The farther northwest they drove, the grayer the skies became and the harder the winds began to buffet the tiny caravan. Still, even against the cold bleak backdrop, the rugged land was beautiful. The grayness only added a sense of surrealism, which William Chambers pointed out, as he maneuvered the van through hills, valleys and [...]
The temperatures, which dropped the night before, did not rise much higher on Saturday morning, as coffee was poured and students and chaperones checked supply lists and started the arduous task of loading up the bus and van.
But the crispness in the air kept everybody busy and moving.
Later that afternoon, William showed up at the guard station.
Max had spent most of the afternoon digging out camping supplies for the trip and was outside re-folding a tent when William pulled into the driveway on his golf cart.
“Getting everything together?” William asked.
The red fox growled, low and gurgling, as blood frothed and bubbled from its nose and mouth. For all intents and purposes, the steel-spring bear trap should have cleaved its leg cleanly off. However, its complete hind end had somehow been caught in the trap.
Still, it tried to stand ground as Ryan and Max approached.
William Chambers was shuffling around nervously as Ryan Hendrickson and Max burst into the guard station.
They slammed the door shut behind them and locked it as they quickly began to strip out of their night vision goggles.
Ryan Hendrickson watched Max as he clipped his web belt on. Max was completely blacked out in full nighttime combat fatigues. Ryan, only wore dark jeans and a black, heavy, pullover sweater.
“I have extra sets of fatigues,” Max said, as Ryan fumbled with the communications headpiece they would be wearing while walking sentry duty.
The first stop Jason Chambers made after the results from his drug test came back clean was his dealer’s house in Manchester.
He shuffled, slightly nervous, as he rang the doorbell of the brownstone. There were two cars outside, including his dealer’s car, but the doorbell went unanswered for a good minute or two.
As requested, Ryan Hendrickson showed up at William Chambers’ office several hours early on the afternoon of the chaperone meeting, to discuss the Thanksgiving camping trip. As usual, Ryan found Chambers in his office.
He knocked and Chambers, who was on the phone, motioned for him to come in. Ryan did and sat down as Chambers [...]
Victoria Davenport toweled off her face, opened her bottle of Evian and took a sip. Trisha Ellis, wife of Senator Henry Martin Ellis, did the same, as a thirty-something guy with sandy blonde hair walked past them.
“I’d like to meet him in a dark alley,” Trisha said, grinning.
Victoria Davenport knew about loss. So it was with great understanding and empathy in which she watched her young patient, Ethan Hendrickson, as he sat listlessly before her, impassive, staring at the floor.
She lost her husband to a stroke fourteen years ago, three years before she took her current position as the school psychiatrist at [...]
