“Hold my belt—stay low!”
He could feel Quinn’s weight as she clutched on to his belt. He moved with purpose, hunched over, eyes burning, tears streaming down his face. Each breath felt as though he were drawing acid into his lungs, stripping them raw. Rachel slipped and her bound hands caught under his neck, gagging him. He jerked her back up, and she held on again. She was so quiet it frightened him. He hoped he hadn’t injured her internally when he’d fallen onto her with his full weight. Sprinklers showered on them as they neared the doors.
They reached doors, pushed through into the night. It was hot. Ash rain slashed at them. Jeb stalled. To the right, the buildings were burning fiercely, the air blisteringly hot. Downdrafts and crosswinds blasted them, rain hissing into fire. Behind the buildings the entire forest was ablaze, flames leaping into the blackness.
To the left, down into the steep drainage, the forest was still untouched. Dark. Wet. He checked that Quinn was okay.
“Rachel? Can you hear me?”
“Yes,” she whispered near his ear.
“Are you all right?”
“N . .. numb.”
She could talk. She was lucid. He could only pray now that the drug would keep wearing off.
“Remember that waterfall?” he said. “The ice cave?”
“Yes, yes, I remember.”
“I’m going to try to get down there. Can you hang on?”
“Try . . . trying.”
They started down the steep hiking path, moving as fast as he dared through the darkness with Quinn and Rachel. His muscles ached. He was shaking. His throat was raw, his eyes burning. If he could get them all down to the waterfall and into the cave behind the water, they might be able to stay safe even if the fire burned down through this gulley and over them.
As they got lower into the gulley, he could hear the water rushing. Jeb moved faster—and for the first time in many years, he prayed. He prayed to the universe and all that was good, that they would make it. That he would save his daughter and the woman he loved. That he could buy them all a second chance. The fire was cresting the ridge above them. But the air was cooler down here, filled with mist from the falls. As Jeb caught sight of the glowing white water of Khyber Creek, he heard an explosion.
Up across the valley on Bear Mountain, part of the Thunderbird Lodge had erupted in flames. Jeb swallowed, thinking of Brandy and Adam. They resumed their rapid descent.
The fire was coming fast. He feared they wouldn’t find the cave in time.
Harvey Zink was spraying water on the exterior of the Shady Lady Saloon. He’d turned on the fire sprinklers inside as a last resort. He had to leave, soon. He looked up, hose in hand, a wet bandana over his nose and mouth. Fire was coming down Bear Mountain now, eating its way toward the ski village. He could see the entire Khyber drainage ablaze on the other side. No way anyone could survive that. His cell rang. His provider still had coverage, although he didn’t expect that to last, either. The cell tower for the other main service provider in town had already gone down.
“Zink,” he said, moving his bandana aside. His eyes were watering.
“It’s Levi. I’m on the highway, heading south. My wife and baby are already at the West Van condo—I’m going to join them. Listen, my PA, Vickie, told me that Rachel and Jeb believe Merilee is in the mine. I told Vickie it was a bunch of crock.” Levi was speaking fast. Which meant the man was worried. This made Zink edgy. His buddy was the definition of calm and cool. “But I thought you should know. Because when this blows over, they’re going to go looking down that fucking mine. I can’t get hold of Clint.” He paused. “What do you want to do?”
“We say nothing. Stick to the old story,” Zink said. “Until there is proof, they’ve got zip on us. I’m going to head down to West Van as well now. I’ll call you when I get there.” As he spoke, Zink watched in horror as a line of condos up on the benchlands went up in flames. He had to move his ass. Now.
Zink left the hose running. He raced for his car in the lot. For the first time he was shit scared they would go down for that old crime. He cursed violently as he ran. They weren’t going to be able to keep burying this. When this fire was over, they would find her body. Jeb would not stop looking. Neither would the damn media now. Zink wasn’t certain he’d have a business and home to return to if this fire kept coming.
