Chapter 17
It was after one a.m. when Dawn arrived home. Ty had been dozing, but he woke up when he heard the door in the adjoining bedroom open. Then he waited. When they had first gotten married, Dawn had had trouble getting a good night’s sleep if she stayed with him. She slept better alone, in her own bed. That was one of the reasons they had built the duplex. Over the last year, however, things had begun to change. More and more, Dawn had stayed with him, sleeping peacefully throughout the night. They hadn’t been apart at night for the last few months, ever since Christmas.
He heard Dawn go into her bathroom, heard the sound of running water. Next, he heard her closet door being opened, and envisioned her changing out of her street clothes into her nightgown. After that, silence. She had chosen to spend the night in her own bed, in her own room.
He considered getting up and joining her in her room. They needed to talk. But that would have seemed like he was admitting that the rift between them was all his fault. Damned if he would do that. He may have started it, but Dawn had broken one of the cardinal rules their marriage operated by. They had sworn they would always talk things out. And now she was giving him the silent treatment.
He’d wait until morning, he decided. They could talk over breakfast, and he wouldn’t let her out of the house until they had straightened everything out.
In her own room Dawn lay awake, staring at the ceiling. As tired as she was, she couldn’t fall asleep. The events of the day crowded her mind – Rafe’s surgery, the failure of the Search and Rescue team to track down the suspect, the leads that had gone nowhere. On top of that, ghostly faces kept swimming at the edges of her consciousness, the faces of three women. Zoe Ballentine. Kit Blakewood. And finally – the unidentified woman lying in a coma in Mountpelier General Hospital. Who was she? How was she connected to Kit and Zoe? She was going to make finding that connection her first priority when she went back to work in the morning, Dawn vowed to herself. And she wouldn’t think about Ty, she resolved. She had enough on her plate without adding marital problems into the mix.
Putting her pillow over her head, she resolutely cleared her mind and finally dropped off to sleep.
Chapter 18
He awakened with a start. Confusion filled his mind as he regained consciousness. For a moment, as he looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings, he couldn’t recall where he was or how he had gotten there. Then it all came rushing back to him.
It had taken him hours to walk out of the box canyon he had fallen into. There had been no path, so he had beaten his own through the tall grass. All the time, the rain had fallen, and the temperature was dropping steadily. He was in danger of succumbing to hypothermia if he didn’t find shelter quickly, he had realized.
Finally, he caught a couple of breaks. Emerging from the canyon, he saw what looked in the distance like a pile of stones. There was something odd about it, odd enough to make him push his tired body toward it to investigate. As he got closer, he realized what he was seeing. The pile of rocks was actually an abandoned stone cabin. There were plenty of them dotted around Colorado. Most of them were abandoned mining camps. As he approached, he saw that while some of the rocks on the side walls had tumbled down, the rest of the structure was still intact.
A rough wooden door resting at a crazy angle on rusty hinges still barred the entrance. He pushed it aside easily enough and entered the stone cabin. Inside, he saw that his speculation had been correct. The structure had clearly been used as a mining camp at one time. Rustic wooden furniture – a table, two chairs, a bed frame – still occupied the interior. Best of all, however, was the stone fireplace at the rear of the structure, still completely intact and hopefully usable.
He retrieved the matchbook he had stolen and approached the fireplace. The wood box was bare, however, and he felt a keen stab of disappointment. The next moment his disappointment turned to relief as he spied a hatchet lying in one corner. It was old and rusty, but still serviceable. He used it to break the wooden furniture into kindling and firewood. It took him a while to get a fire going, but he finally achieved his goal.
Stripping off his wet, mud-soaked clothes, he had withdrawn the blanket from the plastic bag and wrapped himself up in it. That was the last thing he remembered.
The fire had died down while he was sleeping, he realized. Even through the folds of his blanket he could feel the chill of the air. There was nothing left in the cabin to burn, so he would have to do without a fire for the rest of the night. No sense in going outside looking for firewood in the dark.
