Sarah ran her hand through her hair. “Why would Dr. Kraus even tell Amanda that a research station once stood here?”
“He did?” Noel asked, in a confused voice, her eyes wide and spooked.
“He sure did,” Amanda proclaimed. “He was going to sell me this place, too.”
Noel stared at Amanda. “Dr. Kraus didn’t obey his orders—he would have needed traveling money. At the same time, he would have wanted to leave an obvious trail to expose an agent in the White Cell group—of course, that has to be it.”
“Are you implying the man panicked and was planning to run?” Sarah asked.
“Yes,” Noel stated. “That is how it seems to me.” She pointed at Amanda. “You and your husband were simply guinea pigs who managed to escape death due to one man’s conscience. Why you came back—”
“I fell in love with this land, okay?” Amanda said, and wiped the last of her tears away. “When Mr. Grayman—Dr. Kraus—told me he was putting this resort—death trap, rather—up for sale, I melted. I guess he saw a sap and took advantage of me.”
“Dr. Kraus was always very good at reading people,” Noel explained. “He must have seen that you were beginning to care for the land and saw an opportunity to acquire the traveling money he needed.”
Sarah looked down at the dead body. The only question in her mind was who shot and killed Dr. Kraus. Where was the killer now? And would he be back? If the man came back to try and kill them, that would mean he hadn’t sprayed the virus into the air. He would have simply left to let the virus do the dirty work for him. For the first time in Sarah’s life, she pleaded for a killer to return to the scene of his crime. “Come back,” she whispered in a shaky voice, “please come back.”
Night arrived. Noel made a pot of coffee and sat back down at the kitchen table. “Thank you for helping me carry the body into the next cabin,” she told Sarah and Amanda.
Amanda was standing next to the back door. Her mind was solely on her husband. “Are you certain Dr. Kraus didn’t infect my husband?” she asked Noel.
“If Dr. Kraus had obeyed orders, he would still be alive,” Noel confirmed in a voice that set Amanda’s worries at ease—at least for the time being.
Sarah stood next to the kitchen counters and watched coffee pour into a foggy pot. The smell of the coffee filled the kitchen air and slowly began destroying harmful thoughts. “Noel, who do you work for?” she asked.
Noel sat in silence. When she did answer Sarah’s question, her voice was low and hidden. “I cannot reveal that.”
“Obviously, someone must know that you’re here,” Sarah told Noel. “Please, we need to try and reach our husbands. If we are infected, we have the right to say goodbye to the people we love.”
“I have no communication device on me and, unfortunately, no one knows of my current location. I am believed to be in Europe.”
Sarah folded her arms. “You said there is a hidden trail. You must have a motorbike or four-wheelers hidden someplace. We can—”
“You must not try and leave,” Noel ordered Sarah. “Even if you did try—the four-wheeler I arrived on has been destroyed by the man who killed Dr. Kraus.”
“Then why did you disable my jeep?” Sarah snapped. She quickly caught her tongue and apologized. “I know why—to prevent yourself from leaving. I’m sorry I snapped at you.”
“It is understandable,” Noel assured Sarah. “Please, sit down.”
“The man who killed Dr. Kraus could return. I would prefer to remain standing.”
“If the killer does not return, its lights out for us,” Amanda told Sarah in a sad voice. “I never thought I would punch the clock out this way—and it’s all my fault. I was so stupid to have come to this—this ugly grave.”
“How could you have known the truth?” Noel asked Amanda. “You were simply a pawn. Dr. Kraus returned back to the very location he had escaped from, transformed his lab into a hot springs retreat, and camouflaged himself under a new name. Not a single person knows the truth.” Noel’s voice became defeated. “Not a single person at Viral Green—within the government—the CDC.”
“How did you find out that Dr. Kraus had returned?” Sarah asked. “And why didn’t you inform anyone?”
Noel rubbed her nose. “I spent years searching for Dr. Kraus,” she began to explain as the coffee pot continued to fill. “My searches never returned a positive lead. Eventually, I decided to go underground and attempt to locate Dr. Kraus through back channels. I had no choice, and I began working for the White Cell terrorist group.”
