Lethal Affair (36 page)

Before stepping onto the trail, Kylie
dropped pieces of bread at the mouth of the opening. The trail was
grown over and she had to plunge through thickets several times to
keep up with Drew's grueling pace, and each time she left crumbles
of bread.

About a half kilometer in they came to
a crude cabin with a log porch. On any other occasion Kylie would
have called it quaint. Instead, it looked like a death
trap.

*

“
There!”

Will pointed at what looked like a toy
boat headed out to sea. “It fits the description. Let's check it
out.”

Cal Sherwood eased the Cessna into a
wide turn and they followed the vessel as it plowed through the
deep blue Pacific water. From above they'd spotted a pod of Orcas,
frolicking sea lions and an eagle with a salmon in its talons. If
this had been a guided tour they would have already gotten their
money's worth. But the splendor of nature was ignored as everyone
had a single-minded purpose.

Dipping low, Cal buzzed the cabin
cruiser.

It wasn't the right one. The captain
waved at them as did his wife and two teenage sons.

His head pounding with mounting
despair, Will dropped his binoculars onto his lap and covered his
face with his hands. They'd been flying for hours, had stopped in
Tofino to fuel up, then taken to the air again. Crane had checked
in saying they'd found an abandoned white van nestled deep inside a
stand of trees. The dogs had picked up Kylie's scent and led them
up a rise to a cliff, then down a muddy embankment to a cove below.
The scent had died there leaving little doubt now that they were
out at sea.

Will felt Lyle's hand on his shoulder
from the back seat, squeezing, comforting. Dino gave a little yip
and whined.

Jolene suddenly gripped Lyle's arm.
Still looking through her own binoculars, “Over there. A boat in
that little cove. Is that a cabin cruiser?”

Quickly Will trained his binoculars on
it. A distance away, it appeared to fit the description just as
this boat had.

In the thick of having caught his
group's sense of urgency, Cal turned the plane in the direction of
the cove.

*

Inside the one room cabin Drew again
used a plastic tie on Kylie, attaching her wrist to a heavy, rustic
wooden chair.

“
Sit. Get comfortable,” he
told her. “It's going to be a great show.”

She wanted to scream, but who would
hear her, and it would only infuriate him. Maybe even incite a
rage. His disposition seemed volatile, shifting between highs and
lows as he hummed to himself.

Drew went to a pot belly stove, opened
its metal door and lit the kindling inside. He fanned it until it
caught, then took a small log from a bin and placed it on top,
closing the door.

Max hovered near Kylie looking
heartrendingly small while maintaining a defiant expression.
Kylie's heart hammered fiercely. She couldn't let Max be a
statistic, a victim! It was why she'd come. How could she stop
Drew, so intent upon his depraved agenda? Despite Max's show of
bravado, his fear was palpable, starkly real, permeating the
air.

Drew thrived on it. This was his
joyride, his big thrill. It was what he now lived for and he
intended to savor each and every bit of it. The air crackled with
their fear, Kylie's eyes glistening with tears that spilled even as
she held her head high. The kid was gripping Kylie's free hand and
his eyes stared hugely with audacious hostility that filled Drew
with a sense of power. It sang and shimmered along his nerves as he
stared at Kylie in fascination, took in her muddied clothing, her
scratched limbs, her frazzled blonde hair. Clearly her panic was
deepening, her chest rising and falling rapidly. A chaotic rhapsody
of ripe emotions.

The whole thing made him
hard.

He decided he'd keep her a while.
Think some more about the baby. But it was time to get rid of the
kid.

“
Come here brat,” he
commanded.

Max didn't budge.

In two strides Drew was upon him, the
hunting knife in his hand. Max cried out as he was lifted into the
air and thrown onto the floor with a resounding thump. Knife held
aloft, Drew laughed like a hyena...

...and Kylie rose, twisted her wrist
around and grabbed the chair with both hands. Raising it high, she
slammed it down over his head and spine.

The knife skittered across the floor
and went under a table as Drew crumpled. Stunned, he landed on top
of Max.

Still attached to the chair and fueled
with adrenaline, Kylie used her free hand to haul Drew off of Max
by the seat of his pants. Max squirmed free and got to his
feet.

“
Run!” she screamed, and for
two seconds Max was frozen. Then he darted for the door and went
out, running at top speed down the trail.

He skidded to a stop.

His child's mind worked hard to
decipher the dilemma that crash landed on his brain. Kylie was
alone with that monster now. Should he go back and help her, or
should he keep going and try to find help? He realized that by the
time he got help it might be too late.

Hesitantly he took a step back. And
then froze again as a black bear lumbered into his path.

*

Cal landed the sea plane without a
hitch and taxied on the water toward the cabin cruiser anchored in
the cove.

The bold words, Sea Hunt, were
blazoned across the hull. How apt, thought Will bitterly. There was
no mistake; this was the name Crane had given him.

“
This is it! If there's
anyone on board they're down below.” Cal cut the engine and floated
them the rest of the way until they were side by side with the
thirty foot cruiser. Will opened his door and hopped onto one of
the aircraft's pontoons, then jumped aboard the cruiser. Lyle
followed, then Kim.

Below deck they found a bucket with
what smelled like urine. The lower bunk was rumpled and covered
with dried mud and the remainder of a loaf of bread crushed inside
its bag as though someone had sat on it.

On deck with Dino, Jolene called out,
“There's a row boat on the shore.”

Kim found a khaki colored child-size
button with a popular brand name embossed onto it. He showed it to
Will. His heart lurched. “From Max's pants,” he
declared.

With renewed vigor Will bounded back
onto deck. He removed his jacket and began to take off his shoes,
intending to jump in the water and swim to shore.

