Cork lifted his hand to shield his eyes from the bright low sun. “We don’t know for sure that was the cause of death. That’ll take an autopsy to determine.”
“I wonder who it is.”
“Who it was. According to Lindstrom and the night watchman, Harold Loomis, nobody should have been there. If I were Wally Schanno, I’d figure whoever it was, they were the victim of their own bombing, if it was a bombing.”
“If you were Schanno.” She looked at him, then quickly away. “I’ve heard a rumor. People are saying Wally Schanno won’t stand for reelection in the fall.”
“I’ve heard that, too.”
“Are you thinking of running?”
“I haven’t given it a lot of thought, Jo.”
They were approaching the town limits. Cars, lots of them, moved past on the other side, headed toward the mill. Some belonged to the men on the first shift. Others were driven by the curious.
“But you have thought about it?”
“Some.”
“Are you happy? Running Sam’s Place, I mean.”
They entered town on Center Street. Aurora was coming to life. People moved purposefully along the sidewalks and cars filled the streets. “The truth is, this morning I’m very glad I’m not in Wally Schanno’s shoes.”
They pulled into the drive of the house on Gooseberry Lane. Jo sat for a moment, then asked, “Would you tell me if you were thinking seriously of running?”
“We’d talk about it,” he promised.
“That’s all I ask.”
History.
In a place like Aurora, where a man could spend his whole life, cradle to grave, his history was all around him, slapping against him like old newspapers in a wind.
Cork had a strong sense of that as he stepped into Johnny’s Pinewood Broiler to get himself some breakfast. Breathing in the hot griddle scent was like breathing in the air of another time in his life.
“Well, I’ll be.” Johnny Pap smiled as Cork took a stool at the counter.
Johnny Pap was first-generation Greek and had run the Broiler since Cork was old enough to pay for milkshakes with the money he’d earned delivering newspapers. For most of Cork’s life, a stop at the Broiler was part of his daily routine. A year and a half before, his routine had dramatically changed.
“Christ,” Johnny said, leaning against the counter. “I haven’t seen you in here since-well, must be since Molly died.” As soon as the words escaped his lips, Johnny’s face showed that he regretted them.
“Not since Molly died,” Cork confirmed.
The moment seemed awkward for Johnny, considering the current state of Cork’s marriage. But Johnny handled it well. He simply nodded toward the distant sky outside the Broiler and said, “Hell of a bang this morning. Heard those tree huggers really did a number at Lindstrom’s. You know anything?”
“I was just out there.”
“Yeah? Was it bad?”
Talk in the Broiler quieted as other customers turned to listen to what Cork had to say.
“To the mill, no significant damage. But someone died.”
“No.” Johnny pushed back in surprise. “Who?”
“They haven’t ID’ed the body yet.”
“One of us, you think?”
“Us?”
“Locals.”
“As opposed to those outside agitators, you mean.”
“Bingo.”
“Like I said, Johnny, nobody knows. Say, what does a guy have to do to get some coffee and a short stack around here?”
Johnny shook his head slowly in puzzlement and dismay at this deadly turn the world around him was taking and he headed toward the kitchen.
The talk of the Broiler regulars-the county work crews, the shop owners, the locals-resumed, and most of it was about the incident at Lindstrom’s. The talk Cork heard sided with the loggers. That didn’t surprise him at all. In a town surrounded by and dependent in so many ways on national forest land, the federal regulations restricting the use of that resource were like slivers under the skin. Snowmobiles and SUVs were severely limited to marked trails. Game wardens packing firearms strictly regulated hunting and fishing. Felling timber, harvesting wild rice, even taking a goddamn crap in the forest was controlled by law.
Unless you happened to be Indian.
History.
