Mystery on Majestic Mountain (Kristi Cameron Book 9)

by Cynthia Griffith

  He glanced at his watch. “Forty-five minutes, maybe? Okay, I guess we can wait that long. But give me the gun, Skeeter. I’m going to put it up somewhere safe.”

  “Can we get out of this bathroom now?” Robyn asked. “I love being together with you all, but this is a little too ‘together,’ if you know what I mean! I can’t breathe!”

  They went back out to the great room and settled down to wait for Steve to return. Dan put the gun up on top of the mantle behind a picture frame. They lay in front of the fire under their afghans and sleeping bags, talking quietly so they wouldn’t wake Rachel or Liz and the kids. The minutes ticked by and they waited anxiously.

  An hour had come and gone when Kristi got up and went to the window to look out. The moon was shining brightly on the snow, and with its reflection, it was surprisingly light outside. There was nothing out there, though—only snow-covered trees and the snow-covered SUV. She went back over to the fireplace and snuggled under her afghan again. “I don’t know, Dan,” she said. “Maybe we should wake Mom. He should have been back by now.”

  “Let’s give him five more minutes, Kristi. Something could have happened.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of.” She sat with her eyes glued to the door for the next five minutes. Just as she was about to get up and wake her mother she heard footsteps on the porch outside.

  Kristi jumped up and ran to the door. She threw it open. There was her dad and both Jake and John Andrews. The escaped convict was back—whichever one he was.

  ____________

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  ____________

  Jake and John

  Kristi held the door open wide and backed away as Steve and Jake helped John Andrews in. The older man looked pale and sweaty and seemed to be having trouble breathing.

  “Let’s get him over to the sofa,” Steve said to Jake.

  Kristi ran over to her mother and shook her. “Mom, Dad’s back!” she said. “Something’s wrong with Mr. Andrews! They need to lay him down here on the couch.”

  Rachel jumped up and ran over to the men. “What is it, Steve? What happened?”

  He shook his head. “I’m not sure. We found him down near the road. He never made it to his car. It might be a heart attack, Rachel. It’s a good thing we took the toboggan down with us or we could have never gotten him back up here.”

  “Lay him down over there, Steve, and loosen his collar. I’ll get some aspirin out of the first aid kit. They say you should chew two aspirin right away if you think you might be having a heart attack. We need to get him warmed up, too. He looks half-frozen.”

  “I think he was out there lying in the snow for quite a while. Even then, he was being stubborn!” Steve said. “He kept shaking his head and saying, ‘I’m not going back! I’m not going back!’ We didn’t argue with him. We just loaded him on the sled and brought him back with us anyway.”

  “Well, let’s get him covered up and see what we can do for him. If it is a heart attack, though, he needs real medical attention.” Rachel looked worried.

  “There’s nothing we can do about that until help comes,” Jake said. “No phones, no way out… It’s not good. We’re all trapped here together, aren’t we?” He looked around at the others as if sizing them up.

  The teens glanced at one another nervously while Steve and Jake took the sick man over to the sofa in front of the fireplace and settled him on it. Rachel came back with the aspirin and urged Mr. Andrews to chew the bitter tablets. He resisted at first, rousing enough to tell her to leave him alone, but when she told him the aspirin might help save his life, he gave in and took them. They covered him with the sleeping bag and moved away to let him rest. There was nothing else they could do now until help arrived—except pray.

  That is what they did. Steve led them in prayer. “Father, we ask you to help John Andrews now. We don’t know what is wrong, if it is his heart or something else, but You know, Lord, and so we ask You to touch His life and work in him both physically and spiritually. Please send us help soon, if it is Your will. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.”

  They were finally about to settle down for the night when Dan called his dad aside. Kristi and Skeeter joined them. “Dad, we’ve got something to show you,” Dan started out. He drew Steve over to the fireplace and slipped the gun out from behind the picture frame.

  Steve’s eyes widened at the sight of the small pistol in his son’s hand. “Where did you get that, Dan?”

  “Skeeter found it in that little loft above our bedroom when he was trapped up there.”

