CHAPTER 3

 

The phone rang and Stacey eagerly reached to answer it. Having nothing to do since her parents left on their get-away was a nice change, but she also found it boring. She felt more rested now that the busy winter season was done and was ready to get on the move.

“Hello,” she said, stifling a yawn with her hand.

“Stacey, it’s Morris.”

Her mind instantly came alert when she heard the voice of Morris Haley, the head of the regional search and rescue team. She knew they went on a search earlier that morning but didn’t require her expertise.

“Hi, Morris. What’s going on? I heard on the radio the plane crash was located this morning—with no survivors.”

“Yeah,” Morris agreed. “We’ve been pulled off. I’ve got the offer of a private job for you, very hush-hush. Do you think you’d be interested?” Morris knew she would be before he asked. He knew Stacey almost as well as he knew his wife, Cathy. The two women were best friends, had been for years.

“Could be, but I need some details first. I don’t accept jobs blind,” she insisted.

“Even if you don’t take the job you can’t repeat what I’m going to tell you, not even to Cathy. Give me your word, Stacey.” Morris knew he sounded mysterious.

“I won’t tell anyone, scout’s honor. Good enough?”

“Okay, except I know you were never a scout.” Morris gave a low chuckle then continued, “We found the pilot and two passengers in the wreckage this morning, all dead. No sign of anyone else. We lifted the bodies and were pulled off the mountain. We made our report of no survivors like you heard on the news. This is where it got interesting. I got a call from a fellow I know in Washington, D.C. asking for a referral to the best tracker in the area. Naturally, I said you. He wanted your credentials and success rate and hung up. A little while later he called me back and said he’d checked you out. He told me there were five guys who got on the plane plus the pilot before it left Denver. Radar proves it didn’t land anywhere before the crash. We only had three dead bodies. That leaves three who should have been waiting for us to find them. Animals might have drug off one body, but not three.”

“I agree, Marcus. What do you think happened to them?” Stacey wanted to know.

“The really weird thing, Stacey, is there was no sign of anyone out there. They could have been beamed up by aliens for all we could tell. There was no luggage at the wreckage, no clothing, no footprints around the plane, no nothing—for any of them. Now, this guy calls and wants the best tracker I know to help search for the ones who aren’t there. They’re paying extremely good money. Sounds really odd to me.”

“When do they want to start?” Stacey asked as she pushed up off the sofa.

“They want you to meet the private search party at the crash site tomorrow afternoon. They’re trying to get everything organized. If you say no they’ll go to the next on the list, but they really want you. Do you want me to set it up or do you want to skip this one?” Morris almost hoped she would pass on it. There was something strange going on and he wasn’t sure he wanted her involved.

“Give me a minute, I’m thinking,” Stacey stalled as she considered her choices. Rest sounded nice, but this type of challenge was one she could really sink her teeth into. Her parents would be back tomorrow afternoon and her mother would find a dozen things for her to do. She loved both of them dearly, but spring-cleaning was due to start. “Go ahead and set it up, Morris. Call me back with the details.” She decided she would much rather be tracking than cleaning.

* * * * *

The Idaho Search and Rescue chopper lowered Stacey to the ground. Standing in the small clearing the unfortunate pilot picked, she quickly unfastened the harness and signaled she was safely on the ground. They sent down her backpack then the chopper departed.

The others in the search party would arrive soon. She wanted to check the area before more prints cluttered up the ground. Staring at the wreckage, the furrows in the ground, and the broken tree branches, Stacey realized the pilot did his best to save his passengers. He clipped several treetops to land in the small clearing then the plane slid into a huge Douglas fir. The cockpit and front section of the cabin were destroyed, but the rear section remained intact. It was probably the only chance for any survivors. Thankfully it had not burst into flames.

Shaking her head, Stacey propped her pack against the rear fuselage and worked outward in widening circles. Fresh tracks from the Search and Rescue team ended not far from the edges of the small clearing. She finally located what she sought in the trees west of the clearing. A carefully concealed trail led away from the wreckage. Hearing another chopper coming in, Stacey walked back toward the mangled plane to join the rest of the search party.

