Dangerous Habits

by Susan Hunter

  “I know I shouldn’t be here—”

  “No, but you seem to make a habit of being places where you shouldn’t be. I wonder, what were you looking for in Reid’s office?”

  When there’s no other option, the truth will sometimes work. “I was trying to find something incriminating on Palmer.”

  “And did you?”

  “No.”

  “I see.”

  “Aren’t you going to call the police?”

  “Yes, certainly. Just not this very moment.” She inclined her head slightly, as though making up her mind about something, then said, “Sean, let’s take Leah to the reception area. We all need to get away from this office.”

  I had no choice but to move down the hall with them. When we got to reception, Sister Julianna stopped and turned to face both of us. “Leah, where is your car?”

  “I parked by Simon’s Rock and walked from there.”

  “I see. Sean, walk Leah back to her car, would you? Then I think you should drive her home. She’s had a very upsetting evening. I’ll follow and bring you back.”

  I didn’t care for the look that passed between them at all. Sister Julianna seemed perfectly normal, clear-eyed and calm. Hegl was another matter. He’d had at least a fortifying shot of whiskey not too long ago, judging from his breath. The sour odor that wafted from him spoke of recent heavy drinking, as his red-rimmed eyes did of sleepless nights. He was wearing jeans and a Henley t-shirt that looked and smelled as though it had been pulled from the bottom of a laundry basket.

  “That’s OK, I’m fine. I don’t need a ride.”

  “Nonsense. It’s very late, and you’ve had a shock. I insist.”

  “No. Really. I don’t.” I made a fast break for the front door. I thought if I could reach it, I might be able to set off the alarm. But hung over or not, Hegl was fast on his feet. He grabbed me roughly by the arm and yanked me back.

  “Leah, don’t make it so hard for us to help you.”

  “Sister, I’m not the only one who knows what’s been going on here. I’ve talked to other people.”

  “I’m well aware, Leah. I told you Reid was driven to his death by your hounding. Not that he didn’t have a great deal to answer for. The confessions in his suicide note are horrifying.”

  I tried to keep her talking, playing for time until I could think of some way out of this.

  “Sister Margaret was right. You really did set up the appointment to ask Lacey to sing, but she got spooked after being in Palmer’s office and took off. Later, after Palmer killed her, you made up the story about her using drugs again, and the missing money, to make it seem more plausible that she ran away.”

  “Really, Leah. You should try your hand at fiction. Mysteries or suspense thrillers perhaps. But I’m intrigued. Do go on.”

  “At first I thought that Sister Mattea was killed because she knew who killed Lacey. But that wasn’t it at all. She was killed because she found out about your embezzling. Palmer knew too, didn’t he? And about your gambling. And you knew about his young boys. He covered for you, and you found boys for him, isn’t that right?”

  “Absolutely not.”

  “You killed Sister Mattea. You pushed her off the bluff.”

  “I didn’t kill Sister Mattea. You should harness that imagination of yours. It’s going to get you into trouble someday. We need to go, Sean.”

  She reached behind Sister Margaret’s desk and hit a few buttons on a keypad, presumably disarming the front door. Hegl had my arm pinned up against my side, and he marched me roughly out the door.

  “Sean, I’ll wait for you at the Baylor Road entrance. We’ll be taking River Road.”

  “That’s not the way to town,” I said, though I already knew they had no intention of taking me home. “The police are reinvestigating. They’ve got the statue. You won’t get away with this.”

  She looked at me then and smiled. “It’s a long shot, I agree, Leah. But as the saying goes, you’ll always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Goodbye.” She stepped up into her black SUV and was off on the road leading out of the campus.

  Forty

  A car accident on River Road may not have been the original plan for getting me out of the way, but it wasn’t bad improvising. The lanes are narrow, the curves are poorly marked, and the puny wooden guard rails wouldn’t stop a bicycle let alone a car. Accidents happen fairly often. And everyone knew how stressed I was, how tired, how bad my judgment had been. And I had so thoughtfully laid the groundwork by lying to my mother about going for a long drive to clear my head. Another tragic accident in the making.

