by Liz Wolfe
“We have to be out of the country by a week from Monday,” Nathan said. “The transfer of funds is set up for next Friday, and by Monday it’ll be clear that the money is missing.”
“That won’t be a problem,” Scoresby assured him.
“I set it up so funds from all the subsidiaries are shunted into the main account for Eastland, then they’ll all be transferred at once. Right now, it just looks like we’re gathering money to buy someone out.”
“That’s good, Nathan. We’ll be basking in the sun by the time anyone even suspects what happened.” Scoresby sipped his drink. “Howell is meeting to set up the sale of our item. He’ll let me know when.”
“Another reason to take care of this situation and get back,” Dennis said. “Transferring the funds has to coincide with the sale. I don’t want to lose out on either of them.”
Wade finished his drink and got up for another one. “We’ll all go out tomorrow and see if we can locate them. If we do, we might be able to get in a little night hunting.”
Paige woke the next morning snuggled against Connor. She scooted away from his warmth, letting the cool morning air come between them. Unwilling to fall asleep again, she made a fire and started heating water.
Everyone seemed to feel better after a good night’s rest, and Paige wished they could have a big monsoon rain every night and sleep with the knowledge that at least for a few hours the Hunters wouldn’t be looking for them.
Nick had been to the stream and brought back a string of fish for breakfast. Paige was sick to death of fish. No one else seemed really enthusiastic about it either.
“No, thanks.” Aleisha shook her head when Nick offered her a waxy green leaf with a portion of fish on it. “I’d rather go hungry than eat another fish.”
“Eat it,” Paige told her.
“No, really,” Aleisha protested. “Let someone else have it.”
“Eat it.” Paige sighed and stuffed the rest of her food in her mouth, chewing it just enough to be able to swallow. “We all have to keep our strength up. Letting ourselves get weak is playing into their hands.”
Aleisha nodded and took the fish from Nick.
“So, what’s the plan today?” Ty asked.
Good question. Excellent, in fact. Paige’s first choice would be to find a way off the island. But that would have to occur in steps. Not having an answer for Ty, she stepped out of the cave and looked around. There was no doubt this was the best spot they could have found.
In addition to having a source of fresh water and food close by, they were high enough to see the Hunters coming unless they were sneaking up on them. They didn’t strike her as being able to sneak, much less inclined to do such a thing. Fifty feet from the cave was a tremendous old tree, covered in vines. Probably a good lookout point.
Paige crossed to the tree and climbed, using the vines to hold onto. As she had expected, the tree was quite a bit taller than the ones around it. By the time she was three quarters of the way up, she could see the top of the rainforest where it sloped to the south and thinned out to jungle, and eventually the coast. There were several trails that led out of the jungle to the south end of the island.
Paige remembered that when they had arrived, the plane had landed on the southeastern part of the island, then Wade had driven the contestants into the jungle the following day. She climbed a little higher and turned to the southeast.
The Hunter’s house! Right there before her eyes. Was she good, or what? She crawled over to another limb to get a look at the area directly around her. Just to the east of the cave, she saw a trail down to the ocean. It looked like the Hunters’ house was maybe five miles away, if she followed the beach.
Out over the ocean, she could see an island on the horizon. It wasn’t visible from the cave, so she guessed it must be over twelve miles away. Probably more like twenty. Smoke drifted from the top of the highest mountain. Volcano. That explained the earth tremors they’d been feeling.
It would be possible to get a raft from their island to the other, but only as a back-up plan. Twenty miles of open sea on a handmade raft wasn’t her idea of a good time. And since there was an active volcano on the island, it was unlikely that it was inhabited. Still, if it came down to it, Paige would take the open sea on a raft and a volcanic island over being hunted down and killed. She shimmied down the tree and joined the others.
“Ty, I want you and Nick to trade off keeping watch from that tree.”
“No problem,” Ty answered.
“When you get about three quarters of the way up, you can see the top of the rain forest and about everything else.”
