Page 113 of The Souls of Lost Lake
“What did you do!” Ava cried. Her face crumpled as she hollered at her friend. The one person in Tempter’s Creek she could truly abide. The one who’d always looked out for her from a distance and had her back. “What did youdo?” she accused with her hoarse throat.
Widower Frisk took the opportunity to roll into a standing position. He sprinted for the woods, making his getaway. Ned looked torn between chasing after him or staying with Ava. He lowered the ax, letting it land with athumponto the earth.
“It just happened. He was goin’ to kill you, Ava!”
“Widower Frisk?” she cried. “I’m s’posed to say ‘thank you’ forthat?” Ava was spittin’ fire, and she was okay with that. Fear of the widower had replaced timidity and then horror of dying, and now it was outright fury. “You killed my family!”
Ned paled. His face shifted from hurt to shock. His eyes widened. He shook his head. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like that.”
“Yes. Yes, I remember. I remember it all now!” Ava was still on her knees. She didn’t have the strength to stand.
Ned hurried toward her, but Ava reared back, and he stopped. “Ava. Listen to me.”
“No.” She shook her head vehemently.
“I saw red, Ava,red!” Ned dropped to his knees across from her. “I met your ma in town one day. Sure she was older’n me, but she was so pretty. An’ we hit it off.”
Ava could barely breathe, and when she did, it raked against the rawness in her throat.
“Then she broke it off, after I’d come out here sometimes. Just her and me.”
“Why did you come back then? If she broke it off, why’d you come back here?” She hauled off and slapped him. Hard. Across the face with a stinging whack that left an imprint of her hand.
Ned’s head jerked to the side, but he swung it back around as if he hadn’t felt it. “I know. I shouldn’t have. But I wanted your mama. I wanted to fix things ’tween us. But your pa, he came back from loggin’ early. Was madder than a wet hornet, andhecame afterme, Ava!” Ned’s eyes widened. Pleading with her to listen, to forgive. “He came after me!”
Ava gagged and retched onto the ground. Ned stumbled toward her, patting her back. He took a handkerchief from his Levi’s pocket and dabbed at her mouth. Ava twisted away from him.
“Don’t. Touch. Me.” She glared. “You won’t blame my pa for this. You’re the one who went after my family with an ax. Why’d you let me live, huh? You couldn’t have known I’d forget you? Forget you killed my family?”
“Ava, please. I just plumb lost my mind.” Ava saw some of thecrazy that had been in Ned that day reflected in his eyes. “Your mama and I, we were meant to be with each other. You all—you were in the way.”
“Then why kill Ma? Why not kill me?” It was the trying to make sense of it that kept Ava still and not racing to be free of Ned.
“She got in the way!” Ned was crying now. Weak and shaking, his eyes growing wilder. “She tried to save your pa, and when I ... when I hit her, and then your brothers came runnin’, and well, I don’t remember much after that myself. But I’ve watched over ya. Helped make penance for what I did. I didn’t expect you to not remember. Once I came to my senses, I ran off. Left you there. I figured you’d turn me in. I’d planned to leave town, but then you didn’t remember nothin’, and—” he paused, his expression pleading with Ava for mercy and understanding—“and I took care of ya as best I could. For your mama.”
“Get away from me,” Ava snarled. “All these years I’ve wondered—tried to remember. I trailed from the woods draggin’ that ax! The entire town thinks I’m a killer. You killed Hubbard too, didn’t you? Whatever for?”
“Ihadto!” Tears stained Ned’s dirty face and ran down into his whiskers. “He was comin’ on to ya.”
“He wasnot!”
“Hewas! He was givin’ you candy and presents, an’—”
“He was buying my silence so I wouldn’t out him and Jipsy to Widower Frisk!” Ava’s concluding cry was shrill and tore from her throat. She hurtled toward the unready Ned and rammed her palms into his shoulders. He fell backward, his head hitting the ground.
Ava brought her arm down, hauling off and hitting the side of his face. “You killed my ma!” she screamed. Then she hit him again. “You murderin’, lyin’, son of a—” Ava slapped him with every ounce of her pent-up anger and grief and loss.
When arms grabbed her by the waist to pull her off him, she wrestled and kicked and fought. Her hands came up and clawedat the one behind her. She connected with Mr. Sanderson’s face. He dragged her away from Ned. Ava continued to scream at Ned, who lay still.
Officer Larson rolled Ned onto his stomach and straddled him, yanking Ned’s arms behind his back and cuffing him. Ned stared at Ava and kept mouthing “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” while she continued to scream and wrestle against Sanderson’s hold.
“I’m gonnakill him!” Ava shouted.
“Stop it, you little tiger.” Sanderson’s command wasn’t based in care or concern but out of sheer self-preservation as she raked her nails over his face.
“Ava!”
Noah’s voice split through her consciousness.
