Chapter 8. Amanda Becomes World Famous Overnight
The next day Sovant went on a solo mission and he walked to Grand Portage, MN. He ducked into a store on a hunt for donuts, pound cake, coffee, sugar, cream, raspberries, shampoo, shaving razors, toothpaste, Rolaids, Aspirin, bleach and newspapers. Sovant snatched up three newspapers after glancing at their front pages. The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune had a huge photo of Amanda. USA Today and The Grand Marais Cassandra also had big spreads on her. He felt proud to know the twelve-year-old just from these excellent photos of her charismatic face. Amanda's long blonde hair, her clear complexion, her perfect smile and her beautiful brown eyes were very striking to behold staring out at millions of readers from the front pages of all three newspaper.
While walking back to rejoin the others Haakon had plenty of time to examine these newspapers. They were warning readers to be on the lookout for the twelve-year-old Amanda Molina, daughter of Sergio and Pamela Molina. To paraphrase the press: Amanda's footprints were found all round the body of a murdered FBI agent. This agent had been shot in the back by a shotgun blast. A shotgun was found in a nearby cottage with Amanda's fingerprints on it. Amanda's fingerprints were found on the slain agent's holster. His revolver was missing. Amanda's fingerprints were found on the slain agent's wallet. This wallet, found lying close to the slain FBI agent, didn't have any cash in it. Three of his FBI associates testified that he was carrying roughly $700 in new $100 bills. A drug store clerk in Grand Marais testified that she was 100% positive that Amanda purchased a bag of Doritos and a 20 oz bottle of Diet Cherry Coke in her store, and that she used a crisp $100 bill to pay for those items. The time of this purchase was roughly 20 minutes before the prominent industrialist, Wolfgang Von Hellemann, had notified the police that a man had been killed on his property. He called the police roughly 2 hours after the blast from a gun was heard by several witnesses. These witnesses agreed the blast came in the direction of a cottage where Amanda Molina lived with her parents and two-year-old brother. Von Hellemann found a note from Amanda which directed him to the location of the slain FBI agent. Numerous beer-hall patrons were quoted in all three newspapers saying they saw Amanda stumbling in a drunken stupor, staggering through a beer-hall, while eating Doritos and drinking a 20 oz. bottle of Cherry coke. One witness said that Amanda had a `crazed look in her eyes.' Many witnesses were on the record insisting that Amanda, her mother and a man named Haakon Sovant were wearing clothes drenched with water, and all three staggering, so intoxicated they could barely stand and could hardly speak. All three newspapers gave the names and photographs of the four adults who were helping Amanda to escape after she had murdered the FBI agent for his money.
`Amanda Molina, a cowardly, thieving murderer,' ran the words of one editor writing in The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, `who more or less brazenly admitted her guilt in a note to Von Hellemann, was no stranger to gunplay. Her parents' profession intimately involved her with gun violence. Amanda Molina grew up in a home that glorified guns, in a home that was `shot through with the pathology which guns and bullets must inevitably breed.' I shouldn`t wonder that, somewhere, sometime, a sweet-looking kid from such a dysfunctional family would be transformed into a cold-blooded executioner.'
The papers reported that Amanda's father was ostensibly one of Von Hellemann's wood-cutters, but he was actually a soldier in Von Hellemann's private army, and this Sergio Molina was known to carry a revolver and belts of ammunition as he went about clearing brush and cutting deadfall on the vast Von Hellemann estate.
Some of Amanda's school chums were interviewed by the police and were on the record saying that she was starting to run with a tougher crowd. Her science teacher said she knew Amanda would be `nothing but trouble' sooner or later. Her best friend, Jennifer Woodhill, defended Amanda and said she would visit Amanda in prison as often as she could, if it came to that.
Numerous witnesses categorically insisted that Amanda's father, Sergio Molina, was in the beer-hall at the time that the authorities say the FBI agent was gunned down outside of his cottage in the woods. Many of these witnesses also place Amanda's mother in this beer-hall - a famous gathering spot for locals and tourists - earlier that night, at the time when a gun blast rang through the woods. All witnesses agree there was only one shot heard that night, roughly at 11:47 pm.
Now the lot of them had disappeared after the drunken Amanda had been seen staggering through town, spending the slain FBI agent's money, about the time the body of the slain agent was found by Von Hellemann. The townsfolk were putting two and two together and coming up with the theory that she needed whiskey to deal with the reality confronting her - the reality of having her life thrown into inconvenient turmoil, having to become a fugitive, having to run for her life to stay out of prison - after she gunned a man down in cold blood, gunned him down in order to steal his money, after she murdered a man who was survived by a wife and three young children.
