captive in his house and I couldn’t leave!”
They left the house from the front door so neither Jacob nor Pilly would see them if they were coming. They were just beginning their trek along the fence, partially concealed by the trees and bushes, when there was a smell. A pungent and thick smell. Laine knew what it was. “Holy mother of God,” she said, holding Liam against her and running along the fence. “Hurry! He’s burning everything down!”
They were almost to the river before Laine found a break in the fence. She held it open for Charlotte and handed Liam to her. “Go through the woods and pasture to the road. He’s burning the warehouses and he’ll probably burn everything and if you’re here, you’re in terrible danger. Take the baby, hang on to Abe. Just go!”
“What will you do? Will you be safe?”
“I’m going to try to get Mercy. Don’t worry about me right now, just go quickly. And when you get to the police, tell them who’s left here!”
“Jacob will send the men after us!”
“Charlotte,” she said gravely. “The men are gone.”
* * *
Rawley told Cooper where to park in a small stand of trees near the river. He lit out at a pretty fast clip along the riverbank. He had his knife strapped to his waist and anchored to his thigh and he carried a rifle.
“Rawley, how far?” Devon asked.
“I’m not sure, chickadee. Just stay on my tail and don’t slip. If I have to fish you out, it costs time.”
“The odometer said it was six miles,” she pointed out.
“By road. The river is a straight shot.” Then he stopped, listened, sniffed the air. Everyone came to a standstill behind him—first Devon, then Spencer, then Cooper.
“What is it?” Devon asked.
“Might be burning green cannabis,” he said. Then he put his head down and said, “Step it up. This just keeps getting worse.” And he began to jog along the riverbank.
* * *
Laine could see that a fire had been started inside one of the warehouses; smoke was pouring out through cracks in the roof and doors. Any minute the thing would combust and the outer shell would go up in flames. The whole forest could be at risk, but certainly Jacob’s house, the bunkhouse and the other warehouse.
Laine ran past the burning warehouse to the bunkhouse and tried the door, only to find it locked. She assumed weapons must be stored inside, but she couldn’t get in. She reared back and gave the door a furious kick, but it didn’t budge. There was only an old blue pickup near the bunkhouse and now she could see one lone black SUV parked behind Jacob’s house. The rear hatch was open and it looked as if Jacob might be loading up his belongings.
And between them, an ax sitting beside a stack of firewood.
She picked up the ax and ran toward the house. She softly opened the front door to the house and heard voices within, slightly muffled but she thought she could make out at least some of the words—“No, take that box while I fill this suitcase.”
“What about that?”
“I’ll take care of that. Hurry—there won’t be much time now.”
“Where will we go?”
“Doesn’t matter, just that we leave before they get here.”
It was Pilly and Jacob, with no sound from Mercy. Ax in hand, she followed the sounds and peeked into a room to find the two of them in the back of the house, a room she’d never seen before. It appeared to be Jacob’s office. She dared to peek in the door and what she saw was surreal—Jacob and Pilly were loading boxes full of stacks of papers—it looked suspiciously like manuscripts. His brilliant opus; his manifesto. And from an open safe he was stacking what had to be tens of thousands of dollars in bills into suitcases.
But of course. If he’d been selling his “medicinal herbs” he was operating a completely cash business. He wouldn’t have had the luxury of making deposits into a bank—his illegal operation would be exposed. Law enforcement always followed the money in search for clues and suspects.
She crept through the house, beginning with the kitchen where she had last seen Mercy sitting at the table, but she wasn’t there. She looked in the living room, in the bedroom, searched in vain for a cellar door, but the child was not there. Laine felt a rising panic. She had some theories about Jacob but in reality she wasn’t sure how sick or