Chapter 17
Deputy Chen shoved Ethan and Sophie beneath the ambulance bench.
“Stay down.”
Another bullet struck metal outside.
The sound was deafening inside the vehicle.
Sophie covered her ears and screamed.
Ethan lay over her, using his body as a shield even though he knew a rifle round could tear through the thin ambulance wall.
Outside, deputies shouted to one another.
“Shooter uphill!”
“No visual!”
“Pike, move left!”
A third shot cracked.
Then silence.
Ethan’s heart hammered against the floor.
He looked at Sophie.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head rapidly.
“You?”
“I’m okay.”
The rear doors opened suddenly.
Ethan twisted, ready to fight.
Deputy Chen climbed in.
“Move forward. Stay below the windows.”
“Where is he?” Ethan asked.
“Tree line above the road. We think he’s repositioning.”
“What about Rachel?”
“In the second SUV.”
Sophie whispered, “Is she hurt?”
Ethan looked at her.
After everything, his daughter still asked.
“Her arm is hurt, but she’s okay.”
Chen shut the doors.
“Pike is trying to get a team around the ridge. We have another unit coming from below.”
Ethan’s satellite communicator sat heavy against his chest.
The message from Caleb seemed heavier.
AFTER THIS WEEKEND, SHE’LL BE GONE AND ETHAN WILL FINALLY LET US START OVER.
He needed to ask Rachel what it meant.
He also needed Sophie not to hear the answer.
For the moment, neither was possible.
Deputy Chen crawled toward the front and spoke to the driver.
A minute later the ambulance began reversing slowly down the road.
The plan was obvious: create distance from the blocked tree until officers could clear it.
They had moved perhaps thirty yards when another shot came.
The driver swore.
The ambulance lurched.
“What happened?” Ethan called.
“Front tire!”
The vehicle stopped at an angle.
Deputy Chen keyed her radio.
“Medical One disabled. Shooter has line of sight on vehicles. Need cover now.”
Rachel’s voice came from outside.
“Ethan!”
He looked toward the rear doors.
“Stay where you are!” Chen yelled.
But Rachel opened one door anyway and climbed inside.
A medic pushed in behind her.
“We’re consolidating civilians in the armored side,” he said.
Rachel saw Sophie and nearly collapsed with relief.
Sophie moved closer to Ethan.
Rachel noticed.
Her face tightened.
Ethan looked at the medic.
“Can you sit up front for a minute?”
The medic glanced at Chen.
Chen understood.
“Thirty seconds.”
The medic moved forward.
Ethan kept his voice low.
He pulled out the satellite communicator and showed Rachel the photograph of the messages.
Her face drained of color.
“What did you mean?”
She stared at the highlighted line.
“Ethan—”
“What did you mean by ‘she’ll be gone’?”
Rachel looked at Sophie.
“Not here.”
“Right here.”
Sophie watched both of them.
Rachel whispered, “I meant Helen’s.”
Ethan stared.
“My mother?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
Rachel began crying.
“The rest of the school year.”
Sophie’s face changed.
“What?”
Ethan closed his eyes.
Rachel reached toward her.
“Sophie, I—”
“Don’t touch me.”
Rachel pulled her hand back.
Ethan’s anger returned full force.
“You planned to frighten her until I sent her away for months.”
“I thought we needed time.”
“Who is we?”
“You and me.”
“There is no you and me without Sophie.”
“I know that now.”
“No. You knew it then. You just thought you could change it.”
Rachel looked down.
Sophie whispered, “Why don’t you like me?”
The question broke something in the ambulance.
Rachel covered her mouth.
“I do like you.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Sophie—”
“You’re nice when Dad is there.”
Rachel cried harder.
“I was jealous.”
Ethan stared.
“Of a child?”
Rachel shook her head.
“Of what she represented.”
Sophie did not understand.
Ethan did.
“Emily.”
Rachel nodded.
Sophie’s mother.
Ethan’s late wife.
Rachel wiped her face.
“Every room in our house has a picture of her. Every holiday has a story about her. Every time Sophie is upset, someone says she has Emily’s sensitivity. Every time she laughs, you say she sounds like Emily.”
Ethan felt shame mix with anger.
He had done those things.
Not to hurt Rachel.
To keep Sophie connected to her mother.
Rachel continued.
“I felt like I married into a family where the most important woman was dead and I could never compete with her.”
“So you competed with Sophie instead?”
“No.”
“That’s exactly what you did.”
Rachel had no answer.
Sophie whispered, “Mom didn’t do anything to you.”
Rachel closed her eyes.
“I know.”
“Neither did I.”
“No.”
Ethan put his arm around his daughter.
Rachel looked at him.
“I wanted time with you where I wasn’t always the outsider.”
“You created the outsider.”
“Yes.”
A gunshot struck the blocked tree up the road.
Everyone flinched.
Deputy Chen called back.
“Conversation over. We’re moving you to the sheriff SUV behind us. Better protection.”
The rear doors opened.
Two deputies formed a shield position.
The road curved enough that the hillside blocked direct view from Caleb’s last known position.
“Move now,” Chen ordered.
Rachel went first with the medic.
Sophie held Ethan’s hand.
They stepped into the snow.
The sheriff SUV was fifteen feet away.
Ten.
Five.
A shout came from above.
“CONTACT REAR!”
