Tainted Mountain Page 9

  She felt like her life was careening downhill like a sled on an icy luge run.

  Abigail, perfectly coiffed and looking every bit equal to Barrett’s bank account, smoothed her skirt and lifted the chain of her slim bag over her arm. “We should have lunch to celebrate this happy arrangement.”

  Happy. Yep. All Nora’s heavy money problems were over. She should be floating like a helium balloon, not sinking like a bowling ball. “You and Barrett go ahead,” she said. “I’ve got to call the snow sprayer contractor.”

  Barrett gave a final back pat to the tax attorney. “Don’t worry about that. I contacted a firm in Colorado and they’ve expedited the equipment. Should be on its way.”

  “You ordered it? Without talking to me? When?” Heat rose from her belly to her face.

  “Work crews are due by the end of the week. We’ll have snow by Christmas.”

  Abigail already had a soft hand on Barrett’s arm. “I was thinking Thai.”

  Barrett walked toward the door. “I’ll take care of the snow making and leave the rest to you. You’ve got enough to do with operations.”

  Nora pressed her foot to the brakes but it looked like Barrett had cut the lines. “You said you’d be a silent partner and let me run things. I know what kind of eco-friendly equipment I want up there.”

  Barrett barely slowed his exit. “We have a limited window to get the equipment functioning. I’ve got contacts and, dare I say, some weight to throw around.” He winked at Abigail and patted his belly.

  “For once, just let someone help you, dear,” Abigail said.

  Help or take over? she thought. “We can’t put just any equipment up there. It has to be energy efficient and work with the environment.”

  Abigail scowled at her. “Don’t be so controlling. Barrett hasn’t gotten this far by making poor decisions.”

  Frustration twined through Nora. Abigail was right. Barrett had created an empire, while Nora succeeded in nearly destroying one small business. She could use a mentor, not to mention a bank-roller. She waved them off, keeping her temper in check. “Go ahead. Enjoy the Thai. I’ll see you later.”

  Abigail took Barrett’s arm. “If you’re sure … ”

  Nora waited a few minutes before leaving the conference room and stepping into the hall. Her high heels sank into the plush carpet of McCreary Energy’s corporate office. After years of struggle and worry, snow making was a reality. The sunrise of opportunity shone just below the horizon. Too bad it felt more like an alien spaceship aiming a laser at her.

  God, what happened to me? Nora used to be happy and hopeful. Challenges sparked her blood and the possibility of winning thrilled her. Somewhere in the seven years since meeting Scott, obstacles had become mountains that required exhausting effort to scale. Gone were the hurdles she sailed over on her sprint to the finish line.

  The hallway led to the finely appointed reception area, escape only a few feet away. She’d head up to the mountain, get Abbey, and hike away this dread.

  Abigail stood with arms crossed by the front door, her face impatient. Nora followed her gaze to a conference room where Barrett’s muffled voice sneaked out. The door to the room stood ajar a few inches. Now would be a good time to tell Barrett to cancel the equipment he ordered. She needed to stop his intrusive management before it went any further. Since the receptionist no longer manned the desk, Nora veered around the corner, heading for the conference room.

  She stopped outside the door to gather courage. A deep chill hardened Barrett’s words. “How trustworthy is this information?”

  Nora froze at the ice in Barrett’s tone. Through the slit of the open door, she saw Cole Huntsman’s lean form.

  “Pretty reliable,” Cole said.

  Something crashed like a chair thrown into a table. Barrett sounded as if his temper barely held. “Fucking Deavonshire. He said he’d get the votes.”

  Cole’s drawl contrasted with Barrett’s heat. “Doesn’t look likely. We’ll need to switch gears. Do you have something up your sleeve?”

  “Like what?”

  Cole paused. “Favors to call in, maybe? Cash to spread around? Congressmen aren’t angels.”

  Cole worked for Barrett and advocated bribes to Congress? So much for her theory that Cole was a righteous enviro out to get Barrett. If he was working with Barrett, he was far more dangerous than she’d thought.

