During the school year, things had progressed in a variety of ways. Sam had moved in with Maud, and Emma had taken up residence in Sam's house. Louise had found tutors for Emma in math (trigonometry and calculus) and physical science, Emma had completed the courses successfully, and felt ready to start her high school senior year in the coming fall.
Negotiations were underway to buy back the Hotel Paradise, and to establish a land preserve to include Spirit Lake, the Hotel property, and the Devereau lands. Various local entities had expressed interest in using the hotel for community functions of several sorts. Dr. McComb had helped arrange for some preliminary studies of the animal and plant life of the two properties. It was all still up in the air, but definite progress was being made.
Once it was shown that the Devereau property had been taken over by the county, Emma had taken Eloise Dawson and some other local officials to assess the significance of the house and its furnishing. Eloise had also been going through Aunt Aurora's possessions with Emma, and had found a number of items she thought should be in the museum collections.
With a lot in progress, but nothing really pressing, Emma had decided she wanted to revisit the path of "Andi's" wanderings, to see all her friends again, and take care of a little pending business. Dwayne felt he could leave his garage for a couple of weeks. He still had both You-boy and Rod, his long-term mechanics, able to handle any service and repair business that needed doing. Also, he had an administrative assistant on board who had turned out to be excellent with all the necessary paperwork. They decided to fly to North Dakota, work their way over to Idaho, and end up with Mary Dark Hope in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
***
There's no straightforward way to get from Garrett County, Maryland, to Fargo, North Dakota, but after changing planes a couple of times, and apparently seeing most of the Upper Midwest from the air, Emma and Dwayne did arrive. They rented a car, and drove south to the town where Sam had finally caught up to "Andi."
When they walked into Jim O'Connor's office, he was in the midst of some paperwork. "Be right with you," he said, without looking up. Then, he did. "My god, little girl lost!"
Emma laughed. "Hi, Sheriff. It's nice to see you, again."
Jim came out from behind his desk, and shook Greg's hand, while at the same time giving Emma a brief hug. "Well, shoot! What a surprise. It's Andi, but it's really Emma, right?" He turned to Dwayne. "The hug was a spontaneous reaction. Was it okay?"
"She seemed to like it. I have that same reaction, myself, at times."
They introduced each other, and Jim offered them seats, and some coffee. "So, Emma, the last time I saw you, you were climbing into Sam's truck, and headed out of town. We were hoping that would work out, but it was a little tough to figure out, with him driving and you walking. I assume it did work out, that you've been home, and are okay?"
"Getting there. Sam and I talked a lot as we drove along, and by the second day I had remembered bits and pieces of my past life. I finally asked him if he thought I was Emma Graham. He said yes, and told me why, He was convincing, but it was also pretty confusing, after two years of just being 'Andi.' It took us two more days to get home, so we had a lot more worked out before we got there. With the help of other friends - like Dwayne, who I've known since I was 12 - I feel pretty much 'Emma,' again."
"That's great! So, were you just in the neighborhood, or...?"
"No, Dwayne was able to take time off work for a couple of weeks, so we decided to kind of trace 'Andi's' steps back to the beginning, and say 'hi' and 'thank you' to the nice people who helped me along the way. I want to say hello to Mrs. Boston, if she's available, and then we need to get down to Kingdom, where I stayed for quite awhile before I came here."
"Is Harry McKibbon one you're going to see?"
"Definitely. Sheriff Harry played a big part in 'Andi's' story."
"Give him my regards, and tell him to give me a call, sometime. It's been awhile."
Mary Boston was home, and in the process of getting ready to open her bed-and-breakfast for the season. She recognized Emma, instantly. "My lands, Andi, you are a sight for sore eyes!" She paused. "But it isn't really Andi, is it? Jim told me about your amnesia. I hope that was all right?"
"Sure. My real name is Emma, but I'm still Andi, too."
"And you're okay, now? That must have been a really scary time for you."
"I'm pretty much okay. I think most of my memory is back, thanks to some loving and helpful friends." She introduced Dwayne. "We really have to get going. We're trying to see quite a few people, and cover a lot of ground, in a fairly short time. But I did want to see you, and thank you for being so nice to me during our brief time together." They hugged, and then Dwayne and Emma were headed west to Kingdom, North Dakota.
***
The turnoff to the Purdy ranch came before town, so they went there, first. Emma pointed out the Klavan pig farm, which looked shut down and abandoned. There wasn't anyone outside as they approached the ranch house, but a tall man appeared on the porch, as they drove up. Dwayne was driving, so Emma was on the side of the car, facing the house. The man on the porch needed only the slightest glance.
"Whoo-ee, Tom, you won't believe the package we just got delivered!" He started to walk toward the car, as another man came out of the house. Emma was out of the car and hugging the first man, as the second arrived. She pulled him in, for a three-person embrace.
"Lord, lord, lord, Andi - or Emma, or whatever the hell you call yourself these days - I didn't think it was possible for you to get any more beautiful. You fooled me! Tom, what do you think?" The first man - Jim Purdy - had stepped a little to the side, and Emma gave Tom Rio a hug all his own.
Dwayne had given them a little time for their greetings. Now, he climbed out of the car, and came around to be introduced. "Well, Dwayne," Jim began, "If this is your woman we're making love to here, I apologize, but an irresistible impulse took over when we saw her."
"No need to apologize. I am quite familiar with that irresistible impulse."
Emma took charge. "Well, I'm glad to see you both but, really, I came to see my donkey. Is he here?"
