Freedom's Treasure (18 page)

“I’ll tell you when I can feel my body again,” she replied, a smile crossing her face. She felt the bed shift as he slid a pillow underneath the appendage. She waited for a corresponding tweak of pain and was pleasantly surprised not to feel one. “Apparently endorphins trump pain.”

His chuckle drifted across the room and he turned on a dim lamp. “Did you know your shirt is still around your waist?”

Anna lifted her head long enough to check and let it fall back. “Yet another thing to deal with later.”

“What’s the first?”

“Water, juice, some kind of liquid.”

“I’m on it.”

“Somehow I knew you would be,” she watched him walk from the room and licked her dry lips. The man was delicious coming and going. She summoned the limited amount of energy she had left and managed to get the shirt off, dropping it over the edge of the bed. By the time Hunter returned she was deeply asleep.

Hunter could count the times he’d truly been angry beyond reason on one hand. One of those times included the day his father had died. Today would now be added to that list.

He stared blankly at the demolition zone that had once been a cabin. All that stood under its own power were the outside walls and chimney and he had a feeling if the person that had done this had the capabilities the chimney would not be standing either.

Obviously they had been searching for something and Hunter knew what that something was. The map, journal and coin were safely stowed at his house. Hunter jerked with the realization that Anna was currently alone there. Whoever had done this would surely know that. He immediately pulled his phone from his pocket and tried to call her. It went straight to voicemail. Service was spotty but he, like Anna, had a booster so she must have been on another call or her phone was off. He dialed the only other person he trusted, he called his mom.

Anna was starting to get annoyed. She liked to be alone when she wrote and interruptions drove her crazy. She turned her phone off, she closed the shades and she locked the doors as part of her writing routine. Apparently her routine mattered not at all when she was at Hunter’s house.

It started simply enough. Hunter had forgotten the keys to her A-frame and Colby had stopped by to pick them up. Something that should have taken 30 seconds took 20 minutes. She’d felt obligated to offer him coffee after the first 5 and he’d taken that as an invitation to sit and have a bit of a chat. Anna was now officially caught up on all the local gossip that had happened overnight – not something that she had normally found herself concerned with.

Shortly after Anna watched his taillights slowly go down the long driveway she’d heard the sound of another engine. She rose from her laptop after finishing one sentence and peeked out the shade to see an unfamiliar car coming toward her. The dusty Buick pulled to a stop and she watched Beth Snyder emerge.

With a roll of her eyes and a sigh, Anna started brewing a second pot of coffee. She took a deep breath and reminded herself she was not on a deadline. Staying at someone else’s house would require her to tap her patience and learn a new routine. She could handle that. Eventually. She also reminded herself that this was a temporary situation.

She heard two more car doors slam shut and realized Beth had brought the two boys with her. Anna moved to the cabinet and pulled down the box of cookies she’d seen up there the day before.

Evan offered an awkward apology for the scare he’d given her the night he fell from the tree and Jason made faces behind his brother’s back, which caused Anna to hold back a laugh. She asked about football and tried to remember what else made little boys tick. She considered it research and was able to garner more patience while the boys answered questions monosyllabically.

Beth’s impatience shone through and Anna knew she was itching to ask about what they’d found at the cabin. It was nearly impossible to keep a secret in smaller towns but she could have sworn she’d heard Colby give a vow of secrecy. Anna fended off the questions as best she could and used every social skill she had to eventually move the woman on.

With a rush of relief she saw the visitors off, barely able to stop Beth from nosing around to look for the silver half dollar.
Finally
, she thought, and moved back to her laptop. After thinking about it for a moment she locked all the doors and turned off the kitchen light to ensure it looked like no one was home. She hoped the next person would think she’d tagged along with Hunter for the day.

Anna moved into the den and sat with her computer on her lap and her foot propped up. She stared at the boot over the screen and decided that ugly thing had to go and soon. She was finding it distracting. Then again, everything was distracting today. She closed her eyes and went through the mental exercises she used to get into the writing mood.

On her last exhale she had formed the perfect sentence only to hear the sound of yet another engine in the driveway. She muffled the curse, decided no one was around to hear and repeated it with gusto.

She waited for the inevitable knock at the door. It didn’t come. Instead she heard the knob twist. When the person realized the door was locked she heard the scrape of a key against the lock. Anna wondered if Hunter had forgotten something else and waited patiently for him to come through the door.

Instead Elisa’s head popped through the door. “Hello?” the call was bright, happy with a touch of curious. Anna suspected the woman ingested happy pills upon waking every day and wondered how to get her hands on some.

“Hello! I’m in the den, Elisa!” Anna found it impossible to be upset that the sprightly older woman had invaded her privacy.

“Oh, there you are, dear!” Elisa stepped into the room, wearing an outfit similar to Anna’s. A brightly colored tank top and a knee length pair of jean shorts with sandals.

“How are you? Come in, please, and have a seat. Would you like some coffee?” Anna invited. She found she was looking forward to a visit with Hunter’s mother. She wondered if she could get some inside dirt on the man she had fallen into infatuation with.

