by Parker Riggs
“Oh, my God,” Veronica gasped.
Rose stepped back. The Peacemaker looked glorious and other-worldly, displayed above the headboard in a heavy gold frame with a wall-mounted light above it.
Rose turned and saw something flicker in Veronica’s eyes. An employee’s concern for Heidi’s well-being, or something else? She took a step toward her. “Do you know where Heidi is?”
Veronica pointed at the painting. “It’s the painting in the photo,” she said breathlessly. “It’s really here.” She touched her throat nervously. “My mother left a note and a photograph with the adoption agency. The photo showed me lying on a bed, and that painting was in the background.” Veronica’s gigantic eyes looked watery.
Rose stared at her. “Are you saying Heidi is your birth mother?”
“The hits just keep on comin’,” Rocky mumbled.
Veronica nodded. “Yeah, but Heidi doesn’t know. Not yet anyway.” She glanced at Rocky. “I mean, I came to Haven to tell her, but after I got here I was too afraid to go through with it. Then she had an opening for a cook and, well, I’ve gotten to know her over the last few months and was going to tell her real soon, but now …” Her words fell away.
“Do you know who your father is?” Rose asked.
“No,” Veronica’s face was flushed.
Rose looked up at The Peacemaker. “Barrington Bigelow was in love with your mother when she got pregnant.”
Veronica’s eyes couldn’t have gotten any larger. “Oh,” she whispered, and then her knees buckled. Rose grabbed one arm, Rocky the other. They led her over to the bed and sat her down on the yellow spread. “You okay?” Rocky asked.
Veronica took a deep breath. “Barrington Bigelow … my father?”
“Well,” Rose glanced at Rocky. “We can’t be sure.”
“He’s famous.” Veronica’s voice was thin.
Rose thought how relieved Barrington would be when she told him Veronica might be his daughter. She was sweet, lovely, so unlike the caustic, hard Heidi. “We’ll figure it all out soon,” Rose assured her, “but right now we need to focus on Heidi. Do you have any idea where she might be?”
“I’d tell you if I did.” Veronica chewed her thumbnail. “I wish I’d told her who I am, then maybe she wouldn’t have disappeared.”
Rocky checked his watch. “Look, I’m going to head back to the station,” he said. “I’ve got to get a search warrant for Chad’s place. If Heidi shows up in town, or a highway cop spots her, I’ll let you both know.”
Veronica stood. “Maybe I should go back to the diner,” she said. “Maybe she’ll call to check on things, plus Ferg’s not as good as I am with the grill.” She tried to smile, but her face was still pale.
Her mother was an art thief, Rose thought, a murder suspect. She wondered again where Barrington was, and she looked down to check the messages on her phone. Nothing. “I hope they find Barrington soon,” she told Rocky.
“He’s a Wyoming boy and a New Yorker,” Rocky said. “He’ll be fine.” But the fine seemed to end in a question, and as they walked back to the living room, Rose saw him squint out the window as if he might see Barrington striding up the sidewalk toward Table Talk.
Heidi had hung one of her favorite paintings over the fireplace, the last one Cameron sold before his death, of the Silver River’s pounding waterfall and the steep granite bowl of Tibber’s Basin. She thought about the painting over her own fireplace, how she’d hung it there because it was special to her, and remembered what Cameron had said when she had told him how Heidi always seemed so grumpy toward her, “She’s lonely, really lonely.” She wondered how long it would take to drive to Tibber’s Basin.
“What’re you thinking?” Rocky took his car keys out of his pocket and jangled them.
Rose followed him and Veronica out the door. “Nothing,” she said. “I just hope we hear something soon.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Before setting out on the trail to Tibber’s Basin, Rose made sure her Ruger was tucked securely into the waistband of her jeans, her purple Coach sneakers double-laced. She’d been right about Heidi’s fondness for Cameron’s painting over her fireplace. Her red convertible Cadillac was at the trailhead, just as she’d suspected. Rose thought about calling Rocky to let him know, but she wanted to talk to Heidi alone. The sight of Rocky’s badge might make her clam up.
