“I don’t know,” Jose said. “Maybe he is after the money.”
“If he’s after the money, then why didn’t he just shoot everyone when he left in the middle of the night?” Trevor asked. “He would’ve had the chance. Why didn’t he shoot us in Stella’s truck? Or at the side of the road? Or when we first got off the snowmobiles?”
“Maybe there’s someone else out there,” Jose said. “The same people who killed that guy and stuffed him in the freezer. Maybe Frank went out there and they took him. Maybe it’s the same people who are after that bitch and that kid.” Jose stared at Stella and David. “I think we need to question them. Get some answers out of them.”
“Jose, that’s enough,” Cole said as he stared at him. “We’re not going to interrogate anyone. We’re not torturers.” Cole glanced at Needles. “We’re not murderers.”
“Yeah, but she knows something.”
“If she’s involved with this, then how would Frank know where Stella was going to be in her truck?” Cole asked Jose. “We took a different escape route after Needles killed the old man in the bank. Trevor was the one with the map.”
Jose turned to Trevor. “Yeah, Trevor had the map. He knew where we were going.”
“Oh, so I’m involved with this now?” Trevor said and couldn’t help smiling which only seemed to infuriate Jose even more.
“You and your brother, maybe,” Jose looked at Cole. “How do I know?”
“Like Cole said,” Trevor went on. “We wouldn’t even be here if Needles hadn’t shot that old man in the bank. You think Needles is in on it too? You think all of us joined together with Stella and David to create all of this,” Trevor spread his hands out at the cabin, “just to trick you out of your share of the money?”
“I don’t know what to think anymore,” Jose grumbled.
“I didn’t have anything to do with this,” Needles said. “That old man in the bank grabbed me! I didn’t grab him, he grabbed me. And I saw things. I saw this place. And he told me the devil was coming. When are you guys going to see what’s really going on here? Something’s following those two,” Needles glanced at Stella and David on the couch, “and it isn’t human; it’s the devil and now he’s after us.”
“Needles,” Cole warned, “we’ve heard enough of your theories.”
“I say we just kick those two outside,” Needles went on. “If the devil’s after them, then let him have them. We’ll be a lot safer.”
“We’re not kicking anyone outside,” Cole said, as the anger seethed through his words. “We’re not torturing anyone. We’re not killing anyone. And we’re not kicking anyone outside in the snow.”
The others stared at Cole in silence.
“We just came across a bad place,” Cole continued, his eyes burning with anger, his patience completely gone now. “A place where a man was murdered, and whether we want to admit it or not, it’s getting to us. Turning us against each other.”
There was an awkward silence hanging over them for a moment.
“So what are we going to do now?” Trevor asked. “Sleep with all of our guns pointed at each other?”
“We’re going to stay here tonight,” Cole said. “We’re going to wait until these snowstorms pass us by. And we may have to walk out of here tomorrow if we can’t get one of these vehicles to work. We’ll have to flag down another vehicle out on the road.”
“Four wanted bank robbers with two suitcases of money and two hostages walking down the side of the road,” Trevor said. “That sounds like a good idea.”
“Trevor,” Cole said through clenched teeth. “You’re not helping the situation.”
Trevor didn’t retort – he knew when he had pushed his big brother too far.
“Before we leave,” Cole went on after he inhaled a deep breath and exhaled it slowly, hoping the deep breath would help his nerves, hoping that it would help the anger building up inside of him. “I think we need to burn this cabin to the ground. There’s a dead body in here and we don’t need to leave behind any evidence that we were here.”
“What about her truck?” Jose said as he hitched a thumb at Stella.
“We’ll burn that too,” Cole said.
The others nodded.
“Okay,” Cole said. “We’ll sleep in watches again tonight.”
Hours later Stella and David slept on the couch. David had his notebook tucked protectively under his arm.
Jose had tried the TV and radio over and over again, trying to get some kind of station or signal, hoping to get some kind of news about the bank robbery. But none of the stations would come in – nothing but complete static. Finally, Jose gave up. He sipped from the bottle of whiskey, but not too much. He wanted to stay sober and ready for whoever was out there waiting for them in the darkness.
Trevor sat at the table for hours and played hand after hand of solitaire with a deck of playing cards that he’d found.
Needles curled up in his recliner and massaged the crucifix around his neck as he muttered silent prayers with his eyes closed. Soon he drifted off into a fitful sleep.
Cole took the first watch as the rest of them slept. He planned on waiting until three o’clock in the morning and then waking Trevor up. They would need to take turns on watch if they had to stay here one or two more nights – even Needles would have to take a watch.
Cole’s thoughts melted together, and his eyes slowly closed, and he drifted off to sleep without even realizing it.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Stella woke up in the middle of the night and she began to scream.
Cole snapped awake in the pitch black darkness of the cabin. For a split second he forgot where he was. It was like he was coming out of some kind of a dream, except he didn’t remember any of it; it was more like he was clawing his way out of a cocoon of darkness. But now he was awake and trapped in a real cocoon of darkness.
Cole felt around in the darkness, his hands groped at his blanket and pillows looking for his gun. Then he remembered that he had stuck his gun in the front of his pants. His fingers felt along the front of his pants and they touched the reassuring feel of the steel of his pistol.
He didn’t even remember lying down on his bedroll. He remembered sitting at the dining room table with a cup of coffee. He was going to wake Trevor up for the next watch. Had he woken Trevor up and then went to bed and couldn’t remember it? He wasn’t sure, and he didn’t have time to think about it right now because Stella was still screaming.
Cole remained motionless for a moment, his fingers still touching the handle of his gun.
“Cole!” Trevor called out. “Where are you?”
“I’m here,” Cole called back.
“Stella!” Cole yelled. “What happened?”
Stella’s screams stopped, and for a split second the cabin was silent; there wasn’t even the sound of the snowstorm outside.
“Are you hurt, Stella?” Cole asked her.
Stella didn’t answer. Something about her silence in the pitch black darkness scared Cole even more than her screams. It was like she suddenly realized that there was something in there with them and she didn’t want to make a sound and give her position away.
“What the hell’s wrong with her?” Jose snapped. “Where’s everyone else?”
“I’m on my sleeping bag,” Trevor called out.
“I’m on my blankets,” Cole said.
“What happened to the lights?” Needles asked with a tremor in his voice. “Who turned out the fucking lights?”
“Where are you, Needles?” Cole asked, trying to keep his voice calm as he tried to mentally picture where everyone was in the cabin.
“In the recliner,” Needles answered.
That only left Stella and David. “Stella,” Cole said. “Where are you? Where’s David?”