Snow Going Back

Chapter 10

TEN

Kate woke up bleary-eyed and momentarily confused. She squinted one eye open, noting the slow pound of a brewing headache, and looked around.

Rolling over, she picked up her phone from the bedside table and checked the time. It was already past nine.

‘Crap,’ she muttered, instantly following it with a sneeze. She reclosed her eyes. ‘ Double crap .’

She really couldn’t afford to get ill right now. Not if she was going to get this tied up and sorted before Christmas. And there was no way on earth that she was spending Christmas away from home.

She sat up and stretched, pausing to gaze through the window after opening the curtains with a tired smile. Snow was still falling steadily outside in thick fluffy clumps. It was beautiful. As the sight stirred up memories of building snowmen and snowball fights, Kate’s thoughts naturally drifted to Christmas.

Eleanor always went all out at Christmas. From the first of December the house was taken over by Christmas in every way possible. Every room, door and hallway was decorated with perfect precision. Matching pyjamas would appear – a tradition her father always complained about, though they all knew he secretly loved it. There would be eggnog constantly warming and games by the fire every night, while the Nat King Cole and Michael Bublé Christmas albums took turns on endless repeat.

Kate would go with her dad to find the perfect tree for the living room. Then, as it was the only part of the decor Eleanor ever allowed them to touch, they’d dress it together, purposely overfilling the branches with every contrasting colour and shape known to man, just because they could. Eleanor would smile afterwards and tell them it looked wonderful, unaware of her complete inability to hide her true feelings from her expression. And Kate and Henry would pretend to believe her. Just like they’d pretend they never noticed that their tree decorations always looked a little tidier and their baubles more neatly spaced the next day. Eleanor would sing cheerily along to the music in the kitchen as she baked enough festive goods to feed a small army. And, as she actually had quite a good voice, and as Kate loved to hear her mother happy, sometimes she’d just sit quietly on the stairs for a while to listen. The warm spicy aroma of cinnamon and nutmeg would fill every corner of the house, and the three of them would tramp through the fields on long family walks with flasks of hot chocolate between stints of curling up on the sofa with a good book.

Christmas had always been her favourite time of year. And the one time of year she usually tried to spend as much time as possible at home. This December was going to look a little different though, it seemed.

She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and Christmas from her mind and got dressed, layering up and stuffing a decent supply of tissues up her sleeve in between increasingly snotty blows. She made a mental note to stock up on enough cold medicine to knock out a small elephant, then set out on her quest to find the nearest Walmart.

She carefully backed the hire car off the drive, slowing to a snail’s pace after sliding on the frozen ground almost straight away, then navigated her way out to the main road, relieved to find this one was well gritted. Fifteen minutes later she was there, and after an hour inside the large superstore, Kate reappeared, laden with bags and wearing a coat that made her feel like the Michelin Man with its padded white rolls. It was a fashion sacrifice she was willing to make though, as it kept her toasty warm from head to mid-shin. After dumping the bags in the boot, Kate took a quick swig from a bottle of cold medicine, then set off back towards the house feeling much more prepared.

When she reached the suburban edge of the town, Kate slowed to a crawl, careful to stop at each intersection, as Bob had reminded her to do. The rule in America about coming to a complete stop even if there were no other cars around was something she’d never understood. But the law was the law, especially for a lawyer.

Coming to another stop, Kate glanced down the road to her left. A black pickup truck was headed towards the intersection, but as it was still a little way off, she pulled forward to cross. Partway across, she suddenly realised that the pickup wasn’t slowing down the way it should have been. A zap of panic shot through her body and she instinctively slammed her foot on the brakes. To her horror, her car kept moving, sliding on through the snow as she lost traction.

‘Shit! No! No, no, no …’ She tried to get the car back under her control and just about managed it, but it was too late. She’d stopped right in the middle of the intersection. Kate felt a cold stab of terror as she watched the pickup hurtle towards her, and she braced for impact, realising she was out of time.

She cringed, waiting for the explosion of pain she knew was coming, but at the last second the driver finally seemed to wake up and the truck jerked sharply away, missing the front of her car by inches. It veered into a spin across the icy road, then crashed, nose first, into a tree.

‘Oh my God!’ Kate exclaimed.

Smoke began to rise in thin ribbons from the top edges of the truck’s doors, and she quickly got out of the car, leaving her door open as she rushed across the road.

The driver’s door swung open and a man stumbled out, coughing and waving the smoke that accompanied him out of his face as he walked a few paces and then turned back to look at his truck. He bent forward and rested his weight on his thighs for a moment.

Kate closed the distance quickly, searching for any obvious sign of injury as she stopped. ‘Are you OK? Are you hurt?’ she asked urgently.

He didn’t answer her, instead just stared back at his truck with a pained expression.

‘Excuse me?’ Kate eyed the smoke still filling the cab. ‘Er, you really need to move away from the vehicle. With smoke coming out like that it’s not safe to?—’

‘ Smoke ?’ he repeated in an incredulous tone, straightening up and turning towards her. He looked her up and down, his expression contemptuous. ‘That ain’t smoke . It’s just the powder from the airbags. Any idiot above the age of twelve knows that, ugh…’ He looked back at his truck.

Kate stopped short, her eyes flashing with annoyance. ‘There’s no need to be so rude . I was just trying to help.’

‘ Help ?’ He reached up and gripped two fistfuls of thick silver-streaked dark hair. ‘Look what you’ve done to my truck !’

‘What I’ve done?’ Kate exclaimed indignantly, angry now. ‘ You were the one who didn’t stop at the intersection. I was already on it!’