"Old Sam?" asked Tom. "He and Dakota rule the roost around here. They're pretty much inseparable. Come on down to the barn."
Jesus was preparing the horses for the night. He smiled and said hello to Emma, shook hands with Dwayne when introduced, then went back to his work. Emma approached Sam, and gave him a good hug. He seemed to remember her, and to like the attention. Dakota gave her his usual noncommittal greeting. He did let her rub his nose, a major concession for him. Emma gave a little attention to each of the other horses.
"Can you stay the night?" Jim asked, as they left the barn. "You can have your old room."
Emma looked at Dwayne, then said, "I think we better stay in town. There's a bunch of people we want to see, and not a lot of time to do it. Could you come to town, tomorrow? Maybe we could get together with some of the others."
Jim and Tom both said they'd like that. "Are you going to see Harry?" Jim asked.
"If he's around, I'd love to. He may not want to see me. I think I just frustrate him."
Jim chuckled. "That may well be true but, believe me, frustration isn't the first word that comes to Harry when he thinks about you. You got a gang of old guys in this town all in love with you, you know that. Sorry, Dwayne."
"No apologies necessary. I know exactly what you mean."
***
Mrs. Englehart seemed glad to see Emma, and she had a room for them. After they settled in, they went over to May's Long Gone for dinner, and to see who was around.
"Interesting name for a diner," Dwayne observed. "What's the story?"
Emma smiled at that. "I have no idea. Don't ask anybody; they'll just lie to you. Norman told me that there is no 'May,' but that all the women take turns being her. They all deny it. I just eat here."
One of the "Mays" stopped to take their order. "Hi, Andi. Are you back for a while? Toasted cheese, right?"
Emma smiled at Dwayne as she responded. "No, we're just passing through, but wanted to say hello to as many of my friends as I could find. I probably will have a cheese sandwich, but let Dwayne see a menu, and then we'll decide. Has Norman X been in yet?"
"No, but he'll get here, eventually. Actually, here comes the sheriff. Is he on your list?"
"More likely that I'm on his list. Does he seem to have his handcuffs out?"
Estelle - well, that's what her name tag said - almost laughed. "No, you seem safe for the moment."
Harry McKibbon chatted with a couple of the regulars at the counter before he caught sight of Emma. He looked confused and very pleased all at once. As he came over to their booth, Emma stood up so she could hug him. "Hi, Sheriff. You seemed sort of happy to see me." She sat back down beside Dwayne, and Harry took the other side of the table. He still looked stunned.
"Course I'm glad to see you. Why wouldn't I be?"
"Sam said you thought I was a pain in the ass."
Dwayne almost choked on a mouthful of coffee. Harry looked like he might blush, but caught himself in time. "I think what I said is that you can be a pain, at times. The rest of the time, I find you a pleasant addition to our little community."
"I think your memory is slipping, or absence really does make the heart grow fonder. Anyway, I am very glad to see you. You're one of my favorite sheriffs. By the way, this fellow beside me is Dwayne, my friend since I was 12 years old. I was going to describe him as my partner in crime, but then remembered that you are the law around here."
Dwayne and Harry shook hands across the table. "She can be what you called her," said Dwayne.
They chatted about Emma's recovery, and their trip, so far. Emma passed on Jim O'Connor's greeting, and request that Harry give him a call sometime. Then, Harry got down to more serious business.
"We finally got enough on Carl Bailey to put him away for a long time. He raped a 15-year old girl, pretty blatantly and pretty brutally. I think Lucas' initial attempt to get his son off was just too much for some of his cronies, and he's lost a lot of his following around town."
Dwayne noticed that Emma had gone a little pale as Harry was talking. Harry apparently didn't realize how close to home this was for Emma. Of course, he didn't know the whole story.
Harry went on. "I worry about Junior - about what he might do. He's as mean as Carl, and twice as stupid. I don't want to see him hurt anybody, but I'd sure like to get him off the street.
"I guess you saw that Klavan's has shut down. They're probably up and running somewhere else - new name, same problems. It'll probably take a while to catch them, again."
"We saw they were shut down," Emma replied. "We're going to see Bobby Del Ray, my attorney in Bismarck, tomorrow. He thinks we had a pretty good case against Klavan's, complete with photos and personal testimonies. He was having trouble finding a judge to hear the case. I assume that, even if Klavan's is operating exactly the same as before, our evidence is worthless, now. I don't know if there's any way we can start over."
Harry got up. "I have some chores to take care of. Nice to meet you, Dwayne. If you have time tomorrow, drop by the office, and we'll catch up, some more."
Emma and Dwayne finally placed their order, and waited to be served. "Are you okay, Em? That talk about the Baileys must have been a little rough."
She smiled, a little sadly. "Yeah, it was, but I'm okay. At least, they caught one rapist!"
Emma was finishing her toasted cheese, and Dwayne his roast beef, when a man stopped beside their booth. "Mind if I join you folks?"
Emma was up and out of the booth in a flash, and was hugging another middle-aged man. Dwayne couldn't help grinning. "Andi, darling, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I don't believe I've ever been so happy to see somebody!" He paused. "But I guess you're not Andi, are you?"
"Norman, you can call me anything you like, even 'Andi, darling.' Dwayne has seen me hug so many men on this trip, already, that wouldn't faze him one bit. Sit, Norman. And, by the way, Norman, this is Dwayne, my true love since I was 12. Dwayne, this is Norman X. Smith, author of about 50 Western novels. And they are really good."
