Free Whisper to the Blood by Dana Stabenow Page B

going to start taking applications immediately and
that they'd start putting people to work on the first."
    "Barely two weeks from now, I know. Howie Katelnikof was talking to me
about it."
    "What's Howie know about it?"
    "He was the first guy she hired, caretaker out on the claim. He says
he'll try to get me on next. He's a good guy."
    "You're kidding."
    Greenbaugh looked surprised. "No. Why would I be?"
    Because, Johnny thought, every Park rat worthy of the name knew that Howie
Katelnikof was the best excuse for preventive homicide the Park had ever seen.
Because whenever a cabin was burgled, a snow machine stolen, a truck stripped
for parts, Howie Katelnikof was the guy voted most likely to. Because Howie
Katelnikof was always going to be the go-to guy in the Park to fence stolen
property, buy a lid of dope or a hit of coke, and Jim Chopin was certain he was
cooking up batches of crystal meth and selling it retail out of the homestead
he and Willard Shugak had been squatting on since the death of Louis Deem.
    But mostly because Howie Katelnikof had tried to kill him last year, and
Kate, and he had almost killed Mutt. Johnny thought of himself as a pretty
easygoing guy, but once he got pissed off he stayed pissed off, and he was
pissed off at Howie for life. He opened his mouth to issue a warning of some
kind, but he'd hesitated too long. Greenbaugh had something else on his mind. "Listen,
kid, do me a favor?"
    "Sure," Johnny said. "Not like I don't owe you about a
hundred."
    "I'm going by the name of Gallagher here. Dick Gallagher. Richard, if
you want to get technical on me." He grinned again, but he was watching
Johnny with a sharp eye.
    "Oh," Johnny said inadequately. He rallied. "Um, I guess it's
none of my business why."
    Greenbaugh-Gallagher-shrugged. "I don't mind saying. There's stuff left
over from my life I'd as soon be shut of." He grinned again. "Women,
mostly. I want to start fresh, new life, new name, new job. Remember how you
told me that day in Ahtna that a lot of people do that at the border
crossing?"
    Johnny had said that. "Yeah."
    "Well, that's me, to the life. I'm starting over here, clean slate. So
Dick Gallagher from now on, okay?"
    Johnny thought back to earlier that day and making fry bread with Auntie Vi.
Had Greenbaugh's-Gallagher's-name been mentioned? "Is that the name you're
registered under at Auntie Vi's?"
    "Yep. Started the way I mean to go on. So what do you say? Forget that
loser Greenbaugh?"
    It seemed ungrateful and unreasonable to refuse. What did it matter, anyway?
A new name to go with a new life. Wouldn't be the first time that had happened
in
Alaska
. He
remembered the stories Kate had told him of her time in Prudhoe Bay, when the
news cameras would come into the mess hall and half a dozen guys would get up
and walk out, leaving their dinner on the table, before the deserted wife or
the parole officer they'd left Outside caught them on film at eleven. "Okay,"
he said, "sure. Why not?" He was proud that
Greenbaugh-Gallagher-trusted him enough to ask the favor. How many times does a
sixteen-year-old kid get asked to help somebody hide out from his past? It was
right out of Zane Grey. It made Johnny feel like a card-carrying member of the
Last Frontier.
    Greenbaugh-Gallagher!-thumped his shoulder and grinned at him again.
"I'm sure glad I picked you up on the road, Johnny. You're my lucky
charm!" He laughed heartily, gave Johnny's shoulder another thump.
"Oh," he said, pausing with one hand on the door, "and maybe you
could tell that little girlfriend of yours, too. Make sure she knows my new
right name, and tell her why?"
    "Sure," Johnny said. "Van's cool. She'll be happy to."
    "Great," Gallagher said, and disappeared back inside.
    Without knowing how, Johnny had the distinct feeling that there was a joke
he was missing, but it was getting darker and colder and later by the minute,
so he shrugged it off, climbed back on his snow machine, and headed for