Jumping Rise

by S. W. Hubbard

  Frank worked to calm his racing heart. He couldn’t allow his terror for Farhan to impede his judgment. Only by staying calm could he rescue the boy.

  They trudged a few more yards with Buck in the lead, and the glow disappeared. Keith had switched off the lantern. The old man stopped and pulled Frank forward. He pointed, but Frank saw nothing.

  Then Frank’s eyes adjusted and he could discern the outline of a sloping wooden roof. The building wasn’t called a blind for nothing—it blended perfectly into its wooded environment.

  Frank held up his palm, commanding Buck and Todd to stay where they were.

  He crept down the trail and crossed the little wooden footbridge over the water. Finally, he faced the back of the blind and pressed his eye against a crack between two boards.

  The only light came from the screen of Keith’s digital camera. He scrolled through the photos he’d just taken while Farhan sat at the edge of the platform, his long legs inches from the water, his hands bound behind him, his eyes covered with a blindfold.

  Frank crept to the open side of the blind and laid his hand on his weapon. Just as he was about to step forward and command Keith to raise his hands, the young man sensed his presence. Keith leaped forward and knocked Frank over. As they tussled on the floor of the blind, Farhan cried out in fear.

  A splash.

  Unable to see, Farhan had tumbled into the water. Frank had no idea how deep the lake was on the open side of the blind. With his hands tied, if Farhan couldn’t stand, he could only tread water with his feet to try to stay afloat.

  Frank tried to push Keith off him, but the young man was surprisingly strong. “Buck, Todd,” Frank shouted. “Farhan’s in the water.”

  The two men thundered down the trail, Todd in the lead. Passing Frank and Keith, Todd shone his flashlight into the water. “I see him. I got him.”

  Meanwhile, Keith hadn’t relented in his struggle with Frank. The kid had gained the upper hand and pressed his fingers into Frank’s neck.

  Then Buck arrived on the scene. He poked his rifle into Keith’s back and clicked off the safety.

  Frank accepted that he and Keith were both going to die, but at least Farhan was safe.

  “Git up right now, ya hear me?” Buck’s voice was steadier than his gun, which shook in his hands.

  Luckily, Keith couldn’t see that. He rolled off Frank and lay flat on his stomach.

  Frank cuffed him. “Buck, for God’s sake—stop pointing that gun at me.”

  Todd had peeled off his huge flannel shirt and wrapped it around Farhan. It fit the boy like a dress. As Todd untied the captive, they heard a motorboat in the distance.

  The state police had arrived.

  AFTER WHAT SEEMED AN eternity, one of the state police boats located the duck blind and brought Frank, Keith, Farhan, Todd, and Buck to the main house.

  A helicopter circled overhead, bathing The Balsams in white light. Meyerson stood on the dock, directing a team of officers as they clambered out of boats. An officer took charge of Keith Hale, leading him up the stairs to the main house.

  Meyerson looked at Frank and shook his head. “Get up to the house and wait for me there.”

  Frank didn’t argue. For once, he was glad not to be in charge.

  The four of them climbed the long staircase toward the beautiful home.

  The rescue party joined the residents in the grand foyer of The Balsams. “Don’t say a word. Nobody talk.” Desmond commanded as he stalked back and forth past the huge stone fireplace and the stuffed wildlife. “We have a right to have a lawyer present. They can’t make us answer questions before he arrives, so Justin, Keith, Chet, Cora—nobody talk!”

  Then Desmond turned to Justin, shaking with rage. “Gambling. Gambling is the evil that haunts this house, haunts this family. And you defied me,” He pointed a trembling finger at his older son. “You insisted on gambling and you dragged your brother into it. Look what you’ve done.”

  Justin thumbed his chest. “I am not a gambler. I am a professional poker player. I use strategy and logic to win. I made nearly half a million dollars last year.” Justin whirled toward his hand-cuffed brother. “Keith gambles. He bets on emotion. He never knows when to quit. He’s addicted to the thrill. And then he had to find a way to pay off his debts.”

  “Shut up!” The distraught father stomped his foot in front of Justin. “Yes, Keith is an addict. And you introduced him to the drug.” Desmond waved his hands at the state troopers swarming his property. “All of this is your fault, Justin.”