Norman sat down, and shook hands with Dwayne across the table. "You'll have to forgive her exuberance, Dwayne. She's president of my fan club. It has two members, besides her, so includes everybody that I know of that has read at least one of my books." He looked across at Emma. "So, darling, what is the proper thing to call you?"
"Well, I was Andi when you knew me. My real name is Emma Graham, but call me whatever's comfortable for you. You obviously know about my amnesia?"
"Yeah, after Sheriff Sam told your story, word spread pretty fast, and Harry's been keeping us up to date, since. You're okay, now?"
"I am. There are still a few fuzzy patches in my memory, but Dwayne, Sam, and Maud - kind of my surrogate mom, and Sam's beloved - have been helping a lot. We think all the really hard stuff is done."
"Well, that is great. You know that I'm a great reader, as well as a writer, and I stumbled on a story in the Bismarck newspaper that interested me. It's all about a young woman - Del, I think is her name - who has an amnesia story very much like yours. I didn't know it was that common."
Emma stared at him. "You knew it was me?"
"Well, I didn't know your whole story, but Del's sounded kind of familiar. Besides, I have a pretty good idea about how you talk and think, and the writing sounds just like you. To me, I mean. I suspect there aren't many people who would recognize you in it. I take it you wanted to tell the story, but you didn't want to be remembered in your home town as the girl with amnesia."
"I only know of one person besides you who guessed. She's an English teacher, and she said pretty much the same thing as you did, about my writing style.
"But how about you? Do you have some new ones since I left?"
"Yeah, I suspect I've put out two or three more. I don't seem to run out of plot ideas, or at least ways to manipulate stories and tell them just a little different way. I guess somebody besides you is reading them, because they do disappear out of the book store. Of course, that may just mean that somebody is gathering them up to keep them out of the hands of children.
"On a different subject, I guess you heard they finally got Carl Bailey?"
"Harry told us. It's a terrible way for it to happen, but I'm glad they could finally get a conviction."
"Yeah, this was a bad one, all right. I think even Daddy is sick of him now, and won't try very hard to get him out, or get his sentence reduced."
Dwayne had been suppressing a yawn, but finally couldn't hold it back. "We've had kind of a long day," Emma explained. "I think we better get some sleep. We'll be here for a while tomorrow morning, and are going to visit with Harry, Jim and Tom. We have to be down in Bismarck in the afternoon, to see my attorney about the pig farm business."
"You're still working on that?"
"Probably not. Klavan's is shut down. Harry thinks they're probably operating just about the same, under a different name, and maybe not too far from here. But I don't think any of our evidence is any good anymore, since the old Klavan's doesn't exist. I don't know if we'll do anything else along those lines."
"Well, it's great to have seen you, Andi/Emma darlin', and to meet you, Dwayne. You have a safe trip the rest of the way."
***
As they walked into the diner for breakfast, Emma saw just who she wanted to see, a big man sitting at the counter. "Jared, you knew I was looking for you."
Jared was pretty sure he recognized the voice, but knew if he turned and it wasn't her, he'd be very disappointed. "Andi Oliver, is that you, or am I still asleep, dreaming?"
She kissed him on the back of his neck. "It is I, in person. Turn around and look at me."
He did, and wasn't sorry. He quickly joined the "hugged by Andi" club.
Dwayne and Andi settled in a booth, and Jared brought his breakfast over to join them. Emma introduced Dwayne. "Jared was one of the first people I met in town. He took care of my donkey the first night, and he helped me get the job with Jim Purdy. He's my hero."
Jared almost blushed. "Enough of that soft soaping, young woman. By the way, I learned you were living here under false pretenses, and you're not Andi, at all. You're... Emma, right? Harry told us the whole story."
"Yes, I had complete amnesia while I was here - didn't have a clue about my past life. That made all the help and friendship I got here in town especially important. I had met some nice people in my wanderings, but this was the first place that everybody took me in, and made me feel like I was really part of things."
They talked for a while more - including what seemed to be the obligatory comments on Carl Bailey going to jail - then Jared had to get back to horse-shoeing. Emma stood, and gave him another hug as he left.
They checked out of their room, said their goodbyes and thank-yous to Mrs. Englehart, and walked over to the sheriff's office. Jim and Tom were already there, drinking coffee and eating donuts in the conference room with Harry. Dwayne took a donut and a cup of coffee. Emma declined.
Emma described their visits with Jared and Norman, then talked a little about horse racing. Jim and Tom were still taking their steeds over to Fargo to race, with moderate success. "It's just good we're not trying to make a living with our horses. It might be a while between meals. The horses already eat better than we do."
Emma brought up the mysterious Wayans. "Sam told us about what you'd found out, and about your speculations. Do you really think he was just a crazy stalker, Harry?"
"Yeah, I think so. It bothers me, because it doesn't make a lot of sense, but I guess stalkers who get fixated on somebody don't make sense. When we didn't know your background - your Emma background - then we could speculate on other possibilities. But there's just no way he could have known you before Idaho Falls."
"You don't think he was in cahoots with anybody else?" Tom asked.
"No, the people who knew him in Idaho all describe him as pretty much of a loner. Anyway, even if somebody else was involved, what could it have to do with Andi? There's just no place for any other connection. Kind of unsatisfactory - especially considering all the threats and violence at the end - but I think that's where it's going to end."
He addressed himself to Emma. "You know I'm still not happy with how Wayans died."
