“Why don’t we take a breather?” Rick suggested.
Bert grinned along with her frown. “You can’t be pooped again already ... a strong fellow like you.”
“Must be the aldtude.”
“Okay. Five minutes.”
He stepped backward to a waist-high boulder, eased his pack down, and sighed as the straps went loose on his shoulders. The sigh was for Bert’s sake. He’d found the hike rather easy so far and his occasional pleas for rest stops had nothing to do with the effort of lugging his pack up the trail. His only motive was to slow their progress, to avoid overtaking Jase, Luke, and Wally.
So far, fine. He hadn’t seen them since that morning.
The boys had had a fifteen-minute lead by the time the tent was rolled, the packs were ready, and they started out. Fifteen minutes, Rick quickly realized, was too short a gap. Bert didn’t hike with a leisurely stroll; she took long, sure strides that ate up the trail. Though Jase and Luke might be fast on their feet, Wally had seemed like the type who would hold them back. Rick felt sure that, without the frequent stops, they would’ve caught up with the boys by now.
There was also the possibility that the boys would take it slow or even stop and wait to make sure of another encounter with Bert. If that was their game, Rick’s delays would only postpone the meeting, not prevent it.
Rick opened a side pocket of his pack and took out his plastic water bottle. He unscrewed the cap and took a drink, then passed it to Bert. The shadow of her bush hat left her face as she tipped back her head. She shut her eyes and drank.
“I’m wondering if we really want to go over Dead Mule Pass,” he said. “Are we locked into that?”
“It’s the route I planned,” she said, and returned the bottle to him. “That’s how we’ll make a circle and get back to the car without backtracking. What’ve you got against Dead Mule Pass other than its name?”
“Sounds like a tough climb.”
“That’s a good one. All of a sudden you’re pooped at every turn and worried about a little climb. Aren’t you the same guy who did a lOK run last month?”
“That was different.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “I
“Maybe.”
“Maybe, my ass.”
“It’s your ass I’m worried about,” he said, forcing a smile. “And other nearby areas.”
“You still think they want to jump my bones.”
“You think it hasn’t crossed their minds?”
Bert shrugged. “I suppose it probably has. That hardly means they’ll try it, though. There’s an enormous gap between wanting something like that and actually trying it.”
“Maybe. I just think we’re better off avoiding those guys. I mean, we’re out here in the middle of nowhere and they’ve got us out-numbered. Why tempt fate?”
“Rick, they’re three guys on a camping trip. They seemed perfectly normal to me.”
“Even Jase?”
She hesitated. Frowning, she said, “Jase I could do without. If I were alone out here and he showed up, I might be a little concerned. But you’re with me, and Jase has Burgher and Wally in tow. Those two guys wouldn’t try anything.”
“If they thought they could get away with it, they might.”
“Would you? Suppose the situation were reversed, and you’re out here with a couple of buddies and run into someone like me? Would you and your pals try to rape me?”
“Of course not.”
She put a hand on his thigh. “Sure about that? You’re talking as if it’s inevitable that all guys would try it in a situation like this.”
“It would occur to most guys. It would occur to me, I’m sure. But I wouldn’t do it.”
“Why not?”
Rick shrugged. “Aside from being a decent guy with moral scruples, I suppose I’d be chicken.”
“Afraid the cops’d get you?”
“That’d be a major deterrent. Thing is, and why I’m so worried, this area isn’t exactly teeming with fuzz. We’re pretty much beyond the reach of the law out here. A guy could get away with most anything.” Rick went cold inside. “Especially if he didn’t leave witnesses.”
“Plot thickens,” Bert said. “Now we’re talking murder.”
“You rape someone, you don’t want a prison stretch, nobody knows you did it except you and the victim. Even if you’re not a cold-blooded killer, you’re scared. The thrill is over and you realize what you’ve done—the consequences if you get caught.”
Bert’s fingers tightened on his thigh.
“You take these three,” he went on. “Jase wouldn’t kill us out of panic. He’d be more likely to do it for kicks, or just to be on the safe side, or just for the hell of it.”
“You don’t even know the guy,” Bert muttered.
“I know his type. Burgher, he seemed aloof. The rational sort. He’d see the logic of eliminating us and that might override his qualms about it. Wally, he’d panic. He’d no sooner get his pants up than he’d start seeing himself getting gangraped in prison.”
Bert looked into his eyes. “You’re scaring me,” she said.
“I just think we need to realize the—”
“I mean
“I read the newspapers,” he muttered, stunned by her reaction.
“Sounds to me like you’re projecting your own fantasies onto those guys.”
“My fears,” he said.
Her eyes seemed to soften. “Oh, Rick.” Her hand lifted to his face, gently stroked his cheek. “I shouldn’t have dragged you out here, should I?”
“I was doing all right till those three came along.”
“Doing all right? That’s why you got yourself shit-faced last night?” Her tone was sympathetic, not accusing.
“I didn’t get shit-faced.”
“Maybe we’d better hike on back to the car and get out of here.”
“Hell,” he muttered.
“It’s no good if you’re a basket-case the whole time. It isn’t fair to you.”
“I’m sorry. I promised myself that I wouldn’t ruin things. But I won’t get this stuff out of my head.”
“I’m the one who pushed you into this. I knew you hated the idea.” A comer of her mouth curled up. “Guess we should’ve gone to Maui after all.”
“I’d feel awful if we quit,” he said.
“You’d feel worse if we stayed. Besides, you might be right about those guys. I mean, I don’t really expect them to attack us or anything, but just the fact that they’re around—truth is, I’ve had some of the same thoughts as you.”
“Really?”
She nodded. “My thoughts didn’t go quite as far as yours. But it crossed my mind that Jase might talk the others into jumping us.” Her smile widened. “In my version, they thumped you on the head with a rock, but I fended them off with my knife.”
“Always the optimist.”
