Mountain Investigation by Jessica Andersen Page B

something, anything, to prove that she wasn’t the doormat she’d become while she was married to him.
    He smiled and leaned in to kiss her cheek, though she struggled and turned her face away. “I missed you, too. This time I’ll be very certain not to let you get away from me. We can’t have the others thinking I’m unable to control my wife, can we?”
    Refusing to look at him anymore, Mariah focused on the second man. The cop stood nearby, tense and unhappy, and coated in the stink of fear. His eyes were unfocused, turned inward, as though he were picturing what the terrorists were doing to his family.
    Mariah could relate, but she felt no sympathy. She felt only anger. How could you? she wanted to shout at him. You’re one of the good guys!
    Then, in the distance, she heard the rattle of an engine being driven too hard, too fast. Fear seized her. Was it al-Jihad?
    But Lee jolted and cursed at the sound, suggesting that the other car was unexpected. “Come on. Let’s get her transferred to the minivan.”
    The cop obeyed, but his expression didn’t change; it was as though he were acting on autopilot, beyond himself with fear and shock.
    The two men unlatched the gurney and started muscling it off the van, but had difficulty with the folding legs in their haste. Mariah’s pulse pounded and her thoughts raced as the surface she was bound to lurched this way and that. She saw forest on either side of her, and caught a glimpse of a brown sign that told her she was somewhere within Bear Claw Canyon State Park. The park, which covered thousands of wilderness acres, offered a steady stream of tourist income, alongwith the perfect hiding place for nefarious deeds, ranging from teenagers sneaking time alone, to drug deals and even murder and body dumps.
    That was what Lee and the others had used it for the day they had escaped from prison, disposing of the bodies of four slain guards and an assistant coroner in a small cave off the main drag. Mariah whimpered at the back of her throat, wondering if this was the same place.
    Once they had the gurney off the van, they started hustling it toward a second vehicle, this one a minivan with its back deck wide open and the engine running. Another figure was visible in the driver’s seat, though Mariah saw him only briefly as the men approached the minivan.
    “Hurry up, damn it,” Lee snapped. “If you don’t help me get the bitch out of here, your family’s dead.”
    “They’re already dead, aren’t they?” the cop asked in a dull monotone, his face hardening from shock and grief to a mask of rage.
    “Of course not. They’re fine.” But Lee’s answer was too quick, and his eyes showed the lie.
    Cursing, the cop exploded into action, shoving the gurney straight into Lee, trapping him against the minivan’s back deck. Lee swore as the gurney yawed in his grasp, threatening to tip over.
    Surprise and vertigo seized Mariah for a second before she saw her chance to escape. Once she saw it, though, she grabbed on to it, knowing it might be the only shot at freedom she had. Shouting inwardly, she threw her weight in the direction in which she was tipping, hoping against hope that would be enough.
    It was. Lee yelled profanities as the gurney flipped and Mariah plummeted to the ground.
    She landed hard, banging her head and exhaling in a rush when the metal gurney came down with its full weight on top of her. It took her a second to realize that the jolt had popped the strap securing her arms. She was partway free!
    Struggling to breathe through her gag, she tried to free herself from the confines of the body bag. She was in darkness again, having fallen face forward, but she managed to roll onto her side. Working quickly, sobbing with fear, she ripped open the bag, then yanked at the strap binding her chest. Almost clear!
    Lee was shouting. She heard him curse, and heard another man’s voice join in, followed by the sound of running footsteps and the cry of, “The