Dead Too Soon: A Thriller (Val Ryker series Book 3)

by Ann Voss Peterson

  By the time she circled to the car’s rear, Lund was already on his way to the bus. Val grabbed her first aid kit and followed.

  Ginny Jones met her partway and took the kit. “Emergency door’s damaged. Can’t be opened, Chief.”

  Val peered up at the back of the bus. “Did you check the front door?”

  “Not yet. And those trees, I’m not sure how long they’re going to hold.”

  “Call a wrecker?”

  “Oneida said one’s on the way.”

  On the way, everything was on the way. If something didn’t get here now…

  “Okay, if Lund can’t get the door open, we’ll have to go through the windows. Any sign from the kids?”

  “Not that I’ve seen.”

  Val watched as Lund slid halfway down the slick bank. Bracing himself on a tree to stop his forward momentum, he placed his boot on the side of the bus, jammed the Halligan tool between the folding front door and frame, and started to pry.

  His face contorted, both with effort and what Val realized had to be pain. Only days out from a partially collapsed lung and a concussion, Lund wasn’t in any shape to be doing this kind of work. Not that it mattered to him. Not when kids’ lives were at stake.

  Where in the hell was fire and EMS?

  As if in answer, distant sirens bounced off rock and trees.

  Val glanced over her shoulder as Lake Loyal’s EMS and a wrecker crested the hill. Even from this distance, she recognized the wrecker as belonging to Dempsey, mechanic and volunteer firefighter. And he’d brought another man, too.

  Good.

  They would be able to help Lund far more than she could, far more than he was in shape to help himself. As they slowed and quelled the sirens, she could hear another screaming in the distance.

  The cavalry was converging.

  Val let out a relieved breath. The bus was beyond her physical scope, but there was another vehicle in the equation. She turned to Jones. “Is the driver of the dump truck hurt?”

  The rookie looked a bit stricken. “I… I forgot about him.”

  “Go.”

  Ginny Jones trotted ahead. When she reached the truck, she jumped up on the running board and peered through the driver’s window. Val had almost caught up when she opened the door.

  The rookie cop spun around to look at Val. “Chief, there’s no one here.”

  Val examined the snow. No discernable footprints trailing from the truck, but it had been snowing so heavily any tracks might have already been covered.

  “See any blood? Signs that he might have been hurt in the crash?”

  “No. Nothing.”

  “Any personal items?”

  “Not even the keys.”

  Now that was odd, unless…

  “We have a couple of possibilities.”

  Ginny Jones climbed down from the cab. “He’s hurt and stumbled away or tried to walk for help?”

  “That’s one.”

  “What else?” Jones asked.

  “That there’s some criminal reason he crashed into the bus, and he doesn’t want to be found.”

  “Like DUI.”

  Val nodded. The weather was bad and getting worse. Not a good situation for someone who was disoriented, whether from injury or booze. “Either way, we need to find him. Fast.”

  Chapter

  Three

  Lund

  What Lund wouldn’t trade for a hydraulic spreader right about now.

  His rib cage felt as if someone was biting into it with a chainsaw. And that was nothing next to the throb in his skull. Unfortunately, a one-inch opening wasn’t going to get any kids out or get him in. And the lack of footing was not helping. He planted his boot against the bus, wedged the Halligan bar between door and frame, and gave it another go.

  Something moved.

  At first, he thought the shift was a sign of success. Then he realized it wasn’t a give in the door, it was a give in the trees.

  The very trees keeping the bus from plunging down the rocky incline.

  Shit, shit, shit.

  A face peered through the window of the bifold door. Despite the puffy eye and blood-streaked hair, Lund recognized the girl, a friend of Grace’s whose uncle had worked for Kelly Ann’s father years ago.

  “Heidi, right?” he asked.

  She nodded, tears glistening in her eyes and spilling down her cheeks.

  “I’m going to get you out, Heidi, so I want you to hang tough. Okay?”

