“Well, looks like Brad is going to know about us,” I said, more to myself.
Stormy just looked at me. “Is that a bad thing?” she asked.
“No,” I answered immediately. “Everyone always knows my business around here anyway,” I informed her.
And it wasn’t a big deal, I guessed. Especially with Brad. He knew me too well and would see through any lie that I tried to tell anyway.
“I’m sure that Angela filled him in about our dinner. And my truck was gone all night. So, he already knows,” I added, a matter of factly.
Stormy smiled at me. She truly was beautiful. It felt good to have the company, too. I just hoped that I wasn’t repeating a past mistake by getting too close to her. Part of me told myself to stop while I was still ahead. But I wasn’t sure if that was really possible anymore.
I pulled up to my cabin and got out. This time, I did go around and help Stormy out of the truck. Her smile told me that she appreciated the gesture.
I opened the front door of the cabin and Bella came running outside. She was happy to see me, even cried slightly with joy.
“Bella, I’m so sorry that I didn’t come home last night,” I dropped to a knee and apologized to my dog. She wagged her tail at me and licked my hand. Then, she went over and said hello to Stormy. Bella was super easy going and I was grateful for that.
“It looks like she likes you,” I told Stormy as Bella wiggled her butt and danced around her.
“I like her, too,” said Stormy, squatting down to greet Bella, giggling as Bella tried to lick her to death.
“Bella!” I called to her. “Where are your manners?”
“It’s alright; I love animals,” Stormy said. Then she just stopped and looked at me, surprised that she had said that.
Bella looked over at me and said, “Woof.”
Stormy and I both chuckled and we all went inside. I lit a fire to warm up the place and made a pot of coffee. We sat on the couch in front of the fire and sipped on our hot drinks.
Stormy was being really quiet and I hoped that she wasn’t starting to regret what had happened last night.
“Are you okay?” I asked her. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she said at first. I gave her a moment. “I had a dream last night. About those two guys,” she said, looking at me.
“The two hillbillies?” I asked, grinning.
“Yes, the hillbillies.” She finally smiled.
“What about them?” I asked. “Do you remember something?”
“Maybe. I’m not sure,” she paused for a moment. “I think that I saw them doing something. Like something bad. And they saw me and I ran from them.”
“When? Do you know when this happened?” I asked, concerned now. It really did seem like she was having a real memory and I was beginning to worry that these guys had something to do with her accident.
“Recently,” she answered. “I think that I was running from them when I crashed the car. I’m not entirely sure about that though. I don’t remember anything after I started to run.”
“What were you running from? I mean, why were the men chasing you, to begin with?”
She put her hand to her forehead and thought for a minute. The butterfly bandage that the doctor had put on was falling off already. I felt bad for pushing her, but maybe that’s what she needed to start to remember.
She closed her eyes for a moment and then started talking. “I was watching them. They had a rolled up carpet,” she said worriedly. “I think, I’m not sure, but I was taking pictures of them, I think.”
“And, they saw you taking the pictures?” I asked her.
“Yes, the toothless one looked over just as I had snapped a picture of him. I saw him through my lens. Then, they must have chased me because I turned and ran. That’s all I can remember.”
“Can you remember else? Like where you were at? Any landmarks?” I asked.
“No. Everything is white.”
“White? Like snow?”
“Yes, it could be snow. If I was outside that would make sense. But I don’t see anything else besides the snow.”
I decided to not push her any further for now. If she had this one memory prior to her accident, I hoped that she would eventually remember more. Time would tell.
Stormy looked disappointed that she couldn’t remember any more.
“Don’t push yourself. I think that this is a good start. If this part is coming back, everything else will too,” I reassured her.
“I hope so,” she said, still in thought, though. Then she blurted out. “I think that I witnessed a crime. Those two men were up to no good. That’s why they chased me. When they discovered me taking pictures of them, I ran because they didn’t want me to get away with the pictures.”
“Where’s the camera?” I asked her.
“I don’t know. When I came to after the accident, I didn’t see a camera in the SUV,” she replied. “I’m not sure. I wasn’t clear-headed though. Maybe it’s still there and I just didn’t see it,” she suggested.
“Maybe,” I said, thinking about the two men now, and the camera. If they were committing a crime, those pictures were direct evidence of it. What if they were still after Stormy? Now, I started to worry. “Maybe we should go and look for the SUV. See if we can find any clues. Maybe even the camera, if those two men didn’t already find it,” I added.
Stormy was silent for a moment. “I just wish that I could remember more. Do you think that they had a body in that carpet?” she asked me, wide-eyed.
“It’s possible. Why would two men be out in the woods with a rolled up carpet?” I asked her.
She nodded.
“Bella is a good tracker. I trained her as a puppy to be a hunting dog. Can you take us to the SUV?” I asked Stormy.
She sighed.
“I don’t know. You saw that I came through the woods. My tracks are probably covered by the snow by now. I’m not even sure how far I walked before I got here,” she said, shaking her head.
