Page 69 of Fire Peak

As expected, Pinky unleashed a torrent of stories about Firelight Ridge and why the place was so special—in terms of sacred geometry. “It’s the lay lines, see,” he kept saying. “We’re the eye of the dragon here. It’s very powerful. That’s why we’re still here, no matter how hard they try to get rid of us.”

It was hard getting in a word edgewise, but Nick eventually managed to steer the conversation to the man from last night.

“You mean the one asking me about the old hardware store?”

A chill went down Nick’s spine. “The one where Lila lives?”

“Well sure, now, but it used to be Bulldog’s. He’s the one who put the plumbing in and made it all fancy.”

Nick was pretty sure neither Lila nor her friends considered the place fancy. But still—it was big news that Bulldog used to live there. “Bulldog…you mean April’s…partner?”

“Ain’t no other Bulldog that I know of.”

“So she lived there too. In the hardware store, with Bulldog.”

“Well, sure. They both lived there and whew boy, did they fight. You could hear their fights up and down Pioneer Boulevard. I had to put earmuffs on, back when I lived in town.” He lowered his voice. “Poor old Bulldog. We found him one winter frozen into a snowbank and half-eaten by wolves. April was all torn up about it. She really loved him.”

“But you said they fought.”

“Yeah, but winters can be tough here. I never could find a woman who wanted to stick.” Pinky shook his head with a frown.

Another scenario was forming in Nick’s mind, one he didn’t like one bit. Had April killed Bulldog? Was someone here to blackmail her about it—maybe that’s what the Chechens were doing?

“Have you ever heard about someone named Vasily?” he asked Pinky.

“Bulldog’s buddy?”

Nick sat up straight. Now things were definitely getting interesting. If Bulldog and Vasily had been friends, that strengthened the suspicion that he was back in Firelight Ridge trying to blackmail April.

“What do you know about Vasily?”

“Came and went, liked to hunt around here, that’s about it. Hasn’t been back in years, but I guess this place would be nothing but bad memories with his buddy gone. Everyone said Bulldog should have waited for Vasily before he went hunting that time. Bulldog knew his way around the wilderness well enough, but even an expert can get lost. Happens more than you know. I was one of the ones who found him. I’ll never forget it.”

“Was there an investigation?”

“Nah, not really. Nothing to go on. Didn’t look like a crime. No one asked me shit, and I was the one that took his body into Blackbear. April got real freaked out after that. Didn’t leave the hardware store hardly at all for the rest of the winter. After that, she went up the mountain and started building that lodge.”

So many questions came to mind, Nick didn’t know where to start.

One big question…why was the Chechen (if it was him) interested in the hardware store?

“What did that man ask about the hardware store?”

“If he could tour it, like it was a museum. Who lived there now so he could ask them.”

“Did you tell him anything?”

“Nah. He’s a stranger. He picked a bad stool to sit on. That’s the stool where Muffin Top had a heart attack. It’s got bad juju, and he sat right down on it. You can’t trust someone like that.”

God love Pinky.

“Do you think there’s any photos around here of Bulldog? Or Vasily, for that matter?”

He wasn’t sure how much any photo would help, over forty years later, but you never knew.

“Sure.” Pinky gestured at the wall behind the bar, where a few vintage photos in old frames were propped on a dusty shelf between ancient tequila bottles and artifacts from the pioneer days, like an old ceramic bread box and a leather pouch in which an early explorer had stored sourdough starter. Hence the nickname “sourdoughs” for old-timers like Pinky.

After he got Bear’s attention, the bar owner slid a photo from one of the frames and handed it to him.

---