Rocky Mountain Mayhem (31 page)

“There ain’t no tellin’,” Wendy said once
they were out of earshot.

“Any sign of Craig?” Kate asked the party
line.

“Negative,” Nelson said.

They walked past a pond where a busy little
beaver had created the Hoover Dam of beaver dams. Sticks, twigs and
decent-sized logs barricaded a stream, creating beaver
paradise.

“Wonder if Beaver-Snatch from Beaver Liquors
used to live here,” Lucy said and shook her head.

“That thing was so ugly, it’s hard to imagine
him living, much less out here,” Wendy said and tossed a twig on
the dam.

Upstream, patches of snow remained beneath
fir trees and wildflowers grew in an alpine meadow.

Kate stood in awe. “Nature is incredible. And
beavers are nature’s hardest-working architects, especially
considering they use their choppers to cut down their building
materials.”

“Well said,” Nelson beeped in their ears.
“Now get moving to the cabin.”

They rounded a bend and the expanse of
wildflowers continued. Nestled far back in the field underneath a
grove of spruce and fir sat a log cabin, a beaten path leading to
the door.

Vivian looked around the open meadow. “We see
the cabin,” she told the team.

“Clear,” Shick said.

“Proceed,” Nelson answered.

Vivian picked up the pace. The trail
continued past the cabin, farther up the mountain, and she got a
weird vibe. She dismissed it as too much openness but was glad when
Kate reached the cabin.

Lucy stopped in the meadow to pick a handful
of yellow flowers. “Avalanche lilies, my favorite.”

“Quit your pickin’ and pick up the pace,”
Vivian called to her and stepped inside.

Agents Nelson and Shick stood at opposite
ends of the one-room, two-window cabin. Gaps between the logs
provided peepholes and gun muzzle clearance. It also allowed for
ample airflow, which was not what Vivian desired at the moment
since a chill ran up her spine.

“Home, sweet home,” Shick said and swept his
arm around the room.

Nelson took his rifle out of the wall and
repositioned it to the front left window. “Welcome to the Bighorn
Hilton, where skiers, hikers and attempted murderers are
welcome.”

NELSON sure did know how to make a girl feel
welcome. The dank cabin was bad enough, but hearing “attempted
murderer” brought the day back into focus. The hike up had been
nice, but Vivian was here on a mission and this was her last
shot.

“So what do we need to do now that we’re
here?” she asked.

“Sit down and relax. Make sure your cell
phone is on,” Nelson answered, glancing at his watch. “We still
have several hours before dark. I want you to stay here and give
Craig enough time to pin down your location.”

Poking her head out the window, Wendy asked,
“Hayes and Cervantes are out here, right?”

“Yes, and Finck as well,” Nelson said.
“Several Vail PD will come and go on the trails connecting to the
Grand Traverse but will not stop at the cabin.”

“What’s the Grand Traverse?” Vivian asked.
“That trail running up the mountain from here?”

“Yes,” Shick said. “Remember you came up on
the Bighorn Creek Trail, which ends right here. And if you look
through this crack,” he indicated a three-quarter-inch gap in the
logs, “the Grand Traverse Trail picks up from here.”

Nelson went outside to do his periodic
perimeter search. “We need you to stay here for a while. I’ll be
back in 10.”

The girls sat in the dirt and settled in for
the wait. Vivian tossed a small rock in the air she had found lying
on the ground. She grew bored with that and started a game of toss
the rock through a cabin wall crack.

Wendy sat next to Vivian and began to pull
the petals off one of the flowers Lucy had picked.

She barely whispered, “He loves me,” pluck,
“he loves me not,” pluck.

After de-petaling three flowers, Lucy grabbed
the rest of the bunch. “You’re killing my bouquet. Why don’t you
just ask him!”

Wendy shrugged and tossed the stems aside.
Still whispering, she said, “Two out of the three ended with he
didn’t love me, anyway.”

Kate patted her shoulder. “What does your
heart tell you?”

“That he loves me.”

“Flower power,” Vivian said, picking up some
of the pulled petals and tossing them in the air.

“Whew,” Shick said. “Glad that’s
settled!”

Lucy had four flowers left and stuck one in
Vivian’s ponytail, one in Kate’s barrette and one behind her own
ear. She held the last one in front of Wendy. “No more petal
pulling. Stick it, sista.”

Wendy tucked it behind her ear. “For
decoration only.”