Sovant had to read the newspapers, while, at the same time, remain keenly vigilant in winding his way back to their camp site, taking pains to look harmless, so that no alert citizens would suspect him, and then alert the authorities as to where they had seen one of the fugitives.
Sovant handed Pamela one newspaper, gave another to Sergio, and gave the last one to Maria. When Sergio finished reading his copy of The Grand Marais Cassandra he gave it to Amanda.
Amanda's eyes glazed over. Her arms and hands started to shake. She was shaking with emotions in her shoulders as she read about herself in the stilted, highly emotional prose of The Grand Marais Cassandra.
`Damn!' exclaimed Amanda. `What an amazing pack of lies!'
Her mother said nothing but simply stared straight at the ground.
`Like I told you before,' said Amanda, `I was lying in bed, unable to sleep, when I heard a gunshot. Wolfgang and Al just kept right on sleeping. It says in the newspaper, here let me show you the quote: `Von Hellemann claims he was sleeping and didn't hear a gunshot.' That's right! I woke Wolfgang and told him about the gunshot. He got up and went to investigate. He didn't find any dead body, or see anything unusual. He came back inside, said that his body guards were encouraged to fire their rifles at the ground now and then, to scare off trespassers…
`That's true,' said Maria .
`Then he took a nap because he said he was dead tired. Then he woke up and said he was surprised anyone on his staff would fire their weapon close to our cottage. He said he would go talk to some people. He walked out the door and I watched him head off toward the Castle. Then I looked around the outside of the cottage again. That's when I saw the body. Of course my footprints would be around the body. I'm the one who discovered the dead man. I thought about running after Wolfgang but I was afraid that the person who shot him might still be around, and I didn't want to leave Al alone for two seconds. I ran back into the house and locked the door and grabbed the shotgun out of the hall closet. I was ready to kill any thug who tried to come inside. That's how my fingerprints got on the shotgun. But Wolfgang didn't come back. I was afraid. I grabbed Al, wrapped him up in blankets, but it was too awkward carrying both Al and the shotgun. So I grabbed Al and the blankets and went outside. I put him down when I took the man's revolver. It was not awkward carrying Al in my left arm with the revolver in my right hand. I remember feeling a sense of relief because now I would be ready if I met any thugs as I walked through the woods to find mom and Haakon. Yes, it is true that, after I placed Al on the ground - he was still sleeping! - I took the man's wallet and cash. I thought the guy was just a thug. Why shouldn't I grab some cash off a dead punk? I remembered Maria talking about grabbing some thug's cash once when she was telling me a story about when was a spy in South America. Maria will tell you she told me that story. See, she's nodding her head. How was I supposed to know he was an FBI agent and not an extortionist? If the letters FBI were in big yellow letters on the back of his coat, I didn't see any letters.
If they were there, then, with a new moon and a pitch black night, those letters wouldn't be very visible. The gun blast might also have torn the letters, and then blood might have further covered them. I thought he was killed by one of his mobster friends, perhaps by accident. I didn't know. I was worried that more gangsters might head my way, so, I grabbed the money out of his wallet, grabbed the gun, grabbed Al, and then I walked down the mountain to your post. I was carrying the gun in my right hand and Al in my left arm. He was sleeping practically the whole time! I didn't shoot anyone! The man was killed with a shotgun, but he wasn't killed with our shotgun. I swear I didn't shoot the man!'
`You've had a lot of time to think up some logical explanations,' said her mother. `You sound like you rehearsed that story pretty well.'
`I'm telling you the truth! I swear. I didn't shoot the man. I took his money because I assumed he was a creep, an extortionist, and, since he was already dead - well - I admit I wanted the cash. But you're crazy if you think I killed that man to get his money!'
`Then you spent the money on Doritos and Diet Cherry Coke,' said her dad.
`I suppose that's what will send me to the gas chamber if they catch me. But I didn't shoot the man.'
`That's life for you. Sometimes it goes your way. Sometimes you get smacked upside the head,' philosophized Sergio as he shook his head in disbelief.
`Maria and Haakon,' said Pamela, `we would certainly understand if you wanted to leave us.'
Maria and Haakon both said they believed Amanda. They both said they knew she was innocent. They also said there was a good chance she would be tried as an adult and would be found guilty by a jury, and sentenced to life in prison.