  Skeeter nodded to confirm what Dan had said. “Dad, it was not there the first couple times I went up there, I promise you! Someone put it up there just before the avalanche hit!”

  “But who—?” Suddenly Steve stopped. He looked from Jake to Mr. Andrews and back again to Jake.

  Jake was ten or twelve feet away, spreading out his afghan on the floor near the door. He didn’t seem to be paying any attention to them. John Andrews, of course, was on the couch a few feet away, but he also did not seem to hear what they were saying.

  Steve did not want to say anymore just then, though, so he shook his head and put his finger to his lips. “Let me think about it,” he said softly. He looked at the gun in his hand and then slid it back behind the picture frame once more. “Go on to bed, kids,” he said. “It’s almost midnight and we have a lot ahead of us tomorrow.”

  They moved away from the fireplace and settled down for the night. John Andrews opened his eyes as they walked away and then closed them again. All grew quiet in the great room as one by one they gave in to the exhaustion of the day and slept.

  * * *

  The fire had died down and the room was chilly when they awoke. Kristi pulled the afghan closer and tried to get comfortable enough to go back to sleep. “Hey!” Robyn murmured. “Quit hogging the blanket!” She tugged and the cover slid off of Kristi and back onto her.

  They had spent the night sharing the one small afghan on the floor after they gave the loveseat and their sleeping bag to Kristi’s parents. Mr. Andrews, of course, had ended up with the couch and large sleeping bag that they were supposed to have. Kristi had to remind herself that the selfish, crabby old man was sick and it wasn’t his fault, exactly, that he had ended up with the biggest and best all to himself—again.

  “Fine. Take it Robyn,” Kristi said. “I’m getting up anyway. This floor is hard! And to think we made fun of the guys yesterday for having to tough it out like men by sleeping on the floor. I wish I was a bit tougher! Ouch! I hurt all over!”

  “I know. I didn’t sleep a wink,” Robyn said as she stretched and yawned.

  “You sure snore loudly, then, when you’re not sleeping a wink!” Kristi laughed. “Between your snoring and the cold, hard floor, I didn’t sleep a wink!”

  “You both snore! I could hear you all the way across the room!” Skeeter said as he walked by on his way to the bathroom. He nudged Kristi with his foot. “Get up, lazybones!”

  “Lazybones!” She glanced at her watch. “It’s not even seven o’clock yet!”

  “That’s right! Hush, all of you! It’s not even seven o’clock yet and some of us are trying to sleep a little longer!” Rachel scolded from the love seat.

  Jenny came running over just then! “Hi, everybody!” she chirped in her squeaky little voice. “Time to wake up?” Cody came crawling after her as fast as his chubby little legs could carry him, yelling baby talk to them all.

  “I guess it is now!” Rachel said, throwing back the sleeping bag and unwinding from her cramped position.

  “Oh, I’m sorry!” Liz said as she came running after her little ones. “They woke you up!”

  “No, they didn’t. We were already awake—thanks to the big kids!” Rachel glared sleepily at the teens.

  “Well, now that we’re all up, we may as well have breakfast!” Skeeter said brightly. “What’re you making, Mom?”

  “There he goes again! Banishing me to the kitc
hen!” she muttered. “Nothing! Help yourselves to the cereal!” she said more loudly.

  “Mom doesn’t always wake up on the right side of the bed,” Kristi whispered to Liz.

  “I heard that! There’s only one side to this bed, so of course it’s not the right side!”

  Steve sat up. “I’d better go start the coffee. I can see she’s not going to be a happy camper until she has a cup of coffee in her hands.” He gave Rachel a little shove so that he could get past her and slid off the love seat. He paused on his way to the kitchen to check on Mr. Andrews. The old man looked better than he had the night before, although his face was still pale. He seemed to be sleeping peacefully, though, so Steve walked on by.

  “Dad! Where’s Jake?” Skeeter suddenly said as he came out of the bathroom. The afghan Jake had used for a bed near the front door was folded neatly and the small toss pillow from the couch was stacked on top of it. Skeeter ran to the window. There was no sign of him. All was quiet outside. There were no sounds of wood being chopped or snow being shoveled. The young man was gone.

