AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She nods, and the nod just keeps going, as if she’s so lost in her thoughts that she forgets she’s doing it.
“I’d like to start at the beginning, if that’s all right,” I say. “Why did you go into the forest?”
Her lips twitch with a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes. “Proving my mother right, apparently. Curiosity does kill the cat. They might have nine lives, but it eventually catches up.” She sips her juice. “I’m going to be honest, even if it does make me look rather silly.”
“I’m not here to judge. Whatever you did—whether it now feels silly or reckless—what happened to you was the result of someone else’s choices. I’m here to find out who did it and make sure it’s handled appropriately.”
“Thank you, although I don’t think that’s an issue now.” She takes a deep breath, and when she continues it’s faltering, with long pauses as she struggles to get it all out. As much as I’m tempted to tell her to rest and talk later, I don’t dare, in case she takes a turn for the worse. “I was eavesdropping on Yolanda and Bruno. There were things about this job that seemed odd, and I began to suspect it wasn’t a research town.”
“So you listened in on the fight.”
“I did, and it was about the schedule. Yolanda wanted to get things right, and Bruno just wanted to get them done.”
This matches what Bruno told me, so I only nod.
“Which was weird,” she says.
That gives me pause. “Weird how? Yolanda wanting it done right or Bruno wanting it done fast?”
“Bruno wanting it done fast. I know that engineers can get frustrated with architects, just like the construction folks can get frustrated with both of us. But Bruno was arguing about the bonus… which he’d already earned.”
I frown. “Already earned?”
“He hit his target. So did I. It’s up to the crew and the trades now.”
I’m confused for only a few seconds before I understand what she means. The main work of the architect and engineer is done. They’re staying on-site to help with problems or issues implementing their designs, but by this point, the speed really is in the hands of Yolanda and the rest of the crew.
“So what was Bruno’s point in pressing for speed?” I say.
“He claimed it was for the others, that he was just thinking of them, but that wasn’t the guy I’d been working with. Others complained about being up here. He seemed happy, even talked about maybe staying on longer in case there were any engineering problems. I got the feeling he was stalling. He’d promised his wife he’d give her at least three months—she wanted more—and then suddenly I hear him singing a very different tune. I thought maybe he’d been allowed a call home, and his wife was ready to try again.”
Or he found a gold mine that he couldn’t exploit until he got his ass home, which he needed to do before Mark went south again and filed his claim.
I say, “So you overheard the argument and thought it was strange.”
“Right. Then they come out and Yolanda goes marching off into the forest. She seemed distracted, but then she stopped and made sure no one was following her. That piqued my curiosity again, and I followed.”
“Did you see where she went?”
Penny’s cheeks pink. “No, because I’d foolishly gone into the forest at dusk without a flashlight. I just kept following the trail until I realized I’d lost her and the trail. I thought I was heading back in the right direction, but I obviously wasn’t. I kept going, and then there was a moose that freaked me out, and I ran.”
“Moose can do that.”
“They’re sobig.I was already scared, realizing I was lost, so I ran. When I heard water, I thought of the streams near the town, so I went that way and I found someone camping there in this camouflaged tent with a weird setup in the stream. Of course, I got curious again. Then I heard someone coming and—”
She inhales sharply. I keep my expression calm and wait.
“It was Bruno,” she blurts. “He had this look on his face, like he was even more surprised to see me than I was to see him. And then…”
She swallows. “And then I don’t know what happened.” A short laugh. “I mean, I know what happened, obviously. He hit me on the head. We must have talked. He must have said something to explain why he was there, and when I turned away, he clocked me in the back of the head.”
“You don’t remember what he said.”
“It’s a blank after I saw him. Then there’s a flash, when I hit the ground, only it wasn’t hitting the ground after he hit me. It was falling into that…” She shivers. “That pit. I fell onto rock and woke up, and Bruno was there, in the darkness. I could just make him out, leaning over me. He said he left me food and water and he’d be back. He said…” Another hard swallow. “He said he was sorry.”
At a sound near the door, I rise and go over as April taps on it. She wordlessly passes me a cup of ice chips.
“Just a few more minutes,” April says.
