Beyond a Doubt

by Colleen Coble

  Bree’s chest thumped in an uneasy rhythm. “I have a new business to run. We have to eat.”

  “I hardly think Anu would let you two starve. You know I don’t hold with mothers working before their children go to school.”

  Bree stared at him. Did she hear him right? “You can’t be serious,” she said uneasily. “I’m a single mother. I take him to the training center with me every day. The only time he’s away from me is when I’m on an actual search.” Was the doctor trying to make her feel more guilty? Her stomach roiled, and she swallowed.

  “That’s all very well and good, but I hardly think you’re giving him your undivided attention when you’re at the center.”

  Bree clenched her fists together, and her nails bit into the palms of her hands. Dr. Parker was a bit old-fashioned, but he meant well, she told herself. “Most mothers don’t have undivided attention to give. When they’re home, they have housework and other things to attend to,” she pointed out. “I hate to sound argumentative, but I think you’re hardly being fair. I’m doing the best I can.” Her voice shook with anger.

  He shrugged. “You asked my opinion, so I’m giving it. You need to spend more time with him.” He stood, then went to the door and turned. “His next counseling session is next week, isn’t it? I’ll ask Dr. Walton to try to push him just a bit more and see if we can get to the bottom of it. Just think about what I said.”

  As if she would do anything else. Bree followed him into the hallway. She had to provide for her son, and she didn’t want to take charity from Anu. Her mother-in-law had already done more than enough in providing the funding for the search-and-rescue center as well as the job at Nicholls’. Rob had left her a small life insurance policy, but she’d put that aside for Davy’s education. It was possible to use it, but she would only do that as a last resort. Besides, she couldn’t just stay home and cater to him, could she? Was that even the right thing to do?

  She’d always believed children needed to know they were loved, but they needed responsibility too, and to know they had a place in the larger scheme of things. Kids today sometimes seemed to be so privileged that when they grew up they expected life to treat them with kid gloves. Her grandparents’ generation had grown up working on the farm and helping out around the house; they had grown up with the ethics of hard work and responsibility. She and Rob had always wanted to instill the same in Davy.

  Driving toward the library, she explored all possible ways to spend more time with Davy. They could collect rocks and quartz along the shore every Saturday, weather permitting. Sundays they always went to Anu’s for dinner with the family, and it was important to continue that tradition. Evenings they always spent together. Maybe she should get him a puppy of his own to train. That might help him be more a part of the training center.

  Lost in thought, Bree almost didn’t see the blue car until it swerved across the yellow line on Cottage Avenue and came straight at her. The sight of Quentin Siller’s maniacal grin behind the wheel nearly made her scream. She jerked the steering wheel to the right. The Jeep’s tires shrieked, and she fought to keep the vehicle on the street. A glint of blue reminded her that Lake Superior was just over the embankment. She turned the wheel with the skid. The Jeep fishtailed, then finally came to rest in the gravel just inches from the guardrail.

  She turned to check on her son, thanking God he was buckled into his car seat. “You okay?” she croaked.

  He nodded, and she checked Samson, then turned to look for Quentin. She half expected to see him out of the car and coming toward her. He was gone, leaving only the fading glare of his brake lights as he slowed at the stop sign on Jack Pine Lane, then sped out of town.

  16

  Mud sucked at his feet, and he tugged them loose impatiently. The last thing he had time for today was traipsing all over the North Woods. The kid had been a nuisance for too long. Today he intended to end it. One way or another.

  Moisture ran in rivulets through the woods with the melting snowbanks. He hated this time of year. Once the flowers were up, it wasn’t too bad, but he hated being dirty. Bacteria and disease bred in the wet dankness of the woods. Some days he wondered why he stayed around these parts. He should have left here long ago.

  The path ended abruptly at an old mine shaft, one of many that catacombed the worn mountains and hills around Rock Harbor. He’d found this one by accident the summer he turned thirteen. It had become his hideaway, his sanctuary. It galled him to no end that he had to share it today, but he could think of no other good place to meet when the kid had called.

