by Hunt, Jack
Who’d arrived? Was it the police?
She had screamed as loud as she could but no one came. Her voice was damaged seemingly beyond repair. She knew the only way to escape was to keep hammering away. That’s when it dawned on her — Kelly dropped the tongs, and picked up a log similar in size. Gripping it with both hands, one on the end closest to her, the other on the side, she began to slam it against the log in the small square window. Pounding it relentlessly, she knew it was only a matter of time. More debris showered the floor. Her hands ached and burned from multiple splinters. “Damn it!” she said, dropping the heavy log. Kelly panted hard and picked it up again.
Another strike.
Two more, and then a shift.
That’s it. It’s working!
Just a few more inches and it would be out. Kelly took a step back and put her shoulder into it. The colliding noise was dull, like a mallet hitting the top of a flat object.
“I’ve. Had. Just. About. Enough!” she cried out between strikes. The final one did the trick. The log exploded outward, its landing soft and silent; a gust of freezing wind stole her breath.
It had been at least two minutes since Travis had disappeared. Kelly would have been overjoyed to have seen the log hit him square in the face as it shot out, but he was nowhere to be seen. Unsure if this was just a ploy, a means to get her to open the door, she cautiously inched forward and her head bobbed from side to side trying to get a bead on his whereabouts.
Between the trees, the tower loomed out of the white.
Had it not been for the glow of the lights she may not have seen him.
Kelly squinted. “Adam?”
Her eyes widened. He wasn’t supposed to be here.
No, this wasn’t real, her mind was playing tricks on her.
She blinked hard, hoping that when she opened her eyes it would just be a hallucination. It wasn’t. Her stomach sank. At first Adam appeared to be alone, then Travis stepped into view passing by the window.
“No. No. NO!” Kelly cried out but he couldn’t hear her. Even if the wind wasn’t howling, her voice was a shell of its former self, nothing but a croaky, damaged box in a state of repair. “Adam!”
“Who are you? Where’s Kelly?”
The stranger stared back, his head cocking to one side. No smile, barely a flicker of an expression. The man brought a finger up to the tip of the knife, twisting the handle ever so slightly, not taking his eyes off Adam for even a second. Already Adam was sizing him up, assessing options and the chances of survival.
“Answers. Everyone wants answers. It makes it easier, doesn’t it? To sift the wheat from the chaff, the deserving from the undeserving, the righteous from the wicked. You don’t want answers, you want to judge, to cast me aside so your life can continue without pain — but life is pain, Adam, without it we are nothing. It’s a gift.”
He was a lunatic; of that Adam was sure.
Adam shifted ever so slightly but the stranger registered it and mirrored him.
He lifted a hand and tried to reason with the stranger. “Look. We don’t need to do this. Just tell me where she is.”
The man wagged a finger at him then motioned to the bed. “Take a seat.”
Adam frowned.
“Take a seat!” he said in a controlled but firm manner.
Adam took a few steps back, his legs bumping into the bed frame, but he was hesitant to follow orders. Sitting would place him at a disadvantage.
“SIT!” the man bellowed, losing his cool before taking a few deep breaths.
Reluctant, Adam sat. “What do you want?”
“Isn’t that the question. What do I want? What does anyone want, Adam? Does it even matter?”
“Well maybe I can help you.”
Communication had de-escalated numerous incidents in his career, and although the man before him looked unstable, it was worth a shot. The stranger snorted, shifting over to where the hatch was and standing on top, to make it clear he wasn’t going anywhere. “Who else knows she’s here?”
That’s why he hadn’t reacted, he wanted answers just as much as Adam did.
“So Kelly is here? Where is she? Is she alive?”
“Who else knows?”
“Just me.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
The stranger replied, “I already know you weren’t supposed to be coming. She told me.”
“It was going to be a surprise.”
He tutted and shook his head. “Lay face down.”
Adam knew where this was going. “You don’t need to do this.”
“Face down.”
