Rock Harbor Series - 03 - Into the Deep

  The other dogs followed Samson’s lead. How would they work without him? She’d never thought of this problem. She should have trained them without Samson on occasion to prepare them to work without his lead. Rubbing her fists against her burning eyes, she swallowed the lump growing in her throat.

  The teams released the dogs to search, and Charley took off toward the cut fence. He dashed through it, and Naomi scrambled after him. Bree ran after them both. She knew her dog wouldn’t still be in the woods here, but she couldn’t deny the leap of hope the dog’s eager response gave her.

  The dogs followed the trail to where Mason had found tire tracks. Charley ran down the road a few yards then stopped and began to wander aimlessly. Bree’s eyes began to burn as she struggled to hold back the tears. There was no clear trail.

  Kade rubbed his scratchy eyes. The other searchers had gone home around one this morning for some rest, but he and Bree had taken Charley and Zorro and continued to look. Dawn gradually cast a pink glow over the leaves and vegetation, but the full brilliance of the morning sun made his exhaustion seem heavier. He glanced at Bree. The dark circles under her eyes made her look even paler. There was almost no color in her face or lips, only the bright crown of red hair.

  He read weariness in the droop of her eyelids and the dogged way she put one foot in front of the other. If he tried to make her stop, she’d just snap at him, but he had to make the attempt. She wouldn’t help Samson by killing herself.

  “Hold on a minute.” He paused and pulled out his canteen. “We both need to rest.”

  She glanced at her watch. “I should call Anu and check on Davy.”

  “Good idea.” Any idea was good if it made her stand in one place. “Have a seat.” He pointed to a moss-covered log.

  She settled onto it and pulled out her cell phone. “I don’t know if I can get a signal back here.”

  “We’re on a small rise. You might get one.”

  She punched the button then closed the phone. “No signal.”

  “I’m sure Davy is fine. Anu will keep him distracted.” If Kade could only distract Bree. He wanted to free her from this burden, but this was something he couldn’t fix. He didn’t want to tell her that most dogs taken this way were never seen or heard from again. His own heart could hardly bear the thought of magnificent Samson suffering at the hands of the kind of men who would do this. He clenched and unclenched his hands.

  “Are we going to find him, Kade?”

  Bree’s green eyes looked too bright, probably with tears. Kade looked away from the pain etched in her face. Love could be more painful than he realized. “We’ll find him.” He tried to put power and conviction in his voice but feared he was failing when he saw her face crumple even more.

  She buried her face in her hands. “I want Samson. I want to put my face in his fur, to feel him lick my face. I can’t stand it, Kade. I just can’t. Why would someone do this? It’s inhuman! Maybe he was taken for a dogfighting ring, but what if it’s for medical tests or something? He could be tortured or cut up!”

  He knelt and took her in his arms. Her whole body heaved with the force of her grief. She buried her face in his chest. She was depending on him, and he couldn’t let her down. He had to find Samson. “I’ll find him,” he whispered. “No one will quit until we find him. The dognapper wanted Samson so persistently, I can’t believe it was for medical research.”

  She pulled away and ran her hand over her face, leaving dirty tracks on her cheeks. “How could God let this happen? This is pure evil, Kade.”

  “I know,” he soothed. “But God never promised we wouldn’t have trials; he just promised to go into the deep waters with us. He’ll bring Samson out the other side.” His own faith wavered. Sometimes God didn’t intervene and evil had its way. He could only pray this wasn’t one of those times.

  “I shouldn’t be surprised,” she said, after a long pause. “God let Rob die, and Anu experienced the heartache of losing both her husband and her only son. Steve’s wife was murdered. Peter Thorrington is dead. Evil won those rounds.”

  “Only in this life,” he reminded her. “Evil never really wins. Palmer and Max are paying for what they did. They’ll have more consequences when they face God.”

  She was shaking her head. “I just don’t know how I’ll even explain this to Davy. I was hoping we’d find Samson right away, and I wouldn’t have to go home and answer his questions. He and Samson are like blood brothers.”

