The Camp (23 page)

Link threw both hands in the air. “Fine with me.”

They parked in front of the little general store. Rye stayed in the bus. Link and Claire bubbled into the store, commenting on how cute and quaint Wolf Creek was.

Rye nearly jumped when a hand clamped onto his shoulder. “Where’s Aunt Claire?”

He turned to face the fifteen-year-old. “How you feeling?”

She stood in a low crouch so she could look out through the windshield. “Better, but really hungry. Plus, I think Ellen is awake. Can I go in the store?”

Before he could respond she’d pulled the handle and partially slid the door open, suddenly falling back with a look of horror.

Chapter Thirty-seven

Cindy, following Jane’s pace, double-timed it back to the motel.
 

She saw the van first. “Frank’s back.”

Voices could be heard coming out of the office. “Check on the girls. I’ll straighten out Josh and Frank.”

When the door to the office burst open, both men turned to face Jane.

Looking very agitated, Josh took a step in her direction. “He saw a private investigator at the store.” He looked over at Frank. It’s just a matter of time before he comes down the road. We’ve got to do something quick.”

Cindy ran into the office breathless. “Gone, they’re all gone. The girls are all gone!”

Jane reached to the middle of her back under her windbreaker, whipped out a small caliber pistol, and leveled it at Josh’s chest. “Where are the girls?”

Cindy wanted to run away from this crazy woman. It didn’t matter how much money she’d been promised.

He raised both hands. “We put them back in the van, figured you’d want to leave right away.”

She pointed the gun at the ground as though giving some thought to what Josh had said. Then she brought it level with Frank’s face. “Talk to me.”

His eyes bulged and beads of sweat popped out on his forehead. “My roommate in Ashland, Ed. He had a girlfriend whose father was a private investigator. She used to drive over in his VW bus. I must have seen it a hundred times. I watched it drive up to the store when I was leaving.”

Jane replaced the gun in the holster. “You’re sure of this?”

Frank was beginning to shake. “Not a doubt.”

She stepped out of the office and looked down the road toward town. “We’ll need some insurance in case your PI does show up. Frank, I want you to follow this road until you come to a sixty-foot cone. On the backside is a small door. Open it and throw in all the dry branches you can find and light them on fire. Be sure and shut the door or the fire won’t catch. Once the fire gets going and you can see it burning, come back here at a run.”

She watched in utter amazement as he ran to the back of the office but was relieved when he ran out holding a box of stick matches.

“Josh, you and Cindy unload all the girls. Put nine in room number one, bring the other two to me.”

Halfway back up the old wagon road, Frank met Jane. She was dragging a girl on either side.

“Is the fire going?”

Frank didn’t pause, but shouted as he passed. “Burning like hell.”

When Jane reached the former lumber camp, she pushed the two girls into the infirmary and went from building to building until she found what she was looking for.

Twenty minutes later, she left the teepee burner behind, and stepped into the woods without the two girls.

Rye wrapped
and arm around the fifteen-year-old, pulling her further into the bus, then peered out.

“What did you see?”

Amy was hugging herself. “Ed’s roommate. He just drove away in a white van.”

When Claire glanced back towards the bus, she could just make out Rye’s figure in the driver’s seat frantically waving her back.

“I’m going back to the bus, honey.”

Link smiled at the young woman behind the counter. “Morning sickness.” Then he turned and ran out the door. “It’s alright, baby. We can get some pickles and ice cream at the next stop.”

When he came around to the sliding door, Claire was immediately in his face. “What the hell was that?”
 

Link didn’t flinch. “You left so abruptly and I didn’t want to draw attention, so I told the clerk you had morning sickness I couldn’t think of anything else that would make sense.”

Claire made a fist and shook it in his face. “You’re fired.” Then she turned to Rye. “What?”

“Amy saw Frank.”

Link and Claire climbed into the bus and they all sat around the table except for Ellen, who was now standing just behind the driver’s seat, seeming to take it all in.

“Who’s Frank?”

