The North Face of the Heart - Dolores Redondo Page 0,177

get caught. He’s perfectly capable of masquerading as an upstanding citizen to his dying day. He’s not looking for notoriety, because he already has his place. He’s a demon hunting down vulnerable souls. Not only does the bastard abduct them, he carries them off like hunting trophies to this miserable shack. And that’s only the start of their suffering.

“Do you have any idea how many names are going to appear on the official list when they eventually draw up the death toll for Katrina? Dozens? Probably hundreds? Think of it: this is the perfect time to make someone disappear. That’s how he built his empire. That’s how he keeps feeding his evil desires. He’s a vampire lurking in the darkness.”

She paused and met Dupree’s steady gaze. She knew she’d recapped every point of his lecture on victimological profiling and Sherrington’s pioneering work. She summed it all up. “His satisfaction and pleasure are the same as those of the devil: they come from the fact that we don’t believe he exists.”

While listening to Amaia, the traiteur had visited the corpses one by one. He stepped up very close to Amaia, bent forward, and took one of her hands. Behind him Amaia saw Dupree’s silent figure in the doorway. For some reason, she suddenly felt terribly ashamed.

Amaia recoiled and almost snatched away her hand, as if she had a premonition that the contact provided the traiteur access to an intimate, half-forgotten secret she desperately needed to hide. But the man held her hand firmly and retained it in a steely grip astonishing for someone so slim. He covered her hand with both of his, as if wrapping it in a broad, heavy blanket.

Truth burst from her with torrential force. “There was a day that a raging storm saved my life.”

65

IPAR

Elizondo

The girl burned with fever, trapped in a delirious dream in the shelter of the enormous beech. Her devoted dog stayed at her side and licked away the tears that squeezed beneath her lids.

Amaia was inhaling flour. The finely ground powder with its primal mineral tang infiltrated her windpipe, blocked her sinuses, and made her struggle for air. She knew she shouldn’t inhale, but when she desperately tried to breathe, the flour that covered her body also filled her throat, soaked up saliva, and became a sticky paste that made her gag. “I don’t want to die! I’m only a little girl!” Every syllable of that stifled cry drew more of the choking, sticky mass into her lungs. Her very cries for help were killing her. A thunderclap left her half deaf. Her consciousness faded. She was sure the end had come, but then moist, warm hands pushed the flour from her face. She blinked in confusion.

“Today’s the day, little vixen,” Rosario leered at her. “Ama’s going to eat you up tonight.”

Amaia screamed in terror, and the shriek that tore her throat interrupted the nightmare. She shuddered awake in the dark of the forest. She couldn’t see a thing. She thought she must be dead. Deathly cold and delirious with infection, she heard only her own hoarse screams. Her anguished voice was that of a stranger.

Ipar’s frantic barking brought her back. Reality intruded. She realized she was lost in the forest and that she was going to die. She was going to be eaten alive.

Scrabbling against the rough bark of the great beech, she made it to her feet. She blindly clutched Ipar’s furry neck before taking her first step.

“Let’s go, Ipar,” she commanded him in that unrecognizable voice.

The dog resisted. He tensed and refused to advance.

Amaia sank to her knees, embraced him, and pleaded. “Please, Ipar, please come on. Let’s go. Please!”

Holding fast to his collar, she stumbled forward. This time Ipar didn’t resist. He stayed close to his mistress’s side but looked back several times, as if trying to signal to the lord of the forest he had no other choice.

Amaia couldn’t see a thing. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, to see if it made any difference when she opened them again. Ipar guided her steps and managed to keep her from running into the trees. She felt their benevolent, looming presence as she stepped past, but she found herself constantly stumbling over roots, rocks, and the uneven ground. She lost her footing, and Ipar leaped in front of her to cushion her fall and keep her from sprawling headlong. She cried out at the sudden pain in her knees and thighs. She sobbed in anguish and fright.