Bear Bait (9781101611548) (32 page)

What had they been planning to do with Raider? And where? ‘I don’t
kill
them,’ Ford had said. Her hands, wrapped around the steering wheel, were white at the knuckles. Garrett Ford reminded her of another man who earned his money guiding hunters to wild animals. Wait a minute. She clenched the wheel even more tightly. Had Ford said, ‘
I
don’t kill them’? Maybe he was more like Buck Ferguson than she’d imagined.

When they reached 4312, she jerked the wheel right instead of left. In her rearview mirror, she saw Joe’s truck stop. “What are you up to, Sam?” her radio said a second later.

“I’m just following a hunch, Joe. Go on, I’ll let you know if it pans out.”

“No way. I’m coming, too.”

She saw him turn around, and then his headlights were following her. The USFS pickup turned, too. This would be really embarrassing if her hunch led nowhere. But Road 4312 was perfect—an unmaintained road that went way back into the forest where nobody had good reason to go anymore. There was no active logging going on here now. The road grew increasingly rough, and she kept her four-wheel drive in gear as she drove, slowing to check the side tracks. Mercifully, the rain slacked off and visibility was marginally improved.

Finally she saw what she was looking for—fresh tread marks leading into dense woods. She followed them, grinding
over rocks and through a little stream. She could hardly believe it when her headlights lit up a bank of cages. Leaving the lights on, she climbed down from the truck to explore. A handsome five-point buck blinked at her from his enclosure. Two mountain goats cowered in a corner of their cage. A black bear stood on its hind legs and clawed at the heavy mesh that imprisoned it. An enraged snarl split the darkness. Dear lord, was that a cougar?

Joe and the forest service rangers caught up with her.

“Unbelievable,” Joe said, climbing down from his truck.

“What made you think this might be here?” asked the other USFS ranger, who’d introduced himself as Hauser.

“I know this hunting guide in Utah,” Sam told him. “He makes big money leading yuppie hunters to trophy animals. And I suddenly realized that Ford could hardly drive through town with a caged bear in the back of his truck.”

“This is downright entrepreneurial.” Arnie paced the line of cages. “How better to guarantee a trophy animal than to keep one for when you need it? Then you just let it out and lead the hunter to it. And since it’s the National Forest instead of some Texas game ranch, the hunter will think you’re a helluva tracker.” He laughed. “It’s brilliant, Garrett!” he yelled toward Joe’s truck.

“Fuck you,” Ford yelled back.

“It’s criminal,” Sam groaned.

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Arnie said. “He wasn’t going to kill them until hunting season, I’m sure. He’s got less than a week till bear season out here.” He looked toward Hauser. “Is there a law about imprisoning animals in a national forest?”

“Damned if I know.” Hauser scratched his chin. “Maybe something about operating a commercial enterprise without a permit.”

Sam walked toward a stack of hay she spied under a tarp, peeled off a few flakes, and thrust them into the buck’s and goats’ cages. The animals fell on the hay hungrily.

“Should we let them out?” Hauser asked.

“I want all these animals released in the national park,” Sam said.

Arnie frowned. “We don’t know where they came from. That fella”—he pointed to the buck—“could have come from around here. He’d make a mighty nice hat rack.” He made his hand into a gun and pretend-fired at the buck.

Now Sam wanted to yell “Fuck you” at Arnie.

“It’s a while until hunting season,” Joe said quietly, putting his hand on her arm. “And they could very well end up in the park then.” He turned to Hauser. “Can we agree to leave this until tomorrow? This is a crime scene. We need to get back here and take photos and evidence in daylight. Both NPS and USFS are involved. Fish and Wildlife, too, maybe.”

Sam poured some dog chow into the bear’s cage and, since she didn’t see anything better to feed it, into the cougar’s as well. She made sure they all had water, checked Raider again—he was breathing a little more deeply now—and then they all left, in convoy again.

By the time she reached the trail crew bunkhouse, both she and Raider were staggering; she from fatigue, and he from the anesthetic still flooding his system. The bear kept trying to get to his feet, only to collapse onto his side again, shuddering from the effort.

“Calm down, buddy,” she murmured. “You’re safe with me.” She took a chance on opening the cage door just enough to push in a bucket of water, then tossed a tarp over the top of the cage to protect him from the rain.

