“If you’re not,” Jase said, “I’m gonna have a smoke.”
“You’ve broken the law,” Luke went on while Jase got to his knees, turned away and crawled over his ground cloth toward his pack. “You’ve come into our camp and threatened us with a gun. I think, if we were to tell a ranger about this incident ...”
“Don’t say that!” Wally shook his head. “We aren’t gonna tell, mister. Honest. We’ll keep our mouths shut.”
Jase, hunched over his pack, looked over his shoulder. “That’s for sure,” he said. “We talk to the cops, it’ll probably be us that gets jammed up. Who’re they gonna believe, you or us?”
“Right,” Wally said. “We won’t tell. No way.”
Jase poked a cigarette into his mouth. He stood up, turning his back to Rick. “So what’re you gonna do? Gun us down? Shoot our dicks off ... ?”
“Jase! Don’t say that!”
What am I going to do with them? Rick wondered. Have them tie each other up? That’d be stupid. They could work themselves free in a while, no matter how well they might be tied. Then they’d be more dangerous than ever. Maybe just make them pack up and hike out of here. I could stay with them partway up the trail. But what’s to keep them from turning around and coming back? Maybe just knowing that I’ve got a gun. Wally, for sure, wouldn’t dare come back. But the others might. Maybe I should just keep them covered until morning. When Bert and the girls wake up and find out I’m gone, they’ll come looking. They’ll come armed. Then there’ll be four of us, and ...
Jase whirled around. His arm flew up. Something in his hand flashed in the moonlight, and he threw it. A knife shot at Rick, flipping end over end.
He started to duck.
Pain crashed through his head. His vision exploded with lights. He staggered and fell. His back hit the ground.
Someone was on him, sitting on his chest, wrenching the gun from his hand. “Okay fucker.” Jase’s voice. A harsh whisper. Rick’s vision cleared and he saw Jase raise the revolver, ready to whip it across his face.
Wally grabbed Jase’s wrist. “Hey, don’t. We got him.”
“Let go my hand.”
Wally released it.
Jase stood up, straddling Rick. He was gasping for breath. He aimed the revolver at Rick’s face and thumbed back the hammer.
“No!” Wally cried out.
“Jesus!” Luke yelled.
“He’s got it coming,” Jase said, and fired.
The explosion slammed Rick’s ears. The bullet kicked a spray of forest scrap against his cheek.
“Come on out,” Jase called.
Rick was on a rock near the campfire, sitting where they had placed him only a few minutes ago. Luke had already started the fire. It blazed brightly now, and Rick felt its warmth on his face.
Wally was standing on one side of him, Jase on the other.
Jase raised the gun overhead. “Come on,” he called again. “We can hear you gals sneaking around out there. We’ve had enough fun ’n games, so stop fucking around.”
“Get out of here!” Rick yelled.
“You shut up,” Jase told him.
“I’m coming in.” Bert’s voice.
“Don’t!”
A shape slipped out from behind a tree beyond the clearing. It moved forward, footsteps quietly crunching on the forest floor. It was Bert. She came into the firelight and stopped on the other side of Wally’s empty sleeping bag.
She wore the pale blue warm-up suit and wool socks she had slept in. She wore no shoes. A knife in her right hand hung at her side.
“Call in the other two,” Jase said.
“There’s no need for them.”
Luke tossed more twigs onto the fire, then rose from his crouch and faced her. “Bert, right?” he asked.
She nodded.
“Bert, we’ve got the gun. That means we’re in control. We can do whatever we want. So when Jase tells you to call in the other girls, the prudent move on your part is to follow instructions.”
“They haven’t done anything to you,” she said. Her voice was low and steady.
So damn brave, Rick thought. He could see the fear in her eyes, but she wasn’t giving in. She had walked right into their camp and now she was standing up to them. He wished he could go to her and put his arms around her. He wished he could make all of this stop.
I had my chance. I blew it.
Now Bert will be the one to pay.
“Call the girls in,” Jase told her again.
