“Pull in here,” Jon directed. He pointed to a gravel road that cut a narrow path through the woods.
Jennie tried to find something that would serve as a reminder when she brought the police back here. There was nothing. No mailbox, downed tree stump—nothing except the one-lane road winding to who knew where. Jennie checked her speedometer. She’d driven 15.8 miles since leaving the trailhead to where the road began.
Fifteen point eight. She repeated the thought over and over like a litany.
Her abductor had been a little short in his estimation of the distance to the cabin, but he’d been right about the place being secluded. Jennie hadn’t seen another car or sign of human habitation for miles. She still couldn’t see this one. With every mile her anticipation grew. Never had she felt so alone and isolated. She had tried to memorize road signs and markings on the drive up and hoped she could find it on the map later. After she’d escaped.
If you escape. The thought twisted her insides, bringing on another wave of panic.
No, she couldn’t let herself be afraid. She had to keep her wits about her. It was her only hope.
Five miles down the dusty road, the mountain cabin finally came into view.
Jennie had expected rustic, but this was far from it. The two-story cabin with dormers was nestled between towering firs, oak, and maples and had a fantastic view of a river—Jennie had no idea which river. The cabin seemed to have been recently built. A weekend getaway—a place to come and relax. A place she wouldn’t mind visiting sometime, just not with a bank robber.
She drove in to the end of the road, which had been widened to fit several cars. There were two buildings besides the cabin. A small shed with a stained-glass window and another larger one. A shop, Jennie decided when she glanced through the open double doors and saw the stacks of lumber and tools lining one wall. A table saw sat in the center with piles of sawdust scattered across the concrete floor.
“Nice place, ain’t it?”
“Yeah.” Jennie gripped the steering wheel. With any luck at all the man would get out of the car and she could zip around and peel out of there. Unfortunately, he wasn’t about to give her that chance.
He kept the gun trained on her as he prodded her out of the car and up the steps onto the wraparound porch. Reaching around her, he opened the door and gave her a shove from behind. “Have a seat. And don’t get any ideas about taking off.”
“Look,” she said, trying to keep her voice as stable as possible, “I’m not stupid. I don’t want to get shot, so why don’t you just put the gun away.”
He snorted. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
Jennie sank into a comfortable-looking sofa. The plush velour cushions rose around her. The people who owned this place had money, no doubt about that. She tipped her head back and closed her eyes. What am I going to do, God? How am I going to get out of here?
Opening her eyes, she let her gaze wander about the room, determined to look for escape routes. The cabin had a vaulted ceiling over the living room. The lower-ceilinged kitchen was roomy with lots of cupboard space. A table and four chairs sat beside two windows. Both had screens and looked as though they could be opened easily. There was a closed door off the living room, maybe a bedroom or bathroom. Next to it were stairs leading to the upper level. A sliding-glass door from the living room went out to the deck, which overlooked the river. The many windows and airiness of the cabin pushed away some of Jennie’s fears and renewed her spirits. If he left her alone for a few minutes, she could easily make her getaway. And once she did, she’d disappear into the woods and follow the river down the mountain.
“I need to use the bathroom.” Jennie got up from the couch and took a step toward Jon. She wanted a closer look at the back part of the house. Maybe the bathroom would have a window.
He eyed her suspiciously. “Sure. No problem.” He pointed the gun at the door. “It’s outside.”
Jennie wrinkled her nose. “Outside?”
“Yeah. Strange, huh? They built this modern cabin without an indoor bathroom.”
Pushing Jennie ahead of him, Jon showed her around to the back of the cabin to a small square building with a round window in the door. The window, about two feet in diameter” was made of stained glass in a multicolored floral pattern. She stepped into the outhouse and locked it, then turned around and leaned against the door.
Relieved to be out of Jon’s sight, Jennie began to relax. She felt a little like Alice in Wonderland, exploring a strange new world. The outhouse was like no other outhouse she’d ever seen. The tiny room was equipped with all the modern fixtures you’d see in a regular bathroom. Toilet, sink, shower, and shelves for toiletries and towels. There were toothbrushes and toothpaste, along with some first-aid supplies in a basket under the counter. In one drawer she found a flashlight—probably for emergencies if the lights went out. She pushed on the end and smiled. The batteries were good. If she did manage to escape she might take it with her.
