Zero Visibility

by Sharon Dunn

“We now think she was involved, and the robbery wasn’t random,” said Nathan.

  “Let’s get some descriptions of these guys you had a close encounter with.” The deputy led them into a small office that had three cubicles. Nathan recognized Officer Amy Fernandez sitting at her computer. She offered him a tiny wave.

  “We’ve got a computer program that will help us put together a sketch.” Travis offered Merci a chair by Officer Fernandez. “Amy, you want to help Merci get started on that? Nathan, we have to take your statements separately if you want to come this way.”

  Nathan nodded. As Travis led him into a separate room, he glanced over his shoulder. Merci looked so vulnerable as she sat down in the chair beside Officer Fernandez. It wasn’t going to be easy for her to relive the past days. He would prefer that she not have to do it alone. He longed to sit beside her, to be a support to her.

  She looked up at him with wide, fear-filled eyes as Travis ushered him into an interview room and closed the door.

  * * *

  Officer Fernandez tugged on her long dark pony tail and scooted her chair toward the computer. “All right, Miss Carson. This computer program isn’t as good as a police artist, but it at least gives us some basic idea of what the perpetrators look like.” She turned the monitor so Merci could see the oval head shape on the screen.

  Merci took in a deep breath. “I know it’s important to deal with all this, but can I call my aunt first? I was supposed to be at her house days ago. I’m sure she’s worried sick.”

  Officer Fernandez’s features softened, and her voice held a note of compassion. “Sure, I understand.” She picked up the phone and handed it to Merci. “I’ll give you some privacy.” She squeezed Merci’s shoulder as a sign of support, rose from her chair and disappeared into a back room.

  Merci stared at the phone panel for a long moment before dialing in the number. The phone rang twice.

  “Hello?”

  Her aunt’s bell-like voice sent a measure of joy and relief through her. Merci’s eyes grew moist. “You have no idea how good it is to hear your voice.”

  “Oh, Baby Girl.” Only Aunt Celeste called her that. “I saw the news of the storm on the television and knew you must have been delayed, but when I didn’t hear from you, I got so worried. What on earth happened?”

  “I’m okay now.” She couldn’t keep the tremble out of her voice. “I don’t want to talk to you about what happened over the phone.”

  “Oh, my, this sounds serious. It might require a double dose of hot chocolate and peanut butter cookies.” Even over the phone, her aunt’s voice soothed her frayed nerves. “When can you get here, dear?”

  The warmth in her aunt’s voice made her tear up all over again. “I’ll call you when I know the bus schedule.” She pressed the phone harder against her ear. “I can’t wait to see you.”

  “You know how I feel about you. When I couldn’t reach you by phone, I prayed and I just felt a peace that you were going to be okay.”

  “Thanks, Aunt Celeste. Can you call Dad and Mom and let them know that I’m okay? I just can’t right now.”

  “Sure honey. And you call me as soon as you know when you will be here. I can’t wait to see you.”

  “I can’t wait to get there.” She put the phone back in the cradle and wiped her eyes.

  Officer Hernandez emerged from the room a few minutes later. “Everything go okay?”

  Merci nodded. “I suppose we should get started.”

  Hernandez walked back to the desk and resumed her place by the computer. “Travis said there were two men who tried to rob you?”

  “Actually, there were three men…and a woman.” A pang shot through Merci’s stomach. “Her name was Lorelei Frank. She’s a student at Montana State. I think that she befriended me so she could lure me out to a place where they could stage the robbery. She’s probably the girlfriend of the one who planned this whole thing, the one they called Hawthorne.” Merci took in a quick breath. Her racing heart and sweaty palms didn’t make any sense to her. She was in a police station. She was safe. What did she have to be afraid of? “It’s all kind of complicated and confusing.”

  Amy nodded. “I’m sure it will make sense to me by the time we are done talking. Why don’t we start with the physical description? This guy they called Hawthorne, he’s the one who you think was the leader. Why don’t you tell me what he looks like?” Hernandez typed on the keyboard. “Take this one step at a time. Let’s start with the shape of his face.”

