Frozen Stiff (13 page)

“No, it doesn’t matter that much to me. Plus, Danielle just informed me that you had changed your will and I wouldn’t have gotten any anyway.”

“Danielle told you that? She’s been busy. Don’t believe everything she says.” He laughed, which turned into a throaty cough. The he spit out, “Anyway, you’re too lazy and too nervous to try to kill me.”

“That’s true too.” Sherri found herself smiling, in spite of his nasty comment. Daniel Walker did know her quite well. After all, they had worked together for ten years and then been married for the last five. He should know her.

“When am I going to get to go home? I keep asking them and no one will tell me. Can you find out?”

Sherri looked at the nurse. “Do you know?”

“Might be as soon as tomorrow,” the nurse answered.

“You don’t have to stand there. I’m not worried about Sherri. She’s still my wife,” Daniel said to the nurse. He was always trying to boss everyone around. Sherri wondered what the nurse would say.

The blond-haired nurse smiled and said, “I do have to be here. It’s part of my job.”

Daniel waved his hand. “Don’t you have something better to do? People’s lives to save?”

“Not at the moment.”

“Well, it’s your time. I guess you can do what you want with it.” Daniel turned back to Sherri. “Any chance you could get me something decent to eat? I’m starving to death here.”

“What would you like?”

“What I’d really like is a steak, but I guess a hamburger would do. With the whole works—fries and all. Cholesterol be damned.”

“I’ll get you a hamburger for dinner.”

He leaned his head back. His eyes closed. He sighed, then opened his eyes and said, “Sherri, thank you for being here.”

She blinked her eyes. She did not want him to see her cry for many reasons—her pride and his pride too. But he hadn’t spoken so kindly to her in a long time. “You’re welcome.”

3 January: 3:30 pm

C
laire was surprised to walk into Bonnie’s room and find her alone in bed with the bundle of a baby tucked in next to her. In front of the young girl was a tray of food—soup, bread, chocolate milk. Lots of liquids. She must be trying to breastfeed. This had to be a good sign.

Bonnie was staring down at her newborn, touching him on the face as if seeing if he were real. Her long brown hair hung like a shawl around her shoulders and she looked like a plump Madonna.

“Bonnie,” Claire asked. “How’re you doing?”

Bonnie started, then looked up and saw the uniform and held her baby tighter. “Who are you?”

“A deputy sheriff, Meg Watkins’ mom. I didn’t mean to startle you, but I’d like to ask you a few questions. Everything is fine.” Claire stepped closer and couldn’t help but lean down to admire the baby. He had a broad face with faint, wide eyebrows and a chubby hand was near his mouth, waving around. His hair was thick but very light, appearing like down on his head. She had the nearly irresistible urge to reach out and stroke him, but she needed to ask Bonnie a few questions first. “He’s adorable.”

“Do you think so? I think he’s kinda scrawny and squished looking.”

“But look at that hair. He’s going to chunk out soon enough, but don’t worry if he drops a little right at first. That’s normal.”

Claire pulled up a chair and sat down next to the girl. “You can keep eating. I just wanted to ask you a few things.”

“About what?” Bonnie spooned up some soup.

“I’ll be really straight with you. I’m wondering about your relationship to Daniel Walker.”

The spoon Bonnie had been holding clanged to the tray, then fell to the floor.

“I’ll get it,” Claire said, not wanting the girl to try to reach down from the bed and also to give her a second to gather herself together. When she handed the spoon back to Bonnie, she caught her eyes and said, “This is just between you and me. No one else will know.”

“Why are you asking me about Mr. Walker? I just did some house cleaning work for him.”

“What do you think of him?”

Bonnie shrugged. “He’s a nice guy. Pretty smart.”

“Does he pay you well?”

“Better than I could get any other place around here.”

Claire had been thinking about how she would phrase the important question. She knew many interrogators came at things slantwise, but she tended to come at the issue straight ahead, especially with someone like Bonnie. The young girl would be unprepared for it and since she was probably not much of a liar, be forced to come out with something that was close to the truth.

“Bonnie, who is the father of your baby?”

