Ground Zero (18 page)

“We can’t go around punishing people just because someone says they did something. It’s probably true that he took advantage of Katherine, and he most likely deserves whatever fate we want to dish out, but what if it’s not?”

“Shit,” Gilles said succinctly.

“This is so fucked up,” Billy chimed in. “What the hell are we going to do?”

“Well, whatever it is, we can’t leave it up to Chuck to decide what to do with this guy. He’s not blindfolded justice right now. He’ll just be in a blind rage,” Cam said. “For now, let’s figure out how we’re going to catch him tomorrow, and make sure that little security weakness with the river is dealt with. People can’t pass through because of the bridge there, but if Katherine can get a canoe across the property line in the other direction, without triggering a sensor, we need to move those sensors.”

When Chuck came back through her mother’s bedroom, and climbed the stairs to the security room, Cam realized she was going to have another problem.

“Chuck, as hard as this is going to be for you to hear, your daughter is a teenager who is angry and sulking, and there’s a possibility she’s lying about Mike. He might have hurt her feelings, and so she’s saying things that will get him in trouble. She has to know every one of us, and especially you, will be itching to punish Mike for touching her. She might have already been aware of the whole thing with his niece. She might think that saying she was with him because she loves him will keep her from getting into trouble, while still putting him in a world of hurt.

“I’m not saying she is lying. I’m saying there’s a possibility of it. We have no way of knowing the truth right now, so we can’t just go cutting his balls off. There was a reason we had court systems in place. People can lie, and we have to do our best to find out the truth. Right now we don’t have anything like that.”

“I don’t know, Cam. Do you think maybe she was asking for it?” Chuck’s question made her angrier than she could ever remember being.

“I don’t care if she was sitting in his lap and grinding against his cock. She’s fourteen fucking years old. She can’t ask for it at that age. It’s rape. It’s our job as adults to protect teenagers from whatever self-destructive behaviour they exhibit, not take advantage of it. Any man who can’t keep his dick out of a fourteen-year-old girl has no business walking the fucking streets. Would you fuck a girl your daughter’s age?” Her question had him hanging his head.

“Never in a million years.”

“So how can you even ask a dumbass question like that?”

“Isn’t that what everyone else is going to be saying? That she asked for it?”

“Some, maybe, and they can bloody well get their asses the fuck off this farm if they’re going to talk like that. She made some bad choices, and sadly she’s probably going to pay a price for that. If nothing else she’s going to realize the kind of slime that Mike is.

“Anyway, the point is, you can’t be there to bring this guy in. We need to do this without you. It would be like having a doctor operate on their own family. That means no patrol, and no being there at the van for whatever day he might show up. He’s got a bit of a walk to get back here, so it might not be until the day after.

“We need to do this right. This is really serious, and I don’t want to start off on the wrong foot. Maybe we’ll never have to deal with something like this again, but we probably will. If not rape, then theft. Maybe murder, maybe child abuse, or maybe someone beating up their spouse. The more people we get together in a group, the more likely those things will start happening, and even if it’s not one of us, outsiders cause problems, too. Like Mike.”

Chuck was still hanging his head, but he didn’t argue with her. He wasn’t a violent man, and Cam had a feeling he was relieved that the decision wouldn’t be his. That didn’t help her, since she was still stuck with it, except for the fact that she wouldn’t have to fight with Chuck over it. Hopefully that would make things a little bit easier.

They brought everyone together who would be surrounding the van to try to catch Mike, and talked about strategy until everyone agreed that they had planned it as well as possible. There was always the chance something could go wrong, but with input from Chuck and Gilles for the more complicated parts, they managed to settle on a plan that would probably work. As soon as they were finished deciding how best to confine him after he had been caught, Cam went to find Kelly. It wasn’t hard. She was standing outside, staring up at the stars just in front of the ferret building, which also happened to be the building she lived in with her girlfriend.

“Hey Cam. How’s it going? I heard there was some excitement tonight,” she said, obviously wanting to hear some of the details. Cam didn’t blame her. They all had a right to know what was happening.

“Yeah, the guy who was stealing from us managed to jump out of the truck about twenty minutes from here. He had help,” Cam told her, still disgusted with Katherine for that. She filled her in on the rest of the details.

“I actually came over here to ask for your help. Or maybe just your advice. You were a JP when we still had a legal system, and you have some familiarity with our courts. We have two former cops, but they never really had to go to court. Maybe if someone fought a speeding ticket, but that’s about it. Now we’ve got a guy who might have raped a fourteen-year-old girl, so we have to figure out what to do with him once we catch him. Of course, I have no idea what a Justice of the Peace does, or did, so I don’t even know if you can help me.”

