Hot on the Trail Mix

by P. D. Workman

  Because of their schedules, Terry was just getting home as Erin and Vic were having their morning tea. After kissing him good morning, Erin gestured to the kettle. “Did you want some?”

  “No, I’ll make my own beverage, thanks.” Terry went to the fridge and pulled out a beer. He said that one beer before bed helped him sleep better than any of the other sleep aids the doctors had prescribed. And it wasn’t like he was getting drunk. He was very good about keeping it to one drink. Doctors said that was healthy. Erin’s experiences with men who did drink too much colored her perception. She tried to remain nonjudgmental and not to let it make her anxious. She knew that Terry was not a drunk and rarely ever had more than one drink in a day.

  She smiled at him and turned back to Vic, relating to her the visit from Lottie. Vic nodded, grinning.

  “You never know what people are going to name their kids in backwoods Tennessee. I’ve seen families where all of the brothers and first cousins have the same given name.” She giggled. “They’re all named after granddaddy and great-granddaddy, of course. So they all have different nicknames, and you have Big Ike and Little Ike and Slim Ike and Red Ike…”

  Erin shook her head. “Lottie acted like I must have gotten it wrong. But I wrote everything down right there when Vice Principal Fitzroy was giving it to me, and you heard Jenny say that the baby’s name was Ike, right?”

  “I did.”

  Something tickled at the back of Erin’s brain. She considered, trying to nail down what it was.

  “What?” Vic prompted.

  “No, I’m just… trying to remember… something…”

  “Don’t try too hard, I can see the smoke coming out of your ears…” Vic teased.

  “You do not! It’s just that I’ve heard the name Ike before.”

  “I’m sure you have.”

  “No. Recently. Just the last few days.”

  She tried to run through the various different scenarios. One of Jenny’s children had mentioned Ike before; she must have been talking about Big Ike. Or was it someone else?

  “Oh, no. It wasn’t,” Erin corrected herself aloud. “It was Adrienne’s daughter.”

  “Adrienne’s daughter is named Ike too?”

  “What did Willie put in your cornflakes this morning? You’re in a silly mood!”

  “I don’t know. Just trying to keep things light, I guess. I don’t want to be sad and solemn all day. Yesterday was too serious.”

  “Yeah. It was.” Erin wanted to move on too. She looked at her watch. “Well, we’d better get going. I guess I’ll see you later,” she told Terry. “Have a good sleep.”

  “I will,” he agreed. He gave her another kiss, and she and Vic headed out.

  Chapter 36

  Erin continued to puzzle over what she only half-remembered from the visit to Adrienne. She talked it through with Vic in the afternoon lull.

  “I’m sure it was Adrienne’s little girl that talked about Ike. Something about… Ike had to go with Grandma, something like that.”

  “So it must be like I said. A bunch of the first cousins are all named after Grandpa Ike.”

  “Then Adrienne and Jenny must be related.” Erin frowned, thinking it through. “Adrienne never said that she was related to Jenny. But if their kids were first cousins, then wouldn’t that mean…”

  “That Adrienne and Jenny were sisters. Or maybe sisters-in-law.”

  “They’re both blond and slim,” Erin said slowly. “But they really don’t look like each other.”

  “Sister don’t always look similar. Or like I said, they could be in-laws. Or it could be Great-Grandpa Ike, and Adrienne and Jenny are cousins. Or even further back than that. Sometimes these names get recycled over and over again with every generation.”

  “Maybe I should talk to Adrienne again. She was a lot easier to talk to than Jenny. Not that either one was easy, but Adrienne was grateful to me for letting her stay on the property for the night, so maybe she’d be more likely to talk to me again. I don’t think Jenny is going to.”

  “But why talk to either of them again? They’re living their own lives and it really isn’t anything to do with you. Why keep bothering them?”

