The Severed Pines Read online

  But Ben didn’t resent Avery. He seemed like a nice-enough guy.

  “Sir?” Ben said.

  Avery dropped the pages and removed his glasses. Offered a warm smile. “I appreciate you coming in so early so we can talk. Please, Ben, sit down.”

  He did. “Is this about William? Did you hear something new?”

  “No, I’m afraid not,” Avery said, a frown darkening his face. “The search party hasn’t had any success yet.”

  Ben wasn’t aware they had actually sent a search party. There hadn’t been any emails about it, no chatter in the cafeteria. Not even a posting on the corkboard in the back hallway of the visitor center. When Taylor said they were keeping it in house and quiet, he’d meant it.

  “We’ve reached out to some family and friends,” Avery said, “and they don’t have any info on his whereabouts.”

  “I’d like to help with the search party.”

  Avery winced and clasped his hands, then he set them on his desk. He tapped his thumbs together, like two rams butting against each other to establish dominance. “See, Ben, here’s the thing. You’ve been an exemplary volunteer for us since you arrived. A little low on the social scale, if I’m being honest, but you go about your duties with a good deal of pride in your work. I can’t say the same about all of the volunteers we get here every summer.”

  Ben ignored the social scale comment. Even if it stung, it was basically accurate. It’s not as if he’d never been accused of being non-social before. Instead, he sat quietly, waiting for the “but.”

  “But, there’s been an incident. Or, rather, a report of an incident. This is a sensitive matter, and you have to believe I am as reticent to talk about as you will be to hear about it. But, it has to happen.”

  “What has to happen?”

  Avery gave an embarrassed grimace, like a dad about to have the sex talk with a young child. “I’m just going to come out and say it. One of your coworkers reported an interaction with you in which you made him or her feel uncomfortable.”

  Ben felt the color drain from his face. Kathryn. She’d reported him for sexual harassment. “A female coworker, right?”

  Avery pressed his lips together and sighed, looking unsure if he should answer the question. Ben opened his mouth to speak again, but Avery held up a hand.

  “Please, Ben, don’t say anything else. By park regulations, I’ve informed you of this complaint, and the involved party has said she doesn’t want to take it any further than this. We don’t want anything to go into your file permanently. I don’t even want to make a private record of this, but I have to. Anything you say, I’m obligated to document in that record.”

  “I see,” Ben said, his jaw set.

  “I told her that you would keep your distance, and you won’t be assigned to any work crews together. This is how it comes back to the search party. She’s going to be involved, so it’s best if you find some other way to contribute to our efforts to find William.”

  “I understand,” Ben said.

  “I hope you know I hate to have to do this. I don’t see any reason for me to tell Taylor about it, because we all know how he can overreact sometimes. As far as I’m concerned, it will stay in a private file only known to you, me, and the complainant, unless there are any further incidents. This will stay in local files, and I won’t even enter it into the inter-park database. There’s no need for this to follow you to your next assignment, as long as it doesn’t go any further.”

  “I appreciate that.”

  He leaned forward, a sympathetic look on his face. “This will go away in a little bit. Everyone is on edge, you know? These last few days in the park have been unprecedented. We’re all hurting.” He paused to breathe and pushed his glasses up his nose. “Again, you’ve been a great resource for the park, and we’ve all been glad to have you here.”

  Ben nodded, but he didn’t much feel like thanking Avery for the compliment. He was doing his job, and Ben had a grudging respect for that. But, there was something deep going on here, and all the puzzle pieces were scattered across the table.

  Kathryn had an angle, but Ben couldn’t see it.

  Chapter Twelve

  The conversation with Kathryn had sent Taylor into a panic. Especially since he’d had to spend almost the entire day out at the construction site near Wild Basin. He kept thinking of getting back to his office. Getting back to spend a few minutes alone to think. But then, Taylor’s wife Delilah had called to report that their son was wheezing, not breathing well, so they’d spent the evening in the emergency room.

