Jessica Beck - Donut Shop 18 - Dangerous Dough (21 page)

Chapter 28

“Come on!
 
We need to go!” I told Grace as softly
and as urgently as I could as I tugged on her arm.
 
Once we were out of the Jeep, she just
stood there as though she were in shock.

There was no
response to my command other than gentle weeping.
 

I finally had no
choice.
 
I slapped her hard across
the face, hoping that it would somehow snap her out of it.

It always seemed
to work in the movies, but it didn’t even make an impression on her.

Finally, I just
grabbed her arm and pulled her along with me.
 
At least she moved.
 
The snow was coming down even harder
now, and the temperature was dropping quickly.
 
Could we use any of that to our
advantage?
 
I didn’t see how as we
plunged ahead together deeper into the woods.
 
Grace was starting to respond now, and I
had to pull less and less to keep her moving.
 

But where were we
going?

I wasn’t familiar
with this area, and that might spell our doom.
 
Was there a stream or something we could
walk through so Durant couldn’t follow our trail quite so easily?
 
Even if there had been, wouldn’t we be
risking hypothermia wading in icy water?
 
We weren’t Marines, after all.
 
I wasn’t dressed for this kind of backwoods trek in the snow, but at
least I had heavy denim blue jeans on, a thick sweater, and a decent coat on
top of that.
 
Grace was, per her
norm, dressed more for style than for warmth.

I touched her
hand again and could feel that she was freezing.

Without giving it
a second thought, I pulled my jacket off and handed it to her.
 
“Put this on, but keep moving as you do
it,” I said.

For the first
time, I finally got through to her.
 
“Suzanne, you’ll freeze to death without your jacket.”

“Are you
kidding?
 
I’ve got this toasty
sweater on that Momma gave me,” I said.
 
“You need it more than I do.
 
Now stop arguing and put it on.”

“Thanks,” she
said as her teeth chattered a little.
 
As Grace slipped the jacket on, she looked wildly behind us.
 
“Where is he?”

“I don’t know,
and that’s what worries me,” I said as we continued deeper and deeper into the thicket
of trees.
 
I looked back myself, but
I couldn’t see anything in the blinding snow.
 
I’d read about people being lost a few feet
from their doorsteps in blizzards, and I’d never understood how that could
happen.

I was starting to
get it now.

The snow was like
a looming curtain of white, and it was everywhere, obscuring nearly everything
within my vision.
 
I could see the
tree right in front of my face, but beyond that, we were just stumbling around
without any real direction in mind other than trying to get away.

I was just
starting to realize that I was missing my jacket more than I could have
imagined, too.
 
Its material had
shed the snow as it had hit, but my sweater seemed to absorb it.
 
I was quickly being weighed down from
the heft of it, and things weren’t going to get any better.
 
This was going to have to be one of
those times I suffered in silence, though.
 
Grace had needed it more than I had, and that was the end of the discussion.

Had Durant given
up on us?
 
When I listened intently,
I couldn’t hear him anywhere in the woods around us, and with the snow coming
down so heavily, I certainly couldn’t see him.

Maybe we’d
somehow managed to escape.

And that’s when I
heard his voice, much, much too close to us.

“Why are you
running away from me, girls?
 
I’m
here to help you,” he said.
 
“What’s
gotten into you?
 
You need to be
reasonable, Suzanne.”

I wanted to reply,
to shout at him for doing this to us, but if I did that, I’d be giving our
position away, and it was the only thing we had working in our favor at the
moment.
 
I touched Grace’s arm, got
her attention, and then I held a lone finger to my lips.

She nodded that
she understood, which was enough of a response for me.

“Do you think you
know something that you don’t?
 
Is
that why you’re running?
 
Why don’t
we go someplace warm and safe where we can talk about it?
 
It’s all just one big
misunderstanding.
 
We can clear it
up in a second if you just give me a chance.”

I kept Grace
moving, but it was difficult not to make any noises in the underbrush.
 
The trees were starting to get closer
and closer together, too.
 
Would
this copse become so thick that our forward progress was stopped altogether?
 
We couldn’t go back now, and if we were
forced to stop going forward as well, he’d have us.
 
I couldn’t think about that at the
moment, though.

All Grace and I
could do was keep moving forward, living one moment at a time, and hoping for
the best.

“This is just aggravating
me,” he said, his voice closing nearer and nearer to us.
 
“Trust me, you do not want to see me
angry.”
 
After a moment, Durant
spoke again, his temper clearly getting the best of him.
 
“You were too smart for your own
good.
 
I knew you spoke with Maisie,
Shannon, Deke Marsh, and even the chief.
 
I didn’t worry about any of them but Deke.
 
He said something to you about me,
didn’t he?
 
I knew I couldn’t trust
him.
 
I’m going to have to take care
of him after I deal with you two.
 
Leaving him alive after he confirmed my alibi with you was a mistake; I
can see that now.
 
At least it’s not
too late to correct it.”

