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Kitree giggled, watching the man with longish hair and a plaid shirt lead his horse and mule downhill along the opposite side of the stream.
She stood up on the snow bank watching him disappear into the trees.
When brushing her trail with a stick and the rock slide hadn’t worked to get away from this man, she’d remembered watching a movie where an Indian had walked in a stream and walked back out the same side he went in. The people following him had looked all up and down the side he should have come out. Like this man was doing.
She picked her pack up and continued across the snow until almost dark. Then she walked downhill and back into the comfort and seclusion of the trees.
She’d hardly slept the night before, between the rain and wondering how she would get away from the person following her. There was no need for a lean-to tonight. She pulled out food and wished she’d had a chance to refill her bottles. But she hadn’t wanted the man to catch up to her. She’d known he wasn’t far behind.
He was good, but then a killer would probably have to learn how to follow the people he killed. A shudder sent a cold chill through her body. There wasn’t a night went by she didn’t remember her dad’s unseeing eyes or hear her mother’s last breath. Tears burned.
She knew that if she kept going north and west, she should come to a hunting lodge. That’s what the map had said. There she should be able to contact the officials.
For the first time since leaving her parents, Kitree fell asleep without crying.
«»«»«»
Hawke rolled out of his sleeping bag before the sun touched the trees. The only explanation he could come up with as he fell asleep the night before, was the girl had exited the same side she’d gone in. It was an old trick and one he should have thought of. But he’d let his fascination with her skill ruin his focus.
Sure enough, he found her tracks on the same side she’d walked in and they led him to the bank of snow. He even found the spot where she’d stopped and set her pack down. Her toes pointed to the stream. When he looked back toward the stream, he had a notion she’d watched him looking for her.
Hawke couldn’t stop the grin. She was one intelligent little girl.
He followed the tracks back down to the grass and then returned to saddle up his animals. Before following the tracks, he pulled out his radio. He hoped to get better reception to the county or state police.
“Trooper Hawke requesting information on the helicopter that flew over the Eagle Cap Wilderness yesterday.”
“Hawke, this is Dani Singer.”
His body came to life hearing the woman’s voice. Since their first initial meeting where he’d thought her a suspect in a murder and an interloper taking over the hunting lodge, he’d grown fond of the woman.
“Have you been apprised of the situation up here?” he asked.
“Yes. What do you need relayed?”
“I should catch up with the girl today. She’s been avoiding me.”
“I don’t blame her,” the woman quipped.
He laughed. “Good one. We’re headed toward the lodge, if she keeps going the direction she is. Could get there tomorrow at the earliest. See if the troopers can give you any information on her family. It would be nice to know why her parents were killed.”
“I’ll see what I can do. We’ll be ready for you when you get here.”
“Appreciate that.” He knew the conversation was finished, but like a smitten teenager, he didn’t want it to end.
“Hawke?”
“Yeah?”
“Be careful.”
Her soft-spoken words nearly knocked the air out of him. His feelings for the woman had been growing, but he hadn’t thought she gave a rat’s ass about him. Her barely whispered comment made him think differently.
“I will. It’s just a little girl.”
“Copy.”
The radio fell silent. He wondered if he should have said something else. He couldn’t think of anything else, so he shrugged, put the radio in the pack, and returned to the spot where the tracks went into the trees.
He found the area where she’d spread out her sleeping bag. Her tracks went to a spot where something had been tied around a tree. He studied the area and realized she’d hung something in the branches. There was a spot where bark had been worn off a limb.
Picking up her tracks, he led the horse and mule forward quickly. He would catch up to her today.
The sun was directly overhead when he spotted the bright green pack in the trees ahead of him.
Hawke tied the horse and mule and continued on foot until he was only twenty feet behind her.
“Kitree, stop!” he called out.
The pack stopped, dropped to the ground, and the girl took off running through the trees.
“Dog, Go!” he said, running behind her as Dog shot by him and after the girl.
