Imprints

by Rachel Ann Nunes

  “He could be, but I haven’t seen him.”

  “Are you worried he’ll attack you again?”

  “I’m worried he’ll recognize me.” But I was worried about the other, too. After someone tries to choke the life from your body, you can’t feel comfortable knowing they might be lurking nearby. “How far away are you?” I was wondering if it would be possible to meet him. Not now, of course, when they would be expecting me back, but maybe tomorrow after I’d had a chance to look around.

  “I’m quite close actually. That is, if you’re still wearing the earrings.”

  “I am.”

  “Then I’m point six miles away from your location. I hid the van off the road, and I’ve been checking out the fence they have around here. Eight feet high. Not very secure. A pain to climb but easy to cut through. But you’ll need to be careful because men are patrolling the area. They come around every fifteen minutes or so, at least along this stretch.”

  That seemed odd because the compound was so secret, and farm animals certainly weren’t going anywhere with that eight-foot fence in the way. That meant the patrols were there for another reason. “Maybe it’s because of Inclar.”

  “Or to keep people from leaving.” There was a stubbornness in his voice that I found unappealing.

  “They said I could leave any time.”

  “Yeah, but I’ve been thinking. If that’s true, why can’t I find anyone who knows where this place is? Anyone who would talk, that is. There are no ex-members. Not a single one.”

  “There’s Inclar.”

  “You said his brother unlocked a door to release him. Against the leader’s will.”

  “Maybe he was crazy even then.”

  “Anyway, Inclar’s wanted for questioning in his wife’s murder. Not exactly a cult success story.”

  “Which means we should definitely tell Detective Martin that Inclar came here.”

  “Yeah, you’re right.” His voice was tentative. “Except what if Martin comes blazing in and blows your cover before you find Marcie?”

  “He didn’t blow it at the hotel. At least about Inclar.” Belatedly, I realized Ethan didn’t know about that, so I quickly outlined my encounter with Shannon and Harmony’s founder. I was still irritated at Shannon for telling Dar and Gabe about my ability, but I’d let him know that myself when I saw him again.

  More static, and then Ethan said, “If the police think Gabe and Dar are hiding Inclar, and they come and actually find him here, you’ll be needed to identify him. They’d have no choice but to blow your cover.”

  I thought this over for a moment, not liking the fact that Ethan had pointed it out.

  Ethan’s voice came through again. “Look, if you feel you’re in danger, we should call the police right away.”

  I made a quick decision, one I hoped I wouldn’t regret. “Let’s give it another night or so. He’s probably gone now, anyway. I’ll ask around.” Or at least I’d touch things. If Inclar’s appearance had caused such a poignant imprint on the flashlight, there’s no telling what other imprints might exist because of him.

  “Well, if you’re sure.” His voice changed, becoming deeper and slightly gravelly. “Your safety is the most important thing.” The words were a caress that sent a warm shiver to my stomach. I could picture him at that moment, blond curls ruffled by a worried hand, blue eyes drawn with concern.

  “I’m fine,” I said. “But I’ve got to get back now. They’ll be sending out a search party soon.”

  “You’ll contact me tomorrow?”

  “Like we planned.” I didn’t wait to see if he broke through the static again but shut the radio off quickly. It was a comfort to know that at least one of our contact methods worked. Two if you counted the tracking device in my earrings, which now felt like a weight dragging me down. A distinct ache matching the one in my wounded cheek had begun in the lower region of my earlobes. I took the earrings off for the second time that day and put them in the pocket of my dress with the useless cell phone.

  Picking up the flashlight with the hand towel, I began walking carefully in the direction of where I thought the houses should be. I hadn’t come all that far, maybe a half mile, and I was a strong walker, even though my toes were now officially cold. The smell of the earth and the trees and rotting and growing things was intoxicating, and I wanted nothing more than to find the hilltop in Harmony’s peaceful rendezvous and sleep under the stars. With a warm blanket or two. It was a beautiful night to be alive.

