Infinity Beach (6 page)

Emily looked both beautiful and melancholy.

“He’s pretty good,” Solly commented, “for a pilot.”

“He’s one of the best we’ve had,” said Gould. “The world is just beginning to recognize it.”

Glory
was named for the largest of Greenway’s satellites. Emily was posed dreamily against a track of moonlit water. Shoulders bare, one hand laid along her cheek, eyes luminous and thoughtful. It was dated three years
before
the flight.

Tora
was a portrait of Kane’s daughter at about ten. In
River Voyage
, a handful of rafters try to hang on in rock-
strewn white water.
Night Passage
depicted an interstellar liner passing a cobalt-blue gas giant.

Kim asked for the dates. All four preceded the
Hunter
incident. “Is it my imagination,” she asked Gould, “or is there a change in tone between his earlier and later work?”

“Oh,” he said, “there very certainly is.” He touched a keyboard. A screen lit up and they were looking at
Bringing the Mail
, a painting of a freighter crossing a nebula. The freighter was squat and gray, bleak, its running lights casting eerie shadows across the superstructure. The nebula silhouetted the starship, emitting a twilight glow. “This is his last known work.”

“Everything after Mount Hope seems kind of downbeat,” said Solly.

“Oh yes. Beginning with this one.” He brought up a landscape. “His work entered a dark period from which it never really emerged. This is
Storm Warning
, from 574.” They were looking at distorted trees, ruins in the distance silhouetted against summer lightning, churning clouds. “When he becomes recognized as a major figure, people will recognize this as the first major work of his gothic phase.”

“Did you know him?” asked Kim. “Personally?”

“I knew him quite well. When he lived in the area.”

“Do you have a print of this one? Of
Storm Warning
?”

Gould consulted a catalog. “Yes,” he said. “I have two left. But they’re not signed.”

“It’s okay,” said Kim, grateful that the price would be diminished by that much. “How much is it?”

“Two hundred.”

“Not cheap,” said Solly.

“I’ll take it,” said Kim.

“It’s a limited edition,” Gould purred soothingly. “You can be sure it’ll hold its value.” He excused himself and disappeared up a narrow staircase.

“That costs an arm and a leg,” Solly complained.

“I know. But we want to keep him talking to us. We
should
buy something.”

He indicated a dancing nude.

“Right,” she said.

Gould returned with her print and held it up for her to see. “This is quite lovely,” he said. “You’ll find it’s an excellent investment. Would you like me to have it framed for you?”

“No, thank you,” she said. “I’ll take it as is.” She was wondering where she’d put it and began to wish she’d gone for something out of Kane’s early years. They made appreciative sounds over the print for a minute, and then Gould rolled it up and put it into a tube.

“Did he become depressed after the Mount Hope event?” asked Solly casually.

Gould pressed his fingertips against his temples as if the memory were painful. “Oh yes. He was never the same after that.”

“In what way?”

“It’s hard to explain. He’d always been friendly, outgoing, easy to talk to. Well, maybe that’s an exaggeration. But he wasn’t a difficult man, in the way that talents frequently are. But all that went away. He became exceedingly withdrawn. About that time, I was going to Severin Village most nights. My wife lived there then. We weren’t married yet, you understand. And I used to make it a point to go by his place, Kane’s place, to see how he was doing. He wasn’t known then the way he is now. But I knew, I
always
knew, he was going to be great one day.

“He sold his work through me. He wasn’t getting much for it in those days, nothing like what it would command now. But he didn’t need the money. The paintings were just something he did. You know what I mean?”

She nodded.

“Did I tell you I was there when it happened? When the mountain blew up?

“It was terrible. The town was kind of down low and sheltered so it didn’t get hit directly or we’d’ve all been dead. But pieces of rock and whole trees fell out of the sky. We didn’t know what hit us. Then there was the dust. People choking and dying—” His eyes had gone distant. “Sasha and
I did what we could, but—” He held out his hands. “But you don’t want to hear this.”

Kim and Solly stood quietly, waiting.

“By then I was trying to hold onto his work. Buying his paintings myself because I knew they were undervalued. I brought them back here and just waited for the price to go up. Now they’re worth thirty, forty times what they were. And it’s still a seller’s market.” He turned back toward the
Autumn
. “Look at that; you ever see
anyone
with that kind of range? Maybe Crabbe. Maybe Hoskin. No,
not
Hoskin.” He shook his head vehemently, dismissing Hoskin.

“Did you by any chance know Kile Tripley?” asked Kim.

“Tripley? No. Tripley lived in a villa well away from everybody else. He was above spending time with the common people.”

“Would you say he and Kane were friends?”

“Not particularly. No.”

“He was Kane’s employer,” said Kim.

“That’s not the same thing as being a friend.”

