“What did you see?” she asked.
“Mr. and Mrs. Lowry seem to be in charge.”
“That’s crazy.”
“They’re dressed like people from the seventeenth century.”
“Who else is down there?”
“Cotton and Maisie and Spud. Their hands are tied.”
“They were our only hope,” she said.
“I’ve got to tell you something else. Someone was burned to death in that bonfire. I think these bastards killed Stoney.”
“No, no, don’t say that.”
“I know what I saw. It could be someone else. But they burned somebody alive.”
“The Lowrys are doing this?” she said. “This is madness, Aaron. No, this is hell. We found it on earth. It’s not a myth.”
“We need to get to the top of the canyon,” I said. “There’s no other way out. Are you up to it?” I tried to smile.
“Whatever it takes. Who else was down there?”
“Orchid and Lindsey Lou, Jimmy Doyle and Marvin Fogel.”
“Moon Child was their friend.”
“Orchid and Lindsey Lou are scared. Doyle and Fogel are butt crust.”
“The Lowrys are actually behind all this? The people who had us to dinner? The man you compared to your father?”
“I told you what I saw.”
“There’s something wrong in that picture,” she said. “The Lowrys? That doesn’t make sense.”
“We’d better get going. There’s only one trail that goes to the top. It’s awful steep. There’s not much cover on it, either.”
“They can see us?”
“If we let them,” I replied.
* * *
I GOT HER TO her feet, and we began walking up the trail, then branched off to another trail that led to a cave. The opening was probably less than thirty yards below the canyon’s rim. The pain in Jo Anne’s ankle was obvious. I tried carrying her but tripped and almost dropped her.
“Set me down,” she said.
“No, I think we can make it.”
“We’ll be out in the open. Those creatures flying in the air will see us. Get help and come back. I’ll stay in the cave.”
I eased her down on a smooth claylike spot fifteen feet from the cave’s entrance, then put the binoculars on the bonfire. The number of people gathered before it had doubled. They were cheering and clapping. I moved the glasses back to Mr. and Mrs. Lowry. Again, I could not believe what I was watching. Rueben and Darrel Vickers were standing next to the Lowrys. Both father and son were wearing black robes with red trim, although Darrel wore his coned-up cowboy straw hat as well. A German Luger hung from Darrel’s right hand. He must have told a joke, because the crowd was laughing. However, the faces of the Lowrys were shiny with fear, as though a gravitational shift in the earth had just occurred and they were the only ones who would be affected by it.
Then Darrel Vickers pointed the Luger’s barrel at the side of Mr. Lowry’s head and fired two shots, pop-pop, that fast, like a fool having fun at a funeral. Mr. Lowry dropped straight down, stone dead before he hit the ground.
I lowered the binoculars, stupefied. Jo Anne looked up at me. “Those sounded like gunshots,” she said.