Without Virtue

by Trevor Scott

  “They found the young Forest Service man eaten by a bear,” Judy said.

  It was worse than she thought. If these men were willing to kill an innocent young man to take her, they wouldn’t think twice about killing her once they were finished. Or this young girl.

  “Try to sleep,” Pam instructed. She couldn’t tell this girl what to expect. How could she explain the inexplicable?

  10

  Morning broke with a light drizzle across the Boundary Waters. Max had gotten up in the middle of the night to relieve himself, and the chill in the air had reminded him somewhat of life in the mountains of Nevada. The only difference seemed to be the humidity. And now the mist.

  A light fog swept across Ima Lake around mid-day as the four of them made it from camp to camp asking if anyone had seen Kim’s missing sister. Ima Lake was a number of small portages through small lakes from Disappointment Lake, but it was a popular destination for campers on shorter visits to the wilderness area. According to Kim and Donny, most groups didn’t like to travel too far into the vast wilderness, because eventually they would have to return to Snowbank Lake to their cars at the entry points. Many groups liked to make circular routes so they wouldn’t cover the same lakes.

  Now, sitting on a rock overlooking the lake, Max had just finished looking at his map of the area. Pam Joki could be anywhere out here, he thought. She could even be in Canada by now. Maybe she had succumbed to the elements.

  “What are you thinking?” Kim asked as she approached and sat on the rock next to him. She had been taking the bow of Max’s canoe all morning, while his sister Robin paddled in the front of Donny’s canoe.

  Glancing up the hill to Donny and Robin sitting at a picnic table chatting, Max turned back to Kim and said, “I was looking at the map and considering our options.”

  She let out a heavy sigh. “I know the task seems daunting. But I just know Pam is out there. And she needs us.”

  He couldn’t argue that supposition. “I understand,” he said. “But you have to understand that this is a difficult case for me. Usually I have clues to follow. Pam seems to have disappeared without a trace.”

  “I know.” She lowered her chin toward her chest and closed her eyes briefly. “I don’t know how useful it is to talk with these campers. Either they were not here when Pam disappeared, or they have already been asked if they’ve seen her. We sent crews into all of the entry points on the western side of the Boundary Waters, from Moose Lake to Lake One. These crews circled around toward Disappointment Lake asking everyone they met if they had seen Pam. They showed them pictures of her. They flew over in planes and helicopters and found nothing. We did everything but call into the Air Force for satellite coverage.”

  He picked up the map and set it on his lap again. “They checked all of these campgrounds,” Max said, pointing at the red dots on the map of the BWCAW.

  “That’s right.”

  “What is this dotted line?”

  “That’s the Kek. The Kekekabic Trail. Why?”

  “Your sister would know about that.”

  “Of course.”

  “Well, it runs near Disappointment Lake. Could she have gone on that?”

  “Not likely,” she said, swishing her head side to side. Then she swept her hand across the map. “The Kek runs from Snowbank entry point in the west to the Gunflint Trail in the east. That’s over forty miles of trail. Then it continues on to Lake Superior. This time of year, Pam would have come across dozens of hikers. In fact, a group of local searchers hiked as far as Kekekabic Lake before turning back. Pam would have instinctively headed to the west back toward Ely anyway.”

  Max was out of ideas. But then he thought about something else. What would he do? He pointed to a few smaller lakes on the map and asked, “What about these little lakes?”

  Kim shook her head. “Those are off the beaten path without campgrounds. And they don’t have portages into them.” She pointed into the forest behind her. “That wilderness isn’t easy to navigate. Nobody in their right mind would try to traverse that.”

  She had a damn good point. “All right,” he said. “Let’s loop back and hit a couple more lakes before going back toward Disappointment. We might need to stay out here somewhere if it gets too late.”

  They got back into their canoes and headed to the next portage. The first lake only had a couple of camps and none of the people there had seen anything out of the ordinary. The last lake before getting back to Disappointment was a small lake with only a couple of camps, and only two of those were occupied.

  Donny and Robin were the first to hit the shore and pull the canoe to the bank. Since there were so many canoes at this campsite, Max had to wait for room to pull in and let Kim get out. Finally, he stepped to shore and they simply tied off their canoe to a fallen tree.

  “What’s going on here?” Max asked his sister.

  “If I had to guess, I’d say it’s a retreat of young witches,” Robin whispered.

  A man and two women in their forties came over to Max and seemed a bit frazzled. The man said, “What can I do for you?”

  Kim took this. She pulled out her identification and showed it to the man. “I’m with the Forest Service. We’re here looking for this woman.” She showed the man a well-worn photo of her sister in uniform.

  The man shook his head and showed the photo to the two women with him. They simply shook their heads.

  “We were told about this missing woman when we entered the Boundary Waters a few days ago at Snowbank,” the man said. “We haven’t seen many people since we arrived. This lake is a little off the beaten path.”

  Max considered the map of the area in his mind, and guessed the man might be right. The normal track from Snowbank or Moose Lake deeper into the Boundary Waters passed this lake to the north or the south.

  Donny jumped in. “Have you had any problem with black bears?”

