My car didn’t matter anymore. I needed a new vehicle if I hoped to disappear anyway. I planned to take Darby with me. Head for the Canadian border. She might not want to go initially but she didn’t know me properly yet so I wouldn’t blame her. I wouldn’t hurt her. Not unless she didn’t give me a choice. I certainly wouldn’t kill her. She meant too much to me.

“Why did the cops let you go on Wednesday?” I asked. It bothered me that I might have messed up in some simple way.

“When you put my fingerprints on the knife you did it upside down. It didn’t jibe with how Martin was stabbed.”

“Shit.” I shook my head at myself. Such a stupid mistake. Certainly not one I’d make again. “I’m actually impressed they caught that.”

Darby laughed. “So was I. But relieved.”

Yeah. The desire to apologize wound through me, but it hadn’t been my fault. Darby was the one who’d behaved so stupidly. Dancing and laughing with a guy. Anger reared up again. If it hadn’t been for her foolishness, I would still be living my life, trying to fit in, pretending to be normal.

I took the gun out of my pocket and waved her in the direction of the light. I heard her sharp intake of breath.

“That way. Hurry.” I looked behind me, but it was hard to spot anything except shadows and swirling snow. It was only a matter of time until the FBI agent realized Darby was missing and even though our footprints were being erased by the wind, we were easy targets out on the lake.

I was close enough to the light now to realize it was an ice fishing hut. A large Ford truck sat beside it.

A weird vibration pulsed through the air and it took me a moment to identify it. A helicopter. Headed our way.

Chapter Forty

Darby heard the helicopter and knew immediately what it meant. Hope. It had to be a police chopper as most commercial pilots didn’t fly at night.

Corinne Brown—Kim Gleeson’s seemingly friendly receptionist—didn’t seem to notice at first but then she whirled in a circle and suddenly shoved Darby in the back. “Quickly. Run to the ice fishing hut. Now!”

Darby took off toward the structure she’d spotted a while ago. The other woman was obviously hurting and if Darby could get enough of a head-start she might be able to get inside and lock the other woman out. Of course, Corinne Brown still had a gun but it was all she could think of right now.

Darby heard Corinne huffing behind her and sprinted as fast as she could. She reached the hut and prayed no one was there, unfortunately the big-ass truck parked there suggested otherwise.

She glanced behind her, Corinne was about fifteen feet away and struggling to keep up. Darby rattled the doorknob, brought up short by the fact it was locked. Dammit.