Claudia slumped forward and blood poured from her mouth. As she realized she couldn’t be both dead and bleeding, the Volvo toppled onto its passenger side. A chilling new sound replaced the splintering cackle.
It came from Peter. Claudia wanted to cover her ears. She had never heard anything so horrible. He slapped at her, grabbing her, keening all the while and she shrunk away from the frantic hands. Then he was gone and she was alone. The bright light glowed again and this time she knew she was dead.
TWENTY-THREE
Ezra was in heaven with her.
“Oh,” she sobbed, “I was hoping you didn’t die. I’m so sorry.”
Something wet splashed her cheek, circumventing the scar and worming toward her ear. She tried to move her hand to wipe at it, but couldn’t.
“Should it be raining in heaven?”
“Sapphira! Get away from her!”
“Oh, no! Sapphira is dead too?”
“Not yet. However, her length of days will be considerably shorter if she doesn’t back off.”
Claudia opened her eyes, but the light still hurt, and began to shimmy. Her head and ribs ached and her mouth still tasted of blood.
“I’m not dead?”
“Nope. Me either.”
“Ezra?” She wanted to sit up but knew she would vomit. An arm under her neck prodded gently.
“Nothing broken, my love. No heaven for you yet.”
Again the slimy splotch coursed down her face. Ezra roared, “Philip! Could you hold this drooling menace back before she drowns Claudia?”
Philip’s concerned face swam in and out of her vision.
She fought to recall what she needed to do. Remembering, she gripped the hands cradling her head.
“Ezra,” she said with urgency, “Get someone back to the inn.” She spoke slowly to avoid costly misunderstandings. “You’re injured and lying along the carriage house. You’re going to suffer from exposure. You’re on the south side, about”—it was imperative she get this correct—“about ten feet back from the front corner.”
She had done it. He would be safe. Satisfied, she snuggled into the tender grip and surrendered to black.
~*~
The next time she woke the pulsating light had disappeared. Instead, a muted, steady glow warmed the outside of her eyelids. She was warm. Gentle hands still cradled her, better than any pillow.
Perfect peace washed over her and she kept her eyes shut while examining the causes. Ezra was alive and safe. She could tell from the aroma that she was in Amos’s house.
“What a sniffer I’ve developed,” she thought, and to her surprise heard Ezra respond.
“And it’s part of such a cute little nose.”
She looked at the face hovering over hers. “I didn’t know I said it out loud.”
“Oh, my love, you have said a lot of things out loud. Including confirmation of Felix’s notion that Peter killed Roi. You told us why.” He nuzzled her mat of tangled hair. She gave an experimental twist to her neck. Hardly any pain. Craning sideways, she looked around the front room Amos disliked so much. But it felt warmer, much warmer than the last time she’d been there. And Ezra was with her. This is the most beautiful room I’ve ever seen. With the possible exception of the bathroom.
“Ezra, I wish I could lie here all day. But I really need to use the restroom.”
Sue floated into view. “Let me help.”
“Oh, Mrs. Stevens!” Memory flooded her. “I am so sorry about your car. I think it crashed.”
“It crashed all right. Total wreck. But it was built solid. Kept you from worse injury. Here, put your arm around me, and we’ll get you to the bathroom.” Suddenly sharp, she called, “Bernice, wait a minute! Let Claudia in there first!”
Under her breath, she whispered in Claudia’s ear, “If she beats us you never know how long it will take.”
Claudia rejected Sue’s offer to come in with her. As per Sue’s instructions, she held the toilet lever ten seconds to get it to flush. She washed her hands and surveyed her face. The scar was, for the first time in ages, the least noticeable part of her countenance. Blood and dirt smeared her from forehead to throat. She took a clean washcloth from one hook and dabbed gently, wincing as she reached the spot Peter had hit.
From the old-fashioned holder on the wall she took a paper cup to fill with water and swish her mouth. It hurt like mad but when she spit in the sink she saw no blood. She inspected the hanging delights, found one labeled ‘pain reliever’ and took two. Another, labeled ‘hair stuff’ yielded a coated rubber band and she smoothed her tangled locks as best she could and tied them back. One more glance in the mirror. The scar regained its rightful place among all her other features. She opened the door to find Sue waiting outside and an agitated Bernice just beyond her, shifting from foot to foot.
