Failure is Fatal Page 23

  I could dimly make out the cottage ahead of me. I wasn’t worried that I would be seen or heard. The howling wind and whiteout from the snow made me invisible. Still, I left the SUV in a parking area off to the side of the building and made my way on foot to the door of the small house. My single crutch was little help in the snow, but I carried it with me for use once inside. I could see the flicker of a dim light through the window next to the door. I pushed the door open and entered. Two figures seated in chairs around a table turned their faces toward me. One was David, the other his stepbrother, Adam.

  “Well, well, Dr. Murphy, come to join our little party, I see,” Adam said, the usual sneering tone in his voice. This was not the scenario I expected. I hoped to see Adam more subdued, especially in the presence of David, whose military training made him a more dangerous opponent than college coeds or faculty such as I. The reason for his arrogance became readily apparent as I neared the table. Adam held a gun in his hand, and he was pointing it at David. The two men kept their eyes on each other as I thumped across the room. From the clothes that they wore and their heavy boots, I surmised they walked to the camp, and somehow Adam turned the tables on David. Where I thought David would have the upper hand, I saw Adam’s devious nature won again.

  “Have a seat. Looks like you could use one. Back on those crutches again. I guess that injury really put you down and continues to do so.” Adam gestured for me to take the chair next to David’s.

  “I’m really sorry about all of this, Dr. Murphy. I didn’t mean to bring you into this. Somehow that lie about you flunking me out has caused more trouble than I could have imagined,” David said.

  “What happened?” I said.

  “He willingly walked up here with me, even admitted he killed Marie, but that it was a terrible accident, that he took the knife to return it to me, and that he accidentally stabbed her when she asked to see it. I thought he was scared and that he could use my help, that I could get him to turn himself in, and we could get him a good lawyer. Then he pulled a gun on me.”

  “Shut up,” Adam said. “Dr. Murphy doesn’t want to hear your weak excuses. I didn’t do any of this for you. You just gave me a convenient reason for playing a prank on Dr. Murphy.”

  “It became more than a prank, Adam. It got out of hand. For someone who likes to believe he’s in complete control, you messed up.” I shifted my crutch to the side of my chair. “I know you didn’t intend to kill Marie, otherwise you wouldn’t have thrown the knife into the dumpster.” The moment the words escaped from my mouth, I knew I was wrong. Adam planned on killing Marie and blaming his brother for her murder. The knife was the clue I should have picked up on much earlier. I mentally kicked myself. Boy, was I stupid.

  “Knife, what knife?” Adam said. “The only knife I know about is the one that David’s father gave to him, the one he got thrown out of college for having in his position. Now, if that’s the knife you mean, it links David to the murder, not me. And, more important, David was here the weekend of the murder, visiting me, his dear stepbrother.”

  “You borrowed one of my army shirts that weekend. You came back to the frat house after dinner and said you had to change out of my shirt because you’d had a nosebleed down the front of it. Then you threw the shirt into the laundry to be washed the next day with my other clothes. The shirt was ruined. It still had a stain on the front, but I packed it up with my laundry and took it all with me back to camp. You never had a nosebleed, Adam! You killed that girl and now you’re trying to lay the blame on me.”

  “Like I said, the knife was yours, you were here visiting me, and the shirt is yours. I’ll bet they can still pull DNA off that shirt, and it will be Marie’s. You’re in a real jam, buddy boy,” Adam said.

  “And now, you’re going to make it even worse, because you’re going to be responsible for the murder of Dr. Murphy, the woman you’ve hated for so long, the person you convinced me had done you real dirty by flunking you out of college. I’m just a pawn here, played by you. You even talked me and the fraternity into inserting those awful stories into her research. But that just wasn’t enough for you, was it? You had to murder her, too. You just don’t like women, do you, David?” Adam smiled his smug, arrogant smile, obviously pleased with what he believed to be the brilliance and creativity of his story

  “I don’t know how or when you removed that knife from the box in Campus Security, but I know you did it sometime before I came to visit that weekend. What I don’t understand is why you replaced it with another knife,” David said.