Hawke ran through the brush and over the trees the girl jumped. Dog caught up to her, grabbing the bottom of her coat in his teeth.
She was quick, slipping her arms from the sleeves and running on.
“Dog, leap!” He huffed as loudly as he could. Hawke hated to have Dog take her to the ground, but she wasn’t going to be stopped any other way.
Dog hit her in the back with his feet, knocking her to the ground. Then he sat on her.
“No! No! Don’t kill me!” the girl shrieked.
Hawke arrived by the girl’s side. He grasped an arm before telling Dog to get up. As he’d figured, as soon as the dog’s weight left the girl, she shot to her feet.
“Stop! I’m not going to kill you.”
She stared at him, taking in his collar-length hair and checkered shirt. “You’re the man! You killed Momma and Daddy!” She pummeled him with her fisted hands.
“No. I’m not the man who killed your parents.” He pulled her arms behind her back to keep her from flailing them.
“I saw you leaving. You had dark long hair and a plaid shirt. You’re lying!” She continued to struggle.
“Kitree, if I had wanted to kill you, I could have just shot you when I first spotted you.” He didn’t dare let go of her, but he hated that having to hold her this way made him appear to want to harm her.
“You’re hard to track. All those tricks you did.” He raised a hand and pulled the chain around his neck, drawing his trooper badge out from under his shirt. “I’m State Trooper Hawke. Remember I talked with your family on Friday. You showed me your wildflower book. I was sent to find you and your family. I found your parents. I’m sorry for your loss.”
Tears glistened in her eyes.
“I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to help you.” He released her wrists.
She swiped at her eyes with her fists. “Are, are my parents taken care of?”
“They should be headed to where ever you live.”
“Walla Walla. Daddy teaches at the college.” She sniffed.
“What does he teach?” He didn’t want to make it any more difficult for the child by mentioning it in past tense.
“Mathematics. But Momma’s better with numbers than Daddy.”
Dog sniffed her, and she started to pull away.
“He won’t hurt you. He was only following my orders to knock you down.” Hawke grinned down at the girl. “You’re a fast runner.”
She didn’t smile back but put a hand on Dog’s head.
“Come on. I have a mule you can ride. I bet you’re tired from all that hiking you’ve done.” Hawke led her back to her pack. He picked it up and continued. Her footsteps rustled leaves, following behind him.
“I saw your horses,” she said when they walked up to the animals.
“I know you did. You stood up on a snow bank and watched us looking for you.”
“You saw me?” She stared at him in awe.
“No. I could tell by the tracks you left in the snow. You put down the pack and stood peering down at the stream.”
“Wow! How did you get so good at tracking?” she asked as he moved things around on the packsaddle to make it comfortable for her to ride.
“My grandfather taught me how to track when I was younger than you. It’s a tradition in our family.” He tied her pack to the back of the packsaddle and held out his hands. “I’ll help you up.”
When she was seated on Horse, he asked, “Why did you leave your parents and avoid me and all the trails?”
Her eyes glistened again. “Momma told me to go to a ranger station but stay away from trails and men.”
“Your mother was still alive?”
Tears trickled down the child’s face. “She could hardly breathe when I found her. She told me to go. To get help. When I told her I would stay with her, she said to go. And then she...she...died.”
He patted the girl’s knee. “And your father?”
She shook her head. “He was dead when I got back to camp.”
“Where were you?”
“Looking for stupid flowers.” She spat the words out. “I should have been there helping them take down the camp. If I’d have been there, we could have been done and gone before that man came.”
He shook his head. “Looking for flowers saved you so you can help us catch the man who killed your parents.”
She wiped at her tears but didn’t say anything.
Hawke swung up onto Jack and started downhill. Now that he was no longer following the girl who was staying up high, he could get down to ground that was easier to navigate.
There were lots of questions he had for the girl, but he decided to wait until they camped for the night.
