Page 62 of Wind Valley

He didn’t have to explain more than that. They both dipped their heads underwater, then as their hair froze, they transformed themselves into unrecognizable ice sculptures. Maura slicked her hair into two horns, then painted her eyebrows and eyelashes with such a thick layer of frost that she looked like a bighorn sheep.

“That works,” he told her. “You go ahead and blend in with that group. I’ll be right behind you.”

“No, you should come with me.”

“I’ll stand out too much. Besides, I have a plan. Go, hurry.” The bathers were making their way onto the boardwalk, shivering as the cold air surrounded them. “Please, just trust me. Meet me on the east side of the building.”

She nodded her absurdly ice-adorned head and swam toward the group. He watched closely as she said something to one of the teenage girls still in the water. The girl giggled, held her nose, and went underwater. By the time everyone had reached the boardwalk, two other people had crazy ice-hair like Maura’s.

Smart.

The Japanese bathers slipped into the flip-flops they’d left on the boardwalk, and hurried toward the locker room, with Maura in their midst. No one would have known she wasn’t one of them, aside from her bare feet.

They crowded past SS, who had to step to the side to let them pass. His glance went right over them, clearly registering Japanese faces, and looking no further. Lachlan didn’t relax even once Maura was inside the heated building. Hurry, he silently urged her. Your hair is already thawing. The only tiny bit of disguise you have is dripping away.

Time to execute his plan.

33

Just as Maura had reached the door that led to the locker rooms, a commotion caught her attention. She looked back to see a crowd gathering around the slippery section of the boardwalk, the part that got continuously thawed and refrozen. She couldn’t see more than that, and the drip-drip of her hair felt like a tick-tock down her back. So she put it from her mind and hurried into the locker room to change.

When she reached the east side of the building, she found Lachlan already waiting there.

“Did you see what happened in there?” she asked, pulling down the scarf she’d wrapped around her face.

“I did. Poor SS wasn’t paying attention and he tried to walk too fast on the slimy boardwalk. Somehow he slipped and fell on his ass. I can’t say how, don’t want to incriminate myself. The paramedics are with him, as well as a bunch of extremely concerned staff members. I think a lawyer might be present, or at least someone who keeps babbling about liability releases. I don’t think he’ll be leaving anytime soon, but we should get out of here.”

She ducked under her scarf again so should could laugh at SS’s predicament without looking like a jerk. Maybe he’d get the hint that he shouldn’t even be in Alaska.

When they reached Sam’s car, she hesitated before getting in. “Do you think it’s safe to drive this car?” she asked Lachlan. “Should we find the tracker before we go anywhere?”

“We can’t just leave it here. Searching for the tracker might take a while. All I did was buy us a little time. Hang on, let’s call Sam and see what he wants us to do.” He stepped away to make that call, while she shifted from one foot to the other to stay warm. “We worked it out. He’s going to meet us at the Fairbanks airport. Gil’s coming, and he’ll drive Sam’s car down to Blackbear to throw him off. Sam will take us back to Firelight Ridge. Hopefully we’ll be out of town before SS reaches the parking lot.”

Her eyes widened. “Do you think it’s safe to go back there?”

“They’ve been spreading around a story that you’re sick of using an outhouse and aren’t planning to come back to Firelight Ridge. They made sure the investigator heard it. I’m sure SS will get the word, and since he knows we were here in Fairbanks, maybe he’ll believe it.”

“Maybe.” SS was so unpredictable, and so relentless, that she couldn’t be sure of anything. But she couldn’t think of another plan at the moment. At least in Firelight Ridge, there were eyes and ears everywhere. SS couldn’t sneak up on her. She missed her students. She missed Pinky, and the new friends she was making. And she could still be with Lachlan, at least a little while longer. “Let’s do it,” she decided. “As soon as we get home, I want to talk to Molly about representing me. Doesn’t Sam know someone with the FBI?”

“He does. He was working with them when he first came to Firelight Ridge.”

“Perfect. We can find out if SS put his foot in it by coming here.” Ever since she’d had that revelation in the hot springs, she’d been filled with the sense that there was light at the end of the tunnel. She didn’t have to live this way. She could free herself from this nightmare once and for all and go anywhere she wanted. Even back home to Colorado, if she chose. The very idea made her giddy.

On the way to the airport, Lachlan suggested she try to locate Dr. Reed’s ex-wife. “While we have reliable cell service,” he added.

“Is it safe to use my phone?”

“I think so. He’s tracking this car, not your phone.”

She did a quick search and discovered that the professor’s wife was named Andrea Reed, maiden name of Garth, and that she still lived in Vancouver, where she too worked at the university as a drawing instructor. “I bet that’s awkward,” she mused, as she dialed the number listed in the university directory.

It was almost a shock when someone answered. “You’ve reached Andrea Reed,” said a brisk female voice. “I’ll be on leave until the end of the spring semester. Leave a message at the beep.”

But her voicemail was full and not accepting new messages.

She glanced over at Lachlan, who looked just as taken aback as she felt. “That seems weird, doesn’t it? Wouldn’t she be checking her messages regularly?”

“I hope she’s not in some kind of danger. Now that I think about it, Dr. Reed sounded pretty threatening on the phone.”

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