Throttled

by Stella Bixby

  I punched in the numbers to access the messages and pulled out my pen and notepad from the pocket on my shirt.

  “You have three new messages,” the message lady’s voice said. “Message one, five forty-five PM.”

  “Hey there Rangers. This is Michelle over at Hentemens Supply. I wanted to let you know the vests will be here more quickly than we thought. Probably by next week. I’ll let you know for sure. See you later. Buh-bye.”

  A smile breached my face. Was it weird I couldn’t wait to get my vest?

  “Message two, five fifty-two AM.”

  “Uh, hey Greg,” a man’s voice started. “It’s Dave . . . the fisherman.” Ah, Dave. The one I’d helped get out of prison. “I wanted you to know I saw some weird lights in the reservoir tonight. I wasn’t in there or anything. I wouldn’t do that . . . again. Promise. I was just driving by and saw. Maybe flashlights or something. Probably just kids being kids. But, uh, thought you should know.”

  Sure he wasn’t in the park. I very clearly remember him being taken away in cuffs because he had been in the park after hours trying to catch that big catfish.

  Damn fishermen.

  I jotted down a note to pass onto Greg later that day.

  “Message three, six twenty-two AM.”

  I looked at my watch. Six thirty. This one had just come in.

  The sound of sobs echoed from the speaker through the office. It went on for about fifteen seconds before the line disconnected. I played the message over and over again. The second and third time hearing some traffic in the background and maybe a barking dog. But otherwise, there was nothing there.

  For a moment I sat in silence staring at my notes.

  Female? Sobs

  Traffic in background

  Dogs barking?

  I saved the message to play for one of the guys when they got in later and shoved my notepad back into my pocket. Something didn’t seem right, but there was nothing I could glean from a few seconds of sobbing on an answering machine. Maybe it was a wrong number.

  Hopefully.

  I locked the office back up but didn’t set the alarm so Carmen didn’t have to worry about disarming it when she got in a couple of hours later. My truck had already lost all of the heat I’d accumulated driving around opening the gates that morning. The wind whipped the freshly fallen snow around making sparkly little tornadoes in the rising sunlight.

  The truck tires crunched through the snow on the road that hadn’t yet been plowed by the maintenance crew as I made my way to the parking lot where the ice fishermen parked. Three trucks sat in the lot, and three little tents dotted the ice out past the hole we’d coned off from yesterday’s ice rescue training.

  My coffee was running low—the fresh pot I’d made at the shop called my name. I put the truck in gear until I saw something—or was it someone—lying in the snow on the beach. I returned the truck to park and left it running as I jumped out.

  Seamus wasn’t going to fool me again. It was clearly the dummy. Putting it in my trunk had been one thing, but out in the middle of the beach? I was surprised I hadn’t gotten any calls about it from the fishermen.

  As I approached, though, it was apparent that the fishermen used a different path to get out on the lake than the one leading to the dummy.

  A dusting of snow covered the silicone form and the completely undisturbed area around it. I grabbed for one of the arms with my gloved hand and began dragging it back to the truck.

  Apparently, these things were porous because it was heavier than I expected. Or maybe it was just frozen to the ground.

  Dammit, Seamus. I couldn’t just leave it there.

  I used both hands this time and pulled with all my might until it groaned.

  I released the arm falling back on my ass into the wet snow.

  No.

  It couldn’t have groaned.

  It was just my imagination. Or Seamus had added sound effects.

  A chill formed at the back of my neck. I stood and brushed myself off.

  The body—er dummy—was still covered in a thin layer of snow but as I looked closer, I could see what I hadn’t before. Dirty blond hair frozen to the ground as if it had been gelled like that.

  The dummy didn’t have hair.

  6

  I yanked off my glove and pushed my fingers to the side of the guy’s neck. It was weak, but it was there.

  A pulse.

  “Oh thank God,” I said aloud before turning my radio over to dispatch and calling for help.

