Ground Zero (20 page)

“I will. Like I said, she’s not getting out of the house right now.”

“Alright. You’d better get your door bar set up then, and we’ll make sure we have someone to put in your fancy new jail. Okay? We can improve on it with a trip to the hardware store later,” she said. Chuck nodded and clomped down the stairs. When he was gone she turned to the other people in the room.

“I know we went over this yesterday, but we’re going to refresh our memories so we don’t forget any of the details. Felicia, you’ll be watching the monitors for any signs of him. Radio the person who’s furthest away from him once you see him. That person will let the others know his location, and we can surround the van with that in mind. We want to box him in without him seeing us, if possible. We stay on the property on this side of the sensors until he shows. It’s unlikely he’ll go on the property now that he knows about the sensors, but if we’re circling his van he could run right into one of us while we’re waiting.

“We’ll move in and surround the van in two circles. If he runs through one group, he’ll be caught by the second. Please, for the love of Christ, if you have to fire at him watch where you’re shooting. I don’t want us shooting each other. Gilles, I’ll let you give the instructions there. I went through the firearm training for civilians, but I don’t have police training.”

Gilles took over and gave them a rundown which wasn’t far off what he’d started teaching her about hunting. The same safety precautions applied. The exception was that they weren’t shooting to kill. He made that clear a few times, and double-checked to make sure everyone understood. The rumours had finally circulated that something had been done to Katherine, so it was entirely possible someone would get a little too trigger-happy. When Gilles finished, Cam only had one thing left to say.

“Some of you have some idea why we’re so determined to catch him, and some may think we know all the facts. We don’t. There’s a distinct possibility we’ve been fed a steaming pile of bullshit from a rebellious teenager.
If
he’s done what he’s been accused of, and we have to be absolutely certain of that, we need to make sure he can’t hurt any of us again. If he
hasn’t
done it, and we turn into a bunch of animals and do something we can’t take back, not one of us will be able to look at ourselves in the mirror again. I do not want to be responsible for that. Okay? We’re going out there just to catch him and confine him. If we do this right, there is no reason we can’t bring him back here alive and unharmed.” She glared around at the ten people who would be going out with her, and every one of them looked sober-minded rather than wrathful, which was what she wanted.

“Okay, please be careful with your own skins, too, and do not approach him while still carrying a weapon than he can take from you. Let’s get our asses over there and be ready.”

Cameron felt something like a parrot, because she had said pretty much the same thing the day before, but it didn’t hurt for everyone to have a reminder, or the extra bit of training Gilles provided. People learned through instruction, practice, and repetition, and so they would be better prepared on the second day than they had been on the first. So long as it didn’t get to the point where they were rolling their eyes at her, but if it stretched on much longer she would be rolling her own eyes and telling herself to shut up.

Cam knew he was going to show up that day. She didn’t know if it was instinct, or what, but something was going to happen. Because she felt that way, the afternoon air felt like a surreal swirl around her. Some sort of calm stole over her, until she was so in the moment that it felt like time stopped.

It didn’t, of course, and it wasn’t long before she saw Leigh walking toward her. Apparently she’d gotten the notification over the two-way, which meant Mike was at the other end of the group. Leigh had let everyone know as she passed them on her way to tell Cam, so they had followed her. They gathered up the rest of the group. Then the second radio call came in to let them know Mike was at the van.

Now they could safely surround his van in the two circles. Four people inside, though still shielded by trees, each coming toward a corner of the vehicle so they were watching two sides of it. The other seven people formed a wider circle, showing little from the van side, other than the business end of a rifle, and an eye with which to aim. No one carried a shotgun, because the risk of collateral injury was too great. Until everyone was exactly where they were supposed to be, and all had nodded to the person closest to them to indicate they were ready, they remained silent. Once they were ready, however, Gilles called out.

“Michael Langston, we’re armed and have you surrounded. Come out of the van, slowly, and put your hands in the air where we can see them. Do not bring a weapon out with you, or we will fire on you.”

Cam distinctly heard the word ‘fuck’ from inside the van. The cargo door latches clicked open, and the doors began to swing wide very slowly.

“I’m coming out. Jesus. You didn’t need to go to all this trouble just for me. I haven’t done anything other than take some food, for cryin’ out loud!” He held his hands way up in the air, using only his legs to climb out of the back. From where Cam was standing, she could see blankets and cushions piled up. At the very least he slept back there, and had potentially done much worse.

He had to know Katherine had told them about their meetings. Otherwise how would they have known where and when to go looking for him? However, he continued to play the innocent.

