Mistake in Christmas River

by Meg Muldoon

  A wave of chills ran through me at the familiar phrase she’d just used on me back at the shop.

  “And just like I knew she would, she left her son alone and did as I asked. I picked her up from the truck stop that day – a year to the day the Delgado girl went missing. And I told her I was taking her to go see Rex.”

  There was a long silence then that caused my blood to turn to ice.

  “Of course, that wasn’t where I took her. I took her here, instead. To the falls. With this same gun.”

  I shut my eyes tight.

  I couldn’t believe it.

  And I felt nauseous.

  “It was so perfect, Cinnamon. Everybody linked her disappearance to the Delgado girl’s. I saved Suzy and Rex’s marriage. And nobody suspected me of a thing.”

  “You…”

  I swallowed back some bile.

  “Rex… he lied about knowing her…”

  “Of course he did,” Suzy said. “It would have been a scandal. And he always had grand ambitions. He wrote about the cases, but never said a peep about knowing Laura. He’s a very good liar, you know. Almost as good as me.”

  Suddenly, I felt the small barrel of the revolver in my rib cage. I let out a sharp gasp.

  “It’s his nature, though,” she said. “To be untrue. That’s why I had to keep my eye on him. Why I took the job as his assistant. I had to make sure he was true. Make sure he didn’t fall for other bimbos. Ones just like you, Cinnamon.”

  I let out another gasp.

  I felt my breathing start to get out of control when she said that.

  “What… what are you talking—”

  “I’ve seen the way he looks at you,” she said. “I saw you two on that brunch date. I know where it’s leading. He thinks he’s so sneaky, but he’s not. He’s not.”

  She was out of her mind.

  A paranoid lunatic.

  And here I was, out in the woods alone with her.

  She’d gone to such insane lengths to protect her sister. Acting in such a completely maniacal way that—

  I suddenly flashed on the Puppy Love event.

  The way she was gazing up at him as he delivered one hammy joke after another.

  The way she’d desperately tried to come to his rescue when nobody would bid on a date with him.

  I gulped hard.

  It was a risk, but the way I saw it, I had no other plan.

  I had to take the chance.

  Nobody knew where I was right now.

  And that waterfall wasn’t far away.

  “You haven’t… you haven’t been trying to protect your sister, Roberta. That’s not what this has been about.”

  She didn’t say anything for a long time.

  But then she finally took the bait.

  “What is it you’re saying?”

  I drew in a deep breath.

  “I’m saying that it has nothing to do with Suzy. You’re the one in love with Rex, Roberta. That’s why you’ve done all of this.”

  There was a long pause.

  “No. You don’t know what—”

  “You couldn’t stand the thought of him cheating on your sister. Because it made you wonder, didn’t it? Made you wonder why he chose them. And why he never chose you—”

  “Stop it.”

  I was hitting a nerve now.

  I eyed the gun at my ribcage. I could see it shaking slightly.

  “You killed Laura Baynes because you were jealous,” I said. “Because you couldn’t take it. Because—”

  “Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!”

  She began raising the gun, aiming it at my chest.

  I felt tears in my eyes.

  I was taking a gamble.

  But there was no other choice.

  I reached for the gun’s barrel.

  A moment later, the woods were flooded with light.

  Chapter 64

  “Drop the weapon, Roberta!”

  Bright lights suddenly illuminated the fog around us, and for a moment, they completely blinded me.

  “We WILL shoot!” a voice boomed.

  I recognized the voice.

  Relief swept through me.

  I couldn’t understand how they’d found me.

  But at that moment, I didn’t really care.

  I blinked and squinted through the mist. I could see Roberta’s face now.

  She was panic-stricken. Her hand badly shaking as it continued to aim the gun in my direction.

  “There’s no way out of this now,” I rasped. “You have to see that.”

  She glared over at me.

  She said nothing. But did nothing either.

  The gun was still aimed dead at my heart.

  I swallowed hard.

  “It’s over, Roberta. It’s done—”

  “I’ll shoot her!” she shouted loudly in an emotion-choked voice. “Mark my words, Sheriff, I’ll shoot your wife! I’ll do it! I’ll...”

  Maybe I shouldn’t have done what I did next.

  Maybe I should have played the helpless victim.

  But as Roberta talked, I could see it in her eyes.

  She knew it was over, too.

  She was finished.

  And whatever twisted reason she’d had for killing Laura Baynes didn’t matter anymore.

  She had to pay for her crime.

  I lunged forward, knocking the gun out of her hand before she knew what was happening.

  Shortly after, an ear-shattering blast echoed through the forest.

  I dropped to the ground, covering my head.

  Screaming.

  Chapter 65

  When I woke up the next morning, I was still in the fog, but a fog of a different sort.

  Bits of what happened the night before, like muddied pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, came back to me in flashes.

  The red woods.The sound of my boots against the frozen ground. The pungent smell of Roberta’s perfume hanging in the air as she confessed.

  The tarnished revolver in her hand.

  I looked up.

  Daniel was sitting by the bed, gazing out the window. Gray light streamed into the room.

