Solom Read online

  Yet the goat reared up, put its broken limb on top of the hog wire, and dragged itself up. Then its other leg hooked on a strand of wire, and the rear hooves fought for purchase. The damned goat (a billy, judging by the sac that swung between its rear legs) was climbing the fence like a brain-damaged monkey. It put its chin over the top strand of wire, puncturing its flesh and sending a dribble of blood down the dirty white fur of its neck.

  Then it repositioned its legs and shoved forward until its chest, and then belly, were suspended on the top wire. The barbs must have been shredding its stomach, but the goat didn’t mutter a grunt of complaint. Instead, it worked like it had a mission, wriggling until the bulk of its weight caused it to flop onto the other side of the fence. It stood on shaky legs and stared at Ray, eyes red and leaky. Could goats get rabies?

  Ray looked in his toolbox. He pulled a rusty plumber’s wrench from the depths. It was two feet long and weighed at least eight pounds. Ray swung it before him, testing its heft.

  The goat didn’t charge. Instead, it planted its broken leg and took an awkward step, then another, blood seeping from its scored belly. It was heading past the potato patch and up into the woods. Toward the rocky slopes of Lost Ridge.

  Ray waited until it was past the spot where he had buried the goat corpses, then followed, keeping a distance of about forty feet. He could track the thing easily from the red splashes that pocked the ground to the cloven hooves in the mud and the dragging little rut made by the crippled leg. It was headed for the top of Lost Ridge and the twists of Snakeberry Trail, where the Circuit Rider had once paid the final price for his sins.

  The Bible said if you wished hard enough, you could move mountains. But this mountain belonged here, huddled over Solom like God’s black watch dog. The Circuit Rider belonged to the mountain as surely as did the rocks and springs and laurels. Up there, Ray could spit in Harmon Smith’s eye and show God that he, and not David, should be the chosen one.

  The job would serve even better with a witness to his faith. Brother Davey would probably be holed up in the church, on his knees in fear, begging for the Lord to deliver him from an evil that God had sent for just that purpose: to test the weak.

  Ray didn’t realize he carried the plumber’s wrench with him as he walked to his truck, or that dusk was reaching its fingers across the valley.

  ***

  Odus reached the ridge line and dismounted, letting Sister Mary nibble some dried-up rabbit tobacco as he scanned the granite boulders and stunted cedars that had been swept by the wind for ages. The path had narrowed and grown rougher, used mostly by foxes, the occasional black bear, and deer.

  Yet this would have been the way Harmon Smith would have crossed, to head down the other side to Virginia or eastern Tennessee. The valley cut through gaps at each end of Lost Ridge that would have resulted in less of a climb, but they were each nearly ten miles out of the way. A car had no trouble with the extra distance, and the state highway department had stuck as close to the lower elevations as possible. But Harmon Smith had ridden in the days before highways, and still marched to the echo of that long-dead era.

  Odus had expected some sign, a hoof print or a broken tree branch or maybe even Old Saint’s spoor, whatever that might look like. But all he’d found were crackling leaves, hardwoods damaged by acid rain and insects, and the cold September air at 4,500 feet of altitude. He’d spooked a few ravens, and a red hawk had cut an arc in the indigo sky before diving for some unlucky rodent, but the forest had been quiet. He went for the whiskey bottle again, letting the Old Crow warm his tongue.

  “Looks like I took us on a wild goose chase,” he said to the horse. Sister Mary flicked her mane out of her eyes as if nodding in agreement.

  A clatter arose, like the sound of wood against stone. Or the clop of a horse’s hoof.

  “You’ve come a long way,” came a voice from the thinning trees. “Seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened.”

  “I do want something,” Odus said, in the general direction of the voice. He could never forget the cold, deep tones of the Circuit Rider. Outside, the voice seemed to boom even more than it had inside the general store. “I want this to be over. I want you to be over.”

  “Come to me, all that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

  “The folks that are alive today didn’t have anything to do with what happened to you. Why don’t you just go on and leave us in peace?”

