Beneath Winter Sand

by Vickie McKeehan

  Hannah pushed her hair off her face and pivoted in her seat. “That’s a terrific theory with one problem. My freshman year of college, I made up a list of women that my parents knew. Any female who’d ever come in contact with them over the years—neighbors, casual acquaintances from work, you name it—they ended up on the list. I even hunted up my old babysitter who sat with us a couple of times before the kidnapping. Cheryl Baines was her name. She’s still in town by the way, lives over on Baker Street, two blocks west of here, married to the supermarket manager. It wasn’t Cheryl that day or anyone of the twenty-five women I checked out.”

  “But there has to be something you overlooked. Someone that didn’t make it onto that list.”

  “Maybe, or maybe my family crossed paths with a psychopath who steals babies and kills people for the thrill of it.”

  “You have my word that I’ll do everything in my power to help you solve this. You deserve that much. Whether it’s Micah in that grave or not, I won’t stop until we’re satisfied with the outcome.”

  “Jordan says we may have a problem with Brent. That the police chief won’t condone our interfering with his investigation.”

  “Then we won’t let him find out.” He wanted to wipe that look of despair off her face so he took out his cell phone, started the search for the nearest hotel.

  “Any luck?”

  “Looks like lodging choices come down to the typical roadside motels. Unless…are you up for a crazy detour?”

  “Depends. How crazy?”

  “Two hours due west of here is the family cabin, a cool-looking abode that sits high on Cutter Mountain. If we hustle we could be there in time for a relaxing meal in front of the fireplace. We might have to settle for what’s on hand, like canned goods, but the place is well-stocked. What do you say? We’d be that much closer to home.”

  “What about work tomorrow?”

  “I can take a day off. How about you?”

  “I was supposed to clean Bradford House. That means my schedule is wide open. Sounds like a no-brainer. After all, I brought you all the way out here, practically on my wild goose chase for nothing. So why not? I could use an adventure.”

  “Then if we’re done here, how about we hit the road? Why don’t I drive? You look wiped.”

  “Be my guest,” she said, opening the driver’s side door. “I’ll let you tackle the bad weather and slick roads.”

  Eleven

  On the drive to Cutter Mountain, slick roads were the least of their problems. Manipulating the twisting, mountainous two-lane blacktop in the dark, climbing uphill, was stressful and tedious. As the elevation increased, so did the scenery.

  Through the windshield, Hannah noted towering pine, cedar, and redwood appear off and on in the headlights. She rolled down the passenger window, inhaling the fragrant air filled with cedar and pine. “It’s a shame we’re missing out on seeing such beautiful landscape in the dark.”

  “You’ll see it tomorrow. We’ll go on a hike before heading back to town. You’ll get the full impact of the rolling foothills.”

  “Promise? Because I could really use a big dose of Mother Nature.”

  “There’s a waterfall about four miles from the cabin. Cooper and I used to hike up there to swim. And it’s a great place for a picnic.”

  “Please don’t mention food because right now I could clean out the buffet at Pizza Palace.”

  “There’s a diner about ten miles up the road. I say we make a pit stop for burgers and a bathroom break.”

  “Maybe by the time we finish eating, the rain will have stopped.”

  The diner turned out to be a rundown dive, a former gas station leftover from the 1950s that claimed to serve the best cheeseburgers and beer-battered fries within a hundred-mile radius.

  “Who knew their advertising would turn out to be the real thing and not a marketing ploy? You’ve eaten here before?”

  Caleb slurped the chocolate shake they were sharing. “About a dozen times. Dad used to bring us up here for that special one on one time. He’d reminisce about my grandfather. Apparently there was a tight bond there before my grandfather died. For all I know it could’ve been nothing more than in Dad’s head.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Well, because to hear Eleanor tell it, she had Euell, that was my grandfather, wrapped around her little finger. So I guess to Dad, this cabin represents those memorable occasions when Euell took the time to spend with just him.”

  “I take it your dad brought you up here a lot.”

