Shit, I left Makar’s rifle on the ground next to Yana!
His next inclination was to run back to his companion, hoist her up, and hightail it toward the stream—but before he could do so, the bears abruptly turned away and concentrated on the berries, ignoring him. He was amazed they hadn’t run away from him, the mysterious beast on two legs.
Jason thought his heart wouldn’t stop pounding. He breathed deeply, grateful that nothing worse than a stare-down occurred.
Then she appeared. The mama bear came into view and approached the young ones as if to herd them along. She was huge. On all fours, she appeared to be close to five feet high. Her nose went to the ground to scarf up some berries, but then she lifted her head. The snout’s nostrils were flexing, smelling something strange in the air. The beast lowered its head and looked directly at Jason.
He swiftly turned without thinking and quickly walked back the way he had come.
Don’t look back, don’t run, walk away, don’t look back, go quick, don’t run …
He looked back anyway. The spot with the berry bush wasn’t visible anymore—it was just beyond a bend around a tree and some brush that now blocked his sightline. The bear wasn’t chasing him.
Jason turned again and kept walking, now a little faster. Yana was just up ahead; he hadn’t wandered very far from her …
He stopped. He was at the spot. He recognized the flat rock he’d sat on earlier, but Makar’s rifle was gone. There was a depression in the dirt where Yana had been—but there was no Yana.
Fuck!
“Yana?”
“Where is she?” came the voice at his side.
Trey Paley stood next to a tree, fifteen feet away. He held his Win Mag .458 high, aimed at Jason.
“Trey!”
“Where is she, goddamn it! Before I blow your head off.”
Jason held up his hands. “Don’t shoot! Trey! For God’s sake … !”
“You have three seconds to tell me where she is and then I’m drilling you. If you run, I’ll shoot you in the back. I’m an Airborne Rangers marksman.”
Jason didn’t doubt him.
Think fast! Where is Yana?
“One …”
Jason couldn’t speak. He tried to say something, anything, but his throat wouldn’t function.
“Two …”
Jason pointed behind him, back toward the berry bush. “She’s there,” he managed to whisper. “She needed … she needed some privacy.”
Trey walked forward, his eye still on the sight and the barrel pointed at his target. He got within ten feet and stopped. “Do you know what this gun will do to you at this range?”
“I … I think so.”
Trey jerked his head in the direction Jason had pointed. “Lead on.”
“You better go first.”
“No, you take me to her.”
Crap!
Jason kept his hands raised and started limping back to the berry bush. Trey assumed a position directly behind him, the gun still pointed straight ahead. Jason felt his presence, six or seven feet away, bringing up the rear.
He rounded the tree and saw the berry bush, twenty yards straight ahead. No bears. He continued to walk forward, his eyes darting left and right, hunting for the animals. Had they run away? Bears normally avoid people—unless they’re threatened.
Within seconds, Jason reached the bush. Berries lay scattered on the ground. Trey stood a few feet away, the gun still raised. “Well?”
“She … uh, she was right here. I left her here.”
“Call her.”
Jason didn’t know if that would attract the mama bear or send her fleeing. “Yana!”
They stood there a few seconds, but there was no return call. However, a rustling sound to the left was approaching—fast. Something large, heavy, and full of power.
Jason bolted and ran past Trey.
“Hey!” Trey shouted, but by then the bear was upon him. He screamed in terror as the beast rose on her hind legs, roared with the volume of a foghorn, and fell forward, its massive claws outstretched to knock the intruder down. Trey was unable to fire the rifle as the bear mauled him with a strong swipe of her paw.
Jason caught just a glimpse of the flurry of black fur, claws, and blood as he continued to run, past the spot where Yana had rested and into the woods that hopefully led to the stream. He kept going blindly, the fear overtaking him, knowing he was about to lose his life in the next few seconds—
“Jason!”
Yana appeared from behind a tree, with Makar’s Win Mag in her hands.
“Run!” He shot past her.
“Jason! Wait!”
He managed to slow a little as she gathered the energy to join him.
“I saw the soldier!” she said.
Another cry from Trey knifed through the mist, and they heard a horrible roar from the beast.
“I know! There’s a bear, too! Run!”
They did so for at least a full minute. There were no more screams behind them, but that didn’t slow them down. Before they knew it, they had reached the clearing and the stream. Jason stopped Yana and put his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. He didn’t believe the bear would chase them out in the open; and besides, the beast had already caught one of the interlopers in her domain.
“Did you say that was a bear?”
He nodded. “She got Trey. I don’t know if he made it.” He scanned the stream. “Come on, let’s follow the flow. I don’t think we have anything to worry about now.” He eyed the rifle she was holding. “You want me to take that?”
She handed it over and he held it with both hands, ready to shoot at any threat.
Then, miraculously, a figure appeared from the woods on their side of the stream. A woman dressed in blue jeans. Dark hair … very familiar to Jason …
“Annie?”
“Jason! Oh my God!” She ran toward them.
Jason took Yana’s arm. “Come on, she’s a friend. She’s works for the government.”
Yana stiffened. “She will send me back to Russia.”
