Egan, page 9
He watched her go, so sorry for what she was going through, but, as for her evil sister, Cherry was something else. “So, you’re alienating your sister because she didn’t realize that you had avoided the truth, and now you’re implicating somebody else? Good job,” he quipped. “I’ll be sure to tell Ted, and the word will reach the colonel.” And, with that, he turned to walk away.
He almost didn’t feel the blow, but the second one was hard to mistake. He turned around and caught her fist, as it came back at him a third time. He just held it tight, glaring down at her. She was almost spitting fire and snapped in between the bouts of profanity.
“You’ve got nothing to do with this. If you hadn’t gotten in my sister’s face, or is it her pants,” she cried out crudely, “none of this would have happened.”
“What? Your boyfriend wouldn’t be dead?” he asked, giving her a hard shake, “I wasn’t even here. Remember? That man died, and you didn’t give a shit. As long as you could screw somebody else, you were fine. But the minute anybody asks you for the truth, so they could narrow down a time of death and figure out what happened to the poor sap, you choose not to volunteer any information. And, in fact, blatantly lied about it.”
As he was just winding up, ready to blast her again, as a hard voice spoke from behind him. “Egan.”
Egan immediately stopped speaking and glared down at her again, before turning to face Magnus. “She threw two punches,” he stated. “This is me stopping the third.” And he took a step back, throwing her arm away. “She’s on the rampage now, including one misdirected at her sister for Cherry’s own shitty behavior. I’m not dealing with her anymore.” And, with that, he turned and he walked away, leaving Magnus to stare in disgust at Cherry. Egan couldn’t hear what was said because Egan was no longer interested. As far as he was concerned, this whole scenario had just gone from bad to worse.
When he walked into the kitchen, Berry walked over and said, “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t handle it.”
“That’s fine. Don’t worry. It got much worse after you left.” Then he quickly explained.
She stared at him in shock. “She hit you?”
He nodded and frowned. “Twice in the back, and, when I turned around, she was winding up for a third. I stopped it, but yeah. Is she always this physically abusive when her verbal abuse isn’t enough?”
She shook her head. “No, she must be really worried about something.”
“Either Cherry’s afraid that she’s guilty of something or she’s afraid that people will think she is. Or she killed him, and now she’s afraid of getting caught,” he snapped. And then he took a slow deep breath, holding up his hand. “Sorry, it’s not you I’m pissed at. She spewed some awfully crude things.”
“No, I get it,” Berry replied, her voice small. “I’m sorry too because I feel as if I started this.”
He shook his head at that, then stepped over and picked up a plate. “It’s not your fault. Stop taking on Cherry’s guilt,” he stated. “If she would have told the truth from the beginning, there wouldn’t have been any discrepancy in her statements. Since then she’s just gone straight downhill.”
“I don’t remember her ever being this bad before,” Berry muttered.
In silence, they each served up an early morning breakfast on their plates, as other people filtered in. Egan pointed toward a table off to the side. Berry nodded, and they quickly sat down. It was close quarters, and there wasn’t a whole lot of privacy to talk, which was fine with him. He was still quite pissed off, so it was best that he cool down before he discussed Cherry with Berry.
When Magnus joined them a few minutes later, he looked over at Berry and stated, “Your sister is confined to the medical quarters for the moment.”
She winced and nodded slowly. “I’m really sorry that she lost control.”
“The question is why?” he asked, his gaze intent. “Now it’s nothing major, but I have a few questions for you that need answering.”
She nodded immediately and replied, “I’m happy to help. I don’t know what I can do about her though.”
“Does your sister have a history of drug use?”
She stared at him in shock, her jaw dropping. Then she slowly shook her head. “No, no, not at all, no way. Why would you suggest that?”
“Because Cherry’s behavior points to drug abuse,” he stated.
Berry sat back and swallowed hard. “If she did, if she was, … I think I would know about it. However, I don’t recognize the woman she is right now,” Berry admitted. “So I guess I don’t have any good answers.”
“But you’ve never seen her use?”
“No, not at all.” And she hadn’t, she really hadn’t, so the suggestion obviously had shaken her.
Yet for Egan, it made a lot of sense. “Not only drug use,” Egan added, “what about withdrawal?”
“Exactly. I also have Richard, Cherry’s latest friend, talking to Ted right now,” Magnus pointed out carefully. “Ted was not terribly impressed with me for getting him out of bed early.”
“Yeah, well, in this case,” Egan snapped, “better to strike while the iron is hot than to wait another week for people to get around to giving us the information that we need.”
At that, Magnus nodded. “Keep up the good work.” And he promptly left.
“Keep up the good work?” Egan repeated, as he looked around the dining room, getting more and more packed and noisier by the second. “What work? Be a punching bag for an angry woman?” He looked at Berry and added, “Looks to me as if all I’ve done is raise Cain.”
“And maybe that’s what was needed,” Berry admitted in a worried voice. “It scares the crap out of me to think that people are looking at my sister as if she could be a drug abuser.”
