Without a Brew

by Ellie Alexander

  Frost-filled air burned in my lungs as I jogged along the trail. Every few hundred yards, I heard the sound of hawks squawking.

  Garrett and Kat had probably sent out a search party for me. That made me think of Chloe. Another wave of concern flooded my system.

  In truth, Garrett and Kat likely had no idea I was semi-lost in the woods. Garrett might have assumed that I had decided to take his advice and call it a day. No one would be the wiser until later tonight when Alex started to freak out because I didn’t come home.

  Worst-case scenarios bombarded my head. I pictured Alex pacing the kitchen and dining room, calling Mac to let him know I was missing.

  Stop it.

  This was another quality I wasn’t proud of. I could leap to dozens of horrific scenarios in a matter of minutes. A therapist had once told me it was a coping strategy. That my brain tried to prepare me for the worst. I never agreed with that assessment. There were plenty of better ways my brain could have learned to cope.

  I continued on, sliding over patches of ice. Branches scratched my face and arms. I ignored the pain and ran faster.

  Light was fading at a rapid rate.

  How far had I come?

  Two miles? Three?

  I had to slow my pace in order to make sure I didn’t fall and seriously hurt myself on one of the many branches and limbs on the backcountry trails.

  I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t bumped into any skiers or snowshoers. Then again, they probably wouldn’t have ventured out this late knowing that darkness would soon descend.

  Watching my footing became my singular focus. I couldn’t risk slipping and breaking a bone. Overnight temps would plummet into the teens. I wouldn’t survive alone.

  Keep moving, I told myself. I had to try and silence the negative voice in my head and push forward.

  Think of Alex. He’s waiting for you.

  I squinted to see. The sun had vanished behind the ridgeline, plunging the valley into a swath of darkness. Time to break out the flashlight app.

  I pulled my phone from my coat pocket. It was like a block of ice. In order to turn it on, I had to remove my gloves and try to slide it with my numb fingertips.

  The puny stream of light barely reached my feet, but it was better than nothing.

  I started to shiver.

  That was a bad sign.

  I had been trained in CPR—it was a requirement for working at Der Keller—and I knew that shivering was one of the first signs of hypothermia. I had started to sweat from exertion, and now my sweat was cooling me off. Tiny beads of perspiration dripped down my forehead and froze on my cheeks.

  What else could possibly go wrong?

  Nothing. Just keep moving, Sloan, you’ll be okay.

  I felt grateful that the kinder voice in my head was winning the battle.

  Above me in the vast stretch of darkness, the first stars of the night flashed, as if trying to light the way. Their distant glimmer spurred me on.

  I trekked on for another twenty or thirty minutes with the sound of my feet crunching the snowy ground and the echo of my strained breath. Finally, in the distance I could make out the soft, hazy glow of lights from the village.

  Thank goodness.

  I was probably about a mile and a half out. I would be back to Nitro in less than a half hour if I could keep up this pace, maybe sooner if it wasn’t too slippery.

  I wasn’t sure if it was the relief of knowing I was close to home, the fear of being stranded in the cold, or the physical exhaustion, but my emotions felt more stable.

  That was until I rounded a corner and ran smack into Ali, who had a shovel in one hand, a flashlight in the other. She stood over a three-foot hole in the ground, stared up at me, and wielded the shovel like a baseball bat.

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  MY BREATH CAUGHT IN MY chest. What was Ali doing?

  I froze and held my arms up in surrender. “Ali?”

  Her eyes were wild. “Back up. Back away!”

  “Okay.” I kept my hands in the air. The flashlight on my phone illuminated the deep hole at her feet.

  “Don’t move!” She lifted the shovel higher. “Stay there! If you move one step closer, I will hit you—hard!”

  “Ali, listen, I don’t know what’s going on, but I can help.”

  “You can’t help. You know what I’ve done.” Her manic voice pierced through the empty valley.

  “Know what?”

  “About Lily.”

  I knew that I had to stay calm, but it was impossible with my shivering body and the surge of adrenaline pulsing through my veins. “What about Lily?”