“No she won’t.”
Annie reached them and Jason threw his arms around her in the tightest embrace he’d ever delivered. “My God, I’m glad to see you!”
“Me, too!” Annie laughed and held the hug. Then they separated and she looked at Jason’s companion.
“Annie, this is Yana Kravec.”
“I thought so.” She held out a hand. “I’m Annie Marino. FBI. I’ve been looking for you.”
Yana tentatively held out a hand and shook it.
Annie turned back to Jason. “I thought I heard someone scream.”
Jason gave her a quick rundown of what had just transpired.
“Jesus,” Annie said. “I think we better get to my car as soon as we can find it. I might know the way, now that it’s morning.” She saw his bloody trouser leg. “Oh, Christ, what happened?”
“Cut my leg on a log. I’ll live, I think. Yana’s pretty sick, though. I’m not sure what she’s got.”
Annie put an arm around her as they approached the water. “We have to cross the stream,” she said. “Can you make it?”
Yana coughed and nodded. “I crossed an ocean. I can cross this,” she said.
40
Jason and Annie helped Yana cross the stream again without incident. They followed it a ways on the opposite bank before Jason remembered his cell phone. “Hey, maybe we have service here, it’s more open to the sky.” He dug it out of his pocket.
Annie rolled her eyes and cursed herself for not thinking of that. She did the same and found several bars of signal “I got it,” she said. She dialed 9-1-1, identified herself to an operator, and explained the situation. When it came to providing their location, she was at a loss. “Jason, pull up a map on your phone and use the GPS to find out where the hell we are.”
He did so. They were very close to the small lake that abutted the Paley property. Apparently, they had been in national forest l
and, having roamed into it by crossing the stream the first time. Over the phone, Annie did her best to describe the condition of the road leading to the cabin—that it was blocked with vehicles approximately two miles away from the building. The operator promised that police, EMTs, and a couple of tow trucks would be at the site in thirty minutes.
“You know,” Jason said to Annie, “I have your number in my phone. I might have called you last night if I’d had service at the cabin.”
“Don’t think I would’ve been much help,” she answered, thinking about her own adventure.
The trio eventually worked their way to the edge of the body of water shown on the map. “This is a pond, not a lake,” Jason muttered. There were no people in sight. Nevertheless, Annie was able to navigate their path and approximate where the cabin probably stood in relation to the water. She pointed to the woods on that side.
“We have to go through there. It shouldn’t be too far. I don’t see any trails; do you?”
Jason held a hand over his brow. The sun was already in full view, blocking his vision. “No.”
Annie looked at Yana, who was very pale and wheezing loudly. She stood with her head down, weak and ready to collapse. “Can you make it, Yana?”
The woman nodded.
“Okay, let’s go.”
They found the cabin sooner than they expected, but law enforcement authorities had not yet arrived. Annie held the other two back as she scanned the clearing around the structure. There was no movement or sound.
“Wait here,” she whispered. Drawing the Glock, Annie sprinted to the side of the cabin and flattened her back against the log wall. She inched around to the front door, held the weapon with both hands, and kicked. The door swung open and she swept the room with the pistol outstretched. The living area was empty. She quickly checked both bedrooms and the bathroom. Greg Paley wasn’t there.
She went back outside and signaled for Jason and Yana to come on in. The first thing Jason did was go to the refrigerator and look for food. He found sandwich meat and cheese, but no bread. It would do. Annie told Yana to lie down on the sofa, then she turned to Jason and said she’d be right back. She left the cabin, went around to the back, followed the path to the shed, and found the padlock on the door of the shed as she’d left it. She dug out the keys and unlocked the door.
“Let me out of here!” Baines hollered. He lay on the bed, battered and blue.
“Not yet,” she answered. “Just making sure you were still with us.” She closed the door and replaced the padlock. The next order of business was to get to her Bucar.
Back at the cabin, she consumed several bites of the lunch meat and cheese that Jason had prepared for them. As her eyes rested on him, Annie felt satisfaction in trusting her instincts on Jason. He was one of the good guys. He was a goddamned hero. “You’re really something, Jason,” she said between bites.
“What?”
“What you did.”
He shook his head. “Anybody would have done it.” He shrugged, somewhat sheepishly.
Annie reflected on Jason’s bravery. It was a testament to the human spirit that a brainy writer who normally sat with a laptop in Starbucks could have pulled off what he did.
After a few minutes, she felt strong enough to keep going. “Stay here,” she said. “Keep your gun handy. Greg Paley is still at large”
“Greg Paley? He’s here?”
Annie cocked her head. “Oh, that’s right. You don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?”
She nodded at Yana. “Your future father-in-law is responsible for all of this. He’s the big boss.”
Jason’s jaw dropped. “No way!”
“Yes, way. Look after Yana. I’m going to check on our cars.”
She went down the road toward Highway 82, her eyes darting in all directions as she moved. Paley could very well be hiding behind a tree, waiting for her to show up. The smart thing to do would probably have been to wait at the cabin for the authorities, but she was too restless.