He gritted his teeth, nodded slowly, then in an instant, exploded upward. The blade shot forward, slicing the air as he grasped the man’s wrist. They collided and slammed backward then slid along the counter, toppling over the butane stove, the boiling kettle and two cups.
Kelly screamed as she helplessly watched the confrontation play out. In and out of view they went, crashing into the countertops and disappearing to the floor. She’d already unlocked the door from her side but it wouldn’t budge. Using Hank’s phone she turned on the camera, and set it face forward and angled it out the opening to see what Travis had done. There on the screen, the lock was in place, several logs wedged against the bottom of the door and Adirondack chairs after that.
Anger got the better of her and Kelly took a few steps back and smashed her foot against the door, hoping to dislodge and shake loose the wood. All the while she kept glimpsing the silhouette of the two struggling for control. Adam was putting up one hell of a fight. All she could do was hope he got the better of him.
Thud, thud, thud.
Kelly smashed her foot against the door.
Making no headway, she balanced on a bench with one foot, and set the other against the ridge of the stove, then she thrust an arm out the window and strained to reach the lock on the other side. “C’mon, c’mon! Damn it!”
It was too far down.
Refusing to give up, she took the forty-inch steel tongs and tried again. This time she was able to touch the lock.
A few unsuccessful tries later, stabbing, twisting and hammering at it, and eventually it caught and slid out. Pulling her arm back in, she dropped the tongs and went back to kicking the door.
The entire sauna shook. Every few seconds she would look out and see if the logs were free. One was out of the way, just two more to go. About to try again, she peered through the onslaught of snow up toward the lookout.
“Adam?”
There was no movement.
She couldn’t see either of them.
Then, a figure rose up, appearing against the window, but it wasn’t her brother. Travis smiled as he peered down and lifted a bloodied hand. Setting it against the pane, and letting it slide, smearing the glass.
“NO!”
Travis reached for the light toggle and turned it off, sending the lookout into complete darkness. Kelly fell back, tears welling up, her emotions getting the better of her. All the strength in her legs went out from beneath her and she buckled, hyperventilating. Why? Why was he doing this?
Her body heaved, unable to cope.
Seconds turned to minutes as she sobbed her heart out.
Torn and overwhelmed, she wanted to quit, but quitting wasn’t in her vocabulary.
All the grief, sadness and excruciating pain wrapped together, quickly to be replaced by anger and a determination to survive. Rising to her feet, she calmed herself. You can do this. You must do this. Kelly returned to slamming her foot against the door.
As she was leaning out again, and taking another look with the phone — a hand grabbed her wrist.
Startled, she cried out, now engaged in a tug of war with Travis on the other side. He tried to pry loose the phone from her fingers by bending a finger back, causing her to cry out in pain. It didn’t work. She managed to extract her hand and took several steps back just as he reappeared at the window, glaring. He threw the
Adirondack chair out of the way, and kicked the logs free.
A cold chill washed over her.
Her eyes widened, seeing that the lock inside wasn’t in place.
Kelly dove forward, slamming it to the right just as he pulled on the door.
It rattled. He tried again but it held strong.
They locked eyes, glaring at one another.
Words escaped her. She wanted to scream but her mind was so bombarded with stress it just went blank.
In a calm and collected manner he spoke, “It didn’t need to be this way, Kelly. Just open the door and we can go back to normal.” She couldn’t believe he could be so cold.
“Why are you doing this?”
“I’m not doing anything, you are.”
She shook her head in disbelief.
“Who are you?”
He closed his eyes and shook his head. “No. No. No. Don’t go there. You know who I am. Don’t play games.”
For the life of her she couldn’t remember. Either she was suffering from some mental breakdown from her time with Cole or she’d met him at some point in her life when she was younger and forgotten. A boyfriend? She’d had several in college. Some of her relationships were short-lived, nothing more than a one-night stand. She usually was good with faces and names but with everything that had taken place, her ability to think straight had got progressively worse. The doctor had prescribed anxiety and sleeping meds — it was why she hadn’t written a damn thing in two years.
