Beautiful Dead 02 - Arizona (22 page)

Hunter walked between me and Jackson. He grasped the barrel of the gun and tilted it to an angle of forty-five degrees.

Jackson and Kyle lunged at Hunter but Phoenix fel ed them both. They sprawled in the dry grass, the shotgun sliding out of reach.

I glanced at Arizona. There was disappointment in her eyes as deep as the ocean as she gazed at her lover lying in the dirt.

' I can't get through to him,' I muttered. 'I tried, you have to believe

me.

'So Keppler takes the hard route. He gets to time travel,' Hunter said

sternly. 'Don't feel we reached the end of the line, Arizona. There's one more thing we can do.'

151

It hurts like hel when you travel through time much more than the zombie mind-zap they use to wipe your memory clean.

An overpowering energy forces its way inside you and twists every muscle and sinew. The pain concentrates between your shoulder blades, burning and tearing until you turn around and you see you have beautiful angel wings which you can spread wide and feel the wind rustle through the pure white feathers.

It was Hunter, me, Arizona, Kyle and Jon Jackson, al journeying back exactly one year plus seven days to replay the truth behind the mystery of

Arizona's death.

You would say that we flew through the stormy air, except that there's a whirling force carrying you back, a kind of time tunnel that sucks you in so that your wings don't function until you come out the other end and you're back at the critical moment, by Hartmann Lake, hovering above the ground and watching the action.

Hartmann in the fal - our last-ditch, last-minute attack on the truth. Frost lies on the ground though it's after midday. A layer of thin ice has formed at the water's edge.

And the water - it's dazzlingly clear and smooth, a bottomless

greenish-blue. On the far shore, a slope covered in golden aspens rises to rocky scree. It could be in a travel brochure, I know. Visit the unspoiled Rocky Mountains. See Nature in al its glory.

And how powerful is Hunter now, holding us al in that time warp,

making us bear witness.

We see Kyle's red truck parked under some redwoods, two figures standing beside it. And of course, the figures are Kyle and Arizona a year ago she's stil alive. It's how Phoenix and I pictured it.

'This is the last time,' Kyle tel s her. 'I'm about to marry my 152

girlfriend, so we have this one final conversation, period.'

Arizona is suffering. Her eyes are too dark, her face too pale.

'You hear me?' Kyle grabs her arm and pul s her away from the truck. You don't cal me, you don't come round to Mike's any more -

understand?'

'Who told you?' Her smal voice belongs to someone else, not to the gutsy, proud Arizona I knew.

'I just know OK!'

Amongst the group of invisible observers, angel-wing Kyle and Jon panicked and made a bid for freedom. They turned towards the lake, attempting to fly off. Hunter shook his head. He used a storm of invisible wings to hold them back.

'So is that why you cal ed me - to bring me out here and tel me you don't want to see me again?' It's pre-zombie Arizona pleading one last time. 'I don't believe you, Kyle. You've tried it before but I know you can't let me go!'

Zoom back out to my vantage point and what do you see? Two smal

figures and a red truck in an empty wilderness, autumn frost in the trees, a guy about to lose control.

'You'd better believe me, Arizona. I'm marrying Sable. You and me we had some fun, but it's over.'

Arizona-alive reacts like he's slapped her in the face. 'Fun?' She's

unable to make sense of the word. 'Is that what this has been to you? What about the personal stuff you told me - about you as a lonely, lost kid spending whole days out here by the lake alone, not fitting in, hating your family, needing to cut loose?'

Kyle shrugs. 'It was true.'

'So where did that guy I loved go? Where did this one I don't understand come from?' She makes an attempt to put her arms around his neck but he pushes her away.

'Everything changed,' he mutters. 'We have to move on.' 153

'And what if I say no? What happens if I talk to to Sable?'

Beside me, angel-wing Arizona covered her face in shame.

That's it - Kyle loses control. 'You try it, Arizona, and you're dead.'

'Dead' fal s like a pebble into water, ripples widening.

'You can't stop me,' she protests. 'I'm a person. I have rights, just like anybody else you can't push me back into a closet like I never existed.'

He's cruel - total y cruel. 'You never did exist for me - not real y,' he

tel s her with a sneer. 'Beside someone real like Sable who talks my language, you're nothing - a spoiled kid who cries to get her own way.