  “Another knife?” Adam looked genuinely surprised. “Not my doing. Maybe you broke in there and took it and put another knife in its place. How should I know?”

  “I know how Adam got the knife. He simply had a key made to the basement door in Campus Security. When the opportunity presented itself, he took it and removed the knife. And no, Adam, I don’t think you put another knife in its place. I think Captain Rodgers did that when he found the knife missing and couldn’t explain its absence. The replacement was to cover his ass, I’ll bet,” I said.

  “That stupid fat pig, leaving his keys around where anyone can take them.” Adam smiled.

  “I don’t understand why you set me up this way,” David said.

  “And I don’t understand why, having taken the time and effort to set him up, you didn’t just play it cool and let him take the fall,” I said.

  The smile faded from Adam’s face.

  “It’s because of you, Dr. Murphy. You’re relentless. Everywhere I turn, you’re there, pursuing me. You’re sneaky. You get into things you shouldn’t. I just knew that you would find out the truth, somehow. Not because you’re so smart. But because you’re a snoop. You’d just keep on looking and looking and looking. I couldn’t stand it anymore. I never knew when you’d show up with your pal Der. You and your trained bulldog.”

  I knew Der would hate that description. I caught the flicker of a movement out of the corner of my eye as David leaned forward a fraction of an inch. Adam saw it too.

  “No, no, no, buddy boy. Don’t try it. Oh, yeah, you’ll both be dead in the end, but the manner in which I accomplish that could be very painful for her especially unless you cooperate with me. Now let’s all stand up so I can work out this little scenario to my satisfaction. First, you shoot Dr. Murphy. Then we struggle, and I take the gun away from you and shoot you, David.”

  Chapter 26

  Adam came around the table toward me, gesturing for David and me to get up and walk toward him. I arose slowly and attempted a step toward Adam, but my crutch stuck in the rungs of the chair leg. I tried to yank it free. I disentangled the crutch successfully, but when I pulled it up and under my arm and put weight on it, it slid out sideways, striking Adam’s foot, throwing him onto the tabletop. The gun flew out of his hand and clattered to the floor, missing my head by inches, a bullet discharging into the fireplace across the room. I looked at the weapon just inches from my nose.

  “Grab it!” yelled David.

  I did.

  “Now point it at him, not me.”

  I did.

  Both Adam and David grabbed to take the gun from my hand. The weapon discharged again, the bullet striking David in the leg. I held onto the weapon, swinging it back around to point at Adam.

  “I said point it at him, not shoot me.” David’s face was white with pain. “Keep the gun on him and hand me your scarf. I need something to use so I can stop this bleeding.”

  The amount of blood pouring from his wound soaked his pants leg and began to drip onto the floor. He slumped into a chair and wound the scarf around the wound. The blood flow lessened.

  “I didn’t mean to shoot you.” I realized that we were now in real trouble.

  “I know that. I’d like to say it’s okay, but I think I’ll reserve judgment on that until I find out how serious this wound is. If I die, you’re certainly not forgiven.”

  The color drained from my face.

  “I’m just kid
ding, Dr. Murphy. I think the bullet was a ricochet. The police probably won’t even press charges.” David paused, shifted uncomfortably in the chair, and let out a low moan. His eyelids fluttered, closed, then opened again.

  “We need to get you to the hospital,” I said.

  “You’re right.” David shifted his weight uneasily in the chair.

  Adam watched the two of us carefully. I knew he was waiting for David to pass out or for my attention to waver so he could grab the gun. I was afraid it was only a few minutes before that would happen.

  “Adam,” I said in what I hoped was a voice filled with confidence. He looked at me and at the gun in my hand.

  “Dr. Murphy, why don’t you just give me the gun now and the keys to your car. I promise not to shoot either of you. I just need to get out of here.”