  “Are you going to go after him?” Skeeter asked.

  Steve shook his head. “No. I have no idea if he is the man the police are looking for or not, Skeeter. If he is, I will give them whatever information I can, but I am going to leave it up to them to find him. Right now I have a dozen other people in this house who are my responsibility and until everyone here is safely on their way again, that is my number one concern.”

  Everyone got their own breakfast of cereal and bagels and doughnuts. The teens didn’t have a lot to say. Their thoughts were on the two men who had spent the night in the same house with them, wondering which of them was an escaped convict. If it was Jake, where was he? If it wasn’t him, why had he left without a word?

  Jenny made up for their silence. “Knock-knock?” she asked.

  “Who's there?” Kristi asked with a smile.

  “Pencil.”

  “Pencil who?”

  “Pencil fall down if you don't have a belt!” Everyone laughed.

  “Good one, Jenny!” Skeeter clapped.

  The little girl beamed. “Knock-knock,” she said again.

  “Who's there?” Skeeter played along this time.

  “Icy.”

  “Icy who?”

  “I see your underwear. Pull your pants up!”

  Skeeter hooted as Jenny giggled. “Whoa! You are my kind of girl Jenny!” he laughed. “Will you marry me when you grow up?”

  “No, you silly! I’m going to marry my daddy!”

  “Good choice, Jenny! Daddies make the best husbands, don’t they, Rachel?” Steve said as he winked at his wife. He clapped his hands. “Okay, everyone! We need to start shoveling. I have a feeling help will be on its way today and I want to get the SUV dug out and start on the driveway. We only have two shovels, but we’ll improvise so let’s get ready, kids! I’ll meet you outside in a couple minutes!”

  Rachel and Liz began clearing the table while the rest of them scattered to get ready to go outdoors. Steve pulled on his jacket and moved quietly past the sofa where John Andrews was still sleeping. He went to the fireplace and reached for the gun behind the picture frame. He felt around, moving the frame to look behind it.

  “Looking for this, Mr. Cameron?” a voice said behind him.

  Steve turned. John Andrews was sitting up on the sofa, pointing the gun at him.

  “I can’t let you have my gun, Mr. Cameron. I’ll be leaving here before the police arrive and you won’t stop me this time.” “If I hadn’t stopped you last night, Andrews, you might be dead by now,” Steve said quietly.

  “Maybe so, but at least I wouldn’t be back in prison. I’m not going back.”

  “That’s what you kept saying last night. So you were talking about prison, then, and not about coming back here.”

  “Ha! I’d almost rather go back to prison than to be back here with all these kids again, but yeah—I was talking about prison last night. I’m not going back.”

  Steve looked up and realized everyone had stopped right where they were. They were all listening and staring in horror at the gun in the old man’s hand. Liz was hugging her children to her and trying to back them away. The girls were huddled together, clutching one another in fear. Pete and Dan were holding Skeeter back, but he could see them sharing glances and he knew they were trying to come up with a plan to come to his rescue. Rachel—Rachel stood rooted to the floor, her hands covering her mouth and her eyes wide. He knew she was praying, without a doubt, though.

  He held his hand up and smiled reassuringly at his family and friends. Then he smiled at John Andrews. “Mr. Andrews, you are more than welcome to be on your way. We’re not going to go after you. We’re not going to call anyone, obviously. You can even take our little toboggan and slide all the way down to the road if you want!”

  “Don’t get smart with me!”

  “Believe me, Mr. Andrews, I am not trying to be smart. I just know if you try to walk away again you’re going to end up in the same situation you were in last night—or worse. If that really was a heart attack last night, you’re probably not going to survive another attempt. If I were you, I’d just wait right here until help comes, even if it means you have to go back to prison.”

  “Shut up! You can’t tell me what to do! I’m getting out of here and you can’t stop me!” Andrews stood up and started backing toward the door. The gun was still pointed at Steve, but now he waved it at the rest of them, as well.

