In Place of Never (31 page)

Icy water sliced my skin. The sickening
crunch
of his flashlight against my arm echoed inside my head. Frigid fingers shoved me downstream at a fast clip. I waved my good arm in front of me, gauging for rocks, blind from the darkness. “Pru!”

My back hit a protruding rock, yanking my head to one side and cracking it hard. Fresh pain jolted through my limbs. “Pru!”

A strangled cry lifted and fell so fast, I might have imagined it.

“Pru!” The word hung on my tongue, dragging out for beats until I had no more breath.

Something moved up ahead.

“Pru!”

The animalistic motion shot hope and adrenaline into my muscles.

As the water threw me closer, I recognized her, not from sight, but from instinct. “Pru!” Every fiber of my being knew her and fought to reach her. Her thin arms clung to a rock while her legs were tossed and thrown on the current. I paddled through the frigid mountain water with one surely broken arm and two numbed legs. A moment later, the current caught me and crushed me against Pru on the stone.

She gasped for air. “I can’t swim.”

Her sobs broke my heart. “Yes, you can. I’ve seen you.”

Soaking wet hair clung to her face. “In a pool and not well. Not here. Not in this.”

I wasn’t losing another sister to the river. Anger welled in me. “You can swim. I’ve seen you swim. Fight, dammit! I can’t save you. He broke my arm.”

Her eyes stretched. “You’re hurt?”

“Yes.” And the odds of us getting out of the river weren’t good. Even with two strong arms and no one to carry, this section of the river, without a raft, was suicide. “But we’re going to be fine. Understand?”

I closed my eyes and prayed.
Please
g
et us out of this water alive. Don’t take us from Dad like this.

A silhouette loomed along the riverbank, hunched and cautious.

“He’s looking for us.”

Pru squeaked and flailed, repositioning her hands for better purchase.

“Shhh.”

The beam of his light raced over the water’s surface fifty yards upstream.

“We’ve got to go. Trust me.” I wrapped my good arm around Pru’s chest and the current pulled her loose. I clamped my free hand over her mouth and stifled a scream of pain. I pressed our heads together. I managed two words before the water pulled us under. “Help me.”

Blackness enveloped us. We were caught in the undertow. People didn’t survive that, especially not us. We swam hard against the current, pumping our legs, banging into each other and working overtime to fight the powerful water.

And then there was air.

I gulped oxygen and scanned for light before the water turned us around. Pru’s expression had changed from fear to fierce determination. Her arms looped under mine and her legs fought valiantly, somehow winning the battle over Mother Nature. Our feet slammed into a raised portion of riverbed, and we gained momentary footing, enough to redirect us. Three heartbeats later, the shore came into reach.

Pru scrambled onto the sandbar, dragging me behind her. We climbed on exhausted legs, through muck, mud, and cattails into the field outside the festival. “My phone.”

I nodded. “Mine too.”

Behind us, the beam of light continued a zigzag across the water.

Pru pulled in shaky breaths of night air. “He’s coming. Can you make it home?”

My arm blazed and throbbed with pain at my side. I cradled it with my opposite hand; every breath seemed to intensify the pain. I looked at the death sentence behind us. We’d survived the impossible. “Yeah.” I could get home if I had to crawl there on my belly.

Headlights flashed in the distance, washing us in light and temporarily blinding me. Relief washed through me. Hot tears of joy scalded my frozen cheeks. We were saved. The blessed crunch of tires over gravel delivered the vehicle to our feet.

Pru raised an arm to shield her eyes from the headlights. “Help!”

The lights dimmed and Sheriff Dobbs stood akimbo, staring angrily. “What’s going on here?”

Brady jogged into sight.

I bumped into Pru, moving us away from him. “Brady attacked us. He told us he hit Faith that night. I told him he didn’t kill her, that she drowned, but he didn’t believe me, and he hit me with that flashlight.” I winced at the memory. “I think he broke my arm.”

Sheriff Dobbs turned to Brady. “What do you have to say about this?”

I scoffed. Would he talk his way out of it? Was the sheriff so blind and damaged that he’d try to smooth this over for his son’s sake? My lip trembled. Maybe.

Brady huffed, somewhat out of breath from chasing his prey. “Thanks for coming.”

He’d called him?

Pru curled her fingers in the hem of my shirt. “Oh, no.” She stepped toward the shadows with me beside her.

They turned toward us, and we froze.

