Failure is Fatal (32 page)

I opened the driver's side door, reached in behind me and found the ignition with my key, turned the key and started the car. Getting in the driver's side and sliding across the center console while I kept the gun on Adam seemed impossible to me, but I couldn't think of another way to do it. I could tell that Adam was weighing his chances of merely backing away from the car, turning and running into the snow. He seemed not to like the idea. I maneuvered my backside into the driver's seat and lifted my butt backwards over the gear shift lever onto the passenger's seat. As I was drawing my legs up to follow my rear end, I banged my knee on the dash and slammed my sore ankle into the gearshift.

Distracted by the pain, I had given Adam the break he was searching for. He slapped the gun from my hand. It fell onto the floor, and we cracked heads as we both struggled for it. He shoved me backward into the door. Adam grabbed the gun and brought the weapon up to fire at me. I grabbed the door handle, turned, and catapulted myself out into the snow, rolling away from the car and down an embankment.

I heard the gun discharge somewhere above my head. I turned toward the trees before me, knowing the snow would protect me. I could hide in it, away from Adam, from his hate, and from the gun. I got to my feet and plunged into the forest surrounding me, not knowing where I was headed, except away from him.

The storm had become my friend.

I put as much distance between Adam and myself as I could, struggling through the dense trees, able to see only a few feet in front of me. Fatigue and the pain from my ankle made me stop. A good thing. I had no idea where I was, no plan for what I would do, and I was freezing. Surely I would die up here on this mountain if I didn't pull myself together. I couldn't go back toward the cottage. Adam would be certain to guess I might try that. But I didn't even know which way was back. I had to stay away from the road leading down off the mountain. Adam would patrol that. The best I could do was to keep moving, and downhill would lead me to the college, unless I wandered too far east in my headlong plunge through the forest. East of the camp was state land, an endless series of valleys and forests that eventually led to the Catskill Mountains where population centers were few, as were houses and farms. I calculated that in an hour or so, I would either find the college or be lost among the hills stretching endlessly toward the mountains beyond.

The storm gave no hint of letting up, and I struggled from one tree to another, grabbing their trunks for support, and shoving off to the next one. I thought briefly of David, hoping he would be all right, but dismissed worry about him from my mind. My primary responsibility now was keeping myself alive. If I figured correctly, I hoped to be able to see light from the campus. Was it possible that so many streetlights and other sources of illumination from the college might produce a glow even through the density of all the snow? I bet my life on seeing that glow.

My mind began to wander, and I thought only of being able to sit down, maybe even lie down, for a rest. My foot ached unbearably. A cleared area rose up a few feet in front of me. On the other side of it, I could just make out a large tree. If I could get to it, I'd sit down and lean back against its base. Just for a few minutes' rest before I went on. I stepped out into the clearing, grateful that the snow seemed to be less deep here and did not come over the tops of my boots. Several steps into the clearing I realized my mistake. I was wandering onto the road leading down from camp. I turned to retreat back into the woods once more when headlights turned on before me added to the snow blindness I was beginning to experience. I stood frozen to the spot, my arm attempting to shield my eyes from the glare of the lights. I had no doubt the lights were from my own vehicle, and no illusions that the person opening the car door was a friend. It was eerily like the night in the residence hall parking lot. Adam might run me down with more success this time. Rather than gunning the engine and steering the car toward me, he got out and walked toward me.

“All tuckered out from your hike in the woods? Might as well just stay where you are, though I doubt you could move much anyway. I can still make this work,” Adam said, more to himself than to me. The gun was level and steady in his hand.

I retreated the way I came, knowing that Adam was too close for him to lose me in the snow and trees. He stood only several feet from me, and I stopped moving. It was no use.

“This is good, this is really good. David shoots you and then I get the gun away from him, and I shoot him. Or that's what I tell the authorities. I might get a reward of some kind for getting Marie's killer. Too bad my attempt to save you wasn't successful.”

I watched as Adam aimed the gun at me, but before he could pull the trigger, the woods gave forth the sound of cracking limbs and the crash of something moving in the underbrush. A large shape emerged from behind Adam and flew at him knocking him to the ground. The gun dropped from his hand into the deep snow. He attempted to rise to his feet and face his attacker who stood dazed before him. Adam teetered to one side, finally pitching forward headfirst into a rotting deadfall covered by snow. The attacker had to be David, I believed, thinking that by some miracle David dragged himself from the car and rushed Adam. But my rescuer was no human. A large white-tailed deer stood before me as startled by the events that just transpired as I was. It snorted through its nose, raised its tail perpendicular to its body, and bounded off into the snow. I whispered my thank you into the wind behind its retreating hooves, then began laughing.

Chapter 27

I peered carefully into the deadfall. Adam lay on his face surrounded by tree limbs, moss and broken branches. He appeared to be breathing, but one of his legs was twisted at an unnatural angle. He's not going anywhere. I moved toward the car still positioned on the road with the door open.

David groaned as I got in and put the vehicle in gear. “Off to the hospital for you, then the authorities can come up here and pick up what's left of Adam.” I sincerely hoped he would be alive, but I couldn't think about that now. I gritted my teeth and prepared to take on the swirling snow and the unplowed roads.

Driving to the emergency room took longer than I wished, and I worried I might lose David on the way. Because the snowplows had not yet hit these roads, it was almost impossible to tell where the road was, and I was forced to go slowly for fear I would run off into the ditch. I suspected that as steady as this SUV was, it couldn't recover from a run-in with a five-foot-deep drop-off. As I neared the college, Der's police cruiser emerged from the main road and blocked my path. I signaled him I was in a big hurry, rolling down my window and shouting, “hospital.” Without hesitating, he turned on his emergency lights and siren, and I followed his lead into town.

