Page 65 of Three-Inch Teeth

But once the Eagle Mountain closed in late September, it was a ghost village until the following May. There were dozens of magnificent homes that sat empty for the entire winter and the greens of the course were covered by tarps. Elk, mule deer, and moose wintered on the property. Fewer than six homes were occupied during those months.

Which played right into Cates’s plan.

*

WHAT HADN’T PLAYED into his plan was what had happened an hour ago, before they left the Cates compound.

Johnson was in the backseat of the pickup, bitching about having to get up so early. LOR was in the back of the truck beneath the covered bed, starting up the electronic air compressor. The pump hummed and rattled at times like a pressure cooker on a stove as it began the process of filling the two floor-to-ceiling gas cylinders that had been repurposed from LOR’s welding use. It took quite a while to fill the two eighty-cubic-foot tanks.

“Getting up this early really sucks,” Johnson moaned as Soledad slid into the passenger seat next to Cates. Soledad laughed in response.

Cates had started the engine so that the air pump wouldn’t draw down the battery any more than it had. As he reached for the gearshift, Soledad leaned over and placed his hand on Cates’s arm.

“Hold on a second,” he said. “I’ll be right back. I forgot something.”

Cates watched Soledad propel himself across the yard toward the front door.

After a half a minute, Cates got out. He wanted to tell LOR in back to open the slider between the rear window and the covered topper over the bed so they could communicate. He could see LOR systematically checking pneumatic hoses and gauges on the device by flashlight.

Then, from inside the house, there were two sharp sounds followed by two more.

Snap-snap. Then: Snap-snap.

Cates paused. The sounds were familiar to him.

A moment later, Soledad appeared at the front door smoothing the hem of his jacket in the front and back as if he’d just tucked something into his waistband.

Soledad looked up and saw Cates observing him. They kept eye contact from the porch back to the pickup, but Cates said nothing.

“Had to be done,” Soledad said.

“Twenty-two?” Cates asked.

“Double-taps.”

Cates looked over to see if Johnson or LOR had noted the gunshots or the exchange he’d had with Soledad. LOR was still scrambling around the equipment in the back like a monkey, his flashlight gripped in his mouth. Johnson huddled in the far corner of the backseat with a blanket she’d borrowed from her bed over her head. Neither showed any cognition of what had just happened.

He guessed that the rattling hum of the air pump might have drowned out the snap sounds from inside.

“I wish you’d talk to me about these things,” Cates said in a low rumble.

“Like I said, it had to be done. You know that, too.”

*

“SIX HUNDRED TWENTY-EIGHT PSI,” LOR announced as Cates entered the club grounds by the obscure river road that was used by local cowboys to move cattle on the pastures near the river. The road was virtually unknown to members of the club and most of the staff. It was the route Cates and his buddies had used to steal all the flags. Some of which, he guessed, still adorned basement wet bars in town.

There were three ways to access the gated property, Cates knew. The main gate had a guardhouse as well as closed-circuit cameras. In the offseason, members could enter by key code, but every entrance and exit by vehicle or foot was recorded. It was the same situation at the service entrance on the other side of the golf course.

But the river road had no gates, no cameras, and no security system.

*

WHEN CATES DROVE out of the tangled riverside brush and downed trees onto the manicured Eagle Mountain grounds, everything opened up and he could see clearly. The clubhouse was huge, dark, and boxy at the top of the hill and was flanked by empty cottages and visitor lodging. Showy homes lined the outside of the fairways surrounding the course, and old-growth pine trees stood like sentinels to break up the contours of the long fairways.

He took a paved narrow golf cart path and ascended a long slope on the left flank of the clubhouse facilities until he could see the back side of the lighted front gate.

Cates pulled over to the side of the road and turned to address Bobbi Johnson.

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