Stranded at Romson's Lodge

by J.L. Callison

Overview

Kidnapped and flown to a remote lodge in upstate Maine, high school seniors, Jed Romson and Elizabeth Sitton are stranded when their kidnapper crashes on takeoff. With thirty-five miles between them and the nearest hunting lodge, Jed knows it is up to him to care for a homesick city girl until someone finds them. Is he up to the task? “Call me if you need anything.” Jed shook his head. This was going to be interesting. Not only did he have to babysit a tenderfoot, he had to listen to her, too.

Elizabeth, a city girl, has never been away from home, especially out in the wilderness with no amenities. Can she learn to cook on a wood stove or over an open fire? And what about wild animals? Wolves? Bears? Coyotes? Lizzie dropped into a deerskin-bound chair and buried her face in her hands. “I don’t think I can do this, Jed. I’m not cut out to be a Swiss Family Robinson character. I’m not an outdoorsy type of girl. This is all well and good for you, but you grew up with this stuff. I don’t have any idea what I’m doing.”

Left with no clues, what will Detective Sarah Summers do to find the missing teens?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781630477363
Publisher:	Morgan James Publishing
Publication date:	05/21/2016
Series:	Morgan James Fiction Series
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

J.L. Callison, a graduate of Bob Jones University, has had a diverse, wide-ranging career in sales, management, recycling, and transportation. Youth work is one of his greatest passions, and he regularly speaks to teens. An avid reader, he particularly enjoys military history and American history.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Elizabeth Sitton wept silently with her eyes closed. She didn't know where they were going, and she didn't care. She wanted to go home. Jed Romson knew where they were going. Knowing, though, made things no better. His back was stiff from sitting hunched over with his hand cuffed to Elizabeth's through the seat supports.

Jed looked at the back of Pete Richardson's head. Pete, Romson Industries' company pilot, flew the company aircraft, a De Havilland Beaver, a superb plane for getting in and out of remote areas. Jed knew the Beaver's capabilities would be needed to land on the lake by the company's hunting and research lodge.

Great, Jed thought. Fifty miles of wilderness to any town, I'm stuck with a girl who knows nothing useful, and I have no idea where to find a hunting camp. Thirty-five miles? I don't know. I just don't know.

CHAPTER 2

April 28, 1985, had started off well enough. Jed and Elizabeth, both seniors, returned from their senior trip after an all-night flight. It had been a great ten days in Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Italy. Both were glad, though, to be home.

While the guys were unloading the luggage, Mrs. Dewitt, the school secretary, called out to Jed. "Mr. Sitton called. Could you drop Elizabeth off on your way home? He's sorry, but he got called in to the plant because of a breakdown."

"Sure, no problem." Jed grabbed Elizabeth's bags, threw them into the back of his Bronco, and opened the passenger door. He passed her house on the way to his own anyway, and he knew his folks weren't home. He helped her into the passenger seat of his Bronco, closed the door, then went around and got into the driver's side and started the engine.

Elizabeth pouted. Her dad always got called in. He didn't think the factory could run without him! To a measure, it couldn't, but that didn't make Elizabeth like it any better. Since her mother died of cancer three years ago, it was just the two of them, and Elizabeth had missed her dad terribly while she was in Europe.

Meanwhile, Pete Richardson timed his abduction just right. He parked in the driveway of an empty house a block from the school and waited for the bus to arrive from the airport. When he saw the bus was unloaded, he drove his car to a spot just short of the school drive and turned the engine off. He released the hood latch and got out of the car, but he didn't bother pulling the key; he wouldn't need this car any longer.

Opening the hood, Pete bent over the engine as if looking for a problem while he kept one eye on the school parking lot, watching for Jed's Bronco to pull out. He rubbed his hands on the top of the engine just enough to get some dirt and oil on them and smudged more dirt on his forehead, as if he had brushed the back of his hand across it. When he saw Jed's Ford Bronco move, he stood with hands on his hips looking disgustedly at the car. Pete knew Jed would stop, and Pete could take over from there.

