This was a place where death was real. This was a place where it wasn’t hard to imagine that a young girl could be taken before her time, that her life had been cut short by cold, unfeeling hands. There was nothing but death in this place, it permeated everything in sight, it thickened the air and hushed the world, so here Lanie could come to grips with the fact that her friend really was gone.
Here, in this place, Lanie could come to grips with the fact that her friend had been brutally murdered.
CHAPTER FOUR
That terrible sense of loss just suddenly rose up and choked Lanie’s throat, making it hard to swallow. Stacy was gone. Soon, there would be nothing left of her but the headstone that marked the place where she’d been laid to rest. It might not seem so real once she left the quiet cemetery, but it seemed real now and for a moment, Lanie thought she was going to break down into tears. Only, she didn’t. Maybe she would finally allow herself that when she saw her friend laid out in a casket in Mr. Haskins’ Funeral Parlor. But, for now, the tears just wouldn’t come.
Lanie leaned her head back against her mom’s gravestone and closed her eyes for a minute, trying to force down the lump in her throat. She intended on sitting there for a while, soaking in the quiet and letting things simmer in her mind, but it wasn’t long before a little feeling of unease began to creep up her spine, forcing her eyes open. That feeling surprised her and she instantly hated it. She resented that feeling because she’d never had it before. Not once while she was sitting there in the cemetery over the past three years had she felt fear creep into her.
But, things were different now.
Knowing it was irrational, yet unable to stave it off, Lanie felt as if eyes were suddenly watching her. She tried to ignore the feeling, tried to shove it away from her, but it became so persistent that she found herself glancing around the deserted cemetery, searching for anyone who might be lurking about. There was no one in sight, of course, but that feeling of a sinister gaze pinned on her, added in with the dead silence in the cemetery, had her promptly getting to her feet, hitching her purse up onto her shoulder, and moving forward toward the gate.
She felt like a rube for fleeing a perfectly safe place just because she had the creeps, but the feeling of being watched was so strong she couldn’t help it. She could actually feel the hairs on the back of her neck standing up and her stomach tying itself into a knot. She glanced over her shoulder, back toward her mother’s gravesite, a piece of her expecting to see someone standing back there, their furtive eyes glued to her, preparing to come chasing after her. So strong was that feeling that she was actually swept with a sense of relief when she found no one there.
Lanie picked up her pace as she headed back along the gravel path that led to the front gate, reaching into her pocket to pull out her phone. Having it in her hand and ready to dial seemed to make her feel somewhat better, more secure. At least, she could try to call for help if she needed it. Of course, she wouldn’t need it. Her imagination was working overtime, that was all. And it was to be expected. Everyone’s imagination was probably working overtime. That was why all the parents had invaded the game field to keep an eye on their kids, because they were imagining all the horrid things that might happen to them.
Making it to the front gate, Lanie exited the cemetery with a heavy sigh, again glancing behind her and expecting to see someone coming after her. Again, there wasn’t a soul in sight, and she felt relief sweep through her. But, despite not seeing some shadowy, looming figure skulking about, that feeling kept on, sending gooseflesh rising up along her arms and pushing her to walk just a tad faster than she ordinarily would have.
Deciding she should head for home and put some speed behind it, Lanie hung a right outside the front gate and started down Aster Street, hoofing her way along the wrought iron fence and past the stand of woods that ran next to the cemetery. There was a dirt road cutting through the center of the woods, a little rutted lane that led down to what used to be the caretaker’s cottage back behind the cemetery. The cottage hadn’t been used for decades, though, and now the cottage and the lane were both overgrown by trees and bushes. As she hurried past the dirt road, Lanie glanced down it, thinking that anyone could be lurking behind the dense scrub and vine covered trees, which sent another ripple of fear through her.
However, as she looked down the dirt road, it wasn’t a person that her gaze fell on, but there was definitely something there, about halfway down the road and off to the left, barely visible through the cover of shrubs and weeds. It was something that caused Lanie to stop and take a harder look.
With a jolt, she realized that she might actually recognize the glimpse of color she was seeing through the thick vegetation. With her heart suddenly thudding in her throat and her breath coming a bit quicker than it should have, Lanie waffled for a few seconds before deciding to head down the dirt road.
She knew it might be a bad idea, but she had to check, just to make sure she was seeing what she thought she was seeing. She had her phone ready to go. She could hit a button and have her dad on the line in a matter of seconds. She’d be perfectly safe. Right? Right, she assured herself as she veered off the sidewalk and her legs carried her down the shadowy lane.
Her shoes made a slight crunching noise on the dirt that sounded like shot gun blasts in the silence, making Lanie cringe, but she kept going. She’d be perfectly safe. The street was right there in plain view, it was broad daylight…she would be fine. Just fine. Anyway, she only needed to be down there for a second, just to check things out.