Kim was having a hard time keeping her eyes off the
Autumn
. “One more thing, Mr. Gould,” she said. “I’m interested in what caused his dark period. Did you sense there was anything other than the explosion that might have influenced his later work? A lost woman, perhaps?”

“I know he was affected by what happened to
her
.” He looked meaningfully at Emily’s image.

“Did he
say
that?”

“You can see it in his work. But he never outright said it, no.”

“Anything else?”

“Not other than what I’ve told you. He just more or less went into a shell. Rattled around inside that big house. Sealed off the den, even.”

“Sealed off the den? How do you mean?”

“It had been, I’d stop by, we’d go into the den, have a few drinks. He’d tell me about his latest project. The living room was a formal, stiff place where he didn’t like to go. Then suddenly we were always in the living room and I never saw
the den again. I don’t suppose it meant anything, but it was strange. As if he were hiding a woman in there.”

They had dinner at a place called The Rucksack. Snow was beginning to fall and a crisp wind had blown up. Solly plowed steadily through the meat and greens. “As soon as we’re finished here,” he said, “I think we ought to get going.”

“Yeah. Before the weather gets any
worse
.” The predictions called for the snow to stop around midnight, and for colder temperatures to set in.

“I’m surprised at your choice of artwork,” said Solly.

“Why? It’s quite attractive.”

“I’d have thought you’d have wanted one with Emily. The
Autumn
. You seemed taken by that.”

She lifted a wine glass and watched it sparkle in the light from the fireplace. “I don’t think so,” she said. “I wanted something I could hang on the wall.”

Solly looked at her. “Is it still that painful?”

She shrugged. “That. And the nudity.”

“I didn’t think you were a prude.”

“I am,” she said, “when the model looks too much like me.”

Solly had been a friend for a long time. Kim felt especially drawn to him that night, perhaps because he’d come with her even though, despite what he said, he thought she was pursuing an illusion. Well, they
both
thought that.

That night, standing beside him on the walkway overlooking Eagle Point, with the snow blowing and the Severin Woods just downriver a few kilometers, she nearly suggested that they spend the night together. Forget the ghost. But when Solly mentioned that it was late and they should get going, she put the thought aside, and fastened her jacket.

It was after eleven-thirty when they lifted off the Gateway’s roof and turned south.

Snow was falling steadily. The lights of the casinos and clubs were smeared by the storm, and they faded quickly as the Starlight gained altitude. The screen showed almost no air traffic.

“Do you feel as dumb as I do?” she asked Solly.

He was relaxed, sipping coffee, letting the AI fly the aircraft. “It was an excuse to come,” he said. “Think how warm your bed’ll feel tonight when you get to it.”

The sensors picked out the river, running between wide, forest-laden banks. She looked out into the snowswept darkness and saw another set of lights coming from the west. Probably a train, although it was difficult to be sure.

She took out the town map she’d printed earlier and studied it. “When we get to Severin,” she said, “I think we should do more than just land and hang around for a bit.”

“In this blizzard? What did you have in mind, Kim?”

“Take advantage of the opportunity to look at Tripley’s villa.”

“Why?” asked Solly.

“Who knows what we might find?”

“After twenty-seven years?”

“Nothing to lose by looking.”

“Okay,” he said. “Whatever you say. But if there’s anything there to connect him with the explosion or the missing women, I’d think the police would have found it a long time ago.”

“As far as I can tell from the accounts, the police never looked.”

“They didn’t? Why not?”

“Nobody raised the question. My guess is that there was no substantive reason to think Tripley had anything to do with either incident, and the family had a lot of influence. There was already enough grief. He was presumed lost in the general disaster. What was to be gained by an investigation? Under the circumstances, maybe nobody wanted to irritate the family.”

“Okay,” Solly said. “If you want. Do we know where to find it?”

“As it happens,” she grinned, “I have it marked here.” She tapped her pen on the map.

“Why stop with Tripley? Why not take a look at Kane’s place while we’re at it?”

The Starlight was picking up a heavy headwind. “Kane’s place is underwater.” She showed him.

“I wasn’t serious,” he said.

“When are you? Serious?”

“Never on ghost hunts.” It was cold in the cabin. Solly pulled his jacket tighter, and she raised the temperature.

“If I’d known we were going on an expedition,” he said, “I’d have suggested doing it by daylight.”

Kim was thinking of what she’d say to Sheyel. We went out to the valley. We spent time in the woods. And we even looked in Tripley’s house. There’s
nothing
.

But she wanted to get it done now. Didn’t want to make a second trip in the morning.

Another aircraft, a patrol flyer, appeared on the edge of the short-range scan, headed in the opposite direction. It passed within two hundred meters, but they never did actually
see
it.