“Your turn, Bernice. Don’t get hurt on the hooks. You’re a good half a foot taller than Dad. And if you hurry Lem will drop you off at home.” She looked approvingly at Claudia and for the first time smiled. It was a charming smile, hearkening to her father. “That looks better. I knew you’d want to clean yourself up. Ezra wouldn’t let anyone touch you.”
“Thank you so much, Mrs. Stevens. Was I out long?”
“Goodness, no. It’s been less than an hour since you and that car wrecker left here. ”
Claudia was flabbergasted. She wouldn’t have been surprised to hear Monday had arrived.
Back at the sofa she smiled but shook her head when Ezra patted his lap and asked if she wanted to lie down again.
“I want to know what happened to Peter, why Bernice is here, and how on earth you survived.”
He laughed and pulled her into the circle of his arm.
“Lem is leaving for the jail with Peter as soon as Bernice is ready. Philip and Sapphira will be the muscle and ride along. My brother needs to contact whoever deals with a criminal of Peter’s magnitude. We just finished putting all the pieces together as you woke up. Relax my love, and I’ll tell you another amazing story.”
Claudia settled onto his shoulder, and Ezra took a breath to begin the narrative.
“This is how I heard it from Ann and Philip, with occasional clarifications from Bud—”
Bernice’s bellow from the bathroom interrupted him. “Sue! How do you flush this blasted thing?”
Ezra, momentarily disconcerted, cleared his throat, and continued. “Philip forgot something for the post-recital party, so he rushed back to the Traveler. He saw you driving my sled and some guy he assumed to be me with arms wrapped tight around you. He just figured I had it bad for you—if that boy couldn’t speak in colloquialisms I swear he’d only talk half as much—and continued on his mission. At the inn he told his folks he’d seen us, but didn’t immediately share what was bothering him. Philip couldn’t imagine any decent man letting a girl drive a snowmobile without a helmet, especially one he ‘had it bad for’. The goggles might help you see all right but wouldn’t keep your head safe in a spill. Besides, your face and ears would freeze, literally. It wasn’t fun snowmobiling weather.”
“I can testify to that,” Claudia agreed fervently. “Do my ears look frostbitten?”
Ezra kissed his finger and touched it to one ear. “Rosy as ever, my love.”
Mollified, she snuggled back into the crook of his arm. “Continue, please.”
“Bud explained why we were heading for the jail and didn’t worry much when Philip insisted we’d been heading opposite direction. Not until Philip described how I wore the helmet while you just had goggles. Ann asked him if he was certain.
“She went on to say that if his eyes had rolled any further back he would have been able to look at the North Star without tilting his head.
“Bless her heart, Ann told me she knew I wouldn’t let you go bareheaded while I saved my own skull.
“Bud called Lem to see if we made it to the jail. Philip checked the carriage house and saw the helmet still there. The Gomers discussed giving us half an hour t
o show up someplace before they got too worried, but Lem called back to say he’d heard from Amos. He explained how you had come to borrow Sue’s car since my snowmobile broke down. You looked frozen, he said, but didn’t complain about it, and the guy they thought was me never came in the house.”
Ezra paused for dramatic effect. “Here’s one of the best parts. Amos said he could smell fear on you.”
Claudia wriggled with delight.
“That’s how I reacted. Ann refused to believe it though, and Bud clearly didn’t relish sharing that particular tidbit with me. Philip couldn’t keep quiet. He assured us all of its scientific veracity. To quote the teen genius, “Really! I read that fear sends out pheromones and somebody with as sensitive a nose as Amos always says he has could detect it.”
“Lem called again with another bombshell. Felix wanted to spill his guts. Friday night during the recital he’d been roaming town since he had the streets to himself. He claims he saw Roi follow Peter in the back door of the inn. When Felix saw the light go on in a first floor room, he eased up to the window for a better look. Somehow, probably because he’s Felix, he cracked an icicle and hightailed away. He could only hope no one had seen him. When Roi’s body turned up by his house, he figured Peter must have been warning him to keep his mouth shut.
