Blood Games

    Soon, they came to a split in the trail. One path veered off to the right and the other continued straight ahead.

    ‘Now what?’ Vivian asked.

    ‘Flip a coin?’ Finley suggested.

    ‘We can come back to this if we don’t find anything,’ Cora said.

    They stuck to the original path and soon came to a lake. An old, weathered dock reached out from its shore. Off the end of the dock was a diving platform that floated at such an angle that one corner dipped into the water. Apparently, one of the drums buoying it up had sprung a leak.

    Abilene supposed this must be the lake Helen had told them about. Somewhere near its shores, the hunters had killed that girl.

    The lake was bigger than she’d pictured it. Maybe a quarter of a mile wide and twice that long. She saw no boats on its surface. No other docks. No dwellings along its shores. No people. In spite of its blue, glinting surface and the lush beauty of the forest surrounding it, the lake seemed forbidding. An alien, ominous place.

    Abilene rubbed her arms and the nape of her neck. Her hot skin, slick with sweat, was pebbled with goosebumps.

    ‘Sure looks deserted,’ Vivian whispered, as if afraid to raise her voice in the stillness.

    ‘Doesn’t anybody live around here?’ Finley said.

    ‘Creepy,’ Vivian muttered.

    ‘It’s like the whole lake’s been abandoned,’ Abilene said, still rubbing the achy skin on the back of her neck.

    ‘There might be houses we just can’t see from here,’ Cora said. ‘Hidden off in the trees. I’d bet on it’

    Leaving the shelter of the forest’s edge, they made their way down to the foot of the dock.

    Just to the left, Abilene saw what looked like the remains of a beach. The small area sloped down gently to the shore. It had probably been cleared by workers from the lodge, sand carted in to create a nice little beach for the guests. Now, weeds and bushes grew there and the sand was littered with driftwood.

    At the far side of the beach area was an overturned canoe. The wooden hull was bashed in as if someone had stomped through it with a boot. The canoe’s green paint was flaking. Painted in white near its bow, faded but still legible, were upside-down letters that read Totem Pole Lodge and a large number 3.

    Abilene walked over to the canoe, dropped down to all fours and peered underneath it. Nothing but weeds and sand. Getting to her feet, she said, ‘Just wanted to make sure.’ She brushed sand off her hands and knees.

    ‘I think we should circle the lake,’ Cora said.

    ‘That’ll take hours,’ Vivian protested.

    ‘You got an appointment or something?’ Finley said.

    ‘Maybe whoever took Helen lives along the shore,’ Cora explained. ‘Somebody must. This lake can’t be as deserted as it looks.’

    ‘The kid we saw has to live somewhere,’ Abilene said. ‘And the trail led here.’

    ‘One did, anyway,’ Finley said.

    ‘You think he’d take her home?’ Vivian said.

    ‘Who knows?’ Cora said. ‘He took her someplace, didn’t he?’

    ‘Somebody did,’ Finley said. ‘Probably.’

    ‘So why not back to his cabin or shack or wherever the hell it is he came from?’ Cora asked. ‘And what are our alternatives, anyway? Wander around in the woods all day? Go back to the lodge and hope for the best?’

    ‘If we could just get some help…’ Vivian muttered.

    ‘By the time we could get help,’ Cora said, ‘it might be way too late for Helen.’

    ‘I think we’re her only chance,’ Abilene said.

    ‘We’ll find her,’ Finley said. ‘And if she isn’t a hundred per cent fine, God help the bastards that did it.’

CHAPTER TWENTY

    In case someone might be watching, they walked away from the lake and entered the woods. They didn’t go far, however, before turning north. Through breaks in the trees, they kept track of the lake and stayed roughly parallel to its shoreline.

    Here, there was no path. They tromped through undergrowth, ducked under low branches, circled around brambles and deadfalls and boulders that sometimes blocked their way, climbed down and up the sides of shallow slopes.

    Near the north end of the lake, they were stopped by an inlet. It was twenty or thirty feet across at the mouth, but from there the glassy water reached westward at least a hundred yards before it vanished under a field of reeds and lily pads.

    ‘Great,’ Vivian muttered. ‘Now what?’

    ‘Simple,’ Cora said. ‘We either cross here or go around.’

    ‘Going around would be a bitch,’ Finley said. ‘Let’s take a dip.’

    ‘Might be nice,’ Abilene said.

    They made their way to the right, walking along the top of a fallen trunk, then hopping down and climbing out on a low clump of rocks where the inlet joined the lake. Abilene sat on a boulder and struggled to catch her breath.

    Cora, hands on hips, stood at the edge of the outcropping and peered down. ‘Doesn’t look very deep,’ she said, and jumped.

    Her splash showered Finley and Vivian.

    ‘Hey, feels good,’ Finley said.

    Abilene got to her feet.

    ‘Deeper than it looked,’ Cora said. The water covered her to the neck. She dipped her head in, apparently just to get it wet, then swept a hand over her matted hair and began gliding toward the other side.