  Another nod.

  “I need you to help me, though. Can you do that?”

  “Yeah.”

  “How many people are hurt inside?”

  “I don’t know. A lot. Everybody. Some bad. I felt the bus slide. Just now. Are we…”

  “You’re going to be fine.” Lund glanced up at the road. Val and her officer were nowhere to be seen, no doubt handling some other part of this mess. But he could have sworn he heard an engine.

  A well-worn face squinted down at him from the road. “Someone around here in need of a wrecker?”

  Lund blew a relieved breath through tight lips. He turned back to the bus. “Heidi?”

  “Yes?”

  “I want you and anyone who’s not too hurt to see if you can help the others, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “I have to go for a few minutes. The tow truck is here. We’re going to get you out now. Understand?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You’ll hang tight?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good girl.” Giving Heidi what he hoped was an encouraging smile, Lund scrambled up to the road to speak with Dempsey. “What took you so long?”

  “Havin’ my weekly bikini wax.” Dempsey gave Lund a half grin, the curmudgeonly firefighter’s version of a bear hug. “Sandoval is right behind me. Sounds like the Baraboo boys will be here shortly, too.”

  “Good.” It would be a relief to have the right equipment. Lund nodded at the wrecker, a good-sized truck, yet tiny compared to the bus. “Can you handle that thing?”

  “No way I can pull it out, not in this snow. But I should be able to hold it steady, take some of the weight off them trees.”

  “I’ll take whatever I can get.”

  Dempsey got to work hooking up the wrecker. Lund climbed back down the slope, Jorge Sandoval joining him.

  “Heidi?” Lund called. “You guys still doing okay in there?”

  The girl’s face appeared at the door. A boy Lund didn’t know beside her. “Yeah,” Heidi said.

  “As soon as the bus is stable, Jorge and I are going to open this door and get you guys out of there. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “I need you to clear away from the door. Can you climb up into that first seat and lower the window?”

  “I think so.”

  The bus lurched, and Lund reflexively stepped forward, as if he could physically stop it if it started careening down the side of the bluff. Heidi’s face disappeared from the fogged glass.

  Another jolt shook the bus, only this time, it was caused by Dempsey taking up the slack on the towline.

  Lund waited for a few seconds to make sure everything was secure. “Heidi?” he called to the girl.

  The bus window over Lund’s head inched down. “I’m here.”

  Lund motioned to Sandoval to move into place beside him. The shorter firefighter was strong as they came, and after having served as a Marine, twice as determined. It also didn’t hurt that he wasn’t suffering from Lund’s injuries. “Ready?”

  Sandoval nodded and started to pry.

  “Heidi? You get a head count and condition report for me?”

  “Two kids are really hurt. Mr. Walsh might be dead.”

  Oh, hell.

  Lund carefully suppressed his outward reaction. If he wanted Heidi and the others to be strong, he needed to show them how.

  Sandoval grunted, and the steel door started to move.

  “How many others, Heidi?” Lund asked through gritted teeth.
>
  “Eight. No, nine, including me.”

  The door moved another inch. A good start. They had this.

  “No, wait,” Heidi said. “I forgot about Brad.”

  “Brad Haselow?” Grace had said he was on the bus, that she’d been talking to him when the crash happened.

  “Brad’s not here, but he would be ten.”

  The door opened farther, cockeyed on its hinges.

  But Lund couldn’t feel the win, not right then. All he could think about was Grace if something had happened to her boyfriend. “Where is Brad?”

  “They took him.”

  He stopped applying pressure and looked up at the girl. “They?”

  “The ambulance.”

  “An ambulance was already here?”

  “Yeah. It got here between the first crash and the second.”

  Grace

  Grace checked her phone. Zero calls. Zero texts. Not a peep from anybody.

  “Still no word, huh?”

