‘No.’
‘Three,’ Groote started the count again.
‘I don’t know… I don’t. But Sorenson, he’d know… he worked for Dodd.’
‘That we knew.’
‘Is my daughter with him?’ Groote said. The man blinked and Groote said, ‘Two.’
‘I don’t know… Sorenson didn’t tell me about her.’ The cyclist spoke in a rush. ‘I’ll call Sorenson, tell him I did the hit on you all, he’ll back off for a few days if you hide…’
‘Bull,’ Nathan said.
‘Miles, we have to go,’ Celeste said.
‘You’re right,’ Groote said. ‘One.’ And he shot the cyclist between the eyes.
‘Goddamn it!’ Miles screamed. ‘He could have told us plenty more.’ He shoved Celeste and Nathan back toward the car.
Groote knelt, took a cell phone and a wallet from the cyclist’s leather jacket. ‘He couldn’t tell us more, because we can’t stay. The Forest Service will be all over this side of the park in a few minutes. We have to go.’
‘What’s this we shit?’
‘Truce,’ Groote said. ‘We both need Sorenson. The only reason I was after you all is because Quantrill thought you had Frost. You don’t. Sorenson does. Sorenson stole Frost to sell it, in a new auction. He either knows where my little girl is or I can threaten his auction to get him to give me information on how I can find her. I’m going to Austin. I don’t want you getting arrested and telling the police about me. I can either kill the three of you or we can help each other, and I don’t kill people on whims or for fun.’
‘We can’t trust you,’ Miles said.
‘I’m just a hired hand. You know what that’s like, don’t you, Miles?’ Groote said.
Miles nodded.
‘We have a common enemy. Sorenson. I just saved you, Miles, and you saved my life back in the hospital when you beat up Sorenson. He would have killed me after he killed Nathan. You didn’t let me burn to death at that house. Your car’s undrivable. We can take the Navigator. But you have to decide, right now.’
‘Miles, no way,’ Nathan said. Celeste took Miles’s arm, squeezed tight.
‘Miles. We get Frost, we part ways, not as friends, I’m sure, but we all have what we want and Sorenson goes down. He’s just tried to kill all of us; he’ll try again. But I couldn’t let his dink call him and report in that we survived.’
Miles decided. ‘Get in Groote’s car.’
‘No way!’ Nathan yelled. ‘No way, man, no, he hurt me, hurt me bad-’
‘Nathan,’ Groote said, ‘I never tried to kill you. Sorenson did.’
‘You’re a sick bastard. I won’t go with him, Miles.’
Miles caught Celeste’s hand; shock and confusion played across her face. ‘If we stay, we’re going to be questioned and probably go to jail. You’ve just gotten out of one prison, Celeste, I don’t want you in another one.’
‘He tried to kill me…’
‘You tried to slice my face open,’ Groote said in an even tone. ‘But we all know the truth now, and we can either argue until the police come or we can help each other. I assure you my kid matters far more to me than hurting you.’
‘Get in the car,’ Miles said. Celeste took a deep breath and did. Nathan jerked back from Miles.
‘Nathan, I won’t let him hurt you.’
‘Kid,’ Groote said, ‘I could have killed you. I could have done much worse to you. I’m sorry. Nothing personal.’
‘I won’t let him hurt you,’ Miles repeated.
Nathan, his jaw trembling with rage, got into the backseat with Celeste.
‘You hurt them,’ Miles said, ‘and I’ll kill you.’
‘I know you will,’ Groote said. They got back into the Navigator, Groote driving, easing back into the traffic. Virtually no traffic appeared to be coming from the direction of Bridalveil; Miles wondered if the road had been closed in the chaos after the shooting. Groote gunned the Navigator south, toward the park exit.
Silence as they drove.
‘All that’s happened,’ Groote said, ‘- my actions were nothing personal. I just wanted Frost. For my daughter. She needs it really bad.’ He told them an abbreviated story of the attack on his family, Amanda’s survival, her fight against PTSD. He left out murdering most of the Duartes.
They were silent for several moments. ‘The cutting,’ Celeste said. ‘Frost… made my urges to cut nearly go away. So it might help her not hurt herself.’
‘That’s why you had the razor.’ Groote touched at the dried blood on the shallow cuts on his face.
‘Yes.’
‘It really helped you. Please don’t lie to me. Please.’
‘It really helped me,’ Celeste said. ‘But I don’t give a rat’s ass about you feeling better. This is a truce. Not friendship. No one is forgetting what you’ve done or what you are.’
‘I’m a shitload of things, same as you,’ Groote said, ‘but first I’m a father.’
Celeste didn’t answer him.
‘Find the registration,’ Groote said to Miles. ‘We may have to talk our way out if the cops have thrown up blocks.’
He was right. A roadblock had been laid near the Wawona resort, close to the southern entrance of Yosemite. The park police were stopping cars heading out of the park, checking IDs, talking to people.
‘Oh, God,’ Nathan said. ‘What do we do?’
‘Stay calm,’ Miles said.
The cars fed through the line and after ten minutes, Groote pulled up to the officer.
‘Good morning,’ Groote said.
‘Sir, driver’s license and registration, please.’
‘Sure.’ Groote handed him the registration – not in Dodd’s name, but in the name of a company called Horizon Investments, based in California, and his own driver’s license. Miles supposed Horizon was a front for Dodd’s operations. The officer took all this in without comment, writing down the license number and checking the registration carefully. So much depended, Miles thought, on how good a description anyone gave of us, if they know we’re in this SUV yet.
‘What happened to your face, sir?’ the officer said.
‘Fell climbing yesterday. Made a mess of myself, didn’t I?’ Groote said. ‘Was there a problem at Bridalveil? We were coming up from Yosemite Village and a lot of cars were driving out of there like maniacs, in a damn hurry to get out, and one of them banged into me good and roared off.’
‘A shooting,’ the officer said.
‘Holy shit,’ Groote said. ‘In the park?’
‘Yes, sir. You folks see anything?’
‘No,’ Miles said. ‘But that’s why we need incredibly strict gun-control laws, I believe, because violence is just starting to creep into every aspect of our lives, don’t you think, Officer, and if we’re not safe in our national parks then we’re certainly not safe in our cities and-’
The officer waved them through. ‘Thanks, folks.’
Groote drove forward with a friendly wave.
‘Now what?’ Nathan said.
‘I’ve got to get out of the valley, get into cell-phone range,’ Groote said. He tested his phone one-handed. ‘No signal. I’ve got to call my daughter’s hospital, see if she’s really gone.’ Panic tinged his voice.
‘If Dodd said he took her,’ Nathan said quietly from the backseat, ‘then it’s true.’
Groote exited the park, accelerating onto the snake’s back of Highway 41.
‘Head for Fish Camp,’ Miles said.
‘We shouldn’t stop at your motel-’
‘We’re not. We’ll see if there’s a copy of Frost hidden at Wallace’s house, but I don’t think we’ll find it. He