Maybe it was time to take the gap.
CHAPTER 27
Quinn sat quiet as a mouse, shivering as Rachel’s head rested in her lap. Rachel was sleeping, Jeb had said. She was going to come round later. She was going to be all right. Quinn stroked Rachel’s hair gently with her good arm. She’d fallen badly on the way down and hurt her other arm—Jeb had said he thought it was broken. Her aunt’s hair was stiff with dried blood on one side. Her nose was crooked from where Brandy had smashed her. Quinn kept her mouth very tight because she did not want to cry. She just wouldn’t. She’d be strong. For Rachel. But she was scared and her arm hurt and she wanted Jeb to come back and she was cold with no jacket.
They’d had to come through beating water to get into the cave. They’d gotten sopping wet. And it was like a fridge inside. The cave was very deep and it had an eerie glow, which helped them to see. At the very back there was ice. But up near the front, behind the curtain of water, there was no ice and it was dry and flat.
Jeb had told her to wait here with Rachel.
He had said he was going to fetch dry wood and branches and pine needles to make a fire inside to keep them warm and dry their clothes. Quinn thought it was weird how the whole mountain was burning and they were going to make a fire to stay warm and get dry in the icy cave behind water. That’s why he’d taken his jacket, so he could bundle it over the wood and get it through the waterfall dry.
Rachel stirred and moaned in her lap. Quinn’s heart slammed. She studied her aunt’s face carefully, but she couldn’t tell if she was okay. Gently, she touched the cut where she’d hit Rachel in the face with her backpack.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
But her aunt didn’t hear.
Quinn wanted Jeb to come back desperately now. He’d saved them. Maybe he was an angel after all. ’Cause only an angel could have gotten up into the gondola cabin like that and brought them out of the burning building. And found a cold cave with ice in the middle of a fire. Maybe he was gone now because his job was done.
Suddenly he ducked into the cave with a big bundle wrapped in his jacket. He grinned. His blue eyes twinkled. And she felt better.
He tumbled the wood out onto the ground. “First batch,” he said as he glanced at Rachel. Quinn saw something change in his face. He was worried about Rachel. That made her worry, too.
“One more load.”
“But isn’t the fire coming?”
“Yup. Almost here. Be right back.”
“Jeb!” she cried.
He stilled. “What is it?”
“Please come back.”
“I will, Quinn. Believe me, I will.” And he was gone.
She stroked Rachel’s hair some more. She believed him. He had a way of making her believe.
A few minutes later, Jeb ducked back in through the wall of pummeling water and entered the cave with his second bundle.
“Is the fire here yet?” Quinn asked.
“Down to the river. We’ll wait it out now.”
He dumped the second bundle onto the floor. He’d brought twigs and thin sticks and moss with this load. And a smoldering piece of log. His hands were burned, but he didn’t seem to notice as he started to lay a fire.
He piled the dry moss and twigs on the smoldering log, cupping his hands and blowing until flames came.
“Once this fire is going,” he said, gently adding more small twigs and puffing on the flames, “I’ll try to find a way to strap up your arm, okay?”
“What ab
out Rachel?”
“We’re going to keep her as comfortable as we can, make her toasty warm and dry until she comes round fully.”
A deep roar reached them inside the cave.
“Is that the fire?” Quinn whispered.
Jeb glanced up. The curtain of water was shimmering orange and yellow and red with flame light. “Yes,” he said softly. “It’s here.”
“It sounds like a train, or an airplane,” Quinn said in awe. “Look at the waterfall. It’s flickering. Jeb, I’m scared.”
“It’s going to be fine. It’s going to blow right over us. And we can always move right to the back of the cave, into the ice, if we need to. But there’s so much dry fuel out there, and so much wind, it’s going to roar right over us like a freight train.”
His own fire crackled, spreading warmth. He poked at it with a stick, settling it, then he added another branch. The smoke was going out the front, being sucked by cold air currents flowing from the back of the cave into the hot air outside, which made the flames burn stronger.
