by Lisa Harris
“How many people have died from bear attacks in these mountains?” Jack asked, continuing to slowly move backward.
“Just a handful,” Cooper said. “The real problem started with humans trying to get too close to them. The truth is that you’re far more likely to die from a bee sting or a car accident than a bear attack.”
“Somehow that isn’t very reassuring,” Jack said, stumbling over a rock.
“We need to stand together to make ourselves look bigger,” Cooper continued, “then get as far away from him as possible.”
“And if we can’t?” Jack asked.
Nikki felt the hairs on her neck bristle. She’d had enough close encounters lately. A bear attack wasn’t something she wanted to add to the week’s events.
“Jack, don’t run,” Nikki said.
“I’m not, but he’s not stopping.”
“You’ll be fine,” Cooper said. “Just step behind me. They typically avoid close encounters with humans.”
Typically? Nikki wanted to laugh. Nothing about the past twenty-four hours had been typical.
She walked slowly backward, knowing she should have paid more attention to her surroundings. She’d been so focused on looking for any evidence Bridget or her abductor might have left behind, she’d somehow missed the fact that they were being stalked by a bear.
“Nobody run,” Cooper said. “Just move slowly.”
“This is exactly why I shouldn’t have come,” Jack said, taking another step backward. “I have no idea why every visitor in this park wants to spot a bear.”
“Because they’re beautiful creatures,” Nikki said.
The bear wasn’t deterred by their presence.
“All he wants us to do is back off,” Cooper said.
“Then why is he still coming toward us?” Jack asked.
“I don’t know. Just don’t turn your back and don’t run. Just keep moving slowly.”
Nikki watched the bear; head low, ears laid back. That couldn’t be a good sign.
Cooper started shouting, then picked up a couple of rocks and threw them in the bear’s direction. Ten seconds later the bear turned around and disappeared into the bush.
Nikki’s heart pounded in her throat.
“This is the problem with people feeding the bears,” Cooper said, tossing down a rock he’d picked up. “They end up losing their instinctive fear of humans.”
Which in turn made them dangerous and unpredictable.
“You’re the kind of guide I want out here, Cooper,” Jack said, still breathing hard.
“He’s right,” Nikki said. “You just saved our lives.”
“Chances are he would have ambled off on his own eventually.”
“You’re sure he’s not coming back?” Jack asked.
“I’ll keep an eye out, but I wouldn’t worry.”
Nikki glanced at her watch, her heart still pounding over the encounter. “Crisis has been avoided, but we need to finish up our section.”
Jack frowned. “Sorry if I’ve lost my interest in wandering through these bear-infested woods.”
“Look on the bright side,” Nikki said, as they continued along the grid. “You’re not going to be bear food tonight.”
“Oh, that’s reassuring.”
They hadn’t come up with anything yet. Winds were kicking up, and Nikki had no doubt that Reynolds was watching the weather closely, ready to pull the plug any second and fly them out of there before it got too dangerous to leave. But if they missed a piece of evidence, it would be gone by nightfall.
She picked up a cigarette butt and slid it into an evidence bag, but there simply wasn’t much to find.
A bolt of lightning flashed through the sky in the distance. “Find anything, Mr. Cooper?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. I suppose the park’s motto ‘Pack out whatever you pack in’ can be a disadvantage sometimes.”
“Jack? Anything?” Nikki turned around when he didn’t respond. “Jack, what is it?”
“Nothing.” But he was holding out his hands and frowning.
“Jack . . .”
He turned to her. His hands were covered by thick red welts.
“You must have gotten stung by something.”
“You’re definitely right about the stinging part.”
Cooper only needed a second to study the welts. “Looks like stinging nettle. There’s a creek just down that ridge. The cold water will help stop the itching.”
Jack hesitated. “And the bear?”
“I’m sure he’s long gone.”