As she approached the shape hidden just off into the woods, she kept her gaze sharp, checking out the area along both sides of the road, making sure that someone wasn’t waiting to lunge out at her as she passed by. She didn’t see anyone crouched behind the bushes or the tree trunks, so she crept onward toward the glimmer of color, her heart thudding hard now. The closer she got to the thing, the more certain she was that she indeed did recognize it. It was when she was finally looking into the woods, directly at the shape, that she felt her insides clench hard.
There, hidden in the shrubs on the side of the lane, out of view of the street, was an enormous faded yellow car that could have seated at least half a dozen people.
This was the car she’d seen in the lot just down from The Pub. This was the car she’d assumed belonged to the handsome, weary young man she’d bought food for.
For a frozen moment, Lanie couldn’t decide what she should do. She could call her father, who would probably come and have the car towed away, but then whoever owned the car might be in trouble, especially if they were actually so desperate as to have to sleep in it. She didn’t want to do that to anyone, most especially not to the young man from The Pub. But, what if the car didn’t belong to the young man from The Pub? What if the car belonged to…someone else? Perhaps someone who had stolen into town with the intention of committing some…malicious…act? Like the malicious act that had been committed against Stacy.
Just because statistics said that Stacy was likely killed by an acquaintance didn’t mean that was the case. There was definitely a stranger in Fells Pointe. She was looking at the stranger’s car, hidden in the bushes on the side of a deserted dirt road, which was suspicious, to say the least.
And if that stranger was the person who’d killed Stacy, then maybe she shouldn’t be standing there all by herself, gawking at his car!
A jagged line of fear raced through Lanie, but she didn’t turn to leave. Instead, she hit the speed dial on her phone and pressed it to her ear. Her father should know about this, even if the car wound up belonging to a handsome young man who needed the car to sleep in. If the handsome young man hadn’t done anything wrong, then her dad would let him have his car back and he could be on his way.
However, her call went to voice mail instead of going straight through, which had never happened before. Sam Bancroft was obviously busy with his current case and wasn’t taking calls at the moment. She’d keep trying, but just i
n case, she needed to get as much information as she could while she was there. The car might wind up disappearing before her dad could get to it. She hit the button on her phone that activated the camera and snapped a picture of the car. It was backed in off the road, so she couldn’t get the license plate unless she went into the bushes, which was what she decided to do.
Feeling slightly as if she was taking her life into her hands, but mostly because she knew her dad would kill her when he found out what she was doing, she stepped off the dirt road and into the overgrown shrubs, pushing through the limbs and snapping pictures of the inside of the car as she went. The blanket and the pillow were still on the backseat and the large duffel bag was still in the floorboard. The front floorboard was scattered with empty soda cans and fast food wrappers and the large front seat was covered with what looked like dozens of maps. Some were rolled up, some were crumpled up, some were laid out flat, but there were dozens of maps and several road atlases there.
Something about seeing all those maps covering the seat sent a shiver through Lanie and she quickly snapped a picture and moved on around the car to the rear, which allowed her to document the license plate. The plates were from Georgia and they had expired three months before. If nothing else, that would get the owner of the vehicle a ticket. She felt bad about that, but there was nothing she could do about it. Sheriff Bancroft would not let that minor offense slide.
Once she’d taken all the pictures she thought necessary, she started working her way out of the overgrown bushes, hitting her dad’s number as she went. She was still directed to voice mail, so she glanced down at her phone, disconnecting so she could try again.
“What are you doing out here!” a deep voice boomed, causing fear to shoot through Lanie and forcing a loud shriek from her throat.
Her gaze flew up toward the voice, landing on a very tall figure wearing a long leather coat and high combat boots, a figure with a mop of messy wheat colored hair and a ruggedly handsome face. Another shard of fear shot through Lanie and she shrieked again, taking a few steps backward, away from the ruggedly handsome figure who she really, really hoped was not the person responsible for…doing that…to Stacy.
“What are you doing here!” the young man demanded again, taking a step forward, his large, sparkling green eyes regarding her with open suspicion.
“Uh, I-I…I w-was…wasn’t doing anything,” she fumbled, taking several more steps backward, her mind racing back over all the self-defense classes her dad had made her take, dredging up all the moves and maneuvers she could use to immobilize an assailant twice her size.
There weren’t many.
“You shouldn’t be out here. It’s not safe,” the young man told her, now stepping off the road and into the tangle of the woods.
Lanie was quickly coming to that realization.
She was still moving backward through the thick vegetation when her back suddenly hit something, causing another shriek to fly out of her, but her racing mind quickly told her that it was the rearview mirror of the car she’d bumped into and not a second bloodthirsty murderer who had been hiding in the woods behind her.
The young man’s eyes widened as she shrieked and he went still, his handsome features softening somewhat. “You…you don’t have to be afraid,” he told her.
Lanie tried to swallow down her heart, which was lodged in the center of her throat. “I-I’m not afraid,” she told him, trying to sound as confident as she could, which under the circumstances, wasn’t very.
Maybe if she sounded like she could handle herself, which she actually could, at least in a supervised setting, he would think twice before trying something…depraved. If that was what he had in mind.