  The ambulance crew was on scene within minutes and Luke and his partner, Jerry, arrived right behind them.

  The paramedics jumped out of the ambulance and began rushing around trying to get the guy covered and on a backboard as gently as possible.

  “The less we have to move him, the better his chance of survival.” One of the paramedics said. “How long has he been out here?” He asked me.

  I looked closer at the man—or rather, teenage boy. He was naked besides his pink heart boxers. “I’m not sure. It hasn’t snowed since I opened the gates, but the wind has been pretty brutal so it could have covered him.”

  The paramedic nodded, “Good job keeping him covered with the snow. Instincts may tell you to brush it away, but it actually acts as an insulator. It may have been what kept this guy alive.” They began to load him very gently into the back of the ambulance. “Turn the heat down. We can’t warm him too quickly,” the paramedic told the two others. “We’ll just have to wear our jackets on the way to the hospital.”

  “How do you know so much about hypothermia?” I asked.

  “I grew up in Alaska. People were always getting it some way or another.” He winked and jumped in the back.

  “Do you know him?” Luke asked suddenly at my side.

  “Nope,” I replied. “But he seemed nice.” I shrugged. “I didn’t expect you to show up when I called this in.”

  Luke looked down at his leather boots already wet from snow. “We were in the area.”

  I thought I heard Jerry scoff behind me.

  “Well, I guess you can go now,” I said. “Since, for once, I didn’t find a dead person.”

  “This is a crime scene until we can determine it was an accident,” Luke said. “Guys don’t usually just lie down on an icy beach half-naked and allow themselves to freeze almost to death.”

  “Maybe he was suicidal?” I asked.

  Jerry piped in, “I’ve never heard of someone killing themselves with hypothermia. I’m bettin’ he did it for a girl.”

  A girl. My mind rushed back to the message on the answering machine. Could they be related?

  “Um, I’m not sure if this has anything to do with, well, anything. But I got a weird message on the ranger line this morning.”

  “Wouldn’t hurt to hear it,” Luke said. “Jerry, do you mind securing the scene while I go with Rylie?”

  Jerry murmured agreement along with the phrases “freezing my balls off” and “alone time.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “I can drive you over. It’s too cold to walk.” My nose and cheeks were chapped from the wind and bitter cold. I couldn’t feel my toes even though I was wearing sub-zero socks and winter boots.

  “Deal,” Luke said jumping into the passenger side of the truck that was warm from running all this time. “It’s nice in here.”

  I nodded. “I hear you signed up to go to the Middle East.”

  “You did, did you?” Luke chuckled.

  “It’s not funny. What’s the deal?”

  “I’m guessing Nikki told you?”

  “She’s really worked up over it.”

  “I didn’t know you and Nikki were such good friends,” Luke said with a half smile.

  “We’re not. She hates me. Actually, she thought you and I had been texting and calling at all hours of the day.” I turned toward the office. “Who are you texting and calling all hours of the day if it’s not me?”

  “Whoa there. Slow down.” Luke
held his hands up as if motioning me to stop. “Nikki doesn’t hate you—I don’t think—she just gets jealous sometimes.”

  “She has nothing to be jea—”

  “I know,” Luke interrupted, “but she hasn’t gotten over our history. As far as who I’m texting and calling, if she wanted to know, she could ask.”

  He left it at that. I opened my mouth to ask but then realized it really wasn’t my business.

  I could see him smiling from the corner of my eye.

  “If you want to know, just ask,” he said.

  “It’s none of my business who you are and aren’t calling.” I pulled into the ranger parking area and turned the truck off. “Just be honest with Nikki. Don’t be the guy that makes a girl insecure just to have the upper hand.”

  Luke stepped out of the truck and followed me to the office.

  “You know I’m not that kind of guy.”

  “I know,” I said over my shoulder. “At least I don’t think you want to be that guy. But sometimes it can feel nice to have a slight advantage in relationships. It makes us do things we shouldn’t.”

