Burn(41)
And here it was again. Another chance. She held her breath.
She took the plunge.
“He was going to kill us.”
“Who?”
“Kelby. He had his gun out and he was going to shoot Jason.”
“This was on the road?”
She shook her head. “Outside Jason’s work. At night.”
His look darkened. “And how did you find yourself outside Jason’s work at night?”
“Is that the thing you really want to know?”
“I will. At some point.”
“Kelby caught us.”
“Doing what?”
She raised her voice. “Just being together! Standing in the same place! It’s bad enough that I’m black, apparently, but if I’m seen with a Japanese boy, well, then.”
She could see how much he knew this to be true. He calmly waited for her to continue.
“There was a fight,” she said.
“Who started it?”
“Who do you think?”
“I’ve seen Hisao Inagawa get angry. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jason could, too.”
“And don’t you think they have the right?”
“The law doesn’t care much about your rights when you look like Jason Inagawa.”
“Or me.”
“Or you. Yes. I’m sorry.”
She ran her foot along the floor of the kitchen. Dusty. Her fault, though between the two of them, they had to do the work of a farm that required at least five. Maybe they could hire the dragon to mop when he was done with the fields.
She saw her father was flexing one fist. “He hit you, didn’t he?” Flex, flex. “Kelby hit you in the jaw.”
“Yes. With the butt of his gun.”
The fist still flexed. “And the dragon . . . took care of him?”
“No.”
Her father looked surprised. If this was truth-telling, it might as well all come out, right?
“Jason got into it with him. The gun went off. . . .” She suddenly found it difficult to say any more.
“Jason shot Deputy Kelby?”
“He didn’t mean to!” She was upset now, like a dam was bursting. “Kelby was going to beat him. I think kill him, maybe.”
“Sarah?” Her father was standing now. He came over to her. “Sarah.” He held up her chin so he could look her in the eye. “If Jason stepped between you and Deputy Kelby, I’m never going to regard him as the problem, okay?”
“It was an accident. But the police would never believe that. Not even if it was Kelby.”
He let go of her chin, but not before a gentle rub on the still-fading bruise on her jaw. “No,” he said, “I don’t reckon they would. But Sarah? Sarah, you’ve got to trust me now and you’ve got to tell me the truth, okay?”
“Okay.”
“What did you do with the body?”
She slowly turned from him, looked out the window and into the snow, out over their farm, where the dragon slept.
“And he says someone’s coming for you?”
“Yes. Tomorrow.”
“And that he’ll protect you? As if I’d let anyone dangerous get within a mile of you.”
“That’s what he says, but I can’t get any more out of him. Only that it’s got something to do with the satellite the Russians are launching. Somebody using it as an excuse to start a war between men and dragons. Maybe the spy part of it is going to see something it’s not supposed to. I don’t know. I don’t think he does either.”
They were standing on the back porch, both wrapped in blankets against the cold. She had told him everything. He had told her all about the letters he’d received, the money they’d paid, told her what they’d predicted, how it had all come true so far.
“So who do we believe?” she asked him now.
“The letters have been right about everything so far.”
“So has the dragon. And he saved my life.”
“Maybe he was supposed to.”
She turned to her father. “Even if the letters are right, he did save me. You can’t kill him. That wouldn’t be . . . honorable.”
He stood next to her, and she could almost feel the tension still there. “The people who write these letters, they’re not going to be happy about not getting what they want.”
She glanced out toward the dragon. “You think he will be?”
“Between a dragon and a dark place,” he said.
“What do we do?” she asked again, though knowing neither of them had any answers. “Maybe we should just get out of here and let Kazimir handle things.”
“Kazimir?” her father asked. “That’s his name?”
She nodded.
“Well, first of all, I’m not being run off my own farm. Second, if they want to find us, they seem to know how. I’d rather be here.” He put an arm around her. “And who knows, maybe your dragon will turn out to be the hero after all.”
“He isn’t my dragon,” she said. “I don’t think he’s anyone’s.”
He breathed out through his nose in that way of his. “That, my daughter, might be the whole problem.”