Moonlighting in Vermont (20 page)

I was waiting at the kitchen window when Brooks’ patrol car pulled up. I pulled on my jacket and chased the dogs out of the house. I slid into the passenger seat. It was clean. He must have wiped out the mud before he came.
“Where to?” Brooks lifted a hand off the wheel and pointed his finger up, then down, the road.
“Left. We’re going back to Dotty’s.” I explained about the gazing ball that didn’t fit its stand right and reminded Brooks about the strange look Dotty gave me. We were bumping along the road, and Brooks was nodding at me.
Dotty’s car was missing when we pulled up. I jumped out of the car as we stopped, but I could see before I reached the door that the ball was gone. The iron stand the ball had been sitting in was shaped like a beetle. The ball would have been the beetle’s shell. I searched in the snow at the base of the wrought iron stand without much hope I would find what I was looking for.
“It’s not here?” Brooks was looking over my shoulder.
“No. Dotty must have noticed me looking at it. That would explain the look on her face. Crap!”
Brooks smiled. “Let’s make sure Dotty’s not home.” He banged on the door.
I looked at my watch. “She’ll be at work now. She starts mid-afternoon. She probably was getting ready to go when we showed up earlier.”
We hopped back in the car and made for Whispering Birches. We drove right up to the laundry building, bypassing the parking lot. There were a couple of Jeeps parked under the portico. Brooks locked his car, and we whooshed in through the automatic doors. Dotty was talking to one of the girls and looked up when we came in. Her eyes narrowed, and she darted into the back room.
“There’s a way out of the building through there.” I pointed after Dotty.
Brooks was already on the move; he skirted a tall table and jogged after Dotty. A Jeep roared to life in the portico. Man, that Dotty moved fast. I turned and raced out the front. Dotty was tearing up the hill, gravel flying out from under her tires. Brooks dashed around the corner of the building.
“She blocked the door in the back. I had to shove my way through. Come on.” He ran for his car. He had his cruiser rolling before I was completely in the car. I buckled myself in as Brooks turned the car and headed up the opposite drive. The other Jeep was blocking the way and prevented us from following Dotty.
Brooks talked into his radio, giving instructions to dispatch. He sounded calm, unhurried, but he was driving full out. Whipping around corners, spraying gravel at every turn. Flying over the hills. He took us down the road toward Pomfret.
“Why this way?”
“We would have met up with her, if she’d turned up the hill. I’m pretty sure she’s heading toward Woodstock.” He hesitated for a split second when we came to Midway Road, but he passed it by and took us out to Route 12 in Barnard. He turned to me. “I’m thinking she’s taking the paved roads, where she can make better time. But I’ve called in all possibilities, so the roads should be blocked regardless of which way she goes.”
We were tearing down Route 12. The engine was whining, and the trees were flashing by me. I had my eyes glued to the road in front of us, trying to catch sight of the Jeep. “She probably won’t get too far. We never fill those Jeeps more that half full.”
“Why’s that?”
“They’re always going in the shop with fouled plugs and dead batteries. We aren’t supposed to drive more than 25 mph at the Inn. The gunk never gets blown out. They’re always at the dealer’s and come back out of gas. So we don’t fill them all the way up.” I clutched the dash as Brooks practically launched the car over a hill. There ahead of us was a Jeep.
“Is that her?” I couldn’t make out the plate.
“Gotta be. No one else would be stupid enough to drive like that on this road.”
Brooks increased his speed, and we came up on Dotty’s tail. He clicked on the rooftop flashers and the siren, but she didn’t slow. I don’t think she even glanced back. We roared down the road in tandem, turning left and right with the road as if we were one car. I prayed that Dotty wouldn’t slam on her brakes, or we’d fly right up her butt.
We took a wide, sweeping turn to the right and were almost in Woodstock. The road straightened out, and we could see flashing lights a ways down the road. Brooks’ roadblock. Dotty had seen it. She was on her brakes and swerving. Brooks backed off, giving himself room to maneuver. Then the Jeep was spinning. I would almost swear that she did it on purpose. The Jeep came almost to a stop facing us. Then the engine roared, and she was racing toward us.

Fifteen

Brooks hit the brakes and swerved out of her path as Dotty sped past us. Then the Jeep was off the road, bumping through a pasture. It came to a stop, and Dotty was off and running on foot. Brooks spun the car so that we were facing the way we came. He pulled over, and before we were fully stopped, I was out the door. I jumped a ditch and ran toward Dotty. The slick soles on my boots were slipping in the snow. I was trying to avoid cow patties and ankle twisting holes.

