Paranormal II: The Summit Part 35

No kidding, Ben thought, remembering the b.l.o.o.d.y murder at the Vreeland house and the men who'd broken into their motel room that night.

"Don't worry-I've got Autumn to watch my back." He flashed her a rea.s.suring smile as he closed the cell phone.

"Well?" Her green eyes were wide and filled with hope.

"Samuel Beecher's got another son. His name's Eli and he lives near Ash Grove. Rossi's getting the info on him now."

Autumn sat up straighter in the seat. "It's him, Ben. It must be. If Eli's the blond man, it would explain why I dreamed about the murder. The dream led us to Joseph and Jedediah Beecher. Now Jed Beecher's leading us to Eli."

"Let's hope you're right."

Ben took the curves as fast as he dared and still keep the car on the road. Autumn pulled out the map and finally found the pale lettering for Shadow Point. "The dot's so small I didn't notice it before. Must not be much of a place."

"Yeah, I got that impression from Rossi."

Within the hour, they had reached the two wooden structures that were all there was of Shadow Point, a bait shop and a one-pump gas station and market that made a Circle K look like a Wal-Mart.

Unfortunately, once they got there, they were out of cell phone range.

"Rossi can't reach us." Ben pulled up in front of the gas station and turned off the engine. "There's no way to know if Eli Beecher's our man or where to find him."

Autumn cracked open her car door. "Let's take the easy way and try asking. Maybe we'll get lucky."

The bell rang as Ben pushed open the door to the tiny store for Autumn. In the cramped interior shelves were spa.r.s.ely stocked with candy, aspirin, cereal, milk, flour, sugar and a few other staples. There was no coffee on the shelves, Ben noticed, and no cigarettes.

Autumn fixed a bright smile on her face and made her way up to the counter toward a heavyset man with a long gray beard who was dressed in worn bib overalls.

"h.e.l.lo. We were hoping you might be able to help us." Her smile remained in place though Ben figured it took no small amount of will. "We're looking for a friend of ours, Eli Beecher? We got the directions to his house wrong. I guess we didn't write them down correctly. Would you happen to know which way it is?"

The man scratched the chin buried in his fuzzy gray beard and amazingly began to smile. "Easy to get lost in these parts. Eli's just up the hill. Take the first road to your left and keep goin'. You'll see his house on the right, around the second curve."

Ben's heart raced. He could read the same excitement in Autumn's eyes, though for the store-owner's sake, she carefully kept it out of her voice.

"Thank you. Thank you very much."

Ben followed her out of the tiny store, trying to ignore the adrenaline pumping through his system and the tension in his neck and shoulders.

"This could be it," he said. Moving around to the rear of the SUV, he opened the back, dragged his duffle toward him and pulled out his Springfield automatic.

"I'm not taking any chances. If my daughter's in that house, I'm getting her out-one way or another."

He expected Autumn to argue, to tell him it was dangerous to overreact, but she didn't. Ben got into the car and so did she. Setting the gun on the console beside him, he reached over and started the engine.

As the SUV rolled out of the gravel parking lot, Autumn studied Ben's profile. There was a glint of steel in those dark brown eyes she had never seen before. She could only imagine what he was thinking, the fear he was feeling for his daughter.

The hope she really was still alive.

The car climbed the hill, throwing up dust as it rolled over the unpaved road. As they rounded a curve and the house came into view, Autumn noticed the mountains behind it. They looked somehow familiar, though in her dream she had never seen them from this angle.

"I think this is it, Ben. It feels right, somehow. I think this is the place in my dreams."

Ben made no reply, but she could see his jaw clench. He pulled the car into a dirt parking area in front of the lawn. They got out and closed their car doors.

Ben stuck the pistol into his waistband at the back of his jeans. "I'd rather you stayed out of this, but I need to know if you recognize Beecher or maybe one of the women."

"You couldn't keep me away."

He nodded, his expression grim. He led her up to the door and knocked on the wooden frame. The house was batt-and-board, a simple, one-story structure, painted white and well maintained. Dark-green shutters hung at the windows. Next to the house a separate garage and what Autumn suspected was Eli's workshop sat a few feet away.

They waited anxiously on the porch. Ben knocked again. A minute later, a slender blond woman, tall, with deep-set blue eyes, pulled it open. She was wearing a simple housedress and st.u.r.dy leather shoes. Autumn recognized her in an instant as the older woman in her dreams.

