The Alpine Pursuit Read online

  THE

  ALPINE

  PURSUIT

  MARY DAHEIM

  BALLANTINE BOOKS • NEW YORK

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Other Books by Mary Daheim

  Copyright

  To Joe Blades

  Not only a terrific editor, but even a better friend.

  ONE

  My brother, Ben, and I had flown into Rome on a dark October day. A heavy rain fell all the way into the city from Da Vinci Airport, making it almost impossible to see through the train windows. It was eight-thirty in the morning when we got a taxi at the stazione to head for the Hotel Bramante near the Vatican. The buildings in the oldest part of the Eternal City showed their age, with bright colors dulled, wavery glass, worn wrought iron, and cracked stucco exteriors. Rome seemed as gloomy as Alpine, where it had rained for a week before I left. If this trip was my brother’s effort to raise my spirits after Tom’s death, I was afraid Ben had made a big mistake.

  ∗ ∗ ∗

  An Alpine winter is even gloomier than most autumns, but I’m used to it. Changes in the weather pattern during the past century have raised temperatures, however. No longer is the mountain town snowed in from October to April. The current fall had accumulated to over four feet, but it was the third week of February and that was ordinary at the three-thousand-foot level of the Cascades. Seventy years ago Alpine was completely isolated except by train—when the locomotives could push through. We still had the trains, but we also had roads and streets, and we usually had access to the highway. Stories were still handed down about snow up to the housetops and how close the community of two hundred hardy souls became when there was virtually no contact with the outside world. Listening to the legends, it almost sounded like fun.

  But the good old days weren’t always so good. I was reminded of that fact when a group of Alpine residents decided to revive a theatrical tradition that had begun before World War One. Forced to rely on their own resources for entertainment, the diversions included lectures, musicales, sports competitions, and plays starring local amateurs. Judging from cast photos, the actors had a wonderful time. I’m sure the audience did, too. Maybe everybody was juiced on moonshine.

  “Very professional productions,” declared my House & Home editor, Vida Runkel. “That is, given the limited amount of talent.”

  Vida hadn’t been born until after the troupe shut down along with the original mill in 1929. But as a native Alpiner, she was loyal to the core. As a non-native, I was skeptical. Looking at the pictures of people in outlandish wigs and grotesque makeup, I sensed that the productions had been god-awful.

  But the locals couldn’t leave good—or bad—enough alone. They had revived the tradition after World War Two, only to abandon it for a second time when the logging industry was hit hard in the early 1980s by environmental concerns. Then, two years ago, a group of misguided souls again reverted to tradition. Aided and abetted by the drama professor at Skykomish Community College, The Alpine Council Dramatic Club was resurrected, original name and all.

  I’d seen only one of the first four plays—they did two a year—an uncut version of Long Day’s Journey Into Night. It certainly was. I felt as if I were nailed to my seat for twenty-four hours.

  At least Eugene O’Neill could write. The current rehearsals were for a play called The Outcast, written by Destiny Parsons, the aforementioned college prof. It was described as a “. . . black comedy, revealing the inner struggle of a young woman to find herself in a small town.”

  I could identify with the concept. Thirteen years ago, I’d come to Alpine as a thirtysomething woman. Despite my best efforts, it had been difficult to fit in. It wasn’t just my controversial status as editor and publisher of the local weekly, but that I’d committed the unforgivable sin of being born elsewhere, and in the big city of Seattle at that.

  “Wait a minute,” I said, rereading the play’s premise. “Does this mean the protagonist is searching for her identity or trying to get out of town?”

  Vida, who was sitting at her desk in the corner of the newsroom, whipped off her big glasses. “Of course not! Why would she want to leave?”

  I’d been standing next to Leo Walsh’s desk. Leo, my ad manager, looked up from his computer screen. “Does the town have a name?” he asked with an innocent expression on his leathery face.

  “Certainly,” Vida snapped. “It’s called Evergreen. But it’s obvious that it stands for Alpine.”

