by Kathi Daley
“Hang on,” I said as I stopped walking. “Let me try to make contact again. The kid couldn’t have wandered too far away.”
I called Yukon over to my side, then sat down on a large rock. I closed my eyes and focused on the image of the boy whose photo we’d been shown. Thick, straight blond hair. Bright blue eyes peeking out from behind long bangs. I had a clear image of the boy in my mind, but I couldn’t see him and I didn’t sense fear or distress. I was trying to go deeper when I heard the snap of a twig from behind me. I opened my eyes and jumped up. I whirled around but didn’t see anything.
“I heard it too,” Dani said. “Might have been a bear.”
I knew we were both thinking of the or that could conclude that sentence. It might have been a bear or a madman out to kill us.
“Let’s keep going,” Landon suggested. “The sooner we find this kid, the better for everyone.”
I took out the T-shirt again and gave Yukon another sniff. “This is Georgie. Find Georgie.”
Yukon sniffed it, then took off. After a few more minutes, Landon spoke. “I don’t think this is right. The missing kid is two. We must have walked over a quarter of a mile. I don’t think he’d have traveled that far.”
I took a breath and let it out. “I agree. Maybe we should…” My sentence was cut off when Yukon stopped and began to growl. I told him to stay, then clipped the leash into place. I wasn’t sure what he sensed, but he wouldn’t be growling at a two-year-old. It had to be someone or something else.
“Hold him.” I gave the leash to Dani. “Call Jake to let him know what’s going on.”
“I’m coming with you,” Landon said as we both inched forward. I could hear talking in the distance that sounded like a little kid. I looked at Landon, he nodded, and we continued. It only took a few minutes before the forest opened up and the boy came into view.
“Holy crap,” I whispered.
“Holy crap is right,” Landon seconded.
Georgie was sitting on the ground near the river, playing with a bear cub.
“What are we going to do?” Landon asked.
“We need to get him.” I looked around. I didn’t see the mama bear, but she had to be close by. In fact, the snapping twigs we’d heard must have been her. I raised the radio to my lips. “Harmony to Jake.”
“Go for Jake.”
“We found Georgie. He’s sitting on the ground maybe fifty yards in front of us playing with a bear cub.”
My announcement was met with dead silence. “A bear cub?” Jake eventually replied.
“A small one. Really small for this time of the year. It must have been the product of a late birth, probably a multiple birth, to be so small this late in the season.”
“And the mom?”
“I don’t see her, but mama bears don’t usually wander too far from their cubs.” I took a deep breath and looked at Landon, who was frowning. “What should we do?”
“One of you should approach slowly. Try to get Georgie to come to you, but keep your eyes open and be careful.”
“I’ll do it,” Landon said.
“No, I will. Georgie might be less apt to be scared by a strange woman than he would by a strange man. Warn Dani so she knows to watch out for mama and to keep Yukon quiet.”
I focused my eyes on Georgie, then took a step forward. I said a little prayer, then took another step. I couldn’t help but remember Charisse Cole’s death by mauling as I slowly walked forward with my senses on full alert. If the mama bear was nearby—and I suspected she was—and considered us a threat to her baby—which I was certain she would—we’d all be in trouble. “Georgie,” I called softly as I approached.
Georgie looked up at me. I must have scared him because he looked like he was about to start screaming bloody murder. I held up his shirt. “Your mama sent me. She thought you might be cold and would need a warm shirt to wear.”
“Mama.”
“That’s right, Mama. I’m going to help you with your shirt, but you need to walk slowly toward me.”
The boy stood up. His clothes were filthy. I supposed playing in the mud along the shoreline had provided enough of a distraction that he hadn’t even known he was lost. Georgie pointed to the bear cub. “Doggy.”
“Yes, but the doggy needs to go home to his mommy, just like you need to go home to yours. I need you to come slowly to me. Okay? Don’t run. Just walk nice and slow.”