"I know, Harry, but I don't know what to tell you, that I haven't already said. I still think I was the target, a second attempt by one of Klavan's assassins. They missed me for a second time because I lunged at Wayans just as he was about to shoot Sam or Dakota. They hit Wayans by mistake. Your reading is that somebody shot Wayans to save me. If so, I didn't know it was going to happen. I thought the original shooter - the one who missed me the first time - had left the area. If it was him, I'm obviously grateful to still be alive, but I didn't have anything to do with it.
"I think I've told you all this before, but let me say it again. He told me his name was Billie. I kind of think it was, but he killed people for a living, so he probably had a lot of names. He told me he was going back to Texas. Again, I sort of believed him, but - well, again, it wasn't to his advantage, in his line of work, to tell the truth about that. His looks were pretty average, I think, and a person can change appearances so many ways - beard or no beard, hair long or short, how the hair is combed, what kind of clothes... Well, you know all this.
"Harry, I get the feeling you think that I want him to get away. If he did kill Wayans, I'm grateful for one humane thing he did. But he's a sniper - a paid killer. He doesn't care who his victims are. He was going to kill me without knowing one thing about me! He doesn't want to know anything about his victims. He doesn't care who wants them dead. All he wants is to be paid. Saving me - if he did - doesn't begin to make up for the others - probably quite a few - that he just wantonly murdered. He needs to be caught, and made to answer for his crimes. I just don't know anything more to tell you."
That put a damper on the meeting. They talked for a while longer, but it was almost a relief when Dwayne suggested they needed to get going to Bismarck. Everybody shook hands with Dwayne, and Emma hugged the three men. As she embraced the sheriff, she whispered, "I really love you, Harry. I wish this wasn't between us." He gave her an extra little squeeze before letting her go.
Emma was pretty subdued in the car. "Pretty tough way to end?" asked Dwayne. She gave him a sad little smile. "Yeah. If I'm really honest with myself, I have to do one more thing. Do you have a piece of paper?" He tore a piece out of a notebook, and handed it to her. She wrote "Grainger" on one side of the paper, folded it over, and wrote Harry's name on the other side. "Would you take this inside for me, Dwayne? You can give it to Harry, if he's the first person you see, but I'd prefer somebody else hand it to him after we're gone."
Dwayne went back into the sheriff's office, immediately came out, and they started their drive to Bismarck. Dwayne looked over at her. "Grainger?" he asked. "Billie's name, the last thing I was holding out on Harry. I've felt a certain loyalty to Billie because he helped me, but I'm a hypocrite. He's a paid killer. He needs to be caught."
He reached for her hand, and held it up to his lips.
***
They arrived at Bobby Del Rey's office on time. He was waiting for them. After being introduced to Dwayne, and after going through the usual rigamarole of deciding what to call Emma, Bobby got down to business.
"I guess you know that our whole case is out the window, now that Klavan's is gone."
"Sheriff McKibbon, up in Kingdom, says they're probably still in business somewhere nearby - new name, but same old operation."
"He may well be right but, in the eyes of the law, it's a whole new business. Our photographs and good witnesses are not relevant to the new operation. I tried pretty hard, Andi, to get a judge to take on the case, but just couldn't find one."
"Wasn't it as good a case as we thought?"
"No, it was a real good case. Court dockets are always crowded, and judges pick and choose which cases they want to take on. In our situation, I think a 'win' would have been almost guaranteed, but Klavan's was just a tiny piece of the really big problem it represents. I think some of the judges I contacted just didn't see a 'win' as leading anywhere.
"The other issue is that - like it or not - factory farming is a big part of our state economy. It doesn't have to be managed as inhumanely as Klavan's, but I think a lot of it is. Some judges wouldn't be willing to take on such a case, just because it might be quite unpopular. I'm not questioning any judge's integrity, but they are elected officials, and I'm sure that has to enter into their decision as to what goes on their docket. Sorry."
"No, it's not a surprise. Beating Klavan was going to be a moral victory - as Dwayne said to me, a gold star in Heaven - but it probably wouldn't have done anything to address the larger issues of animal cruelty, and what we're willing to do to have certain foods. I don't want to give up on the topic, but I need to better define what I'm after.
"Thanks, Bobby, for being interested. I'll get back in touch if we come up with anything."
***
It was late enough in the day that they didn't think they'd gain much by driving any farther. They got a motel room, had a nice dinner, fooled around in bed for quite a while, and finally had a good night's sleep. In the morning at breakfast, they strategized.
"It's almost 2000 miles from here to Santa Fe," Emma observed, "And we only have two stops to make - to see Reuel at Salmon, Idaho, and Mary at Santa Fe. It would be a really long day from here to Salmon. We could probably do it - we're young and tough - but I don't think I want to stay in Salmon. There's not much chance anybody would see me who remembered me there, but there are Harry's crew from the river rafting. I'd hate anybody raising questions about me, and linking me to Harry. I think I'd like to get to town around noon or so, visit with Reuel, and go on to Idaho Falls or somewhere for the night. Does that sound reasonable?"
"I would think so. Where would that put us tonight?"
"Maybe around Bozeman, Montana. I think that would be a fairly easy day from here. It's long, but it's all flat, open highway where everybody drives about 150 miles an hour."
"Okay, but I'm not sure I can guarantee that speed in this rental."
They didn't drive 150 miles per hour, but they made good time going west on the Interstate. At Medora - where Emma had got off the bus, and started her walk to Kingdom - they entered Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and spent a couple of hours watching bison, antelope, a few coyotes, and "four zillion prairie dogs." (The last was Dwayne's estimate, and probably wasn't accurate.) The scenery didn't change much as they entered Montana, and passed through Miles City and Billings (both places Andi had stayed and worked for a while). They followed the Yellowstone River west into the mountains, and arrived at Bozeman in the early evening.