Seeing Pete standing by his car, Jed stopped his truck and rolled down his window. "Hey Pete, what's wrong?" "Oh! Hi, Jed, glad to see you! My engine isn't running, and I have to get to the hangar right away for your dad."

Jed turned to Elizabeth and asked, "Are you in a big hurry? Would you mind if I dropped Pete off at the plane on the way home?" Elizabeth looked at him with a frown and said, "It really doesn't matter. I've no reason to hurry home. There's no telling when Daddy will get there."

Jed turned back to Pete and said, "Jump in the back seat if you want. I'll be happy to run you out to the plane."

Pete grabbed a bag from the back seat of his car and walked over to the Bronco and crawled into the back seat. "I'm sorry. I didn't know you had your girlfriend with you." This extra girl would change his plans quite a bit, but it actually might work better.

"Oh, Elizabeth isn't my girlfriend. She's Mr. Sitton's daughter. I'm just giving her a lift home because her dad is stuck working on a breakdown out at the plant."

Jed drove to the company hangar, which was between Hoppleberg's small airport and the lake. . "Here you go, Pete," he said as he turned around to look at Pete, but his eyes bugged when he saw the .38 caliber revolver Pete held in his hand.

"I'm sorry, Jed, but I have to do this. I have no other choice. You won't be hurt — I promise you, but I have to be sure of things. Now, I need you to drive the Bronco into the hangar."

Jed parked the Bronco inside the hangar next to the airplane. At Pete's order, he unloaded and secured their luggage in the back of the airplane and then climbed into the back left seat. Elizabeth sat down in the seat next to him. Pete handed her a handcuff and told her to put one end of the cuffs around Jed's right wrist, then pull it through the seat support and fasten the other end around her own left wrist. He watched carefully as she did so, slipped the gun into his pocket, pre-flighted the airplane, pushed it out of the hangar, and closed and locked the doors. Pete confirmed the door was latched and from his pocket pulled a small tube and removed the cap. He inserted the tip of the tube into the keyhole, squirted a small amount of liquid into the lock, capped the tube, and tossed it into the lake. He climbed into the pilot's seat, started the engine, and took flight.

CHAPTER 3

Hours later, Jed looked out his window when the plane banked to the left and started to descend. Sure enough, there was the company's testing lodge and the lake below. Shortly after James Romson, Jed's father, started Romson Industries, he recognized the need for a remote location with severe weather conditions to test cold weather gear and equipment. This lodge, an old lumber camp, fit the bill perfectly. Romson Industries owned over one hundred thousand acres in the most remote area of the continental United States, with less than one person per hundred square miles. Jed knew his chances of walking out to safety were nil, especially since he had to babysit a tenderfoot girl.

Pete turned his head and reached behind the seat with a set of headphones and shoved them at Jed. Jed struggled to put them on with his left hand and managed to do so on the third try. He pulled the microphone down in front of his lips.

"Can you hear me, Jed?"

"I hear you."

"Look, I'm really sorry I had to do this to you. I'm in a tight spot, and I don't have many options. Listen carefully to what I have to say, and you will be okay."

"I'm listening," Jed said, but the sarcasm was lost on Pete.

"Here's the deal. I stocked the lodge for the company's plant managers' fishing trip. You will have plenty of food, and it is not all that cold, except at night. Plenty of firewood is cut and ready. I hadn't planned on you being with a girl, but that can't be helped. I can't really take her back now, can I?" He chuckled, then continued. "I think she will actually make it easier for me to get your dad to come up with the money. In fact, I might just up the price.

"I wanted to leave you where I knew you would be safe. The last thing I want is for you to be hurt. I'll be down in the Cayman Islands about this time tomorrow evening, and I'll message him from there and give him the idea you are down there with me. Besides, without the plane, he won't be coming up here to look now, will he? I disabled the shortwave radio, so you won't be able to call anyone. As soon as your dad wires the money to me in the Caymans, I'll tell him where to find you. I promise I will."

"You'll never get away with this, you know."