Bonnie lifted her head like a doe hearing a noise that might mean danger. She looked around the room.

“This is between you and me,” Claire assured her.

“Do you really need to know?”

“It might be helpful.”

“I think you already know.”

“Do I?”

“Well, you asked me about Mr. Walker.”

Claire noticed that Bonnie called him Mister. They must not have gotten very close. “Was it just once?”

Bonnie shook her head.

“More than that?”

“Only twice. My mom was sick so I went and cleaned their house. Mr. Walker was there both times.”

“Did he force you?”

Bonnie shook her head again. “No, not really. He was very nice to me. We sat and talked and he even gave me a beer. Just one beer. But it wasn’t like I was drunk or anything. You know, we were just hanging out. He treated me like an adult. He asked me questions about myself. He wasn’t a lech or anything. I don’t know. It just happened. I didn’t mind. It was kinda nice.”

“Are you sure? You know what he did was against the law, because of your age.”

“Really? That seems stupid, when I went along with it. In a way, I was glad to get the first time over with. Everyone makes such a big deal about it.”

Claire nodded. Thank goodness he hadn’t forced her. But he had sure left her holding the package, so to speak.

“And you really didn’t know you were pregnant?”

“No. My stomach hurt, but I just figured it was cause I was gaining weight. I was embarrassed about that.”

“What about your period?”

“It’s always been a little irregular. I never paid much attention to it.”

“So Mr. Walker doesn’t know he’s a father?”

Bonnie looked down and shook her head.

“Do you want him to know?” Claire asked.

Bonnie shrugged.

“Let me be clear. Mr. Walker broke the law. We could arrest him for what he did to you.”

Bonnie looked up. “Do you have to? I’d rather keep it quiet. Does he even have to know?”

“I think he should know. At least he needs to take responsibility for his actions.”

“So are you going to arrest him?”

Claire thought of Daniel Walker, frozen and blistering, having parts of his body cut off. Bonnie probably wasn’t even aware of what had happened to him, that he was on the next floor of the hospital. “We’ll see.”

The baby started fussing, his broad face turning red. When Bonnie cuddled him, he quieted. She seemed to know what to do with him already.

“Have you named him yet?”

“No. I’ve been watching him, trying to see what he looks like to me. I’ve thought of Kevin and Logan. What do you think?”

“Those both sound like very good names. Solid. Just like your beautiful baby is going to be.”

“Thanks.”

“Bonnie, I need to ask you one more question. Does anyone know about your relationship with Mr. Walker? Your parents? His wife?”

“Not my mom. Just my dad.”

“What’d he say when he found out?”

“That he was going to kill him.”

4 pm

John Gordon stared out the window at the brittle sun glaring off the icy crust on top of the snow. He didn’t know what to do with himself. He felt like he was frozen inside and it wasn’t just because of the weather. He was waiting to hear back from the lawyer, trying to decide what he would do depending on which way the phone call went.

No matter what happened with the farm, he didn’t feel like he could leave his mother again, but there was no work for him to do in Pepin County during the winter.

He’d put in an application at the dog food factory and at the cabinet maker down near Hager City, but he wasn’t holding his breath. Both places had told him they weren’t hiring, but still let him fill out an application.

Until he knew what was going to happen with the farm, he felt all tied up in knots. The thought of losing the homeplace made him sick, like the earth had changed into a land he didn’t know anymore. How could something like this have happened to him? He had planned on spending his whole life on the farm. It was the only place he felt real.

There were projects to do around the house and out in the barn, but he didn’t feel like doing anything to make the place any better if Walker was going to buy it. John was pretty sure that Walker had no intention of fixing up the house. He’d tear it down, cut up the land and sell it off to some rich folks for tennis courts and swimming pools. Good farmland going to waste. Where did people think food was going to come from in the future if they kept on developing all the land that way?

He could really kick himself. He should have put the farm in a trust with the Western Wisconsin Land Trust when he had the chance. But now it might be way too late.

Slamming his hand against the glass, he decided he couldn’t stay in the house any longer. His mother was upstairs taking a nap. He noticed she was taking one most days now. She definitely seemed to be running low on energy. He wondered when she had been in to the doctor. Might be time for a check-up. He wasn’t looking forward to the day when he would lose her too.

