The adults were worried about making a clean get-away. Reporters had been hanging around the gates of the ranch from early morning until late evening hoping to see one of the kids or Hilda and get a chance to talk to them directly. One visitor to the ranch had dropped the cougar story on them and they wanted more. They were like sharks who smelled blood in the water – constantly circling.
It was decided last night that those headed for California would leave one at a time in 15- minute intervals so they wouldn’t attract attention. There was a meeting place set up at a freeway exit near Vail, Colorado. If you looked North from that exit you could see Vail Mountain and the resorts there. On the other side of the road was a gas station and nice restaurant. It was the perfect place to meet, add fuel, check on the horses and have breakfast. Their drive would be through Boulder and onto Denver and continuing to their pre-planned exit.
Ginny Hartley talked to Walter and Caroline Howard during the planning discussion. She invited them to stay at Hartley Ranch for the night instead of driving the extra two hours to San Juan Capistrano. Thinking about the fourteen to fifteen-hour drive across the desert, Walter agreed readily to the stopover. Maryann and Becky hatched their own scheme. Becky would spend that night with Maryann. Her parents could pick her up the next morning on their way home.
Hilda spent most of the night baking batches of her famous chocolate chip cookies for the trip. She got up early to make coffee, hot chocolate, and bagels for the departing families. She hugged each one of the youngsters and their parents as they left, pushing bags of cookies in their hands as they piled into the vehicles for departure.
The first truck and trailer turned onto the highway south at 3:30 a.m. The next vehicle followed them at 3:45 a.m. and they kept to their schedule of 15-minute intervals. Those in vehicles without trailers squeezed between the trucks. Everyone found the exit at Vail by 7:45 a.m. in perfect time for breakfast. It was still cool outside at that altitude but the day was sunny so most of the group had breakfast on the restaurant patio. They had not seen a reporter since the night before so the parents could finally relax and enjoy the beautiful day.
The balance of the trip to Hartley Ranch was uneventful. Younger children fell asleep, lulled by the motion of the vehicles. They woke at every fuel stop and helped feed and water the horses, generally getting wet in the process. Lunch was picked up and eaten on the road as they drove through Colorado, Utah, Nevada and the California desert. The trucks, trailers, and SUVs drove through the gates of Hartley Ranch close to 8:00 that night. Everyone on the trip was exhausted and the younger kids were cranky. Horses unloaded quickly. Gear was piled in heaps in the barn to be put away the next day. Mike Hartley and his foreman were there to help out so everyone could get on home. There were no reporters in view as the last vehicle drove out the gate of Hartley ranch. Unfortunately, that didn’t last long.
Walter and Caroline woke early the next morning to the smell of freshly brewed coffee. They had a restful night and looked forward to getting home at long last. They pulled on their clothes and headed for the kitchen.
Mike was pouring himself a cup of coffee when Walter and Caroline walked into the kitchen. “Guess what?” he told them. “We have company outside.”
“Really?” Walter asked. “Who’s here?”
“Maybe we should ask whose not here,” Mike said. “I was about to head to the barn when I noticed all the people behind our gate. They have TV crews out there. They are asking about Prince Ali and Becky.”
Caroline sighed, “I’m so sorry, Mike. I know you don’t like all this fuss.”
“We might as well get it over with, then,” Walter muttered. “I’ll go out and see what we need to do to get rid of them.” He took his coffee and walked out the back door.
Caroline’s cell phone rang just as the back door shut behind Walter. She looked at her phone and realized it was a call from their home in San Juan Capistrano. She listened for a minute. “We’ll try to get that taken care of here this morning, Espie. Please let Luis know we are going to meet with the reporters here. We’ll see you in a couple of hours.” She shook her head as she tucked her phone in her back pocket. “Our housekeeper, Espie, says they are swarming around our place too and getting to be a problem for Luis, our groundsman. Maybe if we just talk to them here they will leave us in peace for a while.”