Pete laughed mockingly and said, "I'm smarter than that. I have it all planned out. The money will go to a numbered account in the Caymans. The Cayman banks make the Swiss bankers look talkative. But I have it set for an automatic transfer to the Bahamas, and they don't have an extradition treaty with the US. I won't ever come back to the States, but I know a guy who can alter the registration on this plane, and I can make a very good living in the Islands. I'll do okay. By the way, don't bother trying to switch to transmit rather than intercom. I turned off the radio, so you won't be able to reach anyone." Pete laughed again and in falsetto mocked, "Please fasten your seatbelts and return your seats to the upright and locked position. Thank you for flying Romson Air."

Jed felt the plane flare, and the floats splashed in the lake and bounced before splashing once again as Pete chopped the throttle and turned the plane toward the dock. Elizabeth raised her head finally and looked fearfully out the window to see the lodge just beyond the dock. Pete carefully eased the plane alongside the dock, quickly jumped from the plane, and secured it in place.

Pete opened the passenger door and then handed Elizabeth the handcuff key. He pulled his pistol from his pocket and told her to unlock her handcuff. It had been an uncomfortable trip sitting hunched over as they were. Pete forced Jed to unload the luggage and then handcuffed his hands behind him. "You know where the rifles are in the lodge, and I'm not about to let you try to stop me." Pete looked down at the dock and shuffled his feet before continuing. "I told you I don't want you hurt, and that is the truth. Your family has always been good to me, and I feel terrible about what I'm doing. But it is my life if I don't. I ask you to understand."

He turned to Elizabeth. "Missy, you walk off of the dock and sit down. I'll leave this key inside your purse here on the dock. After I take off, you may come back down here, get the key, and release Jed. I'm sorry you got involved in this, but I had no choice. It's just your bad luck, I guess. You will be okay. Your parents will know where you two are just as soon as Jed's dad wires the money to me. I told Jed about the supplies in the cabin, so you won't go hungry or be cold. Goodbye."

Pete waited for Elizabeth to walk the length of the dock and sit before he quickly loosed the moorings on the plane, jumped in, started the engine, and slowly eased out onto the lake. He gave them a wave as he left, but neither Jed nor Elizabeth responded from where they were seated at the end of the dock.

CHAPTER 4

Officer Sorrells flipped on his lights behind the illegally parked car. There was still no sign of life or activity. Too bad the owner would have to pay the towing fees, but he had to do his job. He had already waited a lot longer than he should have. Officer Sorrells called it in and started the paperwork while he waited for Crook Autobody to bring their flatbed truck and tow the car. He always tried to use as much leniency as he could on these deals. Having a broken-down car was bad enough, but getting a ticket for illegal parking when it couldn't be helped just added insult to injury.

He had no way of knowing Pete's car would never be claimed.

CHAPTER 5

An old Canada goose sat on her nest, having just laid her first egg of the season. The noise of the airplane's engine close by on the lake disturbed her to the point that she did not notice a coyote creeping up on her. When the coyote rushed, she frantically launched into flight over the water as Pete pulled back on the yoke and lifted the plane into the air. Pete saw the goose fly in front of him at the wrong moment. He had insufficient airspeed to maneuver, but, instinctively, he wrenched the yoke to the left, trying desperately to avoid the goose, but there wasn't enough time, airspeed, or altitude. She struck the propeller and shattered one of the blades, throwing the racing engine out of balance, and, at the same time, the left wingtip touched the surface of the water, cartwheeling the plane across the surface. Pete's head struck the doorpost, and he lost consciousness as the plane came apart around him. Only a few feathers and one broken float remained on the roiled water. A burst of bubbles and a little oil broke the surface, but nothing else was left to mark the spot where the plane went down.

Horrified, Elizabeth and Jed stared on in disbelief.

CHAPTER 6

Charles Sitton drove his ten-year-old Oldsmobile into his driveway and parked with a sigh. He was so glad to be home and see Elizabeth! It seemed she had been gone much longer than ten days. Charles was surprised to see no lights on in the house but surmised that Elizabeth had been tired and was taking a nap while awaiting his return from work. He hurried to the front door and unlocked it, calling, "Lizzie, I'm home!" No response. He walked down the hallway to her room, expecting to find her lying down, but she was not there, nor was there any sign she had been home. Concerned, he grabbed the phone.

