Day of Confession - Allan Folsom [197]
Crossing behind the station, Eaton came onto the tracks with his back to the open gate. In front of him he saw the white-haired, white-shirted stationmaster standing on the platform watching the work engine near the freight car. The man was a problem, as was the two-man crew he’d seen on the engine. But none of them were half the problem he saw now. Adrianna, suddenly, and from nowhere, was crossing the grassy hill toward Harry Addison and the dwarf.
He saw Harry stop when he saw her. Then heard him yell something, as if to tell her to go away. But it made no difference. She kept coming, and now she reached them and was moving alongside, looking at the dwarf in Harry’s arms then back to Harry himself. Whatever she said or was saying, Harry Addison kept going, heading downhill, toward the tracks.
“Dammit,” Eaton swore under his breath, his eyes moving off again, searching for Father Daniel.
“ADRIANNA, GET OUT OF HERE! You don’t know what the fuck you’re doing!” Harry yelled, half stumbling with Hercules in his arms.
“I’m going with you, that’s what the fuck I’m doing.”
They were almost at the bottom of the hill. Almost to the tracks. Harry could see the green work engine nose to nose with the freight car, its engineer and brakeman with their backs to them working at the couplings. Saw the white-haired stationmaster turn and go back inside.
“Your brother’s in the freight car, isn’t he? The trainmen don’t know it, but that’s where he is.”
Harry ignored her. Kept walking, praying the trainmen wouldn’t look up and see them. Hercules grunted and Harry looked down at him. The dwarf smiled feebly.
“The Gypsies are going to meet the train when it stops…. Don’t let the police have me, Mr. Harry…. The Gypsies will bury me…”
“Nobody’s going to bury you.”
Suddenly the trainmen were walking away from the coupling, moving toward the engine.
“They’re getting ready to leave!” Immediately Harry was pulling Hercules tight to his chest. Starting to run the short distance to the tracks. Adrianna stayed right with him.
Ten seconds later they were there. Crossing the tracks behind the freight car, running alongside it, out of sight of the trainmen.
Harry’s eyes watered, his lungs on fire from the smoke and exertion of carrying Hercules. Where the hell were Danny and Elena? What had happened to Roscani? Then they were at the freight car door and he stopped. It was open.
“Danny. Elena—“
No reply.
Suddenly the train whistle sounded. They heard the engine’s diesel rev up. A puff of brown-black exhaust rising from its smokestack.
“Danny—,” Harry called again. Nothing.
Again the train whistle. Harry glanced at his watch.
11:00 A.M. exactly.
No time, they had to get into the car and do it now.
“Get in.” Harry looked quickly to Adrianna. “I’ll hand him up.”
“All right—“
Putting both hands on the freight car’s floor, Adrianna pulled herself up and in. Then she turned and Harry set Hercules in her arms.
The dwarf coughed, grimacing as she strained to lift him. Then she had him up, and Harry was coming into the dimly lit car behind her. Suddenly he froze.
Thomas Kind stood directly in front of him. Elena was with him, eyes wide with fright, an ugly machine pistol to her head.
160
11:04 A.M.
SCALA LEANED ON THE HOOD OF ROSCANI’S blue Alfa, a set of binoculars trained on the distant gates. All he could see was the slight bend of the tracks as they curved inside the wall and a small part of the station but that was all. Behind it everything, despite the new breeze, was still thick smoke. Castelletti stood halfway down the tracks in front of him, staring at the same gape in the wall. Despite the wail of sirens, they had heard the gunshots, and as much as they knew their job was to wait for the train to come out and follow it to where it stopped, both had to work with all they had not to rush in after Roscani. But they couldn’t, and they knew