by G. M. Moore
“He was doing something for his godfather. Collecting roots, herbs. I don’t know. Something Indian.”
“Fair enough,” Gustman said. “How did you get from a chance meeting in the woods to the Black Bear Inn?”
Tess smiled lightly. “I wanted an adventure. Cain helped me have one.” And that, she thought, was the full-blown truth.
She looked to her father again. “We were headed home. The next morning, we were coming home.”
Robert O’Brien took a step toward his daughter. “I think that’s—”
“Just one more thing,” Gustman called over his shoulder, stopping the man mid stride. The officer took photos out of the folder in his hand and passed them to Tess.
“Did you see Cain Mathews with any of these men?”
She looked at the photos one by one. She recognized two of the six men pictured as the poachers she had seen days earlier in her meadow. She shook her head and passed the photos back. “No,” she answered. “I didn’t.”
And that, too, was the full-blown truth.
“We’re done here then?” Robert O’Brien asked.
Gustman tucked the photos back in the folder and nodded. “Yes, you can go.”
“Good.” Robert motioned to Tess. “Come on. It’s been a long night.” He turned to the officer as Tess yawned sleepily. “If you need anything else, you know where to find us.”
“Wait,” Tess said, cupping a hand over her mouth. “What about Cain? Is he here? Can I see him before we go?”
Her father started to speak, but Gustman raised a hand as if to say, “I’ve got this.”
“He’s not here, miss. He’s being booked at the Spooner Police Department.”
“What?” she snapped back, sleepiness quickly leaving her. “But he didn’t do any—”
Gustman waved her down. “He’s done plenty, but we won’t be holding him long. You go home. Get some rest. Cain Mathews isn’t your concern any more.”
But he was.
Chapter Nineteen
Tess rose and stretched her lean body upward. She yawned, looking out her bedroom window and into a sunny June morning. She smiled happily, her green eyes sparkling. She had made it to her final day of grounding. Today was Friday—exactly four weeks from the day that she had met Cain Mathews in her meadow and decided to run away. She hadn’t seen Cain since the police escorted them out of the Black Bear Inn that night in Powell. Tomorrow, she would finally be free. And tomorrow, she would find Cain, whether her father liked it or not. Tess sprang off the bed, blond hair flying, eager to start the day and put it far behind her.
The journey to Lost Creek had wrecked the fifteen-year-old both emotionally and physically. It was well past three in the morning when Tess and her father had arrived at their home on Cranberry Drive following her police interrogation. She had collapsed into bed and stayed there for two days. Tess’s father let her take the rest of the week and the long Memorial Day weekend to recuperate before returning to school. During those days, father and daughter had many long talks that Tess had found to be almost as exhausting as canoeing up the Chippewa River had been. But there was a lot that her father wanted and needed to know about Cain and about her newly recovered memory. Tess was happy and eager, for the most part, to share what she could with him. Knowing the truth about the accident and what had happened to her mother and sister seemed to bring peace to him. Tess never really understood how crippled he had been by it all.
It was also over that holiday weekend that Robert O’Brien’s relief and elation at finding his daughter safe and unharmed slowly morphed into hurt and anger. By the time Tess returned to school the following Tuesday, she was more than ready to get out of the house and away from his reproachful stares. The terms of the grounding came then. Except for school, and that was only in session for one more week plus final exams, she could not leave the house. While at home, she could not use any electronic device: no TV, no radio, no computer, no phone, and no iPod. Tess didn’t know what had happened to Cain, but thought if he were in jail, he might have gotten the better deal. Thankfully, her father’s anger had passed now, and he seemed happier and more relaxed than he had ever been.
Tess had to admit that, despite the severe grounding, she was happier too. Even school went better than expected. Tess made no effort to hide her scar now. She dressed differently, wore her hair differently, and carried herself differently. She was more than ready for the stares, the pointing, and the whispers when she stepped onto the grounds of Northwoods High School that May morning. She got all of that and more but not because of the scar, as she had expected. Tess was now “the girl who ran away with Cain Mathews,” and with that came gossip and speculation about what exactly had happened out in those woods. The attention she received from her friends and peers was a mixture of awe, curiosity, jealousy, and contempt. Tess figured she now knew what it felt like to be a celebrity, complete with paparazzi. Random students would follow her around campus, sneak up and snap pictures with their cell phones. People she didn’t know and had never seen before greeted her. Some were kind, some not so kind. She took it all in stride, and knew she was able to do so only because of her journey to Lost Creek. It had made her stronger.