When did you ever have to lift a finger to get what you wanted?'

'You think that?' At last she fights back. 'You imagine I click my fingers and people come running? That's how much you know me!'

'Screwed-up little rich kid, so far up yourself it's not true.' He pushes

her away from the truck, out from under the shadowy redwoods. Now they're standing on a rocky ledge overhanging the lake. 'Wait til you see who I brought with me, then you'l know I'm serious.'

Another storm of wings told me that Kyle and Jon were fighting

Hunter again and failing to flee. He held them right where they were,

forcing them to look down on the year-ago action.

'We're alone out here,' Arizona cries, looking wildly around. 'What do you mean you brought someone with you?'

'OK, Jon,' Kyle says, keeping al expression out of his voice. 'It's time.'

And Jon Jackson, dressed in black T-shirt and jeans, steps out from behind a rock. He's not alone. He has Raven with him.

Arizona's bewildered brother has no clue where he is or why he's 154

here. He's terrified. Arizona-alive is stunned into silence. Beautiful Dead Arizona covers her mouth with her hand. Terrified, as in smal -animal petrified when a predator puts out a paw and taps the victim before it unsheathes its claws.

Raven cowers helplessly by Jackson's side.

'Easy, huh?' Jon Jackson gloats. 'I found him by the lake at the school

- there was no one else around. I got him in my truck real easy - he's

doesn't weigh more than sixty pounds.'

Arizona makes a run towards her brother. She only goes a few steps

before Kyle gets in her way. She stumbles and slips towards the edge of the ledge.

Raven sees her and makes his own charge towards her, which Jackson intercepts.

'I trusted you - why did I ever do that?' Arizona is bent double with

shock, fear and disbelief. Kyle stands over her. 'I never in my whole life told anyone about Raven except for you. Kyle, don't do this to him. Let him go.'

Raven struggles with Jackson. He's weak and uncoordinated, his arms and legs uncontrol ed. I never saw anything so sad - ever.

'Let him go!' Arizona screams.

Her panic gets to Raven. He flails his puny arms against Jackson's chest. For a second I think he can escape. Then Jackson spins him around and pins his arms behind his back, lifting him off his feet before he dumps him on the ground against a tree.

Kyle seems unhappy with this descent into violence. He turns his back and takes a step away.

So it's Jackson who ramps up the threats. 'You go within a mile of my

sister and this happens again,' he warns Arizona, jerking his thumb

towards Raven and walking right up to her. 'I can snatch the kid from that school whenever I like, do whatever I want to him you hear me?'

'I said to let him go,' Arizona begs. 1 s5

Raven has brought his knees up to his chest and is rocking himself to and fro.

Jackson stands between Arizona and her brother. 'Not until you swear to back off from Kyle and my sister.'

She shakes her head desperately. 'Was this your idea?' she says to Keppler, who stil has his back to them.

'Don't blame him. Snatching the kid was down to me,' Jackson boasts. And I'l hurt him if I have to you'd better believe it.'

Raven is sobbing. Arizona succeeds in pushing past Jackson and goes

down on her knees. She puts her arms around her brother. 'It's OK, buddy,' she whispers. 'Everything is going to be OK.'

Which it wasn't and never would be, and my heart practical y stopped as I witnessed this with angel-wing Hunter, Arizona, Kyle and Jackson.

Beautiful Dead Arizona moved in close to confront her ex-boyfriend. 'Were you crazy? Had you any idea what kidnapping my brother would do to him?'

Kyle couldn't look her in the eye. You wouldn't listen to me,' he muttered. 'Jon and me - we had to think of something to make you stay quiet.'

'You and half a dozen other girls,' Jackson sneered. 'Yeah, Arizona -

you were not alone!'

He might as wel have stabbed her in the heart. In that one statement he kil ed the ragged remains of her dreams.

'Is that true?' she asked angel-wing Kyle in that pleading, little-girl voice.

But year-ago stuff is happening by the lake again. Raven has broken free from his sister, jumped to his feet and starts to run. This time he makes it off the rocky ledge and back in amongst the tal pines. He vanishes in the shadows. Kyle is closest, so he sets off after him.

