Chapter 8
I didn't think I could be more afraid than I had been when Junior pointed the gun at me, but the feel tripled as I moved over toward Derrick, slipping on the ice and snow and losing ground more than gaining any. I feared he was dead. I feared --
As I came closer he turned his head, blinking a little, as though confused --
"Damn," he whispered softly. He moved his arm and stopped.
"D-Derrick." My teeth chattering, though not with cold -- not yet.
"I'm all right," he said, though without much conviction. He moved again, and this time managed to sit up, though I put a hand on his shoulder --
And felt something warm and wet. I lifted my fingers --
"Derrick --"
"Yeah, the bastard shot me." He moved again and stopped. "I can't tell exactly where."
"The shoulder -- the right shoulder."
"Well, that's better than the left." He turned his head to see. "I already have the arm in a sling. I think the bullet might have grazed across the top from the looks of the coat. Good. We need -- we have to get moving. He'll come back. Can you get up to the road? Can you get to help?"
"I -- I don't know." I looked upward, trying not to panic. "I tried, but I kept slipping back down. It's awfully steep."
"Of course I had to choose the worst spot.".
"You made the right choice. He would have killed us both, either in a crash or later. He wouldn't let us tell anyone else he'd been robbing the stores."
Derrick gave a nod, then moved as though he intended to stand -- and changed his mind. Snow already covered his hair and he brushed some from his face, shaking his head in disgust, apparently at everything. I didn't blame him.
"Get up to the road and should head back to town as fast as you can --"
"I can't leave you here, Derrick. He could come back at any time. And we've gone at least four or five miles from town. I couldn't get to Loma fast enough, especially in this weather."
"We can't sit here," he said.
"No, not here. Down. We need to go down the ravine and hike out along the creek.".
"You'd have a chance of catching a car up on the road.".
"Not much of one," I admitted. "There hasn't been another one by yet, and with this weather only idiots will be coming up here in the hills. Chances are they wouldn't see me in this storm anyway. I'd as likely get hit, the way my luck is running today."
"My fault you're here."
"Maybe. I would have gone to the burial anyway, you know. And with Junior -- maybe you're just an added bonus. God knows I've annoyed him enough."
"Miller told me he suspected Junior of the robberies," Derrick admitted, finally getting at least to his knees, though his face went almost gray. He stayed there for a moment. "Asked me to help him out on the case."
"Asked you?" I said, surprised as I got to my feet, my right leg braced against a boulder to keep from sliding down the hillside.
"He was desperate."
"I bet. Can you get turned around? I think we can mostly slide down --"
"I still think you ought to get out of here."
"I'm going to. Down this way."
"You're damned stubborn."
"Especially when I'm right."
He said nothing, probably because he held his breath as he tried to turn. I helped him as best I could until I lost my balance and slide down a few feet, scraping my hands on the hard rocks. I started back up --
"Stay there. I'm coming down."
He slid carefully forward, a few inches at a time, and stopped beside me, his face damp with sweat, and the snow melting against his hair. I helped him the rest of the way down the side of the ravine.
The water in the creek was only knee deep, but I didn't intend to walk through the stream, which hadn't frozen over yet, of course. The cold water lapped over our feet as we treaded along the edge where the ravine narrowed. Neither of us spoke much at first. I think we both expected Junior to show up at any moment. I even picked up a big rock and shoved it in my pocket to be ready for him. I still intended to beat the hell out of him if I got the chance.
Derrick would have had trouble traversing the slick rocks and icy ground even before Junior shot him and he tumbled over the side of the ravine. I didn't know how he stayed to his feet, but we managed to go maybe half a mile along the creek bed before the ground opened up and we found ourselves in a snow covered field sprinkled with trees. If I hadn't been cold and scared witless, I would have thought the place beautiful. Even now the snow-covered scene almost drew me out of my rage and fear.
"We should rest for a minute." Derrick leaned back against a tree.
I started to tell him no, but I saw his pale and sweating face, and changed my mind. Besides, I felt almost breathless as well, and a moment to stop and get our bearings around didn't seem so bad. I had never been hiking along this creek, but I knew the general area, at least.
"As long as we keep heading east we'll come out of the hills." I couldn't see a sign of the road, though I thought I heard a car somewhere not too far away. I didn't expect the sound to set me shivering again, but I thought about Junior coming after us, and of never being found down here....
I would not cry. I turned away from Derrick in case those tears I felt in my eyes got out of my control. We were going to get out of here. I damned well intended us to survive. And then Junior was going to be in for a hell of a surprise.
When Derrick pushed away from the tree he almost went down. I started to reach for him, but he pulled away and moved on his own. And he called me stubborn? I walked along side of him, watching for a way up the hillside, but this area appeared worse than where we had tumbled down.
"Why aren't you angry?" Derrick suddenly asked, startling me.
"I am angry," I protested.
"Well you sure as hell don't show it."
"I don't see any reason to go into a rage." I forced myself to shrug and kept walking, trying to find the easiest path as the ravine narrowed again.
"So you go merrily along the way, little Red Riding Hood --"
"Snow White, actually. My mother even made the costume for me for this year's Apple Days."
"Aren't you all sweetness and light." I heard a definite snarl in his voice now. "What a bunch of crap."
"Well, it's apparent you aren't Prince Charming, if that helps," I said, fighting back the urge to snap at him. He wasn't having a good day, after all.
But then neither was I.
"So, your parents teach you to be such a good little lamb?" he asked and the tone began to grate on my nerves.
"My parents taught me to be polite. Too bad yours --"
And I stopped, seeing the flicker of anger in his face at those words. Well, of course he never learned to be polite from the Westons.
"Anger doesn't help," I said, repeating my mantra for the last few years. I realized I had started saying those words to myself when I began to have problems with my ex-husband, which annoyed me even more. "I suppose you never learned --"
"In the work I do --"
"I don't want to know anything about your kind of work.".
"No wonder you came running back here." He glanced my way, smirking. "Nothing to challenge your perfect little world."
"It looks pretty challenged right now." I glared back at him.
"Oh yes. You have to walk in the snow for a while. My. How horrible. I can't believe I am stuck with someone so totally useless. You can't even go and get help."
I felt a wave of cold anger start in the pit of my stomach. I hadn't felt this way since I slapped my husband the day he said he wanted a divorce. Derrick had hit the wrong button. I wasn't going to stand here and put up with this kind of abuse from someone else.
"Well, good luck. I'll send someone back for you."
"Yeah, right. Whatever."
I moved off ahead of him and didn't even look back. Son of a bitch. What a bastard. I hadn't been this angry in years, and the rage pushed me down the creek side, over the boulders he wouldn'
t be able to climb without help. I walked through water that went over my shoes and chilled my skin, but not my anger.