Chapter 10
They headed out at first light the next morning, intent on finding a knoll or bluff where they could contact Hank. The sat phone, while a useful tool, still needed an unobstructed sky to work. Haley struggled with fatigue that morning. Sure, it was just being unused to climbing and walking as much as they were. She pushed through, ignoring the heat that seemed to rise from beneath her skin.
They crested the ridge after a couple hours of climbing and she sank onto a fallen tree, gasping for breath. Nathan frowned at her and started toward her when she waved him away. “I’m used to running on a treadmill in a gym.” Fibbing was okay now, she thought as she remembered the five K’s and mini marathons she’d entered in the past few years. “I’m just out of shape. Make the call.”
His frown didn’t dissipate as he removed the sat phone from his pocket and turned away. She took a breath and reached for the water bottle at her side, taking a big gulp. She wished she’d been able to get ahold of more aspirin but then she would have had to admit she felt under the weather. And he would have stayed in the cave.
He turned and gave her a smile as the call connected. “Hank. Yeah, we had to go out on foot. Not sure. Yeah.”
He paused for a few minutes and Haley’s gut tightened at his expression. When he disconnected, he glanced at the phone and she heard him mutter words she probably didn’t want to hear. “What is it?”
“The battery is getting low. We need to conserve power.” He flicked a button on the phone and pocketed it again. “If we can check in once a day, we’ll be lucky.”
“What did Hank say?” she persisted, her head aching.
Nathan approached her and sank into a now familiar crouch. “There’s been some movement in the case.”
She shifted on the log and tried to find a spot that wasn’t pressing into her aching body. “And?”
“They searched your apartment again. Apparently, there was ‘a tip’ that you might have a weapon in the place. They found a pistol.”
“Wait,” her head felt fuzzy and Haley wondered if the fever she was running was confusing her. “I thought they’d searched the apartment before.”
“They had. The tip apparently asked them to search again. Hank figures someone planted the gun in the place and then sent the tip. The police say you must have been back to the building where you left the gun.”
“That makes no sense,” she cried, and he nodded. “I know. Someone has some influence over the police department. And the body has been found.”
She sucked in a breath. “Who was it?”
“A guy named Bruce Adams. Did you know him?”
She nodded, sick at heart. “He was a vice president, in charge of the special projects. I dealt with him more often than any of the other managers.” She remembered seeing a picture of his wife and kids on his desk. “He has two daughters, both in college.”
“They found his body behind a dumpster a couple of blocks from the office building,” Nathan said quietly. “Hank said a homeless guy reported it yesterday morning.”
She stared at him, her mind whirling. “And Winters?”
“Nothing. Except he’s all over the media, connecting you and Adams. You worked for him directly. The monies that are missing were from one of the projects he was in charge of and that you worked on. You’re missing, that sort of thing.”
She swallowed against the bile in her throat. “And the police?”
“Have an APB out for you.”
She frowned and scratched at a mosquito bite on her arm. “What does that mean?”
“That you’re wanted for questioning,” he said, studying her.
“I was wanted for questioning before,” she responded, her voice querulous.
“This is a little more imperative. More agencies are involved.”
“So, I’m a suspect,” she said.
“Yeah.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “Are you okay?”
She laughed harshly. “No. I just found out I’m wanted for murder. How is that okay?”
He shook his head. “You’re sick, aren’t you?”
She waved his hand away as it approached her forehead. “I’m fine.”
He dodged her and felt her head. “You’re burning up. Why didn’t you take another aspirin?”
“Because I didn’t want to stay in that cave and I knew you’d not leave it if I took another pill. We wouldn’t have found out about all this,” she waved her hand vaguely, “if we hadn’t climbed the hill.”
He grumbled and found more aspirin and held it out to her. “Take this.”
She swallowed the pills, noting he’d given her several this time. She took a deep breath and met his gaze. “I needed to know. We needed to know.”
“Yeah, we did,” he said and stood, stretching as he did so. “And we need to make some plans.”
She looked up and found him holding out a small drink envelope. “What’s this?”
“An energy drink mix. You’ll need some caffeine to get down the mountain. You really need some electrolytes, but drink this first then we’ll get more water and do the other in a few minutes.”