  My euphoria dimmed sometime later as even my tough soles began to feel the pressure of the stabbing twigs and the occasional rock or rotting splinter of wood. Surely I had been walking much longer than necessary to get back to the outhouse path. At this rate I’d end up in the fields or the pastures. There seemed to be only slivers of moonlight seeping through the branches above, as though I’d gone deeper into the forest instead of retracing my steps. Swallowing hard, I forced myself to stop and face the fact that I had no idea where I was. I heaved a sigh, disgusted at being so directionally challenged.

  Wait, wasn’t that the music? I could hear it faintly but coming from behind me and slightly to the left. Apparently, I’d overshot the outhouses and was nearer the end of the side house where I’d seen the shadow, though deeper in the woods or I would have seen the bathrooms as I passed. Well, that was no problem. I’d angle back to the house, following the music, and find one of those lovely burning barrels and get warm. Happier now, I moved with purpose, using my free hand to steady myself against the trees.

  That’s when my foot landed on something both bulky and soft. Something that didn’t belong with the rest of the forest floor. Some animal that had escaped the pasture? A bag of grain abandoned on the way to wherever they were stored? I stepped backward, my eyes dropping, straining to make sense of the longish lump before me. I leaned closer to get a better look.

  Horror rose in my throat as I registered the sightless eyes, one of them staring up into the trees, clearly lit by a shaft of light stabbing through a break in the overhead leaves, the other rolled upwards at an odd angle.

  I’d found Inclar, aka Danny Foster, and he was dead.

  Chapter 14

  Panic welled in my chest. The darkness was no longer friendly but pregnant with malice. I knew from the imprint on the flashlight that Inclar had been alive the night before, and the corpse didn’t smell, so he hadn’t been here long. I saw no blood or visible signs of what had killed him. No trickle of red down his face, no crusted bullet hole or knife protruding from his stomach. But he wasn’t at peace. His mouth was stretched into a grimace, and his loose right eye was rolled up as if recoiling in terror.

  That was all my mind registered in one great information dump, and then I was backing away, circling the lump of lifeless flesh and running. Running. Heedless of the debris piercing my feet, of the brush that clutched at my long dress as I passed, as though trying to hold me back. I struggled on, the broken flashlight wrapped in the hand towel brandished like a weapon.

  Someone had murdered Inclar, and that meant I needed to get as far away from that spot as soon as possible. Except that I was hopelessly lost in these cursed trees that seemed to stretch with no end across the face of the entire earth. I panted loudly in the quiet, and my heart clanged inside my chest like a dozen kids banging on pans with their mothers’ metal spoons.

  I hit a tree, tripped over an exposed root, and collapsed to the earth. Hugging my knees to my chest, I gulped in deep, heaving breaths, trying not to sob with my terror. Slowly sanity returned.

  Inclar was dead, but that didn’t mean I was in immediate danger. No one was hunting me, or they would have found me already, alerted by my wild, panicked flight through the forest. I took out my two-way radio. “Ethan,” I said urgently into it. “Ethan, are you there? Hurry, pick up.”

  Three agonizing seconds passed before the comforting burst of static that signaled his response. “Autumn? What’s wrong?”

  “Inclar. He’s dead. I j
ust found him.”

  He made a noise of disbelief. “What killed him?”

  “I don’t know. I stumbled over him on the way back. He’s just lying here in the woods. I didn’t wait around to check what killed him. You need to get me out of here! We have to get to Rome and call the police.”

  “What about my sister? I don’t want her hurt if there’s a confrontation.”

  “I’m sure the police will be careful. Think of it this way—with Inclar dead, they’ll turn this place upside down in search of her.”

  He should be happy at that. As for me, I felt a keen disappointment that Gabe and possibly Dar were running a scam after all. The people I’d met tonight were so happy and content with their simple lives. Everything would change for them now.

  There was a long pause. Too long for my shot nerves. “Ethan?” I whispered frantically, imagining Harmony Farm lookouts taking him into custody. I scooted closer to the huge tree I’d run into, feeling the ancient comfort that was completely oblivious to my short-lived human struggles.

