“I doubt he’d give me any more information if I talked to him, especially if Sean, Bale or Edward were involved in any way.”
Shabina sighed. “They are a strange group. Sean is difficult to figure out. He won’t stop coming to the restaurant. I let him come and told myself no matter what he said to me or how mean he was about the food, I’d be nice and eventually he’d stop, but it only seemed to make things worse. I have no idea what he gets out of being so abusive.”
“I always thought Sean had a thing for you, but that kind of behavior isn’t going to win any points with you.”
Shabina shook her head. “I think I mentioned he did ask me out once, but I was busy on the night he wanted to go to dinner. I hesitated, because I was tempted. I hadn’t dated anyone and I had told myself that it was time. I was truly going to ask for a rain check but then he got angry with me when I said I couldn’t go that night. I don’t do very well when anyone yells at me. I think I just froze for a minute. I couldn’t believe he would get so upset when I told him I was busy that night.”
“And that’s when his harassment started?”
Shabina nodded. “He began coming in and sending food back and making loud comments. At first I was nice about it, but he only got worse. I don’t know what his problem with me is, but sometimes I’m afraid of him. I don’t know if it’s because of my past, or if I have good reason to be.”
“Have you spoken to the police?”
Shabina nodded. “Bale and Sean were both born here. They have ties to people in the department. That makes it a little tough. I’m not saying no one listened, because a couple of cops did. Craig Hollister, one of the detectives, is very aware of the situation. He’s talked to me about it a few times.” She glanced at Stella. “Don’t look at me like that. I don’t have a crush on him like everyone thinks.”
“Then why are you blushing?”
“Because all of you give me those eyes whenever his name comes up and I can’t help it. He did tell me to be careful and not to be alone with Sean. But Sean works for Fish and Wildlife and I’m in the forest a lot. Since you told me Jason gave you that warning, I’ve been a bit of a wreck. I actually considered asking my father to send a security team, but I knew if I did I would be regressing. I can’t do that. I’ve fought hard to get to this point of independence. I refuse to let Sean mess me up.”
“The season is over and I’m off for a little while. I’d be happy to go with you, Shabina,” Stella volunteered. “Between the dogs and my guns, I doubt Sean can do us much harm.”
Shabina smiled at her. “You’re a good friend, Stella. Thank you.” She looked again at the drawings, assembling them in order. “The trees here are ghostly white. There’s about a hundred acres of dead or dying trees around the area near Horseshoe Lake due to toxic gas. The roots are unable to take in oxygen. There are signs up warning people to be careful in that area because the gas is dangerous to us as well, especially belowground, in pits or poorly ventilated areas.”
Stella nodded. “I was fairly certain from the first couple of nightmares the intended victim is hiking in the D7 zone, where the gas from the magma leak occurred. D7 is very popular with hunters for various reasons, at least that’s what Sam tells me.”
Shabina laid the first two sketches representing the first two nightmares down in a line.
Stella pressed her hand to her forehead and then rubbed her temples. She felt like she’d had a headache from the first moment she had tried to figure this one out. She already knew it was an impossible situation. “That is a huge area.”
“Once you hike in about six miles, you’re into forest. Horseshoe Lake is there. It is a huge area, and you’re right, Stella, they could be anywhere, but if your hunter has one of these tree stands and he’s packing it in, is he going to go that far? I don’t know how heavy they are, but it doesn’t seem too rational to think they’re that lightweight. He has to have something to climb the tree with, right? Like sticks or a ladder? He has to pack that in as well. His rifle. We’re talking a lot of gear here.”
“He can’t be from around here,” Stella said. “None of our guys would do that.”
“No, I can’t imagine that they would.”
Shabina arranged the next two sketches with the lower part of the tree stand, boots and partial hem of the camouflage pants next to the first two drawings. Even with the pictures beside each other, there was nothing extraordinary to make the area stand out. And there wouldn’t be. The wilderness surrounding Horseshoe Lake was massive. How were they going to find one tree? One hunter?
They both stared down at the drawings for a long time, knowing it truly was an impossible task to find a single hunter in the Inyo National Forest. It didn’t matter how many trees and varieties Stella drew, there was no way to identify a single area by looking at them.
“I played various recordings of birds singing to you, and the ones you heard were from the area in the D7 zone closest to Horseshoe Lake. Those are migratory birds. I would say this is definitely the place, but the area is huge, Stella.”
Stella bit down on her lip. “I just don’t understand why he targeted this particular hunter. Why him? What is it about these random strangers that sets him off?”
“Does he need to be set off?” Shabina shook her head. “I studied those men who took me. At first, I wanted to think they had kidnapped me for some higher cause. At least an act of revenge. Then the money. But they were just vile, disgusting men getting off on a power trip. There was no real reasoning behind any of it. Some were worse than others.”
“Did they have other prisoners?”
Shabina nodded. “Occasionally. Those prisoners never lasted long. Over time, I learned that the least little thing could send one off into terrible violence while another might still have a shred of decency left in him. I knew that wouldn’t last long being around the others, but it was interesting watching the process as they took a new recruit down their path of complete and utter depravity. I suppose one might call them serial killers. Certainly, they were murderers and rapists.”