She poured the powder into her water bottle and sealed it, laying the sleeve on the log beside her. As she shook the mixture, she watched the powder dissolve into a faint pink drink. “Have you decided where we’re going?”
“We’re going to my cabin. We need power for the phone and some shelter.”
“And Ephram?”
“We’ll just have to be smarter than he is.” He held his hand out to her and she felt the dryness of his palm as she accepted his help to stand. She took a long drink of the caffeine laced liquid and then smiled up at him. “Let’s go.”
As she followed him down the mountain, Sam at her side, Haley thought of the man she’d last seen at a meeting on the special projects. Bruce had been a family man, intent on getting his girls through their private colleges and started on their own adventures, as he put it. Now, she wondered at the cost he’d paid in doing so.
By lunchtime the chill from the rain the previous evening had been replaced by a rare heat wave that made the air thick with humidity. Haley struggled up another small rise and took a rasping breath. Her fever, unlike her temper, had eased off to a slow burn and she’d felt the effects of the caffeine drink and following electrolytes, giving her a few hours’ worth of energy. Now, she struggled to put one foot in front of the other and her pack felt like it had doubled in weight. She raised weary eyes to take in Nathan’s form a few feet ahead of her. His long legs took in several feet of ground with each step and she sighed, determined to keep up, no matter what.
A nudge at her side brought her attention to Sampson, who’d come to a stop beside her. His tongue lolled as he stared up at her, his hound eyes somber and affectionate. “Thirsty? Let’s get you something to drink.”
She pulled her water bottle out of the backpack’s side pocket and unscrewed the top, ready to pour some of the water into her cupped palm. As she bent to give the dog a drink, he began to growl low and deep in his throat.
Haley took an involuntary step back, forgetting she was on a narrow trail, wide enough for her to walk and no more. As she felt her foot slide in the damp ground, her arms cartwheeling in an effort to catch something, anything to anchor her, she screamed out for Nathan.
The ground became a blur of brown, green and then black as she rolled and tumbled down the mountain, her eyes closing against the dizzying sights. A sharp stab against her rear, followed by dull pain in her thigh and knee informed her of the sticks and rocks she was hitting on the way down and she found a split second to pray she wouldn’t also find the sheer cliffs they’d wound around as they’d traveled. A sudden jerk halted her, pushing the last of her breath out of her. Gasping, Haley lay on her side, jammed against something at her back, with the backpack cushioning her upper body. But her lower, oh, her lower body hurt all over.
She opened her eyes to see the world sideways. She watched as Sampson and Nathan scrambled down the mountain, Nathan’s boots dislodging small stones as he side stepped his way down. Sampson, surer with four feet, reached her first and sniffed around her legs, then waist then her head, checking her out as he did so. He licked her forehead then her nose and Haley tried to pull her right arm out from under her side to pet him, only to become aware it was pinned by something other than her body.
“You okay?” Nathan slid to a halt just above her and she shut her eyes against the mud and pebbles that rolled into her face.
“Not sure. Can you help me sit up?”
He looked at her and then shook his head. “Let me check you out first.”
She frowned, “It’d be easier if I was sitting.”
“Just stay there for a minute, okay?”
He slowly side stepped again, this time toward her knees, and then he sat on his rear. With the forty-five degree angle of the hill, he was still above her and Haley turned her head to watch as he removed his pack and braced it against a small tree just beyond her feet. She sighed as she looked at the scrubby tree growing out of a shard of boulder. If she’d hit that, she would really have been hurt, if she hadn’t split the tree.
“I really would like to sit up,” she said as she watched him examine her legs. One was straight out and the other bent at the knee. She didn’t feel any pain other than the sting of bruising on her legs and when he went on the look up toward her waist, she breathed a sigh of relief. No pain, no injury, right?
When he didn’t answer her, she tried to pull her arm out from under her body again, only to be met with a sharp pain. When she cried out, his head jerked around. “Stay still. What is it?”
“I think my right arm is jammed against something. I can’t get it out from under me.”
He ran a hand over her left hip and then her waist and Haley realized he was feeling to see if she had any broken skin or blood. “I’m okay, right?”
“So far. Let me check your arms.” He reached and took her left hand then ran his own hand over her arm. Haley winced as he touched her elbow.
“What?” he said and paused to cup her elbow.