Jack crashed through the underbrush ahead of them. Nikki followed behind him. So much for leaving no trace. Jack balanced on a couple of rocks near the water’s edge and submerged both hands.
“Better?” Nikki asked a minute later.
“Yeah, but if you ask me, this is my last outdoor assignment. You can send Gwen next time. I hear she loves wildlife encounters.”
“Lucky for you, our time’s up,” she said, hoping one of the other teams had found something. “We need to get back to the helicopter and get out of here.”
Jack glanced up at the sky. “I agree. This storm doesn’t look as if it’s going to let up, and I for one don’t want to end up stuck here when it hits full force.”
“For once, I agree with you,” Nikki said, as they made their way back.
Tyler and Anderson were already back at the shelter, talking to a gray-haired hiker in his early fifties.
“Nikki,” Tyler said, introducing them, “this is Michael Lambert.”
Michael shook her hand. “Everyone on the trail calls me Mountain Mike.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Nikki said. “You spend a lot of time up here?”
“I’ve hiked the Appalachian Trail three times now. All 2,180 miles.”
Jack let out a low whistle, clearly impressed.
A light rain had started to fall. The storm was picking up speed.
“How long have you been up there this time?”
“Just a couple of days. Got going this morning a bit slower than normal. I’m used to running into groups of hikers, but with the storm getting ready to hit, it’s been pretty quiet. They were just telling me about a missing girl?”
“We’re looking for a girl—sixteen years old—we believe was here earlier this morning.” Nikki got out one of the flyers she had in her pocket and unfolded it. “This is a photo of her and a sketch of the suspect who abducted her. More than likely she was with this older man, late thirties, early forties, though we don’t have a positive ID at this point.”
The man studied the photo. “No. Sorry, but I haven’t seen her or the man. Most folks are staying put for the day because of the storm coming in. I’m looking to hole up myself as well, if it doesn’t pass quickly. These rains can easily signal flash floods.”
“Have you seen anyone else out around here today?”
“Ran into a family of four heading north and a couple of single gals who are camping for a week. Overall, it’s been pretty quiet. An occasional solo hiker. Many of the thru-hikers are already past this part.”
Nikki handed him the flyer. “Keep an eye out for her then, will you, and if you do happen to see her or anything suspicious, be sure and call it in.”
“You bet.” Mountain Mike grabbed his pack and started back for the trail.
Nikki glanced around the group, then tried her two-way radio for Lopez and Reynolds. “They’re not answering, and we need to get out of here.”
“They were searching west of here the last time I saw them,” Anderson said.
“We’re going to have to ride out the storm if we don’t get out of here soon,” Cooper said.
Nikki glanced at Jack. The welts on his hands were getting worse. “You all split up and look for them, while I run grab some allergy medicine in my bag in the helo. Let’s try to be ready to leave in five.”
Nikki ran toward the bird, praying that the storm would delay another ten or fifteen minutes. If they ended
up having to ride it out in the shelter, that meant she couldn’t look for Bridget. She needed to get back to the command post and find a way to put all these pieces together.
She’d started around the back side of the helo when something red caught her eye in the undergrowth. Her breath caught. Reynolds lay half a dozen feet into the bush, motionless. She felt a wave of nausea sweep over her as she bent down beside him. Blood ran down the side of his head. Eyes stared up at her. She felt for his pulse. Nothing.
Their pilot was dead.
23
Nikki’s stomach heaved. Patrick Reynolds’s vacant face stared back at her. She pressed her hand against her mouth, muffling a scream.
“Patrick . . . Patrick . . . You’re going to be all right. Please . . .” Nikki felt again for a pulse, this time in his neck.
Nothing.
No, God . . . please . . . no . . .
She picked up a stick the size of a bat and stumbled backward. The end of it was covered with blood. She stared into the woods surrounding the clearing where they’d landed. He had to be close by. Sarah’s abductor. But why kill Reynolds? And what did he want from her?
