Gone to Glory Page 19

  Kilgore broke the hug to say, “This is the man I was telling you about. Moroni Traveler. Mo, meet Pepper.”

  Dalton took off his glasses to shake hands. His eyes were blue as ever. “Sorry. I should have recognized you.”

  “I know the feeling,” Traveler said.

  Martin grumbled. “I feel cheated.”

  The flicker of a smile crossed Dalton’s face before he turned away to concentrate on Tanner. “I was told that you’d have Eldredge taken care of by dawn.”

  “Wait a minute,” Traveler said. “Are we here to evict or arrest?”

  Tanner said, “There are charges outstanding against Mr. Eldredge. Bigamy. Trespassing. Each on its own warrants arrest.”

  “Does Zeke know that?” Traveler said.

  Tanner deferred to the sheriff, who said, “We told him on the bullhorn. We read him his rights too.”

  “That’s it, then,” Dalton said. “You’ve done your duty.”

  Tanner nodded. “He’s right, sheriff. It’s time we got on with it.”

  Culverwell shook his head. “The way I see it, the best thing to do is wait out Zeke and his flock.”

  The ground trembled. Flame vented from a small fissure in the road halfway between the mine entrance and where they stood. Even as they watched, the fissure grew. More flame erupted from it. The road was now impassible.

  “That sucker opened up just after we arrived,” Culverwell said. “We thought it was an earthquake at first. You should have seen us scatter. For a minute there—”

  “Watch it,” one of the deputies called out.

  The door to the mine was opening slowly. Traveler stepped in front of his father.

  “I call on God to open the earth again and swallow you up,” Eldredge shouted as his bald head emerged into the morning light.

  Culverwell cupped his hands around his mouth. “Come out with your hands up, Zeke. We’ll hold our fire.”

  “The Antichrist is among you.”

  “You know me, Zeke. Emmett Culverwell.”

  “You’re right. I know a bishop of the damned when I see one.”

  “You can say whatever you like, Zeke, as long as we don’t have any bloodshed.”

  Blurred faces, little more than smudges actually, appeared behind Eldredge.

  “I’ll make you an offer,” Eldredge bellowed. “We’ll settle this once and for all. Me against the Antichrist. A fight to the death. Winner take all.” He pointed at the fresh chasm that had split open the road. “We’ll meet at the edge of Satan’s pit, the newest opening into hell.”

  “He means me,” Dalton said.

  Hap Kilgore grabbed Traveler’s arm. “We can’t let Pepper fight him.”

  “Relax,” the sheriff said. “Nobody’s going to fight.”

  Eldredge shouted, “Either you meet my terms or our blood will be on your hands.”

  “We don’t have to shoot to get you out of there, Zeke,” the sheriff called back. “We’ve got tear gas.”

  “‘And we have explosives. We’ll set them off if we have to.”

  “He’s right,” Traveler said. “I saw boxes of dynamite when I was in there.”

  “Why the hell didn’t you say so before?” Culverwell said.

  “It didn’t seem important.”

  Culverwell rubbed the indentations his glasses had left around his eyes. Finally he cupped his hands and called to Eldredge. “Zeke, we need some time to talk this over.”

  “Sixty seconds,” the man replied, and retreated back inside, closing the door behind him.

  “Do you think he’ll explode the dynamite?” Martin asked nobody in particular.

  “Mo,” Tanner said, “how many people does he have here in Glory?”

  “About fifty. Most of them are women and children.”

  Tanner shook his head. “We can’t have something like that.”

  “He could be bluffing,” the sheriff said.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Dalton responded. “All we have to do is pretend to agree to his terms. When he comes out into the open you shoot him. And that’s the end of it.”

  “I’m not shooting anybody without provocation,” the sheriff said.

  Dalton pointed at Willis Tanner. “What about you? What do you say?”

  The door opened again. “Time’s up,” Eldredge cried. “Do I light the fuse or not?”

