Death Cache

by Tiffinie Helmer

  “Do me a favor and just be open to what could be between the two of you. He might have acted like a dung beetle, but the man is so twisted up with you that he probably can’t digest his food.”

  She scoffed. “Right.”

  “Seriously, babe. Give him another run. He has some explaining to do, but open your heart. He’s a good man, just not a very smart one, regardless of his degrees.” He cocked a grin.

  She didn’t know whether to thank him for his insight or tell him to butt out. Instead she said nothing and copied Lucky’s pose. He started her out with yoga that had her muscles screaming and then into a meditation that had her insides singing.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  A scream tore Tern from a deep sleep.

  She bolted up in bed, glanced over at Nadia’s bunk and found it empty. Throwing back the sleeping bag, she ran barefoot for the door.

  Nadia stood by the cold ashes of the fire pit, bathed in the crimson rays of the insomniac northern sun. Her hand over her mouth, as though ready to vomit.

  Mac rushed out of his cabin, wearing sweats and a t-shirt, rifle at his shoulder ready to shoot something. Robert and Gage hurried to join them, Gage bare-chested and wearing tan cargo pants with the top button undone, and Robert in flannel pajamas dotted with moose.

  “What’s going on here?” Robert asked.

  “Nadia?” Tern inched toward her. Nadia reached out a shaking hand and stepped toward Tern, revealing what her body had been blocking.

  Lucky’s severed head sat on the stump. His pasty face was frozen in shock, his black soulless eyes frozen open. His mouth caught in a silent death scream. “Play or Die” was carved into the flesh of his forehead.

  Tern gasped, her hand coming up to cover her own mouth as tears flooded her eyes. She was not seeing this. She couldn’t comprehend what was before her.

  A raven gave a death caw from its perch high up in a tree before catching flight. Tern shivered.

  “I-I-I found him like t-that.” Nadia’s tortured words turned into a soul-wrenching moan. “Who would have done such a thing?”

  Mac stepped over and laid a hand on Nadia’s shoulder, giving her a push toward Tern. “Take Nadia, and return to your cabin.”

  “No.” Tern wasn’t going to be treated like the little woman to be protected from all that was unpleasant in the world. Though she badly wanted to run screaming from this place.

  Not Lucky.

  Not the sweet man who loved life. How could he be dead? Her eyes had to be playing tricks on her. But how could this be a trick if everyone saw what she was seeing?

  Mac stared at her for a long moment. “I want you to take Nadia and stay back. Understand?”

  Tern gave a jerky nod and took Nadia’s arm. They backed out of the way. Nadia’s muffled moans answered the silent screams of horror inside her head. They wrapped their arms around each other and tried to offer as much comfort as they could in the awful, gruesome reality.

  “I need a camera.” Mac glanced at Robert and Gage. Gage was the first to respond. He silently headed to his cabin. Robert hadn’t moved. He seemed trapped, his eyes large and opened wide, fixated on what remained of Lucky. Gage returned and handed Mac the camera, who methodically took pictures of Lucky from every angle. “We need something to put…store his head in.”

  “The cooler?” Gage suggested. “We can store it in the ice of the glacier and mark it with the GPS for the authorities.”

  “Good idea.” Together they packed the head into the cooler. “Robert?” Mac turned toward Robert. “Robert!”

  He jerked free from his trance. “Yeah, what?”

  “Stay with the women.” Mac handed him a pistol from his waistband, thought better of it and walked over to Tern and offered the weapon to her. “Keep an eye out.”

  Tern tightened her fingers around the butt of the gun and looked around the clearing. She gave a tight nod.

  Gage entered the cabin for his GPS, and then returned to help Mac dispose of what was left of Lucky.

  “Guess his luck finally ran out,” Robert said, watching the men head out of camp.

  “Oh God, you…you bastard.” Nadia hauled off and slapped him.

  That seemed to break the spell Robert had been under. His hand covered his reddening cheek. “Sorry, I deserved that.” He looked around the campsite. “Let’s…uh…return to one of the cabins. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to look at…that anymore.” He pointed to the stump stained in blood.

