Louis stared at the photograph. Keno’s eyes stared back, dark and unfathomable. He could read nothing in them. And that bothered him.
“Ginger, I need one more address,” Louis said.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“What the hell are you doing here?”
Louis almost hadn’t expected to see Gary Trujillo open the door of the neat green-shuttered trailer. With the flower boxes under the windows and the plastic flamingo in the yard he was sure when he drove up that he had the wrong house.
“I need your help,” Louis said.
“I told you I don’t want to get involved,” Gary said, starting to shut the door.
“Katy’s missing,” Louis said.
“What? What do you mean missing?”
“We were supposed to meet for breakfast and she didn’t show. She hasn’t been to work or called in. I think she’s with a Seminole named Keno and I think he’s the guy who took the panther.”
Gary came out onto the porch. “You think he took Katy, too?”
“I don’t know. She might have gone with him because he told her he knew something about Grace. I don’t know. I just know I don’t like the feel of it.”
“How come you don’t just call out the cavalry?”
“The reservation is off limits,” Louis said. “But I don’t think that’s where they are. I think they’re out in the glades somewhere, but Hendry County is out of my jurisdiction. Besides, the cops wouldn’t know where to start looking.”
Gary was quiet for a moment. “You’re thinking he’s got this panther hidden somewhere. Somewhere isolated, like a hunting camp.”
Louis nodded. “And you know where they all are.”
Gary glanced at the sun, which was already starting its slow descent. “I’ll go get dressed,” he said.
Louis was wearing the same polo shirt and khaki pants he had put on that morning, and now, out here in the sodden-blanket air of the Glades, he was sweat-soaked and mosquito-bitten. It was after five and they were into their second hour of their search.
They had started at Gary’s camp, where there had been no sign of any intruders since Louis’s encounter there. They had done a quick search of all the “live” camps, but they had all been locked up tight with no signs of intruders. That left the abandoned hunting camps.
“No one knows exactly how many there are,” Gary said as they plowed through the brush in his SUV, heading south now. “These camps have been handed down for generations and some families have just given up and left.”
One and a half million acres. That was the figure running through Louis’s head as he took in the desolate landscape of trees and brush. That was how large the Everglades were. How in the hell were they going to find Katy in all this?
He glanced toward the west. There was only about an hour of daylight left. If they didn’t find some trace of Katy or Keno soon they’d have to give up and start again in the morning.
If he could even convince Gary to try again. They had checked out four abandoned camps so far and none had any signs that anyone had been there.
The thick brush parted and Louis spotted a clearing ahead and then a cabin. No, not a cabin, he decided as they drew near, just another listing shack.
There were no fresh tire tracks in the narrow dirt road leading in and no signs of life anywhere in the weed-choked compound. Louis let out a hard breath of disappointment.
“Another dead end,” Gary said as steered the SUV in a wide slow circle. “That’s it. We’re heading back.”
“Have we hit them all?” Louis asked.
Gary was quiet, his jaw clenched, eyes trained on the windshield.
“Gary, are there any more camps?”
Gary braked to a hard stop. “Look man, this is nuts. You realize what the chances are of finding anyone out here? Fuck, you’re not even sure Katy is really missing.”
“I know she is.”
“How? You don’t even know the woman. You don’t know what she’s like. She just does this sometimes.”
Louis stared at him. “What do you mean?”
Gary’s face was red and he was gripping the steering wheel hard. He looked away and shook his head. “Katy and me, we used to be together,” he said slowly. “But it got too hard, you know? It was always work with her, always the damn cats. She’d like disappear on me. I wouldn’t hear from her for days and then she’d come back saying she was out hunting down a cat or nursing a sick cub or going to some school or to talk to a damn politician.”
Katy and Gary? Yeah, it seemed odd. But only on the surface. They both loved the same thing – this awful desolate beautiful place.
Gary finally looked at Louis. “I loved her but there was never any room for me. It just got too damn hard.”
He looked away, jerking the SUV into gear. They rode in silence for a long time. Louis realized they were not heading west back toward Alligator Alley, that they were still going south. The brush was getting heavier, the terrain changing from prairie to swampland.
“I thought we were going back to Fort Myers,” Louis said.
“There used to be two abandoned camps northwest of Copeland,” Gary said. “I don’t know if they’re still there but we might as well check them out.”
Copeland. Louis remembered the place. It was a forlorn little town on the edge of the Fakahatchee Strand Preserve. He and Joe had chased a kidnapper out into the swamp. The man had almost killed Louis before Joe shot him.
Her job had always come first, too. It was why she was now sixteen hundred miles away in Michigan. It was partly why they had split up last Christmas.
He was deep in thought and it took him a moment to realize the SUV had slowed. Gary was leaning forward peering into the thick stand of cypress trees ahead as they inched forward.
“I thought I saw something move,” Gary said.
Louis sat up straighter, his eyes straining into the dusk. Then he saw it –- a faint quiver of white light. It was there and then it was gone, like a firefly moving through the trees.
“A flashlight?” Louis asked.
Gary braked. “A lantern most likely.”