Eagle Point had receded into the darkness, and there were now no lights visible anywhere. The AI followed the Severin River south, displaying its winding image on the sensor screen. It narrowed and entered the first of a series of gorges which would take it down to the dam.

Her preoccupation with the legends increased as they flew deeper into the night. Even Solly seemed affected. They spoke with lowered voices, the way people do in empty churches, and Kim found herself sinking down inside her jacket even though the temperature in the cabin had now reached a comfortable level. The conversation consisted mostly of bravado. Remarks like how no self-respecting spook would be abroad in weather like this. Or how Solly thought he saw something moving out there. Ha-ha.

Solly’s story of the haunted stateroom came back to trouble her now. At the moment, in the snow, in the glow of the instrument panel, such things seemed possible.

They were only a few hundred meters off the ground when they broke out of the storm. The remains of the Severin Dam loomed just ahead.

The structure had not actually been removed. Weakened sections had been taken down and the rest simply left standing. Now, the river roared around piles of rubble and concrete slabs. The slabs seemed to be moving, an effect created by the flyer’s lights reflected off the water. The aircraft dropped lower and a last few flakes whirled up.

They passed over the ruins. On the south side, the river ran through a narrow corridor and emptied into Lake Remorse. The sky was still heavily overcast and the lake remained shrouded until they were out over it.

Solly directed the AI to turn on the aircraft’s spotlights. It complied, and twin beams swept the darkness, but they could see nothing other than water.

“It’s almost an inland sea,” said Kim, recalling that at its widest it was more than twenty kilometers across.

They rode through the night, beneath heavy skies, not saying much. Eventually a coastline appeared onscreen. Forest, mostly. Some hills, some open spaces. And then she saw a few stone walls and broken houses jutting out of the shallows.

The village had occupied the south shore of the original lake, then also called Severin. But after the dam had been taken down, the lake had expanded, swallowing most of the town.

Kim looked down at a world covered by snow.

“I’m surprised no one’s claimed the area,” said Solly. “It wouldn’t take much to rebuild here now.”

They circled, trying to locate Tripley’s villa. The map placed it atop a low rise just outside the town line, about a hundred meters north of the Scott Randal Stables, which had been a well-known producer of racehorses at the time of the event. They found the stables, now just a few crumbling buildings and a couple of fences. The rest was easy.

“Problem is,” said Solly, “there’s no open ground here anywhere.”

“There.” A strip of beach.

Solly looked at it reluctantly. “It’ll be a long walk,” he said. But it was all they had, and the AI took them down.

They settled into the snow. Kim pulled her hood up and adjusted the foul-weather mask while Solly changed into boots. The lake surface was rough in the lights, and when she opened the door the wind tried to tear it out of her hand.

They couldn’t see much of the village, just one or two houses in the water. An old lifeguard tower stood near the tree line. And a white building stenciled
SNACK SHED
was sinking into the sand. “This is Cabry’s Beach,” said Kim, reading the name off the map.

Solly climbed down and looked around. The wind blew his hair into his eyes.

“Didn’t you bring anything to wear on your head?” she asked.

“No,” he said. “I didn’t know we were going for a walk.”

“You’ll freeze.” She looked into the backseat. “I’ve got a mountain hat back here somewhere.”

“It’s okay, Kim. I’ll be fine.”

She found it and held it out for him. But he looked stubbornly back at her. She shrugged and switched on her wristlamp. “Maybe you should wait here.”

“Let’s go,” he grumbled, pulling up his jacket collar and stuffing his hands into his pockets.

She turned up the heat in her jacket, and they started for the trees. Their boots crunched in the snow. The wind blew in steadily off the lake and they walked with their backs to it. Neither tried to talk until they’d made it to the shelter of the forest.

“You okay?” he asked when they were in the trees. His hair was already covered with blown snow.

“I’m fine.” It was a deep hood and she felt as if she were looking out of a tunnel.

He pointed the way and took the lead. Overhead, something shook snow out of the branches.

Kim looked up, and wondered about the wildlife. “Solly,” she whispered, “are there, do you suppose, any animals here we need to worry about? Cougars, maybe? Or bears?” The terraformers in their wisdom had neglected nothing. Greenway even had mosquitoes.

“I never thought of it. I don’t know.”

“Are you by any chance carrying a weapon?”

“No,” he said. “If we run into something, we’ll beat it off with a stick.”

“Good,” she grinned. “Nothing like being prepared.”

They pushed through thick brambles and shrubbery, crossed glades, and eventually found a trail that seemed to be going in their direction.

They passed a collapsed house, entangled in new-growth
trees, almost invisible until they were within a couple of meters. And a bench, incongruously set off to one side of the trail. “This was probably the way to the beach at one time,” Solly said.

She looked at her map. “Yes. Here it is.”

