Schemes Come to Naught novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Frozen Pipes

The drive to Buckeye Lake took fifty minutes with the heater going and the radio off.

The temperature on the dashboard dropped four degrees while I watched it.

Her green Honda was already in the gravel drive when I pulled in.

The porch light was on and the front door stood open.

I went in without calling out.

A flashlight beam bobbed in the kitchen.

Ines was on her knees in front of the sink with a wrench in one hand and her phone propped against a cereal box.

She glanced up, saw me, and went back to the pipe.

"You're slow," she said.

"I didn't know you'd be here. You told me to shut off the water."

"I told you where the valve was. I didn't think you'd drive out. I was going to do it, then I found this."

She pointed the flashlight beam under the sink.

A copper pipe had a hairline crack along its elbow.

It was weeping a slow bead of water that gleamed in the light.

"If it freezes like that, it splits," she said. "Valve's in the pump closet. It sticks."

"I remember."

"Then go and unstick it."

I went.

The pump closet was narrow and smelled of cold iron.

The main valve was a wide iron wheel, and it was frozen in place.

I put my back into it and nothing moved.

"Harder," Ines called from the kitchen.

"I'm trying."

"Both hands."

"They're both on it."

I heard her come up behind me.

She wedged the wrench into the spokes beside my hands and said, "Now. Pull!"

We threw our weight into it together.

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