  Hegl yanked me along the trail, and I struggled to keep up with his long strides. Why had Sister Julianna allied with him? He seemed more logical as the fall guy than Palmer. Maybe she was tired of Palmer running the show. Maybe she wanted someone she’d have under her thumb. So, she persuaded Hegl to turn on Palmer. His death and the fake suicide note would save them.

  But maybe not. Because in choosing Hegl, Sister Julianna disregarded one of the hard truths of life: you can’t manage stupid. And Hegl’s inability to control his appetites rendered him stupid.

  The rain was coming down steadily as Hegl and I reached Simon’s Rock. He pushed me up to the car, staying close behind me, then released my arm so I could open the door.

  I brought both elbows down hard and back and jabbed him in the stomach. He wasn’t prepared, and it knocked the wind out of him. I turned and ran toward the woods, thinking I had a better chance there than on the main road, where by now Sister Julianna would be waiting.

  I only got 20 yards or so before my legs were jerked out from under me. I landed on the muddy ground face first and felt the pressure of something hard and cold in my back. I lifted my head and turned my neck. Hegl was leaning over me, pushing something into the small of my back. He had a gun.

  “Get up!”

  I moved slowly onto my hands and knees, then lifted my hand to rub my throbbing jaw. “Get up!” he yelled a second time.

  “Get the damn gun out of my back so I can stand up.”

  He took a pace back, but the gun was still pointed at me as I struggled to my feet. He waved me toward the car.

  I used to wonder why victims ever obeyed their killer’s orders to get in the car, or walk to the edge of the cliff, or kneel and raise their hands, when clearly, they were going to be murdered no matter what they did. Why make it easier?

  But walking at gunpoint to the driver’s side of my car, I finally got it. Because every fraction of time I bought with my compliance was a minute, or a second, or a millisecond when I wasn’t dead. And if I wasn’t dead, I still had a chance to figure out how to stay alive.

  So, I did as Hegl said, and I got behind the wheel.

  “Start the car.”

  I pushed on the starter button, and then turned on the lights and wipers. The rain was coming down so hard it looked like someone was throwing buckets of water at the windshield. His cell phone rang, and he dug it out with difficulty while keeping the gun trained on me. Sister Julianna gave him specifics on our ride in the country.

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “Drive out to Baylor. Keep going until you get to River Road.”

  I backed up, did a three-point turn, and drove the short distance to the Baylor Road entrance. Sister Julianna’s black SUV was waiting on the shoulder. I braked and hesitated, then felt the nudge of the gun in my ribs.

  “Go on. And don’t try anything.”

  “I wasn’t. I just didn’t know if she wanted me to go first or follow her,” I said in a small voice to convey that I’d given up, and I was putty in his shaky hands. We pulled out, and Sister Julianna followed. Baylor Road was fairly straight, but once we turned onto River, things were going to get interesting.

  The question was, where did they plan to do it? My guess was the overlook. It would be easy enough to have me park the car with the engine running. A knock on the back of the head to put me out, a good push and
it would be too bad, so sad, Leah must have driven off the road and drowned.

  I stole a glance at Hegl. He was on the ragged edge. The gun was in his lap, his trembling hand still clutching it.

  “How far are we going?”

  “Until I tell you to stop.”

  “All right, I was just wondering.” I was silent for a few seconds, then I gambled on the one thing I was sure of. Hegl was the weak link. This was my only chance to break it.

  “You know, Father Hegl, I realize now, everything that’s happened, none of it was your fault.” It almost gagged me to give him the honorific ‘Father,’ but I wanted to convey a respect and sympathy I didn’t feel, and remind him just a little of what he was supposed to be. He didn’t say anything, so I continued.

  “I know you didn’t want Olivia to die. And I know you didn’t mean to hurt Lacey either. I understand that now.” I waited.

  “I didn’t want anyone to get hurt. I didn’t.”

