Elly's Ghost (5 page)

Belgrade steadied himself against the rushing air. With careful movements, his gloved hands
gripping the walls, he reentered the cockpit and punched the button to activate
the autopilot feature, which he’d preset for 30,000 feet. The dead bodyguard
had been strapped into a chair next to the door, and the two team members who’d
been killed by the guy in the floatplane had been stuffed into the back. Belgrade gave the dead bodyguard a quick salute and jumped out of the plane.

The free fall
and the opening of the chute were flawless, and Belgrade guided himself to his prearranged
landing spot near a gravel road. He easily found the Yamaha motorcycle he’d
hidden earlier in the day. He stuffed his gear into a backpack he’d left with
the motorcycle and was gone.

Unlike his twin sister,
Nick Wittenbel was huge, 220 pounds, most of which was muscle thanks to the
years he’d spent in the weight room preparing for both the football and
wrestling seasons. People rarely believed he and Elly were twins, which was
just fine with him.

Nick was shoveling
in another mouthful of cereal while trying to fight off a massive hangover when
the small television on his kitchen counter flashed his sister’s name above
“Breaking news” across the bottom of the screen.

As the
broadcaster started to describe the situation with Elly’s plane, the spoon
slipped out of Nick’s hand.

The phone on the
wall next to him rang, but he couldn’t move.

* * *

Nick sat next to
his dad on the couch in the living room as they waited for more news. Nick’s
mom, Joanna, paced back and forth in the kitchen as she attempted for the
fortieth time to call Elly on her cell phone.

The CNN
broadcast cut from a still image of the type of plane carrying his sister to
the newscaster, who said, “We have an update on the plane carrying pop singer
Elly Wittenbel. Two F-16s from the Air Force base in Mountain Home, Idaho, have located the plane, still cruising at 30,000 feet toward Seattle. The plane’s
door is missing. We are hearing they can see a person, believed to be male,
inside. All attempts to make contact with the plane have failed.”

“Come on, Elly,
pick up the phone!” Joanna hit a button and held the phone up to her ear. Tears
were forming in her eyes. After a moment she hung up and tried again.

The newscaster
introduced an aviation expert and asked, “With the door missing on a plane
traveling at 30,000 feet, is there any chance people are still alive?”

“It is highly
unlikely that anyone on board is still alive. They would need an oxygen supply,
and it is extremely cold at that altitude.”

Mark put his
head in his hands as Joanna came around to the front of the television and
asked, “What did they just say?”

No one said
anything to her.

“What did they
say?” Joanna repeated.

Nick glanced at his
mother and then stared at the floor. “They said anyone on board the plane is
dead.”

Joanna shook her
head and returned her attention to the phone. Her voice cracked as she said,
“Pick up the phone, Elly!”

* * *

Following
Belgrade’s instructions, the two men drove the van as far as they could on back
roads and then fought their way on foot through miles of forest over several
hours to locate the gutted, smoldering floatplane. The wing was now in two
pieces, and the right half was angled down with the tip under the water.

The men pushed
the plane into the middle of the lake. One man shot holes in both pontoons. When
it was clear the plane was sinking, the men swam to shore. By the time they changed
clothes, the plane was resting on the bottom of the lake.

Their
instructions had been clear. Get rid of the floatplane so no one would know
where it landed, then find the girl, quickly.

After a short
search, the men found footprints on the shore leading into the forest. They
wasted no time following them.

* * *

Jay stopped at
the top of large hill to look over the valley of thick trees stretching for
miles in every direction. The summer sun cooked the forest, making every breath
like inhaling steam. They’d been hiking for about three hours, and Jay knew they
were making terrible time as they fought with the rocky ground, sharp brush,
and low-hanging tree branches. There was no clear path, and when they weren’t
zigzagging through tight clumps of prickly bushes they were ducking under
branches and climbing over fallen tree trunks. The mosquitoes were thick and
kept Elly busy trying to swat them with her cuffed hands. Jay used his GPS unit
often to make sure they were still heading north. He knew when they left the
valley there would be fewer trees but more rocks and an even more unforgiving
terrain.