  Stained with Lucky’s blood.

  Unable to speak over the grief threatening to drown her, Tern led the way to her cabin. Nadia curled up on her bunk into the fetal position while Tern sat at the head of hers and wrapped her arms around her knees. The gun hung in her hand in case she needed to use it. Robert sank onto the foot of her sleeping bag.

  “Who would have done something like that?” he asked under his breath.

  There was no answer to his question. They sat in stunned silence until Mac and Gage returned. Gage sought her out, his eyes echoing the alarm and concern she felt. They all crowded into the small space of the cabin.

  “There’s no question, we leave today,” Mac said.

  “No,” Nadia cried, flying out of her fetal position, swinging her legs off the cot. “Didn’t you read what that…that bastard wrote on L-Lucky’s f-forehead? We can’t leave.”

  “We can’t stay,” Gage said. “Who knows what this guy’s plan is? It would be suicide to stay.”

  Robert nodded. “Lucky was the one who stressed the most that we hike out of here, and now he’s dead.”

  “Before we decide anything, I want to know everyone’s whereabouts during the night,” Mac said.

  They all looked at each other. Nadia was the first to speak. “What? You think one of us did that?”

  “Who was the last to see Lucky alive?” Mac ignored her question, glancing at each of them in turn settling on Nadia. “I thought I saw the two of you sneak down to the lake together.”

  Nadia dropped her gaze to her fingers tearing at the seam of her sleeping bag. “We did. We, uh, made love down by the lake last night.” Her words ended on a gasp, and she covered her face in her hands. “We walked back to camp, and he left me at the door of the cabin. He kissed me g-good-night.” A sob escaped her as her fingers touched her lips. “He was so sweet, so apologetic for me being hurt yesterday. He felt so responsible. Oh, God, I’m going to miss him.” She buried her face in her hands and moaned.

  Tern couldn’t seem to move. The reality of Lucky’s death didn’t seem real. He’d been so full of life, up for anything, and so quick to laugh. She couldn’t believe it was only last night they’d done yoga on the beach while he tried to talk her into giving Gage another chance.

  He’d never climb another mountain, never love again. His chances were over.

  “Where’s the rest of him?” Gage asked, his jaw taut as though he’d leashed his emotions.

  “That’s a morbid question,” Robert scoffed.

  “Yes, and one that needs an answer,” Gage said.

  “You didn’t notice when Lucky returned to your cabin?” Mac asked Gage.

  “No. He wasn’t there when I went to sleep, and I didn’t wake up until I heard Nadia scream. His cot doesn’t appear to have been slept in.”

  “Tern, did you wake when Nadia came in?” Mac asked.

  “Sorry, I was exhausted.” She hadn’t slept the night before and didn’t even remember her head hitting the pillow. She looked at Nadia’s cot. There was no way to tell now if her cot had been slept in or not.

  “What are you implying?” Robert asked Mac. “That one of us had a hand in Lucky’s murder?”

  The word murder sent a frigid wave of fear flowing through Tern. It had been murder. No accident would result in a man’s head severed from his body and words carved into his forehead.

  What kind of nightmare were they living?

  “Either one of us is the murderer or there is someone out there hunting us,” Mac sai
d.

  “I thought we’d already established that someone besides us was pulling the strings,” Robert said.

  “Had we?” Mac asked with a lift of his brow.

  “We’d better look for Lucky’s body,” Gage said, not liking the prospect of coming across a headless body. Though he doubted it would be worse than putting Lucky’s head in a cooler and burying it in a glacier. “His body might give us some clues to who did this to him. Tern, you’re with me.”

  “Now wait a goddamn minute,” Robert objected.

  “I don’t trust any of you right now, and I don’t want anything happening to her.”

  “Which is why she’s going with me. There is no way I’d hurt her. I’m in love with her.”

  So was he. Oh God. The truth of it hit him hard. He wasn’t trusting her welfare to anyone but him. Especially this pissant.

  “I’m not a bone,” Tern said. “Nadia and I will go with Mac.” She grabbed Nadia’s hand. “You and Robert can buddy up.”

