Kade sat on the edge of his chair. His smile to Bree was encouraging, but she couldn’t take heart from it. Landorf held all the cards right now.
Landorf tied him up. When Mason and Naomi were bound as well, he stepped back with a smirk. “Confused, aren’t you?”
“I’m not,” Bree said. “Not once I saw the band.”
Landorf frowned. “What band?”
Her gaze went to the bird band on his finger. “That one. The number is the same as on Victor’s sudokus. He’s been trying to warn us.”
“Smart lady. At least at figuring out the number.”
Bree pulled at her bonds. “You used Victor.”
Landorf stared at the band, and his fingers traced the engraving. “Florence used Victor to help her with the babies occasionally. He enjoyed being useful, and he loved the babies.”
“Di-did you kill Florence?” Bree had to know the truth.
“Quinn did, and he’s going to pay for it.” Landorf ’s face darkened. “I was going to marry her. He’s planning to double-cross me. He didn’t spare Florence when she got cold feet, but he had no call to change the plans. He’s going to be eliminated, but that’s not your concern right now.”
Bree stared at the cruel face of the man. “How do you know Rob took Davy?”
“I told him,” Kade whispered. “When I called for some of the rangers to help search.”
“My son knows nothing,” Bree said, her voice careful. Her bonds had loosened a bit. Maybe she’d get free yet. But what could she do against Landorf ’s gun? If only she had Samson.
He shrugged. “Even if it’s true, it’s irrelevant now.”
Her loops loosened again. “You arranged for Olivia to be kidnapped to force her father into pulling the mining project out of here.”
His gun came higher. “I always knew you were smart, Bree.” Landorf waved his hand. “My former partner and I have our fingers in much bigger pies. The casinos, politics. My job is the perfect cover for all that.”
“But the mine would have brought too much attention to the area,” Mason put in.
Landorf ’s attention swung to the sheriff. “I feared I might lose my job myself. I couldn’t let that happen.”
A frenzied barking came at the door. Samson! The dog’s barking turned to snarling, and Bree could hear him pawing at the door. Moments later his head was at the window, but he couldn’t break the glass. His barking distracted Landorf for a moment. She tugged at the ropes again and they slid free, allowing her to twist them off.
She sprang to her feet but found Landorf ’s gun trained on her. Her dog was going crazy outside the cabin. Bree itched to let him in, but she didn’t dare move.
“Perfect,” Landorf said. “Wherever the dog is, the boy can’t be far behind, can he? And where the boy is, the father who took him will be found. Let’s go, shall we?” He gestured to her hat and ski mask. “You might want them. I’m not sure how far we’ll have to travel.”
He walked to the stove and scattered the remaining logs, then opened the flue. “Happy freezing, friends. When you’re dead, I’ll stop back and remove the ropes. Everyone will think you froze with no wood.” He grabbed Bree’s arm and dragged her to the door. “Control the dog or I’ll have to shoot him. Understand?”
She nodded. Her gaze went back to her husband. In this wind, the cabin would cool quickly. He strained at his bonds, but Landorf had tied him with four or five loops, and his hands were nearly purple from the tight bonds. He’d never get free. Victor wasn’t even trying. Mason was bound just as securely. Only Naomi seemed to have a chance.
Landorf opened the door, and eighty pounds of furious dog came leaping into the cabin.
“Samson, heel!” Bree said. She snagged him by the collar as he was about to leap at Landorf ’s gun. She could nearly smell the cordite and powder from the barrel when his finger twitched.
The dog settled, though he still bared his teeth at Landorf. “You’d like to eat me, wouldn’t you, dog?” Landorf chuckled. “Tell him to take us to Davy.”
Bree took her dog’s muzzle in her palms and stared into his eyes. “Find Davy, boy. Take me to Davy.” Samson whined, and his tail came up. “Search, Samson. Find Davy.”
Samson dashed into the snow and she followed, conscious of Landorf ’s gun still trained on her back. Landorf left the cabin door open, and the last sight she had of her husband and the others she loved was them sitting at the table with the wind blowing snow in swirls toward them. They’d freeze with no covering and no heat. Very quickly.
