Chapter 7 Bear Trap
Monday
Bear had an uneventful night that bled into an overcast morning.
He rose and tied his bedroll to his backpack, downing a breakfast of beef jerky and bottled water on-the-go as he began his first patrol of the day.
He’d ended his trek from the evening before along the southernmost stretch of the highway bypassing Heart Lake.
This morning, he retraced his steps, careful to keep inside the tree line.
His burner phone vibrated in the cargo pocket on his left thigh. He reached for it, knowing it could be urgent. Only a few people in the world had his number.
It was April. His heart thudded with anticipation, but he did a quick pivot and let it go to voicemail while he surveyed his surroundings.
While on a mission like his, it was best to wait and return phone calls from a more secure location.
He was so busy looking around instead of down that he almost missed seeing the iron teeth of an animal trap in his path.
Another couple of steps and he would’ve been in trouble.
It was a bear trap. The irony wasn’t lost on him that it had almost caught a live Bear. Just not the grizzly kind.
He froze and took his time surveying his surroundings, not moving again until he was sure it was an isolated trap. The quickest solution was to spring it, which he did by breaking off a tree limb and pressing the jagged end of it against the spring mechanism.
Its vicious iron jaws slammed shut around the fresh sapling branch, snapping it in two.
He squatted down to eye the deadly contraption.
Not only were such traps illegal to use in most states, but the one in front of him looked like it was a heavier duty trap than a traditional bear trap.
The iron teeth were longer and sharper. It looked like it weighed more, too.
He was betting it wasn’t designed to merely contain its victim. It was designed to maim or amputate.
It had come a little too close to doing it to him.
He removed a coil of rope from his backpack and wound it around the deadly mouth of the trap, cinching its jaws together.
He secured it to his backpack beneath his bedroll, making sure no part of it would touch his person when he started moving again.
A person couldn’t be too careful when it came to transporting a bear trap.
Then he made his way — much more slowly than before — deeper into the foothills.
Carefully scanning the path in front of him every step of the way, he approached a deep cleft in the ridge wall towering over him.
It would protect him on three sides while giving him a clear view of anyone who might approach him while he was on the phone.
He stepped into the cleft and returned April’s call.
“Good morning, Bear.” Her cheerful greeting brightened his morning, chasing away the overcast skies trying to taint his soul with their gloom.
“Good morning, April.” Hearing her voice made him ache to see her again. “Miss me already?”
She gave a soft chuckle that he would hear again in his dreams. “Your extraordinary niece, who is going to make an extraordinary lawyer, got us a photo of the Haywoods’ housekeeper.”
Her glowing compliment about Kaya made his day even better. He was far less excited about discussing the Haywoods’ housekeeper. “Anything I need to know about my accuser?”
“Yes. Martha Masterson is Tiffany Masterson’s mother, and we now have proof Tiffany isn’t missing. She never was.” April described her encounter with Kaya’s cagey college roommate in the hotel lobby. “She was gone by the time the police showed up, but they have her on the security camera footage.”
“Well, that blows our theory about college girls straight out of the water.” His chest tightened at how close she’d come to a woman who might be dangerous. “Please assure me that you and Kaya are somewhere safe.”
“We’re locked in our hotel suite, but I’m not going to lie. This one worries me, Bear.”
“That makes two of us.” He scrubbed a hand over his face, more than ready for his next shower. Middle age was definitely making him softer. There was a time when he wouldn’t have cared how he smelled.
“I know you’ve been out there protecting Kaya and Miley,” the concern in April’s voice went straight to his heart, buoying his spirits, “but have you considered the fact that we might need you here more?”
You need me? His jaw went slack, wondering if he’d heard right. “You mean at the hotel?”
“Yes, please. I know it’s a lot to ask of you.” She sounded uncharacteristically flustered, not that he minded being needed by her. Not one bit! “Maybe it’s something only a coward would ask, but—”
“I’ll do it,” he said quickly. “For a few nights, at least.” He would use the change of pace to regroup and come up with a new plan for keeping his family safe — preferably one that would minimize the risk of having an ankle snapped in two.
“I almost stepped into a bear trap this morning,” he confessed wryly.
