Deadly Mountain Trap, page 34
Levi nodded.
* * *
Jake wandered away and gathered the wood, alarm gathering in him when he didn’t see Levi when he came back.
“Levi?”
Nothing.
“Cassie.”
Nothing.
He couldn’t remember where she’d been, not exactly. The scene reminded him so much of...yesterday? The day before? When they’d found her aunt Mabel’s body and she’d hidden in some fireweed much like this. So much life had been crammed into the time between then and now, and yet this felt oddly like déjà vu.
Was she there, just unseen as she had been at first? Or had something far worse happened?
Levi being gone didn’t bode well.
Jake kept looking around. He glanced at the fireweed, deciding he would try again there in a minute. He’d walk to the river now and make sure Levi hadn’t gone down there, maybe even with Cassie.
He found Levi on the edge of the river, unconscious.
Jake gritted his teeth and bent beside his friend. His heart rate was good. Jake didn’t see any bullet wounds, or any sign of head trauma. So either he’d been hit on the head or possibly drugged. He couldn’t tell which without more assessments and tests, which he couldn’t do out here.
Jake reached down and dragged him farther from the edge of the river. He’d gotten tangled in the branches of a small tree. Otherwise, he might have fallen in entirely. So he’d been...attacked and shoved toward the water? What had made the attacker leave?
Cassie? Could she have been awake enough to help? Jake wasn’t sure. She’d been in bad shape.
He glanced at Levi again. Tugged him a little farther from the water.
“I’ll be back. Sorry, buddy.” He pulled Levi’s phone out of his pocket and texted the police department to let them know their approximate location and that Levi needed help. Someone messaged back that they’d be coming.
One problem taken care of. Maybe two if they sent medical help along for Levi. They might come with supplies that could help Cassie too. Jake’s knowledge wasn’t much good without actual tools to put it into practice.
He hurried back to the fireweed.
“Cassie?”
Nothing.
He bent down on his knees, crawled through the bushes, sure she must be there. She’d fallen asleep, he told himself. He was just overlooking her hiding spot, which was good because it meant whoever had attacked Levi would have been unable to find her too.
He searched and searched. Found nothing.
And finally had to ask himself...why had Levi been so close to the river?
Jake had the sick feeling he’d let Cassie down again. This time though, he was going after her.
He ran toward the river, hoping he’d come up with a plan as he went.
* * *
She was so very tired. And cold. She was cold.
Should she be cold, Cassie wondered, if she was hypothermic? She’d always understood hypothermia to be a warm death. Maybe then she wasn’t dying.
At least not from hypothermia. She had many other options, sadly.
She looked across from her in the raft. The big man from earlier had been joined by another man, which was why they’d been able to overpower Levi before he’d even been able to get his weapon out. She’d felt sick as she watched the big one grab him in something like a headlock and then drop him, shoving him toward the water as the other man pushed the raft with himself and Cassie in it out into the river. The big man had jumped in at the last minute and it was just the three of them. The two men had oars and were fighting the current to the other side, where they thought the gold was.
Her aunt. Maybe Levi. Maybe her next. And where was Jake? How many lives would be lost because of some gold? Did people’s greed have no bounds?
It was something she wanted to learn about, if she lived. Why did God create people if they were going to be so messed up? She’d heard Jake mention the phrase free will but it wasn’t something she understood. Maybe she never would.
Please help me get out of here. She tried to pray, but she was so tired. Tears crept into the corners of her eyes and everything in her was still even though the men were yelling at each other, the river seemed to be yelling at all of them, and even the weather was joining in as this morning’s sunshine had been replaced by gathering clouds.
It had been too hot. Now a storm threatened. She could add lightning to the list of threats she was facing.
“Row harder!” the big man yelled at the other.
“I brought you the raft. I’ve done enough to help you, don’t you think?”
“I said row harder!” His rage was growing, Cassie could feel it and it terrified her. She wanted to hide back in her cluster of fireweed, even though that would only be false security. After all, it hadn’t kept her from being discovered earlier. The men had come soon after Jake had left, as if they’d been watching her the whole time.
“Row yourself!” the other yelled.
Cassie watched in horror as the big man hit the other with a paddle, so hard she saw the man’s eyes roll back in his head as his arms flew backward, his body off balance, and then he fell over the backside of the raft into the river.
She looked at his lifeless body, tossing in the water, hitting the rocks, then back at the big man.
“Get his paddle and row.”
Cassie did.
Fighting with terror and determination, she rowed as hard as she could. The river tossed them where it wanted, but eventually they were caught on a rock close enough to the other side that with some maneuvering, the big man was able to lean over and propel them to shore using his paddle as a pole.
“Get out,” he ordered when they’d banged up onto the rocky edge.
Cassie did.
She swallowed hard. Eventually she was going to have to defy him if she wanted to live. His temper was a liability, one she could use against him, if she was smart.