  “I just… want to know.” Erin didn’t want to put into words what she was thinking, not even to herself. She wanted Adrienne to agree with Vic’s suggestion. It would give a nice clear answer to the problem with the names. That would make Erin feel better and then she would be able to go on without worrying any more about it.

  “Well… we’ll go look for her after work, then,” Vic agreed. “Do you know where she moved to? Or if she moved like you asked her to?”

  “I didn’t check… but I haven’t smelled their cooking again, so I don’t think they’re close by.”

  “Or maybe they just moved downwind.”

  “Well… I guess. But Adele knows that I told them to move on, so she wouldn’t let them camp on the property again.”

  “Unless she did.”

  Erin rolled her eyes. Adele had allowed them to stay there to start with, even though she knew it was her job to make sure that no one trespassed on Erin’s private land. It was a possibility.

  “I don’t think she’s still there. I bet she moved back out of town, over where the others are staying. Somewhere close to them, anyway, where they won’t be bothered.”

  “Well, we’ll go check,” Vic promised.

  They closed up as quickly as they could without unbalancing the schedule for the next morning. Some of the batters that they normally mixed the night before and left soaking overnight could be made the next day without too much change in texture. And Erin could hold over a few muffins and loaves from the day before to let the batters soak longer, and make them a little later in the day than usual. Just so they could get out a bit early to go talk to Adrienne. She might be close by, or she might have moved back toward where Jenny and the others were.

  Erin went into the house to drop off a couple of things, startling Terry.

  “You’re home early!” He held his hand over his chest, eyes wide, and laughed at himself.

  “Just a few minutes,” Erin admitted. “I’m just going to put these things down. Vic and I are going to take Nilla out for a walk.”

  Terry looked at her, eyes narrowed. Erin kept her face blank. They were going to take Nilla out. It wasn’t a lie.

  Terry nodded. “Sounds good. That will probably be good for him. Work off some of that extra energy.”

  “Yeah. He hasn’t exactly settled down as much as Vic would like!”

  “It’s a crime that dog was not properly trained while he was a puppy. I realize that there’s a big difference between terriers and shepherds,” Terry looked at K9, “but a dog has so much more potential when it is properly trained. You add to and encourage its natural abilities. That little dog could be an asset if he was trained, instead of a little whirlwind of destruction whenever there’s no one looking after him.”

  Erin nodded her agreement.

  “But Vic’s doing her best, and the dog training people said that it’s still possible to properly train an older dog. It just takes longer and is more of a challenge.”

  “Well, I hope it starts paying off soon. Vic shouldn’t have her property torn apart just because she did a nice thing and rescued a dog without an owner.”

  “Yeah.” Erin inched toward the back door. She wanted to make use of as much of the daylight as they could.

  “And you don’t want it destroying the value of that apartment or the yard. Vic won’t be here forever and if you want to rent it to someone else after her, you don’t want to have to strip the whole thing out and start over.”

  “She’s not leaving any time soon…”

  “Maybe not. But you can never be sure. She won’t necessarily tell you if she and Willie start looking at a bigger place. Or decide that Vic should move into Willie’s house.”

  Erin frowned. Vic was out in the back yard with Nilla, waiting for Erin. Erin didn’t want t
o think of her ever leaving the loft apartment. It would be so strange living in Bald Eagle Falls without Vic close at hand, coming into the kitchen in the morning, the two of them going into work together…

  “I didn’t say she was leaving,” Terry said apologetically. “Just that you don’t know when it could happen.”

  “You’re right. I’ve got to go. Back in a bit.”

  Chapter 37

  Nilla was excited about being outside and being allowed to go into the woods, which were usually off limits. He didn’t seem to understand the constraints of the leash and kept getting himself tangled around tree trunks and in the underbrush. Erin was frustrated at their slow progress. It was going to take forever to search anything but the areas closest to the house with him charging around like a Tasmanian devil.

  “I’m just going to run ahead and see if she’s still at the same site as she was earlier,” she told Vic.