Cord unhooked his cable harness and saw the backpack leaning against the almost undamaged rear area of the plane. The tracker must already be here. Good, they could get started right away.

Even though there was no noise, he felt someone step from the woods. Whirling quickly, he wasn’t prepared for the sight of a young woman with a wild mane of strawberry blond curls, long legs encased in soft faded denim, and more than decent curves. Surely the tracker had more sense than to bring his girlfriend on a job like this.

“What are you doing here?” Cord snapped loudly as the cable rose toward the chopper above him.

“My name is Stacey Parker,” she yelled in a slightly breathy voice. “I was hired to help find the three missing men. And you are?” She arched one finely shaped brow.

“Cord McConnell. Who hired you?” he demanded as he unclipped his pack from the descending cable and waved to the chopper, then signaled for it to circle above.

“Morris Haley arranged it through a friend in Washington. Where’s the search party?” she asked when no one else descended from the bird overhead.

“I am the search party, along with the tracker who is supposed to be here. You can leave with the chopper.” McConnell moved to pick up her pack and bring it to her in the center of the clearing. Startled by the weight of it, he was certain she wouldn’t have made it far packing that load.

“I’m afraid not—Mr. McConnell is it? I’m the tracker who was hired. Unless you’ve made some other arrangements no one else is coming.” Stacey folded her arms and waited for his reaction.

“Then I’ll find the trail myself. Signal the chopper to lift you out,” he ordered brusquely as he shrugged into his pack.

“You won’t find the trail. They don’t want to be found.” She stepped nearer and spoke in a soft casual voice, “Unless you’re an expert, in which case you wouldn’t have needed a tracker, your chances are—oh, I’d say nonexistent.”

She definitely had his attention as he swung back toward her and got right in her face. “And you know this how?” Cord was more than mildly surprised when she didn’t take a step back. The top of her head came even with his chin and he made two of her in mass. He normally quelled men his own size with his attitude. But she defiantly stood her ground and stared up into his face.

“I located the trail. Or should I say I located where the trail had been before it was erased. One of them is very good at it, but I’m better.” Stacey didn’t flinch as he gritted his teeth and the two-inch scar on his left cheekbone and the smaller one over his right eyebrow whitened. The planes and angles of his face spoke of a North American Indian heritage and his dark hair and eyes confirmed it. McConnell was definitely fierce looking as he frowned threateningly down at her. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of even blinking as she stared up into the face right at the end of her upturned nose.

“I won’t wait on you if you fall behind and I don’t like whiners. I’m in charge and you do exactly as I say, regardless. Understand?” Cord poked her chest for emphasis then stepped away.

“I won’t wait on you if you fall behind either, and whining is for dogs. You’re welcome to be in charge and I’ll follow orders when I agree with them,” she responded as she lifted her own pack and slid her arms into the straps. She began walking from the clearing without waiting to see what he would do.

“That went well, McConnell,” he said under his breath. He finally gave the signal to the chopper allowing it to leave and followed her. As he watched her strides he could tell her backpack seemed well balanced and carried comfortably, her footwear far from new. The battered hiking boots were a good brand, and she moved with the ease of someone familiar with the woods.

Up ahead, Stacey was thinking about the man following her. Just wait until I tell Cathy about this jerk. He must have been a drill sergeant and thought somebody died and made him the Great Leader. Well, he would find out that wasn’t going to work this trip. Evidently he scared people off with his super macho act, but he never ran into Stacey Parker before.

She stopped and pointed to where the trail of the men had been scrupulously removed.

