Desolation Point (13 page)

“You look positively shiny,” she said with a grin.

“Mountain water is amazing for the complexion,” Sarah told her in a voice that owed a lot to ridiculous cosmetics commercials. “It’s all the rage, darling.” She sat on the floor at the edge of the papers and felt the smile fade from her lips. “Alex, we need to leave,” she said without preamble.

Alex set the GPS down carefully and looked at her. “We’ll be good here for another day or so. Just until you’re stronger.” But she sounded uncertain even as she spoke, as if she was aware that her argument was built on shaky foundations.

Sarah shook her head. “It won’t take Merrick long to figure things out. When he does, he’ll double back and this is the first place he’ll look.” She could see Alex drawing a breath to argue but didn’t give her the opportunity to interrupt. “I’m not going to risk your life by staying here,” she said fiercely, but a tremor crept into her voice as her composure began to slip and the rest of her words came out in a harsh whisper. “God, you shouldn’t even be here in the first place.”

Alex grabbed hold of her wrist before she could hide her face away. “Don’t go blaming yourself, now.” She lowered Sarah’s hand into her lap and covered it with both of hers. “I don’t remember you inviting me to this party; I just sort of gate-crashed it. Best fun I’ve had in years.”

“Liar.” The word choked and stuttered in Sarah’s throat. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“Well, yeah.” Alex nodded in easy concession. “I’m scared shitless really.”

“You are?” Sarah met and held her gaze. “Me too.” She felt Alex stroke the back of her hand gently and laid hers on top.

“You’re right about moving on, Sarah.”

“I know.” She took a breath, not bothering to hide her relief. She patted Alex’s uppermost hand once. “How about I make breakfast, you carry on trying to crack the Enigma code there, and then we get packed?” She made as if to move and then paused, confused when she realized that Alex was staring at her. “What?”

Alex grinned. “Anyone ever tell you that you’re real cute when you’re bossy?”

*

The smell of ersatz cheese warming on the small stove was making Alex’s stomach rumble. Despite her earnest attempts to ignore it, she couldn’t help but go and linger by the pot, watching the bubbles rise and burst as the macaroni simmered.

“Packet says ten minutes, Alex.” Sarah made a show of checking her watch. “You’ve had two.”

“Two?” Alex stirred the pot as if that alone would make the food cook faster. Beneath her spoon, the pasta still felt rock-hard. She moaned dramatically. “But I’m so hungry. Think it’d be okay like this?”

Sarah took the spoon from her, looking aghast. “No, I think it’d be absolutely revolting, but feel free to prove me wrong. Just leave my half in the pan for another…” she glanced at her watch again, “seven and a half minutes.” Trying not to laugh, she shook her head as Alex slumped back down by the map and sulkily took up the GPS device.

“Got that figured out yet?” Sarah asked in a transparent attempt at distraction. She liberally sprinkled into the pasta the contents of a small bag that she then slipped back into her jacket pocket. After adjusting the pot slightly, she came to sit beside Alex.

“Yep, think so.” Alex held out the device, tilting it away from the firelight to take the glare off the screen. Whoever had programmed the security code for the device had not been very imaginative, using the year and month of Merrick’s newly assigned date of birth, and Alex had cracked it shortly after Sarah had poured the macaroni into the pan. “He was heading…there.” She pointed to the location. Although she had never used a GPS, preferring the old-fashioned method of map and compass, once she had worked out the referencing system, it had been relatively simple for her to find Merrick’s intended destination on their map.

“There’s nothing there,” Sarah said, looking at where Alex indicated. “It’s in the middle of the forest.”

On the map, Alex’s finger was resting on a spot approximately six miles from the hut, slightly higher than their current location and farther into a dense tract of forest. While they had no intention of going there themselves, she knew that being able to pinpoint the spot for the police would make their job easier.

“Good place to hide something you don’t want anyone to stumble across accidentally,” she said.

Sarah nodded, following Alex’s logic through. “And an absolute bugger to find if someone’s stolen your fancy electronic map-type gadget.”

“I’m guessing you’re not his favorite person about now.”

“I’m not too fond of him either,” Sarah countered. “He bloody shot me.”

Alex couldn’t help but smile at her indignation, and Sarah slowly smiled as well.

