Nick placed his hand on the small of her back as they hurried toward the cabins and rapped on one of the doors. “Open up. It’s me. Nick.”
The dorm mom answered, the woman’s eyes full of fears, her hands trembling. “Nick, what’s going on? Where are those noises coming from?”
“We’re trying to figure that out. Are all of your girls accounted for?”
She nodded. “Everyone’s here. Scared, but here.”
“Listen, Amanda. I need you to stay calm. I want you to stay inside the cabin with the girls. Cody is calling the sheriff, and I’ll be waiting out here until he shows up. Tell the girls that everything will be okay.”
“They’re frightened, Nick. I’m frightened.” She ran a hand through her dirty-blond hair, leaving strands standing up on end.
Molly placed a hand on the woman’s arm, forgetting her own fears as her instincts kicked in. “We’re not going to let anything happen to you or the girls, Amanda. I’m sure this will all be cleared up soon. We just need to wait it out.”
Nick’s gaze fixated on Molly a moment, his eyes seeming to convey an unspoken confidence in her. “Stay here with them, Molly. I’m going to go check out the other cabin.”
Molly nodded and forced a smile, trying to make Amanda feel better. But the sound of the chainsaw in the distance tore at her nerves, each rev of the engine causing her heart to race and her blood to pump even harder. What was going on? And why was someone doing this? Molly had thought maybe the pranks were over, that whoever was doing this would leave them alone. No such luck. In fact, this was the worst incident yet.
“I don’t know what to tell the girls—that they should run for their lives or stay put,” Amanda said.
“Panicking is the worst thing they could do. The best thing right now would be a distraction. Sing some songs, play some games, pray—anything to get their minds off of what’s going on.”
Nick jogged back over, the moonlight casting its glow on his face. Normally, the picture would have been warming, but everything about this evening seemed eerie, like some unspoken sign that evil lurked nearby. “Everyone’s in Cabin B also. I radioed Cody and he said all the boys are accounted for. He’s called the sheriff. We’re going to get to the bottom of what’s going on.”
A shriek cut through the air. Not the shriek of someone in trouble, but the shriek of a madman. Unwittingly, Molly grabbed Nick’s arm, her heart jumping to her throat. “I don’t like this, Nick.”
Nick’s face looked grim. “I don’t like it, either.” He turned to Amanda. “Get back inside. Lock the doors. I’m going to be out here, waiting until the sheriff comes. I’m not going to let anything happen to anyone, got it?”
Amanda nodded, her eyes still wide with fear.
Before she shut the door, Nick nudged Molly forward. “Go in there with them.”
“I can’t leave you out here alone.”
“Of course you can. I don’t want anything to happen to you—not that I really think this guy is dangerous. But just to be safe I want you inside with the doors locked and windows closed.”
“But Nick—”
He leaned closer, close enough that Molly got a whiff of his woodsy scent. “Besides, I think you’ll be good for the girls. You have a way of calming people down.”
Finally, she nodded. If she could think of the girls in this situation instead of herself then she’d feel better. Taking the focus off herself always worked that way, even in the dire situation she’d been in at the hospital.
She squeezed Nick’s hand before she slipped inside. God, watch over him. Watch over all of us.
Her throat felt dry as she clicked the locks in place, separating Nick from the rest of the group. He would be okay. He’d always been a good outdoorsman, and being in the military had to have given him great survival skills also.
She set aside those thoughts and glanced at the girls huddled up on the beds with wide eyes. Some had tears in their eyes as they clung to each other. The poor girls shouldn’t feel this level of fear, especially at a place that was supposed to make them feel safe and closer to God.
She sat on one of the girls’ beds and placed a hand on a camper’s knee. “We’re going to be okay. The sheriff’s on his way and Nick is outside. Nothing’s going to happen to us.”
“Who’s doing this?” one camper asked.
Molly shrugged. “I wish I could tell you, but I have no idea.”
“It’s Chainsaw Charlie. All those old campfire stories are true!” Another camper yelled. “He escaped from prison and now he wants to abduct one of us.”
All the girls screamed and clung to each other again.
“Calm down!” Molly stood and waited until everyone quieted. “First of all, Chainsaw Charlie is not real. He’s a character in a story that some counselor created just to scare campers. Second, whoever is making those noises in the woods is just someone who wants to scare us. We can’t let them win. We need to stay strong, okay? Like they talked about at chapel tonight where God says we shouldn’t worry. How about we pray together?”
A few girls nodded uncertainly. Molly held out her hands. “Come on, everyone. Let’s get in a circle. Everything’s going to be just fine.”
Molly squeezed the girls’ hands beside her in the circle and closed her eyes, praying to God that He would calm their fears and bring the person doing this to justice. Molly knew she was praying for herself just as much as she was praying for the girls.
God, help us feel your mercies...