  Barrett’s voice became clearer as he headed toward the door. “I’ll get that greaseball Deavonshire to pony up the votes.”

  “How are you going to do that?” Cole hung back.

  Nora hurried away from the door, slipping into the restroom across the hall.

  She leaned against the door.

  There was no hint of Barrett’s anger as he obviously rejoined Abigail in reception. “How about that lunch? I’m hungry enough to eat a bear.”

  Abigail laughed, her impatience vanishing along with Barrett’s terrifying threats. “Bear curry with Thai spice. Sounds yummy.”

  Nora waited inside the restroom door until Abigail and Barrett had time to leave the building. Then she moved as quickly and silently as possible from the restroom to the front door. The receptionist was back at her desk and issued a pleasant goodbye as Nora exited.

  She hurried past the courthouse, her Jeep in sight. Barrett and Cole had to have been talking about the uranium hearing and the vote to withdraw lands from mining. Cole must be some sort of double agent working for both Big Elk and Barrett. He advocated bribing congressmen. She should tell someone. But who?

  What a power-hungry maniac. Barrett tampered with Congress, ran a multi-billion dollar company, raised a teenage delinquent, and still had time to mess up Kachina Ski. The man was like a chainsaw juggler.

  “Nora.”

  Cole’s voice slashed across her thoughts. He must have followed her out of Barrett’s offices. She pretended not to hear him. Only two blocks down the sun-drenched sidewalk to the parking lot and ten miles north to the serenity of her mountain.

  “Nora, wait!” Cole trotted to her.

  This guy was a ruthless criminal who could very well hurt her if he suspected she knew about his duplicity. She froze and waited for him.

  His face lit in a boyish smile. “Good to see you.” That flush started up his neck again. “Have you had lunch? Would you like to?”

  What was his game? “I’m on my way home.”

  “Oh.” He looked disappointed. “So, what were you doing at McCreary?”

  “What were you doing there?”

  “Business.”

  “Same here.”

  He studied her face. “What’s your business with Barrett?”

  “He’s my partner.”

  He scowled at her. “You and Barrett are partners? I don’t like this.”

  “You don’t like it? I’m sorry to hear that.” She took a step away.

  “That didn’t come out right.” His face flared as if he really were embarrassed. “Obviously you can do what you want. But getting involved with Barrett isn’t a good thing.”

  A few minutes ago she’d been thinking the same thing, but she wasn’t about to let one more person tell her what to do. “I see. It’s okay for you to work with Barrett on whatever you do, but not okay for me to work with him and make snow.”

  He didn’t seem the least upset that she’d discovered he worked for Barrett. “It’s not about snow making.”

  “Of course not. Suddenly you’re all for desecrating the sacred peaks and ripping uranium out of the Grand Canyon.”

  “I don’t necessarily think we should mine uranium at the Grand Canyon. There are places that should be left alone. I’m not sure we should risk this important watershed.” He stopped when he noticed Nora staring at him, probably with her mouth open.

  “If you were any kind of environmentalist, you’d be screaming abou
t uranium mining up there. But you’re not cheering for Barrett, either. What team do you play for?”

  He stared at her as if she’d gone bonkers. Finally he shook his head. “We’re talking about you and the fact you shouldn’t be involved with Barrett.”

  She was as involved with Barrett as a person could get. Not only was he financing and making decisions on her business, he might be courting her mother, as well as placing his daughter in virtual daycare under Nora’s watch. Having Cole confront her on it only made it worse.

  Cole frowned and leaned forward. “You’re in all kinds of danger. You’ve got Barrett with a hidden agenda, Alex Seweingyawma has already tried to kill you, and Big Elk is out to get you. Who is he, anyway?”

  “Big Elk is exactly what he seems: a fake chief, beating his drum and creating attention for himself. Other people, on the other hand,” she glared at him, “are not at all what they seem.”

  Cole didn’t respond to her accusation. He was one smooth player. “But where did Big Elk come from?”

