Still Lake - Anne Stuart [72]
Whoever had nearly run her off the road was long gone. It had to have been a drunk driver—the Northeast Kingdom seemed to have more than its share of DUIs. He probably didn’t know he’d almost killed her.
She fumbled with the door and pushed it open. She swung her foot out, and felt nothing.
She scrambled back into the car in a panic, and it rocked beneath her. She was an organized woman—she kept a flashlight in the glove box. She found it and shone it out the door. And then dropped it into the cavern below.
It was a long time before she heard it hit. She could now identify that rushing sound. She had had the sheer, incredible bad luck to have come across the drunk driver right near Dutchman’s Falls. Another inch or so and she would have gone over the precipice.
She leaned back in the seat, clutching the seat belt, taking deep, steadying breaths. She wasn’t safe yet. At least one tire was hanging over the edge, and the car rocked beneath her movements, but it still felt basically secure. She climbed over the gear shift, careful to keep her moves smooth and minimal, and pushed at the passenger door. It wouldn’t open more than a crack—the right side of the car was pushed up against a tree.
She got back into the driver’s seat, cursing. The rain was still coming down, heavier now. Clearly she wasn’t getting out of the car where it was. The only option was to move the car.
She turned it on again, and it started so smoothly she almost cried with relief. She put the gear into Reverse and stepped on the gas.
Nothing of course. Just the hopeless spin of wheels, as the car rocked with dangerous enthusiasm. She let off on the gas, nervously running a hand through her hair. She didn’t bother carrying a cell phone—coverage was too sporadic up in the hills of northern Vermont to make it useful. One of the concessions she’d had to make when she moved up here, that and buy a four-wheel-drive vehicle…
She stared down at the gear shift. She’d never tried the four-wheel-drive except when she’d bought the used car, but it was fairly simple to shift. She pushed the button on the gear shift, watching the letters light up—4 WD. Lovely letters.
She put the car in Reverse again, putting just the slightest pressure on the gas pedal. For a moment it edged backward, then the tires began to spin and the car slid forward again.
Sophie squeezed her eyes closed, prepared to go over the cliff, but the car shuddered to a stop, and she opened them, letting her breath out. Then she shoved the gear shift into Low and stomped her foot on the gas pedal.
To her astonishment it moved backward, in a spray of mud and dirt and gravel, so fast that she barely had time to slam on the brakes before ending up against another tree.
The car stalled out again, but at that point Sophie didn’t care. She was sitting in the middle of Route 16, just outside of Hampstead, and she’d managed to do a 180, facing back home. It was the right direction—she wanted to go straight back to Colby as fast as she dared to drive.
She turned the key and for a moment the engine spluttered and died. “No!” Sophie whimpered. Route 16 was habitually deserted at this hour, but that didn’t mean someone couldn’t come out of nowhere and slam into her stalled car. The drunk driver had done just that.
“Please,” she whispered. “Please, please, please!” The engine caught, and she shoved the gear into First, skidding as she raced down the empty road.
Her face was wet, and she couldn’t figure out why when she hadn’t been able to get out of the car into the rain. She put her hand to her head, then glanced at it. She was dripping blood, down her face, into her lap.
As a matter of fact, her head hurt like hell, she realized belatedly. She wasn’t quite sure how she’d managed to hit it while wearing her seat belt, but the fact was, blood was trickling down the side of her face.
She couldn’t show up back at the house looking like something out of a horror movie, but she wasn’t about to drive to St. Johnsbury or Newport to go to an emergency room. Maybe Doc would still be awake when she drove