“I have to… uh… you know,” Kate said and
stood, crossing her legs.

“Trail pee!” Lucy chimed.

“Yes.”

“I gotta go again, too,” Lucy said, then
looked at Vivian and Wendy. “And you know what they say.”

“What who says?” Wendy asked.

“They.”

“I guess not,” Vivian said. “What do they
say?”

“Go when you can, not when you have to!”

“Sound advice. I’ll go,” Vivian said.

“Me, too.” Wendy stood up.

Nelson opened the door. “I’ve got an escort
on her way up. She’ll take you.”

A minute or so passed until Cervantes walked
up the trail and met them behind the cabin.

“No peeking through the gaps,” Wendy said to
Shick and Nelson before they walked beyond the clearing.

“Yeah, no crack gazing through the cracks!”
Lucy said and laughed.

“And no singing,” Nelson commented.

Cervantes made a fist around her microphone.
“Cover it like this. I’ve peed twice and you didn’t hear me, did
you?”

Vivian had not. She wanted to ask what else
had she covered the microphone for but decided against it.
Cervantes was friendly enough, but the girls didn’t know her that
well. Best not to push it when they needed her covering their back,
literally at the moment. Plus, she had a gun.

Lucy passed out tissue, then the girls got
their business out of the way, without singing, and returned to the
cabin. Nelson peered through a gap, watching the trail leading to
the Grand Traverse, and Shick leaned against the front wall,
watching Cervantes hike down the path.

The girls sat on the floor and leaned against
the back wall. Vivian checked her phone, the signal wasn’t the
strongest, one bar, but it was there.

“So where should we go on our next trip?”
Kate asked.

“Bali. Fiji,” Lucy suggested. “Thailand.”

Kate coughed and Wendy laughed. Vivian gave
Lucy an ‘are you crazy?’ look.

“Okay, maybe not.”

“Spain, Italy and Portugal would be nice,”
Wendy said.

“They sure would,” Vivian said. “But how
about somewhere more affordable? I’m on a budget here.”

“We all are,” Wendy said. “But we can dream,
and one of these days we’ll make it there.”

“What about the Adirondacks in the fall,”
Lucy said.

“You just want to get close to Canada and
Pierre,” Kate teased.

“Vegas!” Vivian said.

“Nah, we’d never get you out of the casinos,
and that would defeat the purpose of traveling to spend time
together,” Wendy said.

“If I’m on a lucky streak, yep!” Vivian
said.

“New Orleans is one of my favorite cities,”
Wendy said.

“That’s a good one,” Kate said.

Lucy interrupted. “My hair does not like New
Orleans. Frizz-a-rama.”

Wendy laughed. “San Francisco and the wine
country?”

Lucy nodded. “That would be a great
trip!”

“How about a dude ranch?” Kate suggested.
“Like on our high school band trips!”

“Ouuueeeeee, ride ’em, cowboy,” Vivian said,
rubbing her hands together. “I could do me a dude. At a ranch.”

Wendy laughed and started to stand. “I don’t
know about y’all, but I’d like to giddy-up outta here about
now.”

Vivian was tired of being cooped up, too, but
disappointed Craig hadn’t showed. “Think we could get out of the
cabin for a bit? Maybe hike up the trail just a short way to the
Grand Traverse?”

Nelson checked his watch and peeped out a
gap. “I’d like you to stay right around here in the clearing, don’t
go up the trail. Pick more flowers or something.” His eyes cut to
Wendy.

Wendy coughed, blushed and reached the door
in three strides. The girls followed, and they all walked to the
middle of the meadow. Vivian covered her mouth and fought to
contain a giggle.

Kate picked a lily and handed it to Wendy. “I
bet this one ends up with ‘he loves you.’ ”

Lucy wandered toward the tree line. “Let’s
move around, warm up our muscles for the hike down.”

Vivian walked in a circle. “I need him to
show. Where is that crazy jerk? Doesn’t he see I’m wearing the damn
necklace?”

“We’ve been on this trail for hours,” Wendy
said, bending to the side, stretching. “If he was going to show, I
expect he would have by now.”

Lucy stopped and turned to face them. “He’s
probably long gone to Mexico or other parts south.”

Kate walked toward the trail leading to the
Grand Traverse. “Maybe he just hasn’t made his presence known.”

