Hot Springs Murder Read online

  “The bear did get him,” Nolan confirmed, breathing hard but maintaining consciousness. “There was an awful lot of blood. The boss man will send more people. We have to get out of here.”

  “You’re still sick,” Sarah told Nolan. “You weren’t in the hot springs long enough.” Sarah threw her eyes around and then focused back on Noel. Noel was grinning. “Maybe there is a way,” she said.

  “Let me go and I’ll leave this place,” Noel promised Sarah. “I’ll let you live. If you refuse,” Noel assured Sarah, “millions will die because of you.”

  “Oh shut up, sister!” Amanda yelled. “You can’t activate that bomb of yours from this far out.”

  “I have a satellite phone that can accomplish the job,” Noel snapped at Amanda.

  “How did you know about the bomb?” Sarah asked Amanda in an urgent voice.

  Amanda took a second to catch her breath. “Nolan told me,” she explained. “And then that bloke the bear is munching on ran his mouth and told me his lousy flea circus terror bosses are watching some woman at the Anchorage airport they believe is Noel.”

  Sarah stared at Noel. “Of course,” she said, “distraction is the key.”

  Noel stopped grinning. “Wilson lied.”

  “How do you know his name?” Amanda asked.

  “It doesn’t make any sense,” Nolan said, struggling to lean up on one elbow. “Unless Wilson was in on this—somehow?”

  “Wilson is in love with me,” Noel gritted out at Nolan. “I used his stupidity against him! I told him to manipulate your boss man until I released the virus.” Noel spat at Nolan. “I needed to be certain my virus would act according to design.”

  “Enough!” Sarah ordered Noel. “We get the idea.”

  Amanda stood up and walked over to Sarah. “That bear chose the right bloke to eat,” she said, in a grateful voice. “Now, the question is, what do we do about them?”

  “Noel hid an antidote down in the cellar. I have to go find it.” Sarah looked down at Amanda’s hand and saw her holding Nolan’s gun. “They move—just shoot them, June Bug. No games, honey. Just shoot them.”

  “I wish you would shoot me,” Nolan begged. “My life is over anyway. If you don’t kill me, the boss man will. So do me a favor and put me out of my misery.”

  “Don’t tempt me,” Amanda warned Nolan. She shook her head and let her eyes soak in the beautiful landscape. “All I wanted to do was buy this land and have my own hot springs resort—or hideaway—or whatever you want to call it. Was that really too much to ask? Blimey, you Americans make living a peaceful life so blasted difficult. I admit that my country has its share of problems, but you Americans take the cake. No offense to you, Los Angeles—you’re okay.”

  “No offense taken,” Sarah promised, wiping her hands on the gray work dress she had put on after the hot springs. “I need to get down into the cellar and find the antidote.”

  “Less than one hour and millions die,” Noel warned Sarah. “Let me go—or else!”

  Sarah looked into Amanda’s eyes. “Honey, this is your call.”

  Amanda stood, shocked. “But you’re the one with all the answers—you’re the brilliant detective. I’m simply the silly sidekick.”

  Sarah took Amanda’s hand. “Honey, you’re not a silly sidekick. Right now, I need you to tell me what to do. My plan was to lock these two in the cellar and go for help. But this situation is out of my control. All I know to do is find the antidote and save that man’s life. After that—what do we do?” Sarah felt desperation grab her heart.

  Amanda stared into her friend’s eyes and felt a strange peace wash over her. “There is no way that she-monster can detonate her bomb from this far out. Her decoy, honey, she’ll be the one to activate the bomb.”

  “That still means the virus will be set loose to kill millions,” Sarah told Amanda, and bowed her head. “Noel—has won. We—no—I, I failed to stop her.”

  “That’s right,” Noel laughed. “Even if you hold me here, you still lose—the entire world will lose. I will have my revenge and my victory.”

  “Oh shut up,” Amanda told Noel, and raised Sarah’s chin with a loving hand. “Los Angeles, you figured out the hot springs could save us. You didn’t fail. Even if the virus is set free, we have a way to kill it—a very painful way—but a way. And hey, wouldn’t that bring this place a lot of business?” she tried to joke.

  Sarah felt a weak smile touch her lips. “I better go find the antidote and—” Sarah stopped talking and raised her eyes skyward. In the distance, she heard what sounded like a helicopter approaching. She lowered her eyes and looked at Amanda.

