Winslow- The Lost Hunters

by David Francis Curran

  Nate was focused on the area where the voice was coming from. I had my revolver out, but Nate was at least fifty yards away. Denny and I both moved forward as quietly as we could

  “You come out now, Billy or I start cutting her,” Nate called back. Billy, obviously, couldn’t see that Nate wasn’t holding a knife.

  Cassie suddenly screamed as Nate pushed the muzzle of his gun painfully into her temple. “I’m starting to carve on her right now, and in just a little bit she ain’t going be so fucking pretty if you don’t come out.”

  He dug the muzzle in harder and Cassie screamed again. Billy stepped out from behind a boulder not ten feet from Nate.

  Nate pointed the shotgun at Billy and pulled one of the triggers before Billy had closed half the distance between them.

  Nate still held his gun toward Billy who was falling. Cassie was twisting in Nate’s grasp and screaming. I knew in another instant he’d shoot her, and telling him to drop his gun would just give him a chance to turn and use her as a shield while he shot at me.

  The distance was twenty-five yards now. It was a long shot for a pistol, but I had no choice. I squeezed off my shot holding the sights on Nate’s right ear. Nate Hanassey’s head exploded.

  I moved as the girl broke from Hanassey’s grip, and Hanassey began to fall. I reached Hanassey seconds after he hit the ground and kicked his gun away from his hand. As I looked at his misshapen head, I knew kicking the gun away hadn’t been necessary, but you can never tell.

  Cassie Carew ran to where Billy Wesley lay on his back on the ground. There was blood in Billy’s mouth. I could see that most of Nate’s buckshot had hit him in his abdomen.

  I watched Cassie get down on her knees and take Billy’s right hand.

  “Will you forgive me?” Billy whispered.

  Cassie just cried.

  I walked over. By the time I got there, Billy was dead.

  Cassie looked up at me with tears flowing from her eyes. "Is my Dad really dead?" she asked, her eyes pleading with me to say that Nate had been lying.

  I nodded. "And it was an accident," I said.

  Surprising to me was that my cell worked from the top of the open stope. Goldstone wanted to find a helicopter to fly out to the mine to us. But it wasn't necessary. My iPhone had GPS, and we were not that far from a main road.

  Goldstone did commandeer a snowplow, and within an hour and a half of Billy’s passing, Cassie was on her way to the hospital to be checked out.

  Epilogue

  November 1:

  When Adahy came by my cabin the next evening for belated trick or treating with his mother, Rylee was there. That afternoon, after getting up at noon, I had gone to talk to Cassie and Callie Carew and then to tell Rylee personally that Cassie had been rescued.

  When Callie opened the door, she grabbed and hugged me, like I don't think I was ever hugged before. Cassie filled in the details for me, of how she'd discovered a tied, bleeding, and unconscious Billy. I couldn't blame her for believing he was also a prisoner. There appeared to be much more to Billy than I had ever imagined. The thing that Cassie said that would always stick with me was, "I can understand, now, how he'd feel he had to protect his brother. I guess I'm just lucky he didn't hurt me."

  Rylee seems to still be blaming herself over Yash and Ken, and I, perhaps because she looked so much like my late wife, feeling sorry for her and having to feed the animals, had invited her to my home for an early dinner to try some elk steak. On the way to my cabin, I think I was at least partly successful in convincing her how important the part she and her friends played in finding Cassie actually was. I found out she was twenty-two, as I guessed. Before she came in, I asked that she wait until I cleaned up a bit. What I actually did was put the photos I had of Lo away. I told myself it was because I did not want to make Rylee uncomfortable.

  I had just started cooking two elk steaks and was finding, once I’d distracted her, that I enjoyed Rylee’s exuberance, which was refreshing when a soft knock came at the door, and I heard Adahy’s voice cry, "Trick or Treat!"

  "Just a second,” I called.

  I found a smiling Adahy in an obviously homemade costume and his mother when I opened the door.

  I introduced Rylee.

  "Adahy didn't want you to miss out being trick or treated," Yona said. "Next, we are going to Two-Guns. We missed him yesterday, too, on our way to the mall.

