Джанет Кантрелл - Fat Cat At Large

It seemed that Anna took forever to unlock her car and find her phone, which had fallen onto the floor under the passenger seat. When Anna straightened, holding the phone, she said, “I don’t know Detective Olson’s number. Do you?”

Chase grabbed her own phone from her purse. “Yes, I have it.”

She dictated the number as Anna pressed the buttons.

“Well?” Chase’s body was humming with nervous energy.

“It’s ringing. Oh, it’s going to voice mail.”

Chase deflated. “How could he? Call again.”

“There’s no point. I’ll call later.” She stuck the phone into her purse. The trees at the edge of the lot filtered the dim light from the streetlamp to send shadows scurrying along the pavement.

“I want to be off the hook,” Chase said, whining slightly. “I want the detective to know it’s Violet Peters he should have at the top of his suspect list, at least for Gabe Naughtly’s murder. I didn’t tell you yet that Julie says Torvald Iversen took out a restraining order against her, so she probably killed him, too.”

“And I guess she’s the logical person to have filched my blue marble rolling pin.”

Chase snapped her fingers. “Sure. She was in the shop and left through the kitchen shortly before I went and found Hilda. I’ll bet Vi wanted to do away with Hilda before she told someone it was her, not me, Hilda saw the day Gabe was murdered.”

A darker shadow moved across the ground between them. Chase looked around. Too late.

Violet Peters had a thin, wiry arm around Anna’s neck and the blade of a knife pressed against her throat.

Chase felt her eyes grow wide and her mouth drop open.

“Don’t make a sound.” Vi’s whisper was guttural, grating.

Chase closed her mouth, but felt her eyes still ready to pop. Blood whooshed through her eardrums and pounded inside her head.

“Both of you, into the car.”

“Vi,” Chase said, breathing hard. “Don’t do this. This isn’t the way to—”

“Be quiet. You know what I’ve done. I heard her telling you.” At the stressed word, the point pressed harder into Anna’s neck.

“We haven’t told anyone. The detective didn’t answer his phone. What you’re doing won’t do you any—”

“I said , get into the car.”

“Yes, yes, you did. We will.” Chase tried the door and pretended to be unable to open it. “It’s locked.”

“Well, unlock it.” Vi sounded like she was trying to reason with an imbecile.

Chase felt like an imbecile. Why on earth had they discussed this in such a public place? Anna should have called from inside the shop. That would have made so much more sense and would have been so much safer.

“I need her purse. The car keys.” Chase gestured to the bag on Anna’s shoulder. Vi ripped it off and threw it to Chase with more force than necessary. Chase figured all three of them were producing enormous amounts of adrenaline at the moment. She’d better be careful she didn’t set off a murderous rage in Vi.

Chase fiddled inside the purse for a moment, then fished out the car keys. “Got ’em.” She held them up.

Vi seemed to growl at her. Where was the sleek, sophisticated, attractive Violet? This woman’s face was a distorted mask of raw hatred.

Shaking less than she’d anticipated, Chase clicked the driver’s door.

“Unlock the rear doors.”

Chase reached down to the inside of the front door and complied.

“In,” said Vi to Chase. “You drive.” Vi opened the rear door, shoved Anna inside, then, quick as a flash, was in the seat beside her with the knife point at her throat again.

“Where do you want me to drive?” Chase asked.

“Let’s go out to Lake Minnetonka. It’ll be nice and dark.”

That’s when Chase’s hands started to shake.

FORTY

Chase couldn’t decide if she should try to perform heroics or not. At the moment, she didn’t think she would be able to, with the attention it took for her to drive Anna’s unfamiliar car. However, the picture of a shiny, razor-sharp blade pressed into the soft flesh of Anna’s neck was clear in her mind.

“Get on Interstate Thirty-Five,” Vi growled from the backseat and, a minute later, “take Three Ninety-Four.”

Chase swerved onto the ramps and around the curves and headed west. “Where, exactly, are we going?”

They were heading toward the lake, but Lake Minnetonka could more properly be called a bunch of connected bays. Saying they were going to Lake Minnetonka was like saying they were going to Canada. It was a vague destination.

“Gray’s Bay Dam,” came the terse answer.

That was bad. There was a fishing area there, and a park. The place would be deserted now, and dark. The sun had set at around seven. The dam wasn’t high, but high enough that a couple of disabled bodies could easily be rolled into the water.

Chase tried to get that latest picture out of her mind and think clearly. She had to find out exactly what Vi’s plan was. The route was straight for several miles until they would need to turn off onto Bushaway Road. There was time.

“We’re going to Gray’s Bay, you say. Violet, are you still holding the knife on Anna back there?”

“What do you think?”

“I think we’ll be at the Gray’s Bay Dam in about fifteen minutes. What are you going to do with me and Anna when we get there to keep us from telling the police what we know about you and the murders?”

“What’s the matter with you? Just be quiet and drive.”

They had crossed Interstate 494 on Interstate 394, which had devolved into Wayzata Boulevard, pronounced “Y-zetta” by the locals. “We’re already on Wayzata Boulevard. I think that, since you admitted to us that you killed those men, and attacked Hilda Bjorn, you think you might have to get rid of us. Is that what you’re thinking?”

“Why are you talking so loud?”

“If Hilda had died, everything would have been okay, wouldn’t it?”

“Everything is going to be okay.”

“Not for me and Anna! You’re going to kill us with that knife.”

Vi reached one thin arm to the front and snatched Anna’s purse off the passenger seat.

Chase’s heart sank. In the rearview mirror she saw Vi hold up Anna’s phone, which she had just fished out of the purse.

“You called someone! Anna’s phone was on!”

Which meant that, now, it wasn’t on. When Chase had gotten the keys from Anna’s purse, she had redialed Detective Olson’s number and left the connection open. Had he answered the call? Had he heard anything? Had the connection been good enough for him to understand what she was saying?

The turn onto Bushaway Road came way too soon. There wasn’t another soul on the dark road, which was lined with tangled undergrowth and thick trees at that point. Chase slowed the car to a roll, but Vi noticed and told her to speed up.

The trees thinned out, then were missing entirely when they reached the dam, but the people were missing, too, and there was no lighting.

“Keep going, keep going. Slow now.”

Chase eyed the frail wire fencing on either side of the paving. The fences stood a few feet from the two-lane road, leaving virtually no shoulder. They couldn’t stop on the dam.

“Go past the fence. There, turn there.”

Chase turned left onto the turnout to a small fishing area. Her mind, which should have been working a million miles an hour, was stuck on idle. As she got out of the car, her gears started to turn. What was Vi going to do with them?

“How did you get messed up with Gabe and Torvald anyway?” Chase said. “I heard you talking to someone named Felix. Torvald’s nephew? Have you known him long?”

Vi backed out of the car, dragging Anna with her, the knife never more than an inch from Anna’s precious neck.