“
Wait,” boomed Cal's voice.
He stood on a pontoon and opened a hatch in the side of the
aircraft. Pulling on a cord, he released a rubber dingy that
instantly inflated. Producing two plastic oars, he handed them to
Will.

“
Standard equipment. Never
know when you'll be lost at sea,” he told him. “Water's bone cold
even though it's late summer. Especially at this depth.”

Will wouldn't have cared. He'd do
anything to save Max and Kylie. Risking hypothermia was the least
of it.

“
Look, if this was my kid
I'd be just as anxious as you are, but hold on just one more
second,” said Cal. He leaned inside the Cessna and came out with a
rifle. “Know how to use this?” he asked Will.

Lyle took it from him. “I do. My old
man's a hunter, showed me the ropes when I was a kid. Is it
loaded?”

“
Not yet.” He handed Lyle a
box of bullets. “Load her up.”

The dingy could only handle three
people at best so they made it to shore in two trips. The group
spread out looking for a trail. The forest loomed, dark and
foreboding despite the washed out sunshine of the day, or maybe
because of it. No visible trails materialized.

By the rocks at one end, Will stepped
on what looked like sponges on the sand. Lumps of bread! Was this a
sign? Seemed to be as he pushed his way through some bushes and
found a narrow trail with more lumps of soggy bread.

He signaled the others with a wave. He
didn't have to tell them how imperative it was that they maintain
silence. One by one they crept through the opening in the
bushes.

As they moved along the trail,
sometimes losing sight of one another, then regrouping, Dino raced
ahead helping Will find more crumbs. Suddenly he let out a few high
pitched yips.

Everyone scrambled after him. Coming
around a bend they were met by the sight of a black bear standing
erect, front paws spread as it bellowed a warning, spittle lining
its lips.

Right in front of the bear stood
Max!

Heedless of the danger, Will surged
forward. He grabbed Max from behind and crushed him to his body,
spun them both around and gave his back to the bear, prepared to
take the brunt of the attack. Dino went ballistic, barking,
snapping at the bear's toes.

A shot rang out.

Lyle loaded another round into the
chamber of the rifle and prepared to kill. He didn't have to. The
bear landed with a thud on all fours and took off into the woods
without a backward glance.

Will knelt and crushed a trembling Max
to his chest, tears of relief streaming down his face.

Max was trying to say something but
his words were muffled. Finally he got through. “Hurry! He's got
Kylie!”

Weak in the knees but quickly
recharging, Will turned Max over to Jolene. “Take him back to the
plane. Don't wait on the shore. Hear me?”

She nodded, took Max's hand and led
him away.

Dino had taken off again. His yips and
barks could be heard a short distance down the trail where the tip
of a roof peaked through the trees.

A blood curdling scream had them all
running toward it.

*

Desperately Kylie tried to smash the
chair to get it off her wrist. It was made from small logs lashed
together with leather straps and would not give.

Drew was dazed but recuperating fast,
sitting up, now on his feet and wavering. He came toward
her.

She tried for the door but didn't make
it as he gripped her from behind and held tight. He cut through the
plastic tie with his pocket knife releasing the chair, then hauled
her backward toward a camp cot in the corner by the pot belly
stove. His voice rumbled in her ear mockingly, “He won't get far.
There's bears in them there woods.”

Kylie squirmed furiously but he held
on tight, then suddenly released her as a rifle shot reverberated
through the forest. All business now and looking around wildly, he
couldn't locate his knife.

Getting to her feet, Kylie screeched
at full volume. Quickly he covered her mouth with his hand. She bit
at his palm and in retaliation he punched her hard in her belly.
Doubling over, what voice she had left came out a whimper as she
staggered, grasping at anything to gain purchase.

Falling hard on her rump, her hand
landed on the bin containing the small logs for the pot belly
stove. At the window, Drew peered out into the forest. Kylie
grabbed a log, scrambled to her feet and came at him just as he
turned back to her. It hit him square across the face, tearing
flesh and breaking teeth. He screeched with pain as she hit him on
his skull, but the log had splintered with the first blow and only
glanced off.

Barking sounded outside, familiar and
filling Kylie with hope. She dropped to her knees as pain burned
through her mid section. The baby! Woozy, her world turned to gray
fuzz. Clinging to coherency, another sharp pain seared her
belly.

She passed out cold.

Just as Will, Lyle and Kim joined a
manic Dino outside the cabin, Drew Hammond staggered out the only
door and onto the path. Blood seeped through his fingers as he
clutched his head.

He saw them at the same time they saw
him. Everyone stopped in their tracks.

“
Easy now,” Lyle cautioned
Will, seeing his friend bristle. He pointed the rifle at Hammond.
“Stop right there. Don't move a muscle.”

To their astonishment, Hammond lowered
his hands and smiled, his two front teeth seriously chipped. He
made a macabre sight as he saluted them with two fingers, then
quick as a lizard dove behind a boulder and out of
sight.

Lyle and Kim took chase while Will ran
into the cabin. Hammond hadn't wasted a second. Taking off deeper
into the woods they heard him crash through underbrush, snapping
off branches and sending down small rock slides as he ran uphill
into the densely treed forestland.

“
Let the cops or rangers or
whoever does this stuff find him,” said Kim. They sprinted into the
cabin.

Will had Kylie on his lap as he ran a
hand over her head and body, looking for wounds. She swooned,
coming back from the edge of darkness.

Kylie's eyes opened, tentatively at
first, then all the way as Will's face came into focus. A sharp
pain cut off her voice as she started to speak. When it passed,
“Max...”

“
He's alright. We have him,”
Will informed her. “What's going on? Where are you
hurt?”