by Peg Herring
“She tried to steal my boat,” the woman cried. “I was trying to get away from her.”
“That’s funny,” Jim Ecker said. “Scarlet came here in that boat with my friend Bud. Did you buy The Lila from him in the last ten minutes?”
Chapter Twenty-one
“LELAND!”
Mildred saw what Leland saw as he turned. At first he was surprised, but the surprise turned quickly to anger. “Go away, Bud!” His voice was little more than a pant, and his thought showed how far Leland was from any sort of logic. How can I claim she fell when he’s watching?
“Leland, there’s nowhere to go. The police are on the way, and there’s no sense in what you’re doing. Let Brodie come down before she falls.”
“I’m trying to save her, Bud. I have to stop her. She says she’s going to jump.”
Mildred heard Leland’s silent addition: You’ll have to fall now, too, Buddy. I’ll be the only family member who survives this tragic event.
“Your scheme didn’t work, Leland, but it’s not Brodie’s fault.” Bud continued his climb. “I’m the one who called the police. Come after me.”
Leland looked up to where Brodie was still climbing. If I can reach her before she gets to the tower, it will be easy.
“She’s a kid, Leland.”
He turned to look down. “But not my kid.”
Mildred saw Bud’s expression and knew that he understood. Leland had no reason to spare Brodie, and every reason to want her dead. Bud apparently decided that talking further was useless. Grasping the suspension cables even more tightly, he moved quickly onward.
BRODIE LEFT THE FOG BANK and climbed into the stars, or so it seemed. The wind was strong up here, stronger than she had imagined. She’d heard about the stress on bridges and knew that this was an area of weird air currents. Feeling it was much more convincing than reading it on an informative plaque.
Voices sounded behind her, but they did not penetrate, so focused was she on reaching the massive tower that loomed above her. Her feet hurt. Her hands burned from the friction of the stark metal against her palms. Her breath wheezed through clenched teeth. Her hair beat against her face like a thousand tiny whips. She had to keep twisting her head to blow the hair back so she could see ahead of her. Far below, the waters of the Straits of Mackinac rolled, mixing Lake Huron’s water with Lake Michigan’s, ceaselessly moving, always cold. She kept on, hoping she was outdistancing Leland, who was, she hoped, more afraid than she was.
BUD CLIMBED QUICKLY. Leland kept turning back, unable to stop himself. As Bud gained on him, Leland’s head moved almost constantly, looking first ahead at Brodie, and then down at the water, and again back at Bud. Finally, he made his decision. He stopped, put both hands on the cable to his right, and turned to face his adversary. Mildred heard his thought. Be strong. Don’t think about the drop. Think about getting it done.
“Leland—” Bud hesitated, his chest heaving with exertion. Leland paused too, using the time to catch his breath and to think about how he could send Bud to his death. I’m above him. One well-placed kick to his chest will send him spinning off the bridge. Aloud he said, “Little Buddy. Grandpa’s favorite boy.”
Bud looked tired, but his voice was angry. “You killed him.”
Leland supported his weight with his arms, resting his legs so they would be ready when the time came. “Yeah.”
“For money.”
“I just wanted the land in Canada at first. But then I saw the kid.”
“And thought if you had Brodie, you’d control her share of the estate.”
“I thought she was my kid. Honest. But she busted that bubble.”
“Listen, let’s go back down. If you leave Brodie alone, I’ll give you my boat. You can head for Canada.”
The sound of sirens and the flashing lights below made that offer all but useless. Leland smiled grimly. “How about this? I tell the story my way. You get to be the bad guy, and I get to be the guy who tried but failed to protect Brodie from you after you killed her beloved Gramps.”
“They’ll never believe—” Bud did not finish. Leland lunged forward a step, aiming a forceful kick at his chest. If it had connected fully, Bud would have lost his hold, but he crouched out of the way. Still, he swayed drunkenly for a few seconds before regaining his balance.