  “I couldn’t let them get away with it. Not after what they did to my sister and my family. They ruined our lives.”

  “I don’t understand, Ali. What are you saying?” I bounced from one foot to the other to try to stay mobile. I was already freezing. If I stood still for too long, I was worried that I wouldn’t have any energy to run.

  She stabbed the shovel in the air. I wondered how long she’d been digging. It must have been extremely difficult to break through the frozen ground.

  “What is there to say? She killed my sister, so I killed her.”

  I hadn’t anticipated a confession. “Your sister?”

  “Yes, my sister. Don’t play dumb. I know that you know. They killed Chloe. They left her there to die. I wish it wasn’t you here now. I like you, and this wasn’t how it was supposed to end.”

  Everything fell into place. Ali was Chloe’s sister. No wonder she had freaked out when Brad introduced Lily as a potential surrogate. “Oh, Ali, I’m so sorry.”

  She recoiled. “You’re sorry? Try living with your sister’s death. We spent days and days searching for her. I knew there was something wrong. I could tell by the way Lily acted. I tried to tell my parents and the police, but no one believed me. They said it was a normal reaction to losing a friend. It wasn’t. She covered it up. How could they have left Chloe in the river? How could they let us search night and day, knowing that she was dead?”

  Ali stared past me into the darkness as if she were talking to someone behind me. I almost turned around to make sure there wasn’t a scary figure looming nearby. “She might not have forced her into the river, but she left her there to die. They both did.”

  “You mean Lily and Taylor.”

  “Taylor and Lily. They were supposed to be Chloe’s best friends, and what did they do? They let my baby sister drown and then said nothing. Nothing.” Her words pierced the frigid night sky. “She might have been saved. How did they know? She could have drifted downriver. If they had called for help, she might be alive now, but no. NO! They let her die. She was seventeen. She had her entire life in front of her, and her best friends let her die.”

  “They made a terrible mistake.” I wondered what I should do. Ali was distracted by her emotions and the retelling of her sister’s tragic death. This might be my chance to run. I didn’t think Ali wanted to hurt me, but then again, she wasn’t acting rationally.

  “A mistake? No. Lily told me everything. I know what they did. They killed my sister. They were murderers.” She clutched the shovel tighter.

  I wasn’t sure I agreed, although I understood Ali’s frustration. I took a step backward to test the waters.

  “I told you not to move.” She took a step closer. “You know what? Lily never came around after they finally found Chloe’s body. She was at the funeral and then that was it. If they were such good friends, why wouldn’t she have stayed in touch with my parents? With me? I left for college, but my parents were devastated. They’ve never recovered. How could they? I tried to move on. I got a good job, married Brad, spent years in therapy for my grief. And then fate intervened.”

  “You mean the surrogacy?” I could hear my words starting to slur from the bitter cold, but I had to keep her talking.

  “What are the odds? I recognized her right away. She had changed her hair and her look, but it was Lily. I don’
t know who was more shocked. Her or me.”

  “Did Brad know?” I couldn’t stop shivering. How was Ali not freezing? She had to have been out here for hours digging. She should have been hypothermic by now.

  “No.” Ali shook her head. She hadn’t loosened her grip on the shovel. “He has no idea. I made sure of that. I never thought for a second that they were having a fling. The minute I recognized her, I saw it in her face. She was riddled with guilt.”

  “What happened then?” I tried to calculate how long it would take me to get back to town. We were probably about half a mile from the pedestrian bridge that connected Blackbird Island to the village. From there I would have to wind along the backside of one of the bigger hotels until I got to the street. Then I could sprint uphill two long blocks.

  “I formed a flawless plan.” Ali chuckled. “Brad was convinced that I was distraught over the thought of him cheating on me. It distracted him and kept him from paying attention to what I was really plotting. I got Lily’s number from him. He thought I was stalking her, and in a way, I was. I followed her a couple times, trying to determine when and how to strike. She caught me following her and confessed. She told me everything that happened that day. How they’d been drinking and how Chloe egged them on to get in the river. How she had watched my sister die and done nothing about it. She said she felt relieved telling me. She actually thought I had forgiven her. She told me that she was going to come here. She had tracked Taylor down, and said that it was time for both of them to come clean about what really happened to Chloe. That’s when my plan really came to fruition. She had given me the perfect opportunity.”

