“So,” Derek pushed, “what was under that pile?”

“Same thing that is still under that pile, actually.”

“And that would be?”

“A small backpack. And in the backpack, which I am sure that you’re about to ask, is .380 caliber Smith and Wesson semi, a well folded map of the area, three vanilla flavored Power Bars, a pair of Nike sneakers, socks, clean shirt, long pants, and a towel.”

“Not sure how smart it is to leave a gun out here for anyone to find,” Derek said.

“Guns are funny, Derek. They ain’t much good with no bullets and the firing rod removed. That gun has been modified. I guess you could call it a custom.”

“Someone left the gun without bullets?”

“No, they was there. Hollow points. A full box of fifty of them, plus six loaded in the magazine. I took the liberty of removing them.”

“Get any prints off the bullets or the gun?”

“Clean as a virgin’s nightstand,” Ralph answered.

Ralph pointed further down the path.

“Keep on walking that way for another click. You walk your pace, and I’ll do my best to keep up.”

Though Derek wanted to talk more about the hidden backpack and the two painted hearts, he figured it was more important to keep on Ralph’s good side, and he turned to continue walking the path.

Five minutes later, the path ended at the shore of Piseco Lake. Directly across from the end of the path was the lodge of Doctor William Straus.

“Interesting,” Derek said, though Ralph was still too far behind to hear.

A few minutes later, Ralph’s breathing could be heard. He reached the end of the path next to Derek and sat down on a large rock that Derek hadn’t noticed was marked with a small, red heart.

“And beneath this rock that is now holding up my fat ass,” Ralph said, “was a flashlight, not unlike the type I found you waving around the lodge last night.”

“This whole path is a bit ‘peculiar’ I’d say,” Derek said.

“Very much so,” Ralph answered. “Now, I want to hear your ideas about this path, the objects on this path, and the three small hearts painted on the rocks and tree. I have my thoughts, but I am very curious to hear what you think.”

Derek thought of how his father would always ask him to share his thoughts about difficult to understand questions that Derek had growing up. Derek would share his views before this father would share his thoughts. When Derek asked about why his grandmother had died, his father asked him, “Derek, everyone has their own ideas of why people die. What are your thoughts?” And while Derek never felt the need to replace his father with a “father figure,” the way Ralph spoke to him made Derek feel comfortable and at ease.

“Well,” Derek started, “the fact that this trail is directly across a narrow stretch of the lake from the lodge, is marked at both the beginning and end and has some supplies stashed along the route, also near a marker, I have to think that Alexander used this route to escape after murdering the three men. Since Fay was murdered outside the lodge, I imagine that Alexander was headed towards the lake to either swim to this point or to use a boat that may have been stashed on the lodge’s side of the lake. Did you or the state police find any canoes or small boats drifting around the lake?”

“Not a-one,” Ralph answered, his smile showing his obvious satisfaction with Derek’s summation.

“Now the fact that the flashlight and backpack were obviously never collected,” Derek continued, “leads me to believe that  Alexander didn’t make the swim over here, that he got lost, or that he had another means of escape. I also am more convinced than ever that Alexander wasn’t acting alone.”

“My thoughts exactly,” said Ralph. “I had one of my officers take a look at the underside of the lodge while you were still dreaming of lollipops and rainbows this morning. And he agrees that the screws were pulled out from outside, just like you suggested. Now that tells me that either Alexander got outside without anyone noticing or that someone else helped him get out.”

 “If Alexander was able to get outside, he could have been the one who planted the supplies on this trail.”

“Entirely possible,” Ralph said. “But I don’t think so. You see, as soon as I discovered this lovely path, the painted heart symbols and the supplies, my little brain immediately told me that these were arranged by someone else. Someone who was planning on assisting Alexander in the murders and his escape. Someone who knew the timing of it all. These hearts painted along this path look too new to have been out in this weather too long. They are as fresh as a schoolyard bully’s mouth during recess.”

“Straus?” Derek questioned.

“I do not know who helped Alexander, nor do I know why. But I do know that wherever Alexander is, he didn’t get there by himself. And, while I don’t know for certain, I also believe that whoever called in that note of yours to the rental car place, is the someone who can answer all my questions.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Henry Zudak needed to breathe. He had to alert someone, anyone about what was happening. He heard, though he couldn’t be certain of the exact words used, that Mark Rinaldo was dead. That shocked him more than he thought it would. After all, he knew that Alexander Black had escaped after killing three men inside of William Straus’s lodge, and that one of the victims was Henry’s old co-worker, Peter Adams. Henry also knew that his name was found on a list with a bunch of other names that he recognized and that two of the names, Adams and Curtis, were crossed out in blood. He knew that Alexander would be looking for him and for Mark, but, still, the shock of hearing that Mark was dead was hard to handle.

Then there was the more pressing issue of breathing. He certainly had enough experience remembering how to breathe when stressed. The months after the whole “O’Connell incident,” as he began to refer to it as, found him suffering from near-constant panic attacks.

The psychologist he met with told him that panic attacks are nothing more than his body not knowing how to process an overload of stressors hitting it all at once. He prescribed a mild sedative to help Henry through the more troubling attacks and suggested that Henry learn some “yoga breathing exercises” to help manage the more “palatable” attacks.