Stella shook her head and paced across the room, suddenly restless. “I have a very bad feeling about this one. Right from the beginning, I felt like I didn’t really have much of a chance of saving this victim. I don’t see how the killer is onto me, but given what happened to Bailey, it’s possible. Ever since the night we were camping together, I felt as if someone was watching me. If he knows who I am, it could be that he’s playing some vicious game with me.”
She went over to the window and stared out into Shabina’s beautiful gardens. Even in October, the grounds were filled with a riot of color. In spring, the various shades of green were amazing. Stella hadn’t known there were so many colors of green. Now it was golds and reds.
“When I was a child, I remember thinking if I could be good enough, then my father would stop doing those bad things. If I obeyed the rules. If I didn’t get dirt on my new shoes. If I didn’t spill anything on my dress. If I didn’t cry when I fell down and it hurt. I would go to bed without protesting. I made all kinds of promises to myself to be better. I’d be so good so Daddy wouldn’t have to do those bad things.”
Bailey. She needed that dog. She put her hand out and it wasn’t Bailey who pushed his head under her palm but one of Shabina’s Dobies. “There’s my boy. You always know when I’m feeling blue, don’t you, Sharif?” She scratched his ears just as she did Bailey’s, grateful Sharif had always included her in his circle. All three of Shabina’s dogs did, but Sharif in particular liked her.
“It is funny what we take on ourselves as kids,” Shabina said, coming over to stand beside her. “After I escaped and they found me, they were really angry. I was beaten severely and thrown into this awful pit. Every single day they would beat me. The nights were worse and then it would be that pit. There were rats and bugs. But it got so I believed I deserved it. I wasn’t worth anything. I wasn
’t grateful enough for the things they’d provided for me, the way they had treated me before, which, by the way, hadn’t been much better. Most of all, I deserved it because I was responsible for forcing my father to work the way he did, in those countries.”
Stella half turned from the gardens. That sounded insane, but children did think the strangest things. She stayed quiet, letting her friend tell her how her teenage self came to those conclusions.
The other two dogs came close to Shabina, one on either side of her. “I started thinking if I hadn’t wanted my father to buy me new shoes for school, or a new backpack, he wouldn’t have wanted to start a company that made so much money. It was my fault that he needed to make that kind of money. I grew too fast and they had to keep buying me new clothes all the time. If I wasn’t growing, he wouldn’t have to work so much. We wouldn’t have to travel to so many other countries and put us at risk.”
There was silence as the two women looked out into the gardens. Stella loved her own house, but if she had to choose another one, just for the grounds alone, she would have wanted to live here. Once the gates were closed, it was as if they were in their own world. She felt that way at the resort.
“You were so lucky to find this place, Shabina. It’s really extraordinary.”
“Raine found it for me.”
“I didn’t know that.”
Shabina nodded. “In those early days, I was still very much afraid. I was determined, but afraid. You know Raine and her computer skills. She knew everything there was to know about me in probably two-point-five seconds. She knew I was looking for a house, a piece of property, with some grounds to it. I had told the real estate people I wanted gardens and enough land to walk and exercise the dogs, but I think Raine knew what I needed. This was a private sale. She got me a tour. The moment I saw it, I knew this was what I wanted. The kitchen is a chef’s dream. The grounds are unbelievable. And there are suites so when my parents come, even though there’s a guest house they won’t stay in, they can use one of the suites.”
“They won’t stay in the guest house?” Stella repeated.
“Nope. Not a chance. My mother says she refuses to give up the late-night girl talks, and if I’m truthful, I enjoy them. I don’t want to give them up either. Dad says he doesn’t want to give up raiding the refrigerator, that he starves without me in the house to cook.”
“I thought your mother cooked.”
“He claims she’s given up cooking the good dishes in favor of the kind that are supposed to be healthy.” Shabina laughed. “Naturally, he says this in her hearing so she chases him around the room, just so he can let her catch him.”
“Your parents sound lovely, Shabina.”
“They are lovely. So many couples wouldn’t have survived the trauma of their only child being taken and gone for so long, but it made them stronger. They have a bond that seems unbreakable. I want that for myself but . . .” She broke off and shook her head. “I think one has to actually go out with or be friends with a man before they can have an unbreakable bond.”
Stella laughed. “That’s true. Poor Sam, to hear him talk, he waged a secret campaign for the last two years because I was so closed off to the idea of a relationship.”
“Sam is so impossible to read,” Shabina said. “I would watch him at the Grill when we all got together. He always came. He and Denver seem to be good friends. And it’s very clear that Carl Montgomery likes him. Carl wasn’t too happy with you stealing Sam out from under him. He told me it’s hard to find good workers, and Sam was one of the best he’d ever had. Skilled and had a good work ethic. Around here, with the dirtbags coming in, you just don’t get that combination often.”
“We were dirtbags, Shabina,” Stella said. “We came here and didn’t even know we were considered dirtbags.”