  Justin Hale’s jaw clenched and the vein in his temple throbbed. The young man walked toward Frank. “I know how Keith killed Caitlin. He told me everything.”

  Justin glanced back at his father and then faced Frank. “I’ll talk.”

  Chapter 45

  “You must tell us everything,” Mina said as she set a plate of samosas and a pot of jasmine tea on the table in her living room. “Farhan has told us how you rescued him, but there is still so much we don’t understand.”

  Three days had passed since the rescue, and Farhan looked remarkably well—already embarrassed by his parents’ concern. Sanjiv, on the other hand, still appeared gray with worry. The Patels had invited Frank, Penny, and Earl to their home to offer thanks.

  Frank accepted so he could offer apologies.

  “Start with what happened after Sanjiv dropped off the laptop,” Mina said as she poured the tea.

  “My whole body shook with fear,” Sanjiv confessed. “Honestly, I hardly remember driving there. And I don’t know how I managed to get home without crashing.”

  “I was hiding in the woods behind the shack when your car pulled up, Mr. Patel,” Earl explained. “I had just gotten into place.”

  “Amazing. I did not see you at all,” Sanjiv said.

  “About ten minutes after you drove away, another car pulled up. I could see it pretty clearly with my night vision goggles, and I wrote down the make, model, and license plate number,” Earl explained.

  “Night vision goggles. Awesome,” Emir interrupted.

  “Do not tell your sister any of this.” Mina shook her finger at her younger son. “I didn’t even want you here, but your father says this terrible story will teach you a lesson. I hope he’s right.”

  Emir curled into the corner of the sofa, clearly hoping his mother would forget about him. Earl continued his tale. “A guy I recognized as Kendall went into the shack and came back with the laptop. He was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and appeared to be unarmed. He got into his car, and as he was pulling away, I shot out his two front tires and his headlights from my position under cover.”

  Emir’s eyes turned into two black dots in big circles of white. Mina’s hand went up to her mouth. “Oh, my! Surely, that was not safe for you.”

  “No, it wasn’t,” Frank said. “Earl was under strict orders not to try to apprehend Kendall single-handedly. But he disobeyed.”

  Penny patted Earl’s knee. “I can’t imagine where he gets this rebellious streak from.”

  Earl grinned and kept talking. “Kendall got out of the car with his hands up, begging me not to shoot him. It was pitch dark, and he didn’t have a flashlight. I could see him with my goggles, but he couldn’t see me. I ordered him to lie down on the ground with his hands above his head. Then I came out and cuffed him and zip-tied his ankles. When he saw he’d been arrested by one young cop working alone, he was kinda embarrassed, I think. I called the state police for back-up, and they showed up about half an hour later.” Earl smiled. “I wouldn’t have done it if I knew Kendall was armed. All’s well that ends well, as my boss likes to say. Right, Frank?”

  Frank laughed. In truth, he was incredibly proud of Earl’s quick action and ingenuity. “Kendall is a cyber-criminal. He’s not well-versed in using guns or knives as weapons. He prefers blackmail and coercion to gain power over people. But I think he’ll be behind bars with no computer access for a long time. Farhan collected plenty of evidence of Kendall’s
communications with Keith Hale and backed it all up.” Frank turned toward the teenager. “Your work helped us shut down Kendall’s porn operation. But by asking you to track what sites Keith visited on the library computer, I put you in harm’s way. I’m so sorry, Farhan. I should have known better.”

  Frank turned to Mina and Sanjiv. “And I’m so very sorry for putting you through this terrible ordeal.”

  Mina dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. “We forgive you, Frank. Farhan also should have known better than to do what he did. We have all learned a lesson.”

  They all sat in silence for a moment.

  “You won’t get your computer back until after the trial,” Earl told Farhan to break the tension.”

  “That’s okay,” Mina said. “He is forbidden to work on his computer behind closed doors. All work must be done on the office computer where we can keep an eye on him.”

  Farhan scowled at the ceiling. “Oh, mom.”