And careful. She’d have to be very careful.
Cassie climbed out, feeling her heart beat in her chest, hard and strong and tired.
She was so very tired.
“Find. The. Treasure.”
Cassie nodded, eyeing the clouds above them. She heard a rumble in the distance. If it rained, their footprints would be destroyed, and any chance of someone like Jake tracking them would be diminished. She couldn’t afford to draw attention to herself enough to mark their trail in any other kind of way though. She’d seen what the big man’s temper could do and she wasn’t about to trigger it unless she could use it to her advantage.
Please let the rain hold off.
The bedtime story in her head, Cassie remembered they’d likely have to cross at least one more river. The story had said rivers. Was there another river? How big would this one be?
She found out before too long. It may have been a branch of the same river, or this may have been the confluence of two, Cassie wasn’t sure. But there was another river, stretching in front of them.
“This time—” the man grabbed her arm again and she tried to hide her shudder “—we are going together.”
Swallowing hard, Cassie nodded and they stepped into the water.
Her mind shouted alarms as they kept stepping deeper and the water crept up and up her legs. Muscle memory remembered falling, the feel of the swirling current pulling at her, throwing her into its swift downstream flow. Her chest tightened and breathing got harder. There was no real danger in crossing the river right now. So far the water was only at her knees. Easily crossed. Not a danger like the last crossing. They were in the middle of the river now, so the chances of it getting deeper were slim.
Help me, God. We can do this. Right? she asked, not expecting an answer, but she felt reassurance settle over her anyway, soul deep, in a way that bolstered her confidence even more.
Then they were out of the river, on rocky ground again.
“What next?” the man asked.
“We go north.”
“And after that?”
“We have to go north first.” Cassie tensed as she said the words, afraid the man would be angry she wouldn’t answer him, but she’d understood all at once that if she gave him all the directions, he’d have no need of her. In order to keep herself useful, she had to leave him needing her.
For now, he seemed satisfied with that answer. Maybe it was the fact that she’d kept her tone soft and hadn’t been forceful, or maybe God had helped her. Either way, Cassie was relieved. The landscape grew more and more treeless as they climbed higher up the mountain than they’d been earlier, winding through alpine tundra. It looked like an area that could have once held a successful gold mine. Cassie walked north, thankful for the survival and navigation classes she’d taken during her high school years.
The next phrase she thought was a directional clue. It had been into the heart of darkness, which she assumed meant some kind of cave. An opening into the mountain of some kind. Maybe even a mining tunnel?
She saw it up ahead, in the distance, but instead of relief at getting them to the right place, Cassie felt fear grip her, hard and unrelenting.
She was about to become superfluous. He’d need her for the directions through the tunnels that she suspected were inside the mountain and that the story referred to when it said left, right, left, left. But after that... Time was running out to make her escape or figure out another plan. Overpowering her captor was out of the question, but there had to be something she could do.
“See the mining tunnel?” Cassie gestured to it.
The man nodded. “It’s in there?” He was breathing heavily, anticipation making him lean toward her in a way that was even more intimidating than before.
Cassie nodded, about to open her mouth to explain the mazes, so he’d know he still needed her. But she wasn’t fast enough. She saw one big fist of his coming against her head and she was unconscious.
* * *
Jake kept the story out as he hiked, like it was a literal map that he could see points on, as he moved ahead. He’d crossed the second river now and was making his way north. Soon, if he’d gone the right way, he should see whatever was described as the heart of darkness.
Was Cassie inside yet, and even more importantly, had her abductor harmed her in any way? They’d want to see the gold before they killed her, at least Jake thought so. But Cassie had seemed terrified, not just hypothermic, when he’d found her. And for her to have braved the river’s current rather than try to overpower her captor, the man must be terrifying. Because Jake knew Cassie, and the woman wasn’t scared of much. That was part of why he loved her.
He walked the trail he felt sure she must have walked just a short while before and wondered if officers had made it to Levi yet. He hoped so. He knew his friend would feel awful when he woke up, but again, that was another reason for Jake to be reminded to take these men who had Cassie seriously. His friend was no easy man to overpower.
So far the rain had held off, for which Jake was thankful, but now he felt drops starting to fall, first on his arms, then on his head as they hit hard enough to feel through the baseball cap he wore.
There. He could barely see a dark spot on the mountainside up ahead, but it was enough to see it was likely the darkness described by the story. He hurried in that direction and came to a cave. Not a cave, a mining entrance. It was cool and dark, many degrees colder than the warmer air outside. Cassie’s hypothermia came back to the forefront of his mind. She was battling more than one enemy and he could help her with neither right now. Jake hated being helpless.
The tunnel was so dark he couldn’t see, and he didn’t want to use a light and give away his presence. Jake stepped out again, back into the light where he could read the story on the paper.
“Left, right, left, left.”
