A Shadow Fell (3 page)
5
Not surprisingly
Miles’ response to Callie’s call was
emphatic
:
“
Hell, yes. We’d love you
to
come up and stay with us.”
“I’m sure I don’t have to tell you to keep this to yourselves, Miles,” Callie
warned
. “The fewer people that know of this the better for everyone.”
“I hear ya, darlin,” Miles assured her.
When she hung up the phone she turned to me. “Well, I guess we’re guests of the Wilsons.”
“When do you want to go?”
“Are you sure you won’t come with us?” she pleaded.
“Not right away
.
Maybe I’ll join you in a few days if
I get too lonesome
.”
“Well, all I h
ave to do is throw a few clothes together
so I guess we could leave anytime.”
“Good
.
The sooner you’re out of here the better
I’ll feel
.”
“How should we go?”
“
Wh
y
not just get a flight?”
“Tanya loves that motor-home
,” Callie reminded me
.
“She’d probably be delighted if
we dr
o
ve.
”
My first thought was that it would be too risky on their own like that.
On the other hand
, I reasoned,
Henderson would have no way of knowing they were on the road so,
really
, it seemed
silly to argue the point
.
“Would you feel comfortable driving all that way
, just the two of you
?”
She
waved off my show of concern.
“It’s about fourteen hundred miles, a nice leisurely four day trip. I’d have no problem with it.”
When I didn’t respond she stood in front of me and laced her arms loosely around my neck.
“What’s to worry about
, Jack
? It’s not like I
’m incapable of
look
ing
after
us
.”
I couldn’t argue with her there. After all, if not for her,
I
’d have been another in the long list of her father’s victims.
Still, my lack of enthusiasm was pretty apparent.
“
If it’s what you want
, babe.”
“Yeah, we’ll take the beast.”
She looked at me like she was having second thoughts
. “I’d still feel a lot better if you were coming with us, though.”
“W
e
’ve been over this already,” I reminded her. We
had
in fact rehashed
the situation
many times during
the previous few days
and s
he could
not
allow her
concern for
me to take precedence over the safety of our daughter.
“Promise me you won’t take any unnecessary chances
then.
No heroics. If the bastard shows his face around here,
blast him into another time zone
.”
“I
t would be my pleasure
.
”
She gave me a doleful look. “I love you, baby.”
I
pulled her gently against me. Then I
kissed her and held her tight.
“
I love you more,” I
mumbled in her ear
when we came up for air
. “I’m bigger.
”
The next morning we had the
beast loaded and ready to roll. The unit was a forty-five foot Class
A
diesel
with comfortable beds and a nice f
ully equipped kitchen
. They wouldn’t exactly be roughing it.
Callie had spent many hours at the wheel
on our various trips and
she handled the big machine with ease and confidence
. We had plotted their route and
decided
exactly which campgrounds they would put in at each night.
Tanya got a bit pouty when she re
membered
Winston and I weren’t going with them. “I want you guys to come, too,” she said, her lower lip pushed out.
“We’re gonna try and join you
very
soon, sweetheart. I promise.
Meanwhile, I want you to be a very good girl for Mr. and Mrs. Wilson. Okay?
”
She could never stay mad at me for very long. “
I will. I promise
,
” she said, suddenly wrapping her little arms
around me
.
“
I love you, Daddy.”
Then she thought through our usual routine. “But you love me more cuz you’re bigger, right?”
“Uh uh,” I played along. “Because the best things come in small packages.” Even though she had heard it a hundred times, she giggled.
It was one of those silly little
things that somehow mean the most when looked back on.
When
she
turned her attention to Winston, Callie came to me and held me in a tight embrace. “
I can’t help it.
I’m worried about you
being here all by yourself
, Jack.”
“I’ll be fine,” I assured her. “Are you sure you’re okay with the drive up to Maine on your own?”
She shrugged dismissively. “Yeah, I’m good with that
.
”
“Try and call me once you get settled every night, okay?
There’s usually a public phone at the campgrounds.
”
“I
’ll try
,” she promised.
Cell phone
s were just coming into vogue but we had not yet acquired one as
coverage
was notoriously
iffy
in the vast uninhabited areas
we normally
trave
l
l
ed
through
.
I
kissed the
m
both goodbye
again
, then stood back and watched as they boarded the RV. I smiled
and waved as they pulled away
.
For
a brief moment
I experienced a pang
of regret that I had agreed to let them go off on their own
;
I pushed it down, telling myself I was being foolish.
Callie
double tapped
the horn
as they neared the bend that would take them from my sight
.
I caught a brief glimpse of Tanya’s
tiny
hand as she waved to me.
If
it were somehow possible to go back in time
-
if I
could be
given the opportunity to relive
and change a single
moment in my life
- i
t would be that one.
Part 2
The
Tragedy
6
They left home on a Wednesday and, if they stuck to the plan, were due to arrive at the Wilsons on Saturday afternoon.
When
the first two
evening
s came and went
and I didn’t hear from them I told myself everything was alright,
that
they just didn’t have access to a telephone.
B
ut b
y Friday night
I
knew something was
terribly
wrong.
It was not in
Callie
’s
nature to do anything that would
cause me to
fret over
her
.
If there had been no phone at the campsites she would have made a stop during the day to let me know they were okay.
Now I was questioning h
ow
I
could
have been so
foolish
as to allow my wife
and daughter
to drive away on
their
own while a homicidal maniac who had professed a deep rooted desire
for
vengeance
was on the loose
.
The more I thought about it the more obscenely stupid it seeme
d
.
At
nine o’clock
I phoned Miles
.
“Jack,” he said, “is everythin’ okay?”
“I haven’t heard a word from them since they left. I’m
very
worried
.”
I
heard
him let out a
heavy
sigh. “Nothin’ from this end either,” he said. “What are you thinkin’?”
I couldn’t even allow myself to verbalize what was going through my mind.
“I’m going to call Tom Kilborn and let him know what’s going on. I know the exact route she was taking so the
local cops
should be able
to
make contact.”
“Good,” he said. “Meanwhile I’ll call
right away
if
I
hear anythin’ at all.”
The worry in his voice mirrored to a tee the way I felt.
Tom Kilborn was a busy man but
the mention of my name got me
put through to him
without delay
the next morning
when I called.
I didn’t waste time. “I’m convinced something has happened to Callie and Tanya, Tom. They left in our motor home, headed for Colville, Maine, on Wednesday morning. Callie promised she’d stay in touch every day. I haven’t heard a word from them
since they left
.”
“Do you know exactly which route she intended to take?” he asked
, his voice immediately registering concern
. He had the good sense not to try
to
convince me she had forgotten to call, or
put their lack of communication down to
some other equally ridiculous
circumstance
.
I gave him
the details of their route
,
a description of the motor home, and
the
names of the campgrounds at which they had planned
to stay
.
I also provided details of our credit cards so
th
eir movements might be tracked that way
.
“
We’
ll get a BOLO out to all
appropriate
police agencies
immediately
,” he promised.
A ‘be on the lookout
’
was the best I could expect at this stage. I
mumbled a
thank
you
and he told me he would be in touch.
I then
began
the process
, for the
hundred
th time,
of trying to
imagine a rational justification f
or w
hy my wife had not contacted me for three days
.
The only
realistic
scenarios I could envision
left me with a feeling of utter hopelessness.