Chapter 24

(Monday evening, April 4, White Plains, NY)

Dom arrived at Westchester County Airport around midnight. When he finally got home he went straight to bed. Bright and early he was up for breakfast and told Beverly and his mother that he was going to work that day to submit his retirement, and use up the 9 weeks of vacation time he had accumulated. That was okay by her, and then he confirmed that Sheila had indeed left them her house in Anchorage in her will.

Beverly looked at him like he was crazy, "I suppose you have a dozen reasons why we should just up and move to Alaska?"

"Not quite," replied Dom, "but I do have a few." With that he laid out the pictures of himself with the four kids at the lodge, and with Carol and Kathy at the house. "I told you they weren't really dead, Beverly."

"Oh my word," Beverly exclaimed. "We need to go to them. They need us."

"They are fine, Beverly," replied Dom. "Remember the two pilots that were here in September? Well they adopted them by Sheila and Tracy's wishes, and the kids are really very happy. Grif offered for us to even live there at the lodge with them. They have a residence there for us, and you wouldn't have to do the cooking and laundry. Or we can live in Anchorage or both."

"What about Sheila and Tracy?" asked his mother.

"Same thing," Dom explained, "witness protection. You know they can never come here, but we can go to a neutral place and see them. Look, I know this was Pop's house, but we need to sell it and move on with our lives. Pop would have wanted that, Ma."

Dom submitted his retirement papers, and listed the house with a Realtor. Friday was to be his last day at work, and the movers came the following Monday, the 11^th.

On the 12^th they flew to Anchorage to settle into the house. Grif, Tara and the kids came to meet them and it was time for Tara to stay close to the doctor and hospital. They had flown the BKA 350 from the lodge to Anchorage, and once they were situated at the house, Grif flew the Caravan Amphibian back to the lodge to get the small jet.

(April 16, Arctic Fox Lodge)

Tara would be in Anchorage with the kids and Dom's wife and mother. Grif had been going back and forth every few days to keep an eye on the lodge and on the bear since the snow was melting. Dom usually tagged along to keep him company and to be able to help out at the lodge when the time came. Jesse, Joey and Link were more than ready and capable of handling the actual guiding of the hunters. With the law prohibiting hunting the same day airborne, the Wilderness Camp was made ready for Theresa and Sam when they arrived.

Another party arrived at the north lodge the previous evening, and Joey already had them at their hunting camp. With only Theresa and Sam Samuels expected, Grif and Dom left that morning leaving Donna with Tara and her siblings for a few days. Carol, Beverly and Grandma Del Monaco would fly out aboard the small jet to surprise Theresa.

The Samuels' arrived at 3:15 that afternoon, not in the Beech King Air 200 they left in, but in an Italian made Piaggio P-180 Avanti. It was a pusher type of turboprop like the Beech Starship, only a little less radical. When the plane taxied to the parking area, and shut down, not two, but four Texans stepped down onto the apron.

"How y'all doing?" Sam asked. "We're the Samuels from the Dee Lazy S Ranch. This here's our pilot, Brian Dennis, and his wife Shelly."

Grif shook his head at the outfits and thought, "When do they say 'trick or treat?' Dom didn't recognize them, but the women recognized him. They each took an arm and Shelly said, "Why you remind me of my dear old Daddy. Let's go inside and get a bite to eat."

"I didn't know you were coming Sheila," Dom admitted. "I'm sorry Shelly, I had a daughter named Sheila. My wife and mother are waiting inside to see you."

Grif shook Sam and Brian's hands, and would admire the plane later. At the moment, he and Link had to get them out to the cabin because Mama Bear was out of the den and moving around. Grif questioned Sam if his wife had learned to shoot. He acknowledged that she had become an excellent shot and handled the .300 Winchester Magnum very well, despite the recoil.

After the orientation, distracted by the unexpected reunion, Grif helped them sort their gear, and after dinner, flew the Samuels and Chris out to the Wilderness Camp, where Link waited for them. Carol's visit with her mom would have to wait a couple of days. Wally and Anita played hosts for the Dennis couple. Shelly was disappointed that Tommy and her girls were in Anchorage with Tara.

Rudy came by with some supplies in the Cessna 185 and offered to take them to Anchorage in "something a little less likely to draw attention." Shelly declined saying that when the hunters got back she would go and see them, but didn't want Tara staying alone with the baby due within a month.

Grif wasn't sure whether it would be a short hunt or a long one. Sam actually wanted a bear too, but wanted to be on hand for his wife's kill. If things worked like he hoped, they would find the bear without having to move to a remote camp. They needed to get their sleep, but Theresa was just full of questions about Carol and now Mary. Finally Sam told her to go to sleep, and everyone did.

Early the next morning, rustling outside the cabin awakened them. Grif told them to get dressed and get ready. There was a bear outside. Everyone loaded their guns, and geared up. A big shadow passed the small kitchen window.