  All Amanda could say was, “We have company.”

  Far away, up in the sky, four armed killers, along with a man in his early seventies, waited for the helicopter to deliver them to the battleground.

  8

  Sarah grabbed Nolan’s right arm and tried to make him stand up. “What’s the point?” he asked, and coughed as the virus began to take control of his body again. Nolan’s body temperature was lowering and traces of the virus were struggling to reanimate. “Let me die.”

  “Get up!” Sarah yelled, and pulled Nolan to his feet. “Amanda, get Noel inside!”

  Amanda walked over to Noel and used a bandana to tie the woman’s hands together behind her back. But before the woman could say a word, Amanda clocked her in the jaw, too, and she fell unconscious to the floor. “I’m not in the mood for games,” she said, in an urgent voice, hearing the helicopter growing closer and closer. “Better you go to sleep for a while than risk escape.”

  Sarah stared at Amanda, then nodded her head. “You would have made a tough street cop.”

  “I’m a very scared housewife who just wants to see her hubby and son again,” Amanda told Sarah and began dragging Noel’s unconscious body up the front porch steps. “Blimey, she’s heavier than she looks.”

  Once Amanda had Noel up on the porch, she tried to help Nolan climb the front porch steps. “I need you to fight,” she told Nolan.

  Nolan patted his right arm. “I have a chip in me,” he explained. “Wherever I run to, the boss man will find me. He’s not arriving alone—he’ll have armed men who will hunt us all down and kill us.” Nolan fought against Sarah’s hands. “Let me run off into the woods. I’ll go to the hot springs and act as a decoy.”

  “You’re still sick,” Sarah told Nolan. “You’ll never make it—”

  “You go find the antidote,” Nolan begged Sarah. “I'll go hide—the boss man will find me no matter where I run. I might be able to hold them off for a while—you can escape.”

  “You’re infected,” Sarah said, in a stern voice, hearing the blades of the helicopter growing closer and closer. In another two or three minutes the helicopter would be landing right in front of the main cabin. “I have to give you the antidote.”

  “I'll—” Nolan struggled to think, but then his eyes rolled up in his head and he collapsed, his face pale and bloodless.

  “Get Noel inside. I’ll get Nolan!” Sarah yelled at Amanda.

  “But the chip in his arm—”

  “We’ll throw him down into the cellar and find the antidote,” Sarah explained. “That’s all we can do,” she said, in a furious voice, lugging Nolan step by step. “We need to hurry.”

  Amanda nodded her head, grabbed Noel’s arm, and began dragging her into the cabin. “Lay off the donuts, sister,” she fussed.

  Sarah appeared in the doorway and began dragging Nolan down the long hallway. When she reached the kitchen, she ran to the hidden cellar door, yanked it open, and without wasting any time, simply pushed Nolan’s unconscious body down into the hole. Noel followed. “Hurry,” Sarah said, and pointed down at the back door.

  “Oh,” Amanda fretted. She ran to the back door, opened it, and bolted outside as Sarah slammed the cellar door shut and followed. “Where to?” Amanda asked, hearing the helicopter landing.

  Sarah pointed to the woods. “Hurry!”

&n
bsp; Amanda grabbed Sarah’s hands and darted into the woods. Her frantic mind began to focus on the grizzly bear. “Honey, we have to be careful. There’s a hungry bear in these woods.”

  Sarah ran deeper into the woods as the helicopter finally touched down. As soon as the helicopter touched solid earth, the four armed killers jumped out and stormed up to the cabin. Richard Whitefield followed on slow legs. “Two in the front and two in the back,” he yelled, holding what appeared to be a black cell phone. On the screen of the black phone, he studied a red dot that was surrounded by precise landscape. “Our target is inside of this cabin.” Richard lowered the phone and looked around. “No one leaves here alive,” he yelled. “We’re here to clean up an ugly mess and abort a disastrous plan.”

  As Richard approached the front porch, Sarah tugged Amanda deeper into the woods. “We have to find the four-wheeler Noel arrived on,” she explained, running past tall trees and through thick brush. “She told me it was somewhere in the woods.”

  “If we don’t get lost or eaten by a bear, maybe we might have a chance, love,” Amanda said, forcing her legs through the untamed, rugged wilderness.

