The Last Resort

by Janice Kay Johnson - His Best Friend's Baby

  As if she cared about their nutritional intake. But everything she could do to blend in, to make herself valued, was good.

  She was first setting out serving bowls when Tim Fuller walked in. Higgs didn’t notice at first; Tim ended up sitting at the far end close to the women. The colonel glanced that way but didn’t comment.

  In her intense dislike, Leah thought, too bad the mythical parole officer hadn’t found cause to lock up Tim and throw away the key. She must have smiled, because she discovered he was looking at her with an ugly expression. He and TJ Galt were two of a kind. With Joe Osenbrock, they’d made a vicious triumvirate.

  With dinner over, Spencer stayed at the table with his usual refill of coffee, tonight talking to two men she hadn’t had much to do with. Jason something and... She couldn’t remember the other man’s name at all.

  The swelling in Spencer’s face was going down, she noted, but the bruises had turned a multitude of colors. As she poured coffee from the carafe into Jason’s cup, Spencer was saying something about wind, his speech much clearer than it had been even that morning.

  The three of them weren’t alone; a bunch of the men lingered, happy to hang out with friends, she gathered. During her last trip around the table to refill coffee cups, she shivered at the way several of the men watched her. She wasn’t afraid of them, exactly—certainly not with Spencer present—but she could tell what they were thinking, and it gave her the creeps.

  If there was another demand for more coffee, one of the other women could handle it. Clearly, Spencer wouldn’t be ready to go for a while yet, so once she put leftovers away in the commercial refrigerator, she borrowed a sweatshirt hanging on a hook and slipped outside. She’d stay close to the door so she could hear Spencer calling for her. She knew eventually someone would notice she was out here. Sometimes, the other women took breaks like this, only to be chased inside when one of the men came to check on them.

  The crisp evening air felt good, and when she tipped her head back, she saw the first stars appearing against a deep purple sky.

  It had to be a lot later than usual, to be already getting dark. Fine by her; her new domestic tasks didn’t exhaust her, but she’d barely sat down today except for perching on the bench to gobble each meal. Besides...she’d seen a glint in Spencer’s eyes when his gaze strayed her way while she was wiping down the table. If he was feeling better enough...

  Uncle Edward had built a couple of crude benches back here, wide boards laid over cut-off tree stumps. She chose one and sat, knowing she was almost hidden in the shadow of a cedar that would soon have to be cut down if the lodge was to survive. The roots probably already burrowed beneath the foundation.

  Male voices drifted to her, abruptly becoming louder. Leah stiffened, ready to hustle back in the kitchen door if they came any closer.

  One of them was Ed Higgs’s, she realized.

  “You’re sure?” It was a demand; he didn’t want to believe whatever he’d been told.

  “Positive. It took some serious searching, but I found a picture. He was coming out of a courthouse, wearing the typical FBI getup.”

  She quit breathing. Oh no, oh no.

  Tim Fuller was ebullient, really glad to be able to bring down a man he’d deeply resented. “You know,” he continued, “black suit, white shirt, shiny black wingtips, blue tie. He was identified as Special Agent Alex Barr. Chicago office then. Now, I don’t know.”

  “God damn.” Anger threaded Higgs’s weariness. “I can’t believe it.”

  “Believe it,” Tim said. “I printed the picture. Left it in my cabin.”

  Leah rose to her feet and began feeling her way toward the two steps up to the kitchen door. She stopped just short. No—the minute she opened it, light would spill out. Slip all the way around the lodge, she decided. Spencer might have only minutes.

  The last few words she heard before going around the corner of the old log building were “no choice.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Spencer had stood to go looking for Leah when the front door opened. He turned automatically to see who’d come in. It was her, and the flat-out terror he saw on her face had even the hair on his arms rising. An instant later she’d mostly blanked that out, and he hoped the two men with him hadn’t seen her naked emotion.