  “I’m here. Don’t worry.” He sounded a bit out of breath. “Just checking the tracking monitor. I can give you directions to my location using the earrings. But what about Jake? Are you bringing him, too? Or are we leaving him there?”

  Jake. In my terror, I’d completely forgotten him.

  “I’ll go back for him, and then we’ll meet you.”

  “Are you sure? He shouldn’t be in too much danger if—”

  “I’m not leaving him!” I ground out. “He’s only here because of me.”

  “Okay. Okay.” Another static-filled pause before he said, “Autumn, you have to be even more careful now. You can’t rouse their suspicions. If there’s been one murder, there might be others. I couldn’t bear it if you were hurt.”

  My irritation faded.

  Static. “What I’m saying is, if you go back for Jake, you might have to stay the night.” Ethan’s voice was calm, but it did nothing to stay the frightened pounding in my chest.

  I wanted to protest, but he was right about the need for caution. I’d been away from the dance far too long as it was, and with these new, higher stakes, I couldn’t risk being caught and questioned. “We’ll be careful. If we see it won’t work tonight, we’ll stay.”

  “So I’ll wait to hear from you, either way.” His voice was loud again, too loud.

  I reached for the volume, but before I could twist the knob, a hand fell on my shoulder. I jerked my face upward, trying to see who had me, a scream rising in my throat.

  “Shhh, it’s just me. Ethan.”

  Choking down the scream, I twisted my body to better see his face. “You scared the beans out of me!” I hissed.

  “Beans?” He gave a chuckle as he released the hold on my shoulder, drawing me to my feet and encircling me with one arm. He felt warm and inviting. Unlike me, he was dressed warmly in jeans and a sweatshirt jacket. By the illumination of the flashlight he carried, I could see his face was flushed from his quick jaunt through the trees.

  I leaned against him, soaking in his warmth and his presence. “You shouldn’t be here. They’ll recognize you.”

  “When I saw on the tracking monitor how close you’d come to the fence, I thought it was worth the risk. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “You’re like ice.” He clicked off his flashlight and pulled me closer, rubbing his hand up and down my arms to warm me. I wondered what I would do if he tried to kiss me. We hadn’t known each other long, however handsome he was, and I’d never seen him in his own environment. I didn’t know if he had friends, or if he liked the outdoors. I didn’t even know how he felt about preservatives or microwaves.

  Besides, there was a dead body sharing our forest. That thought put a decided damper on things. That and my feelings for Jake.

  I took a tiny step back, breaking contact. My trembling from the cold had stopped. In fact, warmth was now rushing through my veins at his closeness.

  “I guess you need to get back to find Jake,” Ethan said.

  “Yeah.”

  “I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”

  If it had been Jake or anyone else, I would have retorted that I could take care of myself, but it felt good having Ethan worry about me. “And I’ll do my best to find Marcie.”

  He frowned. “They own three hundred acres. What if they’ve stashed her somewhere no one will ever look?”

  I thought of the key Inclar had given me. “It’s possible, but we know she was here, so we won’t let the police give up until they’ve gone over every foot of ground.”

  “I wish you could have looked around more, that’s all. Before the police alert them to our suspicions. But I guess that’s out now, if you and Jake manage to sneak away tonight.”

  “The police should surprise them. They won’t have time to cover much.”

  He nodded, but I could see the misery in his eyes. “Just keep in mind what I said about getting caught.”

  I shuddered at the possibility. “If we don’t contact you in two hours, maybe you should go to Rome and talk to the police without us.”

  “It’s a tiny place. They may not have a police station or the personnel to conduct a raid.”

  “You’ll have phone service. You can get things in motion and then come back to wait for us to sneak out.”

  He considered this for a time. “You know, even if you can get out tonight, maybe it would be safer if I went for the police now and you waited until they arrive in force before you try to leave.”

