Earthshaker

Chapter 15

Chapter 15Duke and I hiked out of the woods with Laurel and found the Highlander where I'd parked it, along the side of a dirt access road. The three of us got in and headed for town.

Laurel was coming along to get the ball rolling.

Didn't mention having transportation of her own, and we didn't ask. Figured she'd fill us in eventually.

We didn't talk much on the way home. Tell you the truth, it was strange for me after seeing her for who she really was. Experiencing the length and depth and height and breadth of the mountain range, knowing Laurel was a human avatar encapsulating its greatness. I'd never dealt with someone so huge before, if you know what I mean. Someone who so completely dwarfed me in every way. I wasn't sure how to approach her, how to work with her.

She didn't have much to say, either, in the car. "Thanks for the lift." That was about it. "Nice weather we're having." That, too.

Plus this, as we crossed the city limits. "Are you sure you don't remember me, Gaia? Not even a little?"

"I'm sure." I took another look at her violet eyes in the rear-view mirror for good measure. "Unless you mean, do I remember the mountains you come from?"

"No, no," said Laurel. "I meant me as a person. The one who's sitting in your back seat right now."

I shrugged and shook my head. "Sorry, no."

"Well, I remember you," said Laurel. "From a long time ago."

When I checked the rear-view mirror, she looked back at me with eyes narrowed. A piercing gaze that held me a heartbeat longer than it should have.

"I'll have to tell you about it sometime," she said. "We can get caught up."

When I looked in the mirror again, Laurel was staring out the side window. Smiling, her face awash in golden sunlight.

"Caravan" played on the ring tone when I opened the front door of Cruel World Travel. I switched on the lights, and Duke and Laurel followed me in.

"Why the name?" said Laurel. "Why 'Cruel World?'"

"It's like 'Goodbye, cruel world.' We help people get away from it all." I dropped my keys and sunglasses on my desk. "Plus, our trips always have an edge to them. We always include one stop that could get kind of ugly."

"Ugly?" Laurel drifted through the office, looking at posters on the walls. "You mean dangerous?"

"Not dangerous, just dark," I said. "People expect it, they rave about it. Makes the trip memorable. It's our trademark."

"Ah." Laurel stopped at the electric keyboard on the stand in the back of the room. "Who plays this?"

"That would be me." Duke strolled back behind the keyboard and switched it on. His fingers flickered over the keys, playing a trickle of high notes. "Any requests? 'Nature Boy?' 'Rocky Mountain High?'"

Laurel grinned and laughed. "Do you know 'Take the A-Train?'"

Duke's eyes slowly lifted from the keys. He frowned, then let it melt into a sly smile. "Excellent choice." He played the opening bars, never taking his eyes off her. "Your taste in music is superb."

"And your reputation precedes you." Laurel curtsied. "It's an honor."

I listened with increasing interest, working my way back to the keyboard. It sounded like Laurel knew more about Duke than she'd let on at first.

"Well, now." Duke smiled and kept playing, slipping effortlessly from "A-Train" into "Mood Indigo." "I wonder who you think I am, that I deserve such honor."

Suddenly, in the middle of the song, Laurel grabbed his left hand. "I know exactly who you are." She raised his hand to her lips and kissed it. "You are literally a man of the world."

Duke chuckled. He was still playing the keyboard with his right hand while Laurel held his left. "You are absolutely correct. I'm a man of Cruel World Travel."

"A man of the earth, is what I meant." Laurel stroked Duke's hand with one graceful fingertip. "Made of the earth. Not human, not flesh." She let go of his hand. "The word for you is golem, is it not?"

Duke laughed. "And the word for you is forward." Wagging his head, he launched into "C-Jam Blues" on the keyboard, really tearing it up.

Which is when "Caravan" piped up and the front door opened, admitting Sheriff Briar. Duke hit one more chord and stopped playing as the Sheriff's boots hit the floor.

"Oh. Excuse me." Briar's gaze immediately zeroed in on Laurel. He kept his hand on the doorknob, ready to back out. "I see you have a customer."

"More like a lead. Possibly." I gestured at Laurel. "Dale Briar, this is Laurel. Laurel, meet Dale Briar."

Briar took off his cop ball cap and waved. "Good to meet you, Laurel."

"The feeling is mutual." Laurel smiled and curtsied.

I thought she was acting flirty, which annoyed me. I walked in front of her and faced Briar with my hands on my hips. "She claims Aggie was working with her on an investigative piece."

"Another one?" Briar whistled. "That's a lot of investigative journalism for one weather girl."

"Or maybe it was part of the same piece." I folded my arms over my chest and turned to Laurel. "The story Aggie was working on. Did it have to do with something called Divinities?"

Laurel shook her head. "This is the first I've heard of it."

"What about 'Groundswell?'" I said. "An organization called Groundswell?"

"Sorry, no," said Laurel.

Turning sideways, I leaned against the edge of Duke's desk. Looked over at Briar. "What do we have on Groundswell so far? What have you found?"

"There's no record of it." Briar sighed and sat on the corner of my desk. "Phaola said Divinities was financing Groundswell, but we haven't been able to find a trail. They kept no books."

"What about Holloway?" I said.

Briar shook his head. "Just a pimp and a bag man, for all intents and purposes."

"Any link to the Secret Valley people?" I said. "Divinities did hold their little pajama party in the resort's secret underground playhouse."

"Nothing yet," said Briar. "But we're still looking."

"Wow." I blew out my breath and stared at the ceiling. "It was such a big operation. I can't believe you didn't find anything."

"And I can't believe you're even working on this." Briar sounded half ticked off, half teasing. "I thought you wanted to stay hands off."

I ignored the comment. Turned to Laurel instead. "So if Divinities and Groundswell weren't connected to your case, who was? Who was Aggie investigating?"

Laurel flowed into a chair. She suddenly looked less effervescent. "My people. My family. I thought it might be one of them."

"What made you think that?" I said. "Evidence? Threats? Motives?"

"Scope." Laurel plucked a pen from the desk blotter and started clicking the button on the tip, popping the point in and out. "No one else could do a job this size. No one I know of, anyway."

Briar frowned. "What kind of job are we talking about here?" He shot me a puzzled look. "What was Aggie investigating?"

"My murder." Laurel stared at the pen in her hands. Kept clicking it.

Briar's frown turned into a scowl. "Your murder?"

"It's a murder in progress." Laurel smiled sadly. "I'm being poisoned."

"Okay." Briar thought for a moment, scratching the back of his neck. Shifted position on the desk. "And it's incurable?"

"I believe so," said Laurel.

"You've been to a doctor?" said Briar. "He told you this?"

Laurel shook her head. "I just know. I can feel it working inside me."

Briar let out an exasperated sigh and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "You said something about the scope of this. About how not everyone could do a job this size. What did you mean by that?"

"Not just anyone could poison an entire mountain range." Laurel stopped clicking and smiled at him. "That's what I meant."

"I should've known." Briar chuckled in my direction. "Should've known she was one of your bunch."

"Actually," said Laurel, "I'm not."

"But you have to be," said Briar. "Some kind of naiad or dryad or nymph or something."

"No I don't." Laurel started clicking the pen again. "I don't have to be anything you've ever heard of before." She looked my way. "Or at least, anything you remember."

"So what are you then?" said Briar.

"An avatar," I said. "The Allegheny Mountains in human form."

"More than that," said Laurel. "I'm Landkind."

"Landkind?" I said. "What's that?"

"All will be revealed." Laurel dropped the pen and got up from her chair. "After we have a drink."