Page 112 of Cougar Point

“Please don’t leave me,” she pleads, and grips his arm.

He peels her hand free and says, “Just for a moment. You’re safe. Try to be calm.”

He goes back into the building. Victoria gingerly unwraps the bandana wrapped around her wrist and closes her eyes as it drops to the floor of the vehicle. She can’t look.

Then, from the building, three gunshots ring out.

Victoria freezes in the seat.

SEVENTY-THREE

The wrecker arrives and takes Jack’s car away, but we’re still waiting for the Lyft to come because Jack refused to ride with the wrecker. Ronnie’s phone rings. It’s Longbow, so she puts it on speaker so I can hear.

“Lucas found your mom. She’s alive.”

The words don’t feel real. I can tell Ronnie feels the same way. She looks like she’s in shock, and then the relief floods into her.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes. Lucas has been shot.”

“What? Where?”

“He got them all. They’re all dead. Ain’t that something?”

“Where is my mother?”

“Your mom’s okay but she’ll need medical treatment, there’s an ambulance on the way.”

“Text me the location. Thanks, Sheriff.” She disconnects and a few seconds later her phone dings with the location.

“What’s going on?” Jack asks, getting out of his car to find out what the commotion is about.

Ronnie says, “Mom is alive. According to Sheriff Longbow, Lucas was shot. The kidnappers are dead. Mom’s getting an ambulance. And I’ve got the location.”

“Where?” I ask.

She gives me directions.

“Dad can go with us. Hurry, Megan.”

In the distance Semiahmoo Resort appears over fields of yellow flowers, and I bounce the SUV over an expanse of crushed shells to the building Ronnie pointed out when we first came to the resort. She told me it was an abandoned salmon packing plant. I start to slow and Ronnie says, “Go around to the back.”

Behind the long wooden building I come to a concrete bunker, with rusted steel doors seeming to be jutting from the earth and standing open. The black SUV belonging to Sergeant Lucas sits near the bunker, and a disheveled-looking blonde woman, who can only be Victoria, is sitting in the back of an ambulance with her bare feet dangling over the side. One arm is bandaged and held tightly against her chest while the paramedic talks to her. Her eyes widen when she recognizes Ronnie.

“Ronnie!” Victoria cries out, and reaches out for her daughter.

Ronnie rushes to her. They embrace gingerly, then she steps back and examines her mom’s wounds, the swollen eye, the bruises on her face and neck, the busted lip, and the bandaged nose.

“Mom, it’s going to be okay. They’ll take you to the hospital and everything will be…will be…” Her eyes go to her mom’s bandaged wrist—the place where her left hand should be. She breaks down and sobs, and Victoria pulls Ronnie close with her good arm, cradling her daughter’s head against her shoulder, in spite of the pain it causes her.

Standing a short distance away, I feel like my heart is going to explode and tears threaten my eyes, but it’s all over and I don’twant to make a scene. This is what a family is supposed to be. I can feel the love like it’s a tangible thing and not just an emotion. I’m happy for Ronnie and at the same time a little jealous and angry with myself that I hadn’t done more. Some great detective I am. If Lucas hadn’t interceded, this scene would have been so much different. Victoria might be dead and Ronnie destroyed. I grit my teeth and feel a lump in my throat at the thought. I tell myself it’s okay. Everything’s okay. She’s alive.

A paramedic goes to work motioning Ronnie back. Ronnie comes to me and wraps me in a tight hug, and I love it and hate it and want to cry but I won’t.

“How are you holding up?” I want to ask, but I feel stupid. Of course she’s in another world with her pain and her relief. I don’t know what to say so I keep quiet.

Ronnie releases me so I can breathe and looks from me to her mom. “Thank you, Megan. She’s going to be okay. I’ll never forget what you’ve done. Ever. You’re family now.”

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