Once they were down low. Kitree spoke up. “Don’t go on the trail.”
He stopped and looked back at her. “Why not?”
“Momma told me to stay off the trails.” She peered at him with the steely nerve he’d seen in people much older when they were determined about something.
“You are with a State Trooper. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you.”
“Do you know who the man is that shot them?” She crossed her arms.
“No, but—”
“Then wouldn’t it be best to stay hidden?” She cocked her head sideways.
Hawke tried hard to not grin at the girl. He understood her fear of the man. To keep her from running from him, he turned back up the mountain a hundred yards.
The sound of a helicopter had him shifting in his saddle to get a glimpse of the aircraft as it flew overhead. The blue belly and white on the sides didn’t look familiar. Either the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife or the State Police must have commissioned a new pilot to fly for them.
Now that he had Kitree, he didn’t see any sense in having the copters flying around. It was taxpayer’s money being spent. The next opening, he stopped and dismounted.
“You can get down and stretch your legs while I let dispatch know I have you.” He walked back to the mule and helped the girl down before digging in his packsaddle for the radio.
“Why don’t you carry the radio on you?” she asked.
He handed her a bottle of water and a granola bar. “Because it’s too big and bulky, it would let people know I’m a game warden, and I keep it off unless I’m using it, to conserve the battery.”
She nodded. “That makes sense. Except why don’t you want people to know you are a game warden?”
He waved his arm. “I’m up here to help find lost people and catch people who are illegally hunting. What do you think someone who was illegally hunting would do if they saw me walking or riding up to them in a uniform?”
She closed her eyes. “Hurt you.”
“Yes. That’s why I don’t wear a uniform when I’m up here. It would make me a target.”
“Like Momma and Daddy.”
Hawke peered at the girl. “What do you mean? Were they in law enforcement?”
“No. We had to move to Walla Walla because of Momma going to court against someone. Daddy said if we stayed where we were and used our real names, we’d always have a target on us.”
The shooting now made sense. And the man’s actions. Not filling out a permit, telling Hawke they were going to one lake and going to another. All the things they did to be safe and it didn’t help.
The sadness in the girl had him reaching out and drawing her into a one-armed hug. “We’ll get the man who did this. Do you have family where you came from?”
She shook her head. “The U.S. Marshal told us it was good we didn’t have any relatives.”
Hawke held the girl tighter. She had no one to go to. His heart ached for the child. He’d always had family. Many times he’d wished he didn’t, but they were better than nothing.
Words wouldn’t come. There was nothing he knew that could console the child. He released her. “Eat the granola bar while I talk to my friend at the hunting lodge.”
He walked ten yards away from the animals and the girl. Dog sat at her feet. Apparently, he’d judged her to be an easy mark to get a treat.
“Charlie’s Lodge, this is Hawke.”
“This is Charlie’s Lodge,” Dani replied.
“I have the girl. We’re headed your way. Should be there about noon tomorrow. Tell State Police to call in the FBI. It sounds like the family was in witness protection.”
“Oh, that’s sad. Does that mean she has no one to take her in?” The sorrow in Dani’s voice echoed his feelings.
“It sounds like it. Do you know if there is a helicopter still flying around looking for us?”
The radio crackled. “...know of.”
“Repeat,” he said.
“Not that I know of. I told them this morning you should make contact.” Dani’s voice came in through the crackling.
“Ok. See you tomorrow.”
“I’ll get a room ready for her.”
The connection went quiet. Hawke glanced over at the child. She was putting bits of the granola bar on the dog’s nose and watching him flip it up and eat it.
At least Dog knew how to put a smile on the girl’s face.
“Come on, we can go a few more miles before dark.” He walked over and lifted the girl up onto Horse.
“Thank you for finding me. I was getting lonely.” She put a hand on his shoulder.
“You’re welcome.” He swung up into his saddle, dreading what was in this child’s future.