Cord moved forward to study the spot then walked several feet in each direction. He could see what she showed him, but from there he couldn’t pick up a clue as to which direction the men went. Hating to admit that he needed her assistance, Cord decided it would be unfair to let her go further without fully explaining the situation. “Miss Parker, this could get very dangerous if you insist on tracking these men for me. We believe they are criminals. It is also possible they have two teenage boys with them who were kidnapped and will need to be rescued. The men are armed and dangerous. They’ve killed already and won’t hesitate to kill again. Knowing this, I have to advise you that it would be unwise for you to continue.” Cord put his hands on his hips and watched for her reaction. “If you go back to the clearing, the chopper will do a fly-over on Monday. He’ll pick you up.”

“Your chances of getting those boys back aren’t very good without me, are they?” She studied the ground.

“Honestly, from what I see here, no,” He finally admitted.

“Then let’s go. It gets dark early in the trees.”

Cord watched in frustrated silence as the girl carefully and patiently unraveled the trail of the fleeing men. At first it appeared that the trail was the wandering of someone with no destination. It led in a confused, staggering circle doubling back on itself numerous times.

“Are they lost, have a head injury, or what?” Cord asked two hours later when she stopped to drink from her canteen. Her thick plaid flannel shirt was now tied around her waist and her thermal undershirt was damp beneath the arms and between her breasts.

“No, I don’t think so. Even though we’re going in circles, the trail leads gradually downhill—away from the wreckage. Their main objective appears to be to discourage pursuit. If you go straight back up that way and walk quickly, you could be at the plane in about fifteen minutes.” Stacey took another drink of water.

“You mean after two hours, we’re still that close to the plane?” Cord took a deep breath and shook his head. At this rate they would never catch up to these guys.

“I told you, the one covering their trail is very good. He laid false trails, doubled back, erased their prints, and had them walk on logs and rocks to avoid being followed. He knows concealment techniques I haven’t seen since my training. It’s slow right now because about the time I think I’ve learned his pattern, he changes it. Once they move far enough away from this area, he should change to simpler methods. It will get faster then.” Stacey hoped so, anyway.

Those guys surely couldn’t keep this up indefinitely. She was tired from trying to sort it out. Studying the man with her as he munched on some kind of snack bar, she decided she liked his clean-cut hair and broad shoulders. Cord wore a thick black sweatshirt that accented his dark eyes and deeply tanned skin. Black military style trousers tucked into black army boots hugged his muscular thighs as he squatted down not far from her. He took a drink from his canteen then carefully replaced the cap.

“Seen enough or should I turn around?” Cord asked pointedly without looking at her.

“Maybe just one pirouette. I can’t see the back from here,” Stacey responded pertly.

Cord surprised himself when a chuckle escaped. This girl has guts. And she definitely irritated him, continuing to study him as if he were a bug under glass.

The short laugh did it, Stacey thought. It changed his whole face for a split second. He became human and approachable. Not a cold, distant soldier only concerned for the mission at hand.

“We need to get going,” he ordered. “How long before we have to stop for the night?”

“I could track in the dark if this were an ordinary trail. But, I can’t follow this by flashlight.” Stacey’s eyes already felt the strain of hours of staring to find the tiniest signs and

her shoulders were stiff from continually hunching over the ground.

Ignoring the discomfort, she followed the difficult trail. A short time later, she suddenly disappeared into some thick bushes. Assuming she was answering nature’s call, Cord hung back to wait for her.

“McConnell! I’ve found something,” Stacey called to him.

He hurried to join her and pushed into the thick jumble of undergrowth. She was digging into soft, disturbed earth under the bushes. “Wait,” he ordered and grabbed her hands to stop her. “You’d better let me. You may not like what you find,” Cord stated coldly while he pushed her away.

“You think it might be—one of the boys?” For the first time he heard hesitation in her voice.

“I don’t know. Move away while I see.” After sliding his pack from his shoulders and removing a small folding shovel, he scraped away the previously disturbed dirt. When he hit something solid, he switched to his hands. Cord pulled a large hard-shell suitcase up and out of the hole. Tossing it at Stacey’s feet, he picked up the shovel and widened the hole until he had uncovered several more cases.