He settled back down in front of the fireplace, making a mental list of his priorities. His food and water was almost gone. There was barely enough left for breakfast. Finding water might not be difficult – most of the old miners’ camps had been built near a water source. He would find it and refill his water bottles. After he had done that, he would strike a path eastwards. He was still a hundred miles or more from his destination, and if he went east, he was sure to intersect with a road at some point. Once he found a road, he needed to be on the lookout for a car to steal. After he had some transportation, he would form a plan for replenishing his food supply.
Satisfied that he had a plan for tomorrow, he drifted back to sleep.
*****
The next morning Ty was thwarted in his plan to talk to Dawn over breakfast. She didn’t follow their usual morning routine. He ordinarily got up first, went downstairs, let the dog out, and started on coffee and breakfast. Dawn usually took a shower first and then came downstairs to join him. That particular morning, he waited in vain. Dawn never came downstairs. Instead, he heard her car start up and pull out of the driveway. She was avoiding him as well as giving him the silent treatment. Great. He’d been upset at her before, but now he was furious.
Dawn stopped by the hospital to check up on Rafe before she headed into work. He was still sleeping, but the nurses assured her he had had a good night and was doing as well as could be expected, under the circumstances. After getting this information, she received a text from Ty:
You’re giving me the silent treatment? Seriously, Dawn – seriously? That’s not us. That’s not how we’ve agreed to work on problems in our marriage.
Dawn thought for a few minutes before texting back:
I can’t talk about it right now. I’m still too upset. I can’t trust myself just yet. I’m afraid that if we sit down and talk, I’ll say something that I don’t really mean.
Ty texted back:
I’d rather take that risk than put up with the silent treatment, Dawn.
Dawn sighed and gave up. Ty was right. They needed to talk. She texted back:
We’ll talk tonight, okay?
Promise?
Yeah, I promise.
Good. I’m holding you to that promise. Where are u now, by the way? U missed breakfast.
I’m at the hospital. I wanted to check on Rafe.
How is he?
He’s okay. The nurses say he had a good night, but he’s still asleep this morning. Look, I have to get into work right now.
Keep in touch, Dawn. No more silent treatment.
I’ll try.
Ten minutes later, she walked in to the Homicide bullpen. Gathering the rest of the team around her, Dawn walked to the case board and drew a line tracing Kit and Zoe’s route.
“Let’s review what we know,” Dawn said to the others. “We know that they made it at least to Colorado City safely. But they never made it to the hotel in Durango where they planned to stay that night. So that means they were probably abducted somewhere en route to Durango.” Using a highlighter, she traced the route from Colorado City to Durango.
“It’s a huge area, D.C.,” Prentiss commented. “Where do we start?”
Dawn pondered the question. After thinking the situation over, she said, “Look, we know that Zoe was in the habit of texting her mother regularly throughout the day. The mother usually got at least one text by ten a.m. But the day they disappeared, there we
re no texts. So I’m thinking that they were abducted that morning, before ten. According to Zoe’s mother, they planned on setting out at between eight-thirty and nine o’clock that morning, after they’d had breakfast. Let’s split the difference and say they left at eight-forty-five. How far would they have driven in an hour and fifteen minutes?”
Noritaki did some quick calculations. “That would put them in the vicinity of Fort Garland.”
“So here’s what we do. We ask the Pueblo police to coordinate with the state and local police and concentrate their initial search in that area. Show pictures of Kit and Zoe, find out if anyone saw them that morning.”
Sokoto responded, “I’ve probably had the most contact with the Pueblo police. I’ve established a pretty good rapport with them.”
“Okay. You go ahead and get in touch with them, Sok. Update them with what we’ve got, and ask them to begin canvassing the area between Colorado City and Fort Garland.”