There was a crash behind me, and I looked over my shoulder to see a police car stuck in Brooks’ driver-side door. He’d have to climb over the console to exit the car. I tripped and landed on my knees in the snow. I scrambled to my feet and wiped my hands on my jeans.
Cold.
I was up and running again. My breathing was coming in gasps, and I had a stitch in my side, but I kept going. I was going to catch Dotty Walker if it was the last thing I did.

I was gaining. Dotty had slowed to a walk and was holding her side. She turned, registered my presence, and started jogging again. My cowboy boots, while great at making me feel brave, were pitiful for running in. The soles slid over the earth, and the heels caught on clumps of earth. There was enough snow that I couldn’t really tell what I was running over. The ground wasn’t frozen, and with every other step, I sank into the muddy earth.

I glanced behind me. The cops were pulling Brooks out of his car. I hoped he wasn’t injured and turned back to Dotty. I was close enough to hear her swearing. I pushed myself to run faster. Sweat ran down my breastbone.

“You stay away from me, Bree MacGowan! I’ve got a gun. I’ll shoot you if you get too close.”
I thought that was unlikely. She was in her work clothes, blue tee-shirt over black pants. There were plenty of bulges, but I didn’t think any of them was a gun. She was breathing hard.
“Give it up, Dotty. You can’t get away.” Who did I think I was kidding? I was barely gaining on her now. The stitch in my side was needling me at every breath.
“Stay back. I swear I’ll hurt you.” Dotty pulled something from her pants pocket and waved it at me. She had a pair of scissors. I shook my head. They were probably the scissors we used to trim flowers at the Inn. The blade was only about two-inches long.
“What are you going to do with those? Trim my hair? Come on, Dotty, I’m tired of chasing you through this field. I want to go home.”
“Then stop chasing me. Are you a cop or something now? Are they paying you to chase me around this field, or are you stupid enough to do it for free?”
That was a low blow, especially as it was true. I gritted my teeth and forced my legs to move faster. I could almost touch her. I reached out to grab her shirt, but she spun away.
“Come on, Dotty. Give. It. Up.” I was about ready to give it up myself. My breath was coming in gasps. I lunged with everything I had and got my arms around her legs. She crashed to the ground, kicking and yelling.
“God damn it, Bree. Why do you have to stick your nose in everything? You could have left well enough alone. But no. B.B. MacGowan has to get involved.”
“Get real. If you hadn’t left me to take the fall, I wouldn’t have been involved.” I pushed myself up and sat in the snow. I would have to walk Dotty out of here now, and I didn’t think she was going to cooperate.
“It’s not like you would have gone to jail, you stupid woman! There was no evidence against you! If you’d just waited it out, you would have been okay.”
“Stupid woman? You have the nerve to call me a stupid woman? You ruined my whole, entire life.” I stood up. “You’re the stupid woman.” I pointed my finger at her.
Dotty hauled herself up off the ground. She slapped my hand. “Don’t you point that finger at me. I would have gotten away with it, if it weren’t for you. I’m smart. I did everything right. You screwed it all up for me, you and that snoopy cop!” She lifted the hand that was holding the scissors and drove them into my arm.
“Shit!” I tried to grab the handles, but Dotty pulled the scissors back out of my arm. Adrenaline rushed through my body. I grabbed the hand with the scissors, bent at the waist, and head-butted her right in the stomach.
All the air whooshed out of Dotty, and she sat down hard. I twisted the scissors out of her fingers and threw them as far as I could. Dotty was on the ground, struggling to catch her breath. I looked over to where Brooks had been. He and a handful of cops were running across the field.
I grabbed Dotty by the arm and yanked her off the ground. We started across the field toward the cops. By the time I reached them, the adrenaline had subsided, and my arm was hurting. My sleeve felt warm and sticky, but I wasn’t looking. I didn’t want to lose my lunch on top of everything else.
“Thanks for your help.” I gave Brooks the beady eyeball and walked past him. “You can have your murderer now. I let all the air out of her for you.”
Brooks motioned for a uniform to take Dotty and turned and fell in step with me. “I think you should stop for a minute and let me put something on that wound.”
“I’m fine. I just want to go home now. I’ve had kind of a lousy day.”
“Ms. MacGowan, if you don’t stop walking, I’m going to have to arrest you.”
“What are you arresting me for this time? Apprehending a murderer without a license? Subduing a wild woman with flower scissors? Can’t you just let me be?” I stopped moving. I felt lightheaded now that I was still. I thought maybe I was swaying a little.
