How does a slightly worn-out experienced man of limited means compete with a young and spoiled cosmopolitan heir. Not easily. In the final section of The Woods, Ming Zhen Shakya (Anthony Wolff) gives yet another example of there being no substitute for experience.

The Standoff continues. Beryl will not drive into probable danger. She knows that it will be easier for George to find her on the one road that leads down the ravine, than it will be for her to locate George and the others in the endless woods, assuming they are even alive. Lilyanne takes matters into her own hands and forces unexpected reactions.

George, Eric and Lilyanne have survived the plunge into the edge of Blue Marsh Lake, but a man with a rifle is shooting at them, waiting to pick them off if they try to surface for air and swim to shore. The men have the baby and the ransom money and they need only wait for hypothermia to kill off their pursuers. Why risk the evidence of gunshot wounds when nature will act silently and just as deadly for them? There’s trouble in the trio.

The kidnapped baby’s grandparents refuse to permit the police to be called, and they deliberately inhibit the detectives’ efforts to identify the kidnappers. The baby has been taken to a mountain cabin in a remote area of a reclaimed strip-mining area. The grandparents want the baby recovered as the ransom is quietly paid; but the kidnappers have taken a trail too far, and their plan needs revisions that they’re not prepared to make.

As our second offering to our new Tales from the Sangha section, Ming Zhen Shakya, writing as Anthony Wolff (her father’s name) presents THE WOODS, a detective story that involves characters introduced in her 15 novellas series, Zen and the Art of Investigation.