by Jeulia Hesse
Jeremy’s car was parked off the road to the inn, where he could have accessed the inn on the path that they used to sneak in and out on when they were younger. Daniel was not home and was seen leaving pulling out of his driveway earlier that morning. Neither of them had shown up to work that day. No one had seen them all day.
Further details had Kevin’s stomach reeling. A game camera had captured Jeremy coming through the orchard, the phone line to the inn had been cut, and long hair and blood were found on the butt of an axe. The latter was the information that had his stomach in knots. Someone had hurt her badly.
He was feeling helpless as the clock ticked on. They had nothing to go on yet. Jeremy and Daniel could have taken her far from here in the hours that had passed. They could be in Canada, Boston, New York, out in the Atlantic...or lost among millions of people. His heart sank as he thought of what she was going through, and what they might be doing to her if she was still alive.
Jeff had taken Gina, Layla, and the dog to his place. The dog’s paws were raw from digging at the door for so long. Jeff wanted to see to them to ensure the animal would be all right and the police were glad to not have the dog wandering through any evidence.
Law enforcement had put out an APB on Daniel’s truck to all surrounding areas and states. A state police helicopter was coming in, but so were heavy rainstorms. Soon a weather front would be passing through bringing thunderstorms, heavy rain and cold. An early frost was predicted for the weekend. The rain would hamper the collection of any evidence.
Kevin heard the police radios buzzing and there was a renewed flurry of activity in the house with the officers gathered there. He watched as there was a commotion. Shawn hustled into the dining room, looking for Kevin. “A truck matching the description of Daniel’s was located by a group on four wheelers up around the Somerset ridge.”
He hesitated before adding more, taking a deep breath before speaking. “They found a male matching Jeremy’s description that is severely injured, but alive. It appears one of the four wheelers is a thoracic surgeon. They found another male who is dead. No one else was found.”
Kevin let out his breath. He was dizzy and unsure how to respond to the news. He was obviously elated that she had not been among the injured, but where was she? What had happened to her?
“Mountain rescue is on the way. Dartmouth hospital is looking for a place to land their chopper.”
Shawn looked soberly at his friend. “You are part of mountain rescue, so technically I can let you go to the site....”
Kevin bolted to his feet, stopped short and turned back to his friend. “Let’s take my truck.”
Both men bolted for the door, blowing past Agnes as she instructed a young officer to accompany them. “Stay with them and stay in contact with me,” she shouted as the men left.
Another team of troopers was on the way as well. Jurisdiction was a little vague in the area, but with town and state police, rescue and now the Sheriff, they would be covered. The immediate need would be to take care of the injured man. If this was a kidnapping, they would need to call in the FBI as well.
As the men raced onto the old logging road, they encountered mountain rescue and their four-wheel truck. Letting the ambulance ahead of them, they followed the emergency vehicle over the rough terrain. It was a slow and treacherous ride as they swerved to avoid deep ruts and huge potholes. Kevin’s patience was tested as they slowly made their way. Overhead, they could hear the helicopter and the communications between them and the ground crew. The state police had taken charge of the situation. They understood the case and details that Shawn apparently had not been engaged in, due to his relationship to the deceased.
Kevin’s mind whirled with his thoughts as his anxiety grew. He prayed that she was safe. He also prayed that the injured man who was still alive would know something about where Christina was and if she was hurt or injured. Deep in his thoughts, he really wanted to pummel whoever was responsible for this situation.
Finally, after what seemed like hours over a barely passable old logging road, they arrived at a clearing where several four-wheelers were parked near Daniel’s truck with its covered bed. The tailgate was still opened. All three men bolted from the vehicle after pulling it out of the way.
Kevin’s stomach dropped as he noticed Christina’s fuzzy slipper laying in the bed of the truck as they walked past. “Look here,” he called hoarsely to Shawn, “it’s her...”
Shawn directed the young officer to take photos of the bed as he pulled his friend aside. “We’ll find her.”
The two men exchanged meaningful looks. Both were aware of what they were up against. They moved their attention to a group gathered nearby, watching the rescue take over from the four wheelers. Jeremy’s shirt was soaked in blood. His face was ashen, and he was unconscious. There would be no questioning him about Christina.
Under a stand of pine trees nearby was another figure. The head was covered in a jacket, and the ground was soaked with dark blood. Kevin took in the surroundings. There was a shovel on the ground near the body. Dirt had been dug and moved. His brain slowly permitted him to realize what he was looking at, and his stomach fell. It was meant to be a shallow grave. A pair of troopers were taking photos of the area and gathering pieces of evidence.
He scanned the area for any indication that Christina had been there. Shawn was already addressing the small group of law enforcement and relaying Kevin’s identification of the slipper. They murmured among themselves with Kevin picking up only pieces of their conversation.
As he stood, he took in every tree and bush. He scanned the area for anything that would lead to her whereabouts. He wanted to see her coming out from the trees unharmed with a smile on her face. But the hope evaporated as he took in the situation in front of him. Daniel was dead, and Jeremy was nearly. Where was she?