“It bloody hurt,” she muttered, before returning to the stove and tasting the pasta. “Not bad if I do say so myself,” she said, and laughed when Alex held her plate out expectantly.

Alex peered into her dish and did a slight double-take at the strange color of the concoction.

Sarah had obviously been expecting this reaction. “Just try it,” she said.

Alex dutifully dipped the tip of her tongue into the sauce. It tasted exactly like mac ’n’ cheese was supposed to taste. Encouraged, she swallowed the spoonful. After a couple seconds, she noticed the pleasant heat that lingered in her mouth and a subtle smoky flavor that hadn’t been evident immediately. She looked at Sarah, who was trying not to laugh at her.

“This is the best mac ’n’ cheese I ever had.” She licked the back of her spoon. “Why does mine never taste this good? I buy exactly the same brand.”

Sarah retrieved the sealed baggie from her jacket, and threw it to Alex. “I keep them in my pocket so the bag doesn’t get ripped. Never travel without them,” she said.

Alex held the baggie up to the light and gave her the dubious look she traditionally reserved for street corner dealers.

“They’re
herbs
, Alex. All perfectly legal herbs. Rosemary, sage, thyme, and paprika, which, along with a good sprinkle of black pepper, is what I’ve added to your breakfast. Livens the sauce up a bit and makes it taste slightly less like it was put together on a production line.”

“Yes, it does,” Alex said before sneezing as the pepper she had just sniffed irritated her nose. “I can’t cook for shit. Living out here is a great excuse to eat crap out of a can every night.” She shrugged at Sarah’s dismay. “My family had a cook. My mom just assumed I would marry well enough to be able to do the same. I boiled an egg dry once. Set off all the fire alarms. After that, I was banned from the kitchen.”

Sarah accepted the herbs back and tucked them safely away again. “You make a very fine oatmeal,” she said, managing not to sound at all condescending. “If you can follow instructions on a packet, you can follow a recipe.”

“Mm, maybe.” Alex suspected Sarah’s confidence in her was misguided. “As a kid, I always wanted my mom to show me how to bake a cake for my brothers—their birthdays were only a couple of days apart—but she never did, and I guess I just stopped asking.”

“I’ll show you how to bake a cake. Soon as we get out of here,” Sarah said, her eyes blazing with anger on Alex’s behalf.

Alex smiled shyly, unaccustomed to having anyone willing to fight in her corner. “You will?”

“Yep, chocolate cake, fruit cake, whatever you like.”

“I like chocolate.”

“Chocolate it is then,” Sarah said easily and knocked her fork against Alex’s spoon to seal the deal.

The GPS beeped once and then again in quick succession, making them both jump. Alex gave a low cheer, turning it toward Sarah. The display read:
coordinates stored, calculating distance
.

Sarah stuck her fork in her mouth while she applauded. “I had every faith in you,” she mumbled around the metal. “Never doubted for a second.”

Alex gave a little bow, but then her eyes widened as she read the display.

“Christ, we really have wandered off course. This shows it’s thirteen miles back to Ross Lake from here, but that’s as the crow flies. There’s the small matter of a mountain in between.” Although she’d had a good idea where they were in relation to the lake, she hadn’t had the chance to think about how they were going to get back there.

“Ouch.” Sarah gave a heartfelt grimace.

“If we stay on the level, follow the contours, it’s probably twice as far.” Alex gestured to the map, her initial optimism fading as she thought about the trek they were going to have to attempt. She switched off the GPS to conserve its battery and looked at Sarah. “It’s not going to be easy. We’re going to have to hike off-road to start with. Using the map and the GPS, we should be able to find a trail, but we’re nowhere near any of the official tracks here. Whatever trail we do find, we’ll just have to hope it’s passable.”

Sarah inclined her head, trying to gauge distance and walking speeds against the weather and their own physical condition. “So maybe two to three days if we’re lucky and the storm settles.”

They both jumped, startled, as a sudden gust of wind slammed the door shut and rain began to beat against the roof.

“Oh, me and my big mouth.” Sarah laughed hopelessly. She leaned into Alex, who wrapped an arm around her.

“We’ll be fine,” Alex murmured into her hair. “Marilyn’ll have teams out looking for us as soon as she can. All we need to do is meet them halfway.”

“Okay, we can do that.”

