Rain Gods (Hackberry Holland 2)

?Your wife could have been in there,? Pam said.

?No, we saw Collins take her into the hole in the mountain. Let?s get up there,? Nick said.

Vikki Gaddis sat in the passenger seat, and Pete Flores sat in back, leaning forward against the front seat.

?Y?all stay where you are,? Hackberry said.

?I?m going up there with you,? Nick said.

?No, you?re not,? Hackberry said.

?That?s my wife,? Nick said, opening the door.

?You?re about to find yourself in handcuffs, Mr. Dolan,? Pam said.

Hackberry dumped the spent shells from the cylinder of his revolver into his palm and reloaded the empty chambers. He motioned to Pam Tibbs and began walking with her toward the mountain, ignoring the three new arrivals, hoping his last words to them had stuck.

?You don?t want to wait for the locals?? she said.

?Wrong move. I?m going straight up the path. I want you to come in from the side and stay just outside the cave.?

?Why??

?Collins won?t shoot if he thinks I?m alone.?

?Why not??

?He has too much pride. With Collins, it?s not about money or sex. He thinks it?s the twilight of the gods and he?s at center stage.?

Nick Dolan and Vikki Gaddis and Pete Flores were all getting out of the SUV.

?You three get right back in your vehicle and drive back toward the road and stay there,? Hackberry said.

?To hell with that,? Nick said.

?Sheriff, give me a weapon and let me go up there with you,? Pete said.

?Can?t do it, partner. End of discussion,? Hackberry said. ?Ms. Gaddis, you keep these two guys here. If you want to see Mrs. Dolan come out of that cave alive, don?t mess in what?s about to happen.?

Hackberry began walking up the path alone, while Pam Tibbs cut across the green and orange and gray tailings that were strung down the incline, carrying her shotgun at port arms.

Hackberry paused at the cave?s entrance, his .45 holstered, the Beretta still tucked inside the back of his gun belt. He smelled a dank odor like mouse droppings or bat guano and water pooled in stone. He felt the wind coursing over his skin, flowing into the cave. ?Can you hear me, Collins?? he said.

There was no answer. Hackberry stepped inside the darkness of the cave as though slipping from the world of light into one of perpetual shade.

The body of a man lay behind a boulder. The wounds in his chest and stomach and legs were egregious. The amount of blood that had pooled around him and soaked into his sheep-lined leather coat and bradded orange work pants seemed more than his body could have contained.

?You can do a good deed here, Jack,? Hackberry called out.

After the echo died, he thought he heard a rattling sound in the dark, farther back in the cave.

?Did you hear me, Jack??

?You?re backlit, Sheriff,? a voice said from deep in the cave?s interior.

?That?s right. You can pop me any time you want.? Hackberry paused. ?You?re not above doing a good deed, are you??

?What might that be??