“Sleep tight.” She knew
she
would. It felt good to have finally accomplished something positive. The paintball crazies were still out there, that C-4 was still missing, Caitlin Knight’s murderer was still on the loose, and Lisa Glass’s death remained a mystery. But her bear poacher would sleep behind bars tonight.

She helped herself to bread and peanut butter in the kitchen, sluiced off the worst of her grime in the bathroom, then headed for her bunk. As she was pulling off her shirt, Raider bawled outside.

Maya sat bolt upright in her bunk. “What the
fuck
was that?”

“Shhh,” Sam murmured. “It’s only a bear. He’s locked up in my truck.”

“Of course, a bear. Why didn’t I think of that?” The girl collapsed back onto her pillow. “Just a regular day here in Disneyland.”

WHEN
Sam wandered into the kitchen the next morning, she found two notes from the trail crew.
No pets allowed
, from Tom Blackstock, and an arrow pointing to a sealed envelope. A single page with a question mark written on it—that had to come from the kids. Teens seemed to be into symbols and abbreviated communication these days. She wrote,
Y not?
after the question mark, preferring to remain a source of mystery a little longer. At their age, she would have thought that packing a bear around was pretty cool. Hell, she still thought packing a bear around was pretty cool.

She opened the envelope. Inside was another note from Tom.
I’ve been called up; can you believe it? My unit ships out to Afghanistan at the end of next week. Know anyone who can take over for me here for the last three weeks?

She stared at the writing, stunned. The news
was
pretty unbelievable; Tom had to be nearing fifty. Thank God Tom hadn’t asked her if she’d do it. She really wasn’t the den mother type, especially not for a crew that included six adolescent boys. She searched her memory banks for men she knew, and came up with one she thought might work out. But would the park service accept him? She’d have to talk to everyone concerned. Stuffing the note into her pocket, she walked out to her truck.

Weak sunlight filtered through the dripping trees this morning. Raider was wild-eyed and rambunctious when she lifted the tarp on his cage. After checking her watch—it
was only a few minutes after seven—she drove to the Chois’ home. Joe had already left for work, but Laura and the kids were still at breakfast. She brought them out to her truck.

“Lili, you said you wanted to see a bear.” She threw back the tarp. Raider let out a bawl, which made Lili’s younger siblings squeal and stumble backward. The bear rushed to the other side of the cage, slamming into the bars and nearly tipping it over. He hunkered down in the corner and eyed them warily.

Lili put a hand on the pickup fender, her eyes filled with concern. “He looks so scared.”

“He is. Last night someone shot him with a tranquilizer dart, so now he’s probably even more afraid of people than he usually would be.”

Six-year-old Joseph pulled himself up on the back bumper. Laura grabbed the back of his belt so he wouldn’t get too close to the cage. “Why’d they shoot him?” he asked.

“To make him sleep,” Tamara told him, showing off her ten-year-old wisdom. “A tranquilizer is like a sleeping potion.”

“So they could take him to a zoo?”

Sam glanced at Laura. She didn’t know how much reality the younger Chois could handle.

Looking at her kids, Laura said, “Some bad guys wanted to take the bear to a place where some other guys could shoot him.”

All three children appeared stunned by this news. Sam wondered how Laura explained legal hunting to the kids.

“Remember how Daddy got home late last night?” Laura asked. “He and Aunt Summer were catching those bad guys and rescuing this bear.”

Sam basked in the glory of that statement for about ten seconds.

Joseph asked, “Can we keep him?”

“No,” Sam laughed. “This is a wild bear. He needs to live in a wild place where there aren’t so many people
around. Laura, can I borrow Lili for an hour to help me? I’ll drop her off at school afterwards.”

“Oh, sweet!” Lili chirped excitedly, turning toward the house. “I’ll get my backpack.”

“Finish your toast and brush your teeth,” Laura yelled after her, shepherding the younger children back into the house.

The two of them didn’t talk much on the way to Marmot Lake. Lili kept her head turned most of the way, watching Raider through the back window. Today the girl had her hair loosely twisted up into a bun and secured with a painted Chinese chopstick, and Sam could see the lovely young woman that Lili was fast becoming. It was a little unnerving to think of all the decisions this thirteen-year-old had ahead of her. She understood why Joe and Laura would fret over the possibilities.

