Murderous Matrimony(60)
“Wow!” Tony grinned. “That’s kind of hot, huh?”
“Not at all,” Robin assured him. “Who of my men are still in the forest besides you?”
“Hank is down there. I’m not sure who else. Marion made it sound like we should take the rest of the day off. I think most of them left when she did.”
“We can call the police.” I took out my cell phone. “No bars? Why would it be on International Roaming out here?”
“I don’t know,” Robin said. “But I suggest we get out of Sherwood before the bookie gets here. We have no weapons but swords and arrows. They aren’t much good against guns.”
We heard voices coming into the encampment and rushed to the window to see who it was.
“Great!” Robin moved back quickly. “I think that may be the bookie.”
I peeked out. “And Marion is with him.”
“What now?” Tony asked. “I’m only good with computers. I don’t think that’s going to help in this situation.”
Marion had returned with a group of ten men. They were all big and tough-looking. I had a feeling they were all armed too. Security guards at the Main Gate were looking for bows and swords, maybe a few knives. They didn’t search people for guns, and visitors didn’t go through a metal detector.
“Where are they?” The big man in the middle of the group, beside Marion, searched the trees with his eyes. “I hope they’re not up there.”
No doubt that was John Healy. He looked as big and tough as the other men, but he was well-dressed in an expensive black suit. His shiny Italian loafers looked out of place as he stood on the dirt track. His black hair was thinning, swept off to one side to make it look like he had more up there.
The other men scanned the trees too. They were dressed more casually in pants and shirts.
“I left them up there.” Marion nodded at the treehouse.
“You two,” Healy pointed to two men nearest him, “go up and bring them down.”
The men nodded, and headed for the stairs to the treehouse.
“There’s a back way out,” Robin said. “I suggest we take it.”
Tony and I followed him to the back stairs, which was really just an escape ladder. We climbed down quickly.
“We won’t have long before they know we aren’t up there.” I wiped spider webs from my face and hands. The ladder hadn’t been used in a while.
“We can’t walk out around them,” Tony whispered. “We could scatter in the woods, but that’s about it.”
Hank, the new Merry Man, rustled through the leaves to reach us. “I thought I saw you back here. What’s up? Who are those dudes?”
“Bad guys,” I replied. “Is anyone else in camp?”
“Nope. I was about to leave too, when I saw them come up.”
“So what’s the plan?” Tony asked with an eagerness born of fear.
“I think we have no choice but to follow your excellent suggestion and scatter into the woods,” Robin said. “We don’t have guns.”
“I have my knife.” Hank held it up so we could see it.
“Any other suggestions?” Robin asked.
“I’m good with scattering. We can call the police from the other side of the forest.” I held up my cell phone again. No service? My next phone will get service out here!
We heard the two big men trudging through the treehouse above us. One of them leaned out the front window where we’d seen them first come up. “They ain’t here, boss. What do you want us to do?”
“Come back down.” John glanced around himself at the treehouses and the rest of the camp. “I think the thing to do in this situation is to light the place up.”
“Burn the forest?” Even Marion sounded concerned.
“Sure. If they’re out there, they’ll run back, right?” John smiled. “If they don’t make it, too bad. They weren’t long for this world anyway.”
“But the rest of the Village.” Marion smiled at him. “Instead, we could get out of town for a while. It would be okay, right?”
“Nope. I don’t like loose ends. Let’s torch it. Better safe than sorry.”
“What now?” Tony muttered.
“We can’t just leave and let them set the place on fire,” I replied. “It could take half the Village with it.”
Robin’s eyes narrowed. “Thanks for your concern for my personal well-being! There is no Robin Hood without Sherwood Forest!”
“I didn’t mean it that way,” I recanted.
While we were discussing our options, the men in front were stoking the fire where the Merry Men did their cooking.