Mildred felt a sickening sensation as Leland also struggled to keep his hold. The misplaced kick almost sent him headlong into space. He recovered, however, swearing at the failure of his attempt. Straightening, Bud said through clenched teeth, “I expected that. You never did fight fair.”
Dizzy with fear, Mildred tried to make a decision. One of these men was very likely to fall to his death. Which one would it be? If she made the wrong choice, she would be lost. And she did not have much time.
“I never gave up, either.” Leland braced himself for another kick at Bud, and Mildred took the only option that could save her. Without a thought for Bud or Brodie or even Seamus, she used Leland’s life force to launch herself toward the ship.
Toward safety, security, and peace.
A POLICE CAR RESPONDED to Ecker’s call for help, and Cher was placed under arrest. The officer agreed to take Scarlet up onto the bridge, which involved a brief ride in the squad car toward Mackinaw City and onto the bridge via the freeway ramp. Ecker left to dismantle the barricade, promising he would take care of The Lila. Scarlet promised to call him as soon as everyone was safe, hoping that would indeed be the outcome.
Ambulances, a fire truck, and several police cars were parked along the bridge-way at the spot where Bud had begun his climb. The officers were outside their vehicles, looking up at the scene above. Firemen were at work, maneuvering the truck in place to extend the ladder. Bridge patrol officers hurried to launch their own rescue.
Above them, Bud and Leland struggled. Bud was unable to mount much of an offense from his awkward position below his opponent. Mostly, he ducked Leland’s attacks. Bracing himself with his arms on the railing, Leland launched kick after kick, first with one foot and then with the other. Bud leaned left and right, avoiding some of the blows, absorbing others. Seamus felt Scarlet’s heart pound as she watched.
“Hey, look up there!” a fireman shouted. All eyes had been on the two men, but there was Brodie, standing on the bridge tower. “The kid went all the way to the top!”
A man in a Bridge Authority uniform started for his car. “There’s an elevator,” he said. “I can get her down if she stays put until we get there.”
“Is there room for me?” Scarlet asked. “She’ll need a familiar face.”
“Sure,” the man replied. “We call ’em two-man elevators, but a guy and two women can fit.”
As the bridge patrol car made its way to the tower, Scarlet twisted her body backward to see the two men high above, locked in a struggle Leland obviously meant to take to the death. A part of her did not want to look away, believing that if she kept her eyes on Bud, he would be safe. She knew it was not true, and she told herself the police would help Bud. Her responsibility was to Brodie. Listening to her thoughts, Seamus was not sure that her heart agreed.
FROM HER SPOT ATOP THE BRIDGE TOWER, Brodie saw everything. The space at the top of the tower was wide and smooth with sturdy railings, no more frightening than the viewing point. Tiny fire trucks and patrol cars below indicated that rescuers would soon come for her. She knew from Dirty Jobs that there was an elevator somewhere below where she now stood. Her danger was over. She would survive.
Bud, who had risked his life to help her, was in a different situation. It must have been Bud who arranged the boat blockade, and now he had climbed the cable to stop Leland from hurting her. But he was stuck on the bridge, with Leland doing his best to knock him off.
Brodie knew little about fighting, but it appeared that Leland was winning. Bud simply held on, absorbing the force of Leland’s kicks as best he could. There was blood on his face, but he constantly watched Leland, guessing—usually correctly�
�where the next kick would be aimed and avoiding it.
Maybe Leland would tire, she told herself, and Bud would be able to retreat. Looking below, she saw two workers start up the cable, wearing safety harnesses with double lanyards that fastened to the hand-ropes. Each man carried a second harness slung over his shoulder. If Bud could hold on a few minutes longer, they would reach him, put a harness on him, and attach him to the bridge. He would be safe. Their progress was slow, however. They had to repeatedly unclip one of the lanyards and re-clip it farther up so that they were never without a safety line.
“Hurry!” she told them, whispering the words into the gusts that buffeted her. Tears stung her eyes, but they were swept away before they wet her cheeks. Bud had put his life on the line for her. Family or not, he was something.
