Chapter 39
Charlie limpedinto the kitchen of the Fire Peak Lodge. Her messenger bag was slung across her chest, her laptop and wallet inside. She’d left everything else behind.
Thank God, Big Eddie was there.
“Eddie, I need your help,” she said, trying to keep the panic out of her voice. “We need to evacuate the lodge.”
“Huh?” He looked up from the lamb chops he was dropping into a marinade. His springy black hair was tied back with a bandanna, the closest he came to a hairnet. “Why for?”
“No time for questions. Most of the guests are out and about.” One stroke of luck was that it was midafternoon, prime time for sightseeing. “But there are people hanging out on the terrace and the library, and staffers everywhere. I can’t get to everyone because of my leg. Please.”
“Is this coming from April?”
“No. I can’t find her. Do you know where she is?” She’d texted April over and over, and gotten no response.
“Isn’t this her meditation time?”
“She has a meditation time?”
“It’s the only time she turns her phone off.”
Was April trying to meditate through this crisis? Charlie had to find her and shake some sense into her.
“Thanks, Eddie.” She turned to go, then saw he still wasn’t moving, not until he’d finished his marinade. “Listen, I can’t explain right now, but this whole place needs to be empty in half an hour. Tell them there’s a surprise inspection or something. Please…”
She couldn’t wait around any longer, she had to get to April.
She’d talked the kidnappers into giving her one more chance to convince April to give them what they wanted. They had hostages now; that changed things.
It was all up to April now—she could save the lodge and two teens, and stop this whole nightmare. If only Charlie could find her.
Her phone pinged. She was starting to wish there was no service here. She hated that these people could reach her whenever they wanted. If she could stand still for a minute, she’d be able to pinpoint their location, but ever since that first contact, they’d kept her on the move. Her thigh was a throbbing mass of fire by now, but she just blocked it out and kept going.
Is it done?
Even though they hadn’t mentioned evacuating the lodge, why else would they want the sprinklers disabled, if they weren’t planning to start a fire? That was why she’d rushed to get Big Eddie going before she did as they asked.
Almost. Two minutes.
What if they didn’t even have Hailey and Elias? What if Nick had rescued them by now? But she couldn’t count on that.
She swung into April’s office and went to the control box for the fire mitigation system. It required a key and a passcode, both of which she knew.
She opened the box and scanned the digital readout. Maybe there was a way she could fool the system. But what would be the point? If the sprinklers went off after all, and they had Hailey in their control, they might take out their rage on her.
She turned the key to the off position. Do your thing, Big Eddie. Get those people out.
Done, she texted. If they set a fire now, she’d officially be an accessory to the crime. Sure, she was under duress. So maybe she’d get a lighter sentence. Or maybe not, if anyone figured out what she’d been up to the last ten years.
Her phone dinged. Another photo of Hailey and Elias. That was the deal. They had to keep sending photos for every move they demanded of her.
April now
Give me five minutes to find her
Four
You shouldn’t have shot an arrow into my thigh if you wanted me to hurry. She texted that as she hobbled from the office.
No answer from Vasily and the Chechens, which she took as an admission of guilt. She was ninety percent sure the texts were coming from them. Sometimes their phrasing seemed a little off, just enough to make her suspect they weren’t native English speakers.
She hurried down the wide polished planks of the corridor, banging on every door as she passed. “Chemical leak! Everyone has to evacuate!”
None of the doors opened, which pleased her. The lodge only had sixteen guest suites, and she was pretty sure they were all empty now. As she hurried through the restaurant, she spotted only one guest still lingering on the terrace.
“Hey you!” she yelled at him. “Get the hell out!”
He didn’t look her way, and she realized with a chill that he was one of them. A young man, dressed in black high-tech gear, duffel bag sat at his feet, clearly just waiting for an order.
They were going to burn down Fire Peak Lodge.
Unless they got whatever it was they wanted from April.
For a second she debated engaging with the Chechen guy face to face, maybe throwing his duffel bag over the edge of the terrace. But she would be no match for him even without an injury.
So she limped onwards, out of the lodge and into the bright sunshine. An angelic blue sky arced overhead. The distant drone of a single prop plane mingled with the closer sound of guests chattering at the edge of the lawn, where it gave way to alder bushes and willows.
Way to go, Big Eddie.
She hobbled toward the tiny gazebo where April meditated. No one else was allowed inside, and Charlie had never even been close to it before. But it was beautiful, a combination of Alaskan hand-hewn construction and woodwork from Bali. As she came close, she caught the muffled sound of a gong.
Hopefully that meant the end of meditation time.
She knocked on the door. “April. It’s urgent, let me in.”
April’s shuffling footfalls across her gazebo floor didn’t sound at all urgent. Charlie drummed her fingers against her thighs in unbearable anticipation. As soon as the door opened, she burst in.
“Vasily and the Chechens are going to set fire to the lodge.” She was panting so hard she could barely get the words out. All that painful running around had caught up with her. “And they have hostages, two teenagers. You have to do what they say.”
April was wearing a white kung-fu type of uniform and headband to keep stray hairs out of her face. Her expression, usually grumpy enough, was now outright grim. “I’ve already told them no. You’re wasting your time.”
Charlie’s phone dinged. Found her?
Yes. But she says no.
A photo came next, or rather, a photo of a Polaroid. It showed a man flat on his back in the snow, a dark gash on his forehead. Rime and frost made his face look like a statue. A young woman crouched over him. Was that April? Show her.
Charlieturned her phone so April could see it. “They said to show this to you.”
April looked away, then back at the photo. Her mouth quivered, then tightened.
“April. Is that you and Bulldog?”
No answer.
Wait a minute. The story she’d read about Bulldog’s death said that he’d been found frozen in the forest and gnawed on by wolves. The man in this shot was dead, for sure. In the forest. With a beard. But he didn’t look mangled the way the news article had described.
“So you left Bulldog in the snow to get eaten by wolves, is that what happened?”
Repulsed, she shifted gears. She needed to get April onboard, not accuse her of murder.
“All that is ancient history now, April. Listen! They have two teenagers they’ve taken hostage. They’re going to burn down the lodge. Can’t you work with them, give them something? What are they after?”
“The mountain, of course.” April tightened the brown belt around her robe. “I tried giving them something. I thought if I let them do some small-scale mining, they’d be satisfied. But it was a mistake.”
“Why?”
“It wasn’t enough for them. They want me to sell Fire Peak to a mining interest. A mining interest! Can you imagine?”
Something clicked. “And Vasily would get half of that money, based on that old agreement he and Chadwick signed about sharing future mineral profits. Maybe all of it, since Chadwick is dead.”
“Doesn’t matter, because I said no. Principles are only principles if you stand up for them. I won’t change my mind.”
That was exactly what the Chechens had texted. April will not cooperate. “I don’t understand. You told them no. So why are they bothering to burn down the lodge now? What’s the point?”
“To demoralize me, force me to sell the land. Then their investors can swoop in. I put all my money into this lodge, I have nothing else.”
“But isn’t the lodge insured?”
April gave a laugh that held no amusement. “It’s too remote, no insurance company operates out here. But it’s just a building. There are much more important things than buildings.”
“Yes, people! Two teenagers. Nick’s daughter and Elias.”
At the mention of Elias, April’s expression actually brightened. “Elias is strong. He’ll get them out of danger. It’ll be fine. We just need to stay strong. I have a plan.”
“A plan? What plan?”
April straightened her spine and gestured at Charlie’s phone.
“Tell them if they set that fire, they’ll end up with nothing. Less than nothing.”