  Hawthorne’s threat to kill her and Nathan because they could link him to the crime remained prominent in her memory. Her thoughts stalled as old fears rose to the surface.

  Hernandez leaned close. Her voice filled with concern. “I know this isn’t easy.”

  Merci cleared her throat. “But it has to be done. I know that.” She stared at the computer and tried to recall what Hawthorne had looked like.

  “This face shape is just a default setting.” Amy coaxed, her voice gentle and undemanding. “We can change it any way you like.”

  She’d seen him so briefly, yet his face was etched in her mind. “His jaw line was more square, I think. He had what some people would call a lantern jaw.”

  Officer Fernandez clicked through different choices on eyes, nose and lips until a complete face emerged. Merci felt a prickling at the back of her neck. Why couldn’t she let go of this fear?

  “Now tell me about his hair,” Fernandez said.

  “It was blond, almost white, short and curly.”

  Amy clicked on her keyboard. “Is that him? Is that what he looked like?”

  With the final touch of the hair in place, Merci stared at the picture in front of her. She nodded as a realization matured inside her head. They’d been running so fast, just trying to stay alive. She hadn’t really had a chance to think about who this man might be. “I think I have seen him somewhere before.”

  Officer Hernandez swiveled in her chair to face Merci, her eyes growing wide with anticipation. “You know him.”

  Merci shook her head. “Just seen him. He’s not an acquaintance or someone I have frequent interaction with. I may have seen him once before.” She probed her memory. “I think somewhere on campus.” She shook her head. “I’m just not sure. I can’t place him.”

  Amy studied the picture. “Hawthorne is a pretty common name. It could be a nickname, too.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that.” While Merci tried to remember where she had seen Hawthorne, Amy guided her through the description of the other two men and of Lorelei and then asked her for details about everything that had happened. Merci kept her emotions at bay until she talked about seeing the helicopter and then discovering that the thieves had hijacked it. “Do you know what happened to the helicopter pilot who was looking for us?”

  Fernandez’s gaze dropped to the floor. “We lost contact with him.”

  “That means he is most likely…” She couldn’t bring herself to say the word.

  “The last I heard, they hadn’t been able to get far enough up the mountain to the site of the crash.”

  “There was an older man and woman staying at the ski hill, Elle and Henry. Have you heard anything from them?”

  Amy shook her head. “The plows just haven’t gotten up that far yet.”

  Amy must have seen the anxiety in her expression. She reached over and covered Merci’s hand with her own. Her soft voice filled with compassion. “One thing to keep in mind. If we can’t get up that mountain, then the thieves are going to have a heck of a time getting out. It was amazing that you and Nathan made it as far as you did.”

  “You think the chances of catching them are pretty good?” Merci asked.

  Amy nodded and pointed at the computer screen where Hawthorne’s face was still up. “Even if they get off the mountain, chances are they are going to come into town or at Derlin on the other side of the country road. We’ll send these sketches out within an hour. All law enforcement in the area will be looking for t
hem. They won’t get far.”

  The news was reassuring. She wondered, though, if small-town law enforcement was ready to deal with the kind of cunning and tenacity she had witnessed with these thieves. “They’ve got no qualms about using extreme violence.”

  “You said this guy Hawthorne wanted to kill you because you could identify him. Maybe now that we have a description of him, he’ll go into hiding,” Amy suggested.

  Merci pulled some lint off her sweater, a nervous habit. Officer Hernandez hadn’t heard the venom in Hawthorne’s voice when he made the threat. “I think he would want to make sure neither Nathan or I made it to testify against him and then he would go into hiding. He wouldn’t do the killing himself. He would just hire someone.”

  The interview room door opened, and Nathan stepped out.

  Deputy Miller said, “I think we are all done with Nathan’s statement.”

  Hernandez swiveled in her chair. “Mr. McCormick, if you want to look at these computer sketches, we’ll be finished. I have Ms. Carson’s statement.”