“How’re we doing?”

“Headed in the right direction. It’s not much farther.”

“You don’t think we ought to come back and do this in the morning?”

“We’re here now, Solly. Let’s just take a quick look, so I can say I’ve been here, and then we can head out.”

After Tripley’s disappearance, the villa and its furnishings had been willed to Sara Baines, his mother. According to the reports, Sara had closed up the house, but had been unable to sell it. The town was emptying out; people had too many bad memories, there were doubts whether the rest of the mountain might come down, the dam could go at any time.

So nobody had really lived in the house since Tripley came back from that last flight.

They left the trail at a glade with a tumbled shed, clumped through a stream, skidded down a slope, and got confused about directions because nobody had thought to bring a compass. “Don’t blame me,” said Solly. “I thought we were going to sit in the flyer and look at the lake.”

Kim was now in the lead. The trees closed in again. In some places the snow was too deep for her hiking shoes. It got down her ankles, and her feet got cold.

It was hard to keep a sense of direction. On one occasion they came out in a swampy area along the lake shore. They turned back, retraced their steps for about a hundred paces, and struck off in a new direction. Kim had never been a hiking enthusiast, and she was beginning to have second thoughts when the ground started to rise.

“This might be it,” she said. “The place was on the brow of a low hill.”

It was a slippery climb. They took turns falling down and suddenly they were tumbling in the snow and Solly, who
probably would have preferred to look irritable, couldn’t resist laughing.

But they got to the summit, and there it stood!

Whatever lawn might have once existed behind a peeling wooden fence had been swallowed by bushes, weeds, and shrubbery. The villa itself lay in a tangle of spruce and oak trees. Vines had grown over it and the wind had taken the roof off. The front door was missing.

She played her lantern across it and compared it with pictures she’d brought. “Yes,” she said. “This is it. No question.”

They circled around to the rear. A side wall had collapsed. Windows were broken, frames shattered. An oak was threatening to push over the east wing.

It was made mostly of brick. Two stories, glass dome, oval windows, rotunda, turret. None of that cheap mass-produced stuff for Kile Tripley. Kim stood in the snow, transfixed by the ruin.

“What are you thinking?”

“About transience, I guess. I was wondering if Emily was ever here.”

Followed by Solly, she stepped over the threshold into the rotunda. It was good to get out of the wind. She flashed her beam around the interior, which the elements had destroyed. Overhead, two stories up, the dome was covered with dirt and vegetation. During Tripley’s time it would have revealed the stars.

The walls were mottled and crumbling. A sagging staircase arced up to the second floor where it became a circular balcony. There were several doorways on both levels, and a fireplace on the lower.

One door hung out of its frame. Others were missing altogether. A central corridor opened off the rear of the rotunda directly in front of her and ran to the back of the house. Solly pointed his lamp into it, and they saw at the far end a flight of stairs leading down.

The floor creaked. “Careful where you put your weight,” he said.

Everything was covered with leaves and dirt. The
ground-level rooms looked empty. Kim swung her lamp beam up, trying to see through the second-floor doorways. Shadows moved around the walls.

“I don’t think we’ll find much here,” Solly said.

Claws scrabbled across a hard surface. An animal retreated from the light, but she couldn’t see what it was.

“Probably a squirrel,” said Solly.

“Or a rat.”

The wind howled around the house. Branches creaked.

Had she been alone, she would have called it off at that point and gone back to the flyer. She had met, and exceeded, her obligation to Sheyel. To Emily.

But they’d come all this way and Solly would expect her at least to look in the rooms.

Stairs first. Go up and confront the rat. Solly took the lead, testing each step as they went. The entire structure swayed and sank under their weight. Near the top a board gave way underfoot. He lost his balance and grabbed the banister, which sagged outward. Solly would have gone down the quick way had Kim not grabbed him and hauled him back. She took a moment to compare herself favorably with the young woman at the Germane Society.

“This might not be a really good idea,” he said, shaken. They went cautiously the rest of the way to the top and peeked quickly through each doorway. In some, ceilings had given way. The rooms were filled with dirt and dry leaves. Carpets had turned to mold.

They found a broken bed frame and a bureau with no drawers, a smashed table, a couple of chairs. The
smell
of the place was strong.

Pipes stuck out from broken walls. Basins, tubs, and showers were filled with the detritus of decades.

They went back downstairs.

The rooms at ground level were not quite so ill-used because they were slightly less open to the elements. But here again no usable furniture was left. Cables hung out of ceilings, the floors were in a state of decay, and they found a dead, half-eaten squirrel in a corner behind a collapsed table
whose top, when she cleared it off, had a chessboard design. Kim had read somewhere that Kane enjoyed the game and wondered whether he and Tripley had ever played here. And if so, who had won.