by Gina Dartt
He whirled to look at her. “You found her body?”
“No.” Nikki shook her head as she tried to organize her thoughts. “I came out here to...find the file, but she interrupted me.” She swallowed against a throat raw from the smoke and coughing. “We were talking. She told me she didn’t kill Sam or try to run me over. Then...”
“It’s all right, Nikki.” Kate’s strong voice soothed her, supported her. “You’re safe now.”
Nikki inhaled with a shudder, gathering her composure. “Someone else showed up,” she said slowly, trying to remember, finding it hard to cut through the cottony fog clouding her mind. “I heard a...gunshot. Katherine had a...a hole in her forehead, and she...she fell, and I started...I was turning around to see what...who it was, but...something hit me.” She shuddered again. “When I woke up, my hands and feet were tied, and the cabin was on fire.”
Rick’s face became stone, and Kate made a small sound of dismay. “You didn’t see who it was?”
“No,” Nikki said, shaking her head. She felt dizzy and ill again. “Katherine said no one knew where this place was. I just figured it out because of what she said to Diane at lunch.”
“Margaret knew.”
Startled, Nikki looked at Kate, seeing the drawn expression in her face.
“What do you mean?” Rick asked, looking as if he wanted to shake the information from her.
“Margaret Madison was in the store yesterday afternoon. She wanted to know if I’d give her a letter of recommendation. During the conversation, she said something about cleaning Sam’s things out of a cabin.”
“Could she have meant this one?”
Kate looked annoyed and frustrated. “I don’t know, Rick,” she snapped. “For all I know, Sam had cabins all over the goddamned county.”
Nikki glanced at her with surprise, but Rick snorted, relaxing as if Kate’s uncharacteristic display of temper indicated something that was currently escaping her.
“I have to call this in,” he said, heading back to the truck. “Take care of her.”
Nikki stumbled as Kate led her to the other side of the vehicle, urging her up into the rear seat. There, she used a flashlight to examine Nikki more closely, exclaiming as she found the cut on her arm and the burns she had incurred during her escape from the flames. Kate used a medical kit from the glove compartment to treat them and then flashed her light in Nikki’s eyes as she flinched away.
“Rick, she may have a concussion from that blow to her head.” Kate’s words didn’t quite make sense to Nikki. “I don’t think her pupils are dilating properly, though it’s hard to tell in this light.”
“If she was unconscious, you might be right,” he agreed. “I called the paramedics along with the fire department. They should be here shortly.” Rick looked uncertain. “Hell, maybe I should rethink this. The fire will burn itself out, and I don’t think they can get the trucks down that incline safely. We should go back and meet them on the hill where the other cars are parked.”
Nikki, huddled in the backseat, found it difficult to concentrate on what was happening. She heard the words, understood on some level what they meant, but was not connecting them with herself. All she could think of was the look on Katherine’s face when she saw the person standing behind Nikki. She had recognized the person, Nikki thought distantly. Who had it been?
She swayed as the vehicle moved beneath her and realized that they were driving away from the fire. Kate was on the seat beside her, her arm about her shoulders, holding her as the SUV slipped through the woods, the engine a low growl. Nikki looked forward over the front seat, watching as some parked cars abruptly appeared in the headlights of the truck.
“I shouldn’t have borrowed Kim’s Honda,” she said weakly. “I lost her binoculars.” Then she began to cry, unable to stop. She wasn’t sure why she was crying or what was making her feel so sick and unhappy. She was only aware of Kate beside her, squeezing her tighter, muttering words that didn’t really penetrate her misery but sounded comforting nonetheless.
A block of time disappeared like a splice from a film Nikki had been watching, and the next thing she knew the truck had stopped, strangers were peering in her eyes, and Kate and Rick were across the road, talking intently as they stood next to Rick’s SUV. Nikki couldn’t quite figure out how she could be sitting in the truck at the same time the truck was several feet away and then realized vaguely that she couldn’t be in the truck at all. Proud of this line of deduction, she finally figured out that she was actually in the back of a brightly lit vehicle with someone she didn’t recognize who kept trying to get her to lie down on a stretcher. She kept refusing, struggling weakly because she really wanted to know what Rick and Kate were saying. No doubt they were up to something, but she couldn’t seem to rise from the stretcher.
