Honeymoon for Three

fumbled in his jacket pocket, and pulled out the flashlight. He had been going to use it to make sure they were dead. He turned it on now and shone it around the collapsed tent as well as he could. This only verified what he already knew.
    ***
    “Why is that car sitting there by itself?” Penny pointed to a campsite with a car parked at the entrance. Even in the dark she could see that there were no other signs of camping activity on the site: no tent and nothing sitting on the picnic table. The car looked out of place.
    Gary shone his flashlight at the car. “That’s a Ford Falcon.”
    “A blue Ford Falcon. Is that the license plate of the car Alfred stole?” Her carefree feeling of a moment ago was replaced by a tightening of her gut.
    Gary dug into his pocket and pulled out a wrinkled piece of paper. He shone the flashlight on the paper and read the information written there out loud. Then he shone the light on the license plate of the car. It was a Montana plate.
    “It’s not the same.”
    “Shine the light inside.”
    They walked up to the car. Gary shone his flashlight through the window into the front seat. Penny saw several brochures and maps sitting on the seat, along with a bag of chips.
    “What about the back?”
    Gary shone the light through the back window. All she could see there was a hat, something like a cowboy hat.
    “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” she said. “There’s no camping equipment in the car. In fact, there’s almost nothing in the car.”
    “It does look suspicious.”
    “I’m not going back to the tent.” The thought of being inside that cramped space in the dark, without knowing who was prowling around outside, engulfed her with a feeling of claustrophobia.
    “But what can we do?”
    “We’ve got to call Detective Landon.”
    “It’s night. He won’t be working.”
    “Somebody will be working. He said to call anytime.”
    Penny looked pleadingly at Gary, but she couldn’t see his face very well. He was silent for a moment. She knew she’d never be able to sleep in the tent.
    “There’s a phone booth at the campground office,” Gary said. “We can call from there.”
    Penny clung to Gary’s hand as they walked toward the entrance to the campground. He wouldn’t let them be hurt. Her imagination magnified every sound they heard. When a bear crossed the road in front of them, she was grateful that it wasn’t something worse.
    Gary made the collect call. Penny listened as he explained the situation to whomever was on duty. He talked for about five minutes. Before he hung up, he agreed several times with whatever the other person was saying.
    “What does he want us to do?” Penny asked, not waiting for Gary to speak.
    “He agrees that the situation is suspicious. He’s coordinating with local law enforcement to get somebody out here. He said under no circumstances should we return to our campsite. We have to wait here. He’s going to get us a ride to Grant Village. We’ll stay in the hotel there.”
    “What about our car?”
    “He said not to move the car. If it is Alfred, we don’t want to do anything that might alert him to the fact that we know he’s here. We’re supposed to stay at the entrance to the campground until our ride comes.”
    “And try to keep warm.”
    “And try to keep warm. I’ll race you to that pine tree.”
    “Forget it. Just sit on that bench and snuggle with me.”
    ***
    Alfred backed out of the tent and stood up. What had been a trim-looking tent collapsed completely and became a disorganized pile of canvas. Was this a trap? Was that why someone had come by and shone a flashlight into the campsite at intervals? They must have found his car. He couldn’t return to it. What should he do?
    He shouldn’t be walking through the campground alone at midnight. If whoever was looking for him was still prowling around, they might spot him. He had to hide somewhere until morning, when he could blend in with the other campers. But where?
    Certainly not at this campsite. He had to walk somewhere, being careful to hide if a car came along. He had already hidden among the trees for a couple of hours. He was cold and angry. He didn’t want to get caught before he completed his mission. If that meant hiding for the rest of the night, he would do it.
    He could take the VW and get out of here. No, that car was too conspicuous. He couldn’t steal a car from the campground, with all the campers around, even if he could get it