  Leo retained his air of naÏveté. “How miserable is she in . . . Evergreen, Duchess?”

  Vida leaned forward, her imposing figure exuding hostility. “For the last time, don’t call me Duchess. You know I despise that nickname. As for the heroine, Dorothy Oz, she isn’t miserable—merely confused.”

  I had to admit I hadn’t yet read the script. Nor did I intend to. Destiny Parsons was in her second year at Skykomish Community College, teaching drama, literature, English, and women’s studies. She seemed intelligent, if a bit stiff. In the normal course of events, I would rarely have seen her, but she’d recently bought a house across the street from me. We saw each other in passing, though neither of us had gone out of the way to become further acquainted. One of these days I’d have to make an overture, and it probably wouldn’t be a pleasant encounter. Destiny not only allowed her fox terrier to use my front yard as a rest room, but some mornings I’d seen Destiny urge the animal to cross the street and head for my property. I was growing tired of cleaning up Azbug’s messes.

  “Maybe,” Leo remarked, lighting a cigarette while Vida shot more daggers his way, “I ought to take in a performance. What’s the schedule?”

  I grabbed a copy of the Advocate and waved it at Leo. “Read all about it! Jeez, Leo, don’t you read anything except the ads?”

  Leo didn’t bat an eye. “Hell, I don’t read those, either. Not after I put them together. If I want news, I go home and watch CNN or one of the Seattle stations.”

  “Watch your language, Leo,” Vida murmured before our ad manager finished speaking. When he did, she really exploded. “That’s blasphemy! You must be joking! Though in very poor taste, if you ask me!”

  Leo must have caught the look of dismay on my face. He knows better than anyone how a publisher reacts to TV-only news viewers. “You know I’m kidding,” he said in a reasonable tone. “It’s Wednesday, pub day. The paper just came off the press ten minutes ago. When would I have time to read it?”

  “Start now,” Vida commanded. “Scott and I both have stories on the play. And in case you forget, the performances are Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Indeed, the play will be presented twice Sunday, at a matinee and in the evening.”

  “I’ll have to check my social calendar,” Leo responded. “I may have opera tickets or the symphony or an NBA game.”

  I left Leo to fabricate and Vida to froth. In my small office, I sat down to look at the latest edition of The Alpine Advocate. My sole reporter, Scott Chamoud, had managed to fill up the front page all by himself. The recent snow—with more in the forecast—had partially made up for the lack of winter moisture in western Washington. There was hope for the ski industry after all. The weather had also given Scott an opportunity to take photos of children playing in the snow, trees in Old Mill
Park covered with snow, and a traffic accident at First and Front caused by snow. We’d save the icicle pictures for next week.

  Below the fold, there was Scott’s story about the play. It ran for six inches and jumped to page three. Vida had two rehearsal photos on her House & Home page, along with a head shot of Destiny Parsons and a feature on various cast members. Since Mayor Fuzzy Baugh was one of them and we hadn’t run his stock studio portrait, I expected the phone to start ringing any minute.

  I looked up as Sheriff Milo Dodge loped into my office. At six-foot-five and wearing his regulation Smokey the Bear hat, he filled the door.

  “I suppose it’s too late for a dead guy,” he said.

  “You know it is,” I retorted, mentally cursing the prospect of losing a big story. “Who is it?”

  “No idea yet,” Milo replied, lounging against the door frame. “Somebody in a pickup just got creamed on Highway 2 by Deception Falls. Sam and Dwight haven’t called in with the ID.”

  “Milo,” I said sternly, “you know damned well that our deadline is five o’clock Tuesday. Are you pretending to forget or pretending to be stupid? And why don’t you sit down? You’re looming.”

  Milo rubbed his long chin. “I guess I’ve never figured out how you can have a Tuesday deadline, but the paper doesn’t come out until Wednesday afternoon. What about all this new technology? Why can’t the deadline be Wednesday noon or else have the paper come out in the morning? You’ve got a whole week to put the thing together.”

