Thin Ice Read online

  But something was wrong, someone was in danger.

  “Hey!” I yelled as I ran to them.

  The battle stopped, and in an instant they both looked at me. It only took that instant for me to read the situation better. Willa was afraid. George was the angry, violent one. Murderous. And Willa was terrified, fighting for her life, defending her life.

  I hoped I was right.

  Levi’s face wanted to crowd into my view, but with an effort that made me sick to my stomach, I pushed him away again.

  “What’s going on?” I asked. “Just … just you two just step away from each other.”

  “Who the fuck are you? What are you doing here?” George asked, but he didn’t let go of his grip around Willa’s wrist.

  It was then that I realized George Rafferty and I had never shared a conversation. Actually, we’d never even seen each other, both of us with our eyes open. His voice was deep, and his eyes bright. He’d been the subject of my Internet searches, and my book with my picture rested on an end table in his cabin, but he must not have heard about the new girl in town.

  “Is everything okay?” I said.

  “No! Just get out of here!” Willa yelled, though her words were cut short as George grabbed her and swung his arm around her neck.

  “No, no, come on now, whatever it is, let’s just talk about it,” I said, my hand up as I took steps toward them.

  “Get out of here!” George said.

  And then, with the arm that wasn’t around Willa, he pulled out a gun. In pictures or in movies, people wielding guns didn’t seem so out of proportion. Suddenly, the vision of George seemed to waver and his arm became too big for his body but not big enough for the giant gun.

  I knew a memory of Levi was again trying to crowd its way in and set my vision funny.

  “Get the fuck away!” I yelled as I balled my fists.

  Either George loosened his grip some or Willa squirmed enough, or both. She got free from his arm. She pushed him to the ground, sending the gun flying toward some trees. I was back in the moment, and we all watched it. Time slowed as the gun twirled through the air and then landed with a sickening thud.

  In the next heartbeat time whirred back up to speed and Willa set off in a run—though I didn’t know where she was going—and George speed-crawled toward the gun.

  Just as Willa almost made it behind a tree, the gun fired. I hadn’t moved, but my body reacted to the noise; my eyes shut and my hands went up to my ears. When my eyes were closed, more memories of Levi threatened to make their way in. I opened my eyes and looked at Willa.

  She was upright and hiding behind a tree.

  “Run!” I told her.

  I knew George was there somewhere in the background, with the gun, but I couldn’t focus on him, even though I knew I should. I should find cover. I was out in the open, exposed. He could shoot me dead even if he didn’t have good aim.

  Finally, though it might have only been a second later, I lifted a foot. The other one followed behind and I ran to my own tree. With my back against the trunk, another shot fired. I heard a whistle that I thought happened only in movies, but I didn’t know where the bullet had gone.

  I looked over to see Willa, still hiding behind a tree. She was holding her arm and blood oozed through her fingers. She’d been hit but I didn’t know when—that bullet or an earlier one?

  “Just run!” I yelled. I didn’t know if that was a good plan, but it was the only idea that came to me.

  “He did it!” she yelled. “He’s the one who was driving. I saw him. Linda wanted to go home, tell the police the truth. She wanted both of them to be forgiven. I’m sure he killed her.”

  “Okay, we’ll get it worked out,” I said. She wanted me to know what had actually happened. She wanted someone to know. I could put the pieces together, but now wasn’t the time. I muttered quietly, “Don’t die,” and yelled again, “Run!”

  Why wouldn’t she move?

  She shook her head. “I’m not going to make it.”

  “Yes, you are! It’s just your arm.”

  But I noticed that the gun hadn’t fired again, and after two beats and more silence from Willa, I had an urge to peek around the tree. I took a deep breath and held it as I leaned around.

  It was what George had been waiting for—someone to look, a target he could aim for. He pulled the trigger again and a bullet came in my direction. It ricocheted off the tree but scared me so much that it sent me to the place I’d been trying so hard to avoid. The van and Levi’s voice filled my head so completely that I didn’t know if I was ever going to get out of there again.

