by Joan Rylen
Wendy poked her head out of the door. “One of these boxes was mostly random people, not much to the files. The box we’re currently going through has a little bit thicker files, but I’m not seeing much of interest.”
“Same here,” Pierre said, “but honestly, I have no idea what I’m looking for.”
Vivian walked into the office and pulled the lid off the last white box, shining the flashlight inside. The box was nearly empty.
She flipped through a couple of files. The names were in Grandpa’s handwriting but Vivian didn’t recognize any of them. Is this his heavy hitters box? She took them over to the briefcase. “Will these fit in there?” she asked Lucy.
Lucy popped the latches. “Yep.” She stuck them in and closed it.
Vivian shined the flashlight around the room for a final look. “It couldn’t hurt to take the rest of the files in this box. If Grandpa took the time to write it down and make a file, there could be something important.”
Pierre picked up the half-empty box and walked toward the door to the hallway. “We’ve had lights on in here long enough. We need to go before someone calls the cops.”
Vivian clicked off the lamp on Nicole’s desk. They went back through the printing press area and hustled out the back door.
“How are we going to lock the door?” Vivian said as she walked out.
“No way to lock up without crawling through the fan,” Pierre said.
“No way I’m doing that again,” Lucy said.
Wendy tapped the box Pierre held. “We’ve got the important stuff here. There’s not much to steal besides the one computer and the presses. I doubt that’ll happen. I think our only option is to leave it unlocked.”
“It’ll be fine,” Vivian said, even though she’d rather not. She didn’t see any other option. “Nothing bad’s going to happen. This is a nice, quiet town.”
They walked to the car and found the engine off and the doors all locked.
Kate had her seat laid back and a forearm covering her eyes. She was fast asleep.
Vivian couldn’t believe it. “So much for being our lookout!”
38
After tapping on the driver’s side glass and waking up Kate, the girls and Pierre loaded into the SUV, files in the back, and headed toward Turlington Farms. Pierre had offered to drive, but Kate insisted she was fine. It had been a long day and not exactly the relaxing vacation Vivian had envisioned. She leaned her head against the back passenger door and started to nod off.
“That car is right on my butt,” Kate said, pulling Vivian out of that sweet spot between consciousness and unconsciousness.
They were outside Lake Placid Village on a two-lane road lined with trees. Vivian turned to look out the back window and had to squint from the lights, which were high enough to shine directly into the back glass.
“What a jerk,” she said. “I think it’s a truck, probably a short guy since that is a big truck.”
Wendy sat shotgun. “Are you going under the speed limit, Kate? Maybe you should go faster?”
“I’m going five miles over,” Kate replied but pressed the gas pedal harder all the same. The headlights stayed just as bright and right behind them, keeping pace. “I wish there was a place for me to pull off and let him pass.” She clicked on the high beams.
The road curved to the right but Kate didn’t slow, just kept her hands at 10 and 2. The truck tapped their bumper, then backed off.
“Ahhh!” Kate screamed. “What the hell?”
“I’m calling 911,” Wendy said just as a harder hit came. “Oh shit.”
“I think they’re trying to make us crash!” Kate screamed, just as the truck pushed harder against the back of the SUV, then backed off, revved the engine and steered slightly to the left.
“Hang on!” Pierre yelled.
The blow sent them into a spin. Everyone screamed. The lyrics to Josh Weathers’ “Save Yourself” ran through Vivian’s mind. Go on and save yourself, baby!
Kate tried to turn into it but the SUV careened off the road, crashing through the bridge railing, which caused the airbags to deploy.
The SUV plunged into the lake.
After the jolt of landing in the water, Vivian felt the weightlessness of the car as it bobbed. Cold water began gushing in through the doors, and the SUV started its descent into the dark waters.
“Crack the windows if you can!” she yelled.
“What?” Kate yelled.
“We need to equalize the pressure so we can get out.”
