Chapter 7 #2
When he noticed that Trina had rolled her suitcase down the short hallway toward the bedrooms, he called, “Take the master suite. You deserve to have your own bathroom.”
“Okay, thanks.” She waved a hand at their surroundings. “I didn’t expect anything this nice. It’s kind of luxurious, isn’t it?”
He shrugged. To his mind, the place was nice enough but not extravagant. “It’s a rental. People expect to stay in a nice place when renting a place in the mountains.”
“I guess I was expecting a rustic hunting type of place.” She flashed a quick smile, then continued down the hall, calling, “Ben, come pick your room.”
The boy jumped off the sofa and ran down the hall. Royal trotted after them. Joel smiled, glad the dog would have a playmate for a while.
When Joel had finished putting stuff away, he reached for his phone. Griff answered on the first ring. “Hey, Griff. Have you learned anything new?”
“Not yet. The Laramie PD still have not located Peter Thomas.” Griff paused, then added, “They’re starting to wonder if you’re right about him being involved in this.”
“Did you mention the information about how Evie loaned him money?” Joel asked. “That may play into his motive.”
“I did. That was new information for them, and they’re taking it seriously,” Griff assured him. “I’ve been digging into Trina’s boyfriends; they’re all still in the area. I figure I’ll head out to interview them in person.”
It bothered Joel to be sitting there while Griff did the legwork. But he also had no intention of leaving Trina and Ben here alone. “Will you let me know how that goes?”
“Yep.” Another pause, then Griff said, “You’d better call Chase. He’s annoyed to be the last to know about the danger you’ve landed in.”
“I’m not the one in danger.” He sighed, then added, “I’ll call him. But Chase isn’t one to talk. He didn’t tell any of us about Eli’s kidnapping until he needed additional resources.”
“I know all about that. I was there, remember?” Griff said. “I’m just the messenger.”
“Understood.” Joel knew his future brother-in-law didn’t deserve his frustration. “I have computer access here. What can I do to help?”
“I’ve already done background checks. You can try social media, but otherwise, there isn’t anything I can think of.”
That was not what he wanted to hear. He cast a quick glance around the room. “Griff, I seriously need something to do. Anything.”
“I’ll think about it and let you know. Right now, I need to hit the road so I can talk to these former boyfriends. We’ll chat more later, okay?” Griff ended the call without giving him a chance to respond.
“Great. Fine.” He muttered to himself as he set his phone aside. “I’ll just sit here twiddling my thumbs.”
“The bedroom across from the master suite is yours.” Trina glanced out at the wooded lot surrounding the cabin. “Is it safe for Ben to go outside for a while? He’d like to play with Royal.”
“Sure, that’s no problem.” He’d made sure they weren’t followed. Granted, he’d done that on the way to the Elk Lodge. He secretly hoped Peter or whoever was responsible for these attacks was wasting time checking out the other hotels in the area.
“Thanks.” Trina turned to Ben. “You can take Royal outside, but don’t go too far. You don’t want to get lost in these woods, right?”
“Right.” Ben nodded solemnly, then grinned. “Let’s go, Royal!”
Ben darted to the front door. Royal followed, then paused to look at Joel as if asking permission. He nodded at his K9. “Go ahead.”
Royal wagged his tail and followed Ben outside. Ben let the door slam shut loudly behind him. Then his voice, shouted, “Sorry!”
Trina chuckled. “That kid.”
“He’s fine.” Going out to play in the woods was something all young boys liked to do. “Royal will keep an eye on him.”
“I know. I have to say, that’s a huge relief. Otherwise, I’d feel the need to be out there with him.” She tucked a strand of her red-gold hair behind her ear. “I don’t know how Evie took care of Ben while working a full-time job. It’s exhausting.”
“I’m sure things will get easier over time.” He was only guessing since he didn’t have any kids of his own and couldn’t imagine what it was like to become a parent to an eight-year-old overnight. “Especially when school starts.”
“To be honest, I’m looking forward to that.” She flushed. “It’s not that I don’t love Ben, but I am seriously behind on writing this book. Writing while he’s at school sounds heavenly.” She grimaced, then asked, “Do you mind if I work for a bit?”
“Not at all. Go for it.” He wasn’t about to stand in her way.
“Thanks.” She sat on the sofa and opened her laptop case. Minutes later, her gaze was focused on the screen, fingers flying across the keyboard. He watched in awe, as it seemed as if she’d picked up exactly where she’d left off without a problem.
How she could write one book, let alone a few, was amazing to him. Leaving her to it, he turned his attention to mining social media.
Trina had mentioned Peter hadn’t posted anything on social media since Evie’s death. He had trouble finding the correct account, then carried the computer to the sofa. “Sorry to bother you, can you just verify if this is the correct Peter Thomas?”
“Huh?” She blinked at him, as if needing a moment to switch gears. Then she leaned forward to look at the screen. “Yes, that’s the one. But why are you looking at it? We already know he’s not posted anything recently.”
“It’s something to do.” He shrugged and turned away. “I can’t sit here doing nothing.”
“I get that.” She watched him for a moment, then looked back at the screen. “I just want to finish this scene.”
“That’s not a problem.” He felt bad for interrupting and imagined she dealt with a lot of that from Ben.
Determined to keep quiet, he scrolled through some of the messages that had been left by friends of Peter.
One name in particular caught his eye. A woman by the name of Casey Mueller seemed concerned that she hadn’t heard from Peter.
She left several comments on his last post, asking him to call her.
He frowned, seeing three of the same comment one right after the other.
In a way, they reminded him of Lisa’s persistence.
Which now that he thought about it, she hadn’t bothered him since that call earlier in the morning.
Still, it was enough to make him wonder about the relationship between Peter and this Casey.
Had Peter cheated on Evie prior to her death?