  Tanner took a step toward Dalton and said, “There’s no flock without a shepherd.”

  “That’s my point. Shoot him and it’s all over.”

  Tanner shook his head. “It’s your fight at the moment.”

  “You’re crazy if you think I’m going up against a man like that.”

  Hap Kilgore edged closer to Dalton.

  “All I’m saying,” Tanner said, “is that I can’t authorize a shooting. What we have to do is get our hands on Eldredge. Once we have him, the others will surrender quickly enough.”

  Dalton thumbed himself in the chest. “Don’t talk about we when you mean me.”

  “It’s always good to have friends in high places.”

  “Only if you’re alive,” Dalton said.

  “I’ll go up against him with you, Pepper,” Kilgore said. “Like the old days. You and me together.”

  “You heard Eldredge. He wants me, man to man.”

  Kilgore took a step toward the mine and shouted, “I’m the one you want. I’m the Antichrist.”

  The door opened again. “Come closer so I can get a better look at you, old man.”

  “I’ll show you who’s an old man.”

  Traveler made a grab to restrain Kilgore but missed.

  “Shit,” Dalton said, and reluctantly followed Kilgore toward the smoking fissure. Traveler went with him.

  As soon as the three of them reached the fissure, Eldredge stepped out into the open. He was wearing the same baggy black suit.

  Carefully, never taking his eyes from them, Eldredge

  stripped off his coat. Then he removed his Book of Mormon from one of the pockets before dropping the garment to the ground.

  “The devil fears me,” he said. “I can see that plain enough. He sends three against one. And yet goodness will triumph in the end.”

  He held the book aloft. The paper marker still fluttered between its pages.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Traveler saw deputies begin moving toward the open doorway, where many of Eldredge’s followers had crowded together to watch their shepherd. As for Eldredge, he calmly walked to the other side of the fissure, which was now a good ten feet across, too far to jump from a standing start.

  Traveler cast a quick look into the pit. Ten feet below ground level was a crust of glowing coals. The fumes rising from them were sulfuric enough to make him believe the devil himself had stoked the fire.

  Eldredge stepped to the brink and peered down. Heat waves rising from the fissure made him shimmer. “It’s like an open mouth, isn’t it? But whose mouth? If we step inside, who swallows us? God or Satan?”

  He lowered The Book of Mormon until it was pointing across the chasm at Traveler. “Back off, big man. Otherwise I signal my flock and we’re all blown to hell.”

  Traveler glanced toward the doorway, which was no more than fifty feet away. He saw no sign of dynamite or detonator. The deputies still had a long way to go.

  “All it takes is a match,” Eldredge said.

  Clenching his teeth, Traveler moved back a pace.

  “Farther.”

  He took another step.

  “This is no game we’re playing,” Eldredge snapped. “My soul’s at stake. My salvation.”

  Traveler backed up three paces and then folded his arms to indicate there would be no more compromise.

  Eldredge grinned. “Three to one or ten to one. It makes no difference. God is wi
th me.”

  Slowly he began circling the pit. Both Dalton and Kilgore moved too, keeping pace with him, keeping the flaming chasm between them. They’d completed half a circle, with Eldredge just coming into Traveler’s range, when the man changed direction.

  When they were back in their original positions, Eldredge stopped and removed the marker from his Book of Mormon. “Do you know what this is, Pepper? It’s the end of all your plans. The end of your blasphemy.”

  “What’s he talking about?” Kilgore asked. Pepper only shook his head.

  “It’s my marriage license to your sister.” Eldredge waved the document. “Alive or dead, this gives me half of Glory. Me or my heirs. There’s no way you can ever have this land for yourself.”

  Holding the paper out in front of him, Eldredge began circling the pit again. When Dalton moved off to keep the abyss between them, Hap Kilgore stayed put.

  “Talk to me, Pepper,” Kilgore implored. “Tell me he’s crazy.”

  Dalton said nothing.

