Lost Lake

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Ami nodded off twice during the ride home, but fear erased her fatigue when the patrol car parked in front of her house. Ami and Ryan lived in a yellow-and-white farmhouse surrounded by dense woods. It had a quaint front porch with a swing that she and Chad had rocked in on warm summer nights after Ryan went to sleep. In daylight, it was a picture-postcard house. Tonight, when Ami looked at the woods she painted and the home she knew so well, she saw dark places where a murderer could hide.

One of the officers stood watch while Ami waited in the car. The other officer used Ami’s keys to unlock her front door. When he was satisfied that no one was hiding in the house, the two policemen escorted her inside. While Ami went upstairs to get ready for bed, one officer took up a post in the living room and the second went outside to patrol the grounds. Ami felt better after a shower, though she was certain that she could not possibly fall asleep. For a while her thoughts kept her in turmoil, but she was so exhausted physically and emotionally that she soon drifted off.

Ami’s eyes snapped open. She stared bleary-eyed at the clock on her end table. It was one-forty-six in the morning, and the room was pitch-black. The thud of a heavy object falling had jerked her out of her deep sleep, but she wasn’t certain that she hadn’t dreamed the sound.

Ami sat up and listened. She heard nothing but the ticking of the grandfather clock in her downstairs hallway. The clock was an antique that Chad had loved. The metallic tock of the moving hands could be heard clearly in the middle of the night and had always bothered Ami, but she could not bring herself to get rid of the clock after Chad died. Now it was the only sound she could hear. She had almost convinced herself that the sound that had awakened her was a figment of her imagination when a floorboard creaked.

Someone was walking up the stairs and trying to be quiet about it. Ami got out of bed. Her heart beat furiously until she remembered that there was a policeman in the house. She was chiding herself for being a fool when her doorknob started to turn.

Ami rushed to the door and braced against it. The knob stopped turning.

“Who’s out there?”

The wooden door shattered and flew into the room. Splinters stabbed Ami, and the sharp edge of the door struck her forehead, knocking her onto the bed. A shadow loomed over her. Dressed all in black, the man seemed part of the darkness. He raised a brutal knife whose serrated blade shone in the moonlight. Ami rolled off the bed to the floor and had scrambled to her knees when she was jerked up by her hair. The pain was excruciating. She screamed and the grip on her hair relaxed. Ami rolled to her back, her hands up in self-defense. Her attacker collapsed on top of her. Ami screamed again as she shoved at the weight that crushed her to the floor. The killer did not strike at her and his body barely moved. Over his shoulder, Ami saw another man whose face was concealed by a ski mask identical to the one the first assailant had worn. Ami scuttled from under the first man’s body until her back was pressed against the wall.

“It’s me,” a familiar voice said.

The man peeled back his ski mask. Carl Rice stood above her, a large, blood-covered knife in his right hand. Rice saw where she was looking and laid it on the floor.

“It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you. I heard about Dr. French on the radio and I knew they’d come for you.”

Ami had never been so close to death and she was having trouble breathing.

“I’m going to help you stand up,” Rice said. “Let’s get you away from the body.”

Carl reached down and helped Ami to her feet. She moved sideways so she would not have to touch the corpse but she could not take her eyes off of the dead man.

“Who is he?” Ami asked, terrified that she knew the answer.

“It’s one of Wingate’s men.”

“Oh, no,” Ami moaned, overwhelmed by the idea that someone as powerful as the General was after her.

“This is the worst possible time for me to come back from the dead,” Rice said. “Wingate knows that eventually the police will figure out that I’m wanted for the murder of a general and a congressman. He’s got to be terrified that I’ll barter information about the Unit for a lighter sentence. If President Jennings raises serious questions about the Unit, Wingate’s presidential hopes go down the tube. That’s why Dr. French was killed. Wingate had to find out what I told you and the doctor, and who else knows. Ami, did you tell the police about our conversations?”

Rice’s reference to the police made Ami remember her guards.

“What happened to the two officers who…?”

Carl shook his head. “I was too late.”

“Those poor men, they were only here to help me.”

Ami started to sob. Rice gripped her upper arms. “You’ve got to pull yourself together. We don’t have time for this.”

“We don’t have time?” Ami yelled as anger replaced her despair. “You’re the cause of all this. Those men would be alive if it weren’t for you.”

“And you would be dead,” Rice answered calmly, “and you may be dead soon if we stand here debating who’s responsible for what. When Wingate’s men don’t report in, he’ll send more. Now tell me what you told the police about the Unit.”

“The police don’t know anything. I told them what you said was privileged.” Suddenly a picture of George French’s ravaged body flashed in Ami’s mind and she shuddered. “Wingate’s men must know what you told us. George was tortured just the way you tortured Eric Glass.”

“Do the police think I killed French?”

Ami nodded. “I saw the crime scene photographs at Lost Lake. I thought…”

“Of course you did. What else were you supposed to think?” Rice placed his hands on Ami’s shoulders. “There’s only one way you can save yourself. You have to tell that DA, Kirkpatrick, about the Unit. Wingate won’t have a reason to kill you if other people know my story. Get dressed. I’ll take you to police headquarters and drop you off.” Rice pointed at the corpse. “He’s your proof.”

Ami grabbed some clothes and a pair of sneakers and went into the bathroom while Rice searched the dead man. When she came out he was holding a pistol that he’d taken from the killer.

Carl led Ami downstairs in the dark and out the back door. They circled through the woods that bordered her property and came out on a logging road about a quarter-mile from the farmhouse. Ami saw the outline of a car in the dark. Carl aimed a penlight at the front window and turned it on and off. The engine started, and Carl raced to the car with Ami in tow. Ami jumped into the back, Rice got into the front passenger seat, and Vanessa started driving.

“We’re going to drop Ami at police headquarters,” Rice said.

Vanessa was about to respond when Ami pointed down the road. “What’s that?”

A car was barreling toward them with its lights off. Carl opened his window and fired across the hood. An answering shot blew out Vanessa’s left front headlight. Carl fired again and the other car’s windshield shattered. Almost instantly the car careened off the road. When they sped past, Ami saw the driver slumped over the steering wheel.

“Move!” Carl ordered Vanessa. She floored the accelerator and Ami flew back in her seat.

Two men had leaped out of the wrecked car and were firing at them. Carl pushed Ami to the floor as a bullet ricocheted off the trunk leaving a trail of sparks. Ami rolled back and forth on the floor as Vanessa sped out of range.

“You can sit up now,” Rice said when he was sure that they were safe.

“Where are we going after we drop off Ami?” Vanessa asked.

“I don’t know,” he answered. “We need a place to hole up until the hunt dies down. Then we can try to figure out how to get out of the country.”

“I have an idea,” Ami said. “When I was at my old firm I bought a cabin with two other couples. It’s on the coast. I’m pretty sure no one is using it this week. You can stay there.”

“Thanks for the offer but I’ll pass,” Rice said.

“Why? It’s pretty isolated. No one will look for you there.”

“If the police find out you helped us they’ll arrest you. I’m not going to risk that.”

“You just saved my life, Carl. I’d be dead and Ryan would be an orphan if it weren’t for you.” Ami took a key off of her key chain. “I’m willing to take a chance for someone who took a big one for me. Use the cabin.”