wrath of the Sea Queen (148 page)

As
Apela
pushed open
the
partially
closed
kitchen
door
,
he
was surprised at how warm it was inside.  He
discovered
that the oven
had been left
on.  Then he
found
the cookie dough and un
baked
trays
of cookies
sitting on a counter beside
the stove. 
There was a
lso a
rack
of
finished
cookies, untouched, on
a cooling stand on
the counter.  Max would never have left
the treats sitting there without tasting at least one of them. 
Apela was immediately
alarmed
. 

Next, Apela
caught sight of the door leading
into the laundry room
. 
T
he
hole in
its center
was
surrounded by splintered wood.  It looked as if it
had been
hacked apart. 
Apela
hurried over to check inside
.  He had to reach through
and
move the chair which had been
used to
bar
the door
from the inside
. 
Once inside, Apela could not believe what he found
.  The
door to the
cabinet
hanging on the wall
had been ripped off its hinges and the contents
were strewn across
on the floor. 

T
he
former archway in the
left
wall
,
adjacent
to the
room
formerly occupied by
Apela
and his wife
, was open once more
.  After h
is wife's
death, Apela
had
covered the opening with
long
planks nailed against the laundry room wall
and changed rooms
.  In the room o
n the other side
now stood
a
decorative alcove
where t
wo
broken
planks
had fallen
t
o the floor.
 
Someone
made a daring
exit through that opening and emerged in the room currently
occupied
by
the Ericksons
.

Apela left th
rough th
e kitchen and
noted
that Ben was awake and reading the newspaper, though his wife still slept against his shoulder.  Apela waved over his head with both hands to silently
catch
the man's attention.  When Ben looked up, Apela motioned for Ben to join him.

"I'll be right back,"
Ben
whispered as he
scooted away from Salma.  She nodded and
lay
down on a pillow, c
ontinuing to sleep peacefully
.

"
Can we
take a
look in your room please?  I fear there may have been
some trouble while we were gone," Apela whispered to Ben.

"
What do you mean?
"
  Ben repl
ied quietly
while he opened the door to his room, allowing Apela to follow him inside.  He shut the door behind him so that he and Apela could talk without disturbing Vin or Salma.  Ben was shocked to find a hole in the wall to his
right
.

"
I was afraid of that. 
The
kitchen and laundry room look
as if
a struggle
took place
in there
.  I think someone tried
to escape through
your room
.
"
  Apela described
,
in detail
,
all that he
found
in the other rooms.

Ben
inspected
his room
carefully
, finding a few drops of dried blood on the
hardwood
floor
.  The trail led
out toward the lounge.

"
This blood is dry enough to be several hours old.  I don't like
the looks of
this, but
let's
not
panic
. 
Have you seen Max since we
returned
?  No?
  Go, calmly, and give his room a thorough search.  If C
a
eli was trying to protect him, she would have hidden him away.  Look everywhere; in the closet, under the bed, anyplace where he could hide.  I
wi
ll take a quick look around the rest of
this area for any other
signs of what might have happened.  We've been back for almost two hours. 
Now that I think about it, i
t is odd that C
a
eli
did
not c
ome
in
to greet Vin
, especially since she kn
e
w about the fire
.  No, I don't like this at all.
"

Apela moved off
in one direction
to search for Max,
while
Ben walked around
his own
room again before
continuing
out into the hall
.  He crept
through the lounge and outside onto the beach
, quickly getting drenched in the process
. 
Apela, at the same time, searched Max's room. 
As
he
opened the closet door, he
found
his son huddled up on the floor, crying without sound. 
Apela
reached to pick him up, but Max suddenly sprang up, started shouting C
a
eli's name, and dodged around his father's arms.  Max
sprinted
out of the room,
ran
down the hall, and
made a mad dash
straight through the lounge.  The poor boy was scared senseless, but seemed to be running with a purpose.  His shouts were loud enough to wake both Salma and Vin, and to draw Ben's attention from outside.

Upon hearing C
a
eli's name
being shouted
, Vin i
nstantly
sprang to
his feet
and ca
ught
hold of Max. 
He attempted to calm the boy, but Max
was beyond consolation
.  H
e bit Vin on the forearm, causing him to lo
o
se
n
his
grip
.  Max took off again, running down the beach, toward the water
, heedless of the rain
.  All three men and Salma were following him.  Ben caught hold of
the scared child
before he could run out into the water and
tossed
him to Apela.

"
What's going on, Ben?
"
  Vin asked with a
look
of
fear on his face.

He
had been
so tired and out of sorts when they got back that he
did
not check on C
a
eli as he intended.  He
knew
that something
went
wrong
when she
aid
ed them at the hotel
.  She had
n
o
t been able to stop the
water
. 
Guilt weighed heavily on V
in
knowing that
something
had
obviously happened
.  Yet
, he
had
slept for a couple of hours wh
ile
C
a
eli
might have needed him.
  Vin was already wondering if it had anything to do with the man C
a
eli was worried about earlier.  C
a
eli had good instincts.  Perhaps he should have given her fear more consideration.

"
I'm not certain yet.  Once Max calms down, I'm hoping he will be able to tell us.
"

"
What do you know already?
"
  Vin insisted.
  He wanted
details
.

"
There are signs of a struggle in the kitchen.
"

"C
a
eli said she and Max were bak
ing
cookies," Vin confirmed what Apela found.