Suddenly Kate was hovering over her. “Darling?”
Frowning, Nikki tried to focus on the beautiful face that had an alarming tendency to swim out of view. “What?”
“They’re going to take you to the hospital now. I’m going with Rick to talk to Margaret Madison, but I promise I’ll be by to see you as soon as possible.”
“What about the car?” Part of Nikki thought she should be concentrating on what Kate was actually saying, but she had seized on the Honda that she could see from the corner of her eye. She was extremely embarrassed that she had not gone back to pick Kim up at work, that she had lost her binoculars and was now apparently expected to just leave the little blue car there in the middle of the woods.
“Someone will take care of the vehicles.”
Nikki pawed through her pockets, managing to find the keys. “Will you take it back to Kim?” She anxiously pushed them at Kate.
Kate hesitated and then accepted the keys. “Of course,” she said, and Nikki was content, because she knew her love wouldn’t promise something that she didn’t intend to carry out.
“Nikki, did you understand what I said about going with Rick?”
Nikki nodded. “Yes. You’re coming by to visit me in the hospital later.” She paused. “Am I going to the hospital?”
Kate seemed half amused and half worried. “These people in the ambulance are going to take you there,” she said. “You have a concussion.”
“All right.” Nikki inhaled, smelling the medical scents of the compartment she was in. “Are you coming with me?”
“I’ll be along shortly. I have to take care of something.”
That’s right. Kate had to take care of Kim’s car. I borrowed it and never took it back. That was really unacceptable. Then she blinked and Kate was gone, and it seemed to Nikki that she was being driven through the woods again, making her wonder where the hell she was going.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Kate watched as the ambulance carefully drove away on the logging road before she turned her attention to the police officer speaking with the local fire chief. Scarlet, blue, and gold lights from the multitude of official vehicles washed the area, and the churned ground appeared brown in their illumination. The firefighters, forced to leave their trucks on the hill, had dispatched a few men on foot with extinguishers to make sure the fire didn’t spread to the surrounding trees, though that was unlikely from the amount of snow around the cabin. She wondered if these volunteers were going to start asking the town council to be put on a salary. Considering how many fires they had been forced to fight in the last week, she wasn’t sure she would blame them. The situation was quickly developing a surreal quality, and at this point, she was infinitely weary of the whole thing.
Moving over to join Rick, she nodded at Tom Anderson, who looked unhappy beneath his red helmet. “A hell of a thing,” he said as she approached.
“Agreed.” She looked at Rick. “It’s time to end this.” She felt calm and cold, completely resolved.
“You’re right.” Rick nodded at one of the other officers standing nearby. “You two get these cars back to town. The Lexus can go to the Impound. The Honda...”
/> Kate held out the keys Nikki had given her. “It belongs to a girl named Kim.” Suddenly she realized she didn’t have a last name or an address.
The officer took the keys. “All the necessary information will be on the registration,” he explained, “though I suspect I know whom it belongs to.” He glanced at Rick. “I hope Nikki’s all right,” he added awkwardly, as if unsure he had the right to say it.
“She’ll be fine, Pete.”
Kate followed Rick over to his vehicle and crawled into the passenger’s side. There was no question about her accompanying him. Rick certainly knew not to argue with her, and she fully intended to make sure this whole mess was taken care of before she saw Nikki again. She owed it to her, since Nikki had risked her life to uncover the truth behind these crimes.
The drive out the logging road seemed to take forever, and Kate discovered she was gripping the brace on the door until her hand ached, not because of the road conditions, but because she was furious. The abrasions on Nikki’s wrists, clear indication of her being bound, the burns, cuts, and bruises on her head where she had been struck so violently were sharp in Kate’s memory. She didn’t want to waste time on small talk. She set her jaw so hard, her back teeth felt as if they were about to splinter.
