by Webb, Peggy
He dusted the sugar off his face then took his place in front of the cameras and put on his game face.
“A monster blizzard is heading our way, and her name is Holly. She’s picking up speed and gathering force. Grand Marsais is expected to feel her full force as early a 1:30 this afternoon. I repeat, expect the snowstorm to hit at 1:30. “
He moved his pointer over the map as he talked. “We’re already feeling Holly’s effects with wind gusts up to twenty miles an hour. Temperatures are hovering at minus ten degrees and plunging rapidly.”
The map behind him showed the temperatures in Grand Marsais, Glen’s Crossing, Duluth and other key cities throughout the state, most of them sub-zero.
“Sustained winds of forty-five miles an hour with gusts up to seventy-five miles an hour will pose a huge danger, especially along our waterfronts. We’re looking for a repeat of the winter storm that pushed ice and spray from Lake Superior into Duluth Harbor, freezing the spray within minutes and turning the harbor into a frozen tundra. The Land of Ten Thousand Lakes will be especially susceptible to these high winds and icy temperatures. Residents near lakes are advised to evacuate.”
Stan had swallowed his last doughnut in haste and could feel the awful urge to burp.
“Stay tuned for weather updates here at TV 9 new in Grand Marsais.”
He was relieved he’d held his gas long enough to get off camera. He pulled his handkerchief out of his pocket and mopped his brow, then went in search of something more substantial than doughnuts. A hotdog would do nicely.
Chapter Ten
9:00 a.m.
Something roared through Kate’s dreams, startling her into a state of half wakefulness. What was it? The storm?
“Mom? Dad?”
There was no answer and she sat straight up, panicked. She wasn’t in her room back home. She’d fallen asleep in the wreckage of an abandoned trading post in the middle of the wilderness. A quick glance at her watch told her she’d been asleep for more than two hours.
The distant roar became louder, unmistakably the sound of a snowmobile.
No, no, no, no, no…
Jonathan!
No doubt about it. Who else would be in the wilderness with a storm heading this way? The madman was on her trail. And she had no place to hide.
She was trapped in this forsaken, falling-down building like a mouse in a maze.
“Think.” The sound of her own voice brought her out of her panic.
Moving as fast as she could, Kate pulled her lucky buckeye out of her backpack and tossed it into the corner. Even if he found it first, he wouldn’t connect it with her.
But if her parents found it, they’d know what it was. Gran had given it to her for luck on her sixteenth birthday. An old Carter family tradition, she’d said. Kate carried it with her everywhere. Her lucky buckeye would scream to her parents, I’m alive. I’ve been here. Don’t give up. Come find me.
She fastened on her snowshoes and gathered her belongings. In a split second she rejected the front of the trading post as an escape route. If he came into view before she got across the open space she’d be an easy target.
Would he shoot her? Or send an arrow straight through her heart? Had he killed the other girls first or dragged them back to that awful house to torture until he grew tired of them?
Panic obscured her vision as she thrashed blindly toward the back, crashing into abandoned furniture and knocking over a stack of empty boxes.
Stop, she could almost hear Coach saying. Be tough.
The voice in her head centered her and Kate made herself deep breathe, forced herself to assess the problem. There was a door at the back with rusty hinges, but she’d left tracks that would lead right up to it.
She whipped one of the stolen sweaters out of her backpack then raced through the store, dragging it through the dust. By the time she’d backtracked to the door, still dragging, it appeared a long-tailed animal of some kind had been in the store.
Satisfied, Kate stuffed the sweater into her pack and jerked on the door handle. It didn’t move.
Please, please, please.
She centered herself then tugged with all her strength. Slowly, the door creaked open. Kate nearly cried with relief. Gran would say her guardian angels were with her. Gran would say, There’s no such thing as luck, Kate. Use your head, make smart decisions and live right, and your guardian angels will come when you need them.