They’d climbed down from the truck. Sam asked, “Want to touch him?”

“Can I?” Lili’s eyes gleamed.

Sam scrambled up onto the fender and swung her feet into the truck bed. Raider lunged to the far side of the cage. “I’ll distract him from here. You go around in back and touch him very softly through the bars. Just with your fingers, don’t put your hand into the cage.”

She clasped her fingers around the bars and leaned her face close, talking loudly to cover the sound of Lili’s footsteps. “Hey, Raider, my bad boy, my bear buddy, I’m so glad you’re still alive. I’ll bet you are, too. Ready to get out?”

The bear’s ears swung forward; he looked confused. Then suddenly he lurched forward, looking back suspiciously over his flank at Lili.

“Wow,” she said softly. “He’s so warm. And his fur is so soft.” She walked back to join Sam, sniffing her fingers. “That was so cool, Aunt Summer.”

“Ready to let him go?”

Lili nodded.

Sam let down the tailgate and told her to climb up,
swing open the cage door, and stand behind it. In less than a second, Raider leapt from the pickup and disappeared, leaving them staring at the quivering greenery he’d vanished into.

“Do you know who shot him with the dart and dragged him into the cage?” Sam asked, not looking at Lili. When the girl didn’t respond, she answered her own question. “A man named Garrett Ford. And a kid named Mike Martinson was helping him.”

“Were they really going to let someone shoot him?”

“Yep,” Sam said. “For the right price, of course.”

After a mournful moment, Lili said, “Well, shit.”

The Chois didn’t allow their children to swear, but this situation seemed to call for it, and Sam wasn’t Lili’s parent, anyway. Putting an arm around the girl’s shoulders, she said, “Sometimes people aren’t who they pretend they are.”

“Some fine boy he turned out to be.” Lili’s expression flitted between anger and sadness and then back to anger again.

Sam drove her to school, stopping the truck in front of the old brick building. “This is the last week of summer school, isn’t it?”

Lili nodded, her hand on the door handle. “Did I say thank you for helping me with my report? I’m turning it in this morning, a whole day early. I think it’s pretty good.”

Sam put a hand on the girl’s purple backpack to delay her a few seconds longer. “I’m proud of you and that report. You should be proud of yourself, too. Don’t ever let anyone make you do something you know isn’t right. Don’t ever let any nutcases say that you or your family is not as good as they are.”

An uncertain look crossed Lili’s face. Had she lectured too much? Sam lifted her hand from the pack.

“Got it,” Lili said, sliding out. “Ciao!”

Sam returned to Marmot Lake and walked the trail to the mine, envisioning her plan for a picnic area near the parking lot, a hike-in campground in the forest on the other side of the lake. If only she was going to be here to help
make it happen. She stared at the crater of the Lucky Molly Mine for a few minutes. The white rose was a lump of moldy petals and leaves floating in a puddle at the bottom. In her memory, the mine would always be associated with the explosion, fire, and Lisa’s death.

This morning she’d heard on the radio that another amendment to the 1872 mining law had died in Congress.

Finally, Sam made up her mind to recommend that the park service eradicate all signs of the Lucky Molly; fill in the crater and sow native plants on top of it to disguise its existence. Maybe eventually it would disappear from the USGS maps and nobody would remember it had ever been there.

“
ALLIE
used to complain about how old that thing was.” Ernest nodded toward the computer Ranger Choi sat in front of, tapping on the keyboard with latex-covered fingers and staring at long lists of words on the screen.

They were in Allie’s bedroom. Today Choi wore jeans and a flannel shirt instead of his law enforcement ranger uniform and gun. Just in case Jack or one of the other neighbors saw him, their cover story was that Choi was Ernest’s AA mentor. Ernest had thought of that himself. He might have enjoyed this cloak-and-dagger business if there’d been a different reason behind it. He sank back down onto Allie’s bed and stared sadly at the high school graduation photo in his hand.

“Bingo!” Choi leaned toward the monitor. “Do you know Frieda Frazier? Or an organization called Justice for Veterans?”

“No. But Allie had a lot of computer friends, and she was always trying to get the VA to do something more for me.” Whereas he’d given up on the VA a decade ago, and he’d done most of his socializing with Jim Beam and Jack Daniels.