Tremaine's Favor
1
Oliver Hunt and Donna Drake rode west in a car rented in Santa Fe. They had flown to the New Mexican city from Cutter Bay. It was a long drive to the small town of Two Rivers, but the couple was making good time along the highway.
"Do you want to talk about Minnie now?," Donna asked. A mile marker said Two Rivers in 20 miles.
"Not really anything to talk about, Dee," said Oliver Hunt. "She was just an old girlfriend and we broke up."
"You seemed shook up by Connor," pointed out Donna.
"I know he was from an alternate future, but he could have been my son," said Oliver. "I hope our son or daughter will be as good as he seemed."
"Our son or daughter?," Donna said. Her eye brow arched slightly.
"Why not?," said Oliver. "We've been talking about it for a while."
"We have also talked about marriage, taxes, death, wills," said Donna. "Don't tell me you are thinking about settling down."
"Maybe not settling down," said Oliver.
"You said Minnie left you," said Donna. "Did she say why?"
"The ring," said Oliver, raising his hand to reveal the thirteen stone ring.
"She knew about that?," said Donna.
"No, she didn't," said Oliver. "I guess it would be easier for me to start at the beginning.
"I met Minnie at a business luncheon. We were in competition for a contract and I underbid her. She was angry at first, but we started a friendly rivalry after a while. She impressed me even though we had went up against each other.
"I started running into her at functions and parties given by people we both knew at the time. Soon we were going on dates. We even made the society columns at the time."
He paused, thinking back to that small whirlwind that had been his life at the time.
"Everything seemed perfect,"he finally said.
"What happened?," asked Donna.
"I was marooned in the Pacific for a year, where Osaka gave me the base stone.
"I got back to Cutter Bay, and started assembling the stones. I tried to pick up my relationship with Minnie, but she was different from when I had last seen her. At first, she seemed happy I was alive, but then we started fighting over little things.
"When I had to get a stone, or answer emergency calls, I couldn't account for my whereabouts. We knew too many of the same people, and I think she called to check if I was at my office, but of course I was really beating some hijackers or bank robbers.
"I just wasn't ready to tell her I was leading a double life.
"One day, I went to pick her up for dinner.
"She had left a letter with her assistant. She said she was leaving me and Cutter Bay, and had sold everything she owned. She asked me not to try to find her because she never wanted to see me again.
"I did look for her. I learned a lot about how to track people down the months I devoted to the search, but it was like Minnie had vanished in thin air.
"I haven't seen her since."
"Did Roy know?," asked Donna.
"No, this all happened before I met Roy and he came on as my partner," said Oliver. "I guess I was more Ringbearer than Hunt after Minnie left me. I just didn't have the time for everyday life."
"Two Rivers," Donna, announced with a smile.
"Not much to look at," said Oliver. "Let's talk to the local sheriff. He'll be able to give us better directions than a rural route that Roy found."
"Nervous?," said Donna.
"A little," said Oliver.
2
Oliver and Donna walked into the sheriff's station. A woman with braided white hair stood behind the counter separating the working area from the public area. A man with brown hair stood on the public side of the counter.
"-every Friday," the woman was saying to the man, handing him some papers to sign on a clipboard.
"I will, Sheriff," said the man, signing the papers rapidly.
They both looked at the couple when the bell on the door rang.
Donna was struck by the look of age both wore in their eyes, even though the man was as young as her or Ollie.
"How can I help you folks?," the Sheriff asked. The star on her plaid shirt gleamed slightly from sunlight through the window.
"We're looking for someone who lives around here," said Oliver. "Her name is Minnie Hawke."
"Minnie Hawke?," said the Sheriff. "Minnie doesn't live around here any more, mister."
"Did she leave a forwarding address?," Oliver asked.
The Sheriff looked at Oliver.
"Sheriff, I will handle this," said the man unexpectedly. "If you will follow me, please. I will call next Friday as promised."
"See that you do," said the Sheriff.
"The Sheriff doesn't seem to like you," said Donna, as the couple followed the stranger out of the building.
"She does not," said the stranger. He threw a leg over an old motorcycle that still seemed in perfect condition. "If you will follow me, I will take you where you need to go."
He pulled on a black hat with a red band around the crown.
"What's your name, buddy?," Oliver asked.
"Lazarus Tremaine," said the stranger. He kickstarted the cycle to life and waited for the couple to get back in the rental car to follow him.
"Oliver Hunt and Donna Drake," Oliver said, before getting behind the wheel of the rental car.
Tremaine led the two out of town to a fenced-in piece of desert with a sign that simply said The Hill.
"This can't be right," said Oliver.
Tremaine pulled into the cemetery and cut his bike off. He pointed to a simple tombstone off to one side. He walked to another stone that had recently been erected. He bowed his head, holding his helmet under his arm.
3
Oliver and Donna walked over to the tombstone marking Minnie's grave. The death date was October 10th, 1946.
"What happened?," said Oliver.
"We'll have to check back at the Sheriff's office, Ollie," said Donna, touching his arm.
"Let's ask Tremaine," said Ollie. "He's a local. He'll know."
Tremaine finished what he was doing at the fresh grave mound. He walked back to his bike slowly.
He regarded the two strangers calmly, rubbing the regular features of his face with one hand. It had been a while since he had skin that didn't crack to the touch. He nodded to nothing as he approached them. He wondered briefly if he was making a mistake. He finally decided that he had made a promise to himself, and this was part of the community service he had promised Sheriff Savage.