  “You’re late, Hippo man.” The kid stepped from the shadows.

  “I couldn’t get away.” He hated it when the kid called him that. He hid his irritation, then dropped his backpack and wiped the perspiration from his face. “What was so important you had to see me today?” It always surprised him to see the kid. He looked just like his father, and resembled him in more than just looks. They were both too intense for his taste.

  The kid had a half smile on his face that he didn’t trust. He seemed almost . . . euphoric.

  “Let’s get it over with,” he snapped, suddenly impatient with the whole mess. “I have a million things to do back in town. Did you pick up that new shipment last night?”

  “No.”

  “What? I told you if you missed it, we wouldn’t get it at all.” He curled his hands into fists and took a step toward the kid.

  “Do you ever think about what you’re doing?” the kid asked. “I mean, do you ever wake up in the night and worry that the cops are going to catch up with you—or even worse—that God is frowning at what you’re doing? And that he’s angry?”

  “What’s this, a church service? The earful on Sunday mornings is quite enough, thank you very much! Besides, we’re not hurting anyone. We’re just catering to the marketplace.”

  “I used to try to tell myself that too.” The kid nodded sagely as if he held the answer to all the world’s problems.

  “Oh, for Pete’s sake!” The man pulled out a cigar and lit it. The smoke scent curled and mingled with that of pine and moss.

  “My mother says there are angels looking out for us all the time, that I have a guardian angel.” The kid gave a slight smile. “I used to think that was stupid, but not anymore.”

  “I suppose you’re going to start talking about demons next. Or flying saucers.” The man waved his cigar in the air. “The only demons I believe in are the ones on a man’s back when he’s in pain. We drive those demons far away. This is a good deed we’re doing.”

  “I wish I could believe that.”

  Incredibly, the kid’s eyes filled with tears, and his disgust for the boy increased. “Grow up! I’m proud of what we do. You should be too.”

  The kid gave a bark of laughter. “Proud? I think my mom would disagree with you.”

  “What’s your mother got to do with this? She was no saint in her younger days.” If the kid only knew. But looking into the face that seemed suddenly older than its years, he wondered if maybe the kid did know.

  “I wasn’t raised to do this kind of thing. I’ve brought my mom a lot of grief. It’s time I turned over a new leaf.”

  “You’ve already done that. I’ve heard about your visits to the schools, and how you’ve been telling kids to stay off drugs. I thought maybe it was just a cover.”

  The kid shook his head. “A cover? I wish it were that simple.” He pulled out a key and tossed it to him.

  His fingers closed around the cold metal. “You can’t quit.”

  “I just did.”

  “You need me!”

  “Not anymore. I have Jesus.”

  The realization of what the punk was saying stopped him cold. “And I suppose next you think you have to confess.”

  “I’m thinking about it.”

  The kid turned to walk away, and a rage rose inside him that he could not suppress. He yelled in anger and tackled the boy from behind. He gripped the kid’s head between his han
ds and began to pound it against the ground. The earth was too soft to do much damage, but he continued to thump the punk’s head against the grass until he managed to wriggle loose.

  “Stop it!” the kid panted. He heaved the man off his chest and got up. “You’re too old for this. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  Shaking, the man clenched and unclenched his fists. “You’re not going to destroy what I’ve worked nearly thirty years to build. I won’t let you.”

  “I’ll try to leave you out of it. But you’d better lay low for a while.”

  The kid’s look of compassion made the man’s rage spike again. “Don’t do this. I’ll make you sorry you were ever born.”

  “Most days I already was. I had to do something with the guilt that was eating me alive. For the first time in my life, I feel really clean. I’m making a new start with Jesus. You should give him a try yourself.” The boy turned and walked toward the path.

  He wouldn’t give that comment the dignity of an answer. Through narrowed eyes, he watched until the forest swallowed up the kid’s slim form. The punk would get to see his Jesus sooner than he ever imagined.