  “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”

  An unseen horse whinnied. The laurel branches quivered, parted, and the horse stepped out, black with a pure white chest the way the legends described him. He stood a good head taller than Sister Mary, whose ears twitched at the sight of the animal. The Circuit Rider was astride his horse, sitting tall in the saddle, head tilted down. Even looking up at him from below, Odus had a hard time distinguishing his features. The dying sunlight was at the Circuit Rider’s back, the sky cast purple with shredded sheets of pink. The shadows of the trees seemed to grow up from the ground and enshroud the mounted figure.

  Odus wondered if this was the showdown he’d been seeking. Maybe he was supposed to jump on Sister Mary, ride hell-bent for leather toward the dead preacher, and tangle with him head-on. If he’d brought a firearm, he probably would have faced him down like a tin-star hero.

  Odus had counted on making up the rules as he went along, forgetting that the Circuit Rider existed under its own set of rules. Odus wasn’t that good at reading, but he doubted if there was an instruction manual on taking down a mythical creature. Even if that creature showed a jagged arc of grinning teeth beneath the wide brim of its hat.

  “We’re not the ones who killed you,” Odus said.

  “You belong to Solom. That’s reason enough.”

  “It ain’t the place that sinned. It was just a few preachers who did you in, the way I hear it. And they’re dead. They faced their judgment long ago, before Him that has power over all of us.”

  The Circuit Rider’s head lifted, and Odus recognized that strong, jowly Smith chin. The hidden eyes suddenly flared like a campfire’s embers urged by the wind. “You think I like making these rounds? You think I have a choice? Did you ever consider maybe something’s got power over me? For the Bible says, ‘If you are forced to go one mile, go also the second.’”

  Odus gripped the dangling reins and held Sister Mary’s head tight. The pinto tried to back away, but the terrain was too rough and dangerous. A stench drifted off the Circuit Rider, the smell of a dead skunk in the road, but a whisk of wind carried it off, leaving only the strong, green smell of pine and the earthy aroma of fallen and decaying leaves.

  “I’ve come to stop you,” Odus said.

  “I wish you could,” the Circuit Rider said, relaxing his pale hands and patting his horse on the neck. “Narrow is the gate and hard is the road that leads to life, and there are few who find it. ”

  “Why don’t you just step down off that saddle and let it go?”

  “Told you, I got a mission. I didn’t ask for it. It was given to me.”

  “I don’t believe in the Devil.”

  “Neither do I, Mr. Odus Hampton.” The Circuit Rider leaned to one side and spat, as if ridding himself of 200 years of bitter trail dust. “I knew your daddy. Good man. I could have taken him in the summer of ’77, when he was up on a ladder cleaning out gutters on the Smith House.”

  “He worked for Gordon’s daddy.”

  “And you work for Gordon. Some things don’t change in Solom.”

  “I reckon one thing’s going to have to change.”

  “Not tonight. Not here and now, between you and me.”

  “I’m afraid so, mister.” Odus’s throat was dry, but he wouldn’t let his voice weaken or crack.

  “Who do you think brought you here? Don’t tell me you woke up this morning and it just popped into your head to steal a horse and ride to the top of Lost Ridge.”

  “I did some studying on it
first.”

  “That’s the trouble with you folks. You think you’re the boss of your arms and legs and mind, you think your soul is separate and free from your flesh. And I’m here to tell you otherwise.”

  “You’re sounding a lot like Elder David and them Primitives.”

  “Elder David is a good man, but not good enough. His faith is weak.”

  The chill that had crept over Odus’s skin had only a little to do with the day’s fading warmth. As the sky grew darker, the shadows around Harmon Smith lessened, as if the man were absorbing the blackness. More of his face was visible, and the meat over his jaws looked to be the texture of crumbling wax. Old Saint had stood stock-still during their conversation, while Sister Mary pawed the ground, shuffled, and snorted in dismay. Odus noted that maybe being dead had its advantages when it came to the equestrian arts. No saddle sores.