During that week before finals Tess had looked for Cain, but if he was at school, she didn’t see him. She asked around and no one knew where he was or what had happened to him. Since she was more or less imprisoned at home and reading was her only form of entertainment, Tess scoured the newspaper daily for information. The arrest of Clyde Thayer, athletic director for the Hayward Community School District, was still making headlines. As were the accidental deaths of decorated Vietnam veteran Rex Thompson and former Hayward high school football star Butch Jenkins. The discovery that the two men were involved in an interstate poaching ring headed by Thayer shocked the area and made the homecoming of missing Spooner teen, Tess O’Brien, back page news. The lone article about her mentioned Cain Mathews just once. That was understandable, Tess thought. Like Officer Gustman had said that night at the Black Bear Inn, there was a lot to sort out.
During Tess’s grounding, or, as she came to think of it, house arrest, Officer Gustman had stopped by to see how she was doing. Tess had to restrain herself from peppering the officer with questions about Cain. She figured the more she talked, the more likely it was that she’d slip up and say something she shouldn’t. She definitely didn’t want to cross the Ojibwe Midewiwin. None of the newspaper articles that she had read mentioned Lost Creek or the elusive albino herd, and she was certain that Cain’s godfather and the other Mide had something to do with that. They seemed to be more secretive and better connected than the poaching ring had been. Tess decided it was best for her to keep quiet around the officer and was disappointed when he didn’t offer any information about Cain. All he seemed interested in were the two mauled mountain bikers.
Gustman was still suspicious of the men because one of them was Clyde Thayer’s son. But the police couldn’t connect him or the other man to the poaching ring. Except for finger pointing by Clyde Thayer, there was no evidence of it. The two men had stayed and rented bikes on the Lac du Flambeau Indian Reservation, and reports from the reservation indicated the two young men were just out having some fun for a few days. Like they did with Tess and Cain, the police concluded the bikers had nothing to do with the poaching ring, and the fact that they were in the woods near Powell was just a coincidence. More Midewiwin mumbo jumbo, Tess thought.
This morning, determined to make her final day of house arrest go as quickly as possible, Tess decided that after breakfast and her usual morning chores, she’d clean every square inch of her bedroom, including the closet and dresser drawers. Thankfully, the job took her all afternoon. Around 5:00 p.m., she was boxing up items for charity, including a collection of neck scarves that she no longer had a need for, when she heard a car pull into the driveway. Dad must be home, she thought. Then, a few minutes la
ter, she heard another car pull up. Thinking someone was visiting, she excitedly jumped up to run downstairs. Tess laughed at herself. These days she got excited to see just about anyone—the newspaper boy, the mailman, the guy who mowed the lawn next door.
Tess bound down to the kitchen door, stopping short just before opening it. There, in the driveway shaking hands and talking cheerfully with her father, was Cain Mathews. The sight of him took her breath away and the shock of it paralyzed her. His already rugged good looks somehow seemed amplified. She noticed he was more muscular now, and his skin was deeply tanned, which was odd for northern Wisconsin, even in June. His dark brown hair was shorter but still wavy and still framed his hazel eyes perfectly. He wore shorts and a T-shirt with a dressier shirt over it. He had the long sleeves rolled up and was swinging a lanyard full of keys in his hand.
“Tess.” Her dad saw her lurking in the shadows behind the door and beckoned to her. “There you are. I was just about to call for you.” He smiled brightly. “Look who’s here.”
She hesitated before stepping out the door and into full view. Cain’s face lit up, and Tess felt excruciatingly self-conscious under his stare. She was also extremely confused by what she was seeing. Her father and Cain seemed to know each other and were even acting friendly.
“What’s going on?” Tess asked, giving them both a suspicious frown.
