by Sara Grant
She was talking crazy talk. She stepped closer. “You lured me here…” She flicked the arrow in a criss-crossing pattern in front of her like she was Zorro.
I swept Mackenzie behind me. Her body trembled against my back. We both didn’t need to die here. I pivoted and shoved Mackenzie towards the door. “Run!”
I whipped around to face Katrina. Death by Cupid’s icy arrow. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. What a stupid – and very Chase – way to die.
I crashed to the floor as Mackenzie slammed me from behind and collapsed on top of me.
“What are you doing?” I shouted at her as we scrambled to our feet.
Mackenzie didn’t need to say a word. The tables had turned. Shauna had the icy arrow to Katrina’s throat.
I hugged Mackenzie. We were saved! Shauna to the rescue like in some old-time Western. Yeehaw! I wasn’t going to be skewered by Cupid’s arrow like the worst Valentine’s Day shish kebab ever.
“Thanks, Shauna,” I said and raised my hand for a high-five from my new hero. But she left me hanging.
A small stream of blood was dribbling down Katrina’s neck where the ice arrow was digging into her skin. Yeah, I knew she was a killer but … “Hey, Shauna, let’s take Katrina to the lodge. The boys are rounding up everyone. You’ve caught the killer.”
As soon as I said it, I understood that I was dead wrong. The scene in front of me shifted. It was like one of those trick pictures where you see different things based on how you looked at it. I had been so focused on Katrina that I didn’t see the other picture. I finally saw Shauna – not the super-perky event-planner that she wanted me to see. I finally saw the scary woman she’d been hiding all along. In a split second, she’d switched from superhero to evil mastermind.
“You killed Lucinda,” I said and wished for the millionth time that I could switch off the blurt mechanism that always got me in trouble. Not every thought that popped into my head should fly out of my mouth – and this one could get us killed. Shauna smiled this weird wild smile.
“Why?” Mackenzie asked, shocked by this hairpin turn of events. “You orchestrated this entire weekend. You invited these people here. You misdirected us every chance you got.”
When she said it like that, how did we not realize it before now? Shauna had become our friend. She was always there working behind the scenes. Mackenzie grabbed the back of my snowsuit and tugged me out of Shauna’s reach.
“Leave!” Shauna screamed at us, spittle flying from her mouth.
“We can’t do that,” I said. “We can’t let you kill anyone else.”
“You may have saved Alexia and Blake, but you’re not going to save Katrina!” Shauna shouted. “She’s going to get what she deserves.”
“Please help me,” Katrina begged between sobs. “She’s Serena Coleman.”
“Shut up!” Shauna smacked Katrina to the ground and held her down with her boot. In the weeks we’d spent with her, I’d never ever seen a hint of the anger that was exploding from Shauna now. How could I have been so blind?
“Serena?” Mackenzie’s voice trembled.
“I used to be Serena until they killed me,” Shauna said. “I received a scholarship to that horrible school. I thought that it was my chance for a better life.” She cackled in this sort of scary way. “Tell them. Tell them what you did to my best friend.”
“Parker,” I said.
She pointed the arrow at me. “How do you know that name?”
“Katrina wrote a story about a girl named Parker who accidentally drowned,” I said.
“Accident!” Shauna laughed again. “Alexia, Blake and Katrina made our lives hell. One night they kidnapped us from our beds, covered us in paint and then launched us into the lake.”
“We didn’t know Parker couldn’t swim,” Katrina sobbed. “I’m so sorry. We never meant to hurt anyone.”
“You bullied me and Parker all the time,” Shauna shouted and pressed her foot deeper into Katrina’s chest. Katrina screamed in pain.
I needed to say something to stop her, but Mackenzie thought of something first. “This won’t bring Parker back.”
“I know, I just don’t think that Katrina deserves to keep on living.” Shauna grabbed the hood of Katrina’s snowsuit and dragged her towards the front door. “Now it’s Katrina’s turn to take a swim in an icy lake. With any luck, they won’t discover her body until spring and by then I’ll be long gone.”
“Why did you kill Lucinda?” I asked because I needed her to stop moving, and I wanted to know why.