“Let’s take the sleds!” Landorf yelled above the wind. He shoved her toward her snowmobile, then hopped on his.
She prayed as she drove behind the dog into the howling storm. The tears nearly froze in her eyes, and she tried to cling to a small seed of hope, though it was impossible to see how they were going to live through this night.
26
QUINN HAD NEVER BEEN SO COLD. WITHOUT THE FIRE going, the cave grew frigid even out of the wind, and black as the deepest sea at night. Davy’s warm body curled on one side of Jenna, and Quinn lay on Davy’s other side so the boy was cocooned by their bodies. At least he was probably comfortable.
The boy slept, his breathing calm and even. Quinn tried to see through the gloom but nothing penetrated their hidey hole. Not a sliver of light glimmered anywhere. He sat up, then wished he hadn’t when a blast of cold air hit his face.
“What’s wrong?” Jenna murmured in the darkness.
“I’m cold.” He lay back down. “It will be morning soon and we can try to get out of here.” He pulled the sleeping bag back around him.
“What are we going to do, Quinn? Who are you really? How did we get to this place?”
“One step at a time, Jenna. Just like everyone does.” He reined in his impatience with her. “I got into a spot of financial difficulty. I was the controller here in Rock Harbor and thought I’d just borrow five hundred dollars from the city. I could pay it back the very next month, I was sure. The next month came and I was a little shorter. Just a little more, I thought. Before I knew it, I’d embezzled fifty thousand dollars.”
“What about the plane crash?” she asked.
He didn’t like to think of that time. “I was about to be arrested for embezzlement. The cop was a friend, someone I’d played cards with, gone fishing with. He showed up at the camp just before we flew home. He wanted to warn me what was coming down, that he’d be showing up with a warrant when he got back.”
“It’s his body they buried?” she asked.
“It has to be, though I don’t remember much beyond coming to and wandering until I found a road. Someone picked me up and took me to the hospital. When I realized who I was and what had happened, I thought Davy was dead. What good would it have done to go back home? Bree and my family would have been disgraced when I was arrested. It was better to just fade away, to take on a new identity.”
His excuses sounded lame to his ears, but he’d made his choice. “Once you start down a road like that, it’s pretty hard to go back. Smuggling was good money, then I met Landorf and we expanded our operation. Casinos, providing babies for adoption, drug running.” He laughed. “A lot more exciting than this backwater.”
Her fingers trailed down his arm. “Power makes a man sexy.”
He pressed his lips to her temple, relishing her warmth. “I can’t wait to get a decent hotel with a pillow-top bed.”
“And a Jacuzzi.”
“And room service.” The sooner he shook the snow of this place off his boots, the better.
“Did you really bury that baby in the snow?”
“She died of tetanus. I hated it, but it was the practical thing to do.”
She shivered. “It’s so cold. How are we going to get out of this?”
His plan seemed juvenile in the cold. “I don’t know,” he said finally. “Landorf wants Davy eliminated. I can’t do that.”
The wind drove needles of snow into her eyes. Bree lost track of time, o
f distance. She couldn’t feel her face, hands, or feet. All she could do was numbly guide the snowmobile up and down the drifts of snow in the black night that was as cold as death. The glow from the GPS on her bike caught her attention. They were over blue—water. She was too cold and disoriented to figure out which lake, but it didn’t matter. Whatever it was, it had frozen over long ago.
Her gaze went back to her dog. He was tiring as he led them on through the drifts. She prayed for Samson, prayed that her husband would find the strength to free himself and the others, prayed that her son would be alive when she found him.
At a mammoth hill, Samson stopped. He began to bark and paw at the hillside. Bree blinked nearly frozen eyes, then dismounted. A hint of pink showed in the east, and she prayed the sun would bring an end to this bitter storm. She dismounted and approached Samson.
So did Landorf. “What’s he doing?”
“He acts like Davy is here.” She trained her flashlight on the monolith looming in front of her. Something seemed “off ” with the landscape. She swept the beam around the immediate area.
And out to where open water rolled a mere fifty feet away.