“I must have hit something on the way down.”
“You’ll be lucky if that’s the only thing you bruise,” he said and smiled at her. “Let me move you, okay? I’m going to unbuckle the backpack.”
She thought it’d be easier to do that if she was sitting, but right now, she just wanted to get out of the uncomfortable tangle she was in. She waited as he fumbled at her waist to unclip the strap. He pulled the left shoulder strap looser and had her bend her arm until they were able to get the strap off one side. Then he reached to loosen the right strap. “I don’t think I can get to it.”
She nodded. “Like I said, I’m jammed in.”
Nathan leaned forward, his eyes on her right shoulder. Haley watched as his head came closer and closer until he was almost touching hers. She could feel his breath against the cloth of her shirt and closed her eyes. When he straightened, she realized he was watching her. Opening her eyes, she looked up at him. “What?”
“Your arm is pinned behind a rock.”
She frowned, “Where?”
He reached down and she felt his hand, just above her right breast, touch the ground around her. “There. I think you must have gone airborne a little when you hit this area. It looks like it’s in pretty tight.”
“I just can’t sit up?”
He shook his head and looked around for his pack. “I’ll have to get that rock out.”
He headed for his pack and Haley suddenly became aware of the aching pain in her right shoulder. Had she broken her arm? Surely the pain would be more acute, wouldn’t it? She prayed she hadn’t injured herself to the point she couldn’t walk down the mountain.
As he straightened with a long-bladed knife in his hands, Nathan sent her a smile. “Don’t move, okay?”
She must have looked panicked, as he quickly reassured her. “I’m only digging around the rock. Just to loosen it.”
She nodded and held her breath as he started jabbing the earth around her. She held back a sneeze at the scent of the freshly dug earth and out of the corner of her eyes, she could see clods of dirt and small rocks gather near her shirt.
As Nathan worked Haley alternately watched him and stared at the hill and sky above them. She tried to judge the distance from the small shelf of land they’d been walking on to her landing spot. Over fifty feet at least, she’d been lucky, she realized, only getting a couple of bruises from the roll down the brush and rock-covered hill. As Nathan continued to work Haley found herself falling into a near sleep, brought on by stress and exhaustion.
She closed her eyes and breathed in his scent as he worked to free her arm. The sound of insects whirring around them, probably mosquitos coming in for an early lunch, the feel of the breeze on her face, and the sound of rocks crunching lulled her until she realized one of those sounds wasn’t as relaxing as it should be.
She opened her eyes and stared at the silhouette above them. A man was slowly making his way down the hill, taking each step slowly and with extreme care. Haley whispered, “Who?” and realized she was speaking aloud. Suddenly wide awake, she yelled into Nathan’s ear, bringing him up and staring at her. Her expression must have told him everything he needed to know.
He remained in a kneeling position in front of her but wheeled around to face the man almost upon them. Haley heard an expletive leave his mouth before he surged forward, tackling the man at the knees.
They went down, causing a shower of pebbles and dirt to fall on Haley. As the men grappled, she began to pull on her arm and tried to sit up. Pain shot through her shoulder and she cried out but kept pulling at her arm. The shoulder didn’t seem to help any but finally she was able to wrap her left hand around her right forearm and pull.
Haley sat with her back against something solid, holding back the urge to throw up and gasping for breath. She felt tears sting her eyes as she tried to focus in on Nathan and the other man.
They were almost hugging each other as they fought for control of something. Nathan had had a knife. Was that it? Had he attacked the man with the knife he’d been using to free her? She glanced around and saw the glint of sunlight on the long wide blade as it lay against her hip.
Shifting a bit, she pulled the knife to her and wrapped her hand around it. What was she doing with it, she wondered? She wanted to give it to Nathan but also didn’t want to distract him.
The couple above her came apart and she saw a pistol in Nathan’s fist. He swung his arm and hit the other man in the chin with the butt of the gun, only to have the other guy’s head recoil and then straighten to face Nathan again. They didn’t make much noise, only grunts and the odd sharp exclamation. As she watched, Haley was aware of Sampson quivering beside her.
She looked at the dog. He remained at her side, but his whole body was trembling, as if he couldn’t control his movements. “Sampson, go help him,” she muttered and patted the dog then gave him a push toward Nathan. At her command, the hound mix sprang into action.