Too late. The front of the SUV nosedived, the engine cut off and they lost power. Pierre turned in his seat and threw his legs up, kicking at the back driver’s side glass. The window didn’t give, so he kicked it again as more icy water poured in.
Kate fought with her deflating airbag, then pulled on her door handle, but it wouldn’t budge. “Get me out of here!” She pounded frantically on her window. “My baby!”
“Kate, the pressure has to equalize before we can open the doors or bust out the windows,” Vivian said, trying to sound calm, although she felt anything but calm inside. “It won’t take much longer. We’ll make it.” Let me be right.
Kate leaned against the door, sobbing, and Wendy started pulling on the passenger’s side door handle.
Vivian’s panic rose as Pierre kicked at the window again. It didn’t crack so he continued the pounding. With the headlights out, she had a difficult time seeing anything inside the car and couldn’t see out at all.
The water rose to Vivian’s stomach, and she knew they’d most likely die from drowning, although exposure would get them first if they could stay afloat that long. Pierre gave the side window another blow, this time breaking through. He delivered a few more swift kicks to the jagged edges.
“This is going to be tough, but as soon as the water is in here we’ll be able to get out,” Vivian said. “I saw it on ‘Dateline’ or something.” Her legs were already freezing from the water. “Kate, it’s going to be okay.”
“Take a few deep breaths,” Pierre said. “I promise, I’ll get you all out of here.”
It didn’t take long for the water to reach the top. “Get ready!” he yelled. “I’m going to get Kate first. Then make sure Wendy is out. Lucy, you and Vivian stay together. Here we go!”
The water enveloped them. Pierre pushed his door open, then opened Kate’s door. He took her hand and pulled her out, helping her to the surface. Then he dived back down and helped Wendy. She’d gotten her door open and was on her way to the top.
Vivian and Lucy were holding hands when they’d gone all the way under. After Pierre slipped out to get Kate, they started out of the car together, Lucy first, but their hands slipped and they lost each other in the panic.
Vivian swam out of the window and shortly surfaced. “Lucy?” she sputtered, coughing and swallowing lake water. “Lucy!”
“I’m here!”
“Kate?”
“I’m here with Wendy,” she yelled.
Pierre grabbed Vivian’s hand and pulled her toward the shore. “You can swim, right?”
“Yes. I lost Lucy.” Vivian started crying. “I thought I’d lost Lucy.” Her legs were numb from the freezing water, but she swam with every bit of strength she had. Thankfully the SUV hadn’t flown too far out into the lake, and it was only a few strokes before she touched the bottom and dragged herself on shore.
The girls huddled together, hugging and crying on the small muddy beach, and made room for Vivian as she joined them.
“I’m going up to the road to get help,” Pierre said and took off.
“Kate, how are you?” Vivian asked, drained.
Kate wiped her eyes and took a big breath while rubbing her belly. “I don’t know. The airbag.” She shivered.
“Help will be here soon,” Lucy said, rubbing her hands up and down Kate’s arms.
Wendy pointed to the guardrail they had flown through. “Thank god that was there. No telling how far we might have gone.”
/> Vivian turned her attention to where the SUV had been. A few bubbles floated to the surface, then a burst came from the water and the chrome briefcase popped up.
“Grandpa’s notes!” Wendy yelled.
“We might have ended up dead because of those,” Lucy said.
“There has to be something important in his notes,” Wendy said. “And we need to find it, so we can find who ran us off the road. Assholes!”
Vivian pumped her fist in the air. “Yeah! And they’re going to pay for putting Little Plum in danger!”
“Yeah!” Lucy and Wendy said together.
Kate smiled a little and brought her knees up to her chest, or as close as she could get them. “I don’t think Nicole accidentally ate something bad. This is related. Someone’s got a secret and they don’t want her, or us, finding it out.”
“Kate, did you see anyone at Nicole’s office before you conked out?”
“No, I don’t remember seeing anyone.”
