Page 44 of Snow River

“It’s a good place for misfits, out here,” she said.

“Yes, that’s true.A lot of us never quite figured out a way to live free and be happy back in the regular world.Out here, I can be myself.”

“Gwen too?”

“Gwen too.She loved it here.She made friends with everyone, even that man…” She broke off, and Lila could tell there was something important she wouldn’t, or couldn’t, say.

“Were you both friends with Allison Casey too?”

“Oh yes, but Allison was married, so her life was a little different.She was the married one.I was the free spirit.Gwen was the dreamer.Nancy was the warrior.”

“Nancy…does she still live here?”

“Oh no, she’s never come back since they were killed.She said she would, but she never did.Maybe something happened to her.I’m the only one now.”Her gaze drifted away, and she seemed to be struggling with something.

“It’s hard to be without your friends,” Lila said gently.“There’s nothing like a good friend, someone you can really trust.”

That statement had the opposite effect that Lila had intended.Paulina turned away, grabbing her stomach as if Lila had just landed some kind of blow.“I’m so…so selfish, even now,” she choked out.

Lila jumped up from her chair and knelt before the artist.“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.I just meant?—”

“I’m selfish!”Paulina snapped.“I mean what I say.I kept hoping…” She shook her head.“I saw something a few days after the shootings.”

Lila drew in a breath of surprise.“What did you see?”

“It was…a man.I was looking for Gwen.We’d had a fight a few days earlier, before the shootings, something stupid that I can’t remember.Usually we made up quickly, but a few days passed and she didn’t appear.Finally I strapped on my skis and went looking.I never got to her yurt, because someone stopped me in the woods.”

Lila put a hand on her arm and squeezed, the weave of her sweater warm to the touch.“You mean Paul Anthony Bowman?”

It took a while, but finally the artist gave a tiny shake of her head.“Not him.He’d already been arrested.It was another man.He held a knife at my throat.Told me to never say that I’d seen him or he’d come after me.He scared the living daylights out of me.And then they found Gwen in the snow the next day.”She lifted her eyes briefly to meet Lila’s, then dropped her gaze again.“What if I’d told someone … maybe she would have lived.I…I don’t know.I never said anything to anyone.I was too scared.”

“Do you know who he was?”

“No, I’d never seen him before and I never saw him again, but I never forgot the lethal way he looked at me and the way that knife felt against my throat.”She put a shaky hand to her neck.

Lila squeezed her arm again.“That must have been terrifying.I’m so sorry.”She sucked in a breath, realizing the import of what Paulina had just done.“Why did you tell me?”

“That fall the other day…I might be sick.There could be something wrong with me, and that’s why I fell.I don’t know, but I won’t leave this life without saying what I saw.For Gwen.When Bowman confessed to those murders, he didn’t include Gwen.No one ever came to follow up on her death.Poor Gwennie.What if her killer went free because of me?”

“Oh no, you can’t blame yourself.She was probably already dead by then.Buster said she’d been in the snow at least two days before they found her.”

“He scared me so much,” Paulina whispered.“Most terrifying person I ever saw.”

Telling the story seemed to give her relief.She patted her forehead with the sleeve of her sweater, then gulped down half her tea.

“This tea is supposed to be calming, but my heart is pounding like a jackhammer.Reliving all this…I tried to forget it.But Gwen was my good friend.I still feel her presence when I try.”

Lila didn’t doubt it.Were all the victims of that long-ago murder spree still loitering around this lost mountain outpost?“Do you think you could draw a picture of the man who threatened you?”

Paulina startled and set down her mug.“What an idea.I don’t know if I could.He was so frightening, he might jump off the canvas and shoot me.I have a very vivid imagination.”

“Maybe just a sketch, not so life-like.”

Eventually, Paulina agreed to make a line drawing of the man, and directed Lila to bring her a sketchbook from a pile on her nightstand.It took her only a few minutes to sketch out a lean-faced man with a buzz cut and very erect posture.

“How old do you think he was?”Lila asked as she examined the image.He didn’t look at all familiar to her.

“Older than me.Forties.”

---