“You what?” Amanda gasped.
“As a researcher,” Noel confirmed. “I had one single contact—a voice that I never met. However,” Noel added, “all of my research had to be sent to a certain P.O. Box in Los Angeles. I left my home on the East Coast and traveled to Los Angeles. I monitored the post office where my research was to be picked up. When I spotted a woman picking up my research package,” Noel stopped rubbing her nose, “I followed this woman to a private cottage in the upper canyons. I’m not proud to admit this, but I viciously attacked her. After I subdued this woman, I tied her down inside the cottage and spent twenty-four hours collecting information from her—through very painful techniques.”
“Torture,” Sarah said.
“I'm afraid so,” Noel said, feeling shame burn in her cheeks. “This woman confessed very important information that allowed me to track down Dr. Kraus. I immediately left for Alaska, but when I arrived, I was greeted by two gunmen who met me outside of the Anchorage airport. I was placed in a van and driven to a remote location, shot three times in the back, and left for dead.”
“Oh my,” Amanda gasped.
“As you can see—I am alive,” Noel told Amanda.
“How?” Sarah asked. “You would have been checked for a protective vest.”
“I was checked,” Noel confirmed. “But you must understand—I actually work for very powerful people, and I was prepared.” Noel reached out her right hand and touched her back. “I was wearing a flesh vest.”
“A what?” Amanda asked.
“A vest that resembled flesh. It is very thin and extremely difficult to detect. The bullets I was shot with bruised me but did not otherwise harm me. I played dead and then managed to escape,” Noel explained. “Because I was believed to be dead, I knew I had a certain advantage and began making my way directly toward this location. However, it was winter, and the weather conditions were extremely harsh. It took me two weeks to reach this location, and by then, Dr. Kraus and his wife were gone—taken away out of precaution and returned when spring arrived.”
“You’re a spy, aren't you?” Amanda asked, and shook her head. “Whatever happened to the days of women staying home, raising a family, cooking a good old-fashioned meatloaf dinner, and spending their evenings knitting a sweater? Or just getting a normal job instead of getting into espionage?”
“I wish those days still existed,” Noel sighed. “I wish, more than you could ever know, that times were simple again. I regret my life and the choices I made.”
Sarah stared at Amanda. “We'll talk about regrets later. Continue with your story.”
Noel nodded her head. “I spent the winter in this location. When spring arrived, I knew Dr. Kraus would be returned under special guard, at least until it was confirmed the location was secure and clear. Dr. Kraus hated to be crowded and insisted he be left alone with his wife.” Noel looked at the coffee pot. “Before I left, I bugged the phone line.” Noel kept her eyes on the coffee. “May I have a cup of coffee please?”
“Sure,” Sarah said. She picked up a brown coffee mug and filled it with coffee. “June Bug, coffee?”
“Sure, why not?” Amanda told Sarah.
Sarah handed Noel her coffee and poured Amanda a mug. “Hot,” she said.
“Got it,” Amanda promised and took the mug of coffee with grateful hands. “Did you find anything while you were here?” she asked Noel.
Noel took a sip of her coffee and nodded
her head yes. “Research papers, letters, a personal journal. It wasn’t long before I realized Dr. Kraus was being held hostage by the White Cell. The White Cell had managed to capture his daughter and take her hostage.”
“I feel bad for his daughter, but sorry if my heart doesn’t bleed for the man,” Amanda told Noel and took a seat at the table.
“How did you know Dr. Kraus would return when spring arrived?” Sarah asked, pouring herself a mug of coffee.
“Dr. Kraus wrote down the date of his return in his journal,” Noel explained. She set down her coffee. “I must confess that I became very ill that winter and nearly died. My resources were limited—food was scarce, and the frigid cold was not my friend. I spent my time in the basement next to a small heater eating very little food. I couldn’t let my presence be detected. When I left, I made it appear that animals had managed to enter the kitchen and get at the food. I was fearful that my footprints in the cabin would be found, but to my relief they were not.”
“And you found information out how?” Sarah asked.