  “But you haven’t done anything, not really. Palmer made you hurt Lacey. He found you there, didn’t he, the night you were with Delite? Then Lacey came in and she….” I trailed off, hoping he’d fill in the blank space. He did, talking fast as though the words had been damned up inside for a long time.

  “She was stealing the car keys. Reid said he’d call the police. She said she knew about Danny, and she had proof. Then she kicked him hard, trying to get away. He went crazy. It wasn’t me. He went crazy.” He was still pointing the gun, but his hand was shaking so much I was afraid it might go off by accident.

  “What happened then? What did Palmer do?”

  “He took the statue, and he smashed her. He hit her so hard, she fell and she didn’t get up.”

  My eyes filled with tears, but I had to keep going. I had to try and turn him. “Father Hegl, who took Lacey to the woods? Was it you?”

  “Reid erased her phone. Sister Julianna brought the Vicodin to put in her purse and the empty liquor bottle, so it would look like she was drunk and fell. She said we should say money was missing, so the police would think Lacey stole it to run away. They made me take the four-wheeler to dump her body. It wasn’t me. I didn’t want to do it. But Reid said he’d recant his story about me having dinner with him and my uncle the night Olivia died. It wasn’t my fault. None of this is my fault.”

  “What about the statue?”

  “Reid told me to hide it in my collection for a while, then later get rid of it.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “I forgot about it.”

  I almost lost it then. That narcissist could sit in his living room across from the piece of marble that had crushed my sister’s skull, and not have one moment’s discomfort because he “forgot about it.”

  “Why did you have Delite lie for you?”

  “To give us more protection when they found the body. I thought if she came forward the police wouldn’t look any farther. And they didn’t. Reid and Sister Julianna weren’t happy. They didn’t trust her. But it was fine until you started poking around.”

  His hand steadied a little. So did his voice. This wasn’t going like I hoped. He wasn’t swinging to my side, he was focusing his anger on me.

  “Did Sister Julianna make you kill Palmer?”

  “Quit asking questions.”

  “She did, didn’t she? She told you he could be the fall guy. But don’t you get it, Father? You’re going to be the fall guy.”

  His brain, dulled by anxiety, alcohol and fear, was slow to process what I was saying. I glanced in the rearview mirror. Sister Julianna was a good 50 yards behind us. We had reached River Road. I had no choice. I turned.

  “We’ll be at the overlook soon. That’s where she told you to do it, isn’t it? What’s the plan? Have me park the car? Hit me in the head like Palmer did Lacey? You going to shove my car over and watch me drown?”

  He shook his head slowly and raised one hand, swatting at the air as though trying to still the buzz of my angry questions like a bear trying to rid himself of angry bees. I pressed on, but changed my tone.

  “Father, don’t let yourself get dragged any further into this mess. You can still get out of this. It’s all on Palmer and Sister Julianna. And now she’s going to put it on you. Don’t you see? She’s not going to let you go. She can’t afford to.”

  The rain had lessened to a light patter, but I could see thin wisps of fog starting to curl around the edges of bushes and trees.

  He tightened his grip on the gun, and I knew I had lost him. He was too cowed by her, too befuddled by fear and guilt. He couldn’t do anything but what she planned for him. My hands were sweating on the wheel. I was running out of time. We were nearly at the overlook.

  “Slow down. Pull over here.”

  As I started to brake, I looked in the mirror again. Coming very fast toward us was Sister Julianna’s SUV. She was rolling the dice again, betting on taking us both out at once. She wasn’t going to give Hegl time to make trouble. She was sending him over the edge with me. The big heavy vehicle banged into the back of my mother’s car and sent us hurtling through the guard rail and out into space like Thelma and Louise.

  For an instant, we were suspended in midair. Then we dropped, hitting the water with a huge splash. The airbag deployed and I took a solid punch in the face. It deflated immediately. We were still floating when I hit the button to lower the window. The car started filling with water. I lifted the latch on my belt, but instead of retracting, the thick nylon restraint refused to budge. I tugged, and as I struggled, Hegl slipped out the window and into the river.