Kate plunged through and the wind hit her with a force that knocked her backward. The sound of the snowmobile was getting louder. Jonathan was closing in.
She righted herself and searched for the best escape route. Nothing was familiar to her. But she knew the Superior wilderness was filled with ridges and boulders, both of which would offer shelter and loose rocks she could use as weapons.
If she could get high enough, Jonathan would have to abandon his snowmobile and track her on foot. A real advantage.
As she climbed, heavy winds lifted curtains of snow off the ground and swirled it around her. Still, it wasn’t enough to hide her escape route. Kate broke off a long branch and used it to sweep over her tracks.
“KATE!” His scream sent a chill through her.
“Don’t let fear make you stupid,” she told herself.
She kept climbing, kept covering her tracks. Move. Sweep. Move. Sweep. Kate lost herself in the rhythm, blocking out the new and horrifying threats as Jonathan came closer.
“You can’t hide from me,” he screeched. “I’m never going to let you get away!”
How close was he now? The rocks were larger at this elevation, and Kate searched for a hiding place.
“Please,” she said.
That’s when she saw it, a boulder that made a natural wall. She headed in that direction.
“KATE! YOU’RE MINE!”
She ducked under the boulder’s natural overhang, but even there she still felt exposed. As her tormentor came closer, she backed deeper into the overhang. Suddenly, she’d backed into the narrow opening of a small cave.
Perfect. Even if he found her, he couldn’t get into the cave without going through her.
“I’M COMING FOR YOU! KATE? DO YOU HEAR ME?”
“Come on, you sucker.” She dropped her backpack to the cave floor then unfastened the ice ax. “Take one step into this cave and I’ll split your crazy head in half.”
Her own bravado left her shaking. Could she defend herself? She wasn’t a violent person. Nobody in her family was. Did she have what it takes to defend herself against a maniac in the wilderness who was determined to murder her in cold blood and then pose her like a bride?
The snowmobile’s motor went silent. Kate peered from her hiding place toward the trading post below. She could barely see his outline as Jonathan stood at the broken gas pumps bellowing her name. It seemed to her there was a new level of rage in his voice, a killing rage.
“YOU CAN’T ESCAPE ME, KATE! I’LL HUNT YOU TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH!”
He stood in the open beside the pumps for what seemed hours. When he finally disappeared into the store, Kate sank to the ground and reached for her thermos. One small sip of water. That’s all she’d allow herself.
Her immediate problem wasn’t thirst. It was escape.
She didn’t know what lay above or on the other side of the ridge. But long hikes with her dad made it possible to imagine the terrain. The ridges and valleys made for a constant switch between climbing and descending.
While the monster was in the store, she could keep moving, keep putting distance between them and hope he stayed inside long enough for her to find another hiding place. Or she could stay put and hope that when he finally left the store he would never guess that she had left the trail and was going in another direction.
“Better to travel with a plan than run out of panic,” she said.
Her courage shored up by her latest pep talk, Kate moved deeper into the shadows of her cave. Stopping at a point where she hoped she’d be safe, she took a w
ide stance and raised the ice ax.
Chapter Eleven
9:30 a.m
Jonathan stood at the pumps and cursed the snow. Instinct and logic told him Kate would have gone inside to get out of the cold, but the ground squalls had covered any signs she’d even made it this far.
He shoved his way through the door.
“Where are you!”
Jonathan could smell her. Even among all the rat droppings and the years’ accumulation of dust and mold, he could still pick up her scent, like fresh peaches and cream, like a citrus grove in Florida, like something delicious he wanted to subdue and then eat from one end to the other.
“Come out! I know you’re in here.”
She was good at hide and seek. Clever little thing. If the cops weren’t breathing down his neck, he’d have fun playing this game with her.
He trotted over to the defunct telephone. Her fingerprints were still there in the dust. Had she really thought she could call out? Had she imagined she could ring up that silly mother of hers and say, “Come and get me, please. I’m lost in the woods.”