  “I’m ready to head back to the cabin,” he said easily. “See you two in the morning. We’ll do some more work on setting up shots from different vantage points.”

  Both appeared eager. Neither had let ego get in the way of learning all they could from him. Amidst the “good-nights,” he walked toward Leah.

  “Ready to go?”

  “Yes.” The tremor in her voice would have had him on full alert even if he hadn’t already shot straight to maximum readiness. He took her arm as they went out the door and descended the stairs. Then, seeing no one, he bent his head and asked softly, “What’s wrong?”

  “They know.” It tumbled out of her. “Even your real name. Tim told Higgs he’d found a photo of you coming out of a courthouse somewhere.”

  “Where were they?”

  “Out back.”

  The wheels in his head spun. “We don’t dare go back to the cabin.” He started hustling her in the opposite direction, to the nearest tree line. Thinking aloud, he said, “The Jeep.”

  “But...it’s dark. And don’t you need some tools to hot-wire it?”

  “Got the key today,” he said, more grateful than he could remember being for anything, except maybe seeing an unconscious Joe Osenbrock being carried away. He still didn’t like their only option. The minute anyone heard the sound of the engine being fired up in back, the hunt would be on.

  Their best hope, he concluded, was that neither Higgs nor Fuller had had a chance to spread the word. The other guys would wonder, maybe think someone was using the Jeep to drive out to the range to collect something that had been forgotten earlier.

  The longer the hesitation, the more chance he and Leah would have to make a clean getaway.

  The bigger, more powerful vehicles wouldn’t have much, if any, advantage over the Jeep during the first mile or two. The rutted, winding gravel road on the edge of that steep plunge to the river had to be taken with care no matter how hot the driver was to catch someone ahead of him. Unfortunately, he’d have to drive cautiously, too.

  Once past that stretch, they’d be overtaken quickly unless they got a big enough head start.

  A plan forming in his head, he said, “We have to go for the Jeep. Pray nobody noticed the missing key.”

  Leah didn’t say anything, just jogged at his side. He was glad to see that she’d put on a sweatshirt over her T-shirt; borrowed, he thought. He didn’t have any equivalent, which meant he’d be damn cold at night, but the temperature hadn’t dropped below freezing anytime this past week, so they should be all right.

  He didn’t want to even think about how long it would take for them to walk out to the closest neighbor or tiny town where someone might have a working telephone. Shit, why hadn’t he kept his own with him, even if it was useless up here? He might have had coverage before they got as far as Glacier or Maple Falls.

  Or...what would happen if they headed north for the border? He tried to envision a map, but had a bad feeling that was even rougher country. And it wasn’t as if they’d know when they reached the border, or that the entire thing was patrolled 24/7. No towns or highways within remotely easy reach of where they’d emerge, either.

  At least heading for the Mount Baker highway, they’d be going downhill. Given his condition, that was a real positive if they had to eventually go on foot.

  He stopped Leah as close to the armory as they could get without stepping out in the open. As they stood in silence, he searched the ground between them and the lodge. The only movement was the dart of bats. A faint “whoo” came to his ears from somewhere behind them.

&nbs
p; “Okay,” he murmured, “I want you to turn around and go back to the head of the road leading out of here.” The moon had risen enough to let her see where he was pointing. “When I get there, I’ll stop for you to jump in.”

  “Why don’t I just get in the Jeep with you now?” she asked.

  He shook his head and talked fast. “There’s a chance they’ll be waiting for me. If so, you need to take off on your own. You can’t follow the road—they’ll find you. Traveling in the dark is hard, but try to get a ways before you hide. Got that? I know you can do it. You know this area, wildlife. Better than they do.”

  “Do you really think we can outrun them?” she whispered.

  “No, but I have a plan for that, too.”

  She pressed her lips together, but nodded instead of arguing as he felt sure she wanted to. Her resistance to the idea of abandoning him to save herself was a part of why he’d fallen for her so fast.

  Right now all he did was give her a quick, hard kiss and a push. “Go.”

