C Box - Below Zero

“If Portenson knew he was around, you would both be in a world of hurt,” Coon said. “Not that I told him what I saw.”

Joe nodded. He was grateful Coon hadn’t told his boss. And wished he were a better liar.

“What are you going to do if you find her, Joe?” Coon asked.

“I’m not sure.”

“Do you think you can save her?”

Joe met his eyes again. “I don’t know.”

Coon asked, “What do you know?”

Joe shook his head. “Not much. But I know she deserves better than what’s happened to her. She needs to know somebody cares.”

Coon started to speak but stopped himself. Instead, he tilted his head back and looked at the big blue autumn sky. Finally, he said, “That’s admirable. It may not be protocol, but it’s admirable.”

He wasn’t sure how to respond.

“If she calls again,” Coon said, “you need to give me the number. I’ll help you track her down.”

Joe made a decision. He said, “It’s a deal.”

Coon walked away.

In the meadow, Sheridan kicked though ankle-deep cheatgrass toward a wall of trees. She had no destination other than to have a few minutes to herself. She didn’t want to simply go home. Not without April. The grass was dry and stiff and crunched underfoot. She noted she wasn’t the only person to have recently walked through it. There were two parallel tracks heading from the house toward the trees-one heavier than the other. Then she saw the blood flecked across the stalks of grass and yelled, “Dad!”

He came running.

While she waited for him there was another chirp. She pulled out her cell phone and read the message.

As her dad approached and saw the blood on the grass, Sheridan said, “It’s her.”

SHE HANDED THE PHONE to Joe. He looked at the display and his stomach clenched.

It read:

From: AK

im hurt and its getting bad. im in the woods. the car is crashed. i need u 2 come get me now. i think there r some men coming 2 get me. i hear them. idont know what theyll do 2 me. plz come get me sherry. take me home. plz help me.

ak

CB: 307-220-4439

Aug 26, 11:18 am

Erase REPLY Options

South of Devils Tower

SHE COULD HEAR THEM COMING.

Far above her, in the trees. They were working their way down the steep slope and occasionally one of them stepped on and snapped a dry branch or dislodged a rock that tumbled down. They were certainly taking their time. A half hour before, while she was texting Sheridan, she’d heard the sound of an engine and the crunch of tires on gravel far above her on the road. Then the sound of two car doors slamming.

She had no doubt they’d find her. Although the hillside was extremely steep, the trail leading to her was obvious. Far above, as far as she could see, there was a gap in the brush near the road where the car had torn through. It had rolled to the bottom, snapping off pine trees and churning up the ground. The car now rested upside down on its hood, wheels in the air. The motor had finally stopped ticking. She was grateful it hadn’t burst into flames like cars did on television when they crashed and rolled down a mountain. Instead, it was immensely quiet. The only sounds were the buzz of insects, the watery sound of a breeze in the treetops, and footfalls as they got closer.

She’d tried to stand but the pain in her leg wouldn’t let her. Her hands and face were covered with tiny cuts and her neck and shoulder ached from where the seat belt had bitten into her. She was too weak to crawl any farther from the car than to the base of a huge dark pine. She sat slumped against it.

Waiting.

SHE TRIED TO RECALL the events of the last half hour but they came to her in bits and pieces. She remembered the car rolling, her head either pressed against the inside of the roof as it dented down farther with every rotation or being slammed back again to the back seat. Robert was screaming the whole time, holding his hands in the air as if to stop the hood from collapsing on his head. The sounds of snapping trees were like gunshots and there were glittery jewels floating through the air. No, not jewels-tiny cubes of safety glass from the windows as they shattered. She’d picked some of the glass out of her hair and from folds of her clothing. Her leg had begun to bleed again.

She’d faded in and out of consciousness, but she knew both Robert and Stenko had somehow survived the crash as she had. She remembered Stenko moaning-something about his ribs-and Robert pulling him out of the car through the open windshield. When Robert crawled back into the interior of car to get his computer case and Stenko’s daypack, she’d opened her eyes. He scowled at her but didn’t speak, as if she weren’t worth his words, as if he just wished she’d go away. She seemed to be floating in the air upside down, and she realized she was hanging suspended from the seat belt.

Later-she wasn’t sure when-she heard Robert imploring Stenko to take more morphine.

Robert saying, “Come on, Dad. We’ve got to walk. You can walk downhill, can’t you? They’re gonna find us here if we stay. And if they find us, they’ll butcher me. You need to take more of that stuff so you can function.”

“What about April?” Stenko had asked, his voice slurred like he was drunk.

She had wanted to answer, to call out. But she was in shock and nothing worked. The only words she could express were in her own head.

“She’s dead in there,” Robert had said. “I’m sorry.”

She remembered wondering if she was dead.

Stenko started sobbing. The recollection of the sound brought tears to her eyes now.

“It’s okay,” Robert had told him. “She couldn’t have walked out of here anyway with her leg and all. You never should have brought her, Dad. You never should have brought her. She isn’t Carmen and she never was.”

Sloppy, racking sobs from Stenko.

“Come on, Dad. We can’t stay. We’ll go downhill until we run into a road or a ranch where we can get a car.”

Stenko said, “She was innocent. She never hurt anyone. I was trying to save her, Robert. Every time I try to do something right it seems like they end up getting hurt…”

Robert: “Get the box of cash. We need to take that with us. And you still have that napkin with the account numbers on it, don’t you?”

“Didn’t you hear what I said?” Stenko cried.

Robert’s voice was shrill. “Yeah, I heard. Like you need to tell me you screw up the lives of those around you. Sheesh. Like that’s news to me. It’s a freaking wonder I’m so well adjusted, you know?”

Then silence. They were gone.

FROM A RESERVE she didn’t know she had in her, she managed to find the buckle of the seat belt and release it. When it opened, she dropped a few inches. Although she was hurting everywhere, no bones seemed to be broken, and she crawled out of the car through the gaping rear window. She’d found the cell phone a few feet away from the vehicle but not the card she’d need to load minutes.

In the shade of the big pine tree, she tore at the packaging with her teeth and powered the phone. There was an automatic ten minutes of airtime on the phone to enable the user to call and load it with more time. Instead, she tried to call Sheridan, who didn’t answer, so she sent a text.

SHE HEARD A VOICE.

“Chase, down here.” She recognized the voice as Corey Talich, the oldest brother. It came from above in the trees and to her left. It was a whisper/yell. He was being cautious.

“What do you see?” Chase asked in the same tone. He was above to her right. The brothers were descending the mountain on either side of the churned-up ground the rolling car had made.