“What did you expect me to do, man? Starve to death? And it’s not like you had the right to take me somewhere I didn’t want to go,” Mike continued, blithely unaware that every word he spoke had Gilles clenching his jaw.

Cam had to admire Gilles’ restraint, because he didn’t even mention Katherine. Gilles handed his handgun to Cam for safekeeping, and took out the handcuffs he’d dug out of storage. Mike was searched and cuffed without incident, then told to walk ahead of the group. Against his better judgment, Gilles had agreed to cuff his hands in front, because they would be walking over uneven terrain, but they were all warned not to walk in front of him. Maybe they were being paranoid, and it was just as likely Cam had seen too many movies, but they wouldn’t risk the possibility of Mike getting his hands on someone’s gun.

The trip back to the yard seemed to take a long time, though it couldn’t have been more than ten or fifteen minutes. The van hadn’t been far outside the property line. The tension during their journey made the time stretch, however, and it wasn’t until Mike was safely behind the barred door that Cam was able to take an easy breath. The only opening in the structure was a horizontal gap in the wall opposite the door, which was just big enough to pass food through, and provided fresh air.

She didn’t know enough about plumbing to outfit him with a proper toilet, so they would have to bring him to one for the time being. It was either that or have to deal with a bucket, and nobody wanted that responsibility. If they had been dealing with a criminal mastermind she would have been a lot more concerned. A thieving pervert they could handle, so long as he had a gun held on him at all times. He was a coward at heart. Jumping out of the truck when Gilles and Chuck had both holstered their weapons was the extent of his bravery.

Still, it nagged at her enough that Cam knew her mother would be bothered by it, too. In all likelihood a brand new structure would be built once her mom had had a chance to think about it. Until then, Cameron wouldn’t feel comfortable without a constant watch. She would be taking the camera off the van anyway, so they could use that.

As for the rest of it, Cam was in over her head. Kelly could deal with it. Or her mother. She was just going to ask Kelly whether or not it was considered humane to hold him without trial for a couple of days, because she seemed to remember something about that being in the Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms
, though she didn’t actually have a copy of it on hand.

Kelly would be in the midst of carting out the day’s ferret poop, and since it had been a while since Cam had been able to help her with all that, she decided they could talk while they worked. She grabbed some spare clothing to change into after she was done. Even if they had already been looked after, she wanted to spend some time with the ten that were quarantined. She always felt so bad for them, even though they had each other to play with, and both Kelly and Annette spent time with them. It was like they were being discriminated against or something.

“What it boils down to is this, Cam,” Kelly said in response to her question. “Are you going to follow the laws that were in place, or are you going to create new ones? If you’re going to create new ones, the fair thing to do would be to involve everyone in the crafting of them, and give everyone an opportunity to learn what they are. Until that’s been done, it’s probably best to stick with the original laws, because it doesn’t seem right to suddenly throw someone in jail and subject them to laws that never existed until you made them up. Conversely that applies to rights they may have had before.

“The laws in place before everything went to hell meant that a person had to be given a bail hearing or released within twenty-four hours. Whether or not someone is granted bail depends on many factors, but what applies here is that he’s already shown he’s a flight risk. By running from two police officers during transport, I think it’s fair for me to deny bail on those grounds. If you want to do things right, though, so that we maintain peace and order, we should really set up a bail hearing for first thing in the morning. Has he been informed of the charges?”

“Not yet,” Cam said, and hunched her shoulders at the look Kelly gave her.

“He has to be told. Gilles should know that, since he’s a trained police officer. Why didn’t he do so?”

“We weren’t sure what the hell we were doing, and I asked him not to say anything. In fact, nobody even told him he was under arrest, because it just sounded so stupid under the circumstances,” Cam added.

“Well, it’s not like there’s anyone he can complain to. He won’t have a defense lawyer or anything, who can get him off on a technicality. For that matter, there are no prosecuting attorneys, and we won’t have DNA evidence or even hair analysis from a sexual assault evidence kit. Chuck and Gilles are the only people on the farm, aside from myself, with any legal training that I’m aware of, and I can’t see either of them defending him. Be a bit much to ask of Katherine’s father, I’d think, and if Gilles went along with you on not telling the guy why he was being detained, he’s probably not inclined to help him either.”

“This whole thing feels ridiculous. I’m beginning to feel stupid for not just letting Chuck have a go at him.”

“Cam, you’re doing exactly the right thing. It’s complicated when you only have a few pieces of a very big puzzle. The Canadian Department of Justice was no small thing, and you’re doing your best to be fair to another human being. That’s not a bad thing.”

