Wilson nodded so slightly Cody almost mistook it for a tremble.
“Do you know why?”
Another barely perceptible nod.
“So what in the hell is going on?” Cody said, pressing the muzzle and front sight against Wilson’s forehead hard enough to draw blood.
35
“Is he gone?” Danielle asked Gracie.
“I think so.”
They were in their tent, waiting for Jed McCarthy to leave camp. Gracie had unzipped the front flap wide enough to see. She could see the aluminum cooking station and James Knox pacing but her field of vision was blocked in back of her. The trail was beyond the camp over a rise. If Jed was indeed gone she hadn’t seen him ride away. But the sounds of the adults talking was muted and random, the sounds of nervous small talk. If Jed was still there she would have heard his voice, which seemed to cut through the air like a saw.
The afternoon sun lit the nylon walls and it was hot inside and Gracie could smell the dirt and perspiration on her body and Danielle’s. She couldn’t remember ever going two days without a shower, much less two days outside being coated by dust, wood smoke, horse, sweat, and a new smelclass="underline" fear.
“So we’re agreed?” Gracie said, sitting back on her sleeping bag. “We’ll gather up Dakota and Rachel and get out of here.”
“Don’t forget Justin,” Danielle said.
“He’ll want to bring Walt,” Gracie said, a hint of a whine in her tone. “Walt will be the good politician and he’ll probably tell everyone what we’re doing and want them to come, too. Then it’ll be all of us and we’re back to where we started.”
“With this pack of losers,” Danielle said. “But as long as we go home, I don’t care. And I can’t just leave Justin.” She’d brought a file along as well as red polish and she was methodically grooming herself finger by finger. “By the way, I saw where Dad hid the keys to the rental car. He put them by the gas cap and closed that little door. So when we get back we can drive right on out of here.” Then, “Man, I want to take a shower and clean this trip off of me. Except for Justin.”
Gracie put her head in her hands.
“You don’t understand love,” Danielle said solemnly.
“You’ve known him for two days,” Gracie said.
“Like I said. You don’t understand love. I hope someday you will,” Danielle said, studying her nails. “But you’ll need to lose the attitude.”
Gracie flopped back on her sleeping bag and kept one hand over her face.
The silence went on for a while, Danielle working on her nails and Gracie sweltering and miserable. Finally, Gracie said, “What about Dad?”
“I thought you said you didn’t care about him, the way he treated you.”
“I said that,” Gracie said, “but I was mad at him. We can’t just leave him here.”
“Why not?” She sounded half miffed and half bored. Danielle seemed more than amenable to let Gracie make all the profound decisions, and didn’t seem to like the idea of her waffling because that required her to once again become involved in the discussion.
Gracie said, “Because he paid for this trip and everything’s gone wrong. I feel sorry for him, you know? I’m not sure Rachel even likes him anymore, and that was the whole point. I mean, besides us bonding with him in the wilderness and all of that. He’s going with us.”
“I like Rachel,” Danielle said. “She’s cool. She treats us like adults. Like we matter.”
“Yeah.
“Unlike Dad, I mean.”
“Yeah.”
“I think he doesn’t know whether we’re little girls or young adults, so he goes with what’s most comfortable to him-meaning we’re his little girls. He can’t think of us as real people. That’s why he doesn’t believe me when I say someone is spying on us or believe you when you say you heard something happen in the dark outside the tents.”
Gracie spread her fingers apart on her face so she could look at her sister with wonder. Rarely did Danielle say something that made her think.
“What?” Danielle asked, defensive.
“Nothing.”
“Anyway, wouldn’t it be weird if Rachel turned out to be our friend even after she dumps Dad?”
“I hadn’t thought of that.”
Danielle said, “That’s the kind of thing I think about all the time. You know how so many of our friends say they wish their parents could get back together? Well, I never think that. I think Mom is better off without him. I think he’s kind of embarrassing, to be honest. He’d rather make that idiot Jed like him than show respect for his own daughters.”
Gracie sat up and shook her head at her sister. “You’re talking about our dad.”
Danielle shrugged. “Really, basically, he’s just another dude. He’s got to show me something to get me to think otherwise, and I haven’t seen it.”
“Danielle!”
“Hey,” she said, sliding her nail file back into its plastic holder like a sword into a sheath, “that’s what I feel. So why shouldn’t I say it?”
“Maybe you should think rather than just feel,” Gracie said. “It’s possible, you know.”
Danielle shrugged. “Yeah, if you’re a pathetic loser, I guess.”
Gracie flopped back down on her back. “This is the worst trip I’ve ever been on.”
Danielle said, “Welcome to Hell-o-stone Park, sister. Maybe we’ll see some wolves and bears and birdies and other stupid animals on the way out.”
Gracie moaned.
Danielle leaned over on her and put her lips to Gracie’s ear. “Now let’s go find Dakota and Rachel and my boy and Dad and get the friggin’ hell out of here.”
They avoided the camp and skirted along the edge of the trees toward where the horses were picketed.
“We’ll ask Dakota to get our horses ready,” Gracie said. “I can help her. Then we’ll find Rachel.”
Danielle nodded.
Shadows lengthened across the open ground as the sun sank beneath the tops of the trees. The temperature dropped a quick ten degrees in the shade.
“Leaving in the dark might be a problem for us,” Gracie said.
“I don’t care when we leave as long as we leave,” Danielle said.
“There’s Rachel,” Gracie said, seeing her coming up from where the horses were. Their dad wasn’t with her. And something was off about the way she walked; arms crossed around her like she was hugging herself, head down. She appeared deep in thought.
“Rachel,” Gracie called.
Rachel’s head snapped up. Her face was drawn and white.
“What’s wrong?”
Rachel took a deep breath, as if trying to gain control of herself. She said, “Oh, girls, it’s horrible. I just found Dakota down there. Somebody slit her throat and killed her. It just happened. Her body…”
Gracie gasped and Danielle froze beside her.
“This isn’t a joke, is it?” Danielle asked.
Rachel shook her head and gestured behind her. Her eyes were rimmed with red and she looked like she could collapse. “There’s so much blood,” she said, and opened her arms so they could see it on the front of her shirt. Rachel said, “I turned her over to see if she was still alive, but…” She couldn’t finish again. She was trembling.
Gracie gasped. “Could it possibly have been an accident?” she asked, her voice trembling.
“No.”
“Did you see anyone?”
Rachel turned away, deflecting the question.
“Rachel,” Gracie said, “who did you see down there?”
“She saw Jed,” Danielle said. “Jed did it.”
Rachel nodded her head and tears streamed down her cheeks, making them glisten in a shaft of sunlight.
“Oh my God,” Gracie said, reaching out for Danielle so her legs wouldn’t collapse. “She saw Jed kill Dakota.”
Rachel nodded, apparently unable to speak.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” Danielle said. “Now.”