“Believe it or not, JPs aren’t that different from judges in Ontario. We just didn’t hear big criminal cases. I used to issue warrants and hear minor cases like by-law and
Highway Traffic Act
violations, as well as deal with bail hearings. True criminal cases were heard by judges, who had to be lawyers. I just needed lots of volunteer experience and a college diploma. So, I can definitely explain to you how the system used to work, and maybe give you some advice on your current problem. Not that I have any real say on things anymore, since I don’t have a provincial government to back me up now, but I’ll help if I can,” Kelly offered.

“How would you feel about being a judge then?” Cam’s question wasn’t a joke. They needed someone to handle this kind of thing, and Kelly was the only one who had a clue what she was doing.

“Well, why don’t we see what sort of system we can come up with? We’re such a small group of people that we’re going to need to take everyone’s opinion into account, but I think you’re doing the right thing by not engaging in some form of vigilante, wild-west justice. I’m sort of surprised, actually. It’s very easy to fall into that trap when you’re talking about the possible sexual assault of a teenage girl. It’s very hard not to want to string the guy up by his testicles.

“I’ll have to set aside my own bias, for that matter, but I had to before, too. As a JP I wasn’t allowed to be politically active once I was appointed. When I started the whole application process, I had no idea how involved it all was. I just wanted to be able to marry two of my friends, but it turned out to be a great thing for me. I enjoyed what I was doing, and there wasn’t as much stress as there would have been as a judge. Not that I could have been one anyway.”

“What about now? Will you have a hard time with hearing these kinds of cases? I don’t think we’re going to have to deal with a lot of this kind of thing, but we also need you to look after the ferrets,” Cam said.

“Cam, I did the JP thing in addition to running my own shelter, with very little volunteer help. The small amount of cases I would need to deal with here on the farm won’t be a problem. We can get more people involved with the ferrets if necessary. Plenty of people here love them, so I don’t think it would be hard to find help. I can also train someone to take over as a JP or judge, for that matter. It’s not like we have to worry about real legal requirements anymore. We’re just trying to set up a fair system so people don’t get hurt.”

With Kelly agreeing to hear cases, Cam felt like they were heading in a good direction. They would need to get a confinement area set up for Mike. One that a fourteen-year-old couldn’t break him out of, of course. And they would have to organize some sort of trial or hearing. That meant everyone on the farm should know about it, and be allowed to attend.

She decided it might be a good idea to have some sort of notice board to announce things like that. It could be used for all kinds of things. Cam’s head was nearly spinning with all the possibilities. She didn’t think she was much of a community-type person, but whether she liked it or not the farm had become exactly that. Eventually people would start having get-togethers, playing sports, having dances. When she realized the sorts of things her mother was going to be coming home to, she started to grin. Her poor mother was going to end up mayor of this crazy town, and Cam knew she would sit back and laugh her ass off when she figured that out.

She was walking around the yard, looking for the best location to confine Mike, as well as for putting up a notice board, when she saw her dad heading toward his cabin. Thankfully he’d come back faster than usual this time, because she had a lot of things to say to him right now, and she’d been hoping to get it out of the way before her mother got home.

“Dad!” Her voice carried across the yard enough for him to hear, though she tried not to be so loud she woke anyone up. Most of the people on the farm still preferred sleeping at night, even though they no longer had to keep a regular schedule other than on their chore days. And now Mitch would be getting up early to deal with the animals.

“Hey, kiddo! How ya doin’?” His casual greeting irritated the crap out of her, considering what she had to discuss with him.

“I saw you with Geraldine, dad. Do you have any idea who she is?”

“What do you mean?” He was trying to be nonchalant, but his face turned ruddy.

“I mean, aside from the fact that you’re obviously fucking a married woman, do you know who her son was?”

“I knew she had a kid, yeah. Of course. She doesn’t like to talk about it, so I haven’t really asked.”

“Jesus, dad. You’re sleeping with the mother of the guy I killed! How can you be so blind that you haven’t figured that out? There are so few people left alive, and his parents are two of those people. It’s not that big a stretch to think that anyone you meet right now could very well be connected to that family. Hell, damn near
everyone
is connected to one another here!”

“She makes me happy, Cam. We’re consenting adults, and it’s not like she can get a divorce, so what else can we do?”

Cam’s jaw just dropped. His complete lack of understanding of the true problem made her wonder if there wasn’t something seriously damaged in his brain.

