Finding Hannah (13 page)

“Have you ever let another girl put face paint on you?” Molly asked as she smeared the black paste under my eyes.

“Only you,” I said. “Have you ever slept in a tent with another guy before?”

“Only you,” Molly said with a laugh. “Have you ever wandered the woods for days on end with another girl?”

“Only you.” I could feel Molly’s fingers on my chin as she continued smearing. “Have you ever scared off a bear with another guy?”

“Only you,” she said. Molly rubbed my cheeks. “Have you ever kissed anyone?”

“No,” I kept my eyes closed as Molly covered my nose. “How about you? You ever kissed anyone?”

Molly didn’t answer. The touch from her fingers vanished. I was about to open my eyes to see if I had said something wrong, but then Molly pressed her warm lips against mine. I felt weightless as our kiss drowned out everything else. Molly’s bright blue eyes met mine as we separated.

“Only you,” Molly said with a smile. I returned her smile. If we hadn’t been wearing face paint, both of our faces would have been bright red.

“Come on.” Molly stood and grabbed my hand. “We’ve got a house to stake out.”

Chapter 10

My GPS unit led us back to the house. It took an hour to get there. We arrived in the dark to see the house all lit up. We found a spot on a hill overlooking it and lay down so our hips touched. Touching Molly made me feel like I was floating. I remembered the feeling of her lips against mine.

We used our binoculars and spotting scope to survey the house. At least a dozen cars lined the long driveway. It appeared most of the guests were seated in the brightly lit dining room located at the back of the house. Its massive windows gave us a perfect view. The ladies wore brightly colored dresses and the men were in suits and ties. Wine was being poured and everyone smiled and laughed as several conversations were going on at once. A couple had just arrived and were being hugged by several of the other guests who stood to greet them. My stomach growled as the lasagna, bread, and salad were served. The dinner looked so much better than our military-issue MREs.

“Well, we can cross this place off our list,” I said.

“Yeah, no way Hannah is there,” Molly said.

Molly’s black hooded sweatshirt was pulled tight around her face as she looked through the spotting scope. “How much fun would that be? Look at how everyone is so dressed up.”

“Should we crash the party?” I asked. “We’d fit right in.”

Molly looked at me and smiled. “They’d think they were being robbed.”

Everyone inside sat down and the man at the head of the table stood and held up his glass.

“I’d like to make a toast,” Molly said, looking through the spotting scope, “to my friend, Dylan Beachley, a tenacious searcher of those who are lost and the best woodsman of the upper Northeast.”

Everyone in the room raised their glasses and took a drink. As they finished, another man stood and also held up his glass.

“And I, also, would like to make a toast,” I said, looking through the binoculars. “To my friend, Molly Beckstrand, a genius motivator of those searching and the smartest and prettiest girl in the upper Northeast.”

Again, everyone in the room raised their glasses as if they’d heard us and took a drink.

Molly and I laughed.

“Do you really think I’m pretty?” Molly asked.

“Of course you are. And smart. Do you really think I’m the best woodsman?” I asked.

“Of course I do.”

A rumble of thunder made us look to the west.

“Oh, no,” Molly said.

“We’d better go,” I said.

The wind began to blow as we stood and started back to our campsite.

We picked up our pace as we wove in and out of the trees with the help of our flashlights.

We were about halfway back, and the lightning flashes were becoming more frequent. I was leading the way with the GPS when I saw a flicker of light to my left and stopped.

“Molly, look at that.” In the distance was a yard light we hadn’t seen during the day.

“Let’s check it out,” Molly said, shutting off her flashlight. I did the same and followed her.

The yard light was on a pole next to a small cabin. It was the complete opposite of the house we’d just watched. It was long and narrow with a door on one end next to a dead-end gravel driveway. The yard was overrun with weeds and the cabin was completely dark.

There was a woodpile in the back next to a large shed. I couldn’t see any power lines entering the cabin.

“It looks like a hunting shack,” Molly said.

“Follow me,” I said. We moved around the side to get a better look. There were no cars parked in front.

I pulled out Wiz’s night-vision goggles and turned them on. “I’m going to run over to the window and look inside. Stay here.”