A twig snapped behind her. Panic flooded through her as she whirled around. Someone grabbed her arm. She held the stick above her head and started to swing it at her attacker. He wasn’t going to get her too—
“Nikki . . . whoa . . .” Tyler grabbed the stick before she could slam it into the side of his head. “What’s going on? Didn’t you hear me call you?”
Her hands were still shaking when he took the stick, and her knees threatened to give way.
Tyler tossed the stick onto the ground, then pulled her against him. “Nikki? What happened? We heard you scream.”
She glanced at the others who were right behind Tyler and pulled away from him. “I found Reynolds. The pilot . . . he’s dead.”
“Dead?” Jack asked.
She struggled to focus. No matter how emotional or personal this case had become, she wasn’t going to let herself fall apart. They still had to find Bridget. The ring had led her here, but why kill their pilot if this was about her? It didn’t make sense.
She pointed to the bushes where he lay staring up at them. She’d seen dozens of dead bodies. Worked crime scenes. Watched the local ME perform autopsies. But this was different. She had no doubt that someone wanted her to be here. Wanted her to find the unmarked grave, and now, wanted her to find Reynolds’s body.
“I don’t understand why he would kill him. Or how all of this connects to the Angel Abductor,” she said.
Tyler knelt down over Reynolds’s lifeless form. “I’m no medical examiner, but it looks as if someone whacked him on the head from behind. More than likely he didn’t even see the blow coming.”
She pressed a hand across her mouth, wondering how in the world their missing person investigation had turned into a murder scene.
“Did you find Lopez?” she asked.
“No, but we didn’t search long. We heard you scream and came running.”
“Maybe whoever killed him was trying to sabotage the helicopter, and Reynolds caught him,” Jack threw out.
“Why would someone want to do that?” Anderson asked.
“I don’t know.”
Chills swept through her as the wind picked up and the rain started again. A burst of lightning struck, followed by a rumble of thunder. The storm was moving in directly above them.
“What I do know is that it has to be him,” she said. “The Angel Abductor. He’s here . . . watching. Playing some game that I don’t know the rules to.”
She tried to stop the panic. He wanted her here. Just like he’d wanted her to see him last night.
“So what does this mean?” Cooper asked. “We’re here, cut off from the rest of the world with a murderer on the loose?”
The group congregated in a circle next to the helo.
One dead.
One missing.
“So no one has seen Lopez since we split off to search the area,” Nikki said. “Which could imply Lopez is somehow involved—”
“Or he’s dead as well.”
Nikki hesitated at Jack’s statement. She wasn’t ready to jump to either conclusion, but neither could they dismiss the possibilities.
She glanced at her watch. “Did any of you see anyone else out here while you were working the grid?”
“Just that hiker,” Jack said. “Mountain Mike.”
Nikki glanced off into the woods. Had their killer been right in front of them and they didn’t even know it? Nikki knew they needed to proceed carefully. Lopez and Mountain Mike weren’t their only suspects, but they were a logical place to start.
Nikki glanced at the rangers. “Do either of you know Lopez?”
Anderson glanced at Simpson before speaking. “We’ve worked with him on a number of cases, primarily ones—like this one—that overlap into the park. From what I remember, he’s been on the force for over a decade, and he’s got a wife and two small kids.”
“Do you think he’s capable of murder?” Jack asked.
“I certainly don’t want to think so,” Anderson said. “He’s a fellow officer of the law.”
Nikki looked from one man to the next. How well did they really know anyone standing right here? Anderson . . . Simpson . . . Cooper. She shook away the thought. She was seeing a killer behind every tree. And more than likely, the killer was still out there somewhere.
“So we’ve got a man dead and some sort of psycho on the loose now on top of this storm coming in?” Cooper said, pulling his jacket tighter around him. “I don’t like this.”
“I don’t either,” Jack said. “Because someone killed Reynolds, and it wasn’t one of your ghosts.”
