by Sue Clifton
“Probably Buddhist. See if her baby girl is listed in the obituaries. Cayce and I couldn’t read the headstones where Absalom, Yu, and Tamara are buried.”
Teesh went through the rest of the volume and then started in another one. Soon, she tapped Harri on the arm and pointed to the obituary. “Yep, here it is. Tamara Lin Duluth, infant daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Absalom Duluth, died August 2, 1880, and was buried in the Bar None Cemetery.”
Harri flipped forward a few more pages and found Yu’s obituary. “How tragic! Yu died three months after her daughter. Absalom had it all and lost it all in three months’ time.”
“Life is never long enough, it seems; although in my case, I think I might be overdue.” Teesh chuckled again. “No complaints, mind you.”
Harri and Teesh continued to look through the volumes, not sure exactly what they were looking for but driven to continue. Harri closed her eyes and ran her finger down the big stack they had not yet gotten to, and stopped at one near the bottom.
“Let’s see if the Way finds me.” Harri flipped through the volume, turned a page, and then flipped back.
“Oh, my! This is terrible, Teesh! I feel so bad.” Harri continued to scan the article while Teesh waited patiently. Harri looked up with tears in her eyes. You’ll have to read it, Teesh. I don’t think I can.” Harri put the page in front of Teesh, and she read aloud while Harri cried.
December 12, 1918
Cave-In Claims Life of Local Miner
Bar None was hit by tragedy Sunday afternoon when a cave-in occurred in the Duluth Mine, near the Bar None entrance. It was said some of the town’s children were playing in the mineshaft without their parents’ knowledge just before the tragedy occurred. The cave-in began as a rumble, and two of the children ran out, but two others were trapped by falling rock. The two children who escaped ran for help to the cabin of Peg Leg Annie Coleman. Peg sent the children for more help while she headed into the mineshaft.
Peg cleared enough of the rocks and timbers away for the two trapped children to get free, but another timber began to sway, threatening to trap them all. Peg put her back to the timber and yelled for the children to run to the entrance. Peg, with strength unheard of for a woman, held the timber for several minutes, making sure the children had time to get out, and then was trapped herself when the whole east tunnel collapsed.
Mine owner Absalom Duluth and his partner Belle Ezell expressed sympathy for the town’s loss and called Peg a hero. Rescuers attempted to recover her body, but the cave-in was just too big an undertaking. Her body was not recovered. No known next of kin were available for notification.
Harri grew so upset she excused herself for a minute. She went to her room and continued weeping. Part of her sadness was feeling guilty for the way she had made jokes about Peg. Harri spoke out loud in hopes Peg was listening.
“Please forgive me for being so unkind to you, Peg. I had no idea you were a hero, but that shouldn’t matter. My parents taught me to be kind to everyone, and I have not been kind to you. Look at what you gave me as an offer of friendship, and I gave you nothing but a tongue lashing for wasting an unimportant bottle of perfume.” Harri picked up the mirror. “These beautiful gifts will be part of a monument to you, so you will be remembered not as Peg Leg Annie, but as Annie Coleman, a dear, sweet lady who gave her own life to save two children. I’ll see to it your cabin is rebuilt and your beautiful possessions are returned to it.”
Harri looked in the mirror and again saw the reflection of the beautiful young woman she had seen before. The woman smiled at her and nodded her head.
****
Hank stopped his group at the first campsite and ground-tied his horse, wrapping the rope to the packhorse on his saddle horn. The rest of the group halted by him.
“Wow! It’s beautiful up here. The tourists will love this.” Piper walked to the edge of the hill to get a better view of the valley below. “So where do we go from here, Hank?” Piper yelled over her shoulder just as Zach walked up beside her. She moved close as he put his arm around her waist. “Is this not fantastic, Zach?”
“Awesome,” Zach said, gazing at her.
Piper looked at him and noticed him staring at her. “Oh, you!” She nudged Zach with her shoulder.