  The aggressive fluorescent lights in the emergency room waiting area didn’t help. His wife’s general state of anxiety over their son’s breathing didn’t help either. As the kid wheezed and Taylor held his son close, he wished someone would comfort him.

  But they couldn’t do that. They didn’t know. Taylor’s infirmity had to remain secret, and that was possibly the worst part. He had to pretend as if everything was hunky-dory.

  Ultimately, the kid was fine after a nebulizer breathing treatment and lots of tender loving care. Four hours at the emergency room and hundreds of dollars out of pocket for a pat on the back and some Vicks VapoRub.

  When Taylor took his family home, they were all exhausted. His wife and son went to bed straight away, but Taylor stayed up for a while, drinking and thinking. Neither activity proved to be productive.

  He didn’t make it back to his office until the morning of the next day. As soon as he left the house, his wife started texting. Sending him lists of things to pick up at Walgreens on his way home. Each time his phone dinged, he grunted.

  As he stared at the stream of text bubbles appearing on his phone, he wondered how long he could keep the house of cards standing. A few more days? Maybe not even that long.

  Taylor parked at the visitor center and paused a moment to catch his breath. Volunteer Ben crossed in front of him, not noticing Taylor sitting in his car. Good thing, because he realized he probably looked like a vampire after his two or three hours of sleep.

  Taylor left his car, his phone vibrating incessantly all the way. He checked his watch as he pulled his jacket close. With summer now over, they were due for eight months of snow, and that prospect wasn’t helping his mood.

  Inside the building, he gave a few curt hellos to various people around the room, including the first batch of tourists waiting for the hourly park video and a few employees eager to greet him. He rushed toward the back of the hall and noted Ben knocking on the door to Avery Krafft’s office.

  What is Ben doing in there?

  Whatever it was, Taylor didn’t like it. It wasn’t performance review time, so why would Ben go into Avery’s office this early for a private meeting?

  This didn’t seem right. All the possibilities swirled around in his head and made him woozy. The vice grip tightened around Taylor’s chest.

  He swept into his office. With the door shut behind him, the tension abated, but only a little. His mind turned to the little vial in his pocket, the one Kathryn had given him.

  That woman was a bad influence. All of this was her fault, really. Her stupid crush on William had started all of it. The whole chain of events could link back to her and her inability to keep her safari pants zipped up.

  But, her words from yesterday rang inside his head. Ben, asking questions of her during an unwelcome assist job on trail maintenance. What did Ben know? Had he noticed something in the office two days ago when he came to report William’s disappearance?

  Maybe that’s why Ben was in Avery’s office right now. Filing a formal complaint about Taylor, remarking on his strange behavior. Taylor knew it had been strange. He was flustered and out of sorts. Not just because of the sudden upheaval of William’s disappearance becoming public knowledge, but all the other stuff. Too much at once. Too much.

  Inside his office, Taylor decided to scour the room. Remove all trace of anything that could point back to him and the trouble he was in. He opened drawers
, cabinets, looked under the desk. Grabbing bits of paper and documents, shredding them, then stuffing the shredded papers into his briefcase for disposal somewhere else.

  All of this was too much.

  All the while, his phone buzzed in his pocket. When he finally took it out, he had a half dozen new messages from his wife.

  Taylor Snell sunk into his desk, staring at the shopping list from his wife, which increased with every new message.

  And, as his mouth became so dry he had trouble swallowing, he wondered what his wife would think when she learned the truth about him and what he’d done.

  Chapter Thirteen

  After the sexual harassment complaint from Kathryn, Ben spent the morning going about his duties. Quietly. Not interacting with anyone. Even though he knew it wasn’t true, part of him felt embarrassed about it. Humiliating to have to sit there while Avery dressed him down for being a pervy lech.

  He wondered if Avery would keep his word and not include a mention of it to anyone else. That seemed unlikely, given how the grapevine worked around here. There weren’t a lot of employees, so everyone mostly knew everyone else’s business.