  “He and Mom had a routine. They always made sure they took each kid somewhere special. Cooper’s was museums, the planetarium, concert venues, or galleries. Drea liked going to the zoo, or taking a shopping trip up to San Francisco. Me? I liked getting away to the mountains. While Dad and I were spending quality time here with each other, there was lots of things to do, hiking, fishing, or just talking. The cabin is where Dad gave me the ‘sex talk’ for the first time. Now that I think about it, he really did go out of his way to make sure I knew how much he loved me. He coached little league, helped me with my algebra problems, and made me feel like a normal kid.”

  “It meant a great deal to you to feel normal because it helped you forget about the abnormal beginning,” Hannah concluded. “I completely get it.”

  He took her hand. “I realize now why I felt that connection to you the first time I saw you. Scott saw it too.”

  “A ghost gets us together. Now there’s a story for later. How much farther do we have to go to get to the cabin?”

  “About twenty miles.” He glanced out the window. “And look, the rain’s stopped.”

  “Then let’s pay the bill and get out of here. I’m exhausted.”

  Half an hour later Caleb turned the Suburban onto a long, curvy lane. By this time, the clouds had drifted further east, allowing the moon to come out and the brilliant umbrella of stars to glisten overhead.

  Once he pulled to a stop, Hannah got her first look at the rustic retreat, sitting in the middle of a forest of sequoias. Even in the pitch black of darkness, the gables and wraparound porch surprised her. This was no drafty shack, but a good-sized hideaway that long ago had embraced its lodge-like architectural design.

  She hopped out and breathed in the crisp mountain cedar mingled with the recent rain.

  She took one step toward the porch and stopped. There was something off about the way the shadows danced on the front door that didn’t look right.

  “Caleb, was there a fire here recently?”

  “Not that I know of. Why?”

  She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Look at the front door. What is that? Soot?”

  Caleb darted up the steps to run his hand along the wood and realized the door was partially opened. “Damn. I think someone’s broken in. Go back and get in the car.”

  “Not a chance. I’m not letting you go in there alone.”

  He let out a sigh. “Fine. But we’ll need a flashlight.”

  “Better still, a tire iron.” They retraced their steps back to the truck where Hannah found the flashlight and Caleb grabbed the hunk of steel metal out of the back.

  “Stay behind me.”

  “Since all we have for protection is a hunk of metal and my Swiss Army knife, I intend to.”

  Caleb stepped inside, reaching first to flip on the light. He threw the switch back and forth several times without success. “That’s what I thought, no electricity.”

  After shining the beam around the room, his heart broke. The place had been tossed, furniture turned over, the place ransacked, leaving behind a mess to clean up.

  “It looks like they stayed here for a few weeks and then trashed the place before they took off.”

  “Call me paranoid, but why do I get the feeling this has Eleanor’s stamp all over it. Who else would know the location of this place.”

  “Why would you say that? Isn’t she locked up?”

  “She is, yeah.”

  “The
n how would she pull something like this off?”

  “I’ve been told the friends she makes on the inside have lately been deemed parole-worthy. She could’ve easily pointed them in the right direction. Think about it. Great place to stay off the radar.”

  Caleb went room to room, taking inventory of the mess. “We can’t stay here tonight, Hannah. Whoever did this has eaten everything that was stored away in the pantry. And if they didn’t consume it, they wasted everything else. The only thing left is a jar of olives and a bottle of V8 juice. Looks like the fridge isn’t working. They probably cut the power lines. I’ll have to check before we leave.”

  Hannah stood in the bedroom doorway. “Yeah, well, they also poured gasoline on the mattress in here.”

  “Check the other bedrooms, will you?”

  She walked down to the next doorway. “Same thing in here.” She stuck her head into the bathroom and came back waving her hand in front of her face. “The toilet’s backed up. The smell in there is just awful.”

  “I wouldn’t feel safe falling asleep here. They might decide to come back at any moment.”

  “Come back? To what? There’s nothing left to trash.”

