by J. T. Cross
Kate felt her face glowing hot. She looked over at Luc and saw he had a grin on his face.
“I explained to them on the plane, that we’re not planning on getting married anytime soon, that we’re just friends. I don’t know where she got that idea.”
From the other side of the room Kelly said, “Mommy says Kate is perfect for you.”
“No more about people getting married, okay?” Luc said.
“Okay,” Kelly said, not paying much attention to Luc as she played with her new doll.
Kate walked in the kitchen and Luc followed her.
“I think I’m going to make dinner for everyone,” she said.
“You don’t have to do that, I can do it,” he said.
“You go back in and have a good time with your kids. I’ll get things on the table.” She put her hands on his shoulders and faced him back toward the living room and gave him a little push.
“Thanks,” he said.
She found a bottle of spaghetti sauce and the package of macaroni. She filled a pot full of water and put it on the stove to boil. As the water came to a boil, she found the plates and silverware and set the table in the dining room.
She peeked into the living room and saw both kids sitting on top of Luc, pinning him to the floor. “We’ll never give up until you surrender,” Stuart said, giggling.
“Never,” echoed Kelly, as she tried to tickle him. Luc shook his head and laughed. “King Kong never surrenders!”
Kate watched them quietly. For a moment she pretended they were married and tried the thought on to see how it fit. A warm feeling filled her heart, and she thought she might cry. She waved the feeling off and went back into the kitchen to drain the macaroni.
* * *
Victor drove north on Highway 99 toward the town of Auburn. He had been driving for forty-five minutes and began to feel a little offended at Serena’s silence. She hadn’t said a word to him or made eye contact since they had left the motel.
“Are you still mad at me?” he blurted out.
She turned and glared at him, “I ought to call the police and have you arrested for attempted rape.”
Victor laughed for the first time that day. “While you’re at it, you can tell them why we came to the quaint little town of Auburn. I’m sure the troopers would love to hear all about it.”
She turned away and stared out her window. Victor wondered how long it would take her to calm down.
“I love your body; it’s a beautiful thing,” he said, simply relating what was on his mind.
“Go to hell. You had no right to do that,” she said.
Victor thought about his plans for the next several hours and decided it might be better if he wasn’t working with such a pissed-off woman.
“I’m sorry for what happened back there, Serena. I shouldn’t have done that. I won’t let it happen again.”
She looked at him then gazed back out the window. “Okay,” she said softly.
Victor felt better, now that things were getting back to normal. He began watching for a deserted place where they could pull over. He pulled off the road by a strand of trees next to a river. The spot was just what he had been looking for. He drove the van behind the trees, and they got out. They went to the rear of the vehicle, and he opened the back door.
He unzipped one of the large suitcases and withdrew two packages, one of which he gave to Serena. He then pulled out a rag and small bottle of water. He wet the rag and walked over to the driver’s side of the van and cleaned the dust off the side.
“Here, take this and clean the other side so the decals will stick,” he said. He threw the rag to Serena. He opened the package and withdrew a semitransparent decal that he carefully applied to the side of the van. He stepped back and examined it briefly. He decided it looked good. He walked over to the passenger side to see how Serena was doing.
“I’m having trouble getting it level. Could you hold that side,” she said.
He took the side of the decal and together they got it in approximately the same spot as the other side and smoothed the bubbles away. “Looks good to me,” he said.
Serena stepped back and read the decal.
www.NorthAmericanHunter.com
Bringing you up-to-date news about firearms,
hunting and hunters.
“Not bad,” she said.
“It just popped in my head as I was cleaning my Glock.”
They got back in the van, and he pulled back onto the road, continuing north.
“So, how did you find his address?” Serena asked.
“The Auburn Daily News ran a story about Luc Moon’s rescue. It was nice of them to put it on their web site,” he said. “I got his address off a search engine.” You just got to love the Internet, he thought.
They pulled into the small town and wound their way through the streets until they found the house where Kevin lived. He parked the van directly in front of the place and reached behind his seat and grabbed the small backpack. He pulled out a digital camera and handed it to Serena. He then pulled out a small recorder and slipped it into his pocket. He hoped these props would make it easier to gain entrance to his house.
They left the van and went up to the front door and Victor knocked. Nobody answered, so he knocked again. Wouldn’t it be a shame, he thought, if he’d wasted all that gas and there was no one home to kill.
Chapter 14
Victor looked the house over then stepped to the side of the porch and tried to look in the window between the blinds. He thought he saw some movement. As he reached out to knock again, the door opened. A middle-aged, slightly overweight Inuit woman with large dark-brown eyes looked at them with a puzzled expression on her face.
“What can I do for you?”
Victor waited for Serena to answer. He had learned she was better at breaking the ice. She had a big bubbly smile plastered across her face.
“Good afternoon. My name is Nicole West, and this is Jim Miller. We’re from the magazine, North American Hunter. We’re here to interview Kevin for an article we’re writing. Our main office called you, didn’t they?”
