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Maureen walked into the Beck County sheriff's station around 6 a.m., immediately walking to the cell where Mark slept.

"I didn't want to leave the house in the middle of the night or else I would have come earlier. You want to go fishing?"

"Sure."

On the way out the front door, Wyandt handed Mark his shoelaces.

"You want to get your car?" she asked as she started her Bronco.

"It can wait."

"Destination Hawk Mountain."

She floored the jeep out of the gravel lot and headed toward mountain that loomed in the foreground.

 
They parked the truck and hiked up the stream, towing their gear.

"This is what it's all about," she said to Mark in passing as they hiked past a miniature spring that poured cold and fast from somewhere inside the mountain.

Playfully, she tossed a couple handfuls at Mark, who was off somewhere else-- lost in his thoughts.
"Now maybe we should catch a fish or two."

"If there are any left," Mark said as they came upon the part of the Saucony where they were going to fish, "shit when I was here in 81 about the only thing besides you that I really, really liked was the fishing."

"Well, after that battery acid started seeping out of the mountain and into the creek the fish were hit pretty hard for quite a few years......

"I read a lot about it when I was at Penn State.

"It's nice to know you didn't forget about us completely. You could have answered one of my letters ...."

"It was a mistake; I was young I didn't like living with your father and the rest of the assholes that run this town ... I always cared about you-- as long as I can remember."

And their brand of trout fishing in America began; their flyfishing rhythm were remarkably similar and the motions seemed to create a little bit of mystic hypnotism in them both. They smiled.

After about 5 casts apiece, Maureen hooked a fish-- her rod dipped sharply. A sizeable Rainbow-- its skin glistening like a spectrum-- leaped from the water, dancing and splashing and looking like the two pound slab of muscle it was.

"It's a little like American Sportsman," he said to her as she was bringing the fish to land in her net.

"I told you the fish would be back!"

Maureen unhooked the trout as she held it in the water, letting it catch its breath before she let it swim away; downstream it went, away from the battery plant. "I know where they raise these guys in tanks, we'll get our dinner there. Who knows this one could be the last one left in the stream."

They spent another two hours fishing and then hiked back down but not before taking a rest at the spring again.

"What's going on inside that head of yours, Mr. Davidson?"

"Oh, I've been doing a lot of thinking lately.

"Yeah,, about what?"

"A lot of things: my employee's missing brother; How many murders have they gotten away with completely? What do you think? How many dead at this Church's hands? Maureen, do you ever look around and notice how often the dead walk with us?"

"Of course I've thought about it. Dennis's brother was here. Lloyd asked me not to talk about it after he saw Dennis show up at the house last night; if you would've asked me about it at the store I would have told you all about it. Fuck, if you would asked a half hour before; I would have told you. The guy's name is Raymond McPherson, he was here making little movies when he wasn't teaching college; he went out with Jennifer Johnson for awhile... and then he upped and took off.

"You have any idea the last time Jennifer saw Dennis's brother?"

"Not really but I roughly remember running into her at the Farmer's Market-- we really don't run into each other all that much anymore-- I remember her telling me that the guy she was seeing took off. A black stranger shows up in Kurtzville with a movie camera he gets noticed, you know?"

"You think your friend will talk to me and Dennis?"

"She was pretty hot about the guy taking off but wow if he was hurt or something like that, I'm sure she'll help you out plenty. She's a nice woman, just has too many responsibilities that I don't have. Kids. I don't know if any of the men I know are capable of murder but they sure as fuck were capable of destroying my womb. I can't have kids. After you ran off......

"I went to college."

"You walked to Topton in the middle of the night and boarded a bus to State College."

"Nobody was real upset about it."

"You should have called. "

"I was hoping you'd forgive me."

"Frankly, my love, some things happened to me the year after you left and I can't help but thinking that had you not left those bad things would not have happened? You know?"

"What happened?"

"I'm not ready to talk about it."

"You've had 300k sitting in trust, waiting for you since your mom died, why stay?"

"Grenden is the church's lone trustee now that my father's dead; once he goes, all the church's property goes back into another trust where it is to remain until the church is rebuilt again. I plan on stealing that money from the trust."
"The way I see it, the church owes me damages...."

They embrace and the picture fades out.

An hour and a half later he dropped her off at her house. He watched her kiss Lloyd on the cheek as she walked in the front door.

Lloyd pulled her back and kissed her hard.
 
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