A babe in the woods was more like it. Skinny little thing. She was as insubstantial as milkweed. And just as a pretty. He pictured his future bride in summer, standing in an open field attracting monarch butterflies.
He stalked toward the back bellowing her name. Fresh tracks in the dust told him an animal of some kind was in the store with him. A ‘coon? A skunk?
He slipped an arrow into his bow and pulled back the string. The unlucky skunk who tried to spray him would end up as his doormat.
To his left was what appeared to be a storage room. Kate was so slender she could be hiding in any number of nooks and crannies. He began kicking over boxes, peering inside. He found nothing but rat droppings.
“Kate. Come on out. I’m through playing with you.”
Not a sound, not even a whimper. Furious, Jonathan dropped his weapon and started kicking the boxes then stomping them flat. Let her see how she liked that. Maybe a few bruises would teach her a lesson. He kicked and stomped every box there, more furious by the minute.
When he finished he stood heaving, his hands balled into fist.
“You’d better show yourself, young lady. When I find you I’m going to teach you a lesson you won’t soon forget.”
He imagined his fists pummeling into her soft flesh, the surprise on her face, the terror, the way her skin would tear and her blood would spurt. It wasn’t the way he’d imagined starting off with his latest bride, but he knew how to get the upper hand. He’d had to show Jennifer he was boss before she became compliant.
Jonathan had no intention of ending up with a wife as bossy as his mother.
Storming out of the storage room, he kicked and smashed his way through the rest of the store. By the time he’d finished his search and destroy mission, he was shaking with fury.
Where was she?
* * *
10:00 a.m.
Kate had been in the shelter of her cave for half an hour when she eased toward the opening so she could get a better view of the trading post below. She was tense from fear and holding onto the ice ax, and she desperately needed to use the bathroom.
When she saw Jonathan walk into view, she sucked in a deep breath. Was he planning to track her up the hill or to continue along the trail?
He stopped at the gas pumps then turned in her direction and shaded his eyes. He couldn’t possibly see her in the shadow of a cave. Had he figured out she’d laid a false trail to the back door and escaped up the bluff?
“KATE!”
His bellow came to her on the wind. Was it her imagination or had it picked up speed again?
With one last scream, Jonathan strode toward his snowmobile and drove off down the trail.
Kate was shaking so hard she had to sit down. She huddled in the cave with her head resting in the crook of her arms until the sound of his snowmobile vanished into the distance. After she took care of nature, she planted another I’m alive treasure in the cave. Then she strapped her ice ax onto her backpack, clambered from under her boulder and moved higher up the ridge.
She was surrounded by wilderness as far as the eye could see. What appeared to be a vast winter wonderland of trees was actually terrain riddled with lakes and ridges, boulders and caves. Fishing cabins would be hidden among the trees and an occasional logging camp. And somewhere down there, the Superior Hiking Trail.
Kate reached into her backpack to retrieve her compass, trying to shut out the signs that the blizzard was getting closer.
Her compass was gone. Had he taken that too, or had she forgotten to pack it? Without it, she could only guess which way would lead her home. Betty had mentioned that Jonathan would drive the snowmobile into Glen’s Crossing, so she knew she was still more than sixty miles south of Grand Marsais. It was impossible to get there before the storm.
By now her parents would be searching. But even with Jefferson, it would be a daunting task. Under other circumstances, Kate would head back toward the farmhouse, closer to her car, easier for them to find her, easier for her to find a road that led into Glen’s Crossing, or another house.
Obviously Betty would be no help. She hadn’t been able to prevent her deranged son from coming after her. And he would surely double back home when he discovered she wasn’t on the trail. He’d want to be safe before the storm hit.
Kate shouldered her backpack and continued to climb. The top of the ridge offered a better view. She swept her gaze in every direction, searching for signs of human life.