  She went, slipping away and disappearing more quickly in the thick darkness beneath the big trees than he’d expected.

  He had no choice but to cross the thirty yards or so of open ground to reach the back of the armory. Hating to be so exposed, he did it at a trot. Reaching the back wall, he flattened himself against it, pulled his Sig Sauer and took a moment to slow his breathing.

  Then he slid like a shadow around the side, instinct throwing him back to when he’d been a soldier, letting him place his feet soundlessly.

  There were no voices. The only light came from lodge windows and, more diffused, the first cabins. The Jeep sat where it had been since Higgs moved it out of the building.

  Spencer stepped from the cover of the building, just as another man appeared from where he’d hidden behind the low branches of one of the old cedars. Spencer froze, weapon trained on the man.

  “Is what Fuller says true?” asked Dirk Ritchie.

  Finger tightening on the trigger, Spencer sweated over what to do. If he fired, men would pour out of the lodge. And, damn, he didn’t want to kill Dirk.

  “How did you know I’d be out here?”

  “I saw you take the key,” Dirk said simply. His hands remained at his sides, even though he was carrying, too.

  “Did you?” Spencer said tensely. “You and Helen need to take off, too. Use the confusion after I’m gone.”

  Dirk stayed quiet.

  Spencer pitched his voice low, yet filled it with intensity. “Do you really want to be party to slaughtering what might be hundreds of people who are just thinking about going to their kids’ parent-teacher meetings, or the guy they just met, or a sick parent? Remember the Oklahoma City bombing that killed fifteen preschooler children?”

  Somebody else would come out any minute. He had to go.

  He took the last steps to the Jeep. “Stop me, or don’t.”

  Only a few strides separated the two men now. Shooting Dirk would feel like murder, but if he didn’t—

  Dirk stepped back. “Get out of here.”

  “Thank you.”

  The other man turned and walked toward the lodge, not hurrying. Switching his attention to the Jeep, Spencer had a sickening thought. What if Dirk had told Higgs he’d seen Spencer pocket the key? What if the Jeep had already been disabled?

  He couldn’t hesitate. Didn’t have time to think of a Plan B. What were the chances he’d make it to the tree line? Gripping the overhead bar above the seats, Spencer swung himself in behind the wheel, grimacing as the quick movement tugged at his stitches and ignited pain in his ribs. No need to open or close a door. He pulled the key from his pocket, inserted it, held his breath and turned it.

  The engine roared to life.

  The porchlight above the back door into the kitchen came on. A voice called out.

  He put the Jeep in gear and slammed his foot down on the gas pedal.

  * * *

  LEAH HADN’T QUITE reached the meeting place when she heard the engine start. Spencer had gotten that far. Thank God. Thank God.

  Running, she crossed the weedy gravel to reach the other side and turned to see the Jeep racing toward her. The headlights switched on just before he came even with her. He braked, she grabbed for the door handle and yanked. Metal squealed, but the door refused to give way.

  “Jump in.”

  What she did was fall in, but it worked. The Jeep was rocketing forward long before she untangled herself enough to sit up. If there was a seat belt, her groping fingers didn’t find it. Instead, she gripped the edge of the seat with one hand and flattened the other on the dashboard.

  The feeble, yellow beams cast by the headlights didn’t illuminate the road ahead more than ten or fifteen feet.

  “I hope you know this road,” she heard herself gasp.

  “I do.”

  He’d been aware from the beginning that there was the possibility he’d have to run for it, she supposed, which meant being ultra-observant about little details like the only outlet from the resort. Spencer sounded awfully tense, though.

  “Do you hear—?”

  He didn’t have to finish. Yes, deep-throated engines had been started. Aside from her own car, every vehicle she’d seen up here dwarfed this old Jeep. The giant SUVs and pickups could almost run right over the top of it.

  She craned her neck to see behind her. Bright lights appeared.

  Spencer mumbled a few obscenities.

