A gorgeous woman stood in front of him. Her fair skin was bruised and scraped. Her auburn hair was pulled up in a bun. Wonder shone in her big brown eyes.
“Stone? What are you doing here?
23-Trinity’s Story
A smile spread across his face. “Trinity! Thank heaven you’re alive.” For a moment, he forgot all about the Bigfoot. When he looked back, he realized they had all gone silent at Trinity’s appearance.
“You don’t need that,” she said, indicating the Webley with a nod of her head. “They simply want you to move along. This is their part of the canyon. Follow me.”
She led him through the narrow crevasse and emerged onto a ledge overlooking another box canyon. This one was deeper than the smaller one from which he had just come. A river wended its way through the forest below.
Stone had no interest in admiring the view. He wrapped his arms around Trinity’s waist and pulled her close, trying to convince himself she was real. Trinity draped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his chest.
“I am very happy to see you,” she murmured. “But I did not need you to rescue me.”
He lowered his head to kiss her and paused, crinkled his nose.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I’m sorry, but you usually smell… pleasant.”
“I’ve been down in this canyon for days. Of course I’m going to smell… earthy.”
“If that’s what you want to call it.” He leaned down and kissed her gently.
Trinity let out a soft whimper and for a split second, she seemed to melt. Suddenly she stiffened and pushed him away.
“What are you doing here? How did you even know where to look for me?” She gave him a playful punch in the chest.
“Your friend Constance came to me for help after she didn’t hear from you for a week.”
“Constance? I don’t have a friend by that name.” Trinity pursed her lips and fixed him with a suspicious stare. “Who is this person, exactly?”
“About your age. Blonde, fair skin, a bit on the prim and proper side.”
“You mean Connie.” Trinity closed her eyes and let out a low groan. “She’s not my friend.”
“She knows quite a lot about you,” Stone said, wondering if he had been duped.
“She’s a librarian. I sort of collected her when I started investigating John Kane. She’s nice enough, but she’s a strange one.”
“How so?”
“If she isn’t popping by unannounced, she’s ‘accidentally’ bumping into me at various places around the city. I’ve tried to gently create some distance between us but she’s persistent. She’s quite bright and is good company, but I think she’s lonely and unskilled at making friends.”
“Spending too much time with your nose in a book will do that to you. Look at Alex.” Stone cocked his head. “Speaking of, he and Constance appear to have taken a shine to one another. Perhaps he can occupy some of her free time.” He paused. Trinity’s face had twisted into a puzzled frown. “What’s the matter?”
“I never told Connie where I was going. Only that I would be gone for a few weeks at the very least.”
“She knew you had visited the offices of the Seattle Spokesman,” Stone said. “Do you think she could be a plant from Kane’s organization?”
Trinity appeared troubled. “I suppose it’s possible, but my instincts say no. Probably she sweet-talked the information out of my editor. I had to give him enough details to get approval for the trip.”
“You gave her a note to give to me,” Stone reminded her. “Unfortunately, she had a mishap and ruined it. I could only make out a few words.”
“Note?” Trinity frowned. “I didn’t write any note.”
Stone froze. He was seeing things in a different light. If the note was forged, then maybe Constance’s odd decision to travel by canoe was part of the ruse.
“We’ll get to the bottom of things when we find her. Come on. Let’s get out of here.” He put his arm around her but she pulled away.
“We can’t go now.”
“The Bigfoot,” he said. “I’m afraid I riled them up by coming too close to their den.”
“That is not the reason. It’s my investigation. Stone, you will not believe what I have found in Ape Canyon!”
When Alex walked into the general store, Moses was sipping coffee and bumping gums with Vince and Deb, regaling them with tales from his professional boxing career. A gifted storyteller when the mood struck him, he had the shopkeepers in stitches.
“And I said to the referee, ‘Ain’t a boxer this side of Gene Tunny can hit that hard. Check his gloves again.’ Sure enough, he had switched to gloves with half the padding hollowed out.” Moses broke off the story when he saw the expression on Alex’s face.
Alex began filling them in on what had transpired. As soon as he mentioned Harold Moss, the blood drained from Deb’s face. She glanced at Vince who shook his head.
“Did Moss tell you where Ape Canyon is?” Deb asked.
“Only that it’s somewhere on the other side of Mount Saint Helens,” Alex said. “Stone didn’t believe him and neither did Constance. They both ran off into the forest searching for it.”
Deb swore and Vince banged his fist on the counter.
“What’s wrong?” Alex asked.
“I was afraid this would happen,” Deb said. “Ape Canyon is close by and the Bigfoot is very real. Locals have done our best to hide its location.”
“Because of the Bigfoot?”
“That’s part of it,” she said. “But that’s not the main reason.” She turned and took a rifle down off the wall. “There’s something else going on in that canyon, and your friends are walking right into the middle of it.”
At the far end of Ape Canyon, a ramshackle wooden building stood in the shelter of a pine grove. The structure appeared to be on the verge of falling down. The weathered planks that formed the walls were warped and cracked. It appeared as if a stiff breeze would knock it over.
“It looks like a big miner’s shack.”
“That’s what they want you to think,” Trinity said.
“What who wants me to think?” Stone asked.
“I’m not sure. Either John Kane or the Illuminati. Or maybe Kane is Illuminati. There’s no evidence of that, but their symbology keeps cropping up in my work, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a connection.”
“You say that so calmly.” Stone couldn’t help but admire Trinity’s courage. He only wished her bravery didn’t get her into so many dangerous situations.
“Why be afraid when I have a gentleman friend who insists on following me across the country because he thinks I need to be rescued?”
Stone didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Only Trinity could get herself caught between Bigfoot and an Illuminati outpost and still believe she did not need help. And perhaps she didn’t.
“Those rickety walls are a façade. There’s a building inside of it. A block building that has been painted black to camouflage it. I’ve seen a few men from the mining camp come and go, carrying in supplies. I’ve been watching this place for days. I’ve also heard pleas for help, cries of pain, some of them so unearthly I can scarcely believe a human made them.”
“Any idea what they’re up to?”
“No, but I’m convinced that it is connected with that strange room underneath the Martha Washington School.”
“Medical or biological, then,” Stone said, scratching his chin thoughtfully. “This has to be an inconvenient location to do that sort of thing.”
“Perhaps they want to keep it a secret.” Trinity’s voice dripped with sarcasm.