  He wanted me to stay? In my mind the suggestion was tantamount to betrayal. Inclar was dead, but before he died, he might have told someone he’d given me the key—the key that made me sick and woozy with the images imprinted on it. If he had, I’d be in danger. The cold of the night seeped into my heart.

  “Wait a minute,” I protested, giving him an icy glare. “Weren’t you the one worried about Marcie getting hurt in a police shootout? I don’t want to be in the middle of something like that, either, especially if they somehow suspect that I’m involved with Inclar.”

  “You were the one who said the police would be careful,” Ethan countered. “Besides, I’d tell them you were inside to make sure they didn’t do anything stupid. If I went into town right now or as far as it takes for my phone to work, instead of waiting to see if you guys can sneak out, the police would be able to get here that much sooner and you wouldn’t have to risk getting caught.”

  I said nothing as I pondered the idea. Was keeping Jake and me inside a way for Ethan to ensure that the police wouldn’t burn everyone out or shoot people on sight, thus protecting Marcie? Or did he really believe I’d be safer waiting? Every instinct urged me to run fast and far from both the farm and Inclar’s lifeless body, but the more I thought about it, the more logical Ethan’s plan sounded.

  “Believe me,” Ethan said into the silence that had fallen between us, “I’d rather take you with me right now, but since you won’t leave Jake, staying and playing the part might be safer than if you try to sneak away tonight. Your danger of getting caught is too great. One man’s dead, so we know they aren’t joking around. Whatever they’re hiding is big enough to murder for. They’ll be stepping up their fence patrols, I bet. It won’t be as easy for you to get out as it was for me to get in.”

  Despite my sense of betrayal, what he said made sense. With Inclar dead, there was no telling what the commune might do to protect their secrets. Of course, the smart thing to do would be to go with Ethan now, but I wouldn’t leave Jake behind. Already I had an itchy feeling as though I needed to hurry back to him, to make sure he was all right.

  This meant the shock of seeing Inclar’s body was fading. Funny how you adjust to such things. I’d been close to a lot of dead bodies in my lifetime, what with Winter and Summer having died and also their friends’ propensity for home funerals, where friends and loved ones stood around a cardboard coffin all night and sang songs and ex
changed memories. I’d attended a dozen similar events. Inclar’s remains had frightened me more than any other corpse, even Winter’s, which had been in the river for a week and whose flesh had been swollen and rotting. Maybe it was the location. Inclar’s aloneness. The unsolved mystery of what had happened to Marcie and Victoria. Yet somehow I had already moved on. That’s what the living did to survive. It was much easier when it wasn’t someone you loved more than your own life.

  “Okay,” I said with a sigh. “We’ll wait until the police come—but you have to get them here as quickly as possible.”

  “I will. Meanwhile, keep your eyes open and call immediately if you need me. I hope I won’t be out of range more than an hour or so while I’m contacting them.” He leaned his face close to mine. “Be careful,” he whispered.

  His lips brushed mine, warm and compelling. I’d dated a lot in my thirty-three years, and I’d kissed a few men, but only those I thought might stay in my life. I felt that possibility now, the future stretching out before me, promising companionship, family, love. Security. Maybe Ethan was what I was looking for. Of course, I’d been wrong before.

  The moment was over almost before it started. Mostly my fault because I started thinking about Jake and wondering if he was worried about me.

  I could still hear the music faintly, but it was hard to tell where it came from. I gave Ethan a wry smile. “If you’ll just point me in the right direction, I’ll be on my way. The music is coming from over there—I think.” I had to admit, at least to myself, that my confusion was due not only to my utter lack of sense of direction but to Ethan’s presence.

  Ethan gave a low chuckle. “I’ll take you closer. Until we can see the lights at least. I don’t want to leave until I know you’re safe. As long as you’re around people and they don’t know you found Inclar, you’ll be fine.”

  “Even if they knew I found him, it’s not connected to me.” Unless he’d told them he’d given me the key, of course. Even if he had talked about the key in connection with a woman he’d met, they might think him crazy enough not worry about pursuing it.