by Tim O'Mara
‘How big is this camp?’
‘About seventy-five acres,’ Harlan said. ‘Not including the shared lake.’
‘Cabins?’
‘A dozen, maybe. Then the main office attached to the staff housing, an indoor all-purpose center, a dining hall, and a maintenance shed.’
‘Where are you supposed to meet Chilly?’
‘When you turn in there’s a long driveway, about a quarter of a mile,’ he said. ‘There’s the main office and staff housing. He said he’d meet me there and then take me to Ms Rogers.’
‘When you spoke to him, did you also speak to Ms Rogers?’
‘No, I didn’t think to ask. Should I have?’
I shook my head. ‘Only if you were a cop.’
He nodded. ‘Proof of life. I seen that in the movies when they kidnap people.’
‘Something like that.’ I thought some more. ‘Any other ways into the camp besides the driveway? Back roads, anything like that?’
‘There’s a back road that comes over the hill, but I don’t know how to get there.’ He thought some more. ‘I also saw someone come in once off the lake by canoe. But that means they had to trespass on someone else’s property.’
I handed him Allison’s phone. ‘Do me a favor and text that info to those last two numbers I called. Also ask them where they are.’
He did and then put the phone in the cup holder between us. ‘Any idea how much farther?’ I asked.
‘About another thirty, forty minutes, I think. Your friends are about thirty minutes behind us. We gotta go over the Kingston–Rhinecliff Bridge and then take a left.’
‘Text them that, please. It’ll make it easier on them.’ What would also make it easier was their law enforcement badges. They’d be able to go about ten miles over the speed limit and not worry too much if they got pulled over. It wouldn’t be enough to close all the distance, just some. ‘You need to pee or anything?’
‘I’m good until we cross the Hudson again. Thanks. I’m hungry, though.’
‘Check the glove compartment.’
He did and sure enough, there was an energy bar. Edgar usually had one or two around for emergencies. ‘You want half?’ Harlan asked.
I shook my head. I was too nervous to eat. The sun was almost all the way down now and I realized I needed to put on the headlights. We passed the New Paltz exit and I couldn’t help but think how much this area had played into the last week of my life.
After breaking the world record for eating an energy bar, Harlan stuck the wrapper in his jeans pocket, and said, ‘I have a confession to make, Raymond.’
‘Whatever you’ve done, kid,’ I said, ‘you’re making up for it now.’
‘It’s not that.’
‘Then what?’
He unbuckled his seat belt and leaned forward. Then he reached behind himself and pulled something out of the back of his shorts. From where I sat, it looked to be a semi-automatic SIG Sauer.
‘What the fuck, Harlan?’
‘I took it before I left,’ he said. ‘I was scared and shit.’
‘Is it loaded?’
He looked at me like I was a dumbass.
‘Put it in the glove compartment,’ I said.
‘What?’
‘The glove compartment. Now!’
He did. And then leaned back.
‘Leave it there.’ I banged the steering wheel. ‘You’re a smart kid, Harlan, but that’s some stupid shit, you know that?’
‘I told you, I was scared.’
‘You have that on you when Allison was interviewing you?’
He nodded his head yes.
‘Did she know you had it on you?’
He shook his head no.
I slammed the steering wheel again. ‘Then you were putting her in danger, damn it! What the hell were you gonna do if someone walked up on you? Shoot it out? With my girlfriend there? Someone who was trying to help you?’
I couldn’t see his face real well in the dim light, but I could hear his breathing change. It was breaking up and getting wet. Shit. He was just a scared kid protecting himself the only way he knew how. The only way he’d been taught. And here I was making him feel like shit about it.
‘All right,’ I said after I calmed down. ‘Forget about. It’s just that you seem so … I forgot you’re only sixteen. It’s OK. No harm was done and you were protecting yourself. It’s over.’ I reached out and patted his leg. ‘Let’s focus on tonight. You know there’s no way we’re trading you for Allison, right?’
‘What do mean?’ he said. ‘That was the deal I made with—’
‘Yeah, well, deals get broken all the time. Especially when one of the dealmakers is a kidnapper and the other is sixteen years old.’ I looked at my phone as it dinged. ‘See who that is.’