“If he doesn’t show, I’m going to have to
learn karate like Karate Kid Kate over there,” Vivian said, arms
raised over her head, right foot up, knee bent at 90 degrees. She
did her best Daniel-san impersonation. “Hiiii-ya!” she said,
kicking her left foot at an imaginary Craig.

“No karate for now,” Nelson said over the
airwaves. “Are you ready to go?”

Vivian was torn but finally said, “Yes, but
I’m going to karate chop every hiker we pass on my way down. Be
prepared.” With that, she did a wax-on, wax-off, ending with
Daniel-san’s memorable knee-up, kick-the-sky move.

THE sun was getting low on the mountain
behind them and the air chillier. Even so, Vivian wiped sweat off
her brow. More and more of her curls had pulled free from her
ponytail and hung in unruly ringlets. Her legs felt pretty good
since the trek was on the downhill, but her knees ached.

“Are we there yet?” Wendy bellowed from the
back of the pack. She’d been complaining more about her ankle in
the past 20 minutes.

“We have a ways to go,” Lucy said. “Do you
need help?”

“Not yet, but crossing that creek again is
going to suck.”

“We’ll just have to cross that bridge then,”
Lucy said.

“If only there was a bridge,” Wendy
moaned.

Music rang out from Vivian’s jacket,
startling her.
Figured I had crap for coverage
, she
thought.

She fumbled with the pocket zipper, yanking
it upward to open, and pulled out her phone.

“Not a number I recognize,” she said.

“Answer it,” Nelson said in her ear.

Wendy, Kate and Lucy were right by her, yet
she hesitated.
What if I don’t want to
?

Then she thought of her kids. Audrey, Lauren,
Olivia, Ben.
They must never be in danger
.

The phone sounded a repeat chorus. She hit
the button.

“Hello?”

No sound on the other end.

The girls stared at her. None of them said a
word.

“Hello?”

“The signs of spring…a bumblebee and a
flower…”

Vivian couldn’t speak. She touched the
pendant and then her ponytail and felt the flower Lucy had put
there not an hour ago. The girls stood by her, no doubt seeing the
fear in her eyes.

“No, don’t take it out.” The words were cold
and deliberate. “I like it.”

She slowly covered the phone and whispered,
her voice shaking. “He can see me. He saw me touch my hair. The
flower.”

“We’re all on our way,” Nelson said. “Don’t
panic. He’s toying with you.”

I’m seriously about to panic
. Vivian’s
heart rate shot up. She uncovered the phone.

“Craig, let’s talk this out.” She turned her
head to the left, searching for any sign of him. Nothing, just
trees.

“You can stop looking, Vivian. You’ll never
find me. I’m invisible.”

She looked the other direction. A large
boulder and more trees. Lucy grabbed her arm.

“Hayes and Cervantes are almost to you,”
Nelson said.

Vivian heard rustling. She knew they were
close. Or was it Craig?

Hayes and Cervantes came into view but
Vivian’s relief was short-lived. Craig dropped out of a tree,
knocking them to the ground. Cervantes struggled to get out from
underneath Craig, and Hayes reached for his weapon. Craig kneed
Hayes in the face, and then with a zap, Cervantes went limp. Hayes
tried to raise his gun, but Craig was too fast. Zap! Hayes twitched
alongside Cervantes.

Craig was dressed in camouflage from head to
toe and had painted his face to match. He smiled at Vivian, white
teeth shining through the dark paint. His eyes were bright green
and wild. Terrifying.

“Run!” Vivian yelled to the girls.

They dashed from the path toward a large
boulder, but Wendy’s ankle gave way and she went down. Lucy reached
to help her.

Craig ran directly toward them.

“Keep going, don’t stop! Go! Go!” Wendy
swatted Lucy off. “RUN!”

Wendy used her good leg to push herself
behind the boulder and watched as Vivian, Kate and Lucy ran through
the trees — zigging, zagging, ducking under limbs. Pain seared
through her ankle and she fought off tears.

She heard someone coming from the other side
of the boulder. There wasn’t time to crawl into the forest and
hide. She couldn’t walk, much less run. Her ankle was busted.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

Gunshots rang through the forest. Agent
Nelson appeared from around the boulder, ducking down, gun drawn.
“Stay down!”

Wendy covered her head with her arms.

Shots pinged off the boulder and Nelson
leaned out from behind it, firing at Craig, who had taken cover in
a clump of trees.