  I thought about Garrett and me. Did either of us have the upper hand?

  “Hey Rylie and—” Carmen—the big-boobed, big-haired, big-hearted secretary—almost spit out her coffee when she saw Luke walk into the office behind me. “Luke. What’s going on? I saw the ambulance and police car. You didn’t find another body did you?”

  “Not a dead one,” I said.

  Carmen let out a snort like I’d just said the funniest thing in the entire world.

  “We’ll be in the office,” I said.

  She raised her eyebrows questioningly. I shook my head.

  “Nice seeing you, Carmen,” Luke said.

  “Likewise,” Carmen said.

  Once we were in the office, I pulled the door closed so we could listen to the message in peace. Which probably just added fuel to Carmen’s skepticism fire.

  “Like I said, I don’t know if this has anything to do with the body, but I thought it was strange when I heard the message.”

  I fast-forwarded through the first message from Michelle and almost passed the second from Dave but then stopped. “Actually, this one might be important too.” Duh, of course it would be. Dave saw people in the reservoir overnight.

  “It’s time stamped five fifty-two, meaning this kid was probably out here for a few hours,” Luke said. “How did he survive?”

  “Maybe he was messing around keeping warm for a while?” I threw out. “Why would he be out here in the freezing cold anyway?”

  “Remember all the stupid things we did when we were teenagers?”

  How could I forget? “Like the time we went sledding down the ski hill on a couch?” I offered.

  “Or jumped into Big Lake with our prom clothes on?” Luke said. “Maybe this is something like that.”

  “It’s a wonder we made it to adulthood alive.”

  Luke smiled the melty smile, and I looked away. I didn’t need to have feelings resurfacing.

  “Okay. Play the other message,” Luke said.

  I pushed the button, and we both listened to the girl sobbing.

  “I know, it’s just crying, but—”

  “It might be something.” Luke shrugged. “Or it might be nothing. We can always get the team on it to see where the call came from. At least a number from where she called. But I think Jerry and I will need to talk to Dave.”

  “I’m sure he’ll love seeing you guys again.” I rolled my eyes.

  “You’re right. Maybe you should come with me. Dave seems to like you.”

  Only because I cleared his name and got him out of jail by nearly being killed by someone other than Dave.

  “Okay. I’ll go with you,” I said. “But I’ll need to clear it with Greg first. Now that I’m a full-timer, I have more responsibilities.”

  “I know I congratulated you at the party, but we haven’t really had an opportunity to talk. How is it going?”

  “It’s going really well. I didn’t think I’d like being a park ranger as much as I do, but it’s grown on me. The guys are great. Even Nikki is nice to me sometimes.”

  “So you feel like you’re part of a team?” he asked leaning back in the office chair.

  “I guess so. I mean, we are a team.”

  “Not like when you were a firefighter though?”

  Was he a mind reader now?

  “Not quite. Not yet.” I stopped. “I don’t know. Maybe that was just something I had because I was younger and had been there for so long. And it was volunteer. This is my job.”

  “I think you’ll get there. It’ll just take time and trust. Jerry might not be the model partner, but he and I are definitely a team. Shayla’s mom and I were too. Give it a while.”

  “Speaking of Jerry,” I said. “I bet he’s done. Should we head back out?”

  Luke nodded. We both stood at the same time creating an uncomfortable closeness of our bodies. It was funny, only a few months ago I would have used the proximity with Luke to my advantage, but now it just felt strange.

  “Sorry.” I laughed and tried to move out of his way. But he moved the same direction as we commenced the awkward shuffle. Finally, he put his hands on my shoulders.

  “I’ll go this way,” he said. “And you—”

  “What is going on here?” Nikki asked from the doorway.

  We had been so caught up in our attempts at avoiding physical contact that we’d failed to realize we had an audience.

  Luke’s hands dropped to his sides, and I took the opportunity to sneak out the door., carefully moving past Nikki on my way.