They weren’t locked and Stacey opened them as he tossed them out to her. “They’re empty. All of them are empty. No clothes or toiletries. Not even a piece of paper,” she called to him as he threw out the last one and crawled from the thicket. She opened the last one to reveal more of the same. “Five empty suitcases. Why? Why not leave them at the plane?” Stacey looked up at him as he stretched out the muscles in his legs and back.

“The cases were bulky and hard to carry. I would bet they hid the backpacks inside the cases. The crooks hid the cases to confuse the search team at the crash site and it worked. We also wasted an hour of valuable daylight digging up those cases,” Cord added, relieved cases were all they found.

“What kind of bonds? Is that what they stole?” Stacey wanted to know as she searched the ground for the trail. “Yeah, we think so. Two million in some kind of special bearer bonds. The light’s going. How much longer ‘til dark?” Cord asked. He watched her cross back and forth looking for sign.

“In another half-hour it will be too dim for me to see the trail. With an early night we can start out at dawn. Here, I found it. Let’s move.” They both put their packs on and Cord followed her as she unraveled the non-trail that made sense only to an experienced tracker.

Shadows from the massive pines and the undergrowth were lengthening as the dwindling sunlight was blocked by the trees. The temperature had been around fifty-five in the afternoon, but would drop into the thirties during the night. As the sun disappeared it rapidly dropped at least ten degrees.

Cord’s clothing grew uncomfortably chilly against his skin from the dampness left by sweating while digging out the cases. He pushed it aside as he always ignored minor physical discomforts. They had gone farther than he expected when Stacey finally gave up.

“I just can’t see anymore. If I go the wrong way, we’ll have to cover the same ground in the morning. I vote we make camp,” she suggested.

Realizing there was no choice, Cord agreed. “But no fire. I don’t want to take the chance of being spotted if they’re checking their back trail.”

“Okay. Over here all right or do you prefer somewhere else?” Stacey indicated the low hanging branches of a Douglas fir that made a natural shelter.

“That’s fine. I’m going to scout out the area.” It was his habit to know his surroundings in case something unexpected happened. Cord also needed to confirm they were alone before he could settle down for a rest.

“Don’t get lost,” Stacey warned as she slid off her pack.

“Funny,” he grunted as he also removed his pack and tossed it under the tree where they would camp. “Do whatever you have to while I’m gone. I don’t want you wandering around after I get back.” Cord ordered then moved quietly back along the way they came.

Almost completely in the dark under the tree, Stacey used her flashlight to check for critters and poison oak. She should put him in a large patch of it, she thought smiling to herself.

Raking together layers of pine needles she fashioned two separate piles to cushion their lightweight bedrolls. She spread hers out and sat on it to eat her supper of a nutrition bar, trail mix, and an apple. Afterward she took care of nature’s call then returned to camp to stretch out on her blankets.

Quite a while later she heard a rustling sound and Cord pushed under the boughs of the tree to join her. “I was beginning to think I would have to track you in the morning,” Stacey said softly from her comfortable bed.

“Just making sure we wouldn’t have any surprise visitors during the night,” he answered and searched in the pack she left on his bedroll.

She waited a few minutes then asked, “Well? Did you see anything or not?”

“Nothing human. A bear, some raccoons, and a rabbit or two, but nothing else.” Using his pack as a pillow he propped against it on top of his blankets and tore open a power bar. He washed it down with water from his canteen.

“Thanks for offering, but I already ate supper,” she couldn’t resist pointing out his lack of manners. Stacey thought of offering him an apple, but decided to save it for herself.

“Are you always such a mouth?” he asked as he stuffed the empty wrapper into a pocket on his pack.

“Are you always so polite?” She turned facing away from him and covered up.

Cord heard movement and the sounds of cloth sliding then realized that she was undressing. “Is that wise?” He couldn’t help asking. Personally he was going to sleep in his clothes. If they needed to move fast he wasn’t going to be caught with his pants down. Besides it was cold out here. His last case had been in the steamy forests of Colombia and he hadn’t acclimatized yet.