  “Yes, but it’s still shelter, four walls, a place to hide out, away from prying eyes.”

  “Okay. You’ve convinced me. Let’s get back on the road.”

  Caleb spent twenty minutes taking pictures of the damage with his camera phone. “Let’s get out of here. I’ll come back this weekend and clean it all up. I’m sorry about this, Hannah.”

  “Don’t be. It isn’t your fault. I’m sorry someone did such an awful thing to a beautiful, serene spot like this. People suck.”

  “I was thinking the same thing. You’ll stay with me tonight?”

  “Absolutely. I wasn’t planning on going home alone.”

  Once they got back on the road, the trip seemed to take longer than two hours. Hannah had fallen asleep, slumped against the passenger door. To keep himself awake, Caleb changed CDs several times, going back and forth from the light rock sound he used when he made his deliveries to heavy metal.

  But his mind wasn’t on the music. He kept trying to work out what he’d seen at the cabin. He had a hard time coming to grips with why Eleanor’s asshole friends would’ve sought out refuge there, only to vandalize the place.

  Whoever had been in the cabin had stayed for much longer than a week, probably two. He was sure of that. But nothing about it made any sense. If it wasn’t Eleanor’s buddies, then how had they known about the cabin. The property was too far off the main road for a vagrant to simply discover on his own. A person had to know where to turn, not once but twice, just to make it to the cutoff. From there the road was so narrow in places it would be difficult for a stranger to simply “happen upon” the cabin unless they were specifically looking for it.

  Add to that, for a hiker to be out exploring the trails nearby one would have to risk getting lost in dangerous mountainous terrain. The paths were more like overgrown patches of thick forest than a jaunt through a greenbelt. There were treacherous ridges and cliffs, jagged landscape, not easy to cross on foot, let alone in a vehicle. The land just wasn’t a place where someone could get lost without a great deal of effort.

  No, the only reasonable explanation for him was that Eleanor had shared the details about the cabin with one, or more, of her prison cellmates.

  It deeply disturbed and angered him. Escaping Eleanor’s clutches was proving to be more difficult than he’d assumed. He should’ve listened to Cooper. His brother had claimed all along that getting off the woman’s radar would be damn near impossible. Now he understood the full impact of that.

  He took the exit off the highway and wound his way around to the 101. He could tell he was nearing the coast when the road conditions changed to fog. When his headlights finally illuminated the city limits sign of home, he breathed a sigh of relief. The clock on the dash read half past midnight.

  He took his eyes off the road long enough to glance over at Hannah. He didn’t want to wake her, so he decided to forego stopping to pick up the remote control for the gate. It was still in his truck parked at the nursery. There was no need to make an extra stop just to retrieve it when he could access the gate with the code.

  He turned down Cape May and drove until the streetlights disappeared. For the first time in a while, the remote location gave him cause for alarm. He pulled up to his house in the dark with only the headlights of the car for light. He had to jump out and manually key in the numbers on the keypad to open the gate.

  Inside the Suburban, the movement caused Hannah to jerk awake. She bolted upright, bleary-eyed, and looked around, breathing a quick sigh of relief when she spotted Caleb standing off to the side punching in the code.

  But something caused her to turn her head to the right. Farther down the lane, toward the vacant area where beach grass grew tall and thick, stood a figure of what she assumed was a man wearing a hooded jacket and jeans.

  Hannah frantically rolled down the window enough where she could be heard. At the top of her voice, she yelled and pointed in the direction of the man. “Caleb, we aren’t alone. Get back in the truck. Now!”

  In the time it took Caleb to respond to the warning, the man disappeared into the tall grass.

  Skirting the front of the truck, Caleb climbed back inside, immediately jerking the gear into drive and popping the clutch. He stepped on the gas and took off toward the garage at the side of the house.

  “Damn, the garage door opener is in my truck.” He shifted into reverse, backing all the way up to where he could park right in front of the door. “Are you sure it wasn’t Scott you saw?”