“We can try to go through the woods. Either that or we just drive around on all of the off roads until we find a wrecked SUV. Problem with that is that I don’t know how far you came and I don’t know all the off roads around here. They aren’t mapped. Are there any landmarks that you can remember?”
“Not on the road. But when I was hiking here I followed a point on a distant mountaintop to keep myself going in the same direction. And I had made a camp between some big boulders. My campfire ashes should still be there. If we can head in the right direction and find the camp, maybe we can find the road that is somewhere beyond that.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “You were out there for two days before you reached my cabin. We can’t hike out there for two days. Not in your condition.”
“Well, I got lost for one of the days. I made a big circle. And, I didn’t even start walking until late in the afternoon on the first day. It got dark right after I saw your smoke and I left the road. So it’s probably not as far as we think. Plus, I was hurt, so it was slow going.”
“Alright,” I said. “I have an idea. If you can show me that point on the distant mountainside that you followed to arrive behind my cabin, maybe we won’t have to hike at all. I can look at the map and try and determine where the road is that you wrecked on. I say we try that first.”
“That’s a good idea. Maybe I can see it from here?” Stormy suggested.
We went outside and she faced in what she thought was the right direction, which would be the looking toward the resort as opposed to the back of my house where I had found her.
“There!” Stormy exclaimed after a few moments. “I was looking at that one big bald spot up there. The spot without any snow,” she said pointing.
At first, I couldn’t see what she was referring to, but then I did.
“Okay, I think that I see it. Let’s go back inside and look at a map.”
We went back inside a
nd I unfolded a paper map over the small table in the kitchen. Based on what she had told me about how long it had taken her to walk here and on the direction of the landmark on the mountaintop, I marked several roads and other places where I thought would be good places to look for the wrecked SUV.
It was worth a try anyhow.
“I just hope that those men didn’t find the SUV,” Stormy said.
“I know. Did they have a car? Or the means to follow you?” I asked her.
“I don’t think so. I don’t know for sure, though. Like I said, once I started to run, it’s all a blank. But I’m sure they had something, otherwise how did they get a body, or whatever was in that carpet, up there? ”
“Good point. We’ll go and check it out. It’s early so we can go today if you want to,” I suggested.
“Yes, let’s go,” she agreed.
“I need to talk with my brothers first. I don’t want to alarm you, but if those men were good trackers and they did follow you, they might know you are here.”
Stormy’s eyes got wide with fear. She inhaled sharply. “I hadn’t thought of that,” she cried out.
“You don’t have to be afraid. I won’t let anything happen to you. Just keep your eyes open and be aware that they could know that you are here. And, I need to tell my brothers to do the same. If we can get that camera, we can find out who those guys are.”
“Yea,” she agreed. “That would be good.”
“I’m going to call all of my brothers and tell them to come over so we can talk with them,” I told her, going over to the phone.
Stormy nodded.
***
Brad, Dax, and Harley all showed up about a half of an hour later. I filled them in on Stormy’s story as best as I could, considering the situation.
“Do you really think that going to look for the SUV is the right thing to do?” Brad asked me.
“I’d like to find that camera and check for any clues. When Stormy left the SUV, she wasn’t thinking clearly and maybe left some traces behind. Not only of her identity but of those two men,” I told my brothers.
Dax was nodding. “I think that you should give it a try. If those guys are out there we need to know about it.”
“I agree,” I said.
“Yeah, not only for Stormy’s sake, but because they are too close for comfort, in general. The place that they buried the carpet could turn out to be closer than we think,” Harley added.
“You guys are right,” Brad finally agreed. “The last thing we need is two psychos sneaking around outside of the resort. I’ve got kids. And the guests’ safety is our top priority.”
“Take your gun,” Dax said.
“I will. I’d ask you guys to come, but I can’t take you away from your jobs here. We’ve got too many guests right now,” I replied. “I’ll be fine,” I added when Brad gave me a worried look.
“Yeah, someone would have to be crazy to mess with big Cole,” Harley joked.
“Yep, even though my muscles are bigger, I think that Cole can handle himself,” Dax said grinning.
I smiled. Not this again. “Dax, we’ve been over this. My muscles are the biggest,” I said laughing. “And I think that I proved this by cutting all of that wood in one afternoon,” I added.
I remembered that we had a guest in the room and looked over at Stormy who was giving us all the eye. “You guys argue over whose muscles are bigger?” she asked, smiling slightly at our juvenile behavior.
I could just imagine what she was thinking.
“Yep, they do,” said Harley. “Little do they know that mine are the biggest,” he put in, flexing. “I just let them think that they have the bigger muscles.”
“Guys. Guys. I thought that we agreed at breakfast the other day that mine were the biggest,” Brad chimed in, grinning.
***
I took one of my rifles out of the gun cabinet and loaded it. I added more ammo to my vest pocket, just in case. I made sure that the safety was on and put it into the back seat of the truck cab.