  One of the women said, “A couple of nights ago we chased one from camp.”

  “We don’t know for sure,” the man said.

  Max watched as Robin went into the coven to talk with the young girls.

  “Is this a church group?” Max asked.

  The man smiled. “No. We’re from Beltrami County. These girls are part of a juvenile rehabilitation group.”

  “Juvenile Diversion Program?” Max asked.

  “Yes,” the man said. “Are you familiar with them?”

  “Not really,” Max said. “I’ve heard these programs can work with troubled youth. I’m a former federal agent. By the time criminals got to my level, we were putting them in federal prison.”

  By now, Robin was in the thick of the group of girls in deep conversation. Kim was also with the girls showing them all a photo of her sister.

  “We hope so,” one of the women said.

  Max asked, “How many girls do you have in camp?”

  The man hesitated way too long. Finally, he said, “We have ten girls.”

  That wasn’t too hard, Max thought. A simple head count wasn’t algebra.

  “Where is Beltrami County?” Max asked, stalling to allow Robin to do her thing.

  “Bemidji,” the man said.

  Max raised his hands and said, “I’m sorry. I’m from Nevada.”

  Donny said, “It’s to the west of Ely.”

  “About a hundred and seventy miles,” the man said.

  “I noticed a lot of the girls look to be Native American,” Max said.

  “What are you getting at?”

  “Nothing. Just an observation.”

  One of the women explained. “We get girls from across the county for all kinds of reasons. This group just happens to be a little more native than normal.”

  “Again,” Max said. “I meant nothing by my comment. Why are most of the girls in the program?”

  The man said, “It could be anything from assault to shoplifting. We’re trying to turn them around before they end up in real jail. And we’ve got a pretty good track record.”


  Robin and Kim wandered back and his sister nudged up to Max but said nothing.

  Kim asked, “How long is your permit?”

  “Just a couple more days,” the man said.

  “Do you have a SAT phone?” Kim asked.

  The three counselors shook their heads in unison.

  Something wasn’t quite right with this camp, Max thought. But he couldn’t reconcile the problem in his mind.

  They were about to head out when Robin said, “Did they tell you about the missing girl?”

  The male counselor raised his hands and said, “Just a minute. We don’t know if she’s missing.”

  Time to take action, Max thought. Instinctively, his training as an Air Force OSI special agent kicked in. He pulled the man away from the others toward the edge of the camp. He kept his back to the woods so he could still monitor the camp. Out of habit, he had pulled his shirt over the top of his Glock on his right hip. It wasn’t so much out of concern that he would need it, but more of an intimidating factor.

  “Now,” Max said. “Tell me about this missing girl. If you had ten and only have nine now, then one girl is missing.”

  The man seemed embarrassed, as if he might shrink into the mossy soil. “Her name is Judy Walker.”

  “In the program for?”

  “She’s a bit of a klepto,” the man said.

  “How old?”

  “Sixteen going on thirty. One step away from going to a detention center until she reaches eighteen.”

  “And she just took off? When?”

  He paused and hunched his shoulders. “We don’t know. We do a head count each night before going to bed, and then again in the morning. And the girls all have buddies. They are to stick with them at all times.”

  “Has she ever run away?” Max asked.

  He nodded. “That’s why I’m not too concerned. Plus, one of the canoes is also missing.”

  “Did you look for her?”

  “We did. All of us. We asked the other camp on the lake if they had seen Judy, but they hadn’t. We went as far as the portage back toward Disappointment Lake. But it’s a long way back to the Snowbank entry point. We were about to consider if we needed to break camp. But now we don’t have time to do so before dark. It’s not like these girls are fast paddlers. It’s like herding cats half the time.”

  Max could only imagine. He tried to think about how long it would take a girl paddling alone at night and then today to make it back to the entry point. He wasn’t sure a sixteen-year-old could make that trip without help. Especially crossing Snowbank Lake alone.

  “Did you notice this girl was unhappy with being here?” Max asked.

  He shook his head. “No more than any of the others. Most of the girls have complained about everything from mosquitoes to their chores. But none of them have been displeased enough to run away.”

  Max said, “It could have been anything. Perhaps something else going on in her life back home.”

  “I suppose.”

  “Do you have a photo of the girl?”

  The man pulled out his phone and brought up an image, showing Max. She was a pretty girl with dark hair. But she was developed enough to be considered a woman in the mind of the average person.

  “Alright,” Max said. “I’ll get word to the Forest Service to be on the lookout.”

  “You have a SAT phone?”

  “We do.”

  “That would be great. We could head out in the morning with the girls.”

  Max glanced across the lake at one of the empty campsites. “We’ll head across and make camp over there.”

  The man nodded understanding.

  “But first I’ll need to talk with the girl who was buddied up with this Judy Walker.”

  The man went off and Robin came over to him.

  “What did he say?” she asked.

  Max explained what he knew and noticed the man had his hands grasping one of the young girls by the arm. Robin turned and saw the same thing, which made her run toward the confrontation. Within seconds, Robin had the situation diffused and was calmly talking with the young girl as they came to Max.