An officer ran up with a little white box. He opened it for Brooks, who took out a pair of scissors and cut the sleeve off my shirt. I still wasn’t looking. I gasped when he swabbed my arm.
“Jeez! That hurts!” I tried to pull away.
“Hang on. That was the worst of it. I just need to put a dressing on it now.” He plastered a huge bandage over the hole in my arm. “Okay. Now at least you won’t bleed to death before we get to the road.”
I could hear sirens. I started walking toward the road again, wondering why more cops were coming. Surely they had plenty of men to subdue Dotty.
“Wait.” Brooks put a hand on my good shoulder. He motioned to the cop with the first aid kit, and they scooped me up in a two-handed seat. They started toward the road. The siren was getting loader.
“You can put me down. I’m not going to bleed to death between here and the road.”
“If you could see the color of your face, you wouldn’t say that. You’re a lovely shade of pale green.”
I didn’t want to admit it, but I wasn’t feeling so good. An ambulance rushed up the road and stopped next to the crunched cop cars. The paramedics piled out of the truck and looked in the windows. Brooks whistled, and they looked up to see us. One of them opened the back and grabbed a stretcher, and they barreled through the snow to meet us.
“I am not getting on that stretcher! I can walk.”
“I’m sorry, but we need to keep you as still as possible.” He looked at Brooks. “How’d she get this wound?”
Brooks was standing beside me. “She was stabbed with a pair of scissors, which I’m going to have a devil of a time finding, because she pitched them.” He walked beside me to the ambulance. The paramedics pulled a rolling stretcher out of the back of the ambulance, unfolded it, and set me on it. Brooks touched my cheek with the back of his fingers. “If I’d known she was carrying those scissors, I never would have let you run after her like that. I’m sorry.”
“I’m just glad it wasn’t a gun. That’s what she said she had.” I smiled at him. “You probably couldn’t have stopped me anyway.”
“I believe that. You’ll be okay now? I need to go find those scissors and help bring Dotty to the station.”
“I’m fine. Just a little cold.”
Brooks motioned to the attendants, and they lifted me into the ambulance. “She says she’s cold. Make sure she’s got a blanket.” The doors closed, and I was strapped to the gurney. I closed my eyes. I was shivering, but I thought I could probably sleep. Someone draped a heated blanket over me. Heaven.
“Bree? Wake up, Bree.” A woman was looking down at me.
“Oomph.” My mouth was dry. My arm hurt. “Hospital?”
“Hospital.” The woman nodded. “I’m sorry to wake you. I understand you had a pretty rough day.”
My brain registered the white coat.
Doctor.
“You could say that.” I looked around. I was in the emergency room. “How long have I been here?”
“Long enough for us to stick an I.V. in you and check all your vital signs.”
“I slept through all that?”
“They gave you some pain meds in the ambulance. Knocked you out a little.” She smiled. “What I’m going to do now is going to hurt more. I was afraid you’d wake up fighting if I tried to examine this wound while you were sleeping.”
“Great.” Jeez, couldn’t they just knock me out again? She pulled the dressing off my arm and poked around in the wound. I sucked in my breath and curled my fingers into the sheet. She let up, and I let my breath out.
“The next time someone stabs you, leave the object in the wound. It will do less damage. You’re going to have to go into surgery. I’m not going to be able to repair this while you’re conscious.” She leaned her head out of the room and motioned to someone down the hall.
“Surgery? Are you sure you can’t just put a couple of stitches in it and let me go? I’m not thrilled about surgery.” People had started flooding into the room. It suddenly seemed very small.
“I need to stop the bleeding. I need you to be still. If you were to jerk your arm while I’m working in there we could do a lot of damage.” A nurse was injecting something into the I.V. line.
“Don’t I have to sign papers before you can do surgery?” Panic was building in my gut. I felt like the world was running out of control.
A nurse bent over me. “Your brother signed the papers. He’s filling out forms at the nurses’ desk. Would you like to see him before we take you out of here?”
I nodded. My brother was here? I wouldn’t have been surprised to find that it wasn’t my brother at all, but Steve or Tom. But the door slid back, and J.W. was standing there.
“Can’t keep yourself out of trouble for five minutes, can you? Meg will be here when you wake up. Mom and Dad are driving up tomorrow.”
“Not Mom and Dad. Can’t you keep them from coming? I’m not dying or anything. It’s just a little hole in my arm.”
“And a tremendous amount of blood loss,” my nurse amended.
“Still, it’s no reason …”
“It’s time to go, Bree.” The doctor interrupted me. “Let your family come. It will make them feel better.”
A nurse opened a valve on my I.V., and a moment later, I didn’t have a care in the world.