She sat on the bed and watched them play until her head started rolling on her neck. Then she yanked her sock away from Squeaker, who had apparently commandeered it, and put it back on her foot. She got a whiff of her own foot, which wasn’t pleasant, but Cam had no interest in a shower right then. All she wanted was her bed. Scooping the ferrets into her arms, she trudged off to her own room, trying to keep the wriggling bundles from falling to the floor as they struggled to get down.
“Nope. You guys have had all the fun-time you’re getting right now. And if you start digging at the door again, I’m locking you up.” It was an empty threat. They didn’t even own a cage for them. Her mother had gotten rid of it years ago.
The instant she closed her bedroom door behind her, however, and set the boys on the floor, they ran straight to their bed. They curled up like a couple of quotation marks and went right off to sleep. Probably depressed now, she thought. They weren’t used to spending this much time alone, and her mother had never been away from them for more than a few hours at a time, so Cam felt sorry for them. It wasn’t like she got mad at them anyway. Still, it was a relief to be able to strip off her clothes, slip into shorts and a t-shirt, and let her body ooze between the sheets. She really was falling in love with her bed lately, she realized, which was her last thought before she passed out.
“You’ve been keeping a close eye on Katherine, I take it?” Cam asked Chuck.
“You’d better believe it. That girl isn’t allowed to leave the house right now. Hasn’t been out since I took her back the other night. She can get fresh air when the front door wafts it in,” he said bitterly. Cam wasn’t surprised. It had been a very rude wake-up call for him to find out what his daughter was really like.
The price of spoiling your kids, she thought. It was one of the reasons she didn’t really like kids. Or at least other people’s kids. And why she had thanked her mother more than once for not letting her turn out like that. They might have their disagreements, but being raised to be responsible and independent, instead of expecting everyone to give her whatever she wanted, was something she was grateful for.
If she had ever shown any signs of behaving the way Katherine had done, she’d have been stomped on for it. In fact, the closest she had come to that had been going out on her own the day she met Brian, and adult or not, her mother hadn’t let her get away with it. Most of the arguments she had with her mother came about because they were too much alike, though. Lately the tendency for them both to rely solely on themselves was getting to be problematic. They each had a hard time operating within a team, which was what they had to do now.
Not that Cam wanted to run the show on the farm. Far from it. It was just that she had been given the responsibility for a short period of time, and she was damn well going to do it. Once her mother was back, and knew everything that was going on, Cam would feel nothing but relief. She kept wondering when someone was going to ask her who the hell she thought she was, giving them all orders. She could easily see someone like Katherine saying, ‘You’re not the boss of me!’ The thought nearly made her smile, but she contained it. She didn’t want Chuck to think she was laughing at him.
“Cam?” Chuck’s query startled her.
“Sorry. Did you ask me something?”
“I just said we need to find a way to lock our new containment cell so that asshole can’t get out again.”
“For now we can just bar the door. We can angle a beam from the ground to the door. Dig a pit, and maybe line it with fast-drying cement, to brace the beam. Sort of like those metal door bars you see in movies of people living in apartments in shitty neighbourhoods. For now anyway. We can think of something else later. Just make sure your daughter doesn’t go anywhere near the building once we have him.”
“I will. Like I said, she’s not getting out of the house right now.”
“Alright. You’d better get your door bar set up then, and we’ll make sure we have someone to put in your fancy new jail. Okay? We can improve on it with a trip to the hardware store later,” she said. Chuck nodded and clomped down the stairs. When he was gone she turned to the other people in the room.
“I know we went over this yesterday, but we’re going to refresh our memories so we don’t forget any of the details. Felicia, you’ll be watching the monitors for any signs of him. Radio the person who’s furthest away from him once you see him. That person will let the others know his location, and we can surround the van with that in mind. We want to box him in without him seeing us, if possible. We stay on the property on this side of the sensors until he shows. It’s unlikely he’ll go on the property now that he knows about the sensors, but if we’re circling his van he could run right into one of us while we’re waiting.
“We’ll move in and surround the van in two circles. If he runs through one group, he’ll be caught by the second. Please, for the love of Christ, if you have to fire at him watch where you’re shooting. I don’t want us shooting each other. Gilles, I’ll let you give the instructions there. I went through the firearm training for civilians, but I don’t have police training.”
Gilles took over and gave them a rundown which wasn’t far off what he’d started teaching her about hunting. The same safety precautions applied. The exception was that they weren’t shooting to kill. He made that clear a few times, and double-checked to make sure everyone understood. The rumours had finally circulated that something had been done to Katherine, so it was entirely possible someone would get a little too trigger-happy. When Gilles finished, Cam only had one thing left to say.
“Some of you have some idea why we’re so determined to catch him, and some may think we know all the facts. We don’t. There’s a distinct possibility we’ve been fed a steaming pile of bullshit from a rebellious teenager. If he’s done what he’s been accused of, and we have to be absolutely certain of that, we need to make sure he can’t hurt any of us again. If he hasn’t done it, and we turn into a bunch of animals and do something we can’t take back, not one of us will be able to look at ourselves in the mirror again. I do not want to be responsible for that. Okay? We’re going out there just to catch him and confine him. If we do this right, there is no reason we can’t bring him back here alive and unharmed.” She glared around at the ten people who would be going out with her, and every one of them looked sober-minded rather than wrathful, which was what she wanted.
