Murder in the Devil's Cauldron (51 page)

"Sure," Starr said.

"Good. Give me your phone number and we'll
call when we're ready to come by. You might want to tell your
mother in case she wants to be there, too."

There was no way Starr was going to say a
thing
to her mother, but she didn't tell Fae that. She
simply gave Fae the phone number at the cabin.

Fae handed her a card in return. "My number
is on there. I don't care if you think it's dumb. If you're
concerned, chances are you have a good reason, even if you can't
put it into words. Okay?"

"Okay," Starr said. "But you're going to
catch him, right?"

"I sure hope so," Fae said. "This guy's
pretty slippery, but we have a lot of people on it. The sheriff's
even got a few guys coming all the way from Embarrass to help, so I
think we'll have him pretty soon. I just don't want this guy
getting you before we get him."

"Well, you have the film now and the
backpack, so even if he comes after me, he won't get anything,"
Starr said.

"Well, let's make sure he doesn't get you
either."

Starr had to agree with that. She didn't want
to end up in the Devil's Cauldron, too.

"Off you go, then," Fae said, standing.
"Remember, don't go anywhere alone tonight. And keep the doors
locked."

Starr waved and went outside while Charlie
gave the calico kitty a last pat before joining her. Then they
headed up the walkway towards the Lodge.

Thompson looked at the roster on his desk and
the list of what needed covering on a Saturday night. Even with a
couple of guys coming from Embarrass to help out, he simply didn't
have enough people to cover everything. At least three bars on his
patch of the North Shore could be counted on for trouble, not to
mention keeping an eye on Highway 61 as it twisted and turned and
tempted people who'd had a few to drive just a tad too fast.

That wouldn't have been so bad. He still
could've put Hartman at the Lodge if it hadn't been for the call
that had just come in. He was going to have to send someone up to
Grand Portage to check that out.

Thompson walked out to the front where
Sherrie was typing something up. "Hartman around anywhere?"

She looked up for a second as she thought
about it. "Probably around back getting ready for that patrol over
at the Lodge."

He nodded and went around to the rear of the
building where he found the deputy wiping down the windows on the
patrol car.

"Gotta make a change," the sheriff said as he
came over.

"Oh, ya?" Hartman moved to the passenger side
to clean the bugs off that window.

"Just got a call that this Fowler's car
might've been spotted up in Grand Portage. So I need you to run up
there and checking things out."

Hartman's rag moved precisely back and forth
across the window, leaving no spot uncleaned. "What about watching
that kid's place at the Lodge?"

"Well, if they made a run for Canada, they're
not likely to be breaking in again," Peterson said. "But just in
case, what I want you to do is run this car over to the parking lot
by the cabin as if you're doing surveillance and then Doug will
bring you back here. You can use the extra car to go up to Grand
Portage and check out that report."

Hartman started cleaning the rear window.
"What about after?"

"Depends on what's going on. It's Saturday
night." The sheriff knew he didn't have to say any more than that.
"Chances are, seeing that patrol car sitting there will be enough
to scare the guy off."

"If he's even around." The rag went up and
down.

"Exactly."

"Do you want me to talk to Doug?" Hartman
asked. He stood back and gave the patrol a critical once-over to
see if he had missed anything. He hadn't.

"If you would. He can check with me if he has
any questions. And give me the extra set of keys in case someone
else gets free and can go baby-sit."

Hartman tossed the rag into the "dirty" can
and went to find Doug.

Thompson returned to his office, hoping
putting the car there would stave off another break-in. If there
had even been one. Although the picture Fae had shown him made him
pretty sure
something
was going on, he was less certain that
it had anything to do with the kid, let alone murder.

When they got to the edge of the clearing,
Starr was tempted to take her camera out of the basket and get some
pictures. Then she remembered that she only had one roll of film
left and she needed to make it last. And there was Fishy Fowler to
consider, as well. There was no telling where he was hiding and the
last thing Starr wanted was for him to grab her camera. When she
got home, she would leave it in the hiding place until she knew he
wasn't ever coming back.

Now that they were on the walkway, getting
back to the Lodge was easy. The land was flat and open as it
followed the lakeshore. Even better, it was much cooler and not as
humid as it had been inland. Charlie even stopped for a minute to
put her sweatshirt back on.

"Maybe you shouldn't come over later," Starr
said. "Maybe Fae's right and we should just meet up at breakfast
tomorrow."

"He isn't going to do anything tonight,"
Charlie scoffed. "Not with everybody looking for him. I'll bet he's
already halfway to the Cities by now."

"You really think so?"

"They know what car he's driving and what
they look like. He'd be crazy to stick around here."

"I don't know," Starr said. "Especially the
way he broke into our cabin last night. Even Fae said he's
dangerous."

"Anyway," Charlie went on. "Fae has the film,
so what can he do?"

"He doesn't know she has the film," Starr
pointed out. "He might do something because he still thinks I have
it."

"Then it's a lot smarter for us to stick
together," Charlie said. "Besides, do you really want to sit and
stare at the walls all night?"

"No. And you're right, it does make sense not
to be alone. But why don't you come to my cabin after dinner. That
way if he's out there, he can't grab us."

"Okay. And it sure beats being eaten by
mosquitoes."

When they got to the Lodge, they pushed the
bike around to the back. Starr held onto it while Charlie went
inside to let her dad know she was taking the bike back to the
cabin before dinner. When she came back outside, though, Zach
Running Bear was with her.

