Read Glare Ice for Free Online

Whoever it was had already been in the water far too long to survive—although she had heard weird tales of what submersion in cold water could do. A few years back, a young boy was pulled out of a lake up by Fargo after fifteen minutes under, and he survived. The cold had slowed his metabolism down so far that he didn’t have much damage. Lost a few toes. But they said such a recovery was more apt to happen in the young.
    What idiot would drive out there?
    She heard a car pull in and turned to see Scott jumping out of his car. “I wasn’t far behind you. Decided to join the party.”
    “Thanks. I think I better try to get out there. They think there might be someone in the car. You got a rope in your car?”
    “Yeah. What’re you thinking of doing?”
    “Let’s tie it around me, and I’ll inch out there. If you hear the ice crack, or if I scream, you can pull me in.”
    “I’ll go out on the ice,” Scott offered.
    “Forget it. What do you weigh?”
    Scott laughed. “A little more than you.”
    “Might make a difference.”
    Scott pulled a heavy rope out of the trunk of his car. He tied it around Claire’s body, up high under her arms.
    Claire held her arms up in the air as he finished and said, “I don’t want to go in the water.”
    “I won’t let you go in.”
    “Good.”
    Scott patted her shoulder and looked her over. “You’ve done this before?” he asked.
    “No.”
    “Okay, this is what you want to do. First get down on your hands and knees. Take this with you.” Scott handed her a standard flashlight. She stuffed it in the pocket of her parka. “Go slow and steady. Stop dead if you hear anything.”
    Claire felt hugely undignified, crawling out on the ice on her hands and knees. But no one was laughing. She slid her hands forward slowly, trying to keep the weight evenly distributed on all four points of contact with the ice. She could feel the cold coming up through the thin leather gloves she was wearing. She needed to start carrying her heavy choppers in the car.
    The car was about thirty yards off shore. When Claire got about ten yards away from the hole, she heard Scott shout behind her. She turned her head and lifted up her ear flaps to hear what he was saying.
    “Get down, now. All the way down. Then inch forward.”
    She understood why she needed to prostrate herself on the ice, but she felt very vulnerable doing so; the ice gave way, she would be in the water headfirst. But the ice seemed quite stable beneath her. She slid herself forward with her feet, pushing off with her toes.
    When she got within five yards of the car, she could see something in the interior, some large shape. She pushed herself a little closer and, for the first time, felt the ice shudder beneath her. It had to have weakened where the car had gone through.
    She heard a siren coming down the road and guessed it was the fire department. Thank God. Those guys knew what to do; ice rescue was one of their specialties.
    Claire pulled out the flashlight and shone it into the car. She stared and saw what she had feared to see: a white hand reaching up to the ceiling of the car, floating in cold water, and a white oval underneath it that might be a face staring up at the air.
    She couldn’t resist. She pushed herself forward another inch. It was an inch too much. The ice cracked beneath her, and the suck of the coldest water she had ever felt pulled her down.
    She held her breath and felt the water engulf her face and the top of her body. She thrashed around and tried to grab onto something with her hands, but there was nothing there but cold water. Her bottom half was still on the ice. She tried to stroke with her arms, pushing down in the water, to raise her head up out of it.
    At the instant when she didn’t think she could hold her breath for a second longer, she felt a jerk around her waist. Then, like a fish, she was pulled back up onto the ice, and like that same creature, she turned over on her back and tried