by Dave Daren
“I’m currently at Diana’s house,” I explained. “I found the necklace Vann gave her and hid it in a new location. I need to let Ansong know where it is so they can find it once they have the search warrant. Also, you were right about the broken arm.”
“The broken arm?” she repeated. “Oh! What I said earlier? You think I’m correct in saying I would break my arm if I killed Vann?”
“Yes, exactly,” I confirmed. “But not a broken arm. Try a sprained wrist instead. That’s what Diana has.”
“Oh!” Cassandra yelled in excitement. “That’s great. Well, not really. I mean, it’s great for our case, but a sprained wrist sounds painful. Did she confess?”
“Unfortunately, no, but she’s aware that I suspect her,” I answered.
“Well, be careful,” my paralegal warned. “There’s no telling how she’ll act when backed into a corner. She’s already killed one guy. Don’t be her second.”
“Don’t worry,” I reassured her. “The only way she can subdue me is if she drugs me, and I don’t plan on eating or drinking anything she offers.”
“Okay, okay,” Cassandra said. “Here’s Ansong.”
“It’s Reese,” I heard Cassandra say in the background as the phone was moved away from her face.
“Brooks,” Ansong greeted into the phone. “What can I do for you?’
“I found the necklace,” I said as I started the engine of the truck. “It was hidden in a drawer full of clothing. There’s a room on the second floor with black trunks, and in there you’ll find a stack of three trunks. I hid the necklace in the top one.”
“Nice work,” the middle-aged officer complimented me. “I should have a search warrant by tomorrow morning. Did you find anything else?”
“I confirmed a suspicion I had earlier,” I answered. “She has a sprained wrist.”
“A sprained wrist?” Ansong repeated. “Does this have to do with the falling incident you mentioned on the boat?”
“Yes, Diana said the fall hadn’t injured her,” I reminded her.
“Right,” Ansong agreed.
“She also said her wrist rubbing was a habit,” I continued.
“But she’s rubbing her wrist because it hurts,” the officer said in realization. “That means she lied earlier. Why would she lie?”
“Because--” I began and then froze at what I saw through my windshield.
The door to the house had been flung open, and Diana had stepped outside with the rifle raised and pointed at me.
Chapter 16
Diana and I made eye contact through the windshield, and I felt a cold thread of fear move up my spine when I saw the wild look on her face. I recalled the lack of ammo in the room where I had seen the rifle, but the memory didn’t fill me with confidence. Just because I hadn’t seen any ammo didn’t mean the gun wasn’t loaded, and I wasn’t going to risk calling Diana’s bluff. I considered whether or not I could reason with her since she hadn’t taken a shot yet.
“Give!” the pale woman yelled as she went down one step on the porch stairs.
I had only heard the beginning of her command before the rest of the sentence had been overwhelmed by the wind that had picked up. Her voice was further muted by the fact that I was surrounded by metal and the truck’s fan roared as it blew hot air at me. I made a confused face at her as I turned down the fan. I thought about lowering my window to hear her better, but I immediately squashed the idea. The glass wouldn’t prevent a bullet from entering the car, but there was no reason to make it easier for her to shoot me.
“Give it back!” Diana yelled as she brought her hand closer to the rifle’s trigger. “Get--”
The wind had picked up again and drowned out the rest of her words, but I understood from the first command that she was referencing the necklace. As soon as I had left her house, she must have rushed upstairs to look for the nautical necklace, and when she couldn’t find it, her first assumption was that I took it. She had failed to recognize the problem with me removing the necklace from her home, and so it had never occurred to her that I had hidden it elsewhere.
I considered whether it was better for her to think I had it or for her to know the truth. I didn’t want her to locate the piece of jewelry, but I also didn’t want to be shot. At the end of the day, no case was worth dying over, and I knew her extreme reaction to the disappearance of a necklace was enough to convince anyone that she had a part in Vann’s murder.
“Brooks?” Ansong called from my phone. “Brooks?”
I had completely forgotten that I was on a call with her. I still had the phone pressed against my ear, and I realized I was fiercely gripping the steering wheel. I opened my mouth to say something to Ansong, but I stopped when I watched Diana move her finger over the trigger. I ducked just as the shot went off and covered my head with my arms. I heard the windshield shatter above me and felt the shards land on me.
“Brooks, was that a gunshot?” Ansong yelled. “Hello? Brooks? Are you okay?”
I uncovered my head and felt the glass fall off my arms. I shook my head and arms to get rid of any shards on them, and then I lifted my head to see where Diana was. I immediately reached for the door handle as I watched the deranged woman reach the final step on the porch. I bolted out of the truck just as she lifted and aimed her rifle at me. Another shot went off, and this time the bullet shattered the door’s window.
I crouched down and darted to the back end of the truck so that I could use the vehicle as a shield. I looked around and realized that the truck and the empty neighboring house were the only things I could use for cover. There were no trees in this tundra landscape, and no one lived nearby to offer assistance. Surely the houses further down the street must have heard the gunshots, but I wasn’t sure if they thought anything of them. Out here, gunshots were probably common enough that most people wouldn’t even notice them.