Her answering bleat of alarm was spontaneous and genuine. “Where?” She gasped out the question.
He gave her the approximate coordinates, wishing he’d broken the news to her a little more gently. He hadn’t meant to upset her.
“Bear,” she moaned. “Is it just me, or does this feel like more than a coincidence?”
“A bear trap for Running Bear Dakota?” He exhaled heavily. “It definitely has a suspicious ring to it. I disarmed it and brought it with me in case Lonestar Security’s forensics team wants to have a look at it.”
“They will, and so will I.” She sounded adamant and deeply concerned. “Do you want Lonestar Security to handle your room reservation?”
He knew why she was asking, but he didn’t need anyone footing his bills. “I can afford a hotel room, April.”
“I didn’t mean it to sound like…” She broke off, sounding contrite.
“Relax. I didn’t take it as anything other than kindness on your part.” He just wanted her to know that he was financially stable. “Thanks for asking.”
“You’re welcome.” The warmth returned to her voice, along with a hint of shyness. “Are you really coming to the plaza hotel? I don’t want to give Kaya false hope.”
“Already on my way.” He moved away from the sheltering cleft in the rocky ridge and took a shortcut to the highway. “Not to cut this short, but I need to keep all pistons firing on the path ahead of me.”
“Please be careful,” she begged. “I’ll see you soon.”
“Yes, you will.” He ended their call. After a short debate, he decided that his safest bet was hiking along the highway in full view of any passers-by.
It wasn’t how he normally operated, but now that the hunter had become the hunted, the risks of staying out of sight outweighed the rewards.
The old highway didn’t get a ton of traffic, but it got enough to provide him with witnesses should anyone try anything.
As careful as he’d been, someone had figured out what he was up to, and he could only come up with one reasonable explanation.
April and Kaya were the only people he’d interacted with during his bivouac, which meant one of them had been compromised.
There was no way they’d knowingly been complicit in sharing his location, so their phones and other gear would need to be scanned for bugs.
Spyware was one of the reasons he hated using electronics.
A person could have another person tracking their every move and not even know it.
He reached the highway without further incident. Since there was no shoulder, he hiked along the edge of the road. The morning sun glowed brightly on the horizon, burning off the mist and clouds that had previously blanketed the foothills.
A semi-truck lumbered past him with a cattle trailer in tow. The driver gave him a wide berth, lifting his hand in a friendly wave. Bear waved back. He liked having witnesses around.
A pickup truck flew by next, with a few laughing teenagers inside.
They straddled the center line, bouncing around in their seats like Mexican jumping beans to their music.
A minute or two later, a sports car glided into view.
Its silver paint glistened like a streak of lightning in the sunlight.
As it drew closer, the driver slowed his or her speed.
Bear tensed, wondering if the person intended to pull over and offer him a ride.
It was a nice car, one of those retro Corvettes with the old pop-up headlights.
There weren’t many cars like that around the small town of Heart Lake.
He could think of only one person who owned one — Benjie and Verity Haywood, Kaya’s boyfriend’s parents.
Maybe there were other Corvettes scooting around town, but Bear didn’t spend much time off the rez.
The Countryman brothers at the Triple J Auto Body Shop would know. He’d pay them a visit soon and ask.
Since Bear didn’t have his thumb out, he wasn’t sure why the Corvette was slowing down. Even if he had his thumb out, most folks didn’t stop for hitchhikers these days. It wasn’t safe. If it was a Haywood behind the wheel, they certainly wouldn’t stop for a Dakota.
The driver drew abreast of Bear. Instead of moving to the center of the road like the other vehicles had, the driver abruptly jerked the wheel in his direction.
Bear didn’t have time to do anything other than react. He dove over the rocky embankment, hugging the side of the ditch closest to the road. It was a close shave — so close that he could feel the whoosh of air as the car passed him.
He heard the gunning of the motor and a squeal of tires as the driver careened away, leaving rubber in his or her haste to put distance between them.
Bear sprang to his feet and returned to the road, sprinting after the car to get a better look at it, but his efforts were futile. All he got was an eyeful of tinted windows. The car was too far away to get a reading on the license plate number.