by RB Schalin
Chapter 34
Holmes parks her car and walks around the main house to the guesthouse. The evening is warm and she can smell flowers in the air. She opens the door and steps inside.
After dropping her laptop on the bed she takes a long shower and wrapped in a towel she warms a soup on the little stove.
The kid who lives here and is now in Afghanistan has quit an impressive home theater set up. There is also a game console and a Hi-FI system which would make most people jealous.
As Holmes slowly eats her soup, her eyes fall on the 42" LED screen on the wall. She was told by his parents that she can use it anytime she feels like. She looks for the remote control and finds it in a drawer and when she turns it on she is impressed by the clarity of the picture.
She pours some more soup into her bowl and continues eating while watching a TV show. After a while the news comes on and then the weather forecast. Nice and sunny for the next few days say the pretty announcer and then shows a satellite picture of the State.
Holmes stares at the screen and then quickly gets up and looks for her laptop. While it's booting up, she looks around the LED screen and the game console.
"I knew it," she says, pleased with herself and pulls a cable from behind the console.
She connects it to her laptop and then to the LED. The big screen changes and her own Desktop screen comes up. She looks around the room until she finds the WIFI box and then copies the code onto her computer and waits until it connects. She pulls up Google maps and a minute later she is looking at the stretch of I25 that interests her. The clarity of the picture is a lot better and she can zoom in close and maintain the clear picture. Slowly she drags the map moving it north, while looking at the right side of the road. On the third pass she finds it. It looks like a small parking area, but when she drags the map a little bit more to the right, she can see a trail between the pine trees. At the police station they had missed it, the screens were too small and the definition was not high enough. Slowly she follows the trail and then after what seems like a couple of miles it stops.
She leans back in the chair she is sitting in. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it's just a short trail and nothing more, she thinks. She zooms out after pinning the end of the trail, and on the screen, it shows the trail ends in the middle of nowhere. Ahead is just miles and miles of pine forest and to the sides the same.
"Shit," she says and stands up.
She makes a cup of tea and returns to the chair and her laptop. She zooms out even more and can now see the Colombian River to the left or to the West and the road leading north all the way up to the border to Canada. She zooms in on the pin and again she is looking at the spot where the trail ends on the LED screen. She slowly drags the map in a straight line down and continues staring at it. Maybe the trail continues, but she can't see it due to the thick forest. Zooming in as much as she can, she tries to force her eyes to see beyond the branches. Slowly she moves the map down, and there. She can see what looks like the ground, and as she follows it, the trail continues. She goes back to where she found it and ads another pin. Then she zooms out.
She estimates that from the first pin to the second there is at least a mile long gap. She zooms in to the second pin and continues following the trail through the trees. It ends in a clearing a few hundred yards on. She zooms in as much as she can and there it is, the corner of a cabin and what looks like flower beds outside. She ads another pin and then zooms out so she gets the I25 on the screen.
"You smart bastard," she says out loud.
The cabin is so far in the woods there is no way of seeing it from the main road, and if you would turn off and follow the trail it just ends. No one would know it continues further on and ends at a clearing.
Holmes looks at her watch, not even 9P.M yet, she picks up her cell phone and dials Hawk's number. He picks up on the second ring.
"Are you sober?" she asks.
"Good evening to you too Holmes," he says and adds, "yes, I'm sober, why?"
"I found something and I think you and I should go for a road trip tomorrow. Pick me up at 6.30AM, and bring hiking clothes."
"May I ask what this is about?"
"I found a trail, and a cabin in the forest, I think we should check it out at first light."
"OK, I'll see you tomorrow."
After hanging up Hawk returns the bottle he was holding to the shelf in the kitchen and settles in front of the TV. He wants his drink, but he has to stay clear, and for some reason it feels important to him that Holmes finds him sober and professional the following morning. He likes her and doesn't want her to get the wrong impression of him, but thinking back to the morning he figures she already has.
Before going to bed, he finds some hiking clothes including some heavy boots a water canteen and a big hunting knife. He places everything in the living room and goes to bed.