“By listening to the phone conversations,” Noel explained. “I arrived here with very little at my disposal. After I was shot and left for dead, I had difficulty finding even what I’d arrived with.” Noel looked down at her coffee. “The device I placed on the phone was the one item I managed to keep on my body when I was shot. The device is very unique and allows a person to dial a certain phone and keep the phone line open without being detected. I could hear every word spoken in the cabin and every word spoken through phone calls.”
“Just like a cell phone when it’s turned off,” Sarah pointed out. “You transform the cell phone into a private listening device without the owner knowing.”
“Exactly,” Noel said.
“You must work for some very powerful people.”
Noel lowered her eyes. “Not anymore,” she promised. “Dr. Kraus is dead. Now I can rest.”
Sarah stared at Noel. “Dr. Kraus was more than just a close friend who turned on you, wasn’t he?”
Noel sat in silence for a very long time. Then she raised her eyes. “He was my adopted father,” she confessed. “He raised me as his own. After he tried to kill me—two years ago to the day—I found out an awful truth.” Noel squeezed her hands into two tight fists. “My parents were scientists. Both of my parents worked with Dr. Kraus. On a very cold and rainy night, their car ran off a cliff. My parents were killed. Dr. Kraus was the driver who ran my parents off the cliff. I was eighteen at the time and had just begun my studies as a virologist in Norway—and, and,” tears began dripping from Noel’s eyes. “Dr. Kraus is dead—that’s all that matters. It seems that in the end, he couldn’t let the monster he had become kill millions of innocent people after all. At least he had some form of a conscience.”
“Oh, don’t cry, Noel,” Amanda begged. She stood up and put her arm around the woman. “It’s okay.”
Sarah watched Amanda shower Noel with care and concern. Then she felt her own heart melt. “I’m sorry for all that you’ve been through,” she told Noel. She walked over to the woman and rubbed her shoulder with tender hands. “I can’t imagine.”
Noel looked up at Sarah and Amanda with tear-soaked eyes. “I’m sorry that we all may die within the next two days. I—also want the man who killed Dr. Kraus to return, but I doubt that he will. Dr. Kraus was ordered to release the virus, and he failed. The man who killed Dr. Kraus knew you two were set to arrive. I’m certain he sprayed the virus in the air.”
“Mr. Fields—the fake attorney,” Sarah said, in a shaky voice.
Noel nodded her head. “I’m afraid so.”
Amanda sat back down and took a sip of coffee. She had walked off alone and cried until it hurt after helping Noel carry the dead body into a separate cabin. Now she felt strangely calm about dying. After all, Jesus was surely waiting for her. “So—we wait,” she said.
“We wait,” Noel agreed.
“We wait,” Sarah agreed. As a homicide detective, she had spent years coming to terms with her own mortality. The danger of being killed was an enemy she faced daily. But now, trapped in a cabin waiting to see if she was going to be murdered by a lethal virus—she felt scared. “I always assumed I would be killed by a bullet,” she confessed. “Noel—how will this virus kill us?”
Noel looked up at Sarah with worried eyes. “You don't want to know,” she promised. “What’s important is that the virus can only be spread through human contact—sneezes—blood, that sort of thing. If we die in this remote location, there is a chance the virus will die inside of us. The virus matures in a warm bloodstream and cannot survive outside of the body for long.”
Sarah walked to the back door and tapped the doorknob with her hands. “I wish I could have said goodbye to Conrad. The last thing I told him was not to forget to feed Mittens. Mittens is my dog.” Sarah felt tears sting her eyes. “We’ve faced so much—and now it ends in a way I never would have expected. I honestly believed that my battle with the Back Alley Killer was my last.”
Amanda stood up and walked over to her best friend. “At least we had some good shopping days,” she tried to joke but failed. “Oh love, I know how you feel. Every time I think of my husband or son, I—I can’t handle the thought. I’ve been praying my heart out—that’s all I can do.”
“Me too,” Sarah confessed. She looked at Amanda and forced a smile on her face. “Maybe we should have let that grizzly bear eat us after all.”
“What grizzly bear?” Noel asked.
“Oh, while we were driving up, this mean old grizzly walked out onto the road,” Amanda explained. “Sarah had to throw our sandwiches out the window in order to make him move.”