Georgie did as I said. There was still no sign of mama bear, which was really odd unless she was dead. Once Georgie was safe, I’d work on rescuing the cub, but until Georgie was out of harm’s way, I had to assume the mother bear was a threat.
Once I had Georgie, I began to slowly walk back to where we’d left Dani with Yukon. As soon as Yukon came into view, Georgie did scream to be let down to play with the doggy. I set him down next to Dani.
“Okay, that was intense,” Landon said.
“It was.” I looked around. “But while I’m thrilled the mama didn’t show up, I’m worried the mama didn’t show up. I need to go back to make sure the baby is going to be okay.”
“Are you nuts?” Dani asked. “What we need to do is to get out of here.”
I looked at Landon.
“Let’s ask Jake,” he suggested.
I radioed Jake, who said he and Jordan were on their way, and that Houston had arrived with his deputies. Jake suggested I wait until they arrived before I went back to check on the cub. When they did, Houston had a tranquilizer gun in his hand, while the others, Carl and Donny, had rifles. Dani and Landon headed back to the house with Jordan and Georgie, and Jake and I walked on either side of Houston and a bit in front of the two men with guns. When we reached the spot where I’d seen the cub, he was gone. But there was blood. A lot of it. My stomach lurched as I considered all the possible reasons we’d find so much blood along the riverbank.
“It trails off to the rock outcropping over there.” Jake pointed.
I nodded and followed as he stepped carefully forward.
“Are you sure about this?” Carl asked. “After everything that’s happened, maybe we should leave well enough alone and go back.”
“Yeah,” Donny added. “We got the kid. Why risk it?”
Jake stopped walking. He looked at me.
“But the baby. If his mama is dead and we don’t rescue him, he’ll die.”
“Better him than me,” Carl said.
I huffed out a breath. “You don’t have to come. Wait here. I’ll go see what’s going on.”
Houston held out his hand. “Carl, give me your gun.”
He frowned but didn’t argue. Houston handed Carl’s gun to Jake. “The two of you go back to the house,” he said to the deputies. “We’ll be along shortly.”
I smiled at Houston as he turned once again toward the trail of blood. “I’m going to take the lead,” Houston said. “Harm, you fall in behind me, and Jake, you take up the rear.”
We proceeded at a pace that was slow enough to make my skin itch. I knew it was smart to take our time. I tried to focus on the environment. I’d sensed the killer before. If he was in the area, I hoped I’d sense him this time as well. I supposed the fact that I found myself hoping the biggest threat to our safety was going to be from a bear should have served as a clue that maybe this wasn’t the best thing to do after all.
When we’d traveled most of the way to the rock structure, Houston stopped walking. “The blood gets heavier here.”
I jumped when the shrubs rustled next to where I was standing. I swear, I had a full-on heart attack before I realized the rustling had come from the cub. I knelt down and offered a hand. “Where’s your mama, sweetie?”
The cub let out a loud cry. I stood back up and looked around. If the mama was around, she would have heard that and most likely come running. The fact that we hadn’t all been mauled to death yet seemed to indicate that the mama probably really was dead.
“Wait here,” Houston said. “I’m going to see what’s behind those ro
cks.”
“It might be a trap,” Jake cautioned.
“I’ll take it slow and be careful. If I’m not back in a couple of minutes, send in the cavalry.”
I held my breath as Houston stepped out of view. I counted each heartbeat as I waited. I half-expected there to be an explosion, but a couple of minutes later, Houston came back into view. “The mother bear’s been shot,” he informed us. “She isn’t dead yet, but she’s lost a lot of blood and is unconscious.”
I remembered the rustling we’d heard and the snapping twigs in the forest. I’d thought it might have been a bear, but now I wondered if it hadn’t been a hunter. “We need to get her to Kelly.”
“She has to weigh a couple hundred pounds,” Houston pointed out. “We’ll never be able to carry her out of here.”
Jake looked around. “I can make it back here in my truck. I’ll need to wind my way through the areas of densest forest, but I can make it. You two can wait here and I’ll get the truck and return for the mama. If she’s still alive when I get back, we’ll take her to Kelly. Either way, we’ll take the cub with us.”