“Hey, you’re mountain rescue, right?”
The address jarred Kevin from his thoughts. “Yeah I am.”
“Can you guide us up to the ridge where the chopper can land? They say it’s not far and we need to move quick. It would be great if we didn’t get lost.”
“Let’s go!” Kevin shouted, running on his way to the squad.
He hopped into the back of the large 4-wheel drive ambulance. Jeremy lay still under a blanket with an IV in his arm. One EMT and another man dressed in camouflage tended to him. Kevin gave the driver directions and they bumped off through the woods on the logging road.
As they sped as fast as they could through the ruts and holes, Kevin realized that this man must be the doctor. “I don’t know too many docs that are into four wheeling,” he said, introducing himself.
“Ha, yeah, I was trying to get away from it all for a bit,” he shook his head as he looked down on Jeremy’s prone form. “I guess it wasn’t to be. This guy is incredibly lucky.”
Kevin looked at Jeremy’s ashen face. He wanted to throttle him for information about Christina, but he restrained himself. “How so?”
“Looks like an attempted murder suicide to me. Guy who shot himself fell right onto him, which slowed his bleeding out. Looks like he tried to kill him and then inadvertently saved his life!”
“He conscious at all? Say anything to you?”
The doctor looked at him intently, rubbing his bloodstained hands on his pants. “When we moved the other guy off him, I think he said something like ‘ran away’ or ‘got away.’ We didn’t see anybody around at all – so not sure what he was talking about. Maybe he was surprised that he was still alive...”
They had arrived at the rendezvous site for the medical evacuation. The helicopter was hovering overhead and landed in the clearing once they were finished unloading the patient from the gurney. Kevin had done this routine a few times over the years, so the guys in the chopper were familiar to him. “Better get rolling. Big storms are coming in from the west. Just made it in here before the weather started up.”
His gut clenched at their words. The heavy rain meant
that any evidence or sign of Christina would virtually disappear. If the police would commit to a search for Christina, they could pull in teams, but it would take precious time. If it was storming, they would have delays and challenges getting the search teams organized.
They arrived back to the group in the woods shortly afterward. The ambulance would remove the body of the deceased with the permission of the coroner. Shawn approached Kevin immediately on his arrival back to the scene. “Tell him what you told me,” Kevin directed the doctor before he rejoined his group.
The physician told Shawn and a few other officials what he had told Kevin about Jeremy’s confused words. “Rescue can pull a search party together quickly; we’ve got a storm coming in so we’ll need to move. It’s going to get cold tonight and the next few days. If she’s out there, she’s not prepared for it. Plus, she’s injured.”
“There’s a lot of woods out there. Any idea or evidence as to which way she would have headed?” Shawn immediately began barking orders at the group of law enforcement.
A pad of paper was produced, and an urgent search area was established in the perimeter around the immediate scene. It would be imperative that they get started as soon as possible to establish a solid area to search, and then expand that further when more help arrived.
Shawn and other officers began to organize a formal search party. They used their radios to call back down to the captain, fire, and rescue. Kevin paired with other officers, and they began to establish a perimeter for the immediate search. They paired up with radios and a search plan.
Kevin and the young trooper worked together, systematically searching the immediate area. They worked in a lane type search to cover the entire location around the immediate scene. This would permit them to establish some evidence about which way she had run. With the four wheelers and the other vehicles coming into the area, there was a chance that any signs that may show her path would have been erased.
Far in the distance, they could hear thunder. The weather front was fast approaching with heavy rain. They would need to find something soon to indicate her direction or they would end up searching a large area and could miss her.
Kevin began to feel desperate. He prayed to himself as he tried to concentrate on the details he was trying to locate. His heart pounded in his chest as he thought of all the scenarios that could put her in danger.
His radio crackled, startling him out of his reverie. “Got a footprint.”
He rejoiced! A lead! He and his young escort rushed to their search partner. Indeed, there was a footprint in mud and tall grass, leading away from the scene. Kevin bent to closely examine the impression. Christina had been booking it, by the indentation of the print. She’d likely been running because her life depended on it. Dismay filled him, as he realized this foot was bare. She had been fleeing a killer with one bare foot and one fuzzy slipper. The terrain was rough, and she would have been further hampered by the bare foot. It was likely that she would have injured herself.
The path she was headed was directly into the wilderness area. There was miles and miles of unpopulated, dense forest. The same forest from the local legends – the Bennington Triangle. The same forest that several people had walked into and never had been found.
She had been gone for hours, so she could have made a lot of progress to get away from here. She could be hiding as well, thinking she was being pursued. She was also likely injured, possibly with a head injury and all the challenges that came with that. She could be disoriented and unsure of what to do. She could be unconscious and in need of medical attention.
Locating her would be like finding needle in a haystack.
“How long before the dog team gets here?” he barked into his radio.
She couldn’t end up being one of those lost people. He had to find her.