As he pulled on his down jacket, he decided he didn’t need to tell her he was going out. He wouldn’t be gone long.

Deputy Sheriff Amy hadn’t been by in the last day. He got such a kick out of her being a cop. She looked about as cute as they come in her uniform. He wondered what she looked like out of it. He remembered her vaguely from just seeing her around—at the grocery store with her mom, at the beach, at the Fort playing pool. She had been a funny looking girl, short and chunky, but she had slimmed down some and filled out nicely. Plus, she had always had a great smile. Like a light came on in her eyes and it was catchy. Infectious, he guessed was the word that might describe that quality.

Just as he was all bundled up the phone rang. When he answered he heard Dean Lloyd on the other end, the lawyer.

“Cold enough for you?” Dean asked.

“No, I like it so my eyeballs freeze when I step outside.”

Dean gave a guffaw. “Hey, buddy, I don’t have great news.”

“Shoot.”

“Well, as far as I can tell, this contract seems pretty solid. I don’t see any way out of it as it stands. We might need to talk about that other way of trying to get out of the contract.”

John knew he meant declaring his mother incompetent. “Let me think on it. I’ll give you a call tomorrow.”

“Sure. I’m around. Unless I can find a cheap fare to Cancun.”

John gave a dry laugh and signed off.

He stepped out into the frigid day and felt his shoulders rise to ward off the cold. An instinctive movement all winter long. Exhausting. As he walked toward the barn, the snow squeaked beneath his boots, sounding like mice caught in a trap. He had always wondered if it were possible to tell the temperature by the sound the snow made. Maybe someone had studied that, some smart scientist.

He had wanted to be a scientist when he was a kid. He had loved experiments and figuring out how things worked, but his mom had needed him on the farm when it came time for him to consider college. So that put an end to that. Now at forty, he was too old to even think about doing anything but fix tractors and measure out feed and plant corn. He was just a farmer, that’s all he’d ever be, but it was enough.

He decided he would walk down the quarter mile driveway and see if the mail had come. He got such a kick out of his mom
driving the snowmobile down to get it, but it made good sense. Last thing she needed to do at her age was fall on the ice. Especially when she was all by herself. Another thing he hated to think about, but he knew his sister checked in on her frequently and called her every day.

John loved the flow of the land. In winter the contours really stood out, the swales and mounds, the curve of it all. Like looking at a woman lounging naked in bed, her white skin glistening and you just wanted to run your hand down it. He was in love with this place, had been all his life. He’d do almost anything to keep it.

7 pm

“So what do you hear through the school grapevine about Bonnie’s pregnancy?” Claire asked Meg, who was sprawled on the couch, watching “American Idol.”

“Mom, sh-sh-sh. It’s right down to the finals and he’s just about to sing.”

Claire sat down and watched the TV with her daughter. A tall, dark-haired man who looked like a cross between Elvis and Liberace, stood stock still on stage and sang an amazing version of “Ring of Fire.”

When he was done singing, Claire turned to Meg and said, “Wow.”

“Yeah, he’s great, but he’s not going to win.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Too weird. A little too dark and scary for teeny-boppers.”

“Aren’t you a teeny-bopper?”

“No way. I’m much more sophisticated than that.” Meg sat up. “What’d you want to know about Bonnie? How did you hear about her baby?”

Claire didn’t want Meg to know why she was asking. She tried to keep her job out of her home life if she could. It was not always possible in this small community. Not so long ago Meg had been right in the middle of a case, but had come through it all with surprisingly little trauma. Or at least nothing evident at the moment. “Just saw her at the hospital and wondered what had happened there. I heard she didn’t even know she was pregnant.”

“Can you believe it? It’s like one of those urban myths—girl delivers baby in bed—but then it’s really happening to this person you know. Too strange. Everybody was talking about it.”

“What are kids saying at school?”

“Everybody’s like wow, how’d that go down. I mean she’s never even gone out with anyone. Nobody could even believe that she had had sex.”