Shadow Lake

DEPUTY WALKER MOVED TO THE edge of the road to watch as the wrecker crew snaked the steel cable down the steep mountainside to the lake.

He’d already been warned that the crew would have to inch the car up the mountainside since they didn’t have enough single cable to reach the car and would have to use an extension. The town wrecker was old, the winch outdated.

When he’d reached the site, he’d been informed divers had gone back down to run a strap through the interior of the car. The car had come to rest upside down in about thirty feet of water.

“No sign of any other passenger?” he asked the head of the dive squad on the shore via the tow truck’s radio.

“Not in the car.”

“Was there a child’s car seat in the back?” Walker asked.

“Negative.”

“You’re sure?”

“Affirmative. There’s a suitcase that had been in the backseat but is now resting on the headliner. That’s all.”

Walker rubbed his jaw. Why wasn’t the suitcase in the trunk? “What about the trunk?”

“Don’t know. It’s resting in the mud.”

“Thanks.” He handed the radio back to the tow-truck operator.

Where had this woman been headed? he wondered as he waited. He told himself the answer might be in the car.

Walker had the town’s two other officers handling traffic. Not that there was much this time of the year. But word had spread and since this was probably the biggest news all spring, the locals had come up to get in the way. Shadow Lake residents, especially those who’d just gone through a long boring winter, weren’t about to pass up free entertainment.

As Walker looked down the path the Cadillac had taken, he couldn’t help wondering what had happened last night up here on this mountain. Anna was recently divorced. When he’d talked to her she’d been more than a little despondent. Had she purposely driven off here? Panicked once the car hit the water and changed her mind?

Or had she picked this spot, knowing that the hospital was close by, as some ill-conceived plot to get her ex’s attention. That’s something Walker’s ex would have done. If she’d wanted him back, that is.

He hated the bitter taste in his mouth. But he’d noticed some things about Anna Drake Collins that were just like his ex. Anna clearly came from money, lived in Seattle in a posh neighborhood, had that air of privilege about her and was model attractive—just like his ex.

What worried Walker was how far a woman like that would go. And if she really wanted to get back at her ex, Walker feared the kid had been in that car.

“We’re ready to bring her up,” Mac called from the tow truck. “Did you hear me?”

Walker looked up, startled to find the wrecker operator standing in front of him frowning.

“We’re ready.”

“So bring her up.”

“If I were you, I wouldn’t stand there. If that cable should—”

“Just pull her up,” Walker snapped, anxious to see what was inside that car.

Below him, the emerald lake lay in the tree-lined basin, the surface dimpled by the drizzling rain. There was no warmth, only wet and cold as the motor on the tow truck revved. He stood next to the wrecker, wanting a clear view when the car broke the surface.

He’d found a business number for Marc Collins and left a message to call the Shadow Lake Police Department. That the man’s ex-wife had been in an automobile accident but was fine.

Walker hoped the boy was with his father, but from the way the mother was acting, he had a bad feeling that wasn’t the case, and his cop instincts were seldom wrong.

His cell phone rang. He stepped away from the whine of the wrecker to take the call.

“Walker?”

He almost didn’t recognize the voice. “Chief?”

“Just wanted to let you know I won’t be back for a few days.”

“Is everything all right in Pilot’s Cove?”

“Yeah, I just need to take care of some things over here.”

Before Walker could tell him what was going on in Shadow Lake, the police chief hung up.

Walker snapped his cell phone shut, telling himself he had to be wrong. The chief had sounded drunk.

As Walker started back toward the tow truck, his phone rang again. This time it was the dispatcher. She had Marc Collins on the line.

“Put him through,” Walker said.

“What’s this about my wife being in another accident?” the man demanded the moment Walker answered.

“Don’t you mean ex-wife?” Walker asked, instantly irritated with the man’s tone.

“Is that what she told you? We’re still married.”

“Why would she lie?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Collins said.

Walker explained about Anna’s so-called accident. “She was lucky.”

“Anna wrecked another car? But she’s fine. Another hit-and-run or can’t she remember?” Marc Collins asked with sarcasm. “Isn’t it just Anna’s luck.”

Walker bristled. “She almost drowned,” he snapped, beyond irritated with the man. Surely Anna Drake hadn’t wanted to get back with this man. “Look, I just need to be sure that your son Tyler wasn’t with her.”

Marc Collins let out a brittle laugh. “Didn’t she tell you? She killed Tyler eight months ago.”

THE MEMORY CAME IN A RUSH. Rain, the narrow dark highway, in a hurry for some reason, then a sudden movement as something sprang out onto the pavement. A deer? It had been a deer, hadn’t it?

Anna saw it happening in her mind’s eye. Her losing control of the car. Skidding along the highway through the deep puddles, blinded by the spray until…

She felt the start of a panic attack as she remembered crashing down the mountain and into the water. The car had sunk so quickly. She was breathing hard now, remembering the freezing cold water rising around her and the seat belt… There was something…

Her heart pounded harder and harder. She tried to push away the memory that seemed to crush her chest, as she tried to catch her breath.