  Nathan walked over to the computer, nodding in approval of each sketch and offering suggestions for minor changes.

  The door of the police station opened, and a tall man with sandy-colored hair stepped in. Nathan lifted his head. His jaw went slack and his head jerked back. Merci couldn’t quite read his expression, but she thought she saw pain behind his eyes. “Daniel.”

  The tall man removed his hat and shifted it from one hand to the other. “Hey Nathan, Travis called me. I heard your truck was out of commission. I thought you could use a ride home.”

  Nathan nodded. “Guess I don’t have any choice.” He turned to face Merci. “You can come with me if you want. We can feed you and you can get cleaned up before you head down the road.”

  His words stung in an unexpected way. Of course, the next step was for her to get on a bus, to finish the journey she had started. But that meant she would probably not see Nathan again. She was looking forward to her visit with Aunt Celeste. Being with her in that safe cozy house would go a long way in helping her get over the trauma of the past few days, but all of that meant parting ways with Nathan.

  Daniel nodded. “We’ll go to the Wilson Street house. Everything in your refrigerator is probably green by now. My car is just outside.”

  The tension between the two brothers was almost palpable as they walked outside and headed toward Daniel’s older-model car.

  Nathan opened the passenger-side door. “You can sit up front, Merci. I’ll take the backseat.”

  Daniel’s head jerked up from the driver’s-side door, and he peered over the top of the car. He shot Nathan a pain-filled look, but said nothing. They drove across town. The clacking noise of the engine seemed to indicate that the car was headed toward some kind of breakdown.

  Though the brothers had looked to be close in age in the photo she had seen at the cabin, time had not been kind to Daniel. Intense worry lines and a hardness in his eyes made him look ten years older than Nathan.

  Daniel looked over at Merci. “Sorry for the noisy engine. It’s all I can afford right now. It actually runs pretty good, just needs a tune-up.”

  Daniel parked in front of a redbrick house framed by two barren weeping willow trees. They got out of the car and made their way up the sidewalk.

  Daniel stuck the key in the lock and then turned to face his brother. “I was worried about you.” He patted Nathan’s shoulder.

  “I can take care of myself. You know that.” The smile Nathan gave Daniel didn’t quite reach his eyes. His words weren’t hostile, but filled with an undercurrent of sadness.

  They stepped into a cozy living room done in rich burgundy and shades of green and gold.

  Daniel pointed toward a door. “I’ll get started with dinner if you two want to get cleaned up.”

  Merci wandered into the living room. More family photos decorated the walls. Nothing about the room said bachelor pad. “Is this your mom and dad’s house?”

  Nathan nodded.

  “But your brother called it the Wilson Street house.”

  “We started referring to it that way sometime after Dad’s funeral. Guess it’s just less painful than calling it Mom and Dad’s place.”

  Merci studied the photos that chronicled a happy family. “Your brother lives here, but you don’t?”

  “I have my own place across town.” Nathan turned slightly away from her so she saw him in profile. “Daniel has lived here since he got out of his inpatient addiction treatment program.”

  “So has he gotten some help for his problem?” Merci moved around the large living room so she could made eye contact with Nathan. Something in his posture and the tilt of his head suggested vulnerability. It hadn’t been easy for him to share that bit of information. “Is that what the tension and lack of communication between the two of you is about?”

  “I’m sorry you have to be in the middle of this. Daniel developed a gambling problem when he was a teenager.”

  “But he’s better now?”

  Nathan’s forehead furled, and his voice filled with anguish. “I want to believe that. But I’ve lived through too many relapses.” He turned toward the kitchen door and let out a heavy breath. “I think Mom and Dad dying was the deepest rock bottom he’s ever experienced. Mom was sick for a long time with complications from diabetes. After she died, my father’s heart just gave out. He does seem different this time, but I just have no way of knowing.”

  Merci chose her words carefully, aware of how hard it was for Nathan to talk about Daniel. “Is your brother the reason you are selling the resort and the camp?”