Pierre showed up by the demolished railing. “Help is on the way. I ran to a house down the road and broke in to use the phone. I’m going to come down and help get you all get up here. It’s steep, so we’re going one at a time.”
He trudged down and took Kate up first. Then Lucy, Wendy and Vivian last.
“I’m ready to kill whoever did this to us,” he said as they used the trees as leverage to get up the embankment. “I was going to leave tomorrow, but now I’m staying.”
Vivian almost lost her balance a couple of times; the mud didn’t want to relinquish its hold on her feet. It was an arduous process, but they made it to the road.
The four girls sat on the side of the road and Pierre threw a comforter over them.
“I grabbed it off a bed in their house,” he said. “Figured I could buy them a new one.”
A cloud passed in front of the moon, and it was quiet except for the chattering of teeth. Vivian heard a car and then saw headlights coming around the curve. “Please let them be a Good Samaritan and stop.”
“Amen to that,” Wendy said.
Pierre jumped up and down and waved his arms. The car slowed and came to a stop, and the driver rolled down the window. Pierre bent to talk to the driver and pointed toward the lake.
“I’m so cold, I’m not sure I can take much more.” Kate cupped her hands to her face and breathed into them. “This is where wearing a wetsuit and peeing in it could really warm you up.”
“I refused to do that rafting in Colorado,” Wendy said. “But I’d give it some serious consideration right now. I’m so cold I feel like my veins would break like glass if I extended my arms.”
Pierre walked over. “Kate, they said you can come sit with them to warm up if you’d like. They don’t care that you’re wet.”
“Oh, thank you!”
He looked at the other girls. “Sorry, only room for one. I’m going to run back down by the water and see if I can’t get that briefcase.”
“Be careful,” Lucy called out, then looked at Vivian. “What would Bear Grylls say to do in this situation?”
“Strip down!” she answered and laughed. “By god, I might just do it!”
39
The wail of a siren cut through the night and lifted Vivian’s spirits, so she decided to not get naked. The impenetrable cold was about to be a thing of the past.
A sheriff cruiser followed by an ambulance stopped, and two officers followed by two paramedics got out. They talked to the driver, who pointed toward the bridge and their group standing just beyond it. One paramedic stayed with Kate, and the other ran across the street toward them.
Another truck screeched to a stop coming from the other direction. Larson got out and joined the paramedic with the group as one of the deputies began putting flares around the scene.
“What happened?” He leaned down and put his arm around Vivian as Pierre appeared with the chrome briefcase.
“A truck ran us off the road. Pierre saved the day.” She snuggled close to his warmth.
The paramedic was talking to Kate, asking her questions. Vivian watched as he opened the door to the car and helped her out. She walked with him to the ambulance, and he helped her onto the bench in the back.
Larson smiled at Vivian. “You sure know how to make a lasting impression. You’re one woman I won’t ever forget.”
Vivian laughed and almost cried with relief but didn’t take her eyes off Kate. “I do like to make a splash.”
They laughed about that, and she told him about the truck that intentionally ran them off the road.
“That’s unbelievable,” Larson said. “And pretty damn frightening.”
“What are you doing here?” Vivian asked.
“I was on my way home and heard the call on my scanner. I was close so thought I’d better stop.” Larson turned his attention to Lucy and Wendy, and the other paramedic brought them each a blanket, Pierre included.
Pierre held up the briefcase. “Can we put this in your truck for now?”
“Sure thing, let me get this, you go get warmed up.” Larson took the briefcase and put it in the bed of his truck.
Lights and a siren were seen and heard and a sheriff’s car came into view moments later. The cruiser screeched to a stop and Deputy Stokola got out. She nodded to Larson and the paramedics as she walked toward the group. A second sheriff’s car came around the curve and parked behind Stokola. Deputy Young slammed the door and bustled toward everyone.
Stokola’s uniform looked like she had tossed it into the clothes hamper and then thrown it back on when she got the emergency call. She took out a notebook and pen, then looked at the girls and Pierre. “I’d say it’s nice to see you again, but not under these circumstances.”