  Suddenly, Max heard the distinct sound of a gunshot in the distance.

  11

  When Max heard the shot, his mind went instinctively to his days as an Air Force Combat Controller. He turned his head to calculate the distance and direction.

  The male counselor came rushing over to Max and pulled him aside. “Tell me you heard that,” he said.

  “Yes, of course.”

  “It was a gunshot, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “What do you suppose is happening? It’s not the first time this has happened. Yesterday we heard a number of shots.”

  Max had no intention of alarming these people. And he wasn’t really concerned himself, so he didn’t have to sell it to them. He simply said, “If I had to guess, there’s some nimrod shooting to scare off an animal.”

  “Like a bear?” the man asked.

  Smiling, Max said, “I don’t know. Not likely at this time of day. But the inexperienced will hear something stepping through the forest and conjure up Bigfoot in their minds. It’s probably nothing.”

  The man nodded agreement, his hands on his hips and glancing back at the young girls. “Right. Could you tell that to the girls? They don’t believe me.”

  “I will,” he said, and then wandered over to the group of young girls, who were talking with Robin and Kim.

  Robin said, “I explained to them that the shot was quite a distance from here and there was nothing to worry about.”

  Max wasn’t sure about that, but he didn’t want to tell the girls that. He introduced himself and confirmed his sister’s assertion.

  One of the older girls said, “You’ve got a gun. Can you protect us?”

  Max glanced at Robin and Kim and then back to the girls. “I’m sure everything is fine.”

  “Right,” the girl said. “First, Judy goes missing, and now more gunshots. I don’t think it’s fine. It sounded like a rifle.”

  “No,” Max said. “It was a handgun.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  Max was about to answer, when Robin interjected. “He was in combat for multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. He knows weapons.”

  The young girls seemed relieved and strangely intrigued with this last bit of information.

  By now, the buddy who had tented with Judy Walker had wandered over. She said, “This isn’t the first time we’ve heard gunshots. Judy was freaked out by it.”

  The older girl said, “We all are.”

  Kim said, “I’m with the Forest Service. I’ll make sure to report this to our office in Ely.”

  “Maybe you can stay with us,” the older girl said.

  Kim glanced about the camp and finally said, “This is a double campsite. Even so, we might be over capacity.”

  Max pulled Kim aside and whispered, “I think you could make an exception.”

  “Are you concerned about the shot?” Kim asked.

  “I don’t know. Not really. Where I’m from, folks are always shooting up the woods.”

  “But it’s been very dry until recently. They could start a fire.”

  “That’s rare,” Max said. “I could see that in Nevada, but not here.”

  “Regardless, I think maybe we should stay here tonight.”

  When Max got back to the girls, one of them asked Robin, “Is he your husband?”

  Robin laughed. “No. He’s my twin brother.”

  Then the girl glanced at Kim and said, “Oh. So, she’s his girlfriend?”

  Max raised his hands. “She’s not my girlfriend.”

  “I see. Friends with benefits.”

  Kim looked embarrassed.

  One of the girls hit her friend and said, “No, dumbass. She’s Forest Service. Obviously, she’s a lesbian.”

  “I’m not a lesbian,” Kim said. “Not that it’s any of your business.”
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br />   Another shot stopped them all from talking. A couple of the girls held each other for comfort. Max thought they were being over the top, considering these girls were from the Northland and had probably heard a lot of gunshots in their lives.

  Donny came over with the two female counselors. He said, “What’s the plan?”

  “Let’s make camp here tonight,” Max said, and then eyed the two female counselors. “Unless the two of you have a problem with that?”

  “Not at all,” the taller woman said. “The more the merrier.”

  Donny took the uncomfortable silence to say, “Alright. I’ll go find a couple of nice spots for tents and start hauling the gear up here.”

  “I’ll help you,” Robin said.

  The two of them wandered back to the canoes.

  Max said to Kim, “We need to call your office about the girl who left last night.”

  Kim nodded agreement and the two of them headed to a rock outcropping on the edge of the lake. She found the SAT phone provided by the Forest Service, and powered it up. “No missed calls,” she said.

  Once she got linked to the satellites, she punched in the number for her office and waited.

  “Tell me you’re not calling the tool,” Max said.

  She shook her head and said into the phone, “Hi, Chris?” After a few seconds, Kim explained their situation. Then she said to Max, “What’s the girl’s name?”

  “Judy Walker from the Bemidji area,” Max said.

  She repeated his words and then listened. Then she told her colleague about the shots being fired nearby.

  “I know they’re allowed in the Boundary Waters,” Kim said, “but. . .no problem.”

  Max raised a finger and then asked for the SAT phone. “Hi, this is Max Kane,” he started, and then tapped the speaker phone button.

  “Yes, we met the other day,” the woman on the other end said. “What can I do for you?”

  “When the extensive search of the Boundary Waters happened, did you track the permits to those you spoke with?”

  “Yes, we did. Why?”

  “Do you have a list of those you couldn’t contact?” he asked.

  “We assumed some campers must have gone deeper into the wilderness. We did track those we had not contacted.”