Grace and I kept
moving forward, but it was taking everything I had not to ask him the question
that had been burning in my mind since I’d realized that he was the murderer.

Why had he killed
his former partner?

Maybe if Grace
and I could evade him long enough, he’d supply the answer himself.

As we moved
forward, I suddenly realized that it hadn’t been my imagination.

The trees were
definitely getting thicker now.

It wouldn’t be
long before Grace and I would be blocked as surely as if there were a solid wall
of stone in front of us.

In an instant, I
could see a bit of a break to the left of us.
 
At least that’s what I thought it looked
like, but with the snow blinding me almost completely, it was hard to tell for
sure.

Either way, we
had nothing to lose by trying it.

I tapped Grace’s
arm and pointed in the direction where I’d thought I’d seen the opening.
 
She nodded, and we moved to our left,
hoping that there might be a break in the trees somewhere ahead.

Durant’s voice
returned, and it felt as though he was whispering in my ear he was so near.
 
“I’m getting closer.
 
I can feel it.”
 
He had to know that he wasn’t going to
get any responses from us, so why did he keep talking?
 
Maybe he’d gone a little mad somewhere
along the way.
 
At least I hoped
that he had.
 
If he wasn’t thinking
clearly, then Grace and I still might have a chance of getting out of this
alive.

“Might” was a
pretty big word, but it was the only sliver of hope we had, and I planned on
hanging onto it until it was gone.

“I probably
should shut up,” Durant said, “but what does it matter now?
 
You’re probably wondering why I killed
Alex, aren’t you?
 
A part of me
wants you to die not knowing, but who are you going to tell?
 
After he busted Deke Marsh, he told me
that his conscience was still bothering him.
 
This from a man who had his hand out for
bribes just as often as I did.
 
What
did he think he was going to accomplish wrecking both of our lives?
 
I tried to talk sense into him, but he
wouldn’t listen.
 
The fool gave me
twenty-four hours to turn myself in, and then he said that he was going to do
it for me if I lacked the conviction.
 
I told him that he could go first, but he said that he had to make sure
that I’d do what I said I’d do before he told anyone about his own illegal
actions.
 
Our last conversation was
the day that he died.
 
I snuck away
from work and drove to April Springs.
 
I bet you didn’t know that, did you?
 
As soon as I left him in the park, I
started wandering around town, wondering what I was going to do.
 
That’s when I stumbled across your
little donut shop.
 
I needed some
coffee to help me think straight, but after one sip, I knew that it wasn’t
going to be enough to do the trick.
 
I had to get rid of Alex, and I had to do it before he had a chance to
rat me out.
 
Why poison, you might
ask?
 
That one’s easy.
 
We took a refresher course on homicide
techniques a few months back, and Alex had told me he’d rather be shot than
poisoned.
 
The idea of any kind of
suffering freaked him out.
 
Well, he
didn’t suffer long my way, but I knew that if I wasted a bullet on him, chances
were good that someone might start digging into the time we worked
together.”
 
After a moment’s pause,
he said, “Anyway, he took the poisoned coffee from me quickly enough, and that
was that.
 
I hit the inside rim with
it to make it quick, but it was anything but clean.”
 
There was another moment of silence, and
then he said in disgust, “This is getting old fast.
 
If you both come out right now, I
promise that I’ll make it quick, but if you keep messing with me like this, I’m
going to make you both feel some real pain yourselves before I end you.”
 
The threat was intensely real, and I
knew that he meant every word of it.

And then things managed
to get even worse.

The gaps ended completely,
and Grace and I were solidly pinned against the trees.
 
We could stand for a moment, but we
couldn’t go forward another inch.

It appeared that
we’d just lost our last chance of getting out of this alive.

Chapter 29

“What do we do
now?” Grace whispered.
 
At least she
was back with me, in full control of her senses.
 
That was something, anyway.
 
If we were about to go out, we were
going to do it with our heads held high.

“Grace, there’s
nothing left for us to do.
 
You
don’t have anything on you that we could use to defend ourselves, do you?” I
asked her softly.

“There’s some
pepper spray in my purse, but that’s back in the Jeep.”

“That’s where I
keep my tire iron, too.
 
Why didn’t
I dig that out before we took off?”

“You were too
busy getting me out of there to worry about anything else.
 
Suzanne, I’m so sorry that I lost it
back there.”

“Grace, listen to
me.
 
You have nothing to apologize
for.
 
You’re the best friend I could
have ever wanted.
 
Thank you.”

“Thank you, too,”
she said, the tears streaming silently down her cheeks again.

To my surprise, I
touched my own face and felt tears there, as well.

“Let’s at least
get down on the ground and see if we can make it tougher for him to find us,” I
said quietly.
 
There was a brush pile
off to one side that might offer us some kind of refuge from the storm, if not
from Durant.
 
If we crouched down
low enough behind it, he would have to be right up on us to see us.
 