“We were kids,” Shauna said. “But she was the adult. She withdrew my scholarship and paid everyone to keep what her granddaughter did a secret. No one believed me. She ruined my life.”
“Your life isn’t ruined,” Mackenzie said.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “You are great at what you do. You planned this whole weekend…” I stopped when I realized that her life probably was ruined now that she’d killed someone.
“Lucinda wasn’t supposed to die like that,” Shauna said. “I’d lost twenty-five kilos, dyed my hair and even changed my accent, but Lucinda recognized Serena Coleman. I agreed to meet her at the ice hotel while everyone was watching the Northern Lights. I pushed her. She cracked her head on the unfinished ice bed. I covered her with water. I made up the story about her staying at the cabin. I had Lucinda’s phone so I even texted Alexia to buy some time.”
“Let Katrina go, and I’m sure we can tell the police about your…” What was that phrase that meant she’d done what she’d done because of the bad things that had happened to her?
“Extenuating circumstances,” Mackenzie filled in the right words.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Shauna said. “I wanted to scare you in the maze. I would never hurt the two of you.” Her expression changed from full-on crazy to seriously sad. “You remind me so much of me and Parker. You are two opposites that together make this perfect team. You are very lucky to have each other.”
Mackenzie and I looked at each other. We were lucky. I hoped our luck held.
“Forget you ever saw me with Katrina,” she said. “You can’t leave me,” Katrina begged.
Mackenzie and I held our ground. We weren’t going anywhere.
“If you won’t do it for me,” Shauna said, the cold, scary look was back in her eyes, “then do it for Ariadne.”
“What?!” Mackenzie and I said in unison.
“What have you done to my grandma?” I shouted and took a step closer to her. Mackenzie restrained me.
“She figured it out,” Shauna said. “Well, not the why part, but she knew I was the one who had orchestrate this whole deadly weekend.”
“You didn’t…” I couldn’t say the horrible end of that sentence. I hoped Grandma wasn’t another accident like Lucinda.
“No, but if you don’t find her quickly, she will die.” Shauna pulled Katrina kicking and screaming past us. “You’ve got a choice to make. Try to stop me and your grandma dies because I will never tell you where she is. Or let me walk out that door and I’ll tell you everything.”
What else could we do? I raised my hands in surrender. I had no intention of letting Shauna hurt Katrina, but we had to play along.
“Chase!” Mackenzie said and stared at me wide-eyed. “We can’t stand by and let Shauna kill Katrina.”
Shauna pushed open the door. While she was distracted, I winked at Mackenzie. “I have to save my grandma.”
We followed Shauna out into the snow. Mackenzie’s hands were also held high in surrender. Shauna threw the ice arrow aside and reached into the pocket of her snowsuit. “Ariadne’s in the Northern Lights cabin. I tied her up and built a fire, but that was hours ago. If that fire goes out…” Shauna tossed a set of keys in a nearby snow pile.
“If that fire goes out…” I lunged at Shauna, but Mackenzie tightened her grip. A sob caught in my throat. My sixty-nine-year-old grandma wouldn’t survive long in an ice-cold cabin.
“Duck,” Mackenz
ie whispered in my ear and yanked me to the ground.
Snowballs whizzed by from every direction, pelting Shauna again and again until she was beaten to the ground.
It took me a moment to see through the blur of snow that a semi-circle of Winter Wonder Resort guests and staff surrounded us.
I dived for the keys while Mackenzie rushed to the now staggering Katrina, who collapsed in Mackenzie’s arms.
I pulled off my gloves and dug through the snow like some crazed mole. My stiffened, nearly frozen fingers finally closed around the keys. I rammed the keys and my hands deep into my snowsuit pockets.
“We thought you might need a little backup,” Toby said as he raced over to me. “We heard Shauna’s crazy talk and the only weapon we had was the snow – and lots of pensioners! Taylor and I always keep a stash of snowballs ready, we just didn’t know we’d use them to catch a killer.”
I hugged Toby. “Thanks.” I couldn’t waste any more time. “Send help to the Northern Lights cabin.” I tore off towards the line of snowmobiles.