Brady pointed his light at me. “She said Faith drowned.”

“She did.” I’d hoped to defuse the situation. If Brady knew he didn’t kill her, maybe he could get some help, some closure and move on. Maybe he could get anger management. Fury bubbled in me. He’d hit my sister. A woman who’d carried his child. First, he needed to be punished.

Sheriff Dobbs heaved a tired sigh. “That’s right.”

Brady dropped the light. “She drowned?”

“Yes.” The look on Sheriff Dobbs’s face sent prickles over my neck and arms. Something else was going on here.

I glanced to Pru. Her furrowed brows said she noticed, too.

Fury raged in Brady’s trembling limbs. “You told me I killed her.”

“What?” I looked to Pru in confusion. She shook her head and pulled me another step away.

Brady paced before his dad. “I told you I hit her and you said I killed her.”

“No, no, no, no,” Sheriff Dobbs cooed to his loony son. “Come now.” He pulled Brady away from us and planted his hands on Brady’s cheeks, forcing his attention off of Pru and me. “Shhhh. Listen to me. The autopsy showed a dozen bruises and traumas from crossing the rapids. Whatever else happened that night, she drowned. It doesn’t make any sense to harp on extraneous details. They won’t bring her back.”

Brady sobbed. He crouched to the ground by his flashlight. “She was alive when I shoved her in the river. I thought I killed her.” He tipped his head back and roared into the sky like something feral. “I did kill her. I rolled her into the river. I drowned her!”

Sheriff Dobbs squatted with him. His voice was soft and low. I strained to make out the words. “You need to calm down and stop talking. Do you understand me?” He patted Brady’s back. “Let’s get you home. I’ll take care of the girls.”

Bile rose in my throat. Pru dragged me deeper into the shadows, farther from the sheriff and farther from home. I couldn’t find a full breath. My lungs were frozen in shock and horror. Sheriff Dobbs had known all along. He knew Brady hit my sister, and he’d done nothing. He knew Brady rolled her into the river and he’d coddled and comforted him all these years while Brady squandered his life and drank himself into nothingness. He’d comforted
Brady
. The emotional strain nearly split my psyche down the middle. I needed to stay. I wanted to hear every morbid detail of their horrific cover-up. I also needed to run before either man decided to get rid of any more Porter women. Maybe I could protect Pru in a way I’d never had the chance to protect Faith.

They stood and walked to the car. Sheriff Dobbs opened the passenger door to let Brady inside.

And we ran.

For some reason, I was like a newborn deer on wobbly legs, cringing with every awkward step. The pain in my arm spread to my brain.

Pru led the way through the darkness. She stopped at the ticket booth for the festival. “Maybe there’s a phone.” She ducked inside.

Two flashlight beams ran over the ground.

She hopped out, spotted the beams, and pointed at the two streams of light I couldn’t take my eyes off. “They’re coming.”

We scurried like mice from hawks, at a complete disadvantage. Weak. Fear-driven. Panicked.

The chain link gates beyond the booth were locked, but Pru and I fit between them with a little effort. The men never would.

We dipped into the first game booth and sat on the ground. Stuffed animals swung overhead. Security lighting cast eerie shadows over the deserted festival. I gritted my teeth through unending pain. “We need a plan.”

Pru nodded. “They can’t get through the fence, but there might be another way for them to get inside. We can’t stay here.”

I sat up on my knees and peered over the counter, where men in striped aprons would taunt passersby tomorrow night. Unless we didn’t get out and this place was a crime scene by then.

The control booth at the arena caught my eye. “If we can get inside the control booth, we can use the loudspeaker. That thing’s loud when the festival’s in full swing. I bet it would wake the town if we use it tonight.”

Relief washed over Pru’s face. She moved into a crouch and looked at the control booth.

The gate rattled open and something thunked against the ground.

We hadn’t survived the river to die inside a ring toss game. I took Pru’s hand and we ducked through the back of our game booth, onto game row. A line of booths stretched before us and I swallowed bile. All my favorite festival sights were distorted and frightening in a bath of shadows and silence.

Whistling began nearby.

We ran, full speed and tipped forward at the waist to keep low. I stumbled repeatedly on leaden feet, begging them to keep up.

A familiar voice taunted, much closer than the whistling. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.” Sheriff Dobbs’s singsong cadence coiled ice fingers in my gut. He’d come to make sure we kept his secret, but that wasn’t going to happen. I’d make sure he and Brady faced a jury for what they’d done. First, I needed to get Pru somewhere safe.