  “I’ll explain for you, old man,” Eldredge said. “This piece of paper means I have only one wife.” A sound came from him, half laughter, half scream. All of it played hell with Traveler. “The rest of my women are only mistresses as far as the law is concerned.”

  Kilgore stared at Dalton. “Is that true?”

  Dalton glanced at Traveler before answering. “We won’t know until it goes to court.”

  “How long will that take?” Kilgore asked.

  “Years,” Eldredge answered. “You know the courts. You’ll never see that baseball team of yours.”

  Kilgore kept his eyes on Dalton. “That message you left at Derks. You said there’d been a change of plans. Is this it?”

  “Hap, I promise you. As far as I knew the Bees were ours. That note was part of a surprise. You weren’t going to be my third-base coach. I was going to name you manager. Just like the old days. Now I guess we’re both out of luck.”

  Kilgore groaned, spitting words and tobacco at Eldredge. “You bastard. You—” He choked.

  Traveler sucked air, fueling himself with oxygen and adrenaline, as he edged closer to Kilgore. Eldredge saw him do it but merely smiled and kept coming closer himself.

  “I still have my team in Fillmore,” Dalton said. “It’s not much, Hap, only semipro. But we can make something out of it, the two of us together.”

  Traveler reached Hap’s side and touched him gently for reassurance. But the old man shook him off.

  “Stay away from me, Moroni. I mean it.”

  His outburst brought Eldredge to an abrupt stop five feet away. Five feet from Hap, more from Traveler. Too far to make a move with any certainty of success.

  “I did it, Mo,” Kilgore said, and took a step toward Eldredge. “I killed them both, Prissy and Kate.”

  Traveler denied it with a shake of his head. A woman had killed them. Witnesses had said so, though one of the witnesses, Kate, was also a victim.

  “I’m sorry about Kate. I didn’t want to hurt her. I made sure she was unconscious before I cut her throat.” He pointed a finger at Eldredge. “Here I am. The evil one you seek.”

  Eldredge twitched. His head swung from Kilgore to Dalton and back again.

  Traveler made his move, but too late.

  Kilgore had already launched himself at Eldredge, catching the man by surprise, carrying him in a bear hug to the edge of the abyss. For an instant they teetered there, Kilgore’s back to Traveler while Eldredge’s terrified face hung over the old man’s shoulder.

  As they began to topple backward into the pit, Eldredge reached out with the hand that held the marriage certificate. His fingers opened, either to hand over the document or to grab hold of Traveler and take him with them into the chasm.

  Traveler did his best, but all he caught was paper.

  Screaming, the two men burst through the crust of glowing coals and disappeared into the earth. Their cries died before the stream had time to sizzle up after them.

  In the confusion, nobody saw Traveler pocket the certificate.

  37

  A spurt of fresh flame, fed by human fuel, erupted from the pit. With it came a spitting sound and the stench of burning flesh. Pepper Dalton turned and bolted toward the sheriff.

  But Traveler felt rooted to the earth. Breath caught in his throat. His esophagus spasmed against rising bile. His fists clenched in anger, anger at himself. He should have foreseen Hap’s reaction; he should have saved the old man.

  Finally it dawned on him that he, too, had to move, had to back away from the mine shaft and its explosive content. But he needn’t have bothered, because Willis Tanner had been right. A flock is lost without its shepherd. Eldredge’s death had spurred a mass exodus of followers from the building, all blinking against the light of day and the even harsher reality that now faced them.

  Their sudden evacuation triggered a response from the deputies, who quickly jacked fresh shells into their shotguns. Women cringed against the deadly sound. Children caught their mothers’ fear and began to cry. Their wailing brought life to the bedraggled men, who began looking around in frustration for someone to blame, someone to attack. The deputies, Traveler saw from his position on this side of the abyss, were the targets closest at hand.

  “Everyone put your hands up,” he shouted, thrusting his own arms into the air by way of example. “And don’t move.”