  “So you followed her here?” I realized as I asked the question that nothing about the weekend had been coincidental. It was all part of a well-crafted plan. Ali had come to the village with a singular mission—to exact her revenge on Lily and Taylor. Every clue and conversation from the past few days suddenly fell into place. It made so much more sense. “I take it the romantic anniversary weekend with Brad was a ruse?”

  She kicked the pile of frozen dirt at her feet. “It is our anniversary. That much is true, but that’s not why I picked Leavenworth. I kept in touch with Lily. She was so self-absorbed. She had no idea that I wasn’t going to let her get off easy. A confession didn’t change what she had done. She wasn’t remorseful. She wanted to be absolved of her sins. I had no intention of freeing her of her guilt. I knew what I had to do. What I had to do for Chloe.”

  Ali’s body began to shake. “I told Brad we needed a getaway. He agreed. He was desperate to make amends, so I booked this weekend knowing that Lily would be in town. She didn’t know that I planned to follow her here. When she saw us that night, she was shocked. I let her sweat it out. Brad went to bed, and I came back to the bar and told her I wanted to talk. We went for a walk. I told her that I wanted to be there when she spoke to Taylor. She thought it was a bad idea. She said he was likely going to be resistant. Little did she know we were headed here. The island. The river. I had stashed this shovel in the woods earlier and led her straight to it. She wasn’t expecting it when I struck her on the head. Then I dragged her body and dumped it into the river. She could meet her maker in the same way my sister had.”

  I didn’t dare respond. My face burned with cold. In the far distance, I thought I heard voices, but maybe I was imagining things.

  Ali continued talking. She barely seemed aware that I was still here. This is your chance, Sloan, I told myself, but my feet wouldn’t budge.

  “Taylor was next on my list. He was harder. He suspected that I was involved. I didn’t know him as well. He and Chloe had hung out at school. But I think he remembered me. Chloe and I had the same eyes. She was so pretty. So bright. So young to die.”

  Ali trailed off. I thought I was going to have to prompt her to finish her story, but she continued. “I think he suspected me right away when Lily’s body was found. It wasn’t supposed to go down like that. I had planned that they wouldn’t find the body for weeks. Maybe longer. I thought she might be missing until the spring or summer. I hadn’t counted on her being found so fast.”

  “What was your plan with Taylor, then?” Fear flooded my body as Ali’s eyes drifted to the hole.

  “Oh, he’s going to die. He’s on his way here now. I will avenge my sister’s death once and for all tonight.” Her voice sounded almost robotic. “I wanted him to live in fear. For days, months, maybe years. I hadn’t formulated how I was going to do it, but when I did, he would know. He would know it was me.”

  “What changed?” I asked through chattering teeth. My mouth wasn’t quivering only due to the cold. Ali’s stoic attitude was terrifying. I was fairly sure I had misread her. I needed to figure out an escape plan—now.

  “I don’t have a choice. I have to silence him tonight. He’s going to try and go to the police. I can feel it.” She shook her head in disgust. “He doesn’t deserve to live.”

  “Ali, I’m pretty sure that Chief Meyers knows. She was in Spokane yesterday, and my guess is that she interviewed your family. She probably looked into Chloe’s death. I think we should go find her now.”

  For a minute I thought I had convinced her, but the next thing I saw was the sharp edge of the shovel barreling down on me.

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  FORTUNATELY, ALI MISSED. SHE GRAZED my shoulder with the piercing tip of the shovel. Pain shot down my arm. I ducked as Ali heaved the shovel in the air again.

  “Help!” I screamed as loud as I could. It sounded futile in the vast wilderness of Blackbird Island.

  My legs felt like rubber as I tried to run.

  I could hear Ali behind me. “Stop!”