******
Luck must have been on our side today because not only did we find Georgie unharmed and unafraid but we’d rescued the baby bear and gotten his mama to the veterinarian in time for her to at least have a small chance of recovery. For the time being, the baby bear would bunk in my barn in the stall that had previously been occupied by Rocky. Houston bought him a huge stuffed bear to snuggle with that was almost as big as his mama, Landon pitched in and bought a heated sleeping pad, and Jake hooked up the feeding machine he’d installed for Rocky when we rebuilt the barn after it had burned down. I thought the pen we’d put together for Grizwald—Griz for short, even though he was a black bear and not a grizzly—was warm and comfy, but when we put him inside, he stood in the middle of the pen and cried. I put my hand on my chest. My heart was breaking.
“He’s scared,” Jake said.
“And lonely,” Houston added.
“Maybe I should have him sleep in the house. I have room in my bedroom for another dog bed. He’s so small, he won’t take up much room.”
“I think that’s a bad idea,” Landon said. “He might be here awhile. Probably for the winter at least, if his mama dies. He’s going to get bigger.”
As we stood around debating what to do, Honey came into the barn. She took one look at the baby bear, walked into the stall, and started licking his face. He immediately stopped crying. Honey walked over to the heated sleeping pad and stretched out. Griz wandered over, curled up with her, and went to sleep.
“Well, I guess that works too,” I said. “At least for now. Honey was such a good mama when she had her pups. I’m sure she’ll be a good mama now too. I’m hoping we’ll be able to reintroduce Griz to his own mama if Kelly can get her stabilized.”
“Speaking of that, what are we going to do with the mama when she wakes up?” Landon asked.
“That’s a good question,” I responded. “Kelly can keep her sedated for a while, but she doesn’t have a cage that will hold her for long, and she’d tear the barn apart.”
“You’ve been wanting a wild-animal cage at the shelter. Maybe this is a good time to build one,” Jake said.
“I have the perfect spot picked out, but we’ll need heavy-duty steel. It’ll be pricey.”
“You said you had extra money after the fund-raiser,” Jake reminded me. “If you can get the approval to use it, I’ll make some calls and we’ll put it together.”
Our friends had built my new barn from the ground up in a single weekend. I had no doubt they could build a bear cage in a day or two. “I’ll call Harley. As long as he’s fine with it, we’ll order the materials.” I smiled down at Griz and Honey. Gosh, they looked cute.
Chapter 8
Tuesday, October 16
We’d never gotten around to having our first responders meeting the previous day, so it was rescheduled for Tuesday afternoon. At least yesterday had been explosion-free. Maybe the killer was done with whatever he intended to do. God, I hoped so. Honey had spent the night in the barn with the baby bear. When morning arrived, Griz was happily toddling around, checking things out, and Honey rejoined the pack for our morning walk. I’d called Kelly, who said the mama bear was doing much better. She’d lost a lot of blood, but the bullet hadn’t damaged any vital organs, so Kelly anticipated a full recovery. She felt it was important to reintroduce mama and baby right away. There was no guarantee the mom would accept the cub even now, but the chance of reuniting them lessened with every day that went by. Our plan was to keep the mama partially sedated while we brought the baby for a visit and we’d see how things went. Neither of us knew much about wild animal rescue. If we were going to venture into it at the shelter, I’d need to take some classes.
I’d spoken to Harley the night before, and he’d fully endorsed our building a wild animal pen. He even offered to pay for the material so we wouldn’t need to raid the shelter account. Jake made some calls and got everything we’d need ordered, as well as enlisting the help of about ten men to come out and put it together. Hopefully, we’d be able to move mama and baby to the pen in a couple of days.
“I’m going to take Griz over to the veterinary hospital around midmorning,” I informed Landon as we walked the dogs that morning. “If things go well, Kelly will put mom and baby in one of her dog pens. It’s not a permanent solution—an adult bear at full strength would tear a pen made of regular chain to shreds—but it should work fine until Jake can get the pen he’s building at the shelter ready to move in to.”