  Bree was still shaking by the time she reached Anu’s store. Before she got out of the Jeep, she looked both ways down the street. She unbuckled Davy from his car seat and took his hand. Samson followed them into the store.

  Anu’s smile of welcome faded when she saw Bree’s face. “Kulta, what has happened?”

  Davy ran forward. “A car almost crashed into us!” he announced with great drama.

  To her son it had been an adventure. To Bree it had been a terrifying close call.

  Anu opened her mouth, but Bree shook her head and nodded toward Davy. “Davy, Grammy bought you a Dr. Seuss book. It’s in the break room. Why don’t you run and get it? You can turn on the TV in there if you want too.”

  “Cool!” Davy, with Samson in close attendance, went eagerly toward the break room.

  “You must have coffee.” Anu went to the coffeepot and poured two cups. She pulled out a chair near the bakery display for Bree. “Tell me what happened.”

  Bree told her about Siller almost running her off the road. Anu clucked her tongue and grew more sober. “I shall call Mason.”

  “I suppose we’d better.” Bree sipped her coffee while Anu talked to Mason.

  “He’s coming right over,” Anu announced.

  Barely two minutes later Mason came hurrying in the door. He joined the women at the table and took down all the information Bree gave him, then put his notepad away. “I have to find that guy. He keeps slipping through the cracks.”

  “I—I think I might know where he’s hiding,” Bree said. “I should have told you sooner, but things have been so crazy with the wedding and all, and I wasn’t sure it was related.”

  “What?”

  “A friend told me she saw a trunk in one of the cabins the Kitchigami Wilderness Tract owns. The trunk held all kinds of stuff about the Nicholls family, pictures of Anu and me, even some old ones of Rob and Hilary. I think it might be a sign of Quentin’s obsession.”

  “Who told you this?”

  “I’d rather not say. I don’t want to get them in trouble. They shouldn’t have been in the cabin either.”

  Mason frowned. “I need to know, Bree. They might remember more under questioning.”

  “I questioned them pretty thoroughly. And I went out to the cabin. The chest is gone now anyway. But it still tells us where he’s hanging out. That’s why I told you, just so you could check the cabins. Please, don’t make me break a confidence.”

  Mason’s scowl deepened. “I don’t like being kept in the dark about anything.”

  “If I thought this person could help, you know I’d tell you in a minute. But I know she can’t.” Too late Bree realized the telltale she.

  “It’s Lauri, isn’t it?” Mason took out his notepad.

  “Don’t say anything to her, Mason. Please, I’m begging you. She already isn’t sure she can trust me. This would be proof.”

  “I would add my pleas to Bree’s,” Anu said. “I’ve been trying to reach out to Lauri myself. She’s been coming by to learn the old Finnish recipes and seems to be slowly opening up. Don’t ruin it, Mason.”

  “I guess I’m outnumbered,” he said, putting away his notepad. “Okay, for now. But the first sign I get that she might know something to help me nab Sillers, I’ll have to talk to her.”

  “I won’t try to stop you if there’s a chance she can help,” Bree said.

  “I guess that will have to do.” Mason was obviously disgruntled. “Anything else you’re hiding from me? You seem pretty stressed. Is it just Sillers?”

  Bree glanced at Anu. “I took Davy to see Dr. Parker.”

  “He is all right, isn’t he?” Anu asked immediately.

  “Yes, he’s fine. But Dr. Parker thinks I’m not spending enough time with him. He thinks I should quit my search-and-rescue work and be with him all the time.”

  “You’re doing an important job, Bree; don’t ever doubt that,” Mason said. “I know it’s hard after what you and Davy have gone through. But you’ll find your way through it all.”

  “Davy knows he’s loved,” Anu said. “You must not let Max’s words rattle you. I will have a talk with Max.”

  “Don’t do that. I don’t want him to think he has to handle me with kid gloves.”

  “Davy will be all right. Just give him some time,” Anu said.

