Firestorm

Chapter Three

Ted sat up against the bolster of Geena's bed, waiting for his heart rate to return to normal. "Damn!" was about all he could get out as he looked at the naked vision lying on her stomach. Never had Ted been lucky enough to bed a woman who combined such physical beauty with uninhibited sexual gusto. What's the saying? She gives as good as she gets? She certainly gave it to Ted this evening. They spent the past two hours making love, ending the last session with Geena begging Ted to stop.

It was time to take a break. What a treat to have this 'cabin' to themselves all night. It was at least ten-thousand square feet with six bedrooms, each with its own en-suite bath. That didn't include the huge game room and Mr. Perrison's private office. Ted took great pleasure in walking around the house wearing only his jeans. It made him feel as if he almost belonged here.

As Ted leaned over, trying to find a decent ale in the giant refrigerator, Geena snuck up and goosed him. Ted wheeled around, ready to bitch her out, but held his tongue when he saw she hadn't bothered to put anything over that bodacious body.

Geena laughed as she watched Ted's eyes devour her nakedness. "That's for the spanking you gave me; my ass is bright red. Lucky you're the only one to see how you've abused me." The pout in her voice was so damn cute that Ted thought he'd get hard just hearing it.

"How come your father never has any decent beer in the house?"

"Because he only drinks Scotch." Geena answered.

"I never acquired a taste for Scotch."

"That's because you never had the good stuff. Dad only drinks the eighteen-year-old and older."

"It almost sounds sexual when you put it like that. Where does he keep it?"

"Dad keeps the good stuff in his office; but the door is always locked."

Ted walked over to the office door and examined the doorknob. "This should be a cinch to open."

Geena was right behind him, drinking a glass of Merlot. "Well, don't get caught. Don't drink more than a few fingers, otherwise he'll know you were in there and I'll be the one who hears about it. Even the housekeeper isn't allowed in there unless Dad's in the room."

Ted pulled the Swiss army knife out of his pants' pocket and the long pick made short work of the door lock. Ted found the light switch and looked at the room. "Damn, what I wouldn't give to have a room like this someday!"

"Remember what I said, no more than a couple fingers of his Scotch. I'm going up to fill the tub. Why don't you join me?"

Ted found the liquor cabinet. "I'll be up in a few minutes."

After pouring a small taste of the liquor and deciding it was much better than the cheap Scotch he once had at a frat party, Ted poured three fingers into the glass and began to survey the room. Photos of Geena's father in uniform with other servicemen sat on the fireplace mantle. There were two elk heads with huge antlers on the wall one on either side of the fireplace. Even to Ted's unsophisticated eyes, the leather sofa, matching chairs and ottoman all reeked of money, these were no cheap Chinese pieces.

On the wall opposite the fireplace stood a beautiful gun cabinet. A switch was on the side and when Ted turned on the light he saw the shotguns and rifles through the glass in the door. To his surprise the door opened, but the guns were locked in place with a steel bar held by a biometric fingerprint scanner. Like everything else in the room, the guns were obviously expensive.

This would always be the tough part of Ted's decision to pursue a career in the Forest Service -- he'd never be rich enough to afford the finer things in life. He was twenty-four years old and although he owned a nice Jeep, he rented a small cabin that required him to share the space with a series of roommates; currently Anthony, the twenty-year-old college kid interning here for the summer. Most of his roommates, including Anthony, were decent people, but still, he'd never own all this.

"Oh well" he said it out loud before taking another sip of the excellent liquid gold. He walked over to Mr. Perrison's desk and ran his hand along the edge. The desk was at least eight feet wide and five feet deep, the top of the desk was covered with maps and folders.

Ted took a quick look at the top map and recognized it as a surveyor's map of the private lands that abutted the National Forest, including the area where the Perrison's cabin sat. He knew the land was privately owned, but never knew until now that the land was all owned by the Perrison family. Ted had little doubt what he was looking at, Perrison was planning to subdivide the land into almost twenty parcels. Ted pulled his phone out of his pocket and took a picture of the maps.

The folder held more interesting information. He didn't have time to read each page, but it was obvious Mr. Perrison was paying off local politicians and citizens' groups to help him with his plans. Ted continued to take photos of the documents until Geena rushed into the room wearing a bath robe.