“We can do that,” Alex said. “We’ll finish breakfast and get packed up.”

She felt Sarah nod but make no attempt to move away. Holding her close, Alex could smell the faintly herbal scent of stream water in her hair. Her heartbeat thudded strong and reassuringly steady against Alex’s chest, the rhythm gradually slowing as her breathing became softer and more relaxed. Alex closed her eyes. The pounding of the rain faded into the background, taking with it the wind and the persistent clatter of something loose on the doorframe. She didn’t want to leave the hut. They were safe here. At least until the man with the guns showed up. She shuddered once and felt Sarah edge more tightly against her in response.

“It’ll be okay. We’ll be fine,” she whispered, but then wondered how the hell she could expect to convince Sarah of that when she was so very uncertain herself.

*

Alex had found the old khaki backpack buried at the bottom of the trunk. Dirt and cobwebs flew into the air when she shook it, but the straps were all sound and it would be far easier to carry than Merrick’s duffel bag.

Blankets, a sizable piece of plastic sheeting, rope, and two each of the pots, plates, and mugs were already set to one side, ready to pack, and she was now sorting through Merrick’s supplies. She added all of his food, his clothing, his flashlight, and his identity papers to the pile. The papers would be useful evidence for the police and the FBI, who might be able to trace them back to their source, but more importantly, the last thing she wanted to do was leave them behind for Merrick to find and use to flee the country.

Sitting cross-legged on the floor, Sarah began to pack the items Alex passed her. She laughed when she looked up to find Alex deliberately tearing all of Merrick’s cigarettes in half.

“What?” Alex asked innocently. “They’re very bad for him. I’m doing him a favor.”

Still laughing, Sarah picked up a pack and began to help her out. “Oh well, if he wasn’t pissed off with us before…”

“Yeah, what have we got to lose, right?” Alex tore into another handful, but Sarah’s hands had stilled and she was staring blankly at the wall. “Hey.” Alex reached out and unfolded Sarah’s fingers from the pack she had all but crushed. “You okay?”

Sarah didn’t answer right away, and when she did, her words were little more than a whisper. “He just shot him,” she said, her gaze still fixed and distant. “That night, the prison guard. Merrick was so casual, like it was nothing. He didn’t even blink.” She licked her lips and slowed her breathing with a visible effort. “I heard the guard begging for his life, Alex. Telling them he had a family. I wanted to help him, but I was so scared and I couldn’t think fast enough.”

“What could you have done?”

The directness of Alex’s question made Sarah pause.

“I don’t…There must have been something.”

“One tired, terrified young woman weighing about a hundred twenty pounds soaking wet, against two armed criminals.” Alex used her thumb to wipe a tear from Sarah’s cheek. “There wasn’t a thing you could’ve done, Sarah. Not a fucking thing. You can’t keep beating yourself up about it.”

In lieu of an answer, Sarah took the cigarettes back and tore into them viciously.

“I know where the body is,” she said at length. “That’ll help, won’t it?”

Alex stopped brushing tobacco and paper from her pants. “Yeah, that’ll help.”

For a few minutes, Sarah continued to destroy the last pack of cigarettes, dropping the pieces into a tin bucket that seemed to have more holes than actual tin. When there was nothing left but the empty pack, she pushed herself to her feet, screwed the cardboard up, and tossed it into their makeshift trash can. Alex looked up at her and Sarah nodded toward the corner of the room where the chair sat with the first aid kit at its side.

“Shall we just get it over with?” she said.

Alex set the bucket down. She looked about as enthusiastic about the prospect as Sarah felt. “Let me wash my hands.”

When Alex came back from the stream, Sarah had already stripped off her sweater and was busy studying the dressing on her side. For the first time, it was completely free of fresh bloodstains. The wound was tender when she laid her hand across it but the discomfort was bearable.

“Okay, stay still,” Alex said.

“I can’t, that tickles.” Sarah squirmed as Alex began to peel off the dressing and then she caught her breath when the tape suddenly came away in a rush. “Shit, now it hurts. I liked it better when it tickled.”

“Sorry.” In a familiar routine, Alex carefully felt around the edges of the wound, trying to detect any swelling, heat, or discharge that might signify an infection. “Looks good,” she said, before asking in a lower tone, “You ready?”