“Kate, take it easy,” Rick said quietly, obviously picking up on her tension.
“I wish you’d stop saying that.” She felt like slapping him.
“I’m not entirely sure what you think you’ll accomplish by coming with me.”
“Margaret might be able to lie to you,” Kate said, absolutely assured that what she was saying was true. “She won’t be able to look me in the eye and do it.”
Rick didn’t look so sure. “If you say so.”
They were silent for the rest of the drive to the Madison house, a large country-style home in one of the more expensive residential areas. After turning into the paved driveway, Rick and Kate got out of the SUV, and as she studied the house, she assessed the probable mortgage, knowing that Margaret hadn’t exaggerated her financial straits. But was that enough to kill for? Or was some darker motive at work? At any rate, Kate was not about to stand for it any longer.
The sight of the cabin in flames and the knowledge that Nikki had been left to die in it had destroyed whatever sympathy she may have felt for Margaret. As Rick rang the doorbell, Kate inhaled deeply, realizing it was rather late. Glancing at her watch, she noticed it was almost 11:40, but she was sure she had seen lights in the upper part of the house.
“Let me do the talking, Kate,” Rick warned her in a low voice as they waited.
She frowned, but nodded shortly.
Finally, the door swung open and Margaret peered at them sleepily, frowning as if uncertain why they were there. “Yes?”
Kate felt a qualm. Perhaps she was wrong. Perhaps they were all wrong. Perhaps Margaret had nothing at all to do with this, and someone else altogether was the culprit.
“I’m sorry if we woke you,” Rick said. “We’re looking for someone.”
In a perplexed tone, Margaret asked, “You think they’re here?”
“We think you might know where they are,” Rick said. “May we come in?”
Margaret hesitated and then motioned them inside. She was dressed in a terry cloth robe that she clutched at her neck, while her graying hair was damp at the ends. Leading them into the living room, she nodded at the sofa and took a seat in the chair. She regarded them steadily, her face devoid of expression. “How can I help?”
“Nikki Harris has been investigating certain matters on her own,” Rick said. “This afternoon, she borrowed a car to find a cabin she believed belonged to Sam. She hasn’t been seen since. Do you happen to know anything about this cabin or where it might be located?”
Margaret glanced at Kate, nothing more than a brief shift of her eyes in her direction, before focusing on Rick. Kate wondered if she was remembering the conversation in the bookstore earlier and how she had revealed that she knew about the cabin.
“I don’t see what...Nikki...would be investigating. But the only cabin I know about is the one he built last year on a lake out by Edwards House.”
With a glint in his eye, Rick said, “Yes, Katherine Rushton told us about that one, but we visited it before we came here, and we couldn’t find anyone around.”
As if ignited by Rick’s expression, a flash appeared in Margaret’s eyes, one of disbelief and astonishment. It obviously took an effort for her not to react beyond that minute slip, and if they hadn’t been on guard for a guilty look, it was marginally possible that they might have missed it.
Kate held her breath, aware that this was a very delicate moment and that Rick, after having dropped in the line, was reeling it in lightly, waiting for Margaret to take the bait.
“No one around?”
“No,” Rick said. “We couldn’t get inside, nor could we see through the windows. They were too frosted up, and besides, it was dark. There was a padlock on the door.”
“I have the key for it somewhere,” Margaret said in a distant tone. “Would that help?”
“Yes,” Rick said with apparent gratitude.
Again, Kate questioned her assumptions as she saw Margaret rise from her chair and walk over to the desk. But as Margaret opened the drawer and reached inside, Kate lunged to her feet. She wasn’t sure why but only knew that if she were wrong, she would have to apologize later...profusely. Instinctively, she slammed the drawer shut on Margaret’s wrist and held it there as the woman yelped in pain, cowering away from her.
