by Nancy Hartry
Yvette, come back! You can’t escape the fire!
Aubrey bundled Kerry into the helicopter and belted her in as Matt was accelerating the rotors. As they took off, she looked down at the lake. Yvette was nowhere to be seen. She was gone.
Kerry awoke stiff and achy, compressed in clean sheets smelling of bleach. She squinted, taking in a pale green hospital room and an IV line snaking up from her arm. There was an oxygen tank beside the bed, but she wasn’t hooked up to it.
Her memory was coming back. Yvette! Omigod, where did she go? She lifted herself up on an elbow and fell back with relief. Yvette was in the next bed, with one eye bandaged and her legs elevated. Her father’s arrowhead was slung around her neck. My brain feels as thick as smoke. What happened?
“Knock-knock. Can I come in?” Buzz Harcourt stuck his head around the door. Kerry had never heard him ask permission to do anything. She didn’t have the energy to tell him that she didn’t feel up to talking to him. He came in and stood beside her bed. “You don’t look so good.”
“Neither do you, but thanks for making me feel better.”
“I came to apologize,” he said, pulling up a chair. “I should have protected you girls better. I am your supervisor, after all.”
Kerry didn’t respond right away. An apology was something, but could it make up for all the abuse he’d given them? “You didn’t know we were going to sneak off with Slash—”
“Of course I did! That was part of the plan. I should have put my foot down and not let them talk me into putting you girls in the middle of this whole mess. It was supposed to be a harmless joyride for you, but then that guy’s appendix burst and our plans fell apart.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Slash is a cop—provincial police. Matt’s a Mountie. That fake fire boss wouldn’t know his ass from a fire hose—he’s a cop too. They thought Aubrey was mixed up in the bear killings, and they figured you’d lead them to him. And then Aubrey would lead them to Didier and they’d wrap up the whole case. Sounded simple.”
“Stop stop stop! Yvette has to hear this! Can you get her up?”
Harcourt took Yvette a glass of water and patted her hand, and she woke up. “Guess you didn’t expect to see me so early in the morning,” he said. She put a hand to her face and discovered the bandaged eye, but before she could freak out, he told her that she’d scratched her cornea and that was why it hurt so much. She was going to be just fine.
“Letting you girls out with Slash—well, I was against it but they talked me into it. Slash is a real pro and it all seemed innocent enough. I’m so sorry. It must have been hell. When you took off, Yvette, we didn’t know what to do. Thank God that RCMP chopper found you.”
“But how did you track us to the lake?” asked Yvette. “Did you hear my SOS?”
“We heard nothing on any radio, and we were monitoring all the channels. No, it turns out that Two-Beers is the real hero.” Buzz picked up Kerry’s fanny pack from the other chair. “Do you mind if I take a look?”
“Go ahead.” Kerry got up on one arm to watch.
“Aha! Here it is. This little thing is a GPS tracker. It’s normally used for following game. It seems Aubrey found a way to hide this in your bag without you knowing it. He was worried about your safety, but he didn’t want to scare you. Then the damn thing didn’t work—maybe you got it wet or it got wedged under something—but suddenly it came alive and Aubrey came tearing into headquarters to tell us where you were. I was out of my mind with worry. I was about ready to call your parents, and believe me, I wasn’t looking forward to that.”
He handed the disc to Kerry and she turned it over in her hand. She closed her eyes and held it to her chest. So that was the real reason why Aubrey broke into our room.
“My time’s up. I’ll drop by later and see how you’re doing.”
“Kerry, you okay?” Yvette said after he left.
“Fine, I think.”
“I’m sorry I took off and left you. I really thought they wanted to kill us and you’d made the wrong choice about them. I was running on adrenaline, fearing about my safety.”
“How about you? Are you okay?”
“Me? Sure! I have my lucky necklace back.”
“Well, Mr. Undercover Mountie, how smart are you? You got your man but you nearly killed us in the process,” Yvette said. “You used Kerry and me like bear bait to catch Didier in your stupid Sector 14.” They got him! thought Kerry. I never asked Harcourt about that! “How many more cops were hiding at the camp, there?” added Yvette.