Nathan was aware of her all the time he fought Ephram. He heard her when she cried out from pain and had to remind himself he needed to keep the hunter from her. He couldn’t go to her and comfort her in her pain. He dodged a blow from Ephram only to grunt at the sucker punch the other man threw into his gut. He pulled up his elbow and the gun he’d managed to retrieve from Ephram flew from his hand and down the mountain. Now, their strength was pitted against each other.
He grunted again as he lost some ground, inching them closer to Haley and the ledge she’d managed to land on. He dug his toes into the dirt and held on, trying to push Ephram up the hill and away from Haley. Was the guy sent to retrieve her or dispose of her? Or had they left him the choice?
He didn’t know, but he couldn’t let him get close enough to see the drop off behind Haley.
Sam’s growls alerted him first and he saw the dog land on Ephram’s back the next minute. Sam dug his teeth into the man’s shoulder, eliciting a low scream from Ephram before he twisted out of Nathan’s grasp. As he shifted to the side, Ephram began to roll, just as Haley had. Only this time, Sam was attached.
Nathan yelled at Sam to disengage but either the dog was too intent on his job of protecting his owner or he hadn’t heard Nathan. The dog and man pair rolled ever closer to the ledge and Nathan screamed for Sam to loosen his grip.
Nathan angled his body so he could crawl down the slope, trying to move as fast as he could without losing control of his own movements. He watched the drop off coming closer than ever and then Ephram managed to catch a root, slowing his momentum and that of Sam.
“Release, Sam. Release.” Nathan’s voice was hoarse as he uttered the words, aware of Haley watching the pair rolling down. He knew when she realized her own precarious position from the tightening of her body.
“Sam, come here,” she said in a tremulous voice. “Come on boy,” she urged and finally, with the both of them pleading to the dog, he released his hold on Ephram and scrambled toward them. Nathan watched the dog struggle on the rock-strewn ledge and prayed his best friend and the one being that had brought him from the depths of hell could make it to him.
Finally, after what seemed to be hours of struggling, Sam made it to Haley. She hugged the dog and buried her face in his short fur. Nathan breathed a sigh before looking at Ephram.
“Stay there. I’ve got some rope.”
“Yeah,” the man who’d been willing to injure him, at the least, replied and turned to look at his feet, which were millimeters away from the edge of the cliff.
Nathan inched his way down to Haley, who was sitting, one arm around Sam and the other cradled in her lap. “You okay?”
“I think my shoulder’s dislocated but otherwise, I’m okay. When were you going to tell me about the view behind me?”
“After we were back on the trail, ideally,” he quipped and he shot a look at her. “I need to get to him?—”
“I’ll be here, waiting,” she said and took a breath.
He nodded and started working his way sideways towards Ephram. As he did, he started asked for divine help for the second time in his life.
Ephram hadn’t been still while he’d been retrieving the rope. He’d started inching up and over, using his fingers to grasp anything above him. Now, he reached for another small root, letting go of the one he’d been holding. Instead of holding on, though, the root came out of the ground. Ephram started sliding down toward the cliff and Nathan met his gaze as his legs went over the edge.
“No!” Nathan yelled and he dove toward Ephram, trying to catch his hands. An inch too short, he felt his own body sliding down toward the drop off as Ephram’s shoulders and head disappeared over the side. His body slid every so slowly toward the edge, his fingers digging into the thin layer of dirt and rock that covered the limestone cliff. Nathan wondered at time crawling by as he slid toward his death on the mountain.
He came to a stop with a jerk and a tug at his pants’ waistline. Glancing back, Nathan saw Haley with her left hand clutching his pants at the ankle. She’d managed to maneuver her body around and a foot was wedged into the same niche her shoulder had been before and she was draped down the rock, her face streaked with tears and her expression fierce. “Get him, Sampson,” she said through clenched teeth and the dog crawled down Nathan’s legs and his teeth clamped over his belt. Then the hound and the woman began the slow process of pulling him to them. Over the next couple of minutes, Nathan used his fingertips and palms to inch up the rock until he was able to come to all fours, then drop to a sitting position beside Haley. He leaned forward to bring her up beside him and without another thought kissed her.