  “He’s Sioux. From Nebraska, I think.”

  Cole shook his head. “That’s just it. I have a Hopi friend who’s pretty tight with several people up in Nebraska, near Rosebud. They don’t know where Big Elk came from. He never spent time up there. He just came on the Native American activist scene working for other tribes, saying he was Sioux.”

  “You know what? I don’t care,” she said. “I just want to run my business and be left alone.”

  He shook his head, his eyes full of concern. “That’s not going to happen. You’re in the middle of this mess and I’m worried about you.”

  This was too much. “Worried about me? Maybe you should quit lying to me. Why not tell me what you really want?”

  Dumbfounded. He stood mute for several beats. “You saw the meeting with Barrett just now, didn’t you?”

  Good one, Nora. Now he knows and he’ll have to kill you. “The one where you and Barrett plotted to bribe Congress?”

  He grabbed her arm. “Forget about what you heard.”

  “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

  “You don’t need to put yourself in any more danger. These people don’t mess around.”

  “Sure. I should forget about it to protect myself. Right.”

  He let go of her arm and ran a hand through his hair, agitation coming from him in waves. “Hell, Nora, someone killed your husband. Do you know why? Who? How can you ignore the danger you’re in?”

  Her knees buckled. Scott. Murdered.

  Cole put a hand on her elbow to steady her. “I’m sorry.”

  She tried to pull on her armor. “Leave me alone.”

  Cole led her to a bench and they sat. The heat of the sun-warmed concrete soaked through her suit.

  He looked her square in the eyes. “The woman at the funeral said Scott was working for someone. Do you know who it was? Maybe that has something to do with his murder.”

  What was wrong with her? Cole might be all nice and warm and kind on the outside, but he’d already proved he had a dark side. It might be blacker than she thought. She jerked away. “I’ve got to go.”

  Cole jumped up. “I didn’t mean … ”

  Her panic pounded in her heels clicking on the sidewalk. Just before jerking the door open on her Jeep she saw Heather in the park, leaning against a tree, scanning the area as if waiting for someone.

  Nora glanced behind her and didn’t see Cole. She headed toward Heather. “Aren’t you supposed to be shoveling dirt from around the lift house?”

  Unruffled, Heather waited for Nora to get to her. “Abigail said since everyone else was going to town, I could have the afternoon off.”

  Two days on the job and already Nora had lost control. “Abigail’s not your boss.”

  “Your mom’s cool.”

  “Yeah. I thought that once, for about two seconds.” Now who’s being a bratty teenager?

  “You don’t even appreciate what you have.” Bitterness tinged Heather’s words.

  As if Abigail couldn’t irritate her enough, now her mother had her very own groupie. “I suppose you think your father’s cool too?”

  Heather’s eyes narrowed. “My adopted father.”

  Uh oh. The mention of adopted fathers brought Nora’s thoughts to her own adopted father figure. The pressure overwhelmed Nora. It had nothing to do with Heather; the levy simply gave way. No more banter, no more holding it together. Nora fought one last moment and then tears overtook her. “What am I doing here? I never wanted any of this.”

  Heather’s eyes opened in alarm “Whoa. I can go back to work if it means that much to you.”

  “I mean the whole thing. I never wanted the ski area or Flagstaff or snow.”

  Heather relaxed a little. “Then why are you here?”

  Nora sank to the grass, getting control of her sobs. “It was for Scott. And for Abigail. And for Berle.”

  Heather sat across from her. “Who’s Berle?”

  “Berle was my mother’s second husband. I loved Berle. He was good to my mother. I think maybe she really loved him.”

  Heather’s confused gaze encouraged her to talk.

  “Not long after Scott and I married, Berle got stomach cancer. I was finishing business school and had some nice offers. I was going to live in a plush high-rise condo in Chicago or L.A. and vacation on sunny beaches.”

  Heather sat quietly, waiting for her to continue.

