Moonlighting in Vermont (17 page)

Thirteen

“Look for something to cut me free while you’re at it, will you?” Meg was sitting on the edge of the bed, rubbing her knee.

I started rifling through the drawers in the dresser. Nothing but fancy underwear and socks. I checked the closet. I went through the pockets of the clothes hanging there. I pulled the suitcases out of another closet. I knelt on the floor and started unzipping cases.

I found a pocketknife in one of the cases and cut the nylon tie off Meg’s wrist. She rubbed at the red line it made on her skin. “I wonder if his briefcase is still in the other room,” she said. I looked at her.

“You’re brilliant,” I said.

I dashed into the living room and grabbed Gunnar’s briefcase off the bar, where he had left it. I brought it back into the bedroom and set it on the bed. I snapped it open. It was full of papers. The first layer contained fan photos like the one he had signed for Meg. I pulled those out and tossed them on the bed. Under those was what looked like a script.

“Doesn’t look like he’s read any of that yet,” said Meg. “It’s totally untouched. I’m losing all respect for this guy.”
“Well, then, this will really blow you out of the water,” I said. I held a folder I had dug out of the bottom of the case. I placed in front of Meg and flipped it open, and her eyes just about fell out of her head. She closed it fast.
“I can’t look at this,” Meg said, opening the file again. “These are just boys. Teenagers. They can’t be old enough for this to be legal.”
“No. It’s not legal,” I said. I didn’t need to look at the pictures in the folder anymore. The images were already burned into my brain. “I’m pretty sure he’s a pedophile. And into bondage. And probably gay, but who cares about that?”
“Well, he is supposed to be a heartthrob,” said Meg. “Every stay-at-home mom in America is in love with him, and half the workingwomen I know TiVo his show. Being gay might hurt that.”
“Not as much as this stuff will,” I said. My stomach started churning, and I ran into the bathroom.
“You all right?” Meg asked as I came back into the bedroom.
“Yeah, I’m fine. That just hit me the wrong way.” I went to a cabinet and pulled a couple of pairs of hotel slippers from a drawer. “Not snow boots, but better than nothing. I’m walking to the next cottage,” I said as I slipped them on. “If I have to, I’ll walk all the way to the main house. It’s not really that far. Less than a mile.” I smiled at her. “Maybe I’ll run into the turndown crew on the way. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“Are you kidding? I’m coming with you.”
I heard footsteps on the porch outside the cottage and looked back at Meg. The door clicked open. Meg’s eyes widened. I looked around at the mess I had made. The headboard cracked and lying on the far side of the bed. Clothes hanging out of all the drawers. Gunnar’s suitcases on the floor. There was no time to make this room seem normal.
“Pretend you’re still cuffed to the bed,” I whispered. “And remember the hind leg of the moose.”
“What are…?” Meg started to ask, but I signaled her to be quiet and dodged behind the door. We heard Gunnar swear in the other room. He strode through the door to the bedroom.
“Where the fuck is my briefcase?” He burst into the room. He stopped short, taking in the disheveled room and staring at the half headboard where I used to be.
This is it,
I told myself.
Now or never.
I took a deep breath and launched myself at him. I hit him in the middle of his back, and we both went down on the edge of the bed. I was on top of him, trying to hold him down, but he shook me off, and I stumbled to the floor. I realized I didn’t know where his gun was. It hadn’t been in the briefcase.
Shit.
I scrambled to my feet. We stood facing each other. I didn’t know why he didn’t take me. He was big and buff. I knew I was no match for him. I saw a quick movement behind him, and he yelled and flew forward into me. I guessed from his language that Meg had connected with a kidney. I thrust my knee at him but missed the mark and hit him in the thigh. Hardly a take-down blow.
Gunnar grabbed me around the waist and hoisted me up over his shoulder. My hands were trapped under my body. I kicked at Gunnar, but he had my legs snugged against his body. He carried me out through the living room. I looked around frantically, but I didn’t see anything that could help me. Gunnar’s gun was sitting on the coffee table in front of the fireplace. Great. I was hoping it had disappeared. But no, now I had to face the possibility of being shot.
I had a last look at the bronze moose, and we were outside. He carted me over to his car. I heard a lock click, and the next thing I knew, I was in the trunk of his Lexus.
“Hey,” I said. “You didn’t have to dump me in here. That hurt.”
He slammed the lid on me, and I was in the dark. A couple of minutes later, I heard footsteps. Then the trunk opened.
“Where is she?”
“What are you talking about?”
“That woman who was with you. Where is she hiding?”
“I don’t know.” I was hoping that by now Meg had found the other door out of the box we loaded the wood into. If she was fast, she could be halfway to the next cottage.