"Ted, get out of here! Dad just called to tell me he's five minutes from coming home. He didn't want me to be scared when he came in the door. You have to get dressed!"

Geena ran out of the room just as fast as she entered it. Ted did his best to put the maps and papers back on the desk the way he found them. He looked around the room -- was there anything else he moved? Was the liquor cabinet door closed? He turned out the light, locked and closed the office door and ran up the stairs to get dressed. As he entered Geena's room, he had to ask, "I thought your father was out of town, what happened?"

Putting on a sundress, Geena answered, "Hell if I know, I didn't ask. I was too busy trying to get off the phone so I could warn you. What were you doing down there, anyway? I told you to join me in the bathtub! And what are you going to do with that glass?"

"Shit, I don't know. Maybe I can sneak it out of here in my daypack."

The two of them finished dressing and made it downstairs and turned on the television just before they heard the garage door open, then close. One minute later, James Perrison walked into the house carrying his suitcase and a briefcase. Geena got up from the sofa and gave her father a hug.

"Daddy, I thought you were staying overnight in Seattle."

James looked at his daughter's boyfriend who was rising from the sofa. "Obviously" was all he said before Ted reached out his hand.

"Good evening Mr. Perrison."

"Hello Todd." Whether James called him 'Todd' on purpose or if he just didn't know would never be answered.

"Daddy, this is Ted, not Todd."

James Perrison did not apologize. "I need a drink." Is all he said before walking to his office and unlocking the door. Ted held his breath as his girlfriend's father left the den.

The first thing Perrison noticed was the missing glass. There were always eight glasses on the shelf above the cabinet. He checked the small dishwasher below the wet bar and it was empty. He looked around the room and cursed himself. How could he be so damn stupid? How could he have left the maps and that file out? "Damn! Damn! Damn!"

Perrison stood looking at the items on the desk. Had anyone been snooping? If so, who? Now he had to decide how to play this. Confront Geena and that boy ranger? Or keep it close to the vest and try to find out who knew what? There was no doubt someone rifled through the papers, but who?

Perrison grabbed his drink and headed back to the den, sitting across from the two. He grabbed the remote and turned the television off.

"How was your day Geena?"

Geena's reply was full of bubble, her typical reaction anytime her father paid any attention to her. "I spent the afternoon with Maria. She taught me how to make those enchiladas you love. They're in the refrigerator. I was going to serve them when you came home tomorrow."

Geena's reply told him what he needed to know. Geena was not the one who went through his papers.

"I'm going to get a refill. Ted, would you like a drink?"

Ted was shocked by the question, but was able to reply, "No sir, maybe I should get going."

"Nonsense Ted. Please stay. It would be nice to get to know Geena's friend." Perrison stood and went back into his office. He poured another Scotch and made a phone call.

Perrison returned to the den with two glasses in his hand.

"I know you said 'no' to a drink, but you really should try this Scotch, Ted." He handed the drink to Ted and moved his glass forward to a toast. Ted's shaking hand did not escape his attention. The conversation that followed was truly bizarre. Mr. Perrison, who never exchanged ten words with Ted in the past, asked him questions about his work, his past studies and his home life, all the time pretending to be interested in what Ted had to say.

After an hour and a half, Mr. Perrison's phone made a quiet buzz, he checked his phone and within five minutes excused himself.

"Well, I've had a long day with too many miles driven. I was two-thirds the way to my meeting when I received the call that the meeting was cancelled. If Seattle wasn't such a hellhole with all the homeless downtown I would have gone anyway. But no way I'm spending an evening walking around downtown trying to avoid human waste on the sidewalks." Geena had heard the speech a hundred times, ever since the 'summer of love' last year but didn't let Daddy see her eyes roll.

"Goodnight Geena" he said as he bent over to kiss her forehead. "Goodnight Ted. Drive careful on the way home tonight." Making it clear that Ted would not be spending the night with Geena as planned. And Ted would have to wait until tomorrow to tell her what he found in her father's office. Maybe she already knew, but he doubted it.