  Chapter 46

  Mina continued to press snacks and tea on her guests as the story unfolded. Sanjiv raised a finger for attention. “This is what puzzles me. Why was Kendall involved with the Hales in the first place?”

  “That’s where sibling rivalry enters the story,” Penny said because Frank had chosen that moment to bit into one of Mina’s treats. “Justin Hale’s ambition is to be a professional poker player.”

  “That is a profession?” Mina objected. “Surely not.”

  “Yes, there are people who make a living playing poker as a sport, not as a gambling addiction,” Penny explained. “Justin apparently made nearly half a million bucks last year. But Desmond Hale strongly disapproved, because his grandfather lost The Balsams in a poker game years ago, and Desmond had to buy it back. So Desmond brought Justin to The Balsams to get him away from on-line gambling.” She took a deep breath. “But what Desmond didn’t know was that Keith was the son who actually had a gambling addiction. Keith tried to play like Justin, but he didn’t have his brother’s skill at the game. He quickly lost hundreds of thousands of dollars and didn’t want to admit his losses to his father.”

  “Point of pride,” Earl added. “It’s not like his dad didn’t have the cash to bail him out.”

  “And here’s where bad luck enters the story,” Frank said. “There are lots of online gambling sites, but Keith happened to lose big on Jacks Are Wild, Kendall’s site. And Kendall recognized Keith’s name and password.”

  “The Balsams 2019,” Farhan said. “The year Desmond bought the house back. I guessed it in a few tries. This is why you should use random combinations of letters, numbers, and symbols for your passwords.”

  “Kendall knew Keith Hale was the son of a very wealthy man, so he actually extended him more credit to dig him deeper into a hole. Then he told Keith he was going to collect from his father, and Keith freaked out. They met in person, and somehow Keith’s talent for photography came out, and Kendall realized he could use Keith to expand his other online business. Orders were pouring in for artistic, customized po—”

  Mina flushed. “That is enough! Emir, go to your room.”

  “But Mom...”

  Mina and Sanjiv both pointed to the door of the living room, and Emir trudged off.

  Frank resumed his story once Emir was out of earshot. “Kendall forced Caitlin to model for Keith by threatening to tell her parents that he’d discovered an old profile of her on an online prostitution site. Keith had the perfect location and cover story for his work because he spent so much time at his duck blind taking nature photographs early in the morning. And he actually was quite an artistic photographer. Kendall prided himself on offering a quality product to discerning customers with specialized requirements.”

  Mina swayed, and the color drained from her face.

  “But Keith had no phone or internet—how did he receive the orders from Kendall and deliver the photos back to him?” Sanjiv asked.

  “Good question, “ Earl said. “As a computer security specialist, Kendall was incredibly paranoid about being tracked in cyberspace, but much less cautious in the face-to-face world. He loved the idea that the photos would be created hundreds of miles away from him while Caitlin’s parents were abroad, by a photographer with no access to the internet. But he knew he needed some way to have intermittent communication with Keith. Kendall gave Keith a burner phone to use whenever he was able to get into town and find a signal. But the phone didn’t have internet access. It didn’t dawn on Kendall that Keith would use a public access computer to check his Jacks Are Wild account to make sure his gambling debt was going down after he would mail Kendall memory cards holding the photos.”

  “I don’t know why one criminal would expect another criminal to take him at his word,” Penny interjected.

  “Kendall also knew he needed to make sure Caitlin wasn’t using the motel computer—he’d actually hacked into it before Caitlin even moved in,” Earl continued.

  Farhan’s face was a study in shocked disappointment.

  Earl extended a hand in the boy’s direction. “But Kendall admitted to having a hard time getting in, which made him realize that someone here at the Mountain Vista knew their way around computers. The message Caitlin asked you to send was a test. Kendall knew you hadn’t sent it from the office computer. That’s how he knew you must have a laptop. And he detected your activity nosing around the Jacks Are Wild site.”

  Sanjiv rubbed his temples and moaned. Then he reached for his wife’s hand. “I wish Caitlin would have confided in me and Mina. We would have helped her.”

  Farhan squirmed, and Frank thought the boy might start to cry.

  “But Caitlin was doing what they asked of her. Why did Keith kill her?” Mina asked.