Molly nodded.

I put the goggles on and saw the whole cabin outlined in different shades of green. I stayed low and moved under the window. I looked around one more time, then raised my head and looked inside. I could see the outline of an empty couch, a woodstove, a cooler, and a table. Sitting on the table was a map. Three deer heads were mounted on the wall above the couch.

I returned to Molly as the sky lit up with a flash of lightning, followed by a rumble of distant thunder. “You were right. It looks like a hunting shack. No sign of anything that would make me think Hannah is here. Let’s go around to the other side.”

Molly followed me and we found a window with the shade slightly open. With the goggles I could see two sets of empty beds.

“Let’s check out the shed,” Molly said.

Another rumble of thunder echoed in the distance. I led her to the backyard and put the night-vision goggles back in my bag. The shed was smaller than the cabin, but it had a loft, so it was taller.

I opened the door and the light from my flashlight showed the shed was divided into two rooms. The room we entered had bear traps of various sizes on one wall, a workbench with a half-disassembled chainsaw on it was against the back wall, and a push mower was parked in the corner.

“What’s that awful smell?” Molly asked.

It smelled like gasoline mixed with rotting flesh.

Molly shined her flashlight at the wall of bear traps. A flash of lightning was closely followed by thunder, which rattled a small window next to her.

I panned my flashlight around the room and noticed some brown fur on the floor.

Molly turned her light to the door of the next room while I shined mine at the ceiling.

Molly pushed the door open and screamed. She turned to grab me. “Oh, my God, it’s someone’s skin!”

“What?”

“It’s all stretched out on a table,” Molly said. “Don’t look!”

I pushed the door open. Molly buried her face in my back and held onto my waist. Nails held a stretched-out bloody skin on a large table. I shined my flashlight and saw brown fur on the edges.

“It’s a deer skin,” I said.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, it’s got brown fur on the bottom. Plus, it’s too big to be human.”

Molly looked around my shoulder, still holding me.

“You scared me,” I told her.

Molly let out a weak laugh and said, “Sorry.”

The sound of an engine made me turn back to the open shed door.

“Quick, kill your flashlight,” I said.

Car headlights filled the shed through the open door and then disappeared as the car turned and stopped on the other side of the cabin. I grabbed Molly’s hand and we flew out of the shed into the woods. Thunder rumbled as I heard two car doors slam shut.

About thirty feet from the shed was a huge downed tree. I jumped over it and lay on my back behind it, pulling Molly down on top of me.

Two men spoke loudly to each other in the distance.

“I already told you, I latched the dang door when we left.”

“It don’t look latched to me.”

The two men walked closer to the shed, their voices becoming louder.

“Are you sure you saw something when we pulled in?”

“I thought so. I don’t know. Could be nothing.”

Molly tightened her grip on my arms as her head pressed into my chest. The sky lit up again as lightning bolts stretched across the clouds.

I heard the footsteps of a man walking around in the shed and then a flashlight beam passed over us.

“Everything is still here,” a man shouted from the shed.

Footsteps approached. The other man stopped just inches from the downed tree, so close I could see the first drops of rain falling in the beam from his flashlight as he swung it around, shining it at the forest.

“I don’t see nothing,” the man above us said loudly.

Molly and I were breathing so hard I wondered if he was going to hear us.

The other man slammed the shed door shut, which made Molly twitch.

The flashlight beam passed above us one more time, just as lightning flashed, followed by booming thunder. I squeezed Molly as her whole body jumped from the noise.

I could feel both of our hearts pounding as the man took one more pass of the woods with his flashlight.

“The wind must have blown it open,” the other man said. “Storm’s coming. Let’s get inside.”

We heard them walk back to the cabin. Molly’s head dropped into my chest as the door to the cabin shut with a loud smack.

“Are you okay?” I whispered.

Molly slowly raised her head and looked at me with a smile. She giggled. “That was close,” she whispered back, and let out a huge sigh. Her giggle was contagious. When I joined in, it made her giggle even more.

Molly crossed her arms on my chest and pushed herself up, resting her chin close to mine. Our eyes met. Thunder rumbled in the distance.