“She’s right, you know,” Annette piped up from across the room. Cam hadn’t realized she was even there.

“Thanks, but now I have to explain to everyone else why I’ve turned it into some kind of circus, when it could have been such a simple thing. Every one of us knows he’s a pig with females, and none of us wanted him to stay here for that reason.”

“But it’s not at all simple,” Kelly admonished. “Frontier justice is a terrifying thing. If you allow it to happen now, it will only get worse. Besides, you’ve already got everyone going along with it. They brought him in without hurting him. You had all those people out there with guns pointed at him, and not one of them pulled the trigger. They’re already on your side with this, in case you haven’t realized it. If they weren’t, someone would have had an ‘accident,’” she finished, using her fingers to form quotes in the air.

Cam thought about Kelly’s words later as she headed to Gilles’ family’s cabin. She was actually feeling sort of proud of herself, even if they had made a couple of mistakes. Now it was time to correct them, though, and for that she needed a police officer.

“Get your badge,” Cam told Gilles when he answered the door. He frowned at her, but went to get it.

“What’s up?” Gilles asked when he came back with the badge in his hand.

“We’re going to inform him of the reason for his arrest, and then you need to read him his rights. I don’t know how they’re worded in Canada, but I know we’ve got something similar to the Miranda warning they use in the movies.”

“What for?”

“So we can do this right. I should have let you do it the way you wanted to in the first place. We’re going to have a bail hearing tomorrow morning, so we should let everyone know. Kelly says he’s a flight risk, so we don’t have to worry about her letting him out or anything,” she said, trailing off when she saw a shadow moving near the jail. Gilles turned to look at the same time.

“What the hell is he doing there?” Gilles asked, and put his hand on his gun.

19 ~ Harried Homecoming

They decided to push it in order to arrive that night, instead of waiting until the following morning. Mac was far too agitated to go to bed, after Cam had said goodbye so abruptly on the radio, so by four-fifteen she was warming up the engines, and at four-thirty she was pulling up the anchor. She could just barely see the shoreline, and that was enough for her. Neil wasn’t quite as anxious as she was, though he’d woken up at the sound of the engines, and then listened while she told him what Cam had said.

“It sounds like she was just tired, honey,” he had tried to soothe her.

“They’re going to stake out this guy’s van, Neil! I can guarantee your son is going to be in on that. Can you honestly tell me you’re not the least bit concerned by that?”

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t, but I’m trying to be rational about it. First of all, there’s no way in hell we can get there by then. Whatever is going to happen will be over long before we get there, or it won’t happen until tomorrow afternoon, in which case we’ll be there to deal with it. Either way there’s nothing we can do until we’re home. So do us all a favour and make sure you don’t drive the boat into a rock trying to do the impossible.”

Pragmatism hadn’t worked for her, though. She’d had the boat at top speed the whole way, not bothering to check on potential leaks or anything. Neil had shoved a sandwich in her mouth at some point, nagging her to chew and swallow until she finished it, though it might as well have been cardboard for all she noticed of its taste. She let Neil take the helm just once so she could pee, and then glared at him until he surrendered the wheel to her again.

“We should be there soon. Get on the radio and let them know we need a pick-up at the docks,” she ordered rigidly. Neil stood there, stubbornly waiting for an apology. At first she just got angrier, but then she realized it was terror making her behave that way.

“Look, I’m really scared right now. I’m sorry I’m being an asshole, but I can’t help it. And I need to concentrate right now. It’s getting really dark, so I can’t think of a bunch of pretty words to convince you. Help me, here!” Pretty or not, her words were enough to get him moving. She had to remind herself that having a husband with a backbone was usually a good thing.

Neil sat down at the navigation desk behind her, and started calling on the radio. Eventually a female voice answered.

“Hey, Neil. Donna here. How’s it going? Over.”

“Donna? Uh, okay. We’re almost home, and we need someone to come pick us up right away. Is anyone available to do that right now, or has Cam arrested the lot of you and stuck you in her new jail? Over.”

“Ha! That’s a good one. I’m sure I can find someone to come and get ya. Cam only stuck that one guy in jail, and he ain’t from around here anyway. Over.”

“So you caught him then? Over.”

“Yup. We were all there. Went off without a hitch. She was smart about it, and we were careful. No worries. You should hear Jim rave about her. What time you need your ride? Over.”

Mackenzie frowned at what she could still see of the shoreline, though relief poured through her at Donna’s words. According to the GPS they were only about forty-five minutes away. She sure hoped the lights on the boat would be able to pick out the features around the docks when they got there, but she’d use the dinghy if necessary.