“Thank you, Anna, no. I’m afraid this isn’t a social visit. Hunter called and mentioned he couldn’t get through to you on your cell phone. He asked me to stop by and collect you and bring you out to the A-frame,” Elisa explained. A look of trepidation crossed her face but Anna didn’t seem to notice.

“Oh,” Anna replied, nonplussed, “are they doing more destruction? I did want to watch that.”

“Somehow I doubt that will be necessary,” Elisa replied. “Why don’t you grab your shoes, er shoe, and we’ll just head on over. There is something he wants to show you.”

Anna set her laptop to the side and grabbed one crutch, used it to rise from the deep chair. She desperately wanted to find a similar chair for the cabin, she decided. It was something she’d do this afternoon if the writing bug wasn’t taking hold. “Did they find something else in the floor?”

“You could say that, I guess.”

Anna shot a suspicious look at Elisa. The tone in her voice wasn’t quite as happy and excited as it had been when she first came in. “Elisa, is there something you aren’t telling me?”

“It would be better to show you, dear. I left the car running for the air. It sure is a hot one out there today. The upper 90’s according to the sign at the bank. I think we’re going to have perfect weather for the Fourth of July next weekend. Here, let me grab your purse for you. Don’t forget to lock the door. There will be fireworks over the lake and we make a picnic out of it. I think you’ll have a great time, assuming you want to come with us,” Elisa rambled on, doing her best to stall Anna’s questions. 

When they pulled into the drive of Anna’s cabin she noted several vehicles were parked at haphazard angles. She wondered if Hunter had put out a call for assistance with dealing with the bathroom floor and decided that was unlikely. She pushed the immediate feeling of anxiety to the pit of her stomach. Something must have happened, something big. She desperately hoped no one had been injured while working on the repairs.

Eliza pulled to a stop and put the car in park. “I don’t want you to be upset, dear, but if you are, there’s no shame in that. Remember, we’re all here for you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Anna tried to ask but Elisa had already removed herself from the vehicle, moving very quickly for a woman of her age. Hunter came to her door and helped her out. “What’s going on, Hunter? Why are there so many people here?”

Like a Band-Aid being pulled quickly from the skin, Hunter thought, always the best way. He’d been rehearsing this since he’d gotten his mother on the phone.  “There was a break in last night. The cabin is destroyed. So is most of your stuff.”

In a reflexive action, Anna’s mind immediately went to a tangent of George Carlin’s about stuff and how it essentially owns a person instead of a person owning the stuff. She had a feeling if she mentioned it now Hunter would think she was insane. Instead she managed to squeak out, “Are you serious?”

Hunter’s head was cocked as he waited for her reaction. “Very much so, I’m afraid. I wouldn’t joke about this.” He kept pace with her as she used her one crutch to go to the back door.

Anna did her best to ignore the many stares she felt burning into the back of her neck. Now she understood why so many people were here. The word must have spread faster than a prairie fire during a hot summer. “Why aren’t the cops here?”

“The Sheriff’s on his way. He was on the other side of the county.”

How his voice remained so calm, Anna never knew. She could see the anger in the taut line of his jaw, a muscle that twitched nearly in sync with her own racing heart. “We probably shouldn’t go in,” she commented, not confident that she wanted to see the results of this kind of devastation.

“The damage has been done, trust me. Every person that you see here has peeked in a window or wandered in the front door. Colby was supposed to be looking for a rope so we can put up a barrier around the doors.”

“You couldn’t make them stay away? They’ve seen everything I own. It’s a whole new level of invasion of my privacy.”

Hunter winced at the tone in her voice. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry doesn’t make them go away. They’re staring at me, I can feel it.”

Hunter stopped as she reached the tiny mudroom that lead into the kitchen. He wanted to step in with her but the look in her eye stopped him. Perhaps she’d handle this part better alone, he didn’t know. He hated this feeling of helplessness that tied his stomach into a tight knot. His instinct told him to step back, let her look and follow her lead.

Anna gazed blankly at what had once been her home. Her brand new television and the stand Hunter had built were in pieces. Fluff from the couch and chairs lay scattered over the floor, snow mounds melting in the spring sun. Her brand new dishes lay shattered in pieces, apparently thrown against the wall. Holes had been punched in what appeared to be a random fashion in the floor and walls and pink insulation wafted through the air from the breeze caused by the open door. Aghast, she noticed several pairs of her panties and bras that had been trampled underneath a careless foot.

She whirled in a tight circle. Dropping the crutch she stumbled from the cabin door and fled to a nearby bush where she vomited the coffee and bagel she’d had for breakfast. Her soul was cold, so cold; she shivered and her empty stomach heaved once more.

She felt a cool cloth against the back of her neck and she flinched away from the touch, her arm flung out to knock the offender away. “No, no, no,” she whispered, “who could do such a thing?”

With a dark look Hunter encouraged all the lookie loos to find something else to occupy their attention. A few kept watching Hunter and Anna, enjoying the drama of the moment in a way Hunter considered sick. Many did turn away, walking the perimeter ostensibly to search for footprints. Hunter knew that was a fool’s errand. Whoever had done this would have been too smart to leave tracks that could be followed.

Anna turned her wet eyes to him. “I’ll never go back into that cabin again. Never. What kind of sick bastard could violate another human being in that way? It feels so personal, Hunter.”