Rick hastily leapt to his feet, cursing as Kate gripped Margaret’s arm with her free hand and slowly pulled out the drawer with the other. Margaret’s fingers were wrapped loosely around the brownish grip of a handgun.
“You can forget about that letter of recommendation,” Kate said coldly.
Rick’s face tightened when he saw the gun. “That didn’t go quite the way I planned,” he said with a touch of sheepishness, forcing Margaret to release the weapon before picking it up and sniffing the barrel. “Fired recently.” He stared at Margaret as she remained quietly where she was now that she had been discovered. “Will the bullets from this gun match the one we took from Sam’s skull...and will take from Katherine Rushton once we recover her body from the ashes of the cabin you torched?”
“The cabin burned,” Margaret said passively. “You lied to me?”
“Yes.” Kate inhaled deeply, releasing Margaret’s wrist, resisting the urge to wipe her hand on her pants as if it had been covered with something unpleasant and slimy. In the drawer, she noticed a file folder and pulled it out. “This was what Nikki was looking for.” She glared furiously at the woman. “She’s not dead, by the way.”
Margaret glanced at her. “I’m glad, Kate,” she said in a detached tone that matched the expression in her dark eyes. “I didn’t...she never did anything to me. It made me feel good to shoot the bitch, but the girl was just in the way.”
“Why kill Rushton now?” Kate ignored Rick’s wince. She knew that anything said by Margaret at this point was not admissible in court, but she needed to know, if not for herself, so she could tell Nikki later. “You’ve been trying to frame her for Sam’s murder.”
Margaret regarded her without blinking. “I needed to change plans. I followed her to the cabin where I was going to shoot her, make it look like a suicide, and then direct the police there to find her, along with the file showing all her criminal activities. I didn’t expect to find the girl there.” She hesitated, a faint trace of annoyance crossing her face, the first expression of emotion she had displayed. “Why couldn’t she leave well enough alone?”
Kate, remembering the abrasions on Nikki’s wrists from where she had been bound and left to burn along with the evidence, reacted instinctively, slapping Margaret as hard as she could.
“Jesus, Kate,” Rick said, stepping between the two, pushing her back gently as he took hold of Margaret’s arm to prevent her from retaliating. She was st
aring at Kate with complete horror. Kate was merely glad to see something get through that emotionless shell. “Damn it, I told you to take it easy.”
Kate didn’t reply, her chest heaving as she glared at the woman, seeing the imprint of her hand appear red on Margaret’s pale face. She continued to stand there, taking deep, shuddering breaths and trying to regain her composure as Rick led Margaret out of the living room. Once she was sure she was calm, she followed the pair out of the house, shutting the door firmly behind her.
Kate was silent on the way to the hospital, refusing to look either at Rick in the driver’s seat or at Margaret, handcuffed and secured in the rear. Rick dropped her off in front of the emergency room with instructions to come down to the station later the next day to give a statement. When she located her in a cubicle, curtains drawn around her, Nikki seemed a lot more alert than she had out by the lake, and the bandages on her head gave her a rakish appearance.
Nikki managed a weak grin when Kate entered. “Hi.”
“Hello.” Kate felt a definite sense of relief seep through her. She glanced at the doctor who was writing something on the clipboard. “How is she?” she asked, easing over to put her hand on her lover’s shoulder.
He looked up at her briefly. “You a relative?”
Without hesitation, Kate said, “She’s my partner.”
Nikki glanced at her in obvious astonishment.
He didn’t flicker. Apparently, thought Kate, an ER physician had better things to do with his time than be concerned with others’ sexual preference. “Will you be taking her home with you?”
Kate hesitated, but only briefly. “Yes, if she’s not going to remain in the hospital.”
“Ideally, we’d like to keep her here all night for observation, but with this latest bout of influenza, we’re strapped for beds, so she’d have to remain in ER. It would be better for her to go home and rest than spend the night here.”