Bitterroot Crossing (22 page)

    I squeezed him tighter. “I’m not sure what a deek oy is, Baxter. But it doesn’t matter. They’re gone now.” There was no sign of Steamer or Butcher. With Zedekiah’s preternatural strength, that hand had traveled a good distance. I glanced up at Zedekiah. He was staring down at the swamp as if he was contemplating something. I wondered if he was having the same thoughts as me.

    “Zedekiah,” I said, realizing it was the first time I’d called him by his name, “did you know that would happen when you pulled Steamer’s hand off of me?”

    He shook his head. “I hadn’t realized that it would pull the hand off his spirit.” He grinned down at me. “That was interesting wasn’t it?”

    “Yeah, it was.” The look he gave me told me he
was
thinking the same thing as me.

    Zedekiah looked at Baxter. “You better get that boy home before he freezes to death.”

    “Yeah.” I helped Baxter to his feet. “Come on, bro, my bike’s on the road.”

    “We’re gonna ride down?”

    “Yep.”

    “Cool.” Baxter stopped for a minute and his nose crinkled. “I smell smoke.”

    I took a whiff of the air. “You’re right, Baxter. Maybe it’s some chimneys being lit.”

    “Maybe.”

    “And you’re wrong if you think I took the girl away from you,” Zedekiah called to me as we walked away.

    I turned back and looked at him. “I realized something earlier; I’m not good enough for her.”

    “I agree. And if you break her heart, I’ll set you back down in that swamp myself.”

    My arm went around Baxter’s shoulder, and we headed to the bike. “Your family is going to be real glad to see you, Baxter.” I was pissed that the sheriff had not even come up the mountain yet. He must have been too chicken to come up here in the dark.

    I kick started the bike and we got on. Baxter grabbed hold of my waist. “When we get home I’m going to look up deek oy on the computer.”

    “O.K., bro.” Then a thought came into my head and my heart slammed against my ribs. I looked back over my shoulder at Baxter. “Was the name they called you ,
decoy
?”

    “Yeah, that’s the name they were calling me.”

    I glanced up the mountain for a second. There was a red glow up ahead as if something was on fire. “Jessie.”

Chapter 30

    Crow’s shoulder seemed to be disintegrating from solid to vapor beneath me. I was sure I’d fall right through him to the ground below, but we coasted down somewhere in the middle of a thick grove of evergreens. The height of the pines and the thin, crisp air told me we were up high on the mountain. The somber, ghostly fog had either dissipated or we’d drifted above it.

    I felt completely nauseous by the time Crow dropped me to my feet. I was thankful that they were numb from the cold. The forest floor was littered with dried pine needles. This would teach me not to run around barefoot so much.

    It was exceptionally shady where we stood but I sensed the rest of the mountain was being bathed in the pinkish-blue light of dawn.

    Crow shoved my shoulder. “Keep walking, girlie.”

    I took several steps and realized the numbness in my feet was not going to stop the painful walk after all. In fact the cold seemed to make it sting even more. Pine needles dug into the soles of my feet with each step.

    “Can’t you move faster, limpy?” Crow’s sharp fingers poked my back then he shoved me again.

    I lost my balance and fell to the ground. “You deserved the noose,” I said angrily and pushed to my feet.  “You’re a rude, despicable ghoul.” I brushed the pine needles out of my pajama pants.

    Crow grinned at me. “Why, thank you, miss. I pride myself on being rude and whatever that other word was.”

    “There it is,” Axel said. He flew ahead.

    I squinted through the shadows. Up ahead, at the top of a small hill in the middle of a clearing, sat a tiny wood framed house, a fur trader’s shelter from long ago. It was no bigger than Nana’s pantry at home.

    I shuffled forward on sore feet. “You may be stuck with me as your hostage for some time. And I warn you, when I’m hungry and tired, I can get pretty whiny. You’re going to regret this.” I stopped. “What exactly do you want from me?” Although, I really didn’t want to hear their answer. It was obvious that these were ruthless ghosts. There was really nothing to keep them from hurting or, even worse, killing me.

    “You’re a tempting little lure.” Axel swept down and spoke directly into my face showering me with his disgusting odor. “A yummy little hostage meant to lure out the Crush boys. Course the live Crush may not have survived the first trap we set. It was just a decoy to catch their attention so we could grab the real prize.” He smiled at me as if I’d been a trophy winning fish they’d caught in a contest. “In fact, if Zedekiah didn’t get there in time, I’d say the boy’s finding his final resting place in the swamp mud like the rest of us.”

    “You’re lying,” I snapped. “Besides Zedekiah wouldn’t let anything happen to Nick.”

    “Yeah, we figured that out just a little while ago. That’s when we decided to kill the boy, too,” Crow said.

    “Too?” I asked shakily.

    “Anything we can do to put a crease in Zedekiah’s hat, we’re gonna do it. He owes us a peaceful eternity. And since we don’t have one, we intend to make his eternity hell on earth, as they say.”  Crow prodded me forward. “We were just having some harmless fun roughing the boy up the other day, and Zedekiah got real mad.”
He tapped the side of his head and his finger went right through his skull and popped back out. “That’s when we put our geniuses together and decided to get rid of the both of you. The perfect revenge.”

    “Revenge? You’re trying to get revenge on a dead man? You are truly a ridiculous bunch of petty ghosts.” I tried to act nonchalant about their horrid plan but, truthfully, I was scared. They were obviously holding firm to that century old grudge of theirs. In fact it seemed to have festered and worsened through time.