I squeezed Pru’s hand and cut between Balloon Pop! and a dunk tank, putting us farther from our destination. We’d reached the outskirts of the festival grounds.

Pru trembled at my side. “What do we do? We can’t go back. They’ve probably split up.”

We stared at the chain link fence separating us from safety. The river roared through the darkness beyond the fence.

“I can’t climb the fence like this.” My arm screamed for me to give up and die. Black dots swarmed in my vision. “I might black out.”

Pru grabbed my shoulders. “No, you won’t. You’re going to do what you made me do in the water. You’re going to fight.”

The whistling drew nearer.

She jerked me to the side and pressed my back against a red corrugated wall. “Come on.” Pru climbed two steps to a door in the wall I recognized as a semitruck. Some of the games and attractions drove in like that and parked. In the morning, workers rolled up the outside wall to reveal the attraction. I slipped inside behind her and pulled the door shut with a
click
.

Our every step echoed.

I leaned against the wall and caught my breath. “Where are we?”

“Fun house, I think.”

I inched along the wall, thankful for narrow halls I could press my back against and ease the tremor in my legs. I bumped into Pru.

She’d stopped short. “Do you hear that?”

My senses went on high alert. “Voices?”

“Yeah. Lots.”

We shuffled down the black hallway and spilled into a large room filled with padded bumpers shaped like arms and legs jutting out from the floor and walls. We navigated through the obstacles and into a hall of mirrors. A measure of dim light filtered in through scratched up Plexiglas on the opposite wall. Our dad stood outside, hands cupped around his lips.

“Dad!” I screamed.

Pru jumped. She gasped and pressed her face to the window, screaming for help.

Behind him, Sheriff Dobbs looked our way. He wrapped an arm over Dad’s shoulders and steered him in the opposite direction. Brady arrived next, spoke to Dad, and shuffled back toward game row at his side. Sheriff Dobbs headed for the funhouse.

Pru changed her screams. “Anton!”

What? Above the darkened food carts and merchandise stands, Anton’s head bobbed a path toward us.

Pru pounded her fists against the glass as I fought a tidal wave of nausea and blackness.

My back slid down the wall to the cool metal floor.

Pru kept pounding.

My cheek pressed against the ground.

Pounding.

Screaming.

Darkness.

Pain racked my sides. Two black boots stopped before me. “Get up, or I kill her here.”

I didn’t want anyone to die, but focusing through the pain was impossible.

Pru’s voice wobbled. “Mercy.”

My eyes peeled open. Sheriff Dobbs had one leather gloved hand pressed over Pru’s face. The other wound around her middle like a vise. “Get up.”

I forced my weighted limbs into cooperation.

“Move.” He motioned down the dark hall where we’d entered. Away from the window. Away from Dad. One last look over my shoulder revealed no one. Anton was gone. Dad was gone.

I bent forward and threw up.

The sheriff swore. “Now your DNA’s in here. Stop.”

I pressed my back to the wall and focused my eyes on Pru’s terrified face. Unlike the raging river that had washed every fiber of evidence from Faith’s body, my DNA was here to stay. He wouldn’t get away with hurting us or anyone else again.

I gritted my teeth against the pain. Beads of sweat lined my forehead. “I think I have a concussion. I hit my head in the river.”

“Shut up.” Sheriff Dobbs dropped Pru. “Stay down.” He turned in a circle. “I don’t have any rope or anywhere to keep you until I get back. His hand hovered over his sidearm. “Shit. I have to meet your father and let him know the grounds are clear.” He growled and groaned.

We’d put him in an awful position. Dread chilled my heart. He’d have to kill us with his bare hands or let us go. He wouldn’t let us go.

The sound of my name broke through the silent truck. Voices outside yelled for Pru and me. “Dad wasn’t alone.”

Sheriff Dobbs gritted his teeth and unlatched his giant metal flashlight. “Lord, forgive me.” He hoisted it over his head.

The scream that ripped free from Pru jolted me into action. I lunged for his knees and sent him flying backward, into the wall and onto the floor. The impact echoed around us. Pru screamed again. I launched myself across the space between Sheriff Dobbs and his fallen light. He grabbed it and shined it in my eyes. Pain ripped through my face and I toppled onto my backside.