Kerry could tell that Matt was counting on his fingers. With every revelation Yvette squealed and repeated the name. Slash was the unlikeliest-looking cop, but in retrospect he was the most obvious. Now I get it—he tried to get me drunk to find out what I knew about Aubrey’s involvement.
“I bet you thought I set the fire,” Yvette teased.
“I’m not supposed to talk to you about any of this.” When the girls started yelling at him, he held up his hand. “But I guess I can explain the parts that are public knowledge. It’s all over the Internet, so there must be a leak somewhere. I figured the lighter was yours but you didn’t have a motive. Didier has confessed to taking it from your back pocket, while you were dancing with him at the bunkhouse, and passing it to his buddy, who planted it on the island and set that fire to scare you girls away.”
“Where’s Slash now?” asked Yvette.
“Who knows? Assigned to another file. But I can tell you he was out of his skull with worry. See, we didn’t know Didier’s bear den was right there. We thought you were going to lead us to Aubrey’s hunting camp, where Aubrey would be hiding. We figured that he knew more about what was going on than we did.”
“And you were wrong and you nearly killed us!” Yvette said. “I hate you!”
“Hope not, because I just love you like crazy.”
Yvette didn’t answer for a while. “You’re no Dudley Do-Right. You’re married. Were you ever going to tell me?”
“How’d you guess?” Matt sounded surprised.
“There are some secrets, chéri, even the RCMP cannot know!”
“Yvette, I …” Matt shrugged. “We had a good time together.”
“C’est vrai—take care of yourself, eh?”
“You stay safe,” he answered.
“I will,” she said, and after he left, “No thanks to you!”
Kerry heard grunting and puffing as Yvette struggled out of bed. “Men! I know you’re awake; shove over.” She lifted Kerry’s sheets and wiggled in, resting her head on Kerry’s shoulder. “I want my mother.”
“Me too,” Kerry said, and was surprised to realize that she meant it.
“Didier was such a beautiful boy. I don’t know who to trust anymore!”
“You can trust me,” said Kerry. She hugged Yvette until her arm fell asleep, along with the rest of her.
CHAPTER 27
L ike a water balloon pricked with a darning needle, the skies exploded with water, dousing the flames. The fire was over. They could go home! Rolf commandeered the cookhouse for an amazing send-off dinner. Special guests were invited, including the fake fire boss. Rolf said he might just pop him in the face, Mountie or no Mountie. Kerry thought she’d be right behind, if only for the sake of Mouser, who’d been kicked across the room “to help Sirois develop a relationship with Didier.” It was Harcourt, ever the supervisor, who called the girls’ homes and suggested that the parents talk to each other. Kerry’s dad rented an SUV big enough for Yvette’s mother and siblings, their car seats, and all their gear. With three adults driving through the night, they would be here by noon the next day to take the girls home.
Yvette and Kerry volunteered to help Rolf in the kitchen. When he tried to refuse, Yvette insisted that she needed to keep busy to keep her mind off their ordeal. Both girls were running at half throttle, but chopping cabbage into coleslaw and slicing eggplant into moussaka took little energy.
“How’
d it go today—the witness statement thing?” Rolf asked.
“Fine,” said Yvette. “I don’t want to talk about it.” She slumped on the counter, resting her head on her arms.
“It sucked!” Kerry said. “The victim support lady was nice enough, and the cop tried to be nice when he asked me his questions, but he still videotaped me. I thought it would never end. I’m not even sure what I said. When it was over, I told him I had some questions but he said he couldn’t answer them until after the trial—or the guilty plea, if we’re lucky. And that might be two frickin’ years from now! Would you believe I’m not supposed to talk to Yvette about the case? Or anyone else? We probably shouldn’t be having this conversation right now. I’m so pissed.”
“Pissed is healthy.” He reached under the counter and brought out a bottle of red wine. He nudged Yvette. “Hey, you—you still on medication?”