Rye looked to Claire to answer. “Back in Ashland, Amy had a boyfriend, Ed. Frank was his roommate. The two came to work at the general store in Agness. We think the roommate had something to do with Ed’s death and with Cindy, the owner of the little store. Now that we’ve seen him here, I’d bet he has something to do with the trafficking ring.”

Link looked at Amy and spoke in soft, yet firm tones. “Did you see which way he went?”

She pointed down the road.

“Anyone know what’s down there?”

Fifteen minutes later Rye walked into the store. “Excuse me.”

The woman behind the counter smiled. “Yes.”

“I’m just exploring the area. Where would I end up if I went back out to the main road but continued on instead of heading back to the Interstate?”

“Here.” She reached under the counter and brought out a brochure. “This will tell you everything you could possibly want to know. We used to have a burn out at the old lumber mill every Friday. People came from all over Oregon to the see the old teepee burner. Then the state pulled our permit, said it polluted the air. Anyway, here.” She slid it across the counter. “It’s about a quarter mile past the old motel. Been closed for years, all shut up.”

Rye rapped on the door before sliding it open. Claire, Amy, and Link were sitting around the little table. He looked over at Ellen who was still standing. “You want to sit?” She just shook her head in the negative. Amy stepped out and let Rye slide in, then sat on the edge of the seat, feet out.
 

Rye sat back. “Motel has six rooms and an office. From what the woman in the store said, it’s probably boarded up.” Link folded his arms. “What better place to put up a dozen girls than a place with all those bathrooms and bedrooms? Time to call in the task force.”

Rye leaned forward across the little table stretched out an arm and made a fist. “I don’t think so. I still don’t trust you.”

Link slammed a hand down flat on the table. “What are you going to do? Roll in with the bus and collect the girls?”

Claire could see an eruption coming, but decided to let it play out.

Rye spoke without taking his eyes off the agent. “Amy, let me out.”

She looked over at Claire, who nodded.

Then he spoke louder and more intensely. “Amy, please.”

The agent was on the outside and pushed his bulk out from behind the table.

Amy stepped out and sat back down.

Rye was only halfway out when he shot out a fist. Link parried and with the same hand and threw out a back fist. Rye ignored it and stepped in and grasped the agent by the throat.

“Stop it!”

The voice was so shrill and so unexpected that Rye retracted his hand and turned.

Ellen had taken a step away from the back of the seat where she’d been standing and stood with her hands clenched in fists, held at chest level, shoulders up near her ears, tears streaming down her face.

Claire instinctively took a step forward intent on comforting her but she backed up until she bumped into the seat back.

Amy reached over and took her hand. “C’mon, let’s take a walk.” No one spoke as they stepped out of the bus into the parking lot.

Rye took a step to follow but was stopped when Claire took his arm. “Let ‘em go. They’ll work it out.” Then she turned on the two men. “And that’s exactly what we’re going to do, too.”

The agent sat back down, not taking his eyes off Rye as he leaned against the counter. Claire leaned on the little table.

He held up both hands. “What if I go down the road to checkout the motel, determine the girls’ situation?” He paused and looked at Claire who had turned to face him.

She looked at Rye, who gave her a nod.
 

“We’re listening,” she said.

“When I return, then we’ll decide if we can make the rescue or need to call in the task force.”

Rye was nodding. “Fair enough.”

Claire took a step and turned to lean on the counter next to her husband. “How will we know if you run into trouble?”

Link rubbed his chest without thinking. “Give me one hour.”

Rye stepped forward hand extended. The agent took the proffered hand and gave it a firm shake.

“Don’t make me come after you.”

Chapter Thirty-eight

Jane bushwhacked through the woods until she could see Cindy, Frank, and Josh standing in the middle of the parking lot looking down the road the way they expected her to come.

They didn’t see her when she first stepped out from the trees.

“Hey.” She stood with her hands on her hips.

Cindy and Frank jumped. Josh pulled a gun as he spun.

Cindy cautiously stepped forward. “All the girls are in room one, the last room at the far end of the motel.”