“Yes, I think so. I’m wearing thermals under my outside clothing. If I sweat in my blankets and hit the cold morning air, I’ll never thaw out. I’m surprised they didn’t teach you that in the military, McConnell.”

Cord’s head jerked toward her. Very quietly and in a voice different from any he had used so far he demanded, “How did you know I was military?” Suspicion flooded into his mind. Was she leading him in circles to keep him away from his objective? Could she be in on it? His mind worked on the endless possibilities as he waited for her to answer.

“Duh, as the twins would say.” Stacey rolled up her heavy flannel shirt and jeans to use as a pillow. “It’s written all over you. The way you bark orders, your thinking, your way of moving, even your bearing. If it bothers you for people to know then you better get to work on your image.”

Relaxing a little, he realized an expert tracker would, by nature, be very observant. She gave him a few tense moments. He slid in between his blankets and mentally thanked her for the pine needles beneath his body. She could easily have let him sleep on the hard ground. “Did you eat?” Cord asked after a few minutes.

“Yes, thank you. Would you like an apple?” Stacey offered after all.

“No, I’m fine. You mentioned twins. Not yours?” Loosening up around her would be a mistake, but her voice was enticing. Rich and breathy, she sounded excited all the time. He wanted to hear her talk.

“The twins belong to my best friend and her husband. They turned seven on Valentine’s Day. Their names are Marcus and Marie.”

“I guess they’re good kids?” Apart from his work, Cord had not been around kids much. He thought he might like them if given a chance.

“The best, but I’m their godmother so I’m a little partial I ’m told. They’re both extremely smart. They can do things with computers I can’t even think of.” Stacey yawned and grew quiet.

Cord got warm in his makeshift bed and pulled off his sweatshirt. Even though his blankets were thin, they were high-tech and especially designed to retain body heat. Deciding it was safe to sleep a couple of hours before rechecking the perimeter, Cord let his body relax and cleared his mind.

Stacey knew when he relaxed, but she could tell he wasn’t asleep. She decided she liked Cord McConnell. Sure he had been a jerk, but protecting her motivated it. He obviously couldn’t help playing the macho type. The instinct seemed to be deeply ingrained in some men. Her dad, Sam, acted like that with her mother. Protective didn’t begin to describe his attitude toward his only daughter.

Her dad pitched a fit when Stacey decided to become a tracker and take survivalist training after she finished high school. She threatened to move away and do it anyway until her mother took pity and intervened. Lucy worked her magic on Sam and he finally allowed Stacey to pursue her present career, even footing the bill for her training out of her college fund. Neither of her parents understood that because of Sammy’s death she needed to do this. She drifted off to sleep thinking of her brother as she so often did.

Cord’s internal clock woke him at ten and again at midnight for him to make his circuit around the area. Nothing stirred except the normal night creatures. He had learned the hard way not to take anything for granted and to always take precautions rather than be caught unaware. As he slid back into his blankets and removed his sweatshirt, Cord knew he would only doze from now until dawn. When on a job he required very little sleep, and the adrenaline kept him going for days at a time.

“Is it bad kidneys, my company, or an all-night café sending you off into the night?”

“I like to know what’s going on around me. Is that a problem?” Cord thought she was asleep and she startled him when she spoke.

Sitting up, Stacey slid into her flannel shirt then stuffed her feet into her boots without tying the laces. “I have to take a walk if you’re through tramping around.” She shivered as she stood up. “It’s definitely chilly out here, tonight.”

“Don’t go far,” Cord ordered.

“And leave you all alone? Wouldn’t dream of it,” she quipped and bent to go under the low hanging branches. Out from under the protective limbs of the large fir, the night air felt even colder. She hoped the teenagers McConnell told her about were okay. Choosing a thick bush not too far from camp, Stacey checked a small area then pulled down her thermal bottoms. This was the part of her job she hated the most. It was so much easier for guys, as were a lot of things it seemed. Life wasn’t fair to females, but she usually found ways to enjoy it anyway.