Rocky Mountain Mayhem (26 page)

The “dude, you totally crushed it,” “hammered
it on that kicker” and “that was so dope” conversation was getting
on Vivian’s nerves. Young and carefree she was not tonight. She was
a woman on a mission, and on edge.

With the last sip of her hot chocolate the
Van Halen ringtone started back up. Nelson walked in at the same
time.

Vivian glanced at him and answered on
speakerphone. “Hello?”

“You fucking bitch. Fucking slut. Did you
think I wouldn’t know you’re there with cops?”

“Craig, I—”

“I see your pretty boy just walked in. You
fucking him? You fucking all of them?”

“No,” Vivian tried to interrupt again but was
cut off.

“You set me up, you bitch. It’s over.”

“Craig, just listen, please.”

“Say goodbye, Vivian.” Click.

Vivian’s hand shook as she stared down at her
phone. Tears welled in her eyes.

“He knows you’re here,” Vivian said to him as
he pulled up a chair. “All of you, actually, and he saw you come
in.”

“Stay put.” Nelson hopped up and gave rapid
instructions to Smith and Hayes, who ran out the front door. He sat
down again. “Tell me. All of it.”

Vivian sighed and gave him a rundown of the
last two conversations. “I think he’s lost it. Totally nuts.”

Nelson picked up her phone. “That’s it. We’re
done with this. You’re going home.”

He had pulled up the app screen, and Vivian
knew what he was about to do. She tried to snatch her phone from
him but he was too quick and held it out of reach.

“It’s too dangerous,” he said. “We cannot let
him track you anymore.”

“That is why we need to catch him. I can’t go
home with him out there, somewhere, biding his time to come after
me and he will.” Vivian slapped the table. “I won’t risk something
happening to my children.”

“We’ll set up a security detail at your
house, your children’s day care…”

Vivian stood up and leaned into Nelson’s
face. “No. It has to happen here. You and I both know this is our
best chance.” Vivian grabbed her phone, picked up her purse and
slung it over her shoulder. She ran outside. “Here I am, you
fucker! Come and get me! And your stupid necklace!”

She grabbed the pendant and was about to rip
the chain off her neck when Nelson ran up behind her, grabbed her
arm and pulled her back inside. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

The girls were by the entrance, ready to take
on whatever.

Vivian burst into tears and dropped her
purse, contents skittering across the floor. Wendy and Lucy
scrambled to pick things up with help from a nearby
snowboarder.

Kate hugged her. “It’s going to be okay.”

Nelson stood back while Vivian came unhinged.
Purse contents collected, Wendy went to work finding tissues while
Lucy went to the bar and got Vivian a shot of tequila.

After a few minutes, and the shot, Vivian’s
sobs quieted and her tears stopped. She had needed to vent the fear
and frustration, but now she needed to channel her emotions into
jailing that lunatic.

He’s going down
, she thought just as
Nelson pulled out his car keys.

Addressing Lucy, Wendy and Kate, he said,
“Smith will drive you in Lucy’s car.” He pointed his key at Vivian.
“You’re riding back with me. Let’s go.”

VIVIAN couldn’t remember a quieter car ride.
No music, no conversation,
nada
, the entire way back to The
Ridge. Hayes rode up front and kept the silence as well. She was
glad to be reunited with her friends and fell into a group hug just
inside the front doors. Though she had calmed down, she was still
upset. It felt good to have their support.

They whisked her off to the elevators, Smith
in tow, but Nelson stayed in the lobby. She caught a glimpse of
Shick and Finck in the great room, in front of the fireplace. Finck
gave her a wink.

The girls left Smith in the living area of
the suite, went into the master bedroom and closed the door. They
needed to chat, in private.

“Oh my gosh,” Vivian said as she sat down in
a high-backed chair. “I didn’t mean to go off that much on Agent
Nelson. I was just so pissed.”

“It’s okay, Viv,” Kate said. “It was your
momma bear instincts coming out.”

“He’ll understand,” Wendy said.

Lucy flopped onto the bed. “He’s Mr. Tough
FBI Agent Man. He can take whatever you dish out. Whatever jackass
Craig can throw our way, too.”

Kate paced in front of the balcony doors. “We
need to know what Nelson’s team found out along the river.”