  She glanced up at Officer Edgar. He’d worked with Aunt Val even before she became chief, but Grace never really knew him that well. That he had to see her like this, all worried and useless and feeling as if she would start to cry any second, was uncomfortable, embarrassing. “It just seems as if someone should know something by now.”

  “Crash scenes like this can be complicated even in good weather.”

  “I’m being unreasonable, aren’t I?”

  “Not at all. Why don’t you call your aunt? Ask how it’s going?”

  “I’m sure she’s busy.”

  “I’m sure she is. I’m also pretty sure she wouldn’t want you worrying.”

  No, Aunt Val would never want that. But if Grace called every time she was worried over the past couple of years, her aunt wouldn’t have been able to keep a job, let alone a position like police chief. “I just need to keep busy myself. Do you mind if we go out to check on the horses?”

  Officer Edgar glanced out the window. “Your aunt said to stay in the house, doors locked.”

  Grace folded her arms and slumped back into the couch.

  “I know it seems like overkill, Grace. But none of us can afford to take a chance. Not now.”

  “Not now… now when Dixon Hess could be anywhere, you mean.”

  “You have more experience with him than I do.”

  Without thinking, Grace raised her hand to her face, feeling that ridge of scar tissue that slashed across her cheek.

  “Does it still hurt?”

  She jerked her hand away and formed a fist. It hadn’t hurt, not for a long time. She wouldn’t let it. “No.”

  “I think about that night. I was out on the interstate, dealing with the backup from the ice storm. But I just wonder…”

  “Wonder what?”

  “I was freezing, being out in that, and on the way back to Lake Loyal, I stopped for a cup of coffee. If I hadn’t, if I’d come back sooner, maybe I could have kept all that from happening. I’m so sorry that you and your aunt and Oneida had to go through all that.”

  Grace nodded, not sure what to say.

  She was sorry, too. But that didn’t change anything. Being afraid didn’t change anything, either, but she couldn’t seem to find her way around that, even though she’d tried.

  Of course, there were always worse things than being afraid.

  “I wish Aunt Val had let me help.”

  “You haven’t seen many traffic accidents, have you, Grace?”

  “No.”

  He shook his head. “Most are little more than fender benders, but some can be brutal. Some can haunt you for a long time. I think your aunt needed to see this one for herself before letting you go along.”

  Grace let out a shuddering breath. The thought of Brad hurt, of all her friends on the bus, even of the kids she didn’t know, the younger ones who were still in middle school…

  “You understand?” Officer Edgar asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “You going to call?”

  “Yeah.” But not Aunt Val. Not yet.

  Grace tapped in Brad’s number, held the phone to her ear, and started counting the rings.

  Val

  Wet snow pelted Val’s face and dripped from her hair. She and Jones covered a circle around the crash site, and yet neither found any indentations in the snow that resembled human footprints. It made no sense. Two inches had accumulated since the accident, but any tracks in the untouched snow lining the ditches and road should still be visible. And if he’d walked back the way the bus came, Jones would have spotted him when she’d first reached the scene.

  Two more ambulances arrived, as well as a ladder truck from Baraboo and county deputies to assist and secure the area. Lund and the other firefighters helped kids off the bus, starting with the most gravely injured.

  Val pulled the rookie aside. “We need to set up a command post. All new arrivals have to check in first thing.”

  “We’re treating it like a crime scene?”

  “For now.” They would track down the dump truck driver eventually, and when they did, they would deal with him, whether he was just charged with leaving the scene of an accident or something more serious.

  “Nearly all those kids have cell phones. Parents might be showing up. Maybe even the media. No one talks to any of the kids. No one takes a child from the area.”

  The rookie’s eyebrows shot up. “Not even the parents?”

  “No one.”

  “Wow, that sounds… extreme.”

  “Sure. Until a child goes missing because we didn’t keep track of him or her. Believe me, situations like this can get confusing fast. We’re lucky the bus wasn’t full.”

  “All right, Chief. No one in, no kids out.”

