P. Parrish - Heart of Ice

Julie shook her head slowly. “I trusted her,” she whispered.

“What happened?” Louis pressed.

“I showed her the money. She told me she had never seen a thousand dollars before and she asked if she could hold it. I let her. Then she shined the flashlight right in my face and I knew something was wrong. I couldn’t see her but I could feel something change.”

Julie pulled in a deep shuddering breath.

“I couldn’t see her but I could hear her, and I could hear her voice change. She said. . she said, ‘You know Cooper doesn’t love you.’ She said, ‘You’re just his little West Bluff whore. He brags to all his friends about screwing you.’ ”

She was gulping for air, her body bending with each inhalation.

“Miss Chapman, take a breath,” Louis said gently.

She didn’t seem to hear him. “She said that Cooper really loved her, that they had loved each other for a long time and that she could prove it. She said she was pregnant with Cooper’s baby and that they were going to run away to Canada.”

Her eyes came up to Louis.

“Then she told me I needed to disappear,” she said.

Tears fell slowly down her face.

Louis looked around for a Kleenex but saw only a roll of paper towels. He ripped off two and held them out to her, but she didn’t take them.

“What happened next?” Rafsky said.

Julie was just sitting motionless.

“Miss Chapman,” Rafsky said. “What happened next?”

Her eyes swung to Rafsky. “She picked up the stone from the fireplace and came at me,” she said. “She hit me on the shoulder but I got away. It was so dark, but I saw a door. I pushed through it and suddenly I was falling down some steps. I hit my head and thought I was going to black out.”

When Julie didn’t go on, Louis prompted, “Could you tell where you were?”

“Not at first,” Julie said. “It was completely dark. But then I saw a light. It was coming toward me, and I knew it was the flashlight and that Rhonda was coming down the stairs. I knew then I was in a basement. I crawled away and hid under the steps.”

Her face had gone ashen, her eyes dark.

“I could hear her boots on the stairs, and I could see the light’s beam. Then I saw her legs through the steps.”

She held her hands out. “I grabbed her and pulled hard. She fell and the light. .”

Louis put a hand on Julie’s shoulder to calm her, but she didn’t seem to feel it.

“. . the flashlight. She dropped the flashlight, and it was laying there on the floor. I tried to get up the steps, but she grabbed me and pulled me back down. She was strong and she was on top of me, hitting me, choking me. I couldn’t see her, I couldn’t see anything. But I felt something. My hand touched something hard, and I knew it was the stone from the fireplace. I grabbed it and I. . God, oh God.”

She covered her face with her hands, sobbing. Louis looked up at Rafsky. He was sitting ramrod straight in his chair, the pen poised above the pad.

Louis touched Julie’s shoulder and held the paper towels under her bowed head. She took them, pressing them to her face. She took two deep breaths and looked up. Her face was streaked with mascara.

“Suddenly she was gone,” she said. “I gulped for air and couldn’t see anything for a few seconds. I was afraid she would come back after me, so I got on my hands and knees and tried to crawl away.”

Julie shut her eyes. “I saw the light first, from the flashlight on the floor. Then I saw her. She was lying over by the boiler. She wasn’t moving.”

“Did you go to her?” Louis asked.

Julie shook her head slowly.

“What did you do?”

“I went back upstairs to wait for Cooper.” She opened her eyes. “But he never came.”

“How long did you wait?” Louis asked.

“All night,” she whispered.

The tape clicked off. Rafsky opened the recorder, turned over the tape, and hit the RECORD button.

“Rhonda was right,” Julie said.

“About what?” Louis asked.

“Cooper. She was right. He didn’t love me.”

Louis glanced at Rafsky, who gave him a subtle shake of the head.

“What did you do in the morning?” Louis asked.

She had drifted away and it took her a moment to come back to him.

“I knew I couldn’t go home,” she said. “I had killed someone, and all I could think about was what Rhonda had said.”

“What was that?” Rafsky asked when she didn’t go on.

“That I needed to disappear.”

Her eyes had gone blank.

“But to do that, you couldn’t just leave Rhonda in the basement as she was,” Rafsky said.

She looked at him.

“You need to tell us what you did, Miss Chapman.”

When she reached up to push her hair back her hand was shaking. “I remembered my father talking about this man who had killed some students in Ann Arbor. He was worried about me going to school there. I had this idea that I could make it look like someone like him had killed her. So I took her clothes and the stone from the fireplace.”

“But you left your school ring,” Rafsky said.

“I didn’t mean to,” Julie said. “I had forgotten I gave it to Rhonda to wear.”

“What did you do after you left the lodge?” Rafsky asked.

“I threw the stone out in the weeds outside. I got Rhonda’s clothes and her purse and I took the ferry back to Mackinaw City. I got in Rhonda’s car and drove away. I drove for two straight days.”

“Why did you go to California?”

“Rhonda had told me about a friend she had there named Dirk. He worked in the free clinic in Haight-Ashbury. He took me in and helped me get a fake ID.”

She let out a long tired breath. “It was easy to disappear in those days.”

Rafsky sat back in his chair and glanced up at Louis. Louis knew it was a signal. Julie Chapman had told them what they needed to know. Now they could tell her what she needed to know.

Louis looked at her. She had wrapped her arms around herself, and her head was bowed. Her hair had come loose from its ponytail and hid her face. She was rocking slightly.

“Miss Chapman,” Louis said.

Nothing.

“Julie.”

She looked up at him, her eyes wet and expectant.

“Rhonda Grasso was pregnant, but Cooper wasn’t the father,” Louis said. “Your brother, Ross, was.”

Her face lost all its color, and she tipped forward as if her bones had dissolved.

“There’s something else you need to know,” Louis said. “Cooper was coming to the island to meet you. He fell through the ice bridge and nearly drowned. He spent a week in the hospital.”

Julie crumbled to the side and let out a cry. Louis started to reach for her, but Rafsky was there first, on one knee to catch her as she collapsed into his arms. She buried her face in his shoulder, clutching him.

Louis heard a faint rapping sound. It was coming from the front of the house, someone at the door. He looked back at Rafsky. He still had his arm around Julie, but she had stopped crying.

He left the kitchen and went to the foyer. When he opened the door he was surprised to see Maisey-and coming up the steps behind her was Flowers.

Maisey’s eyes went beyond Louis, and she tried to push by him. “Is she here?” she asked.

Louis took her by the shoulders, holding her back. “Maisey, wait. You can’t go in.”

“Where is she?” Maisey demanded.

“I can’t let-”

Maisey’s eyes dipped to the two suitcases, and she saw the sock monkey. She picked it up, her eyes welling.

“I made this for her. Please let me by,” she said. “I have to see her.”

Louis let her go, and she ran toward the kitchen. He turned back to Flowers. He was staring hard at Louis, his mouth pulled in a thin line.