  “Well, I found you, so that means there’s a reason, doesn’t it?” Odus ached for a shot of whiskey, but then wondered if the ache was due to his own need or was caused by the whim of some bearded guy behind the clouds. He had little use for religion, but, like most hopeless sinners, he wrapped his hands around it when it was the only rope available for climbing out of a dark pit.

  “You’re not special, you’re just early,” the Circuit Rider said.

  Confused, Odus figured he’d best keep the creature talking while he came up with a plan. “Did you kill them two tourists on the Switchback Trail? You’re only supposed to kill one and then be one your way. That’s how it’s always been, as far back as they remember to tell it.”

  “It’s not about what you want or what I want. If it was up to me, Old Saint was just haul me off into the mist of a mountain morning and that would be that.”

  “You’re evil, though. How can a man of the cloth go around killing like that?” Odus was casting about for a fallen tree branch or a loose jag of granite. He felt foolish now for not bringing a gun. He still wasn’t sure what sort of weapon would work, if any. His was a mission of faith, despite the Circuit Rider’s mocking.

  The Circuit Rider ran a gaunt, crooked finger through a hole in his jacket. “Cloth is like flesh, it goes to worms. The spirit is the thing that doesn’t die.”

  The Circuit Rider lifted his head and glanced above them through a gap in the canopy, his mouth curling up at one corner. A beech leaf spiraled down from the twisted branches and fluttered across his face. The woods were hushed in that moment as the birds and wildlife changed shifts, the daytime animals settling into holes, nests, and protective crooks of tree limbs while the nocturnal creatures roused from the slumber.

  The silence was disturbed by a faint buzzing from below, as if a giant nest of hornets had been stirred with a stick. Harmon Smith’s cracked lips bent like a snake with a broken spine in something that might have been a smile if seen on a human face.

  “I suppose the others got the same idea you did,” he said. “Funny how you give them a choice and they make the wrong one every single time. Few find the true way.”

  The buzz grew later, changed into a roar. It was a vehicle engine. Somebody was climbing the rough logging roads that crisscrossed the mountain. And those roads led to the top, where Odus stared down his adversary. His brow furrowed in doubt. He was supposed to do this alone, wasn’t he?

  At that moment, Sister Mary reared, flailing her forelegs in front of her, stripping the leather reins through Odus’s palm, cutting into his flesh. She broke and galloped into the trees, neck stooped low and ears pinned close to her head.

  The Circuit Rider stroked Old Saint’s mane, and the revenant horse chuckled softly in response. “I guess your friend there just exercised her free will, huh?”

  Odus took two steps backward, toward the rocky ledge that led to one of the logging roads. It was a thirty-foot drop. He could try to climb down, but he pictured his fingers gripping the granite ledge and Old Saint bringing a heavy, scarred hoof down on them. He could follow Sister Mary and blaze a trail through the tangles, or he could stand his ground and see what God had in store for him.

  None of the options settled the squirming in his chest and gut. The courage that had surged through him since this morning now seemed foolish and silly. He had no special gifts or weapons to bring to bear against a supernatural creature. He’d fallen back onto a sort of crippled faith, believing God would provide in Odus’s hour of need. But Odus didn’t consider that he’d never been a deeply religious man, and that faith couldn’t be turned off and on like tap water.

  “You fear me, but only because you don’t understand me,” the Circuit Rider said, over the increasing roar of the engine. “If the shepherd has one hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the other ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?”

  The Circuit Rider wheeled his mount and trotted back through the laurel thicket. The branches shook from his passage as if horse and rider were as solid and real as any living creature. But the smell of decay lingered, a smell that hinted of grave dirt and spent fires and blood dried black.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  Jett opened the door to her room to find Gordon standing there.

  “Where do you think you’re going, Jessica?” he said, hands on his hips, blocking the hallway.

  “Um, out for a drive with Mom.”

