Runaway (28 page)

“I sent the others into the woods to look for Maddy and Kristi,” Tommy said.

“Which way?”

Tommy pointed to the west and Jan and Catherine moved toward it immediately.

“But you won’t find Maddy and Kristi there,” he said.

Jan stopped and looked at him. “What do you mean?”

“‘Cause I sent them that way,” he said, pointing to the north.

“You’re a good man, Tommy,” Jan said.

“Who’s Kristi?” Catherine said.

Tommy paused. “She’s Maddy’s friend. She’ll look out for her.”

Catherine and Jan headed north.

*

As they moved as fast as they could through the woods, the feeling of strangling familiarity washed over Jan again. It was as if they were in an Amazonian forest, the cloying heat and humidity making it hard for her to breathe, rather than a backwoods forest in crisp, dry air. She pulled at the collar of her shirt, felt herself gasping a little for air.

She tried to concentrate on tracking the two girls. Her tracking skills were excellent, even after all these years, for she depended on them when she hunted as a girl and had been taught by the best tracker she could ever imagine, her father. When they entered the woods, she began to pick up the broken twigs and trampled undergrowth that kept them on pace behind Maddy and Kristi. But each step brought her into more intense rebellion, as if her body was trying to keep her from going forward. She stopped for a moment to catch her breath.

“What’s the matter?” Catherine said. She put a hand to Jan’s face. “Are you ill?”

Jan stepped away, trying to shake off the feeling as well as Catherine’s concern.

“I’m fine. Just trying to keep us on their trail. I’m not entirely sure we’re still behind them.”

She thought they were, but it was impossible to know. She looked around, trying to act as if searching for trail markers was the reason she stopped.

“It’s just that you looked a little green for a minute.”

“I said I’m fine.”

“Wait, is this around where your father’s camp is? Is that what’s going on with you?”

Jan’s eyes fell on a fallen tree just to their east and she went to inspect the ground in front of it. “I think they rested here. See how the leaves are moved around?” She walked a few paces farther east, looking at the ground, before turning back to Catherine. “Let’s head this way. I’m pretty sure they changed course”

Jan moved quickly now, drawn by the fresh scent and by something more primal, the same thing that makes a horse pick up its pace when its rider turns toward home. Home, without comfort, without love, without even a bag of oats waiting, still had its pull. Jan hated every step forward, but could not have turned away. Maddy Harrington seemed a secondary part of this journey.

She stopped to check her compass and saw they were heading straight east. The sun was overhead and bright, doing its best to penetrate the treetops. They heard a sound farther east and Catherine pulled Jan down to lay flat on the ground.

“Militia guy about twenty yards on,” she whispered.

They lay perfectly still as the sound of a single person picking his way toward them grew louder. Jan slowly drew her gun from her jacket pocket. Catherine already had hers in her hand. When it seemed that there was only a tree or two between them and the man, he turned away. They heard his steps recede to the north. They lay quietly for another few minutes before sitting up.

“Fuck,” Jan said.

“Who do you think it was?” Catherine asked.

“It’s either someone from the welcoming committee at the ranch, or . . .”

“Or what? You think it’s someone from your father’s camp, don’t you?”

Jan looked Catherine in the eye. “I had a feeling we were somewhere close to it, and now I have more reason to think we are. And I know one way to find out.”

Jan headed east again, softly now, with her eyes straight ahead.

“Clue me in here,” Catherine said. “I don’t like an operation where I don’t have the facts.”

Jan looked back at her. “There used to be an electrified fence around the whole perimeter of the Colonel’s property. Unless he finally gave up on maintaining it, we should be able to see it. I don’t know if Maddy would see it though. If she ran into it, it would give her a pretty good shock.”

“Does it signal anywhere when it’s activated? I mean, would your father know if someone hit the fence?”

“Not when I was here. Maybe he’s gotten more sophisticated since then, but I doubt it.”

They crossed a creek and crept forward another fifty yards before Jan spotted it, the wires of the fence a greenish color and so thin that they’d be easy to miss. They stood and stared at it.