Ethan turned.
Caleb had circled through the trees.
He was twenty yards behind the convoy.
Rifle raised.
Deputy Pike fired.
Caleb ducked behind a boulder.
“MOVE!” Chen shouted.
Ethan pushed Sophie toward the SUV.
Rachel grabbed the rear door.
Another shot.
The SUV window exploded.
Rachel screamed and dropped.
Ethan reached Sophie.
Then smoke filled the road.
A canister rolled beneath the ambulance, throwing thick orange smoke into the air.
“Smoke!” someone yelled.
It was not military-grade anything—just a commercial emergency smoke flare—but in the narrow mountain road it created instant confusion.
Ethan coughed.
“Sophie!”
Her hand slipped from his.
“SOPHIE!”
He reached through orange fog.
Someone slammed into him.
He fell against the SUV.
A rifle butt flashed in front of his face.
Pain exploded across his temple.
He hit the snow.
Through ringing ears, he heard Sophie scream.
“DAD!”
Ethan tried to stand.
His legs failed.
A dark figure moved through the smoke.
Caleb.
One arm around Sophie.
The rifle pressed against his own side as he dragged her backward.
Deputies shouted but could not fire with the child in front of him.
“LET HER GO!” Ethan screamed.
Caleb backed toward the trees.
Sophie kicked him.
He tightened his grip.
“Stop!”
Rachel appeared through the smoke.
“Caleb, please!”
Caleb looked at her.
“You wanted her gone.”
“Not like this!”
“Then bring me the drive.”
Deputy Pike held the flash drive in an evidence bag near the SUV.
Caleb saw it.
“Throw it.”
Pike shook his head.
“Let the girl come halfway.”
Caleb laughed.
“I’m not negotiating with a county cop.”
“You’re surrounded.”
“No, I’m not.”
A snowmobile engine roared from the trees.
A black machine sat hidden beneath a camouflage tarp twenty yards downhill.
Caleb had prepared his escape before cutting the tree.
He dragged Sophie toward it.
Ethan staggered upright.
“Take me instead.”
Caleb looked at him.
“You don’t have what I want.”
“I have money.”
“So does she.”
Caleb nodded toward Rachel.
“This stopped being about money a long time ago.”
“Then what do you want?”
Caleb smiled at his sister.
“The truth.”
Rachel cried.
“You already know the truth.”
“No. I know mine. I want everyone to know yours.”
He shoved Sophie onto the snowmobile seat in front of him.
Deputies shifted position.
Caleb raised the rifle against Sophie’s shoulder.
Every gun lowered.
Ethan felt helplessness so complete it almost blinded him.
“Sophie,” he called.
She looked at him through tears.
“I’m coming for you.”
Caleb smiled.
“Good.”
He started the machine.
Rachel stepped forward.
“Where are you taking her?”
“You know.”
Rachel stopped.
Her face changed.
“The lake.”
Caleb accelerated.
The snowmobile vanished between the pines.
Ethan turned to Rachel.
“What lake?”
She stared after her brother.
“Mirror Lake.”
“How far?”
“Two miles.”
“Why there?”
Rachel looked at him.
“Because that’s where our mother found us the morning after the fire.”
Deputy Pike grabbed his radio and started calling coordinates.
Ethan barely heard him.
Rachel continued.
“Caleb thinks that’s where I betrayed him.”
Ethan wiped blood from his temple.
“Then that’s where we go.”
Pike stepped in front of him.
“You are not pursuing an armed suspect.”
“He has my daughter.”
“We will get her.”
Ethan looked at him.
“You didn’t know where he was ten seconds before he took her.”
Pike’s jaw tightened.
“Mr. Hale—”
Rachel interrupted.
“There’s another way to the lake.”
Everyone looked at her.
“A forestry trail. Snowmobiles can use it.”
Pike pointed at an officer.
“Chen, with me.”
Ethan stepped forward.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“I know Sophie. If Caleb tries to manipulate her, I can keep her calm.”
Pike shook his head.
“You’re a civilian.”
Rachel said, “He also won’t listen to police.”
Pike stared at her.
“He might listen to Ethan.”
“Why?”
“Because Caleb wants Ethan to hear what I did.”
Silence.
Pike swore under his breath.
“You ride behind Chen. You do exactly what she says.”
Ethan nodded.
Rachel stepped forward.
“I’m going too.”
Ethan laughed without humor.
“No.”
“He wants me.”
“That’s the problem.”
“He took Sophie because of me.”
“You don’t get to turn this into redemption.”
Rachel flinched.
“I’m not.”
She looked toward the trees.
“I’m trying to keep him from killing her.”
Deputy Pike studied her.
Then he made a decision Ethan hated.
“She comes.”
They mounted two sheriff snowmobiles.
Pike and Rachel on one.
Chen and Ethan on the other.
Before they left, Ethan looked at the orange smoke thinning over the road.
A torn blue mitten lay in the snow.
Sophie’s.
He picked it up and shoved it into his pocket.
Then the engines roared.
They entered the forest.
Twenty minutes later, the trees opened onto Mirror Lake.
A flat sheet of white stretched between steep black ridges.
At the far side stood an abandoned fire lookout cabin.
Smoke rose from its chimney.
A black snowmobile was parked outside.
May you like
Caleb was there.
And somewhere inside that cabin was Sophie.