“Yeah, but we won’t be able to see anything moving around in the rain forest,” Nick pointed out.
“True. But at the edge of the jungle, you can see trails that head south. I’m betting the bastards drive to the jungle and then start the hunt on foot.”
“God forbid they tire themselves out getting here,” Aleisha commented.
“I’d suggest that you take turns of an hour each. Any longer than that and it’ll be easy to get distracted.”
“So, we watch for their jeep on one of the trails?” Ty asked.
“And then try to see which way they head when they enter the jungle. At least we’ll have an idea of where they are.”
Ty gave her a grin and a mock salute, then sauntered toward the tree.
“Connor and I are going to check out the lodge. If you think the Hunters are headed this way, get inside the cave and cover the opening with some branches.”
“Will do,” Alex said.
“Make sure there aren’t any tracks in the area, nothing that will lead them to the cave opening.”
Paige turned to Connor. “You up for a hike?”
CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN
“LOOKS LIKE A GREAT DAY FOR A hike.” Connor grinned, and Paige suddenly realized how much she appreciated his willingness, his upbeat attitude, how he looked emerging from the river naked. Oh, yeah, she had peeked.
“Hey, Aleisha, you mind if Connor uses your backpack?” Paige asked.
“Go ahead. You bringing back some supper?”
“Gonna try.” Paige emptied the few items from Aleisha’s backpack.
“Well, try to make it something other than fish. I swear I’d eat one of those damn snakes Kevin caught before fish right now. Isn’t it supposed to taste like chicken?”
“That’s rattlesnake.” Paige laughed. “But, at least it doesn’t taste like fish.” They shared a chuckle, and Paige tossed the empty backpack to Connor and pulled hers over her shoulders.
They set off at a brisk walk, scuttled down the steep incline to the beach and headed south, staying close to the trees.
“So you’re a private investigator?” Connor asked.
“Just bought thirty percent of the agency. Before that I was with the Portland Police Department.”
“Like your dad?”
“He was the reason I joined the force. He loved what his job, and he was really good at it.”
“You like private investigation better?”
“Yeah. I got tired of the bureaucracy, tired of the guys hassling me.” Paige looked at him. “This way, I get to choose the cases I work on, to a point. Why?”
Connor shrugged. “You just don’t seem the type for police work.”
“What’s that mean? That I couldn’t handle it?”
“Oh, no, I’m sure you handled the training and the work just fine. You just seem too much of a free spirit to want that kind of conformity.”
“I guess that was one issue. I got my chops busted for not following the rules more than once.”
“Now, that doesn’t surprise me.” Connor laughed.
Paige laughed with him. “I probably would have stayed with the force a lot longer if Dad hadn’t died.” They both sobered on that thought.
“What, exactly, are we looking for when we get there?” Connor asked.
“First, we need to assess the condition of your plane
.”
Connor nodded. “Wade mentioned that he’s done some flying. I don’t know if he’d be able to fly a deHavilland Beaver, but I think they’d want to keep it operational as a backup.”
“After that, we search the house. Maybe we can find some weapons.”
“Weapons would be good. Even it up a bit,” Connor said.
“Then we take some food. Just enough for tonight. If they don’t know we’ve been there, we might be able to go back again.”
“From what I saw when I was there, we can take plenty, and they won’t even notice it. These guys are the poster children for over-indulgence.”
“Let’s just hope no one’s home when we get there.”
“The plane isn’t easily visible from the house,” Connor said. “But I’d feel better if they’re all gone.”
They arrived at the Hunters’ house an hour and a half after they’d left the cave. The jeep was gone, and Paige hoped that meant everyone was out of the house. The plane was still tied up at the wooden pier, with the Hunters’ motor yacht docked on the other side of it. Paige trotted around the house, looking in the windows while Connor checked out the plane. No one appeared to be home, although there were a couple of windows that she couldn’t see into.