He picked up the phone and looked at it. ‘Henderson?’
‘Put it on speaker.’ He did. ‘David. Where are you?’
‘About twenty minutes behind you,’ he said, ‘but I got some flashing lights up ahead just short of Exit 18.’
‘Must’ve just missed it.’
‘I’m gonna try and badge my way through if it’s a problem. Can ya stall?’
I looked at the kid. He shrugged. ‘We’ll give it a shot.’
‘Get right back to me.’
‘Call Chilly,’ I said to Harlan. ‘Tell him we got caught in … that thing back there. An accident.’
‘He’s not gonna believe me.’
‘Do it anyway. See what happens.’
He dialed the number. That was another thing about Harlan: how many kids had people’s phone numbers memorized these days? Even their own? He waited a while and I could tell the call had gone to voicemail.
‘Chilly,’ he said, ‘it’s me. We’re on the Thruway but there’s some sort of backup. An overturned truck or something. Call me back. Please.’ He ended the call and turned to me. ‘He’s not gonna buy it.’
‘Then we keep driving.’
Harlan tried to get Henderson back on the phone, but the signal was too weak. The same thing for Billy. We moved forward anyway.
A few minutes later we took the turn off to Kingston, paid our toll and took the route to the Kingston–Rhinecliff Bridge. It was just after eight now and Harlan had been told to be there as close to eight-thirty as possible. We should make it on time, but I doubted that Billy and Henderson would.
We crossed the bridge and made the first left. ‘Now what?’ I asked.
‘About a mile,’ Harlan said, ‘there’s a car dealership. Make a right.’
I made the right at the dealership and looked over at the kid. ‘In a few more minutes,’ he said, ‘there’ll be a real estate office on the right, make that turn.’
How the hell did out-of-town people find their way around here without GPS or teenagers? I would not have seen the real estate place if Harlan had not pointed it out. I made the right and turned onto a road that had no streetlights. I flicked on Edgar’s brights. I could see better, but anyone out there could also see me coming from a mile away. Good thing I was expected.
‘OK,’ Harlan said. ‘Here’s where it gets tricky. There’s a signpost coming up on the left,’ he said, ‘but there’s no sign there, just a pair of chains that used to hold the sign for the old camp.’
‘How much farther is this sign that’s not there?’
He thought about that. ‘About three football fields.’
I slowed down to about maybe one football field a minute. Again, without Harlan pointing and saying, ‘There it is,’ I would have driven right by it. I could see why Lansing’s group would want to buy such a place: the location sucked. I found myself starting to doubt that Billy and Henderson would find it.
I made the left and found myself on a dirt road with tire tracks and a patch of dark grass in the middle. Harlan said, ‘This leads right into the main office building. Just go slow, the road hasn’t been fixed in years.’
No shit. I would probably owe Edgar for a new suspension when all was said a
nd done. A minute or so later, I could make out the first building. There were no lights on. Probably, it occurred to me, because there was no electricity. I slowed down as we approached and realized I was wrong; there were a few lights on, but they appeared to be the kind you take camping with you that run on gas. There were two in the windows and one around the side. I pulled up in front of the building and parked. I turned the engine off but kept the headlights on, thinking the more light, the better. There was another building to our left with a sign above the door that said ‘Dining Hall.’
‘Now what?’ I said to Harlan.
‘We get out and wait.’
‘Just like that?’
‘That was the de— that’s what Chilly told me to do.’
Right. I looked around. Besides the three camping lights and the little bit of the building I could make out, nothing. I considered my options, weighed the odds of Billy and Henderson not only getting here, but getting here unnoticed, and took a deep, yet unsatisfying, breath. I reached into the glove compartment and pulled out the gun Harlan had foolishly brought with him.
‘You sure you know how to use this?’
He looked surprised at the question, but said, ‘Real sure.’
I handed it to him. ‘Put it behind your back. And don’t do a thing with it unless I tell you to.’
‘I hear you.’
‘I know you hear me, Harlan.’ Teacher to student. ‘But do you understand me?’
He nodded. ‘Yes, sir.’