“We’re going to follow that razorback along there and make our way halfway up that peak,” Hank yelled to Piper, pointing out the direction they were going. “The men were supposed to build another outhouse and campsite there. We plan to make that one by the first night.” Hank remounted, and Cayce did the same, pulling her horse up beside Hank.
“You two coming?” Hank called back as he and Cayce rode off.
Piper and Zach mounted up, putting their horses in a lope to catch up to their leader.
“I hope we have a little time at the next campsite. I brought my sketchpad.” Piper patted her saddlebag.
“I think Hank is pretty anxious to see if his crew did what they were supposed to do. He’s in boss mode. Guess we’ll know for sure tomorrow when we bring the wagons up.”
“How many wagons are we bringing, Zach?”
“Hank said just two the first trip. When Joshua opens up Bar None to the tourist trade, he wants at least five wagons, always a spare or two in case any break down.” Zach pulled his horse to a stop and threw his leg over the saddle horn. Piper stopped beside him.
“As they say in the movies, ‘wha’sup?’”
“Nothing other than the fact I can’t wait any longer to kiss you. Lean over here, beautiful.” And kiss they did, almost falling off their horses, which became antsy with waiting.
It took two hours of hard riding to get to the next campsite, much faster than the wagons would go. Several times, Zach and Piper lingered and then had to gallop to catch up.
“We’re almost there. Just over this hill and we should see the campsite. It’s right by a creek where we can rest and water the horses. I stopped in town and picked up some sub sandwiches and even put some drinks on ice. Maybe you three will get to wet a fly in the creek.”
“You should have told me. Harri and I could have packed a lunch.”
“You and your sister have done enough. It was my turn.” Hank kicked his horse into a gallop, and the others followed as they sped up the hill to the campsite.
As they topped the hill, Hank quickly handed Cayce the rope to the packhorse and kicked his horse into a dead-out run. When he reached the site, he leapt from his horse, not giving it time to come to a complete stop, threw the reins down, and ran toward the creek.
“What the hell?”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“It’s ruined! The whole damn campsite has been destroyed.” Hank picked up an empty gasoline can and threw it as far as he could, frustration obvious. “They even burned the outhouse. Harri won’t be happy about that.” He took off walking away from the site.
Cayce had to run to catch up with him. When she got to him, he was squatted down on the ground digging in the burned pile.
“The timbers from the outhouse are still a little warm. I’d say this was done in the last couple of days.” Hank left the pile and walked around looking at the ground. “Look here, Cayce. Four-wheeler tracks. How the hell did they get four-wheelers in here?” Hank looked off into the distance. “But I guess the way they’re making that machinery nowadays, four-wheelers can go anywhere horses can, maybe more.”
“So much for the wagon trip tomorrow.” Cayce put her arm around Hank’s shoulder and gave him a comforting back rub. “What now?”
“I didn’t intend for us to go all the way to the last camp, but I’ve got to see if it’s destroyed.” Hank stood and looked at Cayce. “You guys better ride back to Bar None. This will be an all-nighter. I’ve got sleeping bags and emergency gear on the pack horse, but it will get really cold in these mountains come night.”
“Ooh! We might need to zip our sleeping bags together for warmth.” Cayce tried to lighten Hank’s mood, and the smile he gave her showed it was working.
“What happened, Hank?” Zach asked, turning in a complete circle, looking at the destruction.
“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.”
Hank told Zach and Piper to go back to the hotel and received the same reaction he had gotten from Cayce.
“Okay, but if we get there and catch the criminals in action, it could prove dangerous. I’ve got a pistol and a rifle with me. Zach, do you know how to shoot?”
“Hunted all my life. Grew up in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah. I’m a pretty good shot, at least for deer, elk, and moose.”
“Wait a minute! Don’t underestimate the women in this group. Piper and I both are good shots, thanks to Cody McCallister and life on a Montana ranch.”
“You were the next one I was going to ask, sweetheart. Okay, let’s head up, but first, we need to call your sister and tell her what we’re doing.”
