Rogue Angel - Footprints Part 24

Annja shook her head. "You know your way around here?"

"Not really."

"Me, neither. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that if we took off to find him, we'd end up getting even more lost than we are right now."

"We're lost?"

Annja sighed. "Hopefully not."

"But what about Joey?"

Annja looked into the woods. He had a head start on them. And knowing what he knew, he could be a mile away already. Joey knew how to vanish into the shadows, and he was driven to do whatever it was he was going to do.

"We can't go after him. Our best bet right now is to figure out the stones and then go for help. If we find the sheriff, we can get him out here, and that's how we'll help Joey. Otherwise, it's not going to be good."

"It's just that after what you said a few minutes ago, I thought you'd be a lot more driven to search for him."

Annja looked at her. "Jenny, I am driven. But I'm also a realist. We don't know which way is up around here. h.e.l.l, Joey led me around this place a few hours back when we were looking for you and I still don't know if I could find my way around without him. The fact of the matter is I'm worried about Joey and hope he doesn't do anything stupid. But that can't be helped right now."

"So instead we try to get back to town?"

"Yes. We find the sheriff and explain it to him. Maybe he'll be able to help us out. And he might even have a cute deputy for you to swoon over."

Jenny perked up. "You think?"

Annja turned back to the stone cairn and studied it. "I don't know. I don't really care, to be honest. Just help me with this and let's get going."

Jenny knelt next to her. "I never studied cairns. Did you?"

"Not really, I'm ashamed to say. Here we are, both archaeologists, and yet something as simple as this is a bit befuddling."

Jenny looked at her. "Befuddling?"

"What?"

"You just sounded like my old aunt there for a second."

Annja frowned. "Sorry. Maybe my age is starting to show."

"Either that or the age of that sword you're carrying around with you. It's pretty old, isn't it?"

"What makes you say that?"

"I took a course on European weapons one time. If I recall correctly, the sword you have looks like something made around five to six hundred years ago."

Annja shrugged. "I guess that's about right."

"Really?"

Annja shook her head. "Can we study the rocks, please? Trust me, there are times when the sword is much more of a pain in the a.s.s than an a.s.set."

"But where did it come from and where did it go? How do you do that?"

Annja took a breath. "Jenny, I really don't know everything about it or why it came to me. I'd rather not talk about the sword right now. We have more important things to worry about."

"Okay, okay, I'm just amazed by it, is all."

"More amazed than your hunt for big foot?"

"Well..."

"All right, then." Annja turned back to the stone cairn. "The one over by the burial mound seemed to point this way because of how the rocks were stacked. This one seems to point over to the left there, which would make it sort of a southerly direction. You think?"

Jenny followed where Annja pointed and nodded. "Seems to be. The sun's coming up from over in that direction, so, yeah, south it is."

Annja got up. "Good." She kicked over the cairn.

"What are you doing now?"

"Making sure that whoever those guys are we don't leave them a clear trail to follow us. I don't want to have to think about them being behind us as we try to find our way out of here."

"Well, I don't think those guys will be worrying about us."

"Why on earth not?"

Jenny shrugged. "They'll have Joey to worry about. And trust me, the look in the kid's eyes was pretty mean."

Annja nodded. "A fourteen-year-old shouldn't have that kind of anger in his heart. Kids today grow up too fast."

"They have to grow up sometime," Jenny said. "And I think that Joey is convinced his time is at hand."

Annja frowned. "Killing doesn't make you a grown-up."

"Maybe he thinks vengeance does."

"A lot of people do," Annja said. "I'm not convinced that it's the best way to go, but that's neither here nor there. Joey's gone and it's up to us to get back to town."

Jenny unzipped her jacket. "At least he left us the cairns."

"Speaking of which..." Annja said. She tracked from the position of the rocks she'd kicked over and walked about twenty paces in a southerly direction. By the base of a blueberry bush, she saw another small pile of stones.

"Over here."

Annja peered closer at the cairn. This time the stones didn't veer off in one direction or another, but seemed equal on all sides.

Annja sat back. "There's no directional indicator here."

Jenny leaned closer. "Suppose it means this is the direction to go in?