A light-and-fan fixture hung from the high ceiling, but the only window was the lovely stained glass. No way of escape. Not anxious to face her captor again, Jennie lowered the lid of the toilet and sat there a moment. The sunlight coming through the colored glass made rainbows on the walls and on her arms. A cocoon of safety.
“Hey, hurry up in there.” Jon’s threatening voice shattered the warm stillness.
“Coming.” Jennie quickly used the facilities, washed up, and reluctantly stepped outside.
Instead of taking her back into the house, Jon stopped in front of a storage shed on the deck. Sliding back the bolt, he opened it and ordered Jennie to go inside.
“No, please …” When Jennie held back he shoved her into a stash of lawn chairs, bikes, games, balls, and camping gear.
“Shut up and do as you’re told.” Jon slammed the shed door behind her, plunging the cramped space into total darkness. “’Bout time you learned some respect.”
His footsteps faded. Tears stung Jennie’s eyes as she untangled herself from the clutter. She rubbed at a painful spot where she’d scraped her forearm. She backed up until she hit the door, then slid to the floor and rested her arms on her knees. Even though being abducted was a horrible thing, she had a feeling deep in the pit of her stomach that the ordeal was far from over. After spending several minutes crying and berating herself for not listening to her intuition earlier, Jennie prayed.
Subdued light eventually seeped in through various cracks and knotholes in the unpainted wood. She had more space in which to move around than she’d originally thought. Pulling loose one of the chaise lounges, she opened it up and lowered herself into it. She had to think. What would her father or Gram do in a situation like this? They probably would have delivered a karate kick to the door and knocked Jon senseless.
Jennie sighed. She was strong, but not strong enough to overtake a grown man. She’d never taken karate. And she didn’t have a clue as to how to escape. If he hadn’t locked her in the storage shed …
Storage shed!
Tools.
Maybe if she quit feeling sorry for herself and dug through the collection of odds and ends the owners kept in the shed, she’d find something she could use to break out. If nothing else she could use a hammer or something to knock down the walls or hit her abductor over the head.
Jennie began a methodical search, mostly by feel. An hour later she sat back down in the chair. The small storage area was hot and stuffy. Twice during her search Jon had come outside and pounded on the wall, yelling at her to be quiet. That was hard to do when you had to work around two mountain bikes, a Weed Eater, a lawn mower, a volleyball and net, badminton birdies, a croquet set, garden hoses, garden tools, and who knew what else. She’d set the wooden mallet aside. It might work as a hammer. There were several potential weapons, including a sharp pair of pruning shears.
She heard the crunch of gravel as a car drove in. Jennie rose and peered through the knothole she’d found in the exterior wall.
“’Bout time you got here,” Jon yelled from somewhere nearby. Jennie watched a woman in tight black jeans and a red-and-gray jacket emerge from a dusty blue car. She flicked ashes from her cigarette to the ground.
“Where’d you get those wheels?” she asked in a raspy voice as she pointed to Jennie’s car. “Where’s the one you had at the motel this morning?”
“Had to ditch it. Owner reported it missing. Heard on the radio coming up here that the police were lookin’ for it. Man, nearly missed getting picked up too. Passed a trooper and thought I was a goner. Next thing I knew, this white Chrysler whipped into the left lane, going like his tail was on fire. Trooper tore out after him. Didn’t want to take no more chances, so I dumped it.”
“You didn’t leave it along the side of the road, I hope?”
He shook his head. “’Course not, Maude. Found an old logging road and drove in a ways. No way the cops are gonna find it.”
“Where’s the money?”
“Now, quit worrying, will ya?” He pointed to Jennie’s car. “It’s in the trunk.”
“Where’d you find the Mustang?”
Jon told her how he’d left the car only a mile from the campground and how Jennie had obligingly let him have her vehicle.
