Chapter 14
Ethan spun around.
Caleb stepped from behind a pine tree with a hunting rifle held low across his chest.
Sophie made a small sound.
Ethan moved in front of her.
Rachel stopped breathing.
“Caleb.”
Her brother looked older than the trail-camera photograph had made him seem. Forty, maybe forty-one. Thin face. Dark beard streaked with gray. A scar ran from his left ear toward his jaw.
He wore a black parka and snow pants, as if this were an ordinary winter hike.
“You cut the propane line,” Ethan said.
Caleb smiled.
“I loosened it.”
“You could’ve blown up the cabin.”
“Only if somebody lit something.”
“The fireplace is lit.”
For the first time, Caleb looked mildly concerned.
Then he shrugged.
“Guess we shouldn’t stand too close.”
Rachel stepped toward him.
“This is over.”
Caleb laughed.
“You’ve said that before.”
“I mean it.”
“Give me the drive.”
Ethan looked at Rachel.
“What drive?”
She went pale.
Caleb smiled at Ethan.
“She didn’t tell you?”
“Shut up.”
“The little silver drive, Rach. Hand it over.”
Rachel shook her head.
“I don’t have it.”
Caleb raised the rifle slightly.
Sophie grabbed Ethan’s coat.
Ethan’s pulse hammered.
“What’s on it?” he asked.
Caleb looked at him.
“Family history.”
“Caleb.”
Rachel’s voice carried a warning.
He smiled.
“You really picked another guy who doesn’t know you.”
Rachel lunged.
Ethan caught her before she reached the rifle.
“Stop!”
Caleb laughed.
For a moment the gun pointed away from them.
Ethan considered charging him.
Too far.
Sophie was too close.
One shot could end everything.
A distant crack rolled through the mountains.
Not thunder.
A tree limb collapsing under snow.
Caleb glanced toward the sound.
Ethan used the moment.
He pulled the bear spray from his coat and fired.
Orange mist hit Caleb across the face.
Caleb screamed.
The rifle discharged.
The shot exploded through the trees.
Sophie screamed.
Ethan grabbed her and ran downhill.
“GO!”
Rachel followed.
Behind them, Caleb cursed and fired blindly again.
The bullet struck a tree somewhere to Ethan’s left.
Snow burst from a branch.
They ran.
The slope was steep.
Sophie’s legs were too short for deep snow, so Ethan lifted her and carried her against his chest. His lungs burned almost immediately.
Rachel stumbled beside him.
“He’s going to kill us.”
“No kidding.”
“There’s a service trail to the left.”
“How do you know?”
“I told you. I’ve been here before.”
“Then lead.”
Rachel turned between two trees and descended along a narrow cut in the hillside.
The trail was barely visible under fresh snow.
Ethan followed.
They heard Caleb behind them.
Not close.
But moving.
“Where does this go?” Ethan asked.
“Old ranger station.”
“How far?”
“Half a mile.”
“Occupied?”
“No.”
“Then why go there?”
“Radio.”
Ethan looked at her.
“There used to be an emergency radio inside.”
“Used to?”
“Twenty years ago.”
“Great.”
Sophie’s arms tightened around his neck.
“Dad, I can walk.”
“No.”
“You’re breathing hard.”
“I’m fine.”
He was not fine.
At forty-one, Ethan kept himself in decent shape, but running through knee-deep snow while carrying a sixty-pound child was different from jogging three miles before work.
He forced himself onward.
His satellite communicator vibrated against his chest.
A message.
He could not stop to read it.
The trail curved around a rocky outcrop.
Rachel slipped.
She fell hard on one knee.
“Rachel!”
“I’m okay.”
She stood, grimacing.
A howl sounded behind them.
Sophie whimpered.
Ethan stopped.
Another howl answered from farther up the ridge.
Rachel looked terrified.
“They’re following the bait scent.”
Ethan stared at her.
“What bait?”
She looked down at her coat.
His blood went cold.
“What?”
Rachel reached into one pocket.
Her hand emerged wet and red.
Raw meat scraps.
She screamed and threw them into the snow.
“Caleb.”
Ethan understood immediately.
He had put meat in her pocket.
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
“Take off the coat.”
“It’s twenty degrees.”
“Take it off!”
Rachel ripped it off.
Ethan grabbed it and hurled it down the slope as far as he could.
A large gray shape moved between the trees behind them.
Sophie began crying.
“Is that the same wolf?”
“I don’t know.”
Ethan’s own fear was almost paralyzing, but he kept his voice calm.
“Stay close.”
They moved faster.
The ranger station appeared after another five minutes.
It was a one-room wooden structure tucked beneath a rock shelf, windows covered with metal storm shutters.
Rachel reached the door first.
Locked.
“Key?” Ethan asked.
She shook her head.
He looked around.
A steel emergency box was mounted beside the door.
He smashed the plastic cover with a rock.
Inside was a red-handled key.
He opened the door.
They rushed inside.
The room smelled like dust and old timber.
A propane lantern sat on a shelf.
A first-aid kit hung on the wall.
And, unbelievably, an emergency radio sat beside a laminated instruction card.
Ethan locked the door.
Rachel dropped into a chair, shaking.
Sophie stood close to Ethan.
He checked the satellite communicator.
