Stonechild and Rouleau Mysteries 5-Book Bundle. Brenda Chapman

if Pauline is on her way to Florida. Will you be bringing her in for questioning?”

      “We haven’t enough evidence.”

      “I’ll just go have a look at Susan’s van before we go. I’ll get some lunch and then head back to her house for that interview. She should be home by then. Clinton looked to be away.”

      “I’ll come with you.”

      They trudged through the snow and circled the van. Kala squatted down next to the footprints. “Looks like she was alone. She headed that way toward the path.”

      Kala stood and began following the footprints. They were difficult to see in the crusty snow but no harder than tracking animals through the woods. Rouleau followed a few steps behind her. They reached the first line of trees. Kala searched the ground under a big pine. She crouched down for a better look, then looked up at Rouleau, not as relaxed as she’d been a moment before.

      “There’s two sets of footprints. I think she met someone and they went down the path into the woods together.” She pointed toward the river. “They have a good fifteen-minute head start. We should follow.”

      “Could the two of them have come in the same van?” Rouleau asked.

      “No, it was definitely just Susan in the van.”

      Rouleau looked back at the parking lot. “Then where’s the other vehicle?”

      “We’d better hurry,” said Kala. “That bad feeling has just come back.”

      Kala was jogging close behind Rouleau and nearly crashed into him when they rounded a curve in the path some twenty minutes into the woods. Rouleau reached back to steady her. He half-turned and looked at her with eyes that reminded her of hard green stones.

      He spoke quietly. “They’re up ahead talking. I’m not sure if it’s Pauline in white. What was Susan wearing?”

      “Red coat. Knee length.” Kala’s chest heaved as she tried to catch her breath.

      “Susan’s sitting on the bench. The other woman is standing. They might be strangers who met by chance. It looks like Pauline’s height and weight.”

      “How do you want to play this?”

      “We can pretend we’re just out for a walk.”

      “They won’t buy it.”

      Rouleau thought for a moment. “If it is Pauline, we don’t want to tip her off before we have some evidence that she killed Underwood. Let’s stick to the original plan and interview Susan alone. We can start back and hope they don’t catch up to us.”

      “You think Susan’s safe?”

      “Looks safe enough to me.” Rouleau watched the two women another moment “They’re just talking.” He turned and started walking back the way they’d come.

      Kala hesitated. Rouleau stopped and looked at her. “Coming?”

      “Yeah, I guess.” She took a step toward him, but a noise that sounded like a strangled scream made her turn and look back. She motioned to Rouleau to stop.

      “Susan’s fallen off the bench into the snow. Something’s wrong,” she said.

      He walked back and moved around her. “The other woman just kicked Susan.”

      Rouleau ran faster than she could have imagined and she was right behind him. Unfortunately, they couldn’t hide their approach. The woman in white looked up at them from where she was crouched, undoing Susan’s coat. Dark sunglasses hid her eyes but Kala recognized Pauline. Her lips were clasped tightly together, her face determined. She looked from them back down at Susan, bending to grab under her arms. Pauline’s back heaved with exertion as she pulled the dead weight backwards through the reeds bowed with ice. She was making slow progress closer to the river’s edge.

      “It’s too late,” Pauline screamed. “You’re too late.”

      Rouleau held out a hand. “Let us help you.”

      “Then help me pull this bitch onto the ice.” Pauline’s hysterical laughter travelled across the eerily frigid landscape to where they stood motionless. They were a hundred metres away and there was nowhere for Pauline to go. She wouldn’t be able to drag Susan far. Pauline gave another frantic pull at Susan’s arm and then straightened up and looked at them. She let Susan’s arm drop into the snow. She stared at them for a moment longer before turning in one swift movement and stomping through the reeds toward the river.

      “Stop!” yelled Kala, but she knew Pauline was past listening. She was picking up speed and running full tilt toward the deeper part of the river. As Kala watched, Pauline zigzagged around sections, trying frantically to find ice thick enough to bear her weight.

      Rouleau reached the river bank first and took tentative steps onto the ice before Kala reached him. She looked down at Susan lying awkwardly just above the frozen water line then across the white expanse of river to where Pauline was making her way. Rouleau kept calling for her to come back but had stopped following.

      Pauline turned and must have seen that nobody was coming after her. She slowed her pace, now testing her steps more tentatively on the ice. She wasn’t even a third of the way across.

      Kala shouted to Rouleau not to follow. It was too dangerous. He looked back at her, his face filled with indecision. She waved her arms for him to come back.

      Suddenly, a cracking noise filled the silence, carried by the wind back to where they stood. Rouleau turned back toward the river in time to hear Pauline scream, her arms flailing above her head, her legs slipping out from under her. She seemed to skid several feet before she disappeared into a gaping hole. Dark, jagged fissures in the ice snaked toward the shoreline. Rouleau took a step forward.

      “Don’t do it.” Kala yelled into the wind. “Pauline can’t be saved.” She knew it was true. Her last glance at the river had witnessed Pauline’s head disappearing into the darkness of the black hole. He wouldn’t have time to reach her even if the ice held his weight.

      Rouleau hesitated and Kala held her breath. She willed him back to shore. Rouleau’s shoulders dropped in defeat. He slowly turned and started back toward her. “She’s gone,” he said. He scrambled up the incline and squatted next to Susan, zipping up her coat. She writhed in the snow and moaned, her eyes still closed.

      “She’s been drugged. Let’s get her moving before she freezes and we lose both of them,” Rouleau looked up at Kala. The papery lines in his face were deeper than they’d been seconds before. He stood and pulled out his cellphone. He looked out across the river while he called for an ambulance and police backup.

      Together they grabbed Susan under the arms and started down the path the way they’d come, carrying her limp body between them. The path was barely wide enough for three and the going was awkward. Susan was a dead weight between them. Nearly half an hour later, they reached the opening to the parking lot. A siren wailed from somewhere close by.

      Kala looked over Susan’s head at Rouleau. “It’s better this way, Sir, for everyone. You couldn’t have saved her.”

      “Maybe.”

      “We had no way of knowing what she was planning,” Kala said. She felt a sudden urgency to convince him. “She had everyone fooled.”

      “Not everyone,” said Rouleau, meeting her eyes. “I should have trusted your judgement and moved sooner back on the path.”

      “It could easily have gone the other way.”

      “You were closer to the case than I was. You have good instincts and I should have remembered.”

      “And I should have pieced it together sooner. We did the best we could.”

      39

      Wednesday, February 29, 4:30. p.m.

      They