I hopped on the closest one, strapped on a helmet and goggles and revved the engine.
“You aren’t going without me!” Mackenzie shouted, snatching up a helmet and goggles. She flung herself on the back of my vehicle. I pointed the snowmobile in the direction of the cabin.
As we sped away, I hoped we weren’t too late to save Grandma. Being my grandma was dangerous; I prayed it wasn’t deadly.
The white landscape turned dull and grey in the setting sun. The world shifted to a scene from a black-and-white movie. A slim finger of smoke guided me forward. It had to be from the fire in the Northern Lights cabin, the only thing keeping my grandma from freezing to death. I pushed the snowmobile to its limits. The elements worked against me. The gusts of wind ripped at my snowsuit and battered the snowmobile. My arms ached from staying my course. Snow peppered my goggles, and at times, the scene ahead was dot to dot – and wiping the spray made it worse. I was terrified by the icy obstacles thrown up at us at top speed, but I was in control. All Mackenzie could do was hang on.
I could see the cabin through the trees. I remembered how Mackenzie and I had danced on that roof. It seemed light years ago.
I gasped as the smoke dwindled into puffs. How long did I have until Grandma froze to death? My cheeks burnt from the cold. My fingers and toes were numb even though they were tucked in the Winter Wonder Resorts thermal gear.
When we reached the cabin, I skidded to a stop. Mackenzie and I were off the snowmobile before it stopped moving. We lunged for the door. I jerked the keys out of my pocket, and accidentally flung them into a nearby snow drift. I fumbled again and again trying to pick them up with gloved hands. My fingers were tingling with cold and shaking with fear. Mackenzie brushed me aside. She removed her gloves and unlocked the door. I rammed it open like a defensive tackle sacking the quarterback.
Grandma was hunched in a wooden chair that was positioned right in front of the fireplace. She was dressed in her designer red snowsuit, gloves and boots.
“Grandma!” I shouted as I dived to her side. She didn’t move. Shauna had tied her wrists to the arms of the chair, and her legs were tied together.
“Grandma,” I whispered as fear and sadness gripped my chest.
An icy puff escaped her lips. “Chase?”
A hot flash of relief swept through my body. She was alive. While I untied Grandma, Mackenzie stoked the fire until it was blazing again.
“Shauna,” Grandma whispered. “It was Shauna.”
“We know,” I said.
“She’s been captured,” Mackenzie said and gently hugged Grandma. “Everyone is OK.”
I rushed around the cabin and collected every blanket and towel I could find. The sun had set and the temperature was dropping. I positioned the couch in front of the fire and wrapped us up with Grandma the centre of a Mackenzie and Chase sandwich. My dad had always told me to use body warmth as well as fire, shelter and clothing. He wasn’t going to believe me when I told him about our adventure in the Arctic Circle. I might have to delete a few details – like finding dead bodies buried in the ice, being chased by a killer, nearly falling into the frozen lake… Actually there wasn’t much about the last few days I could tell him.
We sat in silence, letting the warmth and relief soak in. After a long while, Grandma looped one arm around each of us. “Looks like you two disobeyed me again.”
“I think our punishment should be that you have to hang out with us for a long, long time,” Mackenzie said.
Grandma squeezed us in reply. I think she realized how close she’d come to not being with us for a minute longer. We filled her in on the rest of the story and waited for help to arrive.
Police sirens and lights changed the pitch black outside the cabin to a disco. We returned to the lodge in time to see Shauna being taken away in handcuffs. She opened her mouth to say something. I wondered if she would apologize for almost killing Grandma. But she didn’t utter one syllable. Was she sorry for what she’d done? I wondered if her revenge had made her feel better. Grandma gave Shauna a sad smile. Tears streamed down Shauna’s face. It was so cold and the situation so desperately sad I thought her tears might freeze like that for ever.
The police ushered us into the lobby where everyone was gathered. All eyes zoomed in on us. People cleared the way for us to take the prime location on one of the lobby’s many couches.