  “You have a plan.” How did she sound even semi-calm? The cold wind whipped her hair and made her eyes water. Gravel crunched beneath the tires. She dreaded the moment when they reached the stretch above the river.

  She ought to be thankful it was dark, and she wouldn’t be able to see the valley floor.

  “I’m going to take a few curves,” he said tersely, “brake long enough for you to leap out and run for the woods, then try to set up a skid so that the Jeep goes over the edge and down into the river. They’ll think we screwed up.”

  “What if you can’t jump out?” she said numbly.

  “I don’t have time to try to find a heavy enough rock to brace the accelerator.”

  “There’s something behind the seat.” She’d caught a glimpse when she was facedown after her tumble into the Jeep. She didn’t know what she’d seen, but now she got on her knees and felt down in the cavity. “I think it’s a car battery. They’re heavy, aren’t they?”

  “Yes. Damn. That should work. Can you pick it up?”

  “I think so.” Her position was completely unsafe, crouched instead of sitting while trying to heft a heavy object between the seat backs. If he started that skid too soon... Laughter almost bubbled up. Unsafe. Right.

  She tugged and rocked it until she got her fingers beneath the rusty metal, and then twisted, plunked onto her butt and lowered the battery to her lap.

  She sensed Spencer’s quick glance.

  “We’re coming up on a good place to let you out. Just beyond, there’s a gap where the guardrail has rusted and broken. That’s what I’ll aim for.”

  Leah’s head bobbed as if she was just fine with any of this. “You’ll find me?”

  “Yes.” He braked, skidded enough to have him swearing again and stopped. She scrambled over the door, leaving the battery on the seat. He accelerated again before she started running.

  * * *

  THIS WOULD ALL be for nothing if the Jeep hung up on a stubbornly intact stretch of guardrail, but he had no time to waste to scout ahead to be sure he knew where the break was. All Spencer could do was judge distances from his memory.

  Here.

  He braked, cranked the wheel hard, then lifted the battery over the gearshift. Got out.

  The sound of approaching engines was too loud. No time.

  He slipped the gearshift into Neutral and shoved the battery down on the accele
rator at almost the same moment. The Jeep leaped forward, the open door whacked him and he tumbled free.

  Without looking to see if he’d succeeded, he ran full out for the bank on the uphill side of the road and scrambled up it. There, he paused only momentarily, turning. The Jeep had disappeared, the sound of its engine drowned out by approaching vehicles. Had the steering somehow corrected itself?

  Then he heard metal tearing, screaming in agony...followed by an unholy explosion.

  Just as the first set of headlights illuminated that stretch of road he faded back into the forest.

  * * *

  DEEP IN THE TREES, Spencer couldn’t see any better than he would have in a cavern a mile below the ground. He should have set up some kind of plan for him and Leah to find each other when separated. If she didn’t stick pretty close to the road, it would take sheer luck for them to stumble onto each other.

  Swearing silently as the receding shouts faded behind him, he made his way uphill, trying to stay twenty feet or so from the road. If the sound of pursuit reached him, he wouldn’t be able to keep doing that. At least he could be assured he would hear anyone chasing him on foot; it was impossible to pass through the tangle of vegetation without making some noise.

  Something swiped him in the face. He shook his head and spun. A swag of lichen, pale even in the limited light, still swayed.

  He had a memory of telling Leah not to follow the road if she had to take off on her own. Surely to God she’d use common sense and realize they didn’t have a prayer of finding each other if she didn’t.

  He kept moving, pausing every ten feet or so to listen.

  Uphill, he heard a muffled cry. Animal? Bird?

  Some thrashing followed.

  Moving as quietly as he could, he headed that direction. What if she’d hurt herself? he thought suddenly but pushed the fear aside.

  Quiet closed around him. Maintaining any orientation took determination, and Spencer wouldn’t swear he wasn’t veering off a straight line toward a sound that could have been a porcupine waddling through the forest, or a bear crashing on its way.