“No way. Let’s go, Rick.”
Wally damped a hand on his shoulder.
“Nobody goes anywhere,” Jase said.
Bert scraped her lower lips across the edges of her teeth. “What do you want?”
“Three fuckin’ guesses.”
“We want to discuss the situation,” Luke said, “with everyone present. We don’t enjoy the idea of having those two jungle warriors creeping around out there.”
“You just want to ‘discuss the situation,’ ” Bert said. “Sure thing. Have your discussion with me.” The knife came up from her side. She held it in front of her belly, blade straight out. “Who wants first try?”
Jase didn’t say a word. He left Rick’s side and stepped around the fire.
“Run!” Rick cried.
She spread her feet slightly. The knife in her fist circled as Jase approached her.
“Jeez,” Wally said.
“I wouldn’t,” Luke warned.
Jase stopped in front of Bert. “You’re a dope,” Jase told her. “But you’ve got balls.” He reversed the revolver. Holding it by the barrel, he offered it to her.
Looking perplexed, Bert took the gun from him.
“Your fuckin’ boyfriend here paid us a visit with this thing. He shouldn’t be allowed to play with guns. Now how about you call off your troops, take this dork out of our face, and go back to your own camp so we can get some fuckin’ sleep around here?”
Bert nodded.
Wally let go of Rick’s arm. Rick stood up, stepped around the campfire, and followed Bert out of the clearing. They reached the shoreline path.
Bert suddenly hurled the revolver.
“No!”
It was too late. The handgun tumbled against the pale moonlit sky and dropped with a heavy splash into the lake.
She turned to Rick. “We’re better off without it,” she said. “I’ll buy you a new one when we get home.”
“It’s all right,” he muttered, and took her into his arms. He held her gently against him. She was warm. He felt her fingers stroking his hair.
“I was so scared when I heard that shot,” she said.
“I didn’t fire it. They took it away from me.”
“That’s when you got the lump on your forehead?”
“Jase threw a knife. Just the handle got me, I guess. But they took the gun from me.”
“Well, I love you anyway.”
He kissed her, and they were still kissing when sounds of footfalls approached. They eased apart. Bonnie and Andrea came out of the trees.
Bonnie had a hatchet in her hand. Andrea had a knife. Apparently, neither girl had wasted time getting dressed. Bonnie was in her socks and a pale body stocking that clung to her like skin and made her look naked. Andrea wore her down vest and skimpy dark panties. She was barefoot.
They were in a sour mood. Cross, as if they’d had an argument that had almost, but not quite, simmered down. They were still fired up. The atmosphere around them bristled with tension and they looked just about ready to use their weapons on anybody who said a wrong word.
Rick glanced from one to the other and realized that Andrea had indeed expected him to join her. She’d lain in her sleeping bag, naked or just in her panties, and waited for him.
Bonnie had known this, and had probably kicked up about it.
Flattering. But he’d managed to stay away. And he was glad. He had Bert. Bert was all he ever really wanted, better than he deserved. He’d been stupid even to consi
der ...
“They just let you go?” Andrea asked.
“We were watching,” Bonnie said. “But we couldn’t hear what was going on.”
“They never meant us any harm,” Bert explained.
“What were you doing there?” Andrea asked Rick. “My Christ, we heard a shot and ...”
“Let’s get back to camp,” Rick said. “I’ll explain everything.”
“Yeah, let’s,” Andrea said. “I’m colder than the left tit of an Arctic witch.” She turned away. She started to run ahead of them, and Rick didn’t bother watching.
He took hold of Bert’s hand. “There’s something,” he said, “that needs to be told.”
Rick built the campfire to a high blaze while the others were in their tents. They came out one at a time after dressing for the early morning chill, and sat down around the fire.
Bert sat on the log beside Rick. She put an arm around his back.
“First,” Rick said, “I want to thank all of you for rushing to my rescue. It took a lot of guts, and ... I really appreciate it. The thing is, apparently no rescue was necessary. There never was any danger from Jase or Luke or Wally. That was all in our heads. In my head.”