Or was he reading more into a concerned message than he ought to?
Guys could have female friends, and there was nothing in her message to indicate they had been more than pals.
Still, he copied the name down, hoping to run it past Griff. Then he clicked to see Casey’s page. He could only see her profile page, nothing more, so he went back to reading the comments on Peter’s page.
Nothing else stood out to him as being significant. Casey was the only one who seemed to have noticed that Peter hadn’t posted anything recently. He decided to switch gears to find Brian Ashland’s information.
Griff had confirmed Brian was in jail, so he couldn’t have carried out the attacks against Trina.
That was fine, but maybe the guy had hired someone else to do the dirty work.
It was a stretch. Joel doubted the guy was rolling in money, as they already knew he had credit card debt. Yet it was worth a look.
Besides, he had nothing better to do.
He paused to cross over to the window. Ben and Royal were in the yard, Ben had a stick in his hand, and he was waving it around like a sword.
He and Justin had done the same thing as kids.
Once Justin had nearly poked Joel’s eye out.
Their mother had not been amused when Joel had come into the house bleeding from a deep scratch near his left eye.
He had to smile at how Ben was fighting imaginary foes.
Deciding the boy was fine, he returned to the computer.
Trina hadn’t even looked up, working intensely as if lost in her thoughts. Or in her fictional Montana town.
She hadn’t confided in him about her pseudonym, so he couldn’t check out her web page or her books. He wasn’t sure why he was so curious and forced himself to go back to searching on Brian’s social media pages.
That proved to be a fruitless effort too. He couldn’t find anything on Brian and decided the guy must have purposefully stayed low-key to avoid paying child support. Trina had mentioned that her sister hadn’t pursued the issue, but if she had, the court would have garnished the guy’s wages.
What a loser. No surprise he’d ended up in jail.
Joel pushed away from the computer, feeling restless.
Why would Brian bother to attack Trina? Unless he thought that Trina might force the issue of child support.
He turned, intending to run that theory past Trina, then caught himself.
She was engrossed in her work. Since he had no idea how long it would take her to write a scene, he stood and walked to the window overlooking the backyard instead.
He frowned, not seeing Ben or Royal. He wasn’t that worried; Royal would sound the alarm if there was a problem. But Trina had told the boy to stay close.
Not that he and his twin had listened very well at that age.
He moved to another window, overlooking the side of the cabin. When there was still no sign of Ben, he wandered down the hall to the bedrooms.
After verifying the kid wasn’t playing within sight of the cabin, he returned to the main room. “I’m heading out to check on Ben.”
“Hmmm.” Trina barely looked up from her screen. She was cute, gnawing her lower lip while working.
Hiding a smile, he slipped outside. He walked a few feet from the cabin, searching the woods for a sign of the boy. “Ben? Where are you? You were supposed to stay close to the cabin, remember?”
There was no response, so he strode to the last place he’d seen the boy. “Ben!” His tone was sharp now. “Get back here.”
“Coming!” Ben’s voice sounded faint, as if he were farther away than Joel had anticipated.
Royal emitted a low growl seconds before he heard a grunting sound. The tiny hairs on the back of his neck rose in alarm. He recognized that sound as coming from a grizzly bear.
“Ben!” He shouted the boy’s name as he bolted into the woods.
“Stay where you are! Don’t move!” He feared the boy must have gotten between a mama bear and her cub.
Grizzlies didn’t attack without a reason.
The two biggest reasons a grizzly would lash out were if they were protecting a food source or their cubs.
Royal’s growls grew louder, then the dog let out a series of sharp barks. Joel quickly drew the weapon from his belt holster, praying the grizzly would turn away.
He didn’t want to put the bear down if he didn’t have to.
“Joel? I see a bear!” Ben’s voice held a mixture of fear and awe. “It’s huge!”
Dear Lord Jesus, protect him! “Stay where you are. Don’t move any closer, understand?”
Royal’s barking continued, and the grunting sound from the bear grew into a roar. Joel ducked under branches, desperate to reach Ben and Royal. He knew the dog would plant himself between Ben and the bear, sacrificing his life if necessary.
“Yah! Yah!” Joel saw the brown grizzly bear now, and it was massive.
A female, most likely. There was no sign of a radio collar around its neck.
Many of the bears in Yellowstone National Park were tracked by the DNR but not all of them.
Joel waved his arms over his head, yelling as loudly as possible. “Go, scat! Go away!”
The bear reared up on its hind legs and roared again. The sound sent chills down his spine. In all the years he’d been doing search and rescue, he’d never been this close to a grizzly.
“Ben, get behind me. Don’t run, walk slowly backward toward me. Royal, heel.” He continued waving his arms as he spoke, praying the bear would turn away. If it made a single move toward them, he’d have no choice but to shoot.
Thankfully, the bear’s roars had scared Ben into shocked silence. The boy walked backward, then tripped over a log, hitting the ground hard. The abrupt movement made the bear roar loudly again.
“Yah! Yah!” Joel screamed at the bear as he hurried forward to stand in front of Ben. When the bear didn’t back down, he brought his arms down and held the gun with two hands. He swallowed and tried to calm his racing heart. A handgun wasn’t always powerful enough to drop a bear in its tracks.
He’d have to hit the beast square in the heart or head. And he could not afford to miss.
There was a rustling sound from the area beyond the bear, and for a horrible moment, Joel feared the mate was nearby. Male and female bears didn’t usually travel together, but anything was possible.
Then he saw the brown fur of a smaller bear. The grizzly’s cub.
After another long moment, the bear turned toward the cub. Joel kept his weapon trained on the beast until it had lumbered away, with the cub running alongside.
He lowered his arms, let out a deep sigh, and glanced gratefully at the sky overhead. Thank You, Lord Jesus!
That had been far too close.