****
Charlie made his way through the long mineshaft as speedily as possible, having used his own secret entrance to the mine, the one his dad had shown him. Charlie did not like Peg’s entrance.
Charlie not like Peg. Peg scare Charlie.
He couldn’t get the sound of Billie’s plea for help out of his mind. Charlie tended to dwell on things, but this was worse than normal.
Billie have baby. Charlie help Billie. Charlie help baby. Charlie get bestest friend.
Charlie had already wasted time by going all the way through the mineshaft to get Janie, but Lester saw him sneak out behind the trees planted to hide the mine’s entrance in the mountain behind the antique shop.
“I told you never to come through the mountain, Charlie!” Lester yelled at Charlie like he always did, but this time Charlie did not run away.
“Charlie need Janie! Charlie need Janie!” The little man screamed back at Lester, coming closer than he’d ever been to the only person alive he hated.
“Well, you won’t get Janie. She ain’t here and won’t be back for days. I wouldn’t let you see her no-how. Now get yourself back through that mountain, and don’t you ever come here again, or I’ll blow up the entrance so you can’t get through.” Lester picked up a big stick and came toward Charlie with the stick raised in the air. “Scat, boy, before I really lose my temper.”
Charlie turned and ran back through the mine like the black fog was chasing after him. His heart was pounding, but he kept running. It took hours to go back through the tunnel, but he kept going. He did not like the entrance he had to go through next, and never used it. Peg was always standing guard. As he approached the boarded opening covered with No Trespassing signs, he molded himself against the mine’s wall, slinking toward the entrance as quietly as Jezzie about to pounce on an unsuspecting chipmunk.
“Boo!” Peg screeched into Charlie’s ear, causing him to yell and take off as if someone had hit him with a cattle prod. Charlie ran right through the rotting boards, knocking them in every direction, and never looked back as he raced down the road toward the hotel and another friend who might help Billie’s baby.
Peg’s high-pitched cackle echoed down the canyon behind him.
****
Although she was not hungry, Billie ate her lunch. She was ready to carry out the plan to save herself and her baby. If the plan worked, this would be her last day held captive by the Keeper. That morning, when she closed her eyes and searched the Bible for guidance, she hit on Joshua 1:9.
“Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be you dismayed; for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Be not afraid; God is with you. Be not afraid; God is with you.
The phrase became another mental chant, a primer for her adrenaline and her faith, and a tranquilizer for her palpitating heart and frayed nerves. She had slept little the night before, anxious to see if the Keeper was still gone, and felt rewarded when she heard the female member of the Fold’s synthesized voice that morning and again at lunch.
Billie knew the woman was watching through the camera, but she had learned to be very discreet as she hid the little container of ketchup in her hand, the same thing she had done two times before, sneaking the ketchup off the tray without the watcher seeing her. She hoped the woman would not notice the empty plastic container was not on the tray she had placed on the depository.
Immediately going to her mattress to lie down as the tray was removed from the revolving shelf, she stuck the ketchup under her mattress with the other two containers and curled into a fetal position.
I have to wait until the time is right.
****
It was almost dark when Hank and his group reached the third campsite. He breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the outhouse still standing and the rest of the campsite untouched. He’d figured it, too, would have been destroyed, another act of sabotage, but from the living, not the departed.
“We can camp here in the open, or we can go up a little farther to an old shell of a cabin I found the first day I was up here. It would provide a little more coverage against the cold, and the fireplace to the cabin is still standing.” Hank looked at his companions. “Group decision.”
“I say go to the old cabin,” Piper quickly replied. She already had her down jacket out of her saddlebag. Packing it had been a last-minute emergency order by her mother, a battle Piper fought but was now thankful she had lost.
“Agreed,” her mom added.
“Guess the women have decided for us, Hank. I’m good with it,” Zach added.
The four mounted their horses and punched them into high gear, anxious to get to the cabin, but when they got within sight of it, Piper came to a sudden stop and leaned up in her saddle, staring. Zach stopped his horse and turned back to see why she had stopped.