  Even running to Alaska wasn’t going to save me this time.

  Thirty-Six

  You are mine!” Levi said as he pushed back on my shoulders.

  My back hit a lump in the floor of the van. I cringed and tears squeezed through my eyes. I wondered if I’d cracked a rib.

  “Open your eyes. Look at me.”

  I did as he commanded, but his face was still a blur; I couldn’t even see the blue of his eyes now. He moved on top of me and kneed himself in between my legs. No matter how much I tried to keep them together, he got them apart. Tears started to fall out of my eyes and down the sides of my face.

  “You will never be anybody else’s.”

  “No!” I tried kicking, elbowing, biting at the air, but he was stronger than anything I did.

  Bile moved up my throat, but I couldn’t throw up. I wanted to. I tried. If I could throw up on him, maybe he wouldn’t do what I knew he was going to do.

  He stuck one of his dirty socks into my mouth. “Shut the fuck up.”

  The humiliation was worse than the pain and it fueled me. I squirmed, I kicked, I spit out the sock. I did whatever I could.

  For long beats, he did nothing, just sat still atop me.

  “Why? Why don’t you love me?” he finally said.

  “I will never love you.” My voice was oddly quiet, maybe sinister, I’m not sure. But it did what it needed to do. Or something did.

  He propelled himself off me and out of the van, slamming the sliding door shut. He was furious, yelling, screaming. I tried to get up, wriggle my way out of the van too. I would fight him, with my fists, with whatever it took. If I could just get out.

  But I couldn’t. He’d zip-tied one of my ankles to one of the seat braces. I hadn’t even noticed until I sat up and saw the tie. Once I did, I noticed the pain as the plastic tie dug into my skin.

  But I had won, even if it was a small victory. He hadn’t raped me. I don’t know if he didn’t really want to, couldn’t, or if I wasn’t behaving as he wished I would.

  But I wasn’t naïve enough to think it would last. He was broken, and he’d either break or kill me at some point, probably not long from now.

  I had to get out of that van. And I would, I just had to come up with a plan.

  As tears of victory and frustration and fear continued to roll down my cheeks, I turned my head to the side and saw something. There, if I focused on that envelope, a piece of junk mail he’d thrown in the back, atop that bright, pink blanket, I could think. I could come up with a plan.

  “I don’t want to do this. I don’t want this. I don’t want to die,” I muttered.

  “What? Nope, you’re not dying!” A voice said before someone slapped me hard.

  “Ouch,” I said as my hand went up to my cheek and my eyes opened and moved out of the past. “Viola?”

  “There you are,” she said. “You’re going to be okay. Come on now. I don’t like slapping folks who’ve had brain surgery, but you gotta do what you gotta do.”

  I was still in the spot behind the tree, but I was sitting on the ground. “What? What happened?”

  “You saved Willa’s life, probably,” Viola said. “We all got here just as George was trying to reload the gun. Gril grabbed him—it’s something to behold when that big man can run faster than who he’s chasing. I’ll never forget it.” Viola smiled.

  “
You all?”

  “Yeah, we all met at the lodge and got our search party instructions. We caravanned out here, planned to start with the woods behind George’s cabin and then head over to where you and Donner found Willa’s backpack. Imagine our surprise when we came upon this scene.”

  “I was pretty surprised too,” I managed to say.

  “I bet. What the hell were you doing here?”

  “I … I was also searching the woods. There’s a shelter out there. I found it.”

  “You did? I’ll be.”

  “Who killed Linda?”

  “Still don’t know, but we’re working on it. We know this though, George was shooting at you and Willa. Come on, let’s get you up and looked at by Powder. You were in a weird daze. All the shooting probably put you into shock.”

  “Probably,” I said.

  “Come on.”

  Viola helped me stand and led me around the tree. I was surprised by the crowd. It looked like the entire town was there, all five hundred of them. But some were leaving, packing into vehicles and driving back down the road toward the civilization that was made up of only a corner.