She walked to the back of the house and saw a weathered metal shed. It looked like it had been there for a while, although it was sturdy enough. There were several propane tanks to one side of the shed, and she wasn’t surprised when she opened the rust-stained door and saw a generator. The rest of the shed contained mostly junk. Paige moved a couple of torn, dirty tarps and found a recurve bow and a compound bow.
Moving more junk garnered her a stash of arrows and a large roll of duct tape. Not exactly on a par with what the Hunters had, but they sure beat no weapons at all. Satisfied that she’d gotten everything of any use from the shed, Paige stepped outside, raking spider webs from her hair.
“Looks like all they did was take the distributor cap,” Connor said.
“You think they’re stupid enough to leave it lying around?”
“Won’t know unless we check.”
They approached the house cautiously, and climbed the steps to the porch. Connor reached for the doorknob and looked at Paige. At her nod, he twisted the doorknob, and the door swung open silently. Paige nocked an arrow in the bowstring and moved through the house.
There were four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and an extra room that held racks and cabinets for guns. Unfortunately, all the racks and cabinets were empty. They moved to the bedrooms, which were sparsely furnished with queen sized beds, chests of drawers, and nightstands.
They checked every drawer and cabinet, but there was no sign of the distributor cap. Where the hell would they have put it? Paige opened the door to one of the bathrooms and almost screamed when she got a glimpse of herself in the mirror over the sink. The short hair shocked her. She took a minute to examine her reflection, trying to get accustomed to it. The haircut Connor had given her looked pretty good, outside of the fact that tufts of hair were sticking up in places. Hell, at least it was clean. The distributor cap wasn’t in either of the bathrooms, so they moved to the large front room.
The walls were covered with animal heads, large fish, and animal skins. Paige thought it was more than a little creepy. And there was still no sign of the distributor cap. Connor headed to the kitchen and Paige followed.
Paige opened the freezer and stepped inside. It was about two feet wide and four feet deep. Because there was no light, she left the door opened and perused the offerings. The shelves were packed with steaks, chops, seafood, fish, and bags of frozen vegetables, even cartons of ice cream. When she reached the back of the freezer, her foot hit something and she squinted into the shadows.
A large lump wrapped in a blue plastic tarp leaned against the back corner. She swallowed hard and forced herself to reach out and pull the tarp down.
Barry’s lifeless eyes stared back at her.
Bastards!
Next to his frozen body was another one. Paige knew it had to be Connor’s co-pilot, Josh. She carefully replaced the tarp, making sure it looked the way she had found it. The Hunters didn’t realize it, but they were preserving the evidence that was going to put them away. Paige was going to personally make sure of that. Just surviving and escaping wasn’t enough anymore.
Blinking tears away, she remembered why she was there and grabbed some steaks and a bag of frozen broccoli, then closed the door behind her.
Connor had taken a bag of potatoes, a box of oatmeal, rice, and a stick of butter.
“I found two bodies in the freezer,” she told him. “One was Barry, and I assume the other one was Josh.” Connor started for the freezer door, but she put a hand on his arm. “You can’t help him now, and it’s best that we leave him there. We don’t want the Hunters to know we were here, and freezing is a good way to preserve evidence.”
Connor considered her for a moment. “Let me guess. You want to take these guys in.”
“Must be the cop in me.” Paige shrugged.
“You won’t get an argument from me.”
They started for the front door, then she turned and looked back at the house.
“You know what’s really strange?” she asked Connor.
“You mean other than having men hunting us and finding dead bodies in freezers?”
“Yeah, well, that’s strange enough. But, look at this place.” She waved a hand at the kitchen. “A Sub-Zero fridge, Wolff stove, granite counter tops.”
“Better than what I’ve got at home, but I’m guessing money isn’t really a problem for these guys.”
“And this house just sitting out here on an uninhabited island. Nice furnishings, gross animal heads and skins. Plus, they have a Jeep and a generator that requires propane.”