“Good luck with that!” Mike said sarcastically. “They want their story. Ali is pretty high-profile now since that last incident. It really is a good story. Nine kids and an old woman trapped in a canyon with ten horses during a wildfire. I’d probably be interested in that one myself.” He chuckled.
“Let’s see what Walter says after he talks to them,” Caroline said. “Maybe we can get this done now so we can get on with our lives and get the fuss over with.” She sat down at the kitchen table with her coffee. Ginny came down the hallway and joined them in the kitchen. The three of them chatted nervously while they waited for Walter.
Walter came back to the house a few minutes later. “Someone at the ranch, not one of us, said something to the reporters in Colorado about the cougar incident. The people outside related that to the attack Prince Ali suffered and they want to hear all about it. They really want to interview the kids who were in the canyon and see Prince Ali for themselves. We might have a chance to put this issue behind us if we let them talk to Brody, Maryann, and Becky. What do you all think?”
“You know, when Prince Ali was discovered here, we were swarmed by the media. Ginny was still down your place in San Juan Capistrano. It was just me and Brody here. He did a pretty good job of handling their questions. Maryann was with him part of the time and they did fine. We could let them talk to Brody, Maryann, and Becky, show them Ali and Quesa and the other horses and get this over with,” Mike suggested. “The kids are in good shape and so are the horses. It was an adventure for them, but no one got hurt. We’re really lucky.”
When the adults agreed, Ginny called Rose Wilcox, Maryann’s mother, and told her what was going on. She and the Carnegie’s, Maryann’s grandparents, would bring the two girls. Brody came in for breakfast and heard the news himself. He had breakfast while Mike, Caroline, and Ginny had another cup of coffee as they waited.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
After the last vehicle left Cold Water Creek Ranch, Hilda sat with Sharon and Chris for a cup of coffee. When she finished her’s, she rinsed the cup and put it in the dishwasher. She sighed and said, “I’m tuckered out. I think I’ll go rest for a while if you don’t mind.”
“I’m not surprised at all, Hilda. How long were you up last night baking cookies?” Sharon asked.
“I think I got the kitchen cleaned up around midnight or so,” Hilda answered. “I couldn’t sleep so thought I’d make myself useful.”
“I’m sure everyone appreciated the cookies. But you really didn’t have to do that,” Sharon told her.
“Well, I do make pretty good ones and I just thought I’d give everyone a treat after all we’ve been through. It’s going to be a long drive for them. But, if you don’t mind, I think I’d like to take a little nap.”
Hilda went back to the room she’d been using and laid down on the bed. She was asleep in seconds.
Todd came in from the barn and saw his parents sitting at the kitchen table staring out the large windows at the view of the meadow. “Can I talk to you guys?” he asked.
“Sure, what’s up?” Chris asked.
“I just wanted to talk to you about Hilda. I heard her place is gone. She doesn’t have a place to live now. She’s the closest thing I have to a grandmother and I’d love it if she could stay here with us. The grandparent’s rooms are not being used now since my grandparents died. She wouldn’t be any trouble. And she does make the best cookies in the world. What do you think?”
Sharon looked over at Chris with one eyebrow raised. They had already decided to ask her but they wanted to see how Todd felt about it first. She smiled at her son. “Your dad and I already talked
about that but wanted to make sure you’d be comfortable with it. The one to convince is Hilda. She’s an independent lady, you know. She’s used to living alone in her own place. We’re not sure how she’ll feel about it but we’ll ask her when the time feels right, okay?”
“Super, Mom!” Todd smiled happily at his parents. “Guess great minds think alike. I loved her chicken casserole too. Wonder what else she can fix? Bet it’s just as good. Mom, if you had someone like her to help you, you’d have a lot more time. Maybe she can help you with some of the barn paperwork too. Just a thought. Her help in the kitchen would really help you. I know you come in after working all day and have dinner to fix every night.”