As she watched, Bud seemed to lose strength. He sagged backward, his arms supporting his weight, his head lolling forward. Brodie whimpered in terror. Help was almost there, but Bud didn’t know it. “Hold on!” she called, but the wind took her voice, and she hardly heard it herself.
Leland, too, saw Bud’s weakness. Brodie saw him gather strength, saw him reposition his hands on the hand-rope and his left foot on the cable. His shoulder muscles tensed as he raised his right leg for a mighty kick, aiming at Bud’s defenseless head. Brodie screamed, “Noooo!” almost unable to watch, equally unable to look away.
At the last second, Bud’s face came up and she saw his expression clearly. He had been faking weakness, goading Leland into exactly that move. He ducked precariously to one side, lowering his head almost to the cable surface while his hands gripped the hand-ropes tightly. Bud gambled that Leland would put all of his energy into one mighty blow, and he was right. It was a desperate move. If Leland recovered, Bud would be vulnerable, with his head low and his arms pulled back behind him. If Leland could manage to follow the first kick with a second, Bud would almost certainly fall.
Bud had figured correctly, though. Leland was so sure of his opponent’s weakness that he put everything he had into the kick, raising his knee high and bringing his foot downward toward Bud’s head. When Bud collapsed on the cable, Leland’s foot passed completely over him. The force he exerted carried Leland forward, and his hands, already weary from the long climb and the struggle, could not bear the strain. First one and then the other released its grip on the railing. He fell almost on top of Bud as he sagged between the railings. Overbalanced, Leland continued forward, over Bud’s body and onto the cable, where his head struck metal. His feet followed the trajectory his body had taken, and the trailing foot caught Bud’s shoulder briefly before following the rest of the body in a clumsy somersault. Without a sound, Leland slid under the hand-rope and was gone. Brodie turned away.
At almost the same time, she heard the sound of a trap door banging behind her. Turning, she saw a man’s head emerge through the opening. A few second later, she found herself in Scarlet’s arms.
BUD CAME DOWN from the bridge fastened with harness and positioned between two men who watched his every step. Scarlet met him as he touched the solid surface of the deck, her hands reaching out unconsciously before she remembered herself and folded her arms. “Are you all right?”
“Shoulder hurts like mad,” he said, grimacing. “Brodie?”
“The EMT is looking her over. She has some cuts where bolts and rivets did damage.” Scarlet gave a half-hearted chuckle. “You know what she told them? That the view up there is something else.”
Bud shook his head. “Wouldn’t know. I was trying not to look down.” His tone was light, but she noted the strain in his face. “I felt a lot better once I was harnessed to the hand-rope.”
An EMT interrupted, insisting that Bud be examined. Scarlet said, “I’ll wait with Brodie.” Hesitantly she added, “I’m glad you’re okay.”
Understatement, Seamus thought. The woman is a master of understatement.
Seamus knew what Scarlet was feeling, even if she had not yet admitted it. He was not sure what he was feeling. Relief, certainly. Pleasure at the outcome, which he considered just. An eye for an eye, a fall for a fall. What he did not feel was the presence of Mildred. He could not believe that she had kept quiet through all that had happened. At some point, probably when Leland started his climb, she must have gone back to the ship.
After all that talking I didn’t want, she leaves without a word?
Brodie sat in a sheriff’s patrol car, wrapped in a blanket and looking miserable. While Scarlet assured her that Bud was okay, Seamus jumped to the girl. It wasn’t fair, after what she’d been through, but he had to know it all.
He felt a difference right away from his first hosting and this one. Brodie’s mind was not closed. A hundred different thoughts chased through it, and Seamus had to work to pick up on them. First, he sensed relief that Bud was all right. There was shock at Leland’s death. There was residual terror from the ordeal she had survived. And there was a tiny sense of exaltation. Brodie had banished her craziness.
He couldn’t quite follow the thought, but it seemed that in the midst of the crisis, she had ordered her mind to straighten up, and it had. She had taken control, and now she believed it was possible to keep it. Although Seamus wasn’t sure what had led up to it, he sensed that Mildred’s interference had had a good effect, giving Brodie a new confidence in herself, a feeling she was not as damaged as she had imagined.
