Let It Burn (34 page)

You’re going to get free. Then you’re going to crawl up behind him and you’re going to grab him by the neck. Even if that means sending this vehicle right off the road.

“Listen to me. I just got done telling you I’m finally ready to forgive her, and now here I go again. I guess I’ll never really be over it, huh?”

I felt the vehicle slowing down. Then turning right. I had no idea how long I had been out. Five minutes or five hours.

“You want to hear something funny? You’ll like this. We’re going to this golf club where I did a demo day in the spring. The pro there, thinks he’s a real hotshot, thinks he’s got the greatest little gem of a golf course, the best in all of Western Michigan.”

Western Michigan. A piece of information, not that it will do me any good.

“He’s got this house across the river, raised up a little bit so it’s got a little view, right? All you can really see is the water treatment plant, but I wasn’t going to say anything to him. I was just like, oh yeah, this is so nice. Anyway, he takes me out to the back of his property, down by the river. There’s a bend there and it gets kinda deep, and he actually says to me, he says, ‘You could dump a body back here, huh?’ Can you believe that? He actually said that to me.”

The vehicle was slowing down again. This time we came to a complete stop. I looked up at the hazy sunshine coming through the tinted windows. I wondered how many minutes of sunlight I had left.

No, do not think this way. You still have a shot as long as you’re breathing. As long as you’re thinking. Keep working those hands.

“He’s golfing in Scotland this week. Think he was bragging about that trip a little bit? Even six months beforehand? But now it all kinda works out, so I hope he’s having a good time.”

The vehicle turned right again, then left. Then it slowed down almost completely.

“Now, where was that turn again?”

I slowly brought my knees up toward my chest. I knew we had to be getting close. I’d be lucky to get one chance to do something. If I got that chance, could I even move?

“Ah, right here.”

He turned hard to the right, sending me sliding against the side of the minivan. I hit my head and everything went out of focus again.

I lay there for the next minute, just trying to get my head back on. Then he turned hard to the right again. He was driving slowly now. I knew I was running out of time. I gave up trying to sit up. I closed my eyes and tried to work my hands free. I was sweating, and I could feel the blood on the back of my head, running down my neck.

The vehicle left pavement. We were on gravel. I opened my eyes and looked at Paige. He was leaning forward in the driver’s seat, staring out at the road. I heard branches scratching on both sides. Then we hit a series of bumps that had me bouncing up and down. I cried out in pain, despite myself. A line of blood came trailing out from Grayson’s head.

“Sorry about that,” Paige said. “We’re almost done, I promise.”

I felt the incline. We were rumbling down one more stretch of rough road. I knew whatever came next would happen in a matter of minutes. My hands still weren’t free. I didn’t have any options left.

Except one. Maybe.

The minivan came to a stop. The driver’s side door opened. Paige got out. He closed the door. I could hear his footsteps coming around to the back. The rear door opened.

I stayed still. I kept my eyes open. I kept my mouth open. I did my absolute best impression of a man who had just breathed his last breath.

“See, it’s perfect,” he said. “The town’s right over the hill there, and yet nobody can see us here.”

Eyes staring dead ahead, looking at nothing. Not a muscle moving. Not a breath taken. I am a hunk of meat here, just like the hunk of meat lying next to me. You will look at me and realize this. Then you will let down your guard. You will pull me out of this minivan, thinking I’m nothing more than dead weight now.

Then I’ll have my only chance.

“I know they’ll find this thing eventually. I’m not an idiot, but it should be a while, I would think. By then I’ll have figured out where I need to go next.”

What did he just say? What is he going to do?

“Alex, you there?”

I felt a sharp jab on the back of my knee.

“Alex. Hey. Wake up.”

Come closer, I thought. Come see if I’m really dead.

The seconds passed. Then there was a loud thud as the tire iron landed on the floor next to me. Before I could even realize what he was doing, the rear door closed.

I heard the footsteps again. The driver’s side door opened, but he didn’t start the vehicle. Instead, he hit the gearshift, and then in the next second he was out and the door was closed. I felt the vehicle moving. It was rolling downhill. Faster and faster.