Was that a cabin? Kate blinked against the snowy glare and looked again. The silvery glint was the frozen surface of a series of lakes, and nearby was a tiny clearing, barely discernable at this distance. Inside the clearing was a cabin.
Safety.
Though the cabin gave the illusion of being just beyond the ridge, Kate knew from experience it would be a much longer hike. With a blizzard on the way, it was highly unlikely anyone would be in the cabin getting ready to ice fish on the lakes.
Could she make it before the storm hit?
She mentally marked the spot and headed down the ridge. If she was right, and she’d seen those lakes before, the Superior Hiking Trail was closer than she’d imagined. Finding the trail would be almost as good as finding her compass. It would be almost like finding home. Sections of the trail passed through private property. If she could shelter in the cabin during the storm, she could find the Superior trail afterward and be on a known pathway to safety.
She entered an open meadow and picked her up pace.
Suddenly she heard the snowmobile. It was coming closer by the minute.
It was him.
She swung her gaze in all directions. No boulders. No caves. Nowhere to hide.
And he was headed back to get her.
Chapter Twelve
10:30 a.m.
The farmhouse lay about two hundred feet ahead, surrounded by woods on all sides and accessible only through a narrow trail Jefferson had scouted for the last hour. Maggie’s remarkable SAR dog was now circling, alert behavior that indicated Kate’s scent was strong here.
Still, Joe’s spirits fell. He’d hoped to find his daughter in that house. He’d hope to race inside and rescue her, no matter who got in his way. But SAR dogs don’t lie. If Kate were in that house, Jefferson would give Maggie the find signal. He’d be barking, and jumping for joy if he’d found Kate alive. And God forbid, barking while sitting still if he’d found her dead.
Joe’s radio crackled to life, and up ahead, his wife gave Jefferson the stay command.
“Any luck with your search?” It was Roger.
“Not yet, but Jefferson has led us to a remote farmhouse. His alert behavior indicates our daughter has been here.”
Maggie had trotted back to stand beside him. True to Jefferson’s training and his amazing ability to take every situation in stride, the chocolate Lab waited exactly where she had stopped him, looking as comfortable and relaxed
as if he were lying in front of the big wood-burning heater at the trading post instead of in the midst of the snowy woods.
“Joe, it’s okay to find out if they’ve seen her,” Roger said. “But don’t give any details.”
“Certainly not.”
Maggie moved so close, Joe could see how the wind had already chapped her face where her ski cap and mask had slipped sideways. He adjusted it with one hand, and when she flashed a smile he felt the years falling away. He saw her as she’d been twenty years ago, her long dark hair curling at the nape of her slender neck, big green eyes staring at him from a perfect, heart-shaped face.
He’d hoped his daughter would look exactly like her. Instead she got his blue eyes and blond hair. Fortunately the Nordic coloring that didn’t let him blend in with any crowd was lovely on Kate.
His heart squeezed. Please, God, let me find her alive.
Maggie leaned toward the radio. “What have you got, Roger?”
“A tall, heavyset young man wearing a black parka and skull cap was seen at the Glen’s Crossing Truck Stop tossing what we believe to be Kate’s cell phone into the Northwest America/Canada Transport yesterday before lunch.”
Joe’s blood froze. His daughter had been kidnapped. Their daughter. He put one arm around Maggie.
“Who was it?” His wife couldn’t keep the wobble out of her voice.
“I have the names of five possible suspects. I’ll be following up, asking questions, getting search warrants if I need to. Let me know if you find out anything.”
“We will.” Joe gave Roger their location before signing off and then studied Maggie. “You okay?”
“Yes. Let’s go.”
She gave Jefferson the search command and they began to move once more toward the house.
It was a two-story in need of repair. Even the airborne eddies of snow couldn’t camouflage the fact that the house needed a good coat of paint and the porch steps were falling down. Jefferson strained against the leash as Maggie entered the yard, and a chill ran through Joe.