“That got everyone moving. Lem came roaring up to the Traveler to fetch Bud and Philip but before he could unlock the squad car doors, Sapphira stepped on his stomach trying to get out. He swears he told her to go before she got in the car but she just turned up her nose. So then—”
Claudia shushed him. “Wait, wait. How did Lem get Sapphira?”
“He swung by my place on the off chance we were there, and my ‘blasted critter’ wouldn’t let him leave without her. Lem wasn’t too happy with me or my dog. Until later.
“He asked Philip to find a place for her to relieve herself. Philip pulled her toward the bushes but she ignored him and shoveled her nose along the ground. She snuffled along the lot toward the carriage house and bleated a split second before Philip shouted for his dad and they rounded the corner of the carriage house in time to see Sapphira heeding the call of nature next to me.”
Claudia wished she could kiss Sapphira. “You must have still been unconscious, right?”
“Yes, but they brought me around, and I was out only about thirty minutes. Peter meant business and gave me a concussion, but I have a hard head. My kidneys hurt worse.”
“He kicked you in the back.”
“Did he now?”
“How can you be sure you’re OK?”
“Lem called the doctor who was by my side in four minutes flat. One of the benefits of living in a town only a mile or so square. And of course we didn’t know that less than half an hour later she’d be checking you over.” His voice tightened. “You’re dandy, she said. I could have told her that.”
She burrowed her head in more deeply. “I don’t remember a doctor. Or anything after the crash. You better tell me more.”
“Where was I? Oh, yes. With Sapphira relieving herself alongside me.”
“She saved your life, didn’t she?”
“Don’t give her too much credit. She’ll never let me forget. After the doctor left, Bud and Lem and Ann wanted me to go in and lie down. Philip just up and says, “Do you really think he’s going to get any rest while Claudia is out there?”
“They let me ride along. By that time the angel chorus in my head had piped down, the snowflakes quit glowing like fireflies and I could almost walk a straight line. We knew Peter had you and the watch and the fob, and just a bit ago he’d been by Amos, so we headed that way first.”
Ezra stopped and Claudia laughed up at him, ready to ask if the angel choir was warming up again. The words died on her lips when she saw the solemn hazel eyes on her. Claudia clutched at the enveloping arm, and he brought his other one to meet it. She had seen that same tenderness on Bud’s face as he looked down at Ann after the dance recital, a look of concern and love and gratitude.
Ezra rubbed his eyes. “This next part is hard to relive. Are you still with me, my love?”
My love? You can call me that and look at me like that and you ask if I’m with you? To the ends of the earth. “Oh, yes. I’m with you.”
He picked up the story but kept both arms around her. “Just before the bend that branches off in the service drive to Bernice’s house, we saw a flash of lights. Around that curve a car lay tipped sideways in the ditch. Before Lem could shift into park, I bolted out the door and wobbled like a crazy man toward the wreckage.”
TWENTY-FOUR
“I could hear Lem hoofing up behind me,” Ezra continued. “When I saw a squat tree headed at me I figured I was worse off than the doctor thought. When the tree spoke, I was certain of it.”
“Second time in a week I’ve had to take down the criminal elements in your jurisdiction Lemuel Prosper!” a voice bellowed over my shoulder. I knew that bellow. Bernice.
“Once I could focus in the glare of the headlights I saw the tree was, in fact, a very irate Bernice.
“She reached back and hauled up Peter, all limp and glaring, with a cauliflower ear and bleeding from a dozen little cuts on his face and neck. She called him a menace, said he was going too fast for conditions, and made her run into him.
“Peter must buy into the ‘best defense is a good offense’ strategy. He called Bernice ‘Mountain Woman’ and accused her of stealing his car. Maybe he thought Lem would overlook his own little foray into grand theft auto. He didn’t see me at first. When I hobbled toward him, he could see I wasn’t ready to let bygones be bygones. He switched strategies again and tried anxious anguish. Bernice, he whined, yanked him out the window before he got a chance to see if you survived the crash.