“We’re on Superior,” she gulped. “The storm surge is starting to break up the ice. The waves are tearing apart the ice volcanoes too.”
Landorf turned with a jerk and his gaze followed the light. He turned back to the structure in front of them. “Why would they be in there?” he asked.
“I think it’s an ice cave,” she said. She joined her dog in digging at the outcropping of ice.
The lake was unpredictable. Solid ice could break apart with no warning when an under-ice wave knocked it apart.
She pounded at the icy wall she believed separated her from her son. “Davy!” The cry burst from her heart.
Landorf shoved her and she fell. “Shut up!”
From her back on the ice, she stared up at him. She heard a sound and craned her neck to see the ice breaking up where the surf stuck it. The water was five feet closer than it had been.
“We’ve got to get them out!” She crawled to the snow and ice and began clawing at the ice again. Samson had never stopped.
“Sam! Mom!”
The distant cry came from inside and was quickly hushed. He was in there! With renewed determination, she dug at the cold stuff barring her from her boy. Sitting on her backside, she kicked at the snow and ice. Again and again. Pain flared in her thighs and shins, in her arches, but she kept striking at where Samson indicated the opening should be.
Just when she was beginning to think it was futile, her right foot went all the way through and up to her knee. She kicked again, and the whole face began to crumble away until the hole was big enough for someone to crawl through.
She scrambled for her flashlight and shined it into the opening. “Davy!” she called.
“Mom, is that you?” His cry rose to a frantic wail. “Let go of me. I want my mommy!”
At the sound of Davy’s voice, Samson dove into the hole. Bree was right behind him. The darkness inside was broken by a flashlight that radiated dim light. The ice cave rose twenty feet in the air. Icicles hung from the ceiling.
Rob held on to her boy, who kicked and screamed to be allowed to come to his mother. Samson began to bark and lunge at Rob’s arm. It was clear the dog didn’t want to bite him, but Samson wanted him to release Davy.
“Attack, Samson!” Bree said, pointing at Rob.
It was all the direction the dog needed. He launched at Rob’s chest, driving his arm away from the boy. Davy was sobbing as he stumbled into his mother’s arms. Bree engulfed him in a hug and held him to her chest. His cheeks were cold, but he was okay.
Samson’s front paws pinned Rob to the ground. Rob thrashed around, trying to get up, but the dog held him in place. She backed away toward the opening. And ran into a hard chest. Landorf.
“What a cozy reunion,” he said, his voice expressionless. “Call off the dog or I’ll shoot him.”
“Samson, release,” she said. “Come here, boy.” She patted her thigh. The dog stepped off Rob and ran to her side. She edged to the sea cave wall to allow Landorf to step closer to Rob. If he moved away from the door, maybe she and Davy could escape.
Her mouth went dry just thinking about the icy water about to engulf them. Very little time remained.
Rob struggled into a seated position, then stood to face the man with the gun. From somewhere, he’d drawn a pistol as well. “Stalemate,” he said. “You’ve double-crossed me for the last time, Landorf.”
The ice beneath their feet shuddered, and Davy looked up at Bree with wide eyes. “We’ve got to out of here,” she said to him. “We’re on Superior and the ice is breaking apart with the storm surge.”
The wind howled through the open door and up the chimney, creating a wind tunnel that quickly cooled the cabin. Kade shuddered with cold, and he knew the others were nearly goners too. Naomi was only half-conscious, and Mason’s color had seeped away. No one knew where they were.
They would die if he didn’t get free. He glanced at Victor, the only one of them who still wore a warm coat. The autistic man seemed to be faring a little better, but he hadn’t even tried to free himself.
“Victor, can you hear me? You’ve got to get yourself free.” Kade’s voice was hoarse from his past efforts to persuade Victor to help them. “Do you want Jenna to die? She’s out there in the storm. We’ve got to go find her.”
He’d tried to tell Victor that Jenna was in trouble and the bad man would shoot her. Maybe the storm would be something Victor could relate to better. “The snow is deep. It’s cold and she needs a coat,” he said. “I think you can get your hands loose if you’ll just try. Then we can find Jenna and help her.”