Pierre introduced himself. Deputy Young, who had dark circles under his eyes, asked, “Can you tell us what happened?”
“We were on our way back to Turlington Farms,” Lucy started.
“From where?”
She looked at Vivian, who answered, “The hospital. We had gone to see Nicole Jones.”
Young looked back to Lucy, who continued telling the story with the help of Pierre, Wendy and Vivian.
“Can you describe the vehicle at all?” Stokola asked.
Vivian shook her head. “It was something high off the ground, like a truck. The lights shone into the back glass and not below, like a car’s would.”
Young looked at them. “Any idea why someone would try to push you into the lake?”
Vivian felt Lucy’s eyes on her, but she didn’t look her way. She didn’t want to talk about the stop at Nicole’s and the files. She didn’t think admitting to breaking and entering was a good idea. “No,” she answered, “no idea who would want to hurt us.”
The paramedic who had been evaluating Kate walked up. “We need to get her to the hospital for an evaluation and an ultrasound. The airbag deployed and she’s pretty shaken up. Her blood pressure is elevated.”
Vivian’s heart skipped a beat.
She nodded. “Thanks, Billy.”
“I’m going with her,” Wendy said to Stokola. “Buddy system.”
Kate was moved off the bench in the ambulance, put on the gurney and strapped down.
Vivian wanted to cry.
Larson put his arm around her. “I’m sure it’s just a precaution.”
Wendy climbed in, sat on the bench and grabbed Kate’s hand.
A sheriff’s deputy closed the ambulance doors and patted them, indicating it was ready to roll. The ambulance took off, lights flashing but no siren.
Vivian shuddered as the ambulance pulled away. She couldn’t believe one of her best friends was on her way to the hospital, her baby potentially at risk. The cold enveloped her, and she put her chin to her chest, staring at the ground.
“She’s freezing,” Larson said to Deputy Stokola. “Can’t this wait?”
“How about we sit in the patrol cruiser?” Stokola said.
Vivian nodded, and they all walked over to her car and got i
n.
Stokola turned the heat on high and got back to business. “Has anything else strange happened to you since you found the jawbone two days ago?”
“Just the boat fire on the lake today,” Vivian said, “but that didn’t have anything to do with us. We just happened to be there.”
Stokola nodded, then asked some additional questions, mostly about where they had been, if Kate had done anything on the road to tick someone off, etc. After about 10 minutes she said they could go.
“We’ll get the car towed first thing in the morning, and we’ll call you to come get your belongings.” She paused. “Actually, we’ll call the B&B, as I imagine your phones are ruined.”
Lucy sighed. “That would be correct.”
“Come on,” Larson said and got out of the SUV. “I’ll give you a ride. I promise to crank up the heater full blast.”
Vivian wrapped her blanket tighter around her and shivered. “I need some heat, all right.”
“Can we stop by the hospital?” Lucy asked. “I really want to get out of these wet clothes, but we should check on Kate.”
Larson opened the back door of his truck. “I’ll take you anywhere you need to go.”
Pierre climbed in beside Lucy, and Larson started up his truck. He turned around in the road, squealing his tires, and headed back toward town.
“So what’s in the briefcase?” he asked.
Damn! I was hoping he wouldn’t ask.
When Vivian didn’t answer immediately, Larson said, “Is there something else going on here I need to know about?”
What the hell, he didn’t run us off the road. “We think Nicole was poisoned on purpose. We stopped by her office after we left the hospital and borrowed some files. I hope they’re still legible.”
“Why would someone poison her?”
Lucy and Vivian gave him the rundown on them looking into Mary Beth’s and Rebecca’s deaths. “We’re not sure who could be behind all of this but we wanted to help.”
Larson pulled into the hospital parking lot. “I’ve got some friends who work here, even someone in the ER. I’ll go see what I can find and ask them to keep a special eye on Nicole. I won’t mention any particulars, just that she not have any visitors, that kind of thing.”