After last night’s heat, the sun had risen white and hot again, and she felt it drilling a hole into the back of her head as she walked the overgrown path. She wondered if Heidi had driven directly from the bar to the basin last night, or if she’d stopped at her apartment to collect any evidence. Most of all, she wondered where Barrington was. He felt like her responsibility, and every time she thought of him, the lump in her throat got bigger. She quickened her pace. The gun that killed Hal came to mind. New Hampshire had a lot of remote areas where she could have dumped it. Any forest would be a good place or the deep water of the Silver River. In all likelihood, they’d never find it.
Along the path the goldenrod and Queen Anne’s lace was blooming, and the wheat grass seemed to shine in the sun, but the place and the memories it kept gave her the creeps. She hadn’t been out here since Cameron had died. The whole way down Airport Road toward the basin she’d listened to the high drone of the cicadas out her open window and thought about the morning of his burial, a hot day like this one, the sun a perfect yellow orb in that clear New Hampshire sky. She’d told Hal it was too bright, too nice a day to bury him. Nah, Rosie, he was a good man. He deserves to be buried on a beautiful day. A shadow crossed the sky, and she looked up to see two crows chasing a white-tailed hawk. She never could have imagined that only a year later she’d be collecting Hal’s ashes from the same funeral home and investigating his murder.
The hike to the basin was a popular one, but on a Monday morning at half past eight, there wasn’t anyone around. Rose took a deep breath. She was trying to take Rocky’s advice and not jump to conclusions, trying not to lose her cool as she had with Chad. She’d spent so many years at the Agency not losing her cool, and now in just two days she felt like she was blowing it. The more you opened up, the more you let yourself feel, and feelings could easily lead you to snap when someone hurt the people you loved.
Along Nickel’s Pass she saw they’d torn down the old, sick pine that had been there for ages, and it looked bald and deserted up along the ridge; but from there she could see some of Haven’s tallest church steeples, and somehow it calmed her nerves. She wondered if Heidi was suffering from a psychosis that had been brewing for years. She’d been young when she’d left New York as Jessica, and the stress of spending her life looking over her shoulder and trusting no one could have scrambled her mind. Sure, she’d made a success of Table Talk, but she’d also lived in fear of Beach or someone else from her past showing up and taking it all away. Hal, turning up with that old picture and showing it around town, could have been the last straw. Still, all of Cameron’s paintings on Heidi’s walls were a sure indication that something was deeply wrong.
She smelled the riverbank before she saw it, musty, decomposing plant life, wet dirt. The dark water was running fast, and she could hear the sound of the waterfall upriver, a thousand jetted showers turned on full blast. She and Cameron used to take hikes up there, and on any other day it would have been the destination for a picnic lunch, but she couldn’t let herself think about that today.
It was easy to spot Heidi. She was sitting on a boulder that overlooked the waterfall, her hair damp from the mist, smoking. But she wasn’t looking at the waterfall. She was watching Rose as if she had been waiting for her. Rose studied the expanse of water between them and raised a hand as though to wave, but Heidi did not wave back. She appeared to be a skinny, middle-aged woman who looked as if she’d blow away in a strong breeze, but Rose knew if that people felt threatened enough, they were capable of anything.
“What are you doing here?” Rose yelled. She wished Heidi would come down o
ff the boulder so they could move to dry land and a quieter spot, but she didn’t seem inclined to budge.
“What’s it look like?” Heidi held out her cigarette. Rose saw Heidi was wearing Teva sandals, so she’d planned ahead. “I’m having a smoke.”
Unless Rose traversed the water, she wouldn’t be able to talk to her. As it was, they’d have to yell to be heard.
“Where’s Barrington?”
“Damned if I know,” Heidi shrugged.
“He told me who you really are … Jessica,” Rose yelled. She hated to do it, because wet shoes were one of the worst disadvantages, but there was no other way. Cold, biting mountain water seeped into her sneakers when she stepped in. She could feel the river current tugging at her ankles.
Heidi coughed into her hand. “Well, I’m sure that made your day.” She took a long drag on her cigarette. “I suppose this is where you say Rocky’s going to arrest me.” She looked over Rose’s head as if expecting him to walk out of the woods behind her. Then she blew smoke from the side of her mouth. “He can’t prove anything.”