“My vote is to get out of here,” Cooper said. “Clearly this—Angel Abductor—is out there somewhere. This storm’s picking up, and I don’t intend to be another victim.”
“I agree,” Jack said, “but with our pilot dead and our copilot missing, I don’t see us going anywhere anytime soon.”
“We’ve also got a crime scene to process,” Nikki reminded them. “If we leave now, there won’t be anything to find once the storm dies out.”
“So we stick around while he picks us off one by one?” Cooper asked.
“He’s right,” Anderson said. “We’ve got some serial killer in my park playing games with us. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t believe in coincidences. We need to find this guy.”
Nikki shivered. “I agree, but searching for him in this weather isn’t going to be easy.”
“So what do we do?” Simpson asked. “Stay here and ride out the storm like sitting ducks?”
“I don’t think we have a choice,” Anderson said.
“We need to at least try to find Lopez,” Nikki said.
“It’s not going to be easy, like you’ve already said. Visibility’s already minimal,” Anderson said. “You’ve seen how thick this foliage is, and the storm’s going to get worse before it gets better. We’re going to have to wait for a break in the weather before we can even consider getting out of here.”
“He’s right,” Cooper said. “Spring’s always unpredictable. And it’s been overly warm the past few days, which means most if not all of those creeks we passed on the way here are going to flood.”
An uneasy feeling slithered through Nikki. Whatever was going on, they were on their own to find out the truth.
“I suggest we all move inside the shelter and wait it out,” Simpson said.
“I agree, but first we have a murder scene to process and a man to find,” Nikki said. “We need to split up into two groups. Simpson and Jack, process the scene as quickly as you can before this rain washes away all the evidence. The body needs to be wrapped up and put inside the helo. Anderson, Tyler, and Cooper, stay together, but search the immediate area for Lopez. We need to find him. We’ll meet back at the shelter in fifteen minutes.”
“And you?”
Nikki di
dn’t miss the concern in Tyler’s eyes, but while she might be stretched to the limit emotionally, she wasn’t ready to hold up a white flag. Not yet.
“I’ll help Simpson and Jack as soon as I’ve given Gwen an update on our situation.”
After three attempts, she finally got the call to go through. “Gwen? It’s Nikki. Can you hear me?”
“Barely . . .”
“Listen, I don’t have a lot of time to explain. The storm’s hitting hard and the connection’s horrible. But we’ve got a situation here. I need you to do a background check on Christian Lopez.”
“Your copilot?”
“Yes.”
“What’s going on? Did you find Bridget?”
“No, but on top of this storm, we’ve got another problem. Our pilot . . . he’s dead.”
Nikki waited a few seconds for Gwen to absorb the information she’d just given her.
“Wait . . . you said your pilot is dead?” Gwen asked.
“Yeah, and because of this storm, we’re not going to be able to go anywhere anytime soon. So right now, I’ve got a dead pilot and Lopez is missing. I want you to see if you can find a connection between them. And while you’re at it, go ahead and check out the rest of the group.”
“What am I looking for?”
“At this point, any red flags that pop up.”
“Okay. But are you telling me you think Lopez killed Reynolds?”
“I don’t know what to think. Just see what you can find out for me. Do a background check on a Mike Lambert as well. His trail name is Mountain Mike. We ran into him a few minutes ago.”
“I’m on it, but, Nikki, there is one other thing . . .” The call cut in and out briefly. “I spoke with your mother a few minutes ago. She’s been trying to get ahold of you.”
Nikki pressed her fingers against her temple and felt the panic closing in again.
I’m not sure how much more I can take, God . . .
“What did she say? Please tell me Jamie and the baby are okay.”
“I’m sorry, Nikki, but they’ve just taken Jamie in for an emergency C-section. The baby’s heart rate dropped about twenty minutes ago. It’s possible that the cord prolapsed. That’s all she knew for now, but she promised to call again as soon as they get an update.”