Coats backed up, away from the pipe, his right leg dragging awkwardly.
Walt staggered forward, barely conscious, his right arm and hand useless.
Coats snagged a fallen shovel and swung it madly into Walt’s left side. The blow knocked Walt into the hanging cow and he spun to fend off the next attack. The shovel glanced off the frozen cadaver.
The door broke from its hinges and crashed to the floor-first a rectangle of moonlight, which was then blotted out by the massive presence that filled it. The bear charged the first thing it saw: Roy Coats.
The shovel was lifted high but fell to the floor, handle first, the blow never delivered.
Walt heard the tear of clothing, followed quickly by the bubbling slobber of Coats attempting to cry out. But his cheek was no longer part of his face and his left eye was missing.
Walt knew better than to run for the door: he didn’t want the bear substituting him for his present target.
Hands on the cow, he realized where to hide and pulled himself into the frozen womb, the sounds of terror continuing in a relentless stream until Roy Coats was silenced forever and the bear wandered off and out.
69
AS FIFTEEN OF THE BACKUP DEPUTIES SEARCHED FOR MARK Aker, he stumbled into camp of his own accord.
Walt’s wounds were being tended to in the cabin as word arrived.
“Sheriff!” Brandon said from the doorway in a voice so urgent that Walt jumped up as one of his team attended his hand.
Brandon led Walt around to the side of the cabin and whispered, “He was just… standing there.”
Mark Aker was, in fact, standing between the shed and the woodpile in two feet of snow, an animal draped over his shoulders and held by its feet around his neck. A dog, Walt saw on closer inspection.
“I approached,” Brandon informed him, “but he stepped back, saying your name over and over. He’s in shock, or worse.”
“Mark,” Walt called out. “It’s me.”
“Sheriff Walt Fleming,” Aker called out again, as if he hadn’t heard. He took another step back.
“Your flashlight,” Walt said to Brandon. “Shine it on me.”
As the light struck Walt, revealing a scarred and battered man, Aker started walking toward him. Walt held a hand out, stopping Brandon from meeting him. Mark was clearly in shock or had hypothermia, skittish and unpredictable.
Aker fell to his knees, a few feet from Walt. At least, that was what Walt thought. In fact, Aker had only gone to his knees to unload the dog. With the dog now in his arms he stood, with difficulty, and passed it to Brandon.
He turned and faced Walt. “What took you so long?”
“The cabin’s warm. We have a medic.” Walt motioned toward the cabin.
“Coats?”
“Dead.”
“You found the test tube?” Aker was moving toward the cabin now. Brandon stood there holding the dog, wondering what to do with it.
“I could have used a note along with it,” Walt said.
“Needed to buy myself time.” His voice was distant. Walt realized they were losing him.
As they led him inside the cabin, Aker began to shiver uncontrollably in waves that bordered on seizures. The medic began an IV, as they undressed him and wrapped him in wool blankets. Forty minutes later, he and Walt were Life Flighted out and flown to Boise for medical attention. Aker slipped into unconsciousness on the way and could not be revived. He remained in a coma for three days when, miraculously-or so the doctors said-he sat up, fully alert.
Walt never left the man’s bedside, running his office and writing reports from room 317.
It wasn’t until Aker regained consciousness that they were finally able to contact his family, all of whom had been holed up in a Holiday Inn in Ogden, Utah, on Aker’s orders.
They might have arrived sooner, had the press gotten hold of the story, but not a sentence had been-or would be-written about the events of the past weeks. A task force of federal agencies had descended upon all concerned to debrief Walt and his team, requiring their signatures on nondisclosure agreements.
The rights of a few for the good of the many, Walt thought.
A cover story was invented for Mark Aker that involved his family’s desire for privacy and his father’s fictional heart condition. The efficiency and thoroughness of the government surprised everyone involved; even Danny Cutter had been silenced by its efforts, not an easy task.
THREE WEEKS LATER, the first rumors began to circulate around the valley. Walt declined comment but knew the stories had helped with his reelection.
On a wintry Halloween night in Hailey, limping and unable to use his right hand, he accompanied Gail escorting the girls as they went house to house in town. While the girls waited in line at a busy house, Gail spoke to him for the first time since “Hello.”
“If you want them back…”
“Of course I do,” Walt said. He knew it would come to this; Gail had never been comfortable as a mother. The excuses would follow next.
“I may have overreacted,” she said.
The girls returned, displaying their goodies; Emily got a chocolate bunny she was especially proud of. Walt wondered if it was left over from Easter and wanted a look at it.
They walked as a family down the street to the next house, Walt marveling how uncomfortable he felt in Gail’s company. The girls hurried to the next door.
“I don’t like who you’ve become,” he said.
“I know.”
“I don’t want the divorce to screw up the girls.”
“I seem to screw them up without even trying. Why I can’t do this, I have no idea.” She looked across the street where there was nothing to see, but it kept her face averted.
“Quite a pair,” he said.
“We aren’t a pair,” she corrected. Then she apologized.
“They need us both,” he said. “We need to work this out.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“I’d rather we work it out than the lawyers. I don’t want lawyers deciding what’s right for the girls.”
Gail didn’t say anything, saved again by the arrival of the girls. The trick-or-treating continued for another forty-five minutes. Snippets of conversation passed between them but none with any content. The mention of lawyers had broken the spell or they’d simply run out of things to say. Over a decade spent together, and they couldn’t find five minutes of things to talk about.
The girls looked anxiously at Walt, then followed their mother to her car. But she stopped them, withdrawing a small overnight bag and handing it to Walt. Emily’s eyes brightened. Nikki took her father’s hand. Gail stared dully at the three of them, forced a grimace of a smile, and, kissing the girls, climbed behind the wheel.
When Walt got home, he put the girls to bed, taking extra time to read to them, wishing he didn’t have to turn off the light.
Returning to his own bedroom, he stopped and looked around. He emptied her closet. Set four black garbage bags of clothes out on the back porch, but that barely scratched the surface. He took off his wedding ring and put it in a drawer with some cuff links he never used. He drank two beers in front of the television and fell asleep in the chair.
70
THE DRIVE UP TO HILLABRAND’S MOUNTAINTOP ESTATE REMINDED Walt again of the man’s power and position, of the enormous wealth in Sun Valley and how carefully one had to tread. He was greeted by an aide and shown inside, exceptionally aware that Sean Lunn was nowhere to be seen.
Hillabrand met him in the living room, with its panoramic views of Ketchum and Sun Valley. He’d lost his tan, replaced by a gray pallor.