He could remember that. He stepped back into the darkness and crept forward. He put both hands out and decided it felt like a standard kind of mining tunnel, at least from the little he knew about them. It was about two feet wide, maybe less. Just enough for him to walk through, but passing someone would require flattening your body against one wall while they flattened theirs on the other. People were smaller in the 1930s so they’d likely made tunnels to fit how people were built back then. That also explained why he had to stoop a little; his over six-foot frame would have scraped the ceiling if he’d stood at his full height.
He kept going forward, not noticing any place where he had the option to make any turns. The story indicated that there should be some. He’d just begun to wonder if he’d missed them at some juncture when he came to the first option. Straight or left.
Left.
He made the turn, followed a tunnel that felt identical as far as specs to the one he’d just left.
Another juncture, maybe five minutes later. Right.
At the next intersection, there were multiple ways to turn. Straight. Left. Right.
He turned left, remembering the story. And then he could hear voices. They were low, in the distance, but they echoed enough on the walls of the tunnel that he could make out some of the words.
One of the individuals was angry. A man. His voice was low and full, maybe the man who’d nabbed Cassie. Anther voice was higher pitched. Female.
And older. Familiar.
Jake frowned, struggled to place it. He’d heard it somewhere...
He crept closer, mindful of how sound echoed, and tried not to make any noise. He needed surprise on his side if he was going to help Cassie at all.
Even then, their odds weren’t good. But he wasn’t giving up.
Help us, God.
Jake held his breath, and kept walking.
SIXTEEN
Cassie heard them talking well before she opened her eyes. In fact, she kept her eyes shut longer than she should have, listening. Waiting to see what the situation was.
“We should have stayed at the entrance. You took her in before I got here, without my say so, and who knows where we are in this stupid cave. I told you we needed her for the directions!”
The voice was female. Familiar. Cassie kept listening. Then peeked her eyes open the slightest bit.
The man shrugged. “She stayed out longer than I expected.”
“Because you’re an ape who hits harder than you think. Don’t think I didn’t notice that Lowell is gone. I’m assuming you killed him too?” She made a noise of disgust. “Your habit of killing people whose help we still need is infuriating.”
“You asked for my help.”
His tone was growing deeper, more menacing. Cassie remembered the scene earlier, in the raft, and felt herself tensing, though she tried not to let her facial expression change. She was supposed to be unconscious. And she had been when they got into the cave. But she’d woken up after her captor had taken the first left turn. He’d guessed correctly. The next turn he’d gone right. Simple human instinct, to vary your guesses. And he’d guessed right. But the next turn he’d gone right again. That’s when he’d stopped and the woman had found him. From a tracker? She doubted cell phones got signals inside the mountain. Had she been waiting? No, if she’d known how to get there, they wouldn’t have needed Cassie, or her aunt.
She must have been nearby. Or the big man must have stayed with Cassie outside the cave for as long as it took the woman to get there and the woman had followed them without Cassie hearing her voice till now? Cassie had faded in and out, maybe, during the first couple of turns.
So she had a guess as to where they were in relation to the treasure, but she wasn’t sure. That put her at a disadvantage.
Her only current advantage was that they thought she was unconscious. She needed to keep that going as long as possible.
“I asked for your help and so far you’ve only hurt.” The woman’s voice was cold. Unfeeling.
Cassie felt the man’s rage, heard it in the cry he let out, and then a gunshot exploded, its noise reverberating off the walls in an echo of piercing sound.
A huge thud. Cassie’s eyes flew open, found the man in the light from several lamps that were lit nearby. He lay bleeding on the ground, eyes unseeing.
Dead.
A woman stood over him, maybe ten feet from Cassie. They were in a wider spot of the cave, not narrow like most of the passages.
It was the librarian, Mrs. Carpenter.
“Hello, Cassie.”
“You...” She trailed off, hating how stereotypical she sounded, but her thoughts clamored over each other. She couldn’t think. This woman was old. Not that old, but too old to...
To what? Shoot people? Clearly not.
All her preconceived notions about the person she’d been running from were shattered; one of them was lying dead on the floor, bleeding out nearby, the tinny smell of his blood overwhelming her. He had been who she’d pictured when she lay in bed afraid at night. And while she knew she and Jake had seen a man at times, so it might have been the big man, or the man called Lowell, or both as at the library, this woman, from what Cassie had heard in the last few minutes, had been behind it all.
“Why...”
The woman shook her head. “No one should have had to die, Cassie, don’t you see that?” Her voice was prim. Proper as well as aged. She was one of Raven Pass’s citizens who’d been there the longest. Her family, Cassie’s family and a couple of others, they’d been there at the beginning.
“Why, then? You killed my aunt.” She hated the words as she said them, rage threatening her as she realized that physically, she could overtake this woman.
“Don’t do it, dear. You’ll only end up dead, and I still won’t have my treasure, and we will all be unhappy, don’t you see?”