  If Adrienne had moved farther away but was still in Erin’s woods, it would take time to locate her, and Erin wasn’t willing to wait for the crazy little powderpuff.

  “Okay. Sorry about this. We’ll catch up as soon as I can get him untangled. I guess the woods were not such a great idea when he still hasn’t gotten the idea of heeling.”

  “Yeah, it’s okay, I just want to check.”

  Erin picked up her pace and hurried toward the corner Adrienne had been camped in before. Erin had soon left Vic behind and was on her own. She felt a little anxious and uncertain, but she knew the woods and there was no danger. Adele patrolled it for any unsavory characters. Any wild animals would be more afraid of Erin than she was of them. At least, that was what Terry said. Mostly, the big predators didn’t come right into the town.

  She looked around quickly and kept moving. Keep moving and making noise, and they would run away before she even saw them. Animals were afraid of humans.

  Except when they weren’t.

  As she used the game trails and looked for the place Adrienne had camped, she couldn’t help thinking of the squatters’ children playing in the trees right out there in the wilds. A predator might never consider taking a grown adult, but a child, small and light, was easy to drag off… what if something was hungry, or wasn’t spooked by the sounds of the children playing? What if it went closer for a look, and saw the young prey scampering around completely unprotected? Even worse, what if the children were back and forth between the camps, through the woods on their own, so that no adult knew which children were where? It could be hours before someone realized that a child was missing. Especially if they didn’t have phones to connect with each other.

  Erin was spooking herself. By the time she reached Adrienne’s abandoned campsite, she was jumping at every branch blowing in the wind and the noises of squirrels or rabbits in the bush. She turned a circle, looking around the clearing and waiting for her heart to settle back into a normal rhythm.

  “Adrienne? Are you here?” It was obvious that she wasn’t, but Erin still wanted to make sure. Willie had said that Ryder, even when told to move on, had only moved a short distance away, believing that he was no longer on Willie’s property. Adrienne might have moved her camp and assumed that Erin would not look any farther than the clearing.

  Erin looked at her watch. It wasn’t getting dark yet, but it was getting closer to sunset, and she knew they would lose the daylight quickly. She hadn’t brought her big flashlight with her and had not planned to search in the darkness.

  She called a few more times, circled around the outside of the clearing looking for any sign that the little family had just dragged their gear to the next likely spot. But she couldn’t see any indication of what direction they had gone.

  Vic caught up to her, panting a little and keeping Nilla on a very short leash to keep him from getting tangled again. “No Adrienne?”

  “No. I don’t see her around here. She must have gone out to where the others are.” Erin sighed. “Do you think we could go out there tonight? It’s going to be getting dark by the time we get out there.”

  Vic studied her. “It’s not that urgent.”

  “I know.” But to Erin, it was. “But do you think we could anyway? Otherwise, we have to wait until tomorrow, and she could have moved farther away. It’s possible that she’s already gone.”

  “And it’s just as possible that she’s staying with the rest of the families out there. Especially if they are all related. If Jenny is her sister, she’s not going to be so quick to take off. They could help each other out trading off babysitting so that they can get work or errands done. And to keep the kids close.”

  Erin nodded. But she worried there were reasons for Adrienne or Jenny, or both of them, to run away and get out of Tennessee, or at least far away from Bald Eagle Falls. Vic shrugged.

  “If you want. Sure. We’d better move it, because like you say, it’s going to be dark soon. Not only that, but we’re going to want to get some sleep tonight.”

  Erin breathed a sigh of relief. She supposed she could have gone out there by herself, but she was much happier if Vic went with her.

  They retreated to the house as quickly as they could. Nilla started prancing excitedly around the truck, and Vic laughed. “I guess someone likes going for a ride.” She opened the driver’s side door, and Nilla leaped up into the seat like a cat. Erin wouldn’t have guessed that he would be able to jump so high.

  “I’ll just let Terry know that we’re going out.”