Cain looked surprised and turned to her father. “You didn’t tell her?”
“No,” he answered bluntly. “She was grounded.”
“Oh, right.” Cain made an embarrassed face. “Your dad really hooked me up. Did me a huge favor.”
“I don’t understand,” Tess said, smoothing back her hair as she walked closer. “Fixed you up how?”
“You know I missed a court date, right? So it was either juvenile detention or hundreds of hours of community service.” He laughed. “That was a no-brainer. I chose community service. If it weren’t for your dad, I’d still be picking up trash somewhere along Route 70.” His eyes brightened. “He got me in with the Student Conservation Association. I’ve been up on Crystal Mountain helping out with trail maintenance, conservation work. You know,” he shrugged, “that kind of thing. It was awesome, though.”
Awesome? Tess thought. She got house arrest and he got awesome, all because of her dad? How was that fair or even possible? She looked at her father with indignant bewilderment. You are never to see that boy again had come out of his mouth more than once during the last four weeks.
He cleared his throat. “Well, I needed some answers, so I looked up Cain’s godfather. He explained a lot to me.”
Mortified, Tess groaned. “No, Dad. No, you didn’t.”
“Yes,” he said. “I did. My company is a partner with the conservation association, and I was able to pull some strings and get Cain in.” He grabbed Cain’s shoulder. “I got very positive reports back. He did a great job.”
Cain beamed. “Yeah, it was cool. My community service hours are over, but I’m going to keep volunteering all summer.”
Tess nodded and kept nodding, still unsure what to make of it all. The three stood in awkward silence for a moment.
“All right then,” her dad finally said, pointing both forefingers at the two teens. “I’ve got some stuff to do in the house, so I’ll let you two catch up out here.”
Tess cringed at what a geek her dad was being. When he was safely in the house, she gave Cain an apologetic look.
“No worries,” he assured her. “Your dad’s a good guy.”
“I guess,” she said. “I’m glad he could help you, but seriously? Conservation work? That was your punishment? Do you know what torture I’ve been through for the past month?”
Cain chuckled. “No, I don’t, but you can fill me in over dinner. You up for the Friday night fish fry at Track’s?” He nodded to his car, the same sporty silver one with red accents she had seen so many times at school.
Yes was immediately on her lips, and she practically had to choke it back, shaking her head no instead. “My dad won’t let me. Not tonight, probably not ever. Anyway, my grounding’s not over until tomorrow.”
“Just ask him. OK?”
She shrugged. “Fine, but he’ll say no.”
Tess went to the kitchen door, turning back to Cain with a pained look, before opening the screen and calling for her dad.
“Can I go to the fish fry tonight with Cain?” she asked, looking to the floor as she spoke the words and bracing for the scalding lecture sure to follow.
“You’re still grounded technically, but I think that’s doable.”
Tess’s head shot up. “What? I can go?”
“Yes, but just dinner and home.” He reached into his pocket. “You need money, right?”
Tess couldn’t seem to make any words come out of her mouth. She stammered incoherently.
“Well, here’s a twenty, and you better take this, too.”
Her father did something so unexpected then that Tess had to steady herself.
He handed her his cell phone.
Tess’s stomach fluttered as she took the phone from him, and for a brief moment she thought she was actually going to faint. Instead she jumped up and flung her arms around his neck. Then, thinking of Cain standing there, she quickly pulled back.
Her father chuckled. “We’ll look into getting you one of your own next week. Every teenage girl needs a cell phone, I’m told.”
Grinning enthusiastically, Tess mouthed, “I love you, Dad.”
He seemed happily embarrassed and shooed her away with his hand. “Go on then.”
Tess practically pranced over to Cain. He opened the passenger door for her and she climbed in.
Robert O’Brien stood on the back stoop of his home on Cranberry Drive watching the silver car carrying his only daughter and a rebellious teenage boy drive away. An eagle caught his eye as it circled overhead, and somehow he found it in himself to smile.
Also by G.M. Moore
For Middle Grade readers:
The Up North Adventure Series:
Muskie Attack
Ancient Elk Hunt
Snakehead Invasion