“Okay, please be careful with your own skins, too, and do not approach him while still carrying a weapon than he can take from you. Let’s get our asses over there and be ready.”
Cameron felt something like a parrot, because she had said pretty much the same thing the day before, but it didn’t hurt for everyone to have a reminder, or the extra bit of training Gilles provided. People learned through instruction, practice, and repetition, and so they would be better prepared on the second day than they had been on the first. So long as it didn’t get to the point where they were rolling their eyes at her, but if it stretched on much longer she would be rolling her own eyes and telling herself to shut up.
Cam knew he was going to show up that day. She didn’t know if it was instinct, or what, but something was going to happen. Because she felt that way, the afternoon air felt like a surreal swirl around her. Some sort of calm stole over her, until she was so in the moment that it felt like time stopped.
It didn’t, of course, and it wasn’t long before she saw Leigh walking toward her. Apparently she’d gotten the notification over the two-way, which meant Mike was at the other end of the group. Leigh had let everyone know as she passed them on her way to tell Cam, so they had followed her. They gathered up the rest of the group. Then the second radio call came in to let them know Mike was at the van.
Now they could safely surround his van in the two circles. Four people inside, though still shielded by trees, each coming toward a corner of the vehicle so they were watching two sides of it. The other seven people formed a wider circle, showing little
from the van side, other than the business end of a rifle, and an eye with which to aim. No one carried a shotgun, because the risk of collateral injury was too great. Until everyone was exactly where they were supposed to be, and all had nodded to the person closest to them to indicate they were ready, they remained silent. Once they were ready, however, Gilles called out.
“Michael Langston, we’re armed and have you surrounded. Come out of the van, slowly, and put your hands in the air where we can see them. Do not bring a weapon out with you, or we will fire on you.”
Cam distinctly heard the word ‘fuck’ from inside the van. The cargo door latches clicked open, and the doors began to swing wide very slowly.
“I’m coming out. Jesus. You didn’t need to go to all this trouble just for me. I haven’t done anything other than take some food, for cryin’ out loud!” He held his hands way up in the air, using only his legs to climb out of the back. From where Cam was standing, she could see blankets and cushions piled up. At the very least he slept back there, and had potentially done much worse.
He had to know Katherine had told them about their meetings. Otherwise how would they have known where and when to go looking for him? However, he continued to play the innocent.
“What did you expect me to do, man? Starve to death? And it’s not like you had the right to take me somewhere I didn’t want to go,” Mike continued, blithely unaware that every word he spoke had Gilles clenching his jaw.
Cam had to admire Gilles’ restraint, because he didn’t even mention Katherine. Gilles handed his handgun to Cam for safekeeping, and took out the handcuffs he’d dug out of storage. Mike was searched and cuffed without incident, then told to walk ahead of the group. Against his better judgment, Gilles had agreed to cuff his hands in front, because they would be walking over uneven terrain, but they were all warned not to walk in front of him. Maybe they were being paranoid, and it was just as likely Cam had seen too many movies, but they wouldn’t risk the possibility of Mike getting his hands on someone’s gun.
The trip back to the yard seemed to take a long time, though it couldn’t have been more than ten or fifteen minutes. The van hadn’t been far outside the property line. The tension during their journey made the time stretch, however, and it wasn’t until Mike was safely behind the barred door that Cam was able to take an easy breath. The only opening in the structure was a horizontal gap in the wall opposite the door, which was just big enough to pass food through, and provided fresh air.
She didn’t know enough about plumbing to outfit him with a proper toilet, so they would have to bring him to one for the time being. It was either that or have to deal with a bucket, and nobody wanted that responsibility. If they had been dealing with a criminal mastermind she would have been a lot more concerned. A thieving pervert they could handle, so long as he had a gun held on him at all times. He was a coward at heart. Jumping out of the truck when Gilles and Chuck had both holstered their weapons was the extent of his bravery.
Still, it nagged at her enough that Cam knew her mother would be bothered by it, too. In all likelihood a brand new structure would be built once her mom had had a chance to think about it. Until then, Cameron wouldn’t feel comfortable without a constant watch. She would be taking the camera off the van anyway, so they could use that.
As for the rest of it, Cam was in over her head. Kelly could deal with it. Or her mother. She was just going to ask Kelly whether or not it was considered humane to hold him without trial for a couple of days, because she seemed to remember something about that being in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, though she didn’t actually have a copy of it on hand.
Kelly would be in the midst of carting out the day’s ferret poop, and since it had been a while since Cam had been able to help her with all that, she decided they could talk while they worked. She grabbed some spare clothing to change into after she was done. Even if they had already been looked after, she wanted to spend some time with the ten that were quarantined. She always felt so bad for them, even though they had each other to play with, and both Kelly and Annette spent time with them. It was like they were being discriminated against or something.