  Hannah shook her head. “I know what Scott looks like. It wasn’t him. I think the guy might have taken off toward the rolling hills behind your house. The other day you pointed out that drainage ditch back there. That would make a perfect place to hide.”

  “The canal? Why do you say that? How can you be so sure?”

  “Because I think that’s where he came from. That concrete canal is so deep it could hide a man. It was my first thought the first time you took me on a tour back there.”

  “Okay. Let’s get you settled inside and I’ll go take a look around.”

  She grabbed his arm. “No, you won’t. Not alone. You’re calling Brent or Eastlyn. Do it, Caleb.”

  “Do we really need to get them involved? It’s so late. Besides, what do we tell them exactly?”

  “Are you kidding? We tell them we saw a man lurking around your house in the middle of the night, a prowler.”

  “Maybe you were still half asleep.”

  “You think I was dreaming?” She acted insulted but had to concede she might’ve been seeing things that weren’t there. “You’re saying you didn’t see the guy at all?”

  “I didn’t see anyone. You yelled, I turned to look at you and saw nothing but the headlights glaring in my eyes.”

  “Fine. We won’t call Brent then. But I know what I saw. Let’s just get out of the car. I’m sick of sitting here.”

  Caleb unlocked the front door and quickly flipped on the lights. Inside the entryway, they stood there shedding their jackets until they plopped down on the bench to take off their shoes.

  Caleb finally blew out an exhausted sigh. “Look, I know you’re tired. It’s okay by me if our first night together is spent doing nothing more than curling up together to sleep.”

  Hannah tilted her head to stare at him. “That’s…very noble of you. But I’m tired, not dead.”

  He flashed her a grin. “I was hoping you’d feel that way.”

  “I won’t lie. That whole episode back at the cabin rattled me more than I let on. And just now, I guess I wasn’t awake yet. I guess I was still spooked and thought I saw someone standing in the dark spying on us.”

  He stood up, snatched her hand. “Come on. Let’s go to bed. I promise I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  “You know, I truly believe that.”
She got to her feet but began to bounce on her toes. “Right this minute, I need to pee. The long drive and all that soda is catching up with me.”

  He led her to the master bedroom and pointed her in the direction of the adjoining bathroom. As she dashed off to take care of business, he swatted her fanny. “Don’t fall in.”

  A few minutes later she came back out and couldn’t believe what he’d accomplished in a short span of time. The bedroom was aglow in flickering shadows. He’d lit scented candles and set them on the dresser, the chest, the nightstand. The smell of vanilla and perhaps a hint of spice floated in the air.

  He’d turned down the bed sheets in silky invitation.

  “You really know how to set the scene. You don’t have to seduce me.”

  “Every woman should know the pleasure of being seduced into bed.”

  His hands went around her waist before roaming lean fingers down to her hips. Caressing the muscles in her rump, he whispered in her ear, “You’ve been sitting too long. Let me loosen you up with a massage. You have the sexiest neck.” He proved it by nibbling at a sensitive spot before slowly using his tongue to trail a path to her chin. He saved her lips for last. “Your mouth makes me want to dive right in.”

  The moment he deepened the kiss, she was mesmerized, hit by sensations that felt like a blast of potent moonlight. That power built along her spine, tingling right to her toes. He began to unbutton her blouse. After baring a shoulder, he grazed along her flesh, setting her skin ablaze with fiery heat.

  Her hands got busy helping him out of his jeans.

  Urgency had him reaching around to get rid of her bra. He held up the lace. “Nice. But these are even nicer bare.” He lovingly touched the curve of a breast, flicking his tongue around a nipple. The slightest brush backward and they both tumbled down to the mattress.

  But his weight felt light as air. His fingers fumbled with her jeans. She helped him by lifting her hips so he could jerk them down and off.

  He took her under by focusing on her breasts, one nipple at a time. With each pull from his mouth it took away another layer of inhibition. He moved down her body leaving wet kisses on each precious spot.