  “But Berle went from alright to almost dead in less than two weeks. One of the last days, he begged me to promise I’d always take care of my mother. He had a fortune and it would all go to her but he worried. He said he owned this ski area in Flagstaff. Kachina Ski. He’d give it to me, free and clear, with the one caveat that if my mother ever needed financial help, Kachina would be her safety net.”

  Heather’s eyebrows drew together as she worked it out. “This must have been before the drought. I can see where that would be a good move.”

  “I told him of course I would take care of my mother, but I didn’t want a ski resort. I assumed I’d have a great career in finance.”

  “But you ended up here.”

  “When I told Scott about it, he latched on to the idea and couldn’t see anything else. He was full of dreams of us running the place together and spending our days on the mountain. He wanted it so much, I couldn’t say no.”

  “But it didn’t work out as you’d planned.”

  She shrugged. “I was naïve to think Scott would enjoy the business side.”

  “Your mother says he played and you worked.”

  “It was more than that. I couldn’t have done any of it if he hadn’t been with me. Scott made me feel … ” she searched for the right words. Being Scott’s wife made her feel special. If he loved her, she must have worth. Sheesh, it sounded so Abigail. But since Bimbo’s appearance in their lives, she’d lost even that measure of confidence.

  She shouldn’t be talking like this to a teenager. Heather might seem mature and, well, like a friend, but this kind of sharing with a sixteen-year-old was inappropriate. Nora wiped her eyes. “Enough of this. Tell me something about you.”

  Heather shrugged. “What do you want to know?”

  “Why don’t you tell me about what interests you?”

  “Hopi.”

  “Okay. Tell me about Hopi.”

  Heather eyed her and began slowly, as if testing her. “On either end of Earth’s axis, twin brothers sit and hold down the head of the serpent. They are the balance of the world. If they let go, Earth will tilt and there will be chaos. Hopi are responsible for keeping the brothers there.”

  Nora nodded.

  “Every Hopi belongs to a clan, sort of like families, and each clan performs ceremonies that together maintain balance of the natural forces. See, each of us has a good side and a bad side. L
ike an elder told me, ‘black and white threads wind together in our ceremonies.’ So we have to balance our two selves to protect the world.”

  “Hopi are in charge of the whole world?”

  Heather’s shiny black hair bounced to her nod. “We’re the smallest tribe, but we have the biggest job.”

  “Balance in life is important,” Nora said, wondering what it would feel like to be balanced. “Really, the whole world?”

  “We do the ceremonies and that’s what keeps the balance.”

  Why not? “So tell me about kachinas.”

  “Kachinas are spirits. They aren’t saints like Christians have or like the Greek gods. It’s kind of weird. They can help people or cause problems or just sort of be there.”

  Nora thought of the doll the old man had given her. What spirit did he contain?

  Heather held Nora’s eye. “Thanks for not laughing at this. Poppy won’t listen. But your mom, she’s great.”

  “You’re talking about Abigail? You told her this?”

  “Yeah. She’s really interested in it. I just picked up a bunch of library books to take to her.”

  Could it be her mother’s mind had expanded a notch or two since Nora was young?

  Heather stiffened and her eyes hardened to flint at something behind Nora. “Douche bag.”

  An oily voice floated over her shoulder. “If it isn’t Ms. Abbott. Taking a break from destroying Mother Earth?”

  Big Elk.

  Nora ought to climb into her Jeep and just drive away, but her dander was running high. She rose to her feet and took a step toward Big Elk and his usual entourage of Guilty White People. “Face it: you lost, I won. Go pick another fight somewhere else.”

  “The courts granted you permission to gut the Mother. But they aren’t the ultimate law.” The followers murmured assent. He raised his voice in excitement. “The kachinas promised fire on the mountain if you continue your destructive path.”

  Heather shifted her hips and crossed her arms. “Knock it off, Big Elk.”

  Venom filled his eyes as they moved to Heather.

  Nora jumped in to distract him from the girl. “Go ahead and send someone else to kill me. But snow making will happen. Kachina Ski has a partner now, McCreary Energy.”