Geena held Ted's arm as she walked him to the front door. "Sorry, Ted." She kissed him on the lips, he wanted to wrap his arms around her waist and squeeze her perfect body, but her father was still hovering nearby. He reluctantly moved away from her, down the walk and into his Jeep. Geena stood at the open door, the light from inside the house behind her, Ted thought he could see her shape beneath the thin fabric of the sun dress she wore. He knew she hadn't had time to put on underwear when they were dressing earlier and the thought of her body almost made him stop the Jeep and give her one last kiss.

*****

The dirt road to the county road was almost a half mile and Ted now knew all this land along the road was owned by the Perrisons. Which made it especially odd when, within a third of a mile from the Perrison cabin, Ted came across a large man standing in the road, his vehicle sitting on the edge of the road with the hood up. The man was signaling Ted to stop.

Ted stopped his Jeep and lowered his window. "Can I help you?"

As the man approached the Jeep, Ted thought to himself, "Why does he look familiar? Where have I seen that face before?"

"Thanks for stopping." said the man, not acknowledging that Ted had no choice but to stop or would have run the man over. "My truck just quit on me. Any chance you have a flashlight I could use?"

Ted's first thought was this guy was a poacher, since he was out here late at night on a deserted road, but any poacher would have a flashlight. Ted was on alert and checked to see if he could spot any weapons before reaching into his glovebox to retrieve the flashlight he always carried in the Jeep. He handed his Maglite Mini to the guy but stayed in his vehicle.

The guy walked over to his truck and checked the inside of the engine compartment. "That's it!" He opened the back of the truck and pulled out a wrench. "Hey buddy, could you hold the flashlight a second? I have a loose connection on the battery terminal."

Ted got out of his Jeep and grabbed the flashlight from the man. As he shined the light on the battery, the man quickly moved behind Ted, grabbed his head, and snapped his neck. Ted dropped the flashlight, his last thoughts would remain unknown.

Alexander Crawford closed the hood of his truck, picked up the flashlight and put it in his pocket, then grabbed Ted Harris' body and shoved it into the back seat of the Jeep. If Ted had more time to look at the man he would have realized where he had seen his face - in one of the photographs on Mr. Perrison's mantle, a photograph of the Vice-President and two soldiers, Major Perrison and Sergeant Crawford, somewhere in a desert setting.

Crawford went back to the truck, pulled out some hiking gear and threw everything on top of the body. Crawford found Alex's phone in the center cup holder and when he turned it on, was pleased the phone needed a thumb print and not a password to open. Easy enough as he reached back and pulled Ted's lifeless arm forward.

It took him less than a minute to find and delete all the photos Ted had of the maps and papers. Next he found the name of Ted's roommate in the contact listing. He sent off a quick text message to Anthony Roland, 'Need some time alone, heading out to take a hike'. It may not have been perfect but was good enough to cause people to wonder and question any suspicion of foul play.

Crawford turned off the phone and placed it in Ted's coat pocket. It would soon be out of any cell tower's service area and untraceable. Crawford took out his own phone and tapped a quick text to Perrison letting him know everything went as planned on their earlier call and to move his truck.

Crawford started the Jeep and drove west after pulling onto the county road. Although Alex Crawford spent most his adult life as a criminal he never spent a day in prison because Alex firmly believed in being prepared. That's why Alex had already run background checks on Geena's boyfriend and her local friends -- he knew where Ted worked, lived, who he hung with and the name of his roommate. Crawford also knew exactly what he would do with Ted's body and the Jeep. One advantage to living in the middle of nowhere is the almost infinite availability of places a dead body could be hidden.

Within an hour of the murder Alex parked Ted's Jeep at a desolate trailhead and pulled the young man's body out of the back. Ted's body weighed one hundred-sixty pounds and it wasn't much of a struggle for Alex to heave the dead weight onto his shoulders and hike the nearly half mile to where a cliff dropped down into a steep ravine. Even in the remote chance the body was ever found, no one would ever trace it back to him.

With the body gone Alex drove the Jeep to a second remote trailhead parking area deep in the National Forest. Hikers rarely used the trail this late in the season and it would be three weeks before any hunters travelled up here. Finding the abandoned Jeep up here would only confound and confuse any would-be searchers.

Alex grabbed his gear from the Jeep and began the long thirty-mile hike back to town. It would take him until the late the following night to make the hike, but all in all, getting paid twenty thousand dollars - the agreed upon amount for Crawford to get rid of Ted Harris - for twenty-four hours labor worked out to nearly a thousand dollars an hour.

