Honeymoon for Three

riding with Don and Mattie. It would ensure that he would make a clean getaway from here. There was no way his movements could be traced.
    “Where are we going today?” Alfred asked after he had graciously accepted their invitation.
    “We’re going to stay in the Tetons tonight,” Don said. “Most beautiful place in this whole fucked up world. And it’s on our way. Then we’ll hightail it home.”
    ***
    Penny and Gary were eating dinner at their campsite in the Colter Bay Campground. A small black shrew played in the dirt nearby.
    “Well, that’s the smallest mammal we’ve seen,” Gary said.
    “Be sure to put that in the log.” Penny voiced the thought that had been worrying her more and more as bedtime approached. “Do you think we’ll be safe here?”
    “I think so. The whole world’s looking for Alfred. How can he get away? If he steals a car, they’ll know who did it and figure he’ll be following us. The police have our route. They’ll keep him away from us. Maybe they’ve caught him already.”
    Maybe, but somehow Penny didn’t think it was likely. He had given them the slip so far. He was smarter than she’d given him credit for, and he was certainly obsessed with her. Enough that he wanted to kill her because he couldn’t have her. He wanted to kill Gary, too, apparently because Gary did have her.
    They had been shocked this morning when they saw the sleeping bag. The stuffing was coming out of the slits made by the knife that Alfred had wielded. What if they had been in the tent instead of the hotel? Penny shuddered at the thought. She didn’t hate Alfred. She was more puzzled by his actions than anything else. What had she done to lead him on? She had been nice to him in high school—but then she had been nice to everybody. She had barely seen him during the last six years.
    She didn’t know whether she would sleep tonight. She had thought of asking Gary if they could stay at one of the lodges, but their supply of traveler’s checks was dwindling. She couldn’t go through life being afraid. Alfred couldn’t risk the noise of a gun, and he’d lost his knife. Even if he somehow found a way to get there, she knew the odds were stacked against him trying to attack them tonight. She was trying to think rationally, but rationality and emotion often didn’t see eye to eye.
    She mentioned her fears to Gary.
    “I’ll rig up some of our cups and utensils on a string and hang them from the front of the tent. If Alfred or anyone tries to get in they’ll hit each other and make a noise. We’ll hear it, and, hopefully, it’ll also scare him off.”
    He also tied the back of the tent to a low tree branch, enabling him to free up a vertical tent post, which he placed inside the tent to use as a weapon. Penny felt a little better after seeing their defense system, which also included her screaming, if necessary, to arouse neighboring campers.
    When they went to bed, Penny couldn’t feel the rips in the sleeping bag as long as she didn’t move, but she knew they were there. The first breeze started rattling the utensils. When she heard this, she started, but eventually she got used to the noise, and it became a comforting background sound, lulling her to sleep.
    ***
    Alfred had to admit that the Tetons were beautiful. He took Don to be a crusty guy who didn’t show a lot of emotion, but that man enthused over them. Mattie obviously loved everything about the scenery, as well as campground life. She didn’t mind the dirt and cold water and problems with the weather. She would have made a good cave woman.
    Alfred was alert when they pulled into the Colter Bay Campground. There was a very good possibility that Penny and Gary were camping here tonight. That is, unless they had been so scared by what happened last night that they had decided to stay indoors—or if the condition of the tent had completely freaked them out and they had abandoned their schedule and gone straight home.
    If they did that, Alfred wouldn’t get another crack at them until he returned to L.A. He would like to know what their decision was, but he didn’t want them to see him. First, because they could identify him. He wouldn’t try anything at this campground, because he didn’t want to jeopardize his ticket out of here. He also wanted them to forget about him, as much as that was possible, so they wouldn’t be watching for him behind every tree. Then, when their paths did cross, the surprise factor would