* * *
Nick was amazed at the difference in the girls when Amanda opened the door to Cabin A. Gone was the feeling of panic from earlier, and he even heard a couple chirps of laughter. He had a feeling Molly had a lot to do with the change. The woman was a force to be reckoned with.
His heart quickened when Molly came into view. It didn’t matter that things had ended poorly between them. It didn’t even matter that she had drug theft allegations against her. He couldn’t deny that the woman still had a way of making his heart race, of taking his breath away and of making him want to be a better man.
She shoved her hands down into the pockets of her jeans as she approached him. “What’s going on?”
He cast aside his thoughts and focused on the matters at hand. “The sheriff has his men out there combing the woods, but I’m not sure how much they’ll find. I haven’t heard the chainsaws in at least thirty minutes so my guess is that whoever was doing this is long gone.” He looked beyond her to the empty bunk beds. He guessed all of the girls were huddled together in the center of the room. Thank goodness they weren’t screaming and crying anymore. “How are the girls doing?”
She glanced behind her and lowered her voice. “They’re okay. We prayed about it and now they’re playing a game.”
His smile disappeared as footsteps sounded behind him. He took a step back when he saw Sheriff Spruill approaching, a grim look on his face. “Can I talk to the two of you in private?”
Nick offered a curt nod. “Of course.”
The threesome walked several feet away to a picnic shelter. The sheriff’s eyes looked serious, like he had bad news, as he glanced up at them. Tension embedded itself deeper into Nick’s muscles as he braced himself for whatever the sheriff might share. “What’s going on?”
The sheriff swallowed before slowly moving his gaze between Nick and Molly. “My men haven’t found anything in the woods yet. Everything that’s been happening at the camp makes it seem like someone
wants to scare you away from here. Nick, I have to ask, is there anyone who would benefit from getting you off this land?”
Nick and Molly looked at each other a moment, and Nick knew they’d both had the same thought. Wendell Manning. He was the most obvious person who wanted the camp’s land. Nick cleared his throat before telling the sheriff about their conversation in the hardware store a few days earlier, as well as the subsequent power outage in the kitchen where all of their food had spoiled.
The sheriff jotted the information into a notebook before looking up again. “Anyone else?”
Nick shrugged. The thoughts had been circling in his mind for the past couple of weeks, so he didn’t have to think too hard about his answers. “As you know from the incident a couple of weeks ago, we’ve had some problems with hunters on the property. They get too close to the campsite and we’ve been nervous that a stray bullet is going to come from the woods and hurt someone.”
“We’ll question them again, see if we can get anything else out of them.”
Nick drew in a breath. “Then there’s Richard Grayson, who’s a board member here. He said that he had some concerns about Gene mismanaging some of the camp’s funds.”
“Is there any evidence that that’s true?”
Nick shrugged. “I know the camp is on the verge of shutting down. I haven’t had a chance to decipher all of Gene’s less-than-stellar record-keeping yet, though.”
“If you have a chance to do that, let me know.” The sheriff’s gaze turned to Molly. “How about you, Ms. Hamilton? Any enemies?”
“M-me?” She stammered, her eyes widening with surprise. “Why would it make a difference if I had any enemies or not?”
“Because none of this started happening until you arrived here.” The sheriff locked his gaze on Molly.
Molly’s face drained of all its color and her former calm seemed to disappear quicker than the morning fog. “I...uh...I don’t know.”
Sheriff Spruill raised a brow. “You don’t know if you have any enemies?”
She licked her lips and heaved in a deep breath—probably a quick prayer, too, if Nick had to guess. Some of her calm returned. “There is one person, I suppose, who might be considered an enemy.” Her gaze flittered to Nick, but only momentarily. “Derek Houston.”
“Tell me about this Derek Houston.”
Her face remained expressionless. “He was someone I knew up in Maryland.”
“A boyfriend?”
She nodded, but the motion seemed weighted down and hesitant. The questions had her flustered, which piqued Nick’s curiosity. Who was this Derek Houston? And why did the man have this effect on Molly? Nick felt a wave of both protectiveness and jealousy as he waited for her responses.
“Yes, he was my boyfriend. We broke up a couple of months ago.”
“And why might he have something against you?”
She rubbed her hands on her jeans before drawing in another breath. “He was the Chief of Staff at the hospital where I worked as a nurse, and he’s used to getting what he wants. I made him angry when I broke up with him. He was very persistent, to say the least.”
“I see. When was the last time you spoke with Derek?”
“He texted me this past weekend. I didn’t respond, however, and I don’t believe that Derek knows where I am. I don’t see him as the type who’d be in the woods with a chainsaw, however. He’d have other ways of trying to make my life miserable.”
What did she mean by that? Anger flashed through Nick at the thought of someone trying to make Molly’s life harder, but that anger was immediately replaced by guilt. Nick had broken her heart. That ranked high on the list of offenses toward someone.