Jane walked up to Josh. “You win the prize.” She turned and walked back the way she’d come then pointed at a tight stand of conifers. “Right in there. C’mon.” She watched until he was deep in the shadow of the big trees. “You two: Cindy, go stand in front of the office. Frank, in front of room three.”

Next, Jane walked to the van she’d driven and removed the shotgun and a rifle. Then, checking to see if she could see Josh in the trees, she walked up to Cindy and scanned the woods. Next, she joined Frank and once again tried to locate Josh.

Frank looked past her to Cindy who just shrugged. “What are you doing, Jane?” he finally asked. “Shouldn’t we be getting out of here before the PI arrives?”

Jane spun on him. “Think. We’re going to Portland and it’s not going to take us 24 hours. We need to stick it out here. Anyone comes down the road looking for the girls, they’ll have to go room to room. Sitting ducks.”

 
Frank shaded his eyes. “Gotcha.”
 

Jane rolled her eyes and walked the shotgun and rifle over to Josh and traded him for the pistol. She looked back through the trees at Frank and Cindy. “You’ve got a clear shot. Anyone comes around, let them get past the office to room five or four. Then just keep ‘em pinned down.”

Josh leaned the shotgun against the tree, sighted through the rifle’s scope, and looked over at Jane. “Then what?”

She gave him a wink. “I’ll come get you.”

After getting
out of the bus, Link made a good show of jogging down the road, but as soon as he was out of sight, he slowed to a walk. He justified his slowed pace with the thinking that he didn’t want to be running if there was a surprise up ahead.

He saw the end of the office and the parking lot when he rounded the fourth curve and was beginning to wonder how much further he’d have to go. Flexing his arm, he moved slowly into the trees that marked the closest edge of the lot. Nothing moved. A hitch caught in his chest. He had to take a deep breath and kneel down to regulate his breathing, press on his chest until the pain went away.
 

The vans were at the end of the row of rooms, but he didn’t see any movement. He automatically reached for his underarm holster, but remembered that Claire still had his gun. Standing up he took a test breath, no pain.

At his best ‘I’m in no hurry’ pace, he strolled across the parking lot to the office. The door opened easily, but it was obvious that it had been forced. The dust and dirt on the pressboard floor showed footprints. He didn’t have to go in far to know that it was empty. He tried not to let on that he was scanning the woods when he moved down to the room marked six.

The number was long gone but someone had painted ‘six’ at head height in the middle of the door. Glancing in, he saw that the room was starkly empty. He thought he felt a breeze coming from the bathroom. One step and he was out again, moving down the row toward room five.

He heard the pop before he saw the dust kick up. Without a thought, he dropped into a deep crouch and sprinted for the door. It swung wide with the impact of his shoulder and he dove to the floor and rolled under the boarded-up window and braced his back against the wall. Tentacles of pain shot through his chest and he passed out.

When the girls returned, Ellen opened up. She recounted her ordeal to everyone. “First, I began to wonder about the boys’ side of the camp, then I decided to go check it out.”

Rye was nervously checking his watch. All three women were sitting at the table.

“I didn’t find anybody. I don’t know what I was thinking I’d do, if I did. Anyway, I was just kind of wandering from cabin to cabin and found a bigger building when I saw headlights and just about freaked.”

Ellen was wedged into a corner on the bench seat, knees pulled into her chest and pushing against the table. Amy had given her a pair of her sweat pants. As she told her story, her eyes would periodically brim with tears as though she was saying one thing, but remembering another.

“That’s when this guy, like, you know, rescued me. Covered my mouth and pulled me to the ground. I told him that the camp was deserted, but he said it wasn’t.”

She paused and took a long drink from the bottle of water Rye had gotten from the store.

“Anyway, we climbed up on the roof and looked down through a hole.”

This got Rye’s attention and he stepped forward and leaned on the table. “What did you see?”

She began to play nervously with the water bottle, sliding it from one hand to the other across the Formica tabletop.

“Nothing at first. Air was coming up and made my eyes water. Then I saw the girls.” Tears ran down her cheeks, she stopped talking and broke into a series of hiccupping sobs.

Claire reached out to place a comforting hand on Ellen’s but the girl recoiled.