“This is what you had to get past when you ran away. When you were sixteen?”

“Yes.”

“It’s unbelievable. It’s mad, really.”

“I think Maddy’s in there. We have to go in,” Jan said. She said it urgently, as if she thought Catherine needed convincing.

“Of course we do. Let’s find a place to climb and get over the fence.”

Within minutes they had climbed up and over the fence, and Jan was back in her own heart of darkness. She knew the way now. It was all as familiar as her hand, as any home would be.

*

Maddy looked straight ahead as a little girl addressed her solemnly.

“Did you do something bad?” the girl asked.

“No, I didn’t.”

“Because people only have to stand there like that when they do something bad.”

The girl seemed confused, but no more so than Maddy was. A woman came up and shooed the girl away, looking at Maddy and Kristi with disdain before walking away from them. Maddy could see others from the corner of her eye, but she could barely turn her head to get a look at them. When Kristi and Maddy both angled their heads toward each other they could just see the other’s face. Kristi’s was white, as if she’d seen a ghost. Maddy felt like hers must be bright red. She’d never been so mad in her life.

Their heads and hands had been stuck into an old-fashioned set of stocks, planted in the center of the camp so they’d be scorned and mocked by the residents, just like in Puritan days. Behind them was the colonel’s cabin. To their right was the larger building that seemed to be some kind of community house. The women and children congregated there, making occasional forays to stand in front of the stocks and stare at them. A few little boys threw rocks at them, but one of the mothers put a stop to that. Maddy heard her say they “were not that kind of people,” whatever that meant. They were not like any people Maddy had ever heard of.

Straight ahead were the shacks, and she assumed that’s where people slept. There didn’t seem to be any men about, and if they were, they were in with the colonel deciding their fate.

“What the fuck are we going to do?” Kristi said.

“I don’t know. I don’t think these are the guys who know Drecker. I don’t know what they want from us.”

A tall, gangly boy came up to them, holding a long stick. He poked Maddy in the thigh with it.

“Be quiet,” he said. “There’s no talking when you’re in the punishment.”

Maddy had a feeling these stocks got dragged out here with some regularity. “What happens to people from the outside who end up in these things?”

He looked surprised that she had asked him a question. “I don’t know. We’ve never had someone from outside here.”

“I don’t understand. What kind of place is this?”

The boy poked her again. “No questions,” he said, poking her once more. He seemed to want to stay and continue poking, but a woman’s voice called him and he ran away, dropping the stick as he went.

They stood locked in place for what seemed hours, but may have been minutes. Maddy’s feet barely touched the ground, and the strain on her calves was painful. Kristi’s knee hurt and she kept shifting her weight around. They both were sweating, though the air was cool. Eventually, they heard boots approaching from behind and the colonel telling the women and children to get into the cookhouse and stay there. Maddy’s anger started to dissolve into fear.

“I don’t want to fucking die,” Kristi said.

Maddy didn’t either. She watched as the colonel and two of his men gathered in front of them, and the thought that she was about to die lay over her like a shroud. The colonel looked much older in the brighter light. His wrinkles were cavernously deep, his jaw sunken by too many missing teeth. But still, he held his body straight, and had about him the air of someone who was used to being obeyed. His men were behind him, two steps back on either side. He looked squarely at them and spoke in a clear voice.

“We have conducted a tribunal to determine the charges against you and the sentences to be imposed.”

“A tribunal?” Maddy said. “Is that like a kangaroo court?”

The colonel raised his hand as his men stepped toward Maddy. They held back.

“Unless you’d like your gag replaced, you will listen silently as I pass sentence. You’ll have your opportunity to speak.”

A radio crackled and one of the men stepped a few feet away to respond.

“Colonel, B squad is reporting in. They’ve spread out and covered the property. They’ve found nothing. Should I have them come in?”

The colonel looked directly at Maddy and Kristi as he spoke. “They stay out there until I tell them to come in. These two are not acting alone.”

“Yes, sir.”