At a rocky ledge
too tall to step up onto, Jay scrambled and jumped to catch new handholds and
pulled himself up. He turned to offer his hand to Elly and picked her off the
ground and set her down next to him in one quick motion.

He figured Elly
must be in some kind of shock as she followed him without making a sound.
Whenever he looked back her eyes were on the ground, like she’d been stripped
of any emotion. Even when he offered her water, she said nothing as she took a
drink and handed it back to him. He knew they had to put as much distance
between them and the floatplane as possible, and he hoped she could keep going
for a while.

Jay continued
creating a path where there was none, until they’d reached the valley floor. Jay
could hear the chain on Elly’s handcuffs as she continued to slap at the flies
and mosquitoes. The only communication between them had been grunts if one of
them stumbled and the occasional gasp when the humid air became too much.
Finally Elly broke her silence.

“Hey, my feet
are killing me. I need a break.” Elly flopped down on the ground. Jay watched
her pull at the bloodstained and sweat-soaked T-shirt that clung to her. She
examined the thousand tiny scratches on her arms, then struggled with her
handcuffs to remove the small bottle from her pocket, poured two pills into her
hand, and quickly swallowed them.

Jay offered Elly
his water bottle, and she gladly took a big gulp. She handed him the bottle and
then fell back, covering her eyes with her forearm.

“I can’t believe
this is happening,” Elly groaned.

“We’ll make it
out of this,” Jay said.

Elly frowned. “I
can’t stop thinking about Kevin. I hope he’s okay. And I wish I could tell my
family I’m okay. They must be so worried.”

“Right now the only
thing that matters is getting out of here alive,” Jay said. “You need to put anything
else out of your head. Focus on what’s going on right here, right now.”

“I’m going to
fill the canteens,” Jay said. Even while dipping the containers into the peaceful
forest stream and running the cool liquid through his water filter, Jay kept
his rifle at arm’s reach. Just like when he was in Afghanistan, he wouldn’t
leave his M16 for a second with a potential enemy nearby. He also kept Elly,
who remained motionless on the ground, in view.

“Hey, why were
you at the airport?” Elly asked when he returned.

“I was getting
ready to fly out to some property my family owns out here. I was waiting for
the airport controller to show up so I could file my flight plan. Then you
arrived.”

Elly nodded.
“Are we near your property?”

“No.”

“Are we just
hiking blind, or do you know a way out of here?”

“I know the
way.” Jay’s answer was quick and confident, like he intended, but he was
telling only a half-truth. If they headed north, like they had been all day, at
some point they’d get somewhere he would recognize. He’d flown over this area
enough to know they were several days’ hike to the nearest road.

Jay’s handheld
GPS was a stripped-down version without any built-in maps. He’d been marking
the trail every so often, but he had no reference points to know where they
were going; he only knew where they’d been. The latitude and longitude numbers
on the display meant very little when the map he was carrying was well outside
the area they were in. He guessed, from comparing their current latitude on the
GPS to the number on the map, they were twenty to thirty miles south of the
hunting area his family owned.

“Is it far?”
Elly asked.

Jay nodded. “It
is. I’m not worried about where we’re going,” Jay said, as he picked up his
rifle. “I’m worried about who might be following us.”

Elly sat up.
“That plane that flew over us was mine, wasn’t it?”

Jay nodded.
“They know where we landed.”

“You think they
can track us through all of this?”

“We have to
assume they can. I know it’s possible.”

“How do you know
that?”

“Because the Marines
trained me how to do it.”

“You’re a Marine?”

Jay nodded.
“You’re looking at one rough-tough-can’t-get-enough Marine.” For the first time
Jay saw Elly smile, and he noticed that the few freckles she had nicely
highlighted her brown eyes. “How are your feet doing?”

“They’re sore,
but I can keep going.”

“Good. Let’s
move.”

