I could have told him it was just the way life was, that the bad came along with the good, but that wouldn’t have been the truth. Everything bad that was happening to Stan could be traced back to one event-Marla and me fucking in the forest for Bill Prentice. I couldn’t have foreseen that it would have such disastrous consequences, I hadn’t done it with the thought of hurting anyone at all, but still…
“Everything is going to be okay, Stan, I promise. I don’t want you to be frightened or upset about anything.”
“But there’s nothing behind things anymore, not like there used to be.” He looked at me then as though he had suddenly realized something. “Is this how you feel, Johnny? Am I like you now?”
By the middle of the morning Stan had changed out of his costume but he still had about him the air of someone who had been profoundly stunned. Rosie joined him on the stoop and the two of them spent a long time staring vacantly at the meadow.
In an attempt to distract him from his misery I reminded him that we hadn’t investigated our secret river yet. He seemed to have lost all interest in it, but after I’d talked for a while about gold and how much money we could make and how the whole thing would be a huge adventure, he roused himself a little and agreed to accompany me on an expedition to find out what the buried riverbed held.
“And maybe, Johnny, if there’s a lot of gold, maybe I could pay Jeremy Tripp back for his warehouse.”
Over the years my father had accumulated all the basics necessary for amateur prospecting: shovels, wire-mesh graders for sieving out stones, even a modern aluminum sluice. We’d brought this gear with us from the old house and kept it now in the shed behind the cabin. Stan and I loaded ourselves with a couple of pans, a shovel, a mattock, and a grader and were just coming back around to the front of the cabin when I realized that my plans for the day would have to be radically rethought.
Marla and Rosie were standing close together on the stoop looking up the slope of the meadow in alarm. I followed their gaze and saw, at the top of the track that led down to our cabin, a red E-type Jaguar sitting motionless against a background of trees.
Stan made a small whimpering sound and dropped the pan he was carrying. “Johnny…”
“It’s okay. He’s probably just here to see if we can lend him some plants.”
“No, he isn’t.”
“Why don’t you take Rosie and show her how to pan for gold? We really need to find out what’s in that riverbed.”
I handed my pan to Rosie. Stan stayed staring worriedly at Jeremy Tripp’s car.
“Go on, Stan. It’ll be better if it’s just me who talks to him. I’ll come and get you when he’s gone. Don’t worry about anything, it’s going to be all right.”
Stan picked up his pan and tugged unhappily at Rosie and the two of them set off down the meadow. I went and stood beside Marla on the stoop. A minute later the E-type rolled down the track.
When Jeremy Tripp got out of the car I felt Marla flinch. He stepped onto the ground in front of the cabin as though he were taking ownership of everything around him, us included.
“Log cabin… Very rustic, but don’t you worry about fire?”
“Not especially.”
“Really? I have to tell you, it’s of some concern to me. You really don’t worry about it?” He gazed off down the meadow. Stan and Rosie were just entering the trees. “Smart move sending your brother away. I expect he doesn’t cope well with stress. Shall we go inside?”
Without waiting for an answer he climbed the steps and walked past us into the cabin. Marla looked dull and white and I felt a cold hand close about my stomach. For a moment neither of us moved, then we turned and went inside.
Jeremy Tripp sprawled on the couch. Marla took a chair as far away from him as possible and I stayed standing. Jeremy Tripp smirked when I didn’t sit down.
“Standing won’t do you any good, John. All that stuff about sitting with your back to a window, having your chair higher than the other guy? It’s all pointless if you don’t have the goods. There are only a few things that really allow you to dominate an exchange. Money is one of them. Knowledge is another. Strutting around the room usually means you don’t have either.”
“What do you want?”
“There was a fire at my warehouse last night.”
“Oh?”
“Surprised? So was I. Fire department says it was arson. That got me thinking, as you might imagine. The target’s a warehouse full of plants. There’s another plant company in town whose business I’ve pretty much annihilated, run by someone less than kindly disposed toward me.”
“Just because I have a plant company doesn’t mean I started the fire.”
“I’m not saying it does. You’re probably not stupid enough to do something so obvious.”
“Okay. Good. So what’s this about?”
“You’re not stupid enough… but your brother is.”
I felt the cold hand around my stomach tighten. “Stan’s not capable of doing anything like that.”
“Anyone can do anything if the circumstances are right, and it’s been a tough old time for Stanley. Business going down the toilet, losing your house… If you don’t have a strong mind these things can push you over the edge. It’s just a guess, of course, but I’d say Stan’s mind is a long way from strong. Finding out his girlfriend likes to pose for nude photos can’t have helped, either.”
“That was a fucking evil thing to do.”
“Was that what happened? He saw the photos and lost it? Went on a rampage with a can of gas?”
“You’re insane.”
“But close enough to the mark.”
“You don’t have any proof at all that that’s what happened.”
“Do you really think I need any?”
“Get the fuck out of my house.”
“John, when I go to the police and tell them I believe Stan set fire to my warehouse they’ll take him in for questioning. Proof won’t come into it because two minutes after they sit him down he’ll have told them everything himself. You know he will, there’s no way he could stand up to being questioned.”
“What do you want?”
“To make the community a safer place. We can’t have people running around setting things on fire.”
“You mean prison? Are you fucking joking? We’re talking about Stan here. It would destroy him.”
“Do you think I care about that?”
“This is about you and me and Marla and Gareth and that fucking video. Don’t bring Stan into it.”
“Maybe you could persuade me not to.”
“I already asked you what you want.”
“Cancel your lease on Bill’s warehouse and move out. I want to buy the land.”
“But we won’t be able to run our business.”
“You’re hardly doing that now. And I want this land, as well.”
“What land?”
“This land, here.”
“Are you joking? Why?”
Jeremy Tripp shrugged. “Because you have it. You’ve got to understand, I’m honor bound to take everything you have. You and that Gareth twerp and your slut here.” He pointed his chin at Marla.
“The fire was just what you wanted, wasn’t it?”
“You made a mistake. You should have looked after your brother better.”
“How do I know you won’t go to the police even if I do what you want?”
“You don’t. But what choice do you have? I’m saying I won’t tell anyone. What are you going to do, fail your brother again by not even trying to save him?”
Giving up the warehouse didn’t bother me much, Plantasaurus was on its last legs anyhow. But Empty Mile was a whole other matter.
“I’m waiting, John.”
“The warehouse lease I can cancel as soon as I get ahold of Bill. But the land will involve a lawyer. I’ll need a few days to arrange it.”
“Just as long as you don’t dilly-dally.” Jeremy Tripp stood up. “And now, to seal the bargain, I’d like your girlfriend to take care of me.”