  In the blur of my near miss with Ali’s shovel, I dropped my phone. I stumbled forward in the darkness, clutching my shoulder.

  “Help!” I screamed again—this time my voice sounded like it carried better.

  But was screaming a good idea? I might attract help, but I also might alert Ali to my exact whereabouts.

  Run, I willed my legs.

  They didn’t follow my command. My gait was shaky on the uneven and slippery ground. I considered stopping. Maybe I could hide behind a tree until Ali gave up. But I knew she wouldn’t give up. She was obsessed.

  I had to get back to the village.

  I had to warn Taylor.

  My shoulder pulsed with a throbbing heat. Was it broken? Dislocated?

  Think about that later, Sloan.

  Ali’s heavy footsteps thudded nearby.

  My breathing sounded like it had been amplified by a dozen microphones. Could Ali hear me?

  A tree branch smacked me in the cheek, almost knocking me off my feet.

  I plowed forward in the darkness. A sliver of the moon and smattering of stars were my only guides.

  The sound of voices brought me to a halt. “Who’s down there?”

  “Help! Help!” I yelled with all the force left in my body. Then I looked to the left and saw the reflection of flashlights cutting through the darkness. They were probably only a couple hundred feet away.

  “Who’s there?” the voices called again.

  “It’s Sloan!” I answered. “I need help!”

  “Sloan! Stay there. We’re coming to you.”

  I hesitated. Ali was likely close, but she wouldn’t try to attack me with other people nearby, would she?

  I kept moving at a much slower pace toward the flashing lights.

  “Sloan, it’s Garrett! We’re almost to you. Keep talking.”

  I’d never been so happy to hear Garrett’s voice. In a matter of seconds, he, Taylor, and two police officers were with me. Their headlamps were blinding. I collapsed on the ground.

  “Sloan, are you okay? We’ve been so worried.” Garrett dropped to his knees.

  “Ali.” I pointed behind us into the darkness. “Ali’s the killer. She’s out there. Probably close.” I looked up at Taylor, shielding my eyes from his light. “She’s after you.”

>   Taylor frowned. “I figured.”

  One of the police officers stepped toward me. “Do you need us to call an ambulance?”

  “No. I’m fine.” I rubbed my shoulder. “I’m really cold and in some pain, but I’ll be fine.”

  “Can you escort her back?” the officer asked Garrett.

  Garrett helped me to my feet. “Of course.”

  The other officer radioed for support and then they both took off after Ali.

  “Can you walk?” Garrett asked, placing a sturdy arm around my waist.

  “Yeah. It’s my shoulder. She hit me with a shovel.”

  “Oh God!” Taylor exclaimed. “A shovel.”

  We started toward the footbridge. I was surprised how close I had been to getting off of Blackbird Island on my own. “She dug a big hole about a half mile into the woods. She said you were meeting her there. It’s a good thing you came with reinforcements. She was planning to kill you.”

  “I know.” Taylor used his handheld flashlight to illuminate the path across the bridge. “I had a long talk with Chief Meyers. When I got home from work, there was a note under my door to meet Ali here.”

  “You didn’t know she was Chloe’s older sister?” I asked.

  Garrett stopped in midstride. “Wait, hold up for a minute, Sloan. I can feel your body shivering with every step. Can’t this wait until we get you to the police station and get you warmed up?”

  “Why?” I shuddered. “We can talk and walk, can’t we?”

  “Sloan, you’re a mystery to me. We’ve had half the town out looking for you for the last hour. You were attacked, and are likely close to having frostbite on all your extremities, but the only thing you want to talk about is this case?” He kept his arm secured around my waist.

  “Yeah, that sums it up.” I tried to laugh, but everything hurt.

  “Easy.” Garrett steadied me.

  “Should we keep going?” Taylor asked him.

  Garrett shrugged. “You heard the woman. She’s the boss.”

  Taylor led the way, keeping a slow pace in order to light the path for Garrett and me. “Yeah, you’re right, I never knew Ali. She was older than us. I thought there was something vaguely familiar about her, but it wasn’t until I went to the chief with the weird note that she left me that we figured it out.”