Part 14 (1/2)
Maddy stilled her stick now in the fire and the end ignited. She shoved it the rest of the way into the flames. ”I don't really know what you mean.”
”I have to be honest with you. Do you know what the worst thing is about knowing you're sixteen?”
”Almost seventeen.”
”It's that I was starting to have feelings for you, and now I know you're just a kid and it makes me feel like an old letch.”
This was the kind of news that came as no surprise when she heard it, yet she had completely failed to antic.i.p.ate it. Kind of like realizing no one was going to ask her to the prom and the dance was that night. But this surprise from Kristi cut the opposite way. It pleased her. She felt startled in a way that made her stomach feel funny. She looked at Kristi, who was still poking at the fire.
”I don't think you're an old letch, Kristi.”
”Well, you wouldn't. But people my age or older would. And I'm not one who'd take advantage of a kid. That would be wrong.”
They sat for a while longer with the fire. Maddy felt unwilling to say anything to Kristi, afraid the wrong thing would come out of her mouth, because she wasn't sure what the right thing would be. Finally, as they were getting ready to turn in, she touched Kristi on the arm.
”Thanks for being honest with me, especially since I haven't been honest with you.”
”That's okay. Did I freak you out?”
”No. But let's talk about this when I'm seventeen, okay?”
A big smile broke out on Kristi's face. ”You're on.”
”It'll be dark soon,” Catherine said. ”I'm not sure how much farther we should go.”
Jan peered ahead. The dense woods were getting close to impenetrable. They didn't have the benefit of a trail to guide them, nor a known destination. Jan led the way, picking out a route roughly parallel to the trail she'd seen Drecker travel. They hoped it would somehow burp them out onto the area where the training group was gathered. She used the compa.s.s on her phone to keep them moving in the same direction, but then they didn't really know if that was the right direction. Jan stopped.
”You may be right. Let's get back to the car and see if we can tail Drecker from the parking lot. I can hardly see a thing anymore.”
They turned and headed back toward the car. Catherine moved through the woods as if she lived in Sherwood Forest instead of London, and stayed behind Jan in a clear acknowledgement of who was leading the search. They both turned when a beam of light bounced off the broad tree trunks in front of them.
”Looks like you ladies have taken a wrong turn somewhere.”
A broad-shouldered man in cammies stood twenty feet away, a flashlight in his left hand, a nine millimeter in his right, both raised and pointing at them. He walked slowly forward.
”This is private property, ladies. You may have noticed the No Trespa.s.sing signs everywhere?”
Jan stood in front of Catherine and s.h.i.+elded her eyes from the beam of light. ”It seems we missed seeing those,” she said. ”But I'd appreciate it if you'd lower your flashlight. And your gun, while you're at it.”
The man did neither. ”I'm afraid all I'll be doing is escorting you to our commanding officer. He was especially interested to see if there were ladies snooping in our woods. d.a.m.n if he wasn't right.”
He moved to within three feet of them, holstering his flashlight, but keeping the gun aimed at chest level. Catherine moved to Jan's side as he pulled two plastic handcuffs out of his back pocket, but before he'd even moved his hand past his hip, she had him on the ground, with her knee to the back of his head and his arm twisted up behind him.
”Jesus,” said Jan. She picked up the gun that had been knocked from his hand. ”Do you need any help there?”
The man started to struggle and Catherine wrenched his arm higher up. He howled.
”Yes, if you could put one of these cuffs on him I'd be ever so grateful.”
They both sat on him and wrestled his hands together, cuffing them with the plastic strip. Then they stood and rolled him over. His face was scrunched up with fury.
”You b.i.t.c.hes will pay for this. My sergeant will be out here any minute looking for me.”
Jan looked down at him and shook her head. ”That's going to be awfully embarra.s.sing for you, isn't it? I mean here we are, a couple of ladies, as you put it, and there you are, trussed up like a pig. I wonder what he'll think about that?”
The radio on the man's belt crackled and a voice came through asking him to report in.
”Just turn it off,” Jan said. Catherine grabbed the radio and hit the power b.u.t.ton. ”Now, you're probably right that he'll be coming along soon to find you. My question to you is whether you want to have us wait for him with you, which we're just fine with. Or would you like to help us out and we'll let you go before he sees us? Which will it be?”
”Or we could just knock him out or shoot him or something. That way we can have his sergeant find him and we could ambush them.” Catherine leaned down and looked at the man's s.h.i.+rt pocket label. ”Does that sound like it would be less embarra.s.sing for you, Private Lawson?”
”He's kind of old for a private, isn't he?” Jan asked Catherine.
”A little. It's probably been hard for him to advance.”
”f.u.c.k you!” Lawson said. He tried to spit at them, but the glob landed back on his head.
”That's the spirit!” Jan said. ”It's thinking like that that's probably gotten you where you are today, Lawson. But listen, we're running out of time here. All I want is to show you a photo and you tell me whether you've seen the person before.”
She grabbed his flashlight and pointed it at the photo of Maddy, holding it in front of his face. He turned his head away.
”Does that mean you haven't seen this girl, Private? Or that you have.”
”I ain't seen her.”
”May I?” Catherine asked Jan, as she took the flashlight from her. Then she jammed the flashlight up against Lawson's s.c.r.o.t.u.m and pushed. He tried to scramble up on his feet, but Jan held him down.
”I'm afraid you're not being entirely honest with us, Private Lawson. Now, you can tell us what you know, or I can push harder.”
His eyes were wild as he stared at Catherine. Jan saw him look up at her for salvation.
”Just tell us. It will go a lot better for you.”
Lawson was breathing heavily and looked ready to fall apart. ”All I know is that half an hour ago they ordered us to break camp, all of a sudden like, and then sent me and some of the others out in the woods to look for intruders. That's all I know, I swear.”
Catherine got up. ”What do you think?” she asked Jan.
”I think that's about all he knows.” She took a card and put it in Lawson's s.h.i.+rt pocket. ”But if you think of anything else, you give me a call. If we find out you knew more and didn't tell us, we'll pay you another visit.”
He nodded and lay still, staring up at them. ”Don't let them find me like this,” he said.
Catherine looked at Jan and she shrugged. Catherine pulled the knife out of Lawson's belt and cut the plastic tie binding his hands.
”Now get out of here,” Jan said.
”But what about my gun?”
”We're not giving you the gun back.”