“He was a very large bear,” Sarah added. “If that bear would have attacked my jeep, Amanda and I wouldn’t be standing here right now.”
Suddenly a strange smile came over Noel’s face. “Old Ralph,” she whispered.
“Who?” Amanda asked.
Noel looked at Amanda. “Old Ralph,” she smiled again. “Old Ralph has been around these parts for years. When I worked with Dr. Kraus I would see him down at the lake hunting for fish or standing in the river catching salmon. He never bothered me, and I never bothered him. After a while—well, as strange as it may sound—that bear became like a friend to me. I never traveled very close to him, but at times he would just look at me as if to say he understood how I was feeling.”
“I wish Old Ralph would have stopped us from coming up here,” Amanda sighed. She sat back down at the kitchen table and grabbed her coffee. “I could really go for a cinnamon roll and a shopping trip right about now.” Amanda looked at Sarah. “If we live through this, I’m going to go straight home to open me a dress shop and I’m never leaving Snow Falls ever again.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself, June Bug,” Sarah told Amanda and decided to sit down and rest her legs. “A dress shop can become very boring—at least now we’re having an adventure, right?” Sarah sighed. “Our very last adventure, I’m afraid.”
The kitchen grew silent. The three women each looked down at their coffee mugs, each thinking their own thoughts. What they didn’t know at that time was that the same set of deadly eyes was watching the cabin. “I'll finish this one way or another,” the voice hissed and scurried into a far cabin where he hunkered down for the night.
As the night became long, Sarah took the first watch as Amanda and Noel tried to sleep. She spent the four hours of her watch struggling to think about Conrad. But for some reason, all she could see in her mind was a hideous snowman wearing a leather jacket and chewing a candy cane. I got you in the end, didn’t I, Sarah? Oh yes, I did. The snowman laughed all night long.
4
Sarah eased into the kitchen and found Noel sitting at the kitchen table drinking a cup of coffee. Noel wasn’t sitting like a person enjoying a normal morning cup of java. The woman was sitting tense and upset. Sarah assumed the woman was upset and distraught over their situation. Yet, she noticed
, as she walked into the kitchen, some other heavy burden appeared to be pushing down on Noel’s shoulders.
“Good morning.”
“Good morning,” Noel replied, and fought back a yawn. “Everything is still quiet.”
Sarah nodded her head. She felt tired, wanted a hot shower, a clean change of clothes, and a decent meal. Her hair felt messy and her face, instead of lovely and beautiful, felt scarred by deep worry. The last thing she wanted was to be trapped in a remote location, possibly dying from a deadly, invisible virus. Sarah wanted to be home in her cabin, sitting in a warm kitchen in the presence of a loving husband, talking over a plate of hot pancakes. Instead, she was locked in a dusty kitchen surrounded by darkness and misery. But through her own worry and fear, she managed to catch a new burden that had attacked Noel during the night. “Is anything the matter?”
Noel took a sip of coffee. “I’ve been thinking,” she told Sarah in a low voice.
“Let me have a mug of coffee and we’ll talk.” Sarah quickly poured herself a mug of coffee and sat down at the table. “Amanda is still sleeping. She had a bad dream—I didn’t have the heart to wake her.”
Noel kept her eyes low. “Amanda is a good friend. You’re very blessed to have her in your heart.”
“That woman has saved my life many times,” Sarah explained. “I wish—I could save her life.” Tears immediately stung Sarah’s eyes. She let out a deep breath. “When my husband divorced me, I left Los Angeles and moved to Snow Falls—really not knowing what to expect but—needing to begin a new life for myself away from everything I knew. I met Amanda, and we immediately became the best of friends. We’ve been inseparable from day one. I love her in a way that I can’t explain.” Sarah looked toward the hallway. “That woman is more special than words can say.”
“I’m sure she feels the very same way about you,” Noel suggested. “A good friend doesn’t give her heart to ugly creatures.”
“I suppose not,” Sarah agreed. She raised her eyes and focused on Noel, who looked miserable. “You mean—you don’t have any friends?”
Hot Springs Murder Page 5