  “Why don’t you go check on him and I’ll keep looking?”

  Her gaze searched his face. “You’re exhausted too.”

  “I’m tough.” He grinned to lighten the moment.

  “I know you are,” she said softly. “I don’t know what I’d do without you, Kade. You’ve been my rock.”

  He kissed her cheek and turned her toward his parked truck. “I’ll run you home and feed Charley and Zorro. Then I’ll start in the quadrant near Black River.”

  She nodded and they drove to town. He stopped in front of Anu’s house.

  “Why don’t you try to sleep a few hours? We’ll be no good without some rest.” She glanced at her watch. “It’s nearly seven. Let’s meet at eleven and go back out.”

  “Okay. I ought to let Lauri know how things are going anyway. She’ll be worried.” He kissed her goodbye, and she got out. As she walked toward the house, he could see the dread that dragged her steps. Davy would be crying for his dog. He didn’t envy her that encounter.

  Bree let herself into the house with her key. Maybe they were both still asleep and she could just close her eyes for fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes and she’d be fine. Tiptoeing, she moved down the hall toward the living room. The sounds of movement and voices in the kitchen brought her up short.

  Anu was talking to Davy. Her heart lurched. There would be no avoiding his insistence. Last night when he’d realized Samson was gone, he’d gone around the yard shouting for him until Anu forcibly carried him off.

  Bree sighed and squared her shoulders. She stepped into the kitchen. Davy saw her and jumped off the bar stool.

  “Where’s Sam, Mommy? I want him now.” His lower lip stuck out, and he stared at her with accusing eyes.

  Bree knelt and pulled him closer. “We didn’t find him yet, sweetheart.”

  His lips quivered, and his eyes filled with tears. “You promised you’d find him!”

  “I know, and I’m trying. So are Charley and Zorro and the other dogs, but so far they aren’t picking up his scent.”

  His eyes grew huge. “Maybe she found him. We have to go to the cabin!” He tugged on her hand.

  “Sweetheart, Rachel isn’t there anymore. She went to Chicago, remember?”

  He hesitated then nodded. “But she might have come back and taken him.”

  “Why would she do that? You don’t have to worry. She’s not coming back.”

  “She might take Sam since she can’t have me,” he said.

  “Oh no, she wouldn’t do that. She knows you love him. She loves you and wouldn’t want to hurt you.” If there was one thing Bree knew about Rachel Marks, the woman who had found Davy after the plane crash, it was that she loved the boy. She’d loved him enough she intended to keep him as her own son.

  But the woman was unstable. She’d proven it by ignoring the reality that Davy’s own family would be searching for him. Could she have taken Samson? Bree glanced at Anu and saw the same question on her face.

  “I’ll just give Mason a call,” Anu said, going to the phone.

  While Anu spoke in low tones, Bree lifted Davy to his bar stool again. “What do we have for breakfast?”

  “Grammy made panukakkua. But I don’t want any. I want Sam.” He began to cry in earnest, sobbing so hard Bree wanted to cry with him.

  She lifted him from the stool and cradled him in her arms. “It’s okay, sweetheart. Kade and I are going back out to look for him in just a little while.”

  Davy refused to be comforted and finally cried himself to s
leep in her arms. Weary beyond belief, Bree glanced up at Anu. “What did Mason say?”

  “He called while he had me hold. Rachel answered the phone. She’s been nowhere near Rock Harbor since she left last November.”

  Bree’s shoulders sagged. “It almost would have been better if she had him. At least she wouldn’t mistreat him.”

  “Let me take the boy. You are done in. Go lie on the couch for a while.” Anu took Davy from Bree’s unresisting arms.

  “Call me if Mason phones,” Bree said, trailing after her down the hall. Anu turned right toward the bedrooms, and Bree went to the living room and collapsed on the sofa. She was sound asleep almost before her head hit the cushion.