`It's too risky to turn her over to the cops," said Haakon.
`She's definitely innocent,' said Maria, `but she might spend a long time in prison, because how is anyone going to convince a jury with all this damning evidence against her?'
`We might,' said Pamela, `lay low for awhile and then try to get to Montreal or Halifax, and then take a freighter to Argentina or Brazil. We have money in our Swiss accounts. You still got most of the $700 right?'
`Yes,' said Amanda as she pulled the cash from her back pocket.
`We'll send it to the FBI agent's wife and kids,' said Pamela, taking the cash.
`Mana bad? Mana bad? Mana bad?' asked the persistent Al.
Pamela told him that Amanda was not bad, but, the little toddler looked unconvinced. Perhaps he didn't understand what was going on, but he certainly looked terrified when he looked at his big sister.
Chapter 9: Escape to the Isle of the Sun King
They spent the day in a daze. The fog they stumbled in was very slow to lift itself, and they vacillated between running and surrendering. Maria was especially eloquent in arguing in favor of running, insisting that Amanda was innocent and yet insisting it would be madness to think the legal system would find her innocent.
That night the north wind blew with gale fury, cold and cruel, as they huddled beneath their blankets by the little campfire hidden away under the conifers along the shore of the Great Lake. The following morning brought the same powerful winds as the night before, but the sky was clear and the red ball of the sun lifted its cheerful self above Superior's turbulent waters. As the others lay warm in their blankets Amanda kindled the fire to get the coffee a-brewing.
`We might hike up a nearby river and then cross into Canada,' Sergio was saying. Or we might steal a car. Or we might get back on the boat tonight and make for Isle Royale under cover of darkness. The cops might be closing in on us right now. We can either steal a car at that store where Haakon bought the newspapers, or we can start hiking, or we can get back on the boat tonight.'
`Isle Royale looks promising,' said Haakon. `From there we can either head for Canada or for some place like Copper River, Michigan. If the wind stayed this strong we could even sail all the way to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan tonight.
`What do you think, Pamela?' asked Maria.
`I only wish I had more experience running from the cops,' deadpanned Pamela, who was in surprisingly good spirits after hearing Maria's impassioned defense of her daughter.
`I vote for Isle Royale,' said Sergio. `We could sink the boat in shallow water to hide it, lay low for a few days, then refloat the boat and sail on to Canada some dark or stormy night.
`We can set out after dark this evening,' said Maria. `With no running lights on we ought to be invisible enough in Haakon's boat.'
When darkness fell they used the cable and winch to drag the sailboat back into the water. Pamela and Amanda and Al got aboard and then Pamela prepared to lower the centerboard. Sergio and Haakon and Maria pushed from the shallows and then jumped aboard. Haakon took the helm while Maria and Sergio raised the jib and mainsail.
With the wind blowing more moderately than it had been that morning, there was no need to reef either the mainsail or the Genoa jib. They were soon making a respectable 9 miles per hour. Haakon kept a compass in the boat and so there was little danger of getting lost in the darkness. They had maps but no detailed charts, and therefore there was some danger of shoals. As there was no moonlight Isle Royale would be nearly invisible if the starlight was eclipsed by thick clouds. But if they kept a close eye on the compass, and on their speed, they should be able to avoid sailing straight into the island, and they should also be able to avoid sailing straight past the island. What a nightmare it would be to find themselves in the morning light tempest-tossed and lost, surrounded by huge waves and arctic temperatures on the main part of the lake!
They were on a course nearly due east, and on this vector and in these moderate winds they were concerned with two things: shoals which might puncture the hull and plunge them into the ice-water, and being sighted by the authorities. It was possible that a freak wave would capsize the boat. They could remain afloat in the ice water if capsized, as they were all wearing life preservers, but even wrapped up in many layers of wool and nylon they could not expect to live very longer if they were unable to right the boat and climb back aboard. Haakon saw no reason why this would happen. He bought the boat because it was a type which was easy to set right if it was knocked down. Cops and shoals were the only real dangers Sovant insisted.
Al was stoical for the most part. The brave little tot howled with discomfort only rarely. He and his mama and sister huddled close together on deck. The waves rocked the little boat roughly enough and they all grew a little ill from being tossed and plunged and shaken. They were all on deck, because to huddle in the warm cabin, while being tossed by even these moderate waves, would be to court the worst horrors of sea sickness in a matter of minutes. Out in the fresh air one had a good chance of avoiding vertigo especially if one stared at the scattered lights along the Minnesota shore. Haakon suspected that someone would soon be feeling wretched enough, and he knew they would not be climbing on to solid ground any time soon.