She forced herself to smile. "h.e.l.lo, Rachael. My name is Autumn. I was wondering if Eli might be home?"

As soon as she said the name, Ben shoved his way into the house. "Molly! Molly, it's your father. Molly!"

"Who are you?" Rachael tried to block Autumn's entry into the living room. Autumn slammed her foot against the door to keep it open. "What do you think you're doing?"

Autumn shoved past her into a living room filled with handmade pine furniture and a rock fireplace sat at one end. Through the door into the kitchen, she saw the long wooden table in her dreams. "We need to speak to Eli. Where is he?"

Ben turned back to Rachael. "Where's Eli? Where's my daughter, Molly?"

"You...you must be mistaken. There's no one here named Molly."

Footsteps sounded on the carpet in the hall. Autumn turned, recognized Sarah, watched her waddle into the room. She was even more pregnant that she had appeared in the dream.

"Eli's not here," the girl said, her gaze wary. She nervously toyed with a strand of shoulder-length blond hair a darker shade than Rachael's.

"Where is he?" Autumn asked. Before she could answer, another face she recognized appeared in the doorway-little seven-year-old, Ginny Purcell.

"Go to your room, Mary!" Rachael commanded.

"It's all right, Ginny," Autumn soothed as she carefully made her way toward the child, her heart squeezing at the frightened look on the little girl's face. "We've come to take you home."

Ginny bit her lip, eased farther into the room, then ran over to Sarah and clung to her skirt.

"You don't have to be afraid anymore, Ginny," Ben said, his gaze softer now as he moved toward the child, then went down on one knee in front of her. "You're mommy and daddy have been so worried. They've been looking everywhere for you. They'll be so glad to have you back home."

The little girl looked at him and tears filled eyes as blue as the other two women's. "Rachael said my mama and daddy were dead."

Ben speared the woman with a glance that could have cut through steel. "Rachael's wrong, sweetheart. They're very much alive and they miss you very very much."

"I want to go home," Ginny said, sniffing back tears, burying her face in Sarah's skirt.

"We're going to take you home, honey, just as soon as we can." Ben came to his feet, his attention shifting back to Rachael. "As of now, Eli's cozy little household is finished. I want to know where my daughter is. The girl you call Ruthie. Tell me where to find her."

Rachael's chin firmed. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Sarah ran a hand over Ginny's fair hair. "Eli took Ruthie and went into the mountains," she told Ben.

He took a slow deep breath and Autumn realized how hard he was fighting for control. "You're Sarah," he said.

"Yes...How did you know?"

"It's a very long story," Autumn said gently, working as hard as Ben to stay calm. "Are you...are you Eli's wife?"

Sarah flicked a glance at Rachael who shook her head in warning.

"I'm having his baby," the young girl answered.

Ben's tone remained soft. "Sarah, I came here to get my daughter. Her real name is Molly. Eli kidnapped her from our home when she was only six years old. Can you tell me where he took her?"

"Shut your mouth, Sarah," Rachael warned. "If you don't you know what Eli will do when he gets home."

Sarah bit her lip and suddenly looked every bit as young as Autumn was certain she was.

"He won't hurt you," Ben promised. "I won't let him. Eli isn't going to hurt anyone ever again."

Sarah still looked uncertain. "He'll beat me. If I tell you where he's gone, he'll whip me. He likes to do that. He likes hurting people."

Ben's jaw hardened. "If he touches you, I'll take a whip to him myself. I'll protect you, Sarah. I give you my word. I'll do whatever it takes to keep you safe. Tell me where he took my daughter."

"Sarah..." Rachael warned, her mouth a thin line.

"He took her up to his cabin-the sanctuary. That's what he calls it. It takes three days to get up there. You have to climb the trail to the summit of Angel's Peak."

"I know the trail," Autumn said. "I spent a week up here one summer climbing with my dad. The trail isn't too bad, since it zig-zags back and forth across the mountain, but it takes a while to reach the top."

"The cabin is off on a trail to the left, just before you reach the top," Sarah said.

"Why is he taking her there?" Ben asked.

"He's going to marry her, just like he did me. Ruthie will be twelve tomorrow. Eli says that's old enough for a woman to know a man in the way G.o.d intended."