  “She sounded pissed,” Carmen said when I got to the front of the offices.

  “You could have given me a heads up,” I whisper yelled.

  “What was I supposed to do, let out a bird call?” Carmen shook her head. “She knew the two of you were back there anyway. Jerry musta told her. Did you at least kiss him?”

  “Carmen! I have a boyfriend. He’s with Nikki.”

  “Doesn’t mean you two don’t still spark.”

  “No. We did not kiss.”

  “Then what is she yelling about?”

  Nikki was giving Luke an earful about being a cheater.

  “I think it goes past today,” I said. “And way past me.”

  “So Luke’s cheating on her, huh?”

  “No,” I said too quickly. “I mean. I don’t think Luke would do that.”

  “You know what, Nikki?” Luke’s voice rose over Nikki’s. “I’m not doing this anymore.”

  “What do you mean you’re not doing this anymore?”

  Now Carmen and I were both listening.

  “I can’t be with someone who constantly questions my character. I’m not that kind of guy. Everyone knows that. You should know that.”

  “So what? You’re breaking up with me?” Nikki’s voice was now laced with tears. “After all I’ve been through this morning?”

  Carmen and I seemed to lean forward in unison. What was she talking about?

  “What have you been through?” Luke asked, his voice tired and impatient.

  “My cousin is missing, and his best friend is the one your girlfriend found on the beach.”

  Carmen sucked in a little gasp, and I covered her mouth with my hand.

  “Alex?” Luke asked.

  “Yes, Alex. I don’t have any other cousins I’m close with,” she was crying now. “And then I find you here in an embrace w-with—” the end of her sentence was muffled, likely because Luke had pulled her to his chest.

  Carmen looked up at me, her eyebrows high on her forehead. I removed my hand. “We were not in an embrace,” I whispered. “I’m going to go see how Jerry’s doing.”

  I pulled my coat back on. It may have been past noon, but the sun was doing a poor job of warming anything.

  Greg and Seamus stood with hot cups of coffee in their hands next to Jerry on the ice-covered beach.

  “Hey
Blondie,” Seamus said handing me a Starbucks cup. “Thought yeh might need some extra caffeine today.”

  I wrapped my gloved hands around it greedily sipping the bitter, senses-jolting mix of coffee with too little cream. “Thank you.” I smiled. “Did you find anything else?”

  “No,” Jerry said. “But it’s the not finding anything that’s a problem. Someone had to have taken this kid’s clothes, or else he walked here naked. It looks like a prank gone wrong.”

  Jerry crossed his arms over his chest. “Any luck with the messages?”

  “There was a message from Dave—yes, that Dave—saying he saw lights in the reservoir last night. And then there was an odd one that sounded like a girl crying.”

  “Does Luke think they’re related?” Greg asked.

  “He’s not sure. I think the Dave one probably is. Luke said you two—” I turned to Jerry “—would go talk to him. And that they might be able to pull the phone records to find out where the crying girl called from.”

  “Maybe the kid’ll wake up and tell yeh everything,” Seamus offered.

  “That would make my job a hell of a lot easier,” Jerry said.

  We all stopped talking as Nikki and Luke pulled up. Nikki’s face was still red from crying.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Seamus asked while they were still out of earshot.

  “The kid we found was her cousin’s best friend,” I whispered. “And her cousin has gone missing.”

  “Looks like we have a full day ahead of us,” Jerry said.

  Nikki and Luke approached, Luke keeping his gaze firmly on the ground.

  “Nikki, why don’t you take the day off?” Greg said.

  “Don’t we have snowmobile training this afternoon?” Nikki asked with a sniffle.

  “Yeah, but you know how to drive a snowmobile, right?” Greg asked.

  “I do,” she said. “Yearly winter trips to Togwotee.”

  What the hell a Togwotee was, I didn’t know, but it sounded expensive.

  “We’ll just go through the basics the next time you’re on a trail shift,” Greg said. “I’m really sorry you’re going through all of this.”