  “I don’t think you understand the meaning of the word ‘promise.’ I give you the gun, and even if you don’t shoot the two of us, you leave us here to freeze. Your brother needs a hospital. Get him on his feet. We’re getting out of here.” I waved the gun at him in what I hoped was a masterful manner. Adam hesitated.

  “Help him up or you’ll be the one left here to freeze.” Instead of helping David to his feet, Adam advanced on me.

  “I’m not too steady with this gun, as you’ve seen. Don’t tempt me into another accidental shooting.”

  Adam paused, and believing the desperation he must have seen on my face, he turned and pulled David to his feet.

  “Here.” I handed my crutch to David. “This might help.” He shifted it under his arm, and slipping his other arm around Adam’s shoulder, he managed to make it to the door.

  Once out of the cottage the going was more difficult. The crutch was no longer any help, and David placed his entire weight on Adam. I followed slowly behind the pair, keeping close in their tracks. The snow was a blinding white. Sheets of it came at us horizontally, wind pulling the breath from our lungs. Without my scarf, the snow rushed down the front of my coat and coated my hair. I briefly looked back and found that I could no longer find the cottage we stepped out of only minutes before. My car appeared only a misty figure several feet before us. I knew that if we became separated before we got to the car, we’d never find one another again.

  “Get him in the back seat.”

  Adam did as I asked, but none too gently, shoving David onto the seat. This whole thing made me uneasy. I knew Adam was looking for any opening to get the weapon away from me. I tried to stay out of his range of contact but close enough that I could still see him through the snow and fire the weapon if I needed to. My range of accuracy was about five feet when the sun was out, no wind blowing, and luck was with me. How was I going to work this? David appeared on the verge of losing consciousness, and I couldn’t drive and keep the gun on Adam. I only had a few options. I could leave Adam here to make his getaway or to freeze. Neither seemed appealing to me. My other choice was to let Adam drive, trusting he wanted to stay alive as much as David and I did.

  I opened the driver’s side door, reached in behind me and found the ignition with my key, turned the key and started the car. Getting in the driver’s side and sliding across the center console while I kept the gun on Adam seemed impossible to me, but I couldn’t think of another way to do it. I could tell that Adam was weighing his chances of merely backing away from the car, turning and running into the snow. He seemed not to like the idea. I maneuvered my backside into the driver’s seat and lifted my butt backwards over the gear shift lever onto the passenger’s seat. As I was drawing my legs up to follow my rear end, I banged my knee on the dash and slammed my sore ankle into the gearshift.

  Distracted by the pain, I had given Adam the break he was searching for. He slapped the gun from my hand. It fell onto the floor, and we cracked heads as we both struggled for it. He shoved me backward into the door. Adam grabbed the gun and brought the weapon up to fire at me. I grabbed the door handle, turned, and catapulted myself out into the snow, rolling away from the car and down an embankment.

  I heard the gun discharge somewhere above my head. I turned toward the trees before me, knowing the snow would protect me. I could hide in it, away from Adam, from his hate, and from the gun. I got to my feet and plunged into the forest surrounding me, not knowing where I was headed, except away from him.

  The storm had become my friend.

  I put as much distance between Adam and myself as I could, struggling through the dense trees, able to see only a few feet in front of me. Fatigue and the pain from my ankle made me stop. A good thing. I had no idea where I was, no plan for what I would do, and I was freezing. Surely I would die up here on this mountain if I didn’t pull myself together. I couldn’t go back toward the cottage. Adam would be certain to guess I might try that. But I didn’t even know which way was back. I had to stay away from the road leading down off the mountain. Adam would patrol that. The best I could do was to keep moving, and downhill would lead me to the college, unless I wandered too far east in my headlong plunge through the forest. East of the camp was state land, an endless series of valleys and forests that eventually led to the Catskill Mountains where population centers were few, as were houses and farms. I calculated that in an hour or so, I would either find the college or be lost among the hills stretching endlessly toward the mountains beyond.