Raindrops began to fall harder as Molly stared down at me. “I think I liked the dinner party stakeout better,” she said.

“Me, too.”

“At least this one had a happy ending.” She smiled and kissed me.

Molly stood and helped me to my feet. “The search continues,” she said, holding my hand as she led me deeper into the trees.

* * *

The thunderstorm was in full force, with constant lightning and wind bending the treetops. When we reached our camp, we were soaking wet since we’d left our rain gear in the tent. This didn’t seem to bother Molly. She pulled off her hooded sweatshirt and twirled with her arms out as she looked up at the sky.

“I love thunderstorms!” Molly shouted.

The black face paint was smeared and mostly gone.

“You can change first,” I said.

“I’ll be quick.” Molly disappeared inside the tent.

I stood in the rain, watching the lightning as trees swayed in the wind. It was an awesome display of bright flashes and deep rumbling. I hoped Hannah wasn’t out in the storm.

“Dylan, the naked girl in your tent is gone. It’s just me now, fully clothed.”

“What?” I said, pretending to be annoyed. “Where did the naked girl go? How could you let her get away?”

“She’s fast, okay? Just get in here; it’s pouring outside.”

Another flash of lightning lit up the sky and was followed by a crash of thunder.

I took off my shoes and changed out of my wet clothes, accompanied by the drumming noise of raindrops pounding the tent. Molly was wearing her sweatpants, stocking cap, and a long-sleeve shirt. She lay on her side facing away from me, using a flashlight to write another letter to her dad.

I dried myself with a sweatshirt and changed into sweatpants and a T-shirt. I was cold and quickly climbed into my sleeping bag, then let Molly know I was fully clothed.

“What?” Molly said, matching my previous annoyed tone. “Where did the naked boy go? How could you let him get away?”

“He’s fast, okay?”

We shared a laugh.

Molly finished her letter while I pulled out the picture of Hannah and me. I thought about Hannah’s sixteenth birthday party and what I’d heard regarding how the police didn’t know if it was a stranger abduction or not. I remembered how the detective asked me to make a list of people who might be suspects and how it ended up being blank.

The air mattress forced Molly and me closer together than when we’d slept in the tent without it, but neither of us seemed to mind.

When she put her notepad away, she turned to face me. “Is today Sunday?”

“Yeah,” I said. “What time is your doctor appointment on Tuesday?”

“It’s at 2:00 p.m.”

“Good. We can hike out Tuesday morning and be back home by noon.”

I stared at the ceiling of the tent as Molly lay on her back. We could see the shadows of the bending trees every time the lightning flashed. Pounding thunder rolled over our tent again and again.

“What are you thinking about?” Molly asked.

“Huh?”

“I saw that look on your face. And I know you weren’t thinking about the naked girl who left. You’re thinking about something serious. Are you still keeping your part of our deal?”

“Of course I am, but I’m still mad you let her get away.”

“Hey, you let the naked boy get away.”

“Okay, we’re even.” I laughed. “You’re very smart, you know that? I was thinking about something.”

“Is it something you want to talk about?”

“I overheard someone say the person who took Hannah might have been someone the family knows. I can’t think of anyone we know who would have done this.”

We were silent as Molly took my hand and I closed my eyes and tried to think about something else, something happy. The thought of kissing Molly popped into my head.

Molly broke the silence. “Do you remember the night we ran into those kids sitting around the fire and how you told me you were going to kill the man who took Hannah?”

“I do.”

“Will you do something for me?” Molly asked as she rolled on her side to face me.

“What is it?”

“If you find him, or if you find out who it is, will you come and tell me? I want to be the first to know. Promise me you’ll tell me first, before you do anything else.”

I thought about asking her why. She wasn’t asking me not to kill him, so I decided if that was all she wanted was to know, then I was fine with it. “I promise I will come and tell you first.”

Molly said, “Thanks.”

We said good night and she shut off her flashlight. In minutes she was asleep. I wish I could have done the same. Any time I began to drowse, thoughts of Hannah and the sound of her scream startled me awake. I concentrated on the rain and finally drifted off.