“Only sleeping pills at night,” Kerry answered for her. “We’re good.” She held out her glass. “I feel like Didier is still controlling us—manipulating us. I want to punch something!” Instead, she took a long slurp of wine and Rolf filled up her glass.
“Well, I didn’t sign anything,” he said. “It’s front-page stuff, for God’s sake. No harm in you listening to me read it out.”
“Doubt it,” said Yvette. She covered her ears.
“Go for it, Rolf. I want to know everything.”
Rolf read snippets from the paper, editorializing as he went, sketching in the details, some of which they already knew. “Didier Hart of Dryden, Ontario, has been charged with arson, kidnapping, attempted murder, and various other offences, including poaching bears out of season and running an illegal hunting camp for several summers. He and his accomplices, who stretch as far as China, set fires to divert attention away from the bear killings. A joint operation of the RCMP and Ontario Provincial Police has been investigating the bear poaching since last summer but they made no connection with the setting of fires until this year, because of the dry weather. Bear parts were being smuggled internationally to Asia and cities along the U.S. Pacific coast.”
Rolf looked up. “I left out the part about the kidnapping. You’re named, Yvette, but Kerry, you’re a minor so you aren’t listed here. Some head of police investigations is calling you two ‘resourceful’ and ‘courageous.’ ”
“Just covering his ass,” said Kerry. “Is there anything in there about Sector 14? That’s the part I don’t get.”
Rolf put the paper down. “Nope. This is what I’ve learned from my sources, who shall remain unnamed. The cops figured out approximately where the business was based, by assessing the ignition points of the fires, and that was why they imposed a no-fly zone in Sector 14—hoping that Didier’s guys would relocate there and they could contain them. The arson was supposed to keep the cops away from the bear killings, but it actually ramped up their investigation. With the wildfire devastating so much forest, and closing down mining and lumber operations, the companies and the government piled on the pressure. They wanted it stopped—the fires, the smuggling, the whole stinking mess. And then they completely cocked it up by involving you two girls. All I can say is, thank God for Aubrey or we wouldn’t be having this conversation.” He drained his glass to the bottom and poured himself another one. “I predict more charges, just wait and see.”
“You can’t just leave that hanging out there!” Kerry said. “What else aren’t you telling us?”
“Let me ask you this. Does any good trucker bring back an empty load? Do you think Didier’s the kind of guy who’d smuggle big screen TVS from Asia?”
“Drugs,” Kerry breathed. Rolf made a motion to lock his lips and throw away the key.
“Mon dieu. Tranquil waters run deep,” said Yvette.
They’d been so lucky. Kerry couldn’t wait to finally see Aubrey and thank him in person. He was back on the fire line, but he’d sent cards and flowers while they were in hospital. She wondered how her mother was going to react—after all, Aubrey had saved her daughter’s life!
Phew, it’s hot. Kerry slipped outside for some air and watched her partner through the screen door of the cookhouse. Yvette’s eyepatch was gone but she had to wear sunglasses, even indoors. She looks like a drug dealer herself, topping and tailing those wax beans and shooting little yellow bits around the kitchen. Kerry took the keys to the truck out of her pocket and dangled them so Yvette could see them through the window.
“Rolf, I’m going outside for a smoke,” Yvette said, giving Kerry a “what’s up?” look.
“Let’s take a ride.” Kerry tossed Yvette the keys and she tried to give them back. “Come on, Yvette, there’s nothing wrong with you. We need a break.”
Yvette gave in and took the wheel. She skirted the town to avoid the transient workers drinking away their paychecks, finally turning off at the department offices by the lake. Kerry took her work boots off and walked the length of the dock in bare feet. She rolled up her pant legs and stepped down the ladder into the water, letting it lap around her knees. She surveyed the green shoreline, the sprinkling of islands, the eye-squinting dazzle of sun on water. “Amazing, isn’t it?”
“Sun feels good. Aren’t you afraid of getting a leech?”
It was good to hear Yvette laugh again. “After what we’ve been through,” Kerry assured her, “a love bite from a bloodsucker isn’t on my scale of things to worry about. Besides, you’d save me. Again.”
