Murder On Ice (9 page)

“You can bet you'll be seeing more of me,” Michael said as Nancy stepped from the rink.

“He skates well,” Gunther said, watching Michael glide across the ice as Nancy unlaced her skates and returned them. Then she, Bess, and Gunther headed for the coffee shop.

“What was going on out there?” Bess asked.

Nancy sighed. “I wish I knew. It was weird, though, that's for sure!” She turned to Bess and
smiled wearily. “Listen, I'll have to explain all this another time. Right now, I think Ned and I need to be alone.”

“Say no more,” Bess replied promptly. “Gunther and I will make ourselves scarce.”

“Thanks,” Nancy said.

“Bye.” Bess waved. “Take it easy.”

Nancy found Ned drinking hot chocolate in a secluded booth in the back of the Overlook's coffee shop. “How are you doing?” he asked as she made her way toward him.

“I have definitely been better,” Nancy said. She dropped into the seat across from him.

“Maybe we should forget this case,” Ned said, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth, “and go on a ski vacation.”

“That would be very funny if I weren't so upset,” Nancy replied. She signaled to the waitress to bring her a hot chocolate, too. “By the way, did Luke get those car keys from you?”

Ned looked up, surprised. “No. I haven't seen him.”

“I guess after what Michael said to him he was too angry to come and find you.” Nancy quickly related the story to Ned.

“Wow, that's bizarre.” Ned's face was serious when Nancy had finished.

“And Luke obviously feels very guilty about the accident,” Nancy added.

“Yeah,” Ned replied. “Michael really pushed a button in him, bringing the whole thing up like that.

“Oh, well. Since Luke didn't catch up with us, I guess we can take the Jeep home,” Ned went on. “It would have been a real pain to walk all the way back to the lodge on this bum ankle—and I mean that literally.”

The waitress brought Nancy her cocoa and she began to sip it slowly. “So, did you find out anything about Luke?” she asked.

Ned drained the last of his hot chocolate. “Not much. He's new to this area, just arrived during the past couple of months. Two college girls who work here part-time were definitely interested in him, but he wasn't interested in them.

“You know,” he added, “whether the guy's a creep or a crackpot or a menace to society, I think he really does care for George.”

“I don't know whether that makes the situation better or worse,” Nancy said darkly.

“Anyway, the opinion of the athletes around here is that Luke's a very experienced skier. They say he's obviously had some serious racing training and that he's good enough to win medals in lower-ranked races—his bad leg would slow him down too much for the high-ranked ones. But he completely avoids all ski competitions, won't even watch them.

“Hey,” Ned said suddenly, glancing out the coffee shop's large windows, “it looks like a storm is on the way. Maybe we ought to get going.”

By the time Ned and Nancy had paid their bill and hurried out of the coffee shop, the sky was
leaden, the air heavy and damp. Ned handed Nancy the keys to the Jeep, and she turned on the ignition. Soon they were speeding down the drive.

The approaching storm made the wrought-iron gates to the Overlook appear more ominous than glamorous. As the Jeep neared them, two enormous yellow snowplows came rumbling through, heading toward the hotel. Nancy had to jerk the Jeep to the right to avoid them.

“Close call,” Ned commented.

“I know. I haven't got the hang of this thing yet.”

They passed through the open gateway and out onto the mountain road. The wind whipped through the ripped canvas top. Wet snow began to drift down. “Hang on to your hat!” Ned shouted.

“What?”
Nancy shouted back, her eyes intent upon the twisting road.

“I said—” The rest of Ned's words were lost in the roar of the wind.

Nancy shot a glance at him out of the corner of her eye. Then the steering wheel gave a convulsive jerk in her hands, and she turned her attention strictly to her driving. They whizzed around a loop in the twisting road, and she brought her right boot down on the brake.

It did not respond.

Was the road slippery? Or was it something worse? With a burning sensation in her throat, Nancy pumped the brake pedal again, negotiating a sharp curve as she did so. The pedal offered
no resistance, and the Jeep didn't slow down even a fraction.

The brakes were gone!

Nancy yanked at the gearshift, trying to put the Jeep into a lower gear, but she couldn't manage to do it.

Ned poked her sharply.
“Slow down!”
he yelled.

“I'm trying to!”
Nancy shouted back. The Jeep kept gaining speed.
“I can't stop this thing!”

They careened around another curve, and suddenly the road dropped off sharply into a deep gully on the right side. On the left rose a cliff face, a wall of rock.

“Keep left!
” Ned yelled, gesturing wildly.
“Stay by the rock wall.”

“I can't!”
Nancy screamed.
“We'll be killed if there's a car coming toward us!”

They roared around another bend, and the road disappeared into an impossibly tight hairpin turn. In front of them, the gully yawned, a bottomless empty space . . . and they were headed right for it!

“Jump!”
Ned screamed. He tried to pull himself to his feet as the Jeep hurtled toward the gully beyond the curve.

In that instant, the one thought that leaped into Nancy's mind was of Ned's leg. It wasn't completely healed—he'd never make the jump. No way would she abandon him. She
had
to make that hairpin turn. Nancy gripped the steering wheel tightly and stuck to the road like glue.

Miraculously, she negotiated the turn. Then
she scrutinized the road ahead for any possibility of escaping their situation. All at once, Nancy saw her chance!

The road, for a very short stretch, opened out a bit, climbing uphill. There were trees on either side. And a fallen trunk lay against the cliff face.

Nancy could do one thing, and one thing only. She could try to slow the Jeep and get it under control on that short uphill stretch, then use the tree trunk to stop it completely—before it slammed into the rock wall beyond.

Deliberately, Nancy yanked the wheel left and sent the Jeep heading straight toward the granite cliff.