Next morning, they left the Interstate, and took smaller roads over mountain ranges and through open valleys, gradually moving south. They arrived at Salmon just at noon, and went directly to the junk yard, where Reuel worked. Emma pointed out the line of sculptures that Reuel made from hubcaps, other car parts, and miscellaneous junk. It was impressive.
As Dwayne brought the car to a stop, a big man appeared, and walked up to Emma's window. He was too tall to look directly in. Besides, he had his canned greeting prepared.
"You can't dump anything here without a permit' a sticker on your windshield."
"Couldn't you make an exception this one time, big guy," Emma cooed.
The man was quiet for a moment. "Holy angels," he murmured. "I believe I am part of a miracle happening!"
"Well, move away from my door, Reuel, so I can get out and hug you."
He did, and she did. Dwayne got out of his side of the car, and watched. He thought Reuel was getting a far more heartfelt hug than the others had.
"It's really you, Andi. I have missed you, girl."
"And I've missed you."
Reuel caught sight of Dwayne. "So, who's this? Friend of yours?"
"That's Dwayne. He's been following me around for about six years."
"I've almost caught up with her," Dwayne said, and held out his hand. "Nice to meet you, Reuel. I think I brought you the president of your fan club. At least, she's sure been talking like it, all day."
Reuel chuckled. "Well, if she had a fan club, I'd sure be president of hers. But Dwayne, you be careful of this one. She can be a handful."
"I have discovered that."
"Well, just stay diligent. She's full of surprises. Now, nobody just 'passes through' Salmon, so I assume you have a mission, here?"
"Just to see you," Emma said, "And to stay off everybody else's radar. I don't want to stir up any Harry Wine speculations."
"Well, why don't you drive over to the trailer park, and we'll talk a bit. I'll follow you, shortly."
Dwayne turned the car around, and followed Emma's directions to Reuel's trailer. "Wow, another man to hug. Are you ever going to run out?"
Emma looked over at him. "You're not jealous, are you?"
Dwayne laughed. "Not a bit! I love to watch them react to you, and you to them. Remember that I am one of those men, entranced by you beyond all reason. You are a force of Nature - addictive, probably contagious - once met, impossible to forget. Middle-aged men like me and Reuel are especially affected, but what you are spreads a little to everybody you come in contact with."
She had a few tears on her cheeks, but didn't say anything to that.
Reuel arrived shortly after they did, offered beer for Dwayne and Pepsi for Emma - both accepted - then sat down around his picnic table. At Reuel's urging, Emma gave a long account of her journey as Andi, her time on the road and at home with Sam, and the trip that she and Dwayne were taking. Reuel didn't interrupt.
"You've had quite an adventure, girl. A lot of your Andi time must have been very hard."
"It was. I don't think there's any way to explain how you can just go along for a while, then suddenly panic because you have no idea who you are, or where you're going. Luckily, I met some really nice people along the way - starting with you and Mary - and they helped me a lot. Most never knew that I had no idea who I was.
"To get back to the present, is anything happening with the Harry Wine investigation? I don't want to have anything more to do with it, but I'll certainly confess if they're trying to pin it on somebody else."
"That isn't anything you need to worry about. Everybody in the county could be a suspect - nobody's sorry he's dead - but there isn't any evidence to point to anybody in particular. The police have investigated, but not too deeply, if you know what I mean. It'll never be solved, and nobody will care."
"There is one part of the Harry Wine business that Emma's been worrying about," Dwayne began. "When her memory came back, she remembered that he'd taken a lot of pictures of her - the kind of pictures nobody wants taken of them, and the kind they never want anyone to see. Wine taunted her that he was going to put them in his scrapbook, so he'd always remember the occasion. Did he have any scrapbooks?"
"He did and, according to the sheriff, it was some pretty awful stuff. The sheriff went through it quick, just to make sure there wasn't any vital information, then decided that nobody needed to see any of it. He worried about it getting out to the Press, and causing more Wine-created heartaches. He went through all of Wine's possessions - both at his home and at work - and gathered up everything that looked like it might contains photos or other bad stuff. He took every photo he could find, no matter what they showed, and every negative. He riffled through all the books in the place, shaking them to make sure there weren't any papers inserted anywhere. When he was sure he had everything that might contain Wine's work, he brought the whole load over to me at the dump. We built a big, hot fire and cooked everything.
"I suppose we could have got in some trouble - destroying evidence, like that - but we both thought it was worth risking jail, if we could make sure that garbage would never see the light of day."
"I'm sure I'm not the only one who would be appreciative of that, if they knew," said Emma.
"Yeah, well, on a different subject, what's the story of you two? You're traveling together, and you give some evidence that you like one another..."
Emma smiled. "Yeah, we like each other a little bit. We have, since I was twelve. I enlisted Dwayne to help me with some of my projects. He was a rabbit poacher at the time..."
"Whoa. Hold up there for a minute. I'm interested in what your 'projects' were, but the word 'poacher' caught my attention."
Dwayne explained. "That was a sideline of mine for quite a few years. I don't like to hunt - don't believe in killing for fun - but I do believe in killing to keep from starving to death. My dad died pretty young - heart problems. He was a mechanic, like I've become. He didn't have a lot to leave my mom and me, but we did have a house all paid for, which is a lot more than some people can claim. Mom had some medical problems of her own. She worked when she could, but that was intermittent. She really wanted me to finish school, so I could only do odd jobs. That meant that the supper pot was sometimes pretty empty. A rabbit now and again kept us barely going.