Despite Nick’s guilt, he still felt of a rush of protectiveness toward Molly. Did this doctor have anything to do with the prescription drugs that Molly was accused of stealing? Nick could ask her, but that would only make Molly think that Nick didn’t trust her. It would show her that Nick had checked up on her past.
“If you hear from him again, will you let me know?” the sheriff asked.
Molly nodded. “Of course.”
“Do you think we should shut down the camp, Sheriff?” Nick asked. He held his breath as he waited for the sheriff’s response. Nick had to ask the question. He didn’t want his stubbornness to put someone’s life in danger.
Sheriff Spruill sighed, as if deep in thought. “No, not yet. I don’t believe anyone’s in danger. I think someone’s just trying to scare you. But if this keeps going on, you might want to consider it.”
Nick nodded, praying he was doing the right thing by keeping the camp open.
Please, Lord, keep everyone safe. Watch over them. And drive away this darkness that’s trying to close in.
* * *
Molly tossed and turned in bed that evening as imaginary chainsaws crept into her hearing. When she wasn’t hearing things, she was mentally replaying her conversation with the sheriff. Why did he have to ask about her enemies? She hadn’t wanted to bring up Derek, and she especially hadn’t wanted Nick to know about the man. Derek was a part of her past that she wanted to leave behind—permanently. But Derek had always been persistent. What had made her think that quitting her job and coming here would change anything?
As soon as the sun peeked over the horizon, Molly threw her legs out of bed, ready to get started for the day. Anything beat being alone with her questions, rehashing her regrets and wanting redos of the past. Though she tried to extinguish her worries through prayer and Bible reading, the flames only seemed to be doused temporarily.
After grabbing some coffee, she headed to the flagpole in the early sunlight hours. At 8:00 a.m. every day, campers gathered there to say the Pledge of Allegiance and morning prayer. Molly liked to arrive early for some quiet time of her own. Once the day got started she barely had a moment to breathe as campers were around her, asking questions, wanting a listening ear, desiring attention. She was more than happy to give them those things, as long as she was able to fill herself up in the morning with some time alone first.
She sat down on the already sun-warmed bench and pulled her legs underneath her. Crickets chirped in the background and the sun’s rays reminded her of lemonade pouring over the ground. A line of ants had begun their march across the concrete, breadcrumbs in tow. For a moment, everything seemed right. Life continued forward, just like the little insects hurrying past her feet.
This morning was so different from last night. This morning, everything appeared peaceful and back to normal. The camp, even with everything shady that had been going on lately, reminded her of a little slice of heaven on earth.
She read her Bible a moment and said some morning prayers. As she said “amen,” her gaze traveled upward to the blue sky above. The feeling of contentment that had settled over her quickly fled as her gaze fixed on something.
At the top of the flagpole, a noose flapped in the breeze. She squinted. Inside the noose hung a doll with red hair that looked strangely like Molly.
She sucked in a gasp when she saw the white nurse’s uniform the doll wore.
That doll was supposed to be her.
Who would do such a horrible thing?
NINE
At the sight of the first campers walking down the distant pathway, Molly quickly yanked the doll down. After everything that happened the previous night, the last thing the campers needed was to be frightened further by seeing that atrocity.
/> Molly’s gaze skittered around her, looking for a place to stow the doll, but came up empty. As the campers neared, she shoved the doll and rope between herself and her Bible. She hugged everything to her chest, hoping no one would notice. As the campers called their sleepy hellos, Molly forced a smile.
Nick’s broad form lumbered toward the flagpole. He wore his customary plaid shirt and jeans, looking handsome in the outfit. His hair, still wet from the shower, already had its customary spikes. Just seeing him brought Molly a certain measure of comfort. Nick. He’d make things better. He always did.
As soon as Nick arrived at the pole, he glanced her way. His eyes soaked in her stance before traveling back to meet her gaze. Molly saw the question in his eyes. She tried to silently tell him that she’d explain later. Molly had never been in such a hurry to get through their ritual around the flagpole, though.
Lord, forgive me, she prayed silently, for wanting the campers to rush through prayer. But the noose seemed to burn through her clothes, to sear her skin.
As soon as the campers were dismissed for breakfast, Nick stepped closer. The scent of fresh soap and piney shampoo filled her senses as he stood close enough to touch. “What’s going on, Molly? Why are you hugging a doll and a rope?”
She looked around, making sure all the campers were truly gone, before releasing her hold on the objects. They tumbled onto the bench beside her. The sight of them made her throat go dry once more. “I found this hanging on the flagpole this morning.”
Nick stared down at the objects with eyebrows drawn together in a scowl. “A doll with a noose around her neck?”
Molly nodded, her heart pounding in her ears as blood rushed through her veins. “A doll that just happens to have auburn hair and green eyes, just like me. Not to mention the outfit.”
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