“What it boils down to is this, Cam,” Kelly said in response to her question. “Are you going to follow the laws that were in place, or are you going to create new ones? If you’re going to create new ones, the fair thing to do would be to involve everyone in the crafting of them, and give everyone an opportunity to learn what they are. Until that’s been done, it’s probably best to stick with the original laws, because it doesn’t seem right to suddenly throw someone in jail and subject them to laws that never existed until you made them up. Conversely that applies to rights they may have had before.
“The laws in place before everything went to hell meant that a person had to be given a bail hearing or released within twenty-four hours. Whether or not someone is granted bail depends on many factors, but what applies here is that he’s already shown he’s a flight risk. By running from two police officers during transport, I think it’s fair for me to deny bail on those grounds. If you want to do things right, though, so that we maintain peace and order, we should really set up a bail hearing for first thing in the morning. Has he been informed of the charges?”
“Not yet,” Cam said, and hunched her shoulders at the look Kelly gave her.
“He has to be told. Gilles should know that, since he’s a trained police officer. Why didn’t he do so?”
“We weren’t sure what the hell we were doing, and I asked him not to say anything. In fact, nobody even told him he was under arrest, because it just sounded so stupid under the circumstances,” Cam added.
“Well, it’s not like there’s anyone he can complain to. He won’t have a defense lawyer or anything, who can get him off on a technicality. For that matter, there are no prosecuting attorneys, and we won’t have DNA evidence or even hair analysis from a sexual assault evidence kit. Chuck and Gilles are the only people on the farm, aside from myself, with any legal training that I’m aware of, and I can’t see either of them defending him. Be a bit much to ask of Katherine’s father, I’d think, and if Gilles went along with you on not telling the guy why he was being detained, he’s probably not inclined to help him either.”
“This whole thing feels ridiculous. I’m beginning to feel stupid for not just letting Chuck have a go at him.”
“Cam, you’re doing exactly the right thing. It’s complicated when you only have a few pieces of a very big puzzle. The Canadian Department of Justice was no small thing, and you’re doing your best to be fair to another human being. That’s not a bad thing.”
“She’s right, you know,” Annette piped up from across the room. Cam hadn’t realized she was even there.
“Thanks, but now I have to explain to everyone else why I’ve turned it into some kind of circus, when it could have been such a simple thing. Every one of us knows he’s a pig with females, and none of us wanted him to stay here for that reason.”
“But it’s not at all simple,” Kelly admonished. “Frontier justice is a terrifying thing. If you allow it to happen now, it will only get worse. Besides, you’ve already got everyone going along with it. They brought him in without hurting him. You had all those people out there with guns pointed at him, and not one of them pulled the trigger. They’re already on your side with this, in case you haven’t realized it. If they weren’t, someone would have had an ‘accident,’” she finished, using her fingers to form quotes in the air.
Cam thought about Kelly’s words later as she headed to Gilles’ family’s cabin. She was actually feeling sort of proud of herself, even if they had made a couple of mistakes. Now it was time to correct them, though, and for that she needed a police officer.
“Get your badge,” Cam told Gilles when he answered the door. He frowned at her, but went to get it.
“What’s up?” Gilles asked when he came back with the badge in his hand.
“We’re going to inform him
of the reason for his arrest, and then you need to read him his rights. I don’t know how they’re worded in Canada, but I know we’ve got something similar to the Miranda warning they use in the movies.”
“What for?”
“So we can do this right. I should have let you do it the way you wanted to in the first place. We’re going to have a bail hearing tomorrow morning, so we should let everyone know. Kelly says he’s a flight risk, so we don’t have to worry about her letting him out or anything,” she said, trailing off when she saw a shadow moving near the jail. Gilles turned to look at the same time.
“What the hell is he doing there?” Gilles asked, and put his hand on his gun.
19 ~ HARRIED HOMECOMING
They decided to push it in order to arrive that night, instead of waiting until the following morning. Mac was far too agitated to go to bed, after Cam had said goodbye so abruptly on the radio, so by four-fifteen she was warming up the engines, and at four-thirty she was pulling up the anchor. She could just barely see the shoreline, and that was enough for her. Neil wasn’t quite as anxious as she was, though he’d woken up at the sound of the engines, and then listened while she told him what Cam had said.
“It sounds like she was just tired, honey,” he had tried to soothe her.
“They’re going to stake out this guy’s van, Neil! I can guarantee your son is going to be in on that. Can you honestly tell me you’re not the least bit concerned by that?”
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t, but I’m trying to be rational about it. First of all, there’s no way in hell we can get there by then. Whatever is going to happen will be over long before we get there, or it won’t happen until tomorrow afternoon, in which case we’ll be there to deal with it. Either way there’s nothing we can do until we’re home. So do us all a favour and make sure you don’t drive the boat into a rock trying to do the impossible.”
Tipping Point (Book 2): Ground Zero Page 26