  I tried not to gnash my teeth. “I’ve explained this to you a dozen times. We hold the front page open for late-breaking news. If there is any. We put features inside, I write editorials, we watch the wire services for anything connected to Alpine and Skykomish County. We have ads and classifieds and legal notices and vital statistics. Not to mention photographs and occasional artwork. The paper has to be laid out, and even with PageMaker technology, it takes time. There are headlines to—”

  “What artwork?” Milo interrupted.

  He caught me off-guard; I was stumped. “Maps,” I finally said. “Graphs. Are you going to sit down or not?”

  “Nope.” Milo stopped leaning. “I’ll let you know when we get an ID on the crash victim. See you.”

  I watched him walk away. Recently the sheriff had become very aggravating. Over the years we’d had our ups and downs. Being friends was tricky. As lovers, we’d failed. Milo had wanted to take the relationship further. I hadn’t. Not then, when Tom Cavanaugh was still alive. Six months ago, I thought we’d reached a new, comfortable level of companionship. But lately Milo had been acting oddly, or at least showing me his prickly side. I’d seen it before. I supposed I could endure it again. I only wished I knew what had triggered the change.

  Milo had been gone less than a minute when the phone started ringing. Obviously, the latest edition of the Advocate had hit the streets, no easy feat considering that only the main thoroughfares—both of them—had been plowed in the last two days.

  The first call was in fact weather-related. It was from the ranger station, a couple of miles west of Alpine, informing me that it was snowing up at the Stevens Pass summit. They expected the state to close Highway 2 before dark. For now, vehicles with chains and traction tires could still get through.

  “Tell that to Spencer Fleetwood,” I said, but thanked the ranger who’d called. His name was Bunky or Punky Smythe, a newcomer to the Skykomish area. Or maybe it was Hunky. I could but hope.

  Speaking of which, Scott Chamoud entered my office. Even bundled up in a Gore-Tex parka, he looked good.

  “Are you going to the dress rehearsal tomorrow?” he inquired.

  “I hadn’t thought about it,” I replied. “Are you?”

  “I can’t,” he said, unzipping the parka and sitting down in one of my two visitor chairs. “I’ve got that special county commissioners’ meeting. You know—the one where they’re going to decide if they should build up the banks on the Sky.”

  The riverbanks through town had been heightened once, some forty years earlier. But natural erosion and new construction had taken their toll. The Skykomish had flooded twice in the last four years, though damage had been minimal. Since the troika of county commissioners was getting so old that I was surprised they could tell wet from dry, I’d been gratified to learn that they still had some rational concerns about the town’s welfare.

  Had I possessed a kindly heart, I would have volunteered to cover the county commissioners myself. But I’d been stuck with most of their regular meetings ever since I came to Alpine. Somehow, an emergency meeting didn’t equate with an added attraction. Even in the days when all three were relatively lucid, most of the sessions were taken up with how much barbed wire was needed to fence in the Fabergasts’ prize bull, where a new trash can should be placed at Old Mill Park, and should the name of a Korean War veteran be stricken from the courthouse’s military service plaque because almost fifty years after the cease-fire he’d gotten drunk and run over one of Grace Grundle’s cats.

  On the other hand, a dress rehearsal of The Outcast didn’t create much enthusiasm in my breast. Sitting through opening night was obligatory. But watching the troupe stumble and mumble for an extra three hours seemed above and beyond the call of duty. In fact, it sounded a lot like the county commissioners’ meeting.

  “I’ll drop by for the rehearsal,” I promised as the phone rang.

  Expecting the mayor, I was surprised—but not pleased—to hear the voice of my former ad manager, Ed Bronsky.

  “What’s the deal with my name being last in the cast list?” Ed demanded in his whining voice. “Shouldn’t the actors be in alphabetical order? I don’t mind Hans Berenger being ahead of me, because B-e-r comes before B-r-o. But how do I end up dead last? Has everybody forgotten who the fairy is for this production?”

