she’s a nurse-takes care of me when I’m sick. But she won’t play any damn games.”
“After taking care of patients and taking care of you, I’m too tired to play games.”
So that was settled. Alfred was elated. It had been easier than he had hoped. He knew that Penny and Gary were planning to drive down the coast, so they would be going through Crescent City. He would be their welcoming committee. There was another advantage to riding with Don and Mattie. It would ensure that he would make a clean getaway from here. There was no way his movements could be traced.
“Where are we going today?” Alfred asked after he had graciously accepted their invitation.
“We’re going to stay in the Tetons tonight,” Don said. “Most beautiful place in this whole fucked up world. And it’s on our way. Then we’ll hightail it home.”
Penny and Gary were eating dinner at their campsite in the Colter Bay Campground. A small black shrew played in the dirt nearby.
“Well, that’s the smallest mammal we’ve seen,” Gary said.
“Be sure to put that in the log.” Penny voiced the thought that had been worrying her more and more as bedtime approached. “Do you think we’ll be safe here?”
“I think so. The whole world’s looking for Alfred. How can he get away? If he steals a car, they’ll know who did it and figure he’ll be following us. The police have our route. They’ll keep him away from us. Maybe they’ve caught him already.”
Maybe, but somehow Penny didn’t think it was likely. He had given them the slip so far. He was smarter than she’d given him credit for, and he was certainly obsessed with her. Enough that he wanted to kill her because he couldn’t have her. He wanted to kill Gary, too, apparently because Gary did have her.
They had been shocked this morning when they saw the sleeping bag. The stuffing was coming out of the slits made by the knife that Alfred had wielded. What if they had been in the tent instead of the hotel? Penny shuddered at the thought. She didn’t hate Alfred. She was more puzzled by his actions than anything else. What had she done to lead him on? She had been nice to him in high school-but then she had been nice to everybody. She had barely seen him during the last six years.
She didn’t know whether she would sleep tonight. She had thought of asking Gary if they could stay at one of the lodges, but their supply of traveler’s checks was dwindling. She couldn’t go through life being afraid. Alfred couldn’t risk the noise of a gun, and he’d lost his knife. Even if he somehow found a way to get there, she knew the odds were stacked against him trying to attack them tonight. She was trying to think rationally, but rationality and emotion often didn’t see eye to eye.
She mentioned her fears to Gary.
“I’ll rig up some of our cups and utensils on a string and hang them from the front of the tent. If Alfred or anyone tries to get in they’ll hit each other and make a noise. We’ll hear it, and, hopefully, it’ll also scare him off.”
He also tied the back of the tent to a low tree branch, enabling him to free up a vertical tent post, which he placed inside the tent to use as a weapon. Penny felt a little better after seeing their defense system, which also included her screaming, if necessary, to arouse neighboring campers.
When they went to bed, Penny couldn’t feel the rips in the sleeping bag as long as she didn’t move, but she knew they were there. The first breeze started rattling the utensils. When she heard this, she started, but eventually she got used to the noise, and it became a comforting background sound, lulling her to sleep.
Alfred had to admit that the Tetons were beautiful. He took Don to be a crusty guy who didn’t show a lot of emotion, but that man enthused over them. Mattie obviously loved everything about the scenery, as well as campground life. She didn’t mind the dirt and cold water and problems with the weather. She would have made a good cave woman.
Alfred was alert when they pulled into the Colter Bay Campground. There was a very good possibility that Penny and Gary were camping here tonight. That is, unless they had been so scared by what happened last night that they had decided to stay indoors-or if the condition of the tent had completely freaked them out and they had abandoned their schedule and gone straight home.
If they did that, Alfred wouldn’t get another crack at them until he returned to L.A. He would like to know what their decision was, but he didn’t want them to see him. First, because they could identify him. He wouldn’t try anything at this campground, because he didn’t want to jeopardize his ticket out of here. He also wanted them to forget about him, as much as that was possible, so they wouldn’t be watching for him behind every tree. Then, when their paths did cross, the surprise factor would make it that much easier for him.
He spotted the green Volkswagen Beetle as Don drove the VW camper through the campground. The honeymooners had decided to tough it out. He was pleased to see that Don took a site far enough away from Penny and Gary’s that he should be able to steer clear of them. Still, he wanted to make sure. He was cautious when he used the restroom. He sat where he could check anybody coming from the direction of their campsite as Mattie served them a mouth watering steak dinner.
After dinner, he helped Mattie clean up the dishes, using water heated on the Coleman stove. Don had gone off to the restroom.
Mattie said, “Don believes that doing dishes is women’s work.”
“I need to do something to help. I’d like to help pay for the food, too.”
“Nonsense. I’m just glad to have the company and someone to talk to. Don has these moody spells when he doesn’t talk. Of course, he doesn’t say much even when he’s feeling tiptop. Not that I’m complaining. He’s a good husband in many ways.”
Don returned and got out the backgammon set. He asked Alfred whether he wanted to play at the picnic table or on the small table inside the camper. It was cooling off, but Alfred didn’t want to act like a wimp. He suspected that Don would be just as happy outdoors in the elements. There was another factor. If Gary and Penny should take a walk through the campground, they might spot him if he were outside and concentrating on the game. “Do you mind if we play inside?” he asked. “I get cold easily.” “No problem.”
They set up the board on the camper table. Mattie sat on the backseat of the camper and knitted. Don also sat on the backseat, in front of the table. Alfred sat on a small seat on the other side of the table that faced the rear of the camper. Don pulled a couple of cans of beer out of the camper’s tiny refrigerator and offered one to Alfred. Alfred had never drunk much, and the taste of beer didn’t appeal to him. However, he took it to be companionable and sipped the bitter-tasting brew occasionally.
He soon found out what he suspected-he was out of his league playing with Don. When Don suggested playing for small stakes he accepted. He figured that if he lost five dollars a night, it would keep Don interested. It would be a lot cheaper than traveling on his own.
CHAPTER 22
The breakfast ride was Penny’s idea. Although he had lived for awhile on a farm owned jointly by his father and his aunt, Gary could only remember riding a horse two or three times in his life. The name of his horse was Goldie, while Penny rode Chic. Some of the other riders appeared to be not much more experienced than he was, but the horses were gentle.
Penny, on the other hand, had told him stories about how she and her girlfriend mucked out the stalls in exchange for an hour of riding. Why was it that girls liked to ride horses so much? He didn’t know the answer to that. Of course there were a lot of boys who liked to ride, too, but many of them lived on ranches and were born in the saddle.
They followed an old road and then a horse path. As they walked slowly along the path, Goldie decided that he wanted to climb the almost vertical cliff beside them. As he started up the slope, Gary tried to figure out how to