  “Tern,” Robert objected.

  “Robert,” she fired back with a determined lift of her scarred brow, which gave her a much more dangerous look.

  He was the first to back down. “This sucks.”

  “For once I’m in complete agreement,” Mac said. “Everything about this sucks. I’ll head west with the girls. You two head south. We’ll reconvene in an hour. Return in one hour. No longer. Synchronize watches. Sure wish I had my two-way radios,” he grumbled, matching his watch with Gage’s.

  Robert rolled his eyes. “I hate all this military bullshit.”

  “You’re an idiot,” Gage said. He gave Tern a last look. Grief rippled off her. Her eyes were wide and rimmed in pain. He wanted to take her in his arms and shelter her from all the hurt. Instead he opened the door and called over his shoulder at Robert, “Let’s go.”

  He made a stop at his cabin to pack supplies and double-check his weapon and bullets. Robert did the same. Clipping his GPS onto his belt, he hitched his rifle onto his shoulder, all the while trying not to look at Lucky’s empty bunk. While he hadn’t hit it off with the man, the only thing he had against him was his history with Tern. If he had met Lucky under different circumstances they probably would’ve enjoyed sharing a beer. He’d already connected with Mac and now understood the attraction Tern held for him. Robert, on the other hand, was a waste of space. For the life of him, Gage couldn’t see why Tern would’ve hooked up with him.

  “You ready?” Robert stood outside the cabin door. He caught sight of Lucky’s bunk and blanched.

  Gage left the cabin, quietly closing the door behind him. The girls and Mac were also heading out. He was glad to see Tern fully armed, along with Nadia. If Tern couldn’t be with him, Mac was the next best choice. He studied Robert. If he were a betting man, Robert would be the one he’d line up for Lucky’s murder. But what would Robert have against Lucky other than his connection to Tern?

  “Since the women have already left, help me get rid of that.” Gage pointed at the blood-stained stump. He didn’t want Tern reminded of Lucky’s severed head every time she looked at it.

  “Where the hell we going to put it?”

  The choices of hiding the stump, or a body, were endless in this wilderness. He didn’t think he had to point it out. “You allergic to work or something?”

  “No. I just don’t want to touch the thing.”

  “And you think I do? I don’t want the women reminded of—just help me move the damn thing into the cover of the trees.”

  “Fine. Whatever.”

  Gage and Robert hefted the sawed off log into the trees behind the cabins, out of sight, then began their trek south. Gage let Robert take the lead, not wanting the man behind him. Until things changed, he didn’t trust Robert. He hated the way the man lusted after Tern, followed her every movement. He was like a dog with his tongue hanging out any time Tern was within sight.

  What did that say about him? He basically reacted the same way. Lucky was dead, and he was worrying over the attention another man gave the woman he wanted. He kept his eyes on the woods around them, listening for anyone coming up behind him.

  “See anything?” he asked.

  “Yeah, trees,” Robert replied, his tone full of sarcasm.

  “Are you always such a shit?”

  Robert stopped and turned. “You want to get into it. I’ll oblige.”

  “I bet you would. You’ve been after a fight since we got here. Sure you didn’t get into it with Lucky and things went too far?”

  “I didn’t kill him.”

  “Doubt you would admit it, if you did.”

  “Do you know what it takes to cut someone’s head off?”

  “No. Do you?” Gage tightened his hand on the stock of his rifle. “I’ve hunted. His head could’ve been cut off after you killed him. We don’t know how he died, which is why we’re out here looking for his body.”

  “Feeling pretty confident, being out here with me, if you think I’m the killer.” Robert raised a brow.

  “You don’t scare me. You might have intimidated Lucky, but you won’t me.”

  “I didn’t kill him. I’m as freaked as the rest of you.”

  “Then quit being an ass, and help look for blood or tissue. Some sign that the killer carried Lucky’s head back this way.”

  Robert swallowed as though he fought the need to throw up. Good. Gage hoped the man did throw up. He doubted the killer would. Someone who could sever a head off a body was someone dark and evil. Someone who didn’t have a conscience.