He shut off the engine. The quiet rushed in, followed by the soft sounds of the coming night –- frogs and crickets.
“We’d better walk from here,” Gary said.
Gary reached in the back and pulled out rifle and a flashlight, sticking the flashlight in his hunter’s vest. Louis slid out of the SUV, landing ankle-deep in warm water. He pulled out his Glock and followed Gary.
The outline of a shack materialized out of the gloom. It was constructed of weathered wood with a corrugated metal roof, its two windows boarded up. Louis couldn’t see a door; they must have approached from the back. A broken picnic table sat in the high weeds next to two rusted oil drums. In the swampy ground, Louis couldn’t make out any tracks. There was no sign of a vehicle, no lights, no sounds. No signs of any life.
“Shit,” Gary whispered at his side. “I could have sworn I saw something.”
“I saw it, too,” Louis said, his Glock trained on the shack’s windows. “Let’s check the front. You go left, I’ll take the right,” Louis said.
He crept up to the shack, flattening himself against the wall. He started slowly toward the front of shack.
A sudden pop!
He knew that sound. A silencer.
“Fuck! I’m hit!”
Gary. Somewhere to his left in the darkness.
A crashing noise, like someone running through brush.
“Gary!” Louis yelled.
A soft moan. Louis headed toward it.
In the darkness, he almost tripped over Gary’s body. Louis dropped to one knee. Gary was lying on his side in the mud, writhing.
“Shit,” Gary hissed, gripping his thigh.
“Did you see where he went?”
“No, no, I didn’t see anything. Ah, shit, it hurts...”
Suddenly, Gary went limp and quiet.
“Gary! Gary!”
No response.
Louis padded Gary’s vest and found his flashlight. Crouching low over Gary’s body, he switched it on. He had to find the wound, find out how badly Gary was hurt.
No blood. He couldn’t even see a hole in his jeans.
Son of a bitch.
Louis switched off the flashlight. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust but finally he could make out the black outline of the far trees. No light. The lantern was gone.
But Louis knew he was out there, waiting. Not with bullets but with tranquilizer darts.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The buzzing of insects filled his ears. Sweat burned his eyes.
Damn. He couldn’t see a thing.
But he couldn’t risk turning on the flashlight and being an easy target for a dart.
Louis pressed his fingers against Gary’s neck. His pulse was slow but strong. He remembered that Katy said a tranquilized panther would stay out for at least a half-hour.
He’d have to chance it and leave Gary here.
Louis began to crawl, slowly, silently, alert for every snap of branch or creak of a door opening. When he made it back to the shack, he eased up against the walls, moving back to the shuttered window. He pressed against it, straining to hear anything inside.
Nothing.
Then he heard it...a faint moaning sound.
No, not a moan. A low growl.
Grace was here, inside this shack. But what about Katy? She had to have heard him yell out Gary’s name. If she was inside, why hadn’t she called out?
Louis slipped around to the front of the shack, feeling his way along the planks for the door, mindful that there might be a cypress stump or porch he could trip over. But there was nothing under his feet but muck.
Grace growled again, louder this time, a deep throated cry that ended in a whimper. It was the strangest sound Louis had ever heard from an animal. Was she dying? Was the bastard performing some sick ritual on her?
Louis drew a breath and held it, hoping to hear a human voice. Nothing.
He knew he had to go in.
But if Grace was loose, wounded and hungry, she might attack him and he might be forced to -- God forbid -- shoot her. Even if Grace was caged, the shooter could be lying in wait inside and dart him as soon as he opened the door. He would have only a few seconds to return fire. And if he missed, he’d be helpless.
He should retreat. Go back to Gary’s SUV and get on the CB radio. Get some help out here, even if it didn’t come until dawn. He could keep this shack covered until then.
But then Grace cried again, a pitiful growl that floated in the night a long time before it faded. He couldn’t wait - Grace could be dead by morning.
Louis drew up the flashlight and his Glock and stepped to the door. He kicked it in, splintering the jamb.
A scream. Animal scream.
He switched on the flashlight and swung it in an arc. Grace...lying in a cage. Other things registered in a blur. A cot heaped with clothes. A dirty portable toilet. A belt of knives hanging on the wall. And the smell –- like rotting meat.
A muffled sound in the dark corner behind him.
He spun.
It was Katy. She was tied up, arms over her head, suspended from a hook on a rafter. In the flashlight beam her eyes were wide and wild above her duct-taped mouth. Her face was streaked with mud and dried blood.
He went to her and peeled off the tape.
She pulled in a ragged breath. “Keno! He’s outside!”
“Katy, take a breath.”
She was tied with fishing line, looped over the hook. He began to work at the line on her wrists.
“He heard your truck and he tied and gagged me! He took the dart rifle and ran outside. He wants to –”
Something hard came down on the back of Louis’s neck. He tumbled forward, almost falling into Katy. He dropped the flashlight and started to grope for it but suddenly he heard Keno working a rifle mechanism. The bastard was trying to load another dart.
Louis scrambled to his feet and suddenly a beam of light beam came up behind him -- Katy had worked one hand free and was holding the flashlight. It washed Keno in white light. He stood, holding the large sighted rifle. His hands were shaking, his clothes were caked with mud and his face was dripping with sweat.
