Part 9 (2/2)
Joey ducked off the trail.
”She went this way?” Annja asked.
Joey nodded. ”As I said before, in her condition, her travel wasn't orderly. The stumbling kept her going along downhill, but once she started to climb, she veered from the trail and ended up a few yards off the beaten path, so to speak.”
”How'd you find her, then?”
”I cast around looking for her tracks and found them. As I got closer, I could hear her murmuring something and that was it.”
”Lucky the wind died down enough so you could hear her.”
”I can filter the effects of the wind on my ears,” Joey said. ”It's an old trick I learned a long time ago from my grandfather. It helps to always be able to hear even when the wind is screaming.”
”That grandfather of yours is something else.”
”Just old family traditions, Annja. Nothing more.”
”So you say.”
Joey pointed. ”It's just over the next hill there. I moved her out of the wind and got a fire wall built to reflect the heat back on to her. Then I covered her up with a bunch of pine boughs. She should be nice and toasty by now.”
Annja crested the hill with Joey still in the lead.
Joey stopped abruptly. ”Hey...”
Annja came up behind him. ”What's the matter?”
Joey pointed down the hill. ”What the h.e.l.l?”
Annja looked. She could see the fire with its flames still eagerly eating their way through the wood. The fire wall and pine boughs were also nearby.
But Jenny was nowhere to be seen.
Chapter 6.
”Where is she?”
Joey shook his head. ”She was here, I swear it! I left her right there. She was sound asleep. Exhausted. There's no way she could have just gotten up and walked away.”
”Are you sure?”
Joey eyed her. ”Of course, I'm sure. You don't think I had something to do with this, do you?”
Annja had to remind herself that Joey was only fourteen years old. The way he carried himself, he seemed so much older. But did it make any sense for him to somehow hurt Jenny? She frowned. Of course it didn't.
”Sorry. I guess I'm used to too many people in my life not being what they claim to be.”
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