  “Do as he says,” one of the deputies picked up. “That way, no one else gets hurt.”

  Gradually, the flock complied, with mothers showing the younger children what was expected of them. By the time Sheriff Culverwell joined Traveler, the congregation was being lined up against the mine’s clapboard siding. “For Christ’s sake,” Culverwell exploded. “Get them away from there. There’s dynamite inside.”

  “I’ll go in and check it,” Traveler said. “I know where to look.”

  The boxes labeled dynamite, originally stored far underground in the tunnel, were now stacked head high just inside the door. But there was no sign of a fuse or detonator, or even a trail of powder.

  He reported that fact to the sheriff, who still insisted on clearing the immediate area, directing his deputies to assemble the Flock of Zion at the foot of Cemetery Hill. As soon as they were well on their way, Dalton and Willis Tanner joined Traveler and the sheriff, who were once again staring down into the fissure. Martin had opted to rest in one of the police vehicles.

  “I suppose there’s no sense in probing for the bodies,” the sheriff observed. “Not until the area bums itself out. By then, of course, there won’t be anything left but ashes.”

  “God’s own cremation,” Dalton said.

  “Or the devil’s,” Tanner responded, as if speaking for Eldredge.

  Dalton pounced on the comment. “That’s right. Traveler heard Hap confess. He heard him say he was the evil one.”

  “I heard him,” Traveler agreed. “But I’m not sure I believe it. I think he was protecting you.”

  Dalton held out his arms. “My hands are clean in this. Everybody saw what happened.”

  “With his dream of rejoining the Bees dead, Hap had nothing left,” Tanner said.

  “You’re forgetting Mary Cook,” Traveler said. “I saw them together. Hap had a lot to live for.”

  “That’s your interpretation,” Dalton said. “But he was an old man living in the past.”

  “And yet you were going to name him your new manager?”

  Dalton’s lips curled away from his teeth. “Are you joking? An old fool like that? Never.”

  “Third-base coach then?”

  “I’ve already been through this with Hap’s so-called girlfriend, that old dame at the nursing home. He was going out to pasture, no doubt about it.”

  “And that’s what the note at Derks Field was all about?”

  “Hold it,”
the sheriff interrupted, gesturing for silence. “you two can talk baseball later. Right now I want to know what was said out here before Kilgore and Eldredge took the fall.”

  Nodding eagerly, Dalton recounted Hap’s confession. When Traveler’s turn came, he confirmed Hap’s words but not their meaning.

  “There’s something else to consider,” Traveler added. “Kate Ferguson’s neighbor saw only one visitor on the day of the murder, a woman.”

  “I spoke with that neighbor too,” the sheriff said. “It was getting dark at the time, so she could have been mistaken.”

  “And what about Priscilla’s killing?” Traveler persisted. “Kate Ferguson told me she was in the hotel that day. She saw a woman there, too. In broad daylight. She thought she could identify her if she ever saw her again.”

  “I’ll let the Salt Lake police worry about that. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve got a valid confession to the murder of Kate Ferguson.”

  “Don’t forget the tobacco at the scene of the crime,”

  Dalton added. “That backs up Hap’s story. He chewed just like Zeke did.”

  Traveler shook his head. “Look around you. Half the women here chew tobacco.”

  Sheriff Culverwell looked to Willis Tanner. “What do you make of this?”

  “Speaking for myself, I see no reason to complicate matters unnecessarily.”

  Traveler knew only too well that his friend seldom spoke for himself.

  “What about the document Eldredge claimed to have?” Traveler said. “His one and only marriage license. The one that proved him monogamous.”

  “Nobody believes a man like Zeke Eldredge,” Dalton said.

  “There ought to be a record of that license somewhere,” Traveler responded.

  “Whatever it was,” Tanner said, “it’s gone now. I think it best to leave it that way.”

  Meaning any additional records could be counted on to disappear, should the church so choose.