  She awoke with her heart trying to climb out of her chest. She sat up, breathing hard and trying to make her heart stop racing.

  “You were having a nightmare,” Anu said, standing in the doorway. “I was about to wake you. You kept crying out.”

  “I think it was about Samson, but I can’t really remember,” Bree said, rubbing her palms over her face. “What time is it?”

  “Ten thirty.”

  “I’ve got to move. Kade is picking me up in half an hour. Is Davy okay?”

  Anu nodded. “He slept about half an hour then awoke. Naomi came to take him to play with Timmy. She said to tell you Donovan is staying home with the children today and she’d be back here to hook up with you and Kade.”

  Bree absorbed the information for a moment. She was too tired to think.

  “I have some eggs and bacon ready for you. You must eat.”

  Bree knew her mother-in-law was right, but her stomach rebelled at the thought of food. She stood and followed Anu to the kitchen. The aroma of toasted nisu began to clear away the cobwebs in her brain. “Smells good,” she said with more gusto than she felt.

  “Mason called.”

  Bree’s head jerked up. Why hadn’t Anu told her right away? “And?”

  “No sign of Samson. He’s running a match on the tire track he found by your house.”

  “That won’t do much good if it’s an old one.”

  “Yes, but we know the dognapper has tried to get Samson at least once before. There is a chance this tire track is his. Mason got a description of the truck Hilary saw to see if it might be the same type as the tire track. Negaunee is not a well-traveled road, and this is an obscure pull-off.”

  “Good point. How long before he’ll know something?”

  “A couple of days.”

  “That’s too long!” Her dog had been gone for over twelve hours now. Twelve hours! That was a lifetime in dog years. She felt trapped in quicksand, powerless and frantic to escape.

  12

  Cassie moved her fins in unison with Salome as they swam side by side through the clear water. Underwater all her cares seemed to be as distant as Mars. Two days ago, rain had rendered visibility at only twenty feet or so, but today the murkiness was gone, and the clear water of Lake Superior allowed her to see nearly a hundred feet.

  The hiss of her regulator didn’t distract from her enjoyment of the underwater world. She wore enough weights to allow her to walk along the bottom. They’d found the special algae she sought somewhere along this cliff, but Cassie couldn’t remember exactly where it was located. Maybe fifty feet from Three Indians rock. Then Salome pointed, and Cassie nodded when she saw what she’d come here for. She swam to the rock, and she and Salome began to scrape the algae off the rock.

  They worked with the unison of friends used to each other’s movements. Cassie wished she could work down here all the time. The lab wasn’t nearly as inspiring as this ethereal world below.

  In fifteen minutes Cassie had all she needed for now. And just in time. She was pulling hard at her air, feeling light-headed. She pointed toward the surface, and Salome nodded, then followed her up to the light. She surfaced and climbed into the boat anchored off Three Indians rock.

  Gasping, Cassie clambered up the ladder behind her. “My air was running out,” she said. “I must not have gotten it fully recharged.”

  “You okay?”

  “I’m fine. I just feel a little nauseated. I’ll be okay by the time we get to the lab.” Cassie fingered the algae. “I’m eager to see how this does with the plants. Let’s get back to the lab.”

  They were back within fifteen minutes. Cassie hung up her wet suit to dry in the restroom, put a white lab coat over fatigues, and hurried to her office. The bright lights kept the lab from feeling like it was underground. The equipment around her hummed as Cassie peered at the algae with a microscope. She hoped this would be the breakthrough for the plants. She worked quietly, trying to ignore her growing discomfort. Beads of sweat broke out on her forehead, and her vision blurred. She felt sick and weak.

  The phone rang, and she answered it. From the hum, she instantly knew it was the voice synthesizer.

  “I warned you. Now you have to pay.”

  The phone went dead in her hand, and she put it back in its cradle. “Stupid nut,” she muttered. He was going to make her life miserable. She dabbed at her forehead.

  Salome pecked on the door. “There’s someone here to see you, Cassie. A park ranger.”

