Grandpa used to say that. Actually he used to sing that line whenever life confounded him. It was from some song that was popular when he was a kid.
“What do we do now?” Kyle asked.
Cupped my hands around my mouth so my voice would carry. “Hannah, it’s Ripper. Kyle and Sahdev are with me. You know us. Tell your boyfriend we’re not working with Pastor Bill.”
I couldn’t hear it, but I imagined the frantic conversation going on inside the cabin. A minute later, the door opened and the boy stepped out, followed by the girl. Scowling, he took a defensive position between us and her.
“Don’t shoot,” Hannah called.
I raised my hands to show her that I wasn’t holding a weapon.
She stepped around her boyfriend, who wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her back.
“Let go, Levi,” she said impatiently. “Ripper’s not going to hurt me. He’s Kenzie’s boyfriend. He needs to go and get her away from Pastor Bill.”
I jerked at the mention of Mac’s name, at the proof that she was alive and in the camp. Relief zapped every bit of strength from my limbs and I sagged, before straightening to face the kids.
Hannah tugged free of the boy’s arms and stepped closer. The kid—Levi—stuck to her side, obviously ready to push her out of the way if I made a move.
Kind of admired the little shit’s protective stance.
“Hannah, they are working with the pastor.” Levi seized her shoulders and turned her to face him. “These guys approached my cabin with Pastor Bill’s men. I saw them. I was in my observation post in a tree.” He pointed to Kyle and me. “And then today the tall guy chased you and me when we were running to the dirt bike.”
Wait. His cabin? This high school student rigged the cabin and surrounding land with deadly booby traps? He watched us from an observation post in a tree?
“You built all those booby traps.” Kyle shook his head. “You blew up the cabin and killed Tyler. What is wrong with you, you homicidal little shithead?”
“What are you talking about? I didn’t blow up the cabin.”
“Really.” Kyle’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “You blew up the fence, but somebody else blew up the cabin where you happened to be living. Are you going to tell us that you had nothing to do with the explosions at the dam, too?”
“The dam? What the fuck, man,” Levi sputtered.
“Levi didn’t blow up the dam. Pastor Bill was behind that,” Hannah broke in.
All heads swung in her direction.
Sahdev raised his hands. “I suggest that we take a moment and calmly listen to everybody’s stories.”
Yeah. Everybody held a different piece of the puzzle, and we had to get to the bottom of this. I pointed at Levi. “You first. Tell us why you were staying at the cabin and why you rigged it with booby traps.”
Hannah jumped in. “Levi and I were driving to his Grandpa Kurt’s place in La Pine. Our car broke down a couple of miles from here. A nice man stopped to help.” She made a face at the words nice man. “The creepy cult took us in and offered to fix our car. Levi left to pick up the car from the mechanic, and he never came back.”
Kyle cleared his throat. “What happened, Levi? Why didn’t you come back for Hannah?”
“Instead of going to the mechanic, Deacon Morris drove me to Hood River and dumped me and our packs on the side of the road. He told me that if I knew what was good for me, I’d stay away from Hannah and the camp. Said that if any of the pastor’s men spotted me near the camp, they had orders to shoot to kill.”
Hannah gasped and flung her arms around his waist, as if Pastor Bill might materialize and try to wrest Levi away from her again.
“So, what did you do, kid? When the good pastor told you he’d kill you if you didn’t get lost?”
Levi slung an arm across Hannah’s shoulders and met my gaze with a calm composure that belied his years.
“What would you do, man? I went back for my girl. Well, first I walked around the town and gathered supplies. Then I came across a dirt bike in some guy’s garage, loaded it up and rode back toward Mt. Hood. I found an out-of-the-way hunting cabin and fortified it with the booby traps Grandpa Kurt taught me how to make. I mean, they told me they’d kill me if I came back, so I had to make sure nobody could sneak up on me. Then I watched and waited for a chance to contact Hannah.”
“Bird calls,” Hannah said. “We used our secret bird calls.”
Levi grinned, and they bumped fists.
I was gonna end up liking this kid, despite myself.
“Two of the pastor’s men stumbled on my cabin a few days ago. One of them got hurt in a Punji stake trap. The three of you showed up and helped Bill’s man carry the guy out of the woods. Of course I assumed you were members of his flock.”
“He told us that his men had found the man responsible for destroying The Dalles Dam,” Sahdev said. “They claimed that they saw bomb-making materials inside the cabin. We assumed it was you.”
“The fucker was trying to set me up.” Levi’s mouth twisted in disgust. “He wanted you guys to run the risk of navigating through the booby traps. Wanted you to do his dirty work. Maybe he hoped that you’d see me, assume the worst, and shoot me on the spot. Levi Greenburg dead, another problem solved.”
“Who blew up the cabin?” I demanded.
“Not me.” His blue eyes met mine, and he stuck his chin out, as if daring me to contradict him. “I watched it happen from my perch. After the three of you hiked out, two more guys showed up, Deacon Gary and Tyler. Tyler was a nice guy. We hung out at the camp while I was waiting for the mechanic to fix our car. Anyway, Gary forced open the door to the cabin, and they walked inside. Five minutes later he walked out alone and ran toward the tree line. The cabin exploded. Once the flames died down he ran back to the cabin and pulled out Tyler’s body.”
Kyle shoved a hand through his hair. “Gary blew up the cabin and killed Tyler? How? Why?”
“So witnesses would report the explosion and the smoke,” Sahdev guessed. “Which would validate the lie Pastor Bill told Kenzie about our deaths.”
Levi nodded. “And to get rid of Tyler.” We all looked at him, confused. “Tyler was hung up on Pastor Bill’s second wife, Justine. They’d planned to run off before the wedding, but they chickened out. He told me she was better off married to the pastor—she had a bunch of special privileges—and he said he was okay with it. Pastor Bill must have found out and decided to get rid of Tyler, to keep them from ever hooking up again. Blowing up the cabin was a case of killing two birds with one stone.”
“Deacon Gary did say that he was a civil engineer.” Sahdev sat down on the bottom step. “He would possess the knowledge to bring down a small structure like the cabin, and very likely the dam as well.”
“It’s all part of the pastor’s Back to Eden plan,” Hannah said. “Kenzie showed me all the papers she found in his cabin, including a brochure from The Dalles Dam Visitor Center with a picture of the dam on the cover. Somebody drew a circle around the spillway with five Xs inside. You know, for the five explosions.”
Information assaulted me from all sides and my head was swimming. Mac was alive. Pastor Bill was behind Back 2 Eden. Deacon Gary was the bomber.