“You mean you’re getting laid, so what the fuck do you care if she might be a danger to me and everyone else on this farm, don’t you? I was already suspicious because she seemed to be just a little too nice about the whole thing. And now I find out she cheats on her husband. When I saw them together there was absolutely nothing to indicate that they weren’t happily married. I don’t know what she’s been telling you, but it’s probably flat-out bullshit, and you’re probably quite happy to believe it, because you’re getting something out of it.

“I do not need this right now. You’ve been away,
yet again
, and aren’t aware of the fact that we have an escaped rapist on our hands. Now we have to catch him and hold some sort of a trial, because we can’t even be sure what he’s guilty of unless there’s actual proof of his guilt. Now you’re off banging some woman who could very well be another serious problem, but you just don’t give a shit because you’re getting laid.”

Cam could see he was getting angry, but there was also shock on his face when she brought up the rapist.

“Who?”

“Are you asking who got raped, or who did it?”

“Both, I guess,” he said weakly.

“Chuck’s daughter Katherine. A fourteen-year-old girl who thinks she’s in love with a thief and a pervert. The rapist being Mike, of course. That’s assuming you’ve been around here enough to even know who Mike is,” she said angrily.

“Isn’t he the guy you had in the yard yesterday? I thought he was under guard. How the hell did he get his hands on Katherine?”

“She was meeting with him before we caught him, apparently. Or maybe I should say, ‘allegedly,’ since we’re trying to do this whole court thing right. It’s statutory rape, I guess, but no adult male has any business touching Katherine.”

“Disgusting fucker,” her dad said in agreement, which was a huge relief. She really didn’t want to have to kick him off the farm for saying Katherine deserved it.

“Dad, if you don’t stop seeing that woman, we’re going to have a very big problem on our hands,” she said finally, hoping like hell he listened.

17 ~ Information Blackout

They managed a full fourteen hours’ travel toward home on the first day, each of them taking the helm for close to five hours. Ian took the first shift, since he had gone to bed relatively early. Mac woke up after about six hours’ sleep, feeling awake and refreshed, and took the second shift. Neil was awake an hour later, so he kept Ian company, while Mac kept her mind on what she was doing.

As soon as she was done her stint at the helm, however, she went through the steps to shut down the engine and dropped the anchor. She changed into her board shorts and a bikini top, and grabbed some goggles. She wasn’t diving at pressure, so she didn’t need a mask. She just needed to be able to see underwater. Neil followed her to the back of the boat and watched her jump off. When she was done checking the hull, he helped her climb back aboard. By then Ian was standing beside him, holding Bella’s leash while she did her business.

“So? We gonna sink?” Ian asked. He leaned over with a baggie to clean up after Bella.

“Doesn’t look like it so far. It doesn’t look any bigger than it did the first time I went down, and we’re travelling at our top speed, which is supposed to be up to seven or eight knots. I would think the additional stress on the hull would have shown if the crack went beyond the … what did you call it?” Mackenzie asked, looking at Ian for the answer.

“Gelcoat. Of course, the hull is painted, too. It’s not just fibreglass and gelcoat I don’t think, so maybe it’s just the paint that’s cracked. Like I said before, I always took my boat in to the people who actually knew what the hell they were doing, so I can’t really tell you much,” Ian replied. He handed Mac the leash so he could wipe up the rest of Bella’s mess.

“Well, whatever it is, it doesn’t look like we’re riding any lower in the water, and I’m not hearing any pumps going crazy, so it looks like we’ll be fine. Still, it’s always better to be sure. We have zero experience with boats like this, and it scares the crap out of me that something could go wrong. We wouldn’t know what the hell to do,” she said.

“Did you say seven or eight knots? I thought this thing seemed slow. Jesus. You could have taken a regular motorboat and been there and back in a damn day or two. Instead it’ll be more like two or three weeks.”

“Well, Neil and I figured we didn’t want to end up in the middle of one of the Great Lakes with a blown motor or something, and no way to keep going. If we got halfway there, and suddenly blew the motor because of an unknown mechanical issue, we’d have been fucked. We can’t call in the Coast Guard or any sort of rescue. A dinghy isn’t really adequate for a trip of around four or five hundred nautical miles, and swimming or walking weren’t options either. We could have converted a diesel car or truck, and easily done the trip in a day, but we didn’t know what was happening in the cities. We figured a boat would keep us away from any remaining population. What the hell do you want from me? I’m not perfect, ya know.”