Jeb took off his belt, and he made a sling for Quinn’s arm, strapping it to her body in a bent position. “There,” he said. “It’ll help you keep it still. When this is all over we will get X-rays and a fancy cast.”
“Can I pick the color?”
“They have colors?”
“Benny John at school had a black cast on his leg once. And in my old school, Sally Higgenbottom had a green one.”
He laughed. “When I was a kid I think they just had the old plaster kind. Come, let’s all move here, closer to the fire.”
“Rach,” he whispered, lifting her aunt’s head off her lap. “I’m going to move you where you can get dry, okay?”
Her eyes fluttered open. She gave him a weak smile. It made something wobble in Quinn’s chest. She went to sit closer to the fire. It was nice and warm. Jeb sat right beside her with Rachel’s head in his own lap. He covered Rachel with his leather jacket and he put his arm around Quinn, drawing her against his warm, strong body. They sat cuddled together like that, listening to the fire and the sound of the waterfall. She felt safe in Jeb’s arms.
“How come there’s ice in the cave when it’s not winter?” Quinn said after a while.
“I’m not exactly sure how it all works,” he said. ”But it’s due to something called geothermal activity. This whole mountain range was formed by volcanoes, and there are still shafts of hot air and volcanic activity that causes these things.” He stroked her hair and she let her eyes close as she leaned against him.
“There was an ice cave further north, in Lillooet, too. Like this cave, it only produced ice in summer. That’s how it works. Before the days of fridges, the farmer who found the Lillooet cave sold his ice to restaurants. He sent great blocks of it down by train to Vancouver city, where it was the very favorite ice to put in drinks in the bars.”
“How did you know this cave was here?”
He moistened his lips as though he was thinking far back. “Rachel and I found it many years ago, when we were young.”
Quinn frowned. “You knew Rachel when you were young?”
Rachel stirred suddenly, opening her eyes again. She looked brighter this time.
“How are you doing?” he said to her.
“The fire?”
“Passing over. It’s going to be fine.” He bent down, kissed her lips softly. “I love you,” he whispered.
Rachel stared up at him. “I love you, too, Jeb. I . . . I always have.”
“I know.”
Quinn’s gaze shot to Jeb’s face. Her angel’s eyes were glittering.
“Why do you love Rachel?”
He sighed very deeply. “It’s a long story, Quinn.” He looked down at her as if he was deciding whether to tell the story.
“I want to hear it.”
He nodded his head slowly. “I first met Rachel when I was just a little older than you. We grew up together, here in Snowy Creek. She was my very best friend and then my girlfriend. Then, when I was nineteen, something terrible happened and two girls went missing.”
She stared. “What girls?”
“Two girls from school. Some bad people hurt them, and they blamed me. I got sent to prison.”
Quinn’s mouth dropped open. “You? Prison?”
He nodded and rubbed her arm, keeping her warm. “But I didn’t do it—I didn’t take those girls.” He looked down at her, like he was thinking hard again. “You know how you thought your mom sent me to watch over you?”
She nodded, feeling scared suddenly about what he was going to say about her mom.
“Well, it’s the truth, in a way. Your mother helped me prove to a judge that I was not the bad guy.” He was silent for a long time. As though he was having trouble with what he was going to say. He put a log on the fire. “Do you want to know why she helped me?”
“Yes.”
“Because, Quinn, I’m your father. I’m your birth father.”
Her heart started to stutter and patter.
“And that’s why I came back to Snowy Creek. For you. To find you, watch over you. To protect you. To prove that those bad people were liars, to find the truth of who really took those girls. I came back, Quinn, because I want to be a father and look after you. Forever.”
She couldn’t talk. She felt like a sock was in her throat again. “Why did you give me away?”
“I didn’t. They took you away from me because they thought I was a bad guy.”
Quinn stared at him. “Who is my birth mother?”