Arizona cal s out. 'Raven, don't run. Stay with me!'

As she tries to fol ow her brother, Jon Jackson gets rough with her. 156

Arizona shoves him to one side with al her strength. He's off-balance. It looks like he wil slide towards the lake.

But he grabs an aspen sapling and puts the brake on. He finds a foothold and springs back up to the ledge, lunging at Arizona as she tries to kick him back down. She's using her feet, lashing out, total y crazy.

It's not a fair contest Jackson is almost twice as big and strong.

He lunges and forces her back against the trunk of the redwood where Raven had crouched in his misery. You can almost hear the breath forced out of her as he smashes her against the rough surface. She puts up both arms to fend him off. But he soon gets his hands around her neck, wrenching at her like a rag dol and beating her back against the tree -

once, twice, three times. She stops struggling. He lets her go and she slides to the ground.

Arizona lies there for about five seconds, a lifetime. Jackson hesitates. He bends over her as if he's looking for signs of life, and when he doesn't find any he takes a step back. He looks over his shoulder, wondering where Kyle and Raven ended up. There's no sign of either of them.

He prods Arizona's body with his foot. She doesn't respond.

She lies on her back on the granite rock, her head at an angle, her arms flung wide.

And then, in a way that a hunter would heave a shot deer on to his shoulders, Jackson lifts Arizona and carries her to the very edge of the rock. He tilts forward and lets her body slip, not quite clear of the ledge, so that it thuds against the rock on its descent. Thud - and then splash into the lake.

Maybe contact with the cold water revives her. For a few moments Arizona comes back to life, strikes out with her arms and struggles towards the shore. She doesn't give in to death without a fight.

Jackson's in the water now - he leaps from the ledge and straight 157

away he catches hold of Arizona. He easily overpowers her and drags her away from the shal ows, seeming to rise out of the water like a black sea creature, his hair slicked back and flattened against his skul , his hands around Arizona's throat. He forces her face under the water, he holds her

there until there's no life left in her body. He holds her under until she's dead.

Then the dark creature wades towards the shore. Further out in the lake Arizona's body rises to the surface - arms wide, long hair like waterweeds fanning out from her white face. Her blank eyes stare at the sky.

We were wrong. We were al wrong, al the way down the line. Arizona didn't kil herself and neither did Kyle Keppler. Hunter the overlord held the guilty man at the scene of his crime using the sheer strength of his wil power. He gave us al what seemed like an age to stare at Jon Jackson.

Kyle broke the silence. 'You told me it was an accident.'

Jackson shook his head. 'You believed what you wanted to believe.'

'You told me straight - Arizona fel and hit her head.'

'What do you care? Your problem went away, end of story.' If Jackson felt sorry for what he did, he hid it wel . 'I got you out of there without anyone seeing us, didn't I? I was the one who kept his head.'

I was stil gazing at Arizona's floating corpse, the glittering surface and the dead stare.

Beautiful Dead Arizona was beside me. We saw year-ago Kyle emerge from the trees with Raven, watched his shocked reaction as he spotted the body in the lake.

'You kil ed her,' angel-wing Kyle said in that emotionless voice.

'Get ready to leave,' Hunter told us al . 'We've seen al we need to see.

158

We travel ed faster than you can believe, blasted by a wind, buoyed up by a mil ion wings. We twisted through a time tunnel, felt the empty gaze of countless skul s whirling over us in the darkness. Arizona was the one

who led the way back to the present, and the scrubland at the edge of Daler Street.

' What 's the deeaal ? ?' ' Kyle asked, taking my wrist and walking me down the road. Are you planning to tel my wife about me and the dead girl? Because, if you open your mouth and say the name, you 're dead yourself'

'Why would I tel ?I I used al my strength to try and break his grip the skin on my wrist burned with the effort. 'Arizona's gone. Nothing's going to change that.'

*So quit poking your nose where it's not wanted. ' Final y he let me break loose. . You 're about to turn around and get back in your car. I'm about to tel Sable I'm sorry and get on with my life.'

The arrogance of the guy angered me. 'It'l take a whole lot more than sorry, 'I told him. 'Besides, you lost yourJob. Mike Hamil said to let you know.'

A couple of nerves flicked in Keppler's jaw. He closed his eyes and