“They did spy on the girls,” Bert reminded him.
“But like they said, who wouldn’t? You take any normal guy, and he’s not going to turn the other way if he has a . chance to look at some attractive females—especially if they’re not wearing much. It wasn’t any crime.”
“They came all the way down the mountain,” Andrea said.
“They denied that,” Bonnie reminded her.
“If they did come down,” Rick said, “we don’t know for sure that it had anything to do with us. But I thought they planned to rape and ... when I collapsed on the trail, I was having some kind of dream or vision that they’d killed all three of you. And I had another dream like that tonight while I was on watch. I was afraid it might be a premonition or something, a warning—so I could stop them sneaking in here.”
“You start telling us you’re psychic,” Andrea said, “I’m gonna shit right here and now.”
“I’ve never been psychic.”
“Thank God. ’Cause if those were premonitions ...”
“He said they weren’t,” Bonnie told her.
“No, all he said was that he’d never been psychic. That doesn’t mean you can discount the possibly that those visions of his—”
“Andrea also believes in extra-terrestrial life forms, ghosts, astrology and Ouija boards.” Bonnie shook her head and grinned. “Not to mention Tarot cards—and don’t believe her when she says she isn’t psychic. She is.” She looked meaningfully at Andrea.
“Remember the time you said that dummy Marion Dahl was gonna be off sick and wouldn’t be in class the next day and she was? Sick, I mean.”
“I keep an open mind, that’s all. I don’t disbelieve shit just ’cause people tell me it’s supernatural nonsense.”
“I don’t think there was anything supernatural about the tricks my imagination was playing,” Rick said.
“I sure the hell hope not,” Andrea said.
“I mean, it’s pretty obvious at this point that Jase and the others never meant us any harm.”
“You were worried all along,” Bert said, “about making this trip. Even before we ran into those three guys, you were a nervous wreck. Then, when they showed up, it all seemed to focus on them. You were convinced they were trouble long before you ever had those—hallucinations, or whatever.”
“Yeah. I guess I expected history to repeat itself.” He saw confusion in Bert’s eyes. “I didn’t tell you everything,” he said, “about what happened on that other camping trip.”He looked at Andrea and Bonnie. “The last time I went camping was when I was fourteen. I’ve already told Bert about it. How I broke my leg and my father left me to go for help. What I didn’t tell her before was that my stepmother was with us. Julie. She stayed with me. And a couple of guys came into the camp. They knocked me out. They raped and killed Julie. They did it while I was unconscious. When I came to, the two guys were gone. Julie was naked on the ground and she was dead.”
“Jesus,” Bert muttered. “I wish you’d told me.”
“I’ve never told anyone.”
Bert shook her head. Her eyes glimmered wet in the firelight. Her hand moved up Rick’s back and curled around the nape of his neck. “It must’ve been so awful for you. I’m so sorry.”
“Anyway, that’s why I brought the gun along. I got Julie killed, but I wasn’t going to let it happen to you. Then when we met you two,” he said, glancing at Andrea and Bonnie, “it was all part of the same thing.”
“You couldn’t save Julie,” Andrea said, “so it’s like you wanted to save all of us—to make up for it.”
“Something like that, I guess.”
“Heavy,” Andrea said.
“If I’d known what happened before,” Bert said, “I never would’ve talked you into this.”
“You were so eager. I didn’t want to spoil it for you. Besides, I had no idea I’d suddenly turn into a total paranoid. That other was a long time ago. I figured I’d be able to handle being in the mountains again. But when we got here, it all came back fresh as if the years in between just folded up. Then Jase and his pals walked into the camp. That’s what the others did, just walked into camp and the next thing I knew Julie was dead. The way I saw it, it was all starting over again. But this time I was ready and I had a gun and nobody was going to get hurt except the guys.”
“And I threw away the gun,” Bert muttered.
