Strangers in the Fog
Hannigan had just finished digging the grave, down in the tule marsh where the little saltwater creek flowed toward the Pacific, when the dark shape of a man came out of the fog.
Startled, Hannigan brought the shovel up and cocked it weaponlike at his shoulder. The other man had materialized less than twenty yards away, from the direction of the beach, and had stopped the moment he saw Hannigan. The diffused light from Hannigan’s lantern did not quite reach the man; he was a black silhouette against the swirling billows of mist. Beyond him the breakers lashed at the hidden shore in a steady pulse.
Hannigan said, “Who the hell are you?”
The man stood staring down at the roll of canvas near Hannigan’s feet, at the hole scooped out of the sandy earth. He seemed to poise himself on the balls of his feet, body turned slightly, as though he might bolt at any second. “I’ll ask you the same question,” he said, and his voice was tense, low-pitched.
“I happen to live here.” Hannigan made a gesture to his left with the shovel, where a suggestion of shimmery light shone high up through the fog. “This is a private beach.”
“Private graveyard, too?”
“My dog died earlier this evening. I didn’t want to leave him lying around the house.”
“Must have been a pretty big dog.”
“He was a Great Dane,” Hannigan said. He wiped moisture from his face with his free hand. “You want something, or do you just like to take strolls in the fog?”
The man came forward a few steps, warily. Hannigan could see him more clearly then in the pale lantern glow: big, heavy-shouldered, damp hair flattened across his forehead, wearing a plaid lumberman’s jacket, brown slacks, and loafers.
“You got a telephone I can use?”
“That would depend on why you need to use it.”
“I could give you a story about my car breaking down,” the big man said, “but then you’d just wonder what I’m doing down here instead of up on the Coast Highway.”
“I’m wondering that anyway.”
“It’s safe down here, the way I figured it.”
“I don’t follow,” Hannigan said.
“Don’t you listen to your radio or TV?”
“Not if I can avoid it.”
“So you don’t know about the lunatic who escaped from the state asylum at Tescadero.”
The back of Hannigan’s neck prickled. “No,” he said.
“Happened late this afternoon,” the big man said. “He killed an attendant at the hospital — stabbed him with a kitchen knife. He was in there for the same kind of thing. Killed three people with a kitchen knife.”
Hannigan did not say anything.
The big man said, “They think he may have headed north, because he came from a town up near the Oregon border. But they’re not sure. He may have come south instead — and Tescadero is only twelve miles from here.”
Hannigan gripped the handle of the shovel more tightly. “You still haven’t said what you’re doing down here in the fog.”
“I came up from San Francisco with a girl for the weekend,” the big man said. “Her husband was supposed to be in Los Angeles, on business, only I guess he decided to come home early. When he found her gone he must have figured she’d come up to this summer place they’ve got and so he drove up without calling first. We had just enough warning for her to throw me out.”
“You let this woman throw you out?”
“That’s right. Her husband is worth a million or so, and he’s generous. You understand?”
“Maybe,” Hannigan said. “What’s the woman’s name?”
“That’s my business.”
“Then how do I know you’re telling me the truth?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You might have reasons for lying.”
“Like if I was the escaped lunatic, maybe?”
“Like that.”
“If I was, would I have told you about him?”
Again Hannigan was silent.
“For all I know,” the big man said, “you could be the lunatic. Hell, you’re out here digging a grave in the middle of the night—”
“I told you, my dog died. Besides, would a lunatic dig a grave for somebody he killed? Did he dig one for that attendant you said he stabbed?”
“Okay, neither one of us is the lunatic.” The big man paused and ran his hands along the side of his coat. “Look, I’ve had enough of this damned fog; it’s starting to get to me. Can I use your phone or not?”
“Just who is it you want to call?”
“Friend of mine in San Francisco who owes me a favor. He’ll drive up and get me. That is, if you wouldn’t mind my hanging around your place until he shows up.”
Hannigan thought things over and made up his mind. “All right. You stand over there while I finish putting Nick away. Then we’ll go up.”
The big man nodded and stood without moving. Hannigan knelt, still grasping the shovel, and rolled the canvas-wrapped body carefully into the grave. Then he straightened, began to scoop in sandy earth from the pile to one side. He did all of that without taking his eyes off the other man.
When he was finished he picked up the lantern, then gestured with the shovel, and the big man came around the grave. They went up along the edge of the creek, Hannigan four or five steps to the left. The big man kept his hands up and in close to his chest, and he walked with the tense springy stride of an animal prepared to attack or flee at any sudden movement. His gaze hung on Hannigan’s face; Hannigan made it reciprocal.
“You have a name?” Hannigan asked him.
“Doesn’t everybody?”
“Very funny. I’m asking your name.”
“Art Vickery, if it matters.”
“It doesn’t, except that I like to know who I’m letting inside my house.”
“I like to know whose house I’m going into,” Vickery said.
Hannigan told him. After that neither of them had anything more to say.
The creek wound away to the right after fifty yards, into a tangle of scrubbrush, sage, and tule grass; to the left and straight ahead were low rolling sand dunes, and behind them the earth became hard-packed and rose sharply into the bluff on which the house had been built. Hannigan took Vickery onto the worn path between two of the dunes. Fog massed around them in wet gray swirls, shredding as they passed through it, reknitting again at their backs. Even with the lantern, visibility was less than thirty yards in any direction, although as they neared the bluff the house lights threw a progressively brighter illumination against the screen of mist.
They were halfway up the winding path before the house itself loomed into view — a huge redwood-and-glass structure with a wide balcony facing the sea. The path ended at a terraced patio, and there were wooden steps at the far end that led up alongside the house.
When they reached the steps Hannigan gestured for Vickery to go up first. The big man did not argue; but he ascended sideways, looking back down at Hannigan, neither of his hands touching the railing. Hannigan followed by four of the wood runners.
At the top, in front of the house, was a parking area and a small garden. The access road that came in from the Coast Highway and the highway itself were invisible in the misty darkness. The light over the door burned dully, and as Vickery moved toward it Hannigan shut off the lantern and put it and the shovel down against the wall. Then he started after the big man.
He was just about to tell Vickery that the door was unlocked and to go on in when another man came out of the fog.
Hannigan saw him immediately, over on the access road, and stopped with the back of his neck prickling again. This newcomer was about the same size as Vickery, and Hannigan himself; thick through the body, dressed in a rumpled suit but without a tie. He had wildly unkempt hair and an air of either agitation or harried intent. He hesitated briefly when he saw Hannigan and Vickery, then he came toward them holding his right hand against his hip at a spot covered by his suit jacket.