T
HE JEEP CATAPULTED
toward the granite face of the cliff. As it shot ahead, Nancy yanked at the steering wheel with both hands. But her arms weren't quite strong enough.

Then Ned's hands closed over Nancy's with such strength that they crushed her fingers. Together, in unspoken agreement, they forced the Jeep to do her bidding, but they came so close to the cliff that the side of the vehicle scraped against the granite with an ear-piercing shriek.

The Jeep sped up the hill, slowing almost imperceptibly. Then it screeched up onto the fallen tree trunk, recoiled, tipped over, and came to rest on its left side at the edge of the road.

Nancy became aware of Ned's voice almost sobbing out her name. She was trapped inside the overturned vehicle, but Ned had somehow
pulled himself loose. He was kneeling over her, brushing back her hair.

Nancy struggled to get her hand free. She locked it tightly with his. For several seconds they stayed like that, motionless, Nancy inside the Jeep, Ned outside. Then Ned spoke hoarsely. “If you hadn't tried that, we both would have been killed—”

“Let's not think about it. Please.” Nancy shut her eyes.

Ned's fingers tightened on hers, but he spoke with deliberate calm. “We can't stay here. It's a bad curve. If a car comes around it fast, we could be in trouble again. How badly are you hurt?”

Nancy fought back an insane impulse to giggle. “It seems to me I've been through this before, after the rope tow broke,” she murmured. She flexed her arms and legs, one at a time. “I'm all right. I'll probably be a mass of bruises tomorrow, but I landed on snow and nothing's broken.”

“Then hold my hands and see if you can wriggle out.” Ned braced himself against the fallen tree trunk.

Carefully, cautiously, Nancy twisted one way, then the other. It was like trying to get a cork out of a bottle. Slowly and painfully, she emerged. When she was finally free, she and Ned fell into each other's arms.

“I'm afraid we'll have to walk to shelter,” Ned said finally. “It's starting to grow dark, and the storm's getting worse. We can't stay on this
road!” He thought for a second. “We must have come more than halfway. Our best bet is to head for Webb Cove.”

“You can't walk on that ankle—”

“If you're going to suggest that I let you go alone,” Ned interrupted, “don't bother. Don't even think it! If I thought I was going to be able to ski today, surely I can take a short walk.” Ned retrieved his crutches from where they had fallen in the road and he and Nancy, both still dazed, started slowly toward the lodge.

All at once Nancy began to laugh. Ned looked at her in alarm. “What are you giggling about? Are you sure you didn't break something in that beautiful head of yours?”

Nancy shook her head. “I was just thinking—if Luke looked murderous before, think what his face will be like when he finds out what we've done to his precious Jeep!”

“I'm thinking,” Ned said grimly, “but I'm not laughing.”

“I know,” Nancy commented. “This time he's
really
going to kill us!” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Nancy wished she could take them back. They'd come out sounding much more sinister than she'd meant. “Hey, what do you think, Ned? Could this be one more of Luke's planned ‘accidents'?”

Ned groaned. “I bet you're right. Brakes don't usually just fail like that.”

“And Luke's the most obvious person, isn't he? I mean, he's always involved somehow—his
skis, his Jeep, the rope tow he was supposed to take care of—Wait, I hear something,” Nancy exclaimed excitedly.

Behind them a motor sounded faintly. It grew louder, and then headlights swept around the curve. Nancy and Ned jumped out of the road, then started waving madly at the driver. The car slowed to a stop.

“Don't tell me you two tried to
walk,”
Michael's voice said. Then he added in a shocked tone, “Was that
your
wreck I just passed? What happened?”

Nancy shook her head. “Something went wrong with the brakes.” She shuddered.

“How did you get the thing to stop?” Michael asked gently.

“Nancy ran it up on a fallen tree,” Ned said proudly. “If it weren't for that, neither one of us would be alive.”

Michael frowned. “I thought Luke was going to take the Jeep back from you.”

“He never found Ned,” Nancy explained. “I think when you mentioned Dieter Mueller, he just got too upset to worry about it.” She waited curiously for Michael's reaction.

Michael gave a short, mirthless laugh. “This is exactly the kind of thing I tried to warn you about, Nancy.”

Ned's eyes narrowed. “Suppose you spell it out.”

“Carelessness with his equipment—or dangerous jokes. Especially to get even with people who
annoy him. People who take his wheels without asking, for instance.”

“Some joke,” Ned said.

Hmm, Nancy thought, something funny is going on here. Michael didn't mention dangerous pranks before. . . .

“Maybe it wasn't a joke,” Michael said. He turned to Nancy. “Your friend said you're a detective. How much digging around into Ericsen's past have you been doing?”

“All I know is what you've told me,” Nancy said evasively. “I certainly didn't come to Webb Cove to find Luke, if that's what you're suggesting. I came to ski.”

Michael looked sternly at Nancy for a moment. Then he broke into a charming grin. “What I really should suggest is that you two get out of this wind before the snow gets any worse. Come on. Hop in the car and I'll drive you to the lodge.”

“Fantastic,” Nancy said gratefully, pushing Luke's “accidents” and Michael's changing story about them to the back of her mind.

“Thanks,” Ned added as they piled into the car.

By the time they reached Webb Cove, the blizzard had begun in earnest—with the promise of much, much more snow to come.

Lights glowed from every window of the lodge as they approached it, and two cars loaded with luggage, skis, and people were pulling out.

Ned stepped out of the car slowly, wincing as
he put his weight on his bad ankle. “This is already beginning to swell up again,” he said. “I'd better get off it.” He leaned over and gave Nancy a kiss before hobbling inside.