“You what?” Andrea blurted.
“I threw it in the lake.”
“Holy limping Jesus.”
“It’s all right,” Rick said. “We’re better off without it. I could’ve ... I came pretty close to shooting those guys tonight. And they were innocent.”
“Innocent my ass.”
“They’re creeps,” Bert said, “but they’re not rapists or killers.”
“That remains to be seen,” Andrea said.
“They had my gun,” Rick told her. “They could’ve done whatever they wanted. All they did was hand it over to Beet.”
“We really misjudged those guys,” Bonnie said.
“I sure did,” Rick said, “and I think the rest of you caught it from me. It was contagious. I was so obsessed with this thing.”
“For good reason,” Bert told him.
“If I’d just ... really thought about it rationally. I mean, the odds against something like that happening twice ... It almost couldn’t happen again with odds like that.”
“You hear about the guy who got caught trying to take a bomb with him on an airline flight?” Andrea asked. “They said to him, ‘Are you nuts? You could’ve killed yourself and everyone else on the flight.’ He told them it didn’t have a detonator, so they said, ‘Then what’s the bomb for?’ He said it was a safety precaution. He said, ‘You ever hear of two bombs on a plane?’ ”
Nobody laughed.
“Cute,” Bonnie muttered.
“The odds.”
“We get it,” Bonnie said.
Bert rubbed the back of Rick’s neck. “Are you about ready to turn in?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“Does this mean we’re not going to stand watch anymore?” Andrea asked.
“What’s the point,” Bonnie said.
“I guess I’ll stay up for a while, then. Make sure nobody sneaks up on us and ...” She stopped herself. She shrugged. “I’m not very tired anyway.”
“Suit yourself,” Bonnie told her. “But there’s really no point.”
“Maybe not. But it can’t hurt to be careful. Rick did have those visions.”
“Just the daydreams of a disordered mind,” he said, smiling a bit.
“Besides,” Bert said, “the odds.”
“Yeah, the odds. Did you know it’s a common misconception that lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice? It does hit the same pl
ace twice. Frequently.”
“On that cheerful note,” Bert said, “goodnight.” Rick told the girls goodnight, and followed her into the tent.
As they lay close together in the darkness, Rick said, “Yeah. ‘Nother thing. I met Angus, our friendly neighborhood preacher-man, earlier. Says he’s lived out here fifty years. Caught me drinking the ‘devil’s brew’ and told me to repent of my wicked ways, or else. He’s out of his gourd. A real freak.”
“Angus?”
“Yes. The bastard that’s been following us around—never mentioned him before. All I’d seen was his shadow. Thought it was part of my general paranoia. But he sure scared the shit outa me tonight. Jumping out like that. Turns out he’s just your average harmless maniac. I guess.”
He started to tell Bert the whole story but she rolled over and put a finger to his lips.
“Tell me about Angus tomorrow,” she said.
Chapter Twenty-one
Gillian had thought it wouldn’t last long. Half an hour, maybe. Just long enough for Holden to take her up into the hills, probably somewhere along Mulholland, where he’d find a secluded area and open the trunk and do what he had in mind.
This can’t be happening.
It’s happened to a lot of others. It happens all the time. This time, it’s my turn. I’ll be dead. After he’s done with me. It’s impossible.
Gillian knew it was possible.
Not inevitable, though, she told herself. It’s not over yet. It doesn’t have to turn out that way. Maybe he’ll get a flat, or the cops will stop him, or ...
The wires at her feet.
She explored them with the toes of her right foot—the foot on the bottom. There seemed to be a central cable stretched along the front of the trunk. Small clusters of wires ran off it. These, she thought, must be attached to the car’s right rear lights.
Cops will stop a car with dead lights.
Though her feet were bound together tightly at the ankles, she was able to spread them open as if they were hinged at the heels. She damped the main cable between them. She pulled at it, trying to work the wiring loose without a struggle that might make the rope across her throat go tight.
You’ll never break the connection this way, she realized.