  “That hidden trail has to be around here someplace,” Sarah explained. “Nolan ran around the cabin with Noel on his shoulder and he returned the same way.”

  “Whatever you say, love,” Amanda replied, keeping pace with Sarah. “All I know is that when we get home, I’m going to sleep for a week.”

  Sarah slid to a stop behind a tall tree and caught her breath. She threw her eyes to the left and to the right. “I think the hot springs are that way,” she said, and pointed to her left.

  “Then we go this way,” Amanda said, and pointed to her right. “That grizzly bear is at the hot springs.” Amanda rolled her eyes. “Noel and her stories—oh, the grizzly bear is harmless—it’s so lovely to spend time with people who understand me—my foot.”

  “Noel was deceiving us,” Sarah told Amanda. “She spoke with a false tongue all night. She sure fooled me. But,” Sarah sighed, “she was shot and left for dead. A part of me still wants to pity her. I know she’s mentally insane, but—”

  Amanda reached out and grabbed Sarah’s face. “Love, that woman is a cold-blooded killer. Snap out of it.”

  Sarah stared into Amanda’s eyes. “She’s broken, June Bug. Somewhere in her life, long ago, someone broke that woman and turned her into the monster she is.”

  “Yeah, and children are dying all over this world from starvation, love, and you don’t see them going around wanting to kill millions of people,” Amanda pointed out. “Noel may have endured some hard times in her past—hurtful times—but a person has to grow up, pull up their pants, and get on with their life. Noel chose the path she walked—she chose to make her virus—she chose to become the monster she is. If she needs a mental hospital, that’s beside the point,” Amanda looked around. “There are plenty of mentally ill people in the world, some even worse than her, and they don’t all go around infecting innocent people and manipulating others.”

  Sarah reached out and hugged her best friend. “Thanks, June Bug, my tired mind needed to hear that truth. I know feeling sorry for Noel isn’t healthy. I need to continue to see that woman for what she is.”

  “Dead,” Amanda said, and pointed back toward the cabin. “We left her for dead—and good riddance.”

  “We didn’t leave her for dead,” Sarah assured Amanda. “Remember, the cabin is still infected with the virus.”

  “Huh?” Amanda said, and then her eyes grew wide. “Why you little—” she grinned from ear to ear. “You led the wolves straight into a trap.”

  “When Noel regains consciousness, her brain will start working. She’ll realize what I did and use it to her advantage.” Sarah kept her eyes on the move. “We couldn’t stay back there and fight an army, and there's no way to decontaminate the cabin. All I knew to do was draw in the wolves and make a run for it. Our goal now is to find a phone and call the authorities in Anchorage. And who knows, maybe—just maybe—we’ll be able to trap Noel before she escapes.”

  “How?” Amanda asked.

  “Close down the Alaska airspace—shut down the borders—something, anything?” Sarah suggested. She looked back at the cabin. “I left Noel and Nolan with their own war to fight. My focus now is the airport. Let’s move.”

  “Love?” Amanda hesitated.

  “Yes?”

  “I know the hot springs killed off the virus—but we ran back into the cabin. Could it be we’re contaminated again?”

  Sarah let out a gentle smile. “I was worried about that but while you were away with Nolan at the hot springs, I tricked Noel into confessing that the virus can’t infect a person twice. Otherwise she wouldn’t be able to use an antidote to keep people safe, right? I believe she was telling the truth.”

  “She told us so many lies—how do we know what to believe?” Amanda worried.

  Sarah kept her smile. She reached out and touched Amanda’s shoulder. “I read her eyes, June Bug. Noel wasn't lying when she told me the virus can’t infect a person a second time.”

  Amanda found comfort in Sarah’s voice. “When we get home, I want a hundred blood tests done.”

  “You bet,” Sarah agreed, and pointed to her right. “We need to hurry and—” Sarah stopped. She looked to her left and listened. In the distance, she heard what sounded like a large creature running through the woods. “The bear?” she whispered.

  Amanda’s eyes grew wide. “Yes,” she whispered back.

  “We can’t outrun a bear in these woods—and if I fire at it, I’ll give away our location,” Sarah whispered.

  “What do we do?”