Chapter 36
The rain came as it was predicted with heavy downpours and localized flooding. The cold front that the rain ushered in also lived up to the forecast. The early cold front brought temperatures into the 40’s for the evening. There was a danger of frost before sunrise, the coldest part of the night.
As of sunrise, they had not located Christina. Kevin was distraught and had not slept all night. They had searched the afternoon and evening until the rain became too much. The dogs had arrived, but by then, the heavy rain had impacted their effectiveness. They would head out again once it was daylight.
Christina had moved deeper into the cave as the rain poured down to avoid getting soaked and further exposed to the elements. She tried to capture some fresh water from the rain fall in the palms of her hands. She knew she was becoming dehydrated since she’d had nothing to drink but coffee. She was very hungry and very scared.
If Daniel found her, she had no way to escape from her spot in the ground. She had thoughts of him firing his shotgun into the cave until she was dead. Her head and ankle throbbed. The passage of time was sketchy due to her head injury and the darkness in the cave.
The entry to the cave had not been easy to spot. She had clearly not seen it as she was running through the woods. But her panicked mind may not have taken in the details clearly, and Daniel was an experienced hunter. He had a better chance of locating her hiding place. And the rain would hamper any effort to find her.
Her eyes had begun to adjust to the extreme darkness. The light from above was very dim with the rain, and with the onset of nightfall, the cave was cloaked in complete blackness. She had decided that there were no other animals with her in the cave, as she reasoned she would have heard them move around by now. There was still that odd odor, but she couldn’t smell anything that resembled the musky smell of fur. Minimally, there were at least no other creatures that would want to eat her.
She felt along the solid rock wall and had found a spot that seemed higher and away from where the rain was pouring in the hole above. The higher elevation of the floor would keep her dry in theory. As the temperature dropped with the rain, she began to shiver. The cave was in complete and utter darkness.
She knew she needed to get warm and stay dry. She felt her surroundings for leaves or pine needles to make a shelter, or at least, a cushion against the cold rock. She felt the floor and area around it, shuffling on her bottom to avoid crashing her injured head into something. It also kept her off her hurt leg.
She found a smattering of dry leaves and other items as she scooted. She piled them in her lap to keep them where she could find them. There were few, but it did not feel like enough to give her any kind of shelter. Disappointment and further worry filled her mind. She was going to be exposed to the elements and it was going to get cold. The cards were stacking against her.
She continued to move around her dark surroundings, feeling blindly along the rock. Surprisingly, her hands came across something that felt like some kind of material. It was dirty and matted with who knows what, but it was manmade, nonetheless. Some of the material felt as if it was stuck to the ground. As she felt around her hands came across a bag. She felt around further and realize that it felt like a backpack. It was full of something!
She hoped it wasn’t some animal nest she was digging into with her bare hands as she located the packs zippers and opened the pockets. One pocket held what felt like a shirt, and the other larger pockets contained what felt like a small comforter or a light sleeping bag. It was not adult sized, but it was a godsend! It would keep her warm or at least, give her a chance at warmth.
She felt around further and pulled on the material that seemed to be buried in the floor of the cave. It gave way under her hands and separated. She realized it wasn’t anything useful to her and so she stopped her efforts. The additional clothing and light blanket were a blessing.
Further inspection of the backpack revealed a flashlight. Hopeful, she banged it against her leg and attempted to get it to work. Expectations were not realized as she grasped that this pack had likely been in there a long time, considering the condition of the materials inside and the musty
smell.
They were dry at least and would help to keep her alive as the temperatures dropped. As she tried to settle into a dry patch, under enough coverage to help her keep warm, her thoughts went to Kevin. He had taught her how to survive in the woods. Admittedly, she did not pay so much attention to the serious topic, but he had been adamant that she learn at least the basic survival skills and some level of first aid. They had frequently gone camping and hiking when they were together before Annie went missing. It was mostly an excuse to be together alone. Thankfully, she had listened to some of what he had said.
Now she may never see him again. Her heart fell as she realized how far they had come in the past few weeks. She loved him and had never really stopped. The time they had together was priceless and it made her feel how fortunate they were to at least have had that. Tears coursed down her dirty and bloodied face. Hope that they would be together again rose in her. She had to live, if just to see him one last time. She had to.
She wondered if they realized she was gone, and what had happened. Surely people were coming home now. She tried to recall the events at the inn, the frantic dog barking and what had been said. Her head injury made the details unclear. She tried to piece together the course of events and the evidence that would help any rescue efforts.
She settled herself into what felt like a corner of the cave, where she would not be exposed to cooler air from the entrance. Draping herself in makeshift bedding to protect her skin from the cold rock, she wrapped herself in the small blanket. As she placed the shirt over her head to capture her body heat, she realized the wound on her scalp was still oozing blood and hurt immensely. Tenderly wrapping herself in the shirt, she worried about her head injury. Her thoughts went back to what the coroner has said was the probable cause of death for Annie. Her skull had been fractured. She wondered how badly her own skull was injured and thought about how close she had come to death. She could still die if Daniel were to find her. She may die if no one were to find her at all.