  The water was up to my waist, but instead of seeing my life pass before me, I saw my mother standing in the kitchen, extolling the virtues of her lanyard. I grabbed at my neck for the mini Swiss Army knife. I tugged so hard it came right off the cord.

  My fingers fumbled as I tried to pull out the blade. My breath came in short gasps. Cold water rose to my armpits, and the car rocked in the current. With a last urgent tug, I got the blade free, but the knife flew out of my hand.

  Frantic, I flailed with my arms underwater, on the seat, between my legs; it wasn’t there. The hood of the car began to tilt forward. Where the hell was that knife? I took a last gulp of air before the water rushed past my head, and the car began to nose dive. I felt something bump against my hand. The downward motion had dislodged the knife from whatever cranny it had settled in. My fingers reflexively curled around it, and I grabbed it blade first into my palm. I turned it over. With two desperate strokes, I cut the strap and pulled it free.

  I thrust my arm out to the side. My hand felt the window frame. With fear-fueled strength, I pushed myself through and started furiously kicking my legs and clawing through the water. My lungs were screaming to exhale. I broke the surface wild for oxygen. I blew out the pent-up air in my lungs and took a big breath.

  Treading water, I fought the current as I tried to orient myself and regulate my breathing. Hegl was nowhere in sight. I was alone, and not getting any warmer or stronger in the 50 degree water.

  Then I saw a flash of lights, white at first, then red and blue. It had to be cars on the River Road. Police too. Someone had called in the “accident.”

  I struck out for shore with a shaky crawl. The Himmel River is deep, but not very wide at that point. I kept repeating my survival mantra—it’s less then 100 yards, it’s less than 70 yards, it’s less than 50...

  With each stroke, my arms got weaker. My legs were barely kicking, and the urge to keep going was fading. I felt so weak. And so cold. If I could just rest. From a distance, I heard voices.

  Was that in my head, or was it real? It was just too hard to lift my face out of the water. I took in a gulp of river instead of air.

  I started to choke. I wanted to shout for help, but my throat was seizing up. I couldn’t breathe.

  My body bobbed straight up and down for a second. I began to sink as a bright white light washed over me.

  Forty-One

  When I came to, puk
ing and coughing, I was on the shore, sharp rocks cutting into my back. My eyes flew open as someone rolled me on my side. My head was lifted. Fingers rammed into my mouth and did a sweep. That started a gag reflex, a fresh round of coughing, a little more puking. Either the white light I’d seen had been an emergency police floodlight, or heaven was not living up to its advance PR. I tried to talk, started choking again, and sank back down and out.

  When I woke, I was in a dimly lit hospital room hooked up to a monitor and an IV. The equipment emitted soft, periodic beeps, and the blood pressure cuff on my arm inflated and deflated at regular intervals. For some reason, my hand was wrapped in a big white bandage. I thought I saw my mother, but I wasn’t sure, and I was floating too high to ask. My eyelids fluttered back down.

  The next time I opened them, sun was streaming through the window. My mother was seated beside the bed, her head down, her hand touching mine.

  “Hey, what does a girl have to do to get some breakfast around here?” I croaked.

  She squeezed my hand, and her eyes were bright with tears. “How about a late lunch instead? It’s two o’clock.”

  “A drink of water would be great.” She held a Styrofoam cup with a straw up to my lips. The cool water washing over my parched throat felt so good, I began gulping on the straw, until my mother moved it away. “Easy there, the nurse said a few sips when you woke up. You’ll make yourself sick if you drink too fast.”

  “Mom,” I began, “I’m sorry. I didn’t—”

  The door opened wide, and Miguel came bursting in, followed by Coop at a more measured pace.

  “Chica! What am I gonna do with you! What were you thinking? Why did you go out there alone? What happened? You know Palmer is dead, right? You feel better now, yes?” He was fairly oscillating with pent-up anxiety as he stood next to my mother.

  “How did anyone know where I was?”