Page 15 (1/2)

“I had no idea,” Eood thing for the tribes”

“Most people think so”

“But you don’t?”

“My father was involved in one of the early protests at the pipeline A man was killed My father went to prison for it He died there My only memory of him is a sad face behind bars My rief—which is a polite way of saying she drank herself to death You ht say that ood it does, istainted”

He banked the plane into a sharp right turn, pitching the wings so steeply that Emma felt a jolt of terror Only as the Beaver leveled out did she begin to breathe again Through the windscreen she could see that now they were headed landward, toward the forested mountains

“Do you always turn like that?” she asked, still half-breathless

“You mean did I do it to scare you? No, it’s just the erous as it looks” Heback over thewhere I picked you up Froht be able to find Boone’s trailer If he’s there, I’ll radio the state troopers Keep your eyes open Letdown there”

In other words, he was through talking It was al to understand the iven her a clue to his brooding, solitary nature She re the little boy Was that child his son? What had happened to him?

She turned toward the side hich gave her the best view of the ground Froreen carpet Here and there, s dotted the landscape Boone’s truck, she recalled, had been painted in a cae pattern Even the shell that covered the bed was splotched with tan, green, and brown paint The trailer, she remembered now, had been painted the sa around it, and the well-traveled logging road, should make it easy to spot

“There’s that patch ofout on the west side of it So I take it you were coht?”

Eled to recall the terror-blurred details “I re toward the sunset So yes, I was h brush and trees I changed direction again and again, just to get away”

“But the dogs were behind you They’d have been co from the trailer”

“Yes, that does ht hway or the water But I can see froo I never would’ve made it, would I?”

“No, you wouldn’t”

“You saved my life, John I hope I haven’t made you sorry”