Chapter 11

As Steve and I drove we talked in terse sentences about what we should do if we found anything. I found that Steve wasn't impressed with the sheriff anymore than I was.

"He's a good man to handle tourists who get out of hand and taking reports about burglaries. He always calls for the state police to help if anything else happens," he told me.

"You know of anyone else who could help us look? That's a big area to cover with just two men."

"There are only a few areas where you can leave the road because of the terrain or the trees. If someone tries to drive anywhere else but a forest road, you'll be able to see where they left the road. There aren't any hunters out right now and the campers won't be around right now either. I think if he came this way he'll be in the camp ground."

I had never been in the campground so Steve told me about the area, "It's away from the road and fairly small but it's really open in the campground area. There's no way we can sneak up on anyone with the truck so I think we'd be better off just driving in quickly."

"Steve, if he has Mary and the kids he can do something before we can stop him. We'd be better off with me letting you off a ways back from the campground. You get as close as you can to the campground and let me know if you can see any signs of them being there with your cell phone. If they are there, we'll decide the best way to approach without getting us or the family hurt."

"David, are you sure? What if he's about to hurt one of them?"

"Shoot to kill."

That pretty much put an end to his questions. I didn't know if Steve could shoot someone at need or not. I didn't think he would have any problem if Linda was involved, but you could never tell until someone was faced with a shoot or not shoot situation.

I let Steve off about a half mile away from the campground and waited. Every hour I'd check my watch and find 5 minutes had passed. I was about to call him to find out what was going on when I got an incoming message. It was from the sheriff.

"David, this is the sheriff. We've found the car that Mary was driving abandoned on Highway 3. There are signs of a struggle and some blood on the floorboard. Where are you?"

"Sheriff, Steve and I are on Forest Road 46. We heard something about a man who's been seen around the ranch heading out in this direction so we thought we'd check him out."

"David, listen to me! This is police business and I don't want you anywhere near anyone who might be involved. You..."

I heard the click indicating another call on the line and hung up on the sheriff. It was Steve, "David, I can see a tent and a car in the campground, but no one around. What should I do?"

"Stay there for a while until I arrive. If anyone's in the tent they'll come out when I pull into the campground. Cover me."

I drove up to the campground and got out of the truck. Nobody came out to see who drove in so I wandered over to the car and glanced in. My blood ran cold. There was blood on the floorboard and on the back seat. I hurried over to the tent and glanced in. I didn't see any bodies or anyone one tied up.

"Steve, come here!"

As Steve began coming over I heard sound from the trunk of the car. Someone or something was hitting the inside of the trunk. The car windows were up but I didn't begin to hesitate breaking the window. Opening the door I located the trunk release and pulled it up.

Steve had run over as soon as he had seen me breaking the car window. The trunk flew open with someone kicking the trunk lid from the inside. We found both boys and Shannon, tied and gagged with duct tape where they had been thrown into the trunk. They made noises and struggled to sit up when they saw us.

I reached for Shannon while Steve took care of the boys. I managed to take the tape off Shannon's mouth and she gasped for air while I cut off the tape around her wrists and ankles.

She cried and grabbed on to me as if she was afraid to ever let go again. I'm ashamed of myself for what I did next. With a smart slap I hit her cheek. She stopped crying and looked at me as if I had betrayed her.

"You can have your hysterical fit later. Where are Linda and Mary?"

"I don't know! The man took them somewhere after he threw us in the trunk. He kept saying that Mary took his kids away from him so he was going to take her kids away from her. Dad, he's crazy!"

"How long have they been gone?"

She started crying again, "I don't know! It seemed that we were in that trunk forever!"

Steven spoke up from where he was being untied by Steve, "It's been 45 minutes. I looked at my watch when he threw us in here. David, Linda's hurt. She tried to hit him and he hit her with his pistol. She was bleeding a lot for a while."

Steve spoke up, "Did you see where they went?"

"No. He had closed the trunk before he left."

