Walt sighed and looked away. “I’ll stay,” he said softly.
Cody shook his head, disgusted. To Ted Sullivan, Cody said, “Come on, then.”
42
Gracie noticed how Rachel Mina’s shoulders tensed as she spurred her horse from the trail up into the open. Then Strawberry nickered and a horse up ahead nickered back. Rachel didn’t turn around in her saddle but Gracie saw the woman’s hand move back and untie the string bow on the top of the pack she’d retrieved from her tent.
Gracie was beside herself. She had nothing but speculation to go on but with every foot they rode higher up the trail she became more convinced that everything they’d believed an hour before back at Camp Two was a fantasy. She hurt deeply and wanted to cry out for her dad and for herself.
But there was little she could do. Rachel rode ahead on the trail and both Danielle and Justin were behind Gracie. The steep wall of the mountain hemmed her in on her right and the ground dropped off to the left. She couldn’t turn and run, or even turn to talk to her sister to convey her fears. It was getting dark and cold. She had no weapon.
Rachel’s horse stepped up and over a solid lip of granite and Gracie could hear hoofbeats clatter on solid rock. In a moment Strawberry was on top as well. Danielle and Justin were right behind her.
Rachel had reined to a stop next to a riderless horse tied to the trunk of a tree. She turned in her saddle and whispered, “I’m going to protect you. Do you understand?”
Justin said, “Protect us? All I see is Jed’s horse.”
Rachel ignored him. “Everybody get off. We’re going to walk the rest of the way. I need you all to keep completely silent, and I mean that.”
Gracie looked to the others. Danielle looked miffed. She hated to be told what to do, especially if it involved silence. Justin was confused, and he scowled at the older woman.
Reading the same reaction Gracie had seen, Rachel reached back into the open pack and came out with a large handgun. She waved it toward them.
“Get off,” she said. “Now.”
“Where’d you get that?” Justin asked, swinging off his horse. “I thought nobody was supposed to-”
“Justin,” Danielle said sharply, cutting him off. She slid off her horse as well.
Gracie felt fear grip her insides and seem to clamp her legs to Strawberry. She wasn’t sure she could move.
“You too,” Rachel said to her. “
Gracie found the will somewhere and stiffly climbed down.
“Listen,” Rachel said to them, dismounting herself. “I don’t want you to be alarmed. I brought this for self- protection and I’m glad I did.”
She moved closer to them as she talked so she wouldn’t have to raise her voice. Gracie noticed Rachel kept the revolver down by her side, but not exactly pointed away from them. And she also noticed that when Rachel climbed down from her horse her pant leg had ridden up and the knobby end of the knife handle in her boot was now out in the open. Gracie shot a glance at her sister and Justin to see if they’d picked up on the same thing. They hadn’t.
“Look,” Rachel said, leaning closer. “That’s Jed’s horse but obviously he isn’t here. I don’t know where he is but we can’t be too cautious. We need to walk along here until we can find him. I hope nothing’s happened to him or anyone else is up here. But,” she said, gesturing toward the gun, “I want to be ready if there are any surprises.”
Justin and Danielle nodded. They probably didn’t fully grasp what Rachel was saying, Gracie thought, because Rachel made no sense. But she’d said it urgently and with gravity and it had worked on them.
Gracie said, “This isn’t about getting out of here, is it?”
Rachel looked over at her with icy contempt. She said, “We can talk later, Gracie. Right now I need you to stay with me here and keep quiet. Do you understand?”
“She does,” Danielle said, and elbowed Gracie in the back.
“Good,” Rachel said, giving Gracie another glance for good measure. “Follow me.”
Gracie couldn’t really feel her legs, although they seemed to move okay. She led Strawberry through the darkness behind Rachel, followed by the others.
She scarcely registered the snowlike substance gathered wherever there were tufts of grass.
But when she looked up over Rachel’s shoulder she saw a shaft of yellow light flash across the tops of the trees to the right, then to the left. The effect reminded her of Hollywood floodlights coursing through the sky from the ground. Then she heard a muffled thump and clank up ahead.
She was about to speak when Rachel snapped on her headlamp and illuminated the white metal tail of the airplane.
“What the hell is
“Shhhh,” Rachel cautioned him, holding a finger to his lips. Then, whispering, “All of you come up beside me. Bring your horses. Stand by me on both sides.”
Gracie hesitated. What were they doing?
“Come on,” Rachel said, heat in her voice. She was addressing Gracie directly.
Reluctantly, Gracie walked up and stopped on Rachel’s right. Danielle and Justin stood abreast on Rachel’s left. All of their horses milled and sighed behind them. The thumping and banging continued from the opening of the crevice, out of view.
Rachel raised her pistol toward the tail of the plane, and called, “Jed, you can come out now.”
The sounds stopped.
“Jed,” Rachel said, “we’re here. We know what you’ve found. You need to come out now.”
Gracie held her breath. The night was still except for the gentle shuffling of the horses behind them, nosing along the rock surface for blades of grass.
Suddenly, Jed McCarthy’s hat appeared above the rim of the crevice, followed by his face. Rachel’s headlamp light lit his features. His brow was furrowed in confusion and his mouth, as always, was hidden by his heavy mustache. He had a headlamp on as well, and the beam bobbed from Justin across to Gracie. That’s what she’d seen, Gracie thought, the beam of Jed’s headlamp escaping from within the crevice as he moved around down there.
“You found it,” Rachel said, “but it’s still my money. Now Jed, we need to see your hands. Pull your hands out and put them out in front of you on the rock.”
Then Gracie realized what Rachel had done. She’d gathered them around her in case Jed came out shooting. Not only would Jed think he was outnumbered, but a bad shot would kill a kid. They were standing, unaware hostages, she thought. And she knew at that moment every suspicion she’d had toward Rachel was true.
Jed said, “Yours?” But he pulled his hands out and put them on the rock. He had nothing in them, but the backs of his knuckles were smudged with dirt or soot.
Rachel said, “Mine. I guess I should be surprised someone else was after it, but I’m not.”
Jed raised one of his hands to shadow his eyes from the glare of Rachel’s headlamp. He said, “I see you got Justin and Danielle with you. Gracie, too. What, are they part of your
Gracie thought there must be something wrong with him. Rachel held a gun on him and he was making jokes? Then she realized Jed assumed Dakota had not only told them about the printouts she’d found, but that he thought