I saw a movement behind Gunnar, and then Meg was on his back, her arm around his neck, trying to choke him. In one fluid motion, he flipped her off his back. She landed on top of me in the trunk. The air was pushed out of my lungs, and everything went black again as the lid slammed. I heard Gunnar walking away as we scooted around until we were side-by-side, spooning like lovers. It was better than having Meg on top of me.
“You should have run for help.” I felt like howling.
“I couldn’t leave you with that maniac. What if something happened?”
“Well, now we’ll find out.” I shifted my legs, trying to uncramp them.
“How do you like this Lexus now?” I asked. “Comfy?”
“Oh, stop grousing. I don’t want the last words I hear to be grumbling. Any way for us to get out of this?”
“It depends on if he remembers to bring his gun.”
The car door slammed, and a moment later we were bumping down the road.
“If he doesn’t have the gun, we could overpower him when he opens the trunk,” I said. “But I don’t think we can count on that.”
“Oh, my God!” Meg said. “What if he never opens the trunk? What if he leaves us in here to starve? Or what if he drives us over a cliff or something?”
“He won’t do that.” I hoped. “Because this is his car, and he won’t want anyone to associate us with it. Don’t cars like this have latches on the inside of the trunk? Maybe we could pop the trunk while he’s driving and jump out when he stops.”
“What’s this?” I could hear her fumbling around. The latch clicked and the trunk flew open. “I did it!”
“I wished you’d warned me first. I’m not ready.”
Gunnar slammed on the brakes, and I slid deeper into the trunk. Meg was up on her knees, struggling to get a leg over the edge of the trunk. She got one leg out and fell onto the road. I heard her hit and some muffled curses.
“Run!” I yelled. “Get up and run!”
She was on her feet looking a little dazed in the evening sunlight. “Run!” I struggled to scoot to the edge of the trunk and rose to my knees. There was a shot from behind me.
Meg!
I screamed in my head, but my throat was so constricted, no sound would come out. I looked down the road to where Meg was running for all she was worth. Another shot rang out.
“Stop, or I’ll shoot your friend,” Gunnar’s voice came from beside the car.
Meg stopped running. She put her hands in the air and turned around. She walked slowly back to the car. I prayed for someone to drive by. The problem with living in the boonies is that when you need someone around, there isn’t anybody.
“Back in.” Gunnar lifted Meg and dropped her back in the trunk. At least this time, I had the sense to move back so she didn’t land on me.
“See this?” Gunnar held up his gun. “You try a stunt like that again, and I’ll shoot you both. Understand?”
We nodded, and Meg lowered herself back down into the trunk. Gunnar reached in and found the latch to the trunk. He snapped the handle off, slammed the trunk shut, and we were on our way again.
We rode in silence for a while. I kept spinning scenarios through my head, but none of them were more than fantasy. We had nothing on a man with a gun. I thought about my dogs, and tears swam in my eyes.
You took care of that, Bree,
I told myself. They’ll be okay. But I wanted nothing more than a big old sloppy dog kiss.
Now you’re just feeling sorry for yourself. Hold it together.
“Bree? What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know. We’ll just have to keep our eyes open and look for a chance to run. I want you to promise you’ll try and get away. Even if Gunnar threatens to shoot me. Even if he does shoot me. Okay?”
“Bree.” Meg was crying. “I can’t. How could I leave you?”
“If I get shot, my only chance of surviving is if you can get me help. So I need you to leave me and run. And I’ll do the same if I have the chance.” But I didn’t know if I’d really be able to leave Meg if she was shot. How could I take the chance that she would die alone? What if she died because I wasn’t there to stop the bleeding? Being accused of murder seemed like such a small deal now.
When the car finally stopped and the trunk opened again, it was dark outside. Gunnar lifted first Meg, and then me, out of the trunk. I had trouble standing for a moment. My legs were cramped and didn’t want to hold me up. I leaned against the car and looked around. We were in Quechee. More specifically we were in the visitor parking of Quechee Gorge, below the Quechee dam. The gorge is like a mini grand canyon, a ravine cut deep into the earth by the river.
A bridge crosses the river at Highway 4. It was a summer tourist attraction, but this time of year, few people felt like braving the weather to stand over the bridge and gaze down into the gulch. The leaves had fallen off the trees. The landscape was barren and the water a cold grey.
“What are we doing here?” I asked.
“This is where you will have an unfortunate accident,” said Gunnar. “You will fall into the gorge, and your friend will die trying to save you. Tragic, really.”
“Like you could ever get away with that!” Meg exclaimed. “No one within a hundred-mile radius would believe that Bree and I would be at the gorge this time of year. That’s just stupid!”
Gunnar hit Meg across the face. “I don’t take kindly to being called stupid. It won’t matter anyway. Even if it does seem strange, there won’t be anyone to link you to me, so who cares what they think.”