Kevin’s aunt stood at the door, still looking confused.
“Oh, my gosh, please tell me they didn’t forget to call you.” Serena said, sounding somewhat embarrassed.
“I didn’t get a call. What magazine did you say you were from?”
Serena pointed to the van. “It’s right there on the side of our van.”
The woman looked past them to the van and read out loud, “North American Hunter.” She looked back at Serena.
Serena didn’t give her time to ask any questions. “It’s a magazine exclusively for outdoorsmen and hunters. We heard about the incredible rescue of a boy who got lost with a friend while hunting up in Alaska. It was so compelling that we just had to cover the story. Is this where Kevin lives?”
“Well, yes, you’ve got the right place. I’m his aunt by the way. My name is Tukia.”
Victor thought she appeared to be warming up a little.
“I don’t think Kevin is really interested in being interviewed. He’s still recovering and not feelin’ too well. He can hardly walk with the crutches and all.”
“Oh, but that would be such a sad thing,” said Victor, with the sound of deep regret. “You see, everyone at the magazine felt so bad about what happened, they took up a collection for a scholarship fund. We thought it might encourage him to attend college. But if you think he wouldn’t be interested…”
“Wait... Maybe he would,” she said.
She looked back out at the van and then back in the house and appeared to be thinking things over. “Come on in and sit down. I’ll get him.”
Victor smiled at the woman and then at Serena as they walked into the small house and sat on the couch. He watched the boy’s aunt walk down a narrow hall to the rear of the house and sat patiently waiting for her to bring Kevin back.
He could hear her telling him to get his pajama top on because h
e had visitors. Five minutes later, she was back in the living room, followed by a medium-sized teenager on crutches who looked a little confused.
“You must be Kevin,” Serena said, as she and Victor jumped to their feet and reached out to shake hands with him. “We’re from the magazine, North American Hunter, and we’d like to ask you a few questions and maybe take a picture or two. We might even be able to get you some free hunting gear.”
“Free gear, really?” asked Kevin.
“Of course. You may not know it, but you’re kind of famous in the hunting world.”
He grinned. “I didn’t know that.”
Victor pulled the small digital recorder from his jacket pocket and sat it on the coffee table across from Kevin. He pushed the record button and sat back in his chair.
“Just tell us about how you got lost, what it felt like to be all alone out there, and of course, how it felt to be rescued.”
Kevin laid his crutches down by the side of the chair and began to describe in detail the whole day.
Victor glanced at his watch when no one was looking. Thirty minutes had gone by and he was beginning to get frustrated. The boy had been droning on and on and never once mentioned anything about a black rock. He began to wonder if the boy actually knew anything about the black rock. He decided to push a few buttons and see what happened.
“That is so interesting, Kevin. I’m so glad we got a chance to get it all down on the recorder. But there’s one thing you haven’t mentioned that I’m wondering about. Earlier when I interviewed Mr. Luc Moon, the man who rescued you, he bragged about discovering a black rock that seemed to be hot to the touch. He seemed to think it was a great discovery that would make him a rich man. Did he say anything to you about that during the rescue?”
A surprised look flashed across Kevin’s face. “He didn’t say anything to me about finding any black rocks.”
Victor considered his response. He had said black rock and the boy had responded with black rocks. He began to think there was more to be learned. He decided to up the ante.
“It’s too bad you didn’t find them first, I believe he’s been offered over a million dollars for one little black rock,” Victor said. He laughed dismissively.
He watched Kevin squinting his face up into a frown. He was quiet for a while and suddenly burst out, “That’s not fair. Jesse and I found them first. We had a bunch of them in my backpack, and we were bringing them back when the animal attacked us.”
Victor noticed his aunt frowning and shaking her head back and forth.
“Do you remember where you found them?” he asked.
“Yeah, they were in a warm lake.”
“Do you think you could find the spot again?”
Kevin looked at his aunt. Victor glanced up at her. She frowned.
“It was way back in the mountains, and I was just following Jesse. I don’t think I could ever find that place again.”
“Have you told anyone else about this?”
“Just my aunt.”
There was no doubt about it. The kid had found the rocks. It would only be a matter of time before he began telling everyone about them. He wasn’t going to let that happen. He glanced at Serena and nodded. She looked away for a moment and Victor thought she appeared sad. He pulled out his pistol and pointed it at Kevin and his aunt.
“What are you doing?” the woman asked, startled.
“Be quiet,” Victor said.
He glanced around the living and dining rooms deciding how he wanted to handle the situation. “Get two chairs from the dining room,” he said to Serena.
She brought the chairs into the living room. Victor tied the two with their hands behind their backs to the chairs with rope he took from an inside pocket of his jacket.
“Please, don’t hurt us. Just go, we won’t say a word about this to anyone,” his aunt pleaded.
“I believe you.”