  He looked tired, and there was a kind of sadness in his eyes. But there was also something like relief there, too.

  He was still wearing the same clothes as the night before, and I gathered that he hadn’t been home yet.

  For a few minutes, I didn’t let on that I was awake. I just watched, appreciating everything about him and the moment. The way the sunlight reflected in his pale green eyes. The slope of his nose. The way his hand rested softly on the hat in his lap.

  The way everything just seemed to glow around him.

  I reached over, squeezing his hand.

  “Hi.”

  My voice came out scratchy and hoarse, and it was only then that I realized how thirsty I was.

  When he heard me, his face lit up.

  He pulled his chair closer to the bed, gazing into my eyes.

  He brought my hand up to his lips, kissing it.

  “Cin.”

  I smiled, the effort causing a sharp pain to reverberate at the back of my head.

  “Have you been here all night?” I asked.

  He nodded and reached for a glass of water on the nightstand. He handed it to me and I chugged the whole thing.

  “The old man’s here, too,” Daniel said. “But he just went to go get some coffee. He’ll be back in a minute.”

  Daniel peered at me, bringing a hand up to my cheek.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Like I got dragged along the tracks for a little bit there,” I said.

  “The doc said that’d be normal. They just wanted to keep you overnight to keep an eye on your concussion. Head injuries are serious business.”

  I set the empty glass aside and lay back down in the bed.

  “Do you remember what happened last night?” he asked.

  More of the evening had come back to me. Flashing lights and the ride in the ambulance. D
aniel gripping my hand the entire way.

  “How… how’d you know?” I asked. “How’d you know where to find me?”

  He paused a long moment, looking deep in thought.

  “There’s an explanation, but it doesn’t explain everything,” he said, mysteriously. “See, I started to get worried when you weren’t returning my calls. We’d started circulating that police sketch artist portrait of the woman who hit Vicky’s car to the media. Somebody called and said they recognized the woman in the drawing as Roberta Finch. That’s why I called you so many times – I thought it was important that you know. I was about to head over to the pie shop, when you wouldn’t believe who called the station just then, shouting about how she’d just seen someone hit you with a gun and then push you into a minivan out on Main Street.”

  I furrowed my brow, trying to think back to that moment.

  Who was out there? Who could have possibly seen that?

  Was it Kara?

  I was about to ask, but Daniel continued.

  “She said her name was Spider – she’s Frank Longworth’s daughter.”

  I rubbed my head, the memory drifting back to me in jagged puzzle pieces.

  That was right – I had seen her. Just as I was leaving with Roberta. She’d been leaving the bread bakery.

  And I’d come to the revelation just before getting hit.

  That Spider Longworth was the real Booze Bandit.

  “Spider was calling us from the road,” Daniel said. “When she saw you get kidnapped, she followed the minivan in her car. That’s how we knew where Roberta had taken you. Spider gave us directions.”

  I drew in deep breath.

  “And what happened to Robe—”

  My voice cut out before I could finish her name.

  “Trumbow got her,” Daniel said. “A perfect shot. Right in the shoulder. She’ll survive, which is a good thing, because I want to hear everything she has to say. From the hit and run to Laura Baynes’ murder.”

  I nodded, closing my eyes.

  I was glad, too, that she was alive to answer all those questions.

  To bring some closure to Laura Baynes’ death.

  “But I can’t stop thinking, Cin — if Spider Longworth hadn’t been leaving the bread bakery at that exact moment, Cin – if she hadn’t done what she’d done, then…”

  Daniel’s voice went hoarse and he trailed off.

  I could imagine the hypotheticals well enough and it turned my blood to ice.

  “She saved your life, Cin, but it’s more than that,” Daniel continued. “It’s like… like someone else was looking out for you. Like some sort of divine intervention that saved your life.”

  I squeezed Daniel’s hand, gazing into his water-logged eyes.

  “Saved my life, too,” he said, looking away.

  It seemed we’d been down this road too many times. And somewhere in the back of my mind, I wondered if it was really all worth it.

  Daniel put himself in danger nearly every day, and to some extent, I found myself getting involved in things that maybe I had no business being involved in. Maybe that was okay for now – we’d both had luck on our side too many times to count.

  But how would that work when our family became bigger?

  The danger would be the same, but the stakes would be so much higher.

  Maybe I was in no frame of mind to contemplate such things.

  Maybe that would be something for another time.

  A silence settled over the room. I looked out the window for a long while at the parking lot below.

  The fog was still there.

  But it didn’t bother me today.

  Today, I was glad to see that fog.

  Glad to be here in this hospital bed, too.

  Glad to be anywhere but in the rushing waters of the Christmas River, where Roberta Finch would have put me if she’d gotten her way.

  “You know what I think?” I whispered.

  Daniel cleared his throat, looking back at me.

  “What?”

  “I think it’s about time we get to our vacation.”

  He cracked a small smile.

  “We’ve earned it, Cin. That’s for sure.”

  Chapter 66

  I was just about to get up and get dressed when I heard a few light knocks on the opened door.

  I looked up, immediately feeling relieved at the sight of her standing there in the hospital room doorway.

