The Gorgon Field Read Online Free PDF

the afternoon ended, he found himself bird-watching. Almost angrily, he got to his feet and started to walk among the gorgons, looking for Constance. She had been gone for nearly two hours. Abruptly, he stopped, even more angrily. She had asked him to wait, not come after her. He glanced about at the formations; it was like being in a red sandstone forest, with the trunks of stone trees all around him casting long black shadows, all pointing together at the other end of the valley, pointing at the spillway the stream had cut. It was too damn quiet in here. He found his way out and stood in the shade, looking at the entire valley lying before him. The late sun turned the cascade into a molten stream. He was too distant to see its motion; it looked like a vein of gold in the cliffs. He raised the binoculars and examined the valley slowly, then even more slowly studied the spillway. He swore softly and sat down in the shade to wait for Constance and think.
    When she finally appeared, she was wan and abstracted. “Satisfied?” he asked, and now there was no anger in his voice, only concern.
    She shook her head. “I’m trying too hard. Want to start back?”
    Manuel came with the horses, guaranteed gentle and safe, he had assured them earlier, and he had been right. They rode slowly, not talking. Night fell swiftly after the sun went down. It was nearly dark when they reached the house and their room again. Would they like dinner served in their room? Manuel had asked, and, after looking at Constance, Charlie had nodded.
    “Can you tell me what you’re doing?” he asked her after Manuel had left them.
    “I don’t know.”
    “Okay. I thought so. I think I’m onto something, but I have to go to Denver. Will you fly out in the helicopter, or should we plan a couple of days and drive?”
    “I can’t go,” she said quietly, and added, “Don’t press me, please.”
    “Right. I’ll be back by dark. I sure as hell don’t want to try to fly in here blind.” He grinned with the words. She responded with a smile belatedly.
    He summoned Manuel, who nodded when Charlie asked about the helicopter trip. “ Si . When do you want to go?”
    And Manuel was not at all surprised that he was going alone, he thought grimly after making the arrangements. Constance went to bed early again. He stood regarding her as she slept and under his breath he cursed Deborah Rice and her father and Ramón. “You can’t have her!” he said silently.
    The managers had been in the swimming pool; others had been in the dining room and library. Constance finally had started to gather her books to search for someplace quiet. Manuel gently took them from her. “Please, permit me,” he said softly. “It is very noisy today.”
    She had had lunch with Deborah Rice. Tony was coming tomorrow, she had said, and he was both furious and excited. He had something. There would be a showdown, she had predicted gloomily, and her father had never lost a showdown in his life. Deborah was wandering about aimlessly and would intrude again, Constance knew, would want to talk to no point, just to have something to do, and Constance had to think. It seemed that she had not thought anything through since arriving at the Valley of Gorgons. That was the punishment for looking, she thought wryly: The brain turned to stone.
    She was reluctant to return to her rooms. Without Charlie, they seemed too empty. “I’ll go read out under the gorgons,” she said finally. At least out there, no one bothered her, and she had to think. She felt that she almost knew something, could almost bring it to mind, but always it slipped away again.
    “ Si ,” Manuel said. “We should take the Jeep, señora. It is not good to ride home after dark.”
    She started to say she would not be there that long; instead, she nodded.

    Charlie had been pacing in the VIP lounge for half an hour before his pilot, Jack Wayman, turned up. It was 7:15.
    “Where the hell have you been?” Charlie