*

“Ouch!” I withdrew my foot from Dr. McDonald's hand. “Don't you have other people to see, to torment, to X-ray, to bother?” He shook his head, sighed and picked up my chart, making marks on it with his pen.

“All this snow will probably keep people off the roads until they're cleared, so I've got some time to attend to your foot. Don't worry. I won't even ask what you were doing wandering around College Camp today. Are you out of your mind? This foot needs time to heal.”

“Don't get your stethoscope in an uproar. I was on police business. It was an emergency. You don't really think I like hobbling around out there in the snow and cold, do you?”

“I would be the last person to say what you do or don't like.”

“Attaboy, doc. Give her what for.” Der stuck his head through the opening in the curtain surrounding the examining table.

“Don't start.” I waggled my finger at him.

Earlier, I had delivered David into the hands of the emergency room personnel, and Der and his men had gone to the camp to find David.

“Not that I really care, but is the jerk alive?” I said to Der when he entered the examining room. Well, I did sort of care, if only so that Adam might spend years behind bars paying for his many crimes.

“Yeah. We're just bringing him in here now. Looks like a pretty badly broken leg. We almost didn't find him in all that snow.”

“Too bad.”

“Look at this,” Der said. He threw a heavy wad of something onto the examining table beside me.

“Keys,” I said. “A key ring with more keys than I've ever seen in one place at a time. And all so nicely labeled. ‘M's lab, M's office, Campus Security basement, Chancey's office,' and on and on. ‘Pres office?' You're kidding me. Where did you get these?”

“We searched the cottage at College Camp. We found Adam's backpack.”

“He'll say it was David's.”

“Adam's story that David killed Marie just won't hold together. All the events surrounding the murder, the story of the killing in your research, the entry into your lab, the attempt to run you down, the murder description planted on Chancey's computer, only Adam was around to do all that. David wasn't. And Adam certainly had more opportunity than David did to take all these keys or have duplicates made of those he might have legitimately ‘borrowed.' The keys afforded him access to everyplace he wanted to enter.”

“We'll see how this comes down. It's going to tear that family apart, that's for sure,” I said.

“Are you going to wait around until David comes out of surgery?”

I nodded yes and then said, “Meantime, do you think I could have a few words with Adam after they set his leg and take him up to a room?”

“He was conscious when we found him so I read him his rights and arrested him. He's in custody now. I'm setting up a guard outside his door when they get finished setting that leg. I'm sure he'll want to call his father's lawyer as soon as he can, and I doubt whether he'll be interested in talking to any of us, but maybe you can charm him into a confession, Murphy. Save the people of New York the trouble of a long, drawn-out trial.” Der chuckled and helped me to my feet. “Come on. Let's see how our murderer is doing.”

We poked our heads around the curtained-off area where Dr. McDonald was working on Adam's leg.

“This had better be perfect or you'll hear from my lawyer.” Adam delivered the warning to McDonald with his usual arrogance. “And you, Dr. Murphy. I'm suing you. You left me out there to die, to freeze to death.” He rose from the table on one elbow and pointed his finger accusingly at me.

“You'll have to wait in line,” I said.

“What do you mean?”

“I've already got one lawsuit against me pending. Your old fraternity advisor thinks I attacked him in the Senate meeting the other day. Maybe the two of you could file a joint suit. Could save money, you know.”

“I don't care about the money. I want justice.” Some of the self-importance left his voice, and he slumped back onto the table with a groan as McDonald worked on his leg. I was kind of hoping he'd faint in front of all of us, but he held on, although his color wasn't good.

“Good,” I said. “That's what I want too. Justice. For Marie.” With that, I turned on my heel and made as adroit an exit from his room as a woman on crutches can manage.

“I thought you had something to ask him,” Der said.

“I've got a million questions for him, as I'm sure you do also. But right now I can't stand the sight of him. I want to go home and hug my dog,” I said, and continued my hike down the hall toward the emergency room desk to pick up my coat and car keys. I felt a little like a deserter for not staying to talk with David when he came out of surgery, but I was just too tired to cope with anyone just now.

“Need any help getting home?” said Der.

“Nope. The horse knows the way.” I gestured toward my SUV in the parking lot outside.

“By the way, Murphy,” Der said as he followed me through the emergency room doors, “I'm sorry for all the trouble I gave you yesterday on the phone and today. I guess I was just strung out about the case, that's all.”

“No apology needed. And that's not why you gave me trouble. You did it because I'm so”—I searched for the appropriate word—“difficult.”

We stood side by side on the hospital steps, looking into the fading light as night descended on the valley. The snow had stopped, and the air was cold and crisp. A few stars made their appearance in the darkening sky.

“Snow's over for now, but I'd bet it'll keep snowing right up through Christmas. It's got a good start already.”

“Yeah.” Christmas. Could I make it through until Christmas, until Guy and I could settle our differences one way or the other?

“Drive carefully. The deer will be out tonight.” Der turned back toward the hospital.

I would. I would drive very carefully. A deer saved my life. I owed it to them to spare theirs.

Chapter 28

“I can't imagine why you want to drive all the way up here to go to a Wal-Mart when there's one right in our own back yard. They're all the same. How different do you think the after-Christmas sales will be here than back home?” Annie shook her dark curls in confusion as we pulled into the parking lot of the Super Center south of Syracuse. She had arrived from Sicily a few days before Christmas, back from her sabbatical, tired but enthusiastic about the work she accomplished while there. After small, sun-washed villages propped on the Mediterranean coast, their white walls contrasted against the bright blue of the sea, she would find the cold and gray of the river valley depressing. She assured me that she was happy to be back, but the contrast in the weather was more than anyone could handle. I was prepared to give her something else to think about, and, perhaps, a good laugh in the process.