  “Do you mind if I pray for you before you go, Mr. Andrews?” Steve asked, still smiling.

  “Pray? Do I mind? Yes, I mind!” Andrews shouted. “I’m sick of hearing you all pray and talk all your goody-goody talk about God! Don’t bother praying for me! I don’t want it! I don’t need it! There is no God! You’re all a bunch of fools!”

  He kept backing toward the door, never realizing that it had opened behind him and Jake had come back in. Jake grabbed him from behind pinning his arms to his sides and throwing him to the floor. Andrews pulled the trigger but instead of a shot ringing out, there was only a click-click. The gun was empty.

  “You still have that rope, Skeeter?” Steve asked.

  “Oh, yeah!” Skeeter yanked the ski cap out from under his belt and rushed forward with the rope.

  Steve and Jake tied Andrews’ hands behind his back and then tied his ankles. Then they put him in a chair and tied him to it. Finally Steve stood back and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a handful of bullets and held them up. “Did you really think I would leave a loaded gun around with all these kids in the house, Mr. Andrews? I unloaded it last night.”

  He turned away from the old convict and shook Jake’s hand. “Thanks, Jake! Once again you’ve stepped in and helped us out. We owe you a lot.”

  “Steve, you don’t owe me a thing, trust me!”

  Rachel and the others surrounded them, hugging Steve and thanking Jake for his quick thinking and action. “Hey, Jake where did you go?” Skeeter asked. “We thought you were gone for good this morning when we woke up and you had disappeared.”

  “I woke up early and couldn’t get back to sleep so I decided to go for a walk and gather some firewood.” He paused and then said, “It was more than that really. I couldn’t sleep because I kept thinking about everything I heard yesterday about the Lord. I listened to you pray; I saw you treat that old coot with love and kindness when he didn’t deserve it; I watched how you trusted God after the avalanche; I saw Liz’s joy when she accepted Christ. It all made me think. I never paid much attention to God before, but yesterday I could see that He is really real, and that you all have a real relationship with Him; that He gives you peace and joy in your lives even in the hard times. I wanted that, too. So I went outside to pray—and I asked Jesus to forgive my sins and be my Savior, too.”

  “You did?! Wow, that’s wonderful, Jake! Great! Welcome to the family, Jake!” they all exclaimed at once.

  “Thanks, everyone. I’m really h
appy! It’s the best thing that ever happened to me! But that’s not all! I decided to walk down to the highway to see if anyone had come to start clearing the road. There was no one here at this end but I went back a mile or so, and sure enough—there were a couple bull dozers digging out the blockage at that end! I told the guys what had happened up here and they radioed it in! Help should be on the way pretty soon!”

  A cheer went up from them all—except for John Andrews, of course. “Hey, everyone—let’s thank the Lord right now for all He’s done, shall we? Wow! We have a lot to thank Him for! Not the least being a new brother and sister in the Lord, Jake and Liz,” Steve said. Then he bowed his head and in a loud voice so that John Andrews would be able to hear clearly every word, he led them in thanking and praising God.

  He had barely said the word amen when suddenly they heard a loud noise outside. “I think our help has arrived, guys!” Jake said with a grin.

  They rushed outdoors. There, hovering above them against the bright blue, cloudless sky, was a helicopter. Jake was right. Help had arrived!

  _____________

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  _____________

  Escape from Majestic Mountain

  The helicopter landed on the highway just past the stranded cars. A couple state police cars and an ambulance pulled up behind it a few minutes later. The road on the other end had finally been cleared and was open.

  “I told them we might have a heart attack victim and asked them to send an ambulance,” Jake told Steve as they walked partway down the drive to meet the officers and paramedics as they came up. “Of course, that was before I knew he was the escaped convict everyone was looking for, or I would have mentioned sending the police, also. Looks like they showed up anyway!”

  There were half a dozen men making their way through the deep snow toward them. A couple of them were carrying large tool boxes—the emergency medical technicians. Three state troopers were with them, but there was another man in uniform, also. To their surprise, it was he who rushed up to them, ahead of the others.