  Later in the afternoon, he retired to his trailer and spent some time staring out the windows at the mountains to the west. After thirty minutes of this, a knock came on Ben’s trailer door.

  “No thanks,” Ben said. He didn’t know or care who it was.

  “Come on, Bennett,” a muffled Reese said through the door. “Open up.”

  Ben sighed as he rousted himself from the chair and opened the trailer door. His friend stood there, six pack of Fat Tire beer in cans dangling from one hand.

  “What’s that for?” Ben said.

  “Rumor has it there was a mountain lion sighting up by Bierstadt Lake.”

  “Bullshit.”

  Reese nodded. “Probably, but let’s hike up there and take a look.” He hoisted the six pack. “I’ll split it with you, but only on the trail.”

  Ben leaned back inside the trailer and grabbed his fleece jacket and backpack from a hook near the door. “Alright. But you’re driving.”

  Reese agreed, and they hopped into his car to drive to the trailhead. Along the way, Ben recounted his odd trail-clearing hike with Kathryn, and her subsequent complaint to Avery about his behavior. Ben didn’t care if Reese knew, since he’d be on Ben’s side, of course.

  Reese mostly nodded grimly and kept his eyes on the road. He had little to offer, only occasionally sucking through his teeth or scoffing.

  When Ben finished his tale, he asked, “what do you think?”

  “I think there’s some messy shit going on around here.”

  “Do you think Kat could have had something to do with William’s death? I mean, her weird love note was all about him. I think the cops could consider that as a motive, right?”

  “Did you take the note?”

  A stab of shame hit Ben in the chest. “No, I didn’t. I didn’t want anyone to know I was there, in William’s trailer, so I left everything how I found it.”

  “Well, the note’s probably gone now, if she’s had a chance to think about what she might’ve left behind.”

  When they parked at the trailhead off Bear Lake Road, Ben hesitated before getting out of the car. “You believe me, don’t you, Reese?”

  He eyed Ben. “About Kathryn? Sure. She’s weird as hell. Sometimes, she doesn’t talk at all, and then other times, she goes off like she’s trying to set a record for words-per-minute.”

  “No, not just that. About all of it. Finding William’s body, the two guys who attacked me at the cabin. I know it’s a big deal, and I’m asking a lot of everyone to trust me.”

  There was a split second hesitation on Reese’s face. Enough to give Ben doubts. “Of course I do, Ben. But believing doesn’t help you very much, does it? It won’t bring William back or make us magically figure out who attacked you.”

  Ben had nothing to say to that, so he exited the car and they proceeded on with the hike up toward Bierstadt Lake.

  For the first couple of minutes, they hiked without chatting. Late afternoon hikers were coming down the trail, and so Ben let Reese lead the two of them. In a group of hikers moving single-file, the first person has to act as the ambassador, to nod and say a polite hello to people crossing the other way on the trail. Ben preferred not to have those little interactions with strangers, if possible. Reese didn’t seem to mind.

  After an initial steep climb up a series of switchbacks, they paused for a rest. Reese handed Ben a beer, which he cracked open. Foam sprayed everywhere.

  “Sorry,” Reese said, giggling. “That’s what happens to beer in cargo pants pockets. I said I’d give you a beer. I didn’t say you’d get to drink it.”

  “Great. Just great.” Ben flicked some foam off his hands, and he made sure to cast it in Reese’s direction. After a sip, Ben said, “What do you think about Taylor?”

  Reese shrugged. “He’s alright, I guess. Not as uptight as Avery, but he can be a dick sometimes.”

  “I found out Taylor did William’s performance reviews, not Avery. Isn’t that weird?”

  Reese tilted his head back and forth, considering. “Yeah, that’s a little weird, but it’s not unheard of or anything like that. I’ve seen Taylor do reviews before.”

  “Oh,” Ben said as he finished his beer and shoved the can into his small pack. “I didn’t know that was even possible.”

  Still, something about the superintendent didn’t sit right with Ben. There was more to the story. But, he didn’t want to trouble Reese with all of his half-formed assumptions and conspiracy theories.