Vivian sighed. “I guess I’ll call him. Nobody
said a word on our ride over.” She started to look around for her
phone. “Actually, I don’t want to call him. Wendy, you have his
number?”

Wendy’s cheeks flushed as she pulled her
phone out of her purse and dialed.

They went back into the living area to wait
for Nelson. Vivian met him at the door.

“I’m sorry for earlier, but I need you to
know how serious I am about catching Craig.”

“Got it,” Nelson said and gestured to the
dining table. “Sit down. We’ll talk.”

Vivian complied. “What did you guys find at
the river?”

“And did y’all find any trace of him earlier
around Breckenridge and Boarders?” Wendy asked, sitting down.

Nelson stood at the head of the table,
gripping the back of a chair. He glanced at all of them before
explaining, “The search for Craig along the river didn’t turn up
much. However, we think we found the spot where he took the shot.”
He let that sink in. “Footprints led to a cliff in Royal Gorge
National Park where we found a wrapper from some beef jerky.

“We made a cast of the footprints and
collected the wrapper as evidence. Motorcycle tracks were found
about half a mile away down the road, and we took casts of those as
well. We can compare them to ones we took near The Ridge.”

“That’s good, right?” Lucy hadn’t fully sat
down and had one knee in a chair.

Nelson ran a hand over his face. “Yes, but
there’s more. We think he took several shots.”

Kate sat next to Vivian, patting her arm, but
stopped. “Several, as in more than two?”

Nelson nodded. Lucy slumped in her seat.

“We found rifle casings on the cliff with the
beef jerky wrappers.”

“Jesus.” Vivian covered her mouth with her
hand.

“How many?” Wendy asked.

“We found four, but I suspect he took more
shots and the casings either fell off the cliff or he picked them
up.”

“Fuck.” Vivian closed her eyes and willed
herself not to cry anymore. She was done with Craig making her cry,
but it was hard. “What about in Breckenridge this evening?”

“While we discussed the situation in the bar,
I had Smith, Shick, Hayes and Finck check the immediate perimeter,
and they couldn’t find any trace of him.”

Vivian let out a big sigh. “He’s vanished
again.”

Nelson continued. “I pulled them in to come
back here with you, but Breckenridge PD is working to canvass the
town and facing mountainside. I also have a team coming in from
Denver, and if there’s something to find, they’ll find it.”

No one had a response to that.

“Any luck tracing the number Craig called
from?” Kate asked.

“Burner phone bought two months ago in Fort
Worth. No other activity on it.”

Vivian fidgeted in her seat. “So he must have
programmed that number and ringtone into my phone while we were
dating. That’s creepy.”

Nelson drummed the chair back. “You can see
why I didn’t want you to bike ride or whitewater raft? Now he has
escalated the violence beyond what we predicted. We don’t know what
he’s capable of.”

Vivian crossed her arms on the table. “I
understand, but I want to do everything possible here in Colorado
to draw him out, set a trap. It scares me to death, but I need this
to be over. I need to know he can’t come back and hurt me or my
family. I’m trusting you to help me with that.”

“I won’t put your life at risk to catch
Craig. No more adventures.”

Vivian stood. “I don’t think you understand.
I will not be held captive here. I will go out, with or without
your permission, with that app enabled on my phone and try to draw
Craig out. I will do everything in my power to keep him from
following me back to Fort Worth.”

Nelson looked her in the eye for a long
moment, then nodded once.

“So what do we do now?” Kate asked.

Nelson pushed back from the table. “For right
now, you four sit tight. I need to make some calls.”

“Have you let Agent Tucker know what’s going
on?” Vivian asked.

“That’s one of the calls I’m going to
make.”

Lucy wrapped her arms around herself and
shivered. “I’m still not warm.”

“Let’s go down to the grotto,” Wendy said.
“I’d love to fully submerge myself in some
warm
water.”

“Yeah,” Kate said.

“Awesome idea,” Vivian said.

They all looked to Nelson for approval.

He nodded. “I’ll send Hayes and Finck down to
check it out. If they feel like there’s no threat, we’ll go.”

“Thank you.” Vivian pushed back her
chair.

“We?” Wendy asked.

“I’ll be on the men’s side of the spa and
checking into the grotto from time to time.”

