now," said Laurel.

"I guess." As I looked from Laurel to Owen, I had a feeling they were hiding something from me. They seemed like friendlies; why wouldn't they just come clean?

"So." Briar walked to the middle of the room, boots scuffing the floorboards. "Is it just a big coincidence you all happened to be here today, when we decided to drop by?"

"More like an emergency meeting," said black-haired Jack. "She called it." He gestured at Laurel.

"Thank you for coming." Laurel had a drink of beer and got up from her barstool. "I have some terrible news. I'm dying."

All the customers got up at once and converged on Laurel. Black-haired Jack reached out and touched her arm. "Dying?"

"Since when?" said Blue Knob Mountain.

"From what?" said Berkeley Springs.

"I'm being poisoned," said Laurel. "I've known for the past month."

"You've known for a month?" Deep Creek sounded angry. "Why wait so long to bring us into the loop?"

"I've been trying to find out who did it," said Laurel. "I thought maybe they could reverse the process. But I haven't found them. And now the woman who was helping me is dead. Murdered." Laurel gestured at me. "Her best friend, Aggie Regal."

"The TV weather girl?" said Jack.

Laurel nodded. "Things don't look good. I don't have much longer. Maybe two weeks." She dipped her eyes to stare at the floor. "You needed to know."

"You might say that." Jack turned and paced away from the group, scrubbing the back of his head with his knuckles. "Shit."

The redheads from West Virginia looked shell-shocked. "So we're all going to die?" said the tall one, Cacapon Mountain.

"Yes." Laurel looked up and met his gaze. "I'm sorry."

"Wait." Briar frowned at Laurel. "I thought you were the only one dying."

"They're all part of my range," said Laurel. "There are others, too, lots of them, but not everyone showed up here today."

"So this is a multiple murder in progress," said Briar.

"Exactly," said Laurel.

"s**t," said Jack. "I thought I was feeling off."

"Me, too," said Blue Knob.

"And you don't know who's doing this?" said heavyset Prince Gallitzin Park.

Laurel shook her head. "That's why Gaia and Sheriff Briar are here. We're not giving up."

"This is just like Cousin Canyon," said Deep Creek.

"Cousin Canyon?" I'd heard of the place, of course. Tourist attraction, state park up in Clearfield County.

"Also murdered," said Laurel. "Three months ago. She died the same way."

"And no one ever found out who did it," said Owen. "Big mystery."

"Did anyone investigate the crime scene?" said Briar. "Did anyone look for evidence?" I loved the way he just accepted the idea that a canyon had been murdered, then started applying cop logic to solving the crime.

"Enough to know it was murder," said Laurel. "Some of us probed the local geology. We found telltale traces of an energy matrix that's poisonous to our kind. Unfortunately, the trail ran out before we could find the killer."

"This energy matrix," I said. "Is it the same thing that's poisoning you?"

"Yes," said Laurel. "Which is why I think the same murderer is behind both."

Briar folded his arms over his chest and tapped his chin with his forefinger. "You said you thought one of your own family was responsible. One of your people. Who did you mean?"

"I don't know," said Laurel. "But they'd have to be Landkind. No one else could do something of this nature and scale. No one else would know how to do it."

"And how is it done?" said Briar. "How does someone poison a mountain range?"

Laurel had a drink of beer and put down the mug. "The crust of the Earth seethes with power—an almost mystical force that travels along what we know as ley lines. Mountains and other geologic formations serve as reservoirs of this force. It's the energy that gives life to Landkind." She spread her arms to encompass the other customers in Doc Yough's. "But it can be changed. Corrupted. Turned against us like a cancer in a human body. And when it has advanced enough..." Laurel sighed. "There's no turning back."

"We're screwed." Jack slumped into a chair and flung back his head to stare at the ceiling. "We're all dead."

"I don't understand," said Blue Knob. "Who would do this to us?"

"I don't have any enemies," said Rocky Gap. "I mind my own business."

"Maybe it's nothing personal," said Cacapon Mountain. "Like a serial killer targeting Landkind."

"Or maybe it's something bigger than any of us," said Owen. "Maybe we're just caught in the middle."

"We need to run up to Cousin Canyon," said Briar. "Take a look around. Your people might have missed something."

He looked at me, and I nodded in agreement. "Let's do it." Not like we had any other leads at that point.

"We're running out of daylight," said Briar. "We'll go tomorrow morning."

"Thank you," said Laurel. "I'll go with you, of course. Anyone else?"

"Count me in," said Owen.

No one else volunteered. The other Landkind shifted and fidgeted, and none of them offered to come along.

I quickly found out why. "Are you sure it's safe?" said Jack. "What if you get another dose of the poison?"

"What if the killer shows up?" said Blue Knob.

The Landkind were afraid. It was then I realized how much like regular humans they were. They knew fear...and its opposite, too.

Take Owen, for example. "I'm going anyway." He grinned and raised his mug of beer. "I'm already dying. What the hell do I have to lose?" With that, he tipped the mug to his lips and tossed a big swallow down his throat.

"All right then," said Laurel. "It's settled. Owen and Gaia and the Sheriff and I are going to Cousin Canyon tomorrow. Meanwhile, the rest of you can get the word out over the network. All Landkind needs to know about this. They need to know we're being hunted."

"It hasn't happened forever," said Jack. "Landkind being hunted and killed."

"Let's just hope we can stop it." Laurel raised her mug overhead for a toast. "May we be the last Landkind to lose our lives to this murderer."

The rest of the room joined her toast, but it was half-hearted at best. And they all drained their glasses to the bottom and came to the bar for another drink afterward.