Chapter 19
Kit was actually nowhere near the Fort Garland area. She was trudging along a trail in the foothills of the Wet Mountains, a sub-range of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains – or so she had been told by Danny.
As they hiked along the trail, Kit asked Danny how old he and his sister were.
Danny responded, “Sherri’s six. I’m thirteen – at least I will be soon. My birthday is coming up next month.”
Danny’s answer surprised Kit. He was fairly tall and solidly built, so she had assumed that he was older. His eyes were as dark as his sister’s, but unlike Sherri, whose auburn tresses glinted in the early-morning sunlight, Danny had dark brown hair. He had thick, dark eyebrows and lashes as well, and a very determined set to his chin.
The way the boy had dealt with their current situation had demonstrated a keen intelligence and a great deal of maturity, Kit reflected. Despite his young age, he had shouldered a burden far beyond his years, facing with strength and courage an ordeal no child should have to go through.
Keeping a watchful eye on Danny, who was leading the way along the trail, his little sister beside him, Kit allowed her mind to wander, reviewing the events that had set her free and led to her current journey along this path.
After they had started out on their trek the day before, she had said to Danny, “Wait! What about your father? Did he tell you where he was going, or when he’d be back?”
Danny had frozen in his tracks. Turning around to glare at Kit, he had shouted, “Don’t call him my father! He’s just a jerk who moved in on us after our dad died!”
“I’m sorry,” Kit had responded. “I just assumed he was your father. I guess what they say about making assumptions is true.”
Danny had only shrugged in response.
Kit had not asked any more questions for the next couple of hours. They crossed some rough country, and she needed all of her energy just to put one foot in front of the other. Finally, just when she thought she couldn’t go on any longer, Danny had stopped and said that they were going to take a short break. The three of them had sat down on a couple of fallen logs and refreshed themselves with some water from the canteens. After she had finished eating and had quenched her thirst, Kit decided to press for more answers.
“Danny, would you tell me something? Why did you decide to take this path instead of following the road to the nearest town?”
“Along the road is the first place he’ll look,” Danny had answered her. “When he gets back and finds us gone, he’ll figure that’s the way we went. He’ll start looking for tracks, and he’s good at tracking. It might take him awhile to figure out we never went that way at all. Then he’ll start casting around, looking for sign. He’ll find it eventually and start after us. But I’m hoping he’ll lose our trail again at Settler’s Ridge.”
“That rocky place we crossed?”
“Yeah. It’s harder to track people across rock. That’s one of the reasons we took that way.”
“And the other reason?”
He debated about whether to tell her. He wasn’t inclined to do so. But then he thought that if something happened to him, she needed to know. She needed to be able to get Sherri to safety.
His mind made up, he said, “There’s this place up higher in the mountains. It’s pretty well hidden. He doesn’t know about it. Only people in the family do. There’s food there, and weapons, and a shortwave radio. That’s where I’m aiming to take us.”
“Is it far? Will we be able to make it there before dark?”
“No. We’ll have to spend the night in a line shack not far from here.”
“A line shack?”
Danny nodded. “Back when my grandfather and great-grandfather ran cattle on the ranch, they had a line shack up here for the ranch hands to use when they were out on the range. That’s where I’m aiming right now. It’s not much, but it’s a place we can get out of the cold and spend the night. We’ll be safe there, at least temporarily, even if he comes back and finds us gone. He won’t be able to track us in the dark.”
After giving Kit this information, Danny had gotten them all up and on the trail again.
They had made it to the line shack just as the last rays of the sun had dipped below the horizon.
“Shack” was an apt description of the place, Kit decided. It was more like a lean-to, four walls to keep out the wind. Inside, there was a crude table, a couple of chairs, and an old iron stove. Kit’s eye’s brightened when she noticed the stove.
“Can we make a fire in there?” she asked Danny.
Danny shook his head. “Afraid not. If he’s on our trail, he could see the smoke and the sparks coming out the stove pipe. It would lead him right to us.”