“These guys are the real heroes,” Toby told the police officer who was interviewing him. “They are the ones who figured it out and caught Shauna.”
“We’ll need statements from all of you,” the police officer said.
Fear zapped me. No one could know Mackenzie’s real story. She was still presumed dead. I could see in Grandma and Mackenzie’s eyes they were thinking the same thing.
“How did you get here?” Grandma asked the police officer. “I thought the roads were closed.”
“Someone pulled strings with headquarters and you became our first priority,” one police officer said.
“And some mystery man had cleared a path from the Winter Wonder Resort to the main road,” another officer added. “I’m not sure how he did it.”
“She,” Mackenzie muttered. We knew who that mystery woman was – Mackenzie’s mum. We scanned the lobby. I nudged Mackenzie and nodded to the figure in the silver snowsuit slipping to the back of the crowd.
Mackenzie locked eyes with her mum. Thanks, she mouthed and gave a sneaky wave as Marilyn slipped out of a side door and out of her daughter’s life … for now.
“You girls go to your room,” Grandma told us with a wink. “I’ll talk to the police.” She was going to have to cover up our involvement again. We’d have to be erased from any official reports or media coverage.
For once, I didn’t mind being sent to my room. We were exhausted but buzzing. It was as if the excitement from the day had electrified my blood. Mackenzie flicked on her computer. I plugged in my phone. Normal everyday things felt strange after everything that had happened.
My phone bleeped with a message. That’s when I remembered the email I’d sent to my mom. It couldn’t be from her, but I checked anyway.
With a strange mix of excitement and dread, I looked at my messages. How could I be experiencing so many opposite emotions? If it wasn’t her, I’d be relieved and disappointed. If it was her, I would be happy and scared. Would she tell me to leave her alone? Did she want anything to do with me? And what if she said she missed me? How would that feel? I didn’t miss her. How could I? I’d never met her.
I tapped the unopened message.
Charlotte,
I was overwhelmed to receive your message.
My own mom didn’t know that I hated being called Charlotte. She was overwhelmed. That could be good or bad.
I hope this is only the beginning of our correspondence. I want to know absolutely everything about you. Please write back as soon as you can.
I hated that tears were welling in my eyes. I did
n’t want those few words to mean so much, but they did. Maybe I could have some sort of relationship with my mom after all.
But her message ended with the strangest line…
See you soon! Love, Mum
What did that mean? I couldn’t travel to England until it was safe for Mackenzie, and Mom wasn’t getting released from prison any time soon.
A knock on the door made me jump.
“It’s Ariadne,” she called through the door.
I shut off my phone. Grandma definitely wouldn’t like that my mom had emailed me. Grandma already had enough to deal with. I’d keep my correspondence with Mom a secret for now.
Grandma, Mackenzie and I piled into one bed. “I’ve handled everything with the police. Your names will be kept out of it.” She was hugging us again. “What would I do without the two of you?”
“You’d be a human icicle by now,” I blurted and immediately wished I hadn’t.
Mackenzie and Grandma burst out laughing. I couldn’t help but join in. We had survived and it was ridiculous and crazy and for some reason really, really funny.
“I think you girls deserve a holiday,” Grandma said after our laughter had died down to giggles and then sighs and then a weird silence.
Mackenzie and I groaned. “I’m not sure we can survive another holiday,” Mackenzie said.
“Where’s your spirit of adventure?” she asked but I could tell exhaustion was kicking in. I was a million years younger, and I was getting more and more tired by the minute. Only now could I feel the hundreds of bumps, scrapes and bruises I’d sustained over the last twenty-four hours.
“I’ve got it,” she said with a yawn after a long while. Our eyes were drooping with sleep. “We’ll go to Kuriosity Kingdom.”
“In Florida?” Mackenzie asked. “I’ve never been to the United States.”
After all the weird things that had happened in the Maldives and the Arctic Circle, I was ready to go somewhere that spoke my language and where I knew how the world worked. “I’ve never been to Kuriosity Kingdom,” I said. Dad thought amusement parks were silly. He had enough action and adventure in real life when he was in the navy. On vacation he wanted rest and relaxation.