“I hadn’t thought of that, but you’re right. Maybe asking her for her help will help convince her to stay,” Chris suggested. “We don’t know what her children are going to tell her now that her place is gone. They may ask her to move in with one of them.”
“We had a lot of time to talk while we were stuck in that canyon,” Todd told them. “She already told us she doesn’t want to live with either of ‘em. Her son owns his own business and with his kids gone he and his wife travel a lot. She’d be there alone so much of the time. She told us she’d rather be in her own home alone than stay in someone else’s home by herself. Her daughter has two kids in college and they troop in and out all the time. All the bedrooms in their house are on the second floor. Hilda told us she could make the trip upstairs only once a day. She wouldn’t be able to have her little naps like she’s used to if she stayed there. She couldn’t even catch a nap on the couch in the living room because her daughter keeps that as a show-room only. Nobody uses it except for company.”
“Well, we’ll talk to her when the time is right. We’re going to have to take her home sometime soon. I’m sure she wants to see what her place looks like even if it breaks her heart. Do you want to go with us when I take her over there?” Sharon asked.
“Yes,” Todd said sadly. “I don’t know how I would feel walking through this house all burned up. She’ll probably need our support when she goes over there and I want to be there for her. She really took care of us kids in the canyon.”
Chris looked at Todd with interest. “What did you guys do while you were stuck there?”
“Hilda had us all sitting in a circle lots of the time. We started out with everyone talking about their mother and father, telling what it was like at home. That was where we all wished we were at the time, you know. She just kept coming up with things like that to talk about, one after another. I really got to know everybody pretty well from that. Hilda even talked about her life with Jan and her own kids. That’s how I knew she didn’t want to live with them now. It kept us thinking so we didn’t worry so much about being away from home and being cold or hungry. She kept us laughing too. She’s really funny, you know,” Todd said. “We also talked about the horses, especially after the cougar thing. It was amazing to watch ten horses chasing that big cat. He was spitting and snarling the whole way out of the canyon too.”
“Sounds like you got to know her pretty well then,” Sharon said.
“Mom, she was wonderful. Some of the girls were scared at night. She would hug them and talk to them until they stopped crying. Having her was great. I don’t know what we kids would have done without her there.”
Two hours later Hilda stepped out of the bedroom and come into the kitchen looking for Sharon. Todd had fallen asleep on the couch watching TV. She didn’t want to wake him so she stepped out the mudroom door and headed for the barn. She found Sharon there in her office.
“I don’t want to bother you, but I’d really like to get back to my house and see if there’s anything there I can rescue,” she said. “And, thank you for washing my clothes. You didn’t have to do that.”
“Oh,” Sharon said as she looked up. “It was no bother. I was washing Todd’s clothes and a load of my own so I added your things to ours. Do you think you are ready to go over there?”
“No, not really, but it’s something I have to do and we might as well get it over with,” Hilda admitted. “I’m afraid I won’t find much, but I keep hoping….”
Sharon stepped around her desk and put her arm around Hilda’s shoulder. “Let’s go get Todd. He wants to go with us,” she said.
Ten minutes later the three of them stood on what had been the porch of Hilda’s home for the past 40 years. There wasn’t much left. The rock fireplace and chimney were the tallest things left standing. They could see rubble where the barns and outbuildings had been. The metal corral panels were twisted from the heat but still where Jan put them so many years ago. Hilda looked around with tears in her eyes, trying hard not to break down.
“There’s not much left of the past 40 years, is there?” Hilda said sadly. She walked carefully into her living room around burned wood and the springs from her sofa. She made her way into what had been her bedroom before she saw the burned wood she thought was her dresser. The mirror was in scorched pieces next to it. She thought she saw something under what was left of the dresser and used a piece of burned wood she found to lift it up. There was something there. She fished it out of it’s hiding place and blew the ash and grime off it. It was a photograph that was taken of her and Jan on their wedding day. The glass was filthy and broken, the frame scorched but it had survived somehow while all else around it burned. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she looked at the photo.