The response center had answered.
SHERIFF’S OFFICE NOTIFIED. WEATHER DELAY. ESTIMATED GROUND RESPONSE 60–90 MINUTES. HELICOPTER UNAVAILABLE DUE LOW VISIBILITY. CONFIRM CURRENT STATUS.
Ethan typed:
LEFT CABIN. MALE SUSPECT CALEB VOSS HAS RIFLE. WE ARE AT OLD RANGER STATION SOUTHWEST OF CABIN. CHILD WITH ME. SUSPECT MAY FOLLOW.
He sent it.
Then he switched on the emergency radio.
Static.
He tried the marked county frequency.
Nothing.
Rachel laughed weakly.
“So much for that.”
Ethan turned.
“Now tell me about the drive.”
She looked at Sophie.
“No more waiting.”
Rachel rubbed both hands over her face.
“Caleb has been blackmailing me for years.”
“I know that part.”
“He had a recording.”
“Of what?”
“The night of the fire.”
Ethan frowned.
“There were no phones recording everything twenty-five years ago.”
“Cassette.”
She looked ashamed.
“Caleb used to record people. He had this little handheld tape recorder. He thought it was funny.”
“What’s on the tape?”
“My voice.”
“Saying what?”
Rachel stared at the floor.
“Telling him where Martin kept his gasoline.”
Ethan said nothing.
“And telling him that if we scared Martin badly enough, maybe he’d leave.”
“You helped plan the fire.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know Caleb was going to light the house?”
“I knew he was going to burn the porch.”
“While Martin was inside?”
“We thought he was at the bar.”
“But he wasn’t.”
“No.”
“And you testified against your brother.”
“My mother begged me.”
“So Caleb went away.”
“Yes.”
“And you walked.”
Rachel’s eyes filled.
“I was seventeen and terrified.”
Ethan believed that part.
It still did not erase anything else.
“What’s on the flash drive?”
“Digital copies of the tape. Letters. Photos. The old police file.”
“Why would he care if he already has the originals?”
“He doesn’t.”
“What?”
“I stole them.”
Ethan stared.
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
Rachel explained.
Caleb had demanded more money than she could keep hiding. He told her sixty thousand was only the beginning. He wanted two hundred thousand and threatened to send everything to Ethan, Rachel’s employer, and local reporters if she refused.
So Rachel had met him at a motel under the pretense of paying him.
While Caleb showered, she took his lockbox.
Inside were the cassette, photographs, copied case files, and a flash drive.
She destroyed the cassette.
But she kept the drive.
“Why?” Ethan asked.
“Insurance.”
“Against him?”
She nodded.
“Where is it?”
Rachel looked at Sophie.
“In the lining of her red coat.”
Ethan went completely still.
Sophie stared at Rachel.
“My coat?”
Rachel nodded miserably.
“I sewed it into the hem before we came here.”
Ethan’s mind raced.
The coat had been outside beside the cabin.
The key to the shed had been in its pocket.
Caleb had demanded the drive.
“Why put it in Sophie’s coat?”
“Because Caleb searched my bags before. He wouldn’t search a child’s clothes.”
Ethan could barely speak.
“You used my daughter to hide evidence from a dangerous man.”
“I didn’t think he knew.”
“But you knew he was following us.”
“I suspected.”
“And you still brought us here.”
Rachel cried silently.
“Why this cabin?”
She hesitated.
“Because I planned to meet him.”
There it was.
Another truth.
Another layer.
Ethan felt exhausted by them.
“You planned this whole trip around Caleb.”
“I thought I could end it.”
“How?”
“Give him money. Make him leave.”
“With Sophie and me here?”
“I thought having you here would keep him calm.”
Ethan laughed in disbelief.
“You used us as protection.”
“I didn’t think he’d hurt you.”
“You don’t get to say what you thought anymore.”
Rachel covered her face.
Sophie suddenly spoke.
“The coat isn’t at the cabin.”
Ethan looked at her.
“What?”
“When we ran, I wore the blue coat.”
She pointed at herself.
She was right.
After the attack, Ethan had dressed her in the spare blue parka from her suitcase because the red coat had been wet from the snow.
The red coat remained somewhere near the back porch.
The flash drive was still there.
Caleb had not found it.
Yet.
Ethan’s satellite device vibrated.
Another message.
He read it.
SHERIFF UNIT APPROACHING EAST ACCESS ROAD. HEAVY SNOW. 37 MINUTES ESTIMATED.
Relief came too soon.
Something scraped across the roof.
All three of them looked up.
Another scrape.
Then footsteps.
Slow.
Heavy.
Walking directly above them.
Rachel whispered, “Caleb.”
Ethan motioned for silence.
Sophie covered her mouth.
The footsteps stopped over the center of the station.
A moment later, Caleb’s voice came through the chimney pipe.
“You forgot something at the cabin.”
Ethan said nothing.
A red object dropped past the window and landed in the snow outside.
Sophie’s coat.
Its lining had been ripped open.
Caleb spoke again.
“And I found your little secret.”
Rachel closed her eyes.
Then Caleb added something that made her look up in terror.
“But that drive isn’t why I came, Rach.”
May you like
A pause.
“I came because Sophie saw what you did in Denver.”
