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    Witness
    Witness
    Witness
    Ebook103 pages1 hour

    Witness

    By Joan L. Anderson

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Becca and Kate have lived together for eight years, and every one of those years they’ve spent their vacation in a tropical paradise, lying on a beach. This year, Becca wanted to try something different: a seven day, 65-mile hike in the beautiful Cascade Mountains of Washington state. Their peaceful vacation turns to horror when they stumble upon a brutal murder taking place in the back country. The killer realizes that the women have witnessed the crime, and he needs to do whatever it takes to keep them from getting back to civilization and the police. Will they be able to hike out of the wilderness and get help before he can stop them? The chase is on!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTriplicity Publishing, LLC
    Release dateMar 28, 2017
    Witness
    Author

    Joan L. Anderson

    Joan L. Anderson fell in love with Paris and the French people the first time she visited the city in 1998. Since then, she returns to France whenever possible.After being together for 25 years, Joan and her partner, Barbara, were finally able to marry in 2014. They live outside Seattle, Washington, with their two dogs.

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      Book preview

      Witness - Joan L. Anderson

      Witness

      by

      Joan L. Anderson

      Witness © 2017 Joan L. Anderson

      Triplicity Publishing, LLC

      Smashwords Edition

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form without permission.

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events of any kind, or locales is entirely coincidental.

      Printed in the United States of America

      First Edition – 2017

      Cover Design: Triplicity Publishing, LLC

      Interior Design: Triplicity Publishing, LLC

      Editor: Megan Brady - Triplicity Publishing, LLC

      Acknowledgements

      I would like to thank my stepson, Bob Keller, for sharing his extensive knowledge and experience in backpacking the Cascades and the Pacific Crest Trail. I'd also like to thank my friend, Karen Swanson, for reading the manuscript and offering very helpful suggestions and comments. And, as always, I want to thank my wife, Barbara, for her loving support and tolerance through all of the months that I spent writing.

      CHAPTER ONE

      How much further? Kate shifted the weight of her backpack on her shoulders as she trudged along the narrow trail. It was a hot August day, even at 3,200 feet in the Cascade Mountains of Washington state. Her blonde bangs were plastered against her sweaty brow, while rivulets of sweat trickled down between her breasts and into her bra.

      Should be just around the next bend.

      You’ve been saying that for the past twenty minutes.

      Becca grinned, and gazed around contentedly. She loved the forest. She always had, ever since she was a little girl and her dad would take her fly fishing in the Cascades just east of Seattle. The wilderness flooded every one of her senses. The thick vegetation was a veritable patchwork of greens. Needles of the evergreen trees as dark as spinach, the tips of their branches chartreuse with new growth. Lacy ferns in the dense underbrush the color of dill pickles. Dusty gray-green old man’s beard lichen hanging from the branches of the towering Douglas fir trees. The forest was as hushed as a tomb, the only sounds being the whisper of the wind gently swaying the soaring treetops high overhead and the chirp of small birds in the underbrush. Sweet, yet tangy wild huckleberries delighted her taste buds while the gentle breeze caressed her cheek. Each step she took was cushioned by a thick layer of dry fir needles beneath her boots. The air was pure and clean, and had the same resinous, earthy smell of the noble firs in a Christmas tree lot. Everything was so lush, so vibrant, so brimming with life. The stillness and peace of the forest had always soothed her soul like nothing else ever had. She felt completely at home in the woods.

      Becca and Kate had been together for eight years, and every one of those years they had spent their vacation in some tropical paradise, lying in the sun on a beach and flirting with melanoma. But this year, Becca had suggested that they do something entirely different. Ever since she was in high school, she had wanted to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, a 2,650 mile trek from Mexico all the way up to Canada. In Washington, the PCT winds its way through the Cascades and crosses the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area, more than 400,000 acres of pristine forest peppered with hundreds of unspoiled lakes. Its breathtaking beauty draws hikers from around the world. Becca suggested that a friend could drop them off at Snoqualmie Pass on Interstate 90 and pick them up a week later at Stevens Pass to the north on U.S. Route 2. It was a 75 mile hike, but they could cut ten miles off the meandering trail by taking a short cut to Lake Perrigo, go past Aurora Falls, then rejoin the PCT further north. Kate was skeptical at first and said she thought it sounded like a lot more fun to go to Hawaii. But it was clear that this was something Becca really wanted to do, and in the end Kate was a good sport and agreed to the hike.

      At age 32, Becca was in peak physical condition and did at least one marathon every year. Kate; not so much. She had been more than sixty pounds overweight, and sometimes it was all she could do to walk half a block down the street to their mailbox kiosk without getting winded. It took months of training for Kate to lose thirty pounds and get into good enough shape to handle the 65 mile hike that they had planned, but she did it. And now, on day three as they approached Lake Perrigo, the allure of hiking had faded for Kate and it was just flat out getting to be an ordeal.

      The trail wound its way up a short hill through a stand of Douglas fir trees, soaring giants with bark as rough and wrinkled as an elephant’s trunk. The forest floor was a dense green carpet of ferns, crowberry and queen’s cup; its small, white, six-petal flowers elegantly set on stems above long, shiny green leaves. A camp robber gray jay was perched on a downed log alongside the trail, his white face and chest a stark contrast to the dark nape of his neck. He cautiously watched as the women approached. When they got too near he flew up, briefly flitting from one low shrub to another, then with a sharp chirp and chatter, he disappeared deeper into the woods.

      Becca could see open sky beyond the crest of the hill, and when she reached the top she looked to her left. There it is.

      Lake Perrigo was a brilliant blue jewel sitting at the bottom of a trough that had been carved into the earth by glaciers millions of years ago. The surrounding mountains were carpeted by a velvety green forest that crept down the hills to the lake. Clouds drifting overhead cast patches of dark shadows on the verdant hillsides. Sun bleached gray logs and branches littered the lake shore like so many dried skeletons. Lake Perrigo was shaped like a bowling pin, its base towards the south and the tip pointing northward. They followed the trail down the hill to the eastern edge of the lake’s narrow neck.

      I have to admit, this is beautiful, said Kate, as she shrugged out of her pack and set it down on the rocky beach. She gingerly walked out onto a half-submerged giant log and sat down. She looked around the lake, its calm, mirror-like surface reflecting the encircling forested slopes. High above, a bald eagle soared in lazy circles, riding the thermals as they rose off the mountains.

      Becca set her pack on the ground and opened up a side pocket, retrieving a pair of binoculars. She joined Kate on the log and scanned the hillside across from them to the west. It was late afternoon, and the sun hung low above the distant ridge. Becca adjusted her red floppy hat to better shield her eyes from the bright sun. Kate had made fun of her hat, but red was Becca’s favorite color and it matched her red pack, so she really didn’t care.

      Jesus! shouted Kate as she frantically scrambled to her feet and stepped away on the log.

      What’s the matter?

      Kate pointed. A large wolf spider the size of a silver dollar scuttled across the downed log where Kate had just been sitting. The back half of its two-segmented body was the size of a plump garden pea, and its eight arched legs, each nearly an inch long, were covered with short, spiky bristles. Its fat, antenna-like pedipalps were like two hooks pointed downward between its front legs, making it look ferocious and predatory.

      Step on it! Kate cried.

      Becca hated to squash big spiders. Not because she was humane and didn’t want to kill them, but because they were so

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