Killer Summer

68

Cantell futilely sprayed the garden hose on the burning pile of wood while McGuiness shoveled dirt on it. Salvo was trying to flatten the pile and spread out the logs with a rake. For all their efforts, the fire continued raging, throwing sparks and smoke high in the sky. Leaning against the rocks behind them were a loaded rifle and a loaded twelve-gauge over-under shotgun. Cantell had no desire to use the guns but understood the authority they represented.

Other thoughts competed in his head. The fire had been deliberately set as a signal. The girl’s doing. She had a brain and a lot of nerve-information useful to him, but unwelcome.

“Matt, take over here!”

Cantell passed the useless hose to Salvo and took off for the front of the lodge. Throwing the door open and looking directly toward the study, he could see that its door remained screwed shut.

He hurried outside behind the lodge and double-checked the window to the study. Plywood was screwed down tight.

Back inside, he stood in the middle of the living room listening to the boy banging around in the closet like he’d been doing for the past ten minutes. It was driving Cantell nuts, but he had no way to quiet the kid, to warn him.

Cantell didn’t see the girl, but she could be hiding anywhere.

He pushed the front door shut.

“First and last chance, Ms. Sumner,” he called out.

The kid’s banging stopped.

“If you give yourself up,” Cantell said, “we’ll treat you okay. If not, you’ll be dealt with… well… it won’t be pretty. Your call… I need your answer right now!”

He waited.

It was only when his eyes alighted on the destroyed radio that his head cleared. The radio reminded him of the jet.

The girl has a key.

Preoccupied with trying to copilot McGuiness’s emergency landing, he hadn’t considered how his stowaway had gotten on the plane. But now…

He’d had to deal with Sam Elliott and the boy, ad-libbing as he went. But now…

He ran to the fire, shouting as he went. Salvo and McGuiness had gotten some control over it.

“The girl has a key,” he announced. “Watch the inside of the house!” he called to Salvo. “You’re with me,” he ordered McGuiness.