Autumn thought she'd been prepared for this, but her stomach rolled with nausea and she had to fight back tears. She glanced over at Ben, saw the terrible look on his face.

"We've got to stop him before he reaches the cabin," he said.

"When did he leave?" Autumn asked Sarah, who cast a glance at Rachael who stood stiffly resigned.

"Yesterday. He wanted to be there exactly on time. He plans to have the ceremony tomorrow evening, on her birthday. After that she'll belong to him and he'll...he'll..." Sarah bit her lip and looked away.

"It's all right, honey," Autumn said gently. "This is all going to be over very soon."

"I was thirteen when he married me. I tried to get him to wait another year for Ruthie, but he said he was tired of waiting, that she was old enough now." Her eyes shimmered with tears. "He's my husband, the father of my baby. His dad is my mother's brother. I don't want to hate him, but I do."

Autumn's heart went out to her. She could only imagine what it must have been like for a child of thirteen to be forced into a sham of a marriage, to have s.e.x with a man she barely knew.

Autumn reached out and gently squeezed the young girl's shoulder, aching for what she had endured. "It's all right, Sarah. Everything is going to be okay."

"Do you have a phone up here?" Ben asked.

"There's one in Eli's shop," Sarah said. "But we aren't allowed to use it."

He turned to Autumn. "We need to call the authorities, get them out here to take care of these girls. I'll call Burt Riker and let the FBI know we've found Ginny Purcell. I'll also call Doug Watkins, tell him what's going on and see if he can get the police to chopper in. If they get here quick enough, we can stop Beecher before he reaches his cabin."

Autumn shook her head. "There's no way, Ben. The whole mountain is completely covered by forest. The trail to the top is the only way in. It's steep and totally hidden among the trees. There's no way a chopper could get in there."

Ben ran a hand through his hair. "Then I'll go by myself. You stay here and wait for the police and I'll pack some gear and start after him. If I push hard all night and all day tomorrow, there's a chance I can catch up with him before he reaches his cabin."

"You can't start up the trail in the dark-it's too dangerous! You'd never make it! You've got to wait till morning and I'll go with you."

"If I wait, there's no way I can catch him in time."

"It's the only thing you can do, unless..."

"Unless what?"

"There is another route to the top. My dad and I climbed it once, but you don't have the experience."

"You climbed Angel's Peak?"

"Not the face-the weather wasn't good enough. We took a secondary, slightly easier route to the top." Her heart started pounding. If they could make the climb, there was a chance they could get to the cabin before Eli. "We made the ascent in about ten hours, all the way to the top. There are a couple of pretty tough faces, but maybe-"

"No maybes. I can make the climb if we can get the gear. It's a long drive back but we sure as h.e.l.l can't free-climb a mountain like that."

Autumn grinned in spite of the circ.u.mstances. "My gear's in the back of the car and I always carry an extra harness and equipment for a second climber. You never know when you might get the chance to take a hill so I like to be prepared. The gear may not be as fancy as the stuff you've been using, but I keep it up-to-date. It's safe and it'll do the job."

For an instant, Ben grinned back. "I knew there was a reason I fell in love with you. Let's take a look. If we've got what we need, as soon as the cops arrive, we're out of here."

Autumn ignored the I fell in love with you part of Ben's speech. There wasn't time for speculation as to what that might mean, wasn't time to react or worry about what she should or shouldn't do.

They had a climb to make, a tough, grueling trip up the east face, all the way to the summit of Angel's Peak and she wasn't sure Ben had the technical skill to make it.

"I've been climbing some with Jess Peters," he told her, reading her thoughts. "Whenever I got a little spare time. I've grown pretty comfortable working with the equipment and being on the side of a mountain."

"Jess is a really good climber." She was more than a little impressed, slightly relieved and a little more optimistic. "But you haven't been climbing very long. It's dangerous, Ben. Are you sure you want to risk it?"

"You have to ask?"

In truth, she didn't. Ben loved his daughter. Now that they'd found the house and the women, it was clear Molly was alive. If they didn't get to her in time, G.o.d knew what depraved s.e.x acts Eli Beecher had in store for her. They had to get to the cabin before Beecher had time to reach it and there was only one chance of that. A slim chance, based on a climbing scenario where nothing went wrong.

So far in the dozens of trips she'd made over the years that had never happened.

Twenty-Nine.