They left the Minnesota shore at 9 pm. The wind was out of the northwest at 15 mph, gusting to 20. By 10 pm the wind had increased some, and by 11 pm it was blowing at 20 mph with the gusts approaching 30 mph. The mainsail was first reefed and then lowered altogether; they were maintaining an estimated 9 mph charge to the east with the Genoa alone to power them through the surges. At midnight they could see, off the port bow, in the faint starlight, Michigan and the southern shore of Isle Royale. Sovant said the island would be there and he was true to his word. In half an hour they could turn to the northeast, and head up the lee shore of Isle Royale on a beam reach.
Sovant noticed the faint lights of a vessel far to the southwest of them, many miles away, roughly near Grand Marais, MN. He quickly discovered it was approaching at high speed as its lights, though many miles away, grew slightly but perceptibly brighter as the minutes passed.
They proceeded round the southern end of the island. Once they were far enough to the east they entered the lee of the island. Here the lar
ge waves vanished from beneath their hull entirely. They were no longer rolling so violently, and they could raise the mainsail and get 11 mph out of the little boat without too much fear of capsizing.
Sovant steered to the northeast. Soon the lights of the boat he suspected was pursuing them disappeared entirely. The southern cape of Isle Royale eclipsed them.
Sovant thought it time to explain to everyone what was happening. For the last hour these poor people were oblivious to the harrowing chase. Sovant hadn't bothered to mention the approaching boat, which would soon reappear some miles behind their transom, perhaps in another hour, or perhaps in less than an hour.
Sovant saw two courses before them. They could either seek shelter on Isle Royale. If it was a Coast Guard vessel that was chasing them they could probably expect to be hunted down on some lonely upland of that island. Or, they could turn away from Isle Royale and head out into the main part of the lake. They would have to drop their sails before the pursuing ship rounded the southernmost shore of Isle Royale. With their sails lowered they would be more or less invisible. Or at least if they dipped below the horizon then night vision equipment is useless. But they would have to raise their sails eventually if they wanted to cross another 50 miles of open water to reach land somewhere on Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula. Then, once they raised their sails, they would become visible and would be hunted down. Yet if they didn't raise their sails they would be dead in the water.
Sovant said they were probably trapped either way, but at least they had a fighting chance on land, whereas on the open waters of Lake Superiors they had no chance. Not surprisingly, everyone agreed with Haakon's thinking that it would be best to not venture across 50 miles of open water. Sovant calculated it would be roughly an hour's sail from Long Point, the southernmost tip of Isle Royale, up to Point Houghton. At the latter Point the shoreline ran to the west and south to create a bay. Haakon suspected this bay would be the end of the line for them. They might hope for an easy landing without any deep water coming right up to any cliffs, but, in any case, they would have to make their landfall, and then they would have to sink the sailboat, and then they would have to take their chances striking out across the rough country, seeking a place to hide themselves, and they would have to find the means to find their way back to the mainland, probably by stealing someone's boat, and hopefully a better boat than his own, such as one with a big powerful motor on it.
The minutes dragged slowly along but the wind stayed strong and they ploughed straight ahead with no reduction in speed. At last, the lights on a boat, 15 miles to the southwest, appeared over their transom. It was now obvious that they were being hunted down. Haakon estimate the vessel was doing 30 miles per hour. This meant they had 30 minutes to find a place to hide.
In 15 minutes they found a sandy beach. In 20 minutes they had the mast lowered and had their supplies off of the boat. Sovant then opened the drain plug in 10 feet of water, and watched his boat sink. He swam to shore, got out of his wet clothes and into dry garments, and in 30 minutes they had all concealed themselves amid the dwarf pines and the scrub birch which ran down to the beach all along that shoreline.
Soon enough a vessel came cruising in to Siskiwit Bay. She was shining a powerful searchlight over the land and the water. The foliage on this coast would have to be sufficient to conceal them, and by remaining perfectly still, as the searchlight scanned the woods all round them, they had, so far, avoided detection. The pursuers evidently lacked infrared detectors. If it had those they would have had no chance of escape.
As the boat moved farther away from them, Haakon was whispering some happy thoughts to everyone.
`We made it,' agreed Maria. `We're home free.'
`No, we will have to fight to escape from this island,' said Amanda.