  Vic raised her eyebrows. She had a pretty good idea that Terry was going to ask questions about the necessity for the sudden trip out looking for the family.

  Erin went into the house through the back door and retrieved her purse from under a sleepy orange cat. “Vic and I are going to run some errands. Won’t be too long.”

  “Where are you going?” Terry called from the bedroom.

  Erin ignored the question and hurried back out. Vic was in the driver’s seat, tapping on her phone, and looked surprised to see Erin.

  “That was quick.”

  “Just needed my purse. I don’t want to… waste any time.”

  “Okay. Off we go.”

  They avoided further discussion about why Erin felt such a burning need to go talk to Adrienne. Erin didn’t want to explain what she was thinking, in case speaking it made it true. She knew it was magical thinking and not logical, but she still found herself irrationally superstitious sometimes. She just wanted to be proven wrong. Then no one would know how close she had come to believing the worst of someone.

  “Which property do you want to go to first?”

  “I guess… Willie’s. He hasn’t been out there the last day or two, right? So he wouldn’t know if she was camped there. We know they’ve used it before.”

  “I wouldn’t think they’d want to camp there when someone has been kicked off already. And since… Rip died there. People tend not to want to hang around places where relatives died.”

  “It’s the closest property, so we might as well check it out first.”

  Vic couldn’t argue with that. So they went to the property the Ryders had previously camped on.

  The clearing that Jenny had used was not occupied but, in looking around, Erin saw that there was a small group of tents on the other side of the fence. She recognized the army surplus tent.

  Erin and Vic got out of the truck. Nilla raced around crazily, yipping and running in fast loops.

  “That dog is possessed,” Erin laughed.

  “Just happy not to be cooped up in an apartment,” Vic said.

  With the noise the dog was making, Adrienne couldn’t very well be unaware of their arrival. She walked around from the back of one of the tents with a pot in her hand. She looked from Erin to Vic, angry.

  “We’re not on your claim. You can’t kick us off.”

  “Whoever owns this land could,” Vic pointed out reasonably.

  “Nobody owns this land. No one cares that we are here.”

  Vic shrugged. “Maybe not. We’re not
here to kick you out anyway.” She tilted her head toward Erin. “We just wanted to talk to you.”

  “Talk to me? Fine, go ahead. Talk to me.”

  Erin cleared her throat. It was awkward to begin. She hadn’t planned on the meeting being so confrontational. She thought she and Adrienne understood each other. Adrienne had known that Erin didn’t want to kick them out. That she had been nice to them and given the kids granola bars. If she’d had a chance to talk to Jenny, she knew that Erin had brought plenty of supplies for the little settlement. But Adrienne wasn’t happy to see her, she was defensive and resentful.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. I just want to talk.”

  “So, talk.”

  Erin cast about for how to start. “When we were talking before, then one of your kids said something about Ike. Is Ike one of your kids, or…?”

  Adrienne’s eyes were narrow and suspicious. “No, I don’t have an Ike.” She shrugged. “Why?”

  “It’s nothing, I guess. It just seemed like there was more than one Ike around, and it was confusing.”

  Adrienne stared at her.

  “Does Jenny have one named Ike, then?” Erin asked, as if she didn’t already know the answer.

  “She might.”

  Erin knew that Adrienne and Jenny were close enough to know the names of each other’s children. What did she know that she was hiding?

  “Her older boy, his name is Ike, right? He’s eight?”

  One of the children piped up, a little boy with dark hair peeking out from behind the tent. “No! Ike is five, like me!”

  There were giggles from other children, out of sight. Adrienne whipped around to look at him. “Samuel Andrew, do you want a hiding? Quit listening in on other people’s conversations and go play. All of you. Go on. This is just boring grown-up stuff. Go find some skipping stones.”

  There was the sound of little feet running away and more giggles. Samuel stood up taller where he had been hiding so that Erin could see more of him. His bottom lip stuck out. “But it’s true. Ike is five.”