“That’s it!” Piper pointed.
“That’s what, Piper?” Zach looked in the direction Piper was staring.
“The cabin from my dream.” Piper moved her leg and reached into her saddlebag and pulled out her sketchpad. She flipped through the pages and handed the pad to Zach. Soon, they were joined by Hank and her mom.
“What’s wrong?” her mother asked.
“Well, I’ll be damned! You’re right.” Zach passed the sketchpad to her mom, who held it where Hank could see it, too.
“It looks exactly like the sketch and the painting, now that I think about it,” her mom observed. “The Way has led us here, but why?”
The four slowed their horses as they headed up the path through the blackened section of trees, a path that looked like a scene from a horror movie rather than a pristine mountain wilderness. The thawing berms of dirty snow helped the scene little, adding to its gloom-and-doom image. Piper felt she was being transported back to her nightmare and kept her horse as close to Zach as possible. Zach, as if sensing her uneasiness, reached over and took her hand.
A few minutes later, Hank creaked open the charred door to the cabin. Her mom was right behind him, followed by Piper and Zach.
The roof was partially gone, as were some of the walls in the cabin, but the fireplace appeared solid. A stack of firewood stood to the side of the hearth, and it looked as if someone had built a fire at some point in the last few weeks. A little snow still stood in the dark corners where the roof was intact, letting the cabin’s visitors know they were in for a very cold night. Hank took a stick propped against the chimney and spread the ashes left in the fireplace. “Look around and see if you see any kindling to start a fire.”
“I think I saw some on what’s left of the porch.” Zach and Piper headed for the door.
As Hank pushed the ashes, he found a piece of flannel cloth that had not burned.
“Look here, Cayce.” Hank lifted the cloth with his stick. “Wonder why someone burned clothing in the fireplace?”
Cayce came to Hank’s side and stared at the piece of cloth, about four inches at the widest spot. She surprised Hank by lifting it off the stick and giving it a good shake to remove the ashes. He
r eyes widened and she took on a look of astonishment mixed with alarm.
“Red-and-black plaid. I think this is more than a coincidence.”
“What do you have there, Mom?” Piper asked, walking up beside her mom and laying down her armload of kindling. Cayce handed the cloth to Piper.
Hank poked around in the ashes again.
“Here’s something else.” He used his fingers this time and pulled out something small. “It looks like part of a western snap off a shirt.” Hank wiped it off on his jeans.
“Let me see.” Piper looked fully alert now and took the snap from Hank. “It’s just like the two I found on the road where we found Johnny’s body.” Piper scrutinized it closely. “See here? This little melted wad was plastic that was supposed to look like pearl.”
“What snaps, Piper?” Zach placed more kindling on top of Piper’s pile. “You didn’t show me any snaps you found.” Zach looked at the object in Piper’s hand.
“I didn’t think it was anything, and you started throwing up right after that. Guess I just dropped them and forgot. I bet they’re still there.” Piper looked at Cayce. Hank saw the interest and concern on her face.
“I think you’re right about the Way finding us, Mom. I want to hear about your experience at that outhouse.”
“Let’s unload the packhorse and take care of the animals first. And we better get this fire going. It’s about to be dark and cold.” Hank headed to the door, trailed by Zach. “You can tell us around the fire.”
After Hank got the fire going, they all huddled around it, and Cayce related the story of her experience touching the bloodstain at the outhouse in the wilderness.
“I couldn’t see the man’s face who hit the boy with the tire iron, but I know the shirt showing between his hooded jacket and gloves was plaid like this.” Cayce held up the piece of cloth again.
“And I know the snap is like the one I saw at the crime scene.” Piper looked at the others. “And I also know I’ve been to this cabin before…in my dreams.”
“Let’s see that sketch again, Piper.” Zach took the pad and flipped through to find the cabin scene. As he turned through the pages, he stopped on a sketch he had not seen before.