After all, Alaska was full of dangers, and it was possible that the neighbors who heard the shots thought Diana was just scaring off a bear. In other words, I was on my own until the police arrived. I looked down at the phone in my hand as I remembered Ansong.
“Diana’s shooting at me,” I blurted out to the officer.
I didn’t get to say anything else because I heard movement coming from my left, so I quickly rushed to the right side of the truck in a crouch. I pressed my right shoulder against the cold metal as I poked my head up to look through the passenger window. I was able to see Diana strolling past the open driver door with the rifle held in the ready position. Apparently, I wasn’t going to be given the chance to return the necklace after all, so I lowered my head and debated what to do next.
“You’re just like him,” Diana yelled from the other side of the truck. “You acted nice to me because you wanted something. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…”
She released a guttural scream as she hit the side of the truck, and the loud metallic clang led me to believe she was smacking the rifle against the vehicle rather than her bare hands. That didn’t seem like the smartest choice, but her screaming reached an eardrum-shattering pitch that made me think Diana wasn’t operating on all cylinders just then. And then, she suddenly went quiet, and that was just as unsettling.
I looked around for another hiding spot to magically appear, but the tundra remained as empty as before. I could hear her breathing heavily as if she’d just run several miles, but her breathing slowly evened out, and then I heard her shoes crunch against the snow as she took two more steps.
“Why did you stay?” she asked. “You should have left as soon as you saw how hopeless Austin’s case was. Then you wouldn’t be in this mess. You can still walk away. Just give me back the necklace.”
I said nothing because I’d already guessed that wasn’t true, and once she realized I didn’t plan on cooperating with her, she let out a frustrated scream and smacked her rifle against the truck again.
“What is your fucking issue?” she yelled. “You’ve met my husband. He’s selfish
and immature, not a guy worth risking your life over.”
“Maybe you’re right,” I yelled back to her. “But avenging Vann’s death by bringing his killer to justice just might be worth it.”
Although that was a nobler reason to die, I still didn’t think it was worth risking my life over. I only wanted her to talk so that I could buy myself some time until the police arrived. It was either that, or come up with a plan to get myself out of this situation unscathed without any outside help.
“Harrison doesn’t deserve your efforts, either,” she argued. “He was an egotistical piece of shit who took advantage of others, and I did the world a favor by throwing him into the Chukchi Sea. I’ll be doing the world another favor when Austin is thrown into jail.”
“Is that what you had planned from the beginning?” I asked. “Kill Vann and pin it on your husband?”
“I’m not interested in having a fucking discussion with you,” the pale woman snapped. “I want the goddamn necklace. Last chance. Bring it to me now and leave, or I’ll just take it off your dead body.”
“Diana, you’ve already shot at me twice,” I said. “I have no reason to believe you’ll keep that promise, especially when I can go straight to the police after this and tell them what you’ve done.”
No response.
I dared another peek through the passenger window to see her location, but I couldn’t see her from where I stood. A look through the windshield confirmed she hadn’t returned to the porch of the house, and so I guessed she was walking toward the back end of the truck.
I crouched down onto one knee and then lowered my face toward the grass to look underneath the truck. I could see her boots on the other side, and then I watched her drop down to a knee as I had done. I realized instantly that she was about to check under the truck like I was doing, which meant I would have a few seconds while she was stuck on the ground to put some distance between us.
I scrambled to my feet and booked it toward the blue house without even a backwards glance at Diana. Thankfully, the front door was wide open, and I counted this as a blessing as I jumped up the porch steps. I had planned to shut and lock the front door once I was inside, but I immediately changed my mind when a bullet from the rifle splintered the wood in the door as I ran past.
Instead, I ran up the stairs to the next floor and then stopped at the bathroom as I considered hiding inside. Would it be too obvious?
If I closed the door, then it would be obvious I was hiding in there since the door was normally kept open. I considered locking the door, but a locked door meant nothing to bullets. Diana could just shoot the door off, and then I’d be a sitting duck. I decided the smaller bathroom wasn’t a good option, but maybe the master bathroom would work. So I hurried down the hall to the master bedroom, practically vaulted over the bed, and ducked into the master bathroom.
Inside, I found that the tub and shower were directly across from the door with the dark blue shower curtain drawn. A large mirror over the two sinks was on my left while the toilet was on my right. I crossed the bathroom to the tub, pushed the shower curtain aside, and then pulled the curtain back to its original spot as I shook my head against the idea. If she suspected I was hiding in the tub, then all she needed to do was fire a shot at the curtain. Why risk approaching the curtain and being taken by surprise?
I looked at the space behind the open door and realized there was enough room for me to hide myself there. As I wedged myself behind the door, I looked at my phone to see if I was still in a call with Ansong. At some point, our call had disconnected, or maybe she had hung up after the second gunshot. Either way, I had to believe she and a couple of other officers were on their way to this house of terror, or I was royally screwed.
The drive from here to the police station was only a couple of minutes, and so I only needed to avoid getting shot for a short while. So how long had it been since Diana had fired the first shot? I was hoping to hear the sound of sirens racing to the house, but the place remained quiet. It was starting to look like I’d have to come up with something more than just hiding in the bathroom.