“Tell her we’ll be there in forty-five minutes or so, though I can take it a bit more slowly now that I know everyone is okay,” Mac told Neil. Neil finished up the conversation, and Ian poked his head into the cabin.

“Did I hear that right? They caught the guy?” Ian asked.

“Yeah. Thank Christ!” Neil responded. Apparently he’d been a lot more worried than he’d let on. Probably trying not to make her worry about the situation even more than she already had been, she realized. Suddenly the view before her got really blurry, and a sob broke free before she could contain it. She just barely had a chance to cut the throttle before Neil had pulled her into his arms. He didn’t say anything. Just held her.

“I thought everyone was okay!” Ian was confused, which made her tears turn into a short bark of laughter. She flapped her hand at him to get him to shut up.

“They’re all fine,” Neil assured him. “She’s just venting.”

“Oh. Okay,” he replied, still sounding unsure. Mac started giggling, though she still had tears in her eyes.

“It’s hard to explain,” she finally said. “That’s the thing about having kids. They can scare the living shit out of you. It doesn’t matter if you trust them and you know they’re smart. I don’t know what I would have done if she’d become a cop or gone into the army. Doubt that’s a concern anymore, but what she’s been doing has been bad enough.”

“You’re a nut,” Ian said.

“Tell me something I don’t already know. I probably wouldn’t be crazy if I’d never had Cam. Then again, you don’t have any kids, so what’s
your
excuse?”

“Watch it, or I’ll have Bella bite you on the butt!”

“You can say ‘ass,’ you know. We’re all grown-ups here. Besides, I think Bella likes me. She’s not gonna bite me,” Mac said, then wiped her eyes and got the boat moving again. Even if everyone was safe, she was still anxious to get home, and get back to what had become her daily life. That thought made her wonder if her daily life would still exist when she got home. It sounded as though everything had changed.

Chuck was waiting with one of the crew cabs when Mac let the boat drift slowly toward the dock. It was hard not to be disappointed that Cam wasn’t there to meet them. Neil had already packed everything they had brought with them, so they were able to disembark as soon as Ian had jumped down and tied off the mooring lines. Neil picked up Bella, and lowered her down to Ian, and climbed down the ladder. Mac kissed her fingers and patted the boat with them, murmuring her thanks for it getting them back again safely, despite Neil scraping the sandbar. Then she climbed down to the dock and gave Chuck a giant hug.

“Hey Mac,” he said, grinning down at her.

“Hey Chuckles. Hear you’ve had some rough weather around here. You doing okay?”

“Not too bad. Cam caught the guy,” he said, which let her know he was willing to acknowledge the situation.

“So I heard, though I think there’s a lot more I probably haven’t heard. Hopefully I’ll get the whole story when I get home. Where’s Cam then? I mean, she caught the guy, so why isn’t she here?”

“She’s trying to decide whether or not to shoot your ex, I think,” he said with a laugh.

“Jesus. Which one?”

“Mitch again, though I don’t think she’s too happy with Allan right now, either.” Chuck explained the latest situation while they got their gear loaded, and finally got themselves buckled into their respective seatbelts.

“I think I might shoot him myself! What the fuck was he thinking? Anyway, Chuck, this is Ian. And Bella, of course. Ian and Bella, this is my friend Chuck.” Ian reached over the seat to shake hands with Chuck, and then Mac continued the conversation.

“You know, I think Cam has been more patient with Mitch than I would have been, and she hates him. Mitch has this nasty habit of not taking things seriously. Particularly women. And Cam is young, so he probably didn’t think there was a serious reason for the guy being locked up. I don’t think he’s going to be with us much longer. I’ll talk to him first, but in all the years I’ve known him that’s one aspect of his personality that’s never changed.”

“Well, I think the real reason Mike is locked up has been kept pretty quiet, so Mitch probably only knows about him stealing food. Not that, uh, well, the stuff with Katherine,” Chuck said. Mac could see the sheen in his eyes from the dash lights, even though they were dim. She wanted to comfort him, but knew from experience that sympathy could make a person even more emotional.

“Wasn’t anyone guarding him?” Neil wanted to know.

“John was out there, but had to take a quick bathroom break. There’s no way for Mike to get out, so he didn’t think it would be a problem. Besides, you know what he’s like. Nice guy. Good kid and everything. Just doesn’t think anything through yet. He’s still pretty immature, and it’s not like he’s got any training for this kind of thing. Jim chewed him out for it, so I don’t think he’ll make that mistake again, but he’s been taken off guard duty. Cam’s not letting me anywhere near the guy, either, which is probably for the best,” Chuck said. Mac patted him on the arm.