“What do you want from me?”
“Open the door.”
She shook her head.
“OPEN THE DOOR!” he bellowed louder, shedding his calm exterior and looking like a psychotic mental patient as he shook the handle. Seething, he took a breath, closed his eyes and then went back to acting calm as if nothing had happened. She’d never seen anything like it. It was like Jekyll and Hyde. Sure, Cole could be terrifying, but it still took him a few hours to calm down.
This guy could do it on a whim.
Travis replaced the logs and chairs in front of the door, and locked it again.
“Best I go clean up. We’ll speak later.”
She didn’t even want to ask what happened to Adam; she already knew. The thought of it made her want to puke. Swallowed in grief, Kelly unleashed her anger.
“Is Travis even your name? Tell me!” she demanded to know.
He turned and walked away without responding.
Kelly charged at the door, shouting through the gap. “Who are you? WHO ARE YOU!?”
Travis vanished into the night, nothing but a dark blur.
The sight of the Bronco blanketed in snow didn’t strike Lucas as odd or out of the ordinary. He figured it was Kelly’s rental. The compacted snow crunched beneath his tires as he veered to the side of the narrow road and parked, letting his windshield wipers continue to clear snow as he stared up the driveway. With only four officers in the department, one sick, and the others busy with an upswing in accidents due to bad weather, pulling one away wasn’t an option.
Beyond the odd domestic, Emery was fortunate to have a low crime rate.
The last murder had occurred over fourteen years ago, and that stemmed from an argument between two business owners.
His career in Emery had been a far cry from the busy shifts of city policing in Boise, back when he was a new recruit. Getting on in years, he kind of liked the slow pace. A few more and he would hang up the badge and retire to a life of fishing and people watching.
No, he figured he’d find Kelly safe and sound, with some excuse about having drunk one too many. She’d be apologetic, perhaps even slurring her words, or he’d find her passed out. While Cole wasn’t a saint, Kelly also had a few skeletons in her closet. Lucas had pulled her over twice in the past three years after coming out of a bar and attempting to drive the short distance home. Initially she denied it but he could smell the alcohol on her breath, and if it wasn’t for her husband, he would have arrested her. Instead, he used his discretion and opted to give her a lift home. It was around that time he learned from Cole that he was concerned about her drinking.
Lucas just thought it was a lie to cover up his own transgressions.
Of course it was a lot easier to believe a woman was lying if she had a drinking problem. Lucas pushed out, and turned on his flashlight. He collected his snowshoes from the back of the vehicle and slipped into them. He got on the radio and updated dispatch on his arrival before forging on through the snowstorm. He’d never been out to the lookout though he’d seen photos of the place on Cole’s phone back when he and Kelly were on good terms. Cole loved to go on about his toys, his lifestyle and rubbing shoulders with the famous, as if he was somehow responsible when reality was he hadn’t done a damn thing. He was living off the coattails of Kelly’s hard work.
Plodding up the driveway was a slog, deep snow, a steep incline — it was a reminder of how out of shape he’d become. In his early twenties, he’d been lean and had abundant energy. Where had it gone?
As he passed the Snowcat, Lucas frowned. What was Hank doing here? Maybe after hanging up on dispatch Kelly had contacted him for support. He trudged on; his mind lost in all the things he needed to get done that weekend. Policing Emery didn’t require much thought. Unlike the city, not everything that looked out of the norm was cause for backup.
He hadn’t made it halfway up to the lookout when he was approached by a hooded figure.
“That you, Hank?”
The stranger trudged toward him then shifted back his hood to reveal his face. “Nope, just me. I saw your lights and thought I would save you the trouble of the hike. One hell of a snowstorm, isn’t it?” He extended a hand as he walked toward him. “I’m Adam Danvers by the way, Kelly’s brother.”