Bella jumped in to sit between Stormy and me and we headed in the direction of the first X on the map. I drove out of the resort and turned on the same mountain road that led down to town, just in the opposite direction. If you followed the road past the resort, it took us up the mountain farther. Nothing was up there except good hunting spots and dirt off-road trails.
I did know some of these trails from hunting up here. My hunting shack wasn’t too far from some of them and I used them to navigate with my quad. Many others of them were made from people quading and snowmobiling and just became ground-in over the years.
When we came to the end of the main road, you could either park and get out and walk, or turn onto several of the trails that started here. I put my truck in 4-wheel drive and turned on the trail at the end of the road. I was hoping that this was the one. Using my compass and landmarks, I tried to keep track of my direction.
As we drove slowly on the trail, it kept turning up the mountainside more and more. As it got steeper, I had my doubts that we were on the right one.
“When you were walking, did the road go up the hill? Or down the hill?” I asked Stormy.
“Neither exactly. Not up like this. I saw that the road did start to rise, but I turned into the woods before it got steeper. While I was hiking through the woods, the ground stayed pretty flat,” she replied.
“Alright. This doesn’t seem right, then. Let’s go back and try the one down the road more. I think that trail might take us down the mountain and it sounds like you were down a little bit more and came up some.”
“Yes, now that I’m seeing the landscape, I think that I was down the mountain more,” she agreed.
We navigated back to the main mountain road and turned on the lower off-road trail. This time, the trail did take us around to the other side of the ridge and slanted downhill some.
“I think this might be the one,” I told Stormy, looking at my compass. “Makes sense that we’d want to be east of the resort.”
“Okay, good,” Stormy replied.
We kept driving over the uneven terrain and eventually came out on a bigger dirt road. I stopped, trying to decide which way to turn.
“Turn right,” Stormy said.
“Okay,” I agreed and turned right.
We drove for a little bit and Stormy looked for any familiar signs. We were coming down the hillside now.
“I think this is where I turned into the woods at,” Stormy exclaimed, pointing to the left.
“How can you tell?” I asked her.
“Because this is where I saw the smoke. I remember thinking that I wasn’t comfortable with leaving the road and I had to make a decision. When I looked up the road, it looked to get steeper, which it does behind us. So, I decided to hike in the woods toward the smoke,” she told me, excitedly looking around.
“Is this the road you crashed on?” I asked her, checking my compass. Her story added up. My cabin was in the direction that she was saying.
“Yes! I think so,” she replied, smiling.
We drove about a mile further down the road and Stormy told me to stop.
“There,” she said, pointing down an embankment. “This is the embankment that I had to climb up to get to the road. I remember how wide the road was here.”
I pulled over and just as she said, there was the wrecked SUV.
“Wow! You are lucky to be alive,” I exclaimed, glancing at Stormy. “Look at that wreck!”
Stormy sighed. “It’s worse than I remember,” she admitted. Tears started to fall from her eyes.
I hated seeing her cry. “It’s okay now,” I reminded her.
“I know. Thanks to you,” she replied.
I reached over and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “You ready to do this?”
“Yes, let’s go.”
11
Lindsay (Stormy)
Wow, Cole had said. And he was right. The SUV wa
s head-on smashed into a huge pine tree. The tree was actually leaning over the SUV, ready to fall on it at any minute. If the vehicle would have hit it any harder, the tree would have fallen and crushed me.
Also, the front end of the SUV was smashed in almost the entire way to the windshield. Again, I should have been crushed to death, but somehow, I wasn’t. I took a deep breath. The sight was incomprehensible and scary.
Cole reached around back and grabbed his gun before getting out of the truck. “I guess we didn’t need Bella’s professional tracking skills after all,” he joked, patting her on the head. “She’s still a good watchdog and will let us know if anyone tries to sneak up on us,” he added.
“I do feel better having Bella here,” I confessed.
“Me too,” Cole agreed. “Let’s go.”
We got out of the truck and Bella took off down the embankment ahead of us as if she knew what we were doing here. Cole held my arm on the way down the rocky and snowy hillside. I slipped twice but his strong arms held me up.
We reached the SUV and the sight was even more alarming close-up. I gave Cole the keys and he struggled to open the passenger’s side door. It was not only all bent up, but frozen shut, as well.
As he was working on the passenger side door, I went around to the driver's side which was still ajar, just as I had left it. I didn’t see any footprints at all. But there was a fresh few inches of snow, so that didn’t mean anything.
I looked into the car but still didn’t see anything different than I had remembered from the last time I was here.
Cole was still struggling with the other door and with one final tug, he managed to yank it open. It creaked loudly, protesting at being pulled from it’s resting place.
Cole climbed inside the SUV and opened the glove compartment. Of course, there was nothing in there. He looked under both visors, in the center console, and inside of the front seats. Then, he checked the passenger side door compartment and began reaching under the driver’s side seat. Nothing.
Beauty and the beard Page 11