“She’s one of the girls who went missing.” Jeb was silent a moment. “She’s dead now, Quinn. But you have me.” He looked at Rachel. “And you have Rachel.”
Quinn started to cry. He gathered her tightly in his arms. He rocked her gently. He smelled of smoke. He felt safe. She liked him. He made the best pancakes, like her other dad. He was her mom’s friend. Her mom had sent him. Quinn cried harder. He kissed the top of her head. He was like an angel. Better than an angel. He was her real dad. She still had a dad. And she had Rachel.
“Jeb?” Rachel whispered.
Quinn’s gaze shot to her aunt. Her eyes were closed and she had a sad smile on her face. “Have I told you I love you?” she said softly.
“You were listening?” he said.
She nodded, but her eyes stayed closed.
Rachel came round more fully during the night. After a while she was able to sit up next to Jeb. Quinn went round and sat beside Rachel on her other side. Rachel put her arm around Quinn.
“How’re you doing, button? How’s your arm?”
“It hurts.”
“Thing about broken arms, they’re usually an easy fix.”
“Not like your leg and the skiing accident?”
“That one took a while. But even that healed.”
“Will you still teach me to ski this winter?”
Rachel smiled and her eyes went bright and liquidy. “Of course.” She hugged Quinn closer. “If we have a mountain left to ski on.”
“The fire can’t burn away the mountain!” said Quinn.
“Ah, but the lifts might be damaged. I tell you what, if that’s the case, we’ll go to another resort. I promise. Whatever happens, I will teach you to ski this winter.”
“Will Jeb come?”
Rachel looked at him.
“Of course I’ll come,” he said.
Quinn studied Jeb for a while, then said, “Do you want me to call you Dad?”
His mouth curved into a slow, sad kind of smile, and his eyes sparkled with moisture. “One day, if you want to. When you’re ready.”
Quinn nodded. This seemed right. And deep inside, she felt warm, even though everything was still scary.
When the sky was light and everything was quiet, they all came out of the cave.
As they caught sight of the valley below, Rachel gasped, her hand going to her mouth.
“It’s still there,” she whispered. “The village is still there. The wind turned in time.”
Only the condos near the top had burned down. They heard sirens. Jeb took Quinn’s and Rachel’s hands, and they made their way down together.
He’d said they were a family now.
Quinn had a new family.
And down there was home.
CHAPTER 28
Late November. Six weeks later.
Irony was a bitch, thought Annie, as she read the feature article in the Snowy Creek Leader covering the fallout of the “Missing Girls” case. Adam LeFleur had been protecting his mother and brother, and his mother had been protecting her sons. But Luke LeFleur had been passed out in the Jeep the whole time. He’d had no idea what had gone down. He was completely innocent of the crime.
His only crime had been to say in court that he’d witnessed something he hadn’t.
Now Adam was dead.
He’d acted to save the innocent man he’d helped put away, while his lover had acted in a bizarre attempt to save Adam from his own past.
His charred corpse had been found in the gutted gondola terminal on Bear Mountain, gruesomely entwined with the burned body of Brandy Jones. The autopsy on LeFleur had shown that he had died before the fire. Brandy Jones had likely been overcome by smoke before she had been burned.
Annie had finally handed Adam’s envelope to Chief Mackin, which made Adam’s role and interpretation of the past crime clear. Yet he’d managed to go die a hero.
Annie got up, put on the kettle for some tea. It was snowing heavily outside. The kind of fat, heavy flakes that could smother the world in minutes. Two feet of snow had already fallen yesterday. Winter had finally come to Snowy Creek. From her window, she watched the flakes spiraling slowly down from the sky, thinking that if Adam had pushed for the truth all those years ago when he was a young Mountie, his mother might have learned Luke was innocent. Luke might have learned himself that he had nothing to do with the crime.
The Slow Burn of Silence (A Snowy Creek Novel) Page 38
