“So the last time you saw her was just south of the saddle? Can you give me a landmark where I can pick up the trail? The more specific the better.”
“Yeah, Ally took my picture standing next to a tree that was growing in a corkscrew. If you can find it, it’ll make a good starting point. There should be plenty of tracks in the vicinity too.”
I asked Landon, “Got your hikin’ boots on? We’re taking a fast hike to the saddle with minor information gathering on the way.”
I circled the campsite finding the trail leading out and through the meadow. I walked quickly, keeping an eye on Peter and Ally’s tracks. I noticed they stayed close. Occasionally Ally’s footprints would stray to the side and Peter’s would stop as Ally stopped to investigate something. She would kneel in the grass and look closely at small things, sometimes getting down on hands and knees. I thought I might like this lady when I finally caught up to her. I imagined a woman with dirt smudged jeans and a curiosity about the world that matched her grandkids’.
Landon followed me quickly across the meadow. My pack was heavy. It always took me a half mile or so to get used to the weight. After that, the pack seemed to settle and I could move as if it were a part of me.
“Since we’re just hiking and we know where we’re going, tell me about your latest adventures,” Landon said.
My heart sunk. I should have seen it coming but it hit me like a ton of bricks.
“Landon, you’ve heard all about it. It’s been in the news and I’m sure Jacobsen has made sure the station has heard his version. Isn’t that enough?”
“Jacobsen?”
“Yeah, he…you’re sure you haven’t heard about this?”
“Considering you haven’t told me anything yet, yeah.”
“I don’t know if I can talk about it. I thought you’d heard. You watch the news, don’t you?”
“If I’m not on duty, or out.”
“Shoot. I don’t think I can do it yet. Get it from Jacobsen.”
I could feel the look he gave me burrowing through my back. It was a mixture of irritation and concern. He knew the things that set me off.
“If Jacobsen was involved it means he was senior officer.”
“Not necessarily.”
I doubled my pace trying to out hike my brain. Maybe if I hiked fast enough we’d leave the topic far behind. When Landon got tired of trying to keep up he huffed impatiently, “Cassidy, you can run but you cannot hide. I won’t push you to talk about it but eventually you’ve got to come to grips with it or it’s going to eat you up.”
“Not if Tom can put the guy away. If we can just get him before he hurts someone I’ll be okay. I keep running the pieces of what I know through my mind and it’s taking shape but it still doesn’t make sense. Like, why is Kima Tumibay worried about gunmen? She’s just a teacher. What could a teacher possibly have done to cause two armed men to go looking for her? I saw her at the school. She loves the kids in her class. The kids all think she’s great. She’s personable and friendly and kind. It doesn’t make sense.”
“For not wanting to talk about it you’re doing a pretty good job, although I don’t have answers to any of your questions.”
“Rusty and I saw her at a restaurant last night. She didn’t know who I was. It was odd seeing her there too. Again, she was personable and friendly. She was with a foreign woman who spoke very little English and she was helping her learn English, not unusual for a teacher, but something seemed odd about it anyway. Her friend appeared to be worried about something and one sentence that I overheard was out of place and it kind of tied in with why the woman might be worried or why the gunmen were at the school. She said a certain man was ‘an activist but usually not dangerous.’ And yet these two gunmen turn up at the school. I think it must tie in somewhere. And I worry about exactly where. I’ve had enough gunmen after me to learn it doesn’t take much to set some people off. I’ve had guys try and kill me for the oddest reasons.”
“It’s because you’re a trouble magnet. You attract people like that.”
“Gee, thanks. Even if that’s the reason why I get into trouble it doesn’t explain why it would happen to her. I wish I could talk to her but she doesn’t even know who I am or how I know about her link to all this. And I’m not sure she should know.”
“Cassidy, you’re not making any sense unless I have some background to go by.”
“It doesn’t help.”
“Why can’t you just start at the beginning?”
“I can’t. Landon, just ask Jacobsen or Rusty or Strict or almost anybody else at the station. Where have you been that you haven’t heard about it? It was on TV, probably nationwide. You couldn’t have missed it. Schroeder was on the news. I couldn’t watch it because it brought too many flashbacks. Schroeder told them in no uncertain terms that they would not get an interview with me no matter what. I think it’s because Schroeder is worried about how much I might say but he also knows my aversion to television reporters.”
“You know you’re just digging yourself in deeper and deeper.”
We were headed up the first little valley, still following Peter and Ally’s tracks but only enough to verify their passage. I was more interested in what had happened to Alisondra after she left Peter and headed back. I was hiking at a good steady pace because I knew time was ticking away. The trail wasn’t exactly a valley, but more of an area where two hills met and resulted in a little wash. When it rained the wash would turn into a small creek but now, even with the snow on the mountains quickly melting, the wash was dry.
“If you really want to find out, drop back a bit and talk to Strict.”
“I couldn’t do that. Everybody within range would listen in.”
“You can go to another frequency, but really, I’m telling you you’re probably the only one who doesn’t know. Maybe Peter will feel better about me carrying this rifle. Or maybe he’ll worry more. Oh hell.” I stopped, turned around and confronted Landon with the truth. “Okay, here’s how it was, I went to Del Sol Elementary School to talk to a third grade class about my job, how to prevent getting lost, you know the drill. I hear shots. There’s a gunman walking through the school taking pot shots at people. I was the only one armed. I had to shoot him…Landon I had to. Everybody else was locked in classrooms or running down the hall in fear. There were two gunmen and I killed one and wounded the other. He’s the one we’ve got to catch. But I can’t fit all the pieces together. And I can’t put it down. I just relive it and think about it and try and piece it together but I can’t make sense of it. I try but I don’t have enough pieces yet. Now let me hike before I get all tied up in knots and become useless.” I kicked a rock, turned around and trudged off down the trail. Landon stood still letting this new information sink in. He knew to give me some distance. He followed silently but I knew what was coming and I didn’t want to hear it. I stopped to clear the tears from my eyes. No use trudging off if I couldn’t see, I’d only lose the trail. Even if I was just verifying their tracks I still needed to see them.
“And this teacher thinks the gunmen were after her? An ‘activist’? That’s an odd word.”
“She was trying to think of a word her foreign friend would understand. That’s just what she came up with.”
“Activists have an agenda. An issue they address. What’s this guy against?”