* * *

The Wittenbel
house slowly filled with concerned friends and family, and Nick’s desire to get
the hell out became overwhelming. The last thing he wanted right now was to be
surrounded by a bunch of people. He knew how this was going to end, and he didn’t
want to be around when it did.

Nick’s dad had
been trying to calm his mom, but when news came that the plane had not begun
its descent and had passed over Seattle, she began crying. Despite several
relatives urging Mark and Joanna to go upstairs to get away from the television,
they refused.

An hour later, Nick
stood at the back of the room as the broadcast showed a live map of the plane’s
location 280 miles past Seattle and still heading west. The room had grown
painfully silent, and numbness had spread through Nick, preparing him for what
was inevitable. Elly’s plane would run out of fuel, and the people in the room
would receive confirmation of what Nick already knew. His sister was dead. She
was already dead, and her plane crashing into the ocean wouldn’t change that.
No one could survive 30,000 feet in a plane missing a door. Nick knew some of the
people in the room still hung onto hope, but others, he could tell, already
knew the truth. They were just too polite to point out the obvious.

Nick kept
remembering the last time he saw Elly. It was at their dad’s fiftieth birthday
party, and she was covering her mouth before she ran away crying. He felt a
slight pain develop in his chest that worked its way up to his throat. He hated
himself for what he’d said to her. And now he’d never be able to tell her how
sorry he was for saying it.

“We are getting
reports from the F-16s that the starboard engine on the plane that is believed
to be carrying Elly Wittenbel has shut off,” the news anchor announced. “The
assumption is the plane is now running out of fuel. Hold on …We’ve just learned
the plane has crashed into the Pacific Ocean.”

Joanna collapsed
onto the kitchen floor. “No, no, no! Not my baby! Not my Elly!” Joanna’s
sisters quickly knelt beside her, circling her.

Mark’s phone
slipped out of his hand as he slumped against the pantry, just feet from his
wife, then slid to the floor when his knees buckled. He buried his head in his
arms.

Nick was the
only one in the whole house who wasn’t crying. He turned and walked out the
front door. He stopped when he saw the small crowd gathered on the street in
front of the house. A row of flowers lined the sidewalk, and a TV crew was
parked nearby. A radio from somewhere in the crowd announced that the plane
carrying Elly had crashed, and everyone turned to look at Nick. Many gasped and
covered their mouths as they stared at him.

Nick kept his
face down as he cut across the lawn to his Ford Mustang. He felt all their eyes
following him. The moaning and sobs from the crowd made him move faster. It
reminded him again how Elly had been crying the last time he’d seen her. Nick
knew he was the reason she’d been crying. The crowd watched as he slid into the
driver’s seat and sped off. He was four blocks away when he swore again and
again as he beat his hand on the steering wheel.

* * *

Jay stopped at
the top of a cliff and glanced at his watch. They’d been hiking for about ten
hours, and the sun was nearing the western horizon. Jay spotted a small
clearing below, surrounded by large trees next to a small rushing stream. He
figured it would cost them twenty minutes to go around, but there was no other
way.

“We have to
stop,” Elly said firmly. “I can’t walk any more. This is ridiculous.”

Jay wanted to
put as many miles as possible between them and the floatplane before nightfall,
but the terrain had become more difficult than he expected. Darkness would soon
be their friend, but until then it was foolish to stop.

“Can you make it
another hour?”

“No!” Elly said,
loudly. Jay knew by the annoyed look on her face that it was not up for
discussion. The site down below would at least have good cover.

“Okay. Do you
see that clearing?” Jay pointed. “We’ll set up camp down there. Follow me.”

It took Jay
longer than he’d thought to guide them through the dense brush and trees down
to the clearing. Elly went right to the stream to splash water on her face and
attempt to wash the dirt from her hands before she took another pill.

She lay down in
the tall grass. “I don’t ever want to move again.”

Jay walked over
and unwrapped the bandages from Elly’s feet. She didn’t complain and appeared
to be in too much pain to do it herself. When he finished, he slid Elly over to
the water’s edge and lowered her feet into the stream.