"Hi, Mr. Running Bear," Starr said.

"Hello, Starr. I'm your escort tonight until
your mother gets off work."

Charlie was walking behind him and Starr saw
her roll her eyes.

"How come?" Starr asked. "We're not getting
into trouble."

"I know that," he said. "Fae called me and
asked me to watch out for you until they catch that Fowler fella.
She's kinda worried and since I don't want anything to happen to
you either, I figure it's not going to hurt to do a few things to
be on the safe side, don't you know."

"What about my mom?"

"I already talked to her and asked her if it
was all right if you had dinner with me and Charlie tonight and she
said that it was. So you're all set."

"Really?" Starr couldn't imagine her mother
agreeing to anything like this, but she wasn't going to miss having
dinner with Charlie and her dad for
anything
. "That's
great."

"I thought that'd be okay with you. Shall we
get going? I'm about hungry enough to eat a moose."

Starr grinned as she helped push the bike
back to the cabins.

The longer Fowler sat in his hiding place,
the more he was pleased with himself for picking up the inflatable
cushion. Sitting in the woods for hours was not his favorite
pastime, the incessant buzzing of mosquitoes being just one of the
drawbacks. At least he wasn’t killing his butt and ruining his
slacks sitting on the rocky ground. He just wished he had picked up
more mosquito repellant. At this rate, he was going to be covered
in bites by the time he was done.

Every once in awhile he could hear cars
whizzing up the highway behind him. In between, though, there
wasn't much. While it was great for hearing someone coming, the
lack of sound was creeping him out. He couldn't wait to get back to
the Cities with its sights, sounds and lack of mosquitoes.

The high-pitched chatter of approaching
people filtered through the trees and Fowler made sure to stay
completely motionless as he waited for them to come into view.
There had been a number of false alarms, so he was hoping this time
it was them. He got ready to move.

Charlie's dad held the bike steady as Starr
unstrapped her camera bag and carried it into the house.

"Why don't you leave the door open," Zach
Running Bear suggested as Starr unlocked the door. "That way you
can get out real fast if you have to."

Starr stared at him. She hadn't even thought
of that. She looked the length of the house to the back window in
her mother's room, but everything seemed fine. Even so, she moved
carefully down the hallway just in case. When no one jumped out at
her, she went into her room and quickly put the camera in its
hiding place. As she came out of the closet, she tossed a few dirty
t-shirts on top of the hatch, making the entire floor of her closet
look like a giant laundry basket.

She washed up quickly, grabbed her jacket and
went back out, making sure to lock up and then helped Charlie push
the bike to her friend's cabin.

Fowler watched as the big guy accompanying
the girls stood outside the red-headed brat's cabin. He was holding
the bike which looked like a small toy under his large hands and
the last thing Fowler was going to do was come out of hiding while
he was around.

Fowler faded back a little into the shadows
to make sure he wasn't visible and watched as the red-headed kid
came out of the cabin, lock the door and walk down the path to
another cabin further back.

It put a kink in his plans, but Fowler was
content to wait. At some point the girls would be alone and he'd
get his chance.

By the time they got back to the Lodge, Starr
was so hungry she, too, could have eaten a moose.

She filled her plate at the buffet, selecting
the dishes she liked the best, not having to worry about what her
mother would say about what she chose or how much she took. Starr
wished that if her mother wanted to get rid of her, she would send
her to live with Charlie. Idly she wondered if Zach would
agree.

She squashed the idea as if it was a mashed
potato. That was never going to happen. But if she stayed on her
very best behavior, at least she was living practically next
door.

Fae had finally gone home. Her back was
throbbing and she needed to get off her feet for awhile. Making
sure she was completely up-to-date, she stretched out, the phone
next to her chair.

There was little she could do at the
sheriff's office, so she was hoping that while she was relieving
the pain in her back, she could get inside Fowler's head and figure
out what he might do next.

She was pretty sure the call about the car up
in Grand Marais was a diversion, which meant they had a second
vehicle, but that didn't help figure out where they were.

This time, though, she didn't bother with the
files. What she wanted wasn't going to be in there.

Fowler had taken a room at the Bide-A-Wee for
his accomplice. Fae was willing to bet that he stashed her there
until he had gotten rid of his wife and then had her step in. After
all, it wasn't as if anyone up here knew her all that well.

Clearly he had had been going to stay there
until he got the film. But with the Bide A Wee cabin blown, he was
going to have to find somewhere else to hide out for a few
days.

"He's going to want some unobtrusive place to
stay until he can get the film," Fae told Casanova Marmalade, who
simply opened one eye and started purring.

"He'll go inland. Try to be out of the way.
Cheap and small."

Fae dislodged the cats and went into her
workroom where she could look at a map of the Iron Range. There
weren't that many roads up here, so Fowler's choices were going to
be limited.

Fae went online and got a list of all the
motels within fifty miles. Most of them she eliminated because they
wouldn't be convenient. Surprisingly, it ended up being a much
smaller list than she had expected.

Of course, that didn't include campgrounds,
but she doubted he was set up for that. And if he had gotten a
place through a private party somehow, then she didn't have even a
remote chance of finding him. But at least she had
something
to work with.

Fae got on the phone and started calling.

The rumbling sound of approaching motors
pulled Fowler from a half doze. Stress from all the running around
since this morning was catching up to him. He swallowed a No Doz,
hoping it would keep him on alert until everything was taken care
of. The last thing he needed now was to fall asleep and miss his
opportunity.