The colonel took a step closer to the stocks.

“You’ve been found guilty of trespassing and are being charged with espionage,” he said. His voice was cadenced as if he were reading from a grand jury indictment. “You’ll be punished for the first. In regard to the second, we will find out who you’re working with. Now, your punishment for trespassing is twenty-four hours in those stocks. You may end this punishment at any time by telling us who sent you here. If you don’t offer this information within the twenty-four hours, a second tribunal will be held to determine your guilt on the espionage charge.”

Maddy’s neck ached from holding her head up to look at the colonel. But she didn’t want to hang her head in front of him. She looked over at Kristi and saw she’d given up that battle. Her head was hanging, and Maddy thought she was crying. She turned back to the colonel.

“I’m not sure where you got the idea that you have this kind of authority over me, but I’m a citizen of a country that has laws. And procedures. Call the police if you think I’ve done something wrong. This is crazy.”

The colonel held her gaze as he spoke. “Lieutenant, give her an adjustment.”

The lieutenant named Martin marched quickly up to Maddy. She thought she saw the other men wince. Without hesitation, Martin slugged her across the face. Kristi screamed. Maddy’s body slumped as she tried to keep from throwing up. She fought hard to come up through the pain that seemed to drown all five of her senses. When she saw the blood dripping from her nose and mouth, pooling in the dirt beneath her, she started crying too.

*

Jan estimated they had entered the land about midway between the two perimeter guard posts and were now fifty yards or so from the center of the camp. She led the way as quietly as she could. She could barely hear Catherine moving behind her. She turned to her to make sure she was still there, to remind herself that she wasn’t alone. Seeing her there felt almost as surreal as being back in these woods. How had this woman come so fully into her life so quickly? And how the hell did she end up back in the place she risked her life to escape?

Just as she started to speak, Catherine put her finger to her lips and pointed to the north, easing slowly to the ground and pulling Jan down with her.

“Man at nine o’clock, armed.”

Jan looked over and saw a young man about twenty yards away, sitting with his back to a tree and tossing acorns. There were a lot of trees and undergrowth between them. Jan was surprised that Catherine had spotted him. Jan knew the risk was too great to try to ambush him. He’d hear them before they got close enough to jump him and any gunfire would be heard in the camp. They couldn’t move forward for the same reason. They’d have to wait him out and hope he didn’t move their way and spot them.

Jan made a hand gesture that she thought indicated they should stay put. Her PI work had never required this kind of teamwork, this kind of stealth maneuvering. She thought of Catherine in the Middle East, outfoxing opponents more daunting than these and it made her feel both more and less confidant. Catherine, no doubt, knew all kinds of hand signals.

A radio crackled in the silence and they saw the man stand up quickly as he grabbed his radio to respond. The message was unintelligible, but as soon as the transmission ended the guard headed east and was soon out of sight.

“I hope that doesn’t mean they’ve found Maddy,” Catherine whispered.

“That was my thought. If they’ve called everyone back into camp, that will give us a clear passage there. Let’s wait a few minutes in case any more pass this way.”

They lay on their bellies, face-to-face, for another five minutes. Jan kept looking at her watch, and each time she glanced back, Catherine was searching her face.

“What?” Jan said. “Why are you looking at me like that?” She found it annoying.

“I can’t believe you’re so calm,” she said. “What if you actually see your father?”

“I think it’s certain I will. We will. I don’t think this camp would still be here if the old man was dead.”

“Actually, we’re not certain the camp is still there, are we?”

“That guard tells me it is. Normal people don’t have armed guards patrolling their property in the middle of nowhere. Not even here in Idaho.”

“I’m here for you. Just remember that.”

Jan looked at her watch again. “We should go.”

Now individual trees seemed recognizable to Jan, huge fallen trunks that she remembered running and jumping over as a kid, sometimes hiding in. She spotted a tree that had been a favorite for reading her stolen magazines, its massive low-slung branch perfect for nestling in. It looked exactly the same, as if time had indeed stopped here.