  “We tried to let you know about the search party. I knocked on your door, but didn’t want to bother you too much. Now, I wish I would have,” Viola said as she led me toward a truck. “You shouldn’t have been out here alone.”

  I nodded but my mouth was dry and I was trying to stave off some tunnel vision. I didn’t want to faint, or whatever I’d done, again. There were no ambulances in sight, no paramedics, but Dr. Powder was looking at Willa’s arm as she sat on the open tailgate of the truck we were walking toward.

  “Get her up here,” Powder said to Viola. “I’ll look at her next.”

  As if I was a child, Viola hoisted me up to the tailgate and then walked away.

  Willa didn’t look at me at first, but kept her gaze on the ground.

  “You coming along saved me, I’m sure,” she said quietly.

  “I don’t know. You were holding your own during that fight.” I still didn’t understand what had happened, but I saw that George was handcuffed to the door handle of Gril’s truck. I didn’t know if Willa would be handcuffed too, after her wound was attended to.

  She might not tell me, but I asked, “What the hell happened, Willa? Did you kill Linda Rafferty?”

  Dr. Powder sent me a quick frown but kept working on Willa’s gunshot wound.

  “Of course not,” Willa said. She sucked in a breath as Dr. Powder wrapped her arm with gauze. “I saw the accident, in Detroit, the one where the boy was killed.”

  “You weren’t in it? You weren’t related to the boy?”

  “No, I was just a witness. I saw it happen and I saw George and Linda switch seats after it happened. I was the only witness, the only reliable one anyway.”

  “You didn’t tell the police you saw them switch?”

  She shook her head. “No, I saw … an opportunity. You know.”

  “Blackmail?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And they paid you?”

  “Until they disappeared.” She paused as if she wasn’t going to continue. She looked at the doctor and then over at me. “I missed the money, still needed it. I found them here. I was pretty smart how I did it too, smarter than I’d ever been. Then Linda and I talked some. She wasn’t going to pay me any money anymore. She decided to tell the Detroit police what had actually happened. I tried to talk her out of it, but instead she talked me out of it. Told me how important the truth was and all that bullshit, wrote me a letter all about it. I fell for it. I believed her. But then he,” she nodded toward George, “figured out what was going on. He killed her. He wanted to kill me too. Jesus, why didn’t I just tell the police?”

  “Why couldn’t he take the rap?” I said.

  “He’s a piece of shit. Used to sell drugs. Would have been his third strike. He’d have probably gone away for a long time. It was Linda’s first strike. I didn’t find this out until later though. I knew something was up when they switched seats, was smart enough to keep it to myself until I approached them later.” She sounded proud of herself.

  “Good grief.” I paused. “Did he have you out at that shelter in the woods?”

  “Yeah, but he didn’t hurt me out there. He said he was just trying to figure out what to do. He thought he’d be able to get out of here without being noticed, but the police started watching everything more closely. The guys at the ferry and the airport were taking names and IDs and shit. George was trying to figure out a way to sneak onto the ferry. He just wanted me out of circulation until he got away. I ran away instead. You found us not long after he caught up with me. He was going to kill me, I’m sure.”

  “You didn’t think he would kill you out there?” I looked toward the woods.

  “I did at first, but I think killing his wife messed him up pretty bad. I think he thought he could get away with everything. He knew I was lying too; he didn’t think I’d risk running, risk everyone knowing what I was really up to.” She laughed once. “If he’d figured out a way to sneak onto the ferry, we both might have gotten away, but he was getting crazier by the minute. I got scared, and I just didn’t want to be around him.”

  I hoped Dr. Powder wasn’t being easy with her. I wanted to shake her and tell her she was an idiot, but her ruse to get to Benedict had been clever. However, I wasn’t in the mood to even pretend to be friendly. “You’re not the best at blackmail, Willa. You might want to consider a new line of work. Once you’re out of prison and all.”

  “All right, all right.” Gril approached. “That’s enough, Willa.” He looked at Dr. Powder. “She ready to go?”