It wasn’t ideal, but given the
circumstances, it was the best we could do.

“I’m willing to
try anything you suggest,” she said as we lowered ourselves to the ground.

That’s when I saw
something that I’d missed standing up just a moment before.

There was indeed
a slight break in the trees just behind the brush pile; I simply hadn’t been
able to see it before while I’d been standing up.

We wouldn’t be
able to walk out of the forest, but we might just be able to crawl out.

I pointed to the constricted
opening.
 
“Do you want to lead, or would
you rather follow?”

“You go first.
 
I’ll be right behind you,” she said.

I started
crawling forward, hoping that this narrow little passage might lead us
somewhere, but my doubts were beginning to come back as I realized that this
tunnel might soon disappear.

If that’s what
happened, I decided that I could live with it.
 
At least we’d both die trying to escape.

It might not be
much, but it was all that we had.

Grace tapped my
leg just as we came up against another dead end.

“Suzanne, could
you use this?”
 

I looked back and
saw that she had a broken tree limb in her hands about two inches thick and
four feet long.

“How did you find
this?” I asked as I took it from her.

“I accidently put
my hand down on it in the snow,” she said.
 
“Will it help?”

“Like the man
said, it couldn’t hurt,” I offered, and then I smiled at her.
 

“You can keep
going now,” Grace urged.

“That’s the
thing.
 
I can’t,” I said.
 
I had a sudden thought.
 
Maybe I could distract Durant long
enough to give us a chance to fight back after all.
 

I took off my
sweater and instantly felt the chill of cold air and wet snow shoot through
me.
 
This was going to be pretty
unbearable, but I really didn’t have any choice.
 
As I started to unravel the edges of my
sweater, freeing the yarn into one loose strand, Grace asked me, “Suzanne,
aren’t you going to get cold?”

“If we don’t do
something soon, it’s not going to matter much one way or the other.
 
I just hope I can get enough yarn out of
this sweater to make my plan work.
 
If we can lure Durant deeper back in here and hide in that brush pile we
passed, we might be able to fight back.”
 

“At least take
your jacket back,” Grace said as she started to unzip it.

I wanted to
refuse, but if I was frozen solid, I wouldn’t be able to make this plan
work.
 
“How about this?
 
We’ll take turns,” I said as I zipped it
up, feeling the chill slowly start to dissipate.

I finally had all
of the yarn that the sweater would yield in such a limited amount of time.
 
I tied one end to a nearby tree branch
shoulder-high, and then I carefully fed the material out as we started crawling
backward out of the dead end.

It was our last
hope, and it had to work, or Grace and I were dead.

“He’s never going
to see that,” Grace said as she studied my rig.

“I know, but we can’t
put a jacket on it.
 
The branch
isn’t strong enough, and in this snowfall, the movement is what we need more
than the color.”

“Why can’t we
have both?” she asked as she took her own thin coat off and tore at the
lining.
 
It was red with black
swirls, something that should stand out in our current surroundings.
 
“There, is that better?” Grace asked as
she tied a piece of the sleeve’s lining onto the branch where my yarn was attached.

“Much,” I
said.
 
“That was a great idea, but
we have to get out of here right now!”
 
When she hesitated, I had to prod her a little.
 
“Head back to the clearing, Grace.”

“But won’t we
just be getting closer to him?” she asked me, the fear beginning to creep back
into her voice.
 

I couldn’t have
that.

“Grace, this is
our best and only chance of making it out of here alive.
 
You want to at least go down swinging,
don’t you?”

“I’d rather not
go down at all, but yeah, let’s at least try to fight back.”

We were finally
back to the brush pile in the slight clearing, and I was relieved to see that I
had just enough yarn left when I heard Durant again.
 
The proximity of his voice made ice water
run through my veins that had nothing to do with the cold that we were
experiencing.

“Where did you
two miserable witches go?” Durant shouted.
 
I could swear that he was so close I could almost feel his breath on my
neck.

It was time to
pull the yarn and hope that it hadn’t snagged somewhere between where I’d tied
it and where I was now.

I saw the
branch—and more significantly, the lining of Grace’s jacket—move slightly with
my tug, and then the yarn broke.
 
Had
Durant seen it, or had our ploy been in vain?

I could barely
contain my glee when I heard him say,
 
“Ah.
 
There you are.
 
Good-bye, ladies.
 
I’ve got you now.”

Then he fired
three shots that appeared to hit where we’d just been.

If we’d still been
standing there as Durant had hoped, he would have killed us on the spot, but as
it was, he’d just managed to kill a tree branch that hadn’t done anyone any harm.

I’d been right.

Durant had been
closer than I’d realized.

Without hesitation,
I swung the club out from my position as I crouched on my knees.

I’d hoped to
break his leg with the attack, but the branch shattered as it made impact with
his legs.

He fell to the
ground, though, and his gun went flying in the process.

The odds still
weren’t in our favor, but at least we were in the fight for our lives now.