  Gordon grinned, and it looked like the expression of a cartoon possum, eyes narrow behind his thick lenses. “Mrs. Smith isn’t driving anywhere. She told me so.”

  “Where is she?”

  “In the attic.”

  Jett leaned to the side and looked past Gordon. The linen closet door was shut tight. The closet was too small for the attic ladder to unfold without the door open. Either Gordon was lying or else he’d shut the access door with Mom up there. But why would Mom go up there, especially after the ghost had scared her silly?

  Jett decided Gordon was lying, and figured that deserved a lie in return. “I was smoking pot that time in the barn,” she said. “When I saw—I mean, thought I saw—the scarecrow the first time. I guess I just freaked out.”

  Gordon’s eyes narrowed. “You know the rules. No drugs in this house.”

  “Well, technically the drugs weren’t in the house.”

  “I’ll have no sass from you, young lady. You’re a member of this family now and I’m your stepfather.”

  Jett’s cheeks flared red in defiance. “You’ll never be my dad, no matter how hard you try.”

  Gordon reached out as if to grab her arm, but she ducked past, slinging the backpack around. She tried to crawl between his legs but he brought his knees together, clamping her like an oversize vise grip. Her sides ached from the pressure, but she wiggled while he reached down to her. Gordon was shouting, his voice scarcely recognizable. Some of his words sounded like Latin, intoned like the traditional liturgy of a Catholic priest. Like something out of “The Exorcist” or some Goth band’s hokey attempt at demonic incantations.

  Gordon had one of her boots, but they were recently polished and he lost his grip. She kicked free and crawled on her hands and knees down the hall, her mind blank except for the unbidden thought, How could Mom have been dumb enough to fall for this idiot?

  Then she regained her footing and sprang forward, launching herself down the stairs three steps at a time, clutching Captain Boo. She toyed with the idea of sliding down the railing, but there was a large wooden sculpture on the bottom newel post, and Jett pictured herself breaking a leg, lying there flopping and moaning on the landing while Gordon loomed over her.

  What would he do to her? Even if he knew they were running out on him, which wasn’t likely, considering what a wet mop Mom had been lately, surely he wouldn’t do anything worse than scream and yell. Yet he had tried to physically restrain her upstairs, and she’d heard some guys went into possessive rages when a woman ditched them. His heavy shoes punished the stairs behind her.

  When she reached the first floor, she dared a backward glance and suffered
an acid flashback.

  At least, she hoped that’s what it was, because a woman was floating—floating!—behind Gordon.

  She was thin as threads, almost invisible, and she was pulled forward as if riding in Gordon’s back draft. Her lack of flesh was almost as startling as the fact that she had no head.

  Jett hadn’t seen anything that bizarre on her actual acid trip, and couldn’t imagine how a flashback could be so intense and disturbing. But accepting it as a drug-induced hallucination made it somehow easier to assimilate.

  Of COURSE there’s a ghost in this house. Why wouldn’t there be, when creepy scarecrows live in the attic and the barn, when goddamned goats scarf your dope and try to eat your ass, when a man in a black hat peeps in your windows?

  Jett was nearly out of breath when she reached the door, but she had twenty feet on Gordon (and thirty feet on the headless ghost). She threw open the door and was racing across the porch when she saw them.

  Goats, dozens of them, a veritable army of horned stink factories, staring at her with their weird, glittering eyes. They blocked Jett’s path to the driveway and surrounded the car. Mom sat in the driver’s seat, clawing her cheeks in anxiety. One of the goats lowered its head and gave the driver’s side door a solid thwack with its horns and forehead.

  “Going somewhere?” Gordon said behind her, and she could hear the smile in his voice.

  ***

  Alex had a passing knowledge of tracking and hunting, and though he was mostly a vegetarian, he figured being able to round up meat for the dinner table might be a handy survival skill when the Republicans and Democrats finally toppled the Statue of Liberty. So he’d learned the basics, and had even killed some small game with his bow and arrows. Of course, he was a crack marksman. That was required of any member of the anti-government militia, even if you were only an army of one.