There was a moment of silence during which Lanie and the young man regarded one another and during which Lanie, looking at the young man’s ruggedly handsome face and large green eyes, abruptly realized that she…wasn’t afraid of him. Certainly, she wasn’t going to invite him to her house for Sunday dinner, but she…wasn’t afraid of him.
Her gut was telling her that this young man didn’t want to hurt her and wasn’t her dad always saying that a person should listen to their gut?
Boy, did she hope that her gut was right, because if it wasn’t…
The young man opened his mouth to speak when his gaze suddenly landed on the phone Lanie was clutching in her hand. His jaw clenched hard and something akin to anger wafted through his eyes. “Did you call someone?” he asked, his wheat colored brows lowering over his green eyes, which were flashing little sparks at her. “Did you tell someone my car was here?”
Lanie shook her head, stepping around the mirror and taking a few more steps away from the young man. She might not be afraid of him, but she wasn’t crazy. “I-I…I didn’t,” she denied hoarsely, her heart hammering in her chest and trepidation shooting along her nerve endings. “I-I didn’t tell anyone.” She hoped he couldn’t tell that she wasn’t exactly speaking the truth.
The young man stared at her, his sparkling green eyes narrowed and his hands fisted at his sides. Looking at him, Lanie became painfully aware of how tall and lean and…muscular he was, and of how little effort it would take for him to catch up to her if she tried to run, how easy it would be for him to stop her screams with his large hands.
But, he wouldn’t. This person wasn’t here to hurt her. She…she believed that. She did. Because, looking at him, she could see there was something about him, something she couldn’t put a name to, but it was something that she felt she could…trust. Unless she was wrong, and in that case, well, she was pretty much toast.
“I-I’m sorry,” she croaked out, sounding a bit too much like a nervous little girl. “I-I wasn’t bothering anything.”
She was slowly moving away from him, knowing that just on the other side of the small span of woods there was a street that was lined with houses. And houses meant people, which mean she could get help, if it came to that.
But, it wouldn’t. She believed it wouldn’t.
“I’ve seen you before,” the young man stated, still looking at her with narrowed eyes.
Lanie halted her backward movement, a little jolt going through her. She opened her mouth to deny that he’d seen her before because his tone did not exactly sound friendly, but he cut her off
“The Pub,” the young man stated, light dawning in his sparkling green eyes. “You were at The Pub in town this afternoon.”
She didn’t know if she should deny the accusation, if she should confess to him that she had been there, or if she should turn and take her chances on making it to the next street over. But, before she could decide which course of action to take, the young man took another step forward and a sharp gasp flew out of her, the fear shooting through her sending her lurching backward before she could stop herself.
The young man froze, his handsome face going as hard as stone, but then softening almost instantly. “You don’t have to be scared of me. I’m not going to hurt you.”
Lanie believed…she was honestly trying to believe…that he didn’t want to hurt her. Her gut was telling her so, but still, wasn’t that what every serial killer said just before he gouged out his victims brains with an ice pick? Or slashed his victim’s throat and left her in the park like so much garbage? That thought had Lanie’s heart again leaping up into her own throat and her body resuming its movement away from the young man, despite what her gut thought about the situation.
“You really don’t have to be afraid. I’m not here to—“ the young man’s words suddenly halted and his sparkling green eyes flew past Lanie, focusing on the woods behind her. Lanie watched as his body went completely stiff and his handsome face went completely hard. “You should go. Now! It’s not safe out here.”
His expression and tone prompted Lanie to shoot a quick glance over her shoulder, fully expecting to see someone or something horrible coming at her from out of the murky woods, but there was nothing at all behind her. No darkly clad, sinister figure ready to steal he
r life away from her, no vicious, slavering animal come down out of the mountains in search of an easy meal, though judging by the look on the young man’s face, either of those two options had seemed likely.
Confused, Lanie looked back toward the young man, and was stunned to find that he was…gone. He was just…gone, vanished, as quick as that. Gasping, Lanie glanced around, but there was no sign of him. With fear and confusion spurring her onward, she shot forward, out of the woods and back onto the dirt road, looking up and down it, searching for any sign of the young man. But, he was nowhere to be seen.
Dumbfounded, Lanie stalled only for a second before giving into the panic racing through her and bolted forward up the dirt road, her mind harboring visions of the young man crouched somewhere in the bushes, just waiting to spring at her. She hit the sidewalk running along Aster Street, pointed herself in the direction of home, and took off at a fast trot, uneasiness tingling along her spine. As she hurried to put some distance between herself and…whatever had happened back there with that young man, Lanie glanced down at her phone and hit her dad’s number. Her gut was telling her the young man wasn’t a bad guy, but her dad needed to make sure her gut was right.
This time her dad answered on the second ring. “Dad, it’s me. You need to get over to the Fells Pointe Cemetery…”
“They’ll be no more going around town by yourself, Lanie,” Sam Bancroft was saying as he paced up and down the length of the kitchen. “You might have been lucky this time. You could have been…you are not to go walking around on your own! And you aren’t to go any farther than downtown and school unless you have someone with you. Is that clear?”
Hunted Page 5