They proceeded to have a cold supper. Then Danny spread out a double sleeping bag from his pack, and they settled down for the night, Kit on one end, Sherri in the middle, and Danny on the other end.
After a few minutes, Danny could tell by Sherri’s even breathing that she had fallen asleep. Kit was still awake though, and Danny was having trouble dropping off to sleep himself. Presently, he said softly, “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to help you that day.”
“What?” Confusion laced through Kit’s response.
“That day he took you and your friend. I’m sorry I couldn’t help you. I couldn’t even warn you.”
Now Kit realized what he was talking about. “That’s okay,” she responded. “He had a gun. There wasn’t much you could have done to help.”
Her own thoughts flew back to the day she and Zoe had been kidnapped.
After he’d pulled the gun, the man in the golf cap had barked an order to the woman in the passenger seat. At his directions, the woman, whom she’d later realized was the children’s mother, had proceeded to bind their wrists behind their backs and gag their mouths, using some duct tape the man had directed her to pull out from the glove compartment of the car.
“Move!” their abductor had ordered. He indicated the direction by pointing with the barrel of his pistol. He had herded Kit and Zoe to the rear of his own vehicle.
“Pop the trunk,” he commanded the woman.
Once the trunk was open, he motioned again with the pistol.
“Climb inside,” he ordered. Taking Zoe by one arm, he propelled her forward.
“You first,” he said.
Tears streaming down her eyes, Zoe obeyed him. Once she was lying down in the trunk, the man snapped out another order to the woman.
“Tape her ankles.”
Once that task had been accomplished he spoke again to Zoe. “Scoot back a little. You’re going to need to make room for your friend.”
Then he’d forced Kit into the trunk and had the woman tape Kit’s ankles as well. The whole time, he stood with the gun pointed at them, never wavering.
Kit wasn’t sure how long they were in the trunk before the car stopped. Every second had seemed like hours. When the trunk had popped open again, the man had forced her out, into the house, up the stairs, and into one of the bedrooms. There he ha
d tied her to one of the twin beds the room contained. A few minutes later, he had returned with Zoe and proceeded to tie her to the other bed. Once they were both secured, he took a straight-back chair that was situated in one corner, reversed it, and straddled it.
Fixing his gaze on each of them in turn, he said, “Now, here are the rules. First, I am the head of this family. I give the orders, you obey them. You don’t speak unless spoken to. You do what I want, when I want you to. You don’t argue with me. Is that understood?”
When he got no response from either of them, he sighed. “Look, let me make something clear here. In this house, if you don’t obey the rules, you suffer the consequences. Most of the time, the consequences are pretty painful. So I’m going to ask you again: Do you understand the rules?”
Realizing what he wanted from them, Kit looked at Zoe. Transferring her gaze back to the man, she had nodded her head. Zoe followed suit.
“Good,” the man had responded. “Now, I’m going to take you downstairs later, one at a time, so that you can get something to eat. I’ll take the gags off, but remember – don’t speak without permission. When you are permitted to speak, you are to address me as ‘sir’.”
Eying the jeans and T-shirts they were wearing, he had added, “Before we go down, you need to dress yourselves more appropriately. I don’t hold with the idea of women dressing up in men’s clothes.”
He had produced some old-fashioned dresses and forced them, one at a time, to change into them. Then he’d tied Kit up again and taken Zoe downstairs.
Later, he’d returned Zoe to the room and taken Kit downstairs to the kitchen. The woman was at the stove, and the little girl was seated at the table, but there had been no sign of the boy.
Seemingly reading her mind, the man had said, “The men and women eat separately in this household.”
The woman had met her eyes then, and for a second Kit had seen rage deep within their depths. However, that expression had been quickly veiled, and the woman’s expression had become a smooth, expressionless mask as she served Kit a bowl of soup, a plate of salad, and a piece of bread
When the Wolf Prowls Page 11