I took my own gun from my ankle holster and put it behind my back. ‘Good,’ I said. ‘Now, we get out.’
Once out of the car, I got a good dose of that camp air Allison had written about. The only sounds were the night-time insects, tree frogs, and the leaves rustling through the trees. The lake was to our right. A few lights were dancing off the water. Like Allison had implied, enjoyable under other circumstances, just not now. Then another sound broke through. A sound I’ve heard many times before, mostly in the movies but occasionally in real life.
The sound of a rifle being cocked.
THIRTY-FIVE
‘How ya doin’ there, Harlan?’ a voice from the darkness wanted to know.
‘I’m here, Chilly,’ Harlan said. ‘Just like you told me.’
‘Yes, you are, son.’ A pause. ‘Nice to meet you, Raymond.’
‘You have Allison with you?’ I asked.
Chilly laughed. ‘What?’ he said. ‘No howdy-do? You city folks are rude, you know that?’
‘The deal was,’ I said, ‘I bring you Harlan, you give me Allison. There was nothing said about being polite about it.’
He laughed again and now stepped out from behind a tree into the brightness of my headlights so he could be seen. He was wearing a bright orange knitted hunting cap. ‘My mother would disagree with you there, Raymond,’ he said. ‘She would say that good manners are always expected, and one need not be reminded to be polite.’
He took off his cap so I could see his hairless scalp. Chilly was Charles. And he was one of the guys on the bridge yesterday. He was hoping to use me to get to Harlan. Looked like it worked.
‘What would your mother say about kidnapping a woman, Charles?’ I took the risk of asking. ‘That sounds kinda impolite to me.’
He took a few steps closer. ‘Ya gotta point there, Raymond. She probably would have something to say about that.’ He raised his right arm and made a tight fist. Out of the darkness came three more figures: a man by himself and another with his hand gripping Allison’s elbow. The one with Allison was the second guy from the bridge. I did my best not to make any sudden moves and when they got closer, I saw that Allison had duct tape around her mouth and a kind of calm fear in her eyes. She was taking long deep breaths. I had the incredible urge to run up and hug her, but both men were carrying handguns.
Another thing I noticed – a big thing – was that Allison didn’t have her bag with her. If she didn’t have her bag, this wasn’t a trade. It was a trap, set up by persuading a sixteen-year-old who wanted to set things right to convince a grown-up who only wanted his girlfriend back. Fuck me.
I looked at the guy holding Allison and said, ‘Is the duct tape really necessary? Out here in the woods?’
Chilly answered. ‘Probably not. But I don’t much care for the sound of women talking all that much.’
I switched my glance to Allison and nodded. My only hope at this point was that Billy or Henderson would come barreling down the dirt road, guns ablazin’, giving me enough time to get my own gun out, take down the kidnappers, and rescue Allison.
What I needed was a movie ending.
What I got was the sound of an engine coming through the woods and a pair of high-beam headlights illuminating what I could now see must have been the access road Harlan had told me about. Had Billy or Henderson somehow found that and given me the break I needed?
‘The fuck is that?’ Chilly yelled.
All three men turned as a red-and-white pickup truck came roaring toward us and skidded to a stop. The men raised their guns and a metallic voice came out of the truck’s speaker system.
‘Chilly,’ the voice said. ‘You dumbass motherfucker. Put that thing down before you hurt yourself.’ To accent his point, the voice threw on the overhead lamps. Now the place was lit up like a movie set. When Chilly didn’t comply, the driver’s side door opened and out stepped a very large man dressed in a camouflage jacket, blue jeans, baseball cap, and boots made for shit kicking. I recognized him right away.
Duke Lansing.
Duke was also holding a handgun. What was up with these guys? If you were a White Nationalist, it must have been a fashion faux pas to not carry a firearm.
‘The hell you doing, Chilly?’ Duke wanted to know.
‘This don’t concern you, Duke,’ Chilly said. ‘Not anymore. Me, Tommy, and Louis are on our own now. This is our business. You go on home and let us finish it up.’
I looked over at Tommy and Louis, not knowing which was which, but neither of them looked too happy about Chilly’s speaking to Duke Lansing like that. I caught Allison’s eye and tried to give her a reassuring look. I’m not sure I succeeded.