‘ Yes , and if you’d just kept moving instead of losing control of your car like the amateur tourist you clearly are, you’d have been well away by the time I passed,’ he yelled, raising his voice to match hers. ‘I mean, Christ , who lead-foots the damn brakes on ice !’

‘ You did !’ she reminded him, gesturing towards his truck.

‘Because I had to!’ he retorted accusingly. ‘There’s a damn ditch across that verge.’ He pointed to where the truck would have naturally ended up had he not changed course. ‘It was either roll it in the ditch, hit you, or hit the tree and pray it only damaged the bodywork.’ He shook his head and dropped it to his chest. ‘Either way, you’ve cost me considerably today.’

Kate stared at him with furious disbelief. She opened her mouth to give him a piece of her mind, but before she could, the short, sharp blast of a police siren screamed out from right behind her. She jumped nearly out of her skin at the unexpected sound and they both turned around.

The squad car was just a few feet away and an amused-looking police officer leaned out of the window, watching them from behind a pair of dark aviators. The rude truck driver groaned. Kate took a deep breath and regained composure. The officer stepped out of the car and walked towards them leisurely, readjusting his gun belt and hooking his leather-clad thumbs into the front belt loops.

‘Well, well, well,’ he said with an oddly wide grin. ‘What have we here?’

Kate glanced at his badge. ‘Officer Healy, hi. My name is Kate Hunter.’

‘Hello, Kate,’ he replied in a cheery tone.

She smiled but watched him warily. She didn’t know much about American police officers, other than that they were stereotyped on the TV as donut-loving car-chase enthusiasts, and as the outsider here, she knew she held an immediate disadvantage. She needed to explain what happened before the other driver could twist things. ‘Officer, I was crossing this intersection after the appropriate pause on the stop line, when this lunatic , who came from?—’

‘He knows ,’ the rude driver said, cutting her off.

Kate’s head whipped round, and she glowered at him before turning back to the officer. ‘He was way back there,’ she continued, nodding down the road, ‘when I…’

‘ He knows ,’ the driver repeated impatiently, interrupting her again.

Kate made a sound of frustration and glared at him once more, opening her mouth, determined to finish her sentence. ‘I…’

‘It’s OK, ma’am.’ Officer Healy halted her with his hand. ‘I know. I saw it all.’

‘Oh. Right.’ She blinked and cleared her throat.

‘Like I said,’ the rude driver said flatly. ‘Douche’s been hiding in the bushes just waiting for a free meal ticket.’

Kate glanced at the officer, but he just shook his head unfazed.

‘Oh, Langston, you really do make things so easy .’ He unhooked a thumb and reached for his handcuffs. ‘Walk to me and turn around.’

‘ Bite me , Healy,’ he replied, complying anyway.

The driver met her gaze as the officer cuffed him, his piercing blue eyes shooting out hot daggers above the unkempt beard that covered the bottom half of his face. Kate shook her head and looked away. The guy could have killed them both. He was lucky all he’d damaged was the truck.

‘Failing to come to a full stop at an intersection, dangerous driving, insulting a police officer,’ Officer Healy reeled off with a low whistle. ‘That’s a lot you’ve given me this time, Langston.’

‘You’d better get my truck over to Marl’s garage ASAP, Healy,’ the man she now knew as Langston growled.

‘You’re in no position to be making demands,’ Officer Healy replied.

He’d been walking Langston towards the back of the squad car, but Langston abruptly stopped. ‘I need it for tomorrow ,’ he said in a low, angered tone.

Healy stared back, his smile dropping, and Kate wondered if he was about to snap. But after a tense pause, Healy just glanced downwards with a sniff.

‘I’ll have it to Marl by lunchtime, alright?’ He pushed Langston towards the car and reached to open the back door. ‘Now get in.’

He pushed Langston’s head down and closed the door, walking back towards Kate with the wide grin back in place.

‘I’m sorry you had to experience that, ma’am. As both you and your vehicle are unharmed, I’ll just need to take your name and number for the record and you can be on your way,’ he told her.

‘Will you not need a statement?’ she asked, pulling her wallet out of her pocket. She handed him one of her business cards, which he glanced at and pocketed with a nod.

‘Shouldn’t do – it’s all pretty straightforward, and my dash cam caught it all,’ he replied. He pushed his aviators up his nose and glanced back at the squad car. ‘I’m just glad I was around when it happened. Langston’s a mighty unsavoury fellow, I’m afraid.’

Langston narrowed his eyes at Healy through the window, clearly able to hear everything they were saying.

‘Who knows what might have happened were I not here.’

‘Well, I’m glad you were ,’ Kate replied, shooting one last look at the man now in the officer’s custody. ‘Thank you.’

‘You’re more than welcome,’ Healy answered. ‘You mind yourself now. I can tell you’re no local, so enjoy your visit to our little town. It’s a nice place for the most part. Just steer clear of trailer trash like Langston here, and you won’t go far wrong.’

Kate nodded. She wanted to ask Healy what he meant, exactly, by unsavoury fellow . Was he violent? What would have happened if Healy had been around? But instead she just smiled. The man was in custody now. There was no need to know.

‘Noted.’ She walked back to her car. ‘Thanks again, Officer.’

‘Anytime,’ he called back.

Kate watched him drive away and then turned to continue her journey back to the house with a loud sigh. She pulled a tissue out of her pocket and blew her swollen red nose. It had certainly been an eventful day already, and it wasn’t even lunchtime! She had planned to venture out to the main street later, but she wasn’t sure she could take anything else going wrong today.

No , she decided firmly, discarding the idea. She was going to wrap up warm and sit inside with a ridiculously over-mallowed hot chocolate, then make a start on everything she needed to do. She wasn’t venturing outside of the house again today.

Not for anything .