Page 26 of Bait and Switch
“Came out of nowhere. Screamed.” Carlos swallowed convulsively. “I ran, thought he was going to kill me.”
“Someone from the crew?” Greta asked.
He moved his head from side to side. “Stranger. Didn’t know.”
His eyes drifted shut.
Crouched awkwardly next to him, Greta looked up again, her expression more concerned than before. They both knew there was no way that the two of them alone would be able to extract Carlos from the fissure without hurting him, and maybe worse than he already was.
“Hey, we need you to stay awake. The rest of the team is on the way,” she told the injured man. “We’ll have you out of there ASAP.”
Casey knew speaking was taxing Carlos, but as long as he kept talking, he was alive. They needed to know more before he was medivacked out. If there was some nutjob loose in the forest, they had a problem in addition to a lost and injured worker.
“Yeah, stay with us, Carlos. Can you tell us any more about this man? What did he look like?”
The man’s eyes closed again. For a tense fifteen seconds, Casey thought he’d slipped into unconsciousness, but he must have been trying to recall what had happened.
“The wild man was big. Crazy,” he whispered. “Thought he was a demon at first. Charged at me, fire in his eyes. Screamed.” Carlos’s eyes drifted shut.
“Carlos, stick with us. Tell us more,” Greta encouraged. “We’d like to find this man.”
“I ran. He chased me.”
“You said he was big. Taller than you? Heavier?”
“Yeah, both. Long beard, no hair, camo… Face was green. Big gun.”
The prickle that had been forming in the back of Casey’s mind turned into a full-fledged rash.
“Sounds like that could have been Calvin Perkins,” he said to Greta. “I think this is the first sighting of him since Dwayne was found.”
It had been Karne who’d discovered Dwayne’s body but the fewer who knew that fact, the better. Gabe had just been unlucky enough to have the last known run-in with the two. Throw a rock anywhere in Twana County and you’d hit somebody who’d clashed with the brothers.
“I didn’t kill no one!” Carlos wheezed, fear and anxiety overwhelming him again. He started to struggle against the crevasse’s hold on him, using up energy he couldn’t afford to lose.
“We don’t think you did, Carlos,” Greta assured him as she tucked the space blanket around him again. “Everything is going to be okay.”
But was it? With the possibility of a rampaging Calvin Perkins, no one was safe on the mountain. Was he injured as well? Why was he chasing down innocent brush workers? Where the hell was he hiding out? The forest was over two million acres, he could be anywhere.
Greta caught his eye, and from her grim expression, he knew she was thinking along the same lines.
“We’re going to have to talk to Rizzi,” she said quietly. “And release a general memo to Fish and Wildlife so they keep their eye out. We don’t want anyone else hurt.”
Finally, from a distance but approaching quickly, Casey heard the sound of an approaching helicopter.
“Help’s arrived, Carlos. We’re gonna get you out of here.”
ELEVEN
Gabriel
Tuesday afternoon into evening
After they leftthe Geoduck Inn, Elton dropped Gabriel off at the marina. It was late afternoon, and he had a full stomach and a lot to think about.
“I’ll check in tomorrow,” he told Elton.
Slush was falling, a gross mix of rain and snow. It wasn’t pretty and it didn’t hint at magical—it was cold. The world was wet and oversaturated, but just one look west told him that the white stuff was accumulating on the hills and higher peaks.
