He walked around the site as he waited for the water to heat up, stomping a more solid path in the relatively shallow snow. He looked for signs of small animals, and checked for any tokens that humans had passed this way recently. He found nothing to indicate man or animal had visited here, and certainly there were no other tracks in or out but his own.
On his own, far away from home. He liked the feeling, being master of all he could see.
He rolled his shoulders, stretched his neck, and did a couple of squats and toe touches to loosen his legs. It had been two hours since his last break, and two hours of snowshoeing took a lot out of you. No matter how old you were…
The metal cup of water began to bubble. He circled back toward his stove, passing beneath the trees. He glanced up and saw a blob of melting snow slip from a high branch and fall, coming right at him.
"Oh, no, you don't!" he said, laughing and dodging to the side. The big chunk missed him by a good two feet, but he stumbled and put one hand out to catch himself on the tree. That was a mistake, because his weight was enough to shake the tree a hair, and that brought a big cascade of ready-to-fall snow. He laughed again, spun around the tree and away, pleased with himself at avoiding most of the icy bath.
He didn't stay pleased.
The tree that lost its snow load popped upright like a bent spring released. It hit the tree next to it, hard.
The second tree snapped in half ten feet off the ground. Like a man breaking a pencil—pop!
The snow was not that deep, but it was too deep to run in.
He barely had time to get his arms up over his head before the tree fell on him.
From under the Miata's hood, Alex said, "Okay, try it again."
Behind the wheel, Toni said, "Okay," and turned the key in the steering wheel ignition. The motor coughed, deeper than it had before.
"Give it a little gas, pump the pedal!"
She did. After a second, the engine caught and began a throaty rumble.
"Yes!" she and Alex said at the same time.
They were alone in the garage. Greg Scates, the car's former owner, had come and gone. Alex had taken a quick look at the Miata, then as soon as he'd seen the odometer, had said to her, "Jesus, it's only got nine hundred miles on it!"
He'd made the man an offer right then. Greg had been surprised at how much the offer was. Way more than he'd expected.
Alex had transferred the agreed-upon sum from his credit card to Greg's account and waved bye-bye as the man left.
Now Alex closed the hood, wiped his hands on a red rag, and grinned at Toni.
They'd been working on the car for several hours. They had found the tires, which were in remarkable shape inside plastic bags, and pumped them full of air using a little compressor that ran off the van's electrical system. They'd put the wheels back on the car. They had added gasoline, oil, water, transmission and brake fluid, and other lubricants, replaced the battery, and tinkered with the fuel injector. Alex had done something with the plugs and wiring, cleaned preservative off various components, fiddled with this seal and that one, and now, finally, the tiny car purred.
He had, Alex had told her, every intention of driving the thing home, even though the license tag was years out of date. "Be worth the ticket if we get caught," he said.
He cleaned the grease from his hands, walked around to the open driver's door, and looked down at her. "It'll need a new top," he said. "And a set of new belts, plug wires, some other minor stuff. Paint is in pretty good shape, but I'm not that fond of arrest-me red. Maybe a nice teal," he said.
She grinned back up at him. She'd gotten a little dirt under her fingernails too, helping him put the wheels back on the car and passing him tools. He had been like a little boy, all excited, pointing out stuff to her. "Look at this. Look at that!" He'd gotten completely lost in the work, and in the doing of it had also lost years of responsibility. It pleased her to see him this way. So relaxed. Having so much fun.
"So, let's take her out for a little spin," he said.
She started to get out of the car.
"No, go ahead, you drive. You can use a manual shift, can't you?"
"Sure."
He finished wiping his hands, circled around the back to the passenger side, and got into the car. The garage door was already open, and the bright afternoon beckoned. Toni put the transmission into reverse and carefully backed out onto the driveway to the street, turned the wheel, and started to shift into first.
"Wait a second," he said. He twisted in the seat, caught the rear window zipper, and pulled it across behind her. He pressed the thin plastic rear window down behind the stabilizer bar, reached across in front of her, and undid the roof latch on her side, then the one on his side. With one hand he accordioned the top, folding the heavy black material down and behind them.
"Voilà!" he said. "Convertible! It's not too cold for you, is it?"
"Nope," she said.
"All right then. Let's see how she rides."
Toni eased the clutch out — it was a bit stiff and it squeaked — and the Miata scooted forward. The short-throw stick made shifting up the gears fast and easy, and pretty soon they were rolling along a four-lane highway at sixty. It was a responsive beast, the steering tight, and cornering was a delight. She took a thirty-mile-per-hour curve at fifty, no problem.
"It's quieter than I thought it would be," she said. "And not as windy."
He said, "Push it up to about seventy and watch."
Traffic was light, so Toni goosed it a little.
At seventy, the wind seemed to slacken, as did the noise. She said as much to Alex.
"Yep, it's quieter at seventy than at fifty-five. That was part of the aerodynamic design. Isn't this great?" He grinned at the road in front of them.
A few miles up the highway, Toni pulled into a supermarket parking lot.
"Something wrong?" he asked.
"Nope. Your turn. You've been itching to take the wheel since we hit the street."
He grinned again. Boy, she liked seeing that. He jumped out of the car and hurried around to the driver's side as she moved over into the passenger seat.
Behind the wheel, he checked his outside mirror first, then the inside one. Then he looked across at the outside mirror on the passenger side. "That one's a little off," he said.
She reached out to adjust the mirror.
"Hey, I can get it," he said. "One of the joys of a car this small. Watch." He leaned over, reached across her chest, and grabbed the mirror. "See? Can't do that in the snail van."
Stretched out across her, one hand out of the car on the mirror, he glanced up at her face from a few inches away.
She could smell him, his sweat, his aftershave, and there he was, the back of his arm almost touching her breast, his mouth close enough to kiss.
Without thinking anymore, she did just that. Leaned a hair forward, put her lips on his, and kissed him.
Are you out of your mind, Toni?
The sudden jolt of panic shot through her like an electrical charge. Oh, no! What had she done?
She pulled back to break the kiss.
Alex brought his hand away from the mirror, put it behind her head, and held her there. He worked his lips, opened his mouth, and found her tongue with his.
There must be a God, Toni thought.
No two ways about it, Howard was trapped.