Murder in the Forest: the Bigfoot Killings, Chapter 51
The agents found the turnoff to the road used by Mason after trying two other roads and finding nothing. After finding the correct road, they passed the small dirt turn-off to range further into the forest. But their search yielded nothing and they decided to camp out for the night and then to pursue the final small dirt track on the morrow.
They got into the vehicles and found enough camping gear to let them make a good dinner and provide tents for shelter.
They posted guards after the fires were out, rotating that task. And in the morning, in varying states of emotion and fitness, they made breakfast. This restored the sprits of those who had not been enthusiastic about camping in woods known to harbor dangerous animals and perhaps, a known murderer, rapist, and kidnapper.
"Do you think that Mason saw or smelled our fire?" asked Reid.
"If he did, he probably cleared off," admitted Blacklaws. "But he may have mistaken us for ordinary campers or hunters doing a recce of potential hunting grounds before the elk and deer seasons open. Even so, unless he felt that we weren't likely to do any searching toward the highway, he'd have left. I hope to gosh that he's kept that girl alive."
Kate responded by saying, "Well, if he has her and she's alive, I dread to think of what she's going through, especially as his sex slave. Courtney made it pretty clear what they endured. "
Seaver leaped to Blacklaws's defense. "Kate, being a sex slave isn't what most girls are into, but her only option is to be be dead or lost in the forest, if he freed her. And I really doubt that he'd free her alive, don't you? I hope she's still alive, as a forced slut or not."
Callahan saw her point and agreed. "I wasn't saying otherwise, Ashley. Of course, I want for her to be alive. I was just thinking how bad she must feel about herself now if he has her. "
"Not to change the subject," said van Reenan, "but I've been looking at this topo map again and thinking that I was through here this summer, en route to the river below. I wanted to catch Redband Steelhead trout and that's the best place near here. To make a long story practically endless, I realized that a smaller river runs through the woods a half mile beyond us, toward the road. It's wide enough and deep enough to hold trout to a weight of at least several pounds and it'd provide water for Mason if he knows about it. He'd have to strain and boil water, maybe use activated charcoal filters on it. But he may be an experienced outdoorsman with the right supplies for that, and he can boil enough for most needs if he has a sound metal container. A pail or whatever. He probably hasn't got enough water in bottles for a stay of weeks, especially with the girl along. I think that if I was in his place, I'd look for shelter along that river trail and try to catch fish or snare small game to eke out my supplies. "
Blacklaws agreed. "This forest is just too extensive and too dense to check it all. Unless we find a trail that's been used, we probably won't find them in here. And our FBI colleagues need to be back in Seattle by this weekend. Except for Ashley, who'll be staying with me for a couple of weeks, during which her only duties will be to keep me happy, which she is physically and otherwise well equipped to do."
He paused for the knowing smirks and chuckles that greeted that remark, accompanied by Ashley's blush.
He added that they should finish breaking camp and drive slowly down the road, which had run out in the direction that they were proceeding. Unless they wanted to conduct a difficult, long term search on foot, the only choice was to reverse their direction and leave. But they could look carefully for any sign in the dirt road or in the land near the road, stopping a few times to probe at random into the trees. But their main hope was to check that tiny dirt path that they'd passed on their way in.
All agreed and they proceeded with that plan, which took the rest of the morning, leaving two of their number with the trucks as the others fanned out and searched.
Callahan and Reid almost wandered into an elk passing through and hastily got out of the way. They were impressed at the size of the bull. Soon, the rut would begin and bulls like this would fight to assemble, retain, and breed harems of cow elk. Bulls could already be truculent, so they were careful not to move until the big deer had moved on down the trail, probably en route to water at the small river that was their own next goal.
Seaver and Blackaws disturbed a fox that growled at them before reluctantly fleeing, looking back and snapping at them.
"Is that thing rabid?" asked the blonde agent. "Should we shoot it, even if a shot would alert Mason?"
Blacklaws shook his head. "No, it's probably just feeling territorial. It likely has a bed here or a kill nearby. It didn't move toward us and wasn't too friendly or foaming at the mouth. I don't see any indication of it being rabid. That's good, because if it was rabid, we'd need to shoot it and send the head to the state biology people for analysis. It'd be too dangerous to leave here alive. Rabies is a horrible, fatal disease. We don't know that Mason and Melissa are even in here, but the fox sure is, so we'd have to see saving people and other animals from the fox as our clear duty. Well, let's push on and see if we can find any tracks along the river banks."
And so they did, unaware of what they were about to discover in a most dramatic way…