  They hiked for another mile before turning back, staying on Mac’s time schedule.

  “If the killer came this way, he’s got superhuman powers. There’s no sign that anyone has been this way in a while.”

  Thunder boomed over their heads. The temperature had been dropping steadily since they’d left camp.

  Gage regarded the boiling black skies above the tops of the trees. “If we don’t find some sign soon, we aren’t going to once that storm arrives.”

  They doubled their time returning to camp and found Mac and the girls already there.

  “Anything?” Gage asked.

  “Nope,” Mac responded. Tern and Nadia sat huddled together, their shoulders touching. They were pale with bright spots of wind-blown color on their cheeks.

  “Let’s cover the other directions, but we’d better hurry. I don’t want to get caught in the storm.” Mac glanced up at the sky. “I don’t like the looks of those clouds.”

  They might get snow out of the storm by the looks of the thunderheads. The temperature had dropped even more. They were close to the Arctic Circle. It wasn’t unheard of for the weather to turn and dump serious snow fall in the mountains all summer long.

  Robert was quiet this time as they both concentrated on looking for blood drops and disturbances in the soil. Anything that would give them a clue as to what had happened to the rest of Lucky.

  Robert jerked to a halt. “There.” He pointed, not venturing farther. “Something’s wrong with…that.”

  That was a bed of grasses bent and broken like a bear had laid down and taken a snooze, but the difference was that instead of a crushed mat of vegetation, blood lay everywhere, spraying in an arch on the trees, around the grasses, staining bluebells and buttercups. But no body. Lucky had died here, that was certain, but what the hell had happened to the rest of him?

  “Animals must have dragged him off.” Robert once again pointed to an area not ten feet in front of them where a thick blood trail disappeared into the brush. “I’m not wrestling a bear for what’s left of the guy.”

  Gage dragged a hand through his hair. The wind blew in huge gusts, and a few heavy drops of rain knifed at his exposed skin. “Let’s head back. There isn’t any more we can do.”

  “Hallelujah. Finally, something that makes some sense. I want cover before this bitch of a storm hits us.”

  “Mark the spot on the GPS while I snap some pictures for the authorities.”

&
nbsp; “Better make it quick.” Robert grabbed his GPS while Gage took pictures. They hot-footed it back to camp, this time beating Mac and the girls.

  A shiver of fear skittered through Gage. There might be a killer out there stalking Tern, Nadia, and Mac. They should have all stayed together.

  One of them was dead. One of them could be the killer. All of them had been responsible for the death of someone else. Except Tern. Did one of the remaining caches out there reveal something about Tern that none of them knew?

  Could she have killed Lucky?

  Good Christ, what was he thinking? No way did he believe for a moment that Tern could have killed Lucky. It was just the uncertainty of everything and not being in control of anything. He knew her. Loved her. But he’d seen how love ruined lives.

  “Are you just going to stand out here in the rain?” Robert poked his head out of his cabin.

  “I’m waiting for Mac and the girls.”

  “You can’t wait inside where it’s dry?”

  “Do you only think of yourself?”

  “You want to hike after them?” Sarcasm dripped like syrup from his lips. “They’re with Ranger Mac. He’s invincible.”

  Rain started to slash sideways, and the wind gusted in bursts and eddies, tossing his hair and stinging his cheeks. Still there was no sign of them. He glanced at his watch. They should have been back by now. What if the killer had laid in wait? He never should have let Tern out of his sight.

  He caught a sound on the wind. It was like nature laughed at him, taunted him. Then he caught sight of Tern. Her hair reflected the light, like raven wings on fire. The relief of seeing her safe and whole almost had him rushing toward her, wanting to haul her into his arms and bury his face in her hair.

  “Tell me you found him?” Mac asked.

  Gage broadened his focus from Tern to see a very cold Nadia and a frustrated Mac. “No.” Gage looked at the women and tried to send a message to Mac that he’d like to talk to him alone.

  “Out with it, Gage,” Tern said, tightening her lips as though preparing herself.

  “We didn’t find Lucky, but we did find where he was killed.”