Grif said, "That was Papa Bear, not Mama. Sam, you have to make your shots count. He is behind the cabin now but we have to be ready for him to come back around the corner."

The bear was moving slowly up the river, making some sort of sound. Another bear answered, and then they spotted her coming down. Link commented how the big male was a new one that he hadn't seen before. The bears were closing on each other and it looked as though there might be a fight. From a guide's standpoint, having two clients and two bears the first morning of the hunt was almost too good to be true.

The scenario was unwinding a mere sixty yards in front of them by Grif's estimation. Through his binoculars Grif confirmed that it was Mama Bear and one that wanted to be Papa Bear. When the hunters were both ready, they fired in unison. Mama Bear went down and the male pressed the attack on her with a fury.

Sam fired again, this time causing the bear to stand and look around, sniffing.

"Theresa, help me kill this thing before it comes after us," said Sam.

They both fired, and Link had them covered with his rifle, in case either one charged. This time the male went down, and stayed. He was big enough to obscure Theresa's bear, so she and Grif walked off to the side where they could see. The big one stopped breathing but they weren't sure if the female was dead.

After almost an hour, they began to walk to their trophies. The bears both had their heads down but Grif thought he saw the female's ribs move. He couldn't tell if it was definitely dead. The shot placement should have hit vital organs but bears full of adrenaline have been known to take a long time to die.

Theresa reached into her vest and told everyone, "Watch your ears."

She held in her hand one of the "giant mosquito calls" and before Grif reminded her of that other side effect, she loosed the last burst from the compressed air horn.

Mama Bear raised her head weakly to look at her conqueror, rolled her eyes once as if to say, "Oh, it's you," and laid down her head for the last time with a long guttural rasp.

"That's it," observed Link. "Mama Bear is dead, and Papa Bear too. Picture time everyone, and then the real work begins."

Clouds of mosquitoes began to descend upon them and Grif chased everyone back to the cabin. He looked at Theresa who had her own recollection of why Grif called it a giant mosquito call. "It seemed like a good idea at the time," said Theresa, "at least she knew she was being killed for a reason, and not for somebody's rug."

Theresa sat to compose herself, thinking of how close she came to dying on the trail. Now she had become the killer, and achieved her revenge. Link spilled the story of how the bear had a tracking collar on it and how Grif and some of the other guides woke it from hibernation, and shot it with tranquilizer darts so they could remove the collar and not have an army of AFF protesters on hand for the hunt.

"They love that," admitted Theresa. "So what did you do with the collar?"

"What collar?" Grif asked, "You know you have to turn them in. They will find it opened up along the trail at the place where Dick and Barry were killed. I dropped it from the plane a couple weeks back. They will think the bear returned, as they always do, and that they have a known man killer on the loose, that was supposed to have been destroyed last fall."

Sam replied, "Maybe they will be really cautious about letting the hikers go unescorted."

"You're kidding, right?" scoffed Grif. "Everyone knows that these big lovable lugs wouldn't hurt a fly

After packing the gear up for the return trip, Grif called ahead for the skinners and those who were to butcher the meat. After Sam and Grif helped Chris and Link get the two bears on their sides so they could be field dressed, he carried Sam and Theresa back to the Arctic Fox, happy successful hunters. It was a turn around however as he immediately brought three men out in the Maule, and Rudy brought another four in the 185. They would both wait for the hides and some of the meat before returning to the lodge to unload. Then they turned around and made another trip for more meat, which would be utilized by the Natives for food.

Sam wanted a full standing mount of his bear, and Theresa would have hers done into a rug. She explained that the neighbors had stuffed animals on their walls, why shouldn't they? Shelly laughed, and asked if Grif could go for her kids after he cleaned up. He figured that Donna would take Tara to the doctor Monday morning, but it was really his place.

"How about it, Brian?" Grif offered, "You and Shelly come with me and bring the kids and the BKA 350 back, and I will stay with Tara? With any luck, he will let her stay out at the lodge another couple or three weeks."

Brian replied, "Don't tell him who, but just say that there is a doctor from Texas at your lodge that came up to hunt bears. I am sure that he will cut her some slack then. That sounds like a winner on the BKA. We can just hang out at the Aurora View hangar while you round up the kids."

After lunch, Grif rounded up his passengers and filed the flight plans to go to Anchorage. They were pleasantly surprised that Theresa and Sam got their bears that quickly. It was as if they were programmed in one of the hunting video games.

Then Grif considered the consequences of the known man-killer breeding with a bear the size of the one Sam killed.

He realized that it wasn't revenge, but an intervention that prevented a worst-case scenario. What would have happened if that big male were an offspring of the one that killed Lula's husband in 2001? Genetics would dictate that her cubs would be large man killers. That bear was the rug in the Wilderness Lodge that was now the Owens' home.