  “I think,” I replied, trying not to laugh out loud, “you mean angel.” Some angel! As our local millionaire through inheritance, Ed had volunteered money to back the production. He’d bragged about five figures, but I learned later that included a decimal point.

  “Whatever,” Ed huffed. “I know it’s too late to change it—after all, I’m an old newspaper hand myself—but I want better treatment when the review appears next week.”

  “Actually,” I remarked, scanning Scott’s story, “your name appears before Dodo’s.”

  “I should hope so,” Ed retorted. “Dodo is a dog.”

  “A clever dog,” I noted. Dodo belonged to Jim Medved, the town’s veterinarian, who also had a part in the play. I didn’t mention that Dodo probably could act circles around most of the cast, especially Ed. “Here’s how it works,” I explained. “The cast list is made out according to the order of speaking roles. You play a customer at the Emerald Café. I assume you don’t have a great many lines.”

  “Well.” Ed paused. “Maybe not. But I’m onstage for most of the play. I sit at the counter and eat.”

  Typecasting, I thought, picturing the rotund Mr. Bronsky’s backside overlapping the stool. “If you look at the program—which we’ll have printed by tomorrow for whoever is picking them up—you’ll see your name appears in the same place there as it does in the paper. If you’ve got a beef, talk to Destiny Parsons.”

  “Destiny obviously doesn’t know what side her bread is buttered on,” Ed declared. “She’ll hear about this. She seems to have forgotten that I’m going to run for mayor in the off-year election this fall.” He slammed down the phone.

  I seemed to have forgotten it, too. Recently Ed had made a couple of passing remarks about seeking office, but I had dismissed them as mere bluster. Fuzzy Baugh had been mayor since before I moved to Alpine. No serious candidate had ever challenged him. It wasn’t that Fuzzy was so effective in office, but that no one else seemed to want the job. The real power lay in the arthritic hands of the county commissioners.

  Ginny Erlandson, her dazzling red hair in disarray, rushed into my cubbyhole. “Nat Cardenas has been on hold for five minut
es. Didn’t you see the red light on your phone?”

  I heaved a sigh. “No,” I admitted to our office manager. “I was too busy soothing Ed Bronsky’s ruffled feathers.”

  I punched in the call and immediately apologized to the college president.

  Nat, who rarely shows his human side, sounded almost meek. “I’d like to get together with you tomorrow or Friday,” he began. “I didn’t want to bother you on press day. Would lunch at the ski lodge work for you?”

  If Nat wanted to see me, there must be a problem. I assumed it had nothing to do with his part in The Outcast. He was playing Sheriff John Brown, an apparently heroic figure, though it had surprised me when he took on the role. Nat Cardenas guarded his dignity closely.

  “Tomorrow’s fine,” I said, “assuming we don’t get more snow and the road to the lodge is open.”

  “Let’s hope for the best, despite the forecast,” Nat replied. “Would twelve-thirty be convenient?”

  I said that it would. “Is there a crisis at the college?” I asked.

  Nat didn’t answer right away, and when he did, his voice was very formal. “There are some challenges emerging. I’ll tell you about them tomorrow. Thanks for agreeing to meet me.”

  The calls that followed included the usual irate readers, three of whom didn’t agree with my editorial advocating the flood control project. One of them was Rita Patricelli, the Chamber of Commerce secretary and a member of a large Italian family that had been in the area for years. I had first known her as Rita Haines, but she’d dumped both Mr. Haines and his last name some time ago.

  “I’ve lived here all my life, more or less,” Rita declared in her brisk voice. “I’d write a letter to the editor, but I don’t want the merchants to think I’m speaking for all of them. You’ve been here for at least ten years, Emma. How many times has the Sky flooded?”

  I thought back over the decade. “Twice.”

  “How much damage?”

  “Some of the businesses and homes along River Road got almost a foot of water the last time,” I said.