James Romson had remained at the plant to help oversee the repairs on the assembly line along with Charles Sitton, so he was just walking in the door of his own home when the phone rang. He picked it up and answered, "Romson residence."

"James, Charles here. Did Jed get the message to give Elizabeth a ride home today? She isn't here yet."

"I don't know, Charles. I just walked in the door. I didn't see his Bronco in the drive. Hang on and I'll ask Mary if she's heard from him."

In the background, Charles heard, "Mary? I'm home. Have you heard from Jed?"

Mary Romson walked into the kitchen where James held the telephone. "Hi, James." She gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "I've not heard from Jed. Did their plane get in on time?"

James Romson spoke into the telephone again. "Charles, Mary hasn't heard from them. Do you know if they arrived back at the school yet?"

"The bus was at the school when I drove by, so they had to have gotten in. I didn't see many cars in the parking lot. You know they wouldn't hang around there long. I'll call their sponsor, Mr. Johnson, at home and see if he knows anything." With his finger, Charles broke the connection. He picked up the directory and quickly looked up George Johnson's phone number.

"Johnsons'" was the tired-sounding response he heard after the second ring.

"Mr. Johnson, Charles Sitton here. Do you know if Elizabeth got the word to ride home with Jed Romson this morning? She isn't here at the house."

"Hi, Charles. Please, call me George. The kids call me 'Mr.' I know Elizabeth got the word. I saw her get in the car with Jed. They didn't waste any time leaving, but I don't know where they went. As far as I know, everyone went home. I didn't hear anything about anyone going anywhere else."

"Did anyone else ride with them?"

"I don't know. I didn't see anyone else get in the car, but I can't say for sure. I know Elizabeth was unhappy you weren't there."

"I know. It couldn't be helped. We had a hydraulic line burst at the plant, and it started a small fire. James and I both had to go in and get it taken care of. Thanks for your time, and welcome home."

"You might try the Baldwins. Teddy was sitting with Jed on the bus. He would know if they had any other plans." George sounded hopeful.

"Thanks, again." Charles Sitton again broke the connection and looked up the Baldwins' phone number. After six rings, the answering machine picked up. Charles hung up the phone and tried to think who else might know where Jed and Elizabeth could be. Perhaps Samantha would know. She and Elizabeth were very close. He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand and wrist. For some reason, he was sweating and dread pooled in his stomach.

Finding the Quarlles' number, finally, he dialed. On the third ring, he heard "Hello?"

"Hi, Mr. Quarlles? Charles Sitton here. Could I speak with Samantha?"

"I'm sorry, but you have the wrong number."

"Sorry!" Frustrated, he hung up and carefully redialed the Quarlles' number.

"Hello, Quarlles' residence."

"Hi. This is Charles Sitton. Could I please speak with Samantha for just a moment?"

"Certainly, just a jiffy."

Charles poured himself a glass of cold water and sat down at the kitchen table. His hands shook. He knew he was being ridiculous and jumping to conclusions, but anxiety had overtaken him. Elizabeth would probably call him a worrywart when she walked in.

"Hi, Mr. Sitton. This is Samantha."

"Oh, hi, Samantha. Welcome home. I hope you enjoyed your trip."

"Oh, yes! Thanks! We had a great time."

"Good. Quick question for you. Do you know if Elizabeth rode home with Jed?"

"Yes, I know she did. I saw her get in his truck. She seemed upset about something."

"I know. I was supposed to pick her up, but we had a breakdown. Do you know if anyone else went with them or if they said anything about stopping somewhere first?"

"I'm sorry, but I didn't talk to her after we got off the bus. I don't think anyone else rode along, though. I didn't see anyone else."

"Thanks very much. Welcome home, and I'll see you at graduation."

"Okay, I can't wait! You are coming to my party, aren't you?"

"Wouldn't miss it! See you then." With a shaking hand, he hung up one more time, then dialed the number every parent dreads.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Stranded at Romson's Lodge"
by .
Copyright © 2016 J. L. Callison.
Excerpted by permission of Morgan James Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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