*****

After receiving Crawford's text, Perrison waited in the den until he was certain Geena was asleep. He grabbed his flashlight and 1911 Colt.45 before heading out to retrieve Crawford's truck. Although the road was marked 'private', it wouldn't do to have someone come across the vehicle.

The night was black as ink since the moon had set an hour ago, it was difficult to see fifty feet without the flashlight. Perrison kept the.45 in his hand and made certain there was a round in the chamber. The woods were full of predators -- coyotes, black bears, cougars and the wolves that had recently been reintroduced to the Valley. Some nature outfit was even recommending importing grizzly bears from Canada and releasing them into the North Cascades. Perrison kept swinging the flashlight in an arc to make certain nothing was creeping up on him. If he wasn't so frightened by what could be out in the woods, he may have turned off the flashlight and looked into the night sky; the Milky Way held a billion stars, the constellations as clear as when our ancestors named them thousands of years ago.

But the only thing on Perrison's mind as he walked down the dark road, besides any wild animals lurking about, was his own idiocy in leaving those maps and papers out on his desk. He was so busy talking to a potential CIayton client in Myanmar that he failed to lock them in the desk. He knew he locked the office door, and everyone in the household knew better than to invade the sanctity of his office, so it shouldn't have been an issue.

That damn kid not only thought he could get away with screwing his daughter; he thought nothing of breaking into his office, stealing his liquor and reading his papers. The kid only had himself to blame for his early demise. On top of everything else, killing the kid cost him another twenty grand, twenty thousand that couldn't be charged off as legitimate business expenses.

And what to do about Geena? She liked this Ted and will be devastated when the kid doesn't turn up from his 'hike'. Perrison decided to call Geena's mother in the morning and arrange to ship their daughter back to Philadelphia to recover from the trauma. Let her mother deal with the hysterics.

Probably be best to let that moron Town Marshall interview her before she goes though; if only to make certain everyone understands the kid left their cabin in one piece without any threats to his safety.

Perrison reached the truck, found the key and drove back to the cabin. With the truck hidden in the third stall of the garage, Perrison checked to make certain Geena was still sound asleep and went to bed. It had been a long, tiring day.

Chapter Four

Anthony woke up at six a.m. just as the sun came streaming through the window. Living on the east side of the Cascade Mountains was so different from the west side. During his two years living in Portland, every sunny day was like a gift from God. Here on the dry east side, everyone prayed for rain.

Especially this year. The drought made for an intense summer. Two wildfires, each covering over fifty-thousand acres, had left giant scars on the forest. The local populace had only just removed their masks from the Covid-induced protocols when people began wearing them again as the smoke from the two fires filled the valley to dangerous levels. The fires were mostly extinguished now, but everyone kept praying for a decent rainstorm to wet the ground before a lightning bolt or a careless camper started another fire. It wouldn't take much with the dry conditions.

Anthony pulled into the Forest Service parking lot and noticed that Ted's Jeep wasn't here. "You son-of-a-bitch; you'd better just be late this morning." Anthony called Ted's cell and got his voicemail. "Ted, you bum, wake up and get your ass down here now!" Anthony ended the call before noticing he missed Ted's Message from late last night. 'Need some alone time, heading out to take a hike'. What the hell was that supposed to mean? Did Ted have another argument with Geena? Ted was a bit of a flake, but he normally had more sense than to start out hiking in the middle of the night.

Anthony was still fuming as he watched Frank Morgan's truck roll into the lot.

*****

Because of Ted's absence and Morgan's priorities, it was mid-afternoon when Anthony and Morgan left to check the campsite and it was just after seven when they returned to town. The sun was just setting behind the Cascades Range, so there was still some ambient light in the sky. Anthony has been calling Ted's phone every few hours and getting his voice mail.

It turned out the camp on Four-Mile Creek was a family who had lost their home in Seattle and were on their way to Spokane where the father was scheduled to start a new job the following week. Unfortunately, their new apartment wouldn't be available for two weeks and the family couldn't afford a motel for two full weeks. The family, which consisted of the two parents and two grade school children, chose to rough it in the woods for the first week.