  Cassie took a swig from her bottle of water, and her vision cleared. “Be right there.” An interruption was the last thing she needed. Besides, the corporation’s policy was to have no outsiders in the lab. “I’ll see him in the reception room.” She followed Salome down the hall to the reception area. A man in a brown park service uniform stood by the bulletin board perusing the articles Cassie had instructed Salome to put up—articles about other labs working on various projects with proteins that might cure anything from cancer to diabetes.

  The man turned at the squeak of Cassie’s rubber-soled shoes on the tile floor. She recognized him immediately as Kade Matthews, Bree’s friend. She’d seen him when she stopped to see if Bree had found Samson. He looked tired.

  “Ranger Matthews. Did you find Samson?” The room felt hot and close. Cassie picked up a magazine and began to fan herself with it.

  The ranger shook his head. “No sign yet, but we haven’t given up hope. I’m here on another matter. I found some dead fish downstream from the mine. So far we’ve been unable to determine the cause, and I need to take some samples of what you’re dumping.” Kade looked around the room.

  The hint of accusation put her on the defensive. “Our business is curing, not killing. We’re not dumping anything. If you have dead fish, it’s not our problem.”

  “You’re not dumping anything? What about your septic?”

  “Totally self-contained. We have an aeration system that purifies the water even better than your city sewage system. So I suggest you look somewhere else for your fish killer.” She had to get him out of here so she could lie down a little while. Could running low on air have caused this reaction? She blinked rapidly to clear her vision.

  Kade smiled in a placating way. “I hate to disrupt you, but I really need to take a tour of your facility, see for myself.”

  “I’m afraid that won’t be possible. This facility isn’t open for public inspection.”

  “I’m hardly the public. Surely you can understand I need to make certain the lab isn’t the cause of the environmental problems. If we can’t handle this now, I’ll have to come back with the sheriff. I don’t want to do that. And I’m a trustworthy sort of guy. Really.”

  Cassie bit her lip. The last thing she needed was a major investigation. Her boss would think her incompetent and might replace her. She couldn’t risk her father’s lifetime of work over a policy that probably didn’t apply to this situation anyway. “Very well. But I must ask you not to share anything you see here. Competing pharmaceutical companies would love to get their hands on what we’re doing.”

  “I’m not in the habit of shooting off my mouth,” Kade said. “If you’re clean, I’ll be the first to leave your work alone. And Bree is special to me. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt your sister.”

&n
bsp; Her sister. Finally someone was being nice about the connection between her and Bree. Cassie’s vision cleared even more. She could get through this. “Follow me. You’ll need a lab coat. We can’t have any contamination in the growing area.” She took him to a room and had him change, then led the way down the brightly lit hallway. “This is the growing chamber.”

  Kade peered at the lush plants. “What are these? They seem to be growing well here.”

  “A genetically altered tobacco plant. Tobacco is one of the easiest of all plants to grow. We’re harvesting a special protein for our research.”

  “What will it do?”

  “I’m afraid I can’t tell you that. It’s enough that you can see what we’re growing and that we’re no threat to your environment.”

  “What if this genetically altered plant escapes to the outside world? Could it grow and harm native plants?”

  “In the first place, it couldn’t escape. A mine is a perfect place to maintain security and total self-containment. And in the second place, it couldn’t grow in this climate. So the ecology is safe.”

  “A mine seems an odd place to grow plants.”

  Cassie nodded. “The high levels of carbon dioxide make the plants thrive. They should flower in five weeks instead of ten. The yield is much higher than we could get outside as well.”

  Kade didn’t answer as he followed her through the rest of the tour and examined the lab’s septic system. A few minutes later she deposited him at the door to the mine. “I hope I was able to set your mind at ease about our work here,” she told him.

  “Very impressive. But I think I’ll snoop around the grounds a bit and see if I can find anything seeping from the mine.”

  “You won’t find anything. We’re clean as new snow.” Suddenly dizzy, she swayed and put her hand on the back of a nearby chair.