  “She needs to get to Juneau. She’s going to be fine, but I’m not fully equipped to care for her wound. They’ll do better.”

  Gril sighed. “Donner will take her and George to Juneau. Hank’s getting the plane ready.”

  Gril helped Willa off the back of the tailgate and handed her to Donner before he turned back to me as Dr. Powder put a stethoscope up to my heart.

  “You okay?” Gril asked.

  “I was on my way to the Rafferty’s cabin. I think the ME used centimeters instead of inches. That would have thrown off the bullet trajectory. If so, Linda couldn’t have been holding the gun that killed her,” I said. “That’s what I was going to do, see if it was supposed to have been inches instead of centimeters. That would change everything.”

  Gril rubbed his chin. “Dammit. I can’t believe I missed that, but you’re probably right.”

  “I can’t believe I missed it either. I told you I was good at that sort of thing, but I didn’t take my time. I didn’t measure for myself. I didn’t doubt what I was seeing.” Gramps would be so disappointed.

  “She okay?” Gril asked the doctor.

  “Fine. Heart rate’s up a bit, but she’ll be okay.”

  “Come on, Beth, let’s go measure together,” Gril said. “If you’re up for it.”

  “I am.” I slid off the tailgate carefully, testing my legs. They were fine, and no more tunnel vision. I looked around to see if anyone was listening. No one was. “Gril, there’s a copy of my book inside the cabin, it was open to my author bio and picture.”

  “Oh, shit, Beth. That was me. I’m sorry. I didn’t even … When I was searching the cabin, I saw the book and opened it. You don’t look a thing like that picture, by the way. You’ve disguised yourself well. I’m so sorry.”

  Relief swept through me. “Willa said George killed Linda. I think I got the story.”

  “Yeah, something about Linda telling the police he was the driver who’d killed that kid, his third strike. I’ll work on getting him to tell me all the details. Son of a bitch that he is. Juneau police and I will get the answers, Beth, I promise.”

  “I believe you will.”

  “Come on, let’s go take some measurements.”

  I followed Gril, but stopped at the Rafferty’s doorway and looked back. Lots of people were still milling arou
nd. Donner, George, and Willa were gone, but Viola and Loretta were still there. So was Trinity; she stood at the edge of the crowd and bit at her fingernail.

  Benny and Serena and the woman I’d met at the visitor’s center, Maper, were gathered together discussing something.

  Orin was there too, talking to a man I hadn’t met yet. He caught me looking at him and smiled, and, of course, sent me a peace sign. I had something I wanted to talk to him about.

  Most important, and even though he was still in my head, Levi Brooks wasn’t there. He wasn’t in Alaska. He couldn’t be. I was safe for now. But for how long?

  My hands iced again with remaining fear or some sort of premonition. I wiped them on my stiff jeans and they thawed some. I followed Gril inside.

  Thirty-Seven

  I opened the email.

  Hi, Baby Girl. How be ya? I hope you are doing okay. Sure do miss you. Glad you’re safe.

  I know it’s not the best news, but I wanted to let you know that we’ve all hit dead ends. Stellen can’t find the Levi Brooks that burned down the barn. He and his girl Friday will keep working on it, but I get a weird sense that it’s not the same Levi we’re looking for. I could be wrong, but I sense that we will hit another dead end there. Really, there might be two bad-guy Levi Brooks. Shit, I don’t know.

  BUT, I’m not giving up. None of us are.

  Detective Majors told me she told you they got DNA off that blanket. Yours, and two unknowns. Hard for me to believe Levi hadn’t done anything before to get put in the system yet, but any-fucking-thing is possible. Right?

  That old Jesus-loving woman, Geneva, and I have a plan. Fingers crossed it works out. That’s all I’m going to tell you for now. Don’t tell Majors, though. Don’t worry about it. I got this.

  I haven’t given up. Neither have the police, but I’ll get this taken care of long before they do, you can count on that.