Kerry let agonizing minutes go by before she managed to dish what she needed to say. “Yvette, I don’t want to go home yet. I want to work for the rest of the summer but I don’t have the guts to do it without you. Do you think you could blow your mom off and finish the time out with me?”
“Huh, you just want to stay near your boyfriend.”
“That’s only partly true. I really like him, but this fire has made me think about my life. I’m seriously thinking about quitting dance, but I need more time to decide.”
“Are you nuts? What about all your friends?”
“What if I don’t have what it takes? What if I can’t have a professional career? Do I want it enough? Do I want to wreck my body down the road? Is a career in dance what I really want, or just what my mother wants? And what friends? I haven’t heard from anybody. I want friends I can count on, not friends just because of what we do together.”
“Like you and me. Fire buddies.”
Kerry got out of the water and grabbed Yvette by the shoulders and shook her. “Fire buddies, my ass. Given what we’ve been through, we’re stronger than blood brothers. Blood sisters!”
Yvette started to laugh. “Ooh, I think you’re turning French.”
“It could happen.”
“Me, I can’t stand to be in the same room with Aubrey. I can’t forgive him for stealing my necklace, and I don’t buy his excuses. He could have talked to me about how it hurt him that I had an artifact—as he called it—that belongs to native people.”
“You’re entitled to be mad at him. But come on, he wrote and apologized. I believe him when he says he took it impulsively, and then didn’t know how to give it back. He still hopes you’ll donate it to a museum or somewhere. For God’s sake, Yvette, we owe him our lives.”
“I’ll give it away when I don’t need it anymore.”
“You never needed it, Yvette. Look what you did without it.”
“And look at you. So skinny, but made of steel.”
“Right. When my mother gets here, we’ll know for sure if I’m any tougher. Honestly, I’m afraid that if I go home now, I’ll get sucked back into my old routine. I need more time away from her so I don’t cave just to get her off my back. I want to make up my own mind about my life. Please stay with me for the rest of the summer.” She stared Yvette down, trying to get a yes out of her, but Yvette wouldn’t meet her eyes.
“Remember how I said you were just like your mother?” Yvette said finally. “You used me. You wanted to find Aubrey and you worked it so that I would fly with Slash. You knew
I was afraid, but you threw me into deep water anyway. We are lucky we came out of this alive.”
Kerry was stunned. Was Yvette right? Was she starting to manipulate people like her mother did? It wasn’t a pretty thought.
“I’m so sorry, Yvette. I can see how you might feel that I threw you under the bus. But I did it for the right reasons. I just—in my bones I knew that Aubrey hadn’t done it. And I hated your attitude toward him. I thought solving this would help all of us. Can you forgive me?” She crossed her fingers and waited.
“It’s true that I still need the money.” Yvette looked across the water at the shoreline as if seeing it for the first time. “So, I don’t like Aubrey very much but I accept that he showed guts and good sense. That’s all I can say. At least until I get to know him better. Okay, maybe I could stay here for the summer—if you promise to do all the cooking and dishwashing. I never want to see the inside of a frying pan again!”
“Deal!” Kerry grabbed her and hugged her. “Oh, we’re going to have fun!”
The girls linked arms and walked back to the truck. While Kerry hopped on one foot to put her boots back on, she spied their steel boat tugging on its line, anchored just off shore. “Look, that thing keeps following us. It’s an omen.”
Yvette backed the truck down to the launch ramp so they could hoist the boat into the back. “One, two, three!” they yelled, and the rust bucket seemed to fly into the back of the truck.
“It’s lighter than I remember,” Kerry said.
“You grew into it. Look at those muscles!”
Kerry faced the water, scanning the shoreline. The air was clean and pure after the rains, like spring water. The seduction of the bush tugged under her skin. It felt right—this wall of green trees, the blue skies, the constant gurgle of water lapping on granite.
Would she continue to dance? There was time to think about that. Thanks to Aubrey, she’d been given the gift of a summer in the bush to figure out her life. One thing she knew for sure—she didn’t want to turn into her mother.