Connor lifted an eyebrow at her.
“How did they get this all here? It’s not like there’s a Wal-Mart and a Home Depot within driving distance.”
“Had to be brought in by air or boat.”
“That’s got to cost a few bucks.”
“So, we know they’re rich.”
“And weird,” she added.
“Definitely weird. But I see what you mean. They didn’t do all this just to hunt six people.”
“You’d think whoever brought all this in would have wondered what they were up to.”
“You pay enough and nobody asks questions,” Connor said.
“Let’s get out of here. We’ll have to come back to look for the distributor cap later.”
Their timing was perfect. By the time they’d reached the brush, they heard the Jeep approaching. They crouched in the brush and watched the Hunters get out of the Jeep.
“Kevin!” Paige whispered to Connor.
“Son of a bitch.”
“I guess that explains why he was so withdrawn from the rest of the group.”
“And everyone’s been worried about him since he disappeared.” Connor shook his head.
“Too bad the bear didn’t do more damage to Wade,” Paige said, noting the bandage on his arm. Connor grinned.
They walked back along the beach, still keeping close to the trees until they came to the steep climb back to the cave.
“You think maybe they use this place to hunt animals they bring in?” she asked.
“Could be. Sure would explain what the bear was doing here.”
“Yeah. And it makes me wonder what other animals are loose on the island.”
“There’s a thought I could have done without,” Connor said as they arrived back at the cave.
The purloined dinner was met with great enthusiasm.
“Red meat!” Aleisha clapped her hands like a little girl. “And broccoli!”
“With butter,” Paige added, pulling the softened stick out of her bag.
“Man, I could eat that whole sack of potatoes,” Ty said as he laid logs and sticks on the fire.
The only grill they had was the little one they used for
fish. Paige didn’t think anyone wanted to wait long enough to grill one small steak at a time, so she cut them into strips and threaded them onto sticks. They only had one pot, and the group voted for potatoes over rice by four to two. Paige had Connor cut open a couple of coconuts and scrape them clean, then placed the broccoli inside and poured steaming water over them.
Everyone held the sticks over the fire to cook the steak, waiting for the potatoes and broccoli to finish cooking.
“God! That’s hardly even warm!” Aleisha said as Ty bit into a juicy strip of meat.
“That’s the way I like it,” Ty insisted. He chewed another mouthful, then angled his stick back over the fire.
The others were a little more patient and waited until the meat was at least partially cooked before biting into it. In no time, the steak, potatoes, and broccoli were gone.
After dinner they gathered around the fire at the mouth of the cave, and Connor and Paige told them about what they’d found at the Hunters’ house.
“I figured Wade’s story that Barry had quit was another lie,” Ty said. “I guess we just didn’t want to think about what had happened to him.”
Tears streamed down Aleisha’s face, and she leaned against Alex as he put his arm around her, careful of her injured shoulder.
“And Kevin!” Ty shook his head. “I never cared for the guy, but I had no idea he was spying on us.”
“Well, let’s just be glad he doesn’t know the location of our campsite,” Paige said.
“What are we going to do?” Nick asked. His voice was quiet and forlorn.
Paige knew that everyone was feeling the strain of the situation, but they couldn’t afford to give up. Not even a little.
“We’re going to get off this island,” she assured them. “Then I’m going to make sure those men pay for what they did to Barry.” Her voice cracked and she swallowed hard. “And to Josh.”
Everyone was silent for a few minutes, then Ty rose and gathered the dishes. Aleisha heated a pot of water, and Alex helped her wash out the single pot, two forks, and three spoons.
The temperature had dropped while they were eating, and the wind whistled past the cave opening. Paige stepped outside and looked at the heavy, dark clouds rolling across the sky. The hairs on her arms stood up mere seconds before a slash of lighting cracked, followed by a rumble of thunder. Minutes later fat drops of rain pelted the ground, and she stepped back inside.