“You brought the owner back here with you?” The woman swore and stomped up the steps. “What were you thinking?”
“Didn’t have much choice. Just cool down and let me explain. This was the only vehicle around, and she was waitin’ on some friends. Couldn’t very well leave her there to tell the cops. As it is, I bought us time to get rid of the Mustang before the cops start searching for her.”
“Well, that’s just fine and dandy.” Maude tossed the cigarette butt on the driveway and put her hands on her hips.
“Now, Maude, just calm yourself down. The kid won’t be any trouble. I got her locked in the storage shed.”
“What do you plan to do with her while we’re gone? Anybody with an ounce of brains could get out of there in five seconds flat. In case you’ve forgotten, that’s where the owners of this place keep their tools.”
Jon looked like he was about to slug her. “I wasn’t planning to leave her in the storage shed for long. Just got tired of watching her.”
“Where’s Junior?”
Jon shrugged. “Thought he was with you. I been here over two hours waitin’ for you to show up. What took you so long?”
“I went east along the gorge like we’d planned and came up through Carson. Hit some construction work on the Washington side. Not sure what happened to Junior. He left the motel before I did this morning. Should have been here by now.”
“On the way up I heard the police had a suspect. You don’t suppose …?”
“The only way they’da gotten Junior is if he walked up to them and turned himself in.”
“Hope you’re right. Don’t know if the boy has it in him to get through an interrogation without cracking.” He raised a fist. “I tell you, Maude, if that boy ratted, he’ll be nothing but raw meat by the time I finish with him.”
“Don’t you think he knows that? He’s a bright boy—or he can be.” Maude glanced down the road. “That’s probably him now.”
Another older model car, this one a dusty beige, rolled to a stop next to Maude’s blue one. A young guy about Jennie’s age, maybe older, climbed out of the vehicle and headed straight toward her Mustang.
“Whoa! Great car.” Frowning, he flipped his longish brown hair back. “I thought we were just doing junkers.”
“We are.” Jon retold his story about Jennie’s car being the only one available.
“No kidding. Can we keep it?”
“No, we can’t keep it.” Maude sneered at him. “It’s stolen. Sooner or later her parents are going to report her and the car missing.”
“So maybe we could paint it or something.”
“You knucklehead.” Jon knocked the kid alongside the head.
Junior stumbled back, then caught himself. Jaw clenched, he gave Jon a murderous look. Jennie cringed. She felt sorry for the kid and hoped Jon wouldn’t hit him again. She thought it odd that Jon would react so angrily to a suggestion he himself had made only hours before. Then, considering Maude’s reaction, maybe not. Jennie had a feeling it was Maude, not Jon, who ran the show.
Jon raised his hands and shoved at Junior again. This time Junior went sprawling, landing in the gravel on his backside.
Maude stepped between them. “Stop it, both of you. I got enough to do without patching him up.”
“I want an apology. Smart-aleck kid is always mouthing off about something.”
Watching the anger flare between the three of them gave Jennie an idea: Junior might be her ticket out.
“S-sorry,” Junior said at Maude’s prompting. He scrambled to his feet and brushed off the back of his baggy pants. Like someone who’d been hit so many times he’d grown used to it, Junior recovered quickly. “So what are you going to do with it?”
The woman answered. “The two of you are going to hide the car and make sure no one finds it for another twenty years. If we’re real lucky, they’ll think she ran off the road somewhere up in the mountains and won’t make any connection to the bank robberies or any of the vehicle thefts. Up until now no one’s ever connected one of our cars with the robberies.”
“Still don’t know how that could have happened. The owner should have been at work all day.”
“Things happen,” Maude said. “But look on the bright side, you were able to get rid of the car and we’re all here. Wonder who their suspect is.”
“I don’t know,” Jon said, “but let’s hope whatever rabbit trail they picked up will keep them busy for a while.”
“What about the girl?” Junior picked a piece of gravel out of his hand.
Maude pulled a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket and tapped the end. Pulling one out, she lit it. “We’ll have to kill her.”