“I’ll go through more old rescues,” Landon said. “Unless you need my help, of course.”
“No, I’m good. I have a dog crate Griz can ride over to Kelly’s in. If I end up leaving Griz with her, I might head over to the bar. The meeting from yesterday has been rescheduled for noon.”
“If you do go straight over, I’ll meet you there.” Landon looked toward the dark sky. “We’ve had a lot of cloud cover lately, but not a lot of snow. I keep wondering when the first big storm will hit.”
“I’m putting my money on tonight or tomorrow morning. I’ve been thinking for days we were going to get a big dump, but all we’ve had are flurries so far.” I paused and listened. “Did you hear that?”
“Sounds like thunder.”
“Maybe, but those don’t look like thunder clouds, and it’s rare to get thunder and lightning when the temps are this low. Besides, the way the rumble rolled in, it almost sounded like an echo of something exploding in the distance. I could be hearing an explosion in every loud sound after everything’s that happened lately. I wonder how long it will take before I stop jumping at every noise.”
“Probably quite a while. The past few days have been traumatic. It’s perfectly normal to jump when you hear a loud noise given the circumstances.”
When we arrived at the spot where the dogs and I usually turned around, Landon looked at the ground. The snow we’d received in the past couple of days had covered the footprints, but we both knew they’d been there. “Do you know if Houston has had any luck figuring out who left the footprints you stumbled across the other day?”
“I don’t think he’s had time to look into it yet. He sent the casts he made to the lab, but I don’t think he’s heard anything back from them. Like I said, it was probably just someone cutting to the pond through my property.”
I had the feeling Landon didn’t believe that for a minute. I was pretty sure I didn’t either.
******
Kelly had a couple of men who worked in the area help her move the mama bear to the dog kennel she used when she had overnight guests. She’d covered the floor with leaves and hay so the bears would feel as much at home as possible. Not that they wouldn’t notice the chain-link walls on all four sides and across the top, but at the moment we had limited resources, so we did our best. We’d lowered the lights, so the room was as unobtrusive as possible.
As so
on as the mama was settled and comfortable, we brought in Griz. Kelly had taken great care with the manner in which she’d wrapped the mama’s gunshot wound, so Griz could nurse if the mama let him but he wouldn’t do anything that might damage her stitches. Griz was, of course, thrilled to see his mom, but she looked a bit more cautious. I held my breath as Kelly opened the door to the kennel and slipped Griz inside. After several minutes of sniffing, mama picked up Griz and held him to her chest. When he began to nurse, Kelly and I both let out a breath.
“I wasn’t sure that would work,” Kelly said.
“I had my doubts too. Not only were they separated, but mom has to be nervous about being in captivity. Plus, she’s probably loopy from the sedation.”
“She’s weak and needs to heal. I’ll keep an eye on them for today. Once she gets her strength back, that cage won’t hold her.”
“Jake is working on getting the supplies and labor arranged to build a permanent pen as we speak. Will we be able to release them before winter sets in?”
“I’m hoping to. It would be best for them both to return to their own den. I wasn’t sure she’d make it at first, but the major issue she was facing had to do with blood loss, so once I got that under control she seemed to do better right away. If we can release them before Thanksgiving, they should be fine.”
“I’m going over to Neverland for a first responders’ meeting. If something happens and you need me to come get the cub, just text or call.”
Kelly looked back at the pair. “I will, but at this point I think they’ll be fine.”
I took Griz’s mom accepting him back as a good omen. Maybe today would bring nothing but good news—though hoping for too much usually resulted in disappointment.
******
There were eleven first responders at the meeting: the six of us from S&R, Houston, Carl, and Donny from the police department, but just two members of the volunteer fire department. Frank and Larry made it clear they spoke for all the volunteer firefighters: None of them would be responding to any fires until the nutjob who was blowing people up was caught. I didn’t blame them, but a town without a fire department was a recipe for disaster.