“It’s better that you won’t have the chance to do something you’d have to live with. Trust me on that. Cam knows what she’s doing there. So do I. Gilles probably already told you what happened after Cam was born, I’m guessing?”

“Yeah. I think he was still in shock. Not at what you did, but that none of us knew the whole story. You could have told us, Mac. We would’ve understood.”

“Uh, Mac? Who the hell did you kill?” Ian’s question had her hanging her head.

“My first husband. I’ll tell you the whole story another time, but it was self-defense, and yes, Neil knows all about it. I’m pretty sure everyone at the farm knows now. You boys gossip worse than a bunch of hens. I didn’t tell anyone because I was trying to make sure Cam didn’t have to deal with any of that while she was still a kid, and then later I just didn’t want to talk about it,” she said, uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation.

“But you told Cam anyway,” Chuck said.

“Because she was trying to deal with killing Gerry. You saw what she was like for those first six months. Completely disassociated from everyone and everything. And that’s what she’s trying to spare you from, Chuck. If you do something you can’t take back, believe me when I tell you you’ll regret it. Not because of what happens to the other person, but because of what it does to you. It changes you, whether or not you think it should.”

Neil hopped out when they got to the concealed gate and went behind the tree to press his thumb to the pad. Ian watched in amazement as the gate swung open.

“You said you were paranoid, Mac, but I don’t think I really believed you until now,” he said as Neil hopped back in the truck and closed the door.

“Well, now you’ve got proof. Neil was my one shot at total reckless abandonment. Pity he’s been so irritating lately, because now I can’t get rid of him,” she needled her husband. He needled her back in a more direct way by poking her in the ribs, making her yelp. Chuck glanced into the rearview mirror at Ian.

“Ignore them. They’re always like this,” he said. Ian laughed.

“I know. I had to share a boat with them. Bella shows more dignity,” Ian replied. Mac just rolled her eyes.

“By the way, Ian. I’d advise you not to touch Cam,” Mac warned as they were getting out of the truck in front of the main house. Chuck waved and headed back toward his cabin.

“You calling me some kind of pervert? Jesus. I’m only, what, thirty years older than her?” He looked mortally offended in the light shining over the front entrance. Neil laughed, shook his head, and went into the house to look for Billy and Cam.

“That is not what I meant. Get your brain out of the gutter. I meant when you meet her, don’t try to hug her or anything. It freaks her out, and you’re one of those touchy-feely people. She’ll start running away every time you’re around otherwise. Just shake her hand and she’ll be okay with it.”

“I thought you wanted me to teach her jiu-jitsu? How the hell am I supposed to do that without touching her?”

“That’s different. It’s physical affection she can’t stand from people. Even me. It’s not anything that happened to her. She just doesn’t like it. Fighting with someone won’t bother her in the slightest.,” Mac explained.

“Didn’t you say she’s had boyfriends and all that?” Ian wondered.

“Yup. She’s okay with sex, apparently, but she kicks them out of her bed afterwards. Every boyfriend she ever had has complained about it. She won’t cuddle, and won’t spend the night. I always thought maybe she’d meet someone one day where she’d feel comfortable that way, but considering the state of the world now, it’s not bloody likely.”

“Wow. You’re all crazy, I think. Every one of you. Besides, don’t most guys think that’s the ideal woman?”

“They start out that way, until they get serious about her, and then they’re all upset that she isn’t the clingy type. Weird, I know. Mostly it’s that she likes her space, and she hasn’t found anyone she’s fallen in love with yet. But she’s happy this way, too. She never really cared about having a boyfriend, so it doesn’t matter.

“Anyway, this is it! What do you think? Well, what do you think of what you can see of it at least?” Mac asked him. Ian looked around, peering into the darkness. Mac decided to look around, too, wanting to see the changes.

“How many buildings are there? I’m seeing at least five or six, though just barely.”

“I’m not sure now. Kelly and Annette live together in that big building there, which is where all the ferrets are housed. Chuck and his family are in that cabin. Carol and Samantha have the small one over there. Allan’s little cabin is behind theirs, so you can’t see it from here. Gilles and his wife are there, while her daughter and son-in-law, which is the John we mentioned earlier, are in that one. John’s parents, Jim and Donna, have their own cabin as well, and the one that’s partially finished is for Lisa and her little boy, Jake.