Her cheeks and chest burned bright red.
“Oh.”

“Will the other two agents be hanging out
with us the whole time?” Kate asked.

“They’ll leave you alone and look like
they’re there separately, but I insist they be in there.”

“They’re cute, I don’t mind,” Lucy said and
went into the bedroom to change.

The girls got ready and met in the living
room. Nelson had already changed into swim trunks and T-shirt,
playing the tourist part. He checked a text message on his phone
and then said, “We’re clear. Let’s go.”

“Ummm, Wade,” Wendy paused before walking to
the door. “Did you have Shick or Finck search our room just now,
before we got back, because the toilet seat in our bathroom was
up.”

Nelson rolled his eyes. “I’ll speak to them
about that.”

“So gross,” Lucy said and walked out the
door.

THE group took the elevator down to the spa,
and Vivian took in a deep breath of whatever that wonderful scent
was. It helped calm her nerves.

“Try to relax, the agents will be around,”
Nelson whispered because Suri was at the front desk.

“Hi, Suri.” Vivian waved. “We’re just going
back to the grotto for a bit.”

“Enjoy yourselves,” she replied.

Vivian opened the door to the grotto and
steam greeted them, full on. Hayes sat on the ledge in the hot tub,
close to the waterfall, and Finck sat in a lounger. The grotto was
otherwise unoccupied, and neither agent looked up or paid them any
attention.

The girls dropped their robes on two loungers
and got into the hot tub quickly. Hayes moved a little farther down
the ledge.

“I think I’m finally defrosting,” Vivian
said. “This feels so good.” She went under for a few seconds,
letting the heat envelope her. When she sprang above water, Hayes
had moved a bit closer. He looked at her, then moved back to where
he had been. Finck pretended to read a
Cycle Sluts
magazine,
but Vivian caught him checking them all out.

She turned her back to him while Lucy opened
a bottle of wine and poured the girls a plastic cup each.

“Here’s to warming up,” Lucy said as she
stepped back into the hot tub.

They cheersed to that.

They sipped their wine and enjoyed the water
for a few minutes, then Lucy waded up next to Hayes and asked, “So
have you ever investigated the mob? Cuz we met this guy on our last
trip, named Al, and we think he might have been in the mob. We
can’t
prove
anything, but he sure disappeared quick when the
policia
showed up.” She touched Hayes’ arm and lowered her
voice. “He was into something with that Shorty, I just know it. Oh,
and Shorty went to jail. They wouldn’t tell us why, but you…you
could probably find out for what and for how long. We rode on his
boat, you know. We thought we might become fish food, but we
didn’t.” She picked at a piece of cork floating in her glass.

“Not my area of investigation,” Hayes said.
“Sounds like one helluva trip, though.”

“Oh, lemme tell ya, Vi—”

Vivian splashed her. “It was an interesting
trip and we met lots of, uhhmmm, charismatic people. Let’s leave it
at that.” She gave Lucy the look.

Nelson popped his head in and looked around.
“Good?”

Vivian nodded. He stole a glance at Wendy,
who was under the waterfall, top on this time. “The spa closes in
10 minutes. You guys ready to head back to the room?”

“Uh, yeah,” Vivian said and walked up the
steps in the hot tub. “To change before we go to the fire pit.
There’s wine to drink and s’mores to be had.”

Nelson walked into the grotto and closed the
door behind him. “I’m not sure that’s the best idea.”

Vivian wrapped herself in a towel.

“I have four,
four
kids who need me.
Their dad’s not an idiot, but the thought of him raising them
without me is too much. You do your job. You do it well, and I know
I’ll be fine.”

He looked at Hayes and Finck who both got up
and walked past him, toward the men’s locker room. “I’ll be waiting
for you in the spa gift shop.”

The girls and Nelson ran up to the room,
dried their hair and layered up. Lucy grabbed their s’mores-making
stuff and two bottles of wine.

“If I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die happy,” Lucy
said, stuffing marshmallows into a bag.

“Great philosophy,” Vivian said, reaching
into the bag and popping a marshmallow into her mouth.

Nelson escorted them downstairs to the fire
pit. He threw a few logs on and sparks flew into the air. Then, he
took the empty chair next to Wendy. Vivian sat with her back to the
great room, Lucy and Kate on either side.