Todd saw and came up behind her and put his arm around her shoulder. She turned and buried her face in his chest, apologizing for getting emotional. Sharon came over and took the photograph from her. “We’ll get it reframed,” she told her.
It took Hilda a few minutes to regain her composure. She continued to apologize for that. “From the looks of it, the only thing I have left is this photograph, Desperado, and Anabella. All the pictures of my children are gone. All the pictures of our horses are gone. All the pictures of this home and our ranch are gone. There’s nothing left here. I didn’t expect it to hit me so hard,” she finally said when she caught her breath.
“Let’s clear out of here for now,” Sharon suggested. “You and I need to do some shopping. You can’t wear those same clothes day in and day out. We can drop Todd off at the ranch and head for Boulder. I love shopping, don’t you?” She was trying hard to get Hilda’s mind off the tragic loss.
“Yes, let’s do,” Hilda replied, pulling herself up and straightening her shoulders. “We have a lot of shopping to do. Let’s get at it. I have money in the bank and this place is insured. Some things can’t be replaced, but I need to replace the things that can.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
David Nyland and Jessica Lawrence were found in a park outside the city of Nassau by park security after the park closed. They were taken to the local police station. They had changed clothing but nothing could hide Mr. Nyland’s appearance. The floppy brimmed hat he wore did not cover the frizzy red hair and bird beak nose of his. Nyland and Jessica couldn’t come up with a good reason for sleeping in the park after closing time. The duty officer realized quickly they were wanted so he called the Police Headquarters to let them know they’d been picked up. Detectives Padilla and Arias identified him immediately.
Under questioning, Nyland cracked. He hoped to protect Jessica so he told the officers everything they wanted to know. He admitted doing the arson job in Colorado. He told the two detectives everything he knew hoping for a lighter sentence. There were lots of stops and starts in the conversation while the Detectives communicated with the District Attorney in Colorado. He named Henry Babcock as the man who hired him for the arson job. He had done jobs for Babcock in the past and gave them all the details. He also told them he was in fear for his life and that of his lady friend. He told them he was positive the bombing at the hotel was intended for him. The switch up of tables in the hotel dining room was a last minute thing. He’d heard rumors that Henry Babcock didn’t tolerate failure. He felt sure the man would try again until he succe
eded.
Jessica had done no wrong and committed no crime. All she wanted was to get away from this island and get back home to Colorado where she felt safe. She wanted no part of David Nyland after this. She told the detectives everything she knew, which wasn’t much. They kept her in protective custody until the State Department in Washington DC gave them permission to bring her and Nyland back home to Denver.
The only thing left for Padilla and Arias was to arrest Henry Babcock. They were itching to get that done as soon as possible.
Detective Padilla had numerous conversations with the Beau Collier, the District Attorney in Colorado. There were a few complications in the Nyland case. He was wanted for Arson, Murder and the Destruction of Public Property in the United States. The State Department in Washington, DC was working with the Bahamian government on extradition so he could be returned to Colorado and face trial. The problem was there were deaths in the Bahamas as well. He was not directly, but indirectly, responsible for them and the destruction at The Reef Hotel. Both countries wanted a piece of his miserable hide.
It wasn’t until the scuba diver was found washed up on the beach and his hotel room was searched that the identity of the bomber was discovered. Evidence gathered in his hotel room was pretty clear. He was the maker of the bomb. Photos of him were shown to the staff at The Reef Hotel and several kitchen workers identified him as being there the day of the bombing. One of the other waiters was sure he was the man he saw fiddling with the table that blew up that night.
Nyland was kept in solitary confinement in the jail at Police Headquarters in Nassau. He was also kept on suicide watch to ensure one of the officers checked on him every 15 minutes around the clock because of the attempt on his life. They were getting tired of him. He required far too much time. Police Chief Oxley complained bitterly to the government officials about keeping him. They finally agreed to allow the extradition.
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