“I showered daily.” Shabina burst out laughing. “I rented a house because of the dogs. But we were talking about Sam. He always sat on that one barstool just a little apart from us, one barstool over or just away from our table. His face was in the shadows. Did you notice that?”
“I noticed everything about Sam,” Stella admitted. “Denver usually sat next to him. Sometimes, if Carl came in, he did. And once in a while, Craig. I’ll bet you noticed when Craig came in, although he wasn’t in uniform.” Stella nudged Shabina.
Shabina laughed again. “You’re awful. See why I always end up blushing when any of you mention poor Craig? The point is, it was impossible to tell what Sam was thinking or feeling. He was just there, but not in this creepy way, more like a protective way.”
That surprised Stella. “You got that feeling from him?”
“Most of the time, yes. Unless Sean and his crew were insulting me on the dance floor, and then he just walked over and intense menacing vibes would pour off him. He didn’t have to say anything. He just looked at them and they usually left or went back to the bar. He could be scary. I ought to know, I’ve had protection details most of my life.”
“I just stared at him and hoped I didn’t blurt out something stupid like he was utterly gorgeous or impossibly sweet,” Stella admitted. “Zahra likes to ply me with Moscow Mules when I go to the Grill with her, or worse, mojitos, because I drink too many of them without realizing I’m doing it, then I say things I shouldn’t.”
“He’s sweet?” Shabina asked.
Stella nodded. “These last couple of years, while he worked for me, he never asked me questions. Never put me on the spot. If I had the worst day ever, with some of the guests yelling their heads off at me, I’d go home and he’d be on my deck, grilling the best dinner ever. He’d point to a cooler and there would be ice-cold beer in it. He wouldn’t expect me to talk. He didn’t talk. I could go in and change, put my feet up and sit in my swing chair while he made dinner. We ate and he’d leave. Sometimes he’d do the dishes. Sometimes, if the day was really bad, he’d watch my favorite movie, Moulin Rouge!, with me. I think he thought I was an idiot for crying, but he’d just hand me the box of tissues.”
“Wow, who knew it was the silent types who could be all sweet when it was needed?”
“And he loves Bailey, which was essential, and Bailey loves him back. You know how Bailey is with everyone. He likes people, but he’s completely devoted to me. He included Sam with me. Kind of like we were the same person. I don’t even know when that started happening. I didn’t notice or I might have gotten jealous.”
“How is Bailey?”
Stella sighed. “Poor baby wants to come home and I want him home. Sam keeps telling me that we want him to have the best care possible. I know Amelia is giving that to him, but he doesn’t like being away from us.”
“While you’re working on this, I suppose it’s a good thing to be somewhat mobile and not tied to the house,” Shabina said, looking down at the sketches again. “I wish I could be of more help. This is definitely the D7 zone. Your hunter hiked in the six miles. I don’t think he went too far in, because he’s hauling too much gear. I doubt if he’s local. Maybe if you can figure out how the killer is actually going to manage to murder his victim, it would help. I mean, he is high up in a tree. He can’t sneak up behind him and climb up without being seen. He can’t shove him out of the tree, again because he’s too high up. How does he actually kill him? Do you have any idea?”
That was a good question and Stella had wondered that herself. If she was sitting up in a tree stand, safe from a serial killer, how would the killer get to her? If he tried to climb the same tree, the victim was armed. Wouldn’t he shoot? Or would he feel threatened? How would the killer make it look like an accident? Most of the time, a hunter would harness himself into the tree stand. Stella knew, because she’d read all about it once Sam told her what it was.
“Someone that high up in a tree should be able to see anyone coming at them, right?” Shabina asked. “I don’t know all that much about tree stands, but in order for them to be
of any use they have to be pretty high up in the tree.”
“Sam said twelve to thirty feet.”
“Then how does the killer expect to get to his victim without the victim fighting him off?” Shabina asked.
“He wouldn’t know he was a serial killer,” Stella pointed out. “He’s just another friendly hunter passing by.”
“Do hunters visit with one another? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose? If the guy waits up in his tree stand for a deer to come by and another hunter stops under his tree and starts talking, wouldn’t he scare off all the deer?”
“Maybe we have it all wrong and the serial killer is the one in the tree stand,” Stella ventured suddenly. “Could that be? He sits up there waiting and along comes an unsuspecting hunter. He lures him over with some kind of deer sound and then murders him and makes it look like it was his tree stand all along. Is that plausible?”
Shabina scrunched up her nose. “I don’t know, Stella. What about the purchase of the tree stand? That would be traceable. It isn’t like the killer could figure out a way to put it on the victim’s credit card. Even if he paid cash, that’s a big jump.”
Stella gave a little cry of sheer annoyance. “This entire thing is so frustrating. It’s a big jump to think that we could find a single tree in an entire forest. If this serial killer really is playing a game with me, he’s got to be laughing his head off right now.”
“I just don’t think he’s onto you.”
“That’s what Sam says, but why not?”
“Because how could he be? It isn’t like you’re that same person.”
“Maybe he went to high school with me. I can’t have changed in looks that much. I’ve never run into anyone I went to school with, but it’s possible they saw me and I didn’t see them.”
Murder at Sunrise Lake Page 30