‘How many times I gotta tell you, Chilly?’ Duke said. ‘When one of us does something, it reflects on all of us.’
‘There ain’t no us, Duke! We left.’
‘You don’t get to leave!’ Duke yelled. You could hear his voice echo through the woods and across the lake. ‘Not you.’ Then he looked at Harlan. ‘Not anyone.’
I could see Chilly’s rifle start to tap his leg. Duke picked up on it, too. I took that opportunity to reach into the back of my pants and grab my gun. I kept my hands behind me as if standing at attention. I saw Harlan do the same. I shook my head. No.
‘Don’t do anything stupid now, boy,’ Duke said. At first I thought he was talking to Harlan or me, but his comment was directed at Chilly, who was tapping his gun a little faster now. ‘You’ve made one dumbass decision this week, let’s not make it two.’
Chilly shook his head. ‘See,’ he said, ‘ya can’t go around talking to people like that and expect them to follow you.’
‘I can if they’re dumbasses.’ Duke looked at Tommy and Louis. ‘You know what I’m saying, right boys?’ The boys said nothing. Duke said, ‘Tommy, gimme the girl.’
Tommy seemed confused by that command and looked at Chilly. ‘Don’t you dare, Tommy,’ Chilly said. ‘We spoke about this. We’re making a stand here.’
‘Is that what this is about?’ Duke laughed. ‘Making a stand? Goddamn.’ Again, he said, ‘Tommy. The girl.’
Tommy took a step toward Duke with Allison. Chilly raised his gun. ‘Tommy, you take one more step and I’ll put one in your leg.’ They looked at each other, each one nervous. ‘You know I will.’
Tommy looked at Chilly and said, ‘Chilly …’
‘Bring her over here if you don’t know what to do with her,’ Chilly said. ‘Never were much good with the ladies anyway.’
&n
bsp; Oh, boy, I thought. Why not just call him a pussy? Tommy looked at Chilly, took a few steps toward him, put his hand behind Allison’s back and shoved her. Chilly was able to grab her just before she fell. Tommy then took his gun and flung it Frisbee-style toward the lake. ‘I’m done with this shit.’ He looked at Chilly and then Duke. ‘With both of y’all.’
Duke waved his pistol at Tommy, pointed it at the ground, and said, ‘Why’nt you just take a seat right where you are, Tommy.’ Tommy again looked confused. ‘G’head, right there. Hands on your head. I’ll get back to you.’ Like a little kid who’d just been taken to task by his father, Tommy did as he was told. Duke looked at Louis. ‘Why’nt you go ahead and do the same as Tommy, Louis.’
Louis looked at Duke, then over at Chilly. He made up his mind right away and said, ‘I don’t think so, Duke. I’m good right here.’ Then something occurred to him that I’d been thinking about. ‘How’d you find us, anyways?’
Duke laughed and looked at me. ‘You that friend of Maurice’s, right?’ He pronounced the name ‘Moh-reese.’
‘I am.’
Duke shook his head and scratched his white beard. ‘Boy may not be too wise in the wife-choosing or baby-making departments, but he can sure put tracking devices on vehicles. One of the last things he did before he took that arrow to the back was install them GPS things on my boys’ trucks. Soon as I realized what Chilly here had done, I just turned them on and voy-lah – found him just like that.’
‘You were spyin’ on us?’ Chilly asked.
‘Imagine that,’ Duke said. ‘Like I had no reason to. You ungrateful little shits. You leave, and what’s the first dumbass move you make? Take that little girl there right up to our camp. You’re like spoiled little brats who run away from home and then hide in the backyard.’
‘Goddamn it, Duke,’ Louis said. ‘You just can’t go around …’
Louis got so angry he couldn’t finish his sentence. He got so angry he raised his gun a bit. A bit too high, because Duke took a shot at him and got him in the upper arm, right near the shoulder. Louis dropped his gun and fell to his knees. In this light, it looked like someone had spilled chocolate syrup on his shirt. He was going to lose a lot of blood was my guess, but he’d live.