"After I finished high school, I was able to get a full-time job, and we did a lot better. But Mom's medicine was expensive, so I kept supplementing the larder with my rabbit hunting. Mom died about a year after I met Emma, and then I gave up the trade."
Reuel shook his head. "I guess we all have our own stories, don't we? Now, Andi, what about these projects you mentioned?"
"Let me start that off," Dwayne interrupted. "At the tender age of 12, Emma was one of the smartest people - of any age - in the county. She got interested in the death of a little girl that had occurred 40 years ago. Nobody had ever thought it was even suspicious, but Em saw some things that just didn't add up in her mind. She eventually proved that it was murder..."
"Well, not exactly the way I thought at first. I think it was a mother getting very angry with her daughter, and going too far. Then, she and her sisters staged a drowning to make it look like an accident."
"That case almost ended in a second death. One of the sisters - clearly insane by then - found Emma at their old house, thought she was the dead girl, and tried to kill her, again. It was a really close call, but another one of Em's old guy friends saved her - really, at the last minute.
"That was only the beginning of Em's sleuthing. I wasn't kidding about how smart she was. Even that young, she had an amazing analytical mind. She could see connections that nobody else could see, and when she got interested in something, she could not be turned aside. I suspect you saw some of that characteristic in Andi?"
"I surely did. Endearing at times, but also pretty scary - that single-mindedness."
Emma made a face at him. "I thought of some of the things 'Andi' did as quite different from how 'Emma' leapt into things. Sam - you met Sam. He's kind of my surrogate father, as well as the sheriff - He says we acted pretty much the same, except 'Andi' had no sideboards. I think he meant that I was kind of naturally restrained by knowing the people and places around me. I was still a little too impulsive for him, but 'Andi'' had no constraints on her. 'She' just dashed ahead."
Anyway," Dwayne went on, "She played a big part in solving a couple of more recent crimes."
Reuel gave a little whistle. "That's quite some story, but - knowing you as Andi - I can see it. But, Dwayne, you still got a 12-year old girl hanging around. What happened since?"
"Well, city folks think us hill people is a little backward, and do some odd things. You know, like marrying our first cousins, or something. That may be, but one thing we don't hold no truck with is a grown man being in love with a pre-teen girl. That just ain't done."
He adopted his regular voice. "So, I just hung around in the background, waiting for her to grow up to legal age. I was going to tell her how I felt when she turned 16, but fate kind of intervened, and I lost my chance for two years."
"When my memory started to come back, Dwayne was one of the first people I remembered. He's helped me a lot, sorting out and dealing with what's happened to me. We've renewed our friendship, without any poached rabbits, and with a rather different take on what 'being friends' means."
"I believe I get your meaning, and I'm happy for you both. So, you're off to where?"
"A long drive to New Mexico to see Mary Dark Hope, then home to 'them mountains.' We probably better get on our way, too. We want to get to Idaho Falls, or maybe a little farther, to make the next days a little shorter."
"Well, there's no way I can tell you how pleased I am to see you, and to know that you're okay. You give my regards to Mary. But you be extra careful, Dwayne. If you think this one is a handful, just watch out when the two of them get together."
***
It was still early when they reached Idaho Falls, so they drove south another hour to Pocatello for the night. The next morning, they continued south into Utah. The country was interesting, but not enough to slow them down. The Interstate was lightly used, except around Salt Lake City, traffic was moving swiftly, and they made good time. Their proposed destination for the night was Green River, but it was still early, so they continued south through Moab (becoming a major tourist spot) to Monticello. It was busy there, also, but they found a room, and had a nice meal, looking out at the sandstone cliffs and canyons the area was famous for. Their final leg was on slower roads through the mountains, but they only had about 350 miles to go, and arrived at Tesuque - just north of Santa Fe - where Mary lived, in the early afternoon.
Emma had told Dwayne about Rosella, the woman Mary lived with. She had been with Mary's family for years, and after Mary's parents had died when their small plane crashed, continued to take care of Mary and her sister. Then, her sister had died, so now it was just Mary and Rosella.
"Don't say too much about Mary's and my adventures. I'm not sure how much she's told Rosella - probably not much, as it was all highly irregular. Rosella had gone off to a meeting at her pueblo, and presumably left Mary in charge of another woman. The woman's "charge" was pretty loose, and she never knew what we did, either."
As Dwayne pulled the car up to the house, a woman came out to see who had arrived. Emma got out, and went to meet her. "Hi, Rosella. Do you remember me?"
"Sure, Andi. How are you? It's been a long time. Come inside, and we can talk."
The house was just as Emma remembered it. It was a good memory. They sat down.
"Mary told me that you had lost all your memory. Is that right?"
"Yes, when I was here, I didn't know who I was, or where I came from. When I told you my name was Andi, it was just a name I invented for myself because I didn't know who I really was. Now, I have my memory back, and I know my real name is Emma Graham."
"That must feel very strange, not to know who you are."
"It is strange. I don't know how to describe it, because it probably isn't like anything else we humans run into.
"Is Mary around?"
"She's in town, but should be here shortly."
Just then, there was a sound by the door. Emma stood up. "Rosella, whose car is that out...?" Mary yelled "Andi!," and raced down the hall and into Emma's arms. She was crying. So was Emma.