  “Back to the cabins, hurry!” Sarah grabbed Amanda’s arm and ran back to the small cabins. She spotted two men walking around the main cabin, waited until the two men vanished out of sight, and dashed into the last cabin—the cabin Nolan had been hiding in. As soon as she closed the front door, the grizzly burst out of the woods, looked around, and lumbered toward the main cabin, its paws shaking the earth. Seconds later, gunfire erupted. “They’re shooting at the bear,” Sarah told Amanda. “Now is our chance.” Once again Sarah eased Amanda back into the woods and took off running. Back at the main cabin, the grizzly bear limped off into the woods, wounded but not dead.

  “That bear,” Amanda fussed under her breath. “First it eats our food, then tries to eat us—some thanks.”

  Sarah kept dragging Amanda through the woods, seeking the back paths and trails. When they finally found one that looked like it led the correct direction, they ran for what seemed like forever. And then, to Sarah’s relief, they burst out into a small clearing. A four-wheeler covered with a camouflage tarp was resting in the clearing. “Thank you,” Sarah prayed, and nearly burst into tears. She let go of Amanda, yanked the tarp off the four-wheeler, and smiled. “We’re going to be okay, June Bug.”

  “You bet we are,” Amanda said, and pointed to what appeared to be a wider trail leading downhill. “I think that is our road out of here.”

  “Let’s not waste any time finding out.” Sarah jumped onto the four-wheeler and examined the controls. “Not much different than my snowmobile,” she said, and managed to bring the four-wheeler to life. “Jump on, June Bug!”

  Amanda ran to the four-wheeler, climbed on the seat, wrapped her arms around Sarah’s waist and yelled, “Gun it, love!”

  Sarah put the four-wheeler into first gear and eased forward at a slow pace. “Let me get used to the gears,” she told Amanda, and felt her heart leap with joy. “We’re going home.”

  Amanda placed her head down on Sarah’s shoulders and closed her eyes. “Home,” she whispered as Sarah began maneuvering the four-wheeler down a rough trail. An hour later, the trail ended on the rugged road leading up to the hot springs. “Well—I’ll be,” Amanda gasped. “There’s the lake. We’re not very far from the resort.”

  Sarah aimed the four-wheeler downhill and took off. “Let’s put some distance between
us and the bad guys,” she said, and looked skyward. “I haven’t heard the helicopter, and there’s no telling what’s happening back at the cabin. I for one, don’t want to find out.”

  “Me neither,” Amanda said, and hugged Sarah. “Gun it, love.” This time Sarah opened the throttle on the four-wheeler and raced down the rough road at a dangerous speed. Amanda clung on for dear life. When the four-wheeler reached the end of the road and peeled out onto asphalt, Amanda let out a wild yell.

  “We did it, June Bug!” Sarah yelled back.

  “You found the four-wheeler, love,” Amanda laughed, and patted Sarah on her shoulder. “Now, get us to a phone and find me a custard tart and a hot tea.”

  Sarah laughed and raced the four-wheeler down a long, remote back road at high speeds. An hour later, she reached the old gas station she had stopped at with Amanda to fill up her jeep. She parked the four-wheeler and leapt out of the seat, and ran to an outside pay phone and called Conrad. He answered on the first ring. “Conrad, it’s me, I—”

  “I'm sorry,” Conrad said, sitting in his office. “We shouldn't have argued. It was all my fault.”

  Conrad’s voice made Sarah break down and start crying. “No, it was all my fault,” she promised. But her tears were loud and panicked, far too loud to match the minor disagreement they had had a few days earlier.

  “Sarah, what's wrong? Is everything okay?” Conrad asked. He jumped to his feet. “Talk to me. What’s happening?”

  “Conrad, call the Anchorage police. There’s a bomb—well, a virus connected to a bomb, and it’s hidden in the Anchorage airport in some air duct. I don’t know where, but I do know it’s deadly.”

  “Where are you?” Conrad demanded. “I’m coming to get you.”

  “I’m at an old gas station on the Snow Ridge Trail Road that branches off of Route 17. Amanda is with me—we’re fine,” Sarah promised, and wiped at her tears. “Conrad, please, you have to tell them to evacuate the airport.” Sarah drew in a deep breath and went into more detail. She explained to Conrad all about Noel. “You have to locate any woman that matches her description.”