Steve broke away from the boys and headed toward the tent. I finished getting the boys free and gave Shannon the keys to the truck.

"You head toward Joseph and if you see the sheriff on the way you tell him where we are at. We're going to see if we can find Linda and Mary. Tell him we'll mark the trail as we follow it."

I didn't have any idea of how to follow a trail in the woods, so I had to rely on Steve knowing what he was doing. I wandered over to the other side of the campground away from the tent to let him look for signs of Mary and Linda. I was just waiting for Steve to tell me what he had found when I recognized a piece of fabric. It was a small piece of the blouse that Mary had been wearing last night when she left. Mary had left us a sign of where she had gone!

"Steve! Come look at this!" He reached me and looked at the fabric without recognizing it. "I'm sure that this is from the blouse Mary was wearing last night when she left the house."

"David, are you sure? I haven't seen any sign showing which direction they went. If we look over here we might not find anything."

"Look, if there isn't anything else you've found to show us a direction, let's follow this trail."

As we followed the trail deeper into the forest I was beginning to wonder if we had gone in the right direction when Steve stopped like he had been hit. Bending down he picked up a small locket from the ground.

"David, I gave this to Linda!" We hurried along the trail trying to see if we could find any other signs of the girl's passage. Steve began pointing out where the dirt had been scuffed by a shoe or where a branch had been broken by something passing by. We still heard nothing but ourselves going through the woods until Steve stopped me.

"David do you hear that?"

I listened but shook my head when I didn't hear anything.

He pointed to the left. "I hear someone talking."

I grabbed his arm when he would have rushed off in that direction. "Steve, slow down. We have to sneak up on whoever it is. If he has a weapon he could kill the girls if we startle him.'

He looked at me with wild eyes. "He might be hurting them now!"

I held on to him. "Steve, hurt they can survive. Dead there's nothing we can do."

He took a deep breath and stopped pulling. "Don't you love them?"

"Yes I do. But I learned that going into a situation letting your emotions control you is the best way to get someone hurt. Let yourself get mad afterwards, when it's safe. I want to hurt the son of a bitch myself, but if I let myself get mad he might have a chance to kill Mary or Linda."

With a ragged nod he stood still. If I could have I would have sent him somewhere else, but there was no way he would let me go alone.

"Let's go in the direction of the sound you heard until we see something. Then I want you to circle around to the back side of it. When you get on the back side set your phone to vibrate and I'll call you when to move in. I'll try and get his attention over here."

With another ragged nod he headed toward the sound of voices he had heard. We hadn't walked very far when we saw signs that someone had been here and I heard the voice talking myself. It sounded like a man was screaming at someone. As we got closer I made out the words.

"How do you feel now, bitch! You'll pay for every year I spent in prison. I lost everything when you put me in there, my house, my cars, my money, everything! All because of a damned little whore! How do you like seeing me make a whore out of your daughter, bitch?"

Steve heard this and I couldn't stop him from rushing toward the voice. I scrambled after him hearing the sound of Steve breaking through the brush and his roar of rage when he saw what was happening!

"Stop right there or the bitch dies!"

When I came into sight of the scene I saw Steve kneeling by Linda, who was tied down with her pants and panties pulled to her ankles and her hands taped together behind her back. The man who had just spoken was standing behind Mary with a knife at her throat. I had drawn my pistol while I was running, but I didn't dare shoot. I was good enough to hit a man size target but I didn't think that I could hit the exposed part of the man. If I shot and missed he might kill Mary and that was a chance I wasn't willing to take.

"Give up. I'm not going to let you go anywhere with Mary."

"So you know the bitch! Do you know what she did to me?"

I moved to the side opposite of Steve a bit before I answered.

"Stop moving or the bitch dies!"

I stood still and answered, "No, I don't! But whatever it is has to be better than what will happen if you hurt her!"

"I'm not going back to the pen! The only thing you can do its kill me and she'll be dead before you do!"