Emma stepped back, and held Mary at arm's length. "Mary, you're as tall as I am - and you're beautiful! Well, you were little girl-beautiful before, but now... Wow!"
Greg had come to the same conclusion, as he observed Mary's long, shining black hair, her pretty face, and trim figure.
Mary was assessing Emma, as Emma had looked her over. "You were always beautiful. I sometimes wondered how I could be associating with someone so gorgeous. You're still like that, but different. You're softer, not so driven. It shows in your face and the way you move"
She seemed to catch sight of Dwayne for the first time. "Andi, you brought me a present. Thank you!"
"Whoa, girl. That's Dwayne. You can look and admire, but you can't keep him."
"Oh, shucks." She took Dwayne's hand, and looked back at Emma. "You like him?"
"Very much."
"Is he a good guy?"
"The very best."
"Then, he deserves a real New Mexico greeting." She used his hand to pull him toward her, embraced him in a tight hug, and kissed him on the cheek. Dwayne's arms just seemed to automatically pull her to him.
"Behave yourself, Mary Dark Hope."
Dwayne protested. "You've hugged almost every man in North America in this past week. Am I not allowed even one hug from a pretty girl?"
"One. You've just had it."
Rosella had been standing by, amused. "When you children are finished playing, would you like something to eat?"
"Remembering what a super cook you are, Rosella, I think I can answer yes for all of us," said Emma, enthusiastically.
"Let's go outside for a minute," Mary suggested. She held on to Dwayne's arm. "I'm sorry, Dwayne. I can't keep you, anyway. I have a boyfriend."
"Mary!" Emma exclaimed. "That must be exciting."
"Well, I don't know if he's a long-term, keeper-type boyfriend. But I've never had one before, and he amuses me."
"I bet you amuse him, too," Dwayne observed. She squeezed his arm.
"To change the subject," Emma said, rather pointedly, "I assume you never told Rosella about our little adventure?"
"Are you crazy? Of course not. That is our secret, forever." She paused. "We did have a lot of fun, didn't we?"
"Well, some of it. Some of it, not so much."
"I guess you're right, there. Anyway, here's what I wanted to show you. Hey, Jules."
A large black Labrador had been dozing by Mary's favorite perch. He got up, and ambled over to them. "Jules, you look so good!" Emma exclaimed. "You were skin and bones when we found you, now look at you." She nuzzled his head. "You probably don't remember me. Our time together was pretty brief, but I sure remember you."
Jules may not have remembered her, but he was pleased with the attention. "You remember the Jules story, don't you, Dwayne? We found him being starved, getting ready to be in the dog fights. We rescued him, only to unknowingly put him right back in the hands of the dog fighters. Mary had to go in and rescue him, again."
"Sure, I remember." Dwayne scratched him behind his ear. "He looks terrific."
"How do he and Sunny get along?"
"I think they're pretty good friends. I sometimes see them out here together, laying in the sun."
"Who's Sunny?" Dwayne asked.
"Sunny is a dog, a dog-coyote mix, or a coyote, depending on who Mary is talking to."
"Sunny is a coyote," said Mary. "But a lot of people don't like coyotes, and a lot of people don't believe that a coyote can be friends with a person. For them, I say he's a dog, or a half-dog. It makes everybody feel better.
"Sunny isn't tame. He's a real wild coyote, but he's been showing up here for five or six years, visiting me for a while, then going off, again."
Rosella called them back to the house, where she had warmed up a polenta she'd cooked earlier. It was a hearty concoction of cornmeal, black beans, cheese, and chicken. She had also made a spicy vegetable soup. They ate well.
"Can you stay the night?" Mary asked. "I want to hear all about Andi's travels, and how you finally got your memory back. You can have my bed. You remember it's big enough for two girls. I think you two can fit, but you might have to cuddle."
"We know how to do that, but where will you sleep?" Emma asked.
"I'll crawl in with Rosella, or sleep on the couch. It's only for one night."
Emma looked at Dwayne for his idea. "Our plane doesn't leave until afternoon. I don't see why not."
"Oh, good! It's settled, then."
After they had finished eating, Emma told her story. Because Rosella was listening, she modified the beginning, so that Mary wasn't mentioned. "When I left here, I followed some weak clues that I thought might tell me who I was. I got all the way to Idaho, but didn't really learn anything, except that I probably didn't live there. That was my lowest time of the whole ordeal, because I had absolutely no idea what to do next. As far as I knew, there wasn't anybody who could tell me anything. I got a job as a waitress in Idaho Falls, to make a little money and because I didn't know what to do. Later, I moved on to Montana, worked a little while in Billings and then went to Miles City."
"Why did you go to Montana?" Mary asked.
"I don't really know. I'd been south, so I just decided to go north. I stayed at Miles City until spring - working as a waitress, again - then took a bus into North Dakota. Again, don't ask me why. I didn't have any purpose."
"You were really a lost girl," Rosella observed.
"I really was. I walked to a little town called Kingdom. Two men tried to accost me, and I chased them off with my gun."
"Andi!"
"I know, and that was just the start of it. The Bailey brothers - the guys who stopped me on the road - are really bad people. One of them is in jail now for raping a 15-year old girl. All the time I was in town, they kept threatening me in various ways. I really was scared, and glad I had a gun. Finally, the sheriff issued a restraining order against them - they weren't supposed to come anywhere near me - and that helped, but it was still spooky to always have them around.
"Just after I threatened them with the gun, I stole a donkey..."
"Andi!"