  Bree noticed her mother-in-law made no promises about not talking to Dr. Parker, and she sighed. The last thing she wanted was for the doctor to think she had enlisted Anu to fight her own battles. Maybe she should call him back and talk to him herself. She was probably making too much of this. It was just his opinion. He was of a different generation, and he had never faced the realities of being a single mom.

  If it weren’t for Rob’s family, she often wondered how she would have managed. Some women didn’t have that support. At least they would never go hungry, and Davy would never go without the essentials of clothing and shoes. She wanted to provide those things for him herself though, and with the training center beginning to take off, she had high hopes of even being able to pay back Anu for her initial investment.

  Not for the first time, she wondered how her life would have been different if Rob had come home from that fishing trip. She feared she still might be in this situation as a single parent, though perhaps Rob would still be alive. Would she have listened to his pleas of innocence, or would she have believed that phone call? It was so hard for her to forgive, to put suspicion aside. She’d inherited that tendency from her mother. But she vowed things would be different for her son. He would be able to trust her word and count on her.

  17

  The whine of the ATV’s engine echoed off the snow-covered slopes of the mountain range to Kade’s left. Yesterday, Wednesday, a report had come in that a series of shots had been fired in the Rock River basin area. As remote as it was, Kade wondered who had even been around to hear the shots. He had to wonder if it was a hoax. Such things were not unheard of. Some people got a malicious pleasure out of sending a park ranger on a wild-goose chase into rough terrain. Some days he wished he’d taken that promotion in California instead of being in charge of park security.

  In another few weeks, he could get onto the trail with his new horse instead of riding this noisy ATV. But right now the machine plowed through the spring mud with little effort. Spring had come nearly a month early this year, a fact no one was complaining about. The day’s mild temperatures held a touch of welcome warmth.

  He paused and shut off the engine. Silence descended in a blanket of calm. Being in the forest was like walking with God. He drew in a deep breath of pure sunshine and fresh air. Life felt good this morning, better than usual. Lauri had actually been acting more herself lately, and that had Kade’s heart singing like the finches in the trees above him. If only it would last. He spotted a flash of yellow and paused to enjoy the sight of a
yellow warbler ruffling its feathers. Smiling, he marked the sighting in his logbook and continued on his way. The songbirds’ return officially marked the return of spring, though patches of snow might not be gone for several weeks.

  Restlessness had plagued him for several months now. At first he’d put it down to cabin fever, but now that spring was here, he was forced to admit it might be something more. Did God want to move him on? If he could take Bree with him, he wouldn’t think twice about packing his things and hightailing it out of Rock Harbor. He’d never intended to settle here. Rock Harbor held too many painful memories.

  Every time he thought of his father, his stomach tightened and the old rage rose like bile in his throat. The Holy Spirit had been pricking him lately about his refusal to forgive his father, but he couldn’t seem to let go of it. He had even spoken the words “I forgive you, Dad,” aloud, hoping that voicing them would cause him to really be able to do it. But in the end, the anger refused to die.

  He took a swig from the canteen on his belt, then started the machine again and drove toward a stand of white pine. The basin lay just over the next rise. It was already nearly ten, and the filtered sunlight reached the forest floor in patterns of shadow and light. Steam rose in places where the sun shone the hottest, though it would be many days before the ensuing mud dried. Black flies would be out in droves soon, a situation Kade was none too eager to see approach.

  Trudging to the top of the hill, he looked down into the basin area. Rock River tumbled in glorious abandon, tossing white-tipped waves onto the rocky shoreline and rushing headlong toward Whetstone Falls. The sound of the falls was a soothing roar in the distance, but Kade knew that closer up the sound could be almost deafening this time of year. The spring runoff caused the waterways to swell and filled the waterfalls that merely trickled much of the rest of the year.

  Kade accelerated the ATV down the slope to the riverside. A huge smile stretched across his face from the exhilaration of the wind. He shut off the engine and dismounted, then walked along the bank, studying the ground and looking for signs of any poaching. This time of year there was no legal hunting of any kind. This was the season when the wild raised its babies, and Kade intended to enforce that law.