Victor still didn’t look at Kade, but he began to twist his wrists ever so slightly. He grimaced as though it hurt, and Kade knew the long hours of being tied up had caused the blood to pool in his hands.
“It’s okay, keep trying,” he coaxed. “For Jenna. And Davy. They’re both cold. We have to help them.”
Naomi lifted her head. She licked her lips. “Victor,” she said. “Please help us. We’ll all die if you don’t.”
Victor worried his bonds harder. Then they dropped off his wrists. “You did it, Vic!” Kade said. “Now untie one of us. Naomi first. She’s right beside you, and she wants to go help Davy and Jenna.”
Keeping his head down, Victor flexed his fingers, then slowly stood. Stamping his feet in place, he made no move in Naomi’s direction.
“Help me, Victor,” Naomi whimpered. “I’m so cold. And I have to go to the bathroom.”
Victor’s head came up. “Bathroom,” he repeated.
“You have to go too? Untie me and I’ll take you,” Naomi said.
Victor stooped over her and began to work the ropes on her hands. Kade glanced around. A knife would be faster, but he saw nothing that would cut their bonds. He had a knife in his pocket, though he doubted Victor could be talked into getting it out.
The autistic man grunted and labored over the rope, but it was several minutes before he had Naomi free. She quickly untied her feet, then ran to the door and slammed it. The cold wind stopped its rampage through the cabin.
“Bathroom,” Victor said, grabbing at her hand.
She glanced around. “There,” she said, pointing to a closed door.
“I’ve got a knife in my pocket,” Kade said. “The right one.” She knelt by his side and fished it out, then opened it. She sawed at his bonds as Victor shuffled to the door.
He returned nearly immediately. He had a tape recorder in his hand. “Bathroom,” he said again, putting the recorder on the table.
“Must have been the bedroom,” she said, still working the knife over the rope. It popped loose and she handed the knife to Kade. “Free Mason while I find the bathroom.” She grabbed Victor’s hand and led him to the other door. “Bingo,” she said. She pushed Victor inside and shut the door.
Hugging hersel
f, she stomped her feet. “I’m so cold.”
Kade had Mason’s hands free in seconds, then knelt to cut the bonds on his ankles. Kade’s teeth were chattering and so were Mason’s. Kade glanced at his watch. “They’ve been gone over half an hour,” he said. “We’re lucky we’re not icicles by now.”
Victor came from the bathroom and Naomi ran in. Kade began to pull on his layers of clothing. “Let’s get out of here and go find my wife,” he said. “Naomi, you get the fire going. I’m going to find Bree and bring her back here. She’ll need a place that’s warm.”
Naomi opened the door and stepped back out. “I want to go with you.”
“No, I need you here with Victor. Keep the fire going. Mason and I will find them.”
“Find them,” Victor echoed. He toyed with the recorder then clicked it on. An eerie scream filled the room.
Kade and Naomi exchanged a long glance. “The windigo,” Kade said. “He played it to scare the Natives.”
“Sick,” she said.
“You stay with Naomi,” Kade said, yanking his ski mask over his head. “We’ll be back soon.”
Mason had his layers on as well, and both men rushed for the door as Naomi began to work with the fire. Kade mounted his sled, then turned on his GPS unit. How would they find her? The sun was beginning to come up, so at least they had a little light. Maybe the wind had spared enough of the trail to follow.
“There!” Mason yelled, pointing to the ground.
Kade saw the faint impressions of sled tracks. “Go slow,” he said. “Make sure we don’t miss any turns.”
Mason nodded and led the way. The tracks turned toward the big lake, and the men followed on their machines. At the edge of the water, Mason stopped his sled. “The ice doesn’t look safe,” he said. “It’s breaking up out there. I can hear it.”
Kade heard it too, the groaning and crackling of Gitche Gumee claiming her own. “The tracks clearly go out there,” he said, pointing. “I don’t see Bree anywhere though.”
Mason stared hard. “Maybe they circled back toward the shore. There’s a trail along the lake. Let’s take that. Maybe we’ll run into them.”
Cry in the Night Page 25