“Why the hell not? I certainly am!” Ian’s comment had her laughing. He quite often said stuff like that about himself, but she knew he wasn’t being serious. He was a lot more of a softie than he let on, and his ego often appeared rather dented. Sometimes she felt sorry for men. Particularly those of his generation. He’d grown up in a confusing time where women were supposed to be equal, but men still had to act macho or be told they were women, as though womanhood was synonymous with weakness.

“Okay, cowboy. It’s your turn to fly the bird. I probably didn’t need to purge the oil from the line since it was such a short stop, but I did, so you’ll have to switch it back,” she said, directing her comment at Neil.

“Aye-aye, Captain!” He saluted smartly and headed for the cabin.

“Jackass,” she called after him.

“You two have the strangest relationship,” Ian noted.

“Probably, but it works for us,” Mac said with a shrug. “For the most part anyway. We’re pretty blunt about everything, and yet we almost never argue or fight, so it’s probably best that we don’t rock the boat there.”

“I still can’t get over the fact that you married him after only five days,” Ian said in amazement.

“I know. Totally out of character for me. I mean, when I married Cam’s father I was really young, but we had still been going out for quite a while before we got married. I wasn’t surprised my parents gave permission either. I was only sixteen, but they couldn’t wait to get rid of me I don’t think. Probably thought we should be back in the old days, where girls married at fourteen and started popping out kids at fifteen. Well, my father thought that way anyway. My mother just went along. I was with Mitch for a few years before we got married. Guess it just goes to show,” she said.

“Goes to show what?”

“That it’s not about waiting. It’s about knowing who’s right and going with your gut. Most people ignore the red flags that say someone isn’t right for them for one reason or another. I know I used to. This time everything felt exactly right, even if it felt crazy. Of course, I thought Cam was gonna kill me at first. It was so reckless, and it was the worst possible timing. If I had been wrong about him, it would have been a complete disaster.”

Ian gave her a considering look, but didn’t say anything. They decided to take a look in the galley cabinets to see if there was anything interesting that they could nibble on. Food was kind of Ian’s thing, and they wouldn’t be having a real dinner until Neil stopped the boat for the night. Of course, Ian had to eat pretty frequently to keep his blood sugar as level as possible anyway, and to stretch out his insulin supply, he had to eat very small meals, at least five or six times a day.

There wasn’t a lot, which wasn’t surprising for a boat that might have been docked for a while. It was more surprising that nobody thought of checking out the boats to see if they had any food. There were some dry goods, like rice, pasta, and barley, which would have been a pretty great find, as well as some canned stuff to go with it, like tomato sauce. It was mostly healthy, and would have been very filling. They also found a tall jar of mixed nuts, which was perfect for Ian to snack on between meals. Hopefully it would keep him pretty steady.

“How are you with your insulin now?” she asked him.

“Well, I’m not dead. Without being able to check my sugar with a monitor, it’s not easy to know how much I need to inject myself with. The meal-time insulin is just about to expire, so I’ll be finding out how good your old-fashioned insulin is soon enough. I’ve got a few more months left on the long-acting stuff, which will keep me relatively stable, but once that goes I don’t know what it’ll be like.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry there wasn’t anything I could do about that. In order to make synthetic insulin, I would have needed some sort of reactor thingy, and the long-acting insulin wasn’t even made in North America, so none of the facilities are here, even if we found a way to power them and a person who knew how to operate them. The only way to do it would be to go overseas, and I’m pretty sure that’s beyond my very limited boating skills. Flying a plane is completely out of the question, unless we find someone who’s a pilot. I don’t know anyone who is. Or was.”

“Well, it’s really too bad you can’t solve every damn problem in the world, Mac. We were all really relying on you for that,” Ian teased.

“I have a damn brain. I do my best to use it. Sorry,” she said with a roll of her eyes.

“I’m just teasing you. You know that. You’ve done a hell of a lot as it is, and not just for me either. It seems as if you’ve helped a lot of people. You make a difference. You always have, but especially now.”

“Maybe, but it never feels like it’s enough. I had to watch as the whole world imploded from its own idiocy, knowing what was happening and what it would take to change it. But you can’t force people to do anything to help themselves. They all just wanted to sit in their comfortable homes and watch TV, and what I wanted was to smack the shit out of them for it.

“They paid too high a price for their complacency, but then a lot of other people paid the price who were trying to change things. How many Mozarts did we lose? How many Einsteins? So many people who could have been a huge help rebuilding this world are gone, too. Our very best minds are either dead, or we have no way of finding them and talking to them.”