“Which is why she’ll be detained in the medical clinic.” He eyed Berry and explained further, “In case you didn’t make that connection, they’ll be testing Cherry’s blood for drugs, and I’m guessing you can imagine the rest.”
Berry swallowed hard and then nodded. “Thank you, and, no, I hadn’t really put that together.”
“How about Yegorahn? Any idea if he did drugs?”
Still shocked, Berry stared at Egan and shrugged. “I’m probably the last person to ask. I don’t really know anybody who does drugs,” she replied cautiously. “So I don’t really understand what I might be seeing, but I would have said no as to Yegorahn using drugs as well. I don’t know what the rest of his team would say.”
Egan didn’t say anything for a long moment, just quickly finished his meal. When he looked over at her, he smiled and added, “At least while Cherry’s under medical care, they can figure it out. … Maybe it’s just grief. I don’t know. It hits all of us in very different ways.”
“That’s true.” Berry grasped onto that idea with relief.
Egan didn’t think she’d grasp onto it for very much longer, but, as long as he gave her some peace for the moment, that would be good.
“I guess I can’t go see her, can I?”
“I’m thinking you should wait, at least until Cherry’s gone through the testing, so the doc can figure out a little more about what’s happening. Maybe your sister will be ready to talk to you then. Obviously she’s very angry right now at everyone,” he stated, “and that’s not a good time to talk.”
“No, but it is a good time for her to spout out some truths that she may not be willing to say at any other time,” Berry pointed out. At his raised eyebrows, she shrugged. “Nothing like family to push your buttons.”
“And here I thought I was pushing her buttons pretty damn hard,” Egan noted.
She smiled at that. “Maybe, but Cherry saw me too at the same time. Plus I’m the one who walked away from her and got another room. She is no doubt simmering right now.”
“And would she have taken that personally?”
“I don’t know,” Berry admitted, “but I couldn’t be in the same room with her. She has become very unruly and aggravating. She just wouldn’t give me any peace, so I knew I couldn’t even be in there,” she explained. “I was rather desperate when I went to Dave and asked for a new room assignment.”
“Did you absolutely need to?”
“Yeah, even given the state of my new room. The one I’m in now is cold as hell frozen over, and I can’t necessarily even have it full-time. Dave repeatedly told me that I only get it as long as they don’t need it for anything else.”
“Exactly.”
“What about Steve, Richard’s roommate?” she asked. “Shouldn’t somebody talk to Steve, as well as Richard?”
“I was going to mention that to Ted, if Magnus hasn’t already,” Egan stated. “I’ll go talk to him now. … Look. I don’t know when I’ll see you again, but just … take it easy, okay?”
She nodded, with the hint of a smile.
With that, he got up nimbly and took off.
Day 5, Later That Morning
Berry wandered the military base for most of the morning, trying to find things to keep her busy. When she finally headed to the dogs in desperation, Joe looked up at her and frowned.
She frowned right back but walked over to the beautiful Bella, who was always willing to cuddle. Finally she turned to face Joe and spoke. “Look. I don’t know what the hell is going on, but—”
Joe nodded. “Yeah, I hear Cherry attacked Egan in the hallway.”
Berry winced. “I didn’t tell you that.”
“No, somebody else saw it. Actually I understand several somebody elses saw it.” Joe smirked. “And Egan will never hit a woman, but she landed several blows on his back, which the brass won’t take very well.”
“Right.” Berry groaned. “I don’t know what’s come over her. It could be just … I know people don’t want to believe it, but it could be grief.”
“Could be,” Joe acknowledged. “Grief gets to people in all kinds of ways. The thing is, she started this, and she brought it on herself, so it’s hard to have any sympathy for her.”
Berry winced again because he was right and because his opinion would be the popular one as well. That would just make it crazy around here. One good thing that did come out of this mess was that people were no longer stepping out of their way to get around Berry, so it might make her life a little easier while she was here.
As she headed back to base several hours later, she saw Mountain coming from the generator room. They met inside the anteroom to the main building on base, where they were taking off their heavy winter gear. She stepped closer and asked, “Any other problems out there?”
He shook his head. “It’s all clear at the moment.”
“What about finding Amelia?”
“I just returned from a two-day search. As soon as the weather breaks again, I’ll head out in the opposite direction.”
She winced. “Surely she can’t still be alive.”
“Yes, she absolutely can be,” he stated. “She’s spent several winters up here. If anybody could do it, I would put my money on her.”
“I’m glad you feel that way,” Berry replied, “because at least then you’ll be fighting for her.”
“Absolutely I’ll fight for her,” he confirmed, “but then I’m well-known for fighting for the underdogs.”
“I’m sorry about my sister.”
“Don’t you be sorry,” Mountain told her gently. “Your sister is responsible for her own actions. She gets to sink or swim on her own behavior. You’re not responsible for her choices or actions.”
“And yet it feels that way up here,” she muttered, looking around. “For a while there I wasn’t sure if I would be permanently ostracized too because everybody was avoiding me.”
“As people sort out which one of you two is the problem, they’ll make their own decisions. Keep your nose clean, and you’ll be fine.”