The only sounds she heard were birds chirping in their natural habitat. The woods were truly beautiful—in the right context—but she had had enough of them. She longed to be back in her apartment in Chicago with the noise of the city invading her solace. That was more her speed. As she approached the cars, the unmistakable stench of skunk blanketed the area. Annie winced and kept going until she finally reached the site. What she found registered a bit of a shock.
Her Ford Fusion had been battered off the road and was crushed against the trees on one side. The Lincoln Continental was gone. Paley had rammed the Bucar repeatedly until he’d cleared enough space for himself to reverse past her car, turn around, and escape. In the process, he had encountered a skunk and shot it—its furry carcass lay on the road in the tire tracks.
Annie pulled out her cell phone to report that a suspect had fled in a rental car, most likely with a lot of damage to its rear end.
Then she heard the sirens approaching.
An all points bulletin went out nationwide for Greg Paley and the Continental, which they learned had originally been rented at the Detroit airport. Oddly, it was later found that afternoon parked behind the Lakeway police station. The back end was indeed crunched like an accordion, and the vehicle reeked of skunk. Greg Paley, however, was nowhere to be found. It was suspected that he had either stolen another car and fled, or that he was picked up by an accomplice. The APB still stood.
The Paley cabin became a beehive of activity for the rest of the day, which would most likely continue for most of the following week. Yana and Jason were taken to Spectrum Health Hospital in Big Rapids. Captain Mike Baines was arrested and also taken to the hospital for examination. He was released later in the day to the county sheriff and moved to a jail cell in White Cloud.
Louis Freund had miraculously survived by pressing his hand against the wound in his neck. He was arrested and also sent to the hospital. His loss of blood put him on the critical list, but he was a tough individual and was expected to live. The bodies of Trey Paley and Makar Utkin were recovered and transported to the county morgue after forensic detectives had thoroughly examined the crime scenes. Utkin’s cause of death was blunt trauma. Paley had been mauled, his jugular vein slashed open. It was suspected that the bear had clawed him only once or twice and then fled, leaving the human to die.
Annie, exhausted and irritable, submitted to multiple interrogations. Eventually, she was able to reach SSA Gladden at home, and he immediately arranged for an FBI attorney to show up and represent the Special Agent at the county sheriff’s office. Her Glock 22 was retrieved from the locked cubby in the Lakeway police station, and she handed over Captain Baines’s weapon as evidence. The sheriff treated Annie to a full dinner, after which she learned that Jason had been patched up and released from the hospital. Yana, however, would remain for a while. She was diagnosed with pneumonia, as well as complications from physical and emotional abuse.
Jason repeatedly told his story to several different investigators during the day. He had wanted to say goodbye to Yana before leaving the hospital, but was informed that she had been sedated and was asleep. Several police officers told him that he was a “hero,” and they treated him to a good meal, though Jason kept insisting that it was Special Agent Annie Marino who was the real hero. The police finally took him to retrieve his Elantra, which had been towed to White Cloud. The smart thing would have been to stay in a hotel that night, but he was anxious to get back to Chicago. He’d gotten a second wind after dinner, and he wanted the Michigan forest to be far behind him. When he asked if he could speak to Annie, he was told that she would be unavailable for some time. At close to nine o’clock that night, Jason hit the road.
There was one voice message on his phone from Natalia, asking him to call her back. When he returned it, she didn’t answer. He tried several more times along his route back home, to no avail. Once he reached Chicago, he knew full well that she would have received his own message and seen
the call records by now.
Nat obviously didn’t want to talk to him.
By late Saturday night, Annie was allowed to go home. The problem was that she had no car. Annie decided to spend the night in Big Rapids so she could check on Yana in the morning; she had a lot of questions for the trafficking survivor. A sheriff’s deputy gave her a ride to the Quality Inn & Suites on Highway 131, a no-frills motel chain with which the Bureau had a discount deal. It was after midnight by the time she checked in, and she had no toiletries or change of clothes. After spending the night in the forest, her clothes were dirty, odorous, and, as far as she was concerned, ready for the garbage bin. Her plan was to shower, sleep, and rent a car in the morning. She’d pick up some essential clothing at Walmart, put on fresh clothes, speak to Yana, and then drive back to Chicago. The investigation would continue for days, weeks, and possibly months. Gladden had told her she was still in charge of the case. He also said that the Bureau was “mighty proud” of what she had done, praise that made her smile involuntarily into the phone.
At the moment, though, all she wanted to do was get cleaned up and crawl into bed.
The clerk on duty at the motel informed her of a vending machine that contained items such toothbrushes, toothpaste, and other necessities, located with the ice dispenser in an alcove behind the office. She thanked him and practically sleepwalked to her room on the ground floor. She wanted to grab the ice bucket from the room first, so she could fill it as well as get supplies from the machines in one trip. Her room was clean, with a queen-sized bed, a TV, and a bathroom with a shower. Perfect. Annie didn’t bother to remove her drop holster and weapon; it was a comfort to have her own gun back. She had felt even dirtier carrying around the Glock that belonged to the treacherous Baines.
In the Hush of the Night Page 26