  "How did you make out at the mall?" I asked the boy.

  He nodded and spread his hands wide.

  "He's been eating it so fast he is going to be sick," his mother said.

  As I fetched an apple for Adahy's treat, I couldn’t quite place Adahy’s costume, so I asked.

  “I am medicine man, braver than Batman, stronger than Superman. I see with magic eyes,” he said.

  “What magic do you see?” I asked.

  He pointed right at Rylee and said, “This sister that looks like Aunty Lo does not like spiders.”

  I turned and looked at Rylee. She was staring in horror at a spider descending the log rafters above her head. Even in winter, you could always find spiders in wilderness cabins. I grabbed the spider off its thread, opened the front door and threw it onto the pile of stacked firewood by the door where it rushed to hide between the logs.

  “Won’t it freeze?” Rylee asked, anxiously.

  “It will hibernate,” I said, “under the pile most likely."

  Adahy took the apple I gave him with a stoic expression. But I knew he'd gotten enough candy trick or treating in Missoula.

  “Adahy! Would you like to come by Saturday and go on a hunt with me?” I asked.

  His eyes brightened. "But I'm not old enough to hunt elk. Am I?" he asked testing me.

  “We can hunt rabbits. If it is okay with your mother?” I said.

  He looked at his mother, and she nodded.

  “His father had an old single shot .22 he hunted with as a boy,” Yona said. “May we bring it?”

  “I have some .22 shells, I believe,” I said.

  Adahy left a very happy boy, but Rylee kept looking for spiders while we ate. I took her home early. On the way, she asked if I didn’t get lonely up in my cabin all alone. I couldn’t tell her I had a ghost that looked like her for company, and so, said, “There are lots of friendly spiders.” She shook her head. I walked her to her door. Luckily her roommates were back. I asked if she thought she’d be alright. When she said, “yes,” I simply said goodnight and left.

  November 4:

  On Saturday, November 4, 2017, Yona dropped off Adahy in the morning. We spent the morning target shooting and were going to try our luck hunting rabbits after lunch. We were just finishing a hearty meal of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Adahy’s favorite, when a knock came at the door.

  Shawna Edwards looked gorgeous in her uniform and gave me a warm smile.

  “I wanted to congratulate you. You found her.”

  “Yes,” I said. “Thanks in part to you and Tim. I hope Tim isn't upset with you? ”

  “Tim and I are fine. And he will be pleased when I tell him what you said. Listen…” she said and paused.

  “I hate to keep doing this to you, but I just got the afternoon off, and I thought we might be able to hang out?” Then she gave me this funny look. “Although Tim said you seemed to have hit it off with someone named Pumpkin at his club. So if that’s the case....”

  I felt my face redden.

  Adahy stepped up behind me at the door. “We are hunting today,” Adahy said.

  I turned to Adahy, “Can my friend Shawna join us?”

  “I like hunting. I’ve been hunting since I was a little girl.”

  I held my breath hoping Adahy would agree.

  “Today's hunt is only for my uncle and me,” Adahy said. “You can hunt with us another time.”

  Shawna smiled at Adahy and stepped back. “Well, if that’s the case,” she said, "I'll say goodbye.”

  “This white lady isn’t afraid of spiders,” Adahy sai
d. How he figured that out, I don’t know.

  I didn’t hesitate. There were always spiders in my cabin. I said. “How about dinner later this week?"

  I knew Shawna's answer by her smile.

  The End

  Acknowledgments

  No book gets done without the help of readers. I want to thank David Braden, John Curran, Keilani Curran, Jim Allen, and Tom Curran for readings in progress; Steve Scott who helped find some very hard to find errors; Nancy W. Moors and Jacqueline Stigman who helped make much needed improvements; and Chris Rogers whose readings helped me tremendously while doing the audible version.

  Author’s Note:

  If you liked this book, please leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or other review site. Perhaps mention which characters you like the best and which you'd like to learn more about.

  A great deal of effort was put into trying to make this manuscript error-free. But no one is perfect. If you find an error or typo, please let us know at author@dfcurran.com

  David