And with that, he was gone, leaving Berry to spend the rest of her day in her new room. Better to stay apart from the others on the base, other than Joe and Chef, while people here made up their minds as to Berry and Cherry.
*
Day 6 Wee Hours of the Morning
Egan woke up in the middle of the night, hearing a strong heavy wind but also an odd banging going on. Wondering just what he heard—and disturbed enough that no way he could go back to sleep—he got out of bed and quickly dressed.
It was only four in the morning, a godforsaken hour, but if that banging noise was the locker room or the storage room door or one of the exterior doors, they couldn’t afford both the loss of heat or the winter weather coming in.
As he made his way to an exterior door, he met Magnus.
Magnus nodded. “Not just my imagination, is it?”
Egan shook his head. “What the hell is that?”
“I don’t know,” Magnus replied. “I couldn’t sleep because I kept hearing it.”
“Is it here by the sleeping quarters?”
“No, sounds as if it’s coming from that way”—Magnus pointed—“back somewhere near the kitchen.”
“In the storeroom? That’s where Berry is bunking now.”
Magnus stared at hearing that info.
“She asked for another room assignment because of the problems with her sister.”
“Yet her sister is still in the medical clinic and isolated,” Magnus noted.
“I had heard that and told Berry that before bed last night, as she seemed quite depressed. She’s looking for as many answers as the rest of us.”
“Yeah, but I can tell you that they won’t be good ones.”
“Shit, I figured as much,” Egan muttered.
The two headed down to where the banging was, and, when they got there, through a series of doors, they found the hinges on the exterior door had snapped. Battling against the storm elements blowing hard outside, they finally managed to get the door shut, and, using some sturdy wood beams and some nearby tools, they managed to get it closed and to keep it that way.
As Egan turned and caught his breath, Magnus studied the hinges. “What’s the matter?” Egan asked.
“I’m seeing if the hinges snapped.”
“The storm could do that, couldn’t it?”
But Magnus took a closer look and shook his head. “Come look for yourself. I’d say they were pried off.”
After Egan’s inspection too, he groaned. “Damn, they sure were.” His tone grim, he turned and looked around. “I imagine that some of our food supplies are gone.”
“That won’t make Chef very happy,” Magnus noted, as he turned to study what appeared to be a full contingency of canned food and baking goods on the shelving unit alone, but, with as many people as they had on base, it was quite possible that some foodstuffs were missing. Chef would need to run an inventory to confirm any shortages.
“We do have fewer people here, now that we don’t have Anna or anybody else from the scientists’ camp here with us,” Egan added.
“Right, and, because of the weather, Chef has been trying to keep the food staples stocked up fairly consistently, rationing his stash when needed, just in case we won’t get any supplies in for a while.”
“And that isn’t what any of us want to hear either,” Egan noted, with half a smile.
“No, but people here can make do with less, if need be, when it comes to that,” Magnus stated, “but too much cutting back wouldn’t be good.”
“So, who the hell would be breaking in here, looking for supplies? Locals?”
“Maybe.”
“The scientists’ camp?” Egan suggested.
“Not supposed to be anybody there,” Magnus stated. “I’m kinda curious as to what’s missing, if anything.”
Egan nodded. “Right, it would help to know if it’s something that people here can be eating on their own, such as granola bars and snack stuff, versus food that needs to be cooked. And, for that, we’ll have to get Chef to do an inventory.
Magnus nodded. “We do, but do we want to wake him up now?”
“I’m already awake,” Chef growled behind them. “What the hell happened in here?” He glared at Magnus and Egan, Chef’s hair was sticking up all over, as if he’d just rolled out of bed. Plus he hugged a huge coat around him. “Shouldn’t be this cold in here,” he muttered, as he wandered around, staring at foodstuffs.
“Can you tell if anything’s missing?” Magnus asked him.
At that, he stiffened and turned to look at the two men. “Are you expecting something to be missing?”
“Looks as if the exterior door was pried open.”
He shook his head at that. “What? Now who the hell would give a shit about food you’ve got to cook?”
“Is that what’s here?”
“Yeah, aside from the quick stuff, I use this area to store baking supplies, canned goods, and such,” Chef explained. “It’s not where I keep the meat or any of the fresh materials, not that we have any lately,” he added, with an eye roll. “You’re sure about the door?”
“No, not positive,” Magnus admitted. “I need better light to be sure. So, come daylight, we’ll check for tracks. Although, if that’s a storm out there, the tracks need to be checked out now.”
At that, Egan looked over at Magnus. “Let me go get dressed and in some outdoor gear. Then I’ll go out and take a look.”
“Not alone,” Chef snapped, a bit too quickly. “Particularly if we think this was a break-in,” he muttered. “God damn this mess.”
“Yep. Let me get my gear.”
“I’ll get started on the inventory.”
With that, the other two men headed to get into their winter gear. When Magnus and Egan stepped outside of the outerwear anteroom, they went around to the back of the building, near the kitchen exit and the generator shed, checking out the area, while Chef was inside counting supplies. When they reentered the kitchen via another rear door, Egan joined Chef and asked in frustration, “Anything missing?”