  “You’ll work with the school district representative when she arrives. Get all the kids’ names, what you can on their injuries, and where they were sent, either to the hospital in Baraboo or the family reunification center they’re setting up at the high school.”

  “Got it. Keep track of the kids.”

  Val gave her rookie a smile. Staffing had been difficult in the days since Jimmy Weiss’s death. Two seasoned officers had retired, and now that Dixon Hess was out there again, Val was bracing herself for losing more. But Ginny Jones, with only a couple of months under her belt, had stayed and learned. She would make a good officer.

  “Val?”

  Val turned toward the sound of Lund’s voice. Squinting through the snow, she spotted him walking toward her with one of the girls from the bus. It took Val a moment to recognize who the girl was. “Heidi? Oh, honey, are you okay?”

  Heidi nodded. Her lower lip quivered, as if she was about to break.

  “Heidi was my rock,” Lund said. “She took care of things in the bus while we were trying to get the door open. And she notices everything.”

  Lund shot Val a look that, even with the falling snow and the blurred vision in her right eye, she understood meant listen up.

  “That’s great,” Val said. “Can you take me through what happened, Heidi?”

  “Well, we were just going down the hill, I guess.”

  Val nodded in encouragement.

  “And the bus started sliding, and then it hit the dump truck in front of us.”

  “In front?” Val eyed Lund. She’d assumed the damage to the back of the bus meant the truck hit from behind.

  “The truck drove out in front of us. Not that it was Mr. Walsh’s fault or anything. He steered to miss it and stuff, the road was just too slippery.”

  Val peered up the hill, trying to picture what Heidi described. Halfway down the hill there was a turnoff, just a small widening of the road so drivers who longed for a glimpse of the view from the top of the bluff could pull out of traffic. It was the only possible place the dump truck could have been.

  And yet the spot offered a great view of traffic coursing down the hill. If the dump truck had been pulled off at that point, why had it turned out in front of a school bus? As Lund h
ad pointed out earlier, it wasn’t as if the hulking, bright yellow behemoth would be easy to miss.

  However, stranger things had happened. If the truck driver had been distracted or drunk, as she and Ginny suspected, that would explain things.

  “So the bus hit the dump truck and slid off the road?”

  “It didn’t slide off the road.”

  Val tilted her head. “I’m not following.”

  “After the first crash, the bus and truck stopped on the road. Mr. Walsh was hurt and some of the kids, but we all thought everything was over.”

  Val looked back at the damage to the back of the bus. “But there was another crash?”

  “Not at first. First the ambulance came.”

  “Ambulance?”

  “Yeah. They tried to help.”

  “So how did the bus end up off the road?”

  “It was after the ambulance left. Or maybe it was still there. I don’t remember. It all happened so fast. The dump truck driver just drove his truck right into the back of the bus and pushed us over the edge.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “I saw it, because I was in the back.”

  “And tell her what you were doing in the back, Heidi,” Lund prompted.

  “I was worried about Brad.”

  “Brad?”

  “Brad Haselow. He was hurt. His head was bleeding.”

  “And he was in the back of the bus?”

  “No. At that time, he was in the ambulance. Is he okay?”

  Val met Lund’s eyes. Her brain felt as if it were spinning. None of this story made sense, did it? And yet…

  Melting snow dripped from Val’s hair and skated down her spine. “Thanks, Heidi. That helps a lot.”

  “But Brad…”

  “We’ll find out about Brad. Don’t worry.” Val glanced over her shoulder. “Ginny?”

  “Yes, Chief?”

  “I have your first student here, Heidi Burke. Heidi, this is Officer Jones. She’ll take care of you and make sure you get back to your mom, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “You’ve been a big help.”

  “I told you. She was my rock,” Lund said, giving the girl a wink.

  While Lund talked to Heidi and Jones, Val pulled her phone from her pocket. Her fingers were clumsy, both from the cold and her condition, but she managed to connect to Oneida and caught her up on the phantom ambulance.