  “We inherited equal shares. Maybe my dad thought we would work through unresolved issues by running the ski hill and the camp together. I know Dad wanted to keep the acreage in the family.”

  Merci sat down on the plush couch. “But gambling usually involves people going through a lot of money.”

  Nathan took a chair opposite her. “If I go on his track record, Daniel’s just not a trustworthy business partner. If he relapses, he might steal from the business. I could wind up with unbelievable debt. Mom and Dad worked so hard to run a business with a solid reputation. All that could be destroyed.” He rested his head in his hands. “I don’t know what to do. I wish I could trust him.”

  She hated seeing him so tortured by such a hard decision. “There are no clear answers, are there? I think if I were in your place, I would pray for days and days.”

  “I have been.” He laced his fingers together and rested his elbows on his knees. “I like my job as a paramedic. It would be easier to sell the place and use the money for retirement, maybe set up some kind of scholarship program for the camp. It’s never been about the money. It would break my heart, though, to see the businesses my parents poured their lives into fall apart and have a bad reputation because of my brother’s destructive choices.”

  Merci leaned forward and covered Nathan’s hand with her own. “I’m probably the last person to dole out advice on when to trust people. But I can see how much you love the property…especially the camp.”

  Nathan’s brow creased as he drew his mouth into a hard line. “Nobody likes to admit that they can’t trust their brother. I want it to be like it was when we were kids.”

  The door that led to the kitchen swung open, and Daniel poked his head out. “I got about twenty minutes left on this stir-fry.”

  “Thanks, Daniel.” Nathan rose to his feet and offered his brother a weak smile. He waited until the door closed again. Anguish hardened his features. He turned to face Merci when she stood up. “I know he is trying really hard. I want to think the best of him.” He shook his head as his voice faltered. “But he’s broken promises, he’s been through treatment twice before, he stole from Mom and Dad, and from me, from his friends, all to feed his habit.”

  Merci thought her own heart would break over the hurt Nathan was going through. She rushed over and hugged him. “I understand why it would be hard to belie
ve he has truly changed for good. I don’t have any great wisdom on what you should do.” She pulled away, placed her hand on his cheek and looked up into his eyes. “I just hate to see you so torn up like this.”

  He took her in his arms and held her for a long moment, nestling his face against her neck. She closed her eyes and prayed that in some small way, she could ease some of his pain. He turned his head and pressed his mouth over hers. She welcomed the kiss. He pulled her closer by resting his hand on the middle of her back.

  A clattering of pots and pans in the kitchen caused them to pull away from each other.

  Merci giggled. “I don’t know why I did that. We’re not fifteen. It’s okay if your brother sees us kissing.”

  He let out a single laugh but his eyes held no joviality. She searched his deep brown eyes.

  Was that a goodbye kiss?

  He turned away as though he didn’t want her to see the emotion that his expression would give away. “We should probably get cleaned up. There’s a downstairs bathroom with fresh towels if you want to use that.”

  She pointed toward the computer she had noticed earlier. “Actually, I think I would like to check bus departure times first.”

  “Be my guest.” He still hadn’t looked directly at her. Did he fear he would fall apart if he made eye contact with her?

  How was it possible that two people who had been through so much could just walk away from each other like this?

  She sat down at the computer and pushed the power button. The phone in the entryway rang. Nathan excused himself and left to answer it.

  She waited for the computer to fire up. The gentle tenor of Nathan’s voice landed on her ears when he answered the phone. As she typed in the name of a bus line she knew had routes in the Northwest, she thought her heart would burst into a million pieces.

  SEVENTEEN

  Nathan picked up the phone and uttered a greeting. His mind was still on Merci and the lingering power of her kiss. He peered around the corner at her. Her long hair fell over her face as she leaned over the keyboard. You can’t tell someone you have only known less than three days that you love them. That would be crazy. Yet when he pictured dropping her off at the bus station and never seeing her again, the image was like a knife through his heart.