Near the Bone(38)



Mattie would have to come up with some excuse for the storehouse. She could say she wanted to make him a special dinner. As long as she was behaving like a good wife then it would be all right.

And what if it isn’t? What if he beats you so badly that you can’t walk or run?

“Then I’ll have to get better, and try again,” she whispered. “I have to try.”

She followed the path of William’s footsteps in the snow, past the garden, past the outhouse and on. There was a little clearing after the outhouse, the fresh snow broken only by her husband’s boots. Mattie continued in his steps until she reached the cool dark of the pines.

Her eyes took a moment to adjust, especially the left one, which still wasn’t focusing as quickly as her right. She could still see William’s trail in the snow. A little farther ahead she discovered the pit.

He’d chosen a place where there was already a depression in the ground—Mattie could see the shape of it in front of and behind the pit. Then he’d dug through the layer of snow and into the hard earth to make a hole about five feet long and the same distance deep.

Mattie knew that the creature was much, much larger than this tiny pit, and she wondered how William expected to catch it. Perhaps he only wanted it to stumble, to break a limb. She supposed that the pit was close enough to the cabin that William could run out and shoot the creature if he heard it fall in.

The dirt from the pit had been spread all over the path, covering the snow. Mattie thought this was to obscure the pit at night, when the snow seemed to glow white. If there were several feet of dark earth before the creature reached the hole then it was more likely to fall in.

She supposed that he might put some meat out to lure it, and then would cover the hole with pine boughs or some such thing. It seemed very cruel to her, almost as cruel as the shiny silver trap with its snapping mouth. Both were meant to hurt, to cause suffering before death. Mattie was afraid of the creature in the woods but she didn’t think it should suffer. She didn’t think they ought to be bothering with it at all, really. It had warned them and they should take that warning seriously.

It was clear that William had moved on from this area. She should go back and investigate the storehouse while she had the opportunity.

But what if he’s only gone a little way farther? You’d better be certain.

She would walk only a little bit more, just to be sure that William wasn’t just around the bend of the path. She knew she only had a short amount of time and she needed to use it.

Mattie followed the trail William had broken in the snow, the cloth-wrapped sandwich gripped tight in her hand. She didn’t see any sign of him except his footprints, and after about a quarter of an hour she decided it was safe and she could turn around.

That was when she heard the voices.





CHAPTER NINE



It wasn’t just voices. It was men shouting—no, William shouting, and two others speaking loudly, but not as loudly as William.

Griffin and C.P. Oh god, what are they doing so close to the cabin? Didn’t I warn them? Didn’t I tell them they needed to go far from here?

Mattie didn’t want William to see her, so she stepped off the path and into the cover of trees, moving slowly and carefully between the trunks until she was close enough to see. She was just behind the group, with William’s back to her and the strangers’ faces visible.

William stood in the center of the path, the shovel in his hands, and it was clear from his posture that he might swing it at one of the other men any moment now.

Griffin and C.P. stood side by side, and at C.P.’s shoulder was a woman nearly as tall as he was. She had long black hair spilling out of a red cap and her lips were pressed together so tightly that they were practically white.

That’s Jen, Mattie thought. Their friend. The one they were going to meet.

“I’m saying it for the last time. You get off this mountain if you know what’s good for you,” William said.

Griffin had his hands up in a placatory manner, but his eyes and voice were hard. “And I’m telling you that you have no right to drive us off. This is public land. Your land ends back there. We saw the signs. You don’t have the right to dig like this out here. It’s dangerous for anyone passing through.”

“I have the right to do whatever I want. This is my mountain, and God has given me a mission,” William said.

Mattie saw Jen and C.P. glance at one another, their eyes saying that William was a crazy person.

C.P. gave Griffin’s arm a little tug. “Maybe we should just go.”

“No,” Griffin said. “He doesn’t have the right to send us off. He doesn’t have the right to do any of this. And when we get back down to where there’s cell service, I’m going to report him. Someone ought to report him for what he’s done to that girl he calls his wife, anyway.”

Mattie saw the muscles of William’s back bunch up, his hands tighten on the handle of the shovel. His voice, when he spoke, was low and icy cold as the river in winter.

“What,” he said, “do you know of my wife?”

Oh, no, Mattie thought. Panic bubbled up inside her. Why had Griffin said that? William would kill her if he knew that she’d seen two strange men at the cabin and not mentioned it to him.

“We saw what you did to her,” Griffin said.

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