“It makes no difference now. It can’t be undone,” Ian said flatly. “All you can do is make a difference for the ones who are left. And then there’s me. Who says all the great minds are gone? I’m still here.”

Without thinking about it, they started munching on peanuts and cashews, continuing to talk until the sky began to darken. Only a day and a half, maybe, until they were home again, Mac realized, and she couldn’t wait. She was still going to demand to know what was going on when she got on the radio later on, but there were probably a lot of little details she wouldn’t find out about until she got there.

When it got to where they were turning on the lights, Mac decided it was time to start something for dinner. Spaghetti would be good, she figured. They didn’t eat a lot of pasta at home, since they only had what was in storage. She hadn’t learned to make it yet, so she’d been using what they had pretty sparingly. They had some goat cheese with them that she decided to use for protein. When the pasta was cooked and she’d poured on the sauce that she’d heated up, she crumbled the cheese over their plates. Aside from the goat cheese, it certainly couldn’t be considered anything fancy, but both men ate with flattering enthusiasm.

They had a couple of hours before it would be time to get on the radio, and played a few hands of poker to pass the time. When she saw that it was close to midnight, Mac squeezed out from behind the table.

“Is it that time?” Neil asked.

“Yup. And I’m really looking forward to hearing about what the hell was so important last night, that Cam couldn’t talk to us.”

“You’re not the only one. It’s been a few days since I talked to Billy, too. Hopefully he’s there this time.”

“Think we’d get more answers from him than we would from Cam?”

“I’m not sure, but there’s no sense trying to second-guess the situation. All we can do is talk to them and find out,” Neil said pragmatically.

It took ten minutes before anyone picked up at the radio, and by then Mac was starting to freak out a little bit.

“Hey Mac! How’s it going? John here.”

“John? Where is everyone that’s supposed to be operating this radio? Not that I don’t want to talk to you or anything, but it doesn’t sound like you had your licence to broadcast. Cam and Billy are supposed to be operating this thing, or even Chuck or Gilles. Over.”

“Over? Am I supposed to be saying that? Sorry. Yeah, I really don’t know what I’m doing with this thing. Cam just wanted me to keep an eye on the security monitors, so I’m the only one up here right now. Uh, over.”

Mac and Neil looked at one another, wondering what the hell was going on at the farm if not one of the people who were supposed to be using the radio was actually there to use it.

“John, what the hell is going on there? Over.”

“Not much right now. We’ve got some people out on patrol, keeping an eye out for Mike, but we don’t really expect him to show up until tomorrow. Oh yeah. Over.”

“Who the hell is Mike? Over.”

“Just some guy who showed up and started stealing things. We caught him, which is how we found out who he was, but he got away again. Over.”

“Maybe you’d better explain. From the beginning. Over.”

“I can’t. I don’t really know the whole story. I just know he was tripping the sensors and my dad finally found him. Gilles and Chuck were taking him somewhere to get him away from the farm, but he jumped out of the truck. The only people who know what happened really are Cam, Billy, Chuck, and Gilles, but they’re not here right now. Over.”

“Where are they then? Over.”

“Well, they’re still somewhere on the farm, but I’m not sure where. I’m not seeing them on the monitors. Over.”

“Aren’t they carrying the two-ways we picked up when Neil and I went into town? Over.”

“Yeah, but I’m not allowed to contact them unless it’s an emergency. They’re looking for Mike, and they said the radio might give away their position. You want me to try anyway? I mean, do you really need to talk to them? Over.”

“No. I don’t know what’s going on there, so I won’t put anyone at risk when there isn’t an absolute need for it. When you talk to Cam, you let her know I want her to radio back as soon as she gets in, though. Okay? Over.”

“Yes, ma’am. Over.”

“And John, when you finish a conversation, you say, ‘Over and out,’ alright? Before we sign off, though, is everyone alright? How are the animals doing? Over.”

“Everyone is fine, I think. Nobody’s been hurt, and I don’t think anyone even has a cold. Mitch is doing alright with the animals, but we’re still keeping an eye on him like Cam told us to. Over.”

“Mitch? Who’s Mitch? Over.” Mac had to ask, because she could not quite bring herself to believe it was who she thought it was.

“I thought Cam said you knew him. That he was your ex or whatever. Over.”

“I do have an ex named Mitch. I just didn’t think it could be him. He was still in Hamilton last I heard, so I figured he was dead. Over.” She was mouthing the words, ‘Holy crap,’ at Neil.