"Well, it was sort of abandoned, and was obviously being mistreated, so I just took it, and walked into town with it. A lady selling vegetables gave me some carrots for Sam - that's what I eventually named him - and told me where I could board him for the night." Emma stopped, and wiped away a tear. "It was the first time anybody had treated me like they cared since Reuel - a man in Idaho.
"Then Jared, the horseshoer, helped me get a job, taking care of horses."
"You don't know anything about horses!" Mary protested.
"You're right, I don't, but how did I know that? I couldn't remember anything. Well, I was pretty bad at the riding part of it - like, I could barely figure out how to get on a horse, let alone stay on one - but Jim Purdy kept me on to help take general care of them. It was a nice job, and I had a really nice room in Jim's house.
"Well, while I was at the horse ranch, I got involved with a factory farm. You know what that is?"
"You mean where they crowd all the animals together in really unsanitary conditions?"
"This operation - it was a hog farm - was sanitary enough, but the hogs were crowded together so they could barely move, and they spent their whole lives just sitting still and getting fat, until they were taken to be slaughtered. It was awful. I got the owners pretty mad at me when I interfered with them. You know how I can jump into things without really thinking them through."
"No, I didn't remember you doing anything without really considering what you were about," Mary said, sarcastically.
Emma made a face at her. "Anyway, when I started gathering information for a law suit, they hired a sniper to kill me..."
"Andi! They did not!"
"Unfortunately, they did. He missed, but just barely. Then, they sent another one. A man I was with - a stalker, who had followed me all the way from Idaho - got killed."
"Wait a minute. First, you're holding off potential rapists with your gun. Then, you're talking about someone being hired to kill you, and now you're talking about a stalker? You had a busy time!"
"I did, and none of it funny. We probably will never know for sure what the guy from Idaho was all about. Before I knew my real background, I thought it might have something to do with my past, and I actually wanted to find out what he knew about me. It seems he really didn't know anything. The sheriff in Kingdom thinks he probably saw me when I was waitressing in Idaho, dreamed up some kind of fantasy about me, and followed me for a year, all the way to North Dakota."
"This is all insane!" was Mary's opinion.
"It was. I really liked it in Kingdom, despite all those troubles, and I really had some good friends. But things were getting just too complicated, so I decided to move on - although I had no idea where I was moving on to.
"Well, let me bring Sam into the story - not Sam, the donkey, but Sam the sheriff from my home town, who had been looking for me for two years. Well, you met him, Mary. You agreed that 'Emma's' handwriting on her postcards was identical to 'Andi's,' and that let Sam know that he was on the right track.
"Sam followed the same clues to Idaho that I had followed, but he ended up just like me - not having learned anything new, and not having any idea what to do next. We were probably in Idaho Falls at the same time, but he didn't see me, and I wouldn't have known him if I did see him. Not knowing what else to do, he had to go home for the winter.
"He had left messages all over the place, and one paid off in the winter. Some of the police in Idaho Falls remembered 'Andi' working there. They got hold of Sam, and he rushed back, but I was already gone. One of the waitresses I worked with knew I'd gone to Billings, Montana, so Sam went there. He found where I'd worked in Miles City and knew I'd got on a bus to North Dakota, but then he ran out of clues, again. Just by luck, he happened to see my name in the paper, because of everything going on at Kingdom. He raced up there, but found I'd already gone, again. Two days later, he saw me walking along the road ahead of him.
"So much happened in the next few days, it's hard to summarize it. I accepted a ride with him - I wouldn't have, normally, but there was a really powerful storm coming, and I did have my gun. We talked, and I liked him, and I ended up riding with him for several days. He asked me all about myself - he knew I had amnesia, of course - and he told me all about his town and the people in it, and especially about 'Emma,' the lost girl he was trying to find. We drove across Minnesota and Michigan, and I started to get little flashes of memory. Part way down into Michigan, it dawned on me that he thought that I was 'Emma.' I finally asked him, and he said yes, and told me about seeing you, and the various clues he had followed, and - of course - the fact he had known me since I was about 10 years old.
"I thought I would be unbelievably happy when I knew who I was, but it was really confusing. I believed him, but my mind couldn't quite grasp it all. I rode all the way back to Maryland with him, he told me a lot more about myself, and more and more memories came back to me. When we got 'home,' I recognized it as home, and then the remembering really speeded up. I met people I'd known before - like Dwayne - and I was well on my way to being 'Emma,' again. It's been almost a year now, and I think I'm pretty much back."
When she finished, there was silence for a few moments.
"You have already lived a lifetime, muchacha," said Rosella. Mary came close, and hugged Emma in a tight embrace. "I wish I could have helped you more, Andi."
"My darling Mary, you helped a lot. You helped Sam get on my trail, and set the whole thing in motion."
Next morning, Rosella made them blue corn pancakes, then they were ready to drive to the airport. Mary had to be at work at the drugstore at noon, so she would ride into town with them.
Emma gave Rosella a hug. "Thank you for sharing your time and your meal with us, and thank you especially for taking care of Mary. She's a special girl, and I think will grow up to be a unique woman."
At the drugstore, they all got out of the car, and exchanged hugs. "What about Jules?" Mary asked. "It was you who especially wanted to save him."
"That may be true, but he's been with you ever since. Obviously, he loves you, and you love him. You want to keep him, don't you?"
"Very much."
"Then, that's settled."
Their plane took off on schedule. It was going to be another flight that included stopping at most of the small airports in the Midwest. They didn't mind. They were on their way home.
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