  She looked weary and the way she leaned against the doorjamb, I could see that she was still in a lot of pain. Her hospital gown, with its drab color, gave her skin a pallid, sickly look.

  But Vicky Delgado was upright, smiling, and alive.

  I sat up as best I could while she hobbled into the room. She was carrying a big bouquet of white flowers in her arms that looked as though they had wilted a little.

  “Just look at us,” she said. “Two busted heads doesn’t make a right.”

  She smiled at Daniel, setting the flowers down on the nightstand next to me.

  Their strong fragrance filled my nostrils and I inhaled deeply, savoring it.

  “How are you feeling?” she asked.

  “Not bad,” I said. “I was just going to check out of here soon. But what about you, Vicky? How are you? It’s so good to see you walking around.”

  The last time I’d seen her, she was sobbing and didn’t seem in her right mind.

  “I’m doing better,” she said. “Thanks.”

  I believed her, too. It was strange, but in some ways, Vicky looked more at peace than she had before the crash. The tension that usually rested around her jawline was gone. And I felt more ease in her energy than before.

  It hadn’t been how I expected her to be. Especially since it now seemed like we were farther than ever from finding her sister, despite all the trouble we’d gone through.

  I was sure that Daniel had told her about Marty Higgins’ confession.

  Daniel stood up, giving her his seat and helping her sit down in it.

  I gazed at her for a long moment in silence, and she stared back at me.

  We’d been through something together, her and I. It wasn’t just the hit and run, either.

  It was more than that somehow.

  I gulped hard.

  “I’m sorry, Vicky… I’m so sorry that we didn’t find out what happened to Amelia. I—”

  She shook her head, cutting my apologies short.

  “There’s nothing to feel sorry about, Cin.”

  She smiled at me through bleary eyes.

  “You helped Laura Baynes’ family. It might not have been the outcome they were hoping for, but at least they know now.” .

  She bit her lip.

  “And as for Millie, well… we’ve got some new leads to follow now. And for the first time in a long time, I feel.”

  She cleared her throat.

  “Hope,” she whispered.

  I looked back at Daniel. There was a content expression on his face.

  “I’m not going to give up,” Vicky said. “I’ll never give up on Millie. But I’ve decided something, staring at the ceiling of this hospital for the last few days. If I don’t ever find her, I’ll be sad. But I have to…”

  She drew in a deep breath.

  “I have to let it go a little. I have to… I have to live my life.”

  She fell silent after that. And the sadness lingered around her like cigarette smoke.

  But it wasn’t all sadness. There was something good in it, too.

  Up until now, Vicky’s life had been consumed with finding out what happened to Amelia.

  She’d sacrificed things for it. Her career. Her future. Maybe the possibility of a family, even.

  But now, maybe she was going to stop living in the tragedy and try to find something else to live for.

  I reached out, squeezing her shoulder.

  “I wanted to thank you and Daniel for all of your help,” she said. “You hardly know me, yet you’ve both put so much on line t
o help find my sister. Your kindness is…”

  She trailed off as her voice wavered and then gave out.

  “You’re family to us now, Vicky,” Daniel said, smiling a little sadly. “We’ll always be here to help you.”

  She looked away, brushing at her face.

  “You know? When I first moved here, I thought I was going to hate it here in Christmas River.”

  She let out a short laugh, then stood up slowly.

  “But it’s not bad out here. Not bad all.”

  She began heading for the door.

  I glanced over at the white flowers on the table.

  “Thank you for these,” I said.

  “Full disclosure – I uh, I actually just repurposed the flowers you brought me,” she said with a smile. “That’s why they’re a little wilted. I didn’t exactly have time to get down to the gift shop.”

  “Well, they’re still beautiful,” I said.

  I grinned, glancing at them. Seeing my bouquet of white daisies.

  And then another bouquet – one that I hadn’t gotten for her.

  The flowers were large, with creamy white petals and a fragrance that was sweet and strong.

  I recognized the flower.

  And I knew they didn’t have any of them down at the hospital gift shop.

  In fact, you hardly saw this type of flower in Central Oregon at all.

  It was too cold to grow up here.

  “Anyway, thanks for all your help again,” Vicky said, hobbling out of the room. “And don’t you guys have a European vacation to get to or something?”

  Daniel laughed at Vicky’s humor.

  But I had barely heard what she’d said.

  My mind was somewhere else.

  Chapter 67

  I sat in the pie shop kitchen a couple days later, sipping hot hazelnut coffee, flipping through the day’s edition of The Redmond Register.

  The front page story was an in-depth look at the Laura Baynes case, and had a photo of Roberta Finch and her brother-in-law, News Channel 12 weatherman Rex Dawson, above the fold.

  The reporter had done an admirable job telling the story, considering that few details had been released in the case and some of the major players weren’t speaking about it. One of those major players was Rex himself. The normally talkative weatherman had gone mum on the entire situation, Daniel had told me. He denied ever having an affair with Laura Baynes let alone knowing her at all. And after that his initial denial, he’d lawyered up and wouldn’t speak to the police anymore about the case.