Page 13 of Refuge for Cherilyn

“No,youstop. Mom told me to brush your hair, and that’s what I’m going to do. Now, you be still or I swear, I’ll knock you down and sit on you to hold you.” Lara continued to fight…Maya. That’s her name, he told himself.

They were so distracted that they didn’t even see him approaching, and he thought that was good. He’d gotten to within twenty feet of them and crouched down when Lara looked up and screamed, “MAN!”

Maya’s head whipped around and her eyes bulged. “Shit! Get in the cave, Lara. Who are you? What do you want?”

“I’m not going to hurt you, I promise,” he said in little more than a whisper. The girl wouldn’t run. She wouldn’t leave her sister, and Shaw knew it.

“What do you want? Mom! Mom!”

“It’s okay! Really, it’s all right. I’m a conservation officer. You know, I take care of birds and fish and plants? I’m not here to hurt you. I just want to help you.”

“Mom! Shit! Stay away from us!” she screamed and backed toward the cave where the younger girl hid, her eyes big as half dollars. “Don’t come any closer!” she yelled as she grabbed a large rock and held it aloft.

“Look, I’m not gonna hurt you, but if you hit me with that, I’ll be forced to arrest you, and I don’t want to do that.” He was about to say something else when he saw the girl’s eyes flick to the right slightly, and something pressed into his back.

A woman’s voice whispered, “Don’t move. I mean it. I don’t want to shoot you, but I will if I have to. Down on your knees.”

Shaw knelt and splayed his arms outward, then slowly lifted his hands and wove his fingers together behind his neck. “I’m not going to hurt you. But if you hurt me, you’re hurting a law enforcement officer, and more than one person knew I was coming here today.” When she didn’t respond, he tried again. “Look, I just came to talk to you. I’d like to help you if I can. I know what’s been going on because I talked to the employees at the lodge, and you shouldn’t have to live like this, Cherilyn.”

“How do you know my name?”

“We ran the plates on your car.” He waited for a few seconds before he spoke again. “Can I turn around now? I swear to god, I’m not going to hurt you. I wouldn’t do that. Looks like you’ve got it rough enough as it is.” There was an instant sensation of the weapon pulling away from his back, and he twisted and grabbed it.

It was a stick.

The woman jumped back and stood there, a look of total terror on her face. “What do you want?”

“I just want to talk to you. I’m gonna stand up now, okay? It’s okay, really. I’m not going to hurt anybody. I just want to talk.” He rose to standing and took in the sight of the woman in front of him. She was pitifully thin and her hair looked brittle and dry, there was skin peeling off her face, and he could tell just by looking at the three of them that they hadn’t had a bath or clean clothes in weeks. “You can’t keep living out here like this. Let me help you, okay?”

She sighed and bowed her head. “Nobody can help us. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

“I can help you. I swear, I can, if you’ll just let me. So, can we…” Shaw pointed about fifty feet away at some large rocks. “Let’s go over there and sit down, okay? We’ll just talk and see if we can figure this out.”

She sighed again. “Whatever.” Then she turned and walked toward the boulders.

Shaw waited until she sat on one, then he sat on the one farthest from her. Yeah, she smelled wretched, but he also knew if he got too close, she’d get spooked, and he didn’t want something to happen that would hurt any of them. When they were both settled, he looked into her face and smiled. “I didn’t want to talk in front of your girls. The last thing I want is for them to be scared or hear too much.”

“Yeah. This has been hard enough on them.”

“I can see that. Can you tell me why on earth you’re out here?”

She sat there for a few seconds, picking at some flaky skin on the back of her hand. “I saw something.”

“Okay. I know there was a murder in your building.”

Her eyes snapped to lock with his. “How did you know that?”

“Your brother-in-law told me.”

The response was instantaneous. “Oh, shit. No. You didnottell him you were looking for me. Please tell me you didn’t.”

“Uh, yeah, I told him I was looking for you. Said some employees at a local business had reported your car here and?”

“Shit! Shit, shit, shit. Oh, god, I’m as good as dead.” Her hair swung back and forth as she stood and started to pace in fear, a fear so palpable that Shaw could feel it. “You told him I was here? Why? Why did you do that?”

“Not here, no. Besides, I didn’t know it would be a problem, and we were trying to find you, and?”

“We? Who’s ‘we?’ You and who? My ex?”

---