Rose felt her mouth go dry. She thought of Cameron’s paintings covering every square inch of Heidi’s apartment, how she’d hung The Peacemaker over her bed in a place of honor. “Barrington said it was your locket.” Rose navigated the slippery stones as best she could.
“Big deal,” Heidi shrugged. “I’ve known Alisa Minot for years.” She flicked her ash in the water. “I could’ve lost that locket at Solitude any time. Rocky’s got nothing, and you both know it. No smoking gun, no footprints in the sand, not a shred of evidence.”
“Yup, you’re right.” Rose wanted to run over the slippery rocks, but she had to remain calm. She’d opened the door to a confession, and Heidi had taken a small step through. If she wanted answers, she would have to keep her talking. “Rocky doesn’t have much to go on.” In truth, he had nothing but the locket to go on, and the locket wasn’t enough. “I’m not here for that. I’d just like to know why you did it.”
“I don’t owe you an explanation.” Heidi flicked more ash in the water.
“Okay, then I’ll tell you what I think.” Rose took a step closer. She was almost at the boulder now and could feel the back spray of the waterfall on her face and neck. “You were worried people in Haven would find out you used to work for a mobster, that you stole money from Beach, a painting by Barrington, and left him without telling him you had a daughter. They’d call you a thief and a liar, a heartless woman. So you killed Hal to keep everyone from knowing who and what you really are.”
Heidi looked her up and down as though mulling over the consequences of telling the truth. Rose was close enough now to see the deep smoking lines on her face. Heidi took another drag on her cigarette. “Hal was a pain in the ass, waving that old photo around. Nobody recognized me, but he kept saying her free spirit reminded him of a younger version of me. I told him he was nuts.” She pointed her cigarette at Rose. “I don’t look anything like the girl in that picture, so who told him it was me?”
Rose shook her head. She could see the print on Heidi’s T-shirt now, that old Escher print of two hands drawing one another. “He had a sharp eye for details.”
“Well, I’ve got Table Talk’s reputation to protect.” She threw her cigarette into the water, and Rose watched it float quickly toward the waterfall. “He could’ve destroyed me.”
“You didn’t know him.” Rose’s feet were numb now, and she moved closer to land. “Barrington hired Hal and me to find you. He was in love with you once and deserved to know if you’d had his child. That’s all. No one wanted to destroy you.”
“It doesn’t matter now, what’s done is done.” Heidi reached in the pocket of her denim shorts for another cigarette. “Actually, it’s all your fault.” She pressed her thin lips around the new cigarette. “You ruined everything the day you showed up in Haven. Cameron never should have married you.”
“What does Cameron have to do with this?”
Heidi went on as though she hadn’t heard her. “I warned him not to marry you.” Rose watched her flick the flame on her lighter and hold it to the end of her cigarette.
“So you were in love with Cameron?” Rose watched her put her lighter back in the pocket. She had a feeling Heidi had a gun. But she didn’t know where she was carrying, or maybe her gun had disappeared with Hal’s murder, and she hadn’t had a chance to replace it. “Did you buy his paintings and tell him you were giving them as presents?” She didn’t know where any of this was going or what it had to do with Hal, but she pressed on. “So you could have part of him when you went home to your lonely apartment every night?”
“I loved Cameron, and he loved me. We were this close.” Heidi crossed two fingers together to show her. “He was mine until you got your claws into him.” She blew out a long drag. “We had coffee together every morning, talked every day.”
“My God, Heidi.” Rose couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Cameron never asked you to bring him coffee, you did that all on your own.” Rose’s heart was racing. Focus, think of questions Rocky would want you to ask. “It was you who introduced Cameron to Amber so he’d give her a job. You told him you’d met her at Table Talk, that she was looking for work, but you must have known she was already working for Beach. You say you loved him, but you put his life in danger.”
