Chapter 10 Cara
TEN
CARA
Whole thing is fuckin staged bro. She never went anywhere. Or if she did, she just laughin and sippin Cristal in the limo. Shit.
—@alleyezonme_O_O
The barking grew louder as the wind shifted toward them. After hiking twenty minutes in tense silence, Cara finally saw, through a break in the trees, a road and a half-dozen parked cars.
Thank God.
“You’re like a racehorse running back to the barn,” Sanjay said.
“I just really need to . . . pay a visit to the outhouse,” she told him.
A horrible-smelling, fly-ridden public shitter was the only thing Cara could think of that might put the dogs off her scent.
“I guess we’ll catch up to you there,” Devin said.
She sped up. “See you shortly!”
At the trailhead, the cars were dusty and the outhouse was empty. Karoline from Torrance dove right in. It was a chance to catch her breath—more like hold it, given the olfactory assault. She stayed inside, breathing through her mouth, until she heard the crunch of Sanjay and Devin’s boots.
And fat rubber tires kicking rocks.
She climbed onto the toilet seat and peered out the vent on the back wall. A Madera Fire District SUV pulled into the small lot and stopped beside Devin and Sanjay.
What were the chances he hadn’t been briefed about missing fugitive Cara Campbell?
Cara balanced over the blue-tinted, almost overflowing cesspool as the fireman rolled down his window.
“I’m about to close this trailhead due to fire danger,” he told her new friends.
“We’re actually on our way out,” said Devin.
“Headed back to Fresno?”
“San Francisco, actually.”
“In that case, take 49 to 140 to I-5. Highway 41 is closed to nonessential travel south of Oakhurst.”
“You got it,” said Sanjay.
Cara closed her eyes and exhaled so deeply that she forgot to hold her nose when she breathed back in.
Someone rapped on the door.
“Karoline!” called Devin. “My turn.”
The fireman had pulled into a space next to the trailhead’s information board, but she couldn’t stay inside.
All she could do was lean into her hiker-girl persona and hope for the best.
“Delightful, like roses in here!” she said, opening the door and waving her hand in front of her nose.
Devin shucked off his backpack. “Can’t wait.”
“Want me to take that back to the car for you?” she asked.
“OK, sure.”
Cara hoisted the backpack, which must have weighed fifty pounds, even without food, and went looking for Sanjay.
Who, it turned out, was loading into a black Jeep right next to the fireman’s truck.
Cara angled her body, doing her best to keep the bulky backpack between her and the fireman, who was stapling a warning to the plywood information board.
Nothing to see here. Just three friends finishing up a hiking trip.
Cara handed Devin’s bag to Sanjay, who tossed it in the back of the Jeep.
Then, as he opened the passenger side door, she kept her head down, pretending to move things around.
When she risked a peek at the fireman, he was reading the visitor’s log.
Probably counting how many hikers were still out on the trail—those who had bothered to sign in.
Suddenly, Sanjay was beside her again, offering her a heather-gray T-shirt with a Batman logo.
“It’s clean,” he said.
“I’m embarrassed to have the one I’m wearing. I don’t want to—”
“Trade Devin’s favorite hiking shirt for a clean one? I think I speak for everyone when I say it’s a good idea. That is, if you plan to get in the car with us.”
“Deal.”
Cara took the shirt and moved several vehicles away to change into it.
The fireman was talking on the phone as Devin returned from the outhouse. Why wouldn’t he leave?
“Karoline!” called Sanjay. “Let’s go!”
She hurried back, gave Devin the dirty shirt, and jumped in the back seat.
As Devin backed out of the parking space and swung the Jeep around, the barking was so loud that she expected the dogs to burst out of the trees at any moment. Cara couldn’t help looking—and found herself locking eyes with the fireman, only ten feet away.
Did he recognize her?
Go! Go! Go! she shouted silently.