In only a few minutes, Bud came along. “They say I’ll live,” he told the two women. Scarlet gave Bud her seat beside Brodie in the patrol car and a smile of encouragement before leaving the two of them to talk.
“Hey.”
Brodie looked up at him, her eyes wide and shiny with tears. “Bud, are you really okay?”
“I’m fine. What about you?”
Seamus felt her fighting for control. “I thought he was going to kill you.”
Bud looked to where the emergency crews still worked to recover Leland’s body from the waters of Lake Huron. “He certainly tried.”
“He killed Gramps.”
“I know. Did you see—?”
Brodie decided that a small fib to make Bud feel better was okay. Seamus approved, although she was tougher than Bud thought. A lie might make him feel a tiny bit better. “I didn’t see him fall. Scarlet and the bridge guy got me into the elevator while you two were fighting.”
“I’m glad.”
“I didn’t think he would follow me up there. If I hadn’t—”
Bud took her hands in his. “None of it is your fault, do you hear me? Leland killed Gramps. He kidnapped you. He tried to kill me, and he fell because—because he wanted so badly to throw me off the bridge.”
“Yeah. He was kinda nice at first, but then he went apeshit.” At Bud’s shocked expression, she rephrased. “Ape. I mean, he went ape.” Sorry, Gramps.
“I guess so.” Bud continued, earnestly making his point. “People do stuff that isn’t right, Brodie, and sometimes we can’t stop them. But we don’t have to let them drag us down too.”
Brodie thought about that. “Like my mom.”
“Mine too.” He chuckled dryly. “Guess we were kids only a Gramps could love.”
She smiled briefly at the attempted humor. “Leland said he was my dad, but I knew he wasn’t.”
Bud nodded. “Your father lives in Muskegon. If you want to someday, we can go and meet him.”
Brodie didn’t answer, but a bridge officer came over just then. She did not know, at least not yet, if meeting her father was a good idea or not.
“We’re done here, Mr. Dunbar. Your friend has berthed your boat, and you can return for it whenever you’re ready. We’ve arranged for the sheriff’s department to take you home.”
“Home sounds good to us, right, Brodie?” Bud turned to look around. “Where’s Scarlet?”
“I’m here.” Seeing the look that passed between Bud and Scarlet, Brodie got a tiny glow of satisfaction. Whatever else happened, those two had gotten past what had kept them apart.
The last thoughts Seamus got from Brodie came through clearly, and he realized it was because Brodie was speaking to herself, clarifying what she had learned in the last few days. I don’t have a DNA-type family, so I can’t make an informed decision about what that’s like. But some people are family, no matter what. Gramps was right. As usual.
Chapter Twenty-two
SEAMUS FOUND MILLIE at the same spot along the ship’s rail where they had first met. She turned slightly as he approached, her silver-blond hair catching the light. Seamus was unsure how to begin the conversation. For the first time in a very long while, he found himself reluctant to tell the truth.
He started instead with an update. “I talked to William Dunbar. He was shocked at Leland’s actions but satisfied that Bud is safe from prosecution.”
“Do you think he knew Bud was innocent?”
“I think he hoped that was the case. But it helps them to know for sure.”
After a pause, Millie said, “I wasn’t very good, was I?”
“There were some things you did really well,” he told her, turning so she could see the honesty in his eyes.
“And other things not so much.” She shook her head gently. “I had this picture in my mind of going back and making things right, the way I never could in life.” Mildred’s teeth caught her bottom lip briefly before she went on. “When my only son was nineteen, away at college and confused about things, he killed himself. Nobody was there to tell him the road would smooth out, you know? He must have thought life was always going to be as sad as he was at that moment.”
Seamus said nothing, aware that no words could take away that kind of pain.
Mildred passed a hand over her forehead as if attempting to banish the memory. “When I got here, I thought if I could be inside a person, I could make them see the good and get past the bad.”