Heidi slid down the side of the boulder, her feet splashing in the water when she landed. Rose walked closer, trying to gauge if she was going to run for it. “That wasn’t my fault,” Heidi said. Up close her face looked gaunt, her eyes feverish. “Beach found me a couple of years ago and said he had a family friend who wanted to work at an art gallery in Haven, and if I helped her get a job I was off the hook for the money and the painting. He would have screwed up my life if I didn’t do what he said, but I didn’t know her work at the gallery had anything to do with stolen paintings.”
“You didn’t even think it was possible she was working for Beach?”
“She told me she wanted to start a new life in a small community.” Heidi glared at Rose. “I’m a big believer in starting over.”
The water was so cold, Rose could barely feel her toes, but she was afraid to move an inch. She didn’t want Heidi to shut down and stop talking. “So when did you find out Amber was working for him?”
Heidi shrugged. “Sandy called me after the feds arrested her, warned me to keep my mouth shut, told me to find him another art gallery to use. He’s got another hot painting to move.”
Rose thought this was interesting. “Did you find another gallery?”
Heidi sucked on her cigarette, let the smoke fill her lungs. “Actually, I told him he should keep using Mountain Arts.” She smiled as she blew the smoke out slowly. “You’ll need a replacement for Amber.” She tapped ash from her cigarette. It swirled away on the water like dirty snowflakes. “I told him I could convince you to hire someone else. He didn’t need to know I had my own plan.”
“What plan?”
“To set you up,” Heidi grinned, but her eyes were filled with hatred. It transformed her face into something maniacal. “I’d get you to hire whoever Sandy sent, and then I’d tip the feds off and watch them take you away. There’s no way they would ever believe you innocently hired another Beach crony without knowing. They’d think you were working for Beach.”
Rose was amazed. “Why would you do that to me?”
Heidi’s eyes fixed on her. She didn’t know what the eyes of a lunatic looked like, but she thought Heidi’s ice blue eyes would probably qualify. “It’s been hell on me all these years.” She spit into the swirling water. “I finally had to give him an ultimatum.”
Rose felt a strange coldness wash over her. “What are you talking about?”
Heidi stubbed her cigarette violently on the side of the boulder. “I told Cameron he had to choose between you and me.” Rose had gotten so close to her, she could smell her sour body odor. “He thought I was joking. ‘Lighten up, Heidi.’ That’s exactly
how he put it. Then I knew it was hopeless. You’d set him against me, and he’d never be able to love me the way he had before.” She looked down at Rose. Her eyes were blazing. “But I couldn’t let you have Cameron. He belonged to me.”
Rose felt her insides go cold. “You killed him, didn’t you?” She felt her hand move to her gun. “Why didn’t you kill me? Why did you have to kill him?”
Heidi shook her head. “It wouldn’t matter if you lived or died, he’d still be in love with you.”
“Heidi.” Rose was afraid to ask, but she had to know. “What did you do?”
“I knew he drove that road every morning to work.” Heidi tossed her head. “He told me he liked to take the long way in the summer on his bike. I stood in the middle of the road, right at that wicked curve.” Her voice got low, over the noise of the waterfall, Rose almost couldn’t hear it. “He came around the corner on his motorcycle, looked right at me, and swerved so he wouldn’t hit me, skidded out of control.” Rose felt her blood turn to ice. “Even before I saw his body at the bottom of the gorge, I knew he was dead.” Heidi looked at Rose. Her eyes seemed to be glazing over.
The waterfall was roaring, pounding in Rose’s head. She was frozen. And then she felt Heidi lunge at her, grab for her gun. Rose pulled her elbows up to knock Heidi’s arms aside, then caught her by the wrist, but the mist had coated her skin like oil. Heidi’s arm slipped out of her grasp, and she grabbed the gun.
Just as Heidi fired, Rose slipped and felt the breeze of a bullet whiz by her ear. Righting herself, she ran at Heidi like a linebacker, throwing her arms around her waist. They crashed into the water, the gun flying out of Heidi’s hand. Rose watched it quietly sink while she tried to dig her feet into the mud, but it was too late. They had fallen into a deep whirlpool of water at the head of the waterfall where the current was strong. Heidi clutched her upper arm in a vise-like grip as they were propelled, rudderless, toward the waterfall, at the mercy of the river.