He steeled himself for what he was about to do.
He knew it would not be pleasant for any of them, least of all him. Still the man wanted to know the answers to his questions, the woman wanted a future without a clouded past, and Tremaine had his duty.
"What can you tell us about how she died, Mr. Tremaine?," Oliver asked.
"I cannot tell you anything," said Tremaine. His blue eyes seemed to reflect the sun eerily. "I am just passing through."
"We thought you lived here," said Donna, her hands had come up on their own. She felt a slight rumble in the ground underneath her feet.
Oliver felt it too. He looked for a source, realizing that it was coming from Tremaine as the man stared at the gravestone.
"Hello, Oliver," said a familiar voice.
Hunt turned. He gasped at what he saw. His lost love stood on her grave, just as he remembered her. He was stunned for a second.
"You only have five minutes, Mr. Hunt," Tremaine said.
"What brings you to New Mexico, Oliver?," said Minnie. "And who's this?"
"This is my girlfriend, Donna Drake," said Oliver. "Donna, this Minnie Hawke."
"Hello," said Donna. "I'm sorry we couldn't meet under better circumstances."
"I am a little surprised to meet someone living at all, but at least Oliver finally found someone else," said Minnie.
"Why did you leave, Minnie?," asked Oliver.
"You didn't trust me any more, Oliver," Minnie said. "It was never anything overt but you never told me what were you doing. You just were never where you said you'd be. I called all over Cutter Bay looking for you, and no one had seen you. I was frantic thinking you were with another woman, but then I saw those bruises and I knew another woman wasn't the problem. So finally I cut my ties and left.
"Surely you didn't come all this way to hear this after so many years."
"Not much time left, Mr. Hunt," said Tremaine, causing Oliver to glance at him. Sweat rolled from the stranger's brow.
"I looked for you afterwards," Oliver said. "I couldn't find any trace."
"Cash and carry, Oliver," said Minnie. "I knew you would look for me but I didn't want to be found. What's the real reason for this visit?"
"I met someone who said he was our son," said Oliver.
"I don't think so," said Minnie, expression changing for a second almost like a mask slipping and being readjusted.
"What do you mean?," Oliver asked quietly.
"We never had a son," said Minnie. "You don't have any children by me, Oliver."
"Never?," said Oliver.
"I wish we did," said Minnie. "Maybe things would have been different after you returned. It just isn't so."
"I guess I woke you for nothing," said Oliver. He didn't seem convinced by his former love's assertion. "How did you die?"
"I drowned in a flash flood not to far from here," Minnie said, almost smiling. "Imagine that, drowning in a desert."
"You were always contrary," said Oliver, smiling himself.
"Thirty seconds," said Tremaine, trembling in place.
"Let me say one last thing before I have to go," Minnie said. "I am pleased that you found someone else, Oliver. I wish you happiness together."
Some impulse caused her to step away from her gravestone. She hugged Oliver close and kissed him like she used to do before she left him. Then she turned to Donna and hugged her. She paused to whisper in Donna's ear with a mischievous smile, causing her to smile too.
"Time is up," said Tremaine, collapsing to a knee.
Minnie Hawke vanished as suddenly as she had came.
"Get her back," said Oliver, suddenly realizing he had lost Minnie for a second, final time. "I had so much I needed to say."
"It will have to remain unsaid," said Tremaine, making an effort to stand on his feet. He hid his hands from Oliver and Donna. "Five minutes is all I could give you. I am sorry."
"Ollie, it's not his fault," said Donna. She placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to reassure him. She had felt a double loss like this when she had learned she was adopted and her biological parents were dead.
Oliver grabbed Tremaine's collar in frustration more than anything else. The stranger brought his hand up and grabbed Hunt's wrist. Oliver noticed there was a hole in the hand through the back to the palm. Light bled from that hole in a small cascade of drops.
Then Oliver Hunt's life flashed in front of his mind's eye. He felt alone in someone else's body.
Then someone else's memories flooded into Oliver's mind. He felt his soul ripped away with a barely felt pang. He saw face after face screaming for mercy. Then he saw a thing in a mask and cape holding up his soul and promising the payment for failure. Then Oliver felt the first taste of renewed freedom and the self-imposed duty he had taken up after taking his soul back from the monster in the book.
Oliver Hunt blinked, finding himself sitting on the ground, being supported by Donna. She looked angry as she glared at Tremaine.
"I'm okay," he whispered, trying to make sense of what he had felt. "I'm okay, Dee."
"What are you?," Oliver asked, trying to stand up and failing.
Tremaine tried to smile reassuringly.
"I am just a man with a lot of community service ahead of me," he said.
He walked over to the motorcycle he had inherited from Lazarus Walker. He pulled on his hat, hands looking normal to Oliver.
"Connor is a good name for a son when you have one," he said before he rode away.
Epilogue.
Lazarus Tremaine rode into another cemetery across the country. He looked for a particular marker, frowning when he finally found it. He hung his hat from the handlebars of his bike as he dismounted.
He knelt beside the grave, placing his hands over the mound. Light bled from his palms. A small vibration shuttered through the ground. A baby appeared in his arms and he held it close.
"Your mother would like to hold you again," Tremaine said, holding the baby up. The baby laughed as she vanished in a flash of light.
Tremaine looked at the gravestone one last time. It only had Constance Hunt Hawke on it above a single date, October 10th, 1945. He shook his head slightly. He pulled on his helmet and rode away from that suddenly cold graveyard in Cutter Bay.
Even the dead have unfinished business.