“What do you mean, no one can link you to us?” Meg was crying and rubbing her face. I was behind Gunnar shaking my head no, but she didn’t see me. “We all walked out of the spa right in front of Janine.”
I winced. We’d just placed Janine in danger. Meg seemed to realize it, too. She sucked in air and bit her lip.
“Of course, she probably won’t remember,” she said lamely.
Gunnar let out a deep sigh. “Okay,” he said. “Back in the trunk.”
“You’re not going to kill us now?” That seemed like a good thing, but I sure didn’t want to get stuck back in that trunk.
“You can’t die until I’m sure that Janine didn’t tell anyone else.” He said. He turned and unlocked the trunk. He was facing away from me, gesturing Meg to come over so he could put her in the trunk. I shook my head at her. She hesitated just a moment, but that was all I needed. I ran at Gunnar and pushed him with all the strength I could muster. He was taken by surprise and lost his balance. He tumbled right into the trunk of the car, and I slammed the lid.
Meg looked at me in surprise for a couple of seconds, and then she started whooping and dancing all around. Pretty soon we were jumping up and down, laughing and shouting, “We did it. We did it!” Gunnar was pounding on the inside of the trunk and swearing at us. There was a shot, and a bullet came whizzing out of the trunk. I swear I could feel it part my hair.
Meg and I stopped jumping. We stared at each other, dumbstruck. “He still has the gun,” said Meg.
“Yeah,” I said. “I was going to drive the car to the Barracks, but I think maybe it’s better if we find a pay phone and call Tom. With my luck, he’d shoot me through the trunk while we’re going down the road.” We grabbed our shoes and jackets out of the back seat, and scooted away from the car. My feet were freezing, and Meg was shivering. I was glad Gunnar had brought our stuff with him. The thought of hiking down the snowy road without shoes wasn’t very appealing.
Meg set off to find a pay phone, and I stayed to keep an eye on the car. I didn’t trust my luck enough to leave Gunnar and walk away. He’d probably find a way to get out, or some good-hearted soul would let him out, and he’d get away.
I stood far from the car just in case Gunnar decided to stop yelling and start shooting again. He was still screaming obscenities and threatening to kill me, if I didn’t let him out. He had to have a pretty low opinion of me, if he thought I was dumb enough to set him free.
Eventually, he stopped yelling and started banging. I wondered what he was trying to do. I knew from experience that you couldn’t get enough bend in your legs to kick up at the trunk. I smiled, betting he was sorry he had broken the inside release lever. I leaned against a tree, wondering when Meg would make it back. Just when I decided to sit down on my coat for a while, there were shots from the trunk, and the lid popped open. Gunnar sat up, holding his ears.
“Shit. Shit that hurt,” he yelled, and he climbed out of the trunk.
Damn
. I was back to having to defend myself from a crazy with a gun. Where was Meg, when I needed her? I was on my feet, ducking behind the tree, when Gunnar started firing at me. Two bullets went sailing past and lodged in trees beyond me. Lucky me. This guy obviously hadn’t spent a lot of time on a shooting range.
I heard a click, and then Gunnar started swearing again. No bullets? I peeked out from behind the tree. He had thrown the gun on the ground and was kicking it. He must have forgotten me momentarily. I didn’t have any illusions that that would last for very long. I debated the virtues of running away. For three, fabulous seconds I kidded myself that I could outrun Gunnar. Then I came to my senses and dashed out from behind the tree. I ran full tilt into Gunnar, who was still swearing and kicking at the gun.
I threw my shoulder forward and hit him where I hoped a vital organ would be. Of course, anatomy wasn’t my strong point, so I was really just hoping to hit something vulnerable. We both went down. Gunnar fell hard, and I fell on top of him. He tried to roll out from underneath me while I tried to stay on top.
We were both jockeying for control, when I heard someone running.
Please be someone who can help,
I thought. “Help!” I shouted, and then I remembered that people almost never responded to cries for help. I think I saw that on a TV program sometime. “Rape!”
No, wait. People don’t respond to that either.
“Fire!” I yelled.
Yeah, that was it. Fire was the thing that got people’s attention.
“Fire!”
The gun was on the ground next to us, and I saw Gunnar reach for it. I grabbed his arm, trying to keep him from getting hold of it, but I was too late. He started to swing the gun, and I figured he was going to clock me in the head with it. But there was a sickening thud, and his gun hand dropped back to the earth. Meg was standing over him, and a good-size rock was next to his head.
“Did you drop that rock on his head?”
She nodded. “I couldn’t find a working phone,” she said in a rush. “I went everywhere, but no one is open, and the phone at the info center hasn’t got the part you talk into. Do you want to tell me why anyone would steal the talking part from a phone? What in the world would they do with it?” Meg looked anxiously down at Gunnar. “I saw you two rolling around on the ground, and I just picked up the rock and dropped it on him. I didn’t kill him, did I?”