It was going into the water.

I felt the jolt as the front end hit. The momentum reclaimed the vehicle, only now the movement was smoother and even more downhill. I slid up against the back of the driver’s seat. My head slammed against it, then my shoulder, then my arms, still pinned behind me. Everything just a riot of pain as I was folded into a ball. The dead body hit me a second later, pinning me against the seat as the weight of the engine pitched everything forward. The vehicle was pointing almost straight down now, and as I looked back and up at the rear window, I saw the last of the daylight disappearing.

It wasn’t done moving. Down and down it went, impossibly deep. The pressure built in my ears and made my head pound even louder. It was getting darker. I could barely see a thing now. Then the one last interior light blinked off and it all went black.

I’m not dead yet, I thought. I have a little bit of air left. I need to gather whatever strength I have left. I need to get out of this thing and get back up to the surface. Yes, even with my goddamned arms tied behind my goddamned back.

It was time to move, no matter what it did to my head. I let out a loud yell as I moved my shoulder against the dead body. Nobody to hear you now, I thought. You might as well scream all you want.

I tucked my knees into my chest. I pushed myself up. God, my head was hurting so much. The water was starting to come inside the vehicle now. The dashboard was underwater.

The windows are closed, I thought. I need to break one open. I rolled over onto my back. I was on top of Ryan Grayson now. I kicked at the window. Then again and again, but I couldn’t get enough leverage.

The tire iron. I need that tire iron.

I spun over onto my stomach. I moved my body over the rumpled-up plastic, feeling with my face for the heavy weight of that tire iron.

I have to find it. Or else I will die.

I willed my body to move, to cover every inch I could reach, no matter how much it hurt.

Find it find it find it.

There.

I grabbed the thing with my teeth, feeling the cold sting of the iron. Then I worked myself into a sitting position and dropped it into my lap.

That’s useless, Alex. You need it in your hand.

Even then, can you hit the window hard enough?

I rolled my body and caught the tire iron as it hit my hand. The water was coming higher now. Soon the air would be gone.

I gripped the tire iron and turned around so I was facing away from the window. I started swinging the iron at the glass. I felt it hit. The glass didn’t break. I swung again. Then again. Then again.

I felt the water on my legs. It was cold. I swung the iron. I fumbled with it, nearly dropping it. Then I recovered and swung again, trying to use my whole body to get more force behind the blow.

The water was rising. Shockingly cold. I was shivering already.

You are going to die, Alex. You are going to die right here with this other man. This fellow victim. They won’t find you for weeks, maybe months. Tanner Paige will go on killing while you slowly dissolve in this cold dark river.

Swing again. Like you mean it. Like you want to live. Like you want to get out of here and go find him.

I swung the iron. It hit the glass and broke through before falling from my hand. A rush of water hit me, wrapping its icy arms around my chest. I gasped for my last breath of air as it overtook me completely. Then I was under.

Get out. My only thought. The only two words in the language. Get out.

I kicked against Grayson’s body. I kicked against the seats. I felt my head knocking through the rest of the broken glass as I kicked again and again. My face out of the vehicle now, then my shoulder. Another kick. Another. My last breath dying in my lungs as I finally put my knee against the frame of the glass and pushed myself into the open water.

I didn’t know up from down at that point. I was moving, but I was in my wet clothes and it felt like I would sink to the very bottom. This way, I thought. No, this way, this way, and now my breath is gone, and the next thing that goes in will be the river itself, no, I must hold on for the air but I’m going the wrong way.

Then I saw light. I was going to the surface after all. It came closer and closer as I tried to dolphin kick, even with my hands still tied behind my back, with my lungs on fire now, until finally …

Air! I gasped for breath, my face just above the surface. I kicked and sputtered and took a breath of that beautiful air and filled my lungs with it. Then I gasped again and gagged on the river water. I spit that out and coughed and wheezed, keeping up my dolphin kick somehow, finding the strength to keep my face above water.