Lucas shook it. He squinted into his frosted face. “Officer Hurst. We got an emergency call from Kelly.”
“Yeah. I’m sorry about that.” He lifted his hand as if indicating she’d been drinking then thumbed back to the lookout. “She’s been under a lot of pressure recently. Thinks Cole killed her dog. Thinks he’s out there watching her. I said I would keep her company.”
Lucas looked around his shoulder and then directly at him, before nodding. “Yeah, I spoke to her yesterday. The dog not shown up?”
He breathed in deep and exhaled, shivering. “Unfortunately no. I went out looking today, found a little blood. I told her the dog probably was attacked by wolves.”
Lucas cleared his throat. “You arrive today?”
“Yep, from Boise.”
He nodded, giving him a skeptical glance. “Well, um, is Kelly around?”
“Actually no, she went into town with a friend of hers.” He stabbed a finger. “Erin?”
“Erin Miller?” Lucas asked.
The man clicked his fingers. “That’s it. Yeah, for drinks.”
Lucas glanced at his watch. “Didn’t you think she’s already had enough?”
“Of course, I tried to tell her but she wouldn’t listen. Anyway, Erin said she would look after her. They’ve been out a while. Probably didn’t even go to the bar. I imagine they’ve gone to Erin’s place. Anyway, I said I would keep an eye on the lookout. You just never know who could show up, right?”
Lucas nodded, not taking his eyes off him. “Right. I saw Hank’s Snowcat. He here?”
“Was here. Yeah. He caught a ride back to town in Erin’s vehicle. Said I could keep the Snowcat tonight just in case the weather got worse.”
Lucas jerked his head. “So the Bronco. That’s your vehicle?”
He pursed his lips and nodded.
“Well, I’m out here now, I should probably take a look around,” Lucas added.
“Not much to see,” he said gesturing to the weather. “But by all means, come on up.”
Lucas looked past him again. The light was on in the lookout and there didn’t appear to be anyone inside. He also didn’t seem very worried. The weather was bad, and not improving. “Well, just a quick look.�
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“Sure.”
They ambled together up to the lookout, keeping their heads low from the howling wind. It was hard to see much of anything. “I don’t know why she keeps this place open in the winter. I told her to sell it,” he said, raising his voice. “Thankfully, she’s agreed. She’ll be heading out with me when I leave.”
“Leaving Emery for good?” Lucas asked casting a glance around. A curtain of snow had made visibility low. The continued barrage of driving snow with high winds made it hard to breathe.
“Yep. Don’t be surprised if she doesn’t say goodbye.” Lucas pulled a face. “Well I hope you aren’t afraid of heights,” her brother said, patting him on the shoulder. “Mind your step, I had a bit of an accident the first time I came here in the winter,” he said leading the way.
Lucas grimaced and second-guessed going up. “You know what,” he said looking around again. “Tell Kelly I will speak to her later.”
Her brother thumbed over his shoulder. “You don’t want to come up?” he asked looking down from the steps.
Lucas waved him off. “Nah. It looks as if everything’s fine,” he said giving one more scan. Truth be told, hearing that she hit the bottle before making the call, and had now gone out with Erin to the bar, made sense. While he couldn’t recall if she smelled of liquor yesterday, he had to wonder if she’d been drinking. The accusations toward Cole killing her dog seemed unfounded — maybe even a little neurotic. “Look, sorry to bother you. If you see Kelly before I do, let her know I dropped by.”
“I will do, officer. Thank you. Safe journey back.”
Lucas gave a small salute before retracing his steps.
When he’d made it back to the road, Lucas hopped in the SUV, and was about to fire it up when he glanced over at the Bronco. Call it a gut instinct or routine, but he decided to run the plates. They came back registered to a rental place out of Spokane International Airport. Boise to Emery was at least six hours’ drive in good weather, it would have made sense to fly into Spokane which was only an hour and a half away.
He took out his cell phone and considered calling the bar but noticed no signal.