Victor pulled the small syringe kit from his pocket, opened it, and withdrew a hypodermic needle. He handed it to Serena. He grabbed the woman’s head as she struggled and Serena quickly injected half of its contents into a vein on her neck. They repeated the same steps with the boy. Within seconds both Kevin and his aunt were unconscious.
“I love that stuff. After an hour or so it’s almost impossible to detect unless you know exactly what you’re looking for,” he said.
He untied them and positioned them on the couch as if they had fallen asleep. He then put the chairs back and went quickly through the house shutting off the pilot lights in the water heater and stove. In the kitchen, he pulled the stove out and twisted the corrugated connection pipe until it cracked and gas began escaping into the room. He pushed the stove back into place.
He went back into the dining room and pulled the small night light out of his pocket. He plugged it into an outlet under the table. The small light blinked six times in a row and then glowed continuously. “It will burst into flames in exactly sixty minutes. I think our work is done here.”
After talking with the young man and his aunt, Victor was pretty sure they lived alone. They had commented that they had all evening for the interview because they didn’t expect any company.
He went through the woman’s purse until he found her driver’s license and closely examined her signature. He pulled a piece of paper from a spiral binder lying on the table, and with a pen printed,
Went to dinner with friends.
We’ll back at six.
He went out on the front porch and clipped the note to the screen door with a bobby pin he had also found on the table. It paid to be an observant person, he thought.
He went back in the house and they both checked the doors and windows to make sure they were locked and then walked out the front door locking it behind them. They walked slowly to the van and drove out of the neighborhood.
A quarter of a mile away, Victor spotted a hamburger place and pulled into the parking lot. He got out and ordered two hamburgers and two Cokes. He brought them back to the van where he and Serena sat and slowly ate dinner. He looked at his watch several times while they were eating. They had been finished with dinner for a while when he looked at his watch again.
“You might want to put your fingers in your ears, Serena.” He concentrated on his watch for a moment and then began a countdown, “Ten, nine, eight, seven–” A concussion rocked their van.
“Gas leaks can be a bitch,” he said.
He started the van and drove to Highway 99. On the way out of town, he pulled into the same small stand of trees, and they got out of the van.
In the distance, he could hear ambulance and fire truck sirens. He scratched at the decals with his fingernails and peeled them off the sides of the van. He wadded them up in a bunch and put them on the ground.
He pulled a lighter out of his pocket and lit them on fire. He watched the black smoke rise into the air. When the fire went out he covered the ashes with dirt and went back to the van. He pulled onto the highway and headed back to Fairbanks.
Before they reached the motel, he spotted a place to rent a car. He pulled in and Serena went in to rent a small SUV. He waited for a few minutes until he saw her walking back with the key dangling from her hand. She got back in the van.
“No problems with the new credit card?” he asked.
“No. What’s my limit?” she asked, smiling.
“It’s for the car only. We use cash for everything else.”
“What’s the plan?”
“I want you to book yourself a motel room on the other side of town. After that, spend some time and see what you can find out about Luc’s girlfriend.”
He wrote Luc’s address on a slip of paper and handed it to her. She put the piece of paper in her purse then took her things out of the van and loaded them in the back of the rental. “I’ll see what I can do. I’ll give you a call later this evening.”
He watched her climb into the SUV and drive off. He was pretty sure he’d be getting some information that
evening. He knew Serena to be an extremely capable person. Maybe one of the best he had ever employed. He climbed in the van and headed back to the motel. He thought he might order in and then take a nap.
Chapter 15
Kate put the last plate in the dishwasher. The dinner had been fun. The kids had loved the macaroni and were now back in the living room wrestling again with Luc. She guessed they were making up for lost time. She walked back into the living room.
“Is it safe to come back in here?”
“Yes, we’re done. It’s time to take it down a notch guys,” Luc said to Stuart and Kelly. The children climbed off him and went over to the couch.
Luc stood up and brushed his hair back. “Could you do me a favor?” he asked Kate.
She walked up to him and smiled at him with her crystal green eyes. “Of course, anything.”
“Could you watch the kids for a little while? I’m pretty tuckered out, and I’d love to hop in the shower.”
Kate took his hand in hers and looked into his eyes, “If you wait until after they go to bed, I can be your shower buddy.”
The thought of them together filled him with confusion. Seeing Christie had dredged up memories and feelings he thought had been extinguished. He felt stuck in the middle again.
“Kate, I don’t think tonight’s a good night.”
She pouted for a few seconds. “Go,” she said, and gently pushed him toward the hallway.
“Thanks for the break.”
He picked up his suitcase and walked down the hall to his bedroom.
Luc took his time in the shower, enjoying the warm water flowing over his body. He thought about Kate and how the kids seemed to take to her. That was a nice thing she’d done, getting gifts for them, something he hadn’t expected. She seemed to be pretty good with kids.
Thirty minutes later he walked into the living room dressed in a T-shirt and shorts with his wet hair brushed back and feeling like a new man. It was amazing how a quick shower could make a person feel so much better, he thought.