“Freeze!” Louis shouted, leveling the Glock at him.
“No. No, you don’t understand,” Keno said.
“Drop the damn gun!”
“I need to do this,” Keno said. “I need to save her. I need to save her now.”
“Drop the fucking gun!”
“Louis!” Katy said. “Don’t shoot him. He’s -”
Keno got the dart chambered.
Damn it! He didn’t want to shoot this guy, not in front of Katy but the bastard wasn’t leaving him any choice.
“Louis, he’s trying to save Aunt Betty!” Katy cried. “He thought the panthers would -”
Keno started to raise the rifle.
Louis fired.
The bullet caught Keno in the shoulder and spun him around. Keno dropped the rifle and fell, landing half outside the door.
Katy let out a strangled cry. Louis went to Keno and snatched up the rifle. He had aimed only to wound, hitting Keno in the shoulder. It was enough to bring him down but he wasn’t going to die.
A howl. Deep and pained, coming from Grace.
“Louis! Untie me! Quick!” Katy yelled.
He started back to Katy but saw the belt hanging on the wall and grabbed one of the knives. He had barely sliced through the fishing line before Katy yanked away and ran to the cage.
Louis used a piece of the fishing line to tie Keno to the door latch. Keno looked up at him then hung his head.
“Louis!”
He turned to Katy. She was crouched next to the cage, holding the flashlight on Grace. He got his first good look at the panther.
She was sprawled on her side in the small cage, all four legs out, her body heaving with labored breaths. The cage was littered with feces, small bones and uneaten food of some kind. Grace’s coat was matted with brown mud.
He went to Katy’s side.
“How did you find me?” Katy asked.
“I got worried and hunted down Gary,’ Louis said. “We checked all the abandoned camps.”
She looked at him, her face half-lit in the light. “Gary? Where is he?”
“Keno got him with the dart,” Louis said. “He’s outside, twenty, thirty feet from the shack.”
Katy nodded, her face slick with sweat. “Get me Keno’s rifle.”
“What?”
“Just get it!”
Louis got the rifle and brought it to Katy. When she stood up, she wavered. Louis held out a hand but she brushed it away and took the rifle.
Grace let out a bellow filled with pain.
“Take this and hold it so I can see her,” she said. Her hand was shaking as she gave him the flashlight.
Louis took the flashlight and trained it on the panther. Katy took two steps back. Her eyes were filled with tears. She raised the rifle.
“Katy, wait! Don’t! We can take her - ”
“She’s in pain, damn it!”
Grace raised her head, her eyes coming up to Katy.
Katy fired.
A sharp pop!
Grace’s head fell hard and her yellow eyes went blank.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Louis stared at the motionless panther. He didn’t even realize Katy had moved away until he felt something brush his shoulder. She was holding a blanket.
“I need your help,” she said.
“What?”
“There’s a Coleman lantern in here somewhere. Find it and bring it over to the cage.”
“Katy – ”
“Just do it, please!”
She knelt and untied the wire on the cage door. Louis swung the flashlight around the room until he found the lantern and some matches. He lit the lantern and brought it to Katy.
In the hard lig
ht of the lantern he got a better look at Grace. What he had thought was brown mud was dried blood, concentrated around her haunches. There was a small pool of fresh pink blood near her tail.
Katy swung the cage door open and ducked inside, grabbing Grace’s front legs.
“Help me get her out onto the blanket,” Katy said. “Take her back legs but be gentle.”
“Katy, what are you doing?”
“We have to get her out of the cage so we have room to work.”
“Work?”
Katy looked up at Louis, her eyes bright with a mixture of fear and - good god - excitement.
“Grace is in labor,” she said.
Louis glanced back at Grace. Now he could see the bulge in her belly. And labor explained the fresh blood.
Katy was examining the panther, pressing on her abdomen. “She’s too weak to do this herself,” she said. “We need to help her. There’s only one kitten.”
Louis’s mind started spinning with options. Move the truck up closer and load Grace in, use the CB to call for a chopper or something.
“Katy, we can get someone here in an hour,” he said.
Her head shot up. “No!” she said. “We can’t wait. I don’t know what the tranquilizer will do to the fetus. Grace and the kitten could be dead in an hour.”
Katy looked back to the panther. “The amniotic sac is visible but Grace can’t push it out.” She shook her head. “Damn, I don’t have gloves or antiseptic, I don’t have any oxytocin. damn it...”
Louis knelt, setting the lantern on the wood floor. “All right,” he said. “What do you need me to do?”
Katy gave him a wavering smile. “Bring me the knife and see if you can find a clean towel or something. And I need a piece of that fishing line.”
Louis rose and used the flashlight to do a quick scan of the shack. The place was decrepit and filthy, with nothing but some fast food wrappers and some jugs of bottled water. He finally found Keno’s knapsack. It held some toiletries and some men’s underwear.
He cut off some fishing line and took it and a pair of blue boxer shorts to Katy. She didn’t even look up as she took them.
Claw Back (Louis Kincaid) Page 9