  “I don’t think he set out to kill her. But according to Kendall, who’s talking to us about his business to avoid being charged in the murder, the original deal was that Caitlin would work at The Balsams for two days. But then more orders came in, and they extended her term. Caitlin couldn’t leave unless Keith agreed to take her back the way she’d come. Finally, she got desperate and threatened to run to me and Penny for help, to tell us everything. Keith struggled with her to shut her up.”

  “Her death was not an accident.” Penny’s eyes hardened. “It takes a long time to suffocate someone. Keith was angry and wanted to enforce his power over her.”

  “Has he confessed?” Sanjiv asked.

  “No, his father kept him from talking. We might never have gotten enough evidence to charge Keith with Caitlin’s murder if it wasn’t for Cora Flanagan,” Frank said.

  “Since it’s so hard to get supplies out to The Balsams, Cora has become an expert in estimating exactly how much food she needs, and keeping track of exactly how much she has left. Caitlin spent four days hidden in the attic of The Balsams. Cora suspected there had to be a girl up there because food kept disappearing from the kitchen.” Frank sipped his tea. “Keith would take meals up to her. Early one morning, when she knew Keith was out doing his photography, Cora climbed up to the attic. She saw that one of the bunk beds had been slept in. She saw some dishes.”

  “But when Caitlin turned up dead, why didn’t Cora say anything to the state police?” Mina asked.

  “Cora was incredibly loyal to the Hales. She convinced herself on the day the body was found that the girl had drowned accidentally, so she kept her mouth shut even though she knew Keith Hale was lying about not knowing her,” Frank explained.

  “Cora is one of those women who blame girls for getting guys into trouble,” Penny interrupted with a frown.

  “Later, when it came out that Caitlin had been murdered, Cora and Chet decided they might get in trouble over Cora’s lie, so they continued to keep their mouths shut, hoping the whole mess would go away,” Frank continued.

  “So what changed her mind and made her willing to talk?” Farhan asked.

  Frank glanced uneasily at Mina. “She found some of the...er...props Keith used when he took pictures of Caitlin. She disapproved�
�strongly—and once she understood the nature of Keith and Kendall’s partnership, I didn’t have much trouble convincing her that she’d make the world a better place if she talked.”

  Earl took over the story. “Still, the evidence against Keith was mostly circumstantial. Yeah, he was the one taking the photographs, but that didn’t prove he killed Caitlin. Justin ended up providing the crucial evidence.”

  “Farhan tried to tell us about this, but still, we are confused,” Sanjiv looked from his son and back to Frank.

  “I had always been puzzled by why I found Caitlin’s body right by the dock,” Frank said. “Why hadn’t whoever killed her taken her out into the middle of the lake and weighed the body down? Chances are, she would never have been found.”

  Frank sipped from his tea cup. “Turns out, Keith had intended to do just that. He killed Caitlin in the duck blind and left the body there while he walked back to the house to get a canoe. By the time he paddled back, the wind had picked up. The storm was blowing in. Caitlin’s body had washed right out of the blind, and Keith couldn’t find it. Then the lightning started. So he sneaked back into the house and figured he’d search for the body later.”

  “But we found it first,” Penny said. “If only Desmond hadn’t wanted to show off his house to me that weekend, Keith would have gotten away with murder.”

  “Justin had been watching his brother from his bedroom window, which has a panoramic view of the lake,” Frank said. “He wondered what Keith could be up to, since he certainly couldn’t be taking photos with a dark storm rolling in.”

  Frank rose and glanced around the Patel’s cozy living room, where school photos of the kids hung on the wall over the sofa, and Caitlin’s portrait of Sarah held a prized spot above the piano. “After the body was discovered and the cause of death confirmed, Justin figured out his brother’s secret and confronted him. Keith admitted what he’d done. Justin enjoyed holding the secret over Keith’s head, so he probably would never have turned him in. But the night of the abduction, when The Balsams was engulfed in chaos and the police had swarmed the place, Desmond lashed out at Justin. He blamed his older son for getting Keith hooked on gambling. And Justin couldn’t endure his father’s betrayal.”