  The storm gave no hint of letting up, and I struggled from one tree to another, grabbing their trunks for support, and shoving off to the next one. I thought briefly of David, hoping he would be all right, but dismissed worry about him from my mind. My primary responsibility now was keeping myself alive. If I figured correctly, I hoped to be able to see light from the campus. Was it possible that so many streetlights and other sources of illumination from the college might produce a glow even through the density of all the snow? I bet my life on seeing that glow.

  My mind began to wander, and I thought only of being able to sit down, maybe even lie down, for a rest. My foot ached unbearably. A cleared area rose up a few feet in front of me. On the other side of it, I could just make out a large tree. If I could get to it, I’d sit down and lean back against its base. Just for a few minutes’ rest before I went on. I stepped out into the clearing, grateful that the snow seemed to be less deep here and did not come over the tops of my boots. Several steps into the clearing I realized my mistake. I was wandering onto the road leading down from camp. I turned to retreat back into the woods once more when headlights turned on before me added to the snow blindness I was beginning to experience. I stood frozen to the spot, my arm attempting to shield my eyes from the glare of the lights. I had no doubt the lights were from my own vehicle, and no illusions that the person opening the car door was a friend. It was eerily like the night in the residence hall parking lot. Adam might run me down with more success this time. Rather than gunning the engine and steering the car toward me, he got out and walked toward me.

  “All tuckered out from your hike in the woods? Might as well just stay where you are, though I doubt you could move much anyway. I can still make this work,” Adam said, more to himself than to me. The gun was level and steady in his hand.

  I retreated the way I came, knowing that Adam was too close for him to lose me in the snow and trees. He stood only several feet from me, and I stopped moving. It was no use.

  “This is good, this is really good. David shoots you and then I get the gun away from him, and I shoot him. Or that’s what I tell the authorities. I might get a reward of some kind for getting Marie’s killer. Too bad my attempt to save you wasn’t successful.”

  I watched as Adam aimed the gun at me, but before he could pull the trigger, the woods gave forth the sound of cracking limbs and the crash of something moving in the underbrush. A large shape emerged from behind Adam and flew at him knocking him to the ground. The gun dropped from his hand into the deep snow. He attempted to rise to his feet and face his attacker who stood dazed before him. Adam teetered to one side, finally pitching forward headfirst into a rottin
g deadfall covered by snow. The attacker had to be David, I believed, thinking that by some miracle David dragged himself from the car and rushed Adam. But my rescuer was no human. A large white-tailed deer stood before me as startled by the events that just transpired as I was. It snorted through its nose, raised its tail perpendicular to its body, and bounded off into the snow. I whispered my thank you into the wind behind its retreating hooves, then began laughing.

  Chapter 27

  I peered carefully into the deadfall. Adam lay on his face surrounded by tree limbs, moss and broken branches. He appeared to be breathing, but one of his legs was twisted at an unnatural angle. He’s not going anywhere. I moved toward the car still positioned on the road with the door open.

  David groaned as I got in and put the vehicle in gear. “Off to the hospital for you, then the authorities can come up here and pick up what’s left of Adam.” I sincerely hoped he would be alive, but I couldn’t think about that now. I gritted my teeth and prepared to take on the swirling snow and the unplowed roads.

  Driving to the emergency room took longer than I wished, and I worried I might lose David on the way. Because the snowplows had not yet hit these roads, it was almost impossible to tell where the road was, and I was forced to go slowly for fear I would run off into the ditch. I suspected that as steady as this SUV was, it couldn’t recover from a run-in with a five-foot-deep drop-off. As I neared the college, Der’s police cruiser emerged from the main road and blocked my path. I signaled him I was in a big hurry, rolling down my window and shouting, “hospital.” Without hesitating, he turned on his emergency lights and siren, and I followed his lead into town.