“Bud, Philip, and I practically fell over each other to get down to you. Lem yelled for Philip to run up to Amos’s house and call the doctor. He shoved both Bernice and Peter in the back of the squad car and came to help me.”
“I couldn’t see you at all. The car had tipped into three feet of snow. I tried climbing up the driver’s side. Lem claims he couldn’t make out anything I kept shouting except, ‘Please God, don’t let her be dead.’ In fact, I believe I clearly stated that I couldn’t reach you, couldn’t be sure if you were breathing, and for the love of all that’s merciful to help me.
“Someday when we can look back on this and laugh, I’ll tell you how Lem got bossy and ordered me to stay still since he couldn’t have me fainting away trying to get at you. Maybe I’ll wish I had taken a picture of Philip, when his dad and Lem held his ankles and lowered him upside down through the driver window so he could see how badly you were hurt. And don’t let the Gomers or my brother try to convince you that when Philip said, “She’s breathing!” I got teary-eyed and rubbed my nose on my sleeve.”
“Poor sweet,” Claudia murmured, “I’m sure any display of emotion was just residual damage from the concussion.”
“Yes, I’m sure. Philip said he saw blood all over you. My brother figured we couldn’t wait for an air ambulance or Jaws of Life to get you out of the perpendicular wreck that used to be Sue’s Volvo. The doctor had arrived already but she’s eight months pregnant, so we had to bring you to her.
“Philip leveraged the door open so poor Lem could maneuver in behind you where he checked to make sure you didn’t have any obvious back or neck injuries. He pulled you up and hoisted at your bottom ’til the Gomers pulled you free.”
“Lem did not tell you he hoisted at my bottom!”
“No. Philip told me. The doctor found nothing seriously wrong with you but a gash in your mouth. We took you here to warm up but you decided to fall asleep on my lap.”
Claudia relaxed against his shoulder. “I’ve been sleeping like a baby ever since I arrived in Barley.”
“Combination of clean living and clean air, my love.”
“What happens now?”
“Well, there’s enough to hold Peter even without the m
urder charge, although that should stick too. Robbery, assault, auto theft, and kidnapping are the icing on the cake.”
“How about Felix?”
“Not sure. What’s the penalty for transporting a dead body? Lem’s letting him go but impounded his snowmobile for the time being. He thinks a suitable punishment would be to release him to the care of Bernice.”
“Bernice!” Claudia popped up from his shoulder. “Ezra, what is going on with Bernice?”
“Ah. I was hoping you’d ask. If you thought the last story was good...” He pulled her a little closer. “She’s never had such a captive audience. Too bad Lem already took her home or she’d be happy to tell you, too. On the other hand, that means I get to add my own decorative touches. Here’s what happened...
“Bernice was on the hunt. She knew a half-wild dog had been terrorizing the countryside, or at least a few chickens in the neighborhood. She was lonely and sure she could rehabilitate it. She missed little Jezebel and had a nice, friendly name chosen for the dog. Mark. First she needed to catch him. She’d been setting out food and he had eaten it on a regular basis. Tonight she planned to make contact.
“When he showed up she made sure to put out just a morsel of food to whet his appetite. He bolted it down and looked for more. Bernice tied a sturdy piece of string around a hunk of raw venison and tiptoed outside into the snow, dangling the meat behind her. She gave it a coquettish little twist and the dog moved in. She tried to lure him toward the house but he got suspicious and backed up. She moved out. They kept this game up all the way to the end of her driveway and out onto the service road, Bernice advancing with the venison, Mark skipping away when she neared. They saw the vehicle blocking the drive and both stopped in their tracks.
“Bernice went closer. The dog, puzzled that he was suddenly less interesting than the scentless hunk, followed her. She peered inside and pulled the door. Locked. She tried to lift the hood but the piece of venison was an impediment, so she put it alongside the car. The dog, pleased at the turn of events, sidled up next to her, sniffed at the meat, and dug in, one eye on his meal and one on Bernice.
Winter Watch Page 21