    Axel bounced ahead like a school kid skipping on his way to recess. “We thought we had the both of you the other night in the town meetin’. It was the perfect opportunity, and man, was Zedekiah crazed when he thought you two were going to die,” Axel said and then grimaced as he rubbed his hand across his middle. “But the boy had those big red pistols again. Those things are a menace.”

    Crow bowed and waved his hand with a flourish pointing me to the crooked hovel up ahead. “Your prison awaits you.” I trudged toward it.

    Crow followed. “That young Crush boy is hard to squash. But we’ll get him, one way or another. If he survived the swamp then we’ll take care of him up here. We figured Zedekiah would help him get out of the first trap. That gave us time to catch you without any problems from either Crush. Now we’ll ambush the boy and finish you both off. If our timing is right, Zedekiah can find you just as the two of you burn to death in this here, miniature cabin. As you may have witnessed, Axel, here, has a special way with fire.”

    “That’s not great planning. Zedekiah will come first, you’ll see. He knows everything that’s happening on this mountain.” I glanced around hopefully. “He’s probably watching you right now.”

    Axel spun around fast. “Where?’

    Crow slapped him and his neck bent at a funny angle for a moment then righted itself. “Idiot, you know Zedekiah’s at the swamp with the boy.” Crow reached up, opened the door, and shoved me inside. My shoulder smacked the wall. There were no windows just a small hole in the wood planks above. Something large crashed against the door nearly pushing it inward. I shoved the door but it wouldn’t budge. Whatever they’d stuck there, it was darn heavy.

    A rotted wood bench stretched the length of the hovel. The edge of it had been chewed by something with decidedly long teeth. I sat down on it and lifted my bare feet off the ground to rub some warmth into them. The air inside was cold enough that I could see my breath. I pressed myself into the corner for warmth. I hoped Nana was not in too much of a panic. I also hoped she’d look for Zedekiah. I hugged my knees to my chest and thought about all the horrid things Axel and Crow had said. Nick getting hurt or killed was too awful to think about.

    I wondered where Zedekiah was all this time. What was the trap they’d set? Why didn’t he know I was in trouble? He usually seemed to have a sixth sense when it came to me. That’s

when it occurred to me to scream. Surely Zedekiah would hear. Then he could get me out of here and I could warn Nick away. Of course it was terribly vain of me to think Nick would come to my rescue, especially after our last rather horrible scene together. Then I relaxed the hold on my legs some. Of course, how ridiculous of me to think that Nick Crush would come up here looking for me. Besides he didn’t even know I’d been taken from the farm. I nearly laughed to myself. Wasn’t I the daft, delusional damsel thinking all the brave knights were coming to rescue me? Then it occurred to me, maybe no one would come for me. Nana could not possibly trek up the hill. And how would she confront the ghosts anyway? Now I was depressed. I might die here in this dark, dank fur trader’s shack and no one would find me until some hikers came upon my bones lying here on this bench.

    My feet rubbed the rough, chewed end of the bench and a splinter stuck in my toe. I pulled it out and it started to bleed. “Ouch.”

    That was all I needed. I stood. “Help! Zedekiah! Help!” The entire shack shook wildly, and I fell sideways on the bench, giving my hip a good thwack. But I was determined. I stood again and yelled for help. Again the shack shook violently until I was sure it would fall off its rotted foundation and roll down the steep hill it sat upon. This time the jarring motion sent me to my backside. The force of my fall caused the locket to jump up and smack me on the nose. I’d completely forgotten about it. If it had been hanging in view all this time, it obviously had no effect on the other ghosts. I tucked it under my sweater just in case Zedekiah was looking for me. I’d hate to have him find me and then be scared off by the locket.

    As I pushed to standing, my hand pressed on a plank in the floor that moved. I pressed down on the adjacent planks. They all moved. It was a trap door. I opened it and peeked in hoping it would lead somewhere, but it appeared only to be a large, deep hole. Perhaps it was where the fur trappers hid their hides from thieves when they were out hunting. Or perhaps it was a commode. I dropped the door deciding I didn’t really need to find out.

    I debated whether or not to stand and yell one more time, but the ache on my bottom told me to hold off. Thin fingers of light were sliding through the spaces in the ramshackle walls. Although ramshackle might not have been the right term. When one considered how long this structure had stood in this place and how many storms and blizzards it had survived, it was truly quite amazing.

    It had grown very quiet outside. I made a futile attempt at opening the door, but it didn’t move even an inch. One particular gap was wide enough for me to peek through and get a glimpse of the outside.  I pressed my face toward the gap. The only thing I saw was Axel gathering up a giant pile of forest litter. Fuel for the fire, no doubt.

    I swallowed hard. “Help!” I yelled.

    The light that pierced the hole in the ceiling dimmed and I looked up. Crow’s hideous face peered in. “Keep your mouth shut in there.” His foul breath seeped into the room, and I decided I preferred to be shaken around than be breathed on by one of my captors. “You need to save your voice. We’ll tell you when it’s time to yell. We’re not ready yet.”

    He shook the tiny cabin once, and I sat down hard on the bench. That was odd. They were going to tell me when to yell. What kidnappers ask their victim to yell at an appropriate time? Of course their plan could only work if Nick arrived first. But where was Zedekiah? Didn’t he have some sort of ability to track down fellow dead people? And what if Nick hadn’t survived the first trap? I washed that thought quickly out of my head. He had to survive.