A second breath, a third, a fourth. It was all I could do to keep my body in a position to keep breathing, but as my breath came back to me, I knew I had other problems. I was still in the water, still unable to swim. For all I knew Paige was standing on the shore, watching me and figuring out what he had to do next to deal with this last problem.

From somewhere in the back of my mind, I remembered a technique for breathing in water. You arch your back and turn your face up so that your nose is the high point, and any buoyancy you have will naturally keep that one point above the water. You can do this without having to tread water, so you can regain your strength.

A fine theory, that may or may not work if you’re fully dressed. Worth a shot. I arched my back and put my head up.

Nice and easy, Alex. Stop kicking. See if this will work.

Yes. I think we’ve got something here. As long as I stay perfectly still.

Breathe. Yes. Breathe. Relax.

I did that for a full minute. Then the cold water started to get to me. It was time to move again. It was time to take whatever strength I had recovered and see if I could get to shore, and hope that Paige wasn’t waiting there for me.

I dolphin kicked one time, hard enough to drive my head up over the water. I took a quick look. I saw where the road led down to the river. What must have been the boat launch. I didn’t see Paige anywhere. I went back under, then dolphin kicked again, looking in the other direction. I was actually closer to the other shore.

I tried to flatten out my body on the water, but I was too bottom-heavy. I kicked and kicked and got nowhere, feeling the strength draining away again.

Turn over, you idiot. Do this on your back.

I flipped over and looked at the sky. I sucked in the air as I kicked and thrashed and finally started making progress, eventually settling into a cadence. Kick breathe kick breathe.

Until finally, I felt the bottom of the river under my feet. I turned over and went down to my knees, then stood up and stumbled out. I collapsed on the shore, feeling myself sinking into the black mire on the side of the river. I looked back behind me. I didn’t see Paige anywhere. He had left. The son of a bitch had turned and walked away, thinking I was already dead. Or if I came to, that I’d be dead in another few seconds anyway. Whatever, I didn’t even care. All I knew was that I was here on the shore, feeling like my head was about to explode—but alive.

I lay there for a while, until I started to shiver. When I finally rolled myself back up to my knees, I felt my hands shift. I gave them one great twist and felt them come free. When I pulled the thing around to look at it, I saw that it was a set of jumper cables. I threw them on the ground and looked at the raw skin on my wrists. Then I tried to get up.

Whoa, that’s not going to work, I thought. Standing is one thing I’m not ready for. That’s when I remembered my cell phone. I reached into my pocket and grabbed it. I turned it on. Nothing. Goddamned cell phone can’t survive one lousy dunk in the water. Without another thought, I tossed it into the river.

I started to shiver again, so I put one hand on the ground and tried to stand. One more time, I thought. You can do this.

I got one foot under me, then the other. I took a step and almost went down, caught myself, took another step. I had no idea where I was. I had no idea where I could go for help. I just knew I had to move.

I reached around and felt the back of my head. There was a big lump there. The skin was broken and I felt blood. A cold rational voice in the back of my head made the general announcement that I surely had a concussion and could use some medical attention as soon as possible. I took another few steps and felt everything spinning around me.

When things came back into focus, I saw something just down the shoreline. A large facility of some sort. A building and a pair of great round tanks set into the ground. The water treatment plant. He said something about that. Something about the view from this house, and the man being in Scotland. A useless detail, and yet I remember that part.

“Where are you, Paige?” I asked out loud, my own voice sounding strange and faraway. “Where did you go?”

He drove the minivan all the way out here, after all. He said we were in Western Michigan, right? Didn’t he say that? That’s a long way back to Southfield. How’s he going to get there?

I kept putting one foot in front of the other. The ground was more even here. It didn’t feel like I’d fall with every step. I was walking through the facility now. I found the sidewalk that ran between the building and the tanks. I didn’t see anybody there. I kept walking.

I need to get out of these wet clothes. I need to get warm. I need to get my head looked at. I need to get the police on Paige’s tail. The checklist was right there in my head, yet I kept walking and walking. Out of the facility, down a street lined with houses. I could have stopped at the first house. Banged on the door, collapsed in a heap. Asked them to call 911. Yet I kept walking. Because I saw something ahead of me.