  They resumed up the trail, and after another few minutes of shuffling up the steep switchbacks, they entered a densely-forested area. With the sun already started to fade behind the mountains, the trees cast deep shadows everywhere. Ben fished in his bag for his headlamp, since he’d need it soon.

  And that’s why Ben didn’t see the rock flying toward Reese until it was too late.

  The first one whizzed past his head, narrowly missing his temple by a quarter of an inch. Immediately after, another rock sailed from somewhere, and this one smacked him in the back of the head. It wasn’t large enough to do any damage, but it still hurt like hell. He spun around, ducking from an attacker he couldn’t see.

  He held his hands up, but before he could offer his surrender, a pair of hands snaked out from behind a nearby tree and wrapped around his neck. Ben’s feet slid through the underbrush as an attacker dragged his body backward. Ben tried to dig his feet in, but he was at such an odd angle, he had no leverage.

  His body was like a rag-doll as he was spun around and then forced against the sizable trunk of a nearby tree. It happened too fast. His head smacked against it, making his eyes snap shut.

  Pressure built in his head as a forearm pressed against his throat. The attacker leaned close, breathing heavily against Ben’s ear. Breath that stank like hot dogs. His face was covered with a light brown pantyhose, smushing his features. Like a growling potato. His eyes were dark, obscured by the fabric. No way to tell if this was the same guy who had attack him two days ago.

  “You need to learn to let things go,” the faceless attacker said in a deep voice. “It’s going to cause trouble.”

  Ben came to his senses and reacted. He reached up with his two free hands and snatched the attacker by the head, then he pushed forward with all his strength. Pushing the guy off him. The guy skittered back a few steps and then tumbled, landing on his back.

  Across the trail, Reese was holding his own against the man squared off with him. Both of them in boxing stances, throwing jabs at each other. This other man was also wearing something over his face to obscure it.

  Ben suddenly went off balance, sinking to the ground. The attacker on the ground had jerked on his leg. Ben collapsed and the attacker rose to his knees and landed three quick blows into Ben’s stomach. All the air rushed out, immediately dotting his vision with stars.

  Be
n tried to push himself up, but the lack of air had virtually paralyzed him. He gulped, trying to suck in enough air to think straight.

  “Let it go!” the attacker bellowed one more time, then he sprinted up the trail. The one facing off against Reese took off with him. For a second, Reese appeared to debate if he’d chase after the fleeing attackers, of if he would help Ben.

  He chose Ben. He rushed across the trail and grabbed Ben by the arm. As Reese jerked him up, Ben was getting his bearings back. Able to breathe now.

  The two fleeing men had disappeared into the trees, but Ben had seen which direction they’d headed. They had to move fast, since there were a thousand ways to exit the forrest on this side of the hill.

  “Let’s go,” Ben said, chest heaving and lungs aching. “Get those bastards.”

  They dropped their packs and raced up the trail. Ben caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye. The two attackers had diverted from the main trail and were sprinting across open backcountry, dodging tree limbs and leaping logs left and right.

  Ben pushed his legs with everything he had in him, with Reese right behind. The attackers traversed a large patch of brambles and thorny underbrush. Still ten seconds behind, Ben begged his body to work beyond what it seemed to think was capable. Reese was only one pace behind him.

  By the time they reached the bramble patch, the attackers had rounded the side of the hill, vanishing. Ben lifted a finger to point, and he turned his head to shout at Reese.

  And that’s when the ground disappeared.

  Ben felt himself falling through space as brambles and sticks sliced across the lower half of his body. His feet splashed, rushing water coursing over the tops of his shoes. In an instant, the world turned down the volume by half, and rushing water was the loudest thing around.

  It took him a second to realize what had happened. The patch of crisscrossing branches and shrubbery had been covering a creek on the hillside, at least four or five feet deep. Summer flooding had carried all this detritus here and provided a perfect natural trap over the top of a creek.