I positioned myself behind the door so that a slight tilt of my head allowed me a view of the mirror. If Diana entered the bathroom, I would see her before she could see me, and maybe this would afford me an opportunity to wrestle the gun away from her. Wrestle wasn’t the right word given our differences in height and weight. I knew I could snatch the weapon away from her before she had a chance to fire a shot if I could just take her by surprise.
And then I realized I still had my phone in my hand. The last thing I needed was to give away my position because Ansong tried to call me back, or Cassandra suddenly had some information to pass along, so I put my phone on silent and placed it into my pocket.
Agonizing seconds ticked by, and Diana still didn’t appear. As I waited, I decided that just charging her wasn’t a good enough plan. It still gave her a chance to swing around with the rifle and shoot me, especially if she heard me move. I decided I needed to distract her before I moved, and the parka would work just fine. As quietly as I could, I removed my parka and then balled it up in my hands
There was nothing to do after that but wait for the woman to appear. The only sound was the wind blowing against the windows and the occasional creak as the house settled. It was unnerving, and I tried to figure out what Diana was doing.
Had she even followed me inside? I had left my keys in my truck, and the engine had been running. Maybe she’d decided that it would be easier to make her escape than reclaim the necklace.
But even as I’d convinced myself that she’d driven back to the Arctic Wizard, I thought I heard someone coming up the stairs. My guess was confirmed when I heard a gunshot come from the hallway. My heart raced as I tried to picture what she had shot at. The shower curtain in the other bathroom? Had she suspected I was hiding in the tub over there? I gave myself an imaginary pat on the back for deciding not to take the same hiding spot in this bathroom.
I was holding my breath as I heard the floorboards in the hallway creak, and so I had to remind myself to keep breathing before I passed out. I guessed she was checking the room with the trunks first, since the steps seemed to fade for a moment. I waited for another gunshot, but none came.
And then I heard movement in the bedroom. It was very faint, and I wasn’t sure if it was really a footstep. It could have just been the wind outside, and I found myself holding my breath again as I waited for Diana to enter the bathroom.
I squeezed the parka in my hands as a shadow moved slowly across the bathroom floor. The shadow moved closer, and I moved my head slightly to get a view of the mirror. It took some stretching on my part, but I finally spotted her at the entrance to the closet. She still had the rifle raised, and her finger was poised over the trigger.
She disappeared into the closet for a moment, and I started to feel the strain of my awkward position as I waited for her to reappear. Finally, she slipped quietly from the closet, and I could see the almost feral look on her face as she moved toward the bathroom.
I watched her stand at the threshold and take aim at the shower curtain while I braced myself for the gunshot that I knew was coming. I saw her pull the trigger, and then I watched a bullet tear through the center of the curtain.
“Fuck,” she whispered as she took two steps into the bathroom.
She took another step into the bathroom, and then she seemed to realize that I wasn’t in the tub after all. She started to spin around, rifle at the ready, but I was already on the move.
I pushed the door back as I threw the parka at her head. She screamed as the heavy coat blocked her vision momentarily but she still fired a wild shot. I flinched as the bullet whizzed past my head and struck the ceiling, but there wasn’t time to think about how close she’d come to shooting me.
I lunged forward, and my momentum pinned her against the counter. She started to growl as the parka fell to the floor, and as soon as my hands grasped the rifle, she tried to t
wist the barrel toward my head.
Another shot rang out and dug its way into the ceiling. I couldn’t hear anything over the ringing in my ears, but that seemed to be the only injury I had. I finally used my full weight and every ounce of strength I had to wrestle the gun from her grasp.
She tried to grab for it again, nearly climbing over me in her need to get the weapon. I realized I couldn’t hold onto the gun and still control Diana, so I tossed the gun in the tub and then hooked one arm around her waist and the other around her shoulders while I dragged her toward the master bedroom.
The feral thing wasn’t just an act with her. She squirmed in my grasp, which I’d been expecting, and then she tilted her head just enough that could sink her teeth into my arm.
I cried out in pain, and my hand on her shoulder let go reflexively. She managed a well-placed kick to my shin followed by an elbow to my ribs that left me gasping for air.
Free once again, she lunged toward the bathroom and the gun. Despite the pain coursing through my body, I knew I couldn’t let her reach the tub. I threw myself after her, and somehow managed to knock her down.
She started to kick, so I grabbed her ankles and started to drag her away from the bathroom. She tried to stop this by hooking her fingers around the doorframe, but her sprained wrist made it almost impossible for her to hang on. She gave a yelp of pain when I tugged hard enough, and she finally let go of the wood.
I dragged her to the bed, and then I risked letting go of one ankle so I could pick her up by the waist and toss her onto the bed. While she flailed against the covers and tried to roll off the edge, I moved back to the short hallway